Thursday, February 19, 2015

SPECIAL ISSUE Thursday, February 19, 2015

Vol. 125, Issue 39

UNCONTESTED RACES

CLASS COUNCIL

Caelainn Carney and Hannah Mezzacappa Senior Writers

Kathleen Smith

Luc Cianfarani

The 2015 University-wide student elections will take place Feb. 20 through Feb. 26. Among other positions, students will be able to vote for the 27 Honor Committee representatives for each of the different schools at the University.

While the candidates have largely similar experience working with the honor system — most are currently senior support officers — and have similar overarching goals to improve the system, their individual platforms highlight how each will approach

There are 15 uncontested races this spring in the 2015 University elections, not including the School of Enrollment Office positions or those races for which no candidates are running. The elections will be held Friday.

Within the Honor Committee representative races, six are uncontested — including the Curry School of Education, the Engineering School, the Law School, the Medical School, the Batten School and the School of Continuing and Professional

In the upcoming weeks, University second, third and fourth years will elect the presidents and vice presidents for their respective Class Councils. The presidents and vice presidents will then be responsible for selecting the rest of the members of the Council.

see HONOR, page 8

see UNCONTESTED RACES, page 8

see CLASS COUNCIL, page 9

Associate Editor

Senior Writer

Second Year Class Council The elections for both president and vice president are heavily contested with, four stu-

UNIVERSITY BOARD OF ELECTIONS CANDIDATE SURVEYS, pages 4-7

N news

The Cavalier Daily

2

Axler, Grove discuss Student Council race Students to vote on presidential candidates next week, present stark platform differences

Maddy Weingast Associate Editor

The race for Student Council president is contested for the first time since 2012. The Cavalier Daily spoke with Locher Grove and Abraham Axler about their platforms and their visions for the next year in student leadership.

Third-year College student Locher Grove is one of two candidates running for Student Council president this year.

“The inspiration [to run] came from being a Co-Chair of the Community Affairs Committee,” Grove said. “When it comes down to it I think committees are the heart and soul of Student Council.”

Committees undertake a series specialized initiatives throughout the year. The Community Affairs Committee is involved in eight to nine initiatives each semester.

“What I began to see is we stopped helping committees and enabling action,” Grove said. “I want to refocus Student Council energy away from outside programs and initiatives and focus on committee initiatives. [By] refocusing Student Council energy, we’ll get even more done and be even more effective.”

Grove said his experience with the University and Student Council operations during his three years at the University is what sets him apart.

He said it comes down to motivating people, finding out what they’re interested in and having them act on it.

Grove said one of the largest

problems currently facing the University is the relationship between the administration and students.

“I think in general my ability to communicate with all parties involved, gather those that need to

or Student Council in general is going in with a large agenda you feel compelled to work on immediately when you come in office,” Grove said.

“It doesn’t free you up to manage and do the leadership you were elected

LOCHER GROVE

ABRAHAM AXLER

Courtesy Locher Grove

Courtesy Abraham Axler

be gathered to the table and have in depth conversations that get to the heart of matter will be important when it comes to conveying the needs, concerns and opinions of students to the administration and emphasizing the importance of student self governance,” Grove said.

Grove said he hopes to create a long-term initiative blog similar to Kickstarter. The blog would feature ideas for programs, and would create connections and partnerships in response to “bites.”

However, he said he is wary of setting a concrete agenda.

“I think this is one of the pitfalls of running for Student Council president

to do. I take pride in the fact that my platform and what I stand for is much more a leadership council.”

Second-year College student Abraham Axler is also running for Student Council president.

“I think its a natural continuation of my service in Student Council thus far and my service to my class as class president,” Axler said.

He said during his time as Class of 2017 president the school dealt with a great deal of tragedy and crisis, and he engaged in tough conversations about safety issues and sexual violence.

Axler also serves on Student Council’s executive board as the chair of the representative body.

Axler said his experience at Quaker High School sets him apart.

He said it taught him the importance of decisions made by consensus and policies made in collaboration.

“I think one of the biggest problems is making sure everything we’re doing … is sustainable and informed by student needs,” Axler said. “[We] committed to lots of new programs, and we need to be cautious to ensure continuation and expansion are done as students want.”

Axler’s platform emphasizes numerous specific policies and initiatives from increasing the integration of Greek philanthropies to building a multicultural center. He said his areas of interest include safety, diversity, academic affairs, greek life, sustainability, space reservation, athletic affairs, internal reforms, infrastructure, national concerns, AccessUVa, living wage, mental health and increasing Council transparency.

“One thing I’d like to do is make the sense that Student Council is approachable,” Axler said. “It troubles me that people think Student Council is alien. [T]ruly it’s a collection of students who are dedicated to being responsive to student needs and concerns.”

He said the Council needs to be wary of taking itself too seriously, for it is an iteration of the University and all the students enrolled here and thus operates for their benefit.

Axler said if he is elected president, he would want to focus on development at every level of the organization and be accessible to all students.

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NEWS

Thursday, February 19, 2015

3

How does Student Council work?

Policy

+ Chair of Representative Body

Representative

Resolution (Advocacy)

or Bill

Representative Body

(ad hoc committee to deal with issue)

President: Elected VPA: Elected VPO: Elected DUR: Appointed CTO: Appointed CFO: Appointed Chief of Cabinet: Appointed Chair of the Rep Body: Internally Elected

Executive Board

Concern

Graphics by Anna Cho| The Cavalier Daily

Within each school, students can vote for a representative. Each school must have at least one representative and an additional representative for every thousand students.

A concern is brought to a student representative

Presidential Cabinet – Under President, Vice President for Administration, & Chief of Cabinet – Representatives source concerns and write proposals

Program

Appointed Chairs

{Initiative}

UJC

Annual, Spin-offs, etc.

Academic Affairs, Athletic Affairs, Building & Grounds, Community Affairs, Diversity Initiatives, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Legislative Affairs, Membership, Public Service, Safety & Wellness, Student Arts

Program

Report File complaint on online system.

Any person can file a complaint against a current student for breach of the Standards of Conduct.

Alleged Honor Offense. Reporting witness or “reporter” contacts Honor advisor or Committee member.

Honor Advisors Student and relevant members of the community, if applicable, are assigned an Honor advisor by the Vice Chair of Investigation.

Full Investigation Accused and Complainant are assigned counselors.

If student doesn’t request an IR, or the request is not approved, a full Honor investigation occurs.

Investigator’s Report

Trial for Guilt

Unbiased account of the incident.

Read by the trial panel.

Trial for Sanction Incorporates both motives behind the incident as well as character of those involved.

Focuses purely on facts of alleged violation.

Investigative Panel

Five UJC Representatives (elected).

Hears testimonies from both sides, asks questions of parties and deliberates.

Students also have the right to independently appeal to the Judicial Review Board within 14 Appeal days of trial.

Drop

Accuse if evidence supports an accusation by a standard of “more likely than not.”

Trial Panel

Sanction

Decisions are automatically subjected to review by the Vice President for Student Affairs. May consult with Committee for possible review. May also review with Judicial Review Board.

Not Guilty Case dropped.

If request for IR is accepted, student is permitted to remain enrolled during current term, but must take a two semester leave of absence.

Permanent Dismissal Student agrees to take a two semester leave of absence from the University.

Trial Accused student requests trial and selects or is assigned counsel.

Student may request an IR, admitting to wrongdoing and agreeing to make appropriate ammends.

Leave of Absence

Hearing to determine accusation or drop.

Accuse

Informed Retraction

Guilty Four fifths of jurors vote that act and knowledge were present.

Accused permanently dismissed from the University.

