Montclair State Opens World's Only Segal Gallery

The grand opening celebration for The George Segal Gallery at Montclair State University will be held on April 5, from 7 to 9 p.m. with an exhibition and reception. The Gallery is located at the fourth level of the Red Hawk Parking Deck, adjacent to the
Alexander Kasser Theater Complex. The 7,200-square-foot Gallery is the the only gallery space named for Segal in the world.

The celebration will include the official unveiling of Segal’s famous Street Crossing, a gift from the George and Helen Segal Foundation that will be permanently installed in the Alexander Kasser Theater Plaza.

Montclair State is New Jersey’s second largest and fastest growing university. It offers the advantages of a large university — a comprehensive undergraduate curriculum with a global focus, a broad variety of superior graduate programs, and a diverse faculty and student body — combined with a small college’s attention to students.

More information on the university is available at www.montclair.edu. For additional information on the George Segal Art Gallery, contact M. Teresa Rodriguez at 973-655-5113 or email her at rodriguezt@mail.montclair.edu.

Ramapo's American Democracy Project Promotes Civic Responsibility

After signing on as a charter participant in the American Democracy Project, Ramapo College has begun implementing programs that foster the project’s goals. The American Democracy Project is a multi-campus program to promote intellectual and experiential understanding of civic engagement for undergraduates attending institutions that are members of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU).

The project’s goals are to increase student civic engagement by offering academic and extracurricular activities and programs, to develop institutional commitment by addressing and focusing on civic engagement as a learning outcome for the students,
and also to focus the attention of policy makers and opinion leaders on the civic value of the college experience.

Dr. Jennefer Mazza, dean of Ramapo College’s School of American and International Studies, was charged with instituting civic engagement as a campus priority and creating an active faculty group to carry out projects and programs. Dr. Sharon Rubin,
a professor of American studies and literature, was selected as director of the American Democracy Project at the College, supporting activities by students and faculty that foster students’ civic engagement. Prior to Dr. Rubin’s appointment, Karen Booth
served as the American Democracy Project coordinator, and was instrumental in rallying campus support for the program.

Dr. Rubin, together with her colleagues, has planned an array of activities to promote civic engagement. For example, “In the fall, we sponsored a Constitution Day during which a professor impersonating Ben Franklin engaged attendees in a discourse about how the Constitution came into being,” she said. “We also co-sponsored a display
about the Constitution in the College’s Potter Library.”

With a phenomenal start, the American Democracy Project has even bigger plans for the upcoming semester. “In the spring, we hope to develop a series of workshops for students, in conjunction with student groups and given by faculty, in a variety of fields. Also, we are supporting the reunion of students who took two courses, Art and
Interaction and Student Literacy Corps, which emphasized long-term, substantive service-learning experiences. Through a video and a survey, we hope to find out how participation in these courses affected students’ career decisions and involvement in their communities.”

The American Democracy Project initially involved 144 member campuses of the AASCU nationwide, representing more than 1.3 million students. After a yearlong conversation and planning phase, the focus has shifted to implementing a variety of civic engagement projects on each participating campus. There will then be a process of
dissemination of the best practices.

Ramapo College of New Jersey, 505 Ramapo Valley Rd. Mahwah; NJ 07430; 201-684-7500; www.ramapo.edu

The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey offers a distinctive curriculum that can be tailored to meet students’ individual goals. Offering over 30 majors, numerous study tracks that focus the major, more than 35 minors, and several dual-degree professional
programs, Stockton ensures breadth and depth of scholarship. The college’s small class size provides plenty of student-professor interaction.

Recent recognitions include:

• Ranked 6th in the nation in the public liberal arts college category by U.S. News Best
Colleges 2005.
• Named a “Best Northeastern College for 2006” by The Princeton Review.
• One of only seven in the nation to receive a prestigious “Journey Towards Democracy” grant for its work in civic engagement projects by the Association of American Colleges and Universities.
• Partnered with The New York Times to launch the “Odyssey Project” that helps area high school students effectively bridge the transition between high school and college.

Special learning options include international study, independent projects, a Mentor-Scholar program, service learning, local internships, and the semester-long Washington, D.C. Internship Program. State-of-the-art technological tools are offered in computerized learning labs and electronic classrooms. Web registration and online courses accommodate students’ busy schedules.

While the 1,600-acre main campus sits in a beautiful natural setting of woods and lakes, Stockton is within 15 minutes of Atlantic City, an hour from Cape May and Philadelphia, and two hours from New York. Satellite campus locations exist in Atlantic City (Carnegie Library Center) and Mays Landing (Southern Regional Institute - Educational Technology Training Center). Top-notch athletic facilities are housed in the
new Sports Center, large enough to seat 5,000 participants for a variety of events.

An open house will be held on April 2. Daily tours are available.

The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey; 609-652-4261; www.stockton.edu.

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