Words by Gretchen Purvis, Image courtesy of Rutgers–Camden SGA

The Rutgers Camden Student Government Association (SGA) opened its
elections for voting on April 8th until the 12th. Rutgers students voted through Engage to
elect candidates to the SGA’s positions; some candidates ran in uncontested contests.
Students had the opportunity to write in a candidate of their choice for each position on
their ballot.

Candidates elected to the SGA’s Executive Board’s positions are as follows:
Kimberly Lugo, the former vice president, was elected to become the new SGA
president. Shaan Mody was elected to become the new SGA vice president. Jenna
Ahmed is the new SGA secretary. Jessica Toft, the incumbent SGA treasurer, has
previously served as treasurer. Christine Do is the SGA’s new General Assembly of
Organizations (GAO) Chairperson.

Candidates elections to the SGA University Senators positions are as follows: Eva
Chen and incumbent Joseph Lescht were elected to represent the College of Arts and
Sciences. The School of Business will be represented by Nyla Boswell. The School of
Nursing will be represented by Tiera Williams. The Graduate School of Arts and
Sciences will be represented by Assa John. There will be no representative for University
College, as the seat is vacant.

Candidates elected as the SGA’s at-large representatives for each school within
the campus are as follows: the College of Arts and Sciences will be represented by Justin
Bamgboye, Abhinav Kotapati, and Alexander Simone. The School of Business will be
represented by LaRodge Johnson, Taaha Malik, and a vacant seat. The School of
Nursing will be represented by Zaneta Kwapong. The Graduate School of Arts and
Sciences will be represented by Ojobo Agbo Eje. As with the SGA University Senators
election, the University College seat is left vacant.

Voters also approved the ballot’s referendum by a 70% majority (366 voters). The
referendum asked students whether they wanted the university’s endowment funds to
be divested from companies that were either currently receiving profit from, engaged
with, or contributing to governments committing human rights violations (read more
about the referendum here at the SGA’s official statement on Engage:
https://engage.camden.rutgers.edu/news/299929). The referendum was first proposed
during a closed SGA meeting Thursday, April 1st, as part of a university-wide
divestment effort by all campuses’ student governing associations prompted by worries over the conflict in Gaza. The referendum required a simple majority of affirmative votes, as
well as more total student voters than in the previous election, to pass. The SGA will
now be advocating for Rutgers University to divest from the five companies named in
the referendum—Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Motorola Solutions, General Electric Co.,
and PGIM-Quantitative Solutions Fund.

In an email to the student body, former SGA President Matthew Brodsky
thanked students for their votes, and congratulated the student body for a high
turnout (this election’s total voter count was 516 students, of the nearly 6,000 students at Rutgers Camden; numbers from enrollment statistics on Rutgers’ official website: https://www.rutgers.edu/about/by-the-numbers).

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Review by Gretchen Purvis

Jacqueline Holland’s novel The God of Endings, released in March 2023, follows Collette LeSange, a vampire who was turned by her grandfather after the death of her parents and brother during a tuberculosis epidemic left her deathly sick as well, nearly one hundred and fifty years ago as a teenager in 1834. When the story opens in 1984, she now spends her time in upstate New York, where she runs her own private arts school for young, rich children during the daytime, teaching her students painting and French language skills she has picked up during her long life. Colette keeps a large group of cats that she has trained to act as her personal blood donors so that she can take what she needs and avoid hurting any one of them by taking too much at once.

But this peaceful lifestyle becomes complicated when she meets Leo Hardman, a kind and artistically talented child whose complicated home life and sickly nature makes Colette worried for him once he shows up to school one morning with an injury neither parent explains to her satisfaction. She tries to find out more about Leo’s relationship with his parents, but is apprehensive of running afoul of them and is not certain how to go about this investigation. At the same time that Colette is trying to walk a fine line
between showing concern for one of her young student and avoiding meddling in family matters, she also begins to find that her appetite for blood—which she had previously been able to satisfy with her pet cat donors—has increased, and she begins to sleep fitfully where she had once slept peacefully before. Finally, both issues come to a head; when Holland draws the story to a close, the ending might be slightly unexpected and bittersweet, but it also contains a sense of hopefulness.

The God of Endings is on the slightly longer side—Amazon lists the hardcover copy’s length at 480 print pages—and Holland takes full advantage of that length to narrate two separate storylines: Colette’s attempts to find out more about Leo’s family life, and her life in Europe after her grandfather sends her across the Atlantic, where she struggles to find her place and eventually creates a new network of family and friends. This network of relationships is mortal, unlike her, and when they pass away, she
travels around the world as she deals with her grief and finds a new place in life. This past storyline might be Colette’s past, but it explains many of her present choices and informs her ultimate decision at the book’s end. The God of Endings can be found for sale in print (either hardcover or paperback) or digitally at many major retailers, like Amazon and Barnes & Nobles; and is also available to borrow for free as a print book at the Camden County Library System, where current Rutgers Camden students who live on or work for the campus, regardless of permanent residence, can register for a library card for free, which will be valid for one year (more information can be found by following this link: https://www.camdencountylibrary.org/get-library-card).