HONOR

The Cavalier Daily

UNIVERSITY BOARD OF ELECTIONS

CANDIDATES AT A GLANCE

4

University Board of Elections 2015-16 candidates speak to important University issues

STUDENT COUNCIL CANDIDATES Do you believe the Should Student current administration Council continue to gives sufficient make student safety consideration to student its top priority? self-governance?

ABRAHAM AXLER

ADRIEN CARRE

BRETT CURTIS

CAMILLE ADKINS

DARIA WINSKY

EMILY LODGE

JOCELYN HUANG

LEAH RETTA

LOCHER GROVE

LUCAS WILLIAMS

MACKENZIE HODGSON

Should StudCo be highly Do you think involved in the search SpeakUpUVa has been process for a new provost an effective platform and discussions about for crowdsourcing President Teresa Sullivan’s student ideas? contract renewal?

Do you support the Should StudCo Are you satisfied continue its StudCo addition of a University with the current student liaison to the Comes to You level of student Charlottesville City representation on the initiative as it Council? stands?

Board of Visitors?

Do you think revising fraternity FOAs was Should the student a sufficient response activities fee be to the Rolling Stone increased? article?

CANDIDATES AT A GLANCE

Thursday, February 19, 2015

5

STUDENT COUNCIL CANDIDATES Do you believe the Should Student current administration Council continue to gives sufficient make student safety consideration to student its top priority? self-governance?

Should StudCo be highly Do you think involved in the search SpeakUpUVa has been process for a new provost an effective platform and discussions about for crowdsourcing President Teresa Sullivan’s student ideas? contract renewal?

Do you support the Should StudCo Are you satisfied continue its StudCo addition of a University with the current student liaison to the Comes to You level of student Charlottesville City representation on the initiative as it Council? stands?

Board of Visitors?

Do you think revising fraternity FOAs was Should the student a sufficient response activities fee be to the Rolling Stone increased? article?

OLIVIER WEISS

PAK-HIN LUU

SHIVIN AGARWAL

UHUNOMA EDAMWEN *Cat Wyatt (College), Erik Roberts (College), Elaine Koo (College), Mary Hofer (Engineering), Kaila Grenier (Engineering) and Alex Gregorio (Batten) did not fill out the survey.

UNIVERSITY JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CANDIDATES Should Housing Do you believe UJC Should UJC be and Residence Life should push for more required to publish its increase the number What is your school? case referrals from of cases it reports to budget and spending individual students? reports regularly?

UJC?

NURSING ASHLEY MUNOZ

SEAS BRITTANY HUNGATE

CLAS CAITLIN COSBY

CLAS JAHVONTA MASON

CLAS MACKENZIE AUSTIN

CLAS ZACK PEAK *Brendan O’Hare (Commerce), Miles Jackson (Commerce) and Jeremy Jones (Batten) did not fill out the survey.

Should students be able to have professional representation at UJC trials?

Should UJC be required to release summary statistics regularly, including percentage of cases reported by students vs. ODOS and race, gender, school and year of accused students?

Should VP Student Should the chair of Do you intend to Affairs Pat Lampkin UJC be elected by the seek either chair or be permitted student body instead one of the vice-chair to review UJC of appointed by the positions if elected decisions? committee? to UJC?

6

CANDIDATES AT A GLANCE

The Cavalier Daily

HONOR COMMITTEE CANDIDATES

What is your school?

Do you support the single sanction?

CLAS ALLISON IVENER

COMMERCE AVERY RASMUSSEN

CLAS CAROLINE HERRE

COMMERCE CHRISTIAN GIGANTE

CLAS EMILY SNOW

COMMERCE FAITH LYONS

CLAS GRACE MUTH

CLAS IAN ROBERTSON

CLAS JAEYOON PARK

SEAS KATHERINE KAMIS

CLAS MARTESE JOHNSON

BATTEN MATTHEW COMEY

UNDECIDED

Does Honor have a responsibility to take a leadership role in preventing sexual assault?

Has the Informed Should the Honor Committee be required Retraction policy to publish its budget resulted in a better and spending reports functioning Honor regularly? system?

Should students be able to have professional representation at Honor trials?

Should students be Should the Honor Do you intend to seek permitted to choose Committee Chair be chair or one of the a random student elected by the student vice-chair positions if jury for Honor body instead of the elected to the Honor trials? committee?

Committee?

CANDIDATES AT A GLANCE

Thursday, February 19, 2015

7

HONOR COMMITTEE CANDIDATES

What is your school?

Do you support the single sanction?

Does Honor have a responsibility to take a leadership role in preventing sexual assault?

Has the Informed Should the Honor Committee be required Retraction policy to publish its budget resulted in a better and spending reports functioning Honor regularly? system?

Should students be able to have professional representation at Honor trials?

Should students be Should the Honor Do you intend to seek permitted to choose Committee Chair be chair or one of the a random student elected by the student vice-chair positions if jury for Honor body instead of the elected to the Honor trials? committee?

Committee?

CLAS MICHAEL TREVES

COMMERCE MICHAEL WHITE

MEDICINE MONICA MELMER

CLAS

UNDECIDED

RUSSELL BOGUE

SEAS SARAH ROGERS

BATTEN VICTORIA TRAN *VJ Jenkins (College), Jessica Drews (Curry), Austin Sim (Law) and Landon Wilkins (School of Continuing and Professional Studies) did not fill out the survey.

ADVERTISEMENT

All photos courtesy UBE candidates

8

NEWS

The Cavalier Daily

Honor multi-sanction referenda on student election ballot Robertson says change prompts dialogue, Hine says campaign framing disingenuous Katherine Ballington Associate Editor

Honor Committee elections and referenda voting open online Friday. In addition to electing representatives, students will have the opportunity to vote on the referenda to change the current Honor single-sanction system. The referenda are comprised of three proposals — the first two are binding constitutional amendments and the third is non-binding.

Candidates for College Honor representative Ian Robertson and Jaeyoon Park, both third-year College students, are spearheading the multi-sanction system campaign.

Both are current Honor support officers and said they do not have the means to propose their referendum from inside the Honor Committee.

“We are putting these forth as students not as honor support of-

ficers,” Park said. “We had to go through the channels as any other student who is not on the Honor Committee would do because we are support officers.”

Robertson said the campaign for self-governance is not simply a way to change the current single-sanction system, but a means of instigating dialogue between the Honor Committee and the student body.

“The campaign for self governance is not about sinking the current single-sanction system,” Robertson said. “It’s because fundamentally Honor should mean something more than the current sanctioning policy of the current Honor Committee.”

Robertson and Park said they believe giving students a more concrete system to share their voices can change the system that does not take into account enough student voice.

On a broader level, they said they are trying to create an attitude change

and a cultural shift to better value student voice and student input in the current system.

“There is an attitude that as an elected honor committee representative, you know best and you know what it takes to uphold the system,” Robertson said. “From a democratic standpoint, that’s problematic ...

At the core, it is one of the deepest problems why students don’t want to buy into the system.”

Honor Committee Chair Nicholas Hine, a fourth-year College student, said he believes the issue needs to be addressed as single-sanction versus multi-sanction, not as a campaign for self-governance.

“Essentially at U.Va. this is the kind of thing we care about and talk about,” Hine said. “Not the campaign for self-governance, but it is the multi-sanction proposal.”

Hine said he supports the single-sanction and values trust and integrity by doing things the right

way instead of simply getting ahead, but he said he is troubled by the new proposed referenda.

“One of my biggest concerns is about the harsh nature of the [single] sanction,” Hine said. “[The harsh nature] was very much alleviated with the [Informed Retraction] two years ago. It provides an opportunity for forgiveness. I’m less worried about the singular harsh nature of the single sanction.”

