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CAMPUS NEWS
Last updated by the Communications Office on June 6.
Rutgers-Camden scholar
discusses American mythology at Barnes & Noble in June
Dr. Robert Lopez, an assistant professor of English
at Rutgers University-Camden, will discuss "Myth as a Popular Interpretation
of the Social World" at the Barnes & Noble in Marlton this
June.
Scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 8,
Lopez's talk will explore how American icons, like Billie Holiday, Marilyn
Monroe, Sylvia Plath, Malcolm X, and others, have attained larger-than-life
importance within a society that is both mythological and mythless.
Lopez earned a bachelor's degree from Yale University
and a doctorate in English from SUNY-Buffalo. His book "Antiquity
and Radical Authority: Liberating Conversations Between the Ancients
and the Moderns from Phillis Wheatley to Walt Whitman" is forthcoming.
Barnes & Noble is located at 200 West Route 70
in Marlton.
This lecture is part of Cappuccino Academy, a monthly series of free
public lectures delivered by Rutgers-Camden faculty members at Barnes
& Noble. For more information, call (856) 225-6627.
Entice a Shopper to Buy
More with Smell or Sound
If you're an impulsive shopper and you don't want
to overspend, you might want to wear earplugs on your next shopping
outing.
Recent research conducted by Maureen Morrin, associate
professor of marketing at Rutgers University School of Business at Camden,
finds that impulsive shoppers - those who are more likely to make unplanned
purchases - spend more when pleasant music is playing in the background.
The study, authored by Morrin and Jean-Charles Chebat,
professor of marketing and holder of the chair of retailing, HEC-Montreal,
involved 774 shoppers at a large shopping center in suburban Montreal.
Think contemplative shoppers are safe from being lured to buy more?
Sound won't impact those buyers who think longer about what they buy,
but a pleasant odor will.
Morrin speculates that the difference in shopping
styles for these two groups is the tendency for music to enhance impulsive
shoppers' emotions, as opposed to the tendency for scent to enhance
the more reasoned or cognitive processing efforts of contemplative shoppers.
But for retailers who think that mingling music and
scent would be a winning combination for increased sales, the researchers
caution otherwise.
"It seems the shoppers were experiencing a possible
stimulus overload effect," Morrin explains. When both music and
scent are present, customers may investigate fewer products, enter fewer
stores, and leave the mall more quickly.
Former Puerto Rico Governor
Contributes Leadership Gift to Camden Campus
A former governor of Puerto Rico, Sila Calderon, has
pledged to raise $500,000 to support the graduate program in public
administration and the Center for Strategic Urban Community Leadership
at Rutgers-Camden.
Calderon last month made an initial gift of $100,000 and pledged to
help identify $400,000 in matching grants for the Sila Calderon Endowed
Fund. The funds will support faculty research and graduate fellowships
in the master's in public administration program at Rutgers-Camden and
a lecture series on community and social issues. The Rutgers Foundation
will administer the fund.
"Your gift will help Rutgers do even more in the areas of community
building, leadership and capacity building, transparency in government,
and social justice," President Richard L. McCormick said at a breakfast
reception for Calderon at his home in Piscataway on Wednesday. "What's
more, it will strengthen the bond between New Jersey and Puerto Rico."
Calderon said her dual interests in ethical public policy and social
justice prompted her gift to Rutgers in Camden, where about one-third
of the population is of Puerto Rican ancestry, according to the 2000
U.S. Census. "I am a firm believer in public service and the enduring
value of public service. It is very important to develop public policy
that reflects the values of the population it serves."
The fund is a direct outcome of ongoing projects spearheaded after Calderon
accepted an honorary doctorate degree from Rutgers in 2000, and through
collaboration with Gloria Bonilla-Santiago (Rutgers Board of Governors
Distinguished Service Professor of Public Policy and Administration
and director, CSUCL).
"I have been admiring Sila for a long time," Bonilla-Santiago
said. "She is a symbol of leadership and honor for the island."
Elected in November 2000 as the first female governor
of Puerto Rico, Calderon restructured the island's $400 million of debt,
averting bankruptcy and salvaging the island's credit rating. She also
initiated measures aimed at restoring transparency and integrity to
the government, including creating the post of independent prosecutor
and improving the effectiveness and visibility of the Government Ethics
Office. Calderon encouraged investment in impoverished and disenfranchised
communities and spearheaded projects driven by a social justice agenda
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