July - December 2005
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Chicago Tribune
Road Trips - Don't let work commute become a beastly journey
By Lisa Radke
November 27, 2005
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This article also appeared in more than 50 newspapers across the country on the same day to include the Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, Newsday and Miami Herald.)
Everyone has one. While some are shorter than others, it's a daily encounter we all have to face -- some readily, some not so much. The daily commute is possibly the one bond everyday workers share with presidents and CEOs alike. But while gas prices continue to rise and property values steadily increase, when is it appropriate to move closer to your job or endure a lengthy commute?
"A household's choice of a place to live is based on many factors including housing prices, the availability and quality of community amenities, such as schools, shopping, crime rate, the list goes on," explains Dr. Herbert Gishlick, professor of economics at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J. "Included in this set of variables would be both the explicit costs of commuting, which would include the gasoline costs or the fares on mass transit in those places where it is an option. Also included would be the opportunity costs of longer travel times that arise because of distance and/or congestion."
Gishlick adds that in two-salary households, the location of their home is likely a compromised locale.
The Wall Street Journal
Big Mother is Watching
By Kevin J. Delaney
November 26, 2005
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This story also appeared in the Asian edition of The Wall Street Journal and other newspapers in the United States.).jpg)
[As more teens confide secrets to Internet blogs, parents have started spying. They aim to protect their kids and try to figure them out. But some fight back.]. . .
. . .John Suler, a psychologist at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J., compares teens' willingness to bare secrets in blogs accessible to anyone -- including parents -- to an older phenomenon he's noticed: how children and their friends have frank conversations in the backseat when he drives them around in the car. "They know you're listening, but it's almost as if you're not there."
Craftrends
Inflation & Your Retirement, Why You Can't Ingnore It
By William J. Lynott
January 2006
The start of a new year is an excellent time for you to take a close look at your financial future and what today's volatile economy may hold for your retirement years.
In that regard -- except for the painful recent spike in gasoline prices -- chances are you haven't been giving much thought to inflation lately. . .
. . .In truth, whether your retirement is a long way off or just around the corner, inflation is destined to exert a major influence on your future economic well-being. Ignore at your own peril . . .
. . .Maury Randall, professor of finance and department chair at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J., agrees every retirement portfolio should contain some stocks as a hedge against inflation. "Another method of protecting yourself is investment in inflation indexed Treasury securities (TIPS). These Treasury bonds provide a return based on the current rate of inflation,: he says. "So, when inflation rises, you'll get a higher interest rate."
Los Angeles Times
Humbling GOP Defeats Don't Bode Well for Midterm Races
By Ronald Brownstein
November 10, 2005
WASHINGTON -- For Republicans across the nation, the best news in Tuesday's election may have been that more was not at stake.
With President Bush facing his lowest job approval ratings and polls showing widespread dissatisfaction over the country's direction, the GOP suffered a series of bruising blows -- from decisive losses in the New Jersey and Virginia governor's races to the clean-sweep rejection of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ballot initiatives and even the resounding defeat of Randy Kelly, a Democratic mayor in St. Paul, Miin, who was hurt politically because he campaigned last year for the president. . .
. . . The voting patterns in New Jersey were similar to those in Virginia. Like Kilgore, Forrester suffered from "a weak performance by the Republican base and very limited traction with swing voters," said David P. Rebovich, chairman of the political science department at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J. The number were especially bleak for Forrester in large surburban counties such as Bergen, Middlesex and Mercer that are similar to northern Virginia.
Psychology Today
The Sims: Suburban Rhapsody
By Clive Thompson
November 7, 2005
Lisa Anne Craig knew she was in trouble when the social worker knocked on the door.
Halfway through her first pregnancy, Craig decided to take a high-tech approach to parenthood. She bought a copy of The Sims, the hugely popular computer game that lets you create and direct a household and a family . ... At first glance, The Sims is an unlikely hit . . .
. . .Some psychologists say their patients actually discuss their Sims games on the counch, an updated version of the classic therapeutic technique of playing with dolls. "When The Sims works well, it's kind of like a projective test. You can really see a lot of their psyche spilling out into their games, " says John Suler, ap psychology professor at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J. who specializes in cyberculture. "I spoke to one teenager who created a version of herself and her boyfriend. Then she created another version of herself -- an evil version -- to try to steal her boyfriend. She wanted to see what it's like to be evil."
NJ BIZ
Colleges Rush to Help Entrepreneurs
By Martin C. Daks
October 10, 2005
There has been an explosion in demand for courses that teach the "how to" of being an entrepreneur, say administrators and professors at colleges across the state. And the schools, recognizing the layoff-prone companies are generating a steady stream of potential students, have been creating programs to accommodate that demand . . .
. . . At Rider University in Lawrenceville, students can enroll in an entrepreneurial studies program and take courses that cover subjects like family business management, entrepreneurial finance and small business taxation.
"Many of our students come from families that already have a business, while others want to establish their own enterprise," says Ron Cook, a professor of management and human resources who also serves on the board of directors of the Small Business Institute. "Most companies in the U.S. already have less than 100 employees, and advances like the Internet, which can make location irrelevant when it comes to doing business, appear to favor the continued creation of small enterprises."
