If editorials could wag fingers, this one would. Shame on you,
Information Technology and Communications, shame on you. Whatever
students may think of the new 500-page printing limit and charge per
page after that amount, ITC has been tremendously sloppy at informing
and preparing students for these changes.
The first direct communication students received about the new policy
was not sent yet. No need to worry, an e-mail is coming. On
Friday,
the same day the policy takes effect.
Good planning there, ITC. Perhaps along the same vein as ITC, the
University can increase our tuition and tell students on the same
day! Or penniless students following ITCs gentle lead can take
other
peoples pictures and demand payment for the service on the spot. Or

better yet, auto repair shops can make customers pay just for having
their cars inspected, even when they failed to mention that there is
a fee for inspection. It seems that, if anything, Information
Technology and Communications really deserves the name Information
Technology and Oops-We-Forgot-About-Communication.

There are some students this change of policy wont affect
theyre
lucky. But many others must dependably print out PDF files for their
classes or write long papers, and the 500 side of a page limit is
desperately low. It is these students who will have to plan around
ITCs new policy.
Its certainly reasonable to prevent the common problem of students
exhausting what is to them a free resource. But the burden of
alleviating this problem may fall too heavily on students. Professors
may require students to purchase an entire book in lieu of putting
materials from it on the Web. Book costs could very well skyrocket.
Students purchasing entire books, thereby encouraging the
manufacturer to produce more of them, is more wasteful of the
environment than printing out portions of those books at libraries.

Of course, the former comes at less of a cost to the University. But
in the general scheme of things, ITCs policy doesnt necessarily
conserve resources, just University resources as opposed to other
resources such as students disposable income.
Whether you think the burden for reducing costs falls on students or
the University primarily is a matter of judgment. But whatever
position you take, you should be able to appreciate that students
deserved to be made aware of their new onus before it was dumped on
their shoulders.
And ITC went astray.

Theres no excuse for a policy change that takes effect the same day
as its announcement. (ITCs cryptic information buried on its Web
site, which no student checks, notwithstanding). This business
decision, even if it may be regarded as necessary, is an ambush.
ITCs Friday announcement ought to be followed by a week or two-
long
grace period. Consider the poor plight of the hapless student who
doesnt read this editorial and who doesnt check his e-mail but
prints out half his limit in fliers. Students need this time to learn
about and adjust to the change. Its the least ITOWFAC can do.

ONE NEED not be a daily follower of Virginia politics to know all public institutions are facing a fiscal crisis of colossal proportions. Rather than plead the usual case of demanding more services and better support for them from the General Assembly, a different tack should be taken. In this time of belt-tightening, administrative penny-pinching and even potential institutional layoffs, the responsibility of frugality must be shared by all members of the University community, not solely the administrators who hold the red pen. To borrow the refrain of Politics Professor Larry J. Sabato in a speech given to Student Council this past week, it is time students embraced the mantra “less is more” and joined the administration in promoting the most efficient use of University resources.

It would be wonderful if the University existed in a state that recognized the dilapidated condition of its colleges and responded with increased funding and support. Equally splendid would be a political environment in Virginia that recognized the link between the quality of services and the taxpayers’ responsibility to provide for them. However, each of these scenarios is but a fairytale when it comes to the current disposition of politics in our fair Commonwealth. Voters reward those legislators brave enough to support higher taxes for better services by tossing them out at the end of their term. This is the tragic reality of Virginia politics today, and seems as unlikely to change as the Rotunda is round. Something else must be done.

This leaves it to the institutions of higher education to make cuts to accommodate the deficit created by lower than expected revenues. However, the state’s institutions need help.

There are many costs incurred as a result of students’ sometimes frivolous behavior. For example, when professors put articles on the online instructional toolkit, students frequently retreat to the nearest computer lab and use expensive toner and massive quantities of paper to print the usually verbose required reading.If students were to do most printing at home, or even resort to reading the online document instead of printing altogether, imagine the dollars the University might save.

