''The Centurion'' is a

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

online magazine focused on

Rutgers University-New Brunswick Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was a ...

campus life. Its motto is "

veritas Veritas is the name given to the Roman virtue of Honesty, truthfulness, which was considered one of the main virtues any good Roman should possess. The Greek goddess of truth is Aletheia (Ancient Greek language, Ancient Greek: ). The German phi ...

vos liberabit," which is Latin for " the truth shall set you free." The magazine attempts to counterbalance the predominant orthodoxy of

social liberalism Social liberalism (german: Sozialliberalismus, es, socioliberalismo, nl, Sociaalliberalisme), also known as new liberalism in the United Kingdom, modern liberalism, or simply liberalism in the contemporary United States, left-liberalism ...

and

political progressivism Progressivism holds that it is possible to improve human societies through political action. As a political movement, progressivism seeks to advance the human condition through social reform based on purported advancements in science, techn ...

of the professors and staff at the university. This was substantiated by documented faculty donations to political candidates in the 2004 presidential election. ''The Centurion'' was founded in September 2004 by

James O'Keefe James Edward O'Keefe III (born June 28, 1984) is an American political activist and provocateur who founded Project Veritas, a far-right activist group that uses deceptive editing techniques to attack mainstream media organizations and progr ...

, a junior philosophy major, after he left

The Daily Targum ''The Daily Targum'' is the official student newspaper of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Founded in 1869, it is the second-oldest collegiate newspaper in the United States. The ''Daily Targum'' is student written and managed, and ...

. It was co-founded by fellow Rutgers college students Matthew Klimek, Joseph P. Nedick and Mason-Gross art student Justine Mertz.

Overview

''The Centurion'' has featured cover stories on Rutgers alumnus

Paul Robeson Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, stage and film actor, professional football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his p ...

academic freedom Academic freedom is a moral and legal concept expressing the conviction that the freedom of inquiry by faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy as well as the principles of academia, and that scholars should have freedom to teac ...

eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

New Brunswick, New Jersey New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat, seat of government of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Cap and Skull Cap and Skull is a senior-year coeducational honor society at Rutgers University, founded on January 18, 1900. Admission to Cap and Skull is dependent on excellence in academics, athletics, the arts, and public service. The organization considers ...

, the

Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy The ''Jyllands-Posten'' Muhammad cartoons controversy (or Muhammad cartoons crisis, da, Muhammedkrisen) began after the Danish newspaper ''Jyllands-Posten'' published 12 editorial cartoons on 30 September 2005, most of which depicted Muhamma ...

and the Rutgers College Governing Association. Mostly, it focuses on campus fraud and due diligence issues, claiming in its mission statement to be a remedy to "excessive political correctness and corruption at Rutgers." But it has recently taken on national topics. On foreign policy issues, the journal often takes a

neoconservative Neoconservatism is a political movement that began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party and with the growing New Left and coun ...

stance. Domestically, it echoes

paleoconservative Paleoconservatism is a political philosophy and variety of conservatism in the United States stressing American nationalism, Christian ethics, regionalism, and traditionalist conservatism. Paleoconservatism's concerns overlap with those of the ...

sentiments, often railing against abortion on demand,

gun control Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians. Most countries have a restrictive firearm guiding policy, with on ...

and

illegal immigration Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of the immigration laws of that country or the continued residence without the legal right to live in that country. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upwar ...

. The magazine is known for its walk-in video reports. In one video the editors of The Centurion attempted to ban

Lucky Charms Lucky Charms is a brand of breakfast cereal produced by General Mills since 1964. The cereal consists of multi-colored marshmallows and pieces of shaped pulverized oat, each resembling one of several objects or symbols associated with good lu ...

from Brower Dining Hall on the grounds the breakfast cereal was "offensive" to Irish-Americans. This was explained by conservative columnist Greg Walker, who took part in the exercise A specifically an ironic reaction to the targeting of sandwich names at the privately owned Grease Trucks by the Rutgers

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

community. School staff met with those whom complained about the "offensive" breakfast cereal as a matter of requirement to follow up on all complaints, no further action was taken on the matter. The ''Centurion'' is a member of the

Collegiate Network The Collegiate Network (CN) is a program that provides financial and technical assistance to student editors and writers of roughly 100 independent, conservative and libertarian publications at colleges and universities around the United States. M ...

. Although officially recognized by Rutgers, The Centurion incorporated as a New Jersey

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

for liability and financial reasons, and maintains a board of directors.

Revival of publication

The ''Centurion'' was restarted by student Aviv Khavich in 2017. Khavich was a former columnist for ''

''. It maintained an online presence through October 2018 before ceasing activity.

