Despite the increasingly troubled economic climate, the University’s “Knowledge is Power” capital campaign remains on track, said Alison Traub, assistant vice president for development and director of the campaign.

The University started the campaign in 2006 with an original goal of raising $3 billion during the course of three years, $1.865 billion of which already has been met through gifts and pledges, Traub said. Even during tough economic times, campaign officials have continued seeking contributions from prospective donors through letters and phone calls, Traub added, noting that her office’s efforts have helped keep the campaign accelerating toward its projected target.

“We are respectful of our alumni and friends who say the timing is not right,” said Charlie Fitzgerald, senior associate vice president for principal relationship development. “But we’re not going to assume the timing is wrong.”

The University by and large has prevented the current economic downturn from severely slowing the pace of the Knowledge is Power Campaign — even though some individual donors possibly now are facing new monetary concerns — by remaining mindful of donors’ sensibilities and continuing to press for campaign gifts, Fitzgerald and Traub said. The campaign ended 2008 on a good note, Traub said, taking in $42 million in new commitments.

“I don’t feel that we’ve faced difficulties because what we do now is no different from what we do in any other times,” Traub said. “We’re always sensitive to [donator’s] timing.”

She also admitted, though, that there have been instances in which donors have altered previously made pledges. Traub said some donors have lessened their commitments, while others have agreed to pay off their promises sooner.

“Certainly [the economy is] having an impact,” Traub said. “There are people that it’s affecting tremendously. There are people who would like to make a donation that are not able to.”

Other higher education institutions’ campaigns may see a decline in giving under similar circumstances, Traub added, but the University’s — because of its persistence and willingness to remain open to gifts of all sizes — “fortunately” remains on track.

“We expect to reach our campaign goal,” she said.

A recent study conducted by University Urban and Environmental Planning Prof. Bill Lucy and Graduate Architecture student Jeff Herlitz challenges many popular beliefs about the relationship between the economy and foreclosures in the United States.

“Most of the country is actually quite stable in terms of housing markets,” Lucy said, even though specific locations have experienced large housing value decreases.

Problems occur when people apply skewed national findings to local business, he explained.

“People who are involved in buying, lending and making policy need to have a more nuanced, geographically varied understanding of house values and also development prospects,” Lucy said.

Lucy and Herlitz’ study found several surprising findings, Lucy said, including a difference between foreclosures in central cities and foreclosures in suburban areas. Cities tend to maintain property values better, Lucy said, a finding which might help explain why the Virginia suburb of Prince William County has seen 10 times more foreclosures than Washington D.C.

The data gathered by Lucy and Herlitz also contests widely accepted indicators of the national property market, such as the 20 City Index, which claims that all property values have gone down by an average of 18.5 percent.

Similarly, Lucy said he believes that reports from the Case-Shiller Index are weighted toward states with the highest foreclosure rates, such as California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida. Thus, the national average is skewed by outliers, and one might reasonably conclude that foreclosure rates are not nearly as bad in some states, including Virginia.

Additionally, the study revealed a decrease from 2004 to 2007 of 1.6 million households headed by people ages 30 to 44, the bracket which normally experiences the biggest increase in home ownership. This shift indicates that it is not only reckless lending and mortgage acceptances causing foreclosure problems, but also a change in the size of the buying public, Lucy said.

Along with a decrease in home purchases within the prime age bracket, Lucy said there was an increase of 3 million single family homes for sale from 1998 to 2005. These additional homes amount to an 44 percent increase during the course of seven years, he said.

Simultaneously, the traditional 2-to-1 ratio between house values and owners’ annual income became much wider, Lucy said. In 2007, “California house values were more than eight times [the] median family income, [which is] why California is the center of the foreclosure crisis,” he addded.

University Economics Department Chair William Johnson said the relationship between a declining economy and an increase in foreclosures is a cycle in which “the direction of causation could be either way.”

He said there are two areas where housing prices are declining significantly. In areas known for housing booms and busts, like Florida, Arizona, Nevada and central California, rapidly increasing price and construction levels caused huge stock increases based somewhat on speculative demand. Once the prices of properties stopped going up, Johnson said, speculative demand disappeared and prices fell, leading to an economic downturn.