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Book cover image credits: Scribner

Review by Gretchen Purvis

Agustina Bazterrica’s horror novel Tender is the Flesh—originally published in
Argentina in 2017 and published in English translation in 2020 in the United
States—asks the reader to imagine a world where animals cannot be eaten for meat and
consequently meat consumption has shifted to human livestock, or “special meat,”
instead. Tender is the Flesh follows a former animal slaughterer, Marcos Tejo, who now
works at a slaughterhouse dealing in “special meat,” and his inability to reconcile his
moral discomfort with his job’s demands or leave his job. Tejo’s interpersonal
relationships—with his coworkers, such as the butcherer who calmly accepts her meat’s
shift from animal to human; with his estranged wife following their young son’s
untimely death, from which Tejo never emotionally recovered; and with his sister and
her children, who have no such qualms about “special meat” and push Tejo for access to
livestock, or heads, to rear themselves through his job—soon take center stage,
especially once his coworkers gift him a young, attractive female livestock.
Tejo’s initial inability to decide what to do with her—he resists his coworkers’
repeated requests for a celebratory barbeque together, as he finds himself “incapable of
killing the female in his barn” (pg. 52), but cannot decide what he wants to do
instead—offer Bazterrica ample opportunity to explore how both Tejo personally and
society more generally is affected by “special meat.” These moments, rather than
distractions from Tejo’s interactions with the gifted female head he keeps on his
property, are the core of the story and inform his attitudes towards her; when he
eventually makes his decision about what to do with her at the end of the book, it comes
as little surprise because everything previously has slowly built up to it.
Though Tender is the Flesh often focuses more on cannibalism’s dehumanizing
and often traumatizing social effects than the actual process of butchering humans for

consumption itself, the practice permeates Tejo’s nearly every interaction. This is a
horror novel, and there is plenty to unsettle and unnerve the reader: cannibalism, rape
(though not depicted, its occurance is obvious in the narrative), and animal cruelty and
death. When Tender is the Flesh does get explicitly violent, each scene comes sudden
and fast; you get the feeling the physical violence comes as an extension of heads’
treatment. There is a short but explicitly violent section in the middle, clinically
describing the slaughtering process, as Tejo leads several prospective employees—who
function as audience surrogates for worldbuilding exposition—through the
slaughterhouse and answers their questions about the process of keeping and
slaughtering humans as livestock (pg. 53-77).
Tender is the Flesh can be found in print for free at the Camden County Library
System (CCLS)—library cards are available for all current Rutgers students, regardless
of Camden County residency status, and books can be checked out for 3 weeks at a time
before renewal; for more information, look at CCLS’ website:
https://www.camdencountylibrary.org/get-library-card—or for purchase elsewhere in
either ebook or print format, such as Target, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Walmart.

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Photo credit: Rutgers University–Camden

By Gretchen Purvis

Rutgers–Camden’s Student Governing Association’s (SGA) March 7th meeting
began at 5:15 PM.

A new 50,000 sq. ft. CAS facility on Cooper and Lawrence St.s west of Fifth St.
will begin construction soon, aiming to open by fall 2026. Previous residents’ and
businesses’ histories are available on the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Humanities’
(MARCH) website (https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/neatline/show/from-countryside-to-city#records/31). Lawrence Street’s food pantry will not be affected. Drawings for the complex will be revealed near the end of March.

The anticipated CAS complex is part of a larger investment in RUC’s maintenance
and upgrades: the Walter K. Gordon Theater was recarpeted during spring break, and
Starbucks closed 3/12 for renovations. The Stedman Theater and the Johnson Park
Digital Studies buildings are renovation targets. New uses for space freed in Armitage
are still undetermined. In response to a proposal to use Johnson Park as either
expanded space or new space for art students, Dean Griffin stated that Johnson Park
needs renovations and to be incorporated into the main campus.

CAS’ increasing program offerings include expanding the Master in Teaching
program; a new data science program; a new forensics security program, drawing from
the Departments of Chemistry and Computer Science; new accelerated degree
programs; and new graduate programs. Additional ECL courses depend on faculty and
resources’ availability. Rutgers will ensure all classes have room for students, as
undergraduate enrollment levels are predicted to return to normal in the first- and
second-year classes. SGA is working to make Financial Aid more reactive; SGA
President Matthew Brodsky urged students with urgent concerns to contact him. CAS
will begin reviewing programs’ required credit hours beginning in fall 2024. Over 500
students with outstanding required courses graduated last year. Student clubs’ budgets are currently $42.5m; Chancellor Tillis hopes to resolve the $8-9m deficit with a $10m fundraising goal. An amendment to Article 6 of the SGA’s constitution—allowing the SGA to create and act on a budget by the SGA’s 3rd general body meeting in fall 2024—was unanimously approved.

The 7/11 location on Cooper Street, beneath the dorms, has an increased police
presence to deter presence. Should students continue to face discrimination at 7/11, they can contact either Brodsky individually or the SGA to report the event. Cooper St. may
also see an increase in its police presence. All prospective SGA candidates must declare candidacy intent by March 29. Requirements are: maintenance of a 2.5 GPA or higher; following election guidelines; and enrollment in one of the following Rutgers schools: the Camden College of Arts and Sciences (50), the School of Business (School 52), the School of Nursing (School 57), University College (School 64), and the Arts & Sciences Graduate School (School 56).
SGA elections will be held 4/8-4/12. Candidates’ information can be found on the SGA
website and student body emails. Previously, a consultation group had requested longer market hours at Gourmet Dining as a solution to 7/11 issues. In response, Gourmet Dining will now be open later: until 9 PM Mondays-Fridays. Gourmet Dining currently has the same morning opening times, although there is talk of opening earlier in the morning.

The SGA adjourned at 5:59 PM. SGA meetings are held every second Thursday at
5:00 PM in the Campus Center’s West ABC; the next two meetings are March 28th and
April 11th. All students and faculty are invited to attend.

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