Dr. Besen-Cassino tells Newsweek that technology like zoom and email are such an accessible way to work that it makes employees feel they must contribute, even on days off. Additionally,  employees often utilize their paid time off for childcare due to a lack of affordable options. “Therefore many workers are not recharging on these days, but rather performing caregiving,” she says.

A change in mentality is clearly needed. Dr. Besen-Cassino told Newsweek. “It’s important to create a culture where taking a vacation is normalized and encouraged so that workers can fully recharge. Shifting workplace culture can ensure workers can take vacations and are healthier and more productive in the long run.”

One company making a shift is Bolt. Under the leadership of CEO Ryan Breslow, a change from Unlimited Paid Time Off to a mandated four weeks of paid vacation time ensures that employees are taking time to rest while not having to worry about changes. “Just shifting the structure alone is not enough: the culture in the workplace shapes how we apply rules and regulations,” Dr. Besen-Cassino tells MSN.

Written by Vivvy Gundani

Congratulations to this year’s Dean’s Recognition Award winners!

Research

The Research Award recognizes faculty members for their significant contributions to advancing knowledge within their field. Criteria typically includes quality, impact, and originality of research findings, as well as notable publications, grants, and collaborations.

2024 Winner: Daniela Peterka Benton, Associate Professor in Justice Studies

Service

The Service Award recognizes staff members for their outstanding commitment to service within CHSS and the broader community. Criteria includes leadership in academic governance, professional service, community engagement, and contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

2024 Winner: , Director of Operations and Administrative Affairs, College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Teaching

The Teaching Award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated excellence in pedagogy and educational impact. Criteria includes innovative teaching methods, student engagement, mentorship, and contributions to curriculum development.

2024 Winners

, Professor, English

, Associate Professor, Sociology

, Assistant Professor, Psychology

, English, Special Teaching Category

, Instructional Specialist, Writing Studies

, Adjunct, Linguistics

In , edited by Sociology Professor Christopher Donoghue, the collection’s contributors explore the different types of peer aggression, the social aspects of bullying and the broader community systems that surround bullies and their victims.

Here, Donoghue explains why bullying should be examined from a systemic bias perspective, how schools could improve anti-bullying policies and what bullying looks like today.

What is the difference between the sociology and the psychology of bullying?

Sociologists and psychologists share a common purpose of wanting to reduce bullying inside and outside of schools, Donoghue says, but they have a different perspective on some of the ways of understanding what’s happening among school-age children and how to deal with the problem.

“Psychologists tend to focus a little more on the individual, and sociologists focus a little more on the environment or group level,” Donoghue says. “It’s important for schools to take a whole-school approach to bullying, and that means we focus not only on the bully, the victim and the bystanders, but also the full school community: the teachers, the administrators, the parents, the local community. Sociologists perhaps spend a bit more time thinking about the group level and things like systemic bias and school culture.”

What are common misconceptions about what bullying looks like today?

Here’s what you may not know about how bullying presents in today’s schools, according to Donoghue and other sociologists:

• Stereotypes persist of a strong boy physically bullying a smaller, weaker boy, or girls gossiping with and about each other. “Those types of things do happen but they don’t represent all bullying behaviors and it promotes the idea that bullying is exactly the way it was in the past,” Donoghue says. The stereotypes even appear in media reports about bullying, through the use of stock images of girls whispering in each other’s ears, or a boy looking menacingly at a smaller peer.
• Bullying is not always visible. Cyberbullying is very real, Donoghue says, but it’s often difficult to see in part because it may be taking place in nonpublic online spaces such as video games. Even in instances where a tech-savvy adult is able to find an offending post, “it might be understood only by the victim or children around the victim because it’s coded in a language that only the kids understand.”
• Nonverbal behavior in schools and small groups can also be used as a form of bullying. “It can be hard to interpret if you’re not a child in the school but it can be something as innocuous as a look or a word said at a particular time that means something to the small group,” Donoghue says. “These behaviors are interpreted as a slight or a form of exclusion, but are difficult to pick up and are highly underreported. That’s what a lot of bullying looks like and it’s very challenging to work on.”

How does traditional school culture impact bullying?