The other main area of depressed prices is the Rust Belt of the Northeast and Upper Midwest. Many unemployed people in this area “[depend] on heavy manufacturing, which is not a booming part of the economy,” Johnson said.

“[The] overall problem isn’t necessarily as much as a national issue as people make it out to be,” Herlitz said. “It is from an economic standpoint but not necessarily from a housing standpoint.”

Mayor Dave Norris said Charlottesville is faring well enough to not qualify for federal aid offers like the Neighborhood Stabilization funds.

“Those funds were targeted to cities that had higher than average foreclosure, and we didn’t qualify for any of those funds because we just haven’t seen any epidemic of foreclosures that other parts of the state have experienced,” Norris said. Although the foreclosure rate in Charlottesville is higher than it was several years ago, foreclosure is “not nearly as big of an issue here as it is in other parts of the country,” Norris said.

Lucy, however, said one should remain cautious and seek to address local economic issues before they worsen. He noted that Charlottesville currently has a 3.5-to-1 ratio between property value and salary, a figure on the “outer limits of what’s sustainable.”

Exactly how home ownership impacts the stability of the housing industry, though, is still unknown, Herlitz said, adding that the study prompts the need for more research in the field.

The University Library and the Heritage Microfilm Company recently teamed to make Alderman Library’s international newspaper microfilm collection available in a searchable online database.

Microfilms, which are film reels that hold images of documents, require large machines to read them and often do not age well. Moving the University’s collection online will make it easier for researchers to access the newspapers and will preserve the collection, said Barbie Selby, research and information services manager for Alderman Library.

“It’s a pretty old technology,” Selby said about microfilm, adding that “vinegar syndrome” — a pungent smell that develops after time — often ruins the film reels. “[Microfilms] could be a good resource but it’s not [being] used to its full potential.”

Jamie Leon, regional specialist for Access NewspaperARCHIVE, an Internet gateway to various newspaper collections, said he contacted Selby to digitize the library’s international newspaper collection.

“We set up an initiative to obtain international newspaper content for our database, newspaperarchives.com,” Leon said.

Selby and Leon said Heritage will scan microfilm images run the created .pdf files through an optical character recognition process. The company will then load the content onto its Web site so that users can search the collection by name, keyword or date.

Leon said she chose Alderman’s collection because of the library’s large quantity of material.

“Of all of the research that I did, [Alderman has] the most impressive collection of international content, [some] that you can’t find anywhere else,” she said, emphasizing the availability of foreign newspapers with World War II coverage.

In exchange for making its collection available to Heritage, the University community will have free access to the database during the next three years. After three years, the University will pay a reduced price for accessing the online collection.

“We’re extremely excited to offer such unique content for researchers,” Heritage Director Mike Willard said.

Selby said although this arrangement is a “good partnership,” the University Library remains interested in other partnerships — perhaps with other universities, libraries and nonprofit organizations — that could make the University’s materials more widely and readily available.

An ongoing study headed by Environmental Studies Prof. Alan Howard recently determined that water flowed across the surface of Mars for at least a period of 10,000 total, non-consecutive years.

The study, which has been running for more than a year, involves an investigation of the amount of water and precipitation early in Mars’ history, Howard said. It also involves an examination of Mars’ topography, to see where running water may have carved out valleys, channels and other geographic features that appear on the planet’s surface today.

Researchers could determine the depth of lakes and other bodies of water by seeing, for example, how they may have overflowed and carved a channel in the process, Howard said. He noted that various images from orbiters around Mars supplemented knowledge of the planet’s topography.

Howard added that, although the study concluded that water flowed on Mars for more than 10,000 years, this number simply reflects the total number of years, meaning that water may have flowed during several different time periods. Moreover, though water is commonly thought of as necessary for existence, Howard noted that most scientists would still hesitate to make any conclusions about possible life on Mars, even in light of his findings. He said it is unknown how long conditions would have to be warm and wet for life to develop, but estimated that it probably would have to be millions or even tens of millions of years. Additionally, Howard said Mars is less likely to have conditions suitable to the development of life because it is both colder and smaller than Earth, which means it has a thinner atmosphere.

