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(11/11/08 5:00am)
Short Pump Town CenterDistance: 1 hourEver get the bug to go shopping? Think Charlottesville’s Fashion Square Mall leaves something to be desired? Have some time to kill?Then drive about an hour east, and partake in the shopping mall dream that is Short Pump Town Center. With two stories and more than 200 shops and restaurants , even the shopping killjoy can find something to do for a few hours.Short Pump Town Center is grounded by Macy’s, Dillard’s and Nordstrom department stores. The mall contains popular stores such as Abercrombie & Fitch, J. Crew, Express and H&M, as well as other novelty stores like Soak!, Delia’s, South Moon Under and the Build-A-Bear Workshop.Sports enthusiasts can enjoy the two-story sports and outdoors stores Dick’s Sporting Goods and Orvis, as well as check out the Washington Redskins shop.Interested in electronics? Short Pump features the closest Apple store to Charlottesville. You can also poke around in Brookstone or check out the latest speaker technologies at Bose.And don’t forget the food. Short Pump’s food court is a little small, but it offers Auntie Annie’s, Chik-Fil-A, Panda Express, Villa Pizza and others. The best food to try is at the restaurants located in and around the mall.Maggiano’s Little Italy is a superb, moderately priced Italian restaurant with large portions good for groups willing to share. The Cheesecake Factory is also a choice for dinner or a quick dessert within most college students’ budgets. Coldstone Creamery can also satisfy a sweet tooth. If you’re willing to spend a bit more money, the Copper Grill Lobster and Steak House is worth the extra bucks.If you’re looking for something quick, try Chipotle or Red Robin. And if you’re searching for a more international flavor, Tara Tai is quite popular.Whether you’re frantically searching for that holiday party outfit or you’re craving a relaxing shopping day topped off with a first-class meal, Short Pump Town Center is the destination for you.— Lindsey WagnerGreat Falls ParkDistance: 2 hoursMore often than not, the only “nature” one could expect to encounter these days is the decaying brown leaves blown over to the sidewalk from the Lawn, or, if you’re lucky, that squirrel that sits on the trash cans outside of Garrett Hall, nibbling on a dried-up pizza crust.As entertaining as either of these options could be, Great Falls Park, just more than two hours away in Northern Virginia, offers a remedy to this nature-deficiency. Tucked away in a hidden pocket of trees off Georgetown Pike, the park, open from 7 a.m. until dark, presents a myriad of activities to tempt anyone with the slightest bit of enthusiasm for the outdoors. One of the key features of the park is its three scenic falls overlooking the Potomac River, accessible by the River Trail. There are also other trails for horseback riding, hiking and bicycling, of 10, 15 and 5 miles, respectively. The entrance fee for horseback riders, hikers or bicyclers is $3 — not unreasonable for the benefit of outdoor activity. Additionally, the park offers opportunity for aquatic adventures such as whitewater boating — in kayaks and canoes — in the Potomac River that runs through the park. There are varied current patterns, from easy to extreme.Finally, there are also picnic tables and grills available for use on a first-come, first-serve basis on a large grassy field — perfect for group picnicking or marshmallow-roasting on a crisp autumn afternoon.For more information or updates about any closed trails, visit http://www.nps.gov/grfa/index.htm.— Connie HuangU StreetDistance: 2.5 hoursDespite what University students may have been told by their history professors, a journey to the past requires only a full tank of gas and a map of Route 29.Should students decide to take a break from studying with a short road trip to the nation’s capital, they may experience the historic and vibrant culture of the U Street Corridor in northwest Washington, D.C.In less than 2.5 hours , students can begin to enjoy some of the sites once frequented by jazz legends Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Visitors can stomp the same pavements as the men and women who rioted in the streets after the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King in 1968.They can walk to one of several U Street landmarks, including the Lincoln Theater — which is a fine example of the Victorian-style architecture of the neighborhood — and the Prince Hall Masonic Temple — a Neoclassical building designed by prominent African American architect Albert I. Cassell. Or visitors can simply grab a bite to eat at Ben’s Chili Bowl, a local hot-spot that first opened in 1958 and has been a long-time favorite of comedian Bill Cosby.Nicknamed Washington’s “Black Broadway,” U Street predated Harlem as a center of black culture and continues to serve as the heart of the city’s black community today. At night, the street attracts a diverse group of music-lovers because it is known to boom with the rhythms of classical and contemporary jazz, as well as indie rock and hip-hop.A perfect blend of the past a present, U Street provides students with opportunities for both learning and leisure.— Stephanie WatiesHighland CountyDistance: 2 hoursJust less than two hours to the west of Charlottesville lies Highland County , a great place to spend a few days away from the pressures of the University. The lofty mountains and gorgeous vistas of its eponymous high land – it boasts one of the highest average elevations east of the Mississippi – have earned it the title of “Virginia’s Switzerland.” After a semester of being crowded in buses, in classrooms and on sidewalks, how better to unwind than getting in touch with the great outdoors in Virginia’s least populous county? Try hiking historic Civil War trails, camping in the wooded mountains or swimming in the cool valley streams. Even the drive out is breathtaking, as Route 250 takes you past a number of scenic views and along the George Washington National Forest. And if you stick to the streets, there’s still plenty of entertainment. Besides the ease of playing the cow counting game in the car with your friends, the natural beauty of the county and sparse traffic make it a popular destination for motorcyclists and classic car enthusiasts to go for weekend drives; the inns and restaurants near Highland’s sole stoplight provide some delicious dining options.The first weekend in December, Highland hosts its Wintertide celebration, featuring a bevy of seasonal attractions. You can even pick up your own Christmas tree from the county that provided the U.S. Capitol’s 2004 Christmas Tree – the first and only time the commonwealth has provided a tree for the occasion. If you can hold out until the second and third weekends in March, don’t miss the annual Highland Maple Festival. Celebrating the local maple syrup industry, you can watch old-fashioned maple syrup making, observe the crowning of the year’s Maple Queen or sample the fresh-cooked pork rinds and to-die-for maple donuts.— Hunter TammaroUnion StationDistance: 2.5 hoursLight streams in from the arched windows, reflecting against the white marble floors and impressive statues of the street level concourse. This isn’t so much a train station as an architectural gateway rising in the heart of the city of American politics and history. Not many train stations were built with gold leaf and white granite. Not many train stations were inspired by the Arch of Constantine or the Baths of Diocletian — and in turn inspired the style of the U.S. Supreme Court Building, as well as the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials.But Union Station in Washington, D.C., is still more than something pretty because it serves ‘We the People’ in a way most American residents can understand — as a transportation hub and shopping center — by boasting more than 100 shops and restaurants that cater to both locals and tourists alike. The lowest level of the station has both commuter rail tracks and subway tracks. The other concourses, however, are home to a food court, several other restaurants, dozens of shops and a movie theater, all of which bring more than 32 million people to Union Station each year, more than any other destination in the nation’s capital. Combining the aura of politics and tourism, Union Station is both a historical landmark and modern-day shopping center.The bus system is also the most convenient source of transportation for those without cars who find it difficult to make travel plans to destinations outside of Charlottesville. Anyone can take the Greyhound, which is part of the Charlottesville Transit Service, to Union Station in Washington, D.C.. The station is just a short bus ride away but can be a breath of fresh air for students who need to get out of town. Combining Fashion Square and the Amtrak station downtown wouldn’t work so well. Union Station does.—compiled by Irene Kan
(11/10/08 5:38am)
