On Saturday, November 11th, 2017, Stockton’s Marine Science Club and Stockton Action Volunteers for the Environment sponsored a whale watching trip for Stockton students and faculty. Although not a member of either club, I took advantage of the opportunity to experience an adventure at sea with my friends.

Two busloads of Stockton students, myself included, braved cold temperatures at sea in order to observe the majestic creatures in their natural habitat. A guide speaking over the intercom spoke about the whales and dolphins, which provided a balance of education and fun. Before the boat had even entered open waters, students spotted a pair of dolphins. It was a good omen, and dolphin sightings occurred early and often. Students watched in wonder as pods of dolphins swam near the boat. Some even followed the boat, leaping out of the water in its wake. A guide explained to the students about dolphin conservation efforts, and how marine scientists track the dolphins. The whale watch boat even had researchers on board to document and photograph whale and dolphin activity.

Although watching the dolphins swim and play was fun on its own, the most incredible part of the trip was finding a whale. Seeing a whale is somewhat unusual, so the group was quite lucky.  Unlike the dolphins, who swam in pods, the guide explained that humpback whales mostly live alone, because they need to eat thousands of pounds of food every day, and would not be able to find enough food if they lived in groups. The guide also explained that humpback whales can live as far North as Canada and migrate as far south as Florida, and that particular whale was most likely migrating south in order to give birth. The whale resurfaced every few minutes, and each time, it left students in awe.

The boat could not approach close to the whale for safety reasons. Whales do not have echolocation like dolphins, and therefore the whale would not be able to sense the boat was near and would possibly crash into the boat. However, even viewing the whale from afar was still a surreal experience. I have never been on a whale watch excursion before, and it is something I may have never tried if Stockton had not offered this trip. However, I loved the experience, and I am glad Stockton tries to provide unique and fun weekend trips for its students.

On Thursday, October 19th, 2017, Stockton students and staff piled into F111 to hear Dr. Steven Salatia speak the occupation of Palestine and academic freedom. This event was hosted by the Stockton Muslim Student Association. Salaita was offered a tenure position at the University of Illinois, which was rescinded after they saw his tweets, because he sided with Palestine in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Salaita believes that “conflict” is not an accurate way to describe the struggle between Israel and Palestine, but it is actually an example of colonization, where the Israelis are trying to settle land inhabited by indigenous Palestinians.  Salaita argued that there is no point throughout history that indigenous or native people have not resisted colonization, and believes more people should understand the plight of the Palestinians, whose only goal is to return to their native lands. Salaita also believed that both anti-Semitism and islamophobia both contribute to the conflict, because from an outsider’s perspective, the Israelis and Palestinians both appear to be barbaric because they have been in conflict for 50 years, and outsiders believe that all they know how to do is fight.

Salaita’s goal is for more people to educate themselves about the Israel-Palestine conflict, but he also knows the topic is controversial. Salaita defined academic freedom as, “students, faculty, and employees at a university have the right to pursue controversial research”. However, according to Salaita, universities are increasingly becoming brands, and high-ranking university officials are increasingly concerned with donations, public image, and real estate instead of learning. Universities are willing to silence research in order to protect their brand. He mentioned that colleges are capitalists at heart, instead of places of learning.

Salaita encouraged the Stockton students to not give into cynicism. Although the environment on college campuses can be hostile, Salaita encouraged the student body to engage in debates and programs that can be seen as controversial. Salaita also encouraged students to stand up for their professors when their academic freedom is threatened. He mentioned the case of George Maher, who taught at Drexel University and was placed on leave because of controversial tweets. According to Salaita, the students stood up for their professor, saying they signed up for his class and had the right to learn from him.

This lecture was similar to Galileo’s Middle Finger, one of the Honors Seminar required readings, because it described the struggle between scholarship and activism. Dreger also faced censorship in academia after choosing to pursue research on a controversial subject, the treatment of hermaphrodites by medical professionals. The Salaita controversy occurred in 2014, while Galileo’s Middle Finger was published in 2015, showing that there were multiple conflicts in academia regarding academic freedom, and the controversy continues to this day. Salaita still does not have job in academia. Salaita encouraged Stockton students to stand up for academic freedom, and this generation can use its voice to stand up for academic freedom. The overarching message of Salaita’s speech was that we must unify as human beings instead of separating, to create positive change.

Dogs. And lots of them. Of course, petting some dogs wasn’t my original intent when I walked across campus to the Get Involved Fair. My roommate and I were both tired of it being just us two when going to get food or having a movie night and we were hoping that the Get Involved Fair would open us up to more social outlets that we would be able to attend that would help us make more friends.

