In just three weeks, more than 1,000 students banded together on a Facebook group to protest the new speed cap on the University’s residential Internet network.

Implemented at the start of the spring semester, the new speed cap for downloading and uploading is set to a maximum of 1.5 megabits per second and 768 kilobits per second respectively, according to the University’s Residential Network Web site.

School of Arts and Sciences first-year student Kevin Song created the group, called “Rutgers Students for Faster Internet.”

Song established the group to convince the Office of Information Technology to change the new Internet policy to something more satisfactory.

Before, the residential network had a bandwidth limit but no speed cap.

“[The limit] was pretty hard to max out, unless you were on the Internet all the time downloading,” said John Compagnone, a School of Arts and Sciences sophomore and member of the Facebook group.

School of Engineering junior Nick Divakar said he had a 1.5 megabit speed cap nine years ago.

He said a quality of service policy should be implemented, which only reduces the bandwidth during certain periods of the day when there is peak usage that actually slows down the rest of the network.

Rutgers University Office of Information Technology Director Frank Reda said numerous complaints from students and faculty prompted the decision to remove the download limit when their Internet privileges were suspended after exceeding the download limit. 

“Providing uniform, uninterrupted Internet access to all students is a fair solution. Now no student will have coursework impacted by suspension of Internet connectivity,” Reda said. “The only potential con is that peak transmission speeds [to the Internet] are slower than was previously available.”

Song said the new Internet policy initially was not a problem for him since it removed the weekly bandwidth limit. He then observed the connection was significantly slower than it had been, he said. 

Song believes the new policy might actually increase the load on the University’s network. 

He speculated it would only take one person downloading non-stop for a week to use up the 100 gigabits of bandwidth, which is 25 times the original limit. 

“In other words, two roommates could use up more bandwidth than an entire floor combined,” Song said. 

School of Arts and Sciences sophomore Brian Meng, another member of the group, believes the University created this policy to make the Internet more accessible to students.

The Office of Information Technology has been working with students who reported issues with slow Internet and is gathering data on exactly why this is a problem, Reda said. 

“We encourage any student who believes that they have a problem with their Internet connection to contact the New Brunswick Computing Services Help Desk,” he said. 

The new policy has affected students in many different ways, Compagnone said. 

“I used to have video chats with my family back home,” Campagnone said. “But with the [new] speed cap, the video quality is horrible, and I can’t really see them.”

But Reda said the speed caps should not affect network resources on campus, or internal University Web sites such as Sakai and University e-mail accounts. 

The ResNet Web site notes that some Web sites affiliated with the University, such as Databases in the Rutgers Libraries page, are not hosted by the University, and are therefore susceptible to the speed cap.

The slower Internet has made it harder for some students to submit homework assignments, use e-mail services and do online research, Meng said.

Divakar said many engineering students need to download a specific program to complete their assignments, and the program took more than an hour to download while with the old policy, the program took 20 minutes to download. 

Reda said while the Office of Information Technology has received complaints from students about the slow speed of their Internet, the office has also heard from other students that they have not experienced any problems with the new Internet policy.

The new policy was first piloted on the Rutgers-Camden campus and received only positive results, Reda said.

The Telecommunication Division also tested the new speed limits by using services like Youtube, Hulu and Netflix and had acceptable results, he said. 

But Divakar said some students have personally seen a significant decrease in the speeds of Web sites like Youtube and Hulu, which are adversely affected by the speed cap.

As the average broadband speed keeps increasing, commonly used Web sites will use more bandwidth as well, which will feel slower as time goes on, he said.

“Perhaps five years ago, that speed may have been acceptable. But now the Internet is indispensable for a college student’s social and academic life,” Song said. 

Richard Deras, a member of the group, said he joined it after becoming aggravated with the slow speed of Internet in the residence halls.

He believes the Internet should be much faster, especially when using computers connected to an Ethernet cable. 

“Ideally, the University should have wireless in all dorms, or at least faster Ethernet speed,” said Deras, a School of Arts and Sciences first-year.

Compagnone believes many students are willing to settle with a return to the old policy, with no speed cap and a bandwidth limit.