Second-year College student Rick Yoder, who currently runs the Facebook group called “Vote No For Honor 2015,” is in opposition to the multi-sanction proposal.

“If we are unwilling to maintain a single sanction for honor offenses, then we're essentially saying that those offenses aren't substantively different than offenses adjudicated

by UJC — which does have a multi-sanction system,” Yoder said. “So why maintain the Honor Committee at all? If we're going to get rid of

the single sanction, we might as well collapse Honor into UJC for greater efficiency.”

Robertson and Park said they are grateful for the dialogue Yoder has provided to the debate, and they said they think there needs to be more weight placed in student input in the Honor system.

“It is important to gage student body opinion,” Park said. “We need to consider whether changes need to [be] made to the system.”

Courtesy University of Virginia

HONOR Students to choose 27 Committee representatives Continued from page 1 Committee differently if elected.

Notably, all 10 candidates running to represent the College of Arts and Sciences — there are five seats — focus on bringing the honor system more in line with public opinion. No candidate claimed the system should be impervious to criticism, though each maintained its overall moral value. All College candidates are third-year students except VJ Jenkins, who is a second year.

Importantly, candidates highlighted different priorities within their platforms. Jaeyoon Park and Ian Robertson said in their joint platform they are open to exploring the multi-sanction system, while

Emily Snow and Caroline Herre, campaigning separately, maintain the importance of a single-sanction system.

Grace Muth and Russell Bogue — who developed their platform together — said they both seek to reduce the legal language incorporated into Honor trials so the system seems more accessible to students and remains consistent with its overall purpose. Michael Treves also expressed a desire to highlight the honor system less as a punitive body and more as an organ which pursues the truth. Candidates Jenkins, Allison Ivener and Martese Johnson, meanwhile, stress the importance of integrating Honor with the University community as a whole.

Christian Gigante, Michael White, Avery Rasmussen and Faith

Lyons — all third-year students — are running for the two Commerce eepresentative positions. All played upon concerns similar to the College representatives, but recognized the nuances of implementing Honor within the Commerce School. Each candidate says in his or her platform, he or she would seek to connect the honor system more closely with the student body if elected.

Engineering and Batten have exactly two candidates running for each of their two spots for Honor Representatives, with fourth-years Matthew Comey and Victoria Tran running for Batten representative.

Sarah Rogers and Katherine Karmis are running for Engineering representative.

The Law School, the Education School, the Medical School and the School of Continuing and

Professional Studies each have one candidate running. Austin Sim, Jessica Drews, Monica Melmer and Landon Wilkins are running for positions in each of these schools, respectively.

Fourth-year College student Calvin McPhail-Snyder, who previously ran for College Honor representative but was not elected, said he noticed many similarities among the current candidates, and expressed skepticism about the diversity of opinion and experience.

“They all seem kind of homogenous,” McPhail-Snyder said. “I think there’s a checklist of things you’re supposed to say in Honor candidate elections,” he said. “[It can be] very generic and not informative of anything.”

Current Honor Committee Chair Nicholas Hine, a fourth-year

College student, said there are some key distinctions among the candidates, but some perceived similarities arise because of the flagrant nature of key issues.

“I think in some ways many of the candidates are running on similar platforms and that’s because in part in the College of Arts and Sciences, the people who run for this position are people who are involved in Honor,” Hine said. “This is obviously not true across the board.”

Hine said the Honor Committee is actually a much more diverse group than many people believe.

“Part of the reason why Honor has this perception of being homogenous is because for many years it was,” Hine said. “In recent years we have done much better job of [being more inclusive]. You institutionalize the value of diversity.”

UNCONTESTED RACES Several elected positions remain uncontested Continued from page 1 Studies Honor Representatives.

There are four uncontested elections for UJC Representatives from the Engineering School, Nursing School, Batten School and Commerce School . There are five uncontested Student Council elections, including the representative spots for the Engineering School, the Architecture School, the Commerce

School and the Batten School.

Third-year College student Daria Winsky is the only student running for Student Council Vice President for Administration.

Landon Wilkins, a candidate for the School of Continuing and Professional Studies’ Honor representative, said he believes he is the only person running for representative because of the culture of his respective school.“SCPS mainly consists

of working adults who attend school at one of our six cohorts across Virginia,” Wilkins said.

“There is an understanding that commitments take time and responsibility, leading to hesitation from the student body.”

Wilkins said his primary goal as representative is to create a better informational flow to SCPS students and faculty.

“Most of the students in our school have knowledge of the Honor code but not the benefits

of Honor,” Wilkins said. “I will work to make sure they can see the benefits as well.”

Education School Honor Committee Representative candidate Jessica Drews said the Education School has a smaller percentage of students involved in the Honor Committee and fewer students who would run for a Committee position.

“Being both an undergrad and graduate school, there is a gap between the schools and

I want to connect them more through [the Honor Committee],” Drews said. “Even though the structures of programs are very different, [the Committee] plays the same role in both.”

The vast majority of School of Enrollment Offices are uncontested — the Vice President of College Council, College Council Treasurer and Batten Undergraduate Council President are the only contested races.

NEWS

Thursday, February 19, 2015

9

CLASS COUNCIL Second Year Class Council races highly contested Continued from page 1 dents running for president and five students running for vice president. The incumbents for both positions — first-year College students Erik Roberts and Pak-Hin Luu, respectively — are both running for reelection.

Roberts said he would like another term to build upon the progress he and the Council have made in the past year.

“I think that my vice president and I and the rest of the Council [have] done a pretty good job thus far of creating that experience,” Roberts said. “I think that another year with that continuity we can really take it to the next level.” If elected for another year, Roberts said he would like to see greater outreach to the students in the Class of 2018 as well as interaction with the incoming class.

Challenging Roberts are firstyear College students Uhunoma Edamwen, Malcolm Stewart and Ryan Hindle.

“One thing I also want to do for the incoming Class of 2019 is really give them the greatest opportunities to succeed,” Roberts said.

Stewart, a first-year College student and current First Year Council member, said he

would like to see more community-building programs, such as Lighting of the Lawn.

He said he is running so he can “effect positive change” around Grounds.“Having been on First Year Council this year, it’s been something where I’ve seen we have a lot of ability to do a lot for the class and the school as a whole and I want to be a part of that in a larger scale than I have been this year,” Stewart said.

Luu said his experience planning programs this year warrants his reelection. He cited the success of the events the Council planned as reasons he should receive a second term. Those challenging Luu are first-year College students Jacob Genda, Diane D’Costa, Danny Niez and Brett Curtis.

D’Costa said she is running on the pillars of “LEAD”: legacy, engagement, ambition and delegation. She said she was concerned the Council did not have enough impact around the University.

“I feel like Class Council isn’t present right now,” D’Costa said.

“I feel like there’s a disconnect between the student body and Class Council, [and I want to] bridge that gap and get people involved.”

Niez said he would draw

upon both his leadership experiences in high school as well as in his first year in order to be an effective vice president. He said his leadership qualities would create a more effective Class Council.

“As vice president I’d be able to make a more organized Class Council that would be more effective and efficient in our dealings therefore having more programs that would reach a wider audience that are not currently being reached,” Niez said.

Third Year Class Council Third Year Council does not have any incumbent officers running, but presidential candidate Lital Firestone, a second-year College student, has served as the Class of 2017 vice president for the past two years.

Firestone cited her experience as a Multiculturalism Committee member, resident advisor and co-founder of Pulse, a subgroup of Sustained Dialogue focused on diversity in conversation.

“I do a lot of work ... to ensure that we’re listening to different people’s views on what they’re missing in their experience as a U.Va. student so that they can feel included and welcome at our school,” Firestone said.

