“Being the director of a small art museum is a bit like being a small town doctor,” University Art Museum Bruce Boucher said. “You end up treating the whole family — and everyone is related to Thomas Jefferson.”

Mr. Jefferson led the recently hired Boucher to the University by way of a book he wrote about Andrea Palladio, an Italian architect whose work greatly influenced Jefferson’s designs. Sound familiar? Think “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.” Neither Bacon nor Palladio, however, can take all of the credit. Boucher already had a vested interest in the University through family connections, including a brother who graduated from the Medical School.

Despite his English accent and European education, Boucher was born and raised in Birmingham, Ala. It was only after completing a Harvard undergraduate education that he moved to England, first for an English degree from Oxford, and then graduate work in art history at the University of London.

“Art is part of a larger story that you could call cultural history,” Boucher said. Though the University of London offered him a position as a lecturer before he even finished his graduate work, he chose “time off for good behavior” instead. Traveling throughout Europe gave him not only the perspective of an international education but also the cultural experience required to truly understand art.

“The study of art history is the study of the leap between reception and interpretation of phenomenon that makes art such an important part of history.” Boucher said. “It’s about understanding [the world of the past] and broadening our own perspective.”

Of course, Boucher’s contribution to the art museum will not be purely ethereal. Elizabeth Turner, vice provost of the arts, recently facilitated the renovation of the Bayly Building, in which the art museum is located, and there still is plenty of work left.

“I would really like to see the second floor galleries brought to a higher state of functionality.” Boucher said. He also hopes to add an extension to the back of the building for more classroom space and to improve lighting and climate control. These aspects of the museum may not often be associated with art, but they are very important to the upkeep of works. After all, both lighting and temperature affect the kind of art that museums can maintain.

Not only will these practical improvements help with the upkeep of the museum, but they will also help to raise the University’s profile as a school dedicated to its art program.

“I want to create a forum for discussion of the arts and their role in the University,” Boucher said. “It is very important that the museum facilitate discussion of art issues.”  

By combining practical improvements and a raised profile in the community, Boucher hopes to help facilitate the importance of art in a well-rounded education.

“Art is an important part of the curriculum.” Boucher said. “Education shouldn’t be strictly utilitarian.”

This brings us back to Thomas Jefferson, who agreed with this perspective and wanted to hire a fine arts professor at the University but could not because of restrictions from the state legislature. Perhaps this history will be explored in the next major exhibit — “Thomas Jefferson’s Academical Village” — which most likely will come to the museum in late August or early September. Kevin Bacon would be proud.

The University Art Museum is open from 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

I could not have been more excited about going to see Adventureland. I had fallen in love with the characters of Superbad and was anxious to see what quirky jokes would come next from director Greg Mottola in his second big debut. Moreover, I was thrilled about seeing the film in Newcomb Theater with my closest friends two weeks before its national release date. Best of all, it was entirely free.

The film began and I was somewhat relieved to see new actors rather than the typical Judd Apatow cast. The plot followed Jesse Eisenberg’s character, James, a sensitive virgin in his early 20s. When his father gets demoted at work, James is forced to get a job at the Adventureland amusement park. Here, he falls in love with Em, a coworker played by Kristen Stewart of Twilight.

I was disappointed that the film was not what I had expected. It was funny, but definitely more of a dramedy than a comedy. The plot really concentrated on the love between James and Em and was a little too sappy and serious for me. I think that Mottola tried to do too much after his success with Superbad and came short of par at making a comedic love story a success.

The film’s setting and supporting characters, however, kept me laughing. Taking place in the 80s, the movie’s costumes and hairstyles were enough to crack a smile in the audience. Frizzy hair, short shorts and a plethora of Lou Reed tracks create a nostalgic, yet hilarious atmosphere.

The film’s characters are stellar as well. Ranging from the depressed and quiet nerd to the too-cool-for-school rock star, the employees at Adventureland create a nice mesh of personalities. All the characters come together through their shared misery caused by their boredom from working their uneventful amusement stations. Bill Hader, who plays Adventureland’s manager, deserves an A+ for his acting in the film. Taking his job entirely too seriously, he walks the fine line between perfection and insanity.

Ryan Reynolds and Michael Zegen add to the list of funny characters. Reynolds plays the maintenance guy at the park, who is married, yet quick to take his female coworkers back to his mother’s basement to have an affair. Zegen plays James’s best friend, annoying enough to hate but still funny enough to love.

