Rutgers Day 2011: Lego my Rutgers-Newark

Who doesn't like Legos?

This past Saturday we participated in the annual Rutgers Day festivities with a tent on the College Avenue campus in New Brunswick. We shared a tent with Rutgers-Camden - who had some great giveaways and carnival games. Our theme was "Lego my Rutgers-Newark" and we invited the young and the young-at-heart to help us build a campus out of Legos.  We had great weather and a lot of happy visitors stop by throughout the day to help us. Here are some of the highlights

One of our first little architects takes some creative liberties with our campus design.

Collaborating on a more colorful version of our campus quad, complete with students & teachers

This young Rutgers fan recreated our soccer field

For more photos, check out the Rutgers-Day gallery on our Facebook page. For more on the other Rutgers Day events, check out the official website at http://rutgersday.rutgers.edu/

Toni Morrison at Rutgers University, Newark

On April 26, 2011, Toni Morrison read from a work-in-progress to a packed house at the Paul Robeson Student Center. She was the finale to the 2010-11 Writers at Newark reading series hosted by the MFA program and the Institute on Ethnicity, Culture and the Modern Experience.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker introduced Toni Morrison as one of his "living heroes" and told the audience that he considered it a great early birthday present to be able to meet her. Below, a snapshot from what looks like a very animated conversation with her in the green room before her reading. Don't they both look happy to meet each other?

Toni Morrison announced to gasps in the audience that she would read from a work-in-progress.

After the reading, Toni Morrison (right) answers questions from MFA director Jayne Anne Phillips.

Despite the large crowd, the night was relaxed and intimate. At one point during the Q&A, Toni Morrison even interrupted herself to acknowledge Amiri Baraka in the crowd with an "Amiri! You finally got here?"

After the reading she signed books for a half hour.

You can read more about the event at NJ.com and view the complete photo gallery on the Rutgers University, Newark Facebook page

Now Playing: An Island Vacation in Mid-Winter

A cold front moved in to Newark last night, leaving us with a chilly high somewhere in the mid-30s for today (I don't know about the rest of you, but it feels even colder than that to me!).

Luckily for us, even if we can't get away to a sunny Caribbean island, we can at least temporarily escape the cold and imagine ourselves there - all without ever leaving Newark - with the Rutgers-Newark/NJIT Theatre production of "Once on This Island," a tale of love and class conflict set in the French Antilles. (But hurry, the final performance is Sunday, March 6)

Check out some behind the scenes of "Once On This Island" with words from director Michael Kerley about the production which opened yesterday. Video by Rodney Reyes.

The Rutgers-NJIT Theatre Program presents ONCE ON THIS ISLAND books and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. Music by Stephen Flaherty. Based on the novel “My Love, My Love” by Rosa Guy. Directed by Michael Kerley.

Performances at the Jim Wise Theatre, Kupfrian Hall, NJIT Campus. March 2-5 at 7pm and March 6 at 2:30pm. Tickets $12 General, $10 Students/Seniors. Go to http://theatre.njit.edu/ for tickets and more info.

2010 Open House

On Saturday, April 17, 2010, Rutgers-Newark hosted the spring campus-wide Open House. We had a large turnout of enthusiastic potential students and their families, along with many student, faculty and staff volunteers from around the campus.

One of our admissions officers, Carrie Alesiani, sent these great photos and writes:
 
The Office of Graduate & Undergraduate Admissions would like to extend our sincerest thanks to everyone who came out in support. This event would not be possible without the countless volunteer hours our campus-community donates.

While the weather was a little chilly and dreary, we still hosted 731 students and 1,605 total guests at Open House! Combined with Alumni Relation's Reunion (view photos on Flickr), the campus was certainly bustling.



WE THANK YOU! This event is truly a team effort. We sincerely appreciate your participation and enthusiasm. The Admissions Office is busy planning a whole new season of recruitment events and already looking forward to future Open Houses.

For more photos of this and other events, please visit the Rutgers-Newark Photo Gallery.

The Art In Music

This week the Robeson Galleries celebrated its 30th anniversary with several days of events and openings.

A free lunchtime concert in the gallery yesterday featured music celebrating composer/artists George Gershwin, Paul Hindemith and Edgard Varese, whose artwork can be seen on the poster at left. (you can enlarge the poster by clicking on it)

The concert also featured the world premiere of a piece by our very own Henry Martin called "A Gershwin Mosaic." It was a fantastic piece, and in case you missed it, I'm uploading the video to our YouTube channel as I type this. It's slightly over their 10 minute limit so I may need to cut it down, but I'll add a link here once it's up. [update: in the meantime, you can see Henry Martin explain his process for creating the piece]

Below, the musicians warm up before the concert. Henry Martin is sitting on the bench, listening intently.

