RU Dems find ‘Libertas’ with new magazine

After tossing the idea around to publish a liberal magazine for the past few years, the Rutgers University Democrats has finally come together to create their official magazine Libertas.
“The mission of the magazine is to provide an intellectual liberal alternative for the Rutgers community to read,” said Libertas’ Editor-in-Chief Annie Drelles, a School of Arts and Sciences junior. “We also want to encourage debate, and allow people to have an insight into the varying opinions and personalities of the political left.”
Libertas, which means “liberty” in Latin, will begin as an eight-page magazine sponsored by the Rutgers Democrats, and will cover many different issues from local to statewide and from budgeting to political philosophy, Drelles said.
“We cover everything from abortion to foreign policy at the national and local levels. One of the articles was an interview by Josh Kiel of Professor Gordon Schochet, who is a political science professor at Rutgers,” said Libertas writer Bharat Balan, a University alumnus.
The magazine does not have an editorial board but is run by the Libertas Steering Committee, which is made up of Drelles, Livingston College junior Chair Evan Waltzer and eight other members who are in charge of various responsibilities such as layout, funding and online.
“At the moment, we are planning on having one issue every month. We hope to be able to distribute on all campuses. We want to include as much of the Rutgers community as possible,” Drelles said.
The writing staff welcomes all writers that are in line with the same value system they think is good for the country, Balan said. The magazine will not reject conservative writers if they come forth, as the publication has conservative Democrats in the RU Dems who are writers.
“Libertas will be unabashedly liberal, but students can expect to find thought-provoking articles on a range of subjects, from philosophy to local politics. Students will find traditional news and opinion articles, and also student created political art,” said Rutgers Democrats President Brett Tinder, a University senior.
Tinder said students care most about the issues that are important to the Democratic Party.
“Students are forward-looking, and many students identify with the Democratic Party because it has a plan to combat global warming, [fix] the economy and [expand] access to higher education,” Tinder said. “These are all issues that will have a big impact on our futures.”
The club wanted to release a magazine last spring, but the leadership had experienced several failures over the past two years that left them very hesitant, Waltzer said. The election changed everything and really energized students on campus to get involved and helped them get started.
“Although I’d like to think it was my lobbying every meeting for the magazine that led to its creation, I believe it was mostly the club’s newfound energy and desire to voice their opinions on issues brought up during the election season that did it,” he said.
With the election over, the RU Democrats had time to make this project a reality, Waltzer said. They set up the committee and elected members to it. They were able to focus their efforts to produce and publish the magazine.
“It’s the perfect time because people are energized by all the historic things going on that it is impossible to not have an opinion,” Waltzer said.
Libertas is currently funded temporarily by the Rutgers Democrats, but they are looking for long-term funding through local politicians or grants.
“Right now we are funding it from our allocation funds from school and money that the club has raised from bake sales. But we are looking to get funding from the New Jersey Democratic political organizations such as the [Rep.] Frank Pallone campaign [and] Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s campaign,” Balan said.
Libertas will not be beholden to them and we will not fail to criticize them if we believe they are wrong. They stand for liberal values and progressive causes, he said.
“This is a left-based magazine, but it is not necessarily a response to other political magazines. We mainly want to have a magazine that can present our views in an intelligent, open-minded way and we welcome those who want to see a left-based magazine to join us,” Waltzer said.
Despite the RU Dems’ enthusiasm, not everyone is pleased with the coming together of their first magazine.
“It’s unnecessary,” said The Centurion’s Community Organizer Kevin Nedza and Rutgers College senior. “The Republican Party doesn’t have a magazine here and the Democrats don’t need one.”
He said there are other venues for talk adding that it was a waste of time and that it is almost as if they’re trying to squash the conservative voice here.
“The main difference I think is we are partisan. We don’t masquerade as being non-partisan as other magazines at Rutgers and beyond do,” Balan said.
The student population may be changing, I see more [conservatives] myself, but they are still a minority, Nedza said.