rutgers university—new brunswick online at … · nick romanenko / rutgers.edu. yee said that he...
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WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 16, 2019RUTGERS UNIVERSITY—NEW BRUNSWICK
WeatherRainy
High: 69Low: 47
FOOTBALL Adam Korsak earns the weekly top punter award for third time this season SEE SPORTS, BACK
ONLINE AT DAILYTARGUM.COM
LOCAL ELECTIONS The importance of community politics is often lost on voters SEE OPINIONS, PAGE 6
VOLUME 151, ISSUE 80 • UNIVERSITY ... 3 • OPINIONS ... 6 • INSIDE BEAT... 8• DIVERSIONS ... 9 • SPORTS ... BACK
ELLEN DEGENERES Talk show host’s run-in with George W. Bush tests the public’s tolerance of civility SEE INSIDE BEAT, PAGE 8
New Brunswick ranks as 11th miserable city
Rutgers buys computers
for 34% discounted price
House members seek to lower college costs
MIA BOCCHERCONTRIBUTING WRITER
New Brunswick was recorded as the 11th of 50 most miserable cities in America, according to an article on Business Insider. New Bruns-wick was 1 of the 9 New Jersey cit-ies that made the list.
Business Insider based its rankings on census data for cities across America, and of New Bruns-wick’s 56,000 residents, 54% of peo-ple are working and 35% of people are living in poverty. These factors placed it high on this list, accord-ing to the article.
Black, mixed-race and Hispanic groups are the most unemployed
New Brunswick has 56,000 residents, with 54% of its population working and 35% living in poverty. The most unemployed groups in the city are Black, mixed-race and Hispanic people. Additionally, the cost of living is 16% higher than the national average. BEN CHELNITSKYSEE CITY ON PAGE 5
people in New Brunswick, accord-ing to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Yet, the cost of living in New Brunswick is approximately 16% higher than the national average, ac-cording to financial sites PayScale.
New Brunswick’s assaults with guns have risen approximately 64% since 2017 as national gun violence has increased, according to Busi-ness Insider.
The Rutgers University Police De-partment (RUPD) serves the areas of New Brunswick and Piscataway and in a 2016-2018 crime report, it was stat-ed that there have been two arrests for weapons on campus property such as
The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor said it would like to pass a bill that would increase the value of Pell Grants, as well as make the grants available for short-term college programs. PUBLIC DOMAIN
BRENDAN BRIGHTMANNEWS EDITOR
The U.S. House of Representa-tives Committee on Education and Labor introduced the College Af-fordability Act, a comprehensive bill that aims to lower the cost of college for students and families, particularly for those attending public institutions and in minority communities, according to a com-mittee press release.
Expanding on the Higher Edu-cation Act passed 10 years ago, the new proposal would, if passed and signed into law, restore state and federal investment in public col-leges and universities, increase the SEE COSTS ON PAGE 4
value of Pell Grants, make student loans cheaper and easier to pay off, improve graduation rates and increase and permanently reautho-rize mandatory funding for histor-ically Black colleges and universi-ties, tribal colleges and universities and other minority-serving institu-tions, according to the release.
Pell Grants would also be made available for short-term programs, which are intended to give students more access to high-quality pro-grams, according to the release.
Approximately one-third of un-dergraduate students rely on Pell Grants for paying their tuition, with
RYAN HALSTATERCONTRIBUTING WRITER
Senior Director of Rutgers Uni-versity News and Media Relations Dory Devlin gave information about how computers and printers are purchased, deemed to need re-placement, disposed of or sold.
Every University unit decides how frequently they replace their computers based on need. The Office of Information Technology (OIT) computer lab computers are typically replaced every four years, Devlin said. SEE PRICE ON PAGE 4
“Low-volume printers can last over 10 years. However, high-vol-ume printers, like those in the OIT computer labs, are replaced as fre-quently as three years,” she said.
Equipment disposal is mostly de-cided based on condition and the resale market. The equipment is either recycled or not, Devlin said.
Units with resale value are wiped, tested and sold as a single unit or with multiple other same machines. They are sold on an online auction, which is currently GovDeals, she said. The University’s low-volume printers can last more than 10 years, although high-volume printers,
like those in the Office of Information Technology computer lab, are replaced as frequently as every three years. RUTGERS.EDU
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Page 2 OctOber 16, 2019
Campus Calendar
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THE 151ST EDITORIAL BOARD
WEDNESDAY 10/16 Counsel-ing, Alcohol and Other Drug Assistance Program & Psychi-atric Services (CAPS) presents “Mindfulness Meditation” from noon to 1 p.m. at Rutgers Stu-dent Activities Center on the College Avenue campus. This event is free and open to Rut-gers students.
RU Compost Club presents “RU Compost Club Food Fair” from noon to 2 p.m. at New Jersey Insti-tute for Food, Nutrition & Health on Cook campus. This event is free and open to the public.
THURSDAY 10/17 Rutgers Univer-sity Libraries presents “Data 101” from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Alexan-der Library on the College Ave-nue campus. This event is free and open to Rutgers students.
TA Project presents “Teaching Core Courses to Non-Majors” from noon to 1:30 p.m. at Busch Student Center on Busch cam-pus. This event is free and open to Rutgers students.
FRIDAY 10/18 New Jersey Healthy Kids Initiative presents “NJHKI Symposium Series: Big Data & Technology in Child Health” from 8:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. at New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition & Health on Cook campus. This event is free and open to Rutgers students.
Department of Entomology presents “Patterns of Evolution-ary Divergence and Genetic Exchange in Danaus Butterflies and Culex Mosquitoes” from 11 a.m. to noon at Thompson Hall on Cook campus. This event is free and open to the public.
SATURDAY 10/19 Rutgers Ath-letics presents “Football Game” at noon at SHI Stadium on Bus-ch campus. This event is free and open to the public.
SUNDAY 10/20 Mason Gross School of the Arts presents “NJDAC: New Jersey Digital Audio Concert” at 7:30 p.m. at Robert E. Mortensen Hall on Douglass campus. This event is free and open to Rutgers students.
The Daily Targum promptly corrects all errors of substance. If you have a comment or question about the fairness or accuracy of a story, send an email to [email protected].
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CORRESPONDENTS ALEXANDRA FABUGAIS-INABA, APARNA RAGUPATHI, MADISON MCGAY, CHRIS TSAKONAS, RHEA SWAIN, MANNAL BABAR, DANIEL HAN, BREANA OMANA, RAY LEWIS, JOSHUA VALDEZ
UNIVERSITYOctOber 16, 2019 Page 3
Professor creates course to search for life in spaceBRENDAN BRIGHTMAN
NEWS EDITOR
Nathan Yee, a Rutgers Univer-sity—New Brunswick professor of geomicrobiology and geochem-istry, teaches a course that evalu-ates whether there is life on other planets, according to a University press release.
