Time goes by so fast. I cannot believe Commencement is in less than two weeks. My senior year at Rider impressed me a lot. I’ve done very well in my classes and have obtained useful knowledge from my courses and my professors. More importantly, I have become friends with many American students, faculty and staff at Rider. Through my communication and interaction with them I have been able to improve myself and learn the ins and outs of American culture.

The end of my freshman year at Rider is rapidly approaching, and I find my time completely filled with studying, work and friends. The “first year” is something parents and teachers always warned you about. If you don’t study every second of your life, you will fail out of college or if you eat food from the dining hall, you will become overweight.

When radio and TV spewed false reports of a gunman at Rider last week, they recklessly and needlessly raised tension on an already jittery campus. Still mourning our own tragedy and reeling after Virginia Tech, we didn’t panic. But classes were disrupted, and anxious parents phoned. We endured an hour of uncertainty we could have — and should have — done without.

I can remember my first day at Rider University clearly. I anxiously walked to my room with my parents, cried a little when they left and turned around with a smile on my face. That day I just knew, although apprehensive about the journey, that everything about Rider would be perfect.

A couple of weeks ago, Jodi Sweetin came to Rider to lecture about the dangers of addiction. While the topic has been brought to the forefront following the tragic death of Gary DeVercelly, many students came out just to catch a glimpse of “Stephanie Tanner.” The line to enter the BLC Theater began at the info desk, extended down to the ticket booth, looped all the way into the commuter lounge, and snaked around two or three times over.

“You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.” This quote comes from Charles Buxton and sums up my entire college career starting from freshman orientation.

As I approach the final days of an unforgettable chapter in my life, I regularly pause and reflect upon the very things at Rider that have molded me into the person I am today. I, along with 800 other young men and women who are either testing out the job market or furthering their educations, am ready for what is known as Commencement. While the other graduates and I receive our diplomas, signifying the next phase of our lives, it’s important to note that the place we are leaving is undergoing its own commencement.

There is only one way to describe the events and the emotions shaping the legacy of this past year — a roller coaster ride. It’s as if students, professors, faculty and administrators hopped onto this amusement park attraction with the intent on riding out the good times. But along the way, we have had to endure some unexpected lows.

By Jave Galt-Miller

The way characters of different races relate to one another in a film says something about the society in which that film exists, said a visiting professor from Princeton University last month.

By Mike Caputo

It was September of 1963, and a young freshman named Earle Rommel walked around the new Lawrenceville campus, wearing the traditional purple and gold beanie and a nametag. He was supposed to wear it for a week, but Rommel said, “that’s enough” after only two days.