Exploring the Environmental Paradox
Getting Past Modern Day Gatekeepers
Prices for Website Development Plunge
New Online Master’s Degree Program
Corrections or additions?
This article by Kathleen McGinn Spring was prepared for the March
17, 2004 issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Survival Guide
Top Of PageExploring the Environmental Paradox
The myth goes on: for business to rise, the environment must fall. A
healthy environment means plummeting employment and soaring costs,
“they” say. It is, of course, total hogwash. Environmental protection,
cleanup, and recycling is a $22 billion industry in New Jersey alone.
But the man on the street often buys this environment-versus-business
myth. Liberals and conservatives both buy it. And our current federal
administration buys it and practices it – with a vengeance.
The problem is that this erroneous myth has split the public – and
politicians – into two wholly artificial camps. Either you line up as
a liberal, tree-hugging foe of American business, or you square off on
the other side of the environmental football as a greedy conservative
despoiler, polluting our children’s heritage. At this point, George
Hawkins, executive director of the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed
Association steps in and calls “time out.”
Sweeping aside the pointed fingers, Hawkins lays bare issues, events,
and possible solutions in his free talk on “Water Quality, Air
Quality, and the Current Environmental Policies of the Bush
Administration,” on Tuesday, March 23, at 7 p.m. at the Unitarian
Church in Princeton. Call 609-924-1604 for more information.
Headquartered at 31 Titusville Road in Pennington, within Washington
Crossing State Park, the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association
(www.thewatershed.org) provides our region with environmental and
nature centers, an organic farm, nature trails and a series of
educational programs.
Hawkins is an environmental powerhouse who guides his life based on
where he can create the greatest change. He grew up in Cleveland and
came east to Princeton, “kind of like our acid rain,” he quips. He
graduated from Princeton University as an expert in Soviet economics.
The main beneficial analogy drawn from these studies is how to get
both volunteers and corporations to perform labor with no profit
incentive.
Obtaining a law degree, Hawkins joined Boston-based Ropes and Gray LLC
as an environmental compliance attorney. Thinking he could do more
good in government, he then shifted to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency as an enforcement lawyer.
In the end, as director of the EPA’s northeast region, Hawkins felt he
had made his mark, making his department more responsive to businesses
and more aggressive with wanton polluters. Ironically, after six
successful years, Hawkins again realized that his best crack at
environmental service lay elsewhere.
The greatest threat to the environment, as Hawkins had witnessed, came
from local land use – or rather misuse. It was less whom we elected
than how we managed the land resources that may poison our water. So
in l998, Hawkins left government and came to work for the Stony Brook
Millstone Watershed Association. He moved his family to the small farm
he manages. It has 45 sheep, a score of chickens, and a ceaseless host
of chores. “A lot less salary – a lot more land,” he says, cheerfully
enough.
Hawkins sees our environmental salvation as coming from a multi-front
war, involving much more than the election of a few concerned leaders.
The environmental football. Concern over the environment predate the
hippie era by a good seven decades. In l899 the Clean Rivers and
Harbors Act stated that ships were not allowed to discharge waste
within a certain distance of a harbor mouth. Ensuing claims protested
that this law set prejudicial standards for Pacific coast harbors,
where the waters were so pure that the discharge had virtually no
effect. Finally the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it was not the
status of the harbor, but the act of dumping that was the issue. Thus
began the precedent of top-down environmental regulations, and states
rights proponents have been chaffing ever since.
In l972 the local versus federal fight arose again in the surprisingly
bi-partisan Clean Water Act. The Republicans, favoring local controls,
accused Democrats of expanding federal regulations, again. Democrats
countered that Republicans only wanted local controls because major
corporations would find municipal laws easier to brush aside. In the
end, a remarkable bill gave each party its say when a national,
minimal set of standards were set for air and water quality.
Additionally, the Republican rider allowed that local areas could set
their own higher standards, depending on their needs.
