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connectionsA newsletter for the Rutgers-Newark community and neighbors

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WINTER 2004

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Coming Home: Ex-N.J. Legislator,Governor’s Cabinet Member to Head Cornwall Center

After a decades-long journey that includedstops on the southern and western coasts ofAmerica, East Orange native Stephanie Bush-Baskette’s desire to unite the brainpower ofacademe with the political brawn of public-policy makers — and thereby improve the livesof urban citizens in the very metropolitan areawhere she’d grown up — led her home.

Bush-Baskette assumed the post of director ofRutgers-Newark’s Joseph C. Cornwall Center forMetropolitan Studies Feb. 1.

The Cornwall Center, which opened its newheadquarters in a renovated Bleeker Streetbrownstone in May, was developed through a$2.4 million gift from the Fund for New Jersey.Its two-pronged goal is to advance research oncities and metropolitan areas, and to apply thatresearch to urban public-policy issues andneighborhood revitalization.

“What drew me to this position is that it mirrorsexactly what I want to do professionally, andhave been doing my entire career: providing thetools for people to empower themselves,” Bush-Baskette said. She stresses that academics,public-policy makers and people in

by Mike Sutton

East Orange native Stephanie Bush-Baskettetook the helm of the Cornwall Center Feb. 1.

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From the outside, Conklin Hall looks like a typical, barebones 1960s-styleacademic building; there’s no hint thatRutgers history was made there. But ifits walls could talk, Conklin Hall wouldtell of a learning experience that tookplace outside its classrooms on a winter’sday almost four decades ago, and howRutgers-Newark’s transformation from a mostly white institution into the mostdiverse university campus in the UnitedStates really began in that unassumingbuilding on Feb. 24, 1969.

On that day, the Black Organization ofStudents (BOS) occupied Conklin Hallto protest the scarcity of black students,black faculty and programs of interest to blacks and other minorities, such asLatinos, as well as to demand changes,both in Newark and at the university.The occupation lasted only 72 hours,but it helped trigger a chain of eventsthat forever changed Rutgers, addingnew energy to initiatives such as theEducational Opportunity Fund (EOF) and sparking the creation of theAcademic Foundations department.

On Feb. 24 this year, the 35thanniversary of the Conklin Hall takeover,another gathering of students will takeplace there. Members of today’s campuscommunity will stand alongside many ofthose involved in the original takeover to dedicate a plaque recognizing theday when students stood by theirprinciples and ideals, and changedan institution. A reception also willbe held, giving younger attendeesa chance to meet with some ofthe people who helped pavetheir way to a Rutgers-Newarkeducation, including formerstudent leaders.

The 1969 occupation ofConklin Hall took placewithin a climate ofnation-wide dissent and protests over racialdiscrimination, and followed months of efforts to effect changes at Rutgers.

Provost Emeritus Norman Samuels—who was a faculty member during theoccupation of Conklin—believes thateventually Rutgers would have evolvedinto a more equitable learning institution,

35 Years Later,Conklin Hall tobe ‘Occupied’Again

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Black student protestors drape a banner from the roof ofConklin Hall in 1969.

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by Carla Capizzi

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Eyewitness to Historyby Michael Immerso

In 1969, MichaelImmerso (NCAS ’72),now a professionalauthor, was afreshman at Rutgers-Newark. He laterbecame R-N studentbody president. His on-the-sceneaccount of thetakeover follows.

When members of the Black Organizationof Students (BOS) occupied ConklinHall, the challenge for white students such as myself was to find a meaningfulway to support the BOS. Our greatestfear was that reactionary white studentssupported by off-campus militants wouldstorm the building and trigger a full-scale race war. Forming an ad-hocConcerned Student Coalition, we joinedblack community activists who maintainedan around-the-clock vigil in AckersonHall. When a small group of whites whoopposed the occupation sought to batterdown the doors of Conklin, they weresuccessfully turned back. We initiallybreathed a sigh of relief when anMichael Immerso today

Rutgers-Newark’s student newspaper reports the tensionbetween students and administrators that sparked the takeover of Conklin Hall.

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Provost’s Research Day to Feature‘Hot’ Media TopicsNine Rutgers-Newark faculty, as well as presenters from the University ofMedicine and Dentistry of New Jersey(UMDNJ), the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), and the PublicHealth Research Institute (PHRI), willassemble to showcase their research on Rutgers-Newark’s annual Provost’sResearch Day April 20. The programwill be held 2:30–5 p.m. in theUniversity Club at the Paul RobesonCampus Center.

“The overall theme for this year’sResearch Day is topics that have beenof particular interest to the media,”said Rutgers-Newark Provost Steven

Diner. “This event gives the presenters,as well as the other faculty, graduatestudents and undergraduates in theaudience, a special forum to share thework going on at all three schools and the institute.”

The diverse subjects will range from a critical look at whether waging war is an inherent human behavior (anespecially apropos presentation given2003’s violent tenor) to how sexualpressure and trust affect the transmissionof HIV to young urban women.

