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(04/25/13 6:38pm)
An acquaintance recently asked me what I would look back upon as the best and worst parts of my undergraduate life at the University of Virginia. After thinking for a moment, I realized the answer to each component of the question was the same: The Cavalier Daily. The two years I spent as executive editor and editor-in-chief of this 123-year-old student newspaper were both the most enriching and trying parts of my collegiate existence, but I walk away from the experience with the firm conviction that I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
(10/12/12 3:14pm)
Readers,
(08/30/12 2:47pm)
Here it is: the new cavalierdaily.com. You’ll notice some changes, starting with our URL. Right now, when you type in “cavalierdaily.com” you get automatically redirected to “cavalier-daily.com.” This is a temporary solution until our hosting company, 1and1, can resolve issues they have encountered in trying to get “cavalierdaily.com” to direct users to the new server hosting our redesigned site. We hope this problem will be solved shortly, but in the meantime you can be assured that “cavalier-daily.com” is really The Cavalier Daily and not the work of some cunning hacker.
(06/29/12 3:16pm)
Cavalier Daily readers,
(06/24/12 5:58pm)
Without ever singing a word, instrumental post-rock group Explosions in the Sky manages to convey emotions and tell stories better than most bands with lyrics at their disposal. Explosions' music is alternately heartbreaking and triumphant, and both sensations reverberated throughout the Jefferson Theater Friday night as the band played the latest leg of its U.S. tour in support of its 2011 album Take Care, Take Care, Take Care.\n \nThe crowd at Friday's concert heard a band supremely confident in the niche it has developed for itself since its 2000 debut How Strange, Innocence. Other than a brief greeting and farewell from guitarist Munaf Rayani, the five-piece said nothing during the entirety of the show. Instead, they let their music do the talking.\n \nIt spoke loud and clear, with the band's three guitars blending together to evoke sentiments ranging from nostalgia and melancholy to hope and awe. This highlighted an important fact about Explosions, a band sometimes mischaracterized as playing music which all sounds the same. There is actually a wide variation between songs such as "Your Hand in Mine," which sounds wistful and tragic, and those such as "Postcard from 1952," which is positively exultant. The band wisely took care not to exaggerate these emotional swings in their live performance; instead, they shifted gradually between despair and joy to give the audience a chance to adjust.\n \nUnlike opening act Zammuto, which used a projector to play video clips as an accompaniment to their show, Explosions didn't incorporate much in the way of visual elements into their set. There were some isolated flashes of the stage lights to correspond with bass thumbs - and which obviously were meant to evoke the fireworks for which the band was named - but little else. For a band whose music is so powerfully cinematic, the lack of visual effects was disappointing.\n \nIn the end, the Jefferson Theater show did not reveal anything new about Explosions, but it did remind members of the crowd why they were there. The band excels at producing emotive rock music which offers listeners a sonic cocoon in which they can explore deep thoughts and feelings too often ignored in the hustle of day-to-day life. Friday night was no exception, and concert-goers seemed appreciative for the chance to lose themselves in a 90-minute set of well-crafted guitar instrumentation. Where the band will go from here is anyone's guess, but they've established a comfort zone for themselves and continue to offer audiences the chance to do the same.
(01/27/11 5:00am)
There are many things that a student might find himself doing while at the University, but protesting rarely seems to be one of them. Although the challenges - deepening social inequality, deteriorating public health and the potential for global environmental catastrophe - facing the current generation are daunting, the only visible student response is often in the form of occasional voter registration drives and one-off vigils or gatherings held in the wake of tragedy.
(01/20/11 6:38am)
In response to the recent revelation of factual inaccuracies in a history textbook used throughout the Virginia public school system, there has been a lively debate touching on everything from the state's standards for reviewing textbooks to the role of the Internet in contemporary academic research. Notably absent from this conversation, however, has been a broader critique of the ways in which the American education system provides a skewed historical perspective that cripples the ability of its students to properly understand their nation and the world. Yet with this week, which marks the 25th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a national holiday, there is perhaps no better time to consider improvements that can be made to historical instruction that will offer American students a more holistic view of the past.
(12/02/10 6:32am)
When the impoverished island nation of Haiti experienced
(11/18/10 6:39am)
For anyone at the University, it is hard not to notice the vibrant collection of student-led activist groups working to advance progressive causes. Outside Newcomb Hall, one might find the University Democrats registering voters for an upcoming election; UVa Beyond Coal gathering signatures on the Lawn to support clean energy; or Feminism Is For Everyone raising money by making sandwiches for hungry students returning from an evening of revelry late Friday nights on the Corner. Yet as motivated and visible as these organizations are, they have tended to be fragmented and highly focused on advocating for specific issues. The modern political right, in contrast, has been much more successful at combining the interests of its various factions into a coherent movement that has relentlessly pursued the election of candidates who will enact its members' agendas. The good news for progressive-minded students is that their philosophy can almost surely prevail since it is oriented toward a much broader swath of the population. To succeed, however, progressives at the University and on campuses across the country must make a concerted effort to coordinate their initiatives and form a cohesive network of activists who can achieve meaningful political results on a host of interconnected social, economic and environmental issues.
