The Daily Targum 2014-11-19

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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY—NEW BRUNSWICK

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014

ONLINE AT DAILYTARGUM.COM

Barchi talks crime, alcohol policy THE DAILY TARGUM The problem with alcohol policies is that Rutgers cannot legislate personal behavior, said University President Robert L. Barchi. Continuing a discussion with Barchi, New Brunswick Chancellor Richard L. Edwards and the editorial board of The Daily Targum, administration officials addressed recent crimes and alcohol-related issues.

ALCOHOL

A student rejoices during the 2012 commencement ceremony at the High Point Solutions Stadium. TIAN LI / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER / MAY 2012

Dean March addresses commencement rumors SABRINA SZTEINBAUM ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

No individual department convocations are being canceled and no statement has been issued to prevent departments from holding independent celebrations to honor graduates, said Kara Donaldson, associate dean of Planning and Communications at Rutgers. Rachel Battaglia, a School of Arts and Sciences senior, started a change. org petition yesterday calling on Executive Dean Peter March of the School of Arts and Sciences and the Rutgers administration to “keep departmental

graduations in their original locations and reconsider the recent decision to eliminate individual departmental graduations, which relocates them to the stadium,” according to the petition. The petition states the decision was not decided on by students, faculty or department heads, but was instead made “behind closed doors.” Next May, the School of Arts and Sciences will hold a convocation ceremony following the University commencement, March said. Every school other than the School of Arts and Sciences, including the School of SEE RUMORS ON PAGE 4

Felicia McGinty, vice chancellor of Student Affairs, said the fraternity in which student Caitlyn Kovacs visited before her alcohol-related death is currently suspended and is under investigation. They are going through a legal and a disciplinary process, she said. Barchi said these were “huge issues” that are more complex than they sound on the surface. BARCHI: I have to say, coming to this campus though, I’ve been pretty impressed with the alcohol policy here. I had to rewrite an alcohol policy completely from scratch at [the University of Pennsylvania], and make the campus dry for six months because of a death that we had. And the policy here is every bit as good, if not better, than the one that we eventually came up with at that institution. The problem is that you can’t legislate everyone’s personal behavior. … You can do what you can, and you can try your best, but there will always be people with individual situations and behavior that run counter to what you’re trying to accomplish.

CRIME

Barchi began talking about crime by saying that the recent “wave” of crimes was a misunderstanding students have had about the new crime reporting system. Last spring, he changed the system so students would receive crime reports about off-campus incidents. BARCHI: On campus, we have seen anywhere from a 30 to 50 percent decline in crime. … The perception, though, is that so much more is being reported on your cell phone, because we’re pushing out all this stuff that’s happening in New Brunswick. … But there is also a slight but significant increase in crime in New

Brunswick itself. What’s happening? New Brunswick has put an additional 10 officers on the street over there. We’ve put additional police on the College Avenue area. We’ve started additional patrols that involve RUPD and a New Brunswick police person between midnight and six in the morning in that precinct to get more presence. I mean, you need more — people need to see presence, that’s the bottom line. So it isn’t a crime wave — that’s the first thing. It isn’t an increase SEE POLICY ON PAGE 4

University President Robert L. Barchi addresses issues about student life at Winants Hall on Monday. EDWIN GANO / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Scholars discuss ISIS, Middle Eastern turmoil KATIE PARK CORRESPONDENT

The turnout at High Point Solutions Stadium has led Piscataway Township to consider imposing a parking tax for game day. TIANFANG YU / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER / SEPTEMBER 2014

City considers game day parking tax LIN LAN CORRESPONDENT

Rutgers had a record-breaking attendance of 53,774 at its first Big Ten Conference game against Penn State at High Point Solutions Stadium earlier this year. This turnout is often costly for the Piscataway Township, which supplies a police force and other municipal services for Rutgers events. At least 11 people were arrested at the game against Penn State —

two made by the Piscataway police, the rest by the Rutgers University Police Department, according to New Brunswick Today. To account for the financial burden that Rutgers events place on the township, Piscataway proposed an ordinance on Nov. 6 for a seven percent parking tax at future University events and games, according to mycentraljersey.com. Peter McDonough, senior vice president of external affairs at Rutgers, said parking revenue yielded

about $1 million a few years ago, which, if the tax policy were approved, would amount to $70,000 for the township. The initial date for hearing and passing the ordinance was Nov. 25, but it was tabled after University officials contested the policy’s legal grounds. Anne Gordon, public information officer for Piscataway Township, said there have been no further SEE TAX ON PAGE 4

Turmoil in the Middle East is nothing new. News about Egypt, Israel, Palestine and Syria are daily occurrences, and the media reports one ISIS beheading after another. In light of the myriad facets of these conflicts, four panelists convened yesterday afternoon to discuss the collective future of the Middle East. The lecture, “What Is the Future of the Middle East?” was co-sponsored by the Department of Political Science and the Division of Student Affairs. Eric Davis, vice-chair for Graduate Studies in the Department of Political Science, moderated the event in the Multipurpose Room of the College Avenue Student Center. Engy Abdelkader, Esq., Hamid-al-Bayati, Muli Peleg and Ghaidaa Hetou were the panelists who spoke about the conditions of Egypt, Iraq, Israel and Syria, respectively. Abdelkader, a Rutgers alumna, lawyer and co-director of the Immigration Intervention Project,

outlined a series of issues currently plaguing Egypt. She spoke exclusively on the rights of women and girls in the country. She described three areas regarding women’s rights: economic empowerment, domestic violence and gender-based violence. Although Egypt has laws stating that women must be given equal opportunities for employment, the current situation suggests otherwise. Twenty-eight percent of Egyptian women are unemployed, compared to the 9.1 percent of unemployed Egyptian men. But the statistic is not entirely representative. The 28 percent does not indicate whether the women included in the statistic desired jobs. If that was the case, Abdelkader said the law should be applied more stringently to better achieve gender equality in the Egyptian workforce. She also discussed the severe condition of domestic violence in Egypt. According to one research study, 80 percent of surveyed Egyptian men felt they had the right to “physically discipline” their wives. SEE TURMOIL ON PAGE 5

­­VOLUME 146, ISSUE 110 • UNIVERSITY ... 3 • FOOD & DRINK ... 6 • ON THE WIRE ... 7 • OPINIONS ... 8 • DIVERSIONS ... 10 • CLASSIFIEDS ... 12 • SPORTS ... BACK


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