TRANSPARENCY University’s eco-friendly plan is likely more about money than the environment see opinions, page 6
Grocery Shopping Turn a mundane chore into an affordable opportunity for good health
Men’s basketball The Knights look to rebound after three straight losses
see Inside beat, page 8
WEATHER Partly cloudy High: 45 Low: 31
SEE Sports, back
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Dutta explores future of graduate education under new tax plan Christian Zapata Correspondent
University Chancellor Debasish Dutta spoke to students at a town hall meeting yesterday in regard to the future of graduate education under the recently passed Republican tax plan. The bill, passed early Saturday morning, awaits further deliberation as House Republicans and Senate resolve differences between their versions of the legislation. It includes the elimination of tax breaks, which graduate students across the country receive from their universities, according to CNN. Yearly tuition remissions awarded to students is money they never see, and essentially serve as a placeholder for the University, according to The Daily Targum. Under the new plan, this money is susceptible to taxation, which students will have to pay. Throughout the meeting, Dutta and the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies Jerome J. Kukor discussed the financial implications that the bill would have on students. The students in attendance voiced a series of concerns regarding diversity in graduate programs and the University’s support at this time. “It is not an exaggeration to say that the demand is probably 20 times what we can actually allocate,” Kukor said. “We simply don’t have enough money in the pot at the moment to actually make that kind
On Wednesday night, Chancellor Debasish Dutta spoke to students at the Academic Building about financial support and diversity in graduate education programs. Currently, Rutgers ranks last within the Big Ten Academic Alliance for graduate student financial support. TATIANA MCNEIL of award package to bring students in to help us in terms of broadening diversity and expanding inclusion.” Charts and statistics projected onto a screen displayed the position and success of Rutgers graduate school programs compared to other schools in the Big Ten Academic
Alliance. The University ranked higher in some areas than others but ranked especially low in financial support for students, taking last place among all 14 schools. Students addressed their requests for the University to eliminate tuition for graduate students, as well as
the lack of diversity among those in graduate programs. Kukor said that increases in out-of-state tuition do not allow for the University to allot the necessary funding to offer financial support packages. “There are certain constraints within which we operate,” Dutta
said. “This is not an excuse, but let’s find a way to move forward. Let’s find a way to address the kind of issues that you’re raising. These issues have come (forth), not because of actions made yesterday. This is how the institution has been moving for a number of years.” Students in the audience referenced the thousands of dollars paid to administrators yearly and the $800 million in unrestricted funds held by the University. Lauren Frazee, a graduate student in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, said that this information should have been collected long ago and that if anyone cared about the preservation of graduate education they would have analyzed it then. “Starting this now, saying that this is something that’s coming now, that we want to be transparent. It’s bull****,” she said. Frazee said this is not an initiative the University decided to present just now, but the trends shown throughout the night will become void as soon as the bill passes. Diversity, inclusion and rates of graduate fellowships from external funds will all decrease. Despite this, Frazee said, “I feel totally better just because I think that any kind of communication in this way, whether it’s whatever, is good ... This is better than it not having happened, exceedingly better.”
Libertarian feminist speaker meets crowd of more than 100 students at U. Chloe Dopico Associate News Editor
Professors and faculty members at Rutgers are preparing to enter contract renegotiations, with backing from the the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). CASEY AMBROSIO
Rutgers faculty prepare to enter contract negotiations Max Marcus Correspondent
A majority of Rutgers faculty contracts will be renegotiated in 2018. For the Rutgers chapter of the American Association of University Professors and American Federation of Teachers (AAUP-AFT), this
represents an opportunity to remedy some of the administration’s policy-based issues. David Hughes, a professor in the Department of Anthropology and the vice president of Rutgers AAUPAFT, said that in recent years, the See negotiations Page 4
On Tuesday, more than 100 students gathered in Trayes Hall in the Douglass Student Center to listen to a speech by American author, philosopher and critic of contemporary feminism, Christina Hoff Sommers. Sommers, the author of “Who Stole Feminism?” and “The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men,” was invited by the Rutgers chapter of Young Americans for Liberty (YAL). “Our members have always really wanted to hear Christina Hoff Sommers speak,” said Andrea Vacchiano, the club’s president. “I figured she would be perfect because she’s a libertarian. I actually interned at Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute last year after my freshman year, so they were generous enough to co-sponsor most of the cost.” The School of Arts and Sciences junior said planning for the event commenced in October or November and that she was thrilled with the outcome.
“I was really excited that there weren’t any obnoxious protests. There were clearly people who disagreed with Christina, but I really respected that they came here and they were just standing in the question and answer line and they asked their questions respectfully, so I really appreciate that everyone conducted themselves civilly today,” she said. Sommers began her presentation by discussing radical feminism and telling a story about the time she visited the American Philosophical Association to give a paper reacting to contemporary feminist Alison Jaggar. She said she expected to argue, but then go out for drinks with her colleagues afterward. Instead, she was “excommunicated from a religion she didn’t know existed.” Sommers said most women’s studies textbooks do not represent libertarian feminists, conservative feminists or moderate liberal feminists. She wrote her book, “Who Stole Feminism?” as a way of defending the democratic liberal tradition, which
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she said is enough to liberate women and anyone else that is oppressed. Sommers also hosts a weekly video series called “The Factual Feminist,” where she attempts to clarify common feminist myths. She said that there is no true diversity in women’s studies, which causes a lack of quality control and rampant bias in the field. Although she received a lot of praise from several prominent feminists, she said she also received a lot of backlash from people who believed the United States is an oppressive patriarchy, and did not appreciate her plea for moderation. Sommers gave several examples of the protectionist feminist assault on freedom, which was her main point of the night. She said that feminism has moved in the direction of safe spaces, trigger warnings and censorship, instead of liberation and freedom, which was the original motivation for the movement. In her speech, she cited Laura Kipnis, a Northwestern feminist See students on Page 4