Governor Bob McDonnell resolves to reverse the decades-long trend of underfunding Virginia’s public colleges, pledging to work with the General Assembly to devote resources to state schools on par with other top public systems, such those in California and North Carolina. We promise this is the only time we will request McDonnell to model any California budgetary decision.

Men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett resolves to do everything in his power to impart his best-in-NCAA-history three-point shooting ability to Virginia’s players. If he gets that one knocked out early, he might even start wearing ties to away games.

Board of Visitors Chair John O. Wynne resolves to increase the transparency of the presidential search process’ last few stages, recognizing that protecting candidates’ identities need not result in a complete lockdown on all information.

The Honor Committee resolves to formally examine and amend its intent clause, removing any ambiguity and clarifying the definition for students. Wait — can that type of reform be enacted with 500 signatures on a petition?

Craig Littlepage resolves to hire a coach who can unite the fan base and catapult Virginia football into the national spotlight — or at least the ACC spotlight. Actually, simply beating our in-state rival would be a dramatic improvement from this season. (We’re referring, of course, to William & Mary.)

The Spanish department resolves to suspend its major, assuring students that University Career Services has said “Employers really don’t care about Spanish majors at all.”

Virginia’s field hockey, men’s soccer and other non-revenue sports’ teams resolve to continue to outperform football and men’s basketball on a yearly basis. As a corollary, students resolve to attend field hockey and soccer games at least a quarter as often as they attend football and basketball games.

University Unity Project Committee members resolve to move past the “planning” stages of their project by the time summer vacation rolls around.

Dining Services Director Brent Beringer resolves to never again end a sentence with four exclamation points in a University-wide e-mail. That holds especially true for one-word sentences that simply read “Glow Stix!!!!” We love you Brent!

I think we all remember how tough not having a car on Grounds was first year, and some of us (me included) as upperclassmen still don’t have the luxury of having a car to drive whenever we need to go to Barracks or anywhere down Route 29. But on Nov. 17, the University’s Department of Parking and Transportation introduced a new program to help out all of those car-less first years and upperclassmen. The new Zipcar program allows students to rent cars on a daily or hourly basis, and is a cost-effective, environmentally conscious alternative to having a car on Grounds.

University students can sign up for Zipcar for the low price of $35 per year and can then rent a car for $66 per day or $8 per hour on weekdays, and $72 per day or $9 per hour on weekends. This price includes gas, insurance, and 180 free miles. At first glance, these prices might seem a bit steep, but in comparing these prices with other costs to having a car on Grounds, these costs in many cases may actually be cheaper. Currently, the most inexpensive parking option for on-Grounds students is to buy a parking permit for the Emmet/Ivy Garage, but this option costs $192 a year. And for a spot in Lambeth, Bice, or other upperclassmen housing areas, the price runs $440 for the year. Of course, the Zipcar option may not be the best for those who need regular access to a car; using the program multiple times a week could potentially become more expensive than investing in an Emmet/Ivy Garage spot. But for those of us who only need a car once every couple of weeks to go grocery shopping (and don’t want to lug bags of groceries and melted ice cream onto the bus), Zipcars are a convenient, time-saving alternative.

Not only can Zipcars save money for students living on-Grounds, but the new program can also prove to be a great asset for those off-Grounds. Many apartment complexes charge exorbitant amounts to have a car in an assigned spot — a parking spot in the GrandMarc garage can cost as much as $70 per month. Additionally, free street parking in popular areas such as 14th Street and Jefferson Park Avenue is often hard to come by; students often have to park blocks away from their homes to ensure parking in a non tow-away zone. There’s also the fact that these on-street parking spots, and even many of the parking garages and University lots, experience a number of break-ins every year. I think most of us know at least one person or have at least heard of someone who has had a GPS or iPod stolen from his car.

The University’s Zipcar program solves all of these problems. Second-year College student Doc McConnell has used the new program, and stated that “It’s the perfect solution. You don’t have to pay for gas, insurance, cleaning, or maintenance. You pay one $35 annual fee, and then you rent the car as much or as little as you want, with no ongoing charges.” McConnell further argued in favor of the program, saying, “With six cars available, you’re practically guaranteed to find a car when you want one… It’s like owning six cars at once.” The Zipcar program is a user-friendly one as well as a convenient one. To rent a car, you simply join online, and get a Zipcard within days. After you’ve joined the program, you simply reserve a car either online or over the phone (you can do this minutes before you need the car, or months); your Zipcard then gives only you access to the car during your reserved time slot.

