THE DAILY TARGUM
Volume 141, Number 5
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
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 8, 2009
1 8 6 9
Today: Cloudy
HUMILIATED
High: 75 • Low: 60
In a season opener with Big East implications, the Rutgers football team came up short, breaking in the newly expanded Rutgers Stadium with a crushing 47-15 loss at the hands of Cincinnati.
Despite glitches, expansion support among‘sea of red’ BY HEATHER BROOKHART METRO EDITOR
JOHN PENA/ SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Rutgers Stadium opened its doors yesterday to a sold-out crowd with new seats and a high definition scoreboard, among other amenities. Students’ complaints included not being able to hear the band or see the new scoreboard.
The Labor Day football season opener against Cincinnati yesterday gave the University a chance to show off all the new additions to Rutgers Stadium now that construction is almost complete. The addition of about 12,000 new seats and other amenities cost a total of $102 million, nearly all of which comes from borrowed funds. “While we will open for the [first] game, there’s still going to be some [construction] going on around [the stadium], probably taking us to basically the end of the year in finishing up things we need to do,” said Vice President of Facilities and Capital Planning Antonio Calcado. University alumnus Scott Sugarman said he thinks the stadium renovations were absolutely worth the money spent. “It’s great to see; compared to when I was in school, there was
10,000 people and now you’ve got 55,000 and a high definition board,” he said. “It’s amazing compared to where we were.” The south end zone now includes 11,412 new seats, a 38-by114 foot scoreboard, sound system, restrooms and concession stands. While the new entrance is not complete, it is functional, and the student section and the University band have both been moved to the south end zone. Many students and alumni were pleased with the new facilities, but some students said they had trouble hearing the band. “The band wasn’t loud enough, so it was a big problem,” said School of Arts and Sciences sophomore Munir Harb. Although University alumnus Kevin Langan said he thinks the stadium is not worth the funds spent considering yesterday’s loss to Cincinnati, he thinks it looked good.
SEE RED ON PAGE 6
‘Cyber’ shop caters to ‘Knights’ despite relocation BY MARY DIDUCH ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
Local PC repair and retail shop Cyber Knight Computers moved off Easton Avenue to a larger location at 433 Raritan Ave. in Highland Park, but it still maintains its commitment
to providing quality and affordable assistance to University students. When considering relocating his business from 25 Easton Ave. to a larger location, Owner Mike Beberman said he feared losing his main clients — the students. To keep business, he added a new pick-up, drop-off service.
“This is something I’ve instituted as part of our business,” said Beberman, a University alumnus. “I want to be able to ser vice students. I enjoy employing them, I enjoy ser vicing their computers, and it’s nice to be a part of the community.”
Customers can call to arrange a time for computer pick-up. After repairs are evaluated, Cyber Knight will call to discuss fees and take payment information by phone so customers never have to set a foot in the store, Beberman said. Once the computer is fixed, an employee
will return it. The pick-up/drop-off days are Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. “We wouldn’t have the ability to do that in New Brunswick,” Beberman said.
SEE KNIGHTS ON PAGE 9
Pernetti sheds light on stadium, season plans University Athletic Director Tim Pernetti talks with The Daily Targum’s News Editor Caitlin Mahon about the completion of the stadium expansion, changes to ticket sales, challenges in his new position and plans for the season. Caitlin Mahon: If the football team starts to do well, or perhaps if they don’t do so well, will that be a major factor with ticket sales? Tim Pernetti: It always has an effect. Last year, if you look at what happened at the beginning of the year, we did not get off to a good start, but it really didn’t impact the game at all. This year it’s really hard to say. I think success on the field has a lot to do with it and I don’t think it will hurt us any in having the ability to tell the story of the football team having success. We’re going to continue to bring more people to it. But the answer to your question is what [happens] on the field in a lot of places does have an impact, but I think we’re becoming more of a big time program where it has less and less of an impact because we’ve had a sustainable path of success now in football, where it hasn’t just happened in the past year or two, it’s happened for the past five years. People are becoming accustomed to it. CM: How were budget changes a challenge for you, coming in as the new athletic director?
TP: You need to get a handle on the finances and understand what the budget is, what the numbers mean, where the money is, what’s been spent [and] what’s been brought in. I literally spent four months on that. I spent a lot of my time with [Deputy Director of Athletics for Finance and Administration] Richard Costello in conjunction with [Deputy Director of Athletics] Kevin MacConnell and various other senior level administrators and our coaches. We spend time with our coaches going through individual sport budgets, and really the exercise was to try to get our whole department to a place where we felt comfortable and we all had a good grasp on the finances, and from there, we identified places along the way where you could do things a little bit better or do things a little more efficiently. The process where we’ve gotten to, we have a much better handle on our budget than we’ve ever had and we also think we’ve managed to put some things in place that will help us be more efficient and give us a much better chance at, overtime, running a profitable business. Matthew Stein: Regarding feedback, there have been a lot of groups that have been very much against the stadium expansion, a lot of groups that
SEE PLANS ON PAGE 4
INDEX UNIVERSITY Ever wonder about the consequence for parking in that empty, yet restricted University lot? Department of Transportation Services Director Jack Molenaar explains.
OPINIONS ANDREW HOWARD/ PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Gov. Jon S. Corzine speaks with union members about their rights at Saturday’s picnic in Piscataway, as a part of the annual Labor Day campaign.
Governor speaks out for unions at local picnic BY ARIEL NAGI CORRESPONDENT
The Union of Rutgers Administrators-American Federation of Teachers kicked-off the annual Labor Day campaign Saturday at Johnson Park in Piscataway with a picnic featuring
live music, a barbeque and a visit from the governor. The campaign was put together to celebrate workers organizing unions and standing up for negotiated contracts in the midst of an extremely challenging economy, URA-AFT
SEE GOVERNOR ON PAGE 6
Today is the last day to drop classes without receiving a ‘W.’ Tomorrow is the last day to add classes.
A columnist gives first-year students a social contract of rules to go by as they start their University experience.
UNIVERSITY . . . . . . . 3 OPINIONS . . . . . . . 10 DIVERSIONS . . . . . . 12 CLASSIFIEDS . . . . . . 14 SPORTS . . . . . . BACK
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