Take Back the Night held its annual vigil in the Amphitheater last night in a culmination of Take Back the Night Week, which aims to raise awareness about sexual assault in the University community.

“The main goals are raising awareness and helping survivors to heal,” Vigil Chair Jenny Anderson said.

At the vigil, survivors were able to speak out about their experiences anonymously, while fellow students and community members sat in support in the Amphitheater, many holding candles. Sexual Assault Resource Agency volunteers were around for survivors to talk to if they needed support, Anderson said.

“When all the candles are there, it’s amazing to see how many people are supporting you,” Anderson said.

The vigil was the final event of the Take Back the Night Week, which began Monday with the “How to Date a Survivor” panel, Anderson said. This was followed by a Sexual Assault Board mock trial Tuesday and a community art project Wednesday.

Vigil co-chair Cristina Liebolt also noted that the Consent Campaign, run by Take Back the Night and the Dean of Students office, was another important event that was held this week. The Consent Campaign aimed to try and make clear to the University community what consent is.

“I think its extremely important especially in a college community,” Dean of Students Allen Groves said. “I think the objective to raise awareness and understanding is very important. And like many things at U.Va., I’m proud of the fact that its primarily student driven.”

Before the vigil yesterday night, University and local community members gathered at a rally at Lee Park in the Downtown Mall and then moved in a march to the Amphitheater. Anderson said the rally’s goal was to empower people before the vigil.

Liebolt said throughout her time at the University, she has seen growing interest and participation in the events.

“Several of my professors have encouraged their classes to come out to the vigil and rally tonight to show their support,” Liebolt said.
Anderson noted that Take Back the Night continues to see participation because it is able to reach out to many people throughout the University community.

“I think it continues today because obviously sexual assault and date violence is still an issue that affects many more people that you’ll ever realize,” she said. “The largest part of the problem is that people don’t talk about it and that its not seen as a problem if people are acquaintances.”

Take Back the Night is a newly formed contracted independent organization, which began this semester and is cosponsored by Feminism is For Everyone and the Sexual Assault Leadership Council, the umbrella organization of sexual assualt-related student groups.

The University experienced a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions since 2000, according to a recent study conducted by three University students. The study’s authors also suggested several ways through which the University could lower its greenhouse gas emissions.

Fourth-year College student Becky Schwantes, third-year College student Thushara Gunda and fourth-year College student Amanda Schwantes conducted the study and saw a 14.86 percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions since the last time the study was conducted in 2000.

The study also found that purchased electricity is the leading cause of the University’s greenhouse emissions, comprising 61 percent of the University’s total emissions. Schwantes said the figure did not surprise her, considering the increase in the number of buildings on Grounds. She noted, however, that there was a decrease in emissions per square foot.

It “indicates our buildings are more energy efficient,” she said. “We hope this trend continues.”

To lower gas emissions and ensure the University has the most energy efficient buildings, the University’s newest buildings are certified by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a popular building rating certification system.

Schwantes said the University should also modify older buildings to meet the LEED standards to further ensure that emissions decrease.

Andrew Greene, sustainability planner for the Office of the Architect, said the University is taking such steps to improve efficiency on Grounds.

“We have 18 projects for LEED certification, new buildings and renovations,” Greene said.

He said the University is specifically looking to improve lighting efficiency by replacing incandescent bulbs on Grounds with more efficient bulbs. Greene also noted that the Darden School has set a goal to be carbon neutral by 2020 and that this goal could become a University-wide ideal.

“We want to know how to get there,” Greene said. “Those two efforts are being paired and we’re working on it.”

In addition to steps taken by the University, Schwantes said students can do much to improve efficiency as well. For instance, she suggested that students put computers to sleep when not in use, unplug electronics when they are not using them and turn off lights when possible.

“The purpose of the report is to be positive,” Schwantes said. “Departments have done a lot, and we want the University to come up with a statement that says reducing emissions is goal of the whole University.”

Members of Charlottesville City Council, Albemarle Board of Supervisors and Metropolitan Planning Organization are working to obtain funding for a proposed railroad project that would link Charlottesville with Crozet.

Ann Mallek, vice chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said the idea for a train connection stemmed from an ongoing conversation throughout the past several years with John Pfaltz, a member of the technology committee for the MPO and research professor for the University. Pfaltz said he envisioned the railroad as an alternative to an over-congested U.S. Route 250.