Yee has been working on a research team focused on look-ing into how proteins evolved to become the catalysts of life on Earth, according to the release. Now, he hopes to take what he knows about the evolution of life on Earth and apply it to the eval-uation of whether life exists in outer space.
“When I was a kid, I asked my science teacher if we were alone in the universe. My teacher said there may be no way of knowing, but I think that is changing,” Yee said, according to the release. Scientists have transformed re-search into whether extrater-restrial life exists in the past few decades, developing new tools to search for life outside of the Earth’s orbit.
“Two of the biggest game-changers are the Curiosity rover, which is analyzing rocks on Mars to seek evidence of past or current life, and the new space telescopes discovering strange new exoplanets that orbit other stars,” Yee said, according to the release. “The next generation of telescopes will study the at-mospheres of these planets. We know that most oxygen on Earth is made by photosynthetic bacte-ria. So, if we find oxygen in exo-planets, that might mean there had been plants and maybe even animals that breathe oxygen. None of this was possible when I was a kid.”
Nathan Yee, a Rutgers University—New Brunswick professor of geomicrobiology and geochemistry, said that places with water are the best bet for finding extraterrestrial life. NICK ROMANENKO / RUTGERS.EDU
Yee said that he is helping NASA with its Curiosity mission, aimed to determine whether Mars ever was or could be hab-itable to microbial life, according to the release.
“Since 2014, NASA has been inviting me to participate in workshops and panels involving special regions on Mars and the Mars 2020 mission. They wanted someone with expertise about microbes interacting with miner-als and the biosignatures that an-cient Earth microbes left behind in rocks after they died and went extinct, which happens to be my area of expertise at Rutgers’ De-partment of Earth and Planetary
Sciences,” Yee said, according to the release.
This work at NASA is what inspired Yee to begin teaching a course at Rutgers, which looks at whether life exists on Mars, and compares the ecological differ-ences between Earth and the red planet, according to the release.
“Earth is 4.5 billion years old, yet one amazing discovery is that life evolved very quickly on Earth. In the beginning of Earth’s forma-tion, the planet was really hot and liquid water wasn’t stable. Any wa-ter existed in the form of vapor. As it cooled, it rained and evaporated over and over, eventually leading to the formation of oceans. Once
oceans were in place, life quickly emerged in the form of microor-ganisms,” Yee said, according to the release.
In contrast, Mars does not have any oceans to support life. Instead, Mars is a cold and dry planet that was once warm and wet, he said, according to the release. The only life that has been found on Mars is located in methane.
When looking for life outside of Earth, scientists’ best bets are still on moons and planets that have water, which is something several places in Earth’s solar sys-tem have, Yee said, according to the release.
“Also, everywhere there is liquid water on Earth, we’ve found microbial life. We are smart enough to know that if a world has oceans, then we should look there for alien mi-crobes,” Yee said, according to the release. “Europa, which is one of Jupiter’s moons, has what appears to be global oceans un-der sheets of ice. Saturn’s moon Enceladus has geysers and hot springs spewing from its south pole. That points to the possibil-ity of volcanoes and hydrother-mal vents, which on Earth har-bor ancient life forms and may have contributed to the origin of life here.”
NASA has had Yee help with its mission for Mars 2020. Yee’s work with the government agency has inspired to develop his course at Rutgers, which evaluates the creation of life on Earth and applies it to other planets. NASA.GOV
Page 4 OctOber 16, 2019
COSTSRutgers receives approximately $400 M. per year from federal aid
CONTINUED FROM FRONT
all of the various federal and finan-cial aid programs total to more than $400 million a year, The Daily Tar-gum reported last semester.
The pro-posed bill will also include stronger ac-countabi l i ty to track and prevent cases of sexual assault, harassment and hazing, as well as crack down on for-profit colleges, according to the release.
“This proposal immediate-ly cuts the cost of college for students and families and pro-vides relief for existing borrow-
ers,” said Committee Chairman Bobby Scott (D-Va.), according to the release. “At the same time, it improves the quality of
Committee Chairman Bobby Scott (D-Va.) said his new bill raises the quality of education by holding schools accountable for their students’ success. WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
PRICERU Marketplace is last avenue for purchasing computers, website says
CONTINUED FROM FRONT
Individuals such as department heads are asked to review their University assets to determine if they have a surplus at least once a year, according to the University Policy for Surplus Property. The department completes an online request to surplus for removal. If costs are incurred by the surplus department during removal or moving, the originating depart-ment is billed.
The OIT has a computer pur-chase standardization program that provides vendor quotes for
different specifications. Rutgers gets an approximate 34% discount versus the higher education price on desktop computers, according to the OIT website.
The OIT program’s stated pur-pose is to lower hardware costs, maximize interoperability and lead to efficiencies in technical support. The models it offers has advantages over consum-er-grade computers, such as more memory or a more power-ful processor, according to the OIT website.
Rutgers has a set procedure for procuring general goods and
services for faculty and staff. It attempts to use surplus equip-ment first to avoid the cost of purchasing, according to the University Procurement Ser-vices website.
There are four purchasing procedures listed on the Uni-versity Procurement Services website: Internal Purchase Or-ders (IPOs), check requests, University-wide contracts and the RU marketplace.
IPOs are produced by Univer-sity service units such as web design services. Check requests are primarily used for subscrip-tions and refunds, according to the University Procurement Ser-vices website.
Rutgers has a database of contracted suppliers across the University whose services can be purchased.
RU Marketplace is the last avenue for purchasing. In gen-eral, the searcher looks for if there is an existing contract with a supplier and reviews the list of non-contracted suppliers if not. Depending on the cost of the order, quotes are received and paperwork is complet-ed to allow the transaction to
complete, according to the University Procurement Ser-vices website.
“Rutgers University owns and controls all equipment and as-sets purchased with University funds unless otherwise stipulat-ed by the funding source,” ac-cording to the University Policy for Surplus Property.
Rutgers computers that have resale value are wiped, tested and sold on an online auction site called GovDeals, according to the University. DUSTIN NILES / PHOTO EDITOR
“This proposal immediately cuts the cost of college for students and families and provides relief for
existing borrowers.”
BOBBY SCOTTCongressman
education by holding schools accountable for their students’ success, and it meets students’ individual needs by expand-ing access to more flexible college options and stronger support — helping students graduate on time and move into the workforce.”
In a statement to the Targum, Dory Devlin, senior director of
University News and Media Rela-tions, said that Rutgers is deter-mining how the proposal would affect students.
“We are pleased by the committee’s fo-cus on college affordability and
are closely reviewing the legis-lative proposal to determine its full impact on Rutgers students,” Devlin said.
OctOber 16, 2019 Page 5
CITYElijah’s Promise, New Brunswick Community Food Alliance have agricultural work group
CONTINUED FROM FRONT
residence halls, non-campus prop-erty and public property. There has been a decrease in weapon arrests in New Brunswick, though.