Meng said the perfect Internet policy would be unlimited bandwidth with no speed cap.

Journalist and nonfiction writer Philip Gourevitch first visited Rwanda in 1995, a little under a year after the genocide that resulted in the deaths of more than 800,000.

He turned that experience into a best-selling book.  

Gourevitch shared his experiences with the University Wednesday night when he read and discussed excerpts from his novels in the Multipurpose Room of the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue campus as part of the “Writers at Rutgers Reading Series.”

The author wrote “We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families,” a novel on the Rwandan genocide that relays the stories of Rwandan citizens who were involved in the genocide.

“[Gourevitch’s] courage and creativity have shown that nonfiction can be a powerful agent for social change,” English professor Carolyn Williams said.

To conduct his research, Gourevitch visited prisons in Rwanda, which were just large rooms filled with people, he said. 

“I was basically pushed inside a room filled with thousands of accused murderers, and not one guard. But the prisoners were surprisingly courteous,” he said.

While the accused killers showed him around their prison and spoke to him politely, not one of the thousands admitted to killing a single person, Gourevitch said. 

“I talked to and interviewed both groups of Rwandans — the Hutus and the people they persecuted, the Tutsis,” Gourevitch said.  “These people weren’t just killed by unknown members of the military. They were killed by their own neighbors, doctors, priests and friends.”

The Rwandan genocide did not receive much attention from governments or the media, he said. 

“Rwanda is out of the world’s political and economic interests. … It’s a small country that often falls out of the conscious of journalists as well,” Gourevitch said. 

Gourevitch felt the mass killing had to be understood, so he investigated how people were living in the aftermath of the genocide. 

The Rwandan army began bringing the hundreds of thousands of people who fled the country home from the refugee camps set up in neighboring countries in the fall of 1996, and more than 600,000 people returned to the country over the span of two or three days, he said. 

Gourevitch was curious to see how people would respond upon their return to Rwanda, he said. 

One woman Gourevitch spoke with told him that her entire family — her husband, children and grandchildren — were killed by her own neighbor, and she was left to die, Gourevitch said. 

Her family’s murderer had just returned to his home, and when she confronted him, he told her he was not responsible for his actions and asked her to pardon him, Gourevitch said. 

Once he admitted his actions — which included the murders of more than 70 people — the man was sentenced to 11 years in prison and then released, Gourevitch said. 

The author also discussed his third and most recent novel, “The Ballad of Abu Ghraib,” which contains interviews with military personnel who were accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners of war. 

“Basically everyone has seen the pictures that were printed everywhere, with Lynndie England holding a leash around a naked prisoner’s neck,” Gourevitch said.

After interviews with England, Gourevitch realized the story was not exactly the same story many Americans may know, he said. 

“One of the interesting things about [Gourevitch’s] work is that it investigates that ethical use of evidence and how things aren’t always really as they seem,” Williams said.

To better understand the common information exchange errors teams make while working together, researchers from the School of Communication and Information are conducting a study investigating errors trauma teams make during emergency resuscitations of patients.

“We looked at how [trauma] teams communicate with each other, make decisions and transfer information,” said Aleksandra Sarcevic, School of Communication and Information research associate.

Dr. Randall Burd, of the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and Ivan Marsic, a University professor, initiated the project in 2004. It has since appeared in three published papers and was awarded a National Science Foundation award. 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports the annual number of emergency room visits increased by one-third since last year, said Swati Govil, a School of Communication and Information media relations intern.

The biggest issue in trauma team communication is there are no strict rules regarding how information should be gathered in the field and then transferred, she said. 

“Trauma teams usually use experience to develop their own way of collecting and reporting data, but that does not always work,” Sarcevic said. 

With this increase in visitors to the emergency department, it is more critical to be on the lookout for possible medical mistakes, said Govil, a Rutgers College senior. Communication breakdowns can endanger the patient’s life.

Each patient requires a uniquely developed team, and there is no concrete system to ensure the transfer process goes completely smoothly, Burd said. 

“[When a trauma emergency occurs], all of a sudden, there is a group of many different people working together, who do not usually work together,” he said.