The funds retained by more parsimonious printing habits will not be sufficient to keep more economics professors from bolting for more lucrative positions elsewhere, nor will they be adequate to fund a new building for the overcrowded College of Arts and Sciences. They will, however, begin to make a difference. Only the General Assembly and the support of the University’s generous pool of friends and alumni can help relieve our fiscal crisis.

The point is to encourage students to think before engaging in activities that might be wasteful. The discarded copy of The Cavalier Daily that is casually abandoned on the bench at the bus stop, only to require disposal by hired staff, costs the University precious resources.

Similarly, the tape marks left on the columns of the Bryan Hall colonnade from illegally posted old fliers require repair from facilities maintenance crews. Chalking under covered areas requires power-washing, another precious resource needlessly spent, especially considering the severity of Virginia’s current drought conditions. Consider the ways one engages in activities that in one way or another incur a cost upon the University throughout the day.

Rather than continuing to demand greater things from the General Assembly, it is time for the University community to band together and attempt to help itself.

Relief for our tight financial situation is only possible through the mutual suffering of all parties involved. Rather than turn on the air conditioner while sitting in a sweltering Cabell Hall sauna (i.e. classroom), crack a window instead. In lieu of purchasing a pre-paid phone card at 7-11, use the University’s plan. Though usually marginally more expensive, the profit from the University plan directly benefits the quality of this institution.

It will take an investment in the future of the University to ensure the value of diplomas issued today, 25 or 50 years from now. That investment begins with the attention of all University students, faculty, staff and others.

There will be no quick fix in the near future. The money is not out there, neither in the pockets of potential donors nor in the public vaults of the Commonwealth. In the latter case, the cupboard is most certainly bare.

If the caliber of this institution is to remain impervious to the slow death inflicted by state budget cuts and irresponsible government, the onus rests on each individual here to do their part. Take ownership of this school. Be frugal, be efficient and be aware.

The fiscal situation currently facing the University threatens all that is great about this place. It is time everyone did their part to help.

(Preston Lloyd’s column appears

Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily.

He can be reached at

plloyd@cavalierdaily.com.)

JOHN ASHCROFT is the worst

Attorney General that President Bush could have selected. Well, maybe that’s an overstatement, but he certainly does not seem to possess any of the qualities and virtues necessary to be a good Attorney General of the United States. His vigor in the battle against terror is honorable and worthy of respect, but his methods are frighteningly cold and detached from the ideas of federalism, religion, freedom and, ironically, justice. In the nearly two years the Bush administration has been at the country’s helm, he has shown himself to be a rigid despot who does things his way regardless of the law.

Watch him in the post-September 11 news and he is presented as a stoic warrior fighting to protect innocent Americans from those who would attack them. But this is also the man who, if he had his way, would have made it legal for a man to rape his wife in Missouri. Defending Civil War Confederacy dogma, accepting an honorary degree at Bob Jones University (which at the time had banned interracial dating), inexplicably blocking the appointment of a black judge and supporting prosecution of women who get abortions for the charge of murder truly endeared him to the public. He did make advances in stopping racial profiling and that’s certainly one promise he made to minorities that he hasn’t reneged on.

The detention of alleged terrorists in the wake of September 11 has turned from part of a wartime protection act into the biggest racial mistake this government has made since the internment of Asians during World War II. America has made a great deal of mistakes regarding minorities, but to indefinitely detain more than 1,000 “enemy combatants” and refuse to charge them with offenses, forbid them to see lawyers and hold them for being “dangerous” is something about which the nation should be outraged. But if you think about it, this police-state restriction of due process for perceived threats is a good move. Anna Nicole Smith is a danger to rich old white men, James Traficant is a danger to anyone who’s sane and Mark Warner puts a lot of jobs here at the University in jeopardy. So let’s get Ashcroft to bust these offenders’ butts down to Camp X-Ray for a great vacation in sunny Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay spent in luxurious containment in a small cell with no windows and food which makes O-Hill look like cuisine for six days, seven nights — or maybe eternity.

And who can forget Aschroft’s stunt last fall when he threatened to withdraw critical prescription writing privileges from Oregon doctors if they participated in legal physician-assisted suicides. While his religious posturing is offensive in itself, the real problem is that he would go to the point of improper obstruction in state business. Apparently, the section in the Constitution on separation of powers was not taught at Yale in the 1960s. Luckily, the courts struck down this intervention into state affairs.