Also unlike Earth, Mars lacks a strong magnetic field to shield it from solar winds, which are high energy particles that contribute to the erosion of planetary atmospheres, Howard said.

Nevertheless, the question of whether primitive organisms could have developed in the presence of water on Mars remains a mystery.
“At the very best, there’s a lot of uncertainty,” Howard said.

Moving forward, Howard said he and the rest of the study’s team will continue trying to increase the scientific community’s understanding about how much water there actually was on Mars’ surface.

“The exact direction that further research would go would depend on what else we find from this study,” Howard said.

—compiled by Prateek Vasireddy

The length of study abroad trips does not affect the degree to which students become globally engaged later in life, according to a study presented at the Forum on Education Abroad, held Feb. 18 to 20 in Portland, Ore. Most students studying abroad will become more globally engaged, researchers said, but the amount of time spent in a foreign country does not deepen or lessen the impact such trips can have.

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities researchers examined factors like civic engagement and philanthropy to determine whether students were more “globally engaged” after studying abroad, Minnesota Prof. Michael Paige said. Paige defined global engagement as a combination of five variables: civic engagement, philanthropy, knowledge production, social entrepreneurship and what Paige called voluntary simplicity — “a lifestyle that is mindful of our environment” by cutting back on potentially harmful activities like excessive automobile use.

Through the distribution of more than 6,000 surveys to former study abroad students, researchers were able to gauge how involved those students later became in global affairs, Paige said.

“The study looked at students as far back as 50 years ago,” Paige said, noting that he started the study to see what former study abroad students had accomplished after taking trips.

Paige said the survey revealed it is not the length of time spent abroad, but rather the specific experiences — be it language, research or immersion in a foreign school — that make a difference.

“People who study abroad become globally engaged no matter the length of the stay,” he said. “What we have found out is that the type of program you are in appears to be important to global engagement, particularly if you have experienced two or more kinds of these study abroad programs.”

Paige noted that students participating in study abroad programs incorporating two or more kinds of learning are the most likely to volunteer in social justice activities. A trip during which a student participates in research and a travel seminar will have a deeper impact than a trip that just focuses on research, he added, regardless of how long the student stays abroad.

Marina Markot, University associate director of study abroad, said she was not surprised by the study’s findings, citing many students’ increased international volunteering and political activism after studying abroad.

Third-year College student Erin Paguio, who recently took a January Term course in Florence, Italy, said the study’s findings seem appropriate. Although her time abroad was much shorter than the time spent by students travelling during the fall or spring semesters, she said the experience resonated with her just as much. The limited amount of time spent in Florence forced her to appreciate each site she visited, Paguio said.

“You knew it was the one day you would have to look at it, which gives you more appreciation,” she said.

Although one’s engagement in global affairs may not depend on the length of the trip, both Paige and Markot agreed that longer stays are more effective in promoting what Paige called “better intercultural skills.”

“Longer trips allow you to develop more friendships, which are really important in being culturally aware,” said third-year College student Eugene Resnick, who spent a semester in Copenhagen, Denmark and a January Term in Ghana.

But, “if someone hasn’t been abroad, any length of trip is going to have an impact,” Resnick said.

In any debate about which groups of students at the University spend the most time holed up in their class buildings, the students in the Architecture and Engineering Schools tend to come out on top. It’s difficult to imagine, therefore, the scale of productivity that might emerge if these two groups merged. In 2004, Asst. Architecture Prof. John Quale wondered the same thing, and ecoMOD was born.

EcoMOD, according to its Web site, “is a research and design/build/evaluate project at the University of Virginia School of Architecture [in conjunction with the Engineering School] that aims to create a series of ecological, modular and affordable house prototypes.” The project occurs in a two-year cycle — one year is devoted to the design and construction of a building, and the next year is an evaluation of the finished product.