Errors that trauma teams make can lead to adverse outcomes if they are severe, Sarcevic said. 

Team members can easily forget or incorrectly remember an important piece of information while under the stress of trauma resuscitation, Sarcevic said. There are about 50 different types of information transferred by the teams, and it is only human that some are mistaken or forgotten.

The extent to which these mistakes affect the patient varies with each person, but they can definitely affect the care provided, she said.

“A lack of structure is what causes problems in communication,” Sarcevic said. 

The team has published three papers on the topic so far, which were based on data collected from Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, she said.

A new study began in September and will continue to examine team errors in more detail at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Sarcevic said. 

The team has almost unlimited access to live recording of resuscitations, which they did not have before, she said. 

“We will produce richer and more detailed analyses than before without the time restrictions we faced before,” said Sarcevic, who will spend the next six months in Washington, D.C., working as a volunteer and gathering information from the trauma center at the Children’s National Medical Center.

“By completely blending into the environment as a worker and not an outside researcher, I’ll be able to examine the issue much more closely,” Sarcevic said. 

The researchers are very happy with how well the hospitals responded to their study, she said. 

“Without support from either hospital, we would be nowhere,” Sarcevic said. “Our studies are a product of a great collaboration between hospital personnel, doctors and researchers.”

The complexity of the problem makes finding a solution difficult, she said.

“Right now, we have to first gain a good understanding of where the problems are before we can propose solutions,” Sarcevic said. 

Every trauma team functions differently, and there are too many variables to propose a single solution that will fix all the problems, she said.

The solutions will most likely range from very simple and straightforward to high-tech and futuristic, Sarcevic said. 

“One solution might be as simple as a color-coding system, and another might be a computer that makes decisions, tracks activity and displays all information,” she said.

Solutions will take time and money to develop and test, but the team’s focus is on understanding the problem completely. 

The award from the National Science Foundation will allow the group to expand and continue its study, Sarcevic said. 

The grant money will allow the team to incorporate new elements and study the problem in greater detail, Burd said. 

The three-year proposal written by Sarcevic will allow the researchers to thoroughly study and understand communication issues and begin to develop technology to solve these problems, he said. 

“The next step in our research would be to implement our research in real-world settings,” he said.

The first year of the three-year proposal will be spent further understanding the problem, and the following two years will be devoted to setting up workshops to design and develop possible solutions, Sarcevic said.

This research will benefit health care researchers, doctors, nurses and other medical personnel, in addition to patients, Govil said. 

“This research is one strong example of the impact Rutgers is making on the nation’s health and wellness,” she said.

For most members of the University club swim team, swimming is more than a hobby — it is a way of life. 

Their dedication paid off at their first, large-scale invitational Saturday at the Princeton University Invitational, where the team placed third out of nine. 

Three members — School of Arts and Sciences junior Kyle Madison, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy sophomore Andy Sheu and School of Arts and Sciences sophomore Sam Corbett — finished in the top five of their respective races. 

This meet was an important milestone for the relatively new club team, said Madison, the team’s president. Although the team has been to a few small meets, this large invitational helped put the team on the radar.

“Even though we’re such a new team, we have incredibly dedicated and hardworking members,” Madison said. “They definitely deserve this.”

Madison and alumnus Daniel Castellanos founded the team last semester. 

“We knew that there was no more varsity team, but we still wanted to swim and compete,” Castellanos said. 

The team hosted its first home meet in October, Madison said. The University’s team placed second overall. Club teams from The College of New Jersey, University of Connecticut and Princeton University came to the University to compete. 

The team also placed first at a meet in Villanova University and fifth in a meet at the University of Maryland, Madison said. 

While competition is a good motivator for the team members, most of them use their hour-long practices as a way to unwind, Public Relations Officer Corey Herbst-Gervasoni said.

“All my days are filled with classes, studying and more studying. The one thing I get to look forward to is that one hour I get to be in the pool,” Sheu said. 

Herbst-Gervasoni, a Rutgers College senior, knew the Rutgers men’s swimming team would be cut when he started at the University, but thinks the club swim team is a better way to continue his passion for swimming, he said. 

