A lot has been buried on the Stevens campus, but sometimes with a stroke of luck, tidbits of lost history can be unearthed. By chance, records hidden in a file cabinet were found containing documents of another secret society that once existed on Stevens grounds — FOCUS.
The entire purpose of FOCUS was to create a better forum of open communication between the students and the administration. They wanted to correct the ongoing issue that student concerns were not being addressed by administrators. At the time, the Student Government Association (SGA) and KHODA (the Farsi word for ‘God’ and also a currently existing secret society on campus) were two students groups that already existed to work for the betterment of students, but a group of students — who composed the first FOCUS — felt that both the SGA and KHODA were not doing a proper job in serving the students.
The inception of FOCUS was on April 9, 1999 and had seven founding members, which consisted of Michael Ferrara, James Hietala, Mark Greco, Sara Jane Martin, Kristina Henkler, Joseph Cook, and Mayush Singhvi, and had Jeffrey Stanton as an alumni advisor and Roger Cole, the Vice President of Student Affairs at Stevens in 1999, as their advisor. These members were individuals involved in student organizations on campus. The organization was meant to be different from other organizations on campus. They “would not try to do things simply because it existed, but would utilize the contacts of the members and act as a Forum for the campus leaders to try and decide on direction of student life. There would be no Executive Board, and no Robert’s Rules of Order,” as written in an email by Cole. The name FOCUS was chosen so it wouldn’t seem mysterious or similar to a secret society, thus establishing itself as an open channel.
The series of events leading up to the direct creation of FOCUS took place over the course of approximately one month in early Spring 1999. On March 8, 1999, Rose Pehrson, dean of the Faculty’s Office at the time, sent an email to seven individuals to arrange a meeting to “discuss Institute policies,” which was known to be a cover for the KHODA tapping ceremony or induction. However, on the date of the intended KHODA tapping, a note was placed on the door cancelling it. Canceling the meeting gave off the impression to FOCUS members that KHODA was rethinking its own position on choosing their inductees among their friends.
On March 12, 1999, an editorial written in The Stute made a jab at KHODA, saying, “if the membership taps people who have the same ideas as the current members, the organization will quickly grow stagnant. What good is inducting someone who is so weak of character that they are afraid to rock the boat?” They added that “if they are going to be the voice of the student body, they cannot be weak. They cannot fall prey to people who are only trying to protect their best interests. The members of Khoda should be honorable in their pursuits and at all times work for the betterment of the students. They should not be sheep.”
In that same issue of The Stute, a letter to the editor was published questioning if KHODA actually represents students and whether the administration should rely on students elected by their classmates to represent them, not secret groups. The criticism of KHODA inflamed its members so severely that members of the secret group were seen stealing 200 copies of this issue from the distribution bin in the Howe Center, restricting freedom of the press. Two weeks later, the FOCUS members met with Roger Cole to discuss their concerns about KHODA, mainly with the fact that the secrecy of the society prevents students from providing them feedback. During this meeting, Cole was excited about a group that would disseminate information from the students and provide valuable input to the administration.
No record of FOCUS exists beyond the last news clip of Cole’s excitement, and the current status of FOCUS is unknown.
A random selection of students was asked on their thoughts on FOCUS. Dakota Van Deursen provided a seemingly innocent comment on the matter, “I’ve got nothing to say about FOCUS.” Meanwhile, Eric Londres provided insight on the possible perpetuation of the group on campus by saying, “the real FOCUS was not being in KHODA the entire time.”
Perhaps FOCUS was silenced, perhaps it was removed from existence, perhaps, as imagined by a columnist in the April 16, 1999 edition of The Stute, the SGA, KHODA, and FOCUS have somehow all combined into the supergroup “Skahodagus” that handles “ALL student concerns.” Or perhaps it still exists somewhere else, somewhere among us.
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