From Bach to Bebop“Can you imagine how much fun Bach would have had with 88 keys to compose his preludes and fugues?”

comments Henry Martin, professor ofmusic at R-N, noting that the keyboardJohann Sebastian Bach composed onhad many fewer keys than the kind ona modern piano.

Martin was musing on his own award-winning Preludes and Fugues, a set of piano pieces written as a kind ofhomage to Bach’s Well TemperedClavier, which contains 48 preludesand fugues and is considered an iconamong classical compositions. Martinwill be playing selections from hiswork, along with some Bach and someragtime (another influence) at Rutgers-Newark Feb. 19, 12:30 pm, in theCenter for Law and Justice Atrium.

Feb. 21The 24th Annual Marion Thompson Wright Lecture

Topic: 50th anniversary of the Brownvs. Board of Education SupremeCourt decision, which ended racialsegregation in public schools.Keynote Speaker: Roger Wilkins,Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist forThe Washington Post. Location: Paul Robeson CampusCenter, 350 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Time: This series of lectures and discussions will run 8:30 a.m.– 3:30 p.m. Info: Lori Barcliff Baptista, 973/353-1871,barcliff@andromeda.rutgers.edu,http://ethnicity.rutgers.edu.

March 25The 22nd Annual Chief Justice Joseph Weintraub LectureKeynote Speaker: The Hon. SylviaPressler (NLAW ’59), presidingjudge for administration of theAppellate Division of the SuperiorCourt of New Jersey. Location: Baker Trial Courtroom,Center for Law and Justice, 123 Washington St. Time: 6 p.m. Info: Evie Task, 973/353-1617,task@rutgers.edu.

April 35th Annual Applied and Urban Ethics ConferenceTopic: “(Il)legal Drugs: Profit, Health and the Public Good.” Keynote Speaker: Stephanie Bush-Baskette, director of theJoseph C. Cornwall Center forMetropolitan Studies. Location: Center for Law and Justice, 123 Washington St. Time: 9 a.m.–6 p.m. Info: Nancy Holmstrom, 973/353-1397,nholmstrom@aol.com.

CALENDAR EVENTS

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www.newark.rutgers.edu/events

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The Rutgers-Newark women’s volleyball team captured the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC)division championship in November,catapulting it into the prestigiousNational Collegiate Athletic Association(NCAA) tournament for the first time in school history.

The Scarlet Raiders were among only48 Division III collegiate women’svolleyball teams across the country to earn a berth in the nationalchampionship playoffs. Although they lost in the first round of theNCAAs, merely making it to what is often referred to in athletics as “The Big Dance” is considered a huge achievement.

“It was really nice,” said women’s head volleyball coach Sean Bryan of the trip to the NCAAs. Bryan racked up his first NJAC championship as acoach at R-N and the program’s firstsince 1997. “That was really excitingfor our players.”

“It didn’t really hit me until we were on the bus to the NCAAs,” said seniorstandout Domini Lanzone (see relatedstory). “I really felt honored that wehad done this together. It was a longjourney from the beginning of theseason. Just getting there was such an accomplishment in itself.”

Women’s Volleyball TeamMakes Historic Trip to NCAAs by Mike Sutton

Martin, a well-known musical scholar,performer and composer who embracesboth the classical and jazz traditions,says that often when approaching thepiano, the “first thing I do is reach forthe Bach preludes and fugues.” Whatinspired his own version was a notionthat “if this is the music that speaks tome the most at the piano, why don’t Iwrite some of my own?” So he embarkedon this daunting project in the late 1980sand throughout the next decade composedthe 47 pieces that make up his own version.

Martin describes his compositional styleand “harmonic language” as influencedby 20th-century European and American

music, specifically “Debussy, Bartok, and elements of bebop and post-bebopjazz.” Sound intriguing? Many pianiststhink so, making the Martin pieces quitesought-after. The leading Americanpianist Sara Davis Buechner made an acclaimed recording a few years ago, and this year Martin’s ownperformances of the work will bereleased by Bridge Records.

For more information on Martin and his music, visit www.henrymartin.org.— Helen Paxton

On the Plaza…from page 3

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STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

Henry Martin performs Feb. 19 at the Center for Law and Justice.

The R-N women’s volleyball team in action againstMontclair State University.

SportsIllustratedSalutes a ‘Killer’Performance

Rutgers-Newarksenior andvolleyball playerDomini Lanzone(NCAS ’03), of River Edge,N.J., gracedSports Illustrated’s“Faces in theCrowd” section

in the Nov. 3, 2003 edition. The outsidehitter was noted for becoming only the21st woman in NCAA history to reachthe 2,000 “kill” plateau in October. A“kill” in volleyball is a shot that is hitwith such force that it is consideredvirtually impossible for the opposingteam to return. Lanzone currently ranksthird in the nation among Division IIIcollegiate players in kills per game, and first in the New Jersey AthleticConference (NJAC).

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A partnership that built new bridges ofunderstanding between Rutgers-Newarkfaculty and the New Jersey State Police(NJSP) has drawn plaudits from bothsides. The Rutgers Institute on Ethnicity,Culture and the Modern Experience(IECME) taught classes in culturalawareness last fall to all 2,700 of NewJersey’s state troopers.

