Starr Hill’s restaurant, brewery and music hall serves as a mecca to students looking for food and a good time in a casual atmosphere.

But despite its cosmopolitan flair, Starr Hill’s history is as rooted in down-home Charlottesville traditions as the Foxfield races.

Nineteen eighty-seven marked the beginning of Starr Hill’s history, when Bok and Paul Summers – grandsons of Nobel laureate William Faulkner – founded the Blue Ridge Brewing Company and restaurant.

Making a name for themselves right here in Charlottesville seemed the perfect way for Bok and Paul Summers to begin their careers.

“We were both born and raised in Charlottesville,” Bok Summers said. Paul “wanted to come here to live, and we just sort of took the plunge.”

In 1987, microbreweries were uncommon across the United States and were just becoming popular in the Northwest.

“We were the first [microbrewery] in Virginia,” Bok Summers declared with pride.

But the Summers brothers didn’t stop at providing food and beverages to the Charlottesville community. From the very beginning the Blue Ridge Brewing Company – which would later become Starr Hill – had music in its soul.

“We had a lot of live music … My brother and I love the local scene,” Bok Summers said. Local musical acts like Close the Door often frequented the place.

But in 1999, the Summers brothers put the brewery up for sale.

It caught the eye of John Spagnolo, who had always wanted to establish a restaurant and a music venue in Charlottesville.

“I wanted a place with better than average food in a casual atmosphere … [where you could] see music in a small, intimate place,” Spagnolo said. I wanted “a venue upstairs and restaurant downstairs. Music can cause problems for diners. I like the idea of separating the two.”

When he realized Blue Ridge Brewing was up for sale, however, he realized he could further build upon his original idea. And the location on West Main Street was too convenient to pass up.

“Beer falls nicely into that,” he said. “You have the business concept in your head, but each location has its own unique aspects.”

In fall 1999, Spagnolo purchased the brewery and restaurant, and Starr Hill was born.

Spagnolo said his primary influences are West Coast restaurants that feature separate venues and eateries.

“I spent a few years in San Fransisco. I could go in wearing causal attire and get an outstanding meal,” he said.

But Spagnolo realized he couldn’t embark on this task alone.

Through a friend, he met Mark Thompson, who was thinking of establishing his own brew pub at that time.

“We had a lot of the same thoughts on the business,” Spagnolo said. “We started thinking, ‘well, we can do beer too,’” Spagnolo said.

“We’ve revitalized that neighborhood [near the Downtown Mall] … We want Charlottesville to be a mecca of great beer” said Thompson, who is Starr Hill’s master brewer.

Part of the process in making Starr Hill what it is today involved studying microbrewing extensively.

Thompson studied brewing techniques at the Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago, which he says “was vital to my knowledge of how to make really good beer.”

“We definitely did a lot of research on pubs and the microbrew industry, but it originally evolved out of the location search,” which focused on establishing a venue and restaurant, Spagnolo said.

But Starr Hill could not escape the music scene that had made Blue Ridge Brewing Company so popular.

It seemed only natural that, in fall 2000, Starr Hill launched the music hall.

Both Spagnolo and Thompson envision the further expansion of Starr Hill.

Two weeks ago, Spagnolo introduced the Starr Hill brand beer at Whole Foods and Harris Teeter.

“I’m hoping [Starr Hill] becomes more attractive to U.Va. students,” he said.

By Derek Richardson

Cavalier Daily Associate Editor

Some world-class athletes challenge themselves and push their bodies to the limit by running in grueling marathons. It is a difficult feat that is beyond the capabilities of most.

But there is a special breed of athlete that doesn’t want to stop after a mere 26.2 miles. These athletes are called “ultrarunners,” and they compete in races with distances of 50K, 50 miles and 100 miles.

One of these rare athletes is 29-year-old Francesca Conte, a native of Italy and a University Ph.D. candidate.

Presently, she is considered one of the top female ultrarunners in the world. She has competed in a total of nine races, won three of them, and finished in the top three in all except for her latest effort at the 100-mile Western States Endurance Run.

