I recently received a well-meaning survey from a commerce student asking me to demonstrate my level of interest in the advent of a potential “high tech” bike-sharing program at the University. The survey was presented to me in such a way that it seems that the University is seriously considering reallocating transportation funds to fuel this project. As a cyclist and student who regularly bikes around grounds, I appreciate the effort and interest in such a bike sharing program. However, I have some concerns. The program as it is laid out would probably have students pay per use of the public bikes. This is necessary to offset the costs of what is sure to be an expensive overhead, however it would deter from the program’s use and may lead it to go the way of most bike sharing programs (even pay-per-use programs) that have, unfortunately, ended shortly after their conception due to rampant theft. Additionally, the cost of the pay-per-use program proposed would involve not only purchase of bikes but installation of expensive bike “stations,” probably located at only a few places around grounds. As a cyclist who has seen the use of bikes on grounds rise greatly in the last four years, I feel that the funding for such a program could be better allocated to creating a more bicycle-friendly Grounds. Instead of adding more bikes to the roads in a program that charges students, why not add more bike racks, create safe ways for cyclists to maneuver around the many construction sites on grounds, or extend the bike lanes on Emmett St. and Rugby Rd. where they suddenly end? I wish more members of the University community biked regularly to class and around town. However, instead of launching new programs, University funds should go towards making cycling around grounds safer and less of a hassle.

Turning Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III into some sort of pariah on the pages of The Cavalier Daily and on the various listservs University students use to communicate with each other is nothing short of disgraceful. Wilkinson is a warm, congenial, and funny speaker. He loves the University and will doubtlessly have some enjoyable stories and inspiring words for the students walking the Lawn this spring. I’ve not seen an instance of a beat reporter or columnist contacting any students at the University who have heard Wilkinson speak (there are 370 of us in the 2011 Law School Class), and castigating the choice of a speaker because of so called conservative judicial opinions is ridiculous — and I speak as a strong Democrat. Should there be a political litmus test for commencement speakers weeding out any with viewpoints that some might find objectionable we’ll be sure to have boring, irrelevant speakers for decades to come. Additionally, making the claim that the University should make celebrity status paramount in its decision is laughable. That students haven’t heard of Wilkinson or immediately assume a federal judge will be a bore only shows closed mindedness. Some of the best, most inspiring, and memorable speakers you’ll find don’t have television shows, record deals, or best seller status. Wilkinson is a dedicated public servant, connected to the University, and I for one trust and applaud President John T. Casteen III’s choice and suggest that students not poison commencement trying to discredit the speaker.

Mojito nights, domino tournaments and Latin dance shows are just a few of the events the members of the Cuban and American Student Association gather to discuss. The students in CASA, however, have accomplished much more than hosting social events during the span of only four years.

CASA began in 2005 as the Freedom Writers for Cuba, said founder Laura Rodriguez, a 2007 College graduate. The initial goal was to create a successful letter-writing campaign through which University students sent letters to political prisoners in Cuba.

“We can’t be positive that the prisoners actually receive the letters,“ said Vice President Julliana Gallardo, a fourth-year Graduate Arts & Sciences student. “The campaign was more of a symbolic act to let the prisoners know that people here care and are thinking about them, to let the Cuban government know that these people who they are keeping prisoners are not forgotten.”

The campaign was inarguably a huge success. CASA hoped to have 1,000 letters signed, said Antonino DiMaggio, a fourth-year Graduate Arts & Sciences student and co-founder of CASA. They received 1,200.

“We started CASA as a full-on movement of educating people about Cuban culture and human rights issues,” DiMaggio said.

Since the letter-writing campaign in 2005, the members have continued to promote awareness. In spring 2007, exiled Cuban artist Alberto Godoy and L.E. Salas, the director of the documentary, “Lejos de la Isla ”(Far from Island), visited the University for a showing of the movie followed by a question-and-answer session. The movie, which discusses the effects of the Cuban political system on individual families actually inspired Gallardo to become a member of CASA toward the end of her second year of graduate school.

Additionally, for three consecutive years, members also have represented the University at conferences sponsored by CASAs at other universities.

“The conferences are very organized and comprehensive because there is a lot to learn and discuss,” said first-year College student Jacqueline Pujol, who will attend one of the conferences, GenerAcción,, otherwise known as Generation in Action, in April.