Last week, the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court rejected Ashcroft’s guidelines for wiretaps and surveillance in the fight against terrorism as suggested in the USA Patriot Act. The bill was passed last fall — and with a name like the USA Patriot Act, who could oppose it? Under the new bill, investigators may invoke surveillance laws when watching suspected terrorists is a “significant purpose,” not the main purpose. Under such standards, anyone could be wiretapped and watched if they are “significantly” suspected. Apparently, warrantless wiretaps and Internet taps are part of Ashcroft’s attempts to reduce the size of the government.

Now the guy seems to be doing the same things that made Janet Reno such a big target for Republicans. Richard Jewell, the innocent man accused of the bombing during the Atlanta Olympics, was savaged by the media for weeks. The FBI let the media make a pinata of Jewell despite their having no evidence against him and Jewell’s life was changed forever despite his not having done wrong. There is a parallel situation occurring in 2002. The failure to catch the “Anthrax Killer” has been an embarrassment for the government. Leaks of the investigation led the media to descend upon scientist Steven Hatfill’s apartment during two FBI searches. Hatfill claims that his girlfriend was mistreated and told that he had killed five people. Perhaps Hatfill did send the anthrax that killed those people; however, Ashcroft says there are many suspects and, unless he is withholding information from the public, it is irresponsible to allow leaks and then stay quiet regarding one of the biggest media stories in the past year.

Really, Ashcroft is George Bush’s personal vacuum cleaner: He gets plugged in by the president and runs around relentlessly cleaning up the nation. He sees pro-choice activists, atheists and minorities and immediately sucks up their civil rights as if they were an unsightly stain on America.

All in all, perhaps the people from his home state of Missouri saw this coming and knew how to handle him. Missouri voters had a tough time picking candidates in the November 2000 Senatorial race and, ultimately, Mel Carnahan edged out Ashcroft despite the fact that Carnahan had died the month before.

I was never a huge fan during her tenure, but now I long for Reno.

(Brad Cohen’s column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at bcohen@cavalierdaily.com.)

Bailey named finalist for Rimington Trophy

The Rimington Trophy Committee named Virginia football player Kevin Bailey as one of 36 finalists for its award. The Rimington Trophy, which will be presented Dec. 14, honors the nation’s top center.

Bailey, who started eight games last season at left tackle, did not move into the starting center position until the final month of the season. Bailey is one of only two players from the ACC — the other being Florida State’s Antoine Mirambeau — chosen as a finalist.

Bailey’s first career start at center came in Virginia’s game against Wake Forest last fall. In his games at center, Virginia produced two of its top four rushing performances and two of its top three passing performances.

Men’s soccer ranked second in preseason poll

The Virginia’s men’s soccer team will open its season this Friday ranked as the No. 2 team in the Soccer America Preseason Top 25.

Indiana, last year’s national runner-up, garnered the top spot in both polls. Defending national champion North Carolina was ranked No. 3 in the Soccer America poll.

Virginia is scheduled to play four squads ranked by Soccer America. Three conference opponents — North Carolina (No. 3), Clemson (No. 8), and Wake Forest (No. 21) — appear in the preseason rankings by Soccer America, while Kentucky (No. 25) is the only out-of-conference foe that is ranked.

– Compiled by Chris Glasser

Baseball players should strike. No, I didn’t leave out a word there. They should strike and stay on strike until they are treated like the majority of American workers — fairly.

It is natural for us to like the players and not the greedy owners, much as workers like their co-workers and not their boss. It is also natural for us to get angry at the seemingly peevish players fighting for more than most Americans make in a lifetime.

Alex Rodriguez’s 10-year, $252 million contract is what many point to as an illustration of baseball’s problem: What could you do with that amount of money in sports? You could buy three NHL franchises for that amount of money.

But someone had to be willing to pay him that money. Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks bid himself up from the $190 million contract range.

Cincinnati Reds player representative told the Cincinnati Enquirer, “We never have wanted to tell people what they have to pay us. People laugh about that, but that’s the truth. You can’t blame a guy for taking the best deal.”