In her latest effort Conte was the fourth female to cross the line at a time of 22 hours and 19 minutes. However, her best time to date in a 100 mile race came in the Arkansas Traveller where she finished the course in an astonishing 18 hours and 59 minutes.

Conte said she loves what ultrarunning has offered her: A greater sense of self-confidence, and the knowledge that comes with such long periods of solitude.

Another bonus for Conte is the beautiful landscapes she gets to run past.

“Being able to cover so much distance on a trail allows me to see places I would never see otherwise. The loneliness of the woods, their beauty and majesty makes all the hard work worth it, during training or during a race,” Conte said in a press release.

Not only does Francesca enjoy ultrarunning, but she also excels in it. Her latest fourth place finish was a strong showing in the first leg of the Montrail Ultra Cup, which is a national series of six races that are to determine the best ultrarunners. Conte must now race in three more of the five races in order to qualify for final placement. Of her final three races, one must be at 50K, and the other at 50 miles.

The 50K race should be no problem for Francesca, who first burst onto the ultrarunning scene two years ago with a phenomenal time of 5 hours and four minutes at the Swinging Bridge race.

DEFINE the word “project.” At first, it didn’t seem like a difficult task. After a minute, though, the students’ blank stares indicated otherwise. “Think of the word in terms of something you may have done in school,” I added. Finally, I had connected with one student: “Oh, you mean like a science project.” But, not every student was on the same page. Another reported: “No, a project is where we live.”

Teaching eighth grade summer school in Chicago’s south side for the past five weeks has been an eye-opening experience. An urban school district represents more than discipline problems, safety concerns and poor funding. An urban school district is not a giant horror story. It is, however, a place in desperate need of qualified teachers who enter the school system with a solid understanding of issues specific to that environment. Collegiate education schools need to actively encourage and help prepare teachers to move to urban school districts.

The majority of education schools across the nation are set in suburban environments. Before graduating and becoming certified to teach, college students in education programs are required to fulfill several school placements in addition to their student teaching assignment. As a result, most first-year teachers entering the workforce only have been exposed to suburban classrooms. They may feel inadequate to deal with issues specific to an urban or poor rural community.

Teacher turnover rates speak for themselves. In some urban districts, such as Chicago, as many as 50 percent of first-year teachers do not return to teach in the district the following year. Such staggering attrition rates prevent schools from building a sense of community. Urban schools need that community feeling more than anywhere else.

The failure of such teachers is not just a failure of the individual public school, school system or even teacher herself. Part of the blame must be placed on the teacher’s education training. Education schools need to step up their curriculum and tailor instruction in certain classes to address the needs of urban districts. Future teachers need to understand what types of resources and support can be expected in an urban district. They need to be exposed to the complexities of socio-economic status in cities and how this affects students’ education. They should have ideas regarding how to get parents more actively involved in education. They should be equipped with classroom management techniques that have been successful in urban settings at every grade level.

But isn’t this what programs such as Teach for America strive to achieve? Wrong. Teach for America and other alternative certification programs put college graduates who have not been through schools of education into some of the worst urban and rural schools. These uncertified teachers enter the classroom after a crash course in everything you’ve ever wanted to know about education.

Unfortunately, Teach for America is not getting to the root of the problem. Urban school districts need teachers who are going to stick around and make a difference, rather than drop in for a year or two. Additionally, such programs are sending underqualified individuals into the areas where the best teachers need to go. Alternative certification programs should shift their efforts toward sending recent college graduates to suburban schools. Such school systems have their own set of problems, but most likely will present a more manageable setting for an uncertified new teacher.

Education schools further can step up by building stronger partnerships with urban school districts. Such partnerships should focus less on research or economic relationships, and more on practical ways to bring future teachers into an urban classroom. These relationships could open up urban classrooms for teacher-education placements. By bringing future teachers from suburban areas into urban districts for pre-service positions, student teachers would have real-life experience to prepare them for working in such schools.

