THE DAILY TARGUM
Volume 141, Number 126
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
MONDAY APRIL 19, 2010
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Today: Mostly sunny
MILLENNIUM MAN
High: 64 • Low: 42
The Rutgers baseball team swept South Florida to move into first place in the Big East. In doing so, head coach Fred Hill Sr. earned his 1,000th victory in his 27th year at the helm of the Scarlet Knights.
U. implements more guest meal swipes BY DEVIN SIKORSKI ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
With many students using up their 10 given guest meals at University dining halls ever y semester, a new system will allow those who need access for family and friends to purchase more. The Rutgers University Student Assembly and Dining Ser vices developed a new mini-block meal plan that allows students to purchase five extra guest swipes for $35 at any point during the semester. The previous
KIRSTEN NUBER
Various organizations around the New Brunswick area as well as solo runners participate in the Unite Half Marathon yesterday beginning on Busch campus and ending on the College Avenue campus, a stretch of nearly 13.1 miles.
Volunteers go the distance for charity BY VANDAN UPADHYAYA CONTRIBUTING WRITER
More than 4,000 runners, 300 volunteers and close to 25 local bands took to the University’s streets yesterday to participate in the inaugural Unite Half Marathon. The marathon is a fitness and fundraising event organized and owned by CGI Racing, one of the premiere race management companies in the region, said Julie Delaney, a CGI Racing representative. “We created this Unite series because we wanted to combine that university atmosphere and camaraderie with the lifestyle healthiness of runners,” said Michelle Redrow, cofounder of CGI Racing.
INDEX UNIVERSITY Two students win a prestigious award to advocate for minority rights internationally.
METRO Local New Brunswick volunteers get together to kick off a week-long city cleanup known as “Urban Clean Up Week.”
UNIVERSITY . . . . . . . 3 METRO . . . . . . . . . . 7 OPINIONS . . . . . . . . 8 DIVERSIONS . . . . . . 10 CLASSIFIEDS . . . . . . 12 SPORTS . . . . . . BACK
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Although produced by CGI Racing, the marathon was co-sponsored by the Rutgers Recreation Department. “The reason why we held the event at Rutgers is because we were really interested in the University audience,” Delany said. “Rutgers is a beautiful place with lots of space.” Marathon planners aimed to make a bigger impact through the event by allowing people to use the unite theme, Redrow said. “Ten charities have raised over $40,000 for their efforts, and each of them become a Unite partner, and they use the race as a platform to raise money,” she said. CGI Racing also wanted to raise money for the University’s recreation
department which is self-funded, Redrow said. The race commenced at 8 a.m. with New Egypt, N.J. resident Ted Kucowski and his disabled son, Brandon, leading the way. “He starts every one of our races,” Redrow said. “He pushes his son the whole 13 miles in a wheelchair.” The runners, who were of all ages, ran a course that stretched for 13.1 miles, starting at the Sonny Werblin Recreation Center on Busch campus and ending at Voorhees Mall on the College Avenue campus. Many participants concluded their race after about 2 to 3 hours of tracking through the course.
ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
The Rutgers Percussion Ensemble, a mix of undergraduate and graduate musicians at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, brings a variety of sounds to the University each semester with a free show in the Nicholas Music Center on the Douglass campus. Joseph Tompkins, director of the Rutgers Percussion Ensemble and chair of the percussion program at the University, has led the musicians for two years. “I thought it was great,” he said of the groups’ second and final performance of the academic year, held yesterday. “Ever ybody worked really hard.” The percussion ensemble gives students the opportunity to play a wide range of literature written just for percussion instruments, Tompkins said. Recently incorporated into this range is the AfroCuban style.
SEE SWIPES ON PAGE 4
HOUSING PREDICTS HOTELS WILL NOT BE NEEDED The University has projected that students may not have to live in hotels for the 2010-2011 academic year. Vice President for Student Affairs Gregor y S. Blimling said compared to last year, fewer students requested housing this year. “We may not have as many students choose to live on campus because of financial reasons,” Blimling said. There are still some vacancies in some of the first-year residence halls and in Rockoff Hall, he said. There are about 600 students on the waiting list for 2010-2011 housing, but some of these students might be requesting specific housing arrangements, Blimling said. “Often we’ll have students on the waiting list for very specific kinds of rooms,” he said. There are about 500 students this year who live in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Somerset, N.J., he said. Blimling said while the University will not make any final decisions until May 1, when all of the application numbers are finalized, the University has already made arrangements with the Crowne Plaza Hotel in case additional housing is needed. — Ariel Nagi
SEE CHARITY ON PAGE 6
Musicians trace back to Afro-Cuban roots BY COLLEEN ROACHE
mini-block meal system gave the opportunity for students to purchase extra meal swipes — but only for individual use. Executive Director of Dining Ser vices Charlie Sams said the new system gives the opportunity for students to bring more guests into the dining halls. “When a student purchases a mini-block to add additional meals to their existing meal plan, those new meals will be available for both the
Instructor Javier Diaz has taught Mason Gross students about AfroCuban music this academic year. The style of music adds a new dimension to the curriculum, which oftentimes is limited to traditional Western works, composed by musicians like Mozart, Bach and Beethoven, he said. “When they incorporate that into their classical training, it just makes them even better musicians than they already are,” Diaz said. Afro-Cuban music is unique in that it is based on aural traditions kept alive by slaves, making the genre’s music less dependent on visual components and more focused on a musician’s intuition, he said. Diaz, who was born in Cuba, lived in Venezuela and immigrated to the United States in his late teens. He studied at Julliard but said he never lost his Afro-Cuban roots. “It’s just part of my life,” he said. “I incorporate all these things — classical, Afro-Cuban, Latin.”
SEE ROOTS ON PAGE 6
CROWNING VIETNAMESE CULTURE
COURTESY OF JOHN PENA
Previous winners Jennifer Tran, left, and Jackie Nghiem crown winner Michelle Phan at the Vietnamese Student Association’s Fourth Annual Pageant Saturday at the Busch Campus Center. The pageant aims to honor tri-state Vietnamese women.