meal swipe for charity Choice of Youth Empowerment Club will benefit local community see OPINIONS, page 6
homecoming game Pat Hobbs prepares for Saturday football and hopes for new cheer see CULTURE, page 8
FIELD HOCKEY Rutgers takes on two ranked teams in Penn State, Maryland to finish season
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Rutgers rallies against $3.3 billion cut to Pell Grant program Max Marcus Correspondent
The New Jersey Public Interest Research Group (NJPIRG) is campaigning against proposed cuts to the federal government’s Pell Grant program. This bill, which includes a $3.3 billion cut to the Pell Grant program, has already been approved by Congress. The Senate is scheduled to vote on it on Dec. 10. April Nicklaus, the chair of NJPIRG’s Rutgers—New Brunswick chapter and a School of Environmental and Biological Sciences junior, called the Pell Grant program “the backbone of federal financial aid for students.” She said that because most people are in favor of education equity, the program has historically been supported by both major political parties. But if this year’s spending bill is approved without changes, it will be the second year in a row that cuts were made to the Pell Grant program, she said. “If cuts like this continue to be made then the viability and the long-term success of the Pell Grant See grant on Page 4
In response to a bill that could potentially cut $3.3 billion from the federal Pell Grant program, the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group (NJPIRG) launched a campaign that encourages Rutgers students to stand in support of the program. WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
U. event brings Free Speech Week to campus Stephen Weiss Associate News Editor
As part of Free Speech Week, the Department of Communication and the Department of Journalism and Media Studies hosted an event titled “What is ‘Hate Speech’? Definitions, Laws, Solutions.” The event featured talks by Department of Journalism and Media Studies Chair Susan Keith and professors David Greenberg and John Pavlik. Each professor discussed aspects of hate speech, such as what it is, where it comes from and its nature in American society, as well as how these things relate to free speech in general. “This is a conversation that is occurring all over the place, on campuses, on social media, in politics,” Greenberg said in an interview. “So concerns about offensive speech, hate speech, are just something that we’re all dealing with and here you have a faculty that has some expertise in the subject, so Free Speech Week seemed like a good time to take up some of these issues.” Students often hear about issues like speech controversies over racial and gender issues in very
charged environments, he said. They get it through their social media networks or through their friends, and people can get very passionate one way or the other in their views. Greenberg said he hopes students heard ideas at the event that they had not heard before, and that they provoke them to think more deeply about these issues. “It’s useful to think about these things in an academic context as well as in terms of one’s personal experience,” he said. “I hope it will give students a different vantage point.” Drawing lines around what can and cannot be said can be difficult, Greenberg said. “ ... For that reason, liberals have tended to favor a wider berth for free speech, it is better to allow more speech than to restrict more,” he said. “After all, when you restrict speech you don’t actually make those ideas go away. They’re still there and, you know, better that they be expressed and acknowledged and confronted and rebutted perhaps, than sort of trying to suppress them.” In an interview after the event, Pavlik said that he is concerned about free speech in terms of a
As part of national Free Speech Week, Rutgers held an event entitled “What is ‘Hate Speech’? Definitions, Laws, Solutions.” The event featured various speakers including the Department of Journalism and Media Studies Chair, Susan Keith. TWITTER press system that can be independent and impartial. During his presentation, he discussed the monarchal government in Qatar, which he said significantly curtails freedom of the press. Pavlik said that, in general, he is in full support of peaceful student
protests. It is something that is not only protected by the First Amendment but is important for a healthy society and a healthy democracy. “We need to get citizens back engaged, and we need to have critical consumers of news, we need to have people who are actively
VOLUME 149, ISSUE 93 • University ... 3 • opinions ... 6 • CULTURE ... 8 • Diversions ... 9 • SPORTS ... BACK
communicating about issues that matter to them,” he said. “Protest is one of the most important ways to do that.” Pavlik encourages his students to always try to be respectful, but that See speech on Page 5