Students considering what courses to take next semester may have noticed a disadvantage caused by the transition from the Instructional Toolkit to UVaCollab. One of the best ways to evaluate a course with the Toolkit system was to look at old syllabi from past semesters when the same professor taught the course. Toolkit was not designed with this feature in mind, so it was never convenient to find the right syllabus, but at least it was possible. Now that professors share their syllabi with their students on UVaCollab, that resource is not available to other students.Though some Toolkit course pages do not contain syllabi, and others are only accessible to students registered for the course, most syllabi are available to anyone who wants to see them. Looking at the required reading and the structure of assignments for a course is a useful way for students to figure out how difficult or time-consuming a course will be, as well as whether the subject matter appeals to them.UVaCollab sites are generally available only to those students enrolled in the class. Some of them can be found by other students by looking in the “Sites” directory on the main UVaCollab page, but this is a only a very small number of courses. Even then, the syllabus and any other information is only available if the professor chose to make it public. Relying on professors to set up their UVaCollab sites in a way that allows students to browse syllabi is a pretty big leap of faith.When the replacement for the University’s Integrated Student Information System — better known to students as ISIS — arrives in the spring, it will feature links to syllabi from the courses’ listings on the Course Offering Directory itself, said Trisha Gordon, the UVaCollab Project Lead and User Support Manager. Along with improvements to the course evaluation system, allowing students to see an upcoming course’s syllabus easily would be extremely helpful.Until the new system is implemented, ITC encourages professors to post their syllabi both on UVaCollab and Toolkit, to allow students who do not have access via UVaCollab to use the old method of finding them. Unfortunately, many professors have not done this, demonstrating that relying on professors’ understanding of the computer systems and willingness to work with two different systems to provide the same information.The new student system will include links to current syllabi, as Gordon said, but it should also include links to past syllabi. Professors often do not have their syllabi finalized until just a few days before classes begin. When the syllabus for a course being offered the next semester is not available, students look for the syllabus from the last time the same professor taught that course. It may not be exactly the same, but it can give some clues about what the course will be like. The new system that allows students to browse syllabi should include syllabi from past semesters as well.UVaCollab and ISIS’s replacement are intended to surpass the functionality of the soon-to-be defunct Toolkit-ISIS system, but the current transition period has left at least one function of Toolkit unavailable. Though Toolkit’s designers clearly did not have in mind that students would want to view old syllabi, its organization allowed them to do so. The new system could improve upon the old by intentionally providing this service.
(11/10/08 5:00am)
The Virginia field hockey team lost a heartbreaking game to Maryland 4-3 in overtime Friday during the semifinals of the 2008 ACC Tournament.In their second overtime loss to the Terrapins this season, the Cavaliers saw goals from junior forward Traci Ragukas and senior back Inge Kaars Sijpesteijn. Ragukas stepped her game up in the ACC Tournament, scoring three goals and helping to all but secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament en route to being named to the all-tournament team. Yesterday, following the championship game of the ACC Tournament, Virginia midfielder Paige Selenski was named ACC Freshman of the Year, making her the third athlete in program history to win the award.Virginia now awaits a bid to the NCAA Tournament; results will be announced Tuesday night at 8 p.m. on NCAA.com.—compiled by Ben Gomez
(11/10/08 5:00am)
The Virginia women’s soccer team fell to Virginia Tech in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament Friday night at the WakeMed Soccer Park. The game ended in a 1-1 tie, forcing the game into penalty kicks. Freshman midfielder Stephanie Hylton and senior forward Laurie Beth Puglisi scored on Tech’s first two attempts in the shootout to clinch the game for the Hokies. Freshman forward Lauren Alwine accounted for all the Cavaliers’ scoring, netting their lone regulation goal and scoring a goal during the shootout.—compiled by JP Stroman
(11/07/08 5:59am)
Selenski to Ragukas was the name of the game in Durham, N.C. yesterday as the Virginia field hockey team downed Duke 5-2 to advance to the semifinals of the ACC Tournament. The Cavaliers followed up their win last weekend against Duke with another impressive performance to all but secure a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Virginia got on the board quickly, as junior forward Traci Ragukas scored two minutes into the game on an assist from freshman forward Paige Selenski. Selenski and Ragukas finished the game with three goals and two assists between them. The Cavaliers also got an impressive performance from senior goalkeeper Amy Desjadon as she was able record eight saves and propel the team to victory.Virginia is set to face No. 1 seed Maryland tomorrow at 4 p.m. The Cavaliers took the Terrapins to overtime earlier in the season, losing 4-3.—compiled by Ben Gomez
(11/07/08 5:42am)
The Crystal Ball, an election predictor run by Politics Prof. Larry J. Sabato and the University’s Center for Politics, achieved near perfect accuracy in its predictions of 2008 election results for the federal government.The Web site’s predictions were 98.4 percent accurate when compared to media projections for the House of Representatives and 100 percent accurate for the electoral college, gubernatorial races and Senate races.Dan Keyserling, Center for Politics deputy director of communications and former Cavalier Daily executive editor, said the team behind the Crystal Ball’s predictions has no scientific formula for predicting election results; the predictions are made through a combination of research, individual knowledge and experience.“We spend the weeks and months preceding the election looking at polls, looking at financial information, talking to people on the ground ... and in the end we get together [to talk] about it,” Keyserling said.Keyserling also noted that the Crystal Ball manages to maintain accuracy while following a policy of not declaring any races “too close to call.”This process of “pre-election betting,” Keyserling said, has a factor of luck in it that changes from election to election. He emphasized that the Center for Politics does not have a superior method to any other organization but that it benefits greatly from the talent and experience of its team.“Each of us [has] sort of unique life experiences and work experiences that help us judge this a little differently,” Keyserling said. —compiled by Prateek Vasireddy
(11/07/08 5:35am)
698: Days since Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (D) announced his candidacy for president, launching a nationwide debate about the next president.3: Days since Barack Obama gave his victory speech in Chicago, launching a nationwide debate about the new First Puppy.638: Votes by which Fifth District congressional candidate Tom Perriello leads incumbent Virgil Goode, according to the latest numbers on the Virginia State Board of Elections Web site.9:30 p.m.: Time at which The Associated Press declared Goode the winner Tuesday.100 percent: Proportion of Senate races, gubernatorial races and electoral college votes correctly predicted by Larry Sabato and his crystal ball.1.6 percent: Proportion of House races Sabato predicted incorrectly, possibly including the race in his home district.78.63 percent: Charlottesville voters supporting Obama.20.41 percent: Charlottesville voters supporting McCain.17: Charlottesville voters supporting Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney.929: Points by which the Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen in the last two days of trading.-11 percent: Return on the University’s endowment over the last quarter, according to the University of Virginia Investment Management Company.4: Ugly signs placed along the path from Rugby Road to the Chapel, asking students not to walk on the grass and ruin the University’s aesthetics.1: Days left to vote on the fall student referendum. (You knew there was a student referendum, right?)7,800: Tickets sold for the Virginia Film Festival, down 20 percent from last year.5: Sold-out showings the festival could have counted on, had it screened “High School Musical 3: Senior Year.”
