In just a few years, students strolling on Grounds — and not just those on the Lawn — may notice themselves literally stepping on or passing by history as a result of a project recently approved by the Board of Visitors.

The Demolished Building Recognition Program — an idea of President John T. Casteen, III, according to Colette Sheehy, University vice president for management and budget ­– will result in the placement of commemorative plaques around Grounds indicating the place and purpose of historic buildings.

Sheehy said the project provides a means of preserving institutional memory.

“The idea of the program is to memorialize some of those buildings, the more significant structures that once existed but no longer exist now,” she said.

The University has not yet established official criteria to determine which former buildings are significant enough to deserve a plaque or how many plaques will be placed, Sheehy said. Several locations on Grounds, however, will undoubtedly receive a plaque, she said, including the annex that used to be on the north side of the Rotunda before a fire destroyed it.

Alexander Gilliam, secretary of the Board and special assistant to the president, said another building likely to be commemorated with a plaque is Miller Hall, which once stood in the space now occupied by the Special Collections Library. The building was originally a chemistry building, Gilliam said, and later became a biology building before being transformed into an admissions office.

In addition to commemorating buildings long gone, the project may answer curious students’ questions about the scenery they see while walking around Grounds, as traces of some historic buildings remain. For example, looking across University Avenue from the portion of the Corner near Baja Bean, Gilliam said, one can see a series of steps leading “to nowhere.” These steps were once the front of the University dispensary and infirmary, partially built from bricks taken from the Rotunda’s annex and torn down around the time of World War I.

The project may also recognize sites important to early student life. Temperance Hall, “the 19th-century forerunner of Newcomb Hall,” Gilliam said, was located where the University Medical Center and Medical School were expanded before its destruction around the time of the World War I. General Cocke, an ally of Thomas Jefferson, led a campaign against drinking and designated the building as a location where students could socialize without partaking in alcohol consumption, Gilliam noted. It also housed the first meeting rooms for fraternities before they were given houses elsewhere on Grounds.

Similarly, a series of buildings called Dawson’s Row, which once served the University community as dormitories and existed near the current site of the Office of African American Affairs, Gilliam said, may also be marked with a plaque.

Though these and other buildings have yet to be officially confirmed as deserving of recognition, one plaque is already in place, Gilliam said. The “anatomical amphitheater,” the only Jefferson-designed building no longer standing, was demolished to make space for Alderman Library. That building, which was once home to preserved cadavers and other specimens reserved for study, was located near the Alderman bus stop and is today commemorated with four stones marking the corners of the building’s foundation, as well as with a plaque in the middle reading, “On this site stood the first building devoted solely to medical instruction at the University of Virginia.”

The cost of the plaque recognition program is expected to be minimal and will take several years to complete, Gilliam and Sheehy said. The plaques will be similar to those already found on new buildings, Sheehy said, which are made of slate and are engraved with the names of the current president and rector of the University, as well as the architecture firm that designed the structure.

Gov. Timothy Kaine spoke to Politics Prof. Larry Sabato’s PLAP 101 “Introduction to American Politics” class yesterday, discussing his experiences in politics and urging students to become more involved in the political world.

“I never thought I would be in politics,” Kaine said. “I don’t remember a single political discussion … growing up.”

Kaine said his interest in politics changed, however, when he disagreed with the Richmond City Council and decided to run for his own council seat. He later became mayor of Richmond and was “on the way out of politics” when he decided to run for lieutenant governor of the commonwealth after the late Emily Couric, who had fallen ill because of pancreatic cancer, pulled out of the race.

As for his current job as governor, Kaine described his work as 60 percent executive, 30 percent legislative and 10 percent political.

“Of the three pieces [of my job], the legislative is probably the hardest,” Kaine said, noting that for the first two years of his gubernatorial term both the House of Delegates and the Senate were controlled by Republicans.

“This session we had a Democratic Senate and a Republican House,” Kaine noted, adding that as the margin between Democrats and Republicans has grown smaller it has become easier for him to pass social services legislation, such as mental health reform, that he is concerned about.

Although Kaine said he is pleased with the increased number of Democratic seats in both the commonwealth and federal governments, he emphasized that he does not view himself as an overly partisan person, adding that he believes passionately in freedom of choice.

In this vein, Kaine said he has exercised his freedom of choice by endorsing presidential candidate Barack Obama. During the second half of his talk, Kaine discussed this support, noting that he was the first politician outside of Illinois to endorse the Illinois Democratic senator publicly.

“He has an excellence of character judgement and motivation,” Kaine said of Obama, “and a coolness under pressure that is incredibly important in a president.”

Kaine also noted that he believes Obama focuses on small donors, registering voters and involving younger generations, who have become like “the foot soldiers” of his campaign.

“Obama is a community organizer,” Kaine said.

During a period for questions, however, first-year College student Alex Cortes questioned Kaine’s endorsement of Obama and asked him to reconcile how he can promote a candidate who did not support the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act, when he himself has previously been on the record as saying he is against abortion.

“I was really disappointed with Barack’s vote,” Cortes said after the lecture had ended. “If [Obama] is against that kind of legislation, I don’t think [Kaine] should support Obama.”

Kaine replied to Cortes’ question, noting that a number of pro-life advocates support Obama and adding that “no one is for abortion.” Kaine later added that he does not believe criminalizing health care choices of women and their doctors is the proper way to fight abortion, saying the government should instead focus on providing easier access to contraceptives.