The other highest causes of re-ported arrests are due to alcohol and drug possession, according to the report.
Food insecurity is a major is-sue for New Brunswick residents as well.
Lauren Errickson, a coordina-tor for the New Brunswick Com-munity Farmers Market, is trying to help food insecurity in the area. The New Brunswick Community Farmers Market is a project of the Rutgers Cooperative Extension, where Rutgers University reach-es out to assist New Brunswick residents in need, she said.
“Our goal as a farmers market is to increase fresh fruit and veg-etable access in the city of New Brunswick. So, we’re working as one of the solutions to the very complex food insecurity picture,” Errickson said.
The farmers market works with local farmers from Central
New Jersey to bring fresh food to New Brunswick, to reduce the financial cost food may have so that low-income residents can eat nutritiously and to be accessible because residents do not always have access to transportation, she said.
The market began with one lo-cation in 2009, and now has three different locations on four days at peak season, she said. The website gives updates to provide information on locations and the farmers present at the markets.
“We work closely with Elijah’s Promise and the New Brunswick Community Food Alliance, they have an agricultural workgroup. So, members of Elijah’s Promise Garden Initiative work closely with me through that project,” Errickson said. “We also work through a program in Elijah’s Promise called the Ryan White Program and the Best and Fresh initiative. So we are able to pro-vide those involved in those pro-grams with vouchers for free fruit and vegetables at the market.”
Other programs include part-nering with the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Eli-jah’s Promise Medical Program to give free prescriptions to those living in the city who do not have the medical insurance to cover the costs. There are also paper pre-scriptions that carry over to the farmers market and allow patients to get free fruits and vegetables.
Errickson said that these pro-grams are important because while pharmaceuticals are nec-essary, proper nutrition such as fruits and vegetables are a part of health and wellness.
New Brunswick’s number of gun assaults have risen 64% since 2017, in line with a national rise in gun violence, but weapons arrests have decreased. THE DAILY TARGUM
The New Brunswick Community Farmers Market coordinator Lauren Errickson said that programs like the market promote proper nutrition with fruits and vegetables. THE DAILY TARGUM
“Our goal as a farmers market is to increase fresh
fruit and vegetable access in the city of
New Brunswick.”
LAUREN ERRICKSONCoordinator for the New Brunswick
Community Farmers Market
OPINIONS Page 6
Rutgers women must put aside animosity
dies feel about the interactions and attitudes between women at Rutgers?” While this was a question that I never explicitly thought about, my
response came confidently and without delay: “It is trash.”As one would presume, I was expected to expand upon my
somewhat harsh assertion, leading to the necessary dialogue that brought me here.
As a woman on this campus, I can say that I am unimpressed by the unity and underlying hostility present in the female population. And, before you get defensive, I am not saying that all Rutgers women are mean or uninviting.
But, as a population, we project characteristics that one may reason-ably view as antagonistic or unsupportive of one another.
When my friends asked me to elaborate, my mind brought me to these three questions: What is the female culture at Rutgers? Who are we to and for one another? Why?
These were at the foundation of my thought process. In preparing a response for my friend, I thought of the inherent competition that defines aspects of our culture.
Reflecting on my earlier years at Rutgers, I cannot help but notice the role competition has played in my interactions with women and how they interact with me. I refer to competition in many senses.
There is social space competition. There is out-group isolation. There is the age-old competition for attention and favor from a desired partner (while many of us do not want to admit it in 2019, I argue that it is still a thing). All of these are actively presenting themselves in Rutgers’ female culture and interaction.
Women compete in social spaces, especially those who travel in groups. I have, on many occasions, been with my group of friends, large-ly in my earlier years at Rutgers, and witnessed an unspoken tension between ourselves and another group of girls.
Personality will always play a role in situations such as these. But, I believe that in these instances, the desire to assert or preserve social sig-nificance in a particular space fuels our interactions with each other.
We sometimes operate in a “there can only be one” mentality: one girl, one group, one squad, one team, whatever the case may be. In-serting two or more into the equation challenges the fickle nature of the surface-level, secondary social circles we often establish in college.
One must not ignore the cliquey nature that is often characteristic of women as well. While I normally resent generalizations associated with my gender (or any other aspects of my identity for that matter), I have to acknowledge the truth in that cliques do exist, even in col-lege, and with a clique comes the isolation of its out-group members.
Much of the college experience is marked by the seamless estab-lishment of one’s in-school support system. What often comes with that unity and companionship which is typical of cliques, is the impen-etrability of the established in-group.
Whether on purpose, female cliques adopt that impenetrable pos-ture, and emphasize already implicit attitudes between themselves and those outside of their group.
In exploring my position of female interaction at Rutgers, specifically in terms of the question of “Why?”, I thought about the obvious: Women harbor hostility fueled by the fact that we have been socialized by the expectations surrounding romantic relationships and interaction with desired partners.
What I have noticed is that it is not necessarily “cute” to be the nice girl. As it pertains to the opposite sex, people often say that men like the chase. This rings true in that aloof and unavailable is frequently favored over what one would generally deem as nice.
In the incubation chamber that is Rutgers University, where ide-als and attitudes permeate the various subsects of our college stu-dent culture, these favored attitudes bleed into our interactions with one another. Aloof and unavailable becomes a resting posture as opposed to just a flirting tactic, and our fellow female peers often get the brunt of that attitude.
I must acknowledge that there are organizations on campus that facilitate sisterhood and fellowship among Rutgers women, but even they do not alleviate tensions that run deeper than just stu-dent culture. As far as I am concerned, we have not yet been able to overcome the intrinsic enmity toward one another, hindering our ability to make genuine and personal relationships and limit-ing our potential to establish an empowering and uplifting female culture at Rutgers.
As a woman at Rutgers, I can reflect on my last three years on campus and say that I am unimpressed by the unity among women on campus. Females have taken a back seat to the male species since the beginning of time. History proves this.
Fortunately enough, this trend has been attacked and continues to shift positively for us fellow females. But this trend may be having a reverse effect on the unity among us.
Instead of supporting each other and working as one, we are moving separately. Competition has never been more intense. Who is the most independent? Who is making the bigger and better moves?
This fight for social significance hinders our ability to form genuine bonds, on a personal level.
Yvonne Olayemi is a School of Arts and Sciences senior majoring in bio-logical sciences. Her column, “Life At RU,” runs on alternate Wednesdays.
OctOber 16, 2019
UNIVERSAL UCLICK
Pertinence of local elections eludes voters
A ll the grandiosity and pomp exuded from the mainstream media regarding national elections has led to federal politics seizing
an inordinate amount of the populace’s attention.The addition of television to the world’s arsenal of
information analogs predicated this national obses-sion with national politics, making politicians mythic figures with cult personalities.
