“Lantana”is a complicated film – complicated to view and complicated to review. It opens with a tone that’s part Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” part O’Neill’s “The Emperor Jones.” From its initial “Blue Velvet” reminiscent slow pan over a thorny lantana bush to the careful revealing of a corpse, we understand we’re in for a somber Australian version of an art film, which is worlds away from the Crocodile Dundee misrepresentation Americans have of Outback cinema.

Director Ray Lawrence reminds one of a subtler Robert Altman. In fact, “Lantana” feels like “Short Cuts” if Altman’s epic ambition were reduced to a more focused angle, particularly a concentration on “Short Cuts’” Chris Penn fishing subplot with “Lantana’s” Anthony LaPaglia portraying a strikingly similar role to Tim Robbins’ cop in the aforementioned Altman film.

Both films leave the viewer with a nostalgic emptiness, a sorrowful and slight illumination about the cyclical nature of life, how relationships are greatly about suffering. And Lawrence masterfully captures this with cinematographic silence and visual precision, from a wide camera shot capturing an Australian shoreline (which bears significant meaning at the end of the film to Geoffrey Rush’s character) to a close-up shot of LaPaglia and actress Kerry Armstrong dancing intimately (with the gentle possibility of a kiss that means, in one word, choice).

Choice is key to this film – choices made by characters pushed to the edge. It’s intelligent writing from screenwriter Andrew Bovell. We’re witnessing people at the fringes, at moments where life is coming to a fine point, a point of no return. At times, the effect has audience members attentively leaning forward, awaiting inevitable collapses.

But the greatest flaw of the film – and it is near fatal – is Lawrence’s unnecessarily sluggish pace. Moments could move faster, scenes could build more quickly. The viewing experience could be entirely heightened if Lawrence had sped up the scenes and if first time editor Karl Sodersten had utilized his commercial background to a greater extent and thought in terms of brevity.

Instead Sodersten treats the film as if its viewers have the patience of the dawn-rising elderly. We don’t. We want to find out what happens next and the casualness of the pace only serves to perturb and not deepen. Note to Lawrence – Paul Thomas Anderson holds the camera on characters to haunting effect, so that the viewer is forced to contemplate the choices of the characters, their minds’ inner workings. Lawrence’s camera holds on the trivial, the secondary, and it all too often disrupts the movie’s flow and energy.

Albeit, this complaint (some may argue) is moot. The acting is superb (minus Geoffrey Rush’s stoic apathy), the characters are intriguing and Bovell’s script handles dialogue skillfully.

But perhaps this review is becoming too pedantic, too much like an art film equivalent, so let’s cut the B.S. and get at what truly matters: what people were saying when leaving the theater.

Overheard girl: “I liked it.”

Overheard guy: “Yeah, but that was a chick flick. You have to admit, that was a chick flick.”

Once upon a time, in 1984 to be exact, Paramount Studios unleashed “Friday the 13th Part IV – The Final Chapter.” The teen-kill gag was wearing pretty thin and they thought it wise to quit while they were ahead. They proclaimed it as Jason’s big goodbye.

They lied.

Flash forward a decade, to 1993. New Line Cinemas acquires the rights to the dead-tired “Friday” franchise and releases “Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday.” After nine films, they thought it was a wise time to call it quits once and for all.

They lied.

Fast-forward another decade, to 2002. New Line dumps “Jason X” on the market after countless release date delays. They promise that it will be the Jason film to end all Jason films and that it will break new ground in the horror genre.

They lied.

First off, Pinhead and the Leprechaun both beat Jason to space, in “Hellraiser 4″ and “Leprechaun 4,” respectively.

Secondly, this franchise has been out of steam since the first sequel. The first film was a solid no-brainer thriller with a killer ending, but the only sequel in the series that’s even worth one viewing is part VI (“Jason Lives”). And that’s only because it’s a surprisingly clever, satiric take on the idiocy of the Jason phenomenon and slasher films in general (beating “Scream” to the punch by over a decade).