Members of the team love to swim, but they do not feel the pressure associated with being members of a Division I team, Herbst-Gervasoni said. 

Another advantage to the club is that it is student-run, so there are no coaches putting pressure on participants, said Hollyn de Vries, a School of Arts and Sciences sophomore.

“Personally, I love that it is a stress-free zone, where you can make a lot of friends and be involved in something great,” she said.

Different team members have different reasons for joining, De Vries said. 

“People come to practice every day because they want to swim, not because they have to because of scholarships, or their parents or coaches,” Madison said. 

About 90 percent of the team’s members swam in high school teams, Sheu said, and one-third swam in club teams in high school.

“Since we’re peer-coached, we get to learn even more since everyone has a different swimming style and coaching background,” he said.

Although most members do have a background in competitive swimming, the club is open to people of all levels, Madison said. 

For Madison, it is the drive of competition that has him addicted to swimming. 

“That’s the reason I come out every day — I need to get better,” Madison said.

All the members are good friends, with no cliques or special groups dividing them, Herbst-Gervasoni said.

“Every practice is a good time, every meet is filled with really funny memories,” he said. 

The team practices Monday through Thursday, from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Sonny Werblin Recreation Center pool on Busch campus. 

“We’re here because we love swimming,” De Vries said. “[We] welcome anyone else who shares our passion.”

University students assumed the roles of people of all nationalities and socioeconomic backgrounds Wednesday night to simulate the discrepancies in food availability between different classes. New Jersey Public Interest Research Group’s Hunger and Homelessness Campaign fed students at their “Hunger Banquet” at the Cook Campus Center to spread awareness about poverty issues. 

Lead Intern of the Hunger and Homelessness Campaign Stephanie Naling said some students think hunger and homelessness is a distant problem only found in impoverished third world countries. 

“The campaign wants to be the voice of the hungry and homeless in New Brunswick,” said Naling, a Douglass College senior. More than 2.5 billion people live in poverty around the world, and 35 million Americans live below the poverty line, she said. 

“You may think hunger is about there being too many people in the world and not enough food, but really, there is enough food to feed every single person on this earth,” Naling said. The real problem lies in the unfair distribution of food, she said. 

The attendees were assigned a different socioeconomic background and then divided into an upper class, a middle class and a low class.

The upper class members were served dinner first, were seated at an elegant table and given unlimited servings of food, Naling said. The middle class members ate next, given unlimited vegetables, rice and beans but only one small portion of chicken, she said. Finally, the lowest class was served only rice and beans and asked to sit on the floor. 

“Are they serious? We don’t get any chicken? But I need meat,” said Linda Kwon, a Cook College senior, who was assigned to be a member of the lower class.

The upper class members, including lawyer and University political science Professor Harold Rubenstein, handed out individual servings to the members of the middle class and gave the lower class just one serving to share among themselves.

The only way food can be equally distributed in the world right now is if the members of the upper class, about 15 percent of the people in the world, decide to give food to people who cannot afford it, Naling said. 

University Professor of the Food Policy Institute Maya Nucci said the media tends to ignore and overlook hunger problems by painting a picture of food accessibility. This can cause disconnect between Americans and the realities of food, such as the way it is manufactured and the unattainability of food many people face, Nucci said. 

The media also ignores famines in distant parts of the world, such as the Great Chinese Famine in 1959, which caused more than 30 million deaths, she said. Despite their large population, some people also tend to ignore the poor because they do not have a voice. 

“As long as the media remains silent about hunger in the United States, hunger will fail to be recognized as a part of society,” Nucci said.

Rubenstein said the government decides a national poverty level, and people who fall slightly above this level are often ignored and turned away when they request help. 

The national poverty level is $33,000 a year for a family of three, which is not always applicable to every state, he said. 

New Jersey has a higher cost of living than a state like Nebraska, and the average cost of living in Middlesex County is above $57,000 a year for a family of three, Rubenstein said.

The two biggest costs for the poor are food and housing, and even people who work multiple jobs cannot always afford these costs. There are 49 million people in America who cannot consistently get enough to eat every day, he said. 

Students do not always have money to donate, but their time spent volunteering is far more valuable than any donation, he said. 