(11/11/10 7:09am)
As he sits in a well-furnished classroom and confidently outlines his dreams of college and white-collar employment to Anderson Cooper, fifth-grade student Richar Anozier might as well be the poster child of American achievement. This is quite surprising because Anozier, until only a few years ago, was just another forgotten kid growing up amidst the squalor and chaos of inner-city New York. Now, Anozier is enrolled at the Promise Academy, a rigorous charter school benefiting Harlem youth that aims to graduate every one of its students from college and then send them off into the prosperous world of the American upper-middle class. The Promise Academy, which has been the subject of multiple segments on 60 Minutes and the recent documentary, Waiting For Superman, appears to be on its way toward accomplishing that goal, having eliminated the achievement gap in reading and math between its black elementary school students and their white counterparts in New York City Public Schools. As vital as it is for schools such as the Promise Academy to prepare their students for college and stable adult lives, they must also promote a genuine sense of social responsibility if they hope to break the vicious cycle of poverty that afflicts contemporary urban America. If schools neglect this mission, then they will merely integrate their students into an upper-middle class system of values that endorses material comfort rather than social progress as the paramount objective of educational achievement.
(11/04/10 5:10am)
To be a student at the University is to be among the vanguard of intellectual, physical and cultural sophistication in America. Groups of well-dressed young men and women earnestly discussing their latest problem sets; pairs of splendidly fit runners going about their daily exercise routines and troupes of musicians practicing together at dusk are all sights that are much more common within the University than outside of its boundaries. Yet in at least one major way, University students fail to distinguish themselves from, and may even lag behind, the rest of American society. Poor eating habits - ranging from an undue reliance on fast food and snacks to the startling irregularity with which many students partake in meals - often go unnoticed because these habits typically manifest themselves behind closed doors in dormitories and apartments. These tendencies nevertheless threaten to undermine the otherwise exemplary lifestyles of those at the University. Although quick, cheap and tasty food has long been considered a paragon of college life, University students must recognize the long-term personal and social costs of such a diet and use the tremendous resources at their disposal to alter what has become a dark underside to life at the University.
(10/28/10 5:55am)
"Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." Ever since Ronald Reagan uttered those words nearly 30 years ago, America's political and economic elite have contented that the government is an inherently incompetent and malign force in society. This view has evolved to the point that our nation's political discourse is now dominated by refrains related to crushing tax burdens, bureaucratic inefficiency and government infringements upon personal liberty. As popular as this ideology may be in contemporary America, though, it obscures the fact that many of the institutions that have defined America's success - its strong middle class, its universities and its civil liberties - are direct consequences of government action. Furthermore, by conveying that the government is an albatross, America's leaders have suppressed the civic interest and public spirit of many citizens. Thus, anti-government ideology has had the perverse effect of impoverishing America's political class when inspired and informed public officials are most vital to the nation's continued achievement in the 21st century.
(10/21/10 6:16am)
News coverage all over the world has lately been dominated by the successful rescue of 33 Chilean miners, who were trapped underground for more than two months. Despite this media focus, however, the students who are slowly emerging from their own midterm-induced confinement within the University's libraries will likely remain in the dark about this remarkable event for the foreseeable future. This situation may seem paradoxical: How can a group of the most privileged and intellectually curious individuals at one of the premier universities in the world not know about such a fascinating piece of contemporary news? The unfortunate reality is that such ignorance of current events is a severe and entrenched problem among many University students. More important, it is one that extends to issues like the economic crisis and climate change that, unlike the story of the Chilean miners, possess much more than theatrical value.
(10/14/10 5:49am)
Social injustice often manifests itself in rather mundane ways, but it sometimes boils over into the public consciousness as a result of particularly visceral displays of cruelty. Homophobia, for example, is back in the headlines following a string of emotional and physical attacks upon gay Americans. In September, the roommate of Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi was charged with using a webcam to secretly broadcast a live Internet feed of an intimate encounter between Clementi and another man. Days later, a distraught Clementi committed suicide by jumping off of a bridge into the Hudson River. Then, over the course of the first weekend in October, two separate assaults were perpetrated against homosexuals in Manhattan. One of the assaults even took place at the famed Stonewall Inn gay bar. Finally, in perhaps the most appalling case, three gay men were abducted, robbed, and tortured by a group of nine thugs in the Bronx. Although there are different circumstances surrounding each case, these instances of anti-gay bullying and violence are hardly unrelated. Rather, they are direct consequences of the American political system's failure to effectively convey to citizens that homosexuals are worthy of the same protections and respect that are afforded to heterosexuals. Thus, in order to forestall further atrocities against homosexuals, it is necessary for the nation's political leadership to reverse laws such as the Defense of Marriage Act and policies such as Don't Ask, Don't Tell that currently relegate homosexuals to the status of second-class citizens.