So why, then, do baseball fans seem eager to scrap capitalism and the idea of free markets? Baseball executives have made huge mistakes and want to institute socialism as a result. We are supposed to hate the big business, the Carnegies and the Steinbrenners.

The American way is for struggling businesses to regroup or fold. AT&T isn’t helping WorldCom recover; why should the Yankees help the Orioles?

The question, then, is: what do the owners want that is so wrong and would ruin baseball?

The answer might surprise most, but it is a salary cap, long hailed as a savior from escalating salaries.

People point to the parity in the NFL as a result of the cap. But a salary cap merely changes the proportion of money spent on the underachievers and helps teams recover from errant personnel moves. The NFL put in a salary cap in 1994, and the Arizona Cardinals have won more than eight games just once. The Cincinnati Bengals have yet to eclipse .500 since the advent of the cap, proving the badly-run teams will still be bad.

All a cap does is force teams to lose their veterans, the guys you grow up rooting for. Empathize with Packer fans who lost Antonio Freeman, a Packer since 1993, to cap constraints. Or Falcon fans who loved Jamal Anderson, a cap casualty after eight seasons there.

The big contracts are still signed in the NFL, but it is the owners that prosper, not the players.

The first thing a salary cap would do is diminish the value of the franchise. Part of owning a business is deciding how to invest in it. A cap will limit investment. If an owner like Hicks wants to spend that much on A-Rod, then let him. We don’t enforce the quality of cheese that Gumby’s uses. If they want to use higher-priced cheese, well, that’s a business decision. Should Domino’s have to help them financially if the new cheese doesn’t help sales?

Fans want to see the best baseball on the field. That will only happen if clubs are forced to evaluate talent better. The Oakland A’s, with the third-lowest payroll in baseball, are in first place and are tied for the most wins in the American League because they have baseball’s best evaluator of talent in Billy Beane. The Minnesota Twins, with the fourth-lowest payroll, have a 16-game lead in the AL Central. Teams can compete like these franchises by investing more money in scouting and doing their homework to develop ballplayers rather than overpay for veterans. These teams are forced to decide where they want to invest and they keep their stars while replenishing their farm system.

I hope baseball players don’t strike. But the owners are forcing the players’ hand. We hate this because of the socioeconomic envy we have. But teams make money on everything: tickets, broadcasting, advertising, concessions, licensing, etc. What incentive does a team have to invest in new broadcast markets or new apparel if the money goes to teams that don’t invest?

Here’s the problem with revenue-sharing: owners can pocket the money. The team last season with the highest income from baseball operations after revenue sharing: Commissioner Bud Selig’s own Milwaukee Brewers. No revenue sharing will force teams to shape up or go bankrupt.

Badly-run teams should lose money much as badly-run business do. Baseball owners claim that only nine teams made a profit. Yet Forbes Magazine said only 10 teams LOST any money.

Baseball players are being framed as the bad guys, being forced to fix a problem that doesn’t exist and a problem they didn’t cause. Take away your class envy. Remember, this isn’t Cuba. The players are fighting for fair business practices only.

The problems should be resolved before a strike has to happen. But since it won’t, lay the blame on the money-grubbing owners who soon will drive veteran stars out of town while continuing to overpay for underachievers.

When Coach Al Groh returned to the University as the head football coach last year, he brought with him the 3-4 defensive scheme he had used in the NFL. The results were encouraging at times and disappointing at others.

Now, after a year of experience with the new system, the Cavalier defense, led by captain Angelo Crowell, is confident it will be able to execute the 3-4 defense and make some plays that it missed last season.

Referring to the positioning of the front seven, the 3-4 defense run by Virginia is one-of-a-kind in the ACC.

With only three down linemen, Groh is depending on his four linebackers, including Crowell, to make or break big plays.

Comparing their current comfort with the system to last year, Crowell said, “That’s not even close. I just feel like everyone has got on the same page and I think that’s our biggest difference. Knowing that the players beside you know what you’re doing, it just allows us to make plays.”

Groh believes this year’s team has improved in other ways as well.

