Happy Holidays from Rutgers Newark!

The university will be closed from tomorrow until Mon, Jan 5th, so I'll be taking a break from this blog as well... feel free to continue to send photos and/or videos and I'll check them when I get back.
In the meantime, have a great holiday season and see you next year!

DeStress Fest: Drumming Circle

The DeStress Fest that happens at the end of every semester always includes a lot of fun activities to take the edge off all that cramming for exams, and this year was no different. One of the activities this year was a drumming circle that took place last week in the Robeson Campus Center.

Check out this video taken by student Ronak Patel, who was nice enough to let me repost it here after I saw it on his personal page.

Norman the Campus Snake

Biology Professor Claus Holzapfel sent this photo to us today along with these comments:

New addition to our urban biodiversity: Norman

We know by now that our urban campus is host to quite a number of wild migratory birds; our list topped 100 species a while ago. But who would have thought that we also share our space with reptiles? On this unseasonably mild Monday we found a small snake struggling with a wintering Hermit Thrush just outside Boyden Hall on Norman Samuels Plaza. The bird seems to have mistaken the snake for an earthworm. I initially thought the same, but I have never seen an earthworm putting up such a fight. I identified the snake as a northern brown snake (Storeria dekayi), a small snake species that used to be quite common even in urban environments. The advance of pollution and increased use of pesticides changed that and one has to be quite lucky to observe one today. We took the snake into our care and called it Norman (obviously). We hope tiny Norman, only about 7 inches long, gets settled into his new winter home and that we can release him (it) in spring. You can visit Norman, our one and only Rutgers Newark snake in Boyden Hall if you want.

End of the Semester

It's hard to believe it's already that time of year again...

Luis Rosado sent me this photo yesterday of his friend Ed Wilkes right before taking an exam. He said: This is a photo of a part-time MBA student seconds before taking his Accounting final. You can see the joy in his eyes :)

I don't have finals this semester, thankfully, but I have been there and totally sympathize with that feeling.

For all you other stressed out students, DeStress Fest is going on all over campus this week and I believe tomorrow during free period they will have free massages, giveaways, and food at the Robeson Center... check out the full schedule.

Newark as 1950s Chicago for Cadillac Records

For a few days in April, part of Halsey Street was transformed into 1950s Chicago for the movie Cadillac Records, which is opening this week and has gotten some good press so far. The movie is about the rise of Chess Records and the lives of its musicians, including Muddy Waters, Leonard Chess, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Etta James and Chuck Berry.

Of course us common folk were not allowed anywhere near the stars, but with the help of a zoom lens I did get some photos of the street, the film crew, a few extras, and the cool cars.

Sorry, no Beyonce or Adrian Brody. I know, I was disappointed too.

Below is a photo of the huge film crew hanging out off to the side on New Street with all their equipment.
Below you can see all the signs that were hung over the existing shops and businesses, including the Chess Records label (right below the "Lucky's Mens Shop" sign)

Newark Goes Green with a Little Help From Its Friends

This Fall, Sal Palatucci from Physical Plant worked with staff, students and the NJ Tree Foundation to plant trees 51 trees in our Newark neighborhood.

Shannon Buckley from the NJ Tree Foundation recently sent Rutgers a thank you letter along with photos, saying "Each tree that we plant through the Newark Renaissance Trees Program helps to restore the tree canopy in Newark, enhance the environment, improve air quality, improve aesthetic beauty of a neighborhood, cool off the community by reducing the effects of the urban heat island, and improve the overall quality of life."

In April '08, Rutgers worked with the Tree Foundation for the first time, planting trees along University Ave. from the Newark Broad St. train station to campus. Shannon wrote that she was proud to see these trees thriving and said "through this partnership, we have planted these 77 trees, saving the City of Newark and Rutgers over $40,000, and gained the support of more than 80 volunteers, students, alumni, and neighbors." Some of the trees planted include plum, lilac, zelkova and maple.

Who says Earth Day only happens once a year?

For more information on the NJ Tree Foundation, visit their website at newjerseytreefoundation.org

Small Business Expo at the Robeson Center

Stephanie D. Burroughs of the Small Business Development Center sent me these photos from their annual expo. She writes:

"The entire second floor of Robeson Center was overflowing with the more than 400 participants at the NJSBDC 16th Annual Procurement Expo. Small business, state and federal government and major corporations were fully engaged.