The Princeton Packet
Halloween fantasies - The costumes people choose to wear can reveal a lot about them
By Hilary Parker
October 28, 2005.jpg)
Good for a few laughs, sure, or maybe a couple of "boos" -- but is there any truth to the idea that the Halloween costumes we choose say something about who we are? Exactly what message, if any, are we sending when we choose to wear that French maid/sumo wrestler/peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich coustume to the office Halloween party?
"Unless you spin around 10 times and reach out and grab something, it's impossible to pick a costume that isn't in some way reflecting your personality," said Dr. John Richard Suler, professor of psychology at Rider University in Lawrence.
For the past two decades, Dr. Suler has done a Halloween costume activity with his psychology classes in which students discuss costumes they've worn in the past and select costumes for other students. This helps students to understand how people perceive themselves, and each other.
"It's interesting the kinds of costumes people pick," Dr. Suler said. "Sometimes it reflects a wish -- the way they would like to be, but aren't."
Houston Chronicle (Houston, TX)
Comedy onstage in college's new venue
October 20, 2005
"Words Between," an absurdist comedy about the oppression of grammar and religion, will be the first production in Montgomery College's new Performing Arts Lab.
Performance dates are 8 p.m. Oct. 27-29 and 2 p.m. Oct. 30. Admission to all performances is free.
Words Between is a drama about "her story" written by author Rebecca Basham, assistant professor of English at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J. Stephen Blaschke will be directing his first play as an adjunct instructor at Montgomery College.
New York Times
Corruption? Voters Say They Know It When They See it
By Jeffrey Gettleman
October 17, 2005
The 2005 election for governor in New Jersey was supposed to be about cleaning house. . .
. . .But polls and interviews show that the meaning of corruption is deeply personal and multitextured -- a kind of Rorschach test of the political mind, And because of that, neither candidate, on this topic, has gained a decisive edge.
. . . For starters, the cynicism across the state is so deep that many people do not believe either man will do much to clean up politics. And voters think that both candidates have their own baggage, leading them to define the candidate they like as pure and reform-minded and his opponent as dirty and corrupt.
. . ."The independents are especially cynical on the corruption issue," said David Rebovich, managing director of the Rider University Institute for New Jersey Politics. "They look objectively at the problem and they think it's a Democrat problem."
Associated Press
Today's Librarians challenging stereotypes
By Jessica M. Pasko
October 2, 2005
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This article has appeared in several newspapers across the country.)
Eris Weaver is a bellydancing librarian.
A librarian for almost 20 years, she got interested in the Middle Eastern dance a decade ago and set up her Web site, The Bellydancing Librarian, soon after. . .
. . .Weaver joins others in the library world who are increasingly challenging perceptions and making activism part of the job.
. . . "There's something inherently progressive in collecting and preserving information of people," said John Buschman, department chair of the Rider University library in New Jersey. He's a member of the Progressive Librarians Guild, which was started in 1990 by a group of librarians concerned about the move toward library alliances with corporate business, which they view as a threat to free and objective dispersion of information.
The Times of Trenton
Wiesenthal devoted life to 6 million who died
By Mark Perkiss
September 21, 2005
Rabbi Stuart Pollack of Har Sinai Temple in Trenton was 10 when he was introduced to Simon Wiesenthal, the renowned Nazi hunter who spent decades pursuing war criminals and who died yesterday at 96.
"I remember being a kid and going with my father to see him speak in New York, Pollack recalled yesterday. . .
. . . Area Jewish leaders and academics yesterday praised Wiesenthal for his dedication in tracking down war criminals and to fighting anti-Semitism and bigotry, with many saying he opened the door to the modern study of the Holocaust.
"To me, Simon Wiesenthal stood for and will always stand as the symbol of justice by bringing to the court of judgment the perpetrators of the Holocaust," said Harvey Kornberg, director of the Julius and Dorothy Koppelman Holocaust-Genocide Resource Center at Rider University.
"His was not a scholarly contribution, but by bringing these people to justice and requiring that what they did be made known enlivened interest in the Holocaust," Kornberg said.
Bucks County Times, Levittown, PA
Hurricane Katrina -- It makes use feel very vulnerable
By Jo Ciavaglia
September 3, 2005
Even here in Bucks County, Katrina is hurting us. . .
. . . (And) for everyone who lives here, too, as they watch the unfolding chaos in New Orleans and other flooded areas along the Gulf of Mexico, local experts said.
The 24/7 media coverage of Katrina's aftermath isn't the only 9/11 similarity for Rider University sociology professor Barry Truchil, a Langhorne resident. "Most of the coverage is of the devastation and the human suffering," he said. "There is always the absence of analytical discussion: They knew this was coming, why didn't they build more levees, or is this a consequence of global warming?"
The Times (Trenton, NJ)
Turner the corner on road repair
By Brian X. McCrone
September 4, 2005
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This article has appeared on the San Jose (CA) Mercury News and Newsday Web sites.)