Firestone is running against Samantha Westrum, a second-year College student. We-

Total Spending Per Candidate Amount Spent

Position Running for

Abraham Axler Michael Treves Locher Grove Pak-Hin Luu

$398.63 $395 $324.30 $236

Student Council President Honor Arts & Sciences Representative Student Council President Second Year Vice President ($220), Student Council Arts & Sciences Representative ($16)

Emily Lodge

$211.99

Student Council Vice President for Organizations

Erik Roberts

$130

Second Year President Second Year President

Diane D'Costa

$98.41

Second Year Vice President

Emily Snow Lital Firestone Joshua Leidy Caroline Herre Russell Bogue Daniel Niez

$97.35 $47 $42.44 $29.98 $29.50 $16.08

Honor Arts & Sciences Representative Third Year President Third Year Vice President Honor Arts & Sciences Representative Honor Arts & Sciences Representative Second Year Vice President

“I believe that Class Councils have so much potential to do so much good for their students — but I also believe that our Class Council has yet to to even breach the surface of what we are capable of,” Leidy said in an email.

Rice said in an e-mail his experience as programming and events coordinator for his firstyear dorm, a member of the Council’s Outreach Committee and a chair of the Rodman Council qualify him to be vice president of Third Year Council.

If elected Rice said he hopes to select a Class Council that best represents the Class of 2017.

Fourth Year Trustees Third-year College students Jack Vallar and Parisa Sadeghi

$

Name

Malcolm Stewart $115.82

strum said her experience as the chair of the Outreach Committee during her first and second years will help her improve the current environment of Class Council, which she described in an e-mail as having “a consistent pattern of miscommunication, lack of transparency and inapproachability.”

Second-year Education student Joshua Leidy and second-year Engineering student Patrick Rice are running for Third Year Council vice president.

— the current president and vice president for Third Year Council, respectively — are running for reelection this year in contested races.

Vallar said his three previous years of experience on Class Council as committee chairs and as president make him qualified to maintain his position as president. He said he hopes to continue to broaden the impact of Class Council if elected for next year.

Running against Vallar is third-year College student Andrew Kwon. Kwon said in an e-mail he wants to bring a sense of unity to the Class of 2016 through events next year and beyond graduation. Kwon served as the president of the Class of 2016 in his first and second year.

Sadeghi said in an e-mail she hopes to bring the Class of 2016 together and increase communication with Trustees to determine what is best for the class.

Sadeghi is on the ballot against third-year Commerce student Vicky Abiola and third-year Batten student Donald Fryar.

Abiola said in an email she is running on the ideals of transparency, inclusion, diversity and communication.

Fryar said in an e-mail he feels he is a qualified candidate based on his position on Class Council for the past two years.

Spending Averages by Position Student Council President

$361.46

Student Council Vice President for Organizations

$211.99

Honor Arts & Sciences Representative

$137.95

Second Year President

$122.91

Second Year Vice President

$111.50

Third Year President Third Year Vice President Student Council Arts & Sciences Representative

$47 $42.44 $16

Line-item with the most expenditure: Flyers ($707.67) Anne Owen | The Cavalier Daily

F

focus

Grayson Kemper Senior Writer

As the University approaches a new election cycle, both students and candidates will depend on the University Board of Elections to facilitate the process of electing the newest class of student leaders on Grounds.

What exactly is UBE? UBE oversees the annual elections for Class Council, Student Council, the Honor Committee and the University Judiciary Committee.

Like Student Council and the Honor Committee, UBE is a special status organization, which grants it funding, office space and administrative assistance.

UBE was founded in 2003 in an attempt to restore order to the University elections process following a particularly tumultuous election cycle. In that cycle, Daisy Lundy, a thensecond-year College student, was assaulted by an unnamed figure during her campaign for Student Council president. The attacker allegedly used racial slurs implicating her Lundy’s African-American and Korean heritage.

That same fall, the University Law School — in accordance with University administration — published a comprehensive report in response to that incident. The report outlined other significant alleged malfeasance within student government, including the Elections Committee — UBE’s predecessor — which neither maintained the 10 member requirement outlined by Student Council bylaws nor reached a quorum a single time that year. These infractions were allegedly known at the time by executive members of Student Council.

“The University Board of Elections (UBE) is the Special Status Organization created to regulate and conduct student elections and referenda at the University of Virginia,” UBE’s website states. “The UBE was established in the Fall of 2003 to further the aims of student self-governance within a community of trust and honor and to supervise all University-wide student elections.”

Structure and authority UBE is comprised of a board of up to 11 members — a chair, vice chairs and liaison positions.

The members of UBE are appointed through an application process which includes feedback from both outgoing chairs of the organizations under UBE’s umbrella of authority, as well as at least one dean.

UBE Chair Krishna Korupolu, a third-year Commerce student, said

The Cavalier Daily

10

Explaining the University Board of Elections Formation, features, flaws of UBE

the application process is open to the entire student body. However, no student who serves on UBE may be a member of any organizations which are either under their oversight or who coordinates endorsements through UBE. UBE derives its authority from the Board of Visitors and the Office of the President. Korupolu said, however, that UBE is fairly autonomous.

He said the only interaction between UBE and the Board of Visitors would

marketing and events, described King’s role as advisory. Specifically, Kropp said King is a legal resource, and serves as a point of reference in the case of a disagreement between the two organizations. If UBE was not meeting University expectations, King would step in. “[King] is more of a resource during elections,” Kropp said. “She is there more for legal purposes, if there were a problem with the candidate”.

Information Technology

Chair Vice Chairs

Inefficiencies A significant portion of UBE involves communicating campaigning guidelines to potential candidates, as well as coordinating with organizations such as the Minority Rights Coalition, the Black Student Alliance and the Cavalier Daily in order to facilitate endorsements in an effort to market increased contestation.

Despite Korupolu’s claim that the the goal of the UBE is to make the

Liasons

Marketing

Grant Program Provided for Candidate Expenses

is comprised of

receives funding for

UBE conducts elections for

Selection Committee is comprised of

5

Student Council

UJC

members

Student Council President

Honor Committee

Class & School Councils

UJC Chair

Honor Chair

UBE Chair

Fourth Year Council President

Such other elections as the Board may be requested to oversee

Morgan Hale | The Cavalier Daily

be the result of a major problem, a situation which Korupolu said has he has not encountered.

As a special status organization, UBE is delegated authority from the University to organize and facilitate student elections, an integral function of student self-governance. Marshall Pattie, an associate dean of students, elaborated on the distinction between the Board of Elections and other organizations on Grounds.

“They are relatively autonomous,” Pattie said. “Special status organizations [have autonomy] that other institutions would have handled by administrators”.

Their most direct point of contact with administration is through Alyssa King, the program coordinator for student activities in the Office of the Dean of Students, who has weekly meetings with the Board of Elections.

Second-year College student Sara Kropp, UBE vice chair of outreach,

Expense allocation Each year, the Board of Elections must present a proposed budget of annual operating costs to the Office of the Dean of Students and Vice President, from whom they receive funding.

Korupolu said their annual budget is designed to cover costs for information technology, marketing and a grant program they provide to cover candidate expenses, which is operated on a reimbursement basis.

Korupolu said this year has seen an increase in grant applications, which he attributed to the increased volume of candidates as a product of more contested races.

Candidates are bound by UBE regulations to report any spending over $15 on campaigning materials. However, Korupolu said there is nothing within the rules or regulations outlining what candidates can or cannot spend on.

process of candidacy easier to facilitate, some student leaders and members of student government organizations claim UBE’s communication capacity was unhelpful.

Minority Rights Coalition Chair Blake Calhoun, a fourth-year College student, said UBE communication hindered endorsement processes.

