ASIA YOUNG
Staff Writer

This semester’s Politics on the PublicMind events, sponsored by the College at Florham Library and the PublicMind Poll, is covering “Law and Society.” The topic directly correlates with a Spring 2010 course taught by Bruce Peabody, chair of the Department of Social Sciences.
Peabody elaborated on the importance of this season’s theme: “Law is everywhere - it shapes everything from how they serve food at FDU’s cafeteria to whether your parents can know your grades to what constitutes sexual harassment in the classroom or the dorms. And yet, despite the ubiquity and importance of law, many students and citizens don’t know a lot about it. So the class is intended to shine a spotlight on law’s importance and meaning throughout our lives.”
Every Monday from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. until Apr. 19, a guest speaker will discuss “law in theory and practice in the context of important contemporary issues and controversies,” according to Peabody.
Each week after, the featured expert will offer professional and original insight on pressing topics for the audience to participate in and debate. These influential speakers are scholars, judges, prosecutors and attorneys. The showcase includes many FDU professors.
The series kicked off Feb. 8 in the Orangérie, featuring FDU’s David Rosen, professor of anthropology and sociology, who discussed “Child Soldiers and International Laws.”
According to Eleanor Friedl, curator and reference librarian, Rosen reviewed children as young as eight joining war throughout world history. Friedl said Rosen spoke about how Americans tend to be shocked by this truth because their society has a distinctive view of childhood.
Friedl recalled that Rosen said Americans today view children and youth as victims of war who are exploited by adults.
The following week, Roger Koppl, director of the Institute for Forensic Science Administration, examined “Forensic Science and Criminal Law.” Koppl’s presentation featured a slideshow titled, “That’s Not How It Works on T.V.,” which observed the errors in forensic science and the repercussions wrongly accused victims face. According to Koppl, these inaccuracies roughly contribute to over 33,000 false felony convictions per year. He pointed out unfortunate circumstances such as that of Josiah Sutton, who spent nearly four and a half years in prison after he was charged and convicted of rape, as a result of botched DNA testing from a crime laboratory. Koppl produced a picture of the laboratory, which showed a leaking gap over what should have been a sterile lab environment.
Another famous case mentioned was that of Brandon Mayfield and the 2004 Madrid train bombing. Rosen said the FBI initially made a “100 percent match” to Mayfield from fingerprints found at the scene. The FBI later had to retract its statement and apologize.
Koppl believes there are three main reasons for forensic flaw: forensic science is subjective, crime labs are part of “law enforcement” agencies, and crime labs have a twofold monopoly. He proposed some solutions, particularly random, independent, and multiple examinations, to avoid damaging miscalculations, such as “sequential masking,” which is allowing forensic examiners to know information in advance about the case or person in question, potentially leading them to form biases about the results.
Koppl also shared a saying he likes to use: “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link; a net may be stronger than any of its knots.” Overall, he believes television shows, such as “CSI,” hinder his efforts. “These shows [display] forensic scientists as the infallible wizard, so it’s frustrating,” said Koppl.
Peabody said Koppl’s solution is “a marvelously creative, ‘common sense’ set of checks and balances that keep forensic examiners accountable and practicing good science.” Towards the end of his lecture, Koppl said, “Humans need truth like they need water,” which could be the fuel for his cause.
The first two weeks of the series were well-received by students, faculty and members of nearby communities. According to Colleen DiGregorio, public relations and marketing coordinator for the University’s library, more than 100 people attended Rosen’s lecture and about 90 attended Koppl’s. Peabody said these events are good opportunities for the FDU community to interact and learn from one another. “I think our students like hearing from outside speakers, especially those who bring different academic and professional perspectives and expertise to our discussions,” he said.
Peabody’s students are required to attend, and he believes it is essential for students of any major to participate because it can be relevant to any academic discipline. He also said that the sessions could help students make professional connections and develop ideas about their career path.
“One of the most irritating depictions of the academy is its portrayal as an ‘ivory tower’ isolated from the concerns of the real world,” Peabody said. “The Politics on the PublicMind series is a great reminder that this is utter hogwash. Our speakers have taught us about current public policy, human rights abuses, how to protect the wrongly accused from unfair incarceration and death, and the state of crime in New Jersey.”

