To the Rutgers Community: University Senate Charge S-0107 is awaiting the approval of University President Richard L. McCormick. This charge, if approved, would potentially cripple The Daily Targum’s dual role as a news provider to our community and as an introduction to the fields of journalism, marketing and business for students. We urge you to go online and sign a petition letting President McCormick know that you support your daily student paper. Section XV of the Senate Charge, collection of fees, would allow for students or parents paying a term bill to opt out of the $9.75 Targum fee by checking off a box. Students can receive a refund of the $9.75 a semester fee from the Targum Publishing Company. Students approve this procedure through a referendum vote held every three years. We have won approval for this term bill fee in nearly every student referendum since the Targum went independent of University funding about 30 years ago. This change to a system that students have already approved will force us to make significant cuts to aspects of the paper because our future operating budget will be unknown. With a smaller budget we will have to cut staff positions, the daily page count of each issue and even how many days a week we publish. We are not asking President McCormick to completely turn down the proposed guidelines; we just want him to understand the effects section XV will have on the Targum and the community and allow for discussions on alternative refund processes to remain open. Charge S-0107 passed by a vote of 55-43 with nine abstentions at the November 2008 Senate meeting. Before the vote, many students and others were blocked from sharing their opinions on the bill because discussions were limited at the meeting. We have created an online petition to allow the student body to show the president that you care about the paper and its future. The voices opposed to this charge may have been stifled at the Senate meeting, but now is your chance to prove the will of the students will prevail here at Rutgers, as the petition will be presented to the president himself. The future of an independent and daily campus newspaper lies solely in the hands of our president. Let him know that you will not stand by and let this charge imperil the second oldest college newspaper in the nation. Sincerely, Dan Bracaglia Editor in Chief, The Daily Targum -------------------------------------------- We thank all of our readers for your generous support; however, we ask that only registered students with valid eden email accounts sign this petition. We will not mail or solicit your eden. Rather, we only require your eden email for verification of student status.