When we got to F Wing, to say we were overwhelmed by the vast assortment of tables and clubs/organizations would be an understatement. They had tables that seemed to stretch both side of the entire hall! My roommate and I had entered the hall in the middle of the commotion so we started our walk in one direction before we would have to turn around to cover the other direction. We walked down the hall slowly, scanning each poster and what each table was promoting. The students did a beautiful job on their table’s visual presentation such as tri-folds, freebies, treats, and informational handouts. As you can imagine, the lovable and overly excited dogs were the real attention grabbers at the tables. Most of the organizations had no connection to necessarily needing dogs at their tables except for the fact that they could rope students in more easily. My roommate and I approached one table with a dog and instantly he licked our hands and a student from the table held out a flyer and said, “Now since you pet him, you have to take one of these.” That was some good advertising if you ask me.

Most students were very friendly and open about sharing information about their organizations with other curious students. I was rather surprised at how well these students grabbed our attention and captivated even the slightest interest we had in their organization. Some tables had only one student, or maybe even two, who were both too consumed in their laptops to notice people were standing by their table trying to get as much information out of the poster as possible. It was kind of sad to watch those interested students walk away because of how awkward they felt that they were not being given further information by the students who seemed to be ignoring them. I do not know why those organization representatives did not even look up to see if students were standing in front of them or why those reps wasted their time to sit around and not do what they were supposed to be doing.

Overall, I was surprised at what a good turn out the Get Involved Fair seemed to be. It was buzzing with activity and interested students throughout the entire fair duration. There were some very diverse and well rounded organizations that seemed to cover any interest that a student may have. I would bet that everyone who attended the Get Involved Fair found at least one club or organization that interested them enough to at least sign up for the emailing list. I personally got some interesting information about clubs and organizations that I did not even know existed and I plan on attending those meetings.

For our Honor’s class field trip, we took a trip to the Museum of the American revolution in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At 9:30 A.M. We went to the A&S building and hopped on the bus to Philly. For the majority of the drive I decided to spend my time finishing a book that I was almost done with. The drive took about an hour to get to our destination. Once there we got our bracelets and were let loose to enjoy the museum and the surrounding area. My friends and I spent the first part of the trip looking at all the exhibits.

How the museum was structured was that it was set up like a timeline of events throughout the entire history of the American revolution. From the beginning of the rebellion of the colonies to the end, with America gaining its independence, so it creates a cohesive experience rather than an exhibits put at random. At the end it also had the message that the American revolution is still continuing and happening today. Interspersed throughout the museum there were multiple different viewing areas for videos that showed an overview of one part of history. One of them depicted the representatives working and debating the Declaration of Independence. There were also event theatres which had built in effects that increase the atmosphere of the video. There was one that simulated a famous battle between the Americans and the British. They had flashing lights and the floor rumbled with the sounds of gunfire and marching. One exhibit that I found particularly interesting was the exhibit depicting George Washington’s tent because it seeing an important piece of history and the presentation before hand was incredibly moving and powerful.

After we finished looking around the museum we went to get some fresh air and walked around Philadelphia. We ended up walking along the pier, where I took some nice pictures of the surrounding areas, and we stopped for a quick snack at Rita’s where I bought myself a cookies and cream milkshake.  Afterwards, we headed back to the museum and got back on the bus to Stockton.

For my first community service event at Stockton I went to Stockton’s “Day of Service” event. When I first arrived I selected a blue name tag and was put into the blue group. We got to go to the first activity in the campus center’s event room, to do different arts and crafts projects for different organizations. Since I’m not the best artistically, I decided to volunteer to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a homeless shelter. I haven’t made PB&J sandwiches since elementary school, so it took a little bit to get the proportions just right. I found this work to be very relaxing and rewarding since our group made a lot of sandwiches by the end of the session.

After that we went to the campus center’s main hall and were, once again, allowed to choose what activity we wanted to do. So I went down to the room for “Books Without Borders.” When we got there they were waiting for a new shipment of books, so instead we went into the hall to rip up old cardboard boxes to make box stuffing material. This was a very methodical and relaxing activity that I really enjoyed. Afterwards my fingers were killing me for a little bit.

The next event was working an assembly line to make food supply kits for people in countries who are dying of starvation. I was in charge of just putting the little packet of vitamins and minerals in the bag at the start. About near the end I switched with the person who handled the bag by holding it in place while the other people in my group filled it with soy, rice, and dried vegetables. In total our group made 10,600 meals, which was a tad over the goal. I felt really good after doing all these service activities and enjoyed them all. My favorite activity was the PB&J sandwich making since it was the most relaxing out of all of them.