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(04/27/00 4:00am)
THE GREATEST thing I have done is attend the University. It is, and always will be, my most special place. Perhaps that is why I am so passionate about its traditions, and so enraged by its flaws. My time here is quickly drawing to a close, so I leave you with these final thoughts from a wonderful seven years.
(04/20/00 4:00am)
FIGURES lie and liars figure. Once again out-of-state tuition is increasing, and once again President John T. Casteen III's army of overpaid beancounters has cooked up reasons why it must be done. But the numbers and explanations coming out of Madison Hall just don't add up.
(04/13/00 4:00am)
THE UNIVERSITY should not exploit its students' need for food and medicine. But take one look at the Bookstore and Root Cellar and it becomes clear that the University understands the power of the captive market.
(04/06/00 4:00am)
THE UNIVERSITY stands for public access to higher education. Its very founding was intended to give life to the notion that education should not be limited to one faith, one political persuasion or one walk of life. As such, the University has a responsibility to ensure that all people of the Commonwealth have the tools to gain access to this institution. While busy raising buildings and money, the University has turned its back on this most fundamental of responsibilities.
(03/31/00 5:00am)
THE UNIVERSITY has a kindergarten teacher masquerading as a Dean of Students. Listening to Dean Penny Rue's speech to the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society last week, it was apparent that she views student self-governance as something to be relegated to unimportant issues. She and the other adults will handle the big stuff.
(03/23/00 5:00am)
THE HONOR system is marching inexorably towards irrelevance. Its constitution and bylaws have been changed four times in as many years, and significant segments of the University community believe that its procedures are rigged against them. The Honor Committee's proposed special referendum on the seriousness clause keeps the system squarely on its self-destructive track.
(03/02/00 5:00am)
THE INMATES run the asylum at the University. Self-governance is a source of institutional pride and provides invaluable experience to students. But there is a dark side to student self-governance. It is the urge to ignore merit and to elevate cliques. Every year it seems like student self-governance is more about who you know than what you've done.
(02/24/00 5:00am)
WHILE THE broadcast media loves campaign finance reform, it resists an attempt to change the way it covers politics. In an era where coverage of politics has become less substantive and less available on network television, it is no surprise that most citizens choose not to participate in the elections process. But if the Alliance for Better Campaigns has its way, better days are just around the corner.
(02/17/00 5:00am)
DEAN OF African-American Affairs M. Rick Turner is out of control. His prejudiced stereotyping of white Americans last week has no place at the University.
(02/10/00 5:00am)
THE NUMBER of applicants to the University plummeted this year because people talk. They talk to their sisters, brothers, cousins and friends. They talk about affirmative action and honor, but mostly they talk about class size, teaching assistants and faculty interaction. They are talking about the reduced quality of education at the University. And they don't like what they are hearing.
(02/03/00 5:00am)
UNIVERSITY administrators always are quick to blame Richmond for falling rankings and rising costs. But it seems that even when Richmond comes through with dollars for specific projects, the University would rather students foot the bill. The latest example of this soak-the-students policy is the financing of the Peabody Hall renovation.
(01/27/00 5:00am)
LATELY it seems that the only way a student can get the Board of Visitor's attention is to threaten a lawsuit. Hire a two-bit lawyer, file a frivolous complaint, and the Board is all ears. But if you want to talk about issues that affect thousands of students, don't bother calling. As such, University Rector John P. Ackerly III's refusal to meet with Inter-Fraternity Council representatives to discuss fall rush was irresponsible.
(01/20/00 5:00am)
THE UNIVERSITY lost one of its favorite sons on Jan. 7. Dean T. Braxton Woody was 99 years old. He came to the University in 1919, and he never left. He was buried in the University cemetery. With him went a connection to days long gone and ideals long forgotten.
(12/02/99 5:00am)
TOO MANY professors view teaching as an unwanted distraction. Instead, professors would rather spend their time with pet graduate students and esoteric research. Part of the problem is the faculty's ivory tower disdain for undergraduates, but an even greater source of the resource bias is the University's tenure policy. Put simply, professors have no incentive to teach.
(11/18/99 5:00am)
UNIVERSITY administrators should not get rich by forcing students into debt. While the University drops in the rankings and faculty members eye higher-paying jobs at Ivy League schools, too many administrators take home princely sums in salaries and benefits, all the while blaming Richmond for their institution's lack of performance.
(11/11/99 5:00am)
MORALITY, like honor, is a word often misused and misunderstood. Much like honor is more basic than not lying, cheating or stealing, morality is not about specific issues or agendas. Whatever label one wishes to ascribe to the difference between right and wrong -- whether it be morals, values or character -- morality is best looked upon as a viewpoint. Morality may be a vast area of inquiry, but it also provides a specific premise, a perspective, a standpoint from which a variety of subjects may be discussed. It is this fundamental distinction that critics of character education overlook.
(11/04/99 5:00am)
TRUE! -- CYNICAL -- very, very dreadfully cynical I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The law school indoctrination had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in heaven and in the earth. I heard many things on the fourth floor of Newcomb Hall. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily -- how calmly I can tell you the whole true story.
(10/28/99 4:00am)
SO THEY put up a big white tent, but tables and shade do not an intellectual community make. And they moved fall rush, blaming kegs and frat boys for the erosion of the academical village. But the blame doesn't lie with students. It takes two to tango, and at the University, the faculty rarely shows up to dance.
(10/21/99 4:00am)
THE UNIVERSITY can and must promote a diverse learning environment. Diversity of geography, diversity of gender, diversity of interests, and of course, diversity of race, are all keys to a robust intellectual community. Over the past 30 years, the University has chosen affirmative action as the means to achieve diversity. As the debate over the University's admissions policy continues, we must as a community be careful not to confuse affirmative action with diversity, and to justify the legality of the means we choose by the necessity of the ends we desire.
(10/07/99 4:00am)
CAMPAIGN finance once again is on the front burner of the American political consciousness. On Tuesday the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a campaign finance case stemming from Missouri's state contribution limits. With Texas Gov. George W. Bush (R) setting fundraising records, both Steve Forbes and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have made campaign finance the centerpiece of their presidential bids. The overwhelming urge among commentators and politicians is to pass further campaign finance regulations. They should resist it.