"More than 300 small business owners attended the June 19, 2007 procurement expo held for the first time at Rutgers Newark. Co-sponsor Microsoft Inc. sent it's Microsoft Across America truck to train on its newest equipment and software for small business."

Thanks for the photos Stephanie! What is the Small Business Development Center, you ask? It's a non-profit organization that does a lot of great work with both start-ups and existing businesses (so if you're an aspiring entreprenour, you should definitely check them out) - they're right on campus and their website is http://www.rnsbdc.newark.rutgers.edu/

Election Night at Stonsby

I think it's pretty safe to assume most of us were watching the election results last night. I know I was.

These photos are from Angie Bonilla, taken in Stonsby:

Everyone was still waiting for the final results there, I think... although if you look closely at the photo on the right you can see the person in the foreground has their hands raised in the air and someone else is clapping, so I might be wrong.

This next group was taken by Shigeo Iwamiya. Note the crowd outside in the bottom right photo... who would have thought campus would be hopping at that time of night?

It looks like I missed the big election party on campus (that's okay, because I made it home from class with plenty of time to pick up a really good pizza and watch the coverage on TV). I received these photos this morning, and even though they were taken on camera phones and are a little blurry you can tell the place was buzzing.

So, where were you last night? Anyone else take photos?

Celebrating Latin Culture

Did you know that October was Latin Heritage month? Earlier in the month there was a big event celebrating Latin Culture on the Norman Samuels Plaza, with music, dancing, food and information about health and education. A few days ago Karla Ramos submitted some photos of the event, here's a little taste of what you missed if you weren't there.

In the left photo below are performers Manolo Basauri and Cynthia Hurtado. The right photo shows Maggie and Michelle Sialar of the group "Alma Peruana" who also performed at the event. (Looks like fun - I'm sorry I missed it!)


In addition to the performances, there were also fraternities, sororities, and groups from around campus that had informational tables, like the Red Cross (below, left photo), and a voter registration drive (below, right).

So... any other cultural events you guys want to share? Did any of you celebrate Diwali this week? We're the most diverse university in the nation, so I know there's got to be other photos you can send me... I'll be waiting...

Fall at Rutgers (and beyond)

I was going to post these last week but apparently Blogger was having issues and wouldn't let me. Jackeline Vasquez, who's contributed to this blog before, wins the prize for the best classic fall photo, complete with scarecrow and apples:


Gopi Patel from Computing Services sent me this photo of fellow techies at an Open House event. Don't they look like a friendly bunch?


This one was sent by Jennifer Scalf, and feels more like winter to me, but it's got a dark, moody quality I like - not sure where it was taken, but you can see the Prudential Building way in the background if you look carefully, and what looks like Newark light rail tracks in the foreground.

Some of you may have seen me wandering around campus with a photographer recently - I just saw some previews of the photos he took and let me tell you they turned out great. Stay tuned for a little photo-essay piece on downtown Newark soon. Also, if I promised you a photo of yourself please email me (and describe what you look like and where we took the photo), because otherwise you might never receive it.

What do you think of when you think of Fall?

Despite the fact that it's been sunny and 70 degrees the past several days, we're well into autumn - the pumpkins and scarecrows are out, the leaves are changing, and Halloween is only two weeks away.

So I'm wondering, what says "autumn" to you? Is it the leaves? Apple-picking? Send me some photos... it can be something as universal as a tree changing color or something more personal that you think of when you think of Fall... for me it's sweaters and boots, pumpkins, and this year, the yellow and orange mums I've got on my patio. What about you?

Happy Birthday to Rutgers-Newark

Yesterday Rutgers-Newark celebrated its 100th anniversary in the Norman Samuels Plaza with a giant birthday cake and a few words honoring R-N alumns who are also faculty or staff (did you know there are over 200?). In case you missed the festivities and free cake, here's a couple of photos taken by our favorite event photographer, Shelley Kusnetz.

Group photo of the R-N alumns that work here:


And here's the giant cake, complete with historical photos and a big Rutgers R - no candles, but big enough to feed 600 people!

It was also my birthday yesterday, but strangely, my name seemed to be missing from the writing on the cake... I suppose since it's R-N's 100th and all, I can let it go this one time...