Asmira Woodward-Page tells the audience about the first piece, Gerswhin's Lullaby.

Flutist Jill Sokol performs a solo

The musicians: Asmira Woodard-Page, Yuki Numata (violin), Soo Bae (cello) and Miranda Sielaff (viola)

A packed house!!

The artwork on the walls is also part of the gallery's anniversary exhibit, Exquisite Corpse, in which 39 artists from the NY/NJ area participated including several faculty and at least one alumna. The exhibit is up until April 18, 2010. Visit The Robeson Galleries web site for more information.

Paint the City Scarlet! Homecoming 2009

Last weekend was the Rutgers-Newark Homecoming. This year we went bigger and better with a full carnival theme including a ferris wheel, games, and bumper cars.

Luckily the rain held out and we were able to hold the kick off in the Norman Samuels Plaza last Wednesday during free period. At left is the giant (6 feet!) R cake that started the festivities.

The Benjamins, a well-known cover band, gave a free concert and many other events occured during the four day event, including a walking tour of the city, alumni mixers at MiSaVi and McGovern's, a basketball showdown between old and new alumni, and the Mr. & Ms. Rutgers-Newark pageant.

Below are a few photos that Mary Grace Oania took at Fall Fest on Saturday. I am not quite sure what's going on in this first one below, maybe someone can clue me in? At first I thought they were making an R... but doesn't look like it.

Below, the Benjamins rock the house... er, the Bradley Hall parking lot.

Two future Rutgers students, perhaps?

By the way, I have seen several people wearing my t-shirts the past few days around campus! I love it! Keep wearing them!

You can see many more photos of all the Homecoming events, including the basketball game and alumni events, on Facebook

Staff Appreciation Day

It takes a lot more than just students and professors to keep the university running, whether it's organizing student life activities, keeping the plaza landscaped, keeping the campus safe, maintaining budgets and records, cleaning your classrooms and offices, running the computer labs, delivering mail, writing grants and everything in between.

Every year the HR department puts together a staff appreciation event for all of these people and Chancellor Steven Diner hands out awards to some of the hardest working folks on campus. To the left, Henry Lionel Anderson holds up his award... can you believe he hasn't called out sick in 30 years?

In the top right photo below, the HR department smiles for the camera... they look relieved that all the planning is over, don't they? Director Elena Serra was so happy she can be seen dancing in the top left photo :)

Aside from the music, bingo, and chance to mingle with people you don't often see on a daily basis, one of the draws is that you get ice cream and food served to you by the bigshots on campus (as you can see from the bottom right photo above). It's a nice break from sitting in front of my computer all day!

You can view all photos from the event on the Rutgers Newark HR website

Nursing Student Research Day

Just got these photos in from the College of Nursing's honors scholars research day on April 13. Thirteen outstanding students presented on a variety of topics to their faculty and peers. Photos were taken by Fred Stucker.

At left, one of the students presents on "BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 Effects on Colon Cancer." Below, student Jackie Kaczerski with Dr. Robert Atkins

Leigh Adams presents "Attitudes Regarding Prioritization of Familial Responsibilities Among Low Income Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Women"Group photo of the students and faculty mentors

There are more photos of the event on the Rutgers-Newark photo gallery: View entire set

Hilary Demske Piano Concert

This Wednesday, pianist Hilary Demske performed in Dana Library as part of the Arts @ Newark concert series. She played music composed by our very own Professor and pianist Henry Martin for a standing-room only crowd. It was a great concert. For those of you who missed her, I've uploaded two short videos from the concert. You can't see it in the one below, but if you view the video from her final piece on our YouTube Channel, you'll see how fast her fingers fly across the keyboard as she plays!



Hilary is the First prize winner of the "Citta di Barletta" International Piano Competition. An active solo, chamber, and orchestral musician, she has garnered numerous awards both in the United States and abroad.

An avid performer of contemporary music, Hilary has collaborated with George Tsontakis, Stephen Hough, and Michael Daugherty in venues that include the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Guild and the Da Camara of Houston. She is currently working on a recording project for Albany Records of the solo piano music of Henry Martin, including music heard in these clips.

The next free concert will be held next Wednesday, April 1st, at the Robeson Gallery, celebrating composer Felix Mendelssoh's 200th birthday: check the Events Calendar for more details.

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/