Top performances, upsets, big-game wins, news and notes in Week 1 HS football hot takes

Following a ban on hard-liquor at most fraternities in the U.S., experts and educators wonder how the new policies will be enforced at New Jersey universities.

They generally agree that the recent hard liquor ban at sororities and fraternities across the U.S. is a good thing, but experts and educators in New Jersey are still questioning how the rule will be enforced.

The North-American Interfraternity Conference (NIC), which represents over 80 percent of fraternities nationwide, voted last week to ban drinks above 15 percent alcohol by volume from "any chapter facility" or event -- unless a licensed third party sells it.

The hard alchohol ban applies to everyone, including adults over the age of 21, and comes in the wake of several instances of students dying at fraternity events after drinking. NIC member fraternities and their more than 6,000 chapters must approve a policy compliant with the hard alcohol ban by Sept. 1, 2019, according to the resolution.

Representatives for many New Jersey colleges said they were happy with the ban, but not yet sure just how it will play out on their campuses.

"We don't have a way of enforcing it," said Marybeth Boger, dean of students and campus life at New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Most of NJIT's fraternity houses are off-campus and privately owned by the fraternities themselves, Boger said. NJIT has imposed several rules about drinking on its Greek Life groups for over a decade, including no kegs, no selling alcohol, and requiring students must provide identification at the door to fraternity and sorority parties. If university officials hear of an infraction of those rules -- for example, an underage student is caught drinking -- the student is reprimanded through a process that includes alcohol education.

Only NIC-member fraternities will be forced to adopt the policy, meaning NJIT will have about 10 frats that do, and a handful of others that don't. Still, Boger said she supports the NIC's ban and thinks it is the university's role to work with the affected fraternities to develop ways in which the groups can monitor themselves.

She said NIC's decision "opened the door" for universities to take similar hard-line approaches in the future and it is only a matter of time before all  NJIT students see more alcohol-related restrictions.

It's unclear exactly how many NIC-member Greek organizations there are in New Jersey. The NIC does not track their member chapters by state, but on "virtually all campuses that have fraternities (or) sororities, there are NIC organizations," Chief Communication Officer Heather Kirk said.

Some Jersey fraternities are ahead of the curve. Sigma Phi Epsilon, which has a chapter at Rider University, adopted alcohol-free common spaces by August 2018 and voted for all of the chapter facilities to be dry by 2020.

Carristian Brown, a senior and the Sigma Phi Epsilon president at Rider, said the fraternity decided to go dry to make it easier to insure.

Insurance can cost anywhere from $20 to $300 per student member, and those numbers have been on the rise because of the recent tragedies, Marc Mores, Executive Vice President of James R. Favor and Company said.

"If somebody died, God forbid, their insurance policy would go up," he said.

Mores said his company insures about 40 percent of all U.S. fraternities, including 60 different chapters at various campuses in New Jersey. According to him, although beer, wine and malt drinks will still be allowed, the absence of hard liquor could reduce the risk of injury to members and severity of insurance claims fraternities file.

"Nearly all hazing and over-consumption deaths in the past two years have involved students consuming high-percentage alcohol beverages," the NIC policy said.

Tim Piazza, a sophomore from Lebanon, New Jersey, who died after consuming a dangerous amount of alcohol at a Penn State fraternity event last year, is still on the minds of many school officials. Piazza suffered a series of falls that left him with a fractured skull and severe abdominal injuries at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity event.

Monmouth University, a private college in West Long Branch, took matters into its own hands, announcing last week it's suspending its entire Greek life system indefinitely. A letter obtained by NJ Advance Media cited a series of "serious conduct violations," involving hazing, alcohol, drug use and lack of academic focus.

In 2014, another New Jersey student, 19-year-old Caitlyn Kovacs died of alcohol poisoning after a party at Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity house near Rutgers University.

