The Daily Targum 2016-11-10

Page 1

Locker room talk Harvard is justified in ending season for men’s soccer team

kirkpatrick choir Celebrate Rutgers’ 250th anniversary with classical music

football Rutgers safeties work to better defend against deep passes

SEE ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, page 8

SEE opinions, page 6

SEE sports, back

WEATHER Mostly sunny High: 58 Low: 44

Serving the Rutgers community since 1869. Independent since 1980.

rutgers university—new brunswick

thursday, november 10, 2016

Students say Electoral College is outdated SOPHIE NIETO-MUNOZ ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR Just four years ago, president-elect Donald Trump (R) tweeted, “The Electoral College is a disaster for democracy.” Little did he know in 2016, the Electoral College would give him the 270 votes needed to win the United States presidency. Trump won the presidency early Wednesday morning after swing state Wisconsin put him over the top with 276 votes. In the end, the business man won 289 electoral college votes, while former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton earned 218. Yet, the popular vote is coming in steady for Clinton, who won with 59,739,870 popular votes as Trump took 59,520,472 votes. About 48 percent of American voters chose Clinton, but Trump won the Electoral College. This is the fifth time in American histor y the Electoral College has gone against the popular vote. Times have changed since the Electoral College was instituted in 1787, and some students say the system is outdated, needs to be reformed and may not properly reflect what the people want. The fact that Trump won over Clinton even though she won the popular vote shows the democratic voting system needs to be improved, said School of Environmental and Biological Sciences junior April Rastaetter. “The system definitely needs fixing, especially in the case of closecall races like this one,” she said.

She said the Electoral College is an old-fashioned system and does not properly represent what the people want. “In close elections like this with the popular vote, I think if the Electoral College worked the way it was intended, it would be great. But it’s also a problem that it is a winnertakes-all for a state,” she said. The winner-takes-all system can make it more difficult for candidates to gain the votes they need when half the state voted for them, but the whole state goes to their opponent, she said. The only two states without a winner-takes-all system are Maine and Nebraska. Virgil Grimaldi, a School of Arts and Sciences senior, agrees the Electoral College does not have a place in modern politics. “It was created as a way to give some type of equal representation to states back in the early days of the country, but now it is irrelevant because the number of voters in the country is large enough where the popular vote is enough to gauge what the majority of voters want,” he said. If a candidate wins the popular vote, Grimaldi said he or she should win the presidency. The winner should be based off the popular vote. “Personally, I’d like to see the system change to a system where the winner is whoever wins the popular vote,” he said, but he does not believe it will change any time soon. See students on Page 4

The All Marxists-Leninists Union held a rally on the steps of Brower Commons on Tuesday to support Native Americans protesting the construction of an oil pipeline near their homes in Standing Rock, North Dakota. JASON YE

Leninist group protests pipeline with rally at Brower Dining Commons KIRA HERZOG CORRESPONDENT Members of the All Marxist-Leninist Union and the American Party of Labor gathered on the steps of the Brower Dining Commons to protest construction on the Dakota Access pipeline on Wednesday night. Donald Courter, the general secretary of the All Marxists-Leninists

Union, said the protest’s goal was to show solidarity with the Sioux Native American tribe affected by a 1,172 mile pipeline, called the Dakota Access Pipeline, being built in Standing Rock while also fighting against capitalistic ideals. “There are people all over the country who are fighting against this injustice and who are being attacked by the police so we held

this rally here to support them and to increase visibility of the issue,” the School of Arts and Sciences senior said. The Dakota Access Pipeline is designed to transport oil across state lines towards Illinois. Once completed, the $3.7 billion project would span 1,172 miles and See rally on Page 4

U. reacts to suprise presidential victory by Republican Trump NOA HALFF ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

Republican nominee Donald Trump won the Electoral College on Tuesday night, but ultimately lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton. REUTERS

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After Tuesday night, Donald Trump is set to be the 45th President of the United States. “Shocked” and “devastated” are just some of the words Rutgers students used to describe their reaction. “I am numb. I am ill. I am in utter disbelief that we elected this joke of a candidate,” said Elijah Reiss, a School of Arts and Sciences senior. “I cannot believe that this hateful, offensive, repugnant and inexperienced demagogue is going to be the next president of my country.” The United States is more divided than anyone expected, Reiss said while noting that perhaps the most divisive candidate in history has been elected. Reiss said he fears for his friends who are not white, straight and male. “My stomach was churning watching the polls with some of my friends. Christians, Jews, a Muslim,”

said Emily Kadosh, a School of Arts and Sciences sophomore. Kadosh said Trump profits from systems of oppression and a person who votes for him is thereby “unintentionally causing harm.” “You can like his policies, or the ways he describes women or Muslims, but you cannot assert that they don’t correlate with violating basic human rights,” she said. Her views are not based on disliking privileged people, she said, but about condemning ignorance. The election was surprising, said Joseph Epstein, a School of Arts and Sciences senior. “Hearing the numbers be way off from projections for both of them showed me that nobody knew what was flying with this election,” he said. But the results did not scare Epstein, who said people should “relax” and give Trump a chance. “I’m not scared, I’m not moving and I don’t think anyone is going to either,” he said.

The United States will continue to divide until there is a mutual agreement and understanding among people and an effort to begin the next chapter of histor y, he said. “Trump surprised us by winning an election nobody thought he ever could, now I think we should sit back and see if he can surprise us again over the next four years,” Epstein said. “I think he can put America on the right path to in the future, make it great again,” he said. When she saw the election results, Molly Stewart, a School of Arts and Sciences senior, said she felt beyond disappointed. “I suppose I had more hope in the American people to see how dangerous and problematic Trump’s rhetoric has been,” she said. “I had believed since his statements over the past year have been so blatantly racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, See victory on Page 4

­­VOLUME 148, ISSUE 105 • University ... 3 • opiNIons ... 6 • classifieds ... 7 • arts & entertainment ... 8 • Diversions ... 9 • SPORTS ... BACK


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