That’s what this movie should have been. A satire would be the only way to go. Jason just ain’t scary anymore. “Jason X” has mere flashes of stale self-referential humor and a gag here and there.

Here’s the “plot:” in the year 2010, Jason is cryogenically frozen along with a female scientist (after an opening sequence massacre, of course). In 2455 (445 years later, though the characters repeatedly say it’s 455 years later), Jason and the woman are thawed out by unsuspecting scientists visiting the Planet Earth. They come from Earth II, proving that sequels will be around for a long, long time. Mayhem ensues. Jason dies. Jason comes back to life, bigger and badder than ever (“EVIL GETS AN UPGRADE!” as the poster says). Jason dies again. Jason might not really be dead. Fade to credits. Audience groans.

You know it’s bad news when the most talented person involved with the production is legendary director David Cronenberg, who only gets a walk-on role in the film’s first five minutes. The film’s actual director, Jim Isaac, does the best he can with the shoddy material, but he can’t save this sinking spaceship.

The very least the filmmakers could have done was bring some closure to the ending. But no, they had to not only bring the lunkhead from Crystal Lake back to life, but also leave an ending open for another damn sequel.

It goes without saying that “Jason X” sucks, but the question is: Is it fun?

Yes and no. It’s got some thrills and spills and is generally a crowd-pleaser. But your brain will despise your body for taking the ride. As an ex-avid fan of the “Friday the 13th” franchise, I can honestly say that there are few worse ways to spend your time and money than on a Jason movie.

“Jason X” proves the wisdom of noted philosophers Beavis and Butthead: You can’t polish a turd. No matter how strong the production values are, no matter how great the special effects are, no matter how well-composed the film is, it’s still just a dead-tired slasher film where one person gets knocked off after another by a brain-dead, uninteresting maniac.

That’s another unique thing about this series: Jason has become a cultural phenomenon, but he really is a very dull character. He’s a motiveless, brainless, mute and totally predictable zombie.

Kane Hodder brings a fierce intensity to the role (in his fourth film in a row behind the hockey mask) but he can’t change the fact that Jason is a pointless, one-note character. Freddy may have been dumb (especially in the later sequels), but the “Nightmare on Elm Street” movies at least engaged in some social commentary and had some rollicking humor and imaginative dream sequences to keep things lively.

You can’t change the fact that “Jason X” comes down to a big dumb killer wandering around and slaughtering people, preferably sexually active ones.

If you think “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer” is the high point of American cinema for all time, you’ll eat this up.

Anyone else should avoid this mildly fun, very lame offering. Send a message to the folks at New Line that it’s time to stop beating this long-dead horse.

At a first glance, Gomez seems to have produced a concept album with their latest release, “In Our Gun.” Along with the album title and title track, we have the first single, “Shot Shot,” “Army Dub” and “Ruff Stuff.” A military or overall theme of aggression, you might suppose, but don’t let the apparent presence of a theme distract you – the album is hardly a cohesive body of work.

You want to like the album when you listen to it. You really do. The album has a substantial amount of energy and tracks with the most swirling nuances and adornment in the genre, as difficult to define as that may be. The alternation of three lead singers contributes to an enticing blend of textures and provides a wide range of expression. In a word, the compilation of songs presented here is really a lot of fun, and quite accessible to those who were unfamiliar with Gomez’s work in the past.

An extreme change, on the other hand, clearly distinguishes this album from their previous work, “Bring it On” and “Liquid Skin.” The dramatic influx of influence from others’ work is sudden and unexpected; in past work, particularly “Bring it On,” Gomez was quite successful in crafting their own sound and digging themselves into a quite favorable unclassifiable niche. That all ends here.

The beginning segment of the opening track, “Shot Shot,” is a direct rip from Radiohead’s “National Anthem.” Surely this was intended to be ironic, but the “Kid A” borrowings don’t stop there. Although Gomez’s work has been labeled progressive in the past, the only place they seem to be progressing is into the growing line of Radiohead impersonators. Radiohead is often credited for repainting the entire landscape of modern rock; if Radiohead’s work in repainting the modern rock landscape is Picasso, then Gomez is an unfortunate splatter of paint.

