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MONDAY DECEMBER 13, 2010
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Today: Cloudy
STEEL CITY WINNER
High: 40 • Low: 22
The Rutgers men’s basketball team took down Auburn on Saturday in Pittsburgh to be the Big East’s lone winner in the SEC/Big East Invitational.
TSA security earns limited state approval BY REENA DIAMANTE CORRESPONDENT
A recent Rutgers-Eagleton poll reveals that the more N.J. adults know about Transportation Security Administration security measures, the more concerned they are about the agency’s policies. Still, respondents were interested in feeling that they are safe and secure and to some degree, willing to sacrifice a certain amount of privacy to feel protected, said David Redlawsk, director of the Rutgers-Eagleton poll. Two controversial measures to detect contraband and illegal weapons are the full-body scan and enhanced pat-downs, Redlawsk said. The full-body scan produces a nude image, which a TSA employee inspects in a closed-off area. Those who refuse to go through a scanner are subsequently patted down all over the body.
“Just saying, ‘Are these measures going too far?’ More people say they [are not], but when you ask the same question after asking questions about specific measures — scans or the pat-downs — people are far more likely to say some measures go too far,” Redlawsk said. The way the Rutgers-Eagleton poll conducted the survey allowed pollsters to look at what happens if people are asked about security measures in a vacuum, without additional information, he said. Although N.J. adults do not directly oppose the measures, they do think about the possibility that the government might violate their privacy even further, he said. “People are clearly more likely to think that the pat-downs are invasive and too much without adding a lot of security,” Redlawsk said.
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A Rutgers-Eagleton poll reports that N.J. residents feel full-body scans are less intrusive than their alternative, enhanced pat-downs. To some degree, respondents were willing to sacrifice some privacy for a sense of security.
Council to vote on revised budget BY ANKITA PANDA STAFF WRITER
The Engineering Governing Council is in the process of revising a budget that would cut funding from all engineering societies and tonight will vote on it once again at an emergency meeting. The budget cuts would affect many engineering societies, but the Sigma Phi Delta engineering fraternity, and to a smaller degree, the Sigma Phi Rho engineering sorority, expressed the most discontent. “I feel partly responsible that I didn’t meet the societies’ needs properly,” said council Treasurer
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Casey Moure of the failure of a council budget to pass for the first time in seven years. The budget, which was voted down with eight yes votes, nine no votes and nine abstentions, would affect recruitment during rush week more than any other event, said Sigma Phi Delta treasurer Matthew DeCarlo. “By numbers, this is as much funding as we’ve ever got, but for rush week, this is the first semester that they’re starting cutbacks,” said DeCarlo, a School of Engineering senior. Moure, a School of Engineering senior, said the organization wanted
to cut back funding on the fraternity’s rush events and instead allocate that money to other events. The cutback, a result of bad economic times, is an effort to allocate funding more efficiently based on the fraternity’s needs, he said. “We go over ever y funding request … and then at the end of the semester, we allocate a certain amount of money to each of these societies based on what they’ve requested,” Moure said. The council’s budget of about $35,600, down about $300 from last semester, must be split among
POLICE IDENTIFY CALIFORNIA WOMAN AS ROUTE 18 VICTIM Authorities identified Chelsea Traynor, of Concord, Calif., as the University student who was killed riding her bicycle Thursday morning while crossing Route 18 North, according to an article on nj.com. Traynor, 21, was a School of Environmental and Biological Sciences sophomore majoring in nutritional science, Senior Director of University Media Relations Greg Trevor said in the article. She was pronounced dead after a Ford pickup truck, driven by 40year-old South River resident Roger Hoden, struck her at the intersection of George Street and Route 18. The investigation is continuing and no charges have been filed, Trevor said. Those with any information or who may have witnessed the accident are asked to call Officer Mark Smith of the New Brunswick Police Department at (732)-745-5005 or county Investigator Sean O’Lone at (732) 745-3315.
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— Kristine Rosette Enerio
Program makes gadget control user-friendly
POST-CHILL THAW
UNIVERSITY Hundreds attend the Department of Physics and Astronomy’s 13th annual physics lecture for children.
BY RASHMEE KUMAR STAFF WRITER
OPINIONS The Czech Republic utilizes a strange method of testing in order to verify gay refugees’ claims about their sexuality.
UNIVERSITY . . . . . . . 3 OPINIONS . . . . . . . . 8 DIVERSIONS . . . . . . 10 CLASSIFIEDS . . . . . . 12 SPORTS . . . . . . BACK
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JOVELLE ABBEY TAMAO / PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Participants take a breather and enjoy a snack on Saturday after trekking the annual Big Chill, a 5K run/walk marathon. Rather than paying a registration fee, runners were required to donate new toys for children ages 3 through 14. About 6,200 people showed up and more than 8,000 toys were donated.
The field of computer science can be elusive to the public, but a University professor and his team of student researchers is attempting to make programming easier and more accessible. With the help of his students, computer science Professor Michael Littman is creating a way for people to program everyday devices using Scratch, a programming language developed in 2007 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “The project is about allowing people who have little or no programming experience to use basic programming available through a colorful and simple interface, [Scratch], to customize their home appliances,” said Monica Babes, a principle graduate researcher and computer science teaching assistant. By clicking blocks together that correspond to the functions of an appliance, a person can easily program anything in his or her home using Scratch, said Jordan Ash, a School of Engineering sophomore.
SEE GADGET ON PAGE 4