“Their communication hasn’t been phenomenal — it’s a lot of me asking them what I have to do,” Calhoun said. “There wasn’t much info out there. At first, I was pretty frustrated, the dates for turnaround with endorsements were very tight. The deadlines were extended, but initially there was a very rushed turnaround.

It just didn’t seem incredibly efficient on my end”.

Fourth-year College student Henley Hopkinson, Honor Committee vice chair for investigation, filed his campaign through the Board of Elections for the Spring 2014 election cy-

cle. Hopkinson expressed similar concerns regarding UBE’s transparency.

“I thought the guidelines pertaining to listerves was concerning, but I reached out to them and they clarified it,” Hopkinson said. “I thought [the process] was fairly efficient, but I have heard some people who thought it was inefficient.”

UBE also has a history of technical malfunctions, particularly pertaining to the online voting system. Korupolu said technological difficulties in the past have been a result of an overcrowding of University servers. This year UBE hopes to achieve an incident-free voting period.

UBE attempted to address this problem by unveiling “Big Pulse,” a high-security electronic voting system first contracted by the University for the Spring 2014 election cycle. The new system, which operates independently from University servers, is designed to increase the efficiency of the voting process.

Korupolu praised the many upsides of the new system, including the ability to track members of the student body during the voting period who have not yet voted. UBE said it hopes to utilize this resource to send out final reminder emails two days before the voting period concludes.

“It has made the process much cleaner,” Korupolu said. “Last year there was an issue with the server going down. Most of the time, its an issue with the Virginia servers themselves.”

Encouraging contestation While many student-elected positions have gone unopposed in the past, Korupolu said UBE’s major concern for the 2015 elections season was to ensure that all races are contested. The spring 2014 election cycle prompted this goal because of the uncontested Student Council president election as well as various other uncontested elections.

Korupolu said UBE recently adopted an online quiz required for candidates to take, as well as a mandatory information session potential candidates were required to attend before filing their petitions for candidacy.

Third Year Council President Jack Vallar, a third-year College student, is running for re-election as Fourth Year Trustees President. Vallar praised UBE for ensuring candidates were committed to their campaigns.

“My experience has been that it has made me more proactive as a candidate,” Vallar said. “Forcing kids to get petitions at least shows they are committed to the campaign. It’s important to get people on the ballot — a contested election at least forces candidates to say something as to why they should get elected.”

Most races for this election cycle were contested.

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sports Chanhong Luu Associate Editor

After hanging tough against three top-25 teams in a row, the Virginia women’s basketball team finally catches a break when it faces unranked Pittsburgh on the road Thursday night. But make no mistake — Pittsburgh is a formidable opponent.

Since its first year in the ACC last season, where it went 3-13 in conference play, Pittsburgh has adjusted and have a new head coach. The Panthers now sit in eighth place in current conference standings with a 7-5 conference record. At 17-8, the Panthers are guaranteed their first winning season since the 2009-10 campaign.

“Pitt’s beaten Miami, some good teams — Carolina,” coach Joanne Boyle said. “It’s not as though they’re not worthy of a ranking. They have a

Thursday, February 19, 2015

11

Women’s basketball takes on Pittsburgh Randolph, Cavaliers look to halt three-game skid

good recruiting class. They’re led by a great senior point guard in [Brianna] Kiesel, and they all can score. They can all face up and shoot the ball.”

Meanwhile, the Cavaliers have not had a winning conference record since the 2011-12 season, where they went 9-8 in ACC play.

“It’s just a tough conference,” Boyle said when asked to give a reason for her team’s February struggles. “I can’t tell you if it’s one thing or another. I think we’ve gotten in some ruts and you start grinding and we haven’t seen that many wins, but I don’t know. I’d be a millionaire if I knew the answer to that question.”

The Cavaliers (15-10) are currently 5-7 in conference play this season and have four regular season games remaining to try to get above .500.

“We’re going to take one game at a time,” Boyle said. “We’re capable of winning them all, but again, it’s just having great practices and being able to go in confidently like we did against Florida State, and then just giving it our best game. It’s just about building on the positive. You can

look back at the losses and get caught in that mess, or you can keep your eye in the four games ahead.”

After missing the Florida State game with a heel injury, junior guard Faith Randolph is expected to return to Virginia.“It completely depends on [how] she feels,” Boyle said. “I’m not going to put the kid in and hurt her. It’s about what she can tolerate.

As long as she can tolerate and she’s playing okay, then she’ll play, but I don’t know that she can go 30 minutes in her first game back.”

On the defensive end, Randolph and sophomore guard Breyana Mason will have to guard Kiesel, who is having a career year. After becoming the first Panther player to be named USBWA National Player of the Week last season, Kiesel has surpassed career highs in scoring and assists and currently leads the league in steals and assist-to-turnover ratio and is on the watch list for the Nancy Lieberman Award Watch List for the best point guard in the nation.

“Kiesel really pushes the ball in transition,” Boyle said. “She’s getting

25 and 5 a game — five assists, five rebounds a game. She’s like the head of the body, so we’ve got to take her and put her away a bit.”

Kiesel is supported by the No. 15 recruiting class in the nation and graduate student forward Monica Wignot, who is second in the ACC in average blocks per game. The Pitt defense has held four straight opponents 50 points or fewer, including No. 8 Louisville.

“I think in this game — because they’ll try really hard to crowd the post players — we have to do a lot more of what we did against Clemson and step away from the basket and see what’s available to us and attacking off of that,” Boyle said.

With a stifling defense, the Cavaliers will need to limit turnovers — with 19 turnovers against Florida State — and especially offensive fouls, which kept senior center Sarah Imovbioh and freshman forward Lauren Moses out for the majority of the Florida State game.

Tip off is set for 7 p.m. at the Petersen Events Center.

Hannah Mussi | The Cavalier Daily

Junior guard Faith Randolph is expected to return to the lineup against the Panthers

12

SPORTS

The Cavalier Daily

No. 7 Virginia dominates Spiders The No. 7 Virginia women’s lacrosse team won its first game of the season Wednesday afternoon 14-6 against Richmond. The Spiders saved 12 of Virginia’s shots, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Virginia offense, which had a total of 36 shots.

Richmond (0-2) was the first to strike when a goal by junior attacker Charlett Stevenson put the Spiders on the scoreboard. A goal by Virginia’s junior midfielder Mary Alati tied the game, and Virginia (1-1) won the ensuing draw control and scored again to take a 2-1 lead. The Cavaliers had three more

shots, after winning the next draw control, to extend its lead, but each one was met by Richmond’s senior goalie Emily Boyce.

The Cavaliers’ next goal came on a free position shot with 21:53 remaining in the half, but neither team would score for another 10 minutes. Richmond broke the drought at the 11:31 mark, but the Cavaliers ended the half with two more goals to take a 5-2 lead into halftime.

Richmond started the second half with three goals in the first six minutes to remain close, but Virginia would go on a 7-1 run to

close out the game.

Senior attacker Liza Blue and Alati led the Cavaliers with three goals each. Blue also added two assists, while Stevenson led her team with two goals.

Virginia only had two saves for the game, but 10 of Richmond’s shots missed the mark. Richmond also didn’t win a draw control in the first half and had 13 turnovers for the game compared to the Cavaliers’ three.

The Cavaliers will continue their two-game road trip against Syracuse Monday.

—compiled by Chanhong Luu

John Pappas | The Cavalier Daily

Senior attacker Liza Blue scored three goals and added two assists in Virginia’s 12-6 victory.