The New Jersey attorney general’s officeentered into a contract with the IECMEto create the classes in an effort toencourage both professional andpersonal growth for state troopers.The sessions stem from a consentdecree issued by a New Jersey districtjudge in December 1999. The consentdecree was the settlement of a lawsuitalleging racial profiling brought againstthe NJSP, the State of New Jersey andthe N.J. Department of Law and PublicSafety by then-U.S. Attorney GeneralJanet Reno. The classes are scheduledto continue for at least two more yearsunder the consent decree.

Rutgers-Newark faculty andadministrators provided the trainingunder the supervision of IECME director and Rutgers-Newark historyprofessor Clement Price, who developedthe multidisciplinary curriculum with his staff.

“The professors from Rutgers-Newarkoffered a large and rich humanitiescontext for the troopers – not simplyDiversity 101 or Good Policing 101,”Price said. “This is an example of publicintellectual work that really matters toour community.”

N.J. State Attorney General Peter Harveyis an enthusiastic proponent of thetraining. “The richness of our world, and indeed, New Jersey, results fromdifferent people, different cultures anddifferent experiences,” he said. “Theenlightened among us see difference asan opportunity to learn and grow beyondthe narrow confines of our own self-imposed limits or acquired prejudgments.”

COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS

Rutgers-Newark Faculty Teach Cultural Awareness to N.J. State TroopersBy Mike Sutton

Eyewitness to History…from page 2

agreement brought a peaceful end tothe occupation.

But when the Newark College of Arts and Sciences (NCAS) facultyrefused to ratify the agreement, thecampus again erupted. On March 13,about 500 students joined a strikeorganized by the BOS and theCoalition. With the BOS taking thelead, the strikers marched toward theadministration building.

The students converged on VicePresident Malcolm Talbott’s office,demanding that the university close down the campus. When theadministration refused to comply,students vowed to take matters intotheir own hands. BOS and Coalitionmembers discussed various plans of action, including a coordinatedoccupation of classroom buildings.President Mason Gross announcedthat he was suspending classes toforestall a confrontation.

The Rutgers University Board ofGovernors shortly issued a statementthat it planned to create “a new andpioneering program by September,1969, which initially will open collegedoors to educationally and economicallydisadvantaged graduates of thesecondary schools in those communitieswhere Rutgers has its primary locationsand its most significant communityobligations—Newark, New Brunswickand Camden.”

A New York Times headline the nextday declared: “Rutgers Opening DoorsTo Needy.”

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R-N Professor Clement Price chats with Capt. Juan Perez of the New Jersey State Police after one of the cultural-awareness classes.

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Office of Campus CommunicationsRutgers-Newark249 University Ave.Newark, NJ 07102

www.newark.rutgers.edu

KEEP CONNECTEDConnections is published by the Office of Campus Communications, Rutgers-Newark. Your comments arewelcome. Please contact:

Helen Paxton, Senior Editor,paxton@andromeda.rutgers.eduMichael Sutton, Managing Editor,msutton@andromeda.rutgers.eduCarla Capizzi, Editor,capizzi@andromeda.rutgers.edu

Room 210, Blumenthal Hall249 University Ave., Newark, NJ 07102phone 973/353-5262 fax 973/353-1050

For current and back issues, seewww.newark.rutgers.edu/connections.

the community need to learn from eachother, and envisions the Cornwall Centeras a nexus for this to occur. “StephanieBush-Baskette is the ideal person to link the urban research interests of ourfaculty with the needs of the Newarkmetropolitan area and the state,” saidRutgers-Newark Provost Steven Diner.“She believes deeply in the importanceof research for the well-being of citiesand communities.”

Prior to joining Cornwall, Bush-Baskettewas director of government relations and a senior researcher at the NationalCouncil on Crime and Delinquency(NCCD) in Oakland, Calif. She earned alaw degree from American University in1978 and a Ph.D. in criminal justicefrom Rutgers-Newark in 2000.

Starting in 1987, she was elected tothree consecutive terms in the N.J.General Assembly, resigning from thelegislature in 1992 to join Gov. JamesFlorio’s cabinet as commissioner of theDepartment of Community Affairs. Later,she moved into academe as a professorof criminology and criminal justice, aswell as director of the Juvenile JusticeRole Model Development Program, atFlorida State University.

“Coming back to my ‘hometown’ willenable me to put the skills that I haveaccumulated to maximum use,” Bush-Baskette said.

even without the takeover. But, he reflects, “What we would have lost was the opportunity to initiatesomething important, and theopportunity … to actively contribute to change.”

For times and locations of Conklin Hall commemorative events, please go towww.newark.rutgers.edu/events.

Cornwall… from page 1 Conklin Hall… from page 2

Photo: Dennis Bird/The Star-Ledger

White counterdemonstrators march outside Conklin Hall during the takeover.

Lanzone was so focused on the play in the game where she reached her2,000th kill that she said she didn’teven realize it had happened at first.

“I didn’t really know until they stoppedthe match and made the announcement,”said the 6-foot-1-inch criminal justicemajor. “I just ran up to all my teammatesand gave them a big hug. It was great.”

Sports Illustrated… from page 4