The three-pronged defense. Hawkins sees both the federal and municipal
laws, along with the states’ own regulations as necessary for holding
the environmental line. The federal EPA has helped to set a nationwide
air quality standard. No area can exceed the Total Maximum Daily Load
(TMDL) of pollutants. But if a township surrounding a power plant has
air meeting these standards, yet its residents are still complaining
about the adverse effects of pollutants, the township can raise the
environmental bar – and keep raising it.
“The need for both is obvious,” says Hawkins. “Anyone who insists that
environmental law must be all state or all local is just plain wrong.”
The Bush stance. For the current administration, the environment is a
complete non-issue. You want Alaskan oil? Go lay a pipeline. You want
to dismiss all mercury emission standards? So what. You want nuclear
testing resumption? Whatever it takes to get the job done. It is less
an attack on the environment, than an indifference. Most important, it
is not the historic Republican party line. The Grand Old Party does
not necessarily demand that its constituents stand up and cheer for
environmental roll backs.
The Bush policies are, for Hawkins, a shining example of why you need
carefully enforced state and local standards. The current federal
administration may roll back countless environmental standards, but
only on federal laws. Local governments still have the right to pass
and enforce their own regulations. When the 3M plant wanted to run a
limestone quarry for sheet rock in Montgomery, the federal government
issued a permit. In response, local government raised its air quality
standards and Governor McGreevey revoked the permit. 3M walked away
with nothing but a huge load of bad press.
Pavement not permits. New Jersey is developing land at five times the
rate of its population increase. When we gain two percent more people,
we gain 10 percent more houses, offices, and parking lots.
“Environmentally, this is a tragic, if avoidable, disaster,” says
Hawkins. “It is just very bad land use choices, leading to very great
destruction of our state.”
Such paving creates a complete water cycle change, he explains. Snow
melt is denied access to local aquifers and races across concrete and
asphalt to the salt water, creating freshwater droughts. As the water
flows over the oily hard surfaces, it picks up the polluted residues
and taints wherever it touches.
Stream beds get scoured by the paved funneling of waters. Animal
habitats facing the polluted waters produce deformed offspring, or no
offspring at all. And think not for a moment that it is only the
children of wildlife that are affected. “You cannot live in New Jersey
and not be an environmentalist,” says Hawkins. “No rolling back of
environmental standards is ever a good thing for this state or any
other.”
The trouble with land issues is that they are never quick fixes. It
takes more than just spotting an evil corporate polluter and calling
in his misdeeds to the FBI Environmental Crimes Unit (Yes, they
actually have one.) We must focus less on villains and more on
designs. Neighbors need to join together and work out that is wisest
for each town and county.
The problem facing us should not be polarizing. It involves becoming
more thoughtful stewards of our land, air, and water, while at the
same time providing for the employment, transportation, and housing
needs of all of our people.
– Bart Jackson
Top Of PageGetting Past Modern Day Gatekeepers
The iron-corsetted gatekeeper whose most important job was to keep her
boss free from all human contact is facing extinction. Smugly she sat
on guard, denying access to her superior.
Still was an outside chance of getting past her. The persistent and
the resourceful might sweet talk an appointment out of this
receptionist or secretary. But the fact that Viola is now in Florida,
with no replacement is on the horizon, is not the good news it might
seem to be. Now blind electronic monsters are in place to bar entry to
the decision maker’s office – and no amount of flattery or chocolate
will move them. Voice mail, E-mail, and caller ID now reject unknown
names automatically.
Is there any way around these new gatekeepers? “Seven Points of
Contact: A New Sales Approach for Today’s Clients” tackles the issue
on Tuesday, March 23, at 8:15 a.m. at the law offices of Schragger and
Schragger in Lawrenceville. Cost: $10. Call 609-882-4586 for more
information.