The Hunger and Homelessness Campaign believes basic human rights, such as food and shelter, are fundamental and non-negotiable, Naling said. The campaign is working to ensure every single person in the country has these basic rights.

“The problem of hunger is more critical now than people realize because of the current state of the economy,” NJPIRG Intern Alexandra Popovski said.

Many people do not have enough to eat in New Brunswick, and that is not acceptable, said Popovski, a Cook College junior.

“It [might] be more effective to teach students about hunger and homelessness if they were actually made hungry and homeless for a day,” said Ali Salfuddin, a School of Arts and Sciences first-year student. 

The main purpose of the event was to show students what it felt like to not have accessibility to food due to social class, even though there is sufficient food for everyone, Popovski said.

Most of the attendees are part of organizations that work to help the hungry and homeless locally and internationally and have some background on the issue, Naling said.

At the “Hunger Banquet,” attendees had the chance to actually experience how it would feel to be discriminated against, she said.

“It is hard to get out of the isolation and comfort of Rutgers,” Rubenstein said. “[It is also difficult] to look around and realize that even thousands of people in New Brunswick need help.”

Four New Jersey-based bands came together to rock out and raise money for cancer research Saturday at the Delta Chi fraternity’s third annual “Battle of the Bands.” 

The bands — Skyler, Threat Level: Midnight, The Keating Experience and Death to Surprise — competed at the fraternity’s house on Union Street for a prize of $200 and a trophy. 

The main goal for “Battle of the Bands” was to raise money for the fraternity’s national philanthropy, the Jimmy V Foundation, said Delta Chi President John Perrone, and 100 percent of the ticket sales went toward this cause. 

About 40 attendees came out to watch the bands take the stage outside, and at the end Skyler took the prize. 

Skyler member Andrew Petracca said the band was established more than 10 years ago.

“I started writing songs, and then I realized you can’t do everything by yourself and founded the band,” he said.

The fraternity was excited Skyler agreed to come and play at their event, associate fraternity member Reggie Morris said. 

“Skyler has played at the Warped Tour and Bamboozle, so they are pretty well known,” said Morris, a School of Arts and Science sophomore. 

The fraternity’s Head of Philanthropy Peter Sim said they raised about $600 by the end of the night. 

Sim, a School of Arts and Sciences junior, said members of the fraternity selected the bands. 

“The four bands aren’t really household names yet, but they’re all talented young artists,” Morris said. 

The fraternity wanted to give bands the chance to showcase their talent to the University community, he said. 

The bands were scored in four main categories: overall musical ability; individual members’ technical abilities; stage presence and energy; and crowd response, fraternity member Yan Lipovetskiy said. 

Perrone, Cook College senior Dana Gobbo and Carlos Correa judged the event.

The judges also looked at the originality of the band, Correa said. 

“We did not want the bands to do too many covers of songs [by other bands]; we wanted to see their own material,” said Correa, a Rutgers College senior.

The event was special because all the bands are from New Jersey, he said.

“Since everyone was from around here, it was a lot of fun for people to see these really talented local bands,” Correa said.

The Jimmy V Foundation, which raises money for cancer research, was started by Jim Valvano and ESPN, said Perrone, a Cook College senior. Jim Valvano was a coach for the North Carolina State University basketball team and started the foundation when he was diagnosed with cancer.

“Valvano actually started his career right here at Rutgers University, playing for the team from ’64-’67, which makes this event that much more meaningful for the brothers of our Rutgers Chapter as well as the Rutgers community,” Perrone said. 

The event was also co-sponsored by Red Bull, which provided free drinks, said Lipovetskiy, a Rutgers College senior. 

Threat Level: Midnight lead singer Hugo Fuego said he enjoyed that Delta Chi chose to hold the event outside, but that there was a smaller turnout than he expected. 

Petracca said he was also hoping for a larger crowd, but was not too disappointed after winning the trophy and cash prize.

Delta Chi member Anthony Cwirko said the fraternity also held the “Dodge This!” Dodgeball Tournament last Sunday in conjunction with Alpha Chi Omega sorority and was able to raise more than $2,000. 