MELANIE ANZEDEI
Staff Writer

Fairleigh Dickinson University recently welcomed the state party chairmen for an “Election Autopsy” on the recent New Jersey State gubernatorial race, which resulted in an outcome that shocked voters throughout the state and nation.
Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, the Democratic Party chair, and Assemblyman Jay Webber, the Republican Party chair, were both very open to the various questions that the audience, which was a mix of Fairleigh Dickinson’s student body, faculty, and staff, had in store.
Current New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine’s failed attempt at re-election left the Democrats empty handed as the position of governor was handed over to former U.S. attorney, Chris Christie. The Democrats’ loss not only questioned whether they deserted their nominee, but also whether the New Jersey voter had abandoned President Barack Obama.
The Democrats, according to Cryan, had difficulties moving forward between regional and ideological differences among the party. These differences created a weak campaign but “didn’t cost the election.” Cryan explained that the re-election was lost not because of a desertion, but because the Republicans simply ran a better campaign.
“They beat us… that’s it,” said Cryan.
Webber also felt that the Republicans ran a well-organized campaign that appealed to New Jersey voters. He credited the victory on having a good nominee.
“The flip-side of that coin is that we had a strong ticket,” he said, referring to Christie.
Republicans were able to stay on the “right side of the issues,” said Webber. He reminded the audience that this election resulted in the “second largest Republican victory in a long time.”
The New Jersey voter, according to Cryan, has changed in recent years. He explained that the state is currently in a “conservative awakening,” which affected the Democratic campaign strongly and negatively.
“We were talking about pre-school; they were talking about property taxes,” he said. “We knew about the problems; we didn’t wake up on the wrong side of the bed every day.” The Democrats simply took a different approach towards those problems.
This change also questioned the New Jersey voter’s support of current Obama, a Democrat who won with a sweeping victory. But his popularity did little to nothing in terms of helping Corzine win re-election.
Obama had campaigned alongside Corzine on a few occasions, one of which was a rally held at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Metropolitan campus in Teaneck. The Democrats hoped that this sold-out event would better the chances for Corzine in Bergen County.
Surprisingly, Obama’s support for Corzine did not change the minds of New Jersey voters and the governor’s seat was still handed over to Republicans.
When Cryan was asked if he felt this election reflected what will happen in the 2012 presidential election, he without hesitation answered, “NO.”
Both Webber and Cryan agreed that this gubernatorial election was more a referendum on Corzine than a referendum on Obama, even though Obama couldn’t change the minds of the voters.
The Republicans held a campaign that would have been a “winning formula for any candidate,” said Webber.
The event was organized by Politics on the PublicMind, which is directed by Peter Woolley, a professor of political science at Fairleigh Dickinson University. The event took place at the Orangerie, located in the school’s library.