This monthly marketing roundtable of the Mercer Chapter of the New
Jersey Women Business Owners features Kim Rowe, founder of Agentive, a
sales and marketing training firm in Belle Mead. Her talk is designed
for salespeople, or as she puts it “anybody who has ever tried to get
through a door and make personal contact.”
Rowe has spent her career on both sides of that closed door, both
fending off supplicants and seeking entrance. Born in the mountains of
West Virginia, she moved up to New Jersey for several years, returning
to earn a degree in horticulture from the University of West Virginia.
Quickly abandoning plants are a career choice, she joined C.R. Bard, a
major supplier to the medical community, where she became director of
telemarketing.
She later took a job with Bristol-Meyers Squibb for which she launched
several new products. Ten years ago, she stepped out from behind a
corporate desk and founded Agentive.
“Now it’s a turnabout and I am the seller, trying to gain access to
strangers every day,” she says. Rowe, a Montgomery resident, also
brings her marketing skills to bear in her free time, donating her
time as a board member for her town’s Friends of Open Space, for which
she has helped to launch a farmers cooperative market.
Persistence is necessary. Persistence is commendable. But it is like
chopping with a dull axe if you use the wrong techniques. “Look at
what your dealing with,” says Rowe. “Most corporate people that you
want to see are receiving 40 voice messages and over 200 E-mails a
day. They simply have to delete those whom they don’t know.” To
counter this, Rowe suggests that you begin a protracted and well
organized campaign of familiarity that will lead to a personal
contact.
Lay out strategy. To help strike the balance between persistence and
pestering, Rowe suggests that you set up a plan and keep an active
calendar or journal. First draw up a long list of every person you
want to contact. Take that list of 300 dream clients and distill it to
5 or 10. These are the ones you really need to concentrate on.
Then schedule a two-month plan to contact these very important
strangers (VIS). “Remember,” says Rowe, “if you are making two
contacts a week to 10 people, that’s four contacts daily. Make it
manageable for your own workday.” With strategy and journal in place,
look for short cuts.
Research your contacts. Whom do you know who might know them? If you
find from an Internet biography that your VIS, for example, sits on
the board of Montgomery’s Friends of Open Space, you can attend a
meeting, or perhaps find a mutual acquaintance to introduce you. Even
if you don’t find direct contact, this research will become an
invaluable ice breaker when you finally do shake hands. Nothing so
impresses a person as knowing that he has been studied from afar.
The intro letter. Almost all of us delete E-mails by the score,
jettison printed junk mail by the ton, and dismiss all phone
solicitations. But find a real letter in the mail box – one
hand-addressed to us personally – and we rip it open before we even
make it inside. So, to make contact with the terminally elusive, get
out a pen, and resort to a vanishing form of communication.
In a clear, brief letter, tell your VIS who you are, explain why you
want to meet him, and respectfully state that you will be contacting
him soon. And keep it simple. “Do not spit up all over the client,”
warns Rowe. She finds that too many people gush extravagantly over a
person they have never met before.
In Rowe’s experience, the odds are actually very slim that your first
letter will receive any answer. But you have made the first breach in
the wall and your name has become familiar to your VIS. That
non-threatening, low-key familiarity is the key that eventually can
open doors.
Rotate your media. Over the next two months you will be attempting to
contact your core group of VIS’s approximately twice a week. Seven
phone messages in a row, saying nearly the same thing, may win you a
harassment suit, but probably not an interview. Rotate your media,
advises Rowe. You’ve started with a letter, now move to a phone
message, then switch to E-mail. It is a matter of opinion as to
whether injecting the occasional fax into this missive mix might be
seen as too invasive.
All the while, remember that the message is as important as the media.
Assume you will have to make several attempts before reaching your
VIS. Before you begin to pen your second letter, outline an
information pathway to follow with each successive note. No need to
make it mysterious, simply concentrate on some new benefit your
company can provide and mention it in each of the following contact
attempts.