Granted, Gomez makes no attempt to move entirely away from their blues-rock roots. To their credit, 1998′s “Bring it On” certainly incorporated token blips and beeps long before such adornments were associated with such rock prestige. This album, however, fails to evolve past 1998′s, or even 1999′s, dabbling.

Unfortunately for the band, the songs that attempt to adhere most closely to the more or less traditional rock roots are supreme disappointments. No musical idea introduced here is original; even stepping away from the electronic side of the spectrum, the band can’t quite escape the glare of accusations of imitation. “Miles End” reeks of Travis, while Coldplay might have easily included “1000 times” on their album. Of course, the idea of these tracks actually being on a Travis or Coldplay album is absurd; they never would have actually made it onto their albums.

There are, however, beacons of light that leave hope for more promising work in the future. “Drench” is a stunning Asian-influenced, multi-layered composition that falls short lyrically, but is still intriguingly alluring. The title track has a similar layered feel, progressing from a gentle, acoustic ballad-meets-Portishead aura to a jagged temper tantrum that would make the Chemical Brothers proud. “Ruff Stuff” is a rare success in trippy, surging electronic fanfare with a curious anti-drug message and glimmer of the originality with which Gomez was formerly associated.

The central problem with the album is not that it’s inherently poorly done or that it’s necessarily a horrible drop from Gomez’s prior work. The issue at hand is that Gomez is a band with enormous potential and that potential shines through nearly everything that they produce. Sadly, very few of the tracks actually meet the shadow of what could have been, and as a result, the entire album suffers.

T he world is not the same. This year, University students didn’t have the option of being absorbed in their own college bubble, at least not after two airplanes collided with the twin towers and another with the Pentagon. Certainly not after biological weapons scares coming through U.S. mail or the international war on terrorism.

The scares came close to home. The many bomb threats on academic buildings – though probably the work of some lazy dirt-bag seeking to get out of exams – invariably mirrors the terror the world continues to face at large. Israel is under siege from suicide bombers on a daily basis and Palestinians are under assault from Ariel Sharon, and even though the local bomb threats have turned out to be a hoax, the fear remains.

There probably is no such thing as the “real world” – as opposed to the fake one – but these hazards are real for everyone, no matter what walk of life they find themselves in. Coping with the enormously frightening aspects of life (and the uncertainty of its continued existence) has been a sobering experience for the world.

The fourth-year class came to the University in a time of economic boom, virtual peace and prosperity. The things fourth years coped with as first years were the standard: adjusting to doing your own laundry, setting your own schedule, partying responsibly without parental supervision. But by the end of their time, fourth years have had to face the death of family and friends and the grieving of those affected by Sept. 11. It was unavoidable.

Fourth years leave the University with the professional skills and the capacity to learn that any fourth-year class finds itself departing with. But this class leaves more completely human because it has had to confront widespread tragedy.

We could list all the things the fourth-year class has seen at the University: the end of fall rush, the outbreak of a national cheating scandal, Student Council’s attempt to end the “Not gay” chant and so on. But these really aren’t much other than idiosyncrasies of being here from 1998 to 2002. There will be changes and Council successes and weird happenings no matter what four years you’re here. But some things are so significant, they seep into all aspects of life.

This year, that point of departure was a changed world. This year’s events didn’t pass over some. It affected everyone. Fear turned to solidarity. The University community was one. The night of Sept. 11, an interfaith vigil was held on the Lawn. It was packed. It didn’t matter who you were, where you were from, what religion you were or how many family and friends you knew that were affected, everyone was there, everyone was grieving. Everyone was doing it together. Everyone was equal.

The University community has come to mean many things, but this year’s shock and the community’s response was a concrete expression of it.

As the year progressed, the community again became mired in controversy over race relations and over the conflict in the Middle East. But even if the memory is fading, the knowledge that the University community can meaningfully come together remains.

Fourth years are taking their degree today. But they are taking so much more with them than a degree.