“There’s no money and there’s no will to make new roads,” Pfaltz said. He added that if the rail service were created, he believes that University employees would comprise about two-thirds of its patrons.

Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris said rail use is growing in popularity.

“Right now there is a lot of interest on the federal level in expanding passenger rail in this country,” which corresponds with a substantial increase in funding from the federal stimulus package.

Mallek said the three groups recently began writing to senators and congressmen including Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., to secure $95,000 for a well-trained railway consultant, who would conduct a feasibility study and make a proposal to the Virginia Department of Transportation.

“What Ann Mallek and I and Norris need is a well-designed proposal to the Virginia Department of Transportation,” Pfaltz said.

Pfaltz said the study would take between six to nine months before a project proposal could be made, and “to get everything running would take about two years.”

The rail service would be operated by the Buckingham Branch Railroad, which owns the railway that runs behind the Corner. Although the track already exists, it is used mostly by Amtrak and freight trains. For a passenger train to run, an extensive length of side track would have to be added to the currently existing rail so that when trains are coming from the other direction, the other train can pull off — a “pretty costly proposition,” Norris said.

“I don’t know personally if there are enough people out there to cover the expense of running a train back and forth,” Albemarle County Board member Kenneth Boyd said. He noted that if the train cost $5 million annually — a hypothetical estimate — and the city expected that it would only earn $100,000 revenue annually, the city probably would not go through with the project.

Buckingham Branch Railroad, meanwhile, is enthusiastic about the idea if a few conditions are met, Pfaltz said. For instance, the company wants to line the tracks near the Corner with a fence, Pfaltz said, because “the railroad has a terrible time with drunken students on the track.”

Norris expressed confidence that officials will continue to explore the project’s possibilities, highlighting the environmentally friendly nature of rail travel.

“It is our belief that wherever there are opportunities to provide alternatives to single occupancy vehicles, we should pursue them,” he said.

Should the city secure funding for the project, Pfaltz said he believes that possible future expansions could take place. He added that there are a number of people who would like to see the proposed railway extend westward to Staunton and eastward to Gordonsville in the future.

La Alianza and the Latino Student Union, the two major Latino community organizations at the University, are in the process of merging into a single student group, the Latino Student Alliance.

The new organization will keep the structure of La Alianza, which serves as a coalition of the presidents and representatives of various Latino student organizations on Grounds. LSU will become one of the organizations represented by LSA under its new name, Cultura at UVA.

La Alianza Chair Carolina Ferrerosa said LSU served as an umbrella organization for several specialized Latino student organizations, such as the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers. Ferrerosa said these groups, however, dispersed themselves throughout the University community and did not effectively communicate with each other.

“That’s why Alianza was formed, to create a community around those organizations,” she said. “It currently acts as the voice of the Latino community. The Latino Student Union suddenly had an identity crisis in terms of what it was meant to do.”

She added that students had a hard time differentiating between the two groups, adding that she believes the new organization will help get rid of any confusion.

“We wanted to address that problem and find a better way to address that concern and find a way to tackle the problems,” she said.
Ferrerosa said as of late, La Alianza was becoming less and less effective.

“Suddenly it seemed now its only role was social programming, not political work. It wasn’t the voice of the community anymore and it wasn’t representative,” she said.

Latino Student Union President Chris Blank worked together with Ferrerosa to create the new organization.

“Basically, it was something that I recognized as a weakness in both organizations,” he said, noting that La Alianza focused too much on event planning and not on advocacy, while LSU had difficulties maintaining membership because of the nature of the Latino community at the University.

“There was no unifying factor because the Latino community at U.Va. differs so much in skin color, class, socioeconomic background [and] what country they come from,” he said.

Peter Rios, president of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, said while he believes the merger of the organizations will help unify goals and plan events, it does not address all concerns of the University’s Latino community.

“I think that our biggest challenge is not necessarily our structure,” Rios said. “I think our biggest challenge is engaging our Hispanic underclassmen and incoming first year Hispanic students and encouraging them to take leadership roles. If this structure is conducive to helping with that then I support it.”

Blank said the LSU executive board would become the executive board of the new Cultura group. He also noted that the new organization is not yet official; it is, rather, an experiment.

“It’s very possible that in the next few years that the structure could change again, although not in such a historic way,” he said.
Ferrerosa also noted the historic nature of the merger.