(11/06/08 7:14am)
The third-seeded Virginia women’s soccer team squeezed past sixth-seeded Wake Forest last night in a 3-2 double-overtime thriller in the first round of the ACC Tournament in Cary, N.C., after sophomore forward Sinead Farrelly clanged a shot off the post and in the net for the game-winning goal in the 104th minute.The Cavaliers dominated the game statistically, out-shooting the Demon Deacons 23-7 and out-cornering them 12-5. On the strength of 11 saves from Wake Forest junior goalkeeper Laura Morse, however, the Demon Deacons were able to hang around. Down 2-1 following a goal from Virginia senior midfielder Alli Fries in the 75th minute, the Demon Deacons’ persistence paid off, as Wake Forest redshirt senior midfielder Kristina Hanley scored her first goal of the season off a corner kick in the 88th minute to knot the game at two.Morse had three saves in the two overtime periods on seven Virginia shots, keeping the Demon Deacons in the game. Wake Forest could not muster a single shot before Farrelly put in the deciding goal.Virginia has the night off before the second round of the ACC Tournament Friday against seventh-seed Virginia Tech.—compiled by Paul Montana
(11/06/08 7:07am)
Though it means a little competition for The Cavalier Daily, Student Council’s Free Newspaper Project is a good use of student funds, and we are happy to see it will be continued into the next semester. Student Council should not raise student fees to pay for the program, but it should strongly consider making the program permanent, if data show continued support for it over the next semester.The program is not cheap, even with the substantial discount the newspapers give Council. But Council has to spend its money on something, and the newspaper program benefits a large number of students. Council President Matt Schrimper said he has received enormously positive feedback about the program, and it is easy to see many people take advantage of the program just by looking at the empty racks at the end of the day.The most common question Council is asked, Schrimper said, is why it chose to provide free newspapers when those papers are available online for free. Schrimper pointed to studies at other schools showing that similar programs have increased newspaper readership by as much as 33 percent. Picking up a hard copy of a newspaper is far more convenient that reading it online — especially in those moments between classes, when students do not have access to a computer. Simply encouraging students to read newspapers online would not have the same effect as providing free print editions — students motivated enough to read online do not need Council to tell them the option exists.The program’s free test run ends this week, after which Council will begin paying for the newspapers. Council acted responsibly in collecting data throughout the semester about how many copies of each paper were picked up at each location. The weekly reports Council has received have led it to adjust distribution as well as the number of each newspaper it buys. The reports should continue next semester as Council perfects the program.Council has also investigated other options for newspapers. It is clear even to a casual observer that many copies of USA Today are left in the racks at the end of the day, while The New York Times is often difficult to find in any location after noon. Unfortunately, Council cannot replace USA Today completely, because that newspaper is the sponsor of the program that allows Council to purchase other papers at a discount. Council can, however, decrease the number of USA Today copies it buys and replace them with the Times or with another newspaper. Schrimper said Council is looking into the possibility of adding The Washington Post to the program. That paper’s coverage of Virginia and Washington, D.C. would be an excellent addition.At other schools, similar free newspaper programs are funded by an additional student fee. Student Council instead reached into a $7,000 budget increase it gained this year to pay for its newspaper project. As Schrimper pointed out, the money is still coming from students, but it is money students would be paying anyway rather than an additional fee. Council should not increase student fees next year to pay for the newspaper project — if it comes to that, students can buy their own newspaper — but it should make plans now to perfect the program’s mix of newspapers and to continue its funding into the next school year.
(11/05/08 9:49am)
The McCain campaign filed suit yesterday against the Virginia State Board of Elections in attempt to force the board to count the late arriving ballots of overseas military personnel. Gail Gitcho, a McCain-Palin spokesperson, wrote in an e-mail that many Virginia counties mailed the ballots to overseas personnel with fewer than 35 days left before Election Day.The campaign said that the absentee ballot should be sent with no less than 45 days left until election day. Many servicemen did not receive their ballots until as late as last week. According to the e-mail, it takes at least 12 days for a ballot to arrive from Iraq. “The McCain-Palin campaign believes without exception that the servicemen and women on the front line protecting our freedoms deserve every opportunity to make sure their vote counts,” Gitcho stated.As of 3 p.m. yesterday, the Virginia State Board of Elections could not comment on the lawsuit.— compiled by Matt Conover
(11/05/08 9:27am)
Regardless of their feelings about the results, many students — and many Americans — are thinking the same thing today: “Thank God that’s over.” All elections are inherently divisive, but this year’s has been particularly toxic. Disagreement is one thing, but the attacks both sides made, especially in the presidential election, resonated emotionally with many people, creating anger and resentment that should be no part of rational debate.Particularly disheartening are the attempts — again, by both sides — to undermine the democratic process in which we all believe. We do not know if there is any truth to accusations that students have tried to vote both in Charlottesville and in their home district, or if those accusations are merely a political tool to challenge election results. We do know flyers and phone calls in Virginia have falsely claimed Democrats were to vote today, rather than yesterday. Whoever spread those lies took the lowest of the low roads. No candidate’s victory is worth subverting democracy to achieve.Fortunately, the University’s most active partisan groups, the University Democrats and the College Republicans, both worked to keep the disagreement on Grounds civil. We applaud their efforts to work together to promote reasoned debate rather than fear-mongering and division. As College Republicans Chairman Savanna Rutherford said, “You definitely have a point with everyone where you get to be a little annoyed,” but the rancor that has become a staple of the campaign has been largely absent on Grounds.The two groups worked together throughout the campaign. As members of the Voter Registration Coalition, they pushed to register students to vote and to find ways to help them get to the polls yesterday. They contributed to a forum on bipartisanship sponsored by the Miller Center and Brookings Institute. Representatives from both groups took part in a debate last week, calmly and civilly discussing their parties’ stances on the issues. The divisive campaign has left the nation weak, with each side mistrusting the other. Now that a winner has been decided, Americans must again work together.The election-watching party held last night in Newcomb Hall was a start. Though the event was Student Council’s idea, and though not all of the party organizations’ members attended, both the University Democrats and the College Republicans co-sponsored the event. The event could have started earlier, of course. Election returns began to come in even before polls closed in Virginia at 7 p.m. Virginia’s vote for president was not called immediately when the polls closed, but Mark Warner was announced as the Senate winner hours before the event started. It is a shame students could not receive that news together.Rather than partisan victory celebrations — and both sides have some victories to celebrate — it is appropriate that students celebrated the democratic process together. Every election is a victory for America, not just for the winning party. The students working honorably on political campaigns should be proud they kept that in mind all along.