Unlike most work done in the Architecture and Engineering Schools, the ecoMOD design-build project requires direct cooperation between both graduates and undergraduates of the two schools, as well as contact with clients, community members and other University students.

“It’s kind of close together and more of a real-life scenario than we’re used to in school,” said second-year graduate Architecture student Alison Singer, one of the project managers.

Although the project is always to some degree charitable and directed toward a low-income housing bracket, sponsors and clients vary. This year, the design-build team of ecoMOD4 is working with Habitat For Humanity of Charlottesville, and Habitat will choose a Charlottesville couple to receive the house. The site is on the corner of Ridge Street and Elliot Avenue, not far from the Corner, and is a subdivision of a city-condemned lot, though it was once the location of a well-kept three-story house.

Although there are hopes that the city will recover the abandoned house and turn it into a duplex, the ecoMOD4 design-build team still faces the challenge of working with what they have — in terms of site, budget constraints and rules specific to working with Habitat — to create the most pleasant and ecologically efficient environment possible. This multifaceted nature of the project is what makes it a learning experience.

“We try to do our own kind of economics, which is [using] the cheapest, highest quality we can afford,” said Singer, who was drawn to the graduate Architecture School primarily because of her enthusiasm for the ecoMOD program. “We have a whole process for dealing with those kinds of things, called DecisionWeb, that looks at the aesthetics, the financial implications, the environmental, the social and psychological kind of highs and lows, benefits … of choosing a specific material and working with a specific kind of manufacturer.”

Because the complex construction of the home cannot be offset by any sort of profit, budget constraints and financial implications of project details must guide every decision. The projected total cost for ecoMOD4 is about $120,000; of this, Habitat For Humanity has pledged $60,000, leaving University Architecture and Engineering students to raise the other $60,000.

“We’ve been doing little things like Qdoba night on the Corner, and we’re selling snacks here in the [Architecture] School to try to raise some money. We made steel mugs that have the ecoMOD logo on [them] and we’re selling those at the [Architecture] School,” fourth-year Architecture student Steven Johnson said. “Really, every little bit helps at this point.”

Donations and fundraisers — which also included an ecoMOD 5K that took place Feb. 7 — though, are not the only ways in which the team sticks to its budget.

“Throughout the design of this project, we’re looking to do … the most cost-efficient thing without sacrificing the design, so that’s always in the back of our heads,” Johnson said.

In addition to designing the house, a total of about 25 to 30 Architecture, Engineering and other students also will be putting the building together, helping save money that would otherwise be spent paying for a construction crew. The building process also contributes to the hands-on learning experience that makes the project unique.

Although construction for the current ecoMOD project will begin the week after Spring Break, the site itself will remain relatively empty until the end of the summer. Construction, which will occur at a University-owned abandoned airport hangar at Milton Field, will result in several separate modules, all of which will then be brought by truck and assembled in late August to early September. From there, Architecture students with Prof. Quale and Engineering students with electrical engineering Prof. Paxton Marshall will spend the next year evaluating and learning from their own work.

Though the project is usually associated with the fourth-year Architecture studio students who spend many hours designing the house, Engineering students, who begin their involvement during their second years, also are an irreplaceable part of the ecoMOD project.
“The [Architecture] School does most of the design and a lot of the aesthetic part of it,” second-year Engineering student Logan Whitehouse said. “Our job is to make the house more energy-friendly and to work their design into the overall goal of the project.”

Between design, engineering, computer simulations, research, client relations, financial restraints and publicity, there never seems to be a shortage of things to worry about in the ecoMOD design-build project. But from students’ accounts, the experience is more than worth it.

“There are different aspects that you don’t really think about when you just want to build a cool, energy-sustainable house,” Whitehouse said.

In life, so many choices come in pairs. Whenever Sunday comes around, we have to decide between getting reading done for the week or downing dollar pitchers at the Virginian. We have to choose between studying at Alderman or Clemons. Between Big Macs and Whoppers. Smoking or non. Paper or plastic. Plus or Cav. The list goes on and on. We constantly have to make up our minds.