(10/07/10 5:40am)
When Henry David Thoreau wrote "I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals," in "Walden," it seems unlikely that he could have anticipated the situation in which his native country presently finds itself. Far from being a land in which carnivorous eating is taboo, America has become defined by its citizens' meat consumption at almost every meal. Most importantly, there is little doubt that the its overwhelming demand for meat has adversely impacted the environment, ethics and health. Historically, colleges have played a crucial role in helping the United States overcome similar destructive tendencies by encouraging its young citizens to adopt new perspectives and behaviors. It should not come as a surprise, therefore, that the University has already initiated a dining program known as "Meat Free Monday" that seeks to encourage students to go vegetarian one day a week. Unfortunately, Meat Free Monday amounts to little more than a glorified advertising campaign, and it certainly does not represent the full force of the University's power. To provide a response commensurate to the problems caused by the overconsumption of meat, University Dining Services should make Meat Free Monday a mandatory exercise by serving only vegetarian dishes at its dining facilities one day a week.
(09/30/10 5:55am)
From the ubiquitous sights and sounds of construction across Grounds to the appointment of the our first female president, there are numerous signs of progress at the University. Yet in at least one conspicuous way, the University has remained stagnant by continuing to power many of its facilities with energy from an on-Grounds, coal-fired power plant. The University's continued reliance on coal suggests a crass disregard for the overwhelming scientific evidence that suggests coal power generation has severe and adverse effects on both human health and the environment. In response, Beyond Coal - a campus offshoot of the Sierra Club - is organizing to petition the University administration to close its coal-fired power plant and instead embrace cleaner energy technology. Although these are ambitious goals, the University's longstanding principles of constant renewal and improvement should compel both the student body and the administration to embrace Beyond Coal's initiative.
(09/21/10 6:39am)
Amidst all the talk surrounding the upcoming congressional elections, the stagnant national economy and flavor-of-the-week issues such as mosque building and Qur'an burning, one of the most important state policy proposals in recent Virginia history has been largely overlooked. The initiative in question is Gov. Bob McDonnell's plan to privatize Virginia's state-run liquor stores to raise money for much-needed transportation projects. McDonnell hopes privatization will produce a pareto optimal outcome in which consumers benefit from increased competition in the liquor industry, entrepreneurs gain access to a lucrative new opportunity for profit and the state obtains additional revenue from the sale of liquor licenses and increased tax collections. Unfortunately, when one considers the results of past privatization schemes and the political constraints surrounding McDonnell's proposal, it becomes clear that, at best, only the first two potential gains can be realized. Regardless of the philosophical merits of privatization, it is likely that McDonnell will be the latest in a long line of governors who have failed to address outright the state's need for long-term transportation funding.
(09/14/10 5:07am)
In many ways, the University of Virginia is among the best places to be during America's worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. After all, the University has the resources that students need to ride out the stagnant economy as well as the academic and extracurricular opportunities that will better prepare them for success in the labor market upon graduation. However, in one important way the University is failing students whose ambitions feature an entrepreneurial bent.
(09/07/10 7:46pm)
Upon founding University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson proclaimed in a letter to an acquaintance, "This institution of my native state, the hobby of my old age, will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind, to explore and to expose every subject susceptible of it's contemplation." This Jeffersonian ideal underpinned higher education at the University for many generations, inculcating within students a broad set of values that shaped the personal and social decisions that they made throughout their lives. Unfortunately, to a large number of students now attending Mr. Jefferson's University, this notion of higher education must seem rather antiquated. After all, attending college has become a quintessentially economic decision that has much more to do with securing one of the dwindling spots in the upper crust of American society than it does with obtaining an enhanced worldview along the lines of the one that Jefferson promoted. Never has this educational emphasis on marketable skills rather than abstract values been greater than it is now during the worst employment situation that America has experienced in many decades. Paradoxically, however, the economic crisis now confronting the nation demands a renewed devotion from students to academic studies that will infuse them with the principles needed to rebuild America into a stronger nation that can thrive in the 21st century.
(08/31/10 5:31am)
One of the most fascinating recent phenomena in merican politics has been the rise to national prominence of the right-wing conservative force known as the Tea Party. Observers have categorized this group in a variety of different ways, from principled opponents of enlarged government to racist reactionaries who refuse to accept the legitimacy of an African-American president. This heated debate about the nature of the movement came to a head last week when conservative commentator Glenn Beck led a Tea Party rally at the Lincoln Memorial, the site where Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream Speech" on the same day in 1963. As racially and politically provocative as its event may have been, however, the Tea Party insists that it welcomes diversity and has the interests of all Americans at heart when it protests liberal governance and progressive social change. Before accepting such a claim, however, it is worth looking objectively at the demographic make-up the Tea Party and what sorts of policies those people are actually advocating. Upon doing so, it becomes strikingly evident that while the members of the Tea Party may harbor no explicit animus toward minorities and the poor, they nonetheless promote a political agenda that would have many of the same effects on those groups as would policies of explicit discrimination.