It was amusing to watch how the characters got by, despite their depressing situations. With nothing but a bag of joints, some booze and their friends, they turn a dismal and bleak situation into a good time. At points, the movie seems a little depressing. After all, James is forced into his job because of an unfortunate financial situation. Similarly, Em works at Adventureland to escape her materialistic stepmother and her problems at home. Nevertheless, their shared desolation leads to some comical and original situations.

The film was funny, just not as funny as Superbad and the other comedies of its generation. Mottola attempted to crack both a laugh and a tear with Adventureland, but failed to fully nail either one. The movie is definitely worth seeing, even if it is just for its witty one-liners and comedic irony, but one time will be enough.

Full disclosure here: I’m not a huge electronic music fan. Something about phrases or riffs repeated 40 times just doesn’t bode well with me. Then there are bands like Girl Talk, who try to transverse every genre in one song, changing everything completely after four seconds, just when you were starting to dig it. So when Toronto’s electronic sweethearts MSTRKRFT proclaimed their next album would bring forth the Fist of God, I was a skeptic from the start.

The vowel-phobic electronic group was born not long ago in 2005. It is comprised of Jesse Keeler of now-defunct Death From Above 1979 (you know them, CSS wants to listen to them and have sexy-time) and Al-P of the band that has clearly not met select players in the WNBA, Girlsareshort. Fist of God is MSTRKRFT’s sophomore album, following the much-loved 2006 release of The Looks. During its hiatus, MSTRKRFT has remixed the likes of Bloc Party, New Young Pony Club, Metric and even Usher.

There is a definite seamlessness on Fist of God, but whether that’s a plus is up for debate. While the album lacks abrupt transitions that may annoy the listener, the format makes it sound like more of a super-long house track that has been arbitrarily split up into tracks. Of these sectioned tracks, many are gangsta, while the others are entirely something else.

The album opens up with the bouncy, dance track “It Ain’t Love,” featuring Lil’ Mo. Don’t quite remember where you’ve heard Lil’ Mo’s name before, in a world where “Lil’” precedes 50 percent of rappers’ names? Well if you happened to blink while she released her big (read: only) single, “Superwoman Pt. II,” you may have heard her featured on Ja Rule’s lost single “I Cry” (where Ja revealed his “soft thug” side). My major qualm with the song can be assumed for the entire album — the vocals take things one way, and the background music attempts to mold the entire song into something it’s not. “Bounce” featuring N.O.R.E. (think: “Oh boy, I came to party / Yo’ girl was lookin’ at me”) and Isis could be the next club hit. We get a male-female call-and-response of “All I do is party, ha ha ha ha / Bounce low, bounce high.” N.O.R.E. sounds like a self-aware misbehaver, and just like the former course registration system, Isis sounds pretty mean. The background beat is simplistic enough not to be distracting — it sounds like what a good techno-rap experiment should be.
“Heartbreaker” is a smooth break from an electronic melee with the help of John Legend. It’s more of a formulaic song — verses, a chorus — and therefore probably more tolerable and pleasant to non-electronic fans. And “real” instruments show their face on it, for all you purists out there — piano is essential to the beat of the track.

The track clearly delineated by MSTRKRFT as the best song to break a law to is “Click-Click,” featuring E-40 from The Click (not The Click Five). It’s very busy — it sounds like a laser tag dance party with a thug heist going on in the background. Honestly, sticking it to the man sounds a little silly in this one. I was more intimidated by Jay-Z going fifty-five in a fifty-fo.

The album ends with keyboard happy “Breakaway,” featuring Jahmal of The Carps. Its happy-go-lucky moaning backed by an army of synthesizers sounds more like a 90’s jam or Tahiti 80. It’s an enlightened, feel-good end to a weird ride.

Self-perceived omnipotence can be fun at times; but it seems as if MSTRKRFT hasn’t even called forth one divine fingernail. Fist of God might have some Death from Above 1979 fans saying, “Thnks fr th mmrs."

Video games are an expensive hobby, and expensive hobbies are sensible budget cuts during these trying economic times. Where are the best places to search for a cheap gaming fix if you’re watching your wallet and holding off on purchasing the expensive major game releases of the season? tableau is here to help.

