North Carolina State’s laws on sexual offenders are misplaced
Artificial Intelligence Synthetic neural networks aim to simulate human behavior
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MEN’S BASKETBALL Rutgers looks to play spoiler at home against Maryland
WEATHER Cloudy with a chance of rain High: 64 Low: 54
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New Hillel center holds housewarming Christian Zapata contributing writer
The Rutgers Jewish community celebrated “Hillel Housewarming” Sunday with warm food and music as students enjoyed themselves and explored the facility. Oven-baked chocolate chip cookies and a congregation of students from the community filled the newly-constructed Hillel Center on the College Avenue campus. Students from all denominations of Judaism and other religions were welcomed to the facility that is equipped with a cafe, student study areas, prayer rooms and many more amenities. Samantha Brandspiegel, School of Arts and Sciences senior and president of the Hillel Student Board, said that they have had a building on College Avenue for some time but a few years back they realized they needed a larger space. They then got the ball rolling on the development of the new building, she said.
Rutgers Hillel is a diverse Jewish community dedicated to exploring Judaism and ever ything it means to be Jewish. It ser ves as a branch of The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, the largest Jewish campus organization in the world, which provides opportunities for Jewish students at more than 500 colleges worldwide, according to their website. The goal of Rutgers Hillel is to make the organization more available and accessible to students by providing a home-like atmosphere, Brandspiegel said. They want people to come in, use the cafe and interact with the daily activities so they can better reach out to the community. People were notified of the event two weeks ago and were very excited about it, she said. “Some of the events we have planned are Shabbat dinners that take place every Friday night for groups up to 350 people. With our many new offices we are able to expand leadership roles to new
Organizers marked the near-completion of the new Hillel Center on College Avenue with a housewarming celebration, which featured fresh-cooked food and music. DIMITRI RODRIGUEZ / ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR heights and develop programs, speakers and activities like challah baking for Shabbat,” she said. Brandspiegel said that the Hillel has become her “home away from home.” “I was here a year ago and it was just walls — come about a week ago to see where we are now and I was sobbing tears,” Brandspiegel said.
The student board office was able to take part in the creative process to figure out what the students wanted. Brandspiegel said this facility has been made to their specifications and the needs of their students, staff and the greater community. All around the building they had different board members discussing
1st female mascot looks back on career Brian Fonseca correspondent
The Scarlet Knight sat on top of its horse at the entrance of the tunnel at the edge of the field at High Point Solutions Stadium, staring at the thousands of fans filing into their seats for a primetime matchup between the Rutgers football team and visiting Penn State. It was “Senior Night,” a tradition held in the final home game of the season to honor the players before their last battle on their home turf. But that rainy night in November had a rare send-off for the mascot as well. When it was all over, Janine Puhak held a smaller send-off away from the 51,366 people in the bleachers. She embraced her two coaches, the pair who guided her through her journey as the first female to ever don the metal uniform of the Scarlet Knight, putting the cherry on top of what she hailed to be her favorite gameday on the job. “My two coaches, they gave me such a big hug. My family was there. My family is from Pennsylvania so they’re big Penn State people. Lots of people came out to see me do it one last time and they were just so proud of me, you know what I mean?” Puhak said. “And I’m
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proud myself that I can be the first girl to be the first horseman and I’m proud of a lot of things I’ve done in college, but that’s something that never changed. It’s really exciting.” Puhak’s career as the Scarlet Knight horseman began when she started attending the University in 2013, but her love of riding horses spans back a decade earlier when she started riding horses at 9 years old at the Watchung Stables near her hometown of Cranford, New Jersey. The School of Arts and Sciences senior became more involved in the sport when she entered middle school, dropping other activities she participated in, such as cheerleading and dance, to dedicate more time to horseback riding, she said. “The horse bug kind of bit me in middle school,” Puhak said. “Before I knew it, I was hooked. I was at the barn every single day.” She would spend a couple hours at the stables every day as a member of its Mounted Troops after school riding program, continuously participating, despite suffering from multiple injuries like minor concussions, bruised ribs and a broken left arm. She eventually worked her way up to the highest rank of first class trooper.
the upcoming programs along with different arts and crafts, said Paulee Manich, School of Arts and Sciences junior and student board vice president. Along with other groups like the Russian-Jewish Club, everyone was there to welcome their own specific communities, she said. By having different denominations of Judaism integrated into the separate areas of the building grants each group their own space, Manich said. Each room opens into the same common area so that people can still reconvene for Shabbat dinner after individual activities are done. “It allows us to have multiple different programs at the same time and let students have the opportunity to balance between different things in order to gain new perspective,” she said. Similar to the lounge located in many dorms, the Hillel Center’s common rooms function as social circles allowing people to step in to greet friends and other members of the community, Manich said. All of the amenities that come with the building only help us to further the sense of community. In See center on Page 4
N.J. climatologist explains recent temperature hike Nikhilesh De correspondent
rode for a couple of hours and they were like ‘we like the way you ride.’” Puhak won the job, an unprecedented accomplishment for a woman. But that came with some consequences. The costume was designed with the average build of the men who wore it in the past — too big for a 5-foot-5-inch first-year woman. So a custom suit was made for her with “smaller gloves and smaller parts for the (leg) covers,” she said.
New Brunswick reached a record-high temperature for February on Friday after the city soared to 77 degrees Fahrenheit, marking the warmest day in the month in 124 years. The last week has also been among the warmest for New Jersey in February in recorded history, said David Robinson, a Rutgers professor in the Department of Geography. “With observations at New Brunswick dating back to 1893, the 77-degree (Fahrenheit) maximum temperature last Friday was the warmest on record for the month,” the New Jersey State Climatologist said in an email. “It exceeded the previous 76-degree (Fahrenheit) maximum on February 25, 1930. New Brunswick also set a record for consecutive days of 70 degrees (Fahrenheit) or higher last Thursday (71), Friday (77) and Saturday (74).” A warm current of air flowed up from the south, which was partially responsible for these warmer temperatures, he said. This current and the several sunny days New Jersey saw under cloudless skies contributed to the high temperatures.
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See Temperature on Page 4
At “Senior Night,” Janine Puhak ended her four-year career as the first female Scarlet Knight in history. During her time at Rutgers, she kept her identity a secret, living a double life. JEFFREY GOMEZ / PHOTO EDITOR When she found out she could use her talents to represent her university on gameday, she jumped at the chance. “It was the summer before (my freshman year), I had just kind of heard through the grapevine,” Puhak said. “It was through the Rutgers cheerleading and dance program. They were the ones that put out something online and it was like ‘If you’re interested in becoming the Scarlet Knight for the Fall 2013 football season, reach out to this contact. I went and I horseback rode and horseback rode and horseback
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