“Without a new name, we weren’t sure the message would get across that this is such a historical shift,” she said. “We wanted to bring the meaning of Alianza into a name identifiable by the broader community.”

Alianza means “alliance” in Spanish, she said.

It was a fowl disturbance, perhaps unlike anything ever seen on Grounds.

Second-year Engineering student Piyush Srivastava returned to the University from a weekend at home to find an interesting new bedmate occupying his ground-floor Dillard dorm room.

A large turkey crashed through his window March 29, shattering glass and eventually dying on Srivastava’s bed.

“I saw this huge thing lying on my bed and glass shattered all over, the window completely broken,” he said. “I didn’t even realize it was a turkey. My suitemates told me it was a turkey. Luckily I wasn’t there. There was blood and glass all over my pillow.”

Srivastava said he contacted his resident adviser about the dead turkey on his bed, and was told to call University Housing Division’s emergency hotline. The deceased bird was removed that day and Srivastava was provided with another dorm room until the mess was cleaned. Animal control departments were not contacted about the incident, he said.

—compiled by Katie Bo Williams

Both teams in the Virginia-Duke men’s lacrosse game may be willing to make the argument that its team is the underdog.

Duke (8-3, 1-1 ACC), ranked at the bottom of the ACC at the beginning of the year, will face the only undefeated No. 1 team in the country Saturday. Despite the No. 1 ranking, however, Virginia (12-0, 2-0 ACC) will face tough competition tomorrow. No. 8 Duke has exceeded expectations, posting a solid 8-3 record with one win and one loss coming in ACC play. Although the Blue Devils have lost two games against ranked opponents, they have defeated a slurry of other ranked teams: then-No. 20 Bucknell, then-No. 15 Colgate, then-No. 14 Loyola and then-No. 19 Georgetown. Duke’s best win this season came four weeks ago when the Blue Devils beat then-No. 8 North Carolina with a four-goal margin. Virginia, on the other hand, only squeaked by North Carolina 11-10.

Duke is a “really tough team — really talented offensively,” Junior midfielder Max Pomper said. “They have historically had a lot of success against us.”

Pomper noted that Virginia is 0-5 against Duke in the past five meetings between the two conference foes. No Cavalier currently on the team has defeated a Blue Devil. Pomper, himself a four-year Virginia veteran, has lost to Duke four times in his stead at the University.

“In the past couple years, we’ve played some up-and-down games with Duke,” senior defenseman Matt Kelly said. “We played seven to six in an overtime game two years ago. We had a shootout once. [But] last year they beat us by eight.”

The one-sided nature of the recent Virginia-Duke series may seem unusual given the quality of recent Virginia teams, but it is not without some explanation.

“Duke’s a team that, over the past few years, has been maybe more athletic than us,” Kelly said. “We haven’t really had a matchup like this so far this year. This might be our toughest game.”

This year’s Duke squad is a different team, though, than previous Duke squads. The Blue Devils lost many of their key seniors this past offseason, including midfielder Zack Greer and attackman Matt Danowski.

“They look a lot different this year, obviously losing all those guys,” senior attackman Garrett Billings said. “You lose Matt Danowski — there is no way it can’t hurt your team.”

Pomper, however, said though Duke may have a new face, it is still the same powerhouse it has always been.

“They lost a bunch of fifth-year guys that were really talented,” Pomper said. “But they are Duke. They still have great players — they are a great program. So they have guys who come off the bench who haven’t played a bunch in their career that are still real talented. So we aren’t overlooking them by any means. They are without Matt Danowski but they are still really talented.”

Having already defeated North Carolina and Maryland, the Cavaliers will play this weekend for both a regular season conference title and the No. 1 seed in the ACC tournament. Virginia’s seniors also will be hoping to get a win against Duke before they graduate, and the team as a whole will look to continue its quest for perfection. Either way in Durham, one streak — the Cavaliers’ undefeated run, or the Blue Devils’ recent success against Virginia — will come to an end.

Coming off a disappointing midweek split series against Stony Brook, the Cavaliers return to ACC play this weekend as they travel south to take on the No. 9 Yellow Jackets in Atlanta.