The easiest and most obvious place to find free video games is the Internet. If you’re determined to play PC games that are both free and legal, your best options are to peruse Web sites that host free games made with Adobe Flash. Newgrounds.com, Kongregate.com and Armorgames.com are three excellent resources of Flash games that require no sign up, downloads or fees and rely on user ratings for quality control. Freetetris.org is another personal Web favorite, which is exactly what it sounds like: a free game of Tetris.

If you’re willing to spend some extra money and hard drive space, the best place to search for cheap PC games is steampowered.com. Steam is an online paid-downloads service run by Valve, the makers of the Half-Life series. By setting up a free Steam account, you can buy licenses for any game in the Web site’s impressive library and choose to install, uninstall and reinstall games at will. Much of Steam’s selection is priced at or less than $10, with special weekly deals for the particularly thrifty. Two PC strategy classics, Civilization III and X-COM: UFO Defense, are each available for only $4.99.

If you do most of your gaming on a console, your best place to check for cheap games is your local Gamestop. Gamestop typically prices games at 10 percent off their full cost for the first few months following release, but has hundreds of older games (no earlier than the PS2 or GameCube) at or less than $15, with additional discounts granted to Gamestop card holders. The store does enormous business at these lowered prices, earning about $2 billion in used game sales last year alone. With three locations within a 10-minute drive of Grounds, that’s a lot of bargain bins to sift through.

If you own one of the big three recent consoles, your best bet for budget quality is again to use downloading services; Xbox Live Arcade, the PSN Store and WiiWare all contain some fantastic software. Xbox 360 owners owe it to themselves to put up 400 points ($5) toward pure fun like Marble Blast Ultra, possibly the best 3-D puzzle/racing/action game about marbles ever made, and Geometry Wars, the psychedelic shape-blasting shooter that was one of XBLA’s first major hits. Also, no 360 owner should be without Uno. Yes, that Uno, which is completely awesome and only 400 points.  

Spending those $5 on the PS3’s PSN Store can net you Noby Noby Boy, the bizarre community-eating game from the makers of Katamari Damacy, or Super Rub a Dub, an entertaining bathtub rubber ducky simulator, among hundreds of other downloads. Still, in terms of volume, the Nintendo Wii has both Sony and Microsoft beat in downloads of classic games, with more than 280 NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, Neo-Geo, Sega Master System and TurboGrafx games available on their Virtual Console service, priced between $5 and $12 apiece.
I won’t waste your valuable time listing all of my favorite bargain-bin games and cheap downloads, but I encourage you to shop around. Gaming is only an expensive hobby if you buy the most recent major releases as soon as they come out. Gamers can save money without sacrificing quantity or quality simply by knowing where to look.

The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell was originally published in France in 2006, where it won the country’s most prestigious literary award. It became an international best seller; critics called it everything from the next War and Peace to the next defining novel on the Nazi era.

I picked up my version of The Kindly Ones, translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell, for reading during Spring Break. The novel was a daunting task, not because of its length — it is close to 1,000 pages — or the endless, boring bureaucratic descriptions of the inner workings of the Nazi regime, but because of the extremely graphic, perverted descriptions of sodomy, mass murder, incest, rape and the main character’s many and frequent bowel movements.

Littell, who was born in the United States and speaks fluent English, decided to write his tour de force in French, although he currently resides in Spain. The task he attempts to accomplish in The Kindly Ones is perhaps an impossible one: to create a novel with the historical detail of Tolstoy’s War and Peace and with the literary influence of Nabokov’s Lolita. Indeed, one can see fingerprints of both authors on Littell’s work.

The Kindly Ones is narrated from the point of view of Maximilien Aue, a former Nazi who currently resides in France as a lace factory owner. He is well-respected and well-read — a Renaissance man who speaks several languages and enjoys classical music. Aue feels compelled to write his autobiography, an intense story that sprawls from his early childhood through his role in Nazi atrocities. Aue helps plan the Final Solution with Nazi bureaucrats, is present at Auschwitz to implement the plan, and eventually meets Adolf Hitler. Throughout it all, Aue insists that he is indeed “a man like you.” One gets the sense that the novel is attempting to prove that “normal” people can commit Nazi atrocities. Nothing in the novel, however, supports that idea. Aue for a few hundred pages talks about his life before the Nazi regime, which he spent having sex with his twin sister, Una, before they were forcibly separated. He sodomizes himself with sausages and sticks. He murders not only his mother and stepfather, whom he hated, but his best friend. Some of the sick atrocities chronicled within this thousand-page monster are undoubtedly unnecessary. Most disturbing, however, are the unrepentant, almost gleeful descriptions of such perverse acts: “It wasn’t so much the gassing that posed a problem, but the ovens were overloaded,” Aue explains passively when describing his work at Auschwitz.