Take it down a notch. “Never retire a contact entirely,” says Rowe,
“merely rotate him to a less intense schedule.” An intense bi-weekly
blitz should, for both your sake and his, only last so long. Gradually
reduce your sought-after individual to once a month, then once a
quarter. Or you may want to drop him into a category file. Perhaps the
still-uncornered quarry could be filed under “vice presidents of
sales,” and brought out again when you want to meet all vice
presidents of sales.
Winning a first appointment will probably take at least seven
attempts, if it comes at all. But don’t get discouraged. Think of
Stephen King when you’re tempted to despair. The King of horror
stories wrote five unpublished novels and flogged his wares for eight
years before getting through to publishers and becoming “an overnight
success.”
But taking the rejection personally is a death knell. You are busy,
your VIS is busy, that’s why they call it business. But if you polish
your pen, plan your contact campaign, and keep on trying, you too may
achieve the best sellers list, whether you are trying to place a
novel, a shipment of night sticks, or a north-facing condo complex
with views of a recycling plant.
– Bart Jackson
Top Of PagePrices for Website Development Plunge
There is big news for small business.
“You can afford a website,” says web designer and E-consultant Suzanne
Engels. New technology has translated into prices for design and
hosting that are a small fraction of what they were just a few years
ago. This is especially good news because, while prices have dropped,
so has tolerance for companies that do not have a good looking,
well-designed website.
Engels, who is an unusually articulate and engaging techie, lays out
the basics of small business website development during a half-day
seminar on Wednesday, March 24, at 9 a.m. at the Rutgers Center for
Advanced Food Technology in Piscataway. The seminar is jointly
sponsored by the NJAWBO Women’s Business Center and by the TCNJ Small
Business Development Center. Cost: $25. Call 609-581-2220 for more
information.
Engels, a Mid-Westerner, studied fine arts at the University of
Illinois (Class of 1976), and then taught art and math in junior high
school. A realization that she needed to make more money brought her
to AT&T’s Bell Labs, where her skill with an ink pen won her a job in
drafting. Before long, though, her pen was taken away, and “they stuck
a computer in front of me.”
She took to the machine right away and, with AT&T happy to pay to up
her skills, earned a two-year degree in digital electronics. Moving to
Massachusetts with the company, she enrolled in Boston University and
earned a master’s degree in computer science. There followed 15 years
in the Bay State that were broken only by an 18-month stint for the
company in Nuremberg.
Engels arrived in New Jersey, at Lucent’s Holmdel offices, as the
telecom giant’s unraveling was picking up momentum. Shortly after
beginning work in Holmdel she was offered a buy-out package she
couldn’t refuse. “I was one of the lucky ones,” she says. The company
added five years to her age and to her service, and, well before her
50th birthday, she became a retiree.
“I was much more fortunate than others,” she says, clearly empathetic
with the suffering of co-workers who were turned loose into a terrible
economy without much of a safety net. She landed well, but still, it
was not what she expected. “In 1979, when you signed on with AT&T, you
were being hired into a career for a lifetime,” she says. “You felt it
really was your company.”
Her tether cut, she started her business, which is based in East
Brunswick and is called WebArtNTech (www.webartntech.com). The company
has two specialties. One is consulting to businesses of all sizes on
E-business analysis, site architecture, front end systems, and many
other web-enabled functions. The other is the design, marketing, and
maintenance of websites for small businesses. Her clients are in a
number of industries, including home improvement, pharmaceutical
trials, marketing, technical writing, creative writing, technology
consulting, small manufacturing, clothing design, and the professions.
Each company in each industry is different, and she makes sure that
she understands it before she starts work on a website. But the basic
requirements for a professional, effective website cut across all
industries. They include:
Site design. Whether a business is selling financial advice or patio
furniture, some basics apply. “There is a usability standard,” says
Engels. At a minimum, every website must let users know who you are
and what you do. There has to be a product page – or pages – often
with pictures. There has to be a “contact us” section with full
information, and an “about us” section. “About us” is the company’s
chance to strut its stuff. “This is where you make the viewer
comfortable with who you are and where you differentiate yourself,”
says Engels.