It’s not the same for everyone. And it’s not something you can sum up in a few words. Peoples’ reactions about graduation vary from place to place. But at the University, graduating students seem to agree on one thing – take advantage of every moment because it flies by.

Some people say they can still smell the Castle’s notorious stench, while others feel like it was just yesterday they were mud sliding outside of dorms.

Fourth-year College student Beth Biscoe said she’d “give anything to be a first year again.”

“I wish I had enjoyed it more,” Biscoe said. “I didn’t realize how easy I had it.”

Biscoe, who plans to go to Vet school at Virginia Tech in the fall doesn’t think she will feel like she’s “in the real world” because her life still will revolve around academics.

But financially speaking, her life definitely will be different.

“I have to pay for everything,” she said. “I’m getting cut off financially.”

Although her parents still will help, Biscoe said she will need to pay them back whatever they give her.

Fourth-year College student Lauren Murphy seems to have the same worries in mind.

“My new best friend is going to be The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Personal Finances in Your 20s and 30s,” Murphy said. “I’m scared about leaving this microcosm where you have responsibilities that are fun instead of financial and serious.”

Murphy plans to go to Spain in September, but right after graduation she will go back to her original home in California.

“It’s going to be sad because I’m moving back to the West Coast and almost all my friends are going to be here on the East Coast,” she said.

But despite the fact that Murphy will miss being “within a three mile radius of all her friends,” she said there are some things she won’t miss.

“I had a great time at the University,” she said. “But I’m ready to leave the world of khakis, pink shirts and bow ties.”

Like Murphy, fourth-year College student Amanda Foster-Baril has mixed feelings about leaving the University.

“There are certain moments that I have been sad,” Foster-Baril said. “But I’m extremely excited to move on, be independent and not have to worry about financial connections to my parents.”

Because Foster-Baril does not have definite plans for next year, she will go home this summer to lifeguard. But after a trip to Europe in June, she doesn’t know where she will go.

“I’ve applied for jobs but haven’t heard back,” Foster-Baril said.

She doesn’t seem to mind, though.”I just don’t talk to people who know what they are doing,” she said with a laugh. “And I know my parents will support me if they need to.”

Foster-Baril also thinks she is mature enough to handle any situation that comes her way.

“I want the independence,” she said. “I didn’t know what to do when I came to college, but you just learn. It comes to you, and when you make mistakes, they get fixed.”

Fourth-year College student Andrea Boccarosse doesn’t seem to be as ready to be on her own.

“I’m ready for the semester to be over but not the college life,” Boccarosse said. “I could definitely come back in August.”

Since Boccarosse and a friend each won Eurorail passes from the Student Traveling Association, they are “taking a break to travel” this summer.

Because of the uncertainty of the economy right now, Boccarosse isn’t quite sure what she will do after her two-to three-month stay in Europe.

Boccarosse is confident that everything “will bounce back,” though.

“I think everyone has the rest of their lives to work, so this is the perfect opportunity to postpone it,” she said.

Boccarosse also said she regrets not getting more involved at the University and advises incoming and current students to “enjoy the little bubble you live in.”

“The time goes fast, but every year gets better,” she said.

Foster-Baril expressed similar sentiments.

“Every year has changed, but there were awesome things that happened every year,” she said. “Have fun and take advantage of having and developing friendships.”

And everyone agreed that the best memories were the unexpected ones.

“The things that I’ll remember most are the unplanned moments,” Biscoe said. “I’ll definitely remember all the football games and Foxfield, but there are also all those random nights you stayed up late with friends.”

That’s probably why everyone spends their last few weeks spending time with each other.

“There’s definitely a last minute effort for everyone to get together,” Boccarosse said. “Last week I ate dinner with my hall from first year.”

Biscoe said she “wants to spend time with the people who mean the most to her.”

Anticipating the next two years when her best friend will be in the Peace Corps in Africa, she said she needs to “take advantage of this time.”

Besides missing her friends, Biscoe isn’t sure what it’s going to be like to live in Blacksburg next year.

“We’re conditioned to dislike Tech, and I think it’s going to be a lot different than Charlottesville,” she said. “I’m also going to miss how pretty the University’s campus is compared to Tech.”