Controversy

''The Centurion'' held counterprotests and has held an

affirmative action bake sale An affirmative action bake sale is a type of campus protest event used by student groups to performatively criticize affirmative action policies by charging students different prices depending on which social or racial group they belong to. It has ...

four times. It prints specific names and pictures of "liberal" students in its issues from

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

. In a matter subject to privacy implications, the paper has printed names of students who have "liberal" adornments on their dormitory doors. The magazine's inaugural headline was "Conservatives Launch Publication at Rutgers: Intolerant Diversity-Haters Promote Fanatical Agenda." Since then it has had such

tongue-in-cheek The idiom tongue-in-cheek refers to a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner. History The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walter Scott ...

headlines as "Mayor of New Orleans doesn't care about Black People" after

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

and "Abandon all Hope Ye Who Enter Here," over the campus gate; a spin-off of one of the cantons in the

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and ...

and one of the covers for the ''

National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief i ...

''.

"Awards"

The magazine gives sarcastic "awards" to faculty and students for holding views which the staff of the ''Centurion'' consider "liberal". One such award, for "Liberal of the Month," was given to English department Professor Richard Dienst. The editors printed a private letter from Professor Dienst to the Dean of Rutgers College requesting that "disciplinary action" be taken against the O'Keefe and Mertz. This occurred after they confronted Professor Dienst with a video camera and asked him if he believed in the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...

, since he supposedly told a dissenting Republican student "You have no first amendment rights." After the editors obtained the disciplinary letter, they printed it on page 18 of the October 2005 issue. In another instance the editors presented a certificate bearing the "Centurion Award" to a history professor with the most pro-Democrat posters adorning his office door. In late July, former editor in chief and founder James O'Keefe along with board member David Maxham set out to have the American flag hung up in every classroom at Rutgers. After approaching several deans, including Co-Vice Chair Brian Rose, the boys were told such an act would be "problematic" and that hanging up the American flag would give argument to others who would intend to adorn classrooms with their own symbols. Unsatisfied with the response, the students created a video, which caught the attention of the Jersey Guys on 101.5 FM. The issue was discussed as Centurion members Daniel Francisco and David Maxham fielded questions live on air on July 31, 2006. The radio show hosts shared the views of the students and pledged to help the Centurion on the issue.

Controversial issues of the magazine

The third issue of the magazine depicted well-known Rutgers alumnus

and criticized his sympathy and support for the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. Robeson, a

Lenin Peace Prize The International Lenin Peace Prize (russian: международная Ленинская премия мира, ''mezhdunarodnaya Leninskaya premiya mira)'' was a Soviet Union award named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a pane ...

winner, has the ''Paul Robeson Cultural Center'' in New Brunswick as well as the Paul Robeson Library on the Camden campus named in his honor (in 2010 the College Republicans chapter at the Camden campus unsuccessfully called for the library to be renamed). The magazine often points out that economist

Milton Friedman Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the ...

, Rutgers '32, a winner of the

Nobel Prize in Economics The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel ( sv, Sveriges riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne), is an economics award administered ...

, and very influential in

Chicago school of economics The Chicago school of economics is a neoclassical school of economic thought associated with the work of the faculty at the University of Chicago, some of whom have constructed and popularized its principles. Milton Friedman and George Stigle ...

, has no facility named after him. The March 2006 issue featured the infamous Danish cartoon depicting

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

Centurion Editors-in-Chief

*2004-2006

*2006-2007 Kian Barry *2008 Dan Bigos *2009 Kyle Barry *2010 Jordan Romvary *2017-2019 Aviv Khavich

References

External links

* (dead/cybersquatted, Retrieved June 2, 2012)
Centurion Video Gallery
Videos of Students confronting professors (dead/cybersquatted, Retrieved June 2, 2012)

A Salon.com article on LI's relationship with ''The Centurion.''
Conservative "Alternative" Media
''The Centurion's'' relationship with other conservative papers

An incident regarding ''The Centurion's'' first faculty advisor
"Conservatives Raise Voice on Campus"
An article in the

Daily Targum ''The Daily Targum'' is the official student newspaper of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Founded in 1869, it is the second-oldest collegiate newspaper in the United States. The ''Daily Targum'' is student written and managed, and ...

about ''The Centurion.''
"Conservative Newspapers Circulate Across the Country"
An article about ''The Centurion'' in Human Events Magazine {{DEFAULTSORT:Centurion 2004 establishments in New Jersey 2010 disestablishments in New Jersey Conservative magazines published in the United States Monthly magazines published in the United States Student magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 2004 Magazines established in 2017 Magazines disestablished in 2010 Magazines published in New Jersey Rutgers University publications