Of course, the burden of making urban school districts more accessible to future teachers should not be placed solely on education schools. The reality is that financial incentives programs must be put in place at the district, state or national level to make urban living possible on a teacher’s income. Future teachers are concerned about housing, loan repayment and funding for higher education. Chicago Public Schools currently are focused on new teacher recruitment, and these very issues are the hot topics among potential recruits.

Humans are scared of what they have never experienced. More future teachers would enter urban schools if they were exposed to the realities of the systems rather than the myths. It’s time to adapt teacher education curriculums while giving future teachers more opportunities to gain experience in urban settings during college. It’s time for education schools to begin a new project.

(Stephanie Batten is a Cavalier Daily columnist. She can be reached at sbatten@cavalierdaily.com.)

GOLF: THE gentleman’s game. There are many who want to keep it that way – not so much the “gentleman” part as the “man” part. The defense for keeping golf a “man’s game” for the sake of tradition is ridiculous, and the arguments made by those who defend sexist policies are absurd.

The Augusta National Golf Club is the home of the Masters Tournament and one of the most revered golf courses in America. It also has no explicit discriminatory policy to speak of – in a July 9 press release, they claim that the course “has no membership restrictions based on race, color, religion, gender or national origin.”

However, their own press release contradicts itself. While they claim that they do not discriminate against women, Hootie Johnson, the chair of Augusta National, asserts that “there may well come a day when women will be invited to join our membership.” It logically follows from that statement that women today are not invited to join – directly challenging their purported non-discriminatory policy.

Augusta National was recently approached by Martha Burk, the chair of the National Council of Women’s Organizations (NCWO), about changing their discriminatory policy. In a press release, Augusta National fired back, claiming among other things that they “are being threatened with a public campaign,” and warned of a “full-scale effort to force Augusta National to yield to NCWO’s will.”

In some respects, Augusta National is correct. For instance, the lengths to which feminist groups go are questionable. The wording of the original correspondence from Burk to Augusta National was objectionable – and certainly could be interpreted as a threat.

However, this has no bearing on the actual discriminatory policy itself. Hiding behind a rhetoric of victimhood does nothing to address the policy itself. The fact that Augusta National does not admit women as members is wrong, plain and simple. Nothing that is said in their press release can defend the policy.

Also, the course is quick to defend itself as a private organization. In its press release, Augusta National mentions it several times: “We are therefore puzzled as to why they have targeted our private golf club;” “[Augusta National] is a private golf club;” “The essence of a private club is privacy;” and “With all due respect, we hope Dr. Burk and her colleagues recognize the sanctity of our privacy and continue their good work in a more appropriate arena.”

This is also beside the point. Augusta National does have the right to discriminate against women as a private organization. But does that make it right? Of course not. And Augusta National benefits as an organization from the press – the Masters Tournament garners good publicity for the golf club and has contributed toward the course’s status as an American institution. If Augusta National can use the media to its own advantage, why shouldn’t feminist groups be able to use the media to indict a sexist, outdated and discriminatory policy?

The private status of the course does mean that it can legally discriminate against women – or blacks, gays, even veterans if they’d like. But it doesn’t mean that they can avoid responsibility for these practices. There’s nothing wrong with feminist groups putting economic and media pressure on Augusta National. Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement did the same in the 1960s to right an injustice – just look at the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

The press release by Augusta National does nothing to address or defend their discriminatory policy against women, if no other reason than because it is indefensible. By trying to paint itself out as the victim of a feminist smear campaign, it ends up exposing the lack of justification for its policy.

The bottom line is this: Augusta National’s policy of not admitting women as members is sexist and wrong. There is nothing that can change that. They assert that they “will not be bullied, threatened or intimidated” into admitting women. But if the Masters Tournament next year is inundated with protestors and ticket sales and sponsorship starts to fall, they have only themselves and an outdated, sexist policy to blame.

(Brian Cook is a Cavalier Daily opinion editor. He can be reached at bcook@cavalierdaily.com.)

No one in their right mind would ever want to go to a meeting. Why? Because employees and executives have better ways to waste time, like surf X-rated Internet sites, play FreeCell or commit accounting fraud.

