Admissions officers nationwide point to several possible reasons for the drop in applications. Some students have pared their college lists this year. Many more are looking at less-expensive state universities. Many institutions accepted more students under binding early-decision programs, and each such acceptance drains off an average of 8 to 10 regular-decision applications. And some experts suspect that students are delaying their college plans.

I hope that the last sentence here is somewhat correct. I wrote last April about an article talking about how more students are deciding to take time off in-between high school and college. The suggestion above by the New York Times might be the proof to the previous article.

Many students would be much better served by taking this time off and getting an internship or an entry-level job somewhere. So long as high school graduates do not begin to get themselves into a mountain of debt, the option to apply to college and begin a more rigorous study is always available. Now, of course it would not be a good idea to prolong the college activities for too long. But if high school graduates are beginning to think about alternatives to the quick entrance into college, then I think that can only be a good thing.

Besides giving the students a bit more of a real world view on issues (which is often lacking in the academy), the decline in students who immediately enter college could put colleges in a new position where they have to prove the value of their education. In other words, colleges might be put in a position to have to show how each dollar spent by a student (or his/her family) can translate into real dollars earned post-graduation.

Some forward-thinking departments at the local college are already putting these facts out there – or at least trying to generate the right numbers to put out to the public. Talk about a powerful piece of information for the college applicant. Imagine being able to look at a variety of business schools and choose from the ones that have a proven track record of creating the highest paid executives? There’s some education reform that everyone can believe in…

More than 35 million Americans, including 12 million children, either live with or are on the verge of hunger. In New Jersey alone, an estimated 250,000 new clients will be seeking sustenance this year from the state’s food banks. But recently, as requests for food assistance have risen, food donations are on the decline, leaving food bank shelves almost empty and hungry families waiting for something to eat.

The situation is dire, no more so than at the Community Food Bank of New Jersey (CFBNJ), the largest food bank in the state, where requests for food have gone up 30 percent, but donations are down by 25 percent. Warehouse shelves that are typically stocked with food are bare and supplies have gotten so low that, for the first time in its 25 year history, the food bank is developing a rationing mechanism.

As the state’s key distributor of food to local food banks – serving more than 500,000 people a year and providing assistance to nearly 1,700 non-profits in the state – the stability of replenishment of the CFBNJ is essential to ensuring that individuals in need have access to food.

If everyone could just do a little, it would help those in need a lot. To help, people can:

1. Make a monetary contribution: Visit www.njfoodbank.org.
2. Donate food: Drop off a bag of food at your local food pantry.
3. Organize a food drive: We can help explain the logistics of starting a food drive. Just call 908-355-FOOD.
4. Help “Check Out Hunger:” Look for the “Check Out Hunger” coupons at your local supermarket and donate. No donation is too small!

One thing that people commonly confuse is the role of the food bank. The CFBNJ is similar to a wholesale distributor, providing food to charities throughout the state, who then give this food directly to the hungry (the food bank does not give food directly to individuals). The food bank also does not accept small amounts of food, such as a cart of groceries. They encourage those donations go directly to a local food pantry or soup kitchen. Rather, the food bank accepts large quantity food donations, such as a truck full of groceries, as well as monetary donations which they stretch to purchase food at wholesale prices, such as 300 pound bags of rice.

Looking for a food pantry in your area of the state? Check out sefan.org to find one near you!

For more information on the Community Food Bank of New Jersey and to read where the statistics above came from, please download the Community Food Bank of New Jersey fact sheet by clicking here.

A sharp decline in business at the 34-lane alley was responsible for the decision to close, according to Dover Lanes’ manager, Joyce Reynolds.

On Tuesday night bowlers were moved by the sight of workers already dismantling Lanes 29 through 34.

Ms. Reynolds has been the manager at Dover Lanes for as long as I can remember. I hope that she lands on her feet. It’s also interesting to note that a sharp decline in business is being marked as the reason to close the alley down. Circle Lanes in Roxbury has much higher prices and a really awkward ball return system that is guaranteed to destroy your bowling ball and yet they’re still in operation. Weird. More from the article:

Atlanta-based developer Trammell Crow Residential announced in 2005 that it wanted to buy the bulk of the properties on Bassett Highway and tear them down to make way for a residential and retail development with hundreds of apartments. Although the company’s plans for the street are still alive, the completion of a deal that would allow the beginning of construction has been slowed by the slump in the housing market. As a result, Trammell Crow has yet to reach the required development agreement with Dover’s Board of Aldermen.

Dover Lanes, along with the other businesses in the proposed development area, are allowed to remain in their current locations until a development agreement is reached. But Reynolds said the mere announcement of Trammell Crow’s plans prompted the managers of many leagues to decline to renew their contracts with Dover Lanes because they feared the alley would be shut down in the middle of their leagues’ seasons.

Two interesting points here. First, to knock down that entire street and put up contemporary developments will absolutely ruin the character of the town in that part of Dover. There is a certain charm about that area which can be restored if those in charge just focus their efforts! But knocking down the entire block and putting up “hundreds” of apartments and retail on the bottom? Talk about gentrification at its worst.

Second, how interesting that the redevelopment plan – which appears to be an economic development as much as a residential project – actually caused this local business to cave. Isn’t that the exact opposite of what economic development plans are supposed to bring to the table? And since I’ve had ample opportunity to sit in many of the brain storming meetings for these economic development plans, I can tell you that no one is thinking about having a bowling alley as part of the new development. Other than restaurants and the occasional bar, it’s extremely rare for an economic/residential stimulus project to have any night life associated with it – even night life as low-key as a bowling alley.

What a shame. Morris County and North Jersey loses another local hangout that brought people together to have good old-fashioned fun.