LAURELS AND DARTS We laurel the Helyar House for lowering costs of living on-campus
see OPINIONS, page 6
Why Bach matters Dean Stauffer shares how the composer is still relevant and his upcoming book
see arts & entertainment, page 8
MEN’S BASKETBALL Rutgers will participate in charity exhibition game with St. John’s SEE sports, BACK
WEATHER Partly cloudy High: 73 Low: 42
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friDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2017
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Rutgers students share their priorities 4 days before polls open in NJ Daniel Israel Staff Writer
It is officially November. Fall is in full swing, and for those who stay informed regarding state and local politics, that can only mean one thing — New Jersey is on track to hold its gubernatorial election next week. On Nov. 7, registered voters will head to the polls to cast their ballot in the vote for governor. Taking into account third party candidates, there are seven candidates in the running, but the competition has been primarily dominated by Democrat Phil Murphy and his Republican opponent Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno (R-N.J.), according to NJ Advanced Media. The latest poll of likely voters shows Guadagno trailing Murphy by a 14-point gap. With a new governor on the way, many New Jerseyans may research potential candidates and their views. Yet a problem has arisen during this election — it is barely getting any attention. In fact, NJ Advanced Media reported that 53 percent of likely voters do With voting less than one week away, Rutgers students opened up about the issues that are shaping New Jersey’s gubernatorial election. Among students’ top concerns are education, marijuana legalization and environmentalism. DIMITRI RODRIGUEZ / PHOTO EDITOR
See polls on Page 4
U. hosts ‘Prescription Drug Take-Back Day’ Shane Garry Contributing Writer
On Saturday, Generation Rx held their bi-annual event “Prescription Drug Take-Back Day,” a national initiative run by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) with the goal of getting rid of prescription drugs in a safe way. The Rutgers chapter of this initiative is relatively new, said Emilia Debek, an Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy junior and the committee chair of the club said. “Our pharmacy school specifically, we started two years ago. So our first one was Spring of 2016 and we brought it out at Rutgers Day,” she said. Generation Rx hosts this event once in the fall and also on Rutgers Day during the spring semester. “Initially, we advertised at local pharmacies, we had posted on the page and we were out there with RUPD (Rutgers University Police Department) for anyone to bring their medication who attended Rutgers Day to just dispose of them,” she said. Generation Rx, an organization comprised of pharmacy students, is at the event to serve as experts on medication and assist people with
any questions they may have about their medication. Once the drugs are collected, RUPD handles them, taking them to the DEA office in New Jersey, where they are disposed of. The most common method of rendering pharmaceutical controlled substances non-retrievable is incineration, according to the DEA website After the event, Michael Marinacci, committee chair of Generation Rx and an Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy junior, spoke about the turnout. “I’d say about 30 people … At Rutgers Day we definitely get more people, just because there are more people walking around and there are other health fairs going on too so we get more traffic that way,” Marinacci said. Debek said that with every takeback that they have done, they have gotten more and more feedback. “With this one, we’ve tried to do more advertising about it, so we’ve gone to more local pharmacies and had them distribute fliers, we went to Hidden Grounds to get the take-back fliers distributed,” she said. Marinacci said that he would have liked more people to come and actually give in their prescription mediSee day on Page 5
Despite an increase in University crime alerts this semester, authorities assure students that crime in New Brunswick is declining. The New Brunswick Police Department falls under the jurisdiction of the Clery Act, which protects students by ensuring transparency. YOSEF SERKEZ
RUPD says spike in crime this fall is not indicative of larger trend Ryan Stiesi Staff Writer
Although students saw nearly twice as many crime alerts this semester than the last, in general, crime at Rutgers is declining, said Kenneth Cop, the executive director of Public Safety and chief of University Police.
“If you looked at the academic year ‘15 and ‘16 compared to ‘16 and ‘17, you’ll see a 39 percent decrease in serious crime that resulted in crime alerts. So we are definitely on the decline,” Cop said. At the time of The Daily Targum’s interview on Oct. 26, Cop
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said that there had been four crime alerts at the same point last semester. There have been seven crime alerts since classes started back up in August, but Cop said the general trend is still decreasing. See Trend on Page 4