Similarly, we have to pick sides on the feuds of Hollywood. Because these topics arise in so many conversations, it’s necessary to possess some understanding about the two celebrities, as well as any other affected parties, like love interests or shared children.

One of the timeliest celebrity disputes is the one between Jay-Z and Chris Brown, who abused girlfriend Rihanna before the Grammys. Because Rihanna is one of Jay-Z’s protégés — and because the rap industry resembles the mafia — he is taking issue with Brown. To be honest, who can blame him? Domestic abuse is not only despicable, but it’s so 1950s; I guess Brown missed the whole “girl power” memo of the Spice Girls era and forgot we had a woman almost win the presidential nomination. Plus, we obviously support Rihanna because without her, our iPod playlists would be half as long. Unlike most celebrity feuds, this one has a clear winner.

A much tougher match to call is the one between Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston. Only the fight’s cause, Brad Pitt, is certain. For anyone who’s seen “Legends of the Fall,” it’s obvious why people would fight for his affection. But which actress deserves it? It’s tough to compete with Angelina. Not only has every pointless magazine named her the most beautiful woman in the world, but she’s an acclaimed actress and political activist. Jen, however, is undeniably lovable. On top of her enviable smile, she has that indefinable quality that makes everyone want to be her “Friend.” Wow, I really crack myself up. Still, I think Jolie wins. Aniston’s rebound with entire-generation-younger John Mayer makes her look pretty desperate. Moreover, while Angelina has raised charity and borne the most beautiful child to ever grace the planet, all Jen has given us is the “Rachel” and some mediocre chick flicks.

This column would be incomplete without mentioning the war between LC and Heidi, with whom we’re on a first-name basis. I use the term “celebrity” here loosely, given that I’m not at all sure why these girls are “celebrated.” If you think you need to watch “The Hills” to keep up with this contest, you’re sorely mistaken. I haven’t watched the show in more than a year but can still give you a 30-second recap: Girls sit around a table in a dark nightclub and glare at each other. OK, so it only took four seconds, which is equivalent to the length of the show without commercials. Though I’m not exactly positive, I’ll go out on a limb and say this fight is about boys, fame, whose nose job is better or some hybrid of the three. Though LC is the more famous of the two, I think she loses. She’s one of those girls always involved in a fight — or “drama,” to quote the eloquent lexicon of MTV. This quality was acceptable during her high school years on “Laguna Beach,” but not anymore. Time to grow up, LC.

One last celebrity feud I’ll address is the argument between Katherine Heigl and the Judd Apatow gang. After starring in Apatow’s hit “Knocked Up,” Heigl called the film anti-feminist in a magazine interview. Firstly, I’m not convinced she knows the definition of “feminist”; her character is successful and ambitious, while the film’s male roles forgo jobs for a life of pot smoking and ping pong. She also should be a little more grateful because before this role she was just the obligatory “hot” nurse/friend on “Grey’s Anatomy.” And of course, the Apatow gang wins because its portfolio of movies — including “Superbad” and “The 40-Year Old Virgin” — is a testament to the fact that they can do no wrong.

Though significant, these celebrity feuds are hard to keep pace with. The weekly tabloid cover may change your loyalties. Also, some celebrities can’t stay away from controversy; the cast of “The View” changes weekly because of catfights masked as political issues. Really, we never know what will be considered the Jackie v. Marilyns or Lynyrd Skynyrd v. Neil Youngs in the future.

Abby’s column runs biweekly Fridays. She can be reached at a.coster@cavalierdaily.com.

So the Dec’s Lawn-mocking list should be out by now — but they’re all a bunch of dirty, lazy hippies so don’t hold your breath … Unless there’s a Dec kid nearby, then hold your breath because yuck, the stench of poor hygiene and failure — and that means I can finally see who got the Lawn instead of me! I mean, I did everything right! I turned in my application only a day late. Wait, I’m a fourth-year? It was a day and a year late!

That’s okay, I enjoyed my fourth year spent in Gooch. Runk’s delicious! Plus, I can copy and paste my Lawn app here and call it my column for the week. Once you see how qualified I am, you’ll have no choice but to vote me into the “Good Guy” room despite my public penchant for puppy pummeling and other atrocious alliterations.