Zipcar is not only cost-effective, but has the potential to be extremely environmentally friendly as well. Hopefully the new program will cut down on the number of vehicles in the University community, and according to Rebecca White, the University’s director of parking and transportation, “Investing in alternative transportation and reducing the number of cars on campus are key tenets of our overall approach to sustainability.” The six cars chosen for the Zipcar program also represent a move toward sustainability; three of the six cars are hybrid Honda Insights, and the other three are fuel-efficient Honda Civics.

This new initiative by the Department of Parking & Transportation is a cheap and environmentally friendly alternative to bringing cars to the University. Because Zipcar is open to all students, including first-years and international students, the entire University community is helped by the program. All students can now have access to a car for a comparatively low price for those necessary trips to the grocery store or Target. Zipcar also has great potential to cut down on parking and traffic problems around the University area, and is a more environmentally friendly option than owning your own car. This new program is perfect for those of us who don’t have a car but need to run errands outside of the bus routes and feel bad about always mooching rides off of our friends.

Claire Shotwell’s column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at c.shotwell@cavalierdaily.com.

Freshman midfielder Will Bates has added a team-high three goals in the tournament for a total of 11 this season. Photo by Bennett Sorbo.

Still in possession of home field advantage, the No. 2 Virginia men’s soccer team will host Maryland tonight at Klöckner Stadium in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament.

The teams’ meeting will be the third such this season. The first resulted in a 0-0 tie, while in the second round of the ACC Tournament, sophomore midfielder Tony Tchani’s scored the game’s sole goal in the 88th minute to give Virginia the late win.

“It’s our third time playing them this year — that’s always tough, especially playing an ACC team in the Elite Eight,” senior midfielder Jordan Evans said. “Both teams are going to come out flying and it’s really going to be the team that comes out with the most heart.”

Maryland (15-5-2) recently claimed its second straight win against a ranked foe after defeating No. 10 Harvard in the previous round of the tournament.

“They are accustomed to winning,” Virginia coach George Gelnovatch said “They’ve got a chip on their shoulder from their seed in the NCAA Tournament, they’ve got a chip on their shoulder from us beating them in the ACC Tournament.”

Virginia (16-3-3), meanwhile, is riding an impressive 13-game unbeaten streak and has shut out 10 consecutive opponents. The Cavaliers enter tonight’s match fresh off a 1-0 win Sunday against Portland in the third round of the tournament.

In that game, junior goalkeeper Diego Restrepo delivered another brilliant performance between the posts, extending his school-record shutout total to 14 this season. Restrepo, who leads the nation in goals-against average (0.306) and save percentage (0.892), has not allowed a goal in 1,017 minutes and 34 seconds and is chasing the NCAA record for consecutive shutout minutes.

Offensively, the team looks forward to the return of several injured players — including sophomore forwards Chris Agorsor and Jimmy Simpson — and has uncovered a powerhouse in forward Will Bates. The dynamic freshman attacker leads the Cavaliers with 11 goals.

A solid defense led by senior captain midfielder Ross LaBauex, sophomore defender Greg Monaco and junior defender Mike Volk also could help the Cavaliers break another school record: most shutouts in a season. The current high, set in 1988, is 17. This season, Virginia has out-scored opponents 32-7 and has tallied 15 shutouts.

Virginia is making its 29th straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament, the longest current streak in Division 1. The Terrapins, who are the defending NCAA champions, earned an at-large berth to the tournament and are making their 29th overall appearance.

President John Casteen, III will step down Aug. 1 after leading the University for 20 years. Photo by Bennett Sorbo.

The Special Committee on the Nomination of a President will meet today to prepare for interviews with selected candidates.

“The purpose of the meeting is to announce that within the next 15 days the Committee will start having interview meetings with candidates,” University spokesperson Carol Wood said.

At its most recent meeting, the Committee reviewed a list of almost 200 potential candidates. It then narrowed the field of nominations to “serious candidates that reflect the qualities and skills that we’re looking for in the next president,” Wood said.

The search process began in July with the announcement of search committee members, following President John Casteen, III’s June announcement that he would step down at the end of his 20th year as University president. Casteen will retire Aug. 1.

Bill Funk of R. William Funk & Associates initiated the search and recruitment process, though the committee did not begin to consider potential candidates until it established a list of qualifications. To help define these qualifications, the committee established a Web site that allowed members of the University community to comment about the search, said Leonard Sandridge, executive vice president and chief operating officer. Additionally, the Committee held five forums in Charlottesville and one at the University’s campus at Wise. Both online and in person, students, faculty, and alumni voiced their opinions about what they wanted in the next president.

“That input proved to be critical to the development of the profile for the new president,” Sandridge stated in an e-mail. “The engagement of literally hundreds of individuals in the process is impressive.”