First-year College student Marcella Coburn said she felt Kaine responded to students’ questions well.

“He seemed very knowledgeable,” Coburn said. “There were a lot of issue-based questions that were … specific to Virginia politics, and I thought he did a good job answering them.”

In addition to answering students’ questions about state and national politics, Kaine also urged students to involve themselves in the political process, citing two phenomena that make him pessimistic about politics: unwillingness of good people to run for office and low voter turnout.

“I encourage you to be interested … and be engaged,” Kaine said, “and you will find it to be incredibly challenging and incredibly satisfying.”

If there’s one time during the year when the commonwealth of Virginia decides to put on its Sunday best and look gorgeous, it has to be the spring. You’d have to be blind to miss the numerous signs of the season: Trees and flowers of all colors are in bloom, jeans and sneakers give way to jean shorts and sandals and TAs decide to hold their discussion sections alfresco. Added to all these is one more telltale sign of springtime — that great American ritual known as The College Visit.

For as long as there have been parents wacky enough to pay to send their children off for four years of unsupervised study, there have been College Visits. As the old adage goes, you wouldn’t buy a car without walking around it a couple times and kicking the tires, so you should take the same approach when considering colleges. Of course, this advice should only be taken so far in Charlottesville. Practically everything around here is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, right down to the restrooms, and you’d probably get jumped by security personnel if you actually kicked anything.

These risks notwithstanding, many families come to town in the spring to give the University the once-over, and it’s an exciting time for everyone involved. Of course, what we have to understand is that the two main parties to this undertaking, children and parents, enter into it with vastly different objectives. This makes for some interesting dynamics as the visit plays out.

The parents are first and foremost concerned with how the place is set up to take care of their child. This means that they’ve got a mess of questions that need to be answered: What is the food like? How are the exercise facilities? How safe is the area? If my kid gets bitten by a pit viper, where can he/she go to get the poison sucked out? No stone can be left unturned (though again, I would have to advise against actually turning over any stones).

Second, they need to sense that their child will be happy at the college in question. A good way to do this is to take the pulse of the student body by asking them how they like it here. Of course, most students any place will say they’re somewhere between content and overjoyed, but this isn’t always the case. At one place I visited, one student responded to the question by mumbling something about calculus and moaning like a cow with an ulcer. We were on the interstate in 15 minutes.

As for the prospectives themselves, priority number one for them is not looking like a high school kid. This takes the form of all sorts of different preparations: picking a snazzy outfit, investing in some sunglasses, and, for the gentlemen, possibly devoting the month prior to the visit to letting a beard come in. One wonders if they would still go to so much trouble if they knew that every college will invariably slap bright blue name tags on them and stick large folders in their hands.

The other necessary part of this charade is, of course, to temporarily disown parents. Visiting families can always be distinguished by their walking habits, which are a throwback to some sort of feudal society, with the child about a step and a half behind the parents. The children will often accompany this with a vacant look that says, “I do not know these people at all, nor do I know why that man just opened a 12-section map.”

Some prospectives, in contrast, will give up all pretense and show up in T-shirts that say “SENIORS RULE.” While many would consider this a faux pas of the highest order, I think that sort of devil-may-care attitude is commendable in a potential undergraduate. It’s never too early to establish yourself as a force to be reckoned with.

Besides, what these kids recognize is that we undergraduates aren’t out to get them or to pass judgment. By and large, we want to help make their visit a pleasant one in whatever way we can. I was delighted during one “Day on the Lawn” to direct six people to Cabell (five lost prospectives and one E-schooler.) So, I say, long live the College Visit with all of its rituals. But if the pit viper attack actually happens, don’t go looking at me.

Matt can be reached at mwaring@cavalierdaily.com.

It’s a bleak Sunday morning in Charlottesville, and I, Erik A. Silk, am a bit scared. Yeah. I’m not so much scared of not having a future, whether or not I should be. I’m scared of the epic amounts of time and thought I’m about to waste on these English papers. As an English major who’s done maybe 35 percent of all reading assigned to him since 2005, it’s taken me until fourth year to realize exactly how pointless of a human being I feel like whenever I analyze literature. One professor gave back a 12-page paper I worked really hard on, tearing it a new one on the basis that I needed to include more close reading. Close reading? Taking apart every bit of one or two sentences out of a play or novel to analyze it? How can one feel like they’re accomplishing something if they spend hours examining and evaluating a phrase or two that took the author mere seconds to write?

I’m scared because people keep saying these will be the last moments of my life until retirement that are so carefree and fun-filled. These last moments are filled with stressing about a numerical average which could be drastically affected by a letter whose identity hinges on how much I over-read into this crap I’ve been assigned. Only one person will ever read those papers, so I think I’d rather spend this time dishing out my last set of rants, which in contrast will be read by several, or perhaps even a handful, of people. I’ll just go down the line here.

– The intersection at Alderman and McCormick really needs green arrows on the stoplights. I’ve literally waited 10 minutes to make a left turn because of all the stupid pedestrians and all the stupid cars going straight ahead.

– Way too many songs rhyme “fire” and “desire.” There really are other words with the same ending as those two — you’ve just got to look a little bit.

– The “anti-stalker” application on Facebook that can’t actually do anything other than show you your name and picture? Having that makes me not want to be your friend.