This basic business website will include about four to six pages. The
cost? Engels can create it for $400 to $600. This is perhaps 10
percent of the figure being quoted by professionals five years ago.
She says that if the same site is designed by a full-fledged web
design firm, “which I am not,” the cost would rise to at least $2,500.
This is so, she says, because such a firm, which typically offers
hosting, which she does not, needs to keep a full staff on its
payroll.
Hosting. Obtaining a domain name and web hosting can often be done
through the same firm. Engels says “there are thousands of them.” The
cost for that basic, four to six page site would be about $120. “Four
or five years back it was at least $4,000 or $5,000,” she says.
Installation and testing. This is a step many small business people do
not know about, and therefore do not factor into their costs. But, one
way or another, it has to be reckoned with. What often happens to
neophytes, says Engels, is that they have a site designed, and expect
that it will automatically put itself onto the Internet. When that
proves not to be the case, many ask the website designer to put it up.
“It ends up costing an exorbitant amount,” says Engels. This is so, in
her view, because many designers do not have the technical ability to
do the job quickly and efficiently. An alternative for the business
owner is the do-it-yourself route. While not impossible, this can be a
mightily frustrating process. People think that getting a website from
a computer to the Internet should be a snap, but it rarely is. “There
are bugs,” says Engels. “There are always bugs.”
A person with technical expertise can get the job done for that basic
four to six page website in two to three hours at a rate of $50 an
hour. A more complicated website, at say 20 pages and including a
shopping cart, can take more like eight hours over a period of two
days.
Maintenance and marketing. Marketing a website involves terra firma as
well as cyberspace. To succeed in the former sphere, business owners
have to make sure that the logos, tag lines, colors, and designs that
they use on their stationery, trucks, storefronts, and brochures are
replicated on their website. Success in the more ethereal space
involves making sure that the website is picked up by search engines.
The latter concern, however, should not be overdone.
“If your customers are in New Jersey, putting marketing money into
coming up in the first 10 search engine results is a waste of money,”
says Engels. You need to be on the search engines, but you don’t need
every web surfer in New Orleans and New Delhi clicking on you.
As for maintenance, Engels says that websites need to be updated three
to four times a year. While new information is being added, the site
should also be evaluated. Where are visitors coming from? Which search
engine sent them over? What keywords did they use? When Engels
performs maintenance, for a cost of about $400, she checks all of this
out, and makes adjustments accordingly.
Small business owners can do this themselves, but she finds that most
are too busy to do so.
Comparison shopping is the number one activity on the Internet, says
Engels. Any business that wants a shot at all of those surfers’
dollars needs to be there. With prices way down, there is little
excuse for parking a company on the shore.
Top Of PageSurveys in the Spotlight
The New Jersey Chapter of the American Association for Public Opinion
Research presents noted survey expert Roger Tourangeau on Thursday,
March 25, at 5:30 p.m. at the Woodrow Wilson School in an event
sponsored by Mathematica Policy Research. Cost: $10. Call 609-750-4049
for more information.
Tourangeau, a senior research scientist at the University of Michigan
and director of the Joint Program in Survey Methodology at the
University of Maryland, speaks on “Everyday Concepts and Reporting
Errors in Surveys.”
Tourangeau earned a Ph.D. in psychology from Yale University and is
the lead author of the Psychology of Survey Response, a classic
reference in the survey field that examines the processes through
which respondents answer questions. Drawing on cognitive psychology,
social psychology, and survey methodology, the book examines the
psychological roots of survey data, how survey responses are
formulated, and how seemingly unimportant features of a survey can
affect the answers obtained.
During the upcoming talk, Tourangeau is expected to describe sources
of comprehension problems in surveys, including problems stemming from
the form of a question, its meaning, and its intended use. He also
will present new findings that trace reporting problems to poor
alignment between the everyday meaning of concepts and their use in
survey questions.