“I think it’s apparent we have some faster players than what we had available last year,” he said.

One of the advantages of the 3-4 defense is the zone blitz, which Crowell said gets into the game plan from week to week.

“Any four of those linebackers can blitz at any time,” Crowell said. “As far as the run, we have a two gap defense, so what [the linebackers] try to do is just build a complete wall without any seams or any holes so the running back will have to run everything from side to side.”

As a junior last year, Crowell set a school record with 144 tackles, fourth in the nation among returning players.

Crowell will play alongside both experienced and inexperienced linebackers. Senior Merrill Robertson will play directly next to Crowell on the inside, and junior Raymond Mann, who started 11 games last year, will help add experience to the linebacker position. There will be some talented younger players who get playing time at linebacker, such as true freshman Darryl Blackstock, who recorded six tackles and a sack in last week’s loss to Colorado State, including two tackles for a loss.

The only part of the defense to return completely intact this year is the secondary, where safeties Jerton Evans and Shernard Newby will team up with cornerbacks like Art Thomas to try to shut down opponents’ passing games.

The success of the secondary, however, might rest more on the linebackers and inexperienced defensive line than the battle-tested secondary.

“When we blitz it’s our job to get the ball out of the quarterback’s hands as soon as possible,” Crowell said. “The secondary is only as good as the defensive line or the blitz. Any quarterback that can hold on to the ball all day long can pick any secondary apart. It’s really a team effort” to stop the pass.

The Cavaliers have had to completely revamp their defensive line this year, losing all three starters from last season.

What the Cavs lost in experience, they gained in size on their new defensive front three. Six-foot-4, 303-pound true freshman Kwakou Robinson, and 6-3, 255-pound redshirt freshman Brennan Schmidt figure as prominent bookends of the defensive line, although their inexperience is bound to lead to some mistakes.

“They’re definitely listening to the older players,” Crowell said of the rookies. “Coach Groh says they have a lot of talent and from what I saw it was evident that they have a lot of talent, but they’re young and they make some mistakes.”

Groh has shown much confidence in his younger players, giving them plenty of playing time so far.

“There could be a lot of developing players,” Groh said. “Whether it is a player who red-shirted last year and is still moving up, or it’s a player who just arrived here this year who is making significant progress — if that player is ready to push for a position, then he’ll be given the opportunity.”

As the younger players learn to play with their teammates in Groh’s system, the Cavalier defense hopes to make the 3-4 defense a fearsome facet of Virginia football.

No matter what the average Wahoo remembers from last year of the men’s basketball student fan group, students should now expect a revamped Team Cavalier.

“Last year it was basically just a men’s basketball student group,” said Derik Diver, the newly hired Athletic Department liaison for Team Cavalier. “This year it’s going to be an all-athletic group.”

Bright orange Team Cavalier T-shirts littered the student section of University Hall last year in support of the men’s basketball team. This year’s focus is to increase attendance at all sporting events and expand fan enthusiasm and school spirit beyond the scope of just men’s basketball.

“Students can look forward to more excitement at typically lesser attended sports events,” said Sarah Jobe, Student Council Chief of Staff. “We have a lot of teams doing great things that don’t necessarily get the same recognition. We’re trying to build a lot of excitement around those games.”

Team Cavalier was conceived last year as an offshoot of the recently formed Athletic Affairs Committee, a new Council subcommittee. Its goal, according to Brigitte Hoyer, the head of this year’s committee, is to address issues involving student athletes and fans.

In its first year of existence, Team Cavalier boasted frequent giveaways of free food and merchandise to all its members, but failed to deliver much more than a T-shirt and a six-pack of soda. It suffered from smaller-than-anticipated membership numbers and an undefined role.

This year, new sponsors, a new direction and new excitement about the group’s expansion promise to make the group live up to its hype.

“People will see if they join Team Cavalier that they’ll get their money back,” said Lee Martin, student co-head of Team Cavalier. “We are implementing a ‘Game of the Week’ program where members will receive prizes for the numbers of games they attend.”

