THE DAILY TARGUM
Volume 141, Number 74
S E R V I N G
T H E
R U T G E R S
C O M M U N I T Y
S I N C E
Today: Partly cloudy
AGAINST ALL ODDS
High: 45 • Low: 28
The Rutgers women’s basketball team faces the fearsome Connecticut Huskies tonight at the XL Center. No. 1 UConn has not lost a regular season game since 2008 against the Knights.
TUESDAY JANUARY 26, 2010
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Proposed ‘RAC renaissance’ to enhance subpar facilities BY MATTHEW STEIN SPORTS EDITOR
The expansion of Rutgers Stadium took its fair share of criticisms, but the increased attendance numbers and revenue headed toward the athletic depar tment and the University placed added incentive for Athletic Director Tim Pernetti to move for ward with another new expansion. Citing years of hindrance on athletic practices, offices and the general need for an upgrade, Pernetti said a development for the 31-year-old Louis Brown Athletic Center on Livingston campus is in the works.
The everyday host of athletic department offices, practice facilities and locker rooms for a number of athletic teams and the site of men and women’s basketball games, Pernetti is referring to the improvements — centered around a new basketball practice facility — as the “renaissance of the RAC.” “We live in an event-driven market, and it’s important that one of our goals in this project remains to create more of an event and an experience than just a game,” Pernetti said. The expansion is still in its infant stages. Pernetti said the final designs have not yet been determined,
SEE FACILITIES ON PAGE 7
DAVID PAL
DAN BRACAGLIA/ MULTIMEDIA EDITOR
The Louis Brown Athletic Center on Livingston campus is in the planning stage for a possible upgrade that would include a new scoreboard, new hardwood floors, more general and club seats, luxury boxes and a dining facility. The project is expected to take about two years to complete.
INDEX
U. cooks up recognition for honorary figure BY COLLEEN ROACHE
PENDULUM Students weigh in on their views about the legalization of medical marijuana.
OPINIONS Digitization of books through sites like Google are providing ways to circumvent University ethics. UNIVERSITY . . . . . . . 3 OPINIONS . . . . . . . 10 DIVERSIONS . . . . . . 12 CLASSIFIEDS . . . . . . 14 SPORTS . . . . . . BACK
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CORRESPONDENT
Few people have the opportunity to have a 192nd birthday celebration — George H. Cook is one of them. Students honored Cook, whose birthday was earlier this month, yesterday afternoon in the G.H. Cook Room of the Cook Campus Center. A presentation on Cook’s life and achievements, a
speech by a guest speaker and a cake were all part of the event, which was organized by the SEBS/Cook Council. “For himself, he asked only the privilege of doing his work and doing it to the best of his ability,” said Guest Speaker Jean Wilson Sidar in a speech commemorating the campus’ namesake. Sidar, author of “George Hammell Cook: A Life in Agriculture and Geology,” wrote the biography after the New Jersey Agricultural Association requested
someone at the University do so as a doctoral dissertation. She had not planned on writing the book, which is based on first-hand accounts from Cook, but she has no regrets. “I became interested in Cook, and I was so glad that I had,” the New Jersey College for Women alumna said. “He really is a remarkable man. … Everything he did, he did so well.”
SEE FIGURE ON PAGE 4
Report recommends rebuilding education structure BY GREG FLYNN CORRESPONDENT
Gov. Chris Christie’s administration issued a transition report on education Friday, offering a peek at its dreams to renew support for higher education by developing a new funding structure and dismantling regulations the subcommittee believes are obsolete or ineffective. All higher education institutions in the state are underfunded — some grossly underfunded — according to the report prepared by a subcommittee Christie appointed. Given the state’s bottom-of-thenation ranking in funding changes for
higher education over the last several years, more funding for operating support would be a positive step, the report states. “N.J. loses about 30,000 students a year and imports only about 3,600 students. New York State, by comparison, with a population more than twice that of N.J., loses about 27,000 students, but it also imports more than 27,000,” according to the report. New Jersey’s net out-migration of college students is the highest in the nation, according to the report. School of Arts and Sciences junior Diana Won said students might leave the state because they have been
accepted to a school in another state because of their performance in one of New Jersey’s high schools. “People tend to have the most capital in New Jersey, and we also have a great public education system, in terms of high school education,” Won said. “We have some of the best students in the country, and they tend to want to leave. Rutgers is a great university, but it doesn’t have very much prestige in our state.” After meeting with the executive board of the N.J. College Presidents’ Council Dec. 14 at the University, Christie renewed his campaign promise to increase state investment in higher education but cautioned that
the state’s $8 billion budget deficit may stop that from happening this year, according to NJ.com. School of Arts and Sciences junior Fierz Ali said he would believe the pledge for support when he sees it. “Ever ybody always says they’re going to do it, but it’s one thing to say you’re going to do it and another to actually do it,” Ali said. Ali said he hopes Christie follows through. “I think education should be one of the first places you allocate money to,” he said.
SEE STRUCTURE ON PAGE 4
Today is the last day to add classes for the Spring 2010 semester.