Reviews in the United States have been mixed. Although some reacted favorably, Michiko Kakutani, head reviewer at the New York Times, called it “willfully sensationalistic and deliberately repellent” and went so far as to comment that the novel’s favorable reception in France is a reflection of the “perversity of French taste.”

The novel doesn’t live up to its hype, but it does have certain merits. The Kindly Ones evoked the strongest of emotions and spawned literary discussion and debate across international borders. While I would not recommend the novel to everyone — it’s much too graphic and perverted in more ways than can be described — it certainly made me think. I, for one, will not be forgetting this novel for a long time.

These days, when musical artists make an album, there tends to be maybe two or three good tracks apart from the singles. Rarely do we see an album that is good from the first track to the last, keeping the listener interested all the way through. But every so often, an artist just gets on a roll and never looks back. So I’d like to present my picks for the Five Albums I Never Get Tired Of.

Alter Bridge: Blackbird (2007)

In case you haven’t figured it out by now, I am a HUGE fan of this group. While their first album, One Day Remains, sounded rushed and uneven at times, this record is chock full of face-melting rock. Vocalist Myles Kennedy shows off his titanic range and guitarist Mark Tremonti delivers some of the best riffs and solos modern rock has ever heard. Alter Bridge proves that a band doesn’t always have to be depressed or angry to sound good. Many of their songs, like “Rise Today” and “Before Tomorrow Comes,” are uplifting without losing their rock edge.

BEST TRACKS: “Before Tomorrow Comes,” “Blackbird,” “Come To Life”

Shania Twain: Come On Over (1997)

When a 16-track album spawns 12 singles, you know there’s something special about it. The master of country-pop crossover mixes the genres well, and throws an occasional dose of rock in for flavor. Twain is renowned for her meticulous attention to detail on every album. She takes longer than most to release her albums, but they are all solid efforts as a result.

BEST TRACKS: “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!,” “Black Eyes Blue Tears,” “Rock This Country!”

Tool: 10,000 Days (2006)

Few well-known rock bands can be described as innovative, but Tool is certainly fits the description. 10,000 Days challenges traditional forms throughout the whole album. In “Vicarious,” lead singer Maynard James Keenan makes the somewhat awkward phrase “Why can’t we just admit it?” flow very well with an unconventional rhythm. Another interesting moment on the album is Adam Jones’s lightning-quick riff at the start of “Jambi.”

BEST TRACKS: “Vicarious,” “The Pot,” “Right In Two”

The Corrs: Borrowed Heaven (2004)

Celtic rock band The Corrs have not received much acclaim in the United States (unless you heard their song “Breathless” sweep the nation for about 10 minutes at the turn of the millennium). But they are mega-famous in their native Ireland and the rest of Western Europe, and this album help explains why. This is one of those rare albums in which none of the musicians are a weak link. Each band member has a shining moment, whether it’s the drums on “Angel,” the guitar on “Summer Sunshine” or the vocals on the title track (featuring an appearance by the African folk group Ladysmith Black Mambazo).

BEST TRACKS: “Summer Sunshine,” “Angel,” “Even If”

Trans-Siberian Orchestra: The Lost Christmas Eve (2004)

TSO has become the foremost classical/rock fusion group, and are most famous for their holiday music. This album contains great renditions and medleys of Christmas classics, culminating in “Christmas Canon Rock,” a stunning electric guitar and vocal retelling of Johann Pachelbel’s timeless “Canon in D,” which is perfect for any season.

BEST TRACKS: “Christmas Canon Rock,” “Wizards In Winter,” “Christmas Jam”

A band trying to judge its success stares out into the crowd. If the room is crowded, it is doing well. Last week’s religious proselytizer who preached from the pulpit of the amphitheater likely operated on the same principle. Although bad music drives concertgoers away, as last week’s series of sermons grew more offensive, the crowd at the amphitheater only grew larger.

This University is no stranger to religious fanatics. The University makes for an ideal forum for those who seek large groups of people in public places where free speech rights are respected. Brother Micah and other proselytizers have come here in the past to condemn fornicators, masturbators, homosexuals, Jews, atheists, and women — groups which collectively include almost any student who happens to walk by.  