Question 1: What are your University achievements?

I’m not the normal jackass of all trades that does all the BS of Honor, UJC and UGS. Especially not Honor; those tools can’t even afford an acronym. I don’t do UJC because even the kids on UJC don’t do UJC — what’s there to do anyway? It’s just the Honor for compulsive liars and kleptos. And I definitely don’t do UGS — you’re an unpaid salesman, know your place!

Anyhoo, I was gonna create my own CIO where all I do is give out T-shirts, text messages and monthly e-mails about not putting your fingers in electrical outlets, but they told me that was already started. Instead I decided to make a group about global development and other junk because someone told me they eat that stuff up on Lawn applications — er, I mean, Law School applications — er, I mean, I love TJ.

That’s how I decided to create Hoo’s a Canadaphile. It shows that I’m a born leader, also that I only like foreign countries that speak my language — English or lolcat — terrible Canadian-brand cars like the McLaughlin Fupa, universal healthcare and thus cheap drugs and playing hockey — psych, watching hockey — psych, watching hockey fights — psych, I like beating people up with hockey sticks.

And I put down that I was the founding president and led my club to a whole year of maintaining its membership numbers until the summer when everyone quit all at once, and I remembered we only put on one event … But those little squirts held a coup and made me a lame, powerless member. But not everyone on the Lawn can be a leader, right? You need some bright-eyed followers! How can you possibly hold a Lawn progressive without a few drunken followers?

Question 2: How has your membership in our University community enriched this institution or student body?  

While I’m only technically a member of Hoo’s a Canadaphile, my dad owns three car dealerships so I’m so rich. Of course, I enrich Grounds just by sharing my presence. By sharing my presence, I mean sending you sexts and being way too typeractive when I trick you into G-chatting with me.

I’m also involved with a lot of groups on Grounds, despite them forbidding me. For instance, I like to sneak into the production room of The Cav Daily around midnight and saucy-edit all the articles right before they’re published. This usually amounts to me adding the expletives helter skelter and changing the names of University officials to exotic STIs.

I also support the arts by attending the cinematic masterpieces at the Carmike off-Grounds — it’ll be a cold day in heck before I see any of those twinkle town musicals at the Culbreth. And by support, I mean, I exclusively go to the double freetures — where I pay for “Twilight” but I’m sneaking into HSM3 fo free!

I’m also real involved with StudCo, i.e. I take cat naps in the office and watch Katie Lee watch “30 Rock.” She doesn’t actually let me watch Tina Fey’s gigglefest with her because I just sit there and say LOL every five seconds, when that’s a dirty, dirty lie, because I’m only LQTM — laughing quietly to myself. You know whenever you type LOL, it’s an honor violation! When I get on the Lawn, I’m gonna make so many friends with Honor kids with S’mores, I can finally report your AIM chat mockeries!

Question 3: How will living on the Lawn further your goals for contributing to the University and the broader community next year?

Well, let’s just say I tried to hold fancy wine and S’mores parties at my old residence, but then my box on the street caught on fire! I super need a Lawn room, yo! Also I really like writing inappropriate things on Lawnies’ whiteboards — see Austin Wiles’ unfunny column about this for some trite examples of what NOT to write. But after writing biting shutdowns like “Natasha likes Robert Pattinson more than Zac Efron!” and cackling away cruelly — I mean, what blind and/or retarded person would make that choice!? — I need a place nearby to lay low.
 
Question 4: What can you bring to the Lawn community that sets you apart from other potential residents?

Besides my debilitiating aibohphobia (AH!) aka (AH! Again!) a fear of palindromes, I’m pretty normal and will probably just blend in with the other residents.

And by blend in, I mean I will also have a fickle passion for random things that no one else cares about. I’ll be sure to knock on all their doors and demand they put up a poster for one of my causes of the day, which may include not voting on some referendum — my voting policy is to only vote for kids with great hair, so I just ignored that question — or attending some a cappella charity for those less cute than I am. And then there’s my favorite cause: Leave Britney Alone!