This multi-sport approach with the centerpiece “Game of the Week” reward system is the biggest change for the fan group — all members will receive a membership card that, when shown at designated sporting events, will accumulate points. Each week, members will receive an e-mail notifying them of that week’s special game and will receive points for attendance. When members attain certain levels of points, they win prizes — things such as gift certificates to local restaurants and discounts at athletic stores such as T.J.’s Locker.

For the $20 membership fee, all members will receive a Team Cavalier T-shirt, a membership card, and, as a special bonus, a video entitled “A Century of Moments,” detailing 100 years of Virginia sports.

In addition to the structured “Game of the Week” program, Team Cavalier also plans to hold spontaneous giveaways, beginning with a tailgate prior to the home football game versus Clemson on Oct. 12. New members will be encouraged to sign up at the event and join the current members in a newly established Fan Fest area, where there will be free food and prizes leading up to the game.

Other plans include increased hype and more activities surrounding Homecoming Weekend and the creation of a Team Cavalier Week with a different event for each day of the week.

Exactly one year after terrorist attacks tore America apart, students and citizens alike will unite at the University to help bring the community together.

On Sept. 11, Student Council along with administrators and Charlottesville-area groups will sponsor a “Remembering September Eleventh” event at 11:30 a.m. at University Hall, and an interfaith candlelight vigil at 7:30 p.m. on the Lawn.

A teach-in, which will draw University professors from a range of departments, will precede the memorials.

“The University thought it would be a good idea to have a University-wide event that would encompass the community,” Interim Community Relations Director Ida Lee Wootten said.

The ceremony at U-Hall is co-sponsored by Council, the Office of the President, the Charlottesville-Albemarle Clergy Association and the nationwide You’ve Got a Friend Foundation of law enforcement officers.

The service will honor those who died in the attacks as well as the surviving rescue workers, and will feature speeches by President John T. Casteen III and Council President Micah Schwartz.

Music, spiritual readings and the presentation of a flag that flew over the Pentagon during the attacks and now bears the names of those who died Sept. 11, also will be included in the events.

“I’m really pleased with how this turned out,” said Council Chief of Staff Sarah Jobe. “We wanted something large enough to meet the needs of everyone in the community who wanted to be involved.”

Council will distribute “Ribbons of Remembrance” at the event for attendees to inscribe with personal thoughts and remembrances. The ribbons will be collected and displayed on a memorial erected on Grounds by Council. University administrators and Council have yet to agree on a location for the memorial.

The evening interfaith vigil is a joint effort by Council and the Charlottesville-Albemarle Clergy Association. Organizers hope the assorted spiritual readings and prayer will be a somber and meaningful way for the community to pay homage.

“We want to be able to remember in a spiritual way,” Jobe said. “We want to move people from grief and remembrance, and through healing.”

Daniel Haspel, Council academic affairs committee chair, is organizing the teach-in, which will be held in the Amphitheater at 6 p.m. on Sept. 10. The teach-in will feature six speakers who will deliver short speeches and then man a panel that will take audience questions.

“With professors who have knowledge of the Middle East, we want to try to look back now that there is distance between us and September 11,” Haspel said. “We want to look at the conditions that caused the attacks and the U.S. reaction, and to challenge students to examine viewpoints not discussed in the media.”

Haspel said he hopes that the teach-in will foster increased awareness among students.

“We want to bring together students who might not know much about this and those who do,” he said. “We want students to feel like there are things we can do.”

Various other events around Grounds will allow students and staff to offer condolences. The University Art Museum will feature an exhibit of Sept. 11 photography and accompanying poems. The Chaplaincy Department of the Health System also will host memorials in the Hospital Chapel at 6 a.m., noon and 7 p.m.

The Law School will hold a similar memorial at the Caplin Pavilion at 8:30 a.m., and at Darden a flag ceremony will be held at 7:30 a.m., with a poetry reading at 9:45 a.m.

A memorial lecture at the Medical Center, “Marking 11 September — Memory and Meaning,” will be held at 12:30 p.m. in the Jordan Conference center.

David Newsom, former acting Secretary of State during the Carter administration, and Marshall Brement, a foreign services officer, will hold a forum, “September 11: Has it Changed U.S. Diplomacy in Asia and Europe?” at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at 11 a.m.