Foster-Baril said she will miss being so close to anything that she wants.

“My best friend lives in my apartment building and I can walk over there whenever I want,” she said. “I’m going to just miss closeness.”

And even though everyone has regrets of some sort, whether they’re about not getting involved in as much as they planned or about earning an embarrassing nickname one Friday night of first year, Foster-Baril advises to “not regret anything you do.”

“Go out and have fun,” she said. “Do want you want, and don’t let school run your world because it’s not the rest of your life.”

AS I COMPOSE this, I feel the weight of its impact as my last chance to reach out in publication to communicate to my readers. My years writing for The Cavalier Daily brought anxiety, compassion, antagonism and growth. I want to thank my co-writers, and those that preceded me for spurring me on and continuing the public debate.

When I joined The Cavalier Daily opinion staff I saw it as an opportunity, if not to convince others of how I see things, at least to provoke some thought. I thought, what’s the use in reading The Cavalier Daily, watching the news, or even living at U.Va. if I can’t think critically about that experience and promote some kind of public discourse. During my second year, the excitement of being exposed to new ideas was not enough. I felt that I had to form some type of ideology by which I would live. In my third year, I became decisive and discovered the foundation of my actions.

Throughout my first couple years at the University I met tons of people, joined a fraternity (my dear friends) and established a community. I had kept hold of religious groups in my life and found a great group of Christian friends – but it remained only part of my life. As I sought after an ideology for my life, I realized that to my own chagrin, God had been faithful to me. From my first-year hallmate to my best girl friends and the guys in my Bible study, God had put people in my life to show me his love. More important than my friends, God kept calling my conduct and decisions to meet His standard. Though I often failed to reflect His glory and faithfulness to me, he still wishes to inhabit me and use me as a vessel to show His love to others.

In my third year, this faithfulness that God kept showing me provoked a response. I could not live as I had before, but had to share in as wide a forum to express that love as possible. I believe that God’s faithfulness and presence was not only evident in my life, but his works were evident in the world. I think that you can look at world events, national politics and University issues to find God’s plan. This is because all grand issues of debate affect us at the core of our beliefs and values, mine being in line with the very nature of God. I wanted to find and show God in every human struggle.

There are many people that work very hard and are my close friends that have encouraged and inspired my writing and ideas. First and foremost, I thank Jesus Christ for being the author of that love that lives inside me. At The Cavalier Daily my first editors Brandon Almond and Stephanie Batten were very kind and encouraging. Brian Cook, Jeff Eisenberg and the rest of The Cavalier Daily opinion staff have challenged me – I am grateful for that. I thank my parents for reading my work and supporting me. I thank my fraternity brothers for the bonds we’ve formed and the experiences we’ve shared. I thank Boots, Ben, Jon, Joel, Jeff, Justin and all my Bible study boys and housemates with whom I’ve shared many great moments of my life.

Most of all, I would encourage all people, of all races, religions and creeds to think about their lives and experiences and find a way to share what you discover. Only by challenging one another and investigating the things of this world will we be able to discover truth in all things. I hope everyone finds the truth and beauty I’ve discovered in my God and in my life.

(Matt West was a 2001-2002 opinion columnist.)

IT’S DIFFICULT to look back on my entire college experience and attempt to summarize it in 600 words. So many experiences, so many people, so much Diet Pepsi … yet I find that most of the basic truths I encountered were paralleled in my comic strip. No, I don’t mean that I just dumped events from my life into Crazy Eskimo. Rather, I ran into the same themes when I was drawing my strip as when I was going through my college life.

For instance, you never know who’s watching what you’re doing. Nothing brightened my day more than when someone would compliment a strip that ran a week prior or when I would be introduced to someone who recognized my strip from my name. Sometimes, it came from someone I never expected would even touch the comics page, let alone read my comic. Those moments turned a routine action, such as drawing my comic strip, into something special.