“It would have been nice if more people had come and donated money to the Jimmy V Foundation today, but the members aren’t disappointed,” said Cwirko, a School of Arts and Science junior.

Fuego said although the event was small, all the bands were great and he had fun playing around with everyone. 

“All in all, ‘Battle of the Bands’] was pretty punk rock,” he said.

Daily Targum

Biden visited Middlesex County College yesterday afternoon to publicly announce his endorsement for the Corzine’s re-election.

“We need people like Jon Corzine — smart, honest, hardworking politicians who really get it,” Biden said.

He said the United States is in the worst recession the country has ever experienced — short of a depression — and New Jersey was hit so hard because it was doing well before.

Biden said the first week he and Obama were in office, they knew their first priority was to address the economic situation.

“The president and I weren’t blaming Corzine for the economic problems; we literally picked up the phone and called him to ask what we should do,” he said.
In June and July, home prices rose for the first time in three years, and last week the stock market closed at more than 10,000 points, Biden said. Also, 35 percent of the money people lost in their 401K plans has returned.

He said Corzine knows about the economy and the world market.

“All this progress didn’t happen over night. It’s because of Corzine at the state level and [Obama and I] at the national level,” Biden said.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie believes New Jersey’s stimulus plans was not good when in reality, the rest of the nation is trying to catch up to the state’s progress, Biden said.

“Corzine chose to protect the things that New Jersey really values,” Biden said.

The vice president said while many think Corzine has already won the election, they should still go out and vote.

“Corzine has been a governor in tough times,” Biden said. “Let’s give him the chance to be a governor in good times.”

Rep. Frank Pallone, D-6, said he believes the election will be close, but will still be a Democratic victory.

“Biden is here to point out why Obama needs to work with a Democratic governor and legislature in New Jersey,” Pallone said.

The bottom line is that this is an issue-oriented election, he said.

“Corzine’s policies will lead us to a bright future, while Christie’s policies are the policies of the past — the policies of the Bush administration — which is what got us into this mess in the first place,” Pallone said.

Corzine addressed the audience, stating the United States is in the deepest economic recession in 80 years, and the election of Obama and Biden has brought a great change to the nation.

“Voters, you believe in America, like I do. You believe in America’s promise, like I do,” he said.

Corzine detailed his beliefs, successes as governor and differences from Christie.

“This election is not about me or Chris Christie — it is about the future, our children and the legacy we leave behind,” Corzine said.

Every child deserves quality, public education, he said.

New Jersey students outperform the country in math and science, and 3,000 new pre-school students enrolled last year, Corzine said.

“There is a reason why New Jersey students … have the highest graduation rate in America,” he said.
Health care is another basic right he believes in, Corzine said.
Christie does not think mammograms, autism screening or 48-hour stays for new mothers in hospitals should be covered by insurance, the incumbent said.
Corzine said the Republican wants a constitutional ban on abortion.

“Chris Christie is wrong where it matters,” he said.

The governor stressed the importance of college students to his campaign.

“We are proud of you [college students]; we know you will succeed,” Corzine said. “We want you to make New Jersey your home, and I am fighting for a better future for you.”

Sen. Barbara Buono, D-18, said Corzine has been increasing funding to assist students to pay for school.
Several students in attendance felt Corzine is the choice for N.J. voters.

“People fault [Corzine] for the current state of New Jersey, but they have to remember that every state and every country is in recession,” School of Arts and Sciences junior Shariq Ahmad said.
School of Arts and Sciences junior Samip Joshi said the governor’s first term was very difficult and controversial because he was put in a tough situation with the bad economy.

“Corzine has really helped the financial aid situation in a time when students need it most,” Joshi said.
But several did not.
Middlesex County College student Rebecca Olvia did not like how Corzine attacked Christie throughout the campaign.

“He could have given his view points without talking about [how] Christie’s [viewpoints] are bad for the state,” she said.
Manish Singh, a Middlesex County resident and Corzine supporter, thinks the rally as a whole was good, but that Biden was not a good advocate for the incumbent.