– Returning papers and tests at the end of class may seem like a good idea in theory, but it is in reality a stupid idea. Students just need 15 seconds to see their grade, and they worry about the remarks and comments later. Leaving that pile of papers on your desk while you deliver your boring lecture is just cruel, and my favorite teachers of the past 16 years have defied this foolish convention of teaching.

– Devendra Banhart, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Jimi Hendrix may or may not be decent things, but they are certainly very much overrated. Just because something is ground-breaking doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good.

– I had to get up at 4:30 a.m. for something the other Saturday, and I set my alarm clock. I did not wake up on time because apparently the default for setting the alarm on it sets it to p.m. rather than a.m. That does not make sense.

– There are some offensively slow drivers in this town. If you want to take things slow, don’t do it in a car.

– The best teacher I ever had was in the first semester of my first year. The assigned readings were compelling and fun to read, the discussions were fast-moving and thought-provoking, and so, of course, the teacher was “fired” by the department after taking us on an awesome field trip to a tract of land (which we were told was owned by the University) with abandoned buildings from a forgotten era a few miles outside of town. Something like eight or nine cops with nothing better to do surrounded us, and some jerks called the U.Va. Foundation who were actually considering pressing charges on a group of students exploring some structures they were just going to tear down. My point is mostly that since then every professor I’ve had has either been afraid to be or just not cared to be interesting in how he presents his material.

– You can call me lazy and uncultured for preferring to read online summaries and Wikipedia over the actual classic literature itself, but 10 years down the road I will be able to discuss the themes and recount the plots just as well as you. Is that not what matters?

Whew. That feels so much better. I think, maybe, screw my paper — any reasonable employer would care more about what relevant skills and experience I can offer than how well I rewrote this 12-page mindless diatribe. My Especially Stern, Tersely Edifying Remark with which I will end this series of columns is as follows: One time a grounds-keeper yelled at me because my dog peed on a bush on the edge of the Lawn. It was idiotic. Let’s just say that the Lawn is now much more well-fertilized with a high-nitrogen compost thanks to the weeks following that incident and the dog’s (not my) flippant attitude. HAGS!

Erik can be reached at silk@cavalierdaily.com.

Last week I had the privilege of interviewing first-year Shane Valero about his experience thus far at the University. Not surprisingly, given Shane’s vast wisdom, I learned more from that brief exchange than I’ve learned in eight semesters of classes here. Then again, I’ve taken the same four classes every single semester, with all four being different sections of DRAM 898: Non-Topical Research. Notwithstanding the fact that my choice of classes violates every known restriction and requirement imposed by the University and is arguably also a moral outrage, somehow they’re letting me graduate anyway with a degree in “He means well.” It’s interdisciplinary, chumps.

Ever since I met him last week, Shane’s been like the son I never had, not to mention much cooler than the son I actually do have. But on our most recent camping trip, Shane found out that in a month I’ll be leaving these hallowed Grounds for good, and he became distraught. I could tell he was really distraught because when I mentioned New Jersey, he yelled, “Jersey, baby!” but neglected to throw in a fist pump. When I offered Shane my real son as a parting gift, he declined. Instead, he asked for one last favor: the chance to interview me. I was truly humbled and of course agreed. So with the tables turned, Shane asked me everything I think he thought I’d want you to know about me.

[5:52 p.m., phone rings]

D[aniel]: Hello?

S[hane]: Hey, sorry I’m late. I got lost again.

D: But this is a phone interview. You could’ve called from anywhere.

S: That’s what made it so difficult … Hey Dan!

D: Hey what?

S: What do you call wearing too much perfume in a basketball game?

D: OK, Shane, the point of this isn’t really to –

S: Come on, just guess.

D: I dunno, a fragrant foul?

S: Whaa … ? How’d you know?

D: Number one, it’s an obvious joke. Number two, I’m writing all of this, including your lines. For example, you’re about to say, “Oh yeah? Prove it.”

S: Oh yeah? Prove it … Oh my God. That’s amazing. You’re amazing.

D: Thanks, you didn’t have to say that.

S: I didn’t?

[45 minutes later, after further existential debate and a 43-minute nap for Shane]

S: It’s so weird that you’re graduating. I feel like we just met.

D: We did just meet. It was only a week ago. In fact, when I saw you earlier today, you were still wearing the same shirt as when we first met.

S: You can’t prove that. Maybe I changed my shirt and then changed it back. Or maybe I own multiple shirts that look identical.

D: Are you telling me that you custom ordered multiple shirts that say, “My name is Shain and today’s date is April 12, 2008?”

S: What can I say? They were buy 25, get one free.

D: And what about the misspelled name? Was that also free? Just kidding. It sucks that the company messed up like that.

S: Yeah, the … company … totally … messed up … Anyway, here’s your first question.

D: Finally.

S: True or false: What do you love most about U.Va.?

D: How is that a true or false –

S: Just answer the question, smart guy. True or false?

D: Well, I would’ve said, “The Lawn,” but since you’ve tied my hands, I’ll say, “True.”

S: I’m sorry, that’s incorrect. The answer was Katie Couric. Next question: If you could have dinner with anyone in the world, including Katie Couric, who would you choose? Remember, you are allowed to choose Katie Couric.

D: Alright then, Katie Couric.

S: Dude, are you crazy? I said you could choose anyone in the world, and you choose Katie Couric? I mean, she’s cool and everything, but come on, seriously. Next question: Katie Couric walks into a bar. The bartender, who also happens to be Katie Couric, says, “Good morning, Kat –”

D: What are you doing? Did you prepare for this interview at all?

