BREAKING: The Daily Targum fails to reach enough votes in this year’s referendum
It had been funded by all students since 1980
After weeks of polling for the 2016 referendum to keep Rutgers’s oldest newspaper on term bills, The Daily Targum has failed to secure continued funding from all Rutgers students.
Polls were open April 4th to April 15th across all Rutgers seven schools. The Targum received yes votes from Mason Gross, SAS, SEBS and Engineering.
But, they will no longer receive funding from RBS, Pharmacy and Bloustein and will no longer cover their students or events.
The Targum has been around for 148 years, making it the second-oldest college newspaper and circulates 15,000 issues daily. The Daily Targum was founded in 1869 and gained independence from the University in 1980 by sourcing funds from student’s term bills.
If Rutgers students had voted yes, the $10.75 refundable fee on their term bill would have remained. The last referendum took place back in 2013.
Casey Murphy, a Journalism and English double major and campus team leader for the 2016 referendum said the newspaper’s staff fought hard to keep it going.
“The kids that work at The Daily Targum put in hours that go above and beyond and they have a passion for being the voice of the students, and that’s the part that is the most upsetting. The students no longer have a free voice to speak their minds.
“With that said it is by no measure the lack of effort that went into fighting for the referendum, it was a well fought, fair race. However, I know that the students who currently work with the Targum will undoubtedly be extremely successful in whatever endeavors they continue on strictly because I’ve witness their work ethic which speaks volumes about their character and the road they have ahead.”
The Targum has in the past covered monumental events such as the Rutgers vs. Princeton game and also suggested that the school’s colors should be scarlet.
UPDATE: The Targum have issued a statement saying they have “no idea” where our story came from.