Following a disappointing 23-3 drubbing Wednesday at the hands of Georgia Southern, Georgia Tech (20-7, 9-4 ACC) is anxious to get back on the field as well and make up for its recent blowout defeat. Contrary to what Wednesday’s result might suggest, Georgia Tech has had a very successful season; the Yellow Jackets already swept Maryland and took two out of three games against Miami this year.

Virginia (27-6, 8-5 ACC) knows it must handle these wasps with care or face the sting of a potent Yellow Jacket offense, Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said.

“We’ve always had great games with Georgia Tech,” O’Connor said. “They’ve got a very good ball club this year, they had a very good ball club last year.”

Veterans junior first baseman Tony Plagman and senior outfielder Luke Murton lead the Georgia Tech offense. Plagman has been the Jackets’ main power threat this year, leading the team with eight home runs and 33 runs batted in. Murton, meanwhile, leads all Georgia Tech starters with a .370 average and .680 slugging percentage.

Not to be outdone by its offensive counterparts, the Yellow Jacket pitching staff has compiled an impressive team ERA of 4.8. Sophomore Deck McGuire leads Georgia Tech’s rotation, posting a 5-0 record with a team leading 2.36 ERA.

Virginia needs to focus on every aspect of the Yellow Jacket’s play if it wants to come out on top, O’Connor said.

“This is a big weekend,” O’Connor said. “We need to play good, sound fundamental baseball. You obviously don’t want to lose a game like this going into a series, but we have to handle it like men, and that’s what I told the players.”

Despite the loss against Stony Brook, the Cavaliers still find themselves ranked 11th in the nation. The Virginia bullpen, a question mark at the beginning of the season, has played a key role in helping the Cavaliers acquire their No. 11 ranking. Freshmen Shane Halley and Justin Thompson have performed well in relief duties this season, not allowing a single earned run this year.

Halley “is a great, fresh arm,” junior catcher Franco Valdes said. “He’s shown poise, he’s shown that he’s gone out there and be able to handle his stuff, throw his pitches for strikes, and he’s had success.”

Starting pitching also will be key for the Cavaliers this weekend. Virginia’s most recent loss was partly because of starting pitcher Jeff Lorick’s inability to get through the first inning; Lorick gave up five earned runs in two thirds of an inning of work. The Cavaliers hope for stronger performances from their starting pitchers this weekend, as both freshman Danny Hultzen and senior Andrew Carraway take the hill. Hultzen leads Virginia with five wins, while Carraway is tops among all starters with a 2.14 ERA.

At bat, the Cavaliers will look to get their swings back on track after being held to two runs on six hits last time out. Sophomore first baseman Dan Grovatt hopes to recover after a difficult midweek series. Although he ranks second among Cavalier starters with a .389 batting average and 49 hits, Grovatt was held hitless in six at bats against Stony Brook.

With both teams looking to bounce back with a big series win, O’Connor said his squad must be the one able to leave behind its past.
“They’ve gotta deal with it, turn the page, and get ready to work tomorrow and play down there in Atlanta on Friday night,” he said.

The No. 1 Virginia men’s tennis team will bid for a consecutive undefeated regular season this weekend on the road against No. 25 Wake Forest and No. 51 North Carolina State.

With a win Friday in Winston-Salem, the Cavaliers (24-0, 9-0 ACC) will clinch sole possession of the ACC title. The Demon Deacons (17-7, 7-2 ACC) have won five of their last six matches, however, including a 4-2 home victory against No. 16 Florida State, which took Virginia to the wire two weeks ago in Tallahassee. Wake’s top two singles players, No. 21 senior Cory Parr and junior Steve Forman, led the way with victories against No. 11 junior Jean-Yves Aubone and No. 49 sophomore Clint Bowles, respectively.

Virginia senior Dominic Inglot and sophomore Sanam Singh did not fare as well in the top lines against the Seminoles, each falling in three sets. After returning home last week to play then-No. 25 Duke and then-No. 39 North Carolina, however, Inglot rediscovered his stroke with victories against two top-40 opponents.

The match “was a great reflection of his character,” Virginia coach Brian Boland said. “By the way that match turned out and how he was able to get down a set and a break and battle back, find a way back in the match and then play a really good super-tiebreaker.”

While Parr will most likely pose a challenge to Inglot in No. 1 singles, the Cavaliers may have to focus more on their doubles play. Virginia dropped the doubles point last Friday against Duke for the first time in more than a month and only the second time this season, losing in both the No. 1 and No. 2 spots. Although the pair of Singh and junior Houston Barrick — ranked No. 6 nationally — bounced back Sunday against North Carolina, Inglot and sophomore partner Michael Shabaz — ranked No. 14 — continued to struggle, losing 5-8.