(11/04/08 8:41am)
The NAACP’s bid for a preliminary injunction concerning its recently filed lawsuit against the Virginia State Board of Elections was turned down yesterday, NAACP spokesperson Carla Sims said.The lawsuit alleged that the commonwealth may not be prepared for the large, potentially record-breaking number of voters expected today, especially in areas with black population majorities, Sims said.“The only thing that was denied was a preliminary injunction,” Sims said, noting that the NAACP has not entirely dropped its case against the VSBE, contrary to some early reports.As a result of the decision, Sims said, no changes have been made to today’s voting hours and procedures. That being said, Sims also noted that the court acknowledged the existence of several concerns.“Our concern was that the length of time people would have to wait would be too long,” Sims said. “The court also asked that the defendant has to publicize the curbside voting and the fact that everyone that is in line, when polls close, will be allowed to vote.”Before the court’s decision yesterday, state officials said the commonwealth is prepared to handle the expected turnout. In a release dated Oct. 30, VSBE stated that “Election officials have teamed with numerous state agencies to prepare for this historic election” and that “The State Board of Elections is also working closely with other state agencies to ensure a smooth election,” having increased the number of voting machines in the commonwealth by 77 percent since 2004.Sims said the lawsuit will move forward, but at a later time.—compiled by Aly Hemenway and Thomas Madrecki
(11/04/08 8:40am)
Michael Wade, chairman of the Third Congressional District Republican Committee, has compiled a list of college students — including some at the University — who are currently under suspicion by his office of intending to vote twice in today’s presidential election.Each student on the list, Wade said, has registered to vote in the commonwealth of Virginia in addition to requesting an absentee ballot from an out-of-state location. The listed students are all newly registered in Virginia, he added, and oftentimes a student’s request for an absentee ballot came just a few days before or after the Virginia voter registration date. In response to his findings, which came as the result of a series of Freedom of Information Act requests in seven states, Wade said he is in the process of sending the list of students’ names to Virginia’s general registrars and local electoral boards, asking those officials to ensure the students vote fairly.According to Virginia Code 24.2-708, if a person requests an absentee ballot but decides not to vote absentee, he should return the ballot unopened “to the electoral board, on or before the day of the election.”A statement released by the Virginia State Board of Elections warned of the consequences of voting twice. The statement notes that anyone who votes in two localities could be charged with a class 6 felony, which has the potential to garner a punishment of one to five years in jail.According to Virginia Code 24.2-651, election officials must question anyone who is “listed on the pollbook but is known or suspected not to be a qualified voter,” for instance, because of their previous participation in the election. Students who are questioned by election officials would still be allowed to vote in Virginia but would first have to sign an affidavit stating that they have only voted once in the election, Wade said.“The whole idea is that [students] better be careful about what they do,” Wade added. “There seems to be a bunch of people doing this ... A lot of people have been misled and may not understand that it’s a felony, but they need to pay attention to it.”Charlottesville General Registrar Sheri Iachetta said yesterday afternoon that she was unaware of Wade’s list. Wade noted that voting officials should receive an e-mail from him and that following the election, officials will continue their investigation to determine whether any of the listed students violated the law by comparing voting records from Virginia and the states from which students requested absentee ballots. Any students that vote twice will be prosecuted accordingly, Wade said.Wade refused to disclose names on his list, citing privacy issues. An e-mail sent by Wade noted that students registered in two localities are innocent until proven guilty of having actually voted twice.—compiled by Tom Christensen
(11/04/08 8:38am)
If grade and high school students could vote, Barack Obama would become the next president of the United States by a landslide margin, according to a study conducted by the University Center for Politics. More than three million grade school students voted in the 2008 Youth Leadership Initiative Mock Election last week, and the results were tabulated and released Friday. Students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Department of Defense schools participated in the election, which used “cyber ballots” mirroring those actually found in the students’ local areas, a Center for Politics press release stated.Dan Keyserling, deputy director for communications at the Center of Politics and former Cavalier Daily executive editor, noted that the goal of the mock election is to encourage civic education. In response to this year’s participation numbers, which exceeded previous years’, Keyserling said, “I think that it’s a great triumph.”The election results showed a large amount of support for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who won the election with slightly more than 60 percent of the vote, according to the release. McCain followed with slightly less than 36 percent of the vote, and the remaining percentage of the votes cast were split among candidates from other political parties, which varied from state to state.The results, though, come with a disclaimer that the mock election is an “academic exercise,” and the survey is neither “scientific” nor “designed to predict the course of the general election.“The views expressed in the results are those of participating students only, and does not constitute an endorsement of any particular candidate or idea,” the release states. “Nor are the results designed to serve either prediction of, or commentary on, the regular general election by either the Youth Leadership Initiative or the University of Virginia Center for Politics.”—compiled by Tom Christensen
(11/04/08 8:30am)
The Virginia men’s cross country team raced to its second consecutive ACC Championship Saturday, and sixth-year senior Ryan Foster claimed his first career individual conference title.Racing at the Ranson-Hamrick Cross Country Course at North Carolina in Chapel Hill, the Cavaliers turned in the low card of the day, tallying just 40 points to comfortably outpace runner-up No. 29 N.C. State (56 points) and third-place Virginia Tech (75 points). The win marks No. 14 Virginia’s third ACC crown in its past four seasons.Foster, with a winning time of 24:27.7 on the 8K course, became the program’s first-ever individual male champion. Joining him in earning All-ACC honors were sophomore Ryan Collins (sixth) , senior Andy Biladeau (eighth) and sophomore Emil Heineking (ninth). Junior Graham Tribble (16th) also scored for the Cavaliers.On the women’s side, Virginia tied for fourth with No. 30 Duke (124 points), while No. 3 Florida State easily cruised to the women’s team title with just 27 points. Led by junior Stephanie Garcia (eighth), who is also a Cavalier Daily tableau editor, and senior Lauretta Dezubay (10th), the Cavaliers improved over last year’s eighth-place showing.Both the men’s and women’s teams will return home to compete in the Cavalier Open at Panorama Farms Friday in a tune-up for the NCAA Regional Championships Nov. 15.—compiled by Cayce Troxel
(11/04/08 8:20am)