MARISSA HYMAN
Staff Writer

With the gubernatorial race fast approaching, PublicMind took the opportunity to plan two events on topics constantly debated by the candidates: education and health care.
On Oct. 22, Frank Esposito, an Independent candidate for lieutenant governor of New Jersey, discussed “Education Reform: K-12 and Higher Education.”  The central point that Esposito focused on was the lack of state funding for higher education.  He said that part of the reason for this lack of funding is because of New Jersey’s financial instability.  
“New Jersey is facing an $8 million deficit this year,” Esposito said. “In order to try and have people stay in New Jersey, the property tax has to change.”
He believes that the state’s budget needs to be better distributed, in order for more funding to go towards better quality resources for New Jersey public schools. Esposito and others have already been working on trying to rectify the funding situation. 
Esposito was acting dean at Kean’s School of Education, leading 102 faculty members and 4,000 students. He and others developed new programs in education and technology, and reorganized the university from eight to six departments.
In addition, Esposito contributed solutions to statewide math/science teacher shortages, and helped develop an alternate route for teacher certification in the state of New Jersey.
A week earlier, PublicMind had planned to welcome Loretta Weinberg, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor. Weinberg was scheduled to speak on the topic, “Women’s Healthcare Issues.” However, she was unable to attend, due to a campaign rally. PublicMind was able to find a quick replacement, Passaic County Sheriff Jerry Speziale.
Despite not being a health care expert, Speziale was able to give his take on the issue. “My wife is at stage four of breast cancer, so she and I have health care constantly on our minds,” he said. “We support Corzine because of his support of law enforcement, and of what he wants to do for women’s health care.”
Speziale then talked about his area of specialty, which is being an undercover officer. After he was shot in 1986, he was asked the question, “What do you want to do with your career?”  Speziale answered that he wanted to be an undercover officer for narcotics.  He called his shooting incident “the miracle wound,” because it opened the doors to a whole new chapter of his life.
Speziale became one of the youngest recruits for the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) task force on drugs, and helped to uncover the most notorious of Columbian kingpins. At the time, the New York City police department did not have a formal training program on how to be an undercover cop. Speziale was told by the department to do what he felt was necessary to do, in order to unravel the Columbian cartel.
While becoming close with Paul Alexander, a sophisticated confidential informant who had once been blacklisted by the DEA, Speziale became well-known under the assumed name Geraldo Bartone. He did things he never thought he would ever do. As Geraldo Bartone, Speziale learned how to pilot planes, build landing strips, skipper Cali-owned yachts that were filled with cocaine, and meet the most powerful kingpins in the drug trade business. During his ten years as an undercover officer, Speziale and other officers have apprehended dozens of high-level dealers and confiscated 22,000 pounds of cocaine.
After his lecture, Speziale stayed behind to autograph his book, “Without A Badge,” which goes into more detail about his life as an undercover officer. Students and faculty were stunned after hearing about Speziale’s time undercover in the Columbian cartel.  
Fred Wied, a political science major, was at first disappointed Weinberg could not attend. Despite her absence, Wied thought Speziale was very enlightening. “Having had a loved one deal with a drug addiction, I could relate to what he [Speziale] was saying,” Wied said. “Being a last-minute replacement, I really think that he was a fantastic speaker.”
Graduate student Heather Suboleski, who is involved with PublicMind, believes the events were a success. “‘Politics on the PublicMind’ provides FDU students, faculty, and staff with the opportunity to hear notable figures from the political world speak on today’s salient issues, which include education, crime prevention, and the New Jersey governor’s race,” she said. “In the quaint setting of the library’s Orangerie, the audience can ask questions and even meet these influential characters. Thus, it provides the FDU community with a forum to respond to what these political figures have to say and get some real answers.”
The final October event for PublicMind took place on Monday, with an appearance by Sheriff Kim Guadagno, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of New Jersey. Her topic of discussion was slated to be “A Brighter Future for All of New Jersey.” Due to publication deadlines, The Metro was unable to cover this event.

The last Politics on the PublicMind seminar was a final recap of the results of the most recent presidential election. With the assistance of Tricia Mueller, Director of the “Obama for President” campaign in New Jersey, and Rick Mroz, the New Jersey State Campaign Coordinator for McCain and Palin, the results were analyzed for their historical significance and impact on the future of this country. As always, the seminar was held in the Orangerie and was hosted by a prominent member of FDU’s own political science department, Bruce Peabody.

Both Mueller and Mroz hold significant experience in the field of politics. Both have first hand knowledge of the causes and effects for particular results of the election. By sharing their first hand knowledge with the FDU population, students, faculty and staff were given an opportunity to see how particular decisions made by both candidates and their committees affected the turnout the election.
Mroz and Mueller both focused on the comparison between the 2000 Presidential Election and the most recent election. Mroz focused on how in no other country in the world the government could have such a dramatic switch in power as the United States has just had. He focused on the extraordinary length of this campaign, which began for the McCain committee right after the 2004 election. He described how the results of this election were entirely up in the air, and not one person had any idea what the results of the election would be. Specifically focusing on McCain, Mroz stated that McCain had told him that “if I lose this election because I told people what I think, then so be it.” According to Mroz, McCain did not want the election to be controlled by the press and the falsities they have a habit of printing every election. He emphasized that McCain had realized that he had made some key errors, such as the speech in Philadelphia about the race issue that was so scrutinized during this election.

Mueller focused more on the campaigning aspect of this election, in which she focused on the tactics used by the Obama committee to ensure more voter turnout. She emphasized that in her campaigning throughout New Jersey the focus was more on a union movement and a more community based way of encouraging people to go out and vote. She was proud to state that the Obama campaign had been completely funded by small dollars and the people, which allowed the people to have a greater sense of ownership and activism within the campaign itself. Mueller felt that Obama had done an excellent job of staying on the message he initially stated, and he had a great sense of discipline when it came to campaigning tactics.