Rutgers fraternity members will seemingly be unaffected by the new ban. The school's "long-standing policy on parties by registered fraternities or sororities requires that beer is the only alcoholic beverage allowed at parties," Neal Buccino, the school's associate director of public and media relations, said. Beer is typically below 15 percent ABV, and therefore within the NIC's standards.

Montclair State University, which has eight fraternities associated with the NIC, will largely go unaffected by the ban, as well, Director of Media Relations Erika Bleiberg said. All of the fraternity houses are off-campus, so drinking policies are an issue between the students and the landlords, not the university, she said.

The various set-ups have led some to question the efficacy of the hard liquor ban.

"The rule is as only as good as its being enforced," Mores said, adding that fraternities and sororities often depend on student leaders to monitor their peers.

Rowan University has a "grey area" when it comes to enforcing its existing alcohol rules, Gary Baker, who works in Rowan's Greek affairs department, said.

Rowan formally recognizes several fraternities, but not the houses or facilities the fraternities own or rent. Some houses are completely filled with residents of only one fraternity or sorority, but it is more common for indivdual students to face disciplinary measures, rather than a whole organization to recieve a sanction.

Still, the new hard alcohol ban is a good thing, Baker said, as it will assist administration in making it easier to hold students and organizations accountable and promote social responsibility.

Cassidy Grom may be reached at cgrom@njadvancemedia.com Follow her at @cassidygrom. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips

City restores memorial after "slap in the face" to firefighters five years ago. Watch video

Thirty-two years have passed since Susan Woods-Lubitsky's brother, Trenton firefighter Joseph Woods, was killed in the line of duty. 

After Woods and fellow firefighter Robert Mizopalko died in August 1986 battling a three-alarm blaze at the city bar Shenanigans Saloon, their names were added to the base of the city's Iron Fireman statue, which was built in 1892 and stood outside city hall since 1910.

But in April 2013, the 126-year-old statue was destroyed in an act of vandalism. The incident was a "slap in the face" to city firefighters, then-fire union president Wayne Wolk told The Times of Trenton in 2013.

The wait to have the memorial restored finally ended for the firefighters' families Sunday afternoon, when city and state officials gathered to unveil the Iron Fireman outside Trenton City Hall.

"I'm just so proud of my brother, I get emotional seeing his name up there," Lubitsky-Woods said after the dedication ceremony. "I think this is a great tribute for everybody who has sacrificed their life."

Sunday's ceremony was also attended by the city's first female firefighter, Lisa McKeese, and Edith Collins, the widow of Lynwood Collins, Trenton's first black firefighter.

The new Iron Fireman statue stands tall outside city hall, wearing the department's 19th century uniform and holding a baby in his left arm. Below him, the base of the statue lists the names of men who died between 1883 and 2009.

Lubitsky-Woods, who works down the road from city hall, said she's glad she'll be able to see the statue every day on her morning commute once again.

Mayor Reed Gusciora said it was an exciting day for the city.

"The city put back a historic monument that future generations and future fireman can enjoy," he said.  

Gusciora discussed the fire departments history, noting it is one of the oldest in the nation.

"In 1747, many years before the Declaration of Independence was even signed, we had one of the first volunteer fire departments," Gusciora said. "And in 1892, we got a paid fire department, and that's when the statue was first commissioned."

Back then, the statue cost $1,500, Gusciora said.

"You can only imagine how much that is now," the mayor added.

The statue's repairs in 2018 cost almost $50,000, according to retired Fire Chief David Keenan. The re-bronzing alone cost $9,000. 

But to the dozens who gathered in city hall Sunday, the cost was worth it to honor their lost loved ones who perished.

"We're all going to make sacrifices," said Fire Director Stephen Coltre, who has fond memories of visiting the statue on his first day as a firefighter in 1992. "Maybe you miss eating Thanksgiving dinner with your family. But look at the names on that statue."

He said the statue serves an important reminder of why the firefighters do what they do, and to uphold their ideals of "tradition, brotherhood and sacrifice."