THOUGH the University Board of Elections’ fall voting period is underway, most students remain unaware of it — and not just because a different opportunity to vote is at the forefront of their minds. The University Board of Elections’ failure to inform all students of the voting period will result in an unrepresentative, meaningless vote. Student Council’s Environmental Sustainability Committee, which presented the sole referendum on the ballot, also is failing to capitalize on the opportunity to determine the true level of student support for its referendum.To organize an election requires at a minimum that potential voters be aware that an election will occur. While UBE Chair Alisa Abbott said her organization posted flyers, e-mailed list-servs and posted an announcement in HooView, these efforts were insufficient, especially considering that fall elections are not a standard, yearly occurrence. UBE should take more careful precautions to ensure students are informed about the opportunity to weigh in on referenda. One simple way to do so would be to work with University administrators to send an e-mail to all students alerting them of the election period.Without stronger efforts to inform students of the voting period, any referendum being presented becomes pointless, as it has no chance of ascertaining the majority opinion of the student body. Student Council’s Environmental Sustainability Committee should be concerned about this possibility and should be seeking to inform the student body about its referendum regarding sustainable housing. To submit a petition and then not inform students about it is a waste of the committee’s time, as the results will not be indicative of the student body’s support or lack of support for the committee’s proposal.Committee Chair Melissa Warnke said the idea for the referendum began last spring and has “been in the works for a really long time.” If the committee is serious about its proposal, it ought to be supplementing UBE’s efforts to inform students of the voting period. Though voting is already underway, the referendum and an explanation for it are not even posted on Student Council’s Web site.If a fall voting period is to be held, the full resources of UBE and those submitting petitions needs to be devoted to it. In the future, UBE should put additional effort into informing all students — not just those on certain list-servs and those who carefully read flyer boards — of the voting period; this can easily be accomplished without compromising UBE’s position as a non-biased participant in the voting process. Meanwhile, those submitting petitions ought to take advantage of the opportunity to gather student input by publicizing both the opportunity to vote as well as the reasons for their referenda.
(11/04/08 8:14am)
There are many reasons I will not be voting for John McCain. His choice of running mate, views on the economy and health care plan are among them. But more importantly, I find Barack Obama to be exactly what this country needs: youthful, passionate and inspiring. (And this is coming from a Hillary Clinton supporter!)Lindsay Huggins Our next president faces major problems, domestic and foreign. McCain has shown judgement, selflessness and political courage. Obama has rhetorical skills, but a history of radical associations, narcissism and naïveté. Both promise change; only from McCain can we expect progress.Stephen Parsley I have serious misgivings about both candidates. However, I am most scared by the prospect of a Democratic president governing in conjunction with a solidly Democratic Congress. For the sake of fiscal restraint, we have to support John McCain.James RogersBarack Obama wants to “spread the wealth around” — take your hard earned money and give it to someone else. John McCain wants to cut government spending so you can keep more of your money. Vote for McCain!Annette RobertsonGeorge Bush’s mistakes have been overemphasized, but it’s nevertheless exciting to consider what a novel Washington outsider can do as president. Here’s hoping Barack Obama can restore confidence in America, both among our citizens and countries around the world.Grant Johnson While the Democrats have a very questionable economic platform these days, ultimately the presidency is a position requiring great composure and level-headedness. Not to mention, Sarah Palin one heartbeat from the highest office in the land? Nice lady, but yikes!Ross LawrenceI’m voting for Obama because we need a president who can inspire Americans across all divides, not a president who deepens partisan lines and appeals to our fears. I believe in progress; Obama is the only candidate advocating it.Michelle LamontIn this election what we need is not over-corrective change, but a steady hand at the tiller. We need experience and service, not rhetoric. We need a record of patriotism, not dubious judgement. We need John McCain.Robby ColbyFree trade restrictions and higher taxes on small businesses are not what our economy needs right now. We do, however, need bi-partisan cooperation; John McCain has clearly shown his ability to work with Democrats in the past.Mitch RossDo you want four more years of failed foreign and economic policies along with general backwardness in the Oval Office? Or do you want a president working for the average American, new energy policies, and securing this nation’s future? Obama is the obvious choice.Geoff SkelleyEndorsing either of the candidates requires a leap of faith. Faith that McCain will disregard his schizophrenic, lackluster campaign and revert to his old bipartisan self despite lacking a solid base. Or faith that an inexperienced senator with a strong base, vision and pragmatism will take this country in a new direction. I’d rather place my bet on the latter.Prashanth ParameswaranI will be voting for Barack Obama. I have much respect for McCain and recognize him as a much better alternative in comparison to the other prominent Republicans who sought his candidacy. But Palin is a carbon copy of my third grade social studies teacher. It’s terrifying.Jed CrumboIn the past, friends often told me they couldn’t tell the difference between the two candidates. This year that excuse rings especially hollow. Check both candidate’s Web sites, pick out the issue that matters most to you, and cast your vote today for whoever best represents you.Isaac WoodBarack Obama, devoted to his country and dedicated to its citizens, has inspired millions who, for the first time in a long time, truly believe that America can and will change for the better. It’s about time.Amelia Meyer
(11/04/08 5:00am)
The Cavalier Daily interviewed Ralph Nader this past October. We asked Mr. Nader ten questions which had been submitted by college newspaper editors from across the country on the issues they thought were the most relevant to this election. You can listen to an audio recording of the interview by clicking on this link. Alternatively, you can read the transcript of the interview, found below. CD: Ok, I guess we can get started. Basically I've got ten questions that were submitted by college newspaper editors across the country. The first one comes from the Daily Campus at the University of Connecticut. It's about financial aid. How will you provide financial aid for middle class americans who struggle to afford the cost of college tuition?RN: Public universities should be tuition-free, as they have been for decades in Western Europe, including some countries like Finland. If we can do it - If they can do it, we can do it. It should be like high school. If you want to go to Harvard or Brown, you pay whatever – although they're going toward tuition-free because of their endowment interests, you know, they're moving in that direction, but it should be that way. It takes about 55 billion dollars a year, and we spend 80 billion in up-front and back-up costs keeping soldiers in Western Europe and East Asia, 60 years after World War II – doing what? Who are they defending? Japan? South Korea, Germany, England, France – against who? Inner Mongolia? Moldova? So if you bring them back, and then a lot of the soldiers can get an education, too.So that's it. Now, absent that, you've got to expand your student loans. They should be completely done by the Department of Education. There should be no Sallie Mae, no commercial student loan companies that gouge you, rip you off, and do it, you know, do it after you've signed on. I mean, most students don't care much about the fine print of the student loans, and then when they graduate and they start having to pay and they see a fifteen-hundred dollar penalty, or this-and-that, it's bad. And as you know, Sallie Mae and others have gotten a steal until