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(04/22/09 6:30am)
Beta Theta Pi alumni are preparing to buy and renovate the Delta Upsilon house on Rugby Road, for which Beta Theta Pi lost its charter in 1972 because of a conduct infraction. As part of the purchase and move, Delta Upsilon will receive a new house that will be built on Madison Lane. Beta Theta Pi alumnus Tim Akers said the pending purchase is motivated by nostalgia. “The house by Beta bridge has a lot of historic relevance to our fraternity,” he said. “Many of our older alumni have warm feelings for the place, and so we wanted it back.” Akers said the planned renovation will be an expensive undertaking because the house has not been refurbished since it was built more than 80 years ago. To help fund the restoration, the fraternity sold its current property to the Jefferson Scholars Foundation, he said.“We’re fortunate enough to have solid financial resources,” Akers said. The fraternity is planning to restore the first floor and divide the third floor into single bedrooms. Beta Theta Phi also will replace outdated systems, including the water boiler, Akers said. Alumni who lived in the original Beta Theta Pi house would have attended the University before 1972 — the year the Beta Theta Pi national organization withdrew its support of the Virginia chapter for a conduct violation. Beta Theta Pi’s house was subsequently sold to Delta Upsilon.Beta Theta Pi President Philipp von Marschall said he looks forward to the original house’s restoration, noting that the fraternity plans to remodel it in its original 1920s style. The fraternity plans to set up residence in the house in about three to four years, he said. “For a long time the goal had been to get back to 180 Rugby,” von Marschall said. Delta Upsilon alumnus Jay Hoover said Delta Upsilon agreed to the deal between the two fraternities for practical reasons.“It was just too good an opportunity to pass up,” Hoover said, adding that the fraternity will receive a newly constructed home as a result of the deal between the two fraternities.Hoover, like Akers, noted that the current Delta Upsilon house on Rugby Road is in a declining state. The current residents, though, lacked the funding to adequately restore the building.“We’re getting a new house, debt free,” Hoover said. “We’ll have a secure house with central air-conditioning, wireless Internet, and all the technical features that are in demand with students today.”Delta Upsilon President Ryan Cunningham, however, expressed mixed emotions about the future move to a new house.“The transition is going to be bittersweet,” he said. “We have memories attached to this house [on Rugby] but we’re also excited about getting a brand-new place to live.”Michael Citro, assistant dean of fraternity and sorority life, said the arrangement is a positive step forward for both Beta Theta Pi and Delta Upsilon. “It’s an exciting development for the future and wonderful opportunity for the brothers of Beta Theta Phi to return to their roots,” Citro said.
(02/25/09 7:15am)
Terry McAuliffe, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a Democratic candidate for the 2009 Virginia gubernatorial race, held a roundtable discussion yesterday in the University’s Kaleidoscope room in Newcomb Hall. The dialogue included students and faculty, as well as members of the Charlottesville community, and focused on the future of business in Virginia.McAuliffe said unemployment and Virginia’s non-commitment to the development and commercial use of progressive alternative energy were two problems he hoped to combat if elected.“The thing I’m consistently hearing as I travel around Virginia is worry about jobs,” he said.Like the rest of the country, Virginia has faced significant budget cuts, forcing Gov. Tim Kaine and the Virginia General Assembly to make tough decisions about where to allocate taxpayer money. In the face of an economic recession, McAuliffe admitted that the goals he wishes to accomplish are difficult. McAuliffe said he thinks Virginia may be in a more compromised economic situation than other states because of a lack of new businesses. “There’s no incentive right now to bring business into Virginia,” McAuliffe said.Several seated around McAuliffe in the discussion offered ideas about how Virginia might improve its economy.Frank Friedman, president of Piedmont Virginia Community College, said he thought a lack of job training may be a factor contributing to the commonwealth’s poor economy. He explained that students want to attend a school in an area where jobs will be available after graduation, and that corporations want to set up shop where a good pool of potential employees exists. “It’s a chicken and egg problem,” he said, noting that Virginia should look to states like North Carolina and South Carolina, which, he said, fund job training more effectively than Virginia.In addition to Virginia’s economic situation, alternative energy sources such as wind power were discussed. Two large signs that read “New Energy for New Jobs” flanked the table at which McAuliffe spoke. McAuliffe said encouraging development of other energy sources is a viable way to improve Virginia’s economy. David King, chairman of the Virginia Wine Board, added that the waste from the process of winemaking could be recycled and used as a renewable energy source.Despite McAuliffe’s many positive statements yesterday in Charlottesville, Gerry Scimeca, spokesperson for the Republican Party of Virginia, said he is still doubtful about McAuliffe’s plans because of the gubernatorial candidate’s inexperience with the commonwealth. Compared to many other candidates who have spent years living and working in Virginia, McAuliffe is still unfamiliar with Virginia and important issues such health care and education, Scimeca said.Virginia “needs someone who has got a tested agenda and who can help the economy and help with the issues we’ve got,” Scimeca said. McAuliffe, meanwhile, said his ideas, even coming from an outside perspective, could benefit the commonwealth.The meeting yesterday was just one stop on a tour McAuliffe is taking across Virginia. He said he hopes that by traveling to different parts of the state, he can hear people’s opinions about issues and gauge interest in his candidacy.
(09/25/08 4:13am)
Francois Weil, a French historian and author of a forthcoming book about genealogy and race in 20th-century America, spoke at the University yesterday about his new work.For decades, Weil said, genealogy served to further discrimination through its connection to racism and eugenics. Until the end of the 19th century, genealogy was, nearly exclusively, a tool of whites seeking to prove their “pedigrees”, hoping to prove their ancestral line was completely Caucasian, Weil said. In the past, he added, many believed that being an American meant being white, and genealogy was used to separate those of other races.Over the last four decades, though, genealogy has become, on the whole, a positive force, according to Weil – even contributing to the rise of a multiculturalist age. Weil cited Alex Haley’s book, “Roots: The Saga of an American Family,” as one such contributor. The novel is a researched rendering of the lives of Haley’s ancestry – including a man named Kunta Kinte who was brought to America as a slave in 1767. The book helped to ignite desire in people of all races to trace their family back through history. As Weil put it:“Genealogy gave people, no matter where from, the ability to find their roots; it wasn’t about pedigree [anymore].”Haley also noted changes in organizations such as the New England Historic Genealogical Society, saying they have developed a multicultural attitude: “[Now] I’m a member of it, but that wouldn’t have been the case 40 years ago.”Weil said he believes genealogy is now a method by which one can identify with a group, instead of, as it was before, a tool of exclusion — that genealogy is now about identity, not race.Although Weil said he sees genealogy as a neutral discipline – one with the potential for effecting positive change, Anoop Mirpuri, a fellow at the University’s Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies, said he thinks the danger of genealogy being used to further an exclusionist agenda is still very real.“Genealogists need to know that their investigations are never neutral, however much they may want them to be,” Mirpuri said. “There’s always someone out there willing to interpret in a negative light.”Mirpuri’s colleague, Rosemary Millar, agreed, saying “there continues, in some ways, to be an exclusive trend.” Genealogy has also been a part of several recent controversies. Several people during the question-and-answer session with Weil mentioned the Black Power movement — calling to question whether genealogy used as a tool of exclusion in the hands of minorities is justifiable.Millar also called to the table the issue of affirmative action, questioning the way some have used genealogy to prove themselves one-fifth or one-tenth black, thus becoming eligible for a range of University scholarships or placement opportunities.In response to these issues, Weil stated that while those issues deserve attention, his book only addresses genealogy in a more general nature.