Opinion

Opinion

​MENNINGER: Shamrocks, smiles and the ABC

By Nate Menninger | March 31, 2015

I completely support policemen and what they stand for, but I also know the job of the police, or in this case that of an ABC officer, is to resolve the given situation with the least amount of physical force required. Carrying an openly visible firearm does not accomplish this goal, and furthermore unnecessarily asserting physical dominance over someone only creates more fear in the public.

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Opinion

​LEONARD: CAPS and the importance of confidentiality

By Anna Leonard | March 31, 2015

This protocol for addressing a student who is in danger holds for any and all resources an individual would use on Grounds: Peer Health Educators, CAPS, Helpline — even professors, and this is a good thing; we are here to help resolve dire situations and to protect students to the best of our ability. Yet, for the vast majority of students who are not immediately in danger, our resources are totally confidential and designed to support the student as best as possible.

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Opinion

​ZHENG: A false accusation off-campus

By Victor Zheng | March 30, 2015

I was accused of felony abduction with intent to defile and felony rape of my ex-girlfriend. At that moment, I faced the harrowing possibility of two life sentences for a crime I did not commit. Once in jail, I learned that, in conjunction with the criminal charges, I was also put on an interim suspension and faced charges through the University Judiciary Committee, even though the University had contact neither with the complainant — who has never been enrolled at U.Va. — nor the Fairfax County police.

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Opinion

​Transparency in the BOV

By Managing Board | March 30, 2015

A vote on tuition changes requires significant consideration; for all Board members not to feel fully prepared for such a vote is troubling. Even Meg Gould, the non-voting student representative to the Board, pointed to the lack of transparency in the Board’s decision as a reason “students feel that they weren’t given sufficient time to understand the policy and [felt] unheard or unrepresented.”

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Opinion

​GOULD: Evaluate the policy

By Meg Gould | March 30, 2015

As with any financial policy, this one is not foolproof, nor was the manner in which it was communicated. I personally think the specific proposal should have been publicly available earlier than it was. If students felt unheard, I take responsibility. All of us, myself included, should constantly evaluate and reevaluate how we communicate, but we should not let that obscure the benefits of the policy itself.

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Opinion

​MINK: De-stigmatizing mental illness

By Alex Mink | March 30, 2015

The issue is not just the stigma that exists on Grounds, but the stigma that afflicted students believe exists on Grounds. It is their perception of a stigma that decides whether or not they will be comfortable admitting to their problem and seeking help. So though it is absolutely necessary for events like the Mental Wellness Day to continue, the people suffering now need a more immediate solution that allows them to receive the care they need without having to face their fear of stigmatization.

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Opinion

DOYLE: Our military should leave Okinawa

By Bobby Doyle | March 30, 2015

The final reason the U.S. military base has not been disbanded as of yet is that it serves to project U.S. power overseas, protecting economic and political interests. Yet, is this base still a source of American power? The people of Okinawa want it gone, and it only seems to provide a steady stream of bad press.

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Opinion

​BROOM: Brand link will help The Cavalier Daily

By Christopher Broom | March 30, 2015

Indeed, whatever risk there may be that sponsored content could damage the trust of readers in the independence and objectivity of the news and editorial writing, that risk is clearly outweighed by the certainty that losing financial independence and seeking money from the University itself would almost completely negate any possibility of readers believing that the paper remained objective where the University was concerned.

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Opinion

​By the numbers

By Managing Board | March 27, 2015

As March comes to an end, the Managing Board recounts some notable numbers.

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Opinion

​HARRINGTON: ABC shouldn’t have officers

By Elaine Harrington | March 27, 2015

Whereas a local police force seeks to ensure safety, prevent crime, and maintain peace in a community, the ABC goal is to identify and punish alcohol law infractions. Thus, ABC special agents also behave differently than local police due to their different — and myopic — goal. These goals are frequently incompatible.

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Opinion

​KHAN: Don’t stand with students too soon

By Hasan Khan | March 27, 2015

In “We’re here for Martese,” this Managing Board asserted its position the day after the incident that “Whatever details may surface, a member of our community was hurt. . . in a space where he is supposed to feel safe.” Yet such assertions are weak because details in events like this do matter; details about Martese’s behavior with the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control and the status of his ID are key in understanding what happened that night.

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Opinion

​DEZOORT: The Mars One debate

By Gage DeZoort | March 27, 2015

Just as the first ships headed west from Europe, there must be a first voyage to Mars. After all, exploration is innate in mankind, and we will eventually exhaust the Earth’s limited resources. Each of the journeys involves a long, treacherous road through a hostile environment. However, the circumstances are vastly different.

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Opinion

Letter from the editor: introducing Brand Link

By Julia Horowitz | March 26, 2015

Explaining The Cavalier Daily's new model for sponsored content

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Opinion

​BOV’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee doesn’t deliver on diversity or inclusion

By Managing Board | March 26, 2015

If the Board truly only has 30 minutes to spare for the topic of diversity and inclusion, those 30 minutes should be much more substantive than they were Tuesday. The concerns we mentioned — among many others — are not new. Why is it that such concerns are not being addressed by the very committee that exists to address them?

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Opinion

RUSSO: Improve communication between police

By Mary Russo | March 26, 2015

When something horrific happens, it is disappointing to hear law enforcement officials not only fail to fully acknowledge responsibility, but also generally be uninformed about what the law enforcement mechanisms in their own communities are. If the officers who arrested Martese were trained the same way Charlottesville police officers are trained, then every branch of law enforcement is equally implicated.

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Opinion

​GORMAN: Individuals — not institutions — perpetuate racism

By Ryan Gorman | March 26, 2015

Even if the ABC is not an organization that directly perpetuates racial discrimination, it is clear that the organization provides its individual officers with the ability to do so on an arbitrary case-by-case basis. The fundamental flaw, then, with the ABC — and with all police forces in general — is that the power of its individual enforcers extends far beyond the scope of the power of the institution as a whole.

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Opinion

​EDEL: Tackling brain injury in the NFL

By Brennan Edel | March 26, 2015

The fact is, Borland isn’t retiring so he can save a bit of intelligence; he’s retiring so he doesn’t end up depressed and suicidal, forgetting the names of his children and the details of his childhood. You can’t compensate somebody for that burden. Nor can you call it an injury. Injuries you can live with; CTE is a curse.

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Opinion

CONNOLLY: Say no to drugs — and cartels

By John Connolly | March 26, 2015

Americans support and enable the existence of drug cartels by constituting the largest consumption market for illegal drugs on the planet. The consequences of such American demand are clear and stark. Since 2006, over 100,000 have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico, including over 1,000 children.

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Opinion

​UNITED FOR A LIVING WAGE: In solidarity with Black Dot protests

By Workers and Students United for a Living Wage | March 25, 2015

The devaluation of black life in Charlottesville is not limited to physical violence at the hands of authorities. It is also a daily fact of life for the disproportionately black and female low-wage labor force that keeps this University functioning. As activists across the nation insist, there is a clear intersection between the fight for living wages and the realization that black lives matter.

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Opinion

How to improve Title IX: Part II

By Managing Board | March 25, 2015

Yesterday, we wrote about the standardization of elements of Title IX — in particular, standardizing who should oversee investigations and standardizing whether parties should have a right to have counsel or advisers present. In our opinion, the national standardization of these two practices could improve the adjudication of sexual misconduct at colleges and universities, as well as make it easier to compare schools’ respective adjudicative practices.