BARCA CAFE Get a taste of Spain with this small, intimate New Brunswick restuarant
VITRUVIAN MAN Artistic expression is censored by student complaints
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SOFTBALL Rutgers looks to continue win streak against LIU Brooklyn
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WEATHER Intervals of clouds and sun High: 67 Low: 45
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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY—NEW BRUNSWICK
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2016
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Advocacy group joins state campaign to rescue bees ERIC WECK CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The yellow-and-black insects that keep flowers blooming each year are dying — but a group is working to keep them alive. The New Jersey Public Interest Group has started a campaign to save the bees across New Jersey. The Rutgers—New Brunswick chapter’s campaign is led by Ansley Kunnath, a School of Arts and Sciences first-year student who holds positions as both a chapter board member and the campaign coordinator of NJPIRG. The campaign focuses on saving pollinator bees, who are dying in record numbers each year, Kunnath said. “Thirty to 40 percent of bees are dying across the country every year, which is a big issue,” she said. The death of bees is a critically important subject that really needs to take the public interest spotlight because they pollinate a majority of our food supply, Kunnath said. “About 70 percent of our food is pollinated by our pollinators … without bees, we won’t have food,” she said. “Of 100 crop species that provide 90 percent of our global food supply, 71 are bee-pollinated,” according to CNN. In the United States alone, these foods bring in a profit valued around $16 million each year. NJPIRG is asking the EPA to cast an instant moratorium on a certain
type harmful pesticide, called neonicotinoids, which have been linked to the decline of bees, she said. In order to demonstrate the public’s interest in the issue, NJPIRG has been working within the University and in surrounding areas to gain support, she said. “We’re getting endorsements from restaurant owners, scientists, professors, beekeepers,” she said. “We’re also getting petitions from students who care about the issue.” Although the ban would be temporary, she said, it would encourage further research into the connection of neonicotinoids to the bee decline, which will hopefully bring light to the situation and halt the bee epidemic. “As of now, they’ve stopped accepting new applications for this pesticide, so it doesn’t seem that unrealistic to expect them to stop all of them,” she said. Many restaurants, a few states and even entire countries have even banned these chemicals, but a U.S. federal moratorium is necessary to make truly instrumental change in this country, she said. With the organization holding Save the Bees campaigns at both Rutgers—New Brunswick and Rutgers—Camden, as well as an online petition, they has been very successful over the course of this semester, she said. SEE BEES ON PAGE 5
Students rated different public figures on whether they believed them to be feminists or not based on their public remarks and past actions. This was part of a course discussing women’s rights, where students also visited the United Nations. SUSMITA PARUCHURI / DESIGN EDITOR
Course ends semester with student showcase highlighting feminism SUSMITA PARUCHURI DESIGN EDITOR
Poster boards decorated with magazine clippings, testimonials from New Brunswick women scrawled on napkins and Douglass women sharing findings with their peers crowded the Douglass Student Center on Monday as the students showcased their semester’s worth of work. Feminist Advocacy for Women’s Rights through the United Nations, an upper-level class taught by Elmira Nazombe, a part-time lecturer in
the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, spent the spring discussing women’s rights in a variety of contexts. “The main idea of the class is that they spend some time going to the UN, attending the Commission on the Status of Women, and learn what the U.N. is doing,” Nazombe said. “The students try to learn what feminist advocacy is really about.” From reproductive rights to media representation, each student presented her research, explaining them in both global and local contexts. Topics also included the
definition of feminism, sustainable development within New Jersey, child brides and coerced abortion as violence against women. The front table included a pile of magazine clippings and a blank poster board, enabling students to tell their own stories by using the clippings. Next to it, another board featured faces of celebrities and politicians with stickers surrounding their photos. “Our group is doing media representation and empowerment, so we SEE FEMINISM ON PAGE 5
Study discovers number of bed bugs increasing in New Jersey FAITH HOATSON CONTRIBUTING WRITER
A study performed by professors from different institutions, including Rutgers’ Changlu Wang, found that nearly half of all residents in apartments infested by bed bugs did not know. While most of the victims reported pain, only a few reported other symptoms. GRAPHIC BY RAMYA CHITIBOMMA
When it comes to bed bugs, New Jersey is a highly infested state, said Dr. Changlu Wang, a professor in the Department of Entomology and researcher at Rutgers. Reported bed bug infestations are on the rise in recent years, according to the study conducted by Narinderpal Singh, Changlu Wang and Richard Cooper, published in the Oxford University Journal of Medical Entomology. New Jersey, in particular, has numerous bed bug infestations. The cities near New York City are prime spots for bed bugs to thrive. The study used a combination of interviews with residents, combined with community-wide inspection for bed bugs to provide an accurate assessment of bed bug prevalence within low-income apartment housing communities, according to the study. The research team still approached the experiment sites with two purposes in mind. First, they
wanted to answer research questions. The study ran resident interviews, visual inspections and utilized Climbup Insect Interceptors, Wang said. Second, they wanted to provide service to help eliminate bed bugs. The study examined 2,373 low-income apartments in 43 buildings, across four cities. The overall infestation rate in the buildings was 12.3 percent. About 49 percent of the infestations were in apartments with residents who were unaware of the bed bug activity, according to the study. “First, we would visually check the bed and the sofa areas,” Wang said. “If we found any signs, but cannot confirm (beg bugs), we would place a monitor in the apartment and then come back after one or two weeks.” The Climbup monitors would be placed under the furniture, he said. Then, the bed bugs would tend to crawl into the monitor and get stuck.
VOLUME 148, ISSUE 56 • UNIVERSITY ... 3 • OPINIONS ... 6 • CLASSIFIEDS ... 7 • FOOD & DRINK ... 8 • DIVERSIONS ... 9 • SPORTS ... BACK
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