Rutgers News Center

Rutgers’ Daily Targum captures ‘Best of Show’ award from Associated Collegiate Press

The Daily Targum won the Best of Show award for a daily, four-year university at the   Associated Collegiate Press (ACP) National College Newspaper Convention, held in San Diego, California, from February 26 to March 1.

The Targum placed first in the national contest ahead of second-place University of California, Los Angeles’ the Daily Bruin, and third-place University of California, Berkley’s the Daily Californian.

In the Best of Show category, contestants enter a single, regular issue of their choice, published since September 1, 2008. ACP honored the Targum for its November 5, 2008, election issue. The issue featured on-site reports from Chicago, Phoenix, and the New Jersey U.S. Senate race.

The entries were judged on general excellence, which included quality of reporting, writing, editing, photography, and design.

The Targum’s editor-in-chief John S. Clyde accepted the award on behalf of the newspaper in San Diego. “It has been four long years since we last won this award, and I am extremely pleased to bring this prestige back to the Banks where it belongs,” said former Targum editor-in-chief Dan Bracaglia. “I can also with confidence say that there is no college community in the nation more deserving of the nation’s best college daily paper than Rutgers University.”

Former Targum managing editor Steve Williamson said the election edition had been in the works since Election Day 2007. “We knew what we wanted to accomplish, and we spent a lot of hours planning and mapping it all out. It’s good to be recognized for that work,” Williamson said.

Bracaglia credited the work of the Targum’s editors, photographers, and writers for the issue’s success. “Despite having our most seasoned editors covering the election on location in both Chicago and Phoenix, being understaffed, and staying up all night editing and finalizing the issue,” Bracaglia said, “we as a staff were able to all contribute and put together something that we all could agree was our best work.”

ACP is the oldest and largest national membership organization for college student journalists. More than 20,000 students are staffers at ACP member publications, including newspapers, magazines, yearbooks, broadcast programs, and online publications.

ACP is a division of the nonprofit National Scholastic Press Association. View contest results here.  

–        Coleen Dee Berry

Hang up and … walk

Drivers who talk on cell phones may be asking for an accident. But two new studies show that pedestrians using cell phones are also at risk.

The studies, lead-authored by Rutgers-Newark economics Professor Peter D. Loeb, relate the impact of cell phones on accident fatalities to the number of cell phones in use. Loeb and his co-authors determined that current cell phone use has a “significant adverse effect on pedestrian safety” and that “cell phones and their usage above a critical threshold adds to motor vehicle fatalities.” 

Loeb and his co-authors recommend government consider more aggressive policies to reduce cell phone use by both drivers and pedestrians. The two studies looked at cell phone use and motor vehicle accidents from 1975 through 2002, and factored in variables, including vehicle speed, alcohol consumption, seat belt use, and miles driven.

Cell phones once saved lives. From the late 1980s into the 1990s, before the numbers of phones exploded, cell phone use actually had a life-saving effect in pedestrian and traffic accidents. But when cells were first used in the mid-1980s – when there were fewer than a million phones – fatalities increased, because drivers and pedestrians probably were still adjusting to the novelty of using cell phones, Loeb said.

The life-saving effect occurred as the volume of phones grew into the early 1990s, and 911 calls following accidents increased, leading to a drop in fatalities, according to Loeb. But this life-saving effect was canceled out once the numbers of phones reached a “critical mass” of about 100 million, and increased accidents and fatalities outweighed the benefits of quick access to 911, according to Loeb.

“The cell phone effect on pedestrian fatalities” (Transportation Research Part E, Elsevier, Vol. 45, Issue 1, January 2009, with William A. Clarke, Bentley University, Waltham, MA,) looked at pedestrian fatalities related to cell phone use; the still-to-be-released “The Impact of Cell Phones and BAC Laws on Motor Vehicle Fatality Rates” (Applied Economics, Loeb, Clarke and Richard Anderson, New Jersey City University), examines all cell-related traffic fatalities.

     –  Carla Capizzi

Saving green, going for the gold

Flicking off a light when you leave the room and shutting down the computer if you’re away from your desk for a couple of hours may seem like small gestures, but they could win you big respect – not to mention a trophy.

The Department of University Facilities and Capital Planning, the campus deans, and PSE&G are sponsoring the university’s inaugural energy competition, pitting campus against campus in an effort to raise awareness and lower energy consumption.

“Everyone will be involved – students, faculty, staff – depending on whichever campus you live or work on,” said Michael Kornitas, Rutgers’ energy conservation manager.

Competition organizers chose the month of March for the contest, which they hope will become an annual event. They will compare last year’s recorded data on electricity use against this year’s   -- the campus that exhibits the greatest percentage of reduction by March 31 will claim the roving trophy, to be presented on Earth Day, April 22.

Kornitas believes Rutgers is among the first universities nationwide to run a competition like this on a campus-versus-campus basis. The contest will take place on the New Brunswick and Piscataway campuses, he said.

Weekly updates will be posted on the University Facilities website.

For members of the campus community who want to increase their chances of taking home the gold, Kornitas offers several winning strategies:

Turn off the lights when you leave your room. If you’re the last one leaving a classroom or study area, ditto.

• Shut off power strips to electrical equipment; even when they are turned off, appliances are still using power.
• Use compact fluorescent instead of incandescent bulbs.
• Use task lighting and shut off overhead lights.
• Watch television with friends.
• Clean out and unplug refrigerators during spring break.
• On a sunny day, open the shades and shut off the lights.
• Unplug chargers and adapters that are not in use.

Leadership Scholars Program to be honored by state

Over the past 10 years, Rutgers’ Leadership Scholars Certificate Program has educated diverse college women about leadership and empowered them to take responsibility for social change. 

On March 19, the state Division on Women will bestow its annual Wynona M. Lipman Empowerment Award on the Leadership Scholars Program, which is sponsored by the Institute for Women’s Leadership (IWL) on the Douglass Campus. Rutgers is one of two institutions and nine individuals being honored by the state this year. 

 The award recognizes outstanding women and community organizations that have developed policies, services, or programs that benefit the women of New Jersey, and is one of several given by the state Department of Community Affairs’ Division on Women and the New Jersey Advisory Commission on the Status of Women in honor of Women’s History Month.

The IWL Leadership Scholars Certificate Program, offered through the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, School of Arts and Sciences, provides opportunities for students within a large research university to come together in a small, vibrant learning community with faculty and other students to study and practice women’s leadership for social change.

A cornerstone of the program is the social action project each student must undertake. Students have tackled issues of teen pregnancy, literacy, and human rights through projects that strive to serve the community surrounding the university’s campuses. This year’s students have formed a support group for teen moms at Clifton High School, organized an Arab-Israeli women’s book club, and begun an art and literature program for eighth-grade girls in the New Brunswick area.

The two-year, selective, interdisciplinary program has 38 students enrolled and, over the past 10 years, 119 women have graduated from the program.

Mary K. Trigg, founding director of the program, is editing a book of essays by graduatestitled, "Leading the Way: Young Women’s Activism for Social Change, " to be published this year by Rutgers University Press.

The Wynona M. Lipman Award is named for the late Sen. Wynona M. Lipman, the first African-American woman elected to the New Jersey State Senate and a champion of women’s rights, minorities, and children.

–        Coleen Dee Berry

c