Former president Ronald Reagan was a strong, forceful hand — a conservative built to run in a de-cade imbued with reminiscence for the 1950s. For-mer president George W. Bush played the role of the down-to-earth Texan, stampeding Al Gore and John Kerry in the beer test on his way to two electoral vic-tories. Former president Barack Obama was change exemplified, perfect for a world filled with social un-rest and economic insecurity.
And, of course, President Donald J. Trump. His name (and Twitter account) is interchangeable with the word “vulgarity,” a breath of fresh air for some that fit in an age of perceived over-sanitation.
The cult of personalities behind these illustrious, A-list federal politicians, is potent and unrelenting. Our politicians and media have joined forces to as-sure that the voter is emotionally stirred to choose the candidate with a percep-tively idealistic mythology be-hind them.
Put crudely, national politics is alluring. Its allure lies not in the policies of its inhabitants, but in the bombastic figureheads appearing on talk shows to argue with pundits about who can more thoroughly strain their vocal cords (and when that argument finishes, who has the larger yacht).
Fox News nor CNN is going to come down to every little town in America to provide pinpointed local election coverage. Local news stations rarely provide any sort of nuanced political insight for local elections, and seldom does anyone tune into those channels anyway.
Consequently, nobody cares about local elections. People equate media coverage with impor-
tance. Trump dominated the airwaves during the 2016 election cycle, and as a result, he won the election. When the viewer does not see some-thing flash across his eyes from their television, laptop or other viewing device, they discard it as unimportant. Thus, when the mainstream media do not provide coverage for one’s local elections, they discard it as unimportant.
This shrugging of local elections would be accept-able if, in actuality, they truly were not important. But, for all the flak they generate, the founding fa-thers intelligently designed the nation to account for its diverse geography and populace, and accordingly, local and state politics hold greater amounts of pow-er than you likely suspect.
Foremost, public education, an undeniably cen-tral tenant to any civilized and productive society, is typically mainly funded by local governments. In fact, 92% of elementary and secondary education funds (i.e. K-12) in the United States come from non-federal sources. That, in and of itself, should compel you to vote.
In most states, the state legislature holds primary control of redistricting. These men and women are in charge of drawing up district boundaries, including congressional districts. Something as innocuous as redistricting gets abused so frequently that the term “gerrymandering” was coined. Basically, politicians will sketch districts in incredibly odd ways with the intention of tipping the political lean of a district in their party’s favor.
When each district elects a rep to the House of Rep-resentatives, sketching them like an artist during an earthquake is wildly irresponsible and destructive. This abuse of power has been used by Republicans in North Carolina and almost impressively blatantly by Democrats in Maryland.
Further, local communities are inherently more close-knit than larger ones. A town or city council person is always going to understand the pertinent
issues of com-munity to an exponentially larger extent than a federal official. The little things that impact us during our day
to day lives — where we shop, public parks, roads — are all under the jurisdiction of local politicians.
There is a national, terminal case of confusion right now, as massive amounts of people have been indoctrinated by sensationalism into conflating the responsibilities of the federal government with those of the local. This creates apathy when it comes time to mark your ballot for those small-scale elections.
The responsibilities of becoming a citizen to not rest upon a few angry tweets, nor cynically dismiss-ing every attempt to care about the issues. Being a part of and benefiting from a community comes with a certain set of ethical responsibilities. One of the most important of those responsibilities is exercis-ing democracy in a responsible manner.
Encouraging voting is noble, but encouraging re-sponsible voting is key. Taking the time to research a local candidate, understanding where they stand on an issue and why they do, looking into their voting records and their plans for your area is how one fully exercises their right to vote.
With elections coming on Nov. 6, there is a great opportunity for you to do so, and truly know what it means to be part of a community.
While national politics may be appealing to the dramatic side of us, tapping into the pragmatic side and realizing the importance of voting in local elec-tions will make a real, tangible impact.
R ecently, while in conver-sation with a few friends, one of the males in the
room asked: “So, how do you la-YVONNE OLAYEMI
EDITORIAL
LIFE AT RU
State, municipal politics are often ignored by voters
The Daily Targum’s editorials represent the views of the majority of the 151st editorial board. Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
“Encouraging voting is noble, but encouraging responsible voting is key.”
UNIVERSAL UCLICK
OctOber 16, 2019 OpiniOns page 7
In 2013, after a year of dating, she became pregnant at age 16, forcing her to live at home with Boynton and fin-ish school online. Boynton followed his dreams and became a police of ficer in his grandfather’s municipality.
There was always tension between the two, so much so that it was palpable for everyone around them. He would force her to leave her family’s holiday par-ties, claiming that they are not family because they are not blood-related. He even called the police on Lester twice, for “poking or yelling.”
The officers who reported to the scene described that Lester seemed reserved and upset, but what could they do about it? Boynton was the grandson of the sher-if f, and a police officer in the municipality.
After a brief af fair in 2014, Lester be-came pregnant again, but stayed with Boynton and they got married. Two years later, in 2016, Lester became aware of a relationship that Boynton was having with a female dispatcher, and decided to file for divorce.
After a heated fight at Walmart, Boyn-ton called a police lieutenant from his municipality, asking how he could force Lester in his truck to go back to their home. He was told that he could not. Shortly after, a neighbor of theirs saw them return home. A half an hour later, she heard a gunshot. This was followed
by a second shot, and then she saw Boyn-ton run to his truck.
He drove to a Waffle House to have a late meal with a fellow police officer, at approxi-mately 1 a.m. On his way there, he received a text from Lester’s phone — one written in the style of a suicide note. Exactly 1 minute later, he texted a joke to his mistress.
Afterward, he called the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and sent them to his house, and 6 minutes later he re-ported hearing two gunshots while walk-ing up the steps to his apartment. He claimed that he could not find their baby, and was afraid that Lester would shoot the children, him and then herself.
Lester was found in her bedroom clos-et, face down, laying on top of Boynton’s service gun. She had on fuzzy slippers and a dog’s leash in her hand, ready to walk the dog before going to sleep. A piece of paper with a list of Boynton’s infidelities was laying next to her.
The case was ruled a suicide attempt. Her hands were never checked for gun residue.
Though she lived, she suffered gunshot wounds to the head, making it impossible for her to remember what happened that night. She knows, though, that she had never had any considerations of suicide, as all she wanted was to be a good moth-er to her children.
Boynton still has his gun, and still serves as a police of ficer.
Cases such as these are not uncom-mon. The National Center for Women and Policing (NCWP) reported that at least 40% of police of ficer families expe-rience domestic violence in the house-hold. In contrast, only 10% of families without a police of ficer experience do-mestic violence.
Cases of domestic violence in which the abuser is a police officer causes the victim to be significantly more vulnera-ble, as he possesses a gun, knows where the women’s shelters are and knows how to manipulate the system. Further, if the victim is still strong enough to call the po-lice, it is likely that reporting officers will be friends and colleagues of her abuser.