S: Define “prepare.”

D: As in, did you try to think of anything to talk about beforehand, or are you just making these questions up as we go along?

S: Define “up as we.”

D: Hold on, is that the clinking of beer glasses I hear in the background? Are you at a bar? You’re watching “CBS Evening News” at a bar, aren’t you?

S: It’s more of a gastro-pub than a genuine bar.

D: Real professional, Shane. Look, this is a serious, emotional time in my life –

S: Well, same here. I went to the doctor yesterday, and he told me I only have 60 years to live.

D: Only?

S: I was hoping for at least 65, maybe 70.

D: I’m sorry to hear that, but this is basically my last chance to reflect on college before I graduate, and you haven’t asked me anything substantive.

S: Wow, you seem pretty sentimental. Just out of curiosity, how many times have you listened to Vitamin C’s 2000 single “Graduation (Friends Forever)” in the past month?

D: Don’t be ridiculous, Shane. That song is so middle school I can’t even … 153 times, according to iTunes … It’s in my playlist called “Vitamin C’s Greatest Hit,” which I’ve looped together with “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” by Green Day. There. Happy?

S: Listen, “Big Brother” is about to come on, and I’m not going to be coherent much longer, so you should probably go ahead and give your closing remarks.

D: I’d like to say that U.Va. will always hold a special place in my heart, right next to the place occupied by heraldry and southwest of the area dedicated to Australian accents. That’s prime cardiovascular real estate right there. And Shane, I want you to know that you’ll always be dearest to me.

Boagrius [my real son]: Ahem. I’m standing right here, Dad.

D: Whoops. You too, Boagrius.

Boagrius: Well, we can’t both be dearest. So who is it, me or Shane?

D: Take it easy, Boagrius. OK, HAGS, everybody!

Dan can be reached at dooley@cavalierdaily.com.

It’s quite a mouthful, but it’s been on the lips of students and faculty since last semester. Curriculum internationalization catapulted into student discussions on Grounds with Student Council’s creation of the Committee on Curriculum Internationalization. The ensuing report, released in October 2007, along with the administration’s Commission on the Future of the University report, has fueled a debate about the merits of globalizing the University’s course listings.

But no debate is simply a matter of two sides. To broaden the conversation about curriculum internationalization, The Cavalier Daily invited a group of students with diverse viewpoints to discuss the topic.

The hour-and-a-half conversation began with a general question about the participants’ views on internationalization, and the conversation took off from there. It covered topics ranging from study abroad to the administration’s progress on globalization to reconciling science and internationalization. Below is a summary of the more salient points made, but the full transcript is available on The Cavalier Daily’s Web site.

The initial views

Vadim Elenev: I think internationalization — it’s a funny word because it’s so vague … you could define it to mean anything you want. In the very heart, I am not against hiring better faculty, against expanding course offering[s] and against doing anything like that. I think we would all be supportive of something like that. The biggest controversy that can come out of there is [concerning] proposals I’ve heard of internationalization [like] the introduction of new programs, specifically those programs ending in the word “study.” Those, I believe, are [of] questionable academic value to the University, to a liberal arts education, to detract from other pursuits that … students engage in.

Ryan McElveen: I think we’ve made marginal progress over the past couple of years; I don’t think it’s going anywhere, personally. I’ve heard things to the contrary from the administration, but a lot of that has just been … essentially just talk … I just feel like the administration side of discourse and the student discourse is very perpendicular. I don’t think students in general see the University heading in the same way that the administration hopes the University heads.

Reece Epstein: Do we mean that they’re going to make new course requirements? Is it a matter of expanding faculty in certain areas? And if we are going to do that, then what are we giving up in order to do it? Because it doesn’t come out of thin air — I know that my tuition is high enough — so I think we really have to define before we go further, OK, what … programs … we can sort of talk about, and then try and figure out what the costs [and] benefits are.

Patrick Lee: The way I view curriculum internationalization that Ryan [has] presented over the years has been more like fundamentally changing the curriculum at home at the University … while the University is going on the track that curriculum internationalization is sending our students abroad and ignoring the fact that most of the students at this University will never study abroad, and if they do, they’ll only study abroad for a semester in an area where they’ll predominately speak English. They won’t get that international experience that study abroad is supposed to be. I just find the whole curriculum internationalization to be more of a University versus student [situation].

Stephanie Dewolfe: For me, it’s more important to look at what students at this University want right now, and I think that when I talk about curriculum internationalization it’s about expanding the curriculum to represent student desires, student needs and what students have expressed what they want, so that’s my main focus. We’ve measured a significant student desire for courses that have more of an international focus, whether it’s more specific regional studies, whether it’s looking at globalization and global development and that phenomenon going on in the world.

Reactions

Elenev: Once you have a language skill, to then learn, if there’s a great contribution to world culture, world literature, coming from a certain region of the world, it should be taught within a literature setting, within a literature department … Truth knows no cultural boundaries, so our pursuit of it … should be done not through a cultural setting … Culture, that’s something that we should try to acquire, the truth that we should pursue … That should be done through areas of thought rather than areas of the world.