Question 5: To be selected as a member of the Lawn community is not merely an honor but also a responsibility. In this context, how do you interpret responsibility?
 
It’s accro-easy: WWJD. What would Jonas do? I think the Jonas Brothers are so responsible, and because I know practically all the words to all their songs and how many guitars each brother has collected (Nick 12, Kevin 12 and Joe a paltry five, but who has time to collect guitars when he’s so busy collecting preteen girls’ digits? Hollerrrrr), and their address in the Toluca Lake area of L.A. (I have pictures of their house on Facebook! Friend me! Desperate!), I must be responsible, too. For instance, when I hold Canadaphile meetings in my Lawn room, I’ll totally buy the maple syrup and liquor.

I also think the J. Bros are super upfront and I’ll take responsibility for keepin’ the Lawn real, yo. None of this tooly “I love T.J.” crap — I wouldn’t have voted for that greasy ponytailed redhead hippie anyway. Once I get the Lawn, I’m totes transitioning from your frenemy and enemend, who are friends that secretly hate your guts and post all up on JuicyCampus about you sleeping with Dean Lymphogranuloma venereum, to a fraitor, a friend that’s betrayed or just basically an exposed frenemy. I’m not saying I’m going to be mean, I’m just going to be upfront. Example:

Fellow tool: Oh hey Kap’n Kool E. Fresh*, how’s your exam schedule looking?

Me: I’m working on my reality show applications. (People only ask about exams so that you’ll return the question, and I ain’t playin’ that game.)

Tool: Yeah, I’m so busy, busy, busy. I’m on my third all-nighter.

Me: Get more sleep. Deuces! (Here you obvi drop the deuces.)

*Note: Once I get on the Lawn, I’m not going to beat around the bush anymore. I’m cooler than you are and I need a new, better name to reflect that fact.

Steve’s column runs weekly Fridays. He can be reached at s.austin@cavalierdaily.com.

It has been a week since Student Council removed the faulty University Unity Project referendum poll from its Web site and an alternative solution has not yet been revealed. University Board of Elections Chair Alisa Abbott has offered a solution as well as a promise to publicize a new vote for the referendum, noting that “the ball is in StudCo’s court.” Meanwhile, Council has been working to create a new platform through which to hold the vote instead of using UBE’s existing structure. That Council has failed to establish a new voting method by now is unacceptable. Election results were announced on Monday and all momentum from last week’s voting period has been lost. While the initial problems with voting on the referendum were not Council’s fault, the failure to quickly secure a solution is.

Council President Matt Schrimper said, “The last thing we want is to jump in and do this really quickly.” Actually, that is more or less what Council should have done. According to Abbott, UBE could have listed the referendum as a candidate, allowing students to securely vote on all four options. Though that may have been unorthodox, the structure already exists and a ballot could have been posted Monday, the same day election results were announced. Abbott also said UBE would have worked with Council to publicize the new vote. Capitalizing on the publicity from the election results as well as an additional publicity push to vote on a new ballot would have been a timely and adequate solution.

Instead, Schrimper said Council is working with the University to use the Netbadge log-in to create a new secure voting method. UBE’s ballot already uses this secure log-in process, and Schrimper acknowledged that it may be the best solution to go through UBE so that the voting process is as transparent as possible. It is the best solution. UBE was established to run elections and Council should not hold a vote independent of UBE when UBE already has such structures in place. Aside from the time and momentum lost, it is a waste of the University’s resources to create a voting system solely for one referendum when a voting system already exists.

There is also the question of the validity of an election run independently of UBE. While Council’s referendum was only an opinion referendum, UBE has strict procedures to ensure the validity of election results. Council likely is not aware of all of the precautions taken in this vein and should leave the task of running elections to UBE. UBE’s voting system is flexible enough that a solution could have been implemented, but Council has decided not to work with UBE and has lost any chance of having an adequate turnout for its vote on the University Unity referendum.