If the victim is able to contact the po-lice, the response is usually an informal investigation of the allegations, often not even including a check of the victim’s safety. For discipline, the most common form is counseling for the abuser, with only 19% of departments indicating that they would terminate an of ficer after two complaints of domestic violence. In other cases, domestic violence com-plaints are not placed on of ficer perfor-mance evaluations.
Jess Graham is a School of Arts and Sci-ences senior majoring in political science. Her column, “Considerations of Crime,” runs on alternate Wednesdays.
YOUR VOICE The Daily Targum welcomes submissions from all readers. Due to space limitations, letters to the editor must not exceed 500 words. Guest columns and commentaries should be between 700 and 850 words. All authors must include name, phone number, class year and college affiliation or department to be considered for publication. Anonymous letters will not be considered. All submissions are subject to editing for length and clarity. A submission does not guarantee publication. Please submit via email to [email protected] by 4 p.m. to be considered for the following day’s publication.
Police domestic abuse rate raises serious questions, concerns
You would never place a gun in a rapist’s hand. So why are abu-sive police of ficers allowed to
keep theirs?October is National Domestic Vio-
lence Awareness Month (DVAM) — a month aimed to show that domestic vi-olence is extremely common and af fects women and men across the country.
More than 1 in 3 women have experi-enced sexual violence, and 1 in 5 women have experienced completed or attempt-ed rape, according to the Centers for Dis-ease Control and Prevention (CDC). This is not a single-gender issue, as nearly 1 in 4 men have also experienced sexual vio-lence, and 1 in 38 have experienced rape or attempted rape. This also does not in-clude those identifying as gender-neutral, gender fluid or transgender.
These cases are pervasive and becom-ing an epidemic across the country. Yet, many are still not brought to justice nor handled with the care needed.
Take the story of Jessica Lester, a young woman from Georgia, who began dating Mat-thew Boynton in high school. Boynton was the grandson of the county sheriff, while Les-ter was abandoned as a child and lived with adoptive parents in a less-than-wealthy home.
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OctOber 16, 2019Page 8
Ellen's Cowboys controversy raises questions on polarizationAMEENA QOBRTAY
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Some may argue that it’s healthy to have friends that don’t agree with you on everything. It’s like being cool with someone who wears stripes when you hate them.
But the discussion may change if you’re gay and that “friend” has a history of running on an-ti-LGBTQ+ platforms.
This past week, Ellen DeGe-neres was trending on social me-dia. Not for the usual reasons,
which is mainly because clips from her talk show gain our usual “aww-wws” followed by a retweet.
Instead, Twitter erupted when America’s favorite lesbian talk show host was seen with former President George W. Bush at a Dallas Cowboys game.
To many Generation Z kids, this may not seem like much. Celebrities hang out with former presidents all the time. In an age where so much of what President Donald J. Trump says or does is blasted on media outlets, it’s hard to remember that
Ellen has always been welcoming to politicians, seen here with former First Lady Michelle Obama. Publicly chilling with George W. Bush got a different reaction. CHUCK KENNEDY / ARCHIVES.GOV
there were presidents before him or even Barack Obama.
To remind people who may not know or remem-ber, Bush has a history of suppor-tin anti-LGBTQ+ rights. In 2004, he showed strong support for the Federal Marriage Amendment, which aimed at keep-ing marriage between a man and a woman.
DeGeneres addressed the situ-ation on her talk show. Those that were expecting an apology were sorely mistaken.
During the video, DeGeneres encouraged people to remember to show kindness to one another and remind us that it’s okay to be friends with people despite not agreeing “on everything.”
The question that seems to arise from all this is: Can people be friends if they're so politically op-posed to one another?
Too often, people’s mere exis-tence become instruments that are weaponized by politicians. Politics is personal. Living in the margins means that those who are in power will do everything they can to en-sure you don’t have access to the benefits of “normal” life.
To be unapologetically gay at a time when gay marriage was still illegal was very much a radical act of defiance. This is exactly what
DeGeneres did by coming out in the late 1990s. It must have been hard to accept who you are in a so-
ciety that was do-ing everything to suppress that.
E x c u s i n g Bush’s acts as president as just something that DeGeneres
“doesn’t agree with” seems like a cheap excuse. There were probably thousands of gay people that were most likely too afraid to come into themselves or were bullied for doing so. It seems unfair to dismiss these struggles and merely “be kind” to a man that was encouraging harmful rhetoric against them.
There were many tweets along the lines that this interaction should “give us hope for our fu-ture.” DeGeneres even cited one of these in her “apology” video.
To say this interaction gives hope for our future is baffling. A future of what exactly? I wouldn’t want to live in a world where grown adults aren’t held responsible for the actions they committed when fully aware of what they were doing.
Not to mention Bush’s global reputation. He is notorious for the “War on Terror” his administra-tion launched against Afghanistan and later Iraq. There were hun-dreds of thousands of lives lost in this war that many believe was fought for unjust reasons.
When DeGeneres tells us to “be kind,” do you think Bush was think-ing the same thing when his adminis-tration decided to disrupt the lives of hundreds of thousands?
There is also this sense that soli-darity exists more across class lines than party ones. Bush and DeGe-neres are both very wealthy individ-uals. As this situation was trending on Twitter, more photos of rich ce-lebrities that are supposedly political opposites were being brought up. Chelsea Clinton beaming next to a grinning Ivanka Trump, is just one of the several examples people used to show that DeGeneres and Bush hanging out isn’t something new.
If DeGeneres can exhibit “kind-ness” to Bush despite his past, does this set a precedent on ex-cusing people’s political views, or does it tell us that we should be more class-conscious?
Perhaps those of us who are not members of the wealthy elite should take this as a cue to stand in solidar-ity with those who are of our same economic class.
Maybe you can do it. Maybe you can be friends with people who are opposed to your way of life and do everything in their power to stop you from being yourself. Maybe we can reach a point where every-one can get along even when so politically opposed.
Until then, instances like De-Generes and Bush’s will still stir many heated debates.
Spending for self-care: Is consumerism our only option?JOSHUA EDMUNDS
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The relationship between self-love and consumerism has be-come intertwined in the very na-ture of society.
History has shown us that in or-der to indulge ourselves, we must either be incredibly wealthy or being compelled to spend money.
Ancient Egyptians buried their pharaohs in tombs made of literal gold, and decorated their pyra-mids with jewels and ancient art. Motivational speakers constantly tell their audience that they need to work hard in order to get what they want in life. Parents instill their personal work ethic onto their children, and remind them that their dreams must be in-grained in reality for them to be able to live off of.