recently because of reform in Congress. Where if they make money off you, they keep it, but if they lose, Uncle Sam makes up the difference. Why do we even have private corporations engaging in student loans. Why is the tax payer subsidizing these boondoggles and these high interest rates and these defaults by students? It should all be done by the Department of Education. Adequate, public, accountable.And by the way, you know, these student loans companies wine and dine your, a lot of your loan officials – student loan officials, like Duke and Columbia. They had to resign. They take them to junkets, wine and dine, so that they can get an exclusive. Actually put their people on campus. CD: Alright. Our next question is about funding for higher education. It comes from The Rebel Yell, at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Will funding for research universities be hindered or diminished in any way due to the current economic crisis?RN: Oh, it'll be hindered. But right now the corporations are funding a lot of partnerships between universities and themselves, and that's basically corporatizing research. And a lot of it is publicly funded, so they get proprietary information in these contracts between the biotech industry, say, and the biology department professors, and they sign these contracts and they basically require the professors and the graduate students not to speak about what they've researched, and there's a gag rule, because it's considered proprietary information by Monsanto, for example – the Iowa State deal between Monsanto – and it's improper. So the first consideration is that universities should not be corporatized, should be not engaging in commercial missions – requiring graduate students through peer pressure and faculty pressure to engage in that kind of research. Second is that the government's research should be more thoroughly aired. You know, here's the way it operates: the NIH gives money to universities to research new cancer drugs – anti-cancer drugs. So they come up with something, and the NIH pays them, under contract, and then they proceed to test them clinically, like TAXAL, which is an anti-cancer drug, and 31 million dollars of National Cancer Institute money, discovered, developed and clinically tested this very important anti-cancer drug. And then under federal policy, they gave it under a monopoly marketing agreement to Bristol-Myers Squibb, who turned around and charged women with ovarian cancer $14,000 for six treatments, each – you know, each woman. Six treatments - $14,000. Now where's the taxpayer here? There's no reasonable price provision to explain what Bristol-Myers charges. They didn't research it, they didn't discover it, they got it essentially free. And there's no royalties back to the NIH based on when Bristol-Myers makes a ton of money on it. That's very important, you know, to draw the line between non-profit, tax-funded academic institutions and profit-seeking corporate institutions who appropriate the assets – faculty, grad students – for their proprietary control and for their profit. So when the government does research, it should keep its research, and if anybody wants it, they should pay a royalty for it, you know, when they support research at universities.CD: Ok, our next question is from our own paper, The Cavalier Daily at the University of Virginia. It has to do with the economy. The U.S. is almost 10 trillion dollars in debt, and counting. How are you going to make sure our generation isn't picking up the tab for your generation's excesses?RN: Well, first of all, you have a balanced budget, except for extraordinary circumstances. You don't deficit finance the Iraq War. Presidents usually raise taxes to fund wars. This reduced taxes on the wealthy, and put the burden on your shoulders to pay, see? The first step is you cut the military budget, which is very bloated, wasteful, redundant – all kinds of weapons systems costing zillions that were designed for the Soviet Union era of hostility, but they're still in the pipeline because Lockheed-Martin and Grumman and General Dynamics want more sales. So you cut that, you cut the corporate subsidies – hundreds of billions of dollars - you've seen what's on the way with the bailout on Wall Street. And that will help produce a balanced budget. Another way to do it is to tax the corporations at the rate they were taxed in the prosperous 1960s, which they are not now. They're taxed far less. But, I'll tell you, any time that you have deficit spending you've got to make sure it's for a strict public purpose, like, let's say you're in a depression and you want to create jobs, so the government goes into deficit spending to rebuild the public works – the schools, bridges highways, public transit – that's a legitimate use, because that's a real investment. You're gonna get a return on that investment. But - wars, subsidies to corrupt, mismanaged corporations, that's not appropriate use of tax money anyway, much less deferring the burden on to the next generation. And I call Bush the biggest baby-taxer in American history, because when he does deficit spending, he's taxing the kids.CD: The next question's from The Daily Bruin at the University of California, Los Angeles. It's about student loans. The economic crisis has forced many banks and lenders to close their doors to students seeking loans, forcing some students to take on part-time and sometimes even second jobs. What are your plans to help regulate and to maintain a steady level of lenders available to students so that their focus can be primarily on their studies and not on the costs of college?RN: I want to eliminate the commercial lenders. They've disgraced themselves, they've enriched themselves. You can see what the head of Sallie Mae paid himself over the years. He set up his own golf course. So no, this is a public function and it should be done with public funds until the day when we have no tuition at public universities. Again, the distinction between Harvard, Yale, and you know, the University of California. When I made this point about two weeks ago at a university, a person stood up in the question period and said, “You know, I've just finished my graduate degree from a university in Finland, and I just like to tell everybody here that what it cost me in my senior year was 56 euros, which is about 83 dollars.” If Finland can do it, why can't we do it? So you'll notice the premise there is not that it could be tuition-free. It should be tuition-free. It's like high school. It should be like high school.CD: Well, the next question ought to be right up your alley. It's about tuition costs and it's also from The Daily Bruin. Many universities are raising tuition fees for students because of a decrease in state funding. As president, how will you combat this obstacle to higher education, and what can be done at the national level to ease the financial burden on students?RN: Well, you see it's good it's U. Cal-Berkeley, because there's a retired physics professor, I think it's Charlie Schulz, who has his own Web site, who has been monitoring the budget. Most people don't even understand university budgets, because their not micro enough, they're not detailed enough. Like you have a departmental budget, but what, you know, detail? And he's the only one I know in the United States that takes it apart, year after year. And he makes these presentations, and they just completely ignore him. And his point is that students are cross-subsidizing corporate research. You know, when they come into these agreements – you know, I think Novartis is on campus there, and BP is about to be on campus – that, when they say, well, we're going to put billions of dollars in the next ten years, these corporations, but there's a cross-subsidy. So there is an argument that the more commercial research is conducted on campus in these partnerships, they have to have elaborate laboratories, elaborate this, because they compete against one other – Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley – that they're shifting significant costs on the student, in terms of tuition increases. So I would suggest that the students there look at Charlie Schulz's Web site and they can see that the tuition at Berkeley should not be