Her last emphasis was on the influence of new media on this election, which was the first election to really take advantage of the Internet and blogs. Mueller stated that she felt that the Internet had given the Obama campaign a clear advantage over the McCain committee, since statistically young voters tend to be more Democratic. Obama had especially emphasized his application on Facebook and the iPhone, in which people were given the ability to technologically interact with the candidate and his campaign committee.

MARIA DISPENZIERE
STAFF WRITER

Once again, FDU’s Politics on the PublicMind series succeeded in bringing the students, staff, and community members’ attention to a controversial subject. The discussion took place on Friday, Oct. 24 and was lead by WNYC Radio’s Bob Hennelly and PolitickerNJ.com’s Debbie Borrie-Holtz.

Hennelly, an award-winning investigative journalist, has been featured on top television news programs such as “60 Minutes” and in newspapers such as The New York Times and The Miami Herald. As a political consultant and analyst, Hennelly has followed the development of the present presidential campaign as affected by the media.

Borrie-Holtz, a regular blogger on PolitickerNJ.com, is considered a top Internet media critic. She has worked closely with the chief of staff, the senate majority leader, and has been an assistant to the secretary of state. Borrie-Holtz is now a professor of public policy at Rutgers.

According to the discussion, the modern media forces politicians to cut back on commenting about foreign situations and most media networks refrain from showing any coverage concerning foreign controversies. Hennelly said that the media has been allowed to run rampant, unregulated, and now is uninformative and leaves people ignorant. The media has not given the people the sense of global fluency they should have. “The political process is about leadership. Leadership is the ability to suspend one’s personal interest to benefit the masses,” said Hennelly.

Borrie-Holtz made several underlying connections from what Hennelly said to the present media. She said that although the media cannot tell us what to think, it can do a pretty good job of telling us what we need to think about. She said that the news we all receive through newspapers and television is nothing but information from wire services, such as the Associated Press. Overall, Borrie-Holtz’s main point is that the American people have a shrinking attention span for what they see on television, and the media has done a great job of playing into this.

What PublicMind, Hennelly and Borrie-Holtz succeeded in doing through this seminar is exemplifying what the media has done to us as an audience. The media has grasped the ability to show us only what they believe to be news worthy stories, whether they are or not. News has become less about domestic and foreign issues and more about the personal aspects of government officials.

Borrie-Holtz said that because of the public’s short attention span for news, the media has resorted to showing audiences only what it feels the audience needs to see. The media has been completely changed by the modern presidential campaigns, and only time will be able to tell how the media plays out in the present presidential campaign.

MARIA DISPENZIERE
Staff Writer

In the 2008 campaign, the number of youth voters has grown substantially because of the desire for change and the candidates who are calling for it. For the youth turnout, this campaign has been quite an exciting year.

FDU’s independent research center, PublicMind, has attempted to recognize this growing interest by adding to its existing research. Along with adding a series of different “hot candidates in New Jersey,” PublicMind has put out new polls and surveys specifically about the 2008 campaign, said graduate assistant Emilio Javier.

Since 2001, FDU’s PublicMind polls have measured “public opinion about candidates, public issues, consumer questions, economic behavior, and other societal attitudes,” said Peter Woolley, executive director of PublicMind.

PublicMind samples the public opinion in New Jersey statewide and conducts between 600 and 1,200 interviews, depending on the study, according to Woolley.

As a research vehicle, PublicMind “offers the complete range of research services to government, non-profit, and private-sector clients, from customized, large-scale studies to just a few survey questions, to consultation,” according to the PublicMind Web site. Its mission is clear: to advance public discourse by publicizing interesting and controversial data and analyses.

Along with research services, PublicMind offers omnibus surveys, where a person can provide his or her questions and the center will add them to its regular surveys. The omnibus question rates are $500 for each prewritten closed-end question, $750 for each closed-end question written for the customer and $350 setup fee for fewer than four questions, according to PublicMind’s Web site.
Some of the previous surveys that PublicMind has conducted are: presidential, New Jersey gubernatorial, Senate, state legislative races, homeland security, terrorism, SARS, disaster preparedness and New Jersey’s state budget, according to the Web site.