Wrestling ends regular season against North Carolina State No. 13 Cavaliers to honor seven seniors in final home duel of the year Matthew Wurzburger Senior Associate Editor

The 13th-ranked Virginia wrestling team concludes the challenging 2014-15 regular season with a Thursday night battle against No. 20 North Carolina State. Seven fourth- and fifth-year seniors will be recognized for their contributions to the program prior to the match.

The path which led the Cavaliers (10-6, 2-2 ACC) to Thursday’s finale is not the one coach Steve Garland would have im-

agined. The team opened the season ranked 13th in the nation and was riding the momentum from the 2013-14 campaign, which recorded the second-most victories in program history. Injuries to multiple key contributors turned the latter half of the calendar into an up-and-down affair.

Furthermore, the extremely rigorous nature of the schedule has worked against Virginia’s winloss record. The Wolfpack (15-5, 2-2 ACC) will be the ninth ranked opponent to challenge the Cavaliers — Virginia is 4-4 against teams in the polls this season.

One of those four losses came

last Sunday against No. 1 Iowa in Iowa City. The undefeated Hawkeyes took eight out of the ten bouts and cruised past the Cavaliers, 30-6.

“Carver-Hawkeye Arena is the toughest place to wrestle,” Garland said. “We went out there, so our athletes could feel the heat, and the only way to prepare for that environment is to be in that environment.”

Garland makes no pretenses when discussing the regular season. It is simply four months of preparation, and how you compete vastly outweighs your record.

Scheduling the likes of Ohio State

Emily Gorham | The Cavalier Daily

Senior Joe Spisak is 5-2 on the year and will return to the lineup for his final regular season bout as a Cavalier.

and Iowa put deeds behind Garland’s words.

“Our schedule was unforgiving,” Garland said. “But the whole point of [the schedule] is getting us ready for the best postseason possible.”

Likewise, North Carolina State can claim to be battle tested. Virginia will be their seventh ranked opponent, and the Wolfpack are a dangerous team for it. Coach Pat Popolizio’s team is coming off a 27-12 beat-down of then-No.14 Pittsburgh. “[NC] State has had a fantastic year,” Garland said. “They’re rolling right now.”

NC State is a dangerous foe for the somewhat reeling Cavalier team on a three-match losing streak — Virginia had not dropped three consecutive matches since November of 2006. Two Wolfpack wrestlers — highlighted by reigning national champion and No. 1 junior Nick Gwiazdowski — are currently ranked in the top-25 of their respective weight classes, and six can be found in the coaches’ panel.

Virginia will be at full strength on Thursday. Seniors Joe Spisak and Gus Sako returned to the starting lineup against Iowa following prolonged absences due to injury. The rust showed — Spisak fell by major decision and Sako lost via pinfall — but any mat time is valuable at this juncture of the season.

“It was tough coming back from an injury to wrestling the No. 1 team in the country,” Spisak said. “There is no training that can simulate live wrestling quite like live wrestling, but now that I am healthy again I have been getting as much time on the mat as I can to prepare.”

The returns of Spisak and Sako shore up two glaring weaknesses.

Prior to his injury Spisak was 5-2, and his losses came at the hands of top-ranked Logan Stieber of Ohio State and No. 6 Josh Dziewa of Iowa. All other Virginia wrestlers competing at 141 pounds have a combined 2-7 record.

Sako is only 1-4 this season, but he has battled injuries from the get-go. But when healthy the Cleveland, Ohio native can be dominant — he was a top-10 wrestler in 2013-14. Redshirt freshman T.J. Miller was holding down the fort before a knee injury suffered against Pittsburgh ended his campaign early — he was 4-3 when wrestling at 149-pounds. As a collective entity, the Cavaliers’ 149-pounders are 5-11.

Thursday night will also be the time to commemorate and honor the seven seniors of the program — Sako, Spisak, Nick Sulzer, Derek Papagianapoulos, Billy Coggins, Nick Kidd, and Mason Popham. Their efforts have helped transform Virginia into a topflight wrestling program, and they leave many lasting impressions in the record book.

Garland describes the emotion of the night as two-fold.

“It’s really hard because you get so close to these guys,” Garland said. “But there is also a sense of deep pride because all of them are going to be so successful in life. It’s like saying goodbye to a friend.”

Spisak will tackle the match like it is not exceptional.

“I’ve wrestled since I was five,” Spisak said. “Thursday will be one of my more special matches, but I’ll approach it like I do every other one. There has been no greater honor for me then to wrestle bearing the V-Sabers on my singlet.”

Senior day activities begin at 6:45 p.m. Wrestling will begin at 7 p.m. at Memorial Gymnasium.

SPORTS

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Thursday, February 19, 2015

Is Virginia’s style of basketball really detrimental to the game?

ollege basketball’s appeal and the meant to measure the pace of play or integrity of its product are what speed of the game. For Medcalf, the Myron Medcalf had in mind when he statistic illustrates how Virginia’s style penned the recent colof play is not appealing umn, “Is Virginia’s Style to the fans and is detribad for the game?” mental to the game. FurMedcalf’s concern is thermore, Medcalf goes that the Cavaliers’ emonto argue that if the phasis on Tony Bennett’s Cavaliers were to make a “grind it out” philosophy deep run into the NCAA is detrimental to the Tournament, fewer fans product since Virginia would watch the games tends to go deep into which, again, would negthe shot clock and, God atively impact the sport’s forbid, try to stop its opappeal. ponents from scoring KRISHNA KORUPOLU It is unfortunate that Sports Columnist points.

Medcalf, writing for Because of their emESPN, fails to back up phasis on taking efficient his bold and disheartenshots and playing defense, the Cav- ing claims with any facts outside of aliers, as Medcalf cites, rank 350th in that one statistic.

KenPom’s adjusted tempo, which is First, let’s look at the adjusted tem-

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po rankings. Yes, Virginia is ranked 350th in adjusted tempo in the NCAA and to put that into perspective, No. 1 Kentucky is ranked 286th. But the game of basketball has changed over the last few years as more and more analytics are employed to make the game more efficient.

A byproduct of this efficiency booster is the slower pace of play. It stands to reason that the two best teams in the nation have some of the most efficient defenses and offenses in the nation. In contrast, the No. 1 team in adjusted tempo, Virginia Military Institute, has one of the least efficient offenses in the country. VMI is also ranked 289th overall by the KenPom statistics that Medcalf uses.

It is unfair to say that Virginia’s style is detrimental to the game based on the tempo statistic when that is

only a side effect of the team’s quest to play smart basketball.

Let’s move on to Medcalf’s argument that based on their style of basketball, Virginia’s game is unappealing to the casual fan. If that’s the case, it reasonable to also say Kentucky’s games are unappealing, as the Wildcats are ranked 289th in the nation in the same statistic. However, contrary to Medcalf’s logic, Kentucky drew in 2.4 million viewers on a casual Tuesday night last week when they took on the LSU Tigers. The week before, the Wildcats attracted 3.2 million viewers as they faced against unranked Florida.

I won’t use Kentucky as the sole example of how slow, defensive-oriented basketball can be appealing to the mass of collegiate ‘hoop fans. Let’s look at Virginia’s own games.

When Louisville visited Virginia, about 2 million people tuned in to see Virginia’s “ugly” brand of basketball.

A similar number of people tuned in to watch the pounding the Cavaliers gave to UNC the week before.

And when both Duke and College Gameday came to to Charlottesville, a whopping 3.5 million viewers watched Virginia fall in heartbreaking fashion to the Blue Devils.

It is hard to believe, as Medcalf claims, that Virginia’s style of play provides little to no appeal the casual fan and that the 2 – 3.5 million people just left the TV on. Virginia’s brand of basketball — through which fundamentals are taught, players improve for four years and freshmen are not compared to legends even before they play a minute — cannot be bad for basketball.