University Democrats will be teaming up with the Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc., to host “2002 in 2002,” a month-long voter registration rally beginning Monday.

Organizers will man tables both on the Lawn and in Newcomb Hall through Sept. 28 to hand out forms necessary for both in-state and out-of-state students to become registered voters before November elections.

The goal of the rally is to register a total of 2002 new voters, making this year’s drive the most ambitious University registration drive to date.

Co-sponsoring groups such as the National Organization for Women and the Queer Student Union will join the University Democrats and Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc., a Black Fraternal Council member.

The groups plan to hand out pamphlets outlining what they see as the most important issues facing voters in the upcoming elections.

Among those issues highlighted by the flyers will be Virginia’s higher education bond bill, a measure that would raise money to help the University and other Virginia public colleges and universities weather drastic budget cuts.

“The top priority is to get more students to vote and fight student apathy,” said Ian Amelkin, third-year College student and University Democrats president.

With increased participation, he said, college students nationwide could become a much more powerful voting bloc.

“We want to give people info about the issues — what’s going on right now — and give them the tools they need,” said Michael Dunkley, vice president of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. and co-chair of the Black Fraternal Council.

“The object is to get as many people to vote as possible,” Amelkin said.

He ranked the passage of the bond bill as the second main goal in this year’s drive.

Increasing Democratic control of the House and Senate also will be a priority, given current Republican control of the White House, Amelkin said.

Asked whether the groups would push a Democratic agenda in the voting guides they plan to distribute, Amelkin reiterated that the main focus would be registrations.

“Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, we don’t care,” he said. “We care more about getting out the votes.”

Sponsors of the drive admit that the target figure of 2002 new voters is high. But by stretching the drive out from a week or two — as previous registration drives were conducted — to almost a full month, organizers hope they will reach the mark.

“The longer we are there, the more [votes] we get,” Dunkley said. “So this year, we thought, set a big round number and go for it.”

Dunkley expressed optimism about this year’s more aggressive approach.

“If everything goes well, 2002 is a very realistic number,” he said.

University alumnus Leroy R. Hassell Sr. was elected chief justice of the Virginia Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Gov. Mark R. Warner praised Hassell’s selection, saying, “I am confident that under Justice Hassell’s leadership, the Supreme Court of Virginia will continue to provide impartial justice to all who appear before the court.”

Hassell, who graduated from the University in 1977 with a degree in government and foreign affairs and has served on the Virginia Supreme Court since 1989, will become the Court’s first black chief justice when he assumes the position in February of next year. He will replace Chief Justice Harry L. Carrico, who has held the position since 1981.

Politics Prof. Larry J. Sabato said he was “delighted and proud that an outstanding University graduate, who is quite young, will be the next chief justice of the Virginia Supreme Court.”

Hassell’s selection is also a milestone in that he is the first chief justice to be chosen by his peers on the court. Previously, the chief justice was selected on the sole basis of seniority — a process that was changed to a peer selection system by the 2002 Virginia General Assembly.

Under the old system, Justice Elizabeth Lacy, whose tenure on the court exceeds Hassell’s by one year, would have become chief justice following Carrico’s retirement.

Sabato said that, while seniority is important for a Chief Justice, the current situation is a good example of how seniority should not be the sole criteria for the selection.

“Seniority is important, as you would not necessarily want someone who had only recently come on the court to act as chief justice,” Sabato said.

But “this is a perfect example: You have two justices who were appointed within a year of each other,” he said. “Why should the slightly senior justice automatically become chief justice?”

He also noted that members of the Virginia Supreme Court had requested the new law.

Del. William Howell, R-Fairfax, approves of Hassell’s selection and the new law.

Howell said he was “delighted by the selection of the new chief justice,” and that, by allowing the position of chief justice to be decided on criteria other than seniority, the new law “will allow for new ideas.”

Del. William Janis, R-Short Pump, echoed Howell’s sentiments.

“I’m thrilled that Justice Hassell was elected,” Janis said. “He is a fantastic man and a very skilled jurist. His particular selection is above reproach.”