as high as it is, if it wasn't for this kind of commercial research. The other thing is the students have no input. They and their parents are paying the bill, but there's a lot of secret items in these university budgets. And they're non-profit, they're publicly funded. They shouldn't have secret items. They say, “Well, we have to compete with our other universities.” That's corporate talk. That's not non-profit, tax-funded talk. The other point is that the price of textbooks is huge, and that's a racket, too, and years ago, the Justice Department anti-trust division went after the publishers for anti-trust, collusion. But when you have a textbook that's printed in the hundreds of thousands or millions, and they charge you 80 bucks, a hundred bucks? What do they charge you? A hundred and twenty bucks? Right? Ok, now you go into a book store, and you pick up a book that's 600 pages, the size of your textbook. It's got a 50 thousand print run, and it's thirty bucks. Something's wrong here. And then they change you, you know, from year to year, so you have to keep buying it, so you can't recycle it through a student co-op, used book marts. And in some community colleges, people have told me the price of the book exceeds the price of the tuition for the course. So I would encourage college newspapers to devote less space to sports and entertainment and gossip, and more to investigating their own university. And not just economically – in terms of what their priorities are, moonlighting, with – like, the professors should tell all their students who they're moonlighting with. I mean, you know, by day you're taught by a professor – anti-trust, let's say – and he's moonlighting with some corporations, advising them on mergers. You've got a right to know that.Another thing, all contracts that the university has above, say, $50,000 should be online. They don't want to do that. It should be online. The more scrutiny students have with the budget, the less spiraling will be tuition. And then students can get course credit. You know, they do a seminar paper in economics, they study the budget. They do a thesis, they do the budget. So there's a lot going on in universities that the college papers don't have a clue. I keep telling students, you know, whenever are you going to have your own radio station, your own T.V. station, your own newspaper, your own gathering halls, your own laboratories – physics, chemistry – when in the rest of your life are you going to have that? And what do you do with the newspaper? You mimic some of the tabloids. That's a whole story by itself.Go ahead.CD: Sure. We're going to switch gears a bit, and talk about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This question's from the Arkansas Traveler at the University of Arkansas. What programs do you support to aid young veterans returning to college from Iraq and Afghanistan? RN: Well, they should have the equivalent - well, you know Senator Webb's got a bill through to provide them with education. So there is, like, a G.I. Bill of Rights, you know, that was after World War II. So that's – I'm not certain how much it takes care of, but it's pretty generous. He got it through a guilt-ridden Congress. But we don't want veterans to come back. We don't want veterans to go there in the first place. We want to get out of there.CD: We'll switch gears a little bit again. This is about environmental sustainability. It's from The Daily Targum at Rutgers University. If elected, how high a priority will you make sustainable energy research? Are you willing to increase funding and resources to make that a reality?RN: We need to deadline targets. You know, that how much of our energy will come from – if energy efficiency, advance, and renewables: geothermal, wind power, all kinds of solar. That's what we did to go to the moon. You know, Kennedy said we're going to go to the moon, the deadline focuses the country, it focuses the budgetary priorities, it focuses the regulatory – technology forcing regulation on the motor vehicle industry and the lighting, heating, air-conditioning industry, and appliance manufacturers. So that's the way to do it, and we should do it fast, because it's more productive and it's more efficient. I mean, the way they say “Oh, it's gonna cost the auto industry billions.” Well, they've been on notice for 35 years, to begin with. But the point is that what is inefficient in terms of energy consumption for the consumer is desired by the vendor, right? You know what I'm saying? In other words, if you have a more fuel-efficient motor vehicle that you're driving – say, 60 miles per gallon – Exxon sells you less gasoline. If you have more efficient usage of all kinds of industry, it reduces the sales of the coal, oil, gas and uranium, in the nuclear industry. That's why they don't like it. That's why they don't like solar energy, because it's a displacing energy. Unless they buy up the solar company, it's gonna displace them. So their lobbies in Washington tilt the playing field for years. They get – the fossils and nuclear get the tax credits, they get the depreciation accelerations, they get the free government research and development. They get all of these corporate welfare props. And until recently, solar energy got nothing. Energy efficiency technology manufacturers got nothing. We have to reverse that completely. And the goal has got to be to phase out completely fossil fuels and uranium, as completely as possible. Just the way the horse and buggy industry was phased out by motor vehicles. I mean, that wasn't done by government, either, but there's too much at stake – there's climate change at stake, there's geopolitical wars at stake, there's pollution at the ground at stake, there's devastation of land - you know, the strip-mined lands, for example - there's occupational disease at stake. And the kind of power that fewer and fewer Exxon-Mobil types have over the country, and over the consumer and the environment. Whereas these other forms of energy are not only sustainable, but they're decentralized. You know, communities, solar installation, repair, et cetera. And so they create more local jobs, and more community self-sufficiency. The great thing about sustainability is self-sufficiency. The corporations have vectored us toward global – corporate globalization, interdependence - NAFTA, WTO, all that. And that is the antithesis of community self-sufficiency. I mean, there are communities all over the country that could be self-sufficient in energy, for example. And water resources. And food, more food grown, you know, in a decentralized way instead of the agri-business – centralized, corporate farms, and such.CD: Ok, the next question's about diversity in higher education. It's also from The Rebel Yell at UNLV. With whites no longer projected to be the majority in the next generation, how long do you feel that affirmative actions laws will be necessary?RN: Well, that's a factual question. And it'll differ university to university. Some universities may be pretty bad, some universities maybe not. It's hard to put a deadline on it. You can gauge it by – as the question implies – how many minority students are in there. That's one way, and then the other question is, to what extent do the economics of the university tuition, basically, have a discriminatory effect on lower-income, minority students? So you know, if you level the playing field in terms of the cost of access and you have higher and higher percentages of minorities, it's really not needed. But that is a factual question.CD: The next question comes from The Red and Black, at the University of Georgia. It's about healthcare. What in your policies for healthcare will take college students and recent graduates from universities into account?RN: Because I want a universal healthcare where you're covered the day you're born, long before you matriculate. Every other Western country does that. In our country, we have a pay-or-die system, where the health insurance companies, that don't deliver any healthcare, have extraordinary power, and can, you know, disallow claims and require deductions and exclusions, and disallow pre-existing conditions and drive people into fits of anxiety where they've got to go to their psychiatrist to get