Topics of discussion include awareness, racism in Cuba and recent policy changes like the repealed ban against cell phones. “One of the things we will probably discuss is the donation of cell phones to Cuba because the supply there is really low, resulting in their cost being really high,” Pujol said.  

Past conferences include visits to Princeton in 2006, the University of Pennsylvania in 2007 and Duke in 2008, DiMaggio said.

Gallardo said all CASAs at participating universities are within a national umbrella organization called Raices de Esperanza, or Roots of Hope. “This organization actually formed after the formation of CASA by members who were interested in staying active after graduating college,” Gallardo said. “Laura Rodriguez, one of the founders [of CASA at the University] is actually still active through this organization, now that she has graduated.”

With the common goal of raising awareness and promoting freedom of expression in Cuba, members meet regularly every other Monday night at 9 p.m. in Clark Hall. “The feeling of being in a Cuban community isn’t really something I had in high school,” Pujol said. It is, however, something he found after joining CASA.

Third-year College student Amanda Perez shared Pujol’s sentiments. “Coming from Miami, which is a totally different cultural experience compared to here, it is nice to have a group of students to relate to.”

Perez said a personal goal of hers next year is to broaden the community understanding of the history and political scene in Cuba.

“I know it’s a touchy subject with a lot of different opinions,” she said, “but different perspectives are always interesting, and at the very least it helps people get a clue about what’s going on.”

The outreach coordinator for the group, first-year College student Nicolas Newman, predicts nothing but success for the future of CASA.
“This year was kind of a rebirth because we were able to really get [CASA] back on its toes,” Newman said. “We as a group have gotten to be really close and have accomplished a lot this past semester. Most of the officers, like myself, are first-years, so at the very least [for] the next three years CASA will have very committed leaders.”

SpringFest is tomorrow? Really? Because the last time I checked, I was still wearing my winter wear — fuzzy hats that look like animals, fratastic fleece vests and argyle socks that compulsively match the rest of my outfit. I wish Al Gore would concentrate on inventing the Internet some more and spend less time spreading honor code violations about global warming. I’m so sick of freezing my nips off that I’ve been driving my Hummer around more than — I was going to make an inappropriate reference to Natasha Richardson here, but I have a feeling some of you would complain it’s too soon.

Too soon? False; Liam Neeson’s real wife died like six years ago. I saw him at the funeral! Remember? Because then he had to raise the stepson all by himself and help him woo that sassy preteen girl singer who stole Mariah Carey’s “All I Want” Christmas song … which sounds like the plot of a silly movie, because no one loves stepchildren. Another “Cinderella Story” taught us — and Hilary Duff — where stepchildren whose biological parents die belong: vacuuming my floors because my Roomba that I bought with your inheritance broke. When the robot revolution comes, I hope those murderous robots are as easy to break as Roombas.

Anyway, speaking of Hilary Duff, why are all the celeb zines blabbing about Natasha anyway instead of more stories about Hilary? When’s Hil’s next album coming out? When’s Hil getting back with her uglier sis Haylie for more teen sister Disney song covers? Aly & AJ totally stole their thunder, and no one seems to care! That’s the real story! Not this ski death business! Natasha’s not even famous! Sure, she was the mom in Lindsay Lohan’s Parent Trap in the 1990s, but no one likes a one-hit wonder.

Speaking of talentless one-hit wonders, Sarah Bariles is playing at SpringFest. I know lots of people who are excited about Sarah Burellis — she’s not famous enough for me to bother spelling her name correctly — for some unfathomable reason or another. Even the second-place “American Idol” loser David Archuleta says she’s his favorite singer. And that’s why I voted for the other David. Mother — not mine, but the bunny mother from “Bambi” — always said if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. I would, however, point out that limiting my freedom of speech is an oppressive act of terrorism against the First Amendment and thus hardly can be considered nice, so didn’t she just prove her own totalitarian command hypocritical and thus invalid?