Campus Flowers and a Bicycle

Samer Fouad sent this photo of "Rutgers Newark from a flower's view." He writes "Beautiful, ain't it?" Yes, Samer, very pretty!For a very different perspective of the same red and white flowers, Amir Mahmoud sent this of his friends Maha El-Samna and Valerie Dorfman walking to class. It looks like they're enjoying themselves - who knew walking to class could be so fun?I had quite a lot of photos in my inbox last night, but my favorite by far was this one by Sidrah Seikh, who said "I took this in front of Conklin Hall. I just love the combination of all the shadows and colors that show how bright the day was and how colorful the campus is." I agree - and I love the bike in the foreground. (also notice the red and white flowers make an appearance in the background, see how I'm tying them all together here?)

For those of you who haven't seen your photos posted yet, I'm still going through them - there's at least 2 more I want to post in the next day or so.

'S' is for Soccer

Happy first day of autumn everyone! It seems fitting that this weekend, I received quite a few soccer-related photos. Here's a few of the womens' soccer team, sent to me by Suze Gabaud.

One of the entire team, showing their Rutgers pride:
Suze wants everyone to know that "we are not just a team but a family as well," and she sent me a few of the team having fun outside of soccer, like this one with the girls all dressed up:

And this more casual one:
And just in case the men feel left out, here's one of the men's team practicing on the field, sent to me by Jonathan Simbulan, who writes "Taken atop of the Rutgers parking deck 1, this picture shows the soccer team practicing on a beautiful, sun-filled day. The bright day also makes their white uniforms and green grass and trees stand out more."

I have a few more photos to go through today, so keep an eye out for another post soon.

Submitting Photos

Do you have a great photo or short (5 minutes or less!) video of a campus event, fabulous trip or some other fun learning or teaching experience that you want to share with others at Rutgers-Newark? I'm looking for:

• Campus photos
• Events on and off campus
• Interesting or cultural trips or vacations
• Community Service
• General fun or interesting times with others in the Rutgers community
• Great photos taken by you!

Send me e-mail at occ@andromeda.rutgers.edu or eluongo@andromeda.rutgers.edu - include your name, major and year of graduation (if you're a student) and a few sentences describing your photo or video.

Please use good judgement when sending photos and videos! Remember that this is a public site - everything posted here can be viewed by anyone with internet access (that includes your parents, current and future employers and the rest of the world). We reserve the right to NOT post material that's offensive, vulgar or inappropriate. If there are people in the photos other than yourself, please be sure to have permission from those people to post their photos online.

(updated Sept 2010)

Newark at Night

I sense a theme here. I recently got another nighttime photo of the campus and Newark, this time from Samuel Davenport, who is a 2010 J.D. candidate in the Law School. This was taken from the 12th floor (he didn't say from which building, but I'll take a guess that it's University Square). Very nice Sam!




Keep sending me photos, and tell all your friends to come on over too. By the way, photos of people are more than welcome (as long as you have permission from everyone in the photo) - just remember, this is a PUBLIC forum so don't send me anything you wouldn't want your mother (or professors or future employers) to see! I know you're all smart enough to know better, but well, just in case I figured I'd get that out there.

Our First Photos!

So it turns out that people DO read those mass emails after all (well, a few of you do, anyway). Submissions started rolling in late last night, and there were some good photos in the group.

Unfortunately, I can't show 20 photos from the same person - you know who you are! - but I've picked out a couple that everyone might enjoy.


The first two photos below are by Tyler Weisbarth, a Biology major from the Class of '09. Tyler also tells me he takes photos for the Observer, so you might have seen his work. Most of you should recognize the Golden Dome in this first one - I love the patterns:


This second one is out of season, but I had to post it because it's just really cool. This was taken on the New Street Plaza during an ice storm (last winter?):

Thomas Arndt, who's working towards an M.A. in Political Science '09, sent me this very painterly photo of the CLJ staircase/atrium:

And last but not least, Brian Biglin, a Law student from the class of '11, sent me this fantastic night shot of the field and Newark:

As well as this one of the sun setting:

Keep them coming... and keep an eye out on this blog because I might start thinking up some themes for you guys in the near future.

Call for submissions

Well, the first week of school is just about over, hopefully y'all survived and are ready for the real work to begin!

I'm very excited to announce this brand-new photoblog. I am hoping to showcase some great stuff from all of you that highlights Rutgers-Newark.

SOOO...

Got a great photo or video of Rutgers-Newark to share? Send your submission (no more than 2 minutes for video, please!) with up to a 25-word description, and we'll post our favorite entries on this blog.

Send your entries along with your name and (if applicable) school and year of graduation to occ@andromeda.rutgers.edu