Though Schrimper said that Council will have a four day voting period two weeks after Spring Break, with a week to publicize beforehand, no amount of publicity on Council’s part can generate the turnout that elections did. This is not entirely Council’s fault, because the original mistake was UBE’s, but Council compounded the mistake by failing utilize the viable solution UBE offered it.
Because of its failure to act quickly, Council will not be able to secure a valid representation of student opinion on the theme for the University Unity Project next year. UBE offered a solution and instead of moving with all due haste, Council has delayed the vote on its referendum, leading to the referendum’s demise.

It's like a scene out of the YouTube sensation Unforgivable skit: I want a taxicab ride, FO’ FREE. In a heroic effort to actually do something, the Student Council added an impressive addition to their already extensive résumé of late night opportunities to get students safely to their residences: Free Ride. They’re already getting us home safe, now for free? The deal was inked back in the fall semester and sounded like a knock out of the park, but part of the deal struck out: the drivers. Quickly students found that the men and women driving the yellow cabs were turning a different shade of color: angry red. Council needs to ensure all parties involved in the deal are on board and no one is left behind in the dust, especially those who are driving.

Implemented in mid-November of last semester, this program was designed to “help students take ownership of their safety and avoid putting themselves at risk,” commented the current Council President Matt Schrimper, who played a major role in bringing it together. The program operates between 12:00-4:00 am every night and students simply have to show their ID card and scribble down some basic information on a 4 by 8” pad and off they go; an invoice is then sent down to Council in a reduced fare to be swallowed into their operating budget. So with a few signatures, the cabs were sent out on a mission to save our late night, outgoing students from the dangers we often face.

So what is there to complain about, what could possibly be the problem with Council helping us home and giving our weary feet a rest? The underlying principle and good intentions are to be applauded many times over (it is encouraging to see Council working so extensively for our behalf); unfortunately the optimistic hopes about the program do not match some of the experiences.

After one late night I was all ready to turn it in and head back to dorms. Unfortunately, I was a mile or two away with an injured foot and walking was not very appealing. As I stood on the sidewalk waiting for Safe Ride to stop ignoring my calls, a Yellow Cab neared and the brilliant idea to flag one down without any money popped into my head. Jubilant of our new policy I hopped in and as a preemptive measure politely asked if they took student charge. I was met with a string of explicit remarks and told not-so-politely to remove myself from the cab. Shocked and confused, I was intent on finding out if this was a singular event or a usual occurrence.

To my dismay, I found that the latter was holding true. Several students I spoke with after sharing my experiences with them said that, although their drivers were not as hostile or unpleasant, Free Rides were not very pleasant. Some claimed that the drivers attempted to deny that the program even existed. Some complained that the drivers had no clue what they were talking about and became quickly frustrated.

“There are no more tips.” This remains as the single-most used complaint driven into us by the drivers. They are relentless. Students are now forced to spend the entirety of their cab ride listening to the numerous plights and hardships that each driver has gone through, being construed as some dire attempt to convince us to join up and fight with them against what Council has done for us. Schrimper acknowledged that the drivers expressed their concern with not being tipped so Council adjusted the program so a 15 percent increase was included to account for the tip around a month ago. The problem persists. We no longer have a choice to tip; the bombardment for one at the very end of our “Free” Ride is so intense, “Tip Ride” has emerged.

It may seem ungrateful and haughty that I am writing an entire column about having to tip a cab driver; this is not the case. When we have to endure verbal abuse and entertain requests for money after we have signed the Free Ride, the problem pulls up. The deal signed off by Council was a valiant one and has been warmly received by most students. However, the pessimism of the drivers is a clear sign the only people on board at Yellow Cab were the management. I strongly advocate caution to student organizations before making deals which involve people other than those making the deal (the drivers). It has become quite evident that those providing the service to the students (not the management) were not represented in the deal and feel slighted to say the least. If Yellow Cab is leaving them behind, let us pick them up and bring them into the playing field. The 15 percent tip rate should be sufficient but Council needs to follow up with those drivers to ensure that all is bright and sunny over at Yellow Cab.

Bobby Laverty is a Viewpoint Writer for The Cavalier Daily.