But we’ll pretend the bunny knew her stuff, and I just won’t say anything at all about that whiny obnoxious Mandy Moore-wannabe Saruh Bariles. I definitely won’t point out that whenever she comes up on my Miley Cyrus Pandora station, I scream the shrill death-squeal of a young Jennifer Love Hewitt in those “I Know What You Did Last Summer” movies before trampling my stuffed animals in a hurry to SKIP IT! Seriously, she has the talent of a Pussycat Doll — not Nicole Scherzinger, the one that does all the singing — but the talent of one of the other four glorified backup dancers.

Lots of morons say the free concert is the only reason to go to SpringFest, but I’m not afraid to call out a moron. Just like I’m not afraid to call out someone who wears Crocs for being rubber shoe-wearing trailer trash. There are tons of other fun things to do at Nameless … if you’re like me.

And by that, I really mean being ruthlessly and inappropriately competitive about things that everyone realizes are so mindnumbingly shallow and unimportant, that I can always win just because you don’t try. I used to be a winner because I had more Wall posts than you — I even had the Facebook application that kept track of all your friends’ Wall post counts so I KNOW I was beating everyone — but ever since Zuckerberg eff’ed me over and hid the count, I need new competitions … And SpringFest is filled with them.

There are the obvious competitions — like seeing who can cram as many animal byproduct-covered animal parts in their mouth in the Gusburger eat-off or ruining Ben & Jerry’s for yourself by shoveling it out of a bucket, or racing around in an obstacle course or trying to unhook your friend’s harness on the inflatable rock climbing wall — it was all in good fun, Jimmy!

Then there are the less obvious competitions, like seeing who can abuse the free food the most. Remember, it’s not volume, but caloric content. Compress that cotton candy before cramming it in your cargo pockets — and note that the only time cargo shorts are acceptable is when you’re stealing stuff. And like with any social event, there’s also the competition in which you and your SpringFest pals see who knows more people. And this brings me to the most important of all competitions … the Facebook photos.

As one of the top-five spring semester events — the other top events being that cupid holiday, that leprechaun holiday, graduation and last day of classes — SpringFest is a prime time for all your friends — well the girls, anyway — to bring their digital cameras and make a Facebook album. Maybe they’ll even add a few rando photos from their poorly-attended birthday party where all they did was photograph each other standing around with their two friends and two roommates — who were trying to do homework but got hassled into coming to the “party” because the 30 people who said “maybe” on the Facebook event shockingly didn’t show.

Anyway the photo competition is pretty complicated, so you may need to take notes. Obviously you want tons of photos of you because you’re an attention whore who validates yourself with your digital fingerprint on a fumbling social media site — the future is Twitter, suckas! The primary goal is to get a new profile picture. You want to have someone cool in your photo, but not cooler — and definitely not cuter — though they usually go hand in hand — than you. You also need to be doing something fun — like unhooking a friend’s safety harness on a rock climb — or having something hilarious going on in the background — like a talentless singer desperately crooning to a crowd of less than five people. I swear to Zac Efron, if I see you at SpringFest singing along to that horrid “Love Song” that everyone learned the chorus to a year ago, I may or may not punch you in the jugular. Please note I only added that “may not” for legal reasons because I’m not allowed to make physical threats of violence in my columns anymore. And I can’t go back to jail.

Now if you’ve got real SpringFest skillz, you might even try to get the photo Holy Grail of a picture with Buzzy. For the uninformed, Buzzy the Bee was once the University Programs Council mascot who made students of all ages and criminal histories giggle with pun-tastic glee as he fluttered about making events buzzworthy and stabbing boredom to death with his stinger. But now the UPC bourgeoisie is suffocating U.Va.’s second favorite mascot — first place mascot obviously goes to Matt Schrimpboat’s official University dog Noble Cozart — and poor Buzzy might not even make a SpringFest appearance … which is a shame, because I wanted him to attack that poser Sahra Barelez. Mandy Moore for SpringFest 2010!

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

My duty as a Cavalier Daily Life columnist is to inform my fellow University students about issues that are important and relevant to their lives. Today, I will address the topic of letters. There seem to be many of you out there who think letters are optional. They most certainly are not. I don’t know how many times I have come across “thre” instead of “there,” and don’t even get me started on abbreviations — “luv” is not “love.”