“They’re old friends, so of course he’s going to support him,” Singh said. “I think we should take everything he said with a grain of salt.”
Rutgers College Republicans President Ron Holden said Corzine is using the endorsements by the prominent Democrats this week to help him.

“I think Jon Corzine needs Joe Biden, Bill Clinton [and] Obama to come,” said Holden, a Rutgers College senior. “Given his first term in office, he needs that all-star line up in three days in order to get those votes.”

Holden said Corzine has good intentions but has made a lot of mistakes.

“I just think Christie is a better guy for the job,” he said.

In regard to the attacks against the Republican challenger, Holden said Corzine’s campaign has been misquoting everything Christie said.

“If half the things Corzine says Christie believes in are true, such as Christie’s views on mammograms and early childhood education, then Christie couldn’t run for office,” he said.
 

Student Services Coordinator for the School of Communication and Information Mary Beth Hager brings the global movement to the University each year, asking students and organizations to make donations.

“This campaign is a way for anyone here at the School of Communication and Information to feel good about trying to rid the world of this terrible disease — both for men and women alike,” Hager said.

Running the campaign for the past five years, Hager said it initially started as a way to remember her family members who have passed away from the disease and those still struggling to fight it now.

About one-quarter of the net proceeds will go directly to breast cancer research and the other three-quarters will go to community-based education, screening and treatment programs, Hager said.

Last year the campaign collected $410, with contributions from the Association for Women in Communications, the Public Relations Student Society of America, as well as other students and faculty, she said.

AWC President Lindsey Sacks said the organization also plans to donate to the campaign this year.

“We are a women’s group, and we want to help other women retain their strength by giving money to this cause,” said Sacks, a School of Arts and Sciences junior.

The AWC will be holding a bake sale tomorrow from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the second floor of the School of Communication and Information building to aid the campaign.

Many people know family or friends who have or had breast cancer, and the AWC would like to help them as much as they can, Sacks said. Researchers are continuously finding causes of breast cancer that conflict with women’s everyday habits such as physical activity and birth control usage.

“I feel it is extremely important to promote awareness and make money for the cure because this type of cancer is becoming more common,” Sacks said.
Established in 1982, Passionately Pink for the Cure was founded by Susan G. Komen’s sister, Nancy G. Brinker, after Komen passed away from breast cancer.

The foundation is now a leader in the global breast cancer movement, according to the foundation’s official Web site.

This year’s campaign is off to a slow start, perhaps due to the troubled economy, Hager said. The campaign will accept any donation, no matter how small, and every cent will help.

The ZSAB hosted its second “First Wednesdays – Art After Hours” of the year Wednesday at the museum.

ZSAB Chair Mary Greene, a School of Arts and Sciences senior, thinks the University has a great art resource within the museum, as well as a place for students to relax and enjoy a cup of coffee.

“We want the [“Art After Hours”] events to show students how great [the] Zimmerli is, and to make them comfortable enough to just come in on any afternoon and enjoy the atmosphere and the people,” Greene said.

The evening started off with a performance from School of Arts and Sciences senior Ross Lippencott, guitarist of “The N Result.”

“We decided to have [Lippencott] back as a solo artist this month so we could also showcase his individual talents,” she said.
Following Lippencott’s performance, attendees could choose between going on tours of exhibits in the museum, watching a film or attending the poetry showcase.

Alfredo Franco, the museum’s education curator, chose to screen the film “Mechanic to Millionaire: The Peter Cooper Story” by producer/director Janet Gardner because he thinks her movies are not only interesting and educational, but also deliver important messages, he said.

Peter Cooper symbolizes a time of transition for the American economy, from small shops to larger corporations, said Princeton University Professor Sean Wilentz.

Cooper played an important role in that transition, building large, successful companies by never fearing to take risks, Wilentz said. He lived his life with great social responsibility and took his self-made wealth and gave it back to the community, which is something we can all learn from.

The Zimmerli’s Community Relations Coordinator, Rebecca Brenowitz, said the audience seemed to love the movie.

“It was nice that people were inspired to change their lives based on the life of a man living almost two centuries ago,” Brenowitz said.