Dewolfe: I think that if you look at the CIOs that we have and how wide-ranging they are and the international section and global development section, it’s the complete representation of the fact that these students are looking away from the curriculum because their interests aren’t being reflected there, so I don’t think that it’s the students’ job to form our curriculum or to say “this is what course you need to teach.” I should explain. I am calling upon the administration to take action and say, look, provide an outlet in academia, in education, that is a legitimate, sustainable way of educating students about their interests.

Study Abroad

Elenev: I appreciate that some of you want to study other regions … and I would encourage you not just to spend a semester abroad, but to spend your education abroad, because I think if I was interested, let’s say … in something like French politics, I would try to spend my educational career, maybe not undergraduate but definitely graduate and maybe live there, [to study at] Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, and if I’m really interested in China, I would want to go study in Beijing, in Shanghai, [as opposed to] trying to learn whatever bits and pieces about China I can in a room in Cabell Hall.

McElveen: I think a big part of [Elenev's] argument relies on economic freedom and the ability to go abroad. The reason why I’m at the University is because it’s cheaper, because I’m in-state. It’s not because I like the mission of the University, it’s because it’s a public university, and its mission should be to educate everyone that wants to come here and who is forced to go here because of economic restraint.

Views on the West

Epstein: The second you’re taking your first breath, you’re inheriting a certain culture and history, a set of principles and values and traditions. We inherit the West, and so when you say to me I have a slight Western bias — and I’m not remotely ashamed of that, I don’t think it’s a bad thing — I take a certain amount of pride in it.

McElveen: [Assoc. History] Prof. Brad Reed said at the direct action [event] that when it comes to classes in Western history, some people just don’t care, and I’m one of those people who just doesn’t care. I think that if you look at the [On the Future of Curriculum Internationalization at the University of Virginia] report, there’s also a lot of — particularly in minority communities — it’s not that they don’t care about the West, but they feel like their perspectives aren’t being addressed … Just from my own experience, which I can speak to best, I felt extremely marginalized at the University just in terms of my interest because every time the COD comes out, I found five courses that I would actually be interested in taking, and to get in to those requires some bribes or something along those lines.

Dewolfe: When it comes to economics and politics, these things aren’t isolated to the West or nationwide; these things affect other countries, and so I can understand the appeal in wanting to learn about various studies within both of those areas.

Elenev: The University of Virginia is best at teaching about Virginia, then about the United States, then about the West, then about the rest of the world, just like by virtue of our vicinity to Washington, D.C., we’re better at teaching about government than we are about teaching finance because New York is seven and a half hours away and London is even farther. So your geographic placement, your cultural, ethnographic placement defines your strength, and David Ricardo was not the original, but he did make a fairly good argument for why we should maximize our strengths rather than level the playing field between our strengths and our weaknesses.

Implementing internationalization

Elenev: Since that I’ve seen a lot of the goals … as not just creating more opportunities but more compulsive requirements to internationalization and not just to allow students to pursue a different track … but more toward taking students who don’t believe in the merits of the track you’re introducing and shifting them more in that direction and shifting the entire University more in that direction, so that is perhaps where this debate can get contentious.

Dewolfe: I don’t think it’s a matter of don’t internationalize or do internationalize, I think it’s a matter of representing more underrepresented voices, representing more underrepresented people, giving students at this University who aren’t able to relate, like Ryan, who look at the COD and don’t find what they want to study … not taking from our excellent liberal arts education focus, not taking from our Western-based curriculum that [Epstein] said compares to some of the best schools in the nation, that’s understandable. It’s not about deteriorating what’s here; it’s about adding and building and allowing that to make our students stronger.

Discussion about a globalized curriculum

Lee: If you look at how this whole sustainability movement is, it’s one of those things where the area we want to go into — like Africa, Central America, South America — and how the focus is how to bring green design into those areas. We can’t do that, we can’t bring our students there unless the University has faculty to teach these students what are the customs, what are the traditions in these areas. So it’s one of those things where if we want to develop scientists that go abroad to do good research, they have to be culturally adapted to those areas as well.

Epstein: I don’t think that if you’re designing research that you really need to have a cultural immersion here because … science is science, I don’t really care where you are. I’m sure there are ways of getting around in foreign countries.

Lee: We want clean drinking water for everyone in the world. Some people think it’s a fundamental human right, some people don’t think so. But at the same time, if you incorporate a new water filter in a village in Africa, and it changes the taste of water, and all you do is build a filter and leave, they won’t drink it. The people won’t drink it because it tastes funny to them — they don’t understand the science behind it. Cultural studies, cultural immersion is all about giving those scientists the ability of conveying the point about how this water is cleaner and why you should drink it and how to adapt it to this village.

Elenev: You’re presenting this purely theoretical, hypothetical scenario of a bunch of these completely ignorant Western-centric U.Va. students running into a village and installing a water filter in the middle of the night and then running out before anyone could notice. Presumably, within the process of any sort of collaboration … you always partner a global organization with local organizations and groups and those kinds of concerns are discussed at a fairly high level … When you get to combine the cultural expertise of people who know probably very little about sustainability but know a lot about what the customs of their community are and are capable of translating it to the Western … scientists, who don’t know about the culture but do know an awful lot about how water filtration works — [when] you combine the strengths of one person with the strengths of another, you can combine both strengths rather than increasing this thing and this.