“Me and Dom just have to be a little more consistent­ — I think we’re too erratic at times,” Shabaz said. “Sometimes we’re making them play and sometimes we’re hitting the back fence with shots.”

Inglot said the pair needs to start strong — both in their serves and returns — to avoid another letdown.
“The times we struggle is when we put ourselves in a hole early on … we get broken early,” Inglot said. “The three times we’ve lost this year, we got broken straight away, and there’s actually been so many times we’ve pulled it out after being broken- but that doesn’t help.”

Boland tried switching around the lineup against the Tar Heels, placing the default No. 1 team Singh and Barrick in No. 2 doubles, while Inglot and Shabaz moved to the top slot. Whoever plays in No. 1 doubles against Wake Forest will have their hands full against top-ranked tandem Parr and Forman.

“Wake have the No. 1 doubles team in the country … they’re gonna pose a threat,” Inglot said. “We’re gonna have to start out with doubles — get that doubles point — and try to make our way through.”

The Demon Deacon duo also has struggled recently, however, dropping its last three matches against North Carolina, Florida State and N.C. State. Wake Forest’s lower-seeded doubles teams have compensated for the slide with clutch victories of their own, however, meaning Virginia freshman Drew Courtney and junior Lee Singer may need to continue their stellar play in the No. 3 spot to help grab the doubles point for the Cavaliers. The pair has compiled a 18-4 record thus far, including a crucial win against the Tar Heels to clinch the doubles point last Sunday.

Singer may be needed in singles as well, given the recent struggles of freshman Steven Eelkman Rooda. Boland inserted Singer into the singles lineup for the last match, and said he was pleased with the junior’s performance.
“I’m trying to give Lee as many opportunities as he can,” Boland said. “He has a lot of potential and has an awful lot of experience, so we feel like Lee can do great things for us if he’s asked to play. The great thing about Lee is he’s always ready — he’s dealt with an awful lot of adversity.”

The Cavaliers will continue play Sunday against N.C. State (9-12, 3-6 ACC) in its final regular season match. The Wolfpack enters the contest with a five-game losing streak, including three home defeats. Despite the slide, it still sits safely in 10th place in the ACC, ahead of Maryland and winless Boston College. If Virginia meets expectations and pulls out a victory, it will head into tournament play as the only undefeated team in the nation.

Two recent Student Council initiatives share the same problem: both treat the symptoms instead of the disease. When Council identifies a problem at the University, it should not just create a superficial solution that does little to effect real change. It must instead address the source of the problem to have a meaningful impact on the lives of students.

Council recently announced an agreement reached with Parking and Transportation to extend the time period in which students could park at the Newcomb Parking Garage for a flat rate of one dollar. Council has been working on this project since last semester, originally proposing free late-night parking for students. In the end, it made only a small gain for students: the one-dollar rate will start at 10 p.m. instead of 12 a.m. The time and energy put into this project could have been used to improve Safe Ride, a late-night transportation solution available to everyone, or to fundraise for the FreeRide program, which will likely face funding shortages should Council decide to make the program permanent.

Council President John Nelson said Council has been in continuous talks with University Police Chief Michael Gibson and others about improving Safe Ride. Nelson also said the late-night parking program is not costing Council or students, so no money has been lost to this endeavor. Nelson acknowledged one problem with the late night parking initiative is that few students know about it and therefore are unlikely to use it. A strong publicity campaign will be needed to ensure that students take advantage of the program, especially during exams. Had students known about the flat rate for late-night parking prior to Council taking on this initiative, it is likely fewer students would have complained about the lack of late-night parking options in the first place. Council could have spent time working toward raising awareness about the existing late-night parking options, but instead spent months working for free late-night parking.

Council has also started an off-Grounds housing scholarship fund for low-income students. Because the scholarship will only help six students, however, Council would have been better served by lobbying the University for changes in on-Grounds housing. On-Grounds housing options are often small and cramped, or if not, significantly further away from Central Grounds than many off-Grounds locations.  On-Grounds housing is also not available to students who are not taking classes during the summer. These reasons can cause students to prefer off-Grounds locations, either because they want to stay in Charlottesville during the summer, or so they do not have to move several times a year. If Council worked with the University to improve on-Grounds housing so that more students wanted to live on Grounds, it would have a wider and more substantial impact, especially on low-income students in the University community.

