The Daily Targum 2011-01-28

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THE DAILY TARGUM Vo l u m e 1 4 2 , N u m b e r 7 7

S E R V I N G

T H E

R U T G E R S

C O M M U N I T Y

S I N C E

WHISTLIN’ DIXON

High: 35 • Low: 22

Head coach Mike Rice and the Rutgers men’s basketball team takes on Jamie Dixon, Rice’s former mentor, and the No. 2 Pitt Panthers on Saturday at the Louis Brown Athletic Center.

Study finds lack in college educations

BY MAXWELL BARNA

BY COLLEEN ROACHE

CORRESPONDENT

In a party-line vote that could affect many University commuters, Democrats on the Senate Transportation Committee approved a bill last week that will require the New Jersey Turnpike Authority to roll back, or ef fectively repeal, a 90-cent toll increase scheduled for 2012. Sen. Nick Sacco, D-Nor th Bergen, said the toll money should not be used without public consent. The money was meant to raise $1.25 billion for Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) project, an initiative planned over the last two decades to build a trans-Hudson River tunnel, canceled last October by Gov. Chris Christie. “What we’re saying is that the part of the tolls that were to be used for the ARC tunnel, since there is no more ARC tunnel project … should not be passed off as part of the toll increases,” said Sacco, Transportation Committee chairman. Only a portion of the 90-cent increase was intended to go toward the amount and so the bill does not completely eliminate the hike, said Sacco, who sponsored the bill. “[The bill] would not completely roll back the tolls, it would only roll back a percentage,” he said. Transportation Committee President Sen. Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, who co-sponsored the bill, said via email correspondence that the bill would both alleviate an unnecessar y burden on New Jersey drivers and eliminate an unneeded toll increase. “Christie should be up front with the tax and toll payers of New Jersey and

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ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

SCOTT TSAI / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

A new book, “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses,” suggests a lack of vigorous coursework and focus is hurting college students academically.

BY AMY ROWE CORRESPONDENT

Despite leaving the University 11 years ago, Michael Esper still carries the acting skills he learned in the classroom and the experience of growing up in New Jersey with him to the Broadway stage. Esper, who was a Mason Gross School of the Arts student in 2000, now has a role in the Broadway musical “American Idiot.” The musical, based on the punk-rock band Green Day’s album of the same name, concentrates on the struggle of three friends to get out of suburbia and find more meaning in life, Esper said.

Esper plays the character Will, the stoner friend of the main character Johnny, who deals with his pregnant girlfriend while sitting on a couch. “I know what it feels like to be trapped in a suburban environment,” said Esper, who grew up in Montclair, N.J. “Montclair was nice, but I just felt completely dead-ended there. It just felt like a prison [with] no way to thrive except to get out.” The 34-year-old actor draws inspiration from his personal experiences while performing in the musical. “I wasn’t a big stoner in high school,” Esper said. “I smoked a

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GETTY IMAGES

Former student Michael Esper, second from left, rocks out with his cast in the Broadway musical, “American Idiot.”

BY MAXWELL BARNA CORRESPONDENT

OPINIONS Google institutes “soft censorship” in order to combat online privacy.

UNIVERSITY . . . . . . . 3 OPINIONS . . . . . . . . 8 DIVERSIONS . . . . . . 10 CLASSIFIEDS . . . . . . 12

ONLINE @

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On-campus disputes mark RUSA meeting

GOOGLE THIS

Three students create a new drink after witnessing the health complications of heart disease.

DAILYTARGUM.COM

The mere mention of college may evoke images of fraternity parties, football games and new friends, but according to a recent study, an essential element of the university experience — education — is falling to the wayside. According to the study of 2,300 undergraduate students at 24 universities across the countr y, 45 percent of students exhibit no major improvements in skills such as critical thinking, reasoning and writing during the first two years of their college careers. More than one-third showed no significant improvement in these areas over the course of four years.

Former student performs in Broadway show

UNIVERSITY

SPORTS . . . . . . BACK

JANUARY 28, 2011

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Today: Snow

Legislature pushes toll hike repeal

FRIDAY

GABY YIM

The Google Student Ambassador Program hosted a panel of Google interns which discussed both product demos and networking opportunities last night inside the Multipurpose Room of the Livingston Student Center.

The Rutgers University Student Assembly’s first meeting of the semester ran later than expected last night in the Student Activities Center on the College Avenue campus because of internal disputes. School of Arts and Sciences senior Eric Kaplan stood up to express his concern and dissatisfaction with anti-Semitic rhetoric on campus. “This idea that Israel is an apartheid state is false,” Kaplan said. “This idea that’s proliferating around campus that Israel is an ethnic cleansing state is really troubling.” Kaplan’s statements were met with opposition from some of the other meeting attendees, who felt he was using an inappropriate forum for his concerns. “If there’s any discriminatory rhetoric on campus I think you should take it up with the

administration,” said Internal Affairs Chair John Aspray. Kaplan said ignoring Israel’s right to exist, in and of itself, is anti-Semitic. “Opposing Israel’s right to exist is anti-Semitism,” Kaplan said. “When you’re criticizing Zionism, you’re criticizing Jews.” School of Arts and Sciences senior Nicole Buffington said there is a difference between being antiSemitic and not supporting the state of Israel. Other than the debate over rhetoric, the meeting also dealt with several assembly issues, including a review of the standing rules of the assembly and the election of both the Student Fee Advisor y Committee and Academic Affairs committees. A bill came to vote that would provide RUSA with a student from the Graduate School of Education

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