I LOVE NJ

Someone once told Michael B. Jobbins ’04 that he was from the boil on the ass of America. Comments like this aren’t unusual when you live in New Jersey, a place alternately referred to as the armpit of America, New York’s garbage dump and turnpike heaven. Finally Jobbins and his two roommates, Albert J. Lim ’04 and Ryan G. White ’04, decided that they had enough of the abuse, that it was time to fight back on behalf of their mid-Atlantic home. They founded a student group called Harvard Lovers of the Garden State, otherwise known as H-LOGS.

Jobbins and Lim, co-presidents of H-LOGS, have big plans for their new organization, which the College officially recognized in early March. “We want shuttle buses to New Jersey during major holidays that bypass Manhattan and make the New Yorkers take public transportation from Jersey,” Lim announced to the 20 students in attendance at the first meeting, held March 12 in Loker Coffee House (“the closest thing to a diner on campus,” according to the co-presidents). The two also have big ideas for pre-frosh weekend, when they want H-LOGS members to host pre-frosh from Jersey, and hope to have a booth at the extracurricular fair. “We want diner trips too,” Jobbins says, “to real diners. The ones that are open all night.” Bowling trips, laser tag and a viewing of the Atlantic City-based Miss America Pageant were also proposed.

Along with deep, probing questions—how far north do WaWas go before 7-11s take over?—those in attendance at the first meeting of H-LOGS also discussed how not all of Jersey is the same. One girl from Camden complained that people always rag on South Jersey, at which point Lim asked if she had ever been shot. Lim later guaranteed that an anti-discrimination clause for South Jerseyans had been put in the new club’s constitution. H-LOGS even welcomes members from other states—the group’s treasurer is from Maryland. “It’s ‘Lovers of the Garden State,’” Jobbins says. “So as long as you love Jersey, you can come.”

So far, 80 people are on the club’s e-mail list (though only 17 attended the first meeting) and there are, according to the co-presidents, 30-40 officers. “I like to call my position ‘Grand Inquisitor of the Nature of All Beings,’” White says. “Vice President is such a boring title.”

No matter what position you get in H-LOGS, the main purpose of the club, according to an initial e-mail, is “to celebrate New Jersey, to learn about Jersey defenses, to indulge yourself in people from your own state.” And when you’re from what some affectionately call “the smelly state,” learning how to have state pride is key.

“We have only full-service gas stations, so you stay in your car when you get gas and don’t have to go out in the rain,” says Abbie S. Davies ’04, a member of H-LOGS. “New Jersey people are smart,” White adds. “Nine out of 10 presidents are from New Jersey.”

While the founders of H-LOGS mostly celebrate Jersey, they do have opinions of other states. “We hate the Texas club,” says Jobbins, who also has a special distaste for Ohio because “it’s in the Midwest.”

“And who’s from Minnesota?” Lim asks.