Council has good intentions when it sets out to address students’ concerns. But if Council wishes to enact significant improvements across Grounds, it needs to start with the root of the problem.

Who wants to be a millionaire? I would say all of you reading. The millionaire status is something many hope, strive, and work for until they get there and wonder what to do next. A million dollars could and would go a long way these days, especially if you multiplied it by ten. The possibilities are endless. Unfortunately those possibilities were narrowed down quite a bit when the generous Hunter J. Smith pledged $10.7 million dollars to none other than the marching band’s new recital hall. In such tough times when our endowment is looking as bad as our basketball team, we need to thank the giving alumni for their graciousness but implore them to see the areas at this University that truly need a helping hand.

Graduating from the class of ’51, Carl W. Smith’s blood has run orange and blue ever since. A lineman under the storied football coach Art Guepe, Smith had a strong penchant for donating to Virginia athletics. He and his wife, Hunter J. Smith, contributed the single largest individual monetary donation ever to the University — $23 million dollars — to expand Scott Stadium, as well as $2 million to construct the first football stadium at the University’s College of Wise in 1997. We may have needed that extra two million as their football record is a lot more impressive than ours (8-3 as opposed to 5-7). But the bucks did not stop there. Donations from the Smiths continued on to the Law, Medical and Darden Schools, the Children’s Medical Center, historic preservation and the Jefferson Scholars Program. To sneer at the crutches the Smiths have clearly placed under this University would be tasteless and ungrateful. I do, however, still believe the current donation could be better spent.

“Missing Billion: how UVa’s investment strategy worked … until it didn’t.” “Sorry Alumni, We Gambled our Endowment and Lost it.” The headlines were hot off the press when the University reported a billion dollar loss from their endowment (nearly 20%). Right afterwards came a $10.6 million dollar budget cut from Governor Tim Kaine. J.P. Morgan’s Michael Cembalast blasted the University for investing 75 percent of its endowment in private funds and illiquid instruments; he remarked top universities’ new “fetish” for risky investments has now come to a sobering conclusion. It doesn’t take Kenneth Elzinga to know how much this hurt us. Damage control followed with Leonard W. Sandridge, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer calling the declared “distress” of the system to be inaccurate and President John T. Casteen III ensuring that the University “will continue to meet 100 percent of the financial need of all our students.” The damage, however, had been done.

We may not be in Great Depression mode, but with a billion and change in losses, change will clearly have to be made. Employee bonuses were frozen for this upcoming school year, administrative cuts may be made, and reduced hours will mean an increased workload for the remaining faculty. Stressed out and overworked staff will inevitably begin a trend of unhappiness cultivated at this university, where the student satisfaction level has traditionally been sky-high. Goodbye office hours; hello, “go figure it out yourself.” But beyond questioning whether or not the Newcomb swipe-in lady will no longer call me handsome due to her bonus cut, the University’s financial aid needs should be kept in mind instead of whether or not the marching band can play in the rain.

With the current economic situation worsening, students today need more help than ever to pay for the skyrocketing cost of education. The University goes above and beyond with AccessUVa to meet all demonstrated need, but think of what a $10 million donation could mean for scholarships. If invested properly and safely, the investment could mean tuition for 50, 60 or more future students. Weighing the benefits between having that many more students who deserve yet cannot afford to be here or a very expensive, brick umbrella to protect the Marching Band shows a clear distinction in greater importance. The Marching Band is not the Wicked Witch of the West; it will survive to play another day. The prospective students, you ask? Well, they will be hearing a different fight song. Alumni should always have free reign in deciding where their money should be spent. During these tough financial times, though, when donating, aim your donation at targets that will prove much more worthy to the University. And we should do our part as well. Encouraging donations to these causes is a crucial step that needs addressed by our administration. While distress should not be aroused, neither should they downplay the recent downturns. With a renewed connection with our alumni, we can ensure so much money will not go to such little things. I certainly enjoy listening to the marching band, but want to make sure there will be enough of us around to listen to them play. That donation will be music to everyone’s ears.

Bobby Laverty is a Cavalier Daily Associate Editor. He can be reached at b.laverty@cavalierdaily.com.