The importance of certain letters is often overlooked, especially — in my experience — by engineers. There are a whole bunch of letters, 26 in our alphabet to be exact, and only a handful of numerals. I am no math major, but I do know that the amount of permutations that can be made from letters far exceeds the amount of permutations made from numbers. So yeah, letters are important. But, can you imagine if we were not graced with some particular letter of the alphabet? If the letter “t” was taken away for a day, what would happen? Certainly terrible and tremendous things would transform the way we talk. Cue the “Twilight Zone” music.

First and foremost, our fearless leader, Thomas Jefferson, would be reduced to Homas Jefferson. That almost sounds like Hummus Jefferson — in which case we would have to eat sprouts and bow our heads in shame. The UTS buses would go nowhere if they relinquished the “t” in their acronym. There would be confusion in all bathrooms across Grounds as people gave up drying their hands with towels and instead used paper birds.

If President Taft was Aft, he would have been riding along in a ship rather than trying to fit in that tiny tub, and we would have one less president to make fun of. World War II would become World War Wo, as in World War Woah, and every time you discussed it with someone they would look around to see what you were surprised at. It would not be conducive to educated conversation. Depots would be depos; however, depots are worthless anyway, so that really doesn’t matter.

Our childhoods would be completely messed up. Instead of indulging in a tattle on a younger sibling, we would have indulged in ale, which is a rather unhealthy for a 5-year-old.

Nobody wants to use oile paper, and if everyone took urns instead of turns, a lot of ashes would be missing. If “the” was replaced with “he,” our gender-neutral world would crumble. Whenever a sequential story was told, an obnoxious bird would fly about because “hen” would replace “then.” Also, you would never be able to talk about art without being confused with Long John Silver. Example: “I love arrr-.”

On a positive note, Britney Spears wouldn’t have made it so far with the salty, prickly and less than sensuous name Briney Spears. Paris Hilton would have a sex ape rather than a sex tape, which is only slightly more terrifying.

In short, if the letter “t” was removed for the day, chaos would ensue, and counselors would be called on to ease the nightmares of our childhoods. My point is this: All of you letter-haters who write “your” and really mean “you’re,” or think that “bye,” “buy” and “by” can be used interchangeably, should know that one letter can make a world of difference. This lesson should have been learned in the third grade, but take it in now. You engineers can brag about the practicality of your profession, but try using a t-square without the letter “t.”

Maggie’s column runs biweekly Fridays. She can be reached a m.jones@cavalierdaily.com.

The University offered admission to 6,331 students from across the U.S. yesterday, putting together a prospective class of 2013 from an application pool that saw an increase in the number of applications, international students and financial aid requests.

Exactly 21,839 prospective students submitted applications this year, more than ever before, Admissions Dean Greg Roberts said, adding that the number of applicants represents a 17 percent increase from the 18,598 students who applied last year.

“Percentage increase [from last year] of in-state versus out-of-state was very similar,” Roberts said. From Virginia, 7,663 students applied compared to 13,764 out-of-state students. A total of 6,331 students were offered admission to the University. Of those accepted, 3,276 students were from Virginia and 3,055 were from outside the state, meaning that the University’s in-state admission rate was 42.7 percent while the out-of-state rate was 22.1 percent.

The record number of applicants pushed the overall acceptance rate down to 28.9 percent from 35 percent last year, Roberts said.
Roberts attributed the increase in applications to the University’s decision to accept the Common Application. He also cited the slumping economy as another reason for the increase.

“I think we are considered to be a pretty good bargain in a time when families are being very careful about their spending,” Roberts said, noting that interest in state schools in general is up this year because of their cost-effectiveness.

There also was a noticeable increase in the number of international applicants, Roberts said, adding that a significant number of applications were received from Asia, specifically China. A total of 2,188 international students applied for admission into the class of 2013, up from 1,484 applicants for the class of 2012.

“I think China is more open now, for one,” Roberts said, adding that the University heavily targeted China during last year’s recruitment process.

Of the 6,331 students offered admissions, 3636 students are Caucasian, 670 are African-American, 861 are Asian, 399 are Hispanic and 42 are American Indian, Roberts said.

Accompanying the prospective class of 2013’s increased international diversity could be increased financial diversity, Financial Aid Director Yvonne Hubbard said. She noted that, given the current economic situation, she expects a “spike in the number of students on financial aid for the next couple of years,” which will level out as the economy improves.