TRENTON -- It started with an 18-wheeler that crashed on Interstate 295 and barreled into the supports of a bridge in Camden County.
The rush to replace one of the highway's many small, yet invaluable, bridges forced the state Department of Transportation to use newly developed, quicker construction methods. . .
Using the method recently coined as "hyberbuild," more than $600 million and 48 years of construction times will be saved in the first 15 projects alone, including the recently completed three-day replacement of the Route 1 bridge at Olden Avenue. . .
"Increasing productivity hurts labor if there's only so many projects to be done," Rider University professor of economics Herbert Gishlick said. "But I don't know that's the case.
The prospect of quicker finishing dates for projects could mean more projects completed in shorter periods of times, Gishlick said.
New York Times
Not Waiting for Labor Day, Corzine Puts Message on Air
By David Kocieniewski
August 30, 2005
Trenton -- Signaling an early start to the expected fall advertising blitz in this year's New Jersey governor's race between two multimillionaires, United States Senator Jon S. Corzine has begun airing a 60-second commercial on New York and Philadelphia television stations. . .
. . . "If it looks like he's going to spend tens upon tens of millions of dollars, it could come back and hurt him," said David P. Rebovich, a political science professor at Rider University. "People have tried to brand him as someone who buys what he wants, and if the public starts to believe that, it won't help him."
Business Day (South Africa)
Untangling hidden web of information
By Lesley Stones
July 28, 2005
Popular search engines have access to only a fraction of the internet, with much of the best stuff on specialized site.
From an incomprehensibly vast volume of information, statistics, opinions, news reports and company websites, the search engines can instantly produce an answer to your most obscure questions barring a few glitches, of course, when the answer they give isn't quite what you need. That is because these generic search engines trawl a mere fraction of the information that is actually available over the internet, says professors Francine Egger-Sider and Jane Devine. . .
. . .Other reliable tools are those built to cover a wide range of interests, but to focus only on the highest quality information. These are some of the favourite tools of another invisible web specialist, Robert J. Lackie, an associate professor-librarian at Rider University in New Jersey: Librarians Index to the Internet (http://lii.org/). A collection of 16,000 high-quality websites related to current events. It can also lead to invisible web databases by typing in a broad topic such as biology and adding the words and databases.
The Times, Trenton, NJ
Nervous investors put crimp in quarter
By Andrew D. Smith, Business Editor
July 10, 2005
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite gained a respectable 2.9 percent during the year's second quarter, but a tech-heavy group of local stocks did not fare so well. Instead, losers here outnumbered gainers three to two and the local index fell 2.3 percent between April 1 and June 30.
Some companies rose or fell on their individual performances. Others were carried by the currents sweeping through their industries. But analysts agree that nearly all stock prices were heavily influenced by constant news about oil prices, economic activity and interest rates. . .
. . ."The dollar has been rising in value against other major currencies and that can hurt the economy in several ways," said Maury Randall, chairman of the Finance Department at Rider University.
"For one thing, it makes American goods more expensive to consumers abroad, so they buy less of them. It also makes it more expensive to travel to America, so tourism may go down. Finally, for multinational companies that sell a lot of products overseas, the value of the money they get for their product is lower, so when they convert figures back to dollars, it can hurt their profits."
The New York Times
Codey Signs Law to Restore Office of Public Advocate
By Josh Benson
July 13, 2005
TRENTON, July 12 -- Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey signed a law on Tuesday to bring back New Jersey's Department of the Public Advocate, a move he billed as the latest in a series of steps to reform state government before he leaves office at the end of the year.
The office, which was eliminated more than a decade ago by former Gov. Christie Whiteman on the grounds that it was unnecessary and expensive, is supposed to function as a government ombudsman, consumer watchdog and lawyer for the indigent, the elderly and the mentally ill. .
. . . But David P. Rebovich, a professor of political science at Rider University, said Mr. Codey, "has been trying to take what look like positive steps to assuage the concerns of New Jerseyans about the conduct of their politicians and their government.
"Will it eradicate those concerns? No. But people can at least see that he is responding to their demands to do something," he said.
The Times, Trenton, NJ
Nervous investors put crimp in quarter
By Andrew D. Smith, Business Editor
July 10, 2005
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite gained a respectable 2.9 percent during the year's second quarter, but a tech-heavy group of local stocks did not fare so well. Instead, losers here outnumbered gainers three to two and the local index fell 2.3 percent between April 1 and June 30.
Some companies rose or fell on their individual performances. Others were carried by the currents sweeping through their industries. But analysts agree that nearly all stock prices were heavily influenced by constant news about oil prices, economic activity and interest rates. . .
. . ."The dollar has been rising in value against other major currencies and that can hurt the economy in several ways," said Maury Randall, chairman of the Finance Department at Rider University.
"For one thing, it makes American goods more expensive to consumers abroad, so they buy less of them. It also makes it more expensive to travel to America, so tourism may go down. Finally, for multinational companies that sell a lot of products overseas, the value of the money they get for their product is lower, so when they convert figures back to dollars, it can hurt their profits."
