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(08/28/14 3:55am)
It’s the time of year on Grounds when even more people than usual are harassing you on the sidewalk as you walk to class. They hand you pieces of paper, pressure you into giving them your email, or at the very least make you awkwardly reject them by refusing to make eye contact as they try to get your attention. This also makes it the time of year people join more organizations than they can possibly keep track of, leading to their becoming overwhelmed, quitting most of their commitments, and then getting emails for the next four years from an organization with a complicated acronym which they don’t understand. I know because I have done this to some degree every year at the University, and it is the wrong way to handle extra-curriculars. As difficult as it may be for the many intrepid new students of the University eager to embroil themselves in the community, new students should make a conscious effort to only join a select few organizations.
(04/24/14 1:19am)
William H. Goodwin, Vice Rector of the Board of Visitors, was recently appointed the Co-Chair of Ed Gillespie’s campaign for the US Senate Seat in Virginia. Goodwin is an active participant in the political field not just through his actions, but through his donations: he has given more than a million dollars to political causes.
(04/17/14 4:54am)
Last week a group of Westboro-Baptist-like religious protesters stood in the Amphitheater and proclaimed to everyone who would listen that the University was full of students who are going to burn in Hell. I was there when they said sorority houses are the home of free sex and drugs (and when the guy next to me retorted, “the drugs are really expensive actually”), when they said LGBTQ people were sinners and damned, when they said the football and basketball teams were going to Hell, and when they said every other hateful, homophobic and intolerant thing they possibly could. I was there when University students openly mocked them back, often hilariously, and I sang along when everyone started to sing the “Good Ol’ Song” to drown them out. I stayed and listened and watched for around 20 minutes, as did many other students. And I really wish we hadn’t.
(04/10/14 4:24am)
The Charlottesville City Council is likely to pass a tax increase on the sale of cigarettes, a move intended to improve public health as well as provide increased revenue to the city. While tax increases are never universally popular, this is a great move for Charlottesville for several reasons. It provides a strong incentive for Charlottesville residents not to smoke, which will improve the quality of public spaces and make visiting places like the Downtown Mall more enjoyable. It will provide money to fund government programs at a time when many local governments are struggling to meet budgets. And it will decrease the long-term medical expenses of people who would otherwise develop lung cancer or other ailments as a result of their smoking.
(03/27/14 6:27am)
Over the past few years, the Living Wage Campaign has periodically made headlines as they have pushed for the University to establish a policy that all its employees and employees of its contracted companies be paid a “living wage,” or a salary sufficient for the needs of a family of four. While this campaign has often drawn attention to itself for the wrong reasons, such as with its unsuccessful hunger strike two years ago, the cause itself is a worthy one. But where the movement makes a mistake is in its target — to make a real difference in Charlottesville, a living wage law must be established by the city of Charlottesville itself.
(03/21/14 4:17am)
A recent letter published in this paper criticized Honor Chair Evan Behrle and the Honor Committee for their focus on so-called “spotlighting” of minority offenses and “dimming” of white offenses against the honor system. The writer called this “at best a disingenuous assessment of the cause of the problem,” and asserted, “The notion that somehow faculty and others reporting Honor offenses are discriminating against minorities is a foolish and misguided assumption.” While I think Behrle and everyone else involved with Honor have done an excellent job this year at bringing these issues to the forefront and explaining why they matter,I would still like to directly address the letter’s misconceptions here. Issues like spotlighting and dimming do exist and must be addressed, not just so the system is equitable and fair, but so it is effective at involving the entire student body.
(03/07/14 4:19am)
In a recent editorial for this paper, George Knaysi argued that the Olympics should be scrapped because they aren’t accomplishing anything of economic or cultural value. I’m not going to disagree with him that the Olympics are usually not a net positive financially for the host country; I will disagree with his implicit assertion that financial profit for the host country is a goal of the games. And I will strongly disagree with his assertion that the cultural impact of the games comes exclusively from athletes “relentlessly pursuing glory for themselves and ‘the nation’, ” or even from admiration for the “discipline, dedication and neuromuscular artistry” of the athletes. This is a fundamentally misguided view of the value of athletics in general, which can be hugely beneficial to every member of a society. The Olympics are important on a political level, but even more so on a cultural one in their epitomization of the quest for excellence.
(02/20/14 6:35am)
The Managing Board of this paper wrote an editorial earlier this week supporting the policy of letting students gain credit for AP courses taken in high school. The article makes a lot of persuasive arguments, particularly when it notes that AP credits help make college accessible to lower income students. That is an undeniable benefit of granting AP credit that not only helps low-income students, but the entire University by increasing socio-economic diversity. And I agree that taking some AP classes can be a great way to prepare for college course work, reading and test-taking. However, I disagree with the larger contention that an AP class is comparable to a class offered at a competitive university, and that is why the University’s administration should follow the lead of schools like Dartmouth and limit the amount of credits students can earn through AP courses.
(02/13/14 10:49pm)
The Honor Committee recently voted to add a non-binding resolution to the students’ election ballot asking whether students prefer non-proctored exams. Described by Honor Committee Chair Evan Behrle as “unexpected,” the move signals that the Committee is still actively looking for ways to shake up the Honor System at the University, but also that it has learned from last year’s failed referendum. Behrle said that the decision reflects the Committee’s desire to seek student input on important questions. The Committee should be praised for continuing to push students to think about what Honor means to them, which it has done not only by passing the resolution but also by increasing outreach and education this year. The next step should be the development of a concrete dialogue between students and faculty on issues like proctoring exams.