She said she is confident that her office will be able to handle the increase in applications, but also added that because of the new Student Information System, the department is already slower than usual in processing financial documents, Hubbard said.

“We are learning quickly,” she said, noting, though, that she has asked students to remain patient with Financial Services because the office is simultaneously dealing with a high numbers of applicants and difficulties adapting to SIS.

In addition to a more international and socioeconomically diverse class, the increased number of applications means the prospective class of 2013 is slightly more academically competitive than previous years’ classes.

The average admitted student’s SAT score was 1390, Roberts said, and the middle 50 percent of students admitted had scores between 1300 and 1480. The average SAT score is up 10 points from last year, and both the midrange numbers are 20 points higher than last year. Also, 91 percent of admitted students were in the top 10 percent of their graduating class.

“We’re seeing students who we have waitlisted who a few years ago would be Echols,” Roberts said.

In response to a 3.2 percent budget reduction, the University Library announced a series of proposed changes for the 2009-10 fiscal year Tuesday. The proposals aim to save money while still maintaining current operations, said Charlotte Morford, director of communications for the University Library.

To deal with a loss of $720,000, the proposed changes include reducing operating costs, staff travel and maintenance costs, Morford said. The University Library also will work to renegotiate the annual percentage price increase for online databases and journals from 7 to 5 percent, she added.

Furthermore, the Library will adjust the way it builds collections. The University Library will lessen its use of approval plans — agreements where publishers ship books automatically, to purchase books — and instead purchase books based on individual requests, Morford said. The University Library will also purchase books based on the recommendations of selectors, staff members who work with faculty and students in their area of expertise. Including the cost of processing and postage and other fees, this change alone could save $400,000 out of a $6.6 million budget for collections, Associate University Librarian Carol Hunter said.

Other cost-cutting measures include not renewing leases for stand-alone public computers or replacing broken machines, Morford said. This is an incremental change that will occur with time, she said, noting that there always will be public machines available to access library resources. The University Library is not closing any of its computer labs, including the Scholars’ Lab, the Digital Media Lab and the Research Computing Lab, Hunter said.

“Those will still be running full steam ahead,” she said.

Student jobs also will remain in the budget, Morford noted. Hiring is cyclical and will continue to be conducted on a semester-by-semester basis, taking into account student availability, she said.

Hunter said she does not expect these changes to impact students.

“We’re maintaining the access to the intellectual content that the students and the faculty need to do their work,” she said.
According to the University Library Web site, visitors and community members are invited to share their ideas about cost-cutting measures, Morford said.

“We’re open to all ideas,” she said. “We look at this as sort of a collaborative challenge.”

The Downtown Mall infrastructure makeover is on schedule to be completed by the first week of May and is operating below its planned budget, Charlottesville officials announced earlier this week.

The project consists of several renovations to the Downtown Mall, perhaps the most noticeable of which is the rebricking of the mall’s walkways. City Council Member Satyendra Huja said the City chose to use slightly larger bricks after determining the Mall’s old bricks were in poor condition and could not be reused. He added, though, that the City is recycling the old bricks.

In addition to the brick replacement, Mayor Dave Norris said the remodeling also includes new electrical wiring, storm water improvements, the renovation or installation of light posts, benches, tree grates, trees, street crossings and the installation of a free wireless internet system that will be available throughout the entire Downtown Mall area.

“The reason we did all this is primarily because the downtown business community felt that the infrastructure downtown had gotten pretty shoddy and had been allowed to crumble over the years,” Norris said. “[It] needed an overhaul.”

Construction crews have encountered a few minor problems, however, including the discovery of “an old decrepit manhole” — hidden underneath the bricks — which will soon be replaced.

Despite these slight setbacks, Norris said the project will meet its May deadline while still remaining below its allotted budget of $7.5 million. Operating below budget has not affected the renovation’s quality, he said.

“There were a lot of nay sayers when we started this that said it was going to go way over budget,” Norris said. “But the reality of it is that … the project is coming in way  under budget and we’re very pleased with the results so far.”

City residents, though, have reacted both positively and negatively to the reconstruction efforts. Some University students, like fourth-year College student Pam Jessell, said the reconstruction will help the Downtown Mall’s appearance, but second-year College student Saleh Karaman said he “did not think there was a problem [in the Downtown Mall] in the first place.”