Donoghue says sociologists are often interested in the way culture evolves in the school, looking specifically at systemic biases that operate on a group level. “You think about bias in terms of race, gender, but it’s also important to think about the ways schools can be heteronormative spaces in which traditional gender roles and sexual preferences are favored,” Donoghue says.

“That can often lead to a perception of a hostile environment for kids that don’t fit that norm, and the same can be said for kids with disabilities. They may feel they’re in an environment where their skills are less favored or less recognized.”

How can anti-bullying policies in schools be more effective?

Donoghue says that many anti-bullying policies in place today are designed in such a way that fit aforementioned bullying stereotypes, and, especially when such policies are harsh or severe, it can lead to a culture of underreporting among kids.

“Most states have a clear definition of what bullying is and by virtue of what a policy or law is supposed to do, it’s going to define behavior that is tangible,” Donoghue says. But in fact, kids who feel confined by a rule or policy will “adjust their behavior so their acts are not defined as bullying by the school policy.”

“What we should be doing is spending a lot of time talking to children about how to identify [bullying] and letting them know there’s an environment in which they can speak up and describe what they’re experiencing,” Donoghue says. One recommendation to improve anti-bullying policies in schools would be to have a constant, open channel for children, teachers, parents and school administrators to describe their experiences. “You can get that through interviews in schools or small group meetings that are less threatening than an obligatory annual anti-bullying meeting or public address that is not always a comfortable environment. Opening venues for people to just talk when there isn’t necessarily an incident or crisis at the school can be really important for learning more about what’s happening.”

To set up an interview, contact the Media Relations team.

On Tuesday, November 1, students gathered for a special Q&A event with Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11) to discuss her public service and leadership. In a discussion moderated by Parashar and Kelkar and then opened up to students, Sherrill encouraged students to think about what they love to do and find a way to use that passion to make life better for someone else.

The course, “Polity, Policy, and Process: A Problem-Based Approach,” was born out of an idea pitched to faculty by Dean Peter Kingstone to create a space that brings students from across different disciplines together and gives them the support needed to explore the world of policy, giving them opportunities to engage with actual policy makers, government agencies, or organizations. Students in the course identified local, community and state issues to explore, including gun violence, food insecurity, plastic pollution and homelessness.

The course, an extension of the CHSS Disruption Lab initiative, is intended to support innovation and entrepreneurial thinking and skills among majors in the humanities and social sciences.

Program Benefits

• High-achieving Montclair State students are able to complete a Bachelor’s and MBA degree in five years
• Students from a variety of undergraduate disciplines gain valuable business and professional knowledge, skills and experiences that enhance their employability and career options post graduation.
• Students are able to take advantage of a more time- and cost-effective option for getting an MBA degree by taking “swing” graduate courses that satisfy both their undergraduate and graduate degrees at the undergraduate tuition rate.

The following CHSS undergraduate programs are approved for participation in the 4 +1 program:

• BA Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies
• (with concentrations in Arabic, French, German, and Italian). NOTE: the combined BA/MBA program option is not applicable to the BA in Language Business and Culture with a concentration in Spanish.
• BA Philosophy

Interested in Pursuing the 4+1 Bachelor’s / MBA Program? Follow these simple steps:

Contact Us

April Sime
MBA Office
973-655-4306
gradbusiness@montclair.edu

The crises keep coming. But Americans haven’t lost their ability to dream.

Another school year is coming to a close, leaving students pondering their futures. Experts have argued that COVID-19 and the isolation it brought have influenced people’s development and future outlook — especially among the young. This topic is heating up again as new variants and 1 million-plus deaths in the U.S. raise the possibility of a return to Zoom classrooms, masking, social distancing and growing economic challenges.

To make matters worse, we must also contend with a new, frightening backdrop — the war on Ukraine. Daily accounts of the war present us with devastating sights and sounds: collapsed cities, explosions, mass graves, distraught victims. Life as people knew it is disappearing. In a March 16 New Yorker story, one young woman said, “Now there’s nothing in the future.”

