The Daily Targum 2010-02-18

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THE DAILY TARGUM

Volume 141, Number 89

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

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 18, 2010

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Today: Partly sunny

ONE FOR THE SHELF

High: 40 • Low: 25

To inject true entertainment in this year's cinema award show season, Inside Beat looks at the Oscars and the Razzies for the high and low points of Hollywood's year in review.

U. trims back plans for greening project BY COLLEEN ROACHE CORRESPONDENT

NICHOLAS BRASOWSKI

The Easton Avenue Corridor Study aims to investigate ways to improve its intersections. Some goals are to reduce traffic congestion and modify traffic signals. No construction is set yet.

Study steers toward reducing traffic BY CATHERINE CARRERA CORRESPONDENT

For many city travelers, Easton Avenue might be the route to avoid during rush hours. That is why Franklin Township hosted its first public meeting last week to discuss the Easton Avenue Corridor Study, which aims to investigate possible improvements to its intersections and reduce traffic congestion.

Launched by planning boards in Somerset and Middlesex Counties in October 2009, the study is near the end of its first phase of gathering and analyzing information, Consultant Project Manager Daniel Kueper said. “The study pretty much confirmed what everyone [who] drives through intersections on Easton Avenue argues,” he said. “The analysis basically pinpointed the intersections that are congested

City council votes to revise home inspection laws

on the corridor. It’s our basis to move for ward and to see if anything can be done at all to reduce the congestion.” Kueper said the purpose of the meeting was to hear thoughts and strategies on how the intersections can be improved. A modification of traffic signal timing can make a difference, he said. The study is focusing on a

SEE TRAFFIC ON PAGE 7

Overall, financial difficulties were top concerns at the University Board of Governors meeting Wednesday evening in Winants Hall on the College Avenue campus, but one University expense stood out in particular — the greening of the ver y campus the meeting took place. University administrators once again recommended that the University’s highest governing body vote to postpone the progression of the College Avenue Greening project, a suggestion board members supported when they agreed to delay continuance of the project. “All of the other projects that we bring to you for your approval — the dining hall on [Livingston] campus, the proteomics building and the Nelson [Biology Laboratories C-wing] all come with revenue streams …,” said University President Richard L. McCormick. “There’s no revenue stream for the greening of College Avenue unless you charge students for walking past bushes and trees.”

As per the board’s vote, plans to close College Avenue to vehicles and add greenery to the campus will be put off indefinitely, Senior Vice President for Finance and Adminstration Bruce Fehn said. “I regret this, but we have no other choice,” McCormick said. Eric Kaplan, student representative for the board, said the decision to postpone the project was the most significant issue brought for th at last night’s meeting. “It’s a real shame,” he said. Still, Kaplan said he sympathized with the president’s reasoning and called his remarks encouraging. Though McCormick said both he and Mayor Jim Cahill are saddened by the decision, he also said the project is infeasible right now due to the University’s heavy dependence on buses. The $17 million in funds allocated for the College Avenue Greening project will be used for the Center for Integrative Proteomics Technologies Project, which will require the University to borrow an additional $30 million, Fehn said.

SEE PLANS ON PAGE 7

GALLERY PIECE

INDEX OPINIONS High school administration cancels dance because of fears of kids ‘freaking.’

BY CATHERINE CARRERA CORRESPONDENT

The New Brunswick City Council unanimously passed a contentious rent control ordinance last night after almost two hours of hearing arguments from residents who opposed it. The rent control ordinance addresses the issue of home inspection for two or more family, owneroccupied homes, requiring the non-owner occupied part of the homes to be subject to inspection ever y three years. The inspections will address safety and other issues. During the bimonthly public meeting in City Hall, many New Brunswick residents agreed on most safety issues such as overcrowding, but the residents did not feel the ordinance clearly addressed what inspectors will be doing in their homes. “When the government is going into private homes, you need to make it very clear about what you will be

SEE LAWS ON PAGE 4

SPORTS The Rutgers wrestling team hosts Drexel at the College Avenue Gym tonight in Senior Night for four grapplers.

SKYLA POJEDNIC

Students explore various works of art by their peers yesterday at the Art Gallery Contest and Reception hosted by the Rutgers University Programming Association, held in the Douglass Campus Center. Mason Gross School of the Arts sophomore Francesca Fiore took home the first place prize.

Professor aspires to combat viral spambots BY SHANE BRENNAN STAFF WRITER

Former University Assistant Professor Danfeng Yao is addressing a problem common to all people who own an e-mail address — viruses. Viruses containing harmful malware reach individuals by arriving in

their inboxes claiming to be from known companies like Facebook, the United Parcel Ser vice and Adobe, Yao said. The weakness lies within the fact that e-mail systems do not have a default authentication mechanism, he said. “The sender of a message can easily be spoofed and forged, as in these

incidents, as well as many phishing e-mails,” Yao said. To remedy this problem, he is researching and developing techniques in order to strengthen security to the accounts in the first place. “Our project is to improve the robustness of personal questions in order to gain authorization [to an account],” Yao said.

UNIVERSITY . . . . . . . 3 OPINIONS . . . . . . . 10 DIVERSIONS . . . . . . 12 CLASSIFIEDS . . . . . . 14

“Our approach [is] to use elaborate per- SPORTS . . . . . . BACK sonal knowledge on your daily activities in order to verify proper authentication.” Security questions on Web sites ask for information like the name of the ONLINE @ user’s first pet or the maiden name of DAILYTARGUM.COM the user’s mother, he said.

SEE SPAMBOTS ON PAGE 4


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