“First Wednesdays – Art After Hours” also featured an open mic and poetry showcase. School of Arts and Sciences first-year student Angela Chien and Amber Mirza, a School of Arts and Sciences junior, shared a variety of their own compositions, from sonnets to soliloquies to songs.
Rutgers College senior Jewel Lim said it was great seeing such talent among her fellow students.

“This is my last semester at Rutgers. I wish I had known about this and gotten more involved, everyone was so expressive and moving,” Lim said. “It makes you realize that there are beautiful souls out there.”

School of Engineering junior Mike Maffei was also impressed by the amount of talent and diversity of University students. After performing a cover of a song, he decided to sing one of his own compositions.

“I know I’m not as lyrically inclined as all of you here, but I’ll give it a go,” he said.

In addition to University students and the New Brunswick community, the ZSAB also invited East Brunswick High School seniors to experience Art After Hours, Brenowitz said.

“We had about 60 EBHS students here tonight. … [We] were really excited to show them how much Rutgers has to offer in addition to great research, fun sports and strong academics, she said.”

EBHS senior Khyra Lammers called the experience bizarre.

“It was weird, in a good way, to be in such a cool museum, but still knowing you’re in a college,” Lammers said. “I feel like I should be in New York City or something.”

Attendees were able to take tours of exhibits throughout the night.

The ZSAB chose to conduct tours of the “Trailblazers of the 21st Century” exhibit, one of Zimmerli’s newest exhibits, as well a “Highlights of the American Gallery” tour, which board members chose because they don’t think enough people visited and appreciated the American gallery, Greene said.

“I really liked the American wing, we heard interesting stories about the paintings and the history behind it,” Lammers said.
All in all, the event was successful in the eyes of the ZSAB, Greene said.

“We’re always trying to get more students into the museum, and I think we’re really making progress,” she said.

One of the main objects of the Student Advisory Board is to gain a strong following in the monthly events organized at the museum, Brenowitz said.

“Tonight was really special, we showcased all aspects of art, from film to poetry to paintings to photographs,” she said.

The next “First Wednesdays – Art After Hours” will be on Dec. 2, but members of the ZSAB hope students will first attend their Masquerade Ball on Nov. 7, Greene said.

“I don’t think Rutgers has many events as formal as the one we are planning,” she said. “Hopefully people will get dressed up in their finest, and come out to experience something like the [Metropolitan Museum of Art’s] Costume Ball.”

Thanks : Daily Targum

Organized by the Zimmerli Student Advisory Board, “Art After Hours” offers students and the local community the opportunity to engage in a multi-faceted approach to the arts, said Community Relations Coordinator Rebecca Brenowitz. The night will feature events showcasing different aspects of art — music, photographs, paintings, poetry and film.

The co-presidents of the Student Advisory Board Rachel Shaw and Mary Greene arranged for School of Arts and Sciences senior Ross Lippencott, a guitarist from the band “The N Result,” to kick off the evening and continue playing through the night.

“[The band] played at our last event; they were really great and it was really successful, so we decided to invite [Lippencott] to play again,” said Greene, a Rutgers College senior.

The guitarist will be followed by a screening of the film, “Mechanic to Millionaire: The Peter Cooper Story.”

Alfredo Franco, the museum’s education curator, said he thinks the movie had many important messages to deliver. Cooper was very involved in art education, which makes this movie relevant, he said.

“Students will see how a very wealthy, self-made person had a sense of social responsibility and felt the need to give back to the community,” he said.
The evening will end with a poetry showcase and an open-mic night, Greene said. People can read from their favorite poets or read their own poetry if they feel comfortable.

“Art After Hours” is also the first day tickets for the Zimmerli Masquerade Ball will be sold, Brenowitz said.

“For just $8, Rutgers students can enjoy an evening as formal and special as the [Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Ball],” Greene said.

There will be tours of two exhibits in the museum: “Trail Blazers in the 21st Century” and “Highlights of the American Gallery,” said Shaw, a School of Arts and Sciences senior.

“Trail Blazers” is a new exhibit at the museum, showcasing contemporary prints and photographs, she said. “Highlights of the American Gallery” will allow people to view some of the finest pieces from the American gallery, including background stories on them.

Thanks : Daily Targum