Similarly, occasionally a friend would recognize extra effort I had put into something, say a prop for a date function or a section of a group project. Even though at the time I didn’t think anyone would notice, I realized that extra time I spent mattered. If you’re going to do something, you should commit yourself to it fully, or the time you do it halfway might be the only time someone notices it.

The people and events that will be influential in your life aren’t the ones you’d expect. When I was first starting out with Crazy Eskimo, I tried to plan out who would play what role and such. Yet as time went on, sometimes the characters that played the biggest roles started out with just bit parts, but I used them more and more because they just resonated with me more. For one, Malik Ponce started out as a character in one-liners about E-schoolers, but grew into one of my biggest supporting characters.

Likewise, people who I met seemingly by chance ended up being some of my closest friends. For example, I met my friend Bahar because we both happened to work on the same days down in the basement and would bug each other while the other was trying to actually get his work done. We saw each other just an hour or two a week, but after our terms ended, our friendship didn’t. Also, although Meredith and I were on The Cavalier Daily’s junior board together, we didn’t have much contact since I worked a day shift and she had a night one. Yet, because she always came by the graphics desk to say hi on her way to our 3 p.m. meetings, I now have a friend who I know I can always go to when I need someone to talk to.

Furthermore, there were a number of girls whom I met, thinking that this was the girl who would be the one in my life. Yet, it was Sarah, who I just danced with one night, who I met when I wasn’t looking for anyone, who became near and dear to my heart because of her tender kindness.

Finally, each day comes but once. Over the course of three years, there were a number of storylines that I half-fleshed out, characters that I concocted but didn’t use, and issues that I wanted to tackle, but didn’t. I always assumed I would work them in eventually. Yet, when the end came, I was scrambling to include half the strips I wanted to draw to close everything out. Similarly, as I write this, I’m poised to enter my last finals period, and I still haven’t done everything I want to before I graduate. I certainly had ample opportunities over the course of four years, but I got lost in the day-to-day stuff. An hour or two less sleep occasionally to do something crazy with your friends won’t kill you, and “The Simpsons” and “Friends” reruns will be with us forever. You have four years at the University. Live them.

(Matt Oliver was a 1999-2001 graphics editor and a 1998-2002 cartoonist.)

SUMMING up my experiences and feelings about the University has proved difficult as I have reflected these past few weeks. In doing so, I continually am reminded of how lucky I am to have attended this school, and think about what a gift it has been to me. Completely unexpected, it came at just the right time and has been an honor that rivals no other in my life.

I am convinced that the opportunity to be a student at this school is an unparalleled experience. College truly is an exceptional time of life, and this place is a completely unique place to spend that time. Don’t let anyone try to tell you otherwise. Through good and bad, I never doubted the best intentions of this institution.

Of course, like anything worth defending, it also has its flaws. Perhaps now more ever it faces great challenges and even changes. But The University of Virginia truly is something special for many reasons – our beautiful Grounds, our hallowed history, our unique student life. For me, the people here make the University so special. Students, faculty, and administrators alike have profoundly shaped my experience as a student.

I choose U.Va. because I knew that the people here would challenge me and teach me more than I could learn in any class. They have done that, and so much more. They have made my good times great and my bad times bearable. In spite of everything, don’t doubt the people here; without them, this place is just a historic landmark. Never let a day go by without trying to know someone. Even in my waning time here, I have made friends to keep. To all of you, thank you. Mere words cannot express my gratitude for the richness you have brought to my life. You will always be the reason I so fondly remember these days.

Looking back, I never imagined that I would write for the paper. In high school, my friends were quick to tell me how opinionated I was, but it never transpired into anything tangible. In writing for The Cavalier Daily, however, I have found both a voice from within and safe place for speaking out.

To The Cavalier Daily: I thank those who inspired and taught me. To my friends and roommates: thank you for the encouragement. To my mentors – Penny, Pat, Eleanor, Laurie, Lynn and Jennifer: thank you for believing in me. To my family, especially my parents: thank you for all of your love and care, and for cultivating my passion for the written and spoken word. Most of all, I thank those who read – it has been an honor.

(Katherine Martini was a 2000-2001 opinion columnist.)