Lee: This is exactly what we’re talking about. We have the science experts, but at the University, there’s a dearth of cultural experts, and these nations where the science experts want to start exploring and start going into and doing their research in, it’s one of those things when the cultural faculty aren’t here. Anthropology and sociology, all these departments do not have that cultural expertise in these growing areas of need that the University is starting to expand to, and the [Commission on the Future of the University] report is all about strengthening those areas strategically.

Elenev: To really learn something about the intricacies of a certain culture — and every culture has intricacies, no culture can be simplified by bullet points — you go to that country and you study there. It is an illusion, it is a fraud to presume that you can teach those intricacies, again, in a room in Cabell Hall. We can teach Virginia, we can teach America, we can’t teach Niger.

Lee: The University can teach Virginia, they can teach Virginia very well. We can teach it in Cabell — why is that? Because we learn from books, we learn from books really well, and you can apply the same idea to cultural experts teaching books because that’s what academia mostly is — it’s learning from a book and learning from the expertise from their experiences abroad and what their research is based out of. It’s one of those things where curriculum internationalization is trying to ensure that those people that have that experience abroad, that have the expertise in their field, can come to this University and start teaching our students in the exact same way Western history is taught, U.S. history is taught.

The Cavalier Daily asked 10 students, representing a diversity of viewpoints, to participate in a debate on curriculum internationalization. Five students agreed to take part.

We always knew Hereford Residential College was far away, but until recently we underestimated just how rural it was. This year, enterprising Hereford residents began planting an herb and vegetable garden on the college’s grounds. Some of the produce has already been used to prepare meals at Runk Dining Hall, and the gardeners hope more will be used in the future.

The food grown in the Hereford garden is more environmentally sustainable than food transported from off Grounds. Unfortunately, the gardening model isn’t exactly feasible for the other areas on Grounds, unless of course the University is prepared to start growing cabbages in the Pavilion gardens again.

Last night the Newcomb Dining Hall offered a “Green Dining” theme dinner. According to Graham Evans, a member of the Student Council Environmental Sustainability Committee and the organizer of the event, the organic, locally produced and Fair Trade options attracted more diners than Newcomb Hall is used to feeding. There’s no doubt the demand for sustainable foods is there, but the higher cost of the food dictates that this event was one day only.

Yesterday we explained that sustainable practices for buildings are only feasible if they also serve the University’s bottom line. This principle is demonstrated by the challenges of providing sustainable foods.

Sustainable practices are good in and of themselves, but if they are too costly, they begin to conflict with other priorities and will eventually lose out in a cost-benefit analysis. For example, complete sustainability in dining hall food would require the University to grow all of its food on organic farms in Nelson County and serve it to students at $100 a plate. Of course this wouldn’t do the environment any good, because no one would buy a meal plan.

Even with less drastic costs, sustainable practices will increase the financial impact of college on first-year students, who are required to purchase a meal plan. The goals of sustainability and accessibility would come into conflict. The University could subsidize the meal plans, but that would leave less money available for other projects more closely related to the University’s central goal of providing a quality education to deserving students.

What Aramark, the company that runs the University’s dining halls, should consider is what practices it can pursue without increasing its costs. Students working with Aramark rave about its eagerness to adopt sustainable practices, but the company knows any costs it passes on to students will only discourage students from buying meal plans. More students getting their meals at McDonalds serves neither Aramark’s goals nor those of environmental activists.

Possibilities begin to emerge when Aramark considers sustainable efforts that are also cost-effective. As Evans said, “green dining shouldn’t have to be a whole lot more expensive.”

For example, organic and locally grown food is likely to be healthier and more filling than the mass-produced food now served in the dining halls. If better food becomes the norm, students will likely consume less than they currently do, and Aramark’s costs will stay the same. So long as sustainable practices allow Aramark to offer better food at similar prices, there will never be a reason for Aramark to abandon them.

For those students who do care enough about sustainability to pay the added costs, Aramark should offer that option outside of the dining halls, through more locations modeled after the Fine Arts Cafe opened this year, which features organic, local and Fair Trade foods. Within the dining halls themselves, green dining efforts will only be feasible in the long run if Aramark and students have no incentive to scrap them.

LAST MONDAY, Students Defending Democracy and TheBurke Society hosted Robert Spencer, the author of “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (And the Crusades),” at an event intended to spark discussion of the “jihadist threat.” We — a Muslim, a Christian, and a Jew — attended the talk; we would like to offer some correctives to what we heard.

We agreed with many points — with Spencer’s reminder that jihad, “struggle,” often appears in peaceful contexts and with his condemnation of the Bush administration’s foreign policy toward Muslim countries. He also remarked the presence of a militant and supremacist interpretation of the Qur’an among certain Muslim thinkers since the early days; this is also correct, as long as we remember that over the 1,400 years of Muslim history there have been many other readings.

The way these facts were presented, however, is another matter. Spencer frequently failed to give a complete picture. For example, distinguishing between violent and non-violent meanings of jihad is merely a good start; one must also note differences even among groups who use the violent sense. They have a wide variety of ideas about the means, the opponent and the final aim of their “struggles.”

Spencer’s failure to make such distinctions could lead an audience to understand all jihadis as threats to the United States or to Western civilization; in fact, some direct their efforts against dictatorships or occupations but have no interest in other targets. Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Gama’a al-Islamiyya fought Mubarak’s regime, but also severely criticized the Sept. 11 attacks. Thus, although all jihadis cite the same Islamic sources, Spencer’s inference of a uniform jihadist impulse toward world domination is incorrect.