(01/30/14 5:04am)
In a recent editorial for this paper, Nazar Aljassar made the case that the pervasive negative stigma surrounding feminism can be attributed to both unfortunate stereotypes and the movement’s inherent elitism. I am not writing here to respond to Aljassar’s argument, but rather to some of its assumptions as well as the discussion his article has generated. Feminism is not the elitist, reverse-sexist movement it is almost always made out to be, and is actually a much larger movement than the layperson would believe in — in fact, you are almost certainly a feminist. And we need to take the term back to its original meaning.
(01/24/14 12:18am)
As the University struggles to maintain admission standards as well as remain financially stable, changing demographics is an issue that cannot be ignored. Both Virginia and many of the states that supply our out-of-state enrollment have seen declines in both black and white populations in younger age groups. The University needs a new recruitment strategy to handle these changes. By focusing now on recruiting Virginia students from rising populations in Hispanic and Asian communities, the University can maintain a diverse student body both racially and socioeconomically while leaving room to bring in higher-income students from both out-of-state and international sources to keep the University afloat.
(01/17/14 12:13am)
In 1755 Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” These lines have been quoted often since the beginning of the war on terror and during the subsequent changes to the American security apparatus, but I think it applies especially well to the turmoil surrounding Edward Snowden.
(12/05/13 4:23am)
James Seitz, the director of the University’s writing program, recently asked for a re-evaluation of the current writing requirements for students in the College. Seitz questioned the usefulness of standardized test scores in determining exemptions from the first writing requirement, and announced a review over the next year of students’ writing abilities. While such a review may yield useful knowledge of the effectiveness of the University’s writing classes, Seitz should be able to see from their structure that standardized tests are poor evidence of writing ability.
(12/02/13 4:29am)
A French court recently ordered several search engines, including Google and Yahoo, to de-list several known pirating sites from their search results. This move would prevent anyone from successfully finding pirated content and sites through those search engines. Organizations representing the television and film industry, such as the MPAA, have been pushing for these types of actions for years with little success, because these search engines have shown little interest or motivation to block or de-list pirating sites. But with the success of this court case in Europe, the chances of passing a similar measure in the U.S. will increase. I think it’s time companies like Google come to an agreement with Hollywood and block major pirating sites.
(11/21/13 6:10am)
As Christmas shopping, finals and holiday travel lead to us all stressing out, it’s easy to lose track of how lucky we are as students at the University. It’s hard to sit down and engage in an introspective analysis of your life when you have several papers, tests and extracurricular events all jammed into the last week before break, so I’m going to save you some time. You are one of the more fortunate people in the world. You go to a world-class University when less than 7 percent of the world has a college degree. You are probably not part of the almost 50 million Americans who live in food-insecure households. You are certainly not part of the 14 percent of Americans who can’t read. And you live in the wealthiest nation on the planet that, while far from perfect, still provides a level of liberty and equality of opportunity approached by few nations in the world. I could go on, but I think you get the point: no matter how stressed you are, you have it pretty good.
(11/14/13 2:10am)
The history of America, from the Declaration of Independence to the present, has had one consistent theme: American exceptionalism. In a lot of ways this is good — every country should primarily seek to serve its own interests so that its citizens can thrive. But this principle has been particularly strong in the U.S. as compared to the rest of the world, and it has manifested itself through the belief that America is somehow an inherently superior country and that any end that even narrowly supports our interests is morally justifiable. This principle has shaped our actions and philosophies in a wide variety of areas, from national security to economics to public safety. This belief — not just that we need to take care of ourselves, but that the U.S. is somehow better or more important than the rest of the world — harms the world at large, and it harms ourselves. It is an attitude that can and should change.
(11/07/13 3:06am)
Possibly the most effective method of disease prevention, vaccination, is also one of the most controversial in the United States. Anti-vaccine propaganda became mainstream in 1999 when a study was published claiming that autism could be related to mercury exposure from vaccines. This study was widely discredited, but it nevertheless gained momentum in certain circles, in large part due to the efforts of celebrities like Jenny McCarthy who widely advocated the alleged link. While the American Academy of Pediatrics has consistently found vaccines to be a safe and effective method of disease prevention and has dismissed claims that vaccines weaken the immune system or cause autism, as of 2009 approximately one in four American citizens believed there was a link between autism and vaccines. While people have the right to believe whatever they want about vaccines, their choice not to get vaccinated puts others in danger. Therefore, certain vaccines should become mandatory throughout the U.S.
(10/25/13 2:39am)
It’s already the time of year to start thinking about scheduling your spring semester. And if you’re like most people, you’re preparing to throw away some opportunities you won’t ever get again after college.
(10/17/13 3:52am)
We should get rid of fall break.
(10/03/13 12:24am)
The Cavalier Daily recently published an article about the exposed emails dealing with the hazing that led to an abrupt end to fraternity pledging in April. The article and its comments revealed a debate about what the role of the University should be in monitoring instances of hazing during pledging, and whether or not the actions taken by the Office of the Dean of Students were appropriate. Many felt that by punishing all fraternities by cutting pledging short, the University was creating a dynamic that lumped all fraternities together, despite the fact that not every fraternity violated the rules. While I support the Dean’s decision because far too many students were going to the hospital from a variety of places, I also agree with those calling for a re-evaluation of how hazing cases should be handled. The University needs to start punishing specific fraternities for specific infringements, but it also needs to instill harsher punishments to increase the incentive to follow the rules.