Presumably, students want these people to go away, but when they engage the fanatics by yelling back, it only exacerbates the problem. Fanatics, like small children, feed off attention. The best response from students is to simply walk away and ignore and ignore the tantrum. If they don’t receive any attention at the University, they’ll move on to the next college.

Yet there are situations that call for student response. When Westboro Baptist Church, a radical hate group who rose to prominence by protesting United States soldiers’ funerals, announced its intention to protest a performance of The Laramie Project last November, students rightfully organized a counter-protest. Students created posters to support the play and held a vigil outside the Chapel as a way to show student solidarity against this sort of hate speech.

What is the substantive distinction between these seemingly similar groups? Due to the sensitive nature of the Laramie Project, the creation of a controversial, tense atmosphere would have discouraged some students from going, especially those venturing out of their comfort zones by attending the event. The effect on those who choose to come but are harassed as a result, is even worse. The reason for counter-protest against organizations like the Westboro Baptist Church is that their actions can reduce attendance and threaten attendees at student events. Students, therefore, should be there to show their support and solidarity.

Those proselytizing in the amphitheater, on the other hand, are not intimidating students with their actions. They are merely exercising their rights to free speech. There is no need to engage with these evangelists, as it will only encourage them. While many students may find these viewpoints distasteful, being exposed to them does not infringe on a student’s right to attend class or another event. So long as students are not negatively impacted by such speakers, there is no reason to protest their presence. Student energies would be better saved for a time when a real protest is needed.

Unintentionally, these religious fanatics have provided students with an opportunity to think critically about the proper response to extremism. Students need to distinguish between when it is worthwhile to engage polemic speakers and when it is counterproductive. When protesters threaten student space, it is proper and indeed necessary for students to respond. When fanatics come to Grounds simply to draw as large an audience as possible, the best response is for students to keep walking.

In a reprise of events from last fall, the University community again received a visit from a very vocal traveling evangelist last week. The gentleman quickly became notorious for speaking condemnation on many features of the lifestyle of students, singling out women for dressing inappropriately, men for being “whoremongers” and “fornicators,” and the student body in general for vices ranging from listening to “gangster rap” to abuse of alcohol and drugs. I sat in the amphitheater for quite some time listening to the interactions between students and the speaker, and the aspect of the speech to which students seemed to react most viscerally was the idea that they were being judged according to an extremely legalistic point of view — being held to unrealistic standards by someone with no authority to judge them. Such an attitude ought to make us reflect with gratitude on the wide varieties of freedom we possess.

The most obvious freedom illustrated by the presence of the gentleman on grounds is the freedom of speech. A two-way street, it allows evangelists to proclaim his message to anyone who will listen, whether it be the truth he considers it or “religious harassment” as a letter to the editor in The Cavalier Daily labeled it (“Free from religion,” 3/23/2009). By the same token, individual students or student groups can proclaim their own agendas, regardless of what others may think. Many of the messages proclaimed by student groups would be just as offensive to the speaker as his intolerance was to them. The nature of free, opinionated speech necessitates that sometimes people’s toes will get stepped on. Some might argue that traveling evangelists ought not be allowed on Grounds at all, but giving anyone power to determine what messages can and cannot be proclaimed is a slippery slope, and upon which it is better not to embark. It would be cliché to quote Voltaire right now, but it will suffice to say that if we are willing to sacrifice the right of others to proclaim their message, then we must render up our own right to freely proclaim our agenda alongside them.

Another freedom students should be thankful for is the freedom to react as they please to messages presented to them. If they so choose, they can utterly disregard messages with which they do not agree. If, for example, the speaker’s message on how women ought to dress felt oppressive, or if his condemnation of rap rang false, then students have the freedom to disagree with or ignore his words and to continue on with their lives without fear of legal repercussions. This is not the case in many countries. A brief scan of news articles for one day provides evidence to support this. As I write this, I can find articles about a blogger who died in jail in Iran after insulting the religious establishment (imagine if this were the penalty regarding our traveling evangelist — how many students would be incarcerated right now?). Another story discusses clerics in Saudi Arabia pushing for laws preventing women from appearing on television or in magazines, as well as a ban of music and music shows on television. Yet another describes how in Iran only recently were insurance companies required to pay the same amount in compensation to women as they would to men in case of death or injury. South Africa has denied the Dalai Lama a visa he sought in order to attend a peace conference for fear of distractions and controversy. Other reports indicate attacks on journalistic freedom in many countries in South Asia, Malaysia, and North Korea. All of these infringements on different forms of the freedom of speech by civil authorities were headlines from just two news Web sites. The prevalence of such assaults on individual thought demonstrates how lucky we are to have our liberty, as the right to formulate and express one’s opinions is a valuable commodity, and one not respected in many countries.