Evaluating the Justin Anderson-less Virginia offense

hen the Virginia basketball just haven’t seemed right on the team lost junior guard Jus- attack since Anderson, a Woodtin Anderson to a finger injury a en Award Midseason Watch List week and a half ago, I wasn’t sure selectee, went down. Shots don’t what to think. Obviously losing a seem to be falling, turnovers seem player ranked second relatively rampant and on the team in points the team often goes MATT COMEY per game and third in into lulls where nothing Sports Columnist minutes per game is not gives. What happened a positive. But given to the highly efficient our system-based offense and de- Virginia offense I was praising just fense, I was hopeful the damages a few weeks ago? would be minimal.

The numbers, unfortunately, Three games later, the now na- mostly back up that sentiment. tionally-famous pack line defense The chart below gives a good snaphas proven a million times over shot of how Virginia has fared on that the system far outweighs the the offensive end in the games contributions of an individual without Anderson, and the stats player. Including the Louisville aren’t pretty. game — in which Anderson conThe good news is that the turntributed only 16 minutes and two overs aren’t as bad as I thought, points before his injury — the but a lot of that has to do with the Cavaliers have held opponents to incredible performance we put up 50.8 points a game in their last against Louisville. That’s about the four contests, which is actually only consolation I found. slightly lower than their points The most concerning thing against average when Anderson here is the efficiency ratings, was at full health. which equate to points scored The offense, however, is a com- per 100 possessions. In those first pletely different story. three games without Anderson, From the eye-test alone, things the numbers are way lower than

the season average. While that stat ticked up Monday against Pitt, it should be noted that the Panthers have one of the worst defenses in the country, sitting last in the ACC and at No. 200 nationally in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency ratings.

Because the Cavaliers’ turnovers and offensive boards have been only slightly worse than average during the past four games, it looks like shooting percentage has been the biggest factor leading to the lower efficiency. Scarier yet has been shooting from outside. Since losing Anderson — who ranked as the top three-point shooter in the conference — the Cavaliers have shot 22 percent from beyond the arc, compared to 36.5 percent on the season as a whole.

Those long lulls without scoring I noticed are also a grave reality. One of the most impressive statistics coming out of Monday’s game was that Virginia held Pitt scoreless for three separate five-minute spans. However, Virginia was held scoreless for three separate four-minute spans, including a five-minute scoring

drought of their own. Over the past four games, Virginia has been held scoreless for six periods of four-minutes or longer, and 13 periods of three-minutes or longer.

The good news is that there are several factors favoring Virginia looking ahead at the remainder of the season: time, a relatively light schedule and arguably the best defense in the county.

Time and a light schedule go hand in hand. A realistic return estimate for Anderson would be the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and an optimistic estimate would be the ACC Tournament.

Those games matter way more than anything else in the regular season, and at this point, it seems like we’ll have Anderson back to have a shot at some hardware.

But even though Anderson won’t be back for the regular season, the remaining schedule is light enough to give us an extremely good shot at the top seed in the ACC Tournament and an NCAA one-seed. Our next three games are against ACC-bottom dwellers Florida State, Wake Forest and Virginia Tech, giving Vir-

ginia some time to tighten up the offense before facing off against Syracuse and Louisville on the road. The Cavaliers already have a two-game cushion in their quest to earn at least a share of the ACC regular season title, and I suspect that we could even lose three of the next five and still earn and one or two seed in both the ACC and NCAA tournaments.

However, I wouldn’t even worry about any of those “what-ifs,” simply because the Virginia defense is still playing as the best unit in the country. Pittsburgh came in last night just one game removed from putting up 89 on No. 12 North Carolina, boasting the No. 19 offense nationally in KenPom adjusted offensive efficiency. None of that mattered, as Virginia held them to 15 points in the first half, and 49 total points — at least five of which I would say were scored in garbage time.

So get well soon, Justin. Until then, I look forward to watching the Cavaliers continue to strangle teams with their defense.

And hopefully they also show a little more spark on offense.

Anne Owen | The Cavalier Daily

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Thursday, February 19, 2015

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LEAD EDITORIAL

Our endorsement for Student Council

opinion

The managing board endorses Axler for president, Carré for VPO and Winsky for VPA

Comment of the day “The Moral Majority, Franklin Graham, and the Christian extremist elements in the GOP are a bigger threat to world pleace and to India’s peace than Modi.”

“lksdjfsdlakfj” responding to Bobby Doyle’s Feb. 16 article, “Why Modi should scare you.”

Faced with the first contested race for Student Council president since 2012, the student body is fortunate to have a choice between two excellent, qualified and incredibly different candidates in second-year College student Abraham Axler and third-year College student Locher Grove. In an immensely difficult decision, we have decided to endorse Axler in this election.

Axler and Grove embody two very different leadership styles — Axler is hands-on, brimming with initiatives, and Grove is hands-off, preferring to enhance and support work stemming from the Council’s committees. Both styles have their merits, but we were ultimately persuaded by Axler’s plans for his term.

At times Axler’s platform is too ambitious — he includes initiatives regarding two federal laws in his plans — but for the most part, his ideas are comprehensive and demonstrate an understanding for the needs of various University communities. In particular, we were impressed by Axler’s plans for increasing safety, his understanding that Council did not do enough to respond to controversies outside the scope

of the Rolling Stone article and his plans to make Council more transparent (including by maintaining the newly-created public Trello page). Axler has clearly reached out to all the communities at our school and taken the time to learn what they need from Student Council, and plans to eliminate inner turf wars within Council so the organization can function smoothly.

Grove’s experience and ideas were also persuasive. He has a clear ability to work with others, an admirable idea of how the president should function as a manager and seeks to encourage other members of Council to help shape the agenda so that the president’s position is less top-down. For students seeking this type of leadership, Grove is an obvious choice. But when making this decision the managing board considered heavily the controversies and tragedies of last semester, and ultimately came to the conclusion that this next term needs strong leadership.

We do not think Axler’s agenda will inhibit inclusion of other members of Council, and were impressed by his extensive knowledge of the inner-workings of the organization and

the issues facing our community now. It would be naive to assume students of all backgrounds are being included in discussions with our administrators, and we believe Axler will be able to break down the door to get students and their perspectives into these discussions. Axler will bring the initiative and savvy necessary for this year’s Student Council president.

The election for Vice President for Organizations is also contested. Between second-year College student Emily Lodge and second-year College student Adrien Carré, our endorsement goes to Carré. He has several tangible ideas about how to streamline communication between Student Council and CIOs and how to improve the appropriations process so that funding is allocated more effectively. Lodge focused mostly on her commitment to service, which, while impressive, did not reflect the same attention to all elements of being VPO that Carré demonstrated. We are confident Carré will be organized and attentive to the needs of student groups in this position.

Daria Winsky, a third-year in the Batten school, is the

only candidate running to be Vice President for Administration. She is highly qualified for the position in terms of experience, but impressed us especially with her plans to improve internal efficiency, her initiative last semester to create an extensive training program for incoming Council members, her interest in proactive outreach to all pockets of the University community and her constructive criticisms of the initiative “StudCo Comes to You,” which she felt was poorly advertised and ultimately ineffective. Improvements to the program, according to Winsky, would include earlier scheduling so there is time to advertise and more intentional placement of meetings. Winsky is clearly organized and has several tangible initiatives in store, and we look forward to seeing what her term brings.

We are pleased that more Student Council races are contested this year, and hope this signifies more student interest in what our governing body does. We are confident the combination of Axler, Carré and Winsky will serve our student body well over the next year.