Student Council President John Nelson and Engineering graduate student Jen Warner were selected as student representatives to the committee and headed a student consultation group, which consisted of 23 other students. In its report to the search committee, the group stated that the University needs a president who understands the distinctive student experience the University provides and someone who will be able to critically evaluate the University’s stance and come up with a novel vision for its future.

“In these tumultuous times, the University needs a leader who has the courage to propose innovative and proactive solutions,” the student report stated. “The University’s leader should understand potential challenges on the horizon, welcome dialogue and criticism, and be prepared to make difficult choices.”

While Nelson and Warner collected feedback from students, Faculty Senate Chair Ann Hamric worked to obtain input from several senators and faculty members.

“We need above all a person of courage who is not daunted but energized by the dynamic tensions that currently characterize this University: its unique combination of public mission with private initiative; its commitments to educational breadth and to the rigor and intensity of highly focused research; its dual needs to innovate freshly, even radically, and to sustain its finest traditions,” the faculty consultation report to the search committee read.

Moving forward, search committee members will progressively trim the applicant pool. They do not yet have, however, a definite date by which to name the University’s next president.

“We have set no firm deadline for completing this work, and we will not rush to a decision,” stated John O. Wynne, Board of Visitors rector and search committee chair, in an Oct. 30 letter to the University community. “But we will work diligently on behalf of all who love the University of Virginia … Once the work of the committee has been completed, it will send its recommendation to the Board of Visitors, which is charged with selecting the University president. When the Board has made a decision, I will write again with the good news.”

It was time. We all knew it. Coach Al Groh knew it, evidenced by his prepared remarks. The players knew it, publicly stating that they practiced harder this week in order to send their coach off with one final win. It was time, and we all knew it.

The search for the next coach begins with the search for the next president of the University. President John T. Casteen, III has done incredible things for this University. But building a national powerhouse football program was never his top priority. Will the new president be willing to lower academic standards to accommodate football recruitment? This seems unlikely.

By far, the greatest resource in following whom the next head coach will be has been the Adam Gottschalk show on WKAV 1400 AM, airing on weekday mornings from 7–9 a.m. He has talked to former and current players, and members of the former Virginia football staff, and compiled his findings online. Gottschalk writes about six different aspects of the coaching search. I have outlined a couple of these key points.

There were two coaches retained from the Groh era: Anthony Poindexter, one of the most popular players ever at Virginia, and Bob Price, who is a holdover from the George Welsh staff. (Welsh was the coach prior to Groh, and the winningest coach in Virginia history.) Price has an equivalent of “tenure,” and cannot be fired by the University. It was rumored that a five-star recruit, offensive tackle Morgan Moses, would not honor his commitment to Virginia if Latrell Scott was not retained. Athletic Director Craig Littlepage, however, has taken a more hands-on role in Moses’ recruitment, and made the decision to let go of Scott.

Littlepage has given clues about the next head coach. When addressing the team, he outlined three criteria: ACC experience, coming from a winning program, and someone who “understands the unique attributes and appeal of the University.” These clues seem to point to either Mike London, the Richmond head coach who served under Groh or Al Golden, the head coach at Temple who also studied under Groh. However, there are two more names to consider.

The first is Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe, who has won an ACC championship and is a graduate of the University. The next candidate is my personal favorite: Troy Calhoun, the head coach at Air Force. He is a former Wake Forest assistant, and in two years at AFA, transformed the program after three straight losing seasons. He also has experience in a program with difficult recruiting circumstances similar to Virginia’s, whose rigorous academic standards hinder it from going after top high school players. It is also important to note that Welsh had incredible success coming to Virginia from a service academy. Calhoun is also only 41-years old, which makes him much more relatable to a student body who never connected with the much-older Groh.

One source told Gottschalk that the administration (i.e. Craig Littlepage, who most fans know as the man who tried to enforce a sign ban at Scott Stadium) also fired four graduate assistants. This is highly unusual, even when a coaching change occurs, and the source called this firing highly inappropriate. The GAs, who earn approximately an $8,000/year stipend, included three Virginia alums and two former players. Why would these Assistants be told to vacate the McCue Center within 48 hours? This may indicate that Littlepage is looking to distance himself entirely from the Groh era, possibly ruling out London and Golden.

Another story on Littlepage: In 2004, the Virginia football team finished 8-4 and lost the MPC Computers Bowl to Fresno State. The game was played in Boise, Idaho. This is important because the team thought they were going to be playing in a bowl game in Orlando, the Champs Sports Bowl. However, the administration declined the invitation because it would not change the exam schedules of the athletes to accommodate the Orlando game. Not to devalue the MPC Computers Bowl, but its claim to fame is that it is the longest running cold-weather bowl game in the country. The players and coaches were undoubtedly irked by this situation, and this may have been one of the things Groh was referring to in his statement, saying that “We were poised to solidify our position as a top team. Instead, as that trust and collaboration deteriorated, I could see this day coming.” It might also have something to do with last year, when Groh received neither a vote of confidence from the administration, nor was he fired, which ultimately destroyed his ability to recruit effectively.