Laziness is seen as an original sin of sorts, a one-way ticket to never accomplishing your goals and not being a productive mem-ber of society. Capitalism and pro-ductivity walk hand-in-hand in an eternal dance, constantly support-ing each other under the weight of the working poor.
While this relationship sup-ports the economy and increases productivity, the mental effect on its citizens and constant state of inadequacy are byproducts of
living within its influence. A con-sumerist conception of self-love perpetuates an endless cycle of spending money in order to feel as though you are worth something.
Phrases such as “treat your-self” and memes on the internet pertaining to self-care add to the belief that taking care of yourself requires spending. Some of the joy from working comes from knowing the fact that you’ll have money later, and us-ing that mon-ey on whatev-er you desire is a freedom that comes with being an adult.
Abstract concepts such as "money" and "happiness" are top-ics that are often talked about but never truly dissected, and com-panies perpetuate the notion that beauty comes from buying make-up products and healthy eating.
By feeding off of our insecuri-ties, advertisers have mastered the art of convincing society that we are never enough, that we must always spend more, that we are simply one purchase away from perfection. This cy-cle of mental manipulation has been so masterfully disguised as advertising, to a point where
we willingly accept it as a prod-uct of our environment.
Self-love has taken the power away from the people who crave it the most, and has convinced young people that they must be rich in order to feel confident about them-selves and have a place in society.
There are ways to improve yourself mentally and physical-ly without being forced to spend
money. Ex-ercising and m e d i t a t i o n are popular alternatives, and they allow self-reflection to occur with-out draining
a hole in your wallet. Buying friv-olous and unnecessary items is not the wisest way to spend mon-ey that could be used on more long-lasting investments.
Self-care and improvement on your personality are always encour-aged, but the fact that it constantly pertains to your status in society means it excludes a significant portion of the population that is unable to afford such delicacies for themselves. Self-care is advertised as possible only if you can afford it, and leaves people lower on the eco-nomic ladder feeling inadequate.
Simple mental exercises such as reflection or taking care of your
It may seem like self-care is only possible through purchasing products, but meditation is free as can be. It's best to focus on yourself more than what you can buy. UNSPLASH
physical health can create strides in increasing your mood and ap-pearance. Being a responsible individual and keeping yourself in check mentally will always keep you on your toes when it comes to your emotions and view of yourself.
Perhaps by breaking free of the constant spending-to-im-prove-yourself mentality, we can destroy the cycle that is defined as self-improvement and create our own personal definition. The
power and definition of self-love should be unique to your character, and not be rooted in the spending of money and fruitless expenses.
By keeping track of who we are as humans and understand-ing that the power to change our-selves comes from within, we can take power back from the hands of advertisers who feed inadequa-cy into our brains and hearts, and find acceptance within ourselves and our financial means.
“A consumerist conception of self-love perpetuates a cycle of spending money in order to feel as though you're worth something.”
“Can people be friends if they're so politically
oppposed to one another?”
Happy Birthday: Look for simple pleasures. How you spend your time and mon-ey will reflect how well you do this year. Make changes that will lower your overhead and put an end to joint money matters that are causing concern. Address issues that are inconsistent or making you angry, and you will gain the freedom to live your life your way. Change is overdue. Your numbers are 9, 16, 22, 31, 33, 39, 46.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Learn all you can from those you encounter. Talk to experts, ask questions and look for new possi-bilities that will help you move in a more suitable direction. Educa-tional pursuits will encourage new beginnings. Expansion and opti-mism will pay off. 3 stars
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Indus-trious ideas will play into your plans as well as your strengths and skills. Change is within reach, but it will take an effort on your part to initiate what you want. Love and romance will improve your relationship with someone special. 3 stars
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Evaluate your current lifestyle and connections. Not all contacts will be equal. Consider who is to your advantage and who isn’t, and make adjustments to the time you spend with others. Liven things up by participating more. 3 stars
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Delve into something unique. A change will challenge you but also help you dis-cover something that you enjoy and do well. Dealing with people from dif-ferent backgrounds will be revealing. Invest time and energy in a promising partnership. 3 stars
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Change may be going on all around you, but that doesn’t mean it’s right for you. Only go along with what’s good for you. Put your energy into expanding the interests and knowledge that allow you to grow. 2 stars
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Think big, but don’t go overboard. Discuss-ing your ideas with experts or people you deem as equals will help you sort out what’s doable and what isn’t. Rec-ognize trouble if someone is aggres-sive or indulgent, and know enough to back away. 5 stars
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Share your thoughts and feelings; let others see the sort of change you want to happen. If you have a sol-id plan, you will persuade others to see things your way. Simplicity and moderation will be the keys to posi-tive progress. 3 stars
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Words are powerful; use them wisely. Express-ing what you want will make a differ-ence to the way someone feels about you. Don’t back down or give in to demands that bother you. Make sugges-tions that are fair and promises that are doable. 3 stars
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Listen carefully, and abide by the rules. Given the chance, someone will mislead you. Keep your head down and your mind on what you need to accomplish. Refuse to let anyone stand in your way or push you out of the way. 3 stars
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Lighten up and enjoy life. If you take on too much, you will end up missing out on something you want to do. Socialize with peers, make a positive change at home or spend time with youngsters or your lover. 5 stars
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Chan-nel your energy where it will bring the highest returns. Whether you are looking for physical or financial gains, the right attitude and input will help you get what you want. Don’t labor over what others are doing. Avoid drama. 2 stars
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Draw up agreements, discuss plans and share your ideas. A joint venture looks promising and can lead to an excep-tional partnership. Physical changes you make will boost your confidence and improve your health. Romance is featured. 4 stars
Horoscopes Eugenia Last
DIVERSIONS Page 9OctOber 16, 2019
©2019 By Eugenia Last distributed by Universal Uclick
Pearls Before Swine Stephan Pastis
Non Sequitur Wiley
Lio Mark Tatulli
Over The Hedge T. Lewis and M. Fry
Yesterday’s
Solution
ACROSS
1 Mud bath venue
4 Backpack part
9 Buy things
13 Elephant ___
14 Cape-waving combatant
15 Folded food
16 Judges at a Scottish food con
test? (hint: the last letter was
originally letter 5)
18 Pub array
19 Spacious car
20 Request for permission
21 Creative writing degs.
22 Retiring hairstylist’s final job?
(... letter 1)
25 Faithfully following
28 Tinted
29 ___ packing (dismiss)
30 Sticks with flat blades
34 ___-Seltzer
37 In short order, for short
38 Adequate coat? (... letter 2)
40 Kind of code on an envelope
41 Patriotic march composer
43 Siamese, now
44 Preliminary software version
45 Alibis
47 Big name in small trains
49 Unload a slippery fish from
a truck? (... letter 7)
54 Hawaiian party
55 High male voice
56 No longer too young
60 E.g., e.g.
61 Lawn machine used on 16-, 22-,
38- and 49-Across
63 Major Egyptian water source
64 Made one
65 De Armas of “The Informer”
66 Action
67 ___-walsy
68 Word of assent
DOWN
1 Hardens
2 Cut the rind from
3 Lacking in moisture
4 Soak (up)
5 “Fast Car” singer Chapman
6 Kidney-related
7 Large venue
8 Remove roughness from
9 Speak haltingly
10 Six
11 School zone?
12 Group that made the
Wild West less wild
14 Principle
17 Worked on a driveway
23 Chess “castle”
24 Low brass instrument
25 192 of them make a qt.