“Meeting” comes down to us from the Latin word mitare, which means “to die of boredom while listening to stupid people talk.” This happened a lot in the Roman senate, so they had to make up a special word for it.

Sometimes it’s possible to skip a meeting, unless the boss called it. Skipping out on your boss is like passing up those free samples at the wholesale clubs. You just don’t do it.

The best meetings are the ones that have food, because the refreshments get more attention than the point of discussion. This is especially true, for instance, when there are nine people but only six donuts.

All donut-seeking radars lock on the plate in the middle of the table. Then the race is on to see who can grab a donut the fastest and still look casual. No meeting gets any more exciting than this.

But most meetings are boring because all humans love to hear themselves talk. This is what separates us from the animals – humans make noise constantly, even when no one is listening to them. Have you recently heard animals singing in the shower or talking to themselves? Exactly.

So when the boss at work calls a meeting, workers immediately make groaning sounds and try to figure out what they’re going to say. This is really, really hard if you haven’t done any work lately.

Therefore, the best way to cut all meetings short is to make sure you never do any work. Meetings become a problem, however, when employees are actually productive, which means they have stuff to talk about.

The problem is that everyone thinks their own project is the most important. For example, let’s say a group is putting together a report. You can be sure that the guy in charge of selecting the right kind of paper is going to talk for at least an hour about why the report should be printed on 40 percent recycled beige paper obtained from narcoleptic sheep herders in China.

So it goes around the table, and the talking never stops. This is bad for the people actually working on the project. But it’s even worse for people who have absolutely nothing to do with what is going on.

It’s very easy to tell who these people are, because they’re the ones playing games on their cell phones or attempting to sleep with their eyes open.

Unfortunately, sleeping at meetings isn’t good form, especially if the boss is there. But sometimes yawning is unavoidable.

Yawning discretely is a subtle technique that takes years to perfect. Some people turn their head to the side, while others look down at their laps as if a small alien were sitting there.

Neither of these are good techniques. The best way is to make it look like you are about to say something. Perk up your eyebrows, lean forward in your chair, point your right index finger toward the ceiling and make brief eye contact with whoever is talking.

All the commotion should be enough to fake everyone out and make them think you have something intelligent to say, even though you’re really just yawning.

My father has developed an even better technique, having had years of experience falling asleep in meetings. He calls it the “screensaver mode.” This is roughly equivalent to falling asleep with your eyes open.

After entering screensaver mode, my father looks like he’s paying attention, but he’s actually saving energy and trying not to die of boredom while listening to stupid people talk.

Before the meeting, he memorizes certain buzz words that will activate him if spoken. When someone says the magic words, his eyes flicker open and his brain starts operating again.

Countless hours of worker productivity would be saved if everyone learned how to enter the screensaver mode. No one would yawn anymore. Employees would use meetings as opportunities to catch up on sleep, and attendance would shoot up to 100 percent.

I’ve already begun intense training in this discipline. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll do the same. Or else I’ll eat your donut.

The hazing laws in Virginia are exceedingly vague and stringent. According to statutory law, a student guilty of a hazing incident resulting in bodily harm must face expulsion.

But the law makes no meaningful distinction between a hazing incident in which one scrapes his knee running a mile and one in which the hazed person is assaulted. Clearly, these acts are of a substantially different character, yet the law treats them as the same, applying the same punishment to both acts. In some cases, therefore, the punishment is disproportionate to the crime.

That’s why the governor and the General Assembly ought to consider adopting a clearer standard. Let’s call it The Cavalier Daily test for punishable hazing. Punishable hazing should be defined as commanding someone, with the backing of a nontrivial threat, to do something that could forseeably induce substantial bodily harm. No test will be perfect or will be able to offer a level of exactitude that’s ideal, but this test would be a major improvement on the currently vague standard. Let’s pick apart the test to demonstrate its usefulness.