The last thing to consider is the timeline for when a hiring will be made. Tony Bennett was hired as head basketball coach three weeks after Dave Leitao resigned. Many people think that the timetable for a new football coach will be similar, and we should know by Christmas who will be coaching the Hoos next season. Signing day for recruits is Feb. 3, so certainly the administration will have a coach in place well before then.

Until that time, however, the speculation will continue.

Daniel Mehler is a third-year student in the College.

You’ve got to hand it to Central America. Only a few countries south of our border have packed an entire century with enough coups, puppet governments, and military regime changes to fill half of a library’s worth of history. And yet, they’re still at it. In the last decade, the tension between the small upper class — generally Creole or Iberian — and the vast, impoverished rural majority — mostly indiginous or mestizo — has spawned the unexpected return of former Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and a constitutional crisis in Honduras that has left the nation split down political and racial lines. All of this is familiar to historians of Latin American history, and, just as in the Banana Wars of the first half of last century and the Sandinista skirmishes of 1980s Nicaragua, the United States remains very interested in the political activities of the region.

While there is no major American military presence in this unstable part of the world — or at least none that we know of, yet — there are certainly military and economic brains somewhere to our northeast weighing the options. Before American strategists decide to rush in and stabilize a country like Honduras, even if it is only to ensure citizens’ safety and basic services, we need to consider our history in the region. Although the U.S. provides significant humanitarian aid to Honduras, American influence is not welcome after interfering in revolutions in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and other nations throughout the Americas in the past 75 years. If this administration wants to avoid an embarrassment like the Iran-Contra Affair, it should keep its troops out of the region, so the rest of the world knows Teddy Roosevelt’s big stick died along with the 20th century.

Central America’s constant crawl towards socialism is generally a populist movement, countered by an elite or foreign class afraid to have their wealth redistributed through welfare initiatives. While Ortega’s victory in Nicaragua was a relatively legitimate electoral victory, supported by a fair election and significant public support, the unrest in Honduras concerns the leadership of Manuel Zelaya, a left-leaning former president who was deposed and exiled by the military in June (after a questionable political move involving term limits) and replaced by Roberto Micheletti. The move has been internationally condemned as a military coup d’état. Since that time, Zelaya has returned to the country with the support of the United States, and was last seen holed up in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, surrounded by a sea of supporters. Meanwhile, elections progressed as scheduled last weekend, and the country elected conservative leader Porfirio Lobo. Zelaya’s supporters will fight through December and January to prevent Lobo from being inaugurated, fueling the political rift that has split the nation over the past year. This is not dissimilar from the military deposition of the Somoza regime in Nicaragua in 1979, or the CIA-orchestrated overthrow of Guatemalan leader Jacobo Arbenz in 1954.

Both of those events featured heavy American military influence and both left their respective countries in a state of instability and failed to shrink the gap between classes that is the source of most Latin American political strife. In the case of Nicaragua, the Reagan administration funded an underground army of “freedom fighters” against the elected Sandista National Liberation Front government, even though the American-backed soldiers often turned out to be terroristic mercenaries. This led to a decade-long struggle that prevented the country from recovering from its years under the yoke of a conservative dictator. In Guatemala, the overthrow of the communist-leaning president Arbenz prevented the deconstruction of the American United Fruit Company. This secured massive American profits in fruit imports, but kept millions of Guatemalans, who were promised repossessed UFC land, in poverty for years.

Obviously, the Obama administration is not about to flood Central America with a military that is already stretched and a constituency that already fears the next coming of Vietnam in Afghanistan. But I hope American policymakers have noted the recent history of the reason from a Central American perspective. American interference in Latin America is not invited when American economic or political interests are in the balance, as they have been for the past century.

The current situation in Honduras is very important, because it represents the expansion of and resistance to the type of socialism popularized throughout Latin America by Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela. But although it is important from a foreign policy standpoint, the United States should avoid directly influencing the governments of Central America, because stability must be the number one priority in a region which has not seen any semblance of security in decades. The legitimacy of Honduran democracy can be examined later, and any extra-constitutional government can be corrected then. For now though, the West can afford to take a step back and let Honduras sort out its own leadership. Continuing to back the more conservative Central American political movements, as the United States has done for decades, could only serve to prolong the violent political tug-of-war that has upended the region since the turn of the last century. Maybe Central American democracy only works when we’re not looking.

Tyler Slack is a Viewpoint writer for The Cavalier Daily.