26 Decorate anew
27 Full of profanity, perhaps
31 Fitting
32 “Yay, team!”
33 Mrs., in Managua
35 Tick’s relative
36 Iridescent gem
38 “&$#!,” for one
39 NATO alphabet word
after “Juliett”
42 Sewed by a surgeon
44 Wow-inducing, in old
theater slang
46 Make airtight
48 Despairing poker declaration
49 Pituitary or thyroid organ
50 Jazzman Blake
51 Justice Kagan
52 Online merchandising
53 Many Soho dwellings
57 Out of office
58 Hereditary determinant
59 Periods
62 Queen ___ (“Halo” singer,
to fans)
Yesterday’s Solution
Universal Crossword
Page 10 OctOber 16, 2019
Korsak continues to impress in his 2nd season with Rutgers
AWARD
CONTINUED FROM BACK
Knights start season with 3 straight RAC games against sub-.500 teams
POINT
CONTINUED FROM BACK
against Iowa during week two of this season.
Against the Hawkeyes, he punted an attempt 69 yards across the field, the most amount of yards he has on the season through six games and tied for the seventh-longest punt in the program’s history. In that game, he averaged a season-best 47.60 yards.
Prior to arriving on the Banks, Korsak attended Victo-ria University in Footscray, Aus-tralia. He played on the football (American soccer), cricket and golf teams under the rules of his native Australia. On the soccer team, he starred as a midfielder while working out with ProKick Australia on his punting form alongside former pro football punter Nathan Chapman.
ProKick Australia celebrated its 10th-year anniversary in 2017, after being established in 2007. The organization is well-known throughout the United States football world.
Korsak, a junior in the School of Management and Labor Rela-tions, is pursuing major in labor and employment relations. He was named an All-Big Ten hon-orable mention last season, help-ing the Knights attain special teams records. Most notably, the punting unit came up with 40.1 yards, Rutgers’ top number in that category of all time.
Sophomore guard Ron Harper Jr. amassed a total of 242 points for Rutgers last season, with an average of 7.8 per game. GARRETT STEFFE / MARCH 2019
Knights will look to slow down Ni-agara’s James Towns, who racked up 110 assists last year.
After the Eagles, Rutgers will host the Dragons on Wednesday, Nov. 13. Last season, Drexel had a record of 13-19 (7-11). This team will be a familiar face to many of our returning players, since the Knights have faced the Dragons last November. That game resulted in a Rutgers blowout win (95-66).
Playing three straight home games, the Knights will take a trip for their first away game of the season. On Saturday, Nov. 16, Rut-gers will be taking on the Bonnies in Ontario, Canada.
The Bona Wolves will be the first team the Knights will play with a 2018-2019 record more than .500. This seems like Rut-gers’ first difficult task, with the game also being in another coun-try. The game will air on ESPN+ and will be a great opportunity to put the Knights on the map.
After the trip to Ontario, Rut-gers will take on the Lumber-jacks at home on Wednesday, Nov. 20. With a record of 14-16 (7-11), Stephen F. Austin aver-aged almost 15 turnovers per game last year. The Knights will look forward to using their long and athletic team to force a bunch of turnovers to help seal a win at home.
The 6-foot-1-inch Korsak is already on pace to surpass last season’s punt total inside the 20-yard line. In his first season at Rutgers in 2018, he man-aged 23 in that zone through 78 attempts.
In six games this season, he has totaled 1,863 punting yards on 41 attempts. Last season he had 78 attempts for 3,333 yards.
Korsak holds the school’s record for the farthest punt in program history, with a 79 yarder against Northwestern back on Oct. 20, 2018, a game where the Knights command-ed a 12-7 halftime lead, but ul-timately lost by 3 points, the smallest margin of victory by an opponent in 2018.
Korsak was one of Ash’s early enrollees in 2018. He was able to practice in the spring of last year as a redshirt sophomore.
In his first game as a Knight, the Australian punter had three punts for 118 yards in Rutgers’ win over Texas State, its opening game of the 2018 season. He aver-aged 39.33 yards in his first game donning the scarlet and white.
“I thought our special teams played pretty hard and pretty well. Our punter is a phenomenal player,” said interim head coach Nunzio Campanile. “He’s as good as any punter in the country.”
For updates on the Rut-gers football team, follow @TargumSports on Twitter.
Junior punter Adam Korsak pinned the Hoosiers inside the 20-yard line three different times in the Knights’ 35-0 loss against Indiana. MATAN DUBNIKOV / SEPTEMBER 2019
After six days rest, Rutgers will take on in-state rival, the Highlanders, at home. By far their most challenging team this month, NJIT had a record of 22-13 (8-8) last season.
The Knights will look to give returning Highlander 5-foot-9-inch Zach Cooks a grueling time at the Rutgers Athletic Center (RAC). He’s coming of f a 17-points-per-game campaign from last season. Head coach Steve Pikiell and company face of f against NJIT on Tuesday, Nov. 26.
To close out the month of No-vember, the Knights will take on the Minutemen at home on Friday, Nov. 29. UMass’ record last season was 11-21 (4-14). Just like the Bull-dogs, the Minutemen struggle on the road, only taking one win on the road last year (1-11). Rutgers will look to finish the month off on a strong note with conference play starting in December.
Looking at the November schedule, the Knights have an opportunity to be more than .500 going into a difficult December. With conference play starting that month, Rutgers must stay hungry facing weaker teams to set the tone for the underdog sea-son ahead of it.
For updates on the Rutgers men’s basketball team, follow @TargumSports on Twitter.
OctOber 16, 2019 Page 11
WOMEN’S SOCCER NO. 22 RUTGERS-PURDUE, TOMORROW, 7 P.M.
Knights kick off home stand tomorrowALEX FABUGAIS-INABA
CORRESPONDENT
Heading into its last two home matches before the Big Ten tour-nament, held in Piscataway, the Rutgers women’s soccer team has big goals. The No. 22 Scarlet Knights (10-2-2, 4-2-1) have had a great turnaround to record three consecutive conference wins and tie, after struggling in two early matchups at home.
Rutgers will face Purdue on Thursday at 8 p.m., followed by Sunday’s game against In-diana at 1 p.m. for the Knights’ Senior Day.
A lot will be honored during Rutgers’ last home match of the conference season to a senior class, which has made massive contribu-tions to the team this season.