Some hazing is reasonable. Bosses order around their subordinates. Teachers command their students. Commands in themselves do no harm. But when those commands could lead to actual harm, that is when commands (in the form of hazing) become perilous, the situation is different. So there must be a forseeable risk to the person who is hazed. This is reasonable: Bosses can ask their secretaries to do office jobs, but they can’t ask them to endanger their bodies by handling toxic waste.

The command must induce substantial bodily harm. This is important. This rules out such bodily injury as rug burns and paper cuts. Of course, what substantial means remains a matter of ambiguity, but there are classes of bodily injury that don’t count as substantial. That makes this distinction an improvement on the definition we currently are working with.

Hopefully, the governor and the General Assembly can find an appropriate definition. But The Cavalier Daily test is a good blueprint from which to work.

That’s not gonna fly

Two fired America West pilots pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges of operating aircraft under the influence. Their blood alcohol levels were .091 and .084 - both over the legal limit of .08 for operating vehicles in Florida – two hours after the flight was scheduled to depart. America West has even tighter rules regarding blood alcohol content than Florida law does.

These pilots, through their callous disregard, could have committed a mass murder.

In a time of panic in the skies, these pilots only have intensified the fear of flying. People already perceive that they’re unsafe because of external threats in the air. Now, they will worry about those who are supposed to protect their safety when they are so vulnerable.

Therefore, these two pilots should be punished as severely as the law permits.

THOUGH it is only late July, media attention for the upcoming ballot decisions is heating up. The Northern Virginia regional sales tax for transportation infrastructure is the most noteworthy of three public referenda that various regions of the Commonwealth will be voting on. After a year of complicated political wheelings and dealings, Northern Virginia will decide whether to tax itself for transportation needs. Last week, Senator John Warner (R-Va.) publicly announced his partnership with Gov. Mark R. Warner to promote a “yes” vote on the referendum. This past Tuesday, the Hampton Roads Daily Press reported rumors that former Gov. James S. Gilmore III is likely to oppose the new regional tax. The face-off between Virginia’s politicos – both past and present – exposes the remarkable political savvy for Sen. Warner, and will lead to disaster for Gilmore.

Without a doubt, Gilmore could use some positive press, and soon. For those who may not remember the not-so-golden years of the Gilmore administration, his exit from public life has been marked with embarrassment. After stepping down – with more than modest encouragement – from the Republican National Committee Chairmanship, Gilmore finished his gubernatorial term and passed on a significant revenue shortfall to successor Mark Warner. A trained attorney, Gilmore followed the lead of ex-governors before him and put his name out to major Virginia law firms. Embarrassingly, his over-inflated asking price left him partner-less months after exiting the governor’s mansion – and he still didn’t get his top choice. To add insult to injury, the Librarian of Virginia has accused former staffers from the Gilmore administration of destroying documents promised to the Library of Virginia.

Now, opposing this tax only will make things worse for Gilmore. Going head-to-head with Sen. Warner is a losing battle no matter how the outcome is settled. In the 1994 election, then-incumbent Sen. Charles R. Robb and former Governor of Virginia was facing a formidable challenge from Lt. Col. Oliver North of Iran Contra fame: an archconservative even by Virginia standards. The elder statesman, Sen. Warner, took a risk by crossing party lines to publicly support Robb’s campaign, and Robb won the election in a squeaker. The move won Sen. Warner a great deal of respect from moderate-to-liberal Virginians, and he went on to sweep past now-governor, then-senatorial hopeful Mark Warner in the 1996 election. Such tactics mark the strength of Virginia’s elder senator.

Not just any politician could stare in the face of the very party that helped put him in office and publicly support the enemy. Once again, Sen. Warner is sticking his neck out as he crosses party lines, but with good judgment. By teaming with Gov. Warner on an issue that, if passed, will bring billions of dollars of transportation improvements to Northern Virginia, the senator is endearing himself to the largest and most influential voting bloc in the Commonwealth. By some estimates, more than one out of every five voters lives in Fairfax County alone, not to mention the other massive municipalities that gain substantial project funding if the referendum passes. Gilmore, on the other hand, would be working toward being credited with saving Northern Virginians from increased taxes. However, even if Gilmore wins, he loses, because he would fall even further out of favor with the Republican party by tarnishing the now-golden image of Sen. Warner.

