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U. donates diapers for 9th annual charity bed races Angelisa Cunniff contributing writer
Students raced down College Avenue in customized mobile beds Thursday night in the ninth annual Homecoming Charity Bed Races — all to collect diapers for charity. Students decorated beds on wheels and pushed their teammates down College Avenue in a race to the finish line. The diapers raised for Bed Races are donated to families in need through the Cuddle Me Program. In order to register for the annual Homecoming event, these groups need to have at least four members: three bed pushers and one bed rider. Roughly 60 student organizations registered for this event, which included sororities, fraternities, Dance Marathon, The Livingston Theater Company and FindU, said Sean Brown, Rutgers University Programming Association director of Traditions and Communities. Before the event began, the members needed to choose decorations,
a theme, costumes and details for their bed. Judges base 20 percent of scoring on design and another 20 percent on costumes, said the School of Arts and Sciences senior. The remaining 60 percent of the scoring is based on the speed of the bed and the number of diapers raised for the Cuddle Me Program. A minimum of 400 diapers in the original packaging is required before teams can participate, Brown said. Donating more than 400 diapers is even better for the cause. In addition to supporting families, extra diapers means extra points. Brown was behind this year’s event and led the committee that organized the behind-the-scenes details. “We obviously hope to bring awareness to the foundation we are partnering with, the Cuddle Me program, because of the need for diapers, and people don’t realize how something as simple as diapers can be taken for granted,” Brown said. See races on Page 4
The Rutgers University Student Assembly hosted a Thursday meeting in which Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Felicia McGinty spoke on initiatives being explored to further safe drinking habits at the school. BUSHRA HASAN / CORRESPONDENT
Vice Chancellor addresses safer drinking habits at RUSA meeting bushra hasan correspondent
Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Felicia McGinty spoke to the Rutgers University Student Assembly about new initiatives her department will launch in the near future, as well as
The RU Co-Ed Cheerleading Team had the fastest time at the ninth annual Homecoming Charity Bed Races on Thursday night on College Avenue. MARIELLE SUMERGIDO / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
‘The Alley’ to reopen for upcoming season sophie nieto-munoz associate news editor
Three student leaders and Athletic Director Patrick Hobbs addressed the much-awaited re-release of The Alley. The Alley recently released a video on Twitter updating students on the standing of the student tailgate lot which was shut down last month due to safety concerns.
The video addressed the lack of space in the lot, which was located across from Werblin Recreation Center next to Yurcak Field on Busch Campus. “Obviously we had issues around the site,” he said. “The reality is that (the) current site’s just not big enough given how many students want to come out to The Alley.” See season on Page 5
existing efforts to reduce alcohol and drug-related incidents at the University. A new section of the Student Affairs website provides students information about alcohol and drugs, which will educate them about the risks involved in unhealthy drinking habits.
Developing safer drinking habits will be one of the requisites for reopening “The Alley,” which was initially shut down due to “safety concerns” after only the second home game against New Mexico. See meeting on Page 4
Economist explains impact of gas tax increase on Rutgers students Sanjana Chandrasekharan staff writer
For the first time since 1988, the New Jersey Senate and Assembly voted to increase the state’s gas tax — this time, it is by 23 cents and begins on Nov. 1. Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) raised the gas tax to replenish the Transportation Trust Fund budget, which the state uses to repair and increase transportation infrastructure throughout the state. The bill also approved a sales tax reduction from 7 percent to 6.825 percent in 2017. The sales tax will drop further to 6.625 percent in 2018. Earlier this summer, Christie halted construction on roughly 900 road projects because the TTF
went bankrupt. But Piscataway Mayor Brian Wahler said those projects had already been paid for, and that the hole in the TTF would impact projects in 2017. The same bill eliminated the estate tax and approved an Earned Income Tax credit for families making less than $20,000 every year. It also created provisions for veterans and retirees. In total, the bill created roughly $1.249 billion in tax breaks or reductions over the next several years, NJ Advance Media reported. But how will the decision impact student commuters? Jack Skydel, an adjunct professor in the Department of Economics, said the gas tax is going to add $150 to $200 to the budget of gas for every person, and a student living on
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a tight budget will give up a bigger percentage of income. “One side of it is that you’re using roads and have to pay for it, but the other side is that lower income people have to give up a higher percentage of their income than upper income people to pay for that privilege,” he said. Jack Skydel said the tax did not come as a surprise since there had been discussions around it over the past several months. “The tax wasn’t totally unexpected. The state has a bunch of money specifically for roads and bridges and for a whole bunch of reasons, they ran out of money. And so they had to do something,” he said. See students on Page 5