Gusciora added, "This Iron Fireman is important because it memorializes those men and women who gave their lives, and all those who keep our homes a little bit safer at night."

Gianluca D'Elia may be reached at gdelia@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @gianluca_delia. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Dogs and cats throughout New Jersey patiently await a permanent home.

According to gulfnews.com, a dog lover in Dubai is supplying fresh home-cooked meals for pets in order to provide them with an alternative to processed foods.

Egyptian expat Nael Basily, 35, said it was his pet dog's medical condition that led him to launch the initiative "Just Chew."

Basily said his 6-year old golden retriever, Twixy, was diagnosed with cancer in 2017, and veterinarians attributed unhealthy diet and lifestyle to be one of the reasons for the ailment.

"Back home in Cairo, I used to cook for my pet every day. But ever since I moved to Dubai two years ago, I began feeding her processed food. Although I relied on only premium brands that promised the best nutrition, it was not helping her. So I decided to start cooking for her again and it's working wonders on her health and looks," said Basily.

"There are 40 pet owners ordering food from me. I have a set menu prepared for all days of the week. I cook two days a week - Sunday and Wednesday. Delivery is done on the same days. I pack food boxes with days of the week marked. Initially I used to do the delivery myself, but now I have a delivery boy," he explained.

The dishes on his menu include: Chunky Chic, a mix of steamed potatoes, carrots and brown rice topped with a boneless chicken leg, eggshell powder and a splash of olive oil; Jerkey Turkey made of sweet potatoes, zucchini and brown rice topped with Turkey eggshell powder and olive oil a meal containing a mix of steamed veggies, brown rice and salmon bites.

Greg Hatala may be reached at greghatalagalleries@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregHatala. Find Greg Hatala on Facebook.

Find where N.J. colleges finished in the latest list of top national universities.

He was a Titan in Trenton in many ways

If there was a significant development project in Trenton during his professional life, Ron Berman likely had a role in it, or he cheered it.

Berman, a longtime developer of Trenton properties, and who brought a minor league hockey team to the city, passed away last weekend after a long illness.

He was 86 years old.

Berman is perhaps most known for leading the development of the Roebling Market shopping center in the former Roebling company's properties off South Clinton Avenue, as well as the city's arena across the street (Route 129), now called CURE Insurance Arena.

"Ron was all about Trenton. He was a visionary: he was developing Trenton when no one believed it could be done. By building on State Street, he encouraged others to come to the city," said Richard Bilotti, the retired publisher of the Times of Trenton.

Simply put, Bilotti said: "He brought a supermarket to the city in the Roebling complex. And he built the arena."

Berman was also a recent owner of 1 West State Street in Trenton, an historic city location.

In 1999, Berman and his family brought the Trenton Titans ice hockey team to the city, and the team played in the arena. The family sold the club to the New Jersey Devils in 2006.

An attorney by trade, Berman received his undergraduate and law degrees from Rutgers, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Rutgers Law Review and was awarded a Ford Fellowship at Harvard Law School.

Earlier in his career, Berman served as Assistant Commissioner of Public Transportation for the State of New Jersey and Urban Renewal Attorney for the City of Trenton. And he was a founding partner of the law firm Warren Goldberg and Berman.

He started R. Berman Development and co-founded DKM Realty with the Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corp. of New York.

Of his many civic endeavors, his obituary says, Berman served as a trustee of the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Foundation and the Garfield Foundation, as well as many Jewish philanthropies.

He lived in Princeton and is survived by his wife of 64 years, Marie, three sons and their spouses, Michael and Victoria, Geoffrey and Joanne, Daniel and Karen, as well as seven grandchildren.

His son Geoffrey Berman is the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, a post he was named to in January.

Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst posted to Facebook a photo of members trekking in the rain for the 9/11 Memorial 100 Mile March. Watch video

Service members from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey are currently walking 91.1 miles to the World Trade Center in remembrance of the victims killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. 

The Joint Base posted to Facebook a photo of active duty members and veterans trekking in the rain in plain clothes for the 9/11 Memorial 100 Mile March. 

The march, which is in its 6th year, is expected to take the 24 service members and volunteers about 30 hours to complete. They plan to arrive by 3 p.m. on Tuesday and all funds raised by the march will be donated to the 9/11 memorial fund along with a flag that is carried along with them in the march.

Their goal is to raise $5,000 this year. 

The walk is not sponsored through the base, a spokesperson said, but the service members began the walk from the Joint Base in Burlington County. 

Organizer and New Jersey native Jon Leech, a member of the Air Force based in Columbus, said the walk is a way for them to try and preserve the memories of the attacks.

"This day is pretty much when my view of the world changed," Leech said. 

The group is escorted by white vans that navigate the route as the volunteers take shifts between walking and riding in the vans that will bring them back to New Jersey on Tuesday. 

"There are a lot of people that we now work with that don't remember life before 9/11. So, in that regard this is only the smallest thing that we can do to give back to the memorial to make sure that it stays around for years to come and so that people don't forget what happened," Leech said. 

There were 749 New Jerseyans who died in the attacks.

Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst is holding remembrance ceremony on Tuesday, the anniversary of the attacks. 

Alexis Johnson may be reached at ajohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @alexisjreports. Find nj.com on Facebook.

Richard Agabiti and Richard Gonzalez saved the man from jumping off a bridge near the Trenton train station Watch video

Within seconds of pulling a suicidal man off the Lincoln Avenue bridge this summer, Trenton Police Officer Richard Gonzalez went into friend mode.

"What's going on man? Talk to me," Gonzalez said.

"We're here to help you," he said

The distraught man had been hanging off the bridge, and Gonzalez and partner Richard Agabiti were first on scene. 

Agabiti got to the man first, a few minutes after midnight on July 13, and grabbed him. Gonzalez was right behind him and they pulled him to safety.

The police department on Monday made public footage of the incident from Gonzalez's body camera, and a spokesman said both officers are nominated for a departmental awards.

The bridge carries vehicles over several active train tracks leading to the nearby Trenton Train Station, and electrical wires that serve them.

"I wanna kill myself," the man told the officers. After the man calmed down a bit, Gonzalez said, "You don't want to do that."

"You don't want to do that, I don't want you to do that, he doesn't want you to do that," Gonzalez said, speaking for his partner. "We're gonna get you some help."

When the man said he'd "been though a lot of stuff," Gonzalez replied: "I got you, listen. It's nothing that we can't work out. Just talk through it, you'll be alright."

Medics then took the man to a local hospital for treatment.

"This is just one example of the extraordinary work that our police officers perform day in and day out," Interim Police Director Pedro Medina said in a statement.

"I commend these officers for their quick and decisive actions that averted what could have become a tragedy."

Trenton police officers Richard Agabiti and Richard Gonzalez rescued a man from this stretch of the Lincoln Avenue bridge on July 13, 2018. (Google photo) 

Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Trenton police can't be in every quarter of the city 24/7. While a robust police presence is essential in curtailing violence, so is the role of the community.

These are the headlines editors hate to write, and readers hate to read.

"Felon accused of shooting teen last year charged in Trenton shooting."

"Man dies after being shot in car in Trenton."

"Sixteen-year-old critical after spate of holiday weekend shootings in Trenton."

And this gruesome coda to a nightmare-ridden 48 hours: "The final tally: 10 wounded, 1 fatally, in Labor Day weekend in Trenton."

As the toll in human lives and suffering shattered the city earlier this month, Mayor Reed Gusciora uttered two sobering truths.

In the short run, Gusciora said, we need more police officers on the streets. But looking at the bigger picture, the mayor said, the crisis demands an involved citizenry willing to address the realities that impel our young people toward a culture of gun violence.

The first part of the equation is fairly straightforward.

The police department is already interviewing and hiring more cops to expand the law-enforcement presence in violence-prone neighborhoods.

Art All Night shooting suspect out of the hospital and in court

The moves come two years into an effort not only to bring on additional officers, but also to recruit more city residents for the force, men and women who grew up on or near the streets they will ultimately patrol.

But no matter how robust the force, the police can't be in every quarter of the city 24/7. And that's where the second - and thornier - component of Gusciora's equation comes in.

While a robust police presence is essential in curtailing violence, so is the role of the community.

That means residents have to be aware of signs that gangs are operating in their midst. They have to find creative ways to catch youths in the important years before they answer gangs' seductive calls, often at heartbreakingly early ages.

And they need to alert the police to the toxic street corners and abandoned lots where drug exchanges and other illegal activities fester.

Communities have developed various strategies to combat gangs, such as introducing a violence-prevention curriculum in schools, and offering programs that teach at-risk youths adult life skills.

Others have enlisted former gang members to speak at assemblies in middle and high schools, discussing the horrors of their previous lives and how they turned themselves around.

Successfully countering gang violence demands a working partnership among elected officials, law enforcement, religious organizations, youth peer groups, schools, civic groups and parents - in other words, everyone who has a stake in building a safer Trenton.

The violence didn't arise overnight, and it won't go away overnight. But as the recent horror-filled weekend showed us so graphically, we can't keep doing the same-old, same-old and expect the problems to magically disappear.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.

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Check out which teams made the cut in the second Top 20 of the season.

The new partnership is the first of its kind in New Jersey and aims to prevent impaired and distracted driving

Rider University students can catch a free ride home from Lyft late at night, thanks to a new partnership the school started with the widely used on-demand transportation company. 

The new partnership is the first of its kind in New Jersey, and it's part of an initiative by Lyft called "Ride Smart," which aims to prevent impaired and distracted driving. 

"The safety and well-being of our students is paramount to our mission," Rider's Vice President of Student Affairs Leanna Fenneberg said in a statement. "Partnering with Lyft to implement our Safe Rides program makes sense using technology that is familiar to our students. We look forward to putting this program into operation."

Students seeking a late-night ride can get back to campus safely in just a few simple steps, the university said. 

After registering for a Lyft account with a Rider email address, a student has to call the public safety office to get a discount code that credits their Lyft account with $20 for a ride. 

Students have to be within 10 miles of either Rider University or the university's Westminster Choir College in Princeton, and will be brought back to a designated drop-off location. The rides are available between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., Thursdays through Saturdays. 

"We are not only offering the convenience of using Lyft, but helping to ensure that students can get around with ease and increase the opportunity for drivers in the area to earn additional income," Ann Ferracane, general manager for Lyft in New Jersey and New York, said. 

Rider is among three other New Jersey universities who have introduced a Lyft partnership.

Rutgers, Princeton and Seton Hall have all initiated rides for students in recent weeks for athletic events at the schools, Lyft spokesman Zachary Kizer said. And Rowan College at Burlington County also started a program with Lyft in 2017 to bring students to and from class. 

However, Rider is the first university in the state to offer late-night rides to students.  

Uber has been forging partnerships with universities too. In February 2017, La Salle University in Philadelphia was the first college in the area to introduce discounted rates for students, and the University of Pennsylvania followed soon after. 

Michael Reca, vice president of facilities at Rider, said the Lyft partnership "illustrates our commitment to providing reliable and convenient options for student transportation when they might be in an unsafe situation."

Gianluca D'Elia may be reached at gdelia@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @gianluca_delia. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Here are the 20 best games in N.J. boys soccer this week

Mark D'Amico was jailed on an arrest warrant stemming from a traffic stop last year

The Burlington County man under criminal investigation with his girlfriend following their well-publicized GoFundMe effort for homeless veteran Johnny Bobbitt Jr. was arrested late Monday on an outstanding warrant, police said Tuesday.

Florence Township police said in a statement early Tuesday that they arrested Mark D'Amico, 39, at his township home Monday around 9:30 p.m.

Later Tuesday, Burlington City police issued a statement, since their town's court issued the warrant stemming from a traffic stop.

The department said they initially stopped D'Amico on Oct. 25, 2017 for a non-moving violation - a broken tail light. Police detained D'Amico for potentially having a warrant for his arrest, but he supplied the necessary documentation and was released at the scene.

He was, however, issued summons for driving with a suspended license, failure to surrender his driver's license after suspension, and failing to maintain his lamps, Burlington City police said.

Police said D'Amico did not show in court, a warrant was issued for his arrest and he was arrested in May of this year, and he posted $500 cash bail. He did not show again in court, so another arrest warrant was issued on July 2.

D'Amico was arrested on that warrant Monday night, Burlington City police said. His new court date is Sept. 18.

He was taken to the Burlington County Jail in lieu of the cash bail again Monday night - his bail was listed as $500.01 - but he posted bail sometime Tuesday,

D'Amico and his girlfriend Kate McClure became the subject of national news last fall after they started a GoFundMe account for Bobbitt, who helped McClure when her car ran out of gas along Interstate 95 in Philadelphia.

The couple had hoped to raise $10,000, but the story spread nationally and quickly brought in more than $400,000. 

The positive publicity ended last month, when Bobbitt filed a lawsuit alleging the couple had withheld hundreds of thousands of dollars from him.

McClure and D'Amico last week failed to appear for their second straight hearing in the civil case. The couple's lawyer told a Superior Court judge they wanted to invoke their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, but the judge denied the request.

The next day, the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office served a search warrant on the couple's home as part of what authorities described as a criminal investigation into the matter.

The couple's attorney, Ernest Badway, on Friday told Judge Paula Dow, a former state attorney general, he would no longer be able to represent D'Amico and McClure in the civil case because they were likely to be indicted on criminal charges.

Editor's Note: This story was updated Tuesday evening, Sept. 11, 2018 with additional information from Burlington City police.

Joe Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JBrandt_NJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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On the 17th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2011 terrorist attacks, several towns and organizations held remembrances or paid tribute

The online giant is holding two hiring events this week in West Deptford and Robbinsville.

Interviews for 2,600 new jobs at New Jersey locations for Amazon online delivery warehouses are starting this week.

In West Deptford, the online retail behemoth is hiring 1,500 full-time jobs to staff a 1.7 million-square-foot facility scheduled to open later this month.

A "last-mile" facility in Robbinsville is hiring 1,100 part-time jobs. That location primarily handles packages headed out the door for delivery. 

Amazon is gearing up for the end-of-year holiday season but all of the jobs in West Deptford and Robbinsville will be permanent and not seasonal.

Amazon fill 2,600 jobs in New Jersey starting this month.provided photo 

New Jersey appears to be a key hub for the shipping.

"We take a few things into consideration when we decided to build a new fulfillment center," said Rachael Lighty, an Amazon spokeswoman. "We look for an engaged work force who is customer obsessed and great local support. We found both in New Jersey."

Lighty said they are building fulfillment centers to "be as close to our customers as possible."

"It allows us to provide great selection, great price point and super-fast shipping speeds."

Amazon has eight fulfillment centers in New Jersey. Other locations will also accelerate hiring coming into the holiday season, but not at the rate of West Deptford and Robbinsville.

Interested candidates for full-time positions in West Deptford must complete an application online. Interviews will then be scheduled at the Best Western Inn on Friars Boulevard over the next two weeks.

For the part-time positions in Robbinsville, candidates can apply by attending an upcoming hiring. Candidates can walk-in, apply and receive a job offer on the spot. They can also apply online.

That event will be held Thursday through Saturday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel 900 Scudders Mill Road, Plainsboro from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Applicants can also apply online at amazondelivers.jobs.

This will be Amazon's second facility in Robbinsville, joining more than 2,500 employees at the company's nearby fulfillment center. Amazon also employs more than 16,000 full-time employees at eight existing fulfillment centers across New Jersey.

Full-time positions include immediate medical coverage and tuition reimbursement for college classes.

The essence of the upcoming transformation of Westminster Choir College in Princeton to an independent music institution is to preserve and grow its legacy.

By Larry J. Livingston

The essence of the upcoming transformation of Westminster Choir College in Princeton to an independent music institution is to preserve and grow its legacy.

First and foremost, it provides the best chance that this vital, venerable, but financially struggling music education institution will survive and thrive.

The school will still be called Westminster Choir College and it won't move from the leafy campus in Princeton, home since 1934.

It's nonprofit status and -- more significant -- WCC's legacy and reputation will continue intact.

Despite unfounded allegations to the contrary, the school's endowment fund will continue to be used solely to support the vision of sustaining and growing Westminster Choir College's reputation as a world-class music school and maintaining it as an artistically preeminent, academically rigorous, and fiscally sound institution.

Since being named interim president of the Westminster Choir College Acquisition Corporation, a New Jersey non-profit corporation, my time on the Westminster campus has been eye-opening. I've met so many committed faculty and students who readily share their high hopes for the future of their institution.

Many of them, understandably, ask about Kaiwen Education, who the Rider University board of trustees in 2017 selected to help sustain Westminster Choir College. 

Kaiwen operates two prominent K-12 international schools in Beijing, China for serious and talented youth. It is planning several more international school campuses to carry out the mission of educating young people to become open-minded, inquiring, courageous, reflective, principled, and caring citizens, through educational focus on an international curriculum of humanities, science, arts, and sports.

To these ends, and in anticipation of the planned June 30, 2019 transfer, the process of breathing new life  into WCC has already begun. A talented team with experience in higher education, music, and business is being formed to develop ways by which WCC can become both financially sound and globally prestigious.

I'm very aware of the challenges that lie ahead. I am also committed to working collaboratively with everyone who has a stake in WCC's future to preserve and enhance the renowned reputation of an esteemed institution by guiding it to a viable academic, artistic, and financial future.

I wouldn't have accepted the challenge if I didn't see Kaiwen Education as an outstanding partner capable of preserving what's best about WCC and committed to its mission.

I bring relevant experience to the task, having served as vice president and music director of the New England Conservatory of Music, dean of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, and, most recently, dean of the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California.

Over my 25-year career as a music school administrator I raised more than $200 million, including a naming gift for the Thornton School, hired hundreds of faculty, helped create and launch myriad new curricula, and led major facilities expansions.

Among the many things I've learned is that there is no magic potion for success. Each institution I headed had unique assets and still faced formidable challenges.

Through careful analysis, extensive dialogue with everyone involved, and no small amount of good luck, all three schools are now flourishing. Though the solutions to challenges were different for each school, the common thread was that success would have been impossible without constant input from faculty, staff, alumni, and students.

I was hired to help steer WCC from unsustainable dependence on a parent institution to sustainable independence. Through strong academics, unparalleled music education, and positive engagement with the broader Westminster community, I am confident that sustainable growth for this jewel of an institution can become a reality.

Larry J. Livingston is a conductor, educator, and administrator. A graduate of the University of Michigan, he served as vice president and music director of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston; dean of the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University; and dean of the Flora L. Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California. He is the first music administrator accepted into the Harvard University Executive Education Program, received the Hall of Fame Award from the University of Michigan, the Life in the Arts Award from Idyllwild Arts, and an Outstanding Teacher Award from the USC Center for Religion.

Five games are scheduled for this weekend that present matchups between Top 20 teams

While some states have seen their overdose numbers begin to stabilize, New Jersey's have continued to climb.

In 2016, the Garden State lost six people a day to drug overdoses, most of them from heroin. Last year, the rate increased to seven a day.

This year, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said Tuesday, "we're on pace to hit 3,000 overdose deaths in New Jersey" -- eight lives a day. 