The referendum issue simply goes to show that even within the same party, there are smart politicians and then there are those who lack foresight. In this case, Gilmore is setting himself up for a fall – the last thing he needs to rehabilitate the ruins of his public career. Sen. John Warner, yet again, has made a smart decision. It is no wonder that he remains essentially unchallenged in his bid for reelection this year. Republican or Democrat, Virginians can recognize a smart leader when they see one.

(Preston Lloyd is a Cavalier Daily columnist. He can be reached at plloyd@cavalierdaily.com.)

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson sent fellow Virginians Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on a westward expedition that opened an era of drastic change.

In memory of Jefferson’s role in proposing the cross-country trek, the University, Monticello and the city of Charlottesville will kick off the opening events for the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commemoration in January 2003.

The week’s activities, from Jan. 14 to 19, will include a wide range of performances and exhibitions by musicians, dancers, chefs, historians, professors, authors and environmental anthropologists.

Monticello Chief Operating Officer Kat Imhoff said she was pleased with the multicultural elements planned for the commemoration.

“One night we’ll have a Lakota hoop dancer, another night opera, another day Native American storyteller, the next a panel of scholars on the evolution of the West,” Imhoff said. “It’s hard to make this exposition week fit into a box. It involves arts, scholarship, tourism and sovereign nations, and that’s what makes it exciting.”

The Monacans, a Native-American nation indigenous to the area, will host the national commencement ceremony Jan. 18 on Monticello’s West Lawn. It will include Monacan Chief Kenneth Branham, Tex Hall, president of the National Congress of American Indians, as well as award-winning historical writer Stephen Ambrose.

Ambrose is the author of “Undaunted Courage,” which chronicles Jefferson’s proposal and Lewis’ scientific contribution to the journey.

President George W. Bush also has been invited to the service.

For the past year, University faculty from a variety of disciplines have met regularly in colloquiums to discuss Jefferson’s role in proposing the expedition, as well as the presence of Eastern Indian tribes in the region and important aspects of the West, before and after American settlement.

According to Anthropology Prof. Jeffrey Hantman, who is helping to organize the commemoration, the University previously “had not focused on the American West.” He added that now the University is “developing a whole new perspective on American history and building it into the curriculum.”

In the fall, Hantman, along with Anthropology Prof. Peter Onuf and History Prof. William Seefeldt, will co-teach the class “American Wests,” which is cross-listed under the anthropology and history departments.

“We’re very excited,” Hantman said. “I’ve never worked so hard on designing a class.” He described the curriculum as including both the European perspective of the American West as well as the perspectives of groups who lived in the West, such as Native Americans, Asians and Hispanics.

In order to raise awareness for the historical and what they see as continued marginalization incurred on indigenous peoples, several Native-American groups have stepped forward to participate in the activities.

“The sovereign nations are alive and very much a part of American culture,” Imhoff said. “They want to talk about their history and where they want to go. This can change the nature of how we understand our history and what we know about our history, and that will change what we do in the future.”

This Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commemoration group has been careful not to offend any groups that may have a more negative historical view of the expedition.

The 1992 quincentennial commemoration of Columbus’ arrival in America offended several Native American groups that equated Columbus’ arrival with negative parts of their native history.

Hantman said the Columbus event “started out as a celebration when first planned, but the native people whose ancestors were colonized and affected by European diseases … didn’t see it as a celebration.”

“I don’t think most Americans anticipated the degree of resistance to any kind of notion celebrating Columbus’ arrival,” he said.

Hantman also spoke about the importance of “challenging notions” about the West through this commemoration, “the most important notion being the idea that the West needed to be ‘discovered.’”

As part of the July 19 closing ceremony that concluded their six-week program, the Medical Academic Achievement Program, which prepares talented minority undergraduates from across the country for medical school, donated $512 to the Charlottesville Free Clinic.

The donation, compiled from the personal resources of the participating students, was designed to represent the selflessness required of a doctor, said MAAP class president Nat Campbell, who is a rising senior at the University of Southern Florida in Tampa.