The New Jersey Chapter of the American Association for Public Opinion
Research is made up of individuals who share an interest in public
opinion and survey research and are dedicated to advancing the field’s
theory and methodology. Members work in a wide variety of settings,
including academic institutions, commercial firms, government agencies
and nonprofit groups, as both producers and users of survey data.
Election polling, collecting statistical data, conducting market
research, and improving methods for surveying individuals and
institutions are just a few of the diverse research interests of its
members.
SAVE, the Princeton animal rescue organization, has been presented
with an unusual opportunity to save the lives of hundreds of unwanted
animals.
An anonymous donor has pledged to match donations of $10,000 and more
up to an aggregate total of $1 million. The money will go to build a
new, larger shelter.
The donor is a SAVE volunteer who was moved by the plight of the
shelters’ dogs, who are housed in the center of the building away from
windows and skylights.
The shelter, located at 900 Herrontown Road, is one of just seven
no-kill shelters in the state. Demand for its services far outstrips
its ability to take in animals. It is now turning away 15 to 18
animals a day, a number of whom will be put to death by other
shelters.
In 2003, SAVE rescued more than 1,100 animals. The new facility will
enable it to shelter up to 300 animals at a time, bringing the total
number of animals rescued each year to about 3,200.
The new shelter will feature increased space for animal rehabilitation
and training, community programs, humane education, viewing, bonding,
and adoption.
Businesses are urged to take advantage of the matching funds to make a
difference for unwanted animals. To help out, or to learn more about
SAVE’s capital campaign, call 609-921-6122, ext. 206.
Children’s Futures, a Trenton-based organization funded by the Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation, and working with the New Jersey Press
Association, and the Journalism Resources Institute at Rutgers
University has launched an innovative health/journalism program.
The effort is designed to provide all Trenton infants and young
children with maximum health care in the crucial, early childhood
development years, while at the same time providing Trenton high
school students with training in journalism.
A team of Trenton Central High School students and other youth from
the community participated in a day-long workshop entitled “Many
Community Voices: Telling the Story of Childhood Development, Health,
and Survival Through Young People.”
The participating teenagers will develop ideas and future student
pilot projects on how the issues related to young people, their
families, friends, and schoolmates can be better reported through both
the professional news media and student news media. The Trenton
students have access to their own press, photography, cable
television, and radio outlets.
Long range, the young people will be asked to work with their teachers
and with news media representatives on news and information child
development projects.
Roma Bank has installed automated external defibrillators at all of
its branches, an initiative made possible with the assistance of the
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Hamilton, which provided
training for select Roma Bank personnel.
Each year, an estimated 430,000 Americans die of heart disease in an
emergency room or before reaching a hospital. According to research
reported by the American Heart Association, the new availability of
AEDs in public places can double the odds that cardiac arrest victims
will survive.
Top Of PageYWCA Honors Outstanding Women
The YWCA has honored 13 women at its annual Tribute to Women awards
dinner. They represent academia, medicine, engineering, and the arts.
All have risen to the top of their professionals, while at the same
time making substantial contributions to the community.
This year’s honorees are Patty Burch Byers, Thomas Edison State
College; Yvette Donado, Educational Testing Service; Dr. Rachel Dultz,
Princeton Surgical Associates; Patricia D. Galloway, the
Nielsen-Wurster Group, Inc.; Helene M. Garcia, Merrill Lynch; Amy
Gutmann, Princeton University; Donna M. Huryn, Wyeth Research;
Patricia J. Krantz and Lynn E. McClannahan, Princeton Child
Development Institute; Yuki Moore Laurenti, U.S. Trust Company of New
York; Melinda Parisi, Princeton HealthCare System; Cynthia Westbrook,
Princeton Pro Musica; Susan N. Wilson, the Network for Family Life
Education Rutgers University; and Lois Young, ABC Literacy Resources,
ABC Prison Literacy Program.
