December 8, 2022
Hackettstown, NJ – Centenary University will celebrate 50 Years of Title IX on Saturday, December 10, at the next home women’s basketball game vs. Five Towns College. The 1 pm game will be held in the John M. Reeves Student Recreation Center on the Centenary University campus.
Several special activities at the game will mark Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the landmark federal civil rights law that prohibits gender-based discrimination in any school or educational program that receives funding from the federal government. The law expanded opportunities for female athletes to participate in sports and earn scholarships at the high school and college levels.
During halftime at the game, Centenary University President Bruce Murphy, Ed.D., will welcome the crowd and introduce Cyclone alumna Mona F. Ressaissi, Esq., who will deliver an address on Title IX. An attorney with Hackettstown firm Margolin & Neuner, Ressaissi previously served as a policy advisor to New Jersey Board of Public Utilities President Jeanne M. Fox. The 1998 Centenary University graduate earned a Master in International Human Rights Law (LLM) from the Raoul Wallenberg Institute at the School of Law at Lund University in Sweden, as well as a Juris Doctor from Rutgers School of Law in Newark, serving as her class graduation speaker.
A three-sport athlete at Centenary, Ressaissi participated in basketball, soccer, and cross country for the Cyclones. She was the first Centenary women’s basketball player to surpass the 1,000-point mark since the University became an NCAA DIII school. Ressaissi was inducted into the Centenary University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011.
Bonus: Triple Double
Cyclone opponents are seeing double—times three—this season when they take on the Centenary University women’s basketball team. This year’s squad includes three sets of twins, a rarity among college athletic teams. Multiples on the team are sophomores Kaylie and Tanya Elsbree of Freehold Township, NJ; first-year students Jasmine and Kayla Sampong of Pompton Lakes, NJ; and first-year students Sofia and Viviana Mendez of Weehawken, NJ. In addition, Five Towns College also has a set of twins on the roster—creating the potential to have four sets of twins playing in the game at different times.
ABOUT CENTENARY UNIVERSITY
Founded in 1867 by the Newark Conference of the United Methodist Church, Centenary University’s academic program integrates a solid liberal arts foundation with a strong career orientation. This mix provides an educational experience that prepares students to succeed in the increasingly global and interdependent world. The University’s main campus is located in Hackettstown, N.J., with its equestrian facility in Washington Township.