Similarly, Spencer asked why moderate Muslims do not do more to condemn violent jihadis or publicize an alternate understanding of Islam. A fair question; but thorough consideration reveals some answers that Spencer ignored.

Moderate Muslims are often constrained on two sides: Besides the jihadis, there are their repressive governments, which generally have little sympathy for an Islamist agenda. However, those governments frequently aid the jihadis when they find it useful to do so; the Pakistani government’s support of the Taliban in the 1980s and 1990s is a case in point. As a result, moderates’ criticism of jihadis often goes together with criticism of the regime, and the latter can be as dangerous as the former. Look again to Pakistan for the case of Asma Jahangir, a moderate female Muslim lawyer placed under house arrest by the Musharraf regime, and for many critical journalists who met worse fates.

Islamic extremism is a real phenomenon; but oversimplifications like Spencer’s risk making their hearers less able to analyze and respond appropriately. To the contrary, these incomplete alarms risk producing a narrow conception of Islam as something alien and dangerous. Translated into policy, that attitude could actually increase extremists’ power.

Take the recent case of Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan, a moderate thinker who has offered sophisticated reasons, from a Muslim context, why the Qur’anic passages on violent jihad are not binding today. In 2004 he was to begin work at Notre Dame University, an excellent pulpit from which to proclaim a non-violent Islam.

Unfortunately the State Department denied him entry. The official reasons took two years to emerge: small donations to two charities that were subsequently — a year after the donations — classified as terrorist fundraisers. Ramadan is arguing in court that he could not have known of these alleged connections before the U.S. government did; but meanwhile the academy loses a moderate voice, at least in part because of a climate of excessive fear, and extremist voices gain strength proportionately.

Is there another approach? Yes. And it does not, despite his assertions to the contrary, involve suppressing Spencer’s freedom of speech. Nor does it involve denying the presence of preachers who exploit Islam for violent ends; nor denying the presence of violent passages in the Qur’an. It involves acknowledging those things — but then going further.

Like Spencer, we want to see awareness of Islam grow, but we think awareness must include the religion as a whole, as concretely lived today by nearly twenty percent of the world. We think that one of the best moves toward awareness is the sort of thing we authors are doing — collaborating in work and friendship across religious lines. We have found that the concrete witness of a friend who simply lives out Islam in day-to-day life is an invaluable aid to understanding.

We should also recognize how many aspects of “our” Western culture owe their existence to intellectual interchange with Islam. Modern talk about “essentialism” and “existentialism,” for example, traces its ancestry to Ibn Sina, a Muslim philosopher of a millennium ago.

Finally, we must attend to Islam’s long and complex history, without which we will badly misunderstand what happens today. Let us, for example, take one or two of the University’s many courses on Islam. Anyone who does that will meet the things that concern Spencer, but will also meet much else; and such a person will be much better equipped to begin assessing, without over- or under-estimation, the reality of the jihadist threat.

Omer Shaukat, John Bugbee and Daniel Weiss are Ph.D. students in Religious Studies.

ALTHOUGH admissions decisions were sent to the Class of 2012 barely three weeks ago, the University’s Office of Admission is already gearing up for next year’s applicant pool. The summer and fall months will be spent recruiting thousands of rising high school seniors to apply. For example, an April 20, 2008, New York Times article described Dean of Admissions John Blackburn traveling with counterparts from Harvard and Princeton to underrepresented regions last fall. Such efforts at increasing geographic diversity are commendable and must be continued. Although the University has made significant strides in recruiting more non-Virginians, it has also neglected to attract in-state students from all parts of the commonwealth.

Indeed, geographic diversity has greatly increased over the past decade. Today, international students account for five percent of the undergraduate body, and overall 31 percent of undergraduates are non-Virginians. However, while achieving these milestones, we have overlooked one of the most important and basic measures of diversity: the geographic origins of Virginians at the University. Although 69 percent of undergraduates come from the commonwealth, most of these students hail from a select few regions.

Statistics from the Institutional Assessment and Studies Web site show that rural areas, particularly in Central and Southwest Virginia, are underrepresented among the undergraduate population. Small mountain counties like Craig and Bland each have one student currently enrolled. In comparison, Fairfax County, which is overwhelmingly the largest single source of students, has a total of 2,543 residents in the undergraduate population. This represents 18.65 percent of all undergraduates and 27.41 percent of undergraduates from Virginia.

Of course, Fairfax and Craig Counties aren’t directly comparable, as Fairfax County’s 2006 population of 1,010,443 makes it over 195 times as large as Craig County. Nonetheless, the disparity between these counties illustrates overall regional disparities, and shows that proportionately rural counties are often underrepresented. As certain parts of the Commonwealth send thousands of students to the University, other large swaths of the state send a handful at most.

The regional divide is not only shown by comparing very rural and suburban areas, however. Disparities also exist between suburban areas. Virginia Beach, the largest city in Virginia with 435,619 residents in 2006, has 470 residents within the undergraduate population. In comparison, 425 undergraduates come from Henrico County, a suburb of Richmond that has barely two-thirds as many people as Virginia Beach. This difference between high-population areas, in which a county with two-thirds the population of Virginia Beach contributes nine-tenths as many students as that city, shows that geographic disparities transcend rural areas.