Senior back Chantelle Swaby brought back valuable experi-ence from her time competing for Jamaica at the FIFA World Cup over the summer.
Senior forward Brittany LaPlant has been a workhorse on the field and garnered her second career Big Ten Offen-sive Player of the Week men-tion. Seniors back Amanda Visco and midfielder Taylor Aylmer have also teamed up twice this season on corner kick goals to put the Knights ahead of their opponents.
Rutgers still has plenty of tal-ent to fill in for the seniors, but they are big shoes to fill. Luckily, the Knights don’t look anywhere near done with their season as the Big Ten tournament and possible NCAA competition is approaching in the next couple of weeks and will be the seniors’ last chance to make their mark repre-senting the scarlet and white.
Last time out, Rutgers trav-eled to the Midwest and re-turned home undefeated. The Knights sealed a 1-0 win on Oct. 11 against Iowa and two days later, added a 1-1 double-over-time draw to Nebraska.
This weekend, Rutgers is one of the top teams to beat in the con-ference. Both the Boilermakers (6-6-3, 2-4-2) and the Hoosiers (7-6-1, 3-3-1) haven’t scored nearly as many goals as the Knights this sea-son and are absent from the lead-erboard in shots, goals and assists.
Rutgers has a chance to add up more points to move up the rankings and qualify for the NCAA tournament.
SCOUTING PURDUEThe Boilermakers sit in the
middle of the conference are coming off of a 2-1 loss to Penn State at home. Leading Purdue is Leanna Rebimbas and Hannah Melchiorre at three goals each. The Boilermakers’ goalkeeper
Senior back Chantelle Swaby has 4 shots on goal out of her 5 shots this season to accumulate a .800 shots on goal percentage this year. DUSTIN NILES / PHOTO EDITOR / SEPTEMBER 2019
Marisa Bova has recorded 48 saves on a .800 percentage.
Over the Knights’ and Pur-due’s last two matchups, Rut-gers has won 2-1 at Yurcak Field. The Knights haven’t lost a game against the Boilermak-ers since joining the Big Ten.
SCOUTING INDIANA Rutgers has never lost to the
Hoosiers and it’s hoping that doesn’t change anytime soon. The Knights hold a 3-0-1 record to Indi-ana, but the last time they played each other was back in 2017.
Over the weekend, the Hoo-siers won 1-0 to Ohio State and will face off against Maryland on Thursday evening before com-ing to play Rutgers on Sunday.
Indiana’s Avery Lockwood and Chandra Davidson lead their team with four goals apiece, while the Hoosiers’ goalkeeper Bethany Kopel has 40 saves to her name on a .769 save percent-age. Kopel has also recorded seven shutouts this season.
The Knights have accumu-lated 25 goals on the season, holding opponents to 9 goals on 133 shot attempts. Opposing teams have scored an average of 0.68 goals per game.
For updates on the Rutgers women’s soccer team, follow @TargumSports on Twitter.
TWITTER: @TargumSports
WEBSITE: DailyTargum.com/section/sports
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I thought our special teams played pretty hard and pretty well. Our punter is a phenomenal player.”
—Football interim head coach Nunzio CampanileSPORTSWEDNESDAY OCTOBER 16, 2019 ONLINE AT DAILYTARGUM.COMRUTGERS UNIVERSITY—NEW BRUNSWICK
STEVE PIKIELL,head coach of the men’s basketball team, announced the hiring of T.J. Thompson as the Director of Basketball Administration. Thompson will be tasked with helping out the coaching staff with daily operation tasks.
WOMEN’S SOCCER
FIELD HOCKEY
VOLLEYBALL
vs. Purdue
at No. 21 Ohio State
at Michigan State
Tomorrow, 8 p.m., Yurcak Field
Friday, 3 p.m., Columbus, Ohio
Friday, 7 p.m., East Lansing, Mich.
EXTRA POINT KNIGHTS SCHEDULE NHL SCORES
MontrealTampa Bay
MinnesotaToronto
FloridaNJ Devils
31
24
64
MEN’S BASKETBALL KNIGHTS HOST BRYANT TO START SEASON IN NOVEMBER
FOOTBALL RUTGERS’ PUNTER EARNS 3RD AWARD THIS YEAR
Korsak captures weekly top punter award
Rutgers opens season with point to prove
SEE POINT ON PAGE 10Sophomore guard Caleb McConnell ended last year with a .792 free throw percentage for the Knights after sinking 42 of his 53 attempts of the season. GARRETT STEFFE / MARCH 2019
Junior punter Adam Korsak is averaging 45.4 yards per punt this season, helping him earn the Ray Guy Award on three different occasions this year. CURSTINE GUEVARRA / ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR / OCTOBER 2019
MATTHEW DECEGLIESTAFF WRITER
After a long summer, the college basket-ball season is almost upon us. With November approaching, the Rutgers men’s basketball team is poised to have a statement season. By coming out hungry, the Scarlet Knights have the chance to let the Big Ten know that they’re not a joke.
Analyzing the schedule, Rutgers opens the 2019-2020 campaign facing the following schools: Bryant, Niagara, Drexel, St. Bonaven-ture, Stephen F. Austin, NJIT and UMass.
The Knights open up the season against the Bulldogs on Thursday, Nov. 7, at home. Between new recruits, returning players and a loud arena, Rutgers will be ready to use this home-court advantage versus Bryant.
The Bulldogs’ record last season was 10-20 (7-11), but the thing that popped out the most was their record on the road. Last season, they were 2-14 when traveling to the opponent. A glaring weakness for a team the Knights will want to set the tone for the opening tip.
Next up, Rutgers will face the Purple Ea-gles on Sunday, Nov. 10 at home. Niagara’s re-cord from the following season was 13-19 (6-12). By looking at the roster, the Eagles have depth and many upperclassmen players. The
JAKE SCHMIEDSPORTS EDITIOR
Amid the losing woes for the Rutgers foot-ball team this season, between its 16 straight Big Ten losses and the firing of former head coach Chris Ash, the special teams unit has consistently been a bright spot.
After the Scarlet Knights’ (1-5, 0-4) of fensive unit cannot convert on third downs, junior punter Adam Korsak leads the punting unit out on the field. Oppos-ing punt returners have had dif ficulty returning his punts this season, a testa-ment to the Melbourne, Australia native’s powerful leg.
Korsak captured the Ray Guy Award this week, marking the third time he has earned the weekly top punter accolade on the season. In Rutgers’ 35-0 loss in Indi-ana this past weekend, the redshirt junior landed 3 out of his 8 attempts inside the 20-yard line.
He has consistently pinned opposing offenses to behind the 20-yard line, with 20 total punts landing in that zone. Korsak first captured the Ray Guy Award after land-ing 70% of his punts inside the 20-yard line
SEE AWARD ON PAGE 10