For Immediate Release; with photos on flickr

 

Contact:         Maryjane Briant
                        News and Media Relations Director
                        Galloway, N.J. 08205
                        Maryjane.Briant@stockton.edu
                        (609) 652-4593
                        stockton.edu/media

Galloway, N.J. - The public is invited to the 20th Annual Salute to Stockton speaker series this summer at Shirat Hayam Synagogue in Ventnor, N.J., with presentations on the university’s Atlantic City campus currently being built; the treatment of at-risk youth by the education and justice systems; and a musical program on songs of courage and hope from the times of slavery.

The programs will begin at 7 p.m. during Friday evening Sabbath services, from mid-July to early August, and feature a question-answer session following the presentations held at the synagogue at 700 N. Swarthmore Ave.

The schedule is as follows:    

Friday, July 14:  Dean Janet Wagner, of Stockton’s School of Business, and Brian K. Jackson, Chief Operating Officer of the Atlantic City Campus, will co-present on the university’s academic and residential campus currently under construction in the city’s Chelsea neighborhood. The facility will include retail and dining establishments, with residences for over 530 residential students and more than 1,000 students enrolled in all when it opens in fall 2018.

Dean Wagner, a member of the Shirat Hayam congregation, will discuss the expansion of the Business Studies and Hospitality Management Studies programs and plans for additional community engagement. 

Jackson’s presentation will show the site plans, provide a construction update, and outline the numerous community partnerships and collaborations in which Stockton is involved.  Jackson also will discuss the positive impact that the university’s new campus, including students, faculty and staff, will have on the economy of Atlantic City and the region.

Friday, July 28: Kerrin Wolf, assistant professor of Law in the School of Business, will examine “the school-to-prison” pipeline, a phrase used to characterize punitive treatment of at-risk youth by the education and justice systems. Many are pushed out of school and toward justice system involvement.  Research indicates that, while harsh punishments for misbehaving students were intended to make schools safer by deterring future misbehavior, such punishments had deleterious effects on students, including making some more prone to anti-social behavior, Wolf said. 

His presentation will also review some schools’ efforts to end the school-to-prison pipeline by moving away from punitive disciplinary practices and instead approaching student misbehavior from a therapeutic perspective.

Friday, Aug. 11:  Beverly Vaughn, professor of Music, will host the finale of the series with a program titled: "Timeless Songs of Courage and Hope from Slavery:  Our community sings together.”

“This program will feature several songs and melodies from slavery which helped to provide a much needed source of personal expression and endurance during the painful experience of slavery,” Vaughn said. “Yet, in spite of these experiences, one is surprised time after time by the hope and resilience of the words and melodies found in so many examples of this literature,  This evening's program which examine these songs in the light of such resiliency and, by so doing, hopefully gain inspiration and courage as we forge into the future.”

Rabbi Gordon Geller, a longtime Stockton faculty member in Stockton’s School of General Studies, said the talks are always a summer cultural highlight for the congregation and community. Shirat Hayam, which translates as “Song of the Sea,” was formed when the congregations of Temple Emeth Shalom and Beth Judah merged last year.