THE DAILY TARGUM
Volume 141, Number 6
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
BACK IN THE RANKS
High: 70 • Low: 59
After shutting out both Towson and No. 13 Penn State this weekend, the Rutgers women’s soccer team moved up to 17th place in the NSCAA rankings and No. 11 in the Soccer America polls.
WESTFIELD — Independent gubernatorial candidate Chris Daggett; Assemblyman John McKeon, D- 27, representing Democratic candidate Gov. Jon S. Corzine; and Atlantic County Utilities Authority President Rick Dovey, representing Republican candidate Chris Christie, set aside partisan divide last night to discuss the importance of clean energy across the state. At the town hall meeting held in the Westfield Memorial Library, Daggett said he would hear all sides of every environmental issue to accomplish an agenda for clean energy in a nonpartisan way. Specifically, he said the state needs to be involved in more research development and technology — especially at institutions of higher education — to achieve new ways to advance clean energy initiatives. McKeon said the Corzine administration has set high goals for clean energy and has achieved many of them, such as making the state second in the nation for most solar power usage. He said the governor’s Energy Master Plan intends to have 30 percent of the state’s energy from renewable sources by 2020. Dovey said there is a lot of polarization in many of the gubernatorial issues, but clean energy should not be one of them. Christie differs in his recognition of the sense of immediacy in making the goals set by Corzine a reality, he said. “We always have to stand back a little bit and figure out what do we have to do in the next few years to make [clean energy] reality,” said Matt Elliott of Environment New Jersey, one of the state’s largest statewide environmental groups that hosted the event. “And that’s where I think the governor’s race comes in.”
ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
MARY DIDUCH/ ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
Students gain voice on local committee BY MARY DIDUCH While some students were hanging at the beach or tr ying to earn some extra cash this summer, one group started working for their community as elected politicians.
Several University students won seats on the Middlesex County Democratic Committee in June as par t of the Democrats for Change campaign. School of Ar ts and Sciences junior Barbara Cepeda, the new committeewoman for the 5th Ward, District 2,
said winning the campaign was an invaluable experience. “It’s great though because with any [organization] you network [and] you meet new people. It’s also good just to gain an
SEE STUDENTS ON PAGE 6
INDEX
MEMBER OF 9/11 COMMISSION, FORMER NJ ATTORNEY GENERAL PUBLISHES DECLASSIFIED GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS
UNIVERSITY
The U.S. government publicly disseminated misleading accounts of the nation’s response to the Sept. 11 attacks, according to John J. Farmer Jr. The former senior counsel and team leader to the 9/11 Commission, Farmer presents this theory in his new book, “The Ground Truth: The Untold Story of America Under Attack on 9/11.” Published yesterday, Farmer revisits the attacks through recently declassified tapes and transcripts, including data previously omitted by the Departments of Defense and Transportation, according to a press release. “At some level of government, at some point in time, a decision was made not to tell the truth about the national response to the attacks on the morning of Sept. 11,” Farmer said in the release. “We owe the truth to the families of the victims of Sept. 11. We owe it to the American public as well, because only by understanding what has gone wrong in the past can we assure our nation’s safety in the future.” Farmer offers several lessons in “The Ground Truth,” proposing the government learns from past mistakes. “Unless we change government, unless we plan to respond to crises the way we now know they are experienced, we will fail to protect ourselves,” Farmer said in the release. “[This will bring] horrifying consequences.” A former attorney general of New Jersey, chief counsel to former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and founding partner of a New Jersey law firm, Farmer added dean of the Rutgers School of Law to his resume July 1, according to the release. “The Ground Truth: The Untold Story of America Under Attack on 9/11” is available wherever books are sold.
The English Department discovers the idea of filmmaking as story writing through their lecture series this semester.
OPINIONS The football team is facing more pressure to do well after blowing its first game in the newer, bigger and better stadium.
U. faculty delay salary increases to avoid layoffs BY CAGRI OZUTURK
— Mary Diduch
ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
— Lauren Caruso
The University faculty is safe from layoffs for two years but will accept a delay in pay raises. Other unions continue negotiations to protect their members’ jobs. Though the University administration has finished negotiations with the American Associations of University Professors – American Federation of Teachers on an agreeable note, negotiations still continue with the Union of Rutgers Administrators – American Federation of Teachers. “Almost all of the University unions are in the middle of contracts but the University asked them to reopen. We reopened our contract because of the financial crisis,” President of Rutgers AAUP-AFT Adrienne Eaton said. The AAUP-AFT represents 2,500 faculty and 1,700 teaching and graduate assistants, according to the AAUP-AFT Web site. The state tied some of the state aid to the University cuts in labor cost, Eaton said. The faculty contracts have finished negotiations but the other labor unions are still in dialogue. The University approached the union during the middle of their contracts with a negotiation, which is not usual, but because of the financial crisis the faculty agreed to negotiate, she said. “Nobody wanted to give up any of their pay increases. What we did is delay the pay increases rather than give them up permanently,” Eaton said. The teaching assistants, graduate students and part-time lecturers made no concessions while full-time faculty will suffer delays in pay raises, Eaton said. The faculty had no job security concerns unlike the other unions. The issue regarding furloughs, teaching loads and research funds were resolved favorably, according to a letter Eaton sent to University faculty. “We are gratified that the University community has come together to help mitigate our budget difficulties so that Rutgers can continue to provide the best educational experience and greatest value for our students,” Vice President of Academic Affairs Phillip J. Furmanski said. The union membership ratified the agreement last Friday, he said. The University administration thinks it is a good agreement for the University and for the union’s membership. “In these ver y challenging economic times, this is a fair and equitable agreement that will prevent disastrous budget cuts and
SEE FACULTY ON PAGE 4
UNIVERSITY . . . . . . . 3 OPINIONS . . . . . . . . 8 DIVERSIONS . . . . . . 10 CLASSIFIEDS . . . . . . 12 SPORTS . . . . . . BACK
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SEPTEMBER 9, 2009
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Today: Showers
GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATES CITE ENVIRONMENT AS NON-PARTISAN ISSUE
WEDNESDAY
Dean envisions engineering program improvements BY GREG FLYNN CORRESPONDENT
During his teenage years in the small town of Daisetta, Texas, Thomas Farris repaired eighteen-wheelers, helping
truckers by figuring out how to get the big rigs back on the oil field roads. Now Farris is figuring out how to increase the size and strengthen the stature of the School of Engineering as the new dean.
“The primar y goal is to make the school bigger in all dimensions,” he said. Farris, appointed as dean in June, said he has plans to enhance the school’s existing strengths.
“The challenges of the 21st centur y include health, energy, transpor tation and sustainability and those are all areas where the School
SEE DEAN ON PAGE 4
Today is the last day to drop classes without receiving a ‘W.’ Tomorrow is the last day to add classes.