PublicMind had hosted lectures at FDU before, but started its breakfast seminar series, “Politics on the PublicMind,” in September 2007, when Javier got on board.

“We thought about doing a series for a while, but never got around to it until September,” Javier said.

KAYLA HASTRUP
News Editor

The ongoing presidential campaign has made for “a very interesting year,” according to Karen J. Kominsky, New Jersey’s political director for the Hillary Clinton campaign. Kominsky came to FDU on March 7 as part of the PublicMind breakfast seminar series, “Politics on the PublicMind.”

Kominsky, who made her mark on the New Jersey government by serving the public interest from positions in both public and private sectors, led a discussion entitled, “Agony and Ecstasy of the New Early Primary Schedule,” according to graduate assistant of PublicMind, Emilio Javier.
Kominsky and the Clinton team started preparing for New Jersey’s early February primary in September 2007, but the presidential campaign didn’t truly hit the state until about mid-January, according to Kominsky.

At the start, “a lot of the team was worried about the snow in February and how it would affect the voting outcome,” said Kominsky. “It turned out we had great weather, and a great turnout.”
Kominsky thinks the great turnout was a result of people’s sincere interest in who is going to be president.

“We knew we had extreme supporters. People who felt Clinton was the best candidate were putting ‘Vote Clinton’ on their business cards, and were making their own buttons,” Kominsky said.
Even though the supporters were strong, the team was still worried about the primary. In order to get the New Jersey votes the Clinton campaign needed, “we took whatever we should do, but New Jerseyized it,” said Kominsky.

The team had call centers throughout the state to help recognize voters’ interests and demands.
Kominsky’s discussion led the third of the breakfast series sponsored by PublicMind, FDU’s independent research center, which started last September. “We wanted to kick off with a series that related to the primaries in February,” Javier said.

The Sept. 7 kick-off featured their first speaker of the semester with Mark Campbell, national political director for Rudy Giuliani’s campaign. The second discussion was lead by Mark Alexander, New Jersey political director for the Barack Obama campaign. The reason for PublicMind’s choice in speakers is “because when Giuliani’s campaign started, it was big in New Jersey, and Clinton and Obama are equally big in New Jersey,” according to Javier.

Peter Woolley, executive director of PublicMind, is able to get the right speakers through PublicMind’s political research.
“We are able to meet the speakers because often they are people who use or criticize our own data,” said Woolley. “They also want the opportunity to meet students.”

On average, only 10 to 12 students have been attending the breakfast seminar series. The rest of the audience includes alumni, faculty and staff, according to Javier. At the Kominsky event, there were approximately seven students and 25 guests.
Kristin Fulton, one of the seven FDU students in attendance, did not mind waking up for the 7:45 a.m. discussion.

“I came because I have an interest in politics. Also, I came to the Mark Alexander discussion, so I wanted to see this one too,” Fulton said.
Sabrina Noel, a FDU student present at the event, agreed with Fulton.
“Besides an interest in politics, I came because it looks good to show up to FDU events like this,” Noel said.

Like the Kominsky event, most of the series have been held early in the morning. The seminars are held early because the professional world, which is PublicMind’s main audience, generally starts earlier than the average college student, according to Woolley. Javier has been trying to reach out to more students.

“We started the seminars on Mondays, but decided to switch to Fridays in hopes that more students would attend,” said Javier. Alexander’s discussion was a popular event. “Obama is very popular among college students,” said Woolley.

All of the PublicMind series are cosponsored by FDU’s library. In order for the library’s Orangerie room (where all events have been held) to be equipped for the speakers, many preparations are needed, according to Colleen DiGregorio, P.R. events coordinator for the library.

“We invite a large amount of people through mail, email, and Web sites,” DiGregorio said. “We also must gather headcount for the seating and breakfast and audio/visual equipment for the speakers.”
DiGregorio would like to have larger turnouts for the future.

“At the Mark Alexander event we had about 40 people. We are hoping for more at other seminars and future library events,” DiGregorio said.

On Friday, March 28, “Politics on the PublicMind” will host a discussion led by the U.S. attorney for the state of New Jersey, Chris Christie.

KAYLA HASTRUP
News Editor