Such statements and policies appear laughable in the United States simply because we are accustomed to subscribing to the idea that people of all ilks have the right to express their opinions. Looking at the example provided by the traveling evangelist, even if the speaker’s words were oppressive in spirit, they have no binding power over students. The beauty of the freedom of speech is that even unpopular viewpoints can be expressed without fear of penalties. The unimpeded presence of unpopular viewpoints demonstrates how grateful we ought to be for our freedoms.

Robby Colby’s column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at r.colby@cavalierdaily.com.

Unfortunately, one of Thomas Jefferson’s most important principles seems to be forgotten these days. Can you guess what it is? Here’s a hint: What do all of the following organizations have in common? The Glee Club, First Year Players, Hoo Crew, and the University Programs Council. Any guesses? All of these groups are student-run. One student-run organization used to make everyone laugh at Scott Stadium during football games, used to get everyone on their feet in University Hall for basketball games, and used to be the pinnacle of student self-governance at the University. However, in 2003, the Virginia Pep Band was banned from playing for bowl games, and shortly after, was banned from any Virginia varsity sports.

This is the first generation of students where not even the oldest University student has seen even the youngest Pep band member play at varsity sports events. In 2003, during a bowl football game against West Virginia, the pep band presented what was considered a rude interpretation of life as a West Virginian. This incident prompted the governor of West Virginia, who felt the Pep band wrongly used West Virginian stereotypes he was trying hard to fight, to request an apology from the band. Craig Littlepage, the director of the athletics department, then dismissed the pep band from any further participation in bowl games, even though the athletics department had censored and approved the show beforehand. However, Littlepage did not ban the pep band from Virginia athletics until he received a donation from Carl Smith, which was used to create what is now the Cavalier Marching Band.

The pep band still exists today, mainly playing at charity events and club sports games. Yes, the marching band can probably beat the pep band when it comes to memorizing music and skill level, but no organization compares to the pep band when it comes to spirit.
I am a first year, and I just joined the pep band after considering both it and the marching band. The pep band has nothing against the marching band, nor its members, nor its right to exist. It is a very good band and fits Scott Stadium very well. So let the marching band play at football games. It also plays at John Paul Jones Arena for basketball games. With that, the pep band has no quarrel. But why does the athletics department continue to insist on preventing the pep band from playing at other varsity sports where the marching band does not play?

As most of you know, the men’s lacrosse team is the best in the country and is loved by the University community. On March 8, I attended one of the biggest men’s lacrosse games of the season: our game against Cornell, ranked number four. Every section of the stands was packed. The ticket holders were even invading the student section because seats were so limited. The lawn across the field looked like a giant communal picnic, and people were lined up on the fences around the field, eagerly watching the game. Also in attendance was a band. It was not the pep band. The athletics department had allowed the opposition band to play at Klöckner Stadium, and had continued to ban the pep band.

This illogical action by the athletics department should raise questions about the department’s continued allegiance to this University. In February 2004, Student Council passed a resolution requiring the “coexistence of two bands.” The athletics department, of course, did not comply. Is the student body going to sit idly as more of Jefferson’s founding principals are ignored and more and more of the University is seized from student control? What would happen if the Academical Village People was assimilated into the music department? What would happen if Spectrum Theaters became part of the drama department? Obviously, the University would not be the same place, and college would begin to look a lot like high school.

We as students of the University must save Mr. Jefferson’s University before it is too late. Go see a First Year Players play! Go hear the Virginia Gentlemen perform!

The pep band recently sent an e-mail to Leonard W. Sandridge, executive vice president and chief operating officer, asking for the opportunity to play at Olympic varsity sports that the marching band currently does not play at. Here are a few excerpts of his response: “This is not a matter as you suggest of ‘forgiveness.’ Rather, it is a matter of the decision made in 2003 to have a University Marching Band.” “It is not productive for us to continue to discuss revisiting the decision that was made several years ago. I hope we can focus on the role that exists today for the Pep Band. I want them to succeed in their service to the club sports and other events on and off Grounds. I hope that the Pep Band will continue to meet the needs of those students who chose that kind of commitment and service to the University and surrounding community.” “Please understand that we are not serving our existing students well by treating this as a debate to be resolved. The decision has been made.”