SUMMING up my experiences and feelings about the University has proved difficult as I have reflected these past few weeks. In doing so, I continually am reminded of how lucky I am to have attended this school, and think about what a gift it has been to me. Completely unexpected, it came at just the right time and has been an honor that rivals no other in my life.

I am convinced that the opportunity to be a student at this school is an unparalleled experience. College truly is an exceptional time of life, and this place is a completely unique place to spend that time. Don’t let anyone try to tell you otherwise. Through good and bad, I never doubted the best intentions of this institution.

Of course, like anything worth defending, it also has its flaws. Perhaps now more ever it faces great challenges and even changes. But The University of Virginia truly is something special for many reasons – our beautiful Grounds, our hallowed history, our unique student life. For me, the people here make the University so special. Students, faculty, and administrators alike have profoundly shaped my experience as a student.

I choose U.Va. because I knew that the people here would challenge me and teach me more than I could learn in any class. They have done that, and so much more. They have made my good times great and my bad times bearable. In spite of everything, don’t doubt the people here; without them, this place is just a historic landmark. Never let a day go by without trying to know someone. Even in my waning time here, I have made friends to keep. To all of you, thank you. Mere words cannot express my gratitude for the richness you have brought to my life. You will always be the reason I so fondly remember these days.

Looking back, I never imagined that I would write for the paper. In high school, my friends were quick to tell me how opinionated I was, but it never transpired into anything tangible. In writing for The Cavalier Daily, however, I have found both a voice from within and safe place for speaking out.

To The Cavalier Daily: I thank those who inspired and taught me. To my friends and roommates: thank you for the encouragement. To my mentors — Penny, Pat, Eleanor, Laurie, Lynn, and Jennifer: thank you for believing in me. To my family, especially my parents: thank you for all of your love and care, and for cultivating my passion for the written and spoken word. Most of all, I thank those who read — it has been an honor.

(Katherine Martini was a 2000-2001 opinion columnist.)

WHEN YOU read this, I will be within hours of becoming a college graduate. I probably will be having the same shiver down my spine I just got writing those words. All of us sitting on the Lawn, even those who found jobs in this awful economy, will ask, what do I do now?

I could write a whole column of advice to those behind me, or what I loved most about college. But most of you reading this are graduating, which puts us all in the same boat. So instead, I’m going to talk about my hopes for the type of people we, the graduating class of 2002, will become.

First, I hope we all remember there’s a big world out there. Many of us have studied abroad, and it opened our eyes. For those who haven’t, Sept. 11 was a wake-up call to the importance of the rest of the world. In fact, interest in classes on foreign affairs skyrocketed this year.

It is not enough, however, just to take a class or two and go right back to our parochial ways. In our adult lives, an important part of being a good American citizen is paying attention to what is going on in the world instead of putting your head in the sand and letting your congressman handle it, which is what most Americans do. We can do better, and I hope we will.

And while we’re on the subject of elected officials, I wonder how many of you voted in the last election, and one step further, how many of you will register and vote in your new cities. Probably a minority. We’ve all heard about the political apathy of our generation, but the awakening of activism at this school over my time here gives me cause to think that maybe we are a little more interested in politics than the average person. I hope you will prove me right.

I also hope we will stay connected to those coming along behind us. As a student here, I have benefited in many ways from the connections I have made and the mentoring I have received. If there’s one thing I’ve learned at this place, it’s that no matter how smart you are, you only get places by having people take an interest in you.

I have benefited so much from those people. At the beginning of my second year, I was academically wishy-washy until I went to office hours for a class I liked and a professor offered to be my advisor.

Since then, Prof. Quandt has pushed me out of my inertia to study abroad and write a distinguished majors’ thesis, the latter of which I would never have done without his suggestion. I am now going on to an exciting job that I wouldn’t have dreamed of two years ago.

The alumni of this school also have helped by providing valuable connections for me. Through Career Services, I have talked to people I didn’t even know to get information on internships, how to get jobs and my future workplace.

