Serving the Rutgers community since 1869. Independent since 1980.
WEATHER Partly Cloudy High: 40 Low: 22
THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 2015
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY—NEW BRUNSWICK
ONLINE AT DAILYTARGUM.COM
New business to replace Fresh Grocer NIDHI PATEL CONTRIBUTING WRITER
SeekingArrangement.com, the “world’s largest sugar daddy dating site,” revealed Rutgers sitting 33rd out of 50 American schools for some of the greatest growth in student “sugar babies.” WIKIMEDIA
With The Fresh Grocer no longer in business, the city of New Brunswick plans to replace the supermarket and provide students with an alternate option by the end of 2015. New Brunswick Mayor James Cahill briefly addressed the issue in October at a Rutgers University Student Assembly meeting, according to a previous article in The Daily Targum. Cahill put forth strong efforts to save The Fresh Grocer from drowning in debt, he said, but it was inevitable. The debt went up to $784,754, according to another previous article in The Daily Targum.
The city of New Brunswick hopes to start the year with a supermarket construction project, which will ultimately provide students with convenient groceries, said Jennifer Bradshaw, public information officer for the City of New Brunswick. An agreement with a vendor, construction timeline, costs and opening date are not yet known, she said. New Brunswick has been in talks with several potential tenants regarding that space. These talks have been ongoing since last year, but a deal has not yet been reached. “The city remains committed to putting a full-service supermarket in this space,” she said. “The mayor did say in his State of the City address on Jan. 2 that he is optimistic
that a new supermarket will open downtown in 2015.” Cahill said the Fresh Grocer may have been successful in Philadelphia but it was unsuccessful in New Jersey due to the inability to attract consumers with cars who could drive a few miles to get less expensive groceries. But Bradshaw said she suspects the closure of The Fresh Grocer was due to a number of factors, not specifically that students have cars and could drive out of town for groceries. “We are aware that a new vendor must be equipped to deal with the needs of an urban center, including its ability to handle subsidized vouchers for food, including SNAP SEE BUSINESS ON PAGE 5
Rutgers in top 50 schools for ‘sugar baby’ increase KATIE PARK STAFF WRITER
In the family of the seven most expensive states to reside in, New Jersey — perhaps unsurprisingly — is part of the list at No. 5, trailing behind Alaska and New York, USA TODAY reported. For the tens of thousands of students that attend Rutgers, the state’s largest public institution and landlord, the situation is hardly any dif ferent. Following two tuition hikes in 2013 and 2014, current tuition sits around $25,000 a year for students living on-campus. The financial burden is not an easy one. Thousands of students toil at part-time jobs while others immerse themselves entirely in their studies, looking to graduate early, save money and enter the workforce. But others, said Angela Bermudo, go an alternative route and seek “sugar daddies” and “sugar mommas.”
According to SeekingArrangements.com, the site provides a platform for “’mutually beneficial relationships,’ in which young women shower men with attention in exchange for ‘the finer things in life.’” Bermudo, public relations manager at SeekingArrangement.com, the “world’s largest sugar daddy dating site,” said in the annual ranking of the fastest growing sugar baby schools, Rutgers came in 33rd out of 50 schools. Preceding Rutgers is the University of Texas, Arizona State and New York University. In 2014, Rutgers’ presence on SeekingArrangement.com grew by 80 new sign-ups, Bermudo said, or a 32.13 percent increase. As of January 2015, all three Rutgers campuses counted 317 active “sugar babies,” although not all students have benefactors. “The average amount [sugar babies] receive is about $3,000 per month,” Bermudo said. “It could be SEE SUGAR
BABY ON PAGE 4
Students debate money as motivation for major AVALON ZOPPO STAFF WRITER
Elisabeth Graham discovered a passion for English at the age of eight. The School of Arts and Sciences first-year student came to the realization in second grade when her teacher assigned the class a daily journal-writing project. “I always had a penchant for storytelling, and this was my first outlet into writing them down,” Graham said. But choosing a major is not as clear-cut for some.
According to a study in the National Academic Advising Association Journal, 96.6 percent of students said interest in subject area is important in deciding a major, whereas 45.4 percent of students feel prospects of a high-paying job are critical. The results of the NAAAJ study, which gave surveys on student satisfaction to 145,150 undergraduates across six universities, suggested students generally feel a greater sense of satisfaction when they make decisions about their majors and caSEE MAJOR ON PAGE 5
Since The Fresh Grocer closed in June 2014 due to unpaid rent, city officials have been looking for replacement businesses. A new supermarket is expected to move into New Brunswick at the end of 2015. TIANFANG YU / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER / MARCH 2014
Professor details dual role as Nobel Prize Committee member WEINI ZHANG STAFF WRITER
Tomas Sjostrom, a professor in the Depar tment of Economics, frequently travels to Sweden. But when he goes, he visits not to admire the views of Monteliusvagen or get lost between the shelves of Stockholm’s Stadsbibliotek. Instead, he travels to Sweden to choose the next recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences. Sjostrom, one of the five full members in the Nobel Economic Prize Committee, a par t of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, evaluates and selects winners for the prestigious prize ever y year. He was inducted into the group after completing his sixth year as an associate profes-
sor. Within the committee, he is the “game theor y and microtheor y person,” he said. “To be on the committee either as full member or as an associate, you have to be a native of Sweden or at least related, since Swedish is the language used,” Sjostrom said. “They needed someone in game theory ... and it is my honor.” The level of microeconomic theor y that Sjostrom studies is highly abstract and theoretical, said Thomas Prusa, chair of the Depar tment of Economics at the University. Sjostrom’s work is half-economist and half-mathematician, Prusa said, describing him as a “personable, genuine and collegial man” and an extremely brilliant economist.
The Nobel Prize nomination process takes place in Januar y, when economics professors around the world bring up hundreds of qualified nominees, Sjostrom said. Beginning next month, in Februar y, Sjostrom and his colleague on the committee will star t to go through the extensive list of promising candidates. “After reducing the list to reasonable nominations, we discuss the candidates [for] meetings after meetings as the spring goes on,” Sjostrom said. “It gradually becomes clear who is the most wor thy winner before summer.” The Nobel Prize for Economics was not in the original will of Alfred Nobel, Sjostrom said. Rather, SEE MEMBER ON PAGE 4
VOLUME 146, ISSUE 124 • UNIVERSITY ... 3 • ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT ... 6 • OPINIONS ... 8 • DIVERSIONS ... 10 • CLASSIFIEDS ... 12 • SPORTS ... BACK