counseling. What most college students don't know, because their expectation levels are so low, compared to Western Europe and Canada, is that 18 to 22 thousand people in this country die every year because they can't afford health insurance, according to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science, and the higher figure was the Urban Institute. Now when you've got that kind of mortality figure, the morbidity figures of people who get sick, stay sick and that are injured and don't get treatment because they can't afford health insurance – hundreds and hundreds of thousands. So, I say to that question: Raise your expectation levels. We're entitled to have the same universal, full Medicare for all, free choice of doctor and hospital, private delivery of healthcare according to cost and quality standards. We're entitled to have it like their counterparts in the universities in Paris, Berlin and London. And that's what they should go for. Now there are 93 members of the House of Representatives who have signed on to what's called single-payer, full Medicare, in the House of Representatives. It's HR676. That's what students should be supporting, you know, all over the country. Now, if we don't get it, what's going to happen? Well, you don't have health insurance when you graduate because you're not under your parents' umbrella, let's say. So you're on your own. So lots of people in their 20s don't have any health insurance, they go bare. And I just had one of our volunteers in New York, a young man, he was on his bike, trying to be sustainable, and a limousine hit him. And he didn't feel much, he was throw off, and then a day later, he was in excruciating pain in his hand. And he didn't have any insurance. And so, here we go again. He goes to a doctor, and they want 250 bucks just to look at it, and “You better go for surgery.” And he goes to another doctor, he says “No, no, it isn't surgery.” One doctor says, “You better hurry, because, even though it costs you thousands of dollars, because your wrist might have to be amputated.” What is this? Nobody dies in Belgium or Germany or Italy or the U.K. or Canada because they can't afford health insurance. So the students have gotta become more militant, more knowledgeable about what other countries who are far less rich than we are – Taiwan, for example, who gives everybody health insurance – and they've gotta begin demanding it. And I tell you, if there's a burst of organized energy coming off campus, it will really galvanize what is going on in Congress. Because, see, look, the unions, they want full health insurance, but they already got it for their workers, so they're not really tough on this — they'll just put out the right statements. The elderly, they've got Medicare – although they're getting shafted now because of Medicare Advantage. But at least they have Medicare. So they're not a lobby, you see. So where's it gonna come from? From the generation that has most at stake: the people going into their twenties. CD: Our final question is also from The Cavalier Daily. It's about immigration policy. What kind of access to higher education should illegal immigrants and their children enjoy?RN: Well, first we gotta back up. We should stop, as a government, supporting dictators and oligarchs south of the border, who so exploit their people, and with known jobs, that they go north to feed their families. Who wouldn't do that? Second, if they're employed and their taxes are being withheld, they've gotta be given the same rights as other American workers, because otherwise they will be used to drive down wages and standards, largely in jobs held by minorities in this country, who are American citizens. Third, get a minimum wage of at least ten bucks, which is what it would be if it was adjusted for inflation from 1968. Can you imagine, $6.55? It's going backwards into the future. It was just raised to $6.55 in July. That Americans will take some of these jobs, to begin with. So I'm just giving you a broader framework of what's at stake here.Ok, so now you have children who are going to a public university and they're illegal. Or – they may have been born in this country, so they are American citizens, but the basic problem is, that's trying to tackle a problem at the end point. I want to tackle it at the base point. But you get people who've been here. They're here unlawfully. They're obviously - been here a long time if they've got children in college, right? So there's an equitable doctrine that says: yes, they crossed the border and it was a violation of law. It was not a felony. It's not a felony to cross the border illegally. If you do it for criminal intent it would be. And they were accepted by the economy. And the law enforcement was not applied to Tyson's Foods or other large employers that love to be able to have unlawful workers because they can push them around, pay them less, and they're afraid to complain, to report illegalities – occupational hazards and so forth, and injuries. So there's an equitable doctrine basically that says that an economy that accepts people for that long, withdraws - withholds taxes, has nullified the illegality of the entry. So, it's an equitable doctrine in law. So that's the answer. And that has been nullified by our accepting the hard work of their parents – work that a lot of us don't want to do, they clean up after us, they harvest our foods, they are our nannies, they clean the hotels and the restaurants and wash the dishes. That, in effect, is an equitable doctrine that nullifies the illegality. And if that does, then, they're in university and they're treated like anyone else.CD: Ok. Well, I want to thank you for sitting down with me today.
(11/03/08 8:19am)
In coordination with academic advisors and University athletic coaches, the Honor Committee will soon start delivering honor presentations to the University’s athletic teams.Committee Chair Jess Huang said statistics the Committee has collected show that athletes are disproportionately reported to the Committee for offenses.“It’s important that we address these concerns with the athletes themselves,” Huang said.The presentations will consist of a short PowerPoint and case studies. Vice Chair for Education Ryann Burke suggested keeping the PowerPoint presentations as short as possible and focusing on real-life examples about the honor process.Vice Chair for Investigations Blaire Hawkins said two aspects of the honor system she would like to see explained are conscientious retraction and spotlighting, which is the disproportionate reporting of minority groups.Conscientious retraction occurs when a student knows he has committed an honor offense and notifies the Committee and other involved parties such as the professor or teaching assistant. The retraction must be made before the student suspects he will be accused of an honor offense. An investigation may still ensue, but if the Committee deems the retraction valid, the investigation will focus on the student’s retraction, and the retraction will serve as evidence that the student can remain in the community of trust.“It’s such a useful tool,” Hawkins said. “It’s something good for everybody to know.”Hawkins also suggested dividing larger teams into smaller groups to make the presentations as effective as possible.The Committee hopes to have a liaison from each athletic team working in conjunction with a Committee liaison, Huang said. The first presentation will occur Wednesday, when Committee representatives meet with the track and field team. —compiled by Stephanie Kassab
(11/03/08 8:10am)
The No. 13 Virginia field hockey team came through with a 4-3 victory in its regular-season finale in a must-win game against No. 4 Duke 4-3 Saturday.Freshman back Floor Vogels contributed the game-winner from the corner as the Cavaliers held off the Blue Devils, who had erased an early 3-0 Virginia lead. Senior back Inge Kaars Sijpesteijn, junior midfielder/forward Traci Ragukas, and sophomore midfielder Haley Carpenter also scored for the Cavaliers.The win gives Virginia (12-7, 2-3 ACC) a fourth-place finish in the ACC and another date with Duke (14-4, 2-3 ACC) in the first round of the ACC Tournament, which begins Thursday and will be played in Durham, N.C. —compiled by Ben Gomez