Our endorsement for the University Judiciary Committee The managing board endorses Austin and Mason, and hopes for more student engagement in this election hile there are four candidates running for three positions as representatives for the College of Arts and Sciences, only three candidates chose to interview with us. We were enthusiastic about our interviews with Mackenzie Austin and Jahvonta Mason, both third-year students.

Austin’s extensive experience in UJC as a counselor for the past three years makes her an obvious candidate, but her ideas make her an obvious choice. She has an interest in broadening the reach of the Committee beyond just educating first-years by partnering with student organizations. She hopes to expand what education consists of by encompassing elements of the

Standards of Conduct beyond just those pertaining to drinking and wants to increase UJC’s visibility. Since this is our school’s primary adjudicative system — though Honor is discussed more — increased visibility for the organization is crucial. We are confident Austin has the experience, poise and initiative to take on this role.

Mason has no prior experience in UJC, but as a member of the Sexual Misconduct Board impressed us with his knowledge of the relationship between both systems and his desire to bridge the gap in communication between the two groups.

Like Austin, he hopes to increase UJC’s visibility and make it an organization students can turn

to when in need of mediation by increasing outreach and making sure students understand how the adjudicative process works.

Both Mason and Austin stressed

dent body misunderstands.

Zack Peak, a third-year student, also interviewed with us.

We were pleased with his commitment to diversity and interest in revamping general body meetings but, when pressed, felt his answers lacked the obvious initiative present in the other two candidates’ interviews.

While student candidates naturally have Caitlin Cosby, a quality of idealism, we sought those another third-year student running, whose idealism would not overwhelm their chose not to interpragmatism.” view with us. Because of this, we UJC is not a punitive system but cannot comment on her qualifirather an educational one — cations. something they believe the stuWe are pleased UJC elections

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are contested in the College this year, but still worry that student engagement with UJC is lacking. Austin and Mason will prove excellent at engaging the community, but we hope this effort will extend beyond simply the College. In the Commerce school, there are two students running for two spots, which is also true of the Engineering school. For Nursing and Batten, only one student is running in each school, while there are two representatives allocated to each school. UJC is arguably the most influential adjudicative body on student life, yet receives the least attention. Over the next year, UJC representatives should increase efforts to keep this organization in the school spotlight.

OPINION

Thursday, February 19, 2015

15

Our endorsement for Honor his year, 10 students in the College are running to serve as Honor representatives for five spots, and four students in the McIntire School of Commerce are doing so for two spots. Honor elections in the other University schools are uncontested.

Faced with an incredibly strong selection of candidates, the managing board has decided to endorse Russell Bogue, Allison Ivener, Martese Johnson, Grace Muth and Michael Treves to represent the College, and Faith Lyons and Michael White to represent the Commerce school. All are third-year students.

Bogue impressed us with his openness to researching the effects of a multiple-sanction system, his plans to make Honor less top-down and his several initiatives to improve outreach to underrepresented groups, including by making Honor more accessible in its language and literature. He presented his platform to us articulately and thoughtfully, with an obvious appreciation for the diversity of student thought about Honor, and we are confident he will be an invaluable addition to the Committee.

Ivener contributes a deep understanding of the case-processing elements of Honor, a drive to increase student engagement through education events and a focus on increasing engagement with Honor outside just the College since, as a non-humanities major, she is familiar with sides of our school that are not typically driving the system’s phil-

osophical debates. She hopes to increase the number and effectiveness of Honor surveys and will be especially valuable in her data-driven analysis of the successes and failures of the current system.

Johnson is the only candidate running who has a year of experience not only on the Honor Committee but on the Executive Committee within Honor, serving as the vice chair for community relations. While we saw fewer tangible achievements from Johnson’s time on Committee than we would have hoped, he will provide continuity in the Committee as a bridge between this past term and the upcoming one. He intends to improve the internal selection process for Honor officers, democratize the system and continue the incredibly important work of recruiting a diverse body of students in background and thought.

Additionally, Johnson promises to shift away from the tunnel vision he entered the Committee with, intending not just to offer the perspective of a minority student but to maintain that perspective as one of only several perspectives and plans he can bring to the table. We were persuaded that in a second Committee term Johnson will pursue more action over rhetoric.

Muth contributes many of the same ideas as Bogue, as the two developed their platforms together. She is also dedicated to researching a multiple-sanction system so that, should it prove more effective, it can be implemented when Honor is best prepared to deal with such an

infrastructural change. She also seeks to make the internal structure less top-down, wishes to refocus the language of Honor so it is more accessible to students, and to recognize the other honorable ideals from people with different backgrounds.

Our last endorsement in the College goes to Michael Treves.

Treves impressed us most with his deep knowledge and commitment to the system; he has attended Executive Committee meetings throughout his time as a senior support officer and is committed to making the system as a whole more accessible

dates. We were left uninspired

by Snow’s platform, which focused more on ideals and less on concrete initiatives, and Jenkins’ platform — while persuasive — demonstrated the tunnel vision about solely representing minority students that Johnson has since learned from. Jaeyoon Park and Ian Robertson, who are also running, chose not to interview with us.

The managing board endorses Faith Lyons and Michael White as representatives for the Commerce school. Lyons is energetic about her candidacy and education-oriented, committed to eliminating student apathy and advocating for student feedback within the Commerce school — especially in areas where students are While student candidates naturally have generally confused a quality of idealism, we sought those about what constitutes an honor whose idealism would not overwhelm their offense. She hopes pragmatism.” to address student apathy by increasto lower-ranking members and ing interactions between Honor to students otherwise unaffected and the student body, not necesby the case processing elements sarily through social events but of Honor. His dedication to the more so through organized dissystem is obvious. He has taken cussion. We were inspired by her initiative in his current position energy and initiative, and think in Honor, which makes us confi- she will be a great addition to dent he will do so on Committee the Committee. as well.

White impressed us with his Caroline Herre, Emily Snow knowledge of investigations and and VJ Jenkins are all quali- trials, focusing mostly on infied candidates who are also ternal reforms. He plans to adrunning in the College. Herre’s dress the Committee’s current background and approachability inability to drop cases in which make her an excellent candidate exonerating evidence exists and among several excellent candi- to focus on procedural rights.

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The managing board endorses Bogue, Ivener, Johnson, Muth and Treves for the College, and Lyons and White for the Commerce School

No matter who you choose,

GO VOTE

He also hopes to move away from a top-down system within Honor, and was the only candidate to interview with us who is definitively in favor of a multiple-sanction system. We think Lyons and White will work very well together to represent their school.

Avery Rasmussen also interviewed with us. While she has extensive experience, we felt her platform lacked tangible initiatives and were disappointed by her belief that there is no way to make apathetic students care about the system. Christian Gigante is also ru nning for Commerce school representative but did not interview with us.

In making these endorsements, the managing board focused on who would work well together to achieve important goals in the next term — namely, increasing engagement, making Honor more representative of the student body and reforming elements of the system that need it. While student candidates naturally have a quality of idealism, we sought those whose idealism would not overwhelm their pragmatism. The honor system’s ability to maintain relevancy to our student body can only stem from concrete reforms, and Committee members will only have a year to implement such reforms. We think these candidates have the drive and initiative to take on this challenge.

Editor’s note: Bogue is a former member of The Cavalier Daily’s Opinion section and Muth is a former Life columnist.

UVAVOTE.COM Feb. 20-26, 2015

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OPINION

The Cavalier Daily

The dangers of social media in student elections ach year, as January fades into which closed on February 27, 2014, February, the student body be- only 3525 students (16.26 percent gins to brace itself for the onslaught of the student body) voted for Stuof social media camdent Council President. paigns that will crop Only 24.77 percent of up in the middle of the students voted for honmonth in time for stