TCNJ

23 1-year-old granddaughter, Ruby Mei Hart, who lives in California. Her advice for her successor? "I would advise that person to listen, as I did, and listen not just to me, and whatever material I've left, but to listen broadly," she says. "Be attentive to the forces around us that are threatening higher education and threatening democracy, and to be responsive to that. But don't be so responsive to the newest, shiniest object, and lose what has been created at The College of New Jersey. There's something very special, so build on that. But it will look different, and it should look different." Certainly the college is a very different institution today than it was when Gitenstein arrived in 1999, and many of those who have witnessed the evolution of TCNJ credit her for the transformation. That high regard across the campus community was rendered evident on July 11, when Gitenstein formally announced her retirement in the same room in which she had been introduced as TCNJ's president more than 18 years earlier. Reading from a prepared statement, she fought back her emotions, stopping to gather herself more than once, particularly when acknowledging her husband, who was seated in the front row. "He has been patient with me when I could not let go of the thoughts of work — intruding on our dinners, our vacations, and on our sleep," she said. "He is the smartest person I know, and I love him with all my heart." When she finished, the trustees took to their feet — and those in the audience did likewise — and saluted her with a long and rousing standing ovation. A former senior editor at New Jersey Monthly, Christopher hann is a frequent contributor to TCNJ Magazine. He wrote "20/20 Vision" in the Spring 2017 issue. It's become something of a TCNJ tradition. In most speeches she gives, R. Barbara Gitenstein quotes her favorite poet, Emily Dickinson. Those in the know will smile and nod, understanding that every such incantation is also a signal that the president's speech is coming to a close. It began in the first week of Gitenstein's presidency, in January 1999, during orientation for transfer students, when she used Dickinson's We never know how high we are. We never know how high we are Till we are called to rise; And then, if we are true to plan, Our statures touch the skies "It's a well-known trademark," English professor Michael Robertson says of Gitenstein's affinity for Dickinsonian prose. "It particularly warms an English professor's heart." Gitenstein, who wrote her doctoral thesis on Jewish-American literature, insists she's no Dickinson scholar but merely an aficionado. "She's so wonderfully cryptic, and funny, and beautiful," Gitenstein says. "She's a real voice for the power of women." And in this last year of her presidency, Gitenstein is likely to invoke that voice again and again. "She wrote 1,790 poems," Gitenstein says, "so I'll never run out of material." —Christopher Hann emily & me President Gitenstein has a major American poet on her side. CANNADAY CHAPMAN

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