While some states have seen their overdose numbers plateau amid the nationwide opioid epidemic, Grewal told officials gathered at the Park Chateau in East Brunswick the state's losses to drug overdoses have only continued to climb.

The state's growing death toll from the drugs gave a sense of grave urgency to the initiatives advocated by Grewal and his four co-panelists at the U.S. District Court's Opioid Symposium.

"It could be a neighbor or a friend from school," said former governor Chris Christie, one of the panelists. "And then it could be your husband or wife ... your son or daughter. It happens that quickly."

The symposium, organized by Chief U.S. District Judge Jose Linares, brought together local, state and federal officials with members of the treatment community and the pharmaceutical industry to discuss possible solutions to what Linares called "a scourge."

An NJ Advance Media analysis in July found 1,669 people had died of overdoses since January 2018, according to data compiled by Grewal's office as part of its counter-opioid efforts.

Christie compared the stigma faced by those struggling with addiction to that experienced by those diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the years after the disease was first identified.

"Nearly 30 years later, AIDS is no longer a death sentence," he said. "It's a chronic disease that can be treated. That's where we need to get to with this."

The former governor, who made opioid prevention, treatment and recovery a policy priority in his second term, was tapped by President Donald Trump last March to helm a national commission looking for ways to combat the epidemic.

The commission ended its work in November, when it sent Trump a report with 56 recommendations to address the crisis. Giving states flexibility in using federal funds to fight drug abuse and relaxing limits on insurance coverage was among the recommendations.

Christie on Tuesday had strong words for those he placed at the center of the problem: physicians overprescribing prescription opioids. "This started in doctors' offices," he said.

He criticized the Drug Enforcement Administration for licensing physicians to prescribe the drugs without requiring them to receive continuing education on addiction issues.

"There's no reason not to do that," he said.

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The Justice Department is focusing additional efforts on prosecuting individuals and corporations that make a living off of making, distributing or selling opioids.

In August, the department announced the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark would play host to its own Medicare Strike Force, which would use analysis of billing reimbursement data to identify unscrupulous practitioners.

U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said the strike force should work with his office's Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force as well as with an opioid-specific prosecution unit -- one of the first of its kind in the country.

Carpenito's Opioid Abuse Prevention and Enforcement unit is staffed with six assistant U.S. attorneys and two prosecutors from Grewal's office who have been designated as "special assistant U.S. attorneys." 

"I think the combining of the federal and state resources is the best approach," he said. 

Like the rest of the country, New Jersey's state and federal courtrooms play host on a daily basis to defendants driven to crime by their addictions. Those prosecutions come at a cost.

Christie noted, however, that at the state level, it costs $48,000 to keep one person in prison for a year. A year of drug treatment, on the other hand, costs taxpayers $25,000, he said.

U.S. District Judge Katharine Hayden said the District of New Jersey now has two alternative courts that can serve as valuable interventions for federal offenders struggling with addiction. ReNew Court, which operates in both Newark and Camden, allows offenders who have just left prison to shave up to a year off their terms of supervised release.

Those admitted to the program are selected by the federal probation department. "You don't get into ReNew just by breathing or getting released," Hayden cautioned. Once under the court's supervision, participants can receive treatment, job placement and other services.

The second alternative court, the Pretrial Opportunity Program (POP), is for certain offenders who have been convicted of addiction-based crimes and are awaiting sentencing. In lieu of likely incarceration, the defendants undergo treatment and rehabilitation supervised by the court.

New Jersey's federal public defender since 1997, Richard Coughlin said that for the legal system to expect honesty of those struggling with addiction, its officers must be honest with themselves.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons' cuts to halfway house funding "don't help re-entry," he said. Nor do automatic disqualifiers for participation in court-sponsored alternative programs.

"If this is a crisis, then everything ought to be on the table," he said.

Thomas Moriarty may be reached at tmoriarty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ThomasDMoriarty. Find NJ.com on Facebook. 

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