Top Of PageScholarships Available
Raritan Valley College in North Branch and Delaware Valley College
have signed an agreement that will provide scholarship opportunities
for RVCC students who transfer to the Doylestown, Pennsylvania-based
college.
Under the agreement, RVCC graduates who transfer to Delaware Valley
will be eligible for academic scholarships. Full-time DVC students
with a 2.50 to 2.99 RVCC GPA will receive a minimum of $6,000; those
with a 3.00 to 3.49 GPA will receive a minimum of $7,500; and those
with a 3.50 to 4.0 GPA will receive a minimum of $8,500. All
scholarships will be renewed each year if the student remains in good
academic standing.
The New Jersey Association of Realtors Educational Foundation is
seeking applicants for 21 scholarships totaling $29,500. Scholarships
are open to members of the New Jersey Association of Realtors or to
their relatives.
Scholarships are awarded to high school seniors who will be attending
an undergraduate four-year institution in 2004, students currently
enrolled in undergraduate four-year institutions, and students
pursuing graduate studies.
In 2003, the organization reviewed 90 applications and awarded 20
scholarships totaling $27,750.
Scholarship applications are evaluated on academic achievement,
financial need, sincerity of purpose in real estate endeavors,
contribution to family, school, and community. Applications are
available at www.njar.com. The deadline for applications is Friday,
April 23.
Applications are now available to law school students who wish to be
considered for scholarships awarded annually by the Mercer County Bar
Foundation. Since the early 1960s, the MCBF has awarded scholarships
to Mercer County residents to help them in their academic pursuits in
an accredited law school.
The Foundation’s Scholarship is given to students who show financial
need and are involved in community organizations.
To be considered for an award, applications must be completed and
returned by Friday, April 30. For more information or for an
application, call the Mercer County Bar Foundation at 609-585-6200.
Top Of PageNew Online Master’s Degree Program
The Graduate School at Thomas Edison State College has launched a new
online master’s degree program.
Approved on Monday, February 23, by the New Jersey Commission on
Higher Education, course work for the new master of science in human
resources management degree begins in April of this year.
The online degree program was developed in consultation with members
of the Society of Human Resources Management. The program is an online
distance learning program, delivered via the Internet. Students are
expected to come to Trenton for two weekend residencies. The degree
program requires 21 semester hours of core courses, 12 semester hours
of elective courses, and a three-hour Capstone Project.
For more information, call 888-442-8272 or visit www.tesc.edu.
Laura Hyatt of Lawrenceville, an assistant professor of biology at
Rider University, is the recipient of a three-year, $120,434 grant
from the National Science Foundation to study the garlic mustard
plant, an exotic and invasive species that is a pervasive problem in
northeastern forests.
The plant monopolizes the forest floor and changes soil biochemistry
and is known to limit bio-diversity of plants and soil. The project is
designed to reveal how water, nutrient, and light availability
influence the growth rate of garlic mustard populations.
Hyatt and her students will examine more than 40 populations of garlic
mustard growing in different environments in Mercer County. They will
construct a model revealing how water, nutrient, and light influence
seed production, germination, and plant survival, and therefore, the
net population growth.
Research sites include Rosedale Park, Washington Crossing Park, the
Princeton Battlefield, Stony Brook Millstone Watershed, Van Nest Park,
Carson Road, and sites on the Rider campus.
The trustees of the Mercer Foundation Fund, through the Community
Foundations of New Jersey have awarded grants totally $59,000 to a
number of organizations, including Alzheimer’s Association, HomeFront,
Literacy Volunteers of Mercer County, Neighborhood Leadership
Initiative, Partnerships in Philanthropy, Passage Theater Company,
People and Stories/Gente y Cuentos, Rider University, Trenton
Community Music School, and Trenton Dance Institute.
Corrections or additions?
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