Is this young woman right? Is the future empty? For the past several years, we have researched what it means to dream — to imagine future possibilities. Tapping more than 270 people, we asked: Does everyone dream no matter what their reality is? What do those dreams look like? Are they uniquely personal, or are they patterned, following a cultural script? Do dreams differ from age to age, group to group, context to context? Do people ever fail to dream or simply stop dreaming?

Visit to get your free ticket!
The full schedule can be found at

Email us at research-analysis@montclair.edu and follow our social media on , , and !

Designed to meet the growing need for professionals in the field of customer experience (CX) and user experience (UX), the 13.5-credit, five-course program builds student expertise in understanding the needs of customers and the users of technological devices and services. The flexible, short-term online certificate provides an accelerated path to develop this highly specialized skill set.

“The program is very empowering because it trains students to listen and respond effectively to customer needs, and to help their organizations improve the products and services we use every day,” says Christopher Donoghue, associate professor and graduate program coordinator of the certificate.

In just 10 months, new students can gain the technical skills and software competencies needed to carry out customer surveys, focus groups and usability tests. They can also use the credits they acquire toward the Master of Arts in Social Research and Analysis.

Individuals with bachelor’s degrees in fields such as sociology, psychology and anthropology are highly valued in this industry because of their interest in people and human behavior. Those with specialized skills in business, computer science and mathematics also possess advantages. The certificate in Customer Experience and User Experience Research gives them a clear advantage in this field, especially because there are so few other opportunities like it.

“Competitors in the job market with training in both customer and user experience are sometimes called ‘unicorns’ because they can fill a job opening with a multifaceted skill set. UX researchers are more valuable when they understand survey methods, as are CX researchers when they understand what goes into the testing of an app,” explains Donoghue.

The new program joins Montclair’s growing number of online certificates that can be paired with the MA in Social Research and Analysis, such as Data Collection and Management, and Business Analytics.

All of these programs are now accepting applications.

For more information on Montclair State’s online graduate programs, visit montclair.edu/online.

The ceremony for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences was one of 18 planned small ceremonies for June 7 through June 13 for a Class of 2021 remarkable for its resilience and perseverance during the pandemic.

Lavone and Tiiera Broxton earned degrees in Sociology, and now their home in Newark, New Jersey, is brimming with Red Hawk pride: Lavone’s spouse and Tiiera’s mother, Rhonda Robinson-Broxton, earned two graduate degrees from Montclair State, a Master of Arts in Teaching in 2013 and a Master of Education in 2019.

Two older daughters, Siiera and Kiiera, hold master’s degrees and Kiiera is currently a doctoral candidate at Columbia University.

“I didn’t want to be the only person in a family who didn’t go to school,” Lavone says.

Lavone Broxton is the associate director of Postal and Warehouse Services at Montclair State and took advantage of the University’s employee tuition waiver program to finish up what he originally started in 2007.

“Once I saw that I could have the opportunity to graduate at the same time as Tiiera, that was the push that inspired me,” he says.

They’re not done yet. In the fall, Lavone will begin graduate work in Montclair State’s new Master of Arts in Higher Education program, and Tiiera will begin a master’s program in social work at Rutgers University.

Asked about her father’s achievement, Tiiera, who worked on campus in a student position in fire safety, says her dad is “a walking example that age is nothing but a number and you can achieve any goal you put your mind to.”

Story by Staff Writer Marilyn Joyce Lehren

Photo Galleries: See the and check back as more photos are added:

Join this career building event for Undergraduate & Graduate Students on Monday April 19 and Wednesday April 21, 2021. All sessions are held virtually on Zoom throughout the day, allowing participants to come and go on their own schedule.

The Conference
The program includes sessions with Tamour Kousha (CFO of Liberty Science Center), Annalee Kelly (Director of Survey Research at Mathematica) and Hannah Soar (VP of Strategic Growth at Kantar Research).

Other speakers include professionals in Public Policy, Education & Human Services, Social Services and Market Research. Alumni & current students in professional settings from the Master’s in Social Research & Analysis will also offer career advice.

Undergraduate students will have the opportunity to pair up with graduate student mentors. All students will be invited to an informal gathering after the event.

A full program of sessions and events will be available on the Creating Spaces website in early April.

Early Registration Ends on April 1st.

For questions, email research-analysis@montclair.edu