“MAAP decided to commit the type of altruistic act that will be commanded as a physician,” Campbell said. “I think it was a substantial amount for a student-based program.”

Campbell added that he felt the donation embodied “the type of selflessness demanded and commanded in public care.”

The program, which has existed for 14 years, drew 165 students to the University this summer. Ten other universities, including Yale and the University of Chicago, also have chapters.

Campbell said the students considered several other organizations when deciding where the money should go, including the University’s Global Health Center and the University chapter of the Student National Medical Association.

“SNMA in particular was a worthy candidate,” Campbell said.

In the end, the donation went to the free clinic because of its service to the community, Campbell said.

Rebecca Weybright, the executive director of the clinic, said the donation comes at a time when costs are always rising.

“We’ll probably use the money for pharmacy costs,” Weybright said. “We continue to fill more prescriptions.”

The past fiscal year, the clinic filled 10,952 prescriptions, up from 8,653 the year before, according to Weybright.

“That gives you a sense of the rising demand” for medicine, she said.

The clinic does not charge patients for its pharmacy services, relying on donations to fund the prescription services.

The University Medical Center and Martha Jefferson Hospital also provide care to the clinic free of charge, such as laboratory and radiology services.

“The majority of our donations come from individuals and businesses,” Weybright added. She said donations range anywhere from $25 to $15,000.

Campbell said in his presentation of the gift that churches and local government also contribute to the clinic.

“You can add MAAP, class of 2002, to that list,” he said.

After alleged drinking violations, the Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control has threatened to revoke Foxfield Racing Association’s liquor license at a hearing scheduled for early September.

If the hearing panel decides to revoke Foxfield’s license, it may have little effect on alcohol consumption, as the racing association itself does not sell drinks, but rather allows patrons to supply their own.

Attracting thousands of University students each year, the annual spring steeplechase has come under heavy criticism for fostering excessive underage drinking and disorderly conduct, such as public urination and destruction of property, in addition to creating heavy traffic jams along Garth Road.

Although this will be Foxfield’s first formal hearing, it has drawn past criticism from both ABC officials and Garth Road residents.

“Foxfield hasn’t been heard [by a panel] before, but it received a written warning for the April 29, 2000 race for not maintaining peace and good order,” said Becky Gettings, ABC director of public affairs.

Gettings declined to comment on specific Foxfield abuses until the panel hearing.

Foxfield has had “an ongoing conflict with the ABC,” said Race Director W. Patrick Butterfield. “They say we’re not maintaining good public order. In many instances students are just overindulging, and [ABC officials] are holding Foxfield accountable for the conduct of those people.”

Albemarle County police made 52 arrests at the April, 2002, races after Foxfield officials requested help regulating the crowd, which swelled to around 25,000 spectators.

“This is the first year that there have been arrests, and they were at our request,” Butterfield said. “And now, they’re going to hold us accountable for them.”

Butterfield called many of the arrests, which included gambling and expired car licenses, ridiculous and out of the control of Foxfield officials.

In an effort to appease the ABC and to quell problems with drinking, Foxfield officials also implemented mandatory wristbands for those of age and offered designated drivers complimentary entrance passes. Race officials also coordinated efforts with Albemarle County, as well as the University Student Council, Inter-Fraternity Council, Inter-Sorority Council and the Center for Alcohol and Substance Education.

“We have gone out of our way” to regulate behavior, Butterfield said. “We do all this stuff, and [ABC officials] don’t’ do anything. All they did was walk around with a camera and tape things, although I think they may have helped to detain some people.”

Although area residents continued to complain about traffic problems and destruction of private property, Albemarle County officials commended Foxfield’s attempts to address community concerns, County Spokeswoman Lee Catlin said.

“Anytime you have twenty-some thousand people using rural county roads to get to a large social event, you’re just going to have those problems,” Catlin said. Foxfield and County officials are “trying a lot of things to alleviate them, but it’s very difficult . . . and continues to frustrate people.”