Helping younger Wahoos network their way through is something we all can do as alumni, even if we aren’t big shots like our professors. And, unlike giving big checks, which some of us can’t afford right now, it only costs us our time. The next time you’re on the Internet, sign up for the UCAN database. You never know how you can be useful.

As an alumna, though, I hope I will not be a snob who is only nice to people from my university. Graduating from college, especially from this university, is a wonderful privilege and an achievement, but it is not an entitlement. There are too many elitists in this world who decide to treat people with less education like dirt, and we don’t need to join them.

Four summers ago, I was a file clerk for two attorneys. One had been a paralegal for 15 years before law school, and when we were in the courthouse filing papers she advised me always to be nice to the county clerks because they knew many things I didn’t.

As a paralegal, she had seen too many young attorneys be rude to the clerks, and their work got done much slower than for the people who had some humility. I hope that instead of being that arrogant lawyer, we will remember that the presence of a diploma does not mean we know all, and the lack of one does not make a person useless.

Having expressed all of these hopes, however, I realize not everyone, including me, will be able to live up to all of these things, or the individual goals we have set for ourselves, all the time. College students are known for idealism, and maybe that’s why we don’t react well to failure in ourselves or others.

Disappointment makes some people cynical, and in others it leads to wisdom and a renewed effort. If we are going to become the people we want to be, we will need to join the second group. And so, more than anything, I wish for us to be able to reach for the stars while remembering that we don’t have to get there before age 30 or be underachieving failures.

Goodbye for now, everybody. These have been the best four years of my life, but I bet the best is yet to come. I’ll see you at the reunion. Wahoowa!

(Elizabeth Managan was a 2000-2002 opinion columnist.)

By Lytle Wurtzel

Cavalier Daily Associate Editor

“We all come together for graduation,” explained Paul Rood, superintendent of renovations for facilities management.

But Rood was not referring to the thousands of graduates and their guests that will fill the Lawn tomorrow for Final Exercises – he was referring to the hundreds of workers who come together to make it happen.

Beginning Monday, May 13, approximately 150 workers began setting up the 36,500 chairs ordered for graduation weekend. 12,000 chairs came from North Carolina, with the remaining chairs coming from Washington, D.C.

“We don’t want to put all our eggs in one basket,” Rood said. “No single agency can support such a large order of chairs anyway, but we definitely want to be covered. If one company can’t fulfill the order, we are able to add some chairs to an existing order.”

Facilities management places nearly 20,000 chairs on the Lawn for Final Exercises and scatters the remaining chairs throughout the 50 diploma sites.

These diploma sites, also called “satellite sites,” include the Law School, Darden School, Medical School, Education School and Engineering School.

“These sites are work-order type situations,” Rood said. “They each call for a certain amount of tables, table cloths, PA systems and stages.”

In addition to the main PA system on the Lawn, the various diploma sites require 25 PA systems. They also call for nearly 30 to 40 tables with table cloths for various banquets, as well as 18 stages. The stages are taken down each year and stored until the next graduation, but workers must reconstruct them, as well as repaint and repair them. The main stage on the Lawn was erected on Monday, followed by the awning on Tuesday. As the awning goes up over the main stage, other workers place lines down the Lawn to outline the rows of chairs.

“We line the center row according to the crack in the door on the Rotunda and the crack in the door on Old Cabell Hall, which mark the very center of the Lawn,” Rood explained. “We run strings down the Lawn to frame our site.”

The graduates are seated in 7,000 chairs in the lower tier, with their guests seated in approximately 12,500 seats in the upper tiers. The upper tiers are roped off and require each guest to present a ticket for entrance. Guests may arrive as early as 7:30 a.m. on the day of graduation to be seated, though students often camp out the night before to reserve good seats for their parents.

In order to provide access for all guests to the upper seating tiers, facilities management constructs handicap ramps that run up and down the Lawn.

Despite the tremendous time and effort involved in planning Final Exercises, Rood considers it the happiest day of the year.

“This our job, and the workmen take great pride in it,” he said. “It’s a festive occasion, and everyone is so happy – it’s really a big party.”