Downtown Mall business owners and employees, meanwhile, have expressed even stronger mixed feelings about the construction.

The Needle Lady owner Mimi Hyde said she was skeptical about whether the construction would be completed by May but said she thought the project was going well.

“They’re moving fast,” Hyde said. “I think it will be wonderful this summer.”

Miller’s bartender Angie Telofski, though, said she believes the construction is a waste of money and time.

“It is taking away all of the business’s revenue down here,” Telofski said, adding that the construction has resulted in a decrease in business and worsened the economic recession’s effects on local businesses.

In response to some citizens’ concerns, Norris explained that business activity downtown is usually slow in the winter anyway. He noted that local businesses are usually the ones who suffer during economic struggles, regardless of construction issues, and said the renovations should not be blamed for financial losses.

“Certainly there have been some inconveniences but most people have responded very well,” Norris said.

Norris also added that when the decision to renovate the Downtown Mall was discussed at a public hearing, “every single speaker spoke in favor of doing the project.”

University Law Prof. Jon Cannon withdrew his nomination for Deputy Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, following in the footsteps of several other potential members of President Obama’s administration who similarly withdrew their nominations.

Cannon said he chose to withdraw his nomination because of his affiliation with the non-profit organization America’s Clean Water Foundation, according to an EPA statement released Wednesday. The foundation came under fire for mishandling more than $25 million of federal funds between 1998 and 2004. According to a report issued by the EPA in February 2007, the organization did not comply with grant regulations and failed to document its costs.

Though Cannon, who served on the Board of Directors for the organization, was not personally responsible for the organization’s mishandling, he said felt that his former affiliation with the organization would disrupt the EPA’s future progress.

“While my service on the board of that now-dissolved organization is not the subject of the scrutiny, I believe the energy and environmental challenges facing our nation are too great to delay confirmation for this position, and I do not wish to present any distraction to the agency,” Cannon said according to the statement.

Cannon’s resignation came as a surprise to some, especially to those serving on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which was scheduled to begin Cannon’s confirmation hearing yesterday.

“We were very surprised yesterday to receive the notice of his withdrawal,” said Matt Dempsey, a representative for the committee’s ranking Republican member Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. “We certainly expected Sen. Inhofe to confirm the nomination.”

Politics Prof. Larry Sabato expressed a similar sentiment.

“Both senior Senate Democrats and Republicans had planned to support Cannon’s confirmation, so his withdrawal is a big surprise,” Sabato stated in an e-mail. “He probably would have been confirmed.”

Cannon’s withdrawal follows a series of nomination withdrawals within the Obama administration. Sabato speculated that this trend could be a result of the administration’s high standards.

“The Obama Administration has had a fair number of problems with its nominees for various positions,” he said. “The mantra seems to be, ‘One strike and you’re out,’ which may be setting the bar too high.”

A replacement for Cannon has yet to be named. Dempsey said the Environment and Public Works Committee has yet to release any possible nominations.

A fourth-year male University student was admitted to the University hospital Wednesday afternoon with bacterial meningitis.

“He is in serious condition and stable,” University spokesperson Carol Wood said. The disease is contagious, Wood said, but only those who have been in close contact with the student are at serious risk of contracting the disease.

Wood said the University administered antibiotics to all those who had been in contact with the student.

The University sent a statement notifying students of the case via a mass e-mail yesterday afternoon. Wood said the University made the decision to notify all students “because it is such a rare and serious disease.”

This year’s case is the first seen at the University during the past several years, Wood said.

Since 2001 the state has required all students to be vaccinated before enrolling in college, and as a result 95 percent of undergraduates and 77 percent of the entire student body are already vaccinated, Wood said, noting that the precautions have dramatically reduced outbreaks at the University.

Bacterial meningitis, specifically meningococcal meningitis, occurs in college students at a rate 4 to 5 times that of the general population, according to a University press release, and has a mortality rate of 15 percent.

Symptoms of meningococcal meningitis include high fever, severe headache, stiff neck, confusion or sleepiness and a red rash that starts on hands and feet. Anyone who has these symptoms should seek medical assistance immediately, according to the release.

—compiled by Matt Conover