Increasing Virginia diversity does not necessitate imposing quota systems or discriminating against residents from certain geographic regions. Instead, it can be accomplished by reaching out to students who believe the University is financially or academically out of reach. Dean Blackburn’s trips to Western Virginia are the type of extraordinary efforts necessary to convince students from small public high schools to apply to the University.

However, current efforts aren’t sufficient. A.J. Delauder, a senior at St. Paul High School in far Southwest Virginia, described via e-mail her application process to the University. When a University admissions official visited her region, A.J. says “only three prospective undergraduate students attended.” Within Southwest Virginia, “Not much is known about U.Va., and available information is somewhat skewed because of the impression of U.Va.’s College at Wise.” She continues, noting “Students in my school have the misconception that U.Va. is just a larger version of the Wise campus and do not realize the caliber of admission standards and opportunities at U.Va.”

Unless the University intensifies outreach measures, students like A.J. will continue to slip through the cracks. Although she applied, and was accepted to, the University, A.J. is the exception. The only member of her 36-person graduating class to consider the University, she is currently choosing whether to attend here or Virginia Tech. As her testimony shows, attracting geographically underrepresented, but qualified, students is simply a matter of making those students aware of our resources, support networks and opportunities.

Indeed, recent outreach efforts to underrepresented regions must be sustained and strengthened. We cannot declare victory simply because racial, ethnic, gender or religious diversity have greatly increased over the past three decades. The subject of geographic diversity within Virginia has been neglected, and as the state’s flagship institution of higher education, we have an obligation to change that. Our next diversity mission should strive to ensure that the University truly reflects and represents the state whose name it bears.

James Rogers is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at jrogers@cavalierdaily.com.

This is my last column of the year, so I wanted to start by thanking you for reading along. I hope I have provided some semblance of sports insight or humor (or both) to get you through your Tuesdays.

Anyway, for this week, I figured I would talk about sports-related issues to get you through the summer. Hopefully these topics will give you enough fuel for sports conversation with your friends from back home, in case listening to you talk about Virginia athletics all day isn’t good enough for them. (But, it should be.)

April – The NFL Draft

The draft occurs this Saturday, but there’s enough hype surrounding it that you can talk about it through the end of the month, if not longer, without the topic getting old. Hopefully you’ll be getting pick-by-pick updates if you are going to Foxfield, because every 10 minutes you’ll be wondering, “Who just got picked?” … or maybe that’s just me. Virginia’s own Chris Long (defensive end) and Branden Albert (offensive guard) have both been projected as potential Top 10 picks, so when they get drafted high you can brag to all your friends at other schools about how your team has better National Football League prospects than theirs.

May – The Stanley Cup Playoffs

While the finals themselves might not end until early June, May is the best month to tune in if you haven’t been following the National Hockey League playoffs already. The first-round series are almost finished, and the games only get more exciting as the quest for the Cup rolls on. Two of the best young offensive players in the game, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, already powered the Pittsburgh Penguins past the Ottawa Senators in a four-game sweep and might win the Eastern Conference title this year. Standing in their way could be the New York Rangers, led by goaltender Henrik Lundqvist and future Hall of Famer Jaromir Jagr, who is playing some of the best hockey of his life. The Western Conference has equally as much potential drama, and you should definitely try to watch at least one game during May.

June – The NBA Finals and Draft

After what will seem like an eternity of playoff games, the NBA Finals will finally begin June 5. Many fans are anticipating a match-up between the Boston Celtics — led by the trio of Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett — and the Los Angeles Lakers, led by Kobe Bryant (of course). But of greater interest to most college basketball followers is the June 26 draft. Just like with football, the hype surrounding basketball’s draft is enormous. Cavalier fans will be crossing their fingers all month long in hopes that guard Sean Singletary gets selected, and beyond that, there are plenty more reasons to follow the draft. The question of who will go first has a seemingly obvious answer — Kansas State forward Michael Beasley was the best basketball player in college this year and has a great deal of potential –but after that, the “lottery picks” could involve a number of different prospects. Oh, and draft day trades are always exciting, too.

July – Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game

The All-Star game is called the Midsummer Classic for a reason — it’s a part of our national pastime that marks the halfway point of the season. This year, the All-Star Game will be held July 15 at Yankee Stadium, honoring “The House that Ruth Built” in its final season of operation. Along with the Home Run Derby and other activities that comprise All-Star weekend, the game itself is fun to watch because it features the best players from each league squaring off against each other, and every team is represented by at least one player. And even though I don’t agree with the policy, the fact that the winning league earns home-field advantage for its champion in the World Series means the game has some semblance of a meaning. Also, this is the time of year when big-time trade negotiations occur, which only adds to the baseball craziness that occurs during July.

August – The Olympics

Yes, I know, many sports fans might not care about some of the Olympic events. Nevertheless, there will still be many incredible athletes displaying their abilities during the 2008 Olympic Games, August 8 to 24 in Beijing. The beauty of the Olympics is the juxtaposition of major sports with non-major sports. For instance, you can spend a day watching basketball and badminton, softball, synchronized swimming, tennis and table tennis. I’ll be sure to watch football — er, soccer — and hopefully see the continuing improvement of the U.S.’ program as it takes on tough international competition.

And, when the dog days of summer are all said and done, you’ll be back at Virginia for another year of pure, passionate college athletics. If you are a graduating fourth-year student … I’m sorry. I hope you will all come back as alumni to root on the Cavaliers, starting with our Aug. 30 football season-opener against Southern California. Aren’t you getting excited already?