THE DAILY TARGUM
Volume 141, Number 64
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
CHAOS THEORY
High: 51 • Low: 36
Behind a career-high 21 points from sophomore forward Gregory Echenique and 11 rebounds, the Scarlet Knights tamed the Princeton Tigers 58-44 last night at the RAC.
RUSA considers consolidating councils to unify student voice
READY, SET, WRAP
BY KRISTINE ROSETTE ENERIO STAFF WRITER
JODIE FRANCIS/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Student Volunteer Council members wrap gifts at the “Winter Wishes Wrapping Party” on Wednesday in the Student Activities Center on the College Avenue campus. The gifts will be donated to local underprivileged children.
METRO Looking to see a show downtown tonight? See what discounts local comedy clubs and theaters have for students.
OPINIONS MTV’s premiere of their new reality show “Jersey Shore” is shedding negative light on residents of the Garden State.
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Last year’s proposed amendment to the Rutgers University Student Assembly constitution fell flat due to controversy surrounding the role of cultural councils and the lack of transparency. The assembly appears to be headed down another track this year — potentially toward a caucus system instead of campus councils. Members of the RUSA Internal Af fairs Committee took suggestions for amending the constitution last night at the Student Activities Center on the College Avenue campus. Before opening up the floor to suggestions, Chair for the Committee of Internal Affairs Josh Slavin assured the audience their comments would be heard and considered. “We [the Internal Affairs Committee] are going to take ever ything that’s said tonight to heart and go back to the drawing board with your suggestions,” Slavin said. One idea proposed was a caucus system that would replace campus councils, which would centralize RUSA under one governing body. Campus representatives would meet and receive input from students on their campus, said Slavin, a Livingston College senior. They would make sure the ideas and interests of their campus are being represented to RUSA effectively. “There have been times when student government has contradicted ourselves,” Slavin said. “After we restructure student government,
students will benefit from a strong, more streamlined RUSA that affects change in a whole host of news ways.” Professional student councils would continue to exist because their students pay separate fees. Cultural councils and the Douglass Governing Council will also remain because they deal with funding for their own events. The possibility for direct elections for RUSA members was also discussed. This widely-supported issue was proposed as part of last year’s effort to change the constitution, but there were not enough members present at the meeting to pass it when it was voted on. Under the current system, students elect members to a council who then internally elect a representative to RUSA. In the proposed election system, students would be able to directly vote a representative into the student government. Livingston Campus Council President Winiris De Moya worries direct elections might compromise the quality of leaders in student government. “The concern [with direct elections] is that it would be more of a popularity contest than really about how effective a leader that person would be,” said De Moya, a Rutgers College senior. Although De Moya is for an internal election system, she does not mind settling for a happy medium between the two. On the other hand, Legislative Af fairs Committee Chair John Aspray thinks direct
SEE VOICE ON PAGE 4
Rutgers College embraces women in decade of change BY MARY DIDUCH ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
The University expanded during the ’50s and ’60s with the acceptance of veteran students after the G.I. Bill and more minority students with the civil rights movement, and in the 1970s, Rutgers College saw another historic change: the acceptance of women. The first class with 544 women entered Rutgers College in fall 1972, said Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies Mary Trigg via email correspondence. “They joined more than 1,000 first-year male students and 6,000 male upperclassmen at Rutgers College to make a ratio of 13 men for every one woman,” she said. Livingston College was the first college at the University to
become coed when it was established in 1969, but Douglass College still remained all-women and Rutgers College remained all-male, said University Archivist Thomas Frusciano. There was also cross-registration, he said. Douglass College women could register for classes at Rutgers College and vice versa. “Coeducation was on the horizon. … Most state universities were either, from the beginning, always coed or had become coed well before this time, so Rutgers was kind of an anomaly,” Frusciano said. Rutgers College Class of 1974 alumnus Bill Fernekes said Rutgers College was late in becoming coed compared to other institutions, and it was important that the University changed.
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DECEMBER 4, 2009
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Today: Mostly sunny
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FRIDAY
“I think the men on the campus were looking forward to it,” Fernekes said. Rutgers College faculty proposed and approved a resolution in 1968 to initiate coeducation, but there were many debates that prolonged the change, Trigg said. “During the four years of debate that followed, the students and administration largely favored coeducation,” Trigg said. “Resistance came from two camps: the alumni organization, which did not want to break from the male-only tradition, and Douglass College.” Many members of Douglass College opposed coed education, especially Dean Margery Foster, Trigg said. She argued that women would choose Rutgers
SEE WOMEN ON PAGE 4
COURTESY OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES
Former Douglass College Dean Margery Foster was opposed to coeducation at Rutgers College, arguing it would decrease the number of applicants to Douglass.
UNIVERSITY TO DISTRIBUTE H1N1 VACCINE TO HIGH-RISK GROUPS University health officials have scheduled seven clinics to distribute the injectable swine flu vaccine to the University community. The next clinic is today between noon and 4 p.m. at the Busch Campus Center International Lounge. The vaccine will be distributed to at-risk groups as mandated by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, which include people under the age of 25, health care and EMS personnel, children between the ages of 4 and 17 living in University
housing, people who live with or care for infants under 6 months and pregnant women. To date, health officials have distributed 3,882 doses of the vaccine on the New Brunswick campus and have an adequate supply of vaccines to treat high-risk groups, said Executive Director for Rutgers-New Brunswick Health Ser vices Melodee Lasky. The vaccine will also be administered to people age 25 to 64 with serious medical conditions such as
neurological or developmental problems, chronic lung disease, heart disease, blood disorders, endocrine disorders, kidney or liver disorders, metabolic disorders and weakened immune system due to disease or medication. “The CDC is urging that those planning travel during the holiday season be vaccinated if they are in one of the above at-risk groups,” Lasky said. “Studies show that the H1N1 vaccine produces protective immunity in 8 to 10 days.”
Persons with a history of severe or life threatening allergic reactions to eggs should not receive the H1N1 vaccine, she said. Instead, they should contact their physician to discuss other options for preventing the flu. The vaccine is offered on a voluntary basis and is free of charge. Officials ask community members to bring their University ID card. More about H1N1 and Universityspecific information is available at http://h1n1.rutgers.edu. — John S. Clyde