Please don’t let silence be the response to Mr. Sandridge’s outrageous comments. We are not children, nor do we like being spoken to as such. This “debate” is not over. These are principles that cannot be compromised. Don’t allow the athletics department or the University to take them away from us!

Jon Denton is a first-year student in The College and a member of the Virginia Pep Band.

For my fellow fourth years reading this column, I think we can all agree on one thing: Finding a job right now sucks.

The economy is failing, companies are laying-off employees left and right, and almost every industry has some sort of a hiring freeze. The Associated Press noted last week that the unemployment rate has risen in all but one of the 372 metropolitan areas tracked by the Labor Department at the start of 2009, and “the nationwide unemployment rate, which stood at 8.1 percent in February, could reach 10 percent by the end of this year.”

All of these factors combined makes finding a job right now seem close to impossible. And yet, I’m told, I should look at internships.

Despite the economy, companies still want interns. Why? Well, because a lot of internships are unpaid. Recently, I was looking at a list of internships and found one that made this fact seem oh-so-glamorous: “No compensation or credit hours will be provided. However, the position offers a resume-building opportunity and a chance to work with experts in the field.”

Isn’t it nice that these employers are giving us something to put down on a resume? Isn’t it nice just to learn? Frankly, I say no. It is possible for employers both to teach and also to properly compensate interns for their work. This “resume-building” culture was built by clever employers, and we have all been suckered into the unfairness. Unpaid internships are inherently unfair because they divide students by their socio-economic status. If you can afford to pay for housing and other living expenses during the summer and work for free, then you will be rewarded. If you cannot afford it, then I guess it is just tough luck.

Many internships, especially the highly desirable ones, are in big cities, like Washington, D.C. or New York City. I, like many students, would have to pay for housing, food, and other expenses that I would not have to pay for if I lived at home.

For students that come from more economically-stable backgrounds, parents will often help out with the expenses. But for students that cannot afford the extra expense, they might be forced to take out a loan or forego the opportunity altogether.

Even if students can stay at home, the money that they could make in the summer often helps to pay for their expenses throughout the school year when they cannot work as much because of classes. I know that studying abroad this past summer really hurt my finances this year, and I can only imagine how hard it will be if I sacrifice a paying job for a “resume-building” opportunity once again this summer.

The fact of the matter is that companies now realize that they do not have to pay for interns. With the current job
market, nothing is more important than an impressive resume, and nothing is more important on a resume than experience. Students need internships to get jobs, and companies prey on this fact to cut costs.

For example, I recently had a phone interview for a summer internship in New York. It was the perfect internship: exciting work experience with a great deal of independence and the chance to live and work in New York City. The company, however, is small, with only three employees in the specific department I was applying to. When I asked how many interns there would be, the interviewer said three. When I asked if it was paid, she said no.

That means that this company gets to double their staff over the summer with essentially no cost. By offering unpaid internships, companies like this one save money. Because students line up for these internships, there is no incentive for companies to start paying interns at all.

The sad thing is that I, and many others, would love this internship. Students want to learn and take initiative in a job and really sink their teeth into an industry. But many students simply cannot afford to work 40 hours a week for three months in one of the most expensive cities in the country without getting paid. That is simply the bottom line.

Unpaid internships during the school year that offer academic credit are the only unpaid internships that are truly doing what all these other internships claim to be doing: They are compensating you with learning. Without pay, the title “intern” is now simply becoming a glorified version of the title “volunteer.”

Now, to be fair, there are scholarships that students can apply for in order to help them pay for housing and other living expenses during an unpaid internship. But those scholarships only put a band-aid on the larger problem of the “unpaid internship.”

The notion of the “unpaid internship” devalues our work and justifies the often less-than-desirable work that interns are forced to do. Since interns are not being paid, they often feel that they cannot complain about taking out the trash or watering the plants everyday. In a similar vein, the importance placed on having internships when finding a job is a joke when a great number of internships revolve heavily around this kind of work.

Our society demands internships in order to find a job but cannot (or will not) properly compensate us for our labor. Students and recent college graduates are part of the work force too, and until companies start to respect us as employees and not just as interns, we will continue to be seen simply as free labor.

Lindsay Huggins’ column appears Thursdays, bi-weekly, in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at l.huggins@cavalierdaily.com.