Valerie Barnes

Program Director, Financial Planning Program, Continuing Education
College at Florham

How long have you been at FDU?

Ten years.

If you could meet anyone in the world, whom would you pick? Why?

I would like to meet New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. I admire his confident, quiet and reassuring leadership style, and he has done a remarkable job of governing New York City in turbulent economic times.

One of the things I have in my refrigerator all the time is …

… wonderful tasting water from my well and lemons. My refrigerator is spartan and uninteresting these days, since I have been visiting a nutritionist. All the goodies have been banned, and they are unlikely to return. This is particularly challenging because I am surrounded by “foodies” at work. In season, my refrigerator is filled with fresh fruits and vegetables from the local farmers’ market. There is usually a dark chocolate square or two tucked in there.

What book or film did you recently enjoy? Why would you recommend it?

I am reading The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner, a travelogue of ideas. It is about places and how places in every sense of the word shape us and define us. I have a strong sense of place, so this is of particular interest to me.

Something I have always wanted to learn is …

… more about regional American plein-air painters such as the New Hope Impressionist group and their favorite painting spots across the river in New Jersey.

I collect …

… American decorative arts, lately bone-handled Victorian spoons and serving pieces and vintage special-event dinner menus.

If I won the lottery, I would …

… immediately call a team of Certified Financial Planners for advice. A windfall means enormous tax consequences. My wants and needs are relatively simple.

Of course, I would support FDU with scholarships for promising students who are interested in serving the public good. I would establish a fresh-flower fund for magnificent bouquets to greet staff, faculty, students and visitors in the Mansion [Hennessy Hall] and Dickinson Hall and provide for artwork and old photographs from the FDU archives to be displayed on walls in every building. The Orangerie would be enhanced with large lemon and orange trees in beautiful terra cotta pots and a plant service would be hired to make sure they are thriving. I would explore revenue possibilities: a campus-based Continuing Education Center in a green, architecturally significant building with easy parking; and a consortium of FDU, College of St. Elizabeth and Drew University offering classes, seminars and lectures for our neighbors in the surrounding communities. Perhaps FDU could establish a revenue-producing college café in Madison, N.J., to provide wonderful food, revenue for the University and jobs for students. The gardens at Wroxton, particularly the rose gardens, are special. It would be interesting to explore developing a Wroxton Rose that could be sold to visitors.

I would enroll in a school to learn to become a philanthropist to address issues of financial literacy and housing solutions for aging women who live alone. Women live longer and generally have to live on less. We must find better solutions for this important social issue.

People would be surprised to know that I …

… have a passionate interest in American history and American cultural development and that I serve on the Bernardsville Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation. Part of our mission is educational, and three times a year we have speakers on some aspect of preservation, architecture and landscape design. The series is enormously popular, and our audience has been growing. Each lecture has been attracting more than 100 guests.

What profession other than your own would you most like to attempt, and what profession would you want nothing to do with?

I love working with people. It is stimulating, interesting, challenging and never boring. Working in social isolation would be very difficult.

Michael Koskinen

Instructional and Technical Support Specialist, Center for Teaching and Learning with Technology
Metropolitan Campus

How long have you been at FDU?

Since September 2007.

If you could meet anyone in the world, whom would you pick? Why?

Steve Jobs [Apple co-founder] because he seems very entertaining on television and has a wealth of knowledge in the history of computing.

One of the things I have in my refrigerator all the time is ...

… chocolate cherry Diet Dr. Pepper.

What book or film did you recently enjoy? Why would you recommend it?

I recently saw “Juno,” and I thought it was tremendous.

Something I've always wanted to learn is ...

… how to ride a motorcycle.

I collect ...

… losing lottery tickets.

If I won the lottery, I would ...

… purchase a recycling plant to recycle all of my losing lottery tickets.

Complete the phrase: People would be surprised to know that I ...

… use eBay way too much.

What profession other than your own would you most like to attempt, and what profession would you want nothing to do with?

I’ve always wanted to be a general manager for a professional sports team. I would never want any job in the medical field. The insides of people kind of creep me out.

Odysseus Makridis

Assistant Professor of Philosophy
College at Florham

How long have you been at FDU?

Since the spring semester, 2001.

If you could meet anyone in the world, whom would you pick? Why?

