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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY—NEW BRUNSWICK
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014
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U. approves preferred student name policy VAISHALI GAUBA NEWS EDITOR
Rutgers has approved a student preferred name policy, starting last week. According to the policy, class rosters, Sakai and Rutgers Electronic Grading and Information System will allow students to use preferred names instead of legal names. This policy would no longer require students, especially gender-nonconforming, international and transgender students, to email professors beforehand to use different names or pronouns, said Zaneta Rago, acting director of the Center for Social Justice Education and LGBT Communities. Rago said the procedure took nearly two years due to the technicalities associated with it. However, the center, along with student groups such as Rutgers University Student Assembly and Trans*missions, helped in its implementation. “LGBT students and staff have been talking about the possibility of a preferred name policy for two years now, and ultimately with the creation of a new student group, the Trans*missions — the first trans and gender-nonconforming and ally student group on campus — in conjunction with RUSA, put together a preferred name bill last year,” Rago said. While the policy did not face any
kind of pushback, the technicalities consumed most of the time. “To create any type of change on campus, it’s a group effort between students, faculty, staff and administrators, and I wouldn’t necessarily say it was very difficult, but I think it has been a long process just because there’s so many technical aspects to … implementing the change,” she said. The center worked with the division of Student Affairs, the Registrar’s Office and the Office of Information Technology to institute the procedure. Justin Lucero, treasurer for RUSA, said RUSA held a meeting in November last year to discuss the bill on preferred name policy and passed it. “The first thing we did was pass a resolution to publicize support for the policy,” said Lucero, a junior in the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. Last year, members of RUSA met Felicia McGinty, vice chancellor for Student Affairs, to express the need for the policy. McGinty said she would draft the policy change and bring it up with administration. Rago said since the policy became operational, about 65 students have signed forms to utilize the policy. However, this was only the first phase of the procedure. The second phase, which is in progress, would allow students to use preferred names for student ID cards and housing rosters.
GRAPHIC BY ADAM ISMAIL / DESIGN EDITOR
Rutgers nontraditional students find work-life balance on campus LIN LAN STAFF WRITER
College students are often stereotyped as budding youths — inexperienced, impressionable and a little naïve. But not all undergraduates at Rutgers are students in the traditional sense.
Some of them are adults seasoned with real-world work experience, family obligations and hardships. Whether they are a few years or decades older than the typical undergraduate, they all have one thing in common: being a nontraditional student. Last year, a total of 2,507 nontra-
ditional students, ages 18 to 55 or older, were enrolled in Rutgers-New Brunswick, according to the University website. Among them was Carol Hladun, a former advertising director at The Star-Ledger who graduated SEE STUDENTS ON PAGE 6
Project aims to improve off-campus safety LIDIA DE LOS SANTOS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Fifty-four percent of undergraduates in New Brunswick, around 17,000 students, live off-campus. Anyone who does not live in University housing is classified as an off-campus student, meaning whether a student commutes 40 minutes from northern New Jersey or lives five minutes from College Avenue, they are both categorized the same. “I think we can all agree that the college experience of someone who drives 45 minutes every day to commute to class is very different from someone who walks 5 minutes to campus,” said Richard Trent, lead coordinator of the Scarlet Zone Initiative. The Scarlet Zones Initiative is a grassroots effort on the part of Rutgers student leaders and alumni to improve the quality of life for off-campus students living in the neighborhoods in New Brunswick, he said. Trent said the main concerns of the organization are about safety, quality of housing and the exchange of important information to students dwelling in off-campus neighborhoods. “We want to be sure campus police officers are patrolling our neighborhoods to prevent assaults
and burglaries,” he said. “We want to make sure that when a disaster like a flood or hurricane happens, off-campus students are as well-informed about evacuation procedures as on-campus students.” Last Spring semester, the University implemented an expanded crime notification system to alert students, faculty and staff of serious crimes that occur within the city’s fifth and sixth wards, University Spokesperson E.J. Miranda said in an email.
To make students even more comfortable living off-campus, the Scarlet Zones Initiative wants to collect data through surveys to inform University policy, Trent said. “To start, a team of volunteers will canvas New Brunswick to survey students about their perceptions and experiences living off-campus,” he said. “We will then analyze this data and make SEE SAFETY ON PAGE 6
The Robotics Assisted Bridge Inspection Tool can examine the interior and exterior of a bridge by driving over its surface. COURTESY OF NENAD GUCUNSKI
Team receives award for bridge safety robot KATIE PARK CORRESPONDENT
To increase safety for off-campus dwellers, RUPD and NBPD implemented an expanded crime notification system in the fifth and sixth wards of New Brunswick. TIANYUN LIN
In a matter of years, it may be more common to see 5-foot robots scuttling along the sides of roads than construction workers in orange hard hats. Nenad Gucunski, professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, headed the project to develop the RABIT, a device that examines both the interior
and exterior of any bridge just by driving over its asphalt surface. To better picture how the RABIT, or Robotics Assisted Bridge Inspection Tool, works, it is helpful to picture an X-ray or an MRI — the RABIT imitates, in essence, these two forms of medical science. The purpose of the RABIT is to look for early signs of corrosion and bridge deterioration. By spotting
VOLUME 146, ISSUE 56 • UNIVERSITY ... 3 • SCIENCE ... 7 • OPINIONS ... 8 • DIVERSIONS ... 10 • CLASSIFIEDS ... 12 • SPORTS ... BACK
SEE ROBOT ON PAGE 5