Most of the people I would like to meet are dead; so, they are not included in the restricted set of people-alive-today sense of world. But if I can expand the set to include people who are known to have lived at some point, I would like to meet Leibniz, the German philosopher, diplomat and mathematician who, among other things co-invented differential calculus and wrote a long treatise trying to reconcile the existence of physical and moral evil in the world with the presumed existence of an all-powerful and benevolent deity. (My choice of languages to use in talking to him would be Latin, French and German — what do you think?)

What book or film did you recently enjoy? Why would you recommend it?

I enjoyed reading a book outside my area of expertise recently: Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. Johnson, John F. Kennedy’s vice president who ascended to the presidency after Kennedy was assassinated, is a fascinating figure if you are interested in how institutional mechanisms work, how they are supposed to work and how they can be circumvented, reinvented and stretched to work in unexpected, and often undesirable, ways.

As a Senate majority leader, Johnson pushed our system of government as close as it could get to a European-style, cabinet-type government. This is not what the Founding Fathers intended. Read and find for yourself how he managed to have policies pass by behind-closed-door bargaining with minimal debate of issues in the Senate and very little friction for administrations. Johnson was a master of mechanical-institutional manipulation, bargaining technique and alliance-building maneuvering. But what is the purpose of all this ado? The mystery of the man comprises the big question: what, if any, values did he deem essential, for the sake of which all this fuss was worth undertaking? Johnson became acutely aware of this metaphysical desideratum, especially near the end of his life. As president, he made an effort to promote the most aggressive civil rights legislation ever but, inevitably, did not go very far because he became bogged down in the unfolding Vietnam debacle. (Well, Kennedy assassination buffs are also interested in the perennial question as to whether Johnson had anything to do with some kind of conspiracy to assassinate JFK, but I don’t have anything on that …)

Something I’ve always wanted to learn is ...

… mathematical techniques, like Hessian matrices, which are used to solve many-variable systems of equations and are opaque to the uninitiated; also the theorems in one of the most advanced areas of formal logic known as decidability theorems.

I collect ...

… logic textbooks.

If I won the lottery, I would ...

… not stop teaching or studying philosophy.

Complete the phrase: People would be surprised to know that I ...

… play soccer videogames.

What profession other than your own would you most like to attempt, and what profession would you want nothing to do with?

Although I was never really tempted by law school in spite of my good grades, I do find jurisprudence (not to be confused with gimmicky lawyering) attractive. I would not want to have anything to do with the corporate occupations.

Marilyn Rubin

Lecturer of Allied Health and Associate Director of Allied Health Programs
Metropolitan Campus

How long have you been at FDU?

I have been at FDU since fall 2004.

If you could meet anyone in the world, whom would you pick? Why?

I would have to go back in time and wish I had the opportunity to meet Golda Meir, Israel’s first prime minister (1969–1974) and the third woman in the world to hold this office. She also was known as the “iron lady” of the Israeli cabinet and one of two women who signed the Israeli Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948.

One of the things I have in my refrigerator all the time is ...

… yogurt.

What book or film did you recently enjoy? Why would you recommend it?

I really enjoyed reading My Sister’s Keeper, by Jody Picoult. This book deals with a timely moral dilemma — is it ethical to conceive a child that meets certain genetic requirements, thus a “designer baby”? I require this book in my Bioethics class since the subject matter is relevant to the course.

Something I’ve always wanted to learn is ...

… how to read Hebrew, since I only attended Hebrew School for a few years as a child. Last year, I began weekly classes in learning how to read Hebrew in preparation for an Adult Bar and Bat Mitzvah Program, which is being conducted at Congregation Beth Shalom in Teaneck, N.J.

I collect ...

… items that have dragon flies since I am fascinated watching them circle around while I am boating on the Stockbridge Bowl in Stockbridge, Mass.

If I won the lottery, I would ...

… continue doing everything I do now in my wonderful life, but with more style and a lot less stress and worry. I also would help my children pay off their student loans for college and graduate school.

Complete the phrase: People would be surprised to know that I ...

… love to walk and have earned the nick name of “Mrs. Walker.” I also love to garden and enjoy listening to classical music, especially during the summer at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass.

What profession other than your own would you most like to attempt, and what profession would you want nothing to do with?

This is the profession I love, medical technology and allied health science, but if I had the opportunity to do it over again, I would go to medical school. I would like to have nothing to do with politics or mortuary science.

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March 2008

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Flor =
College at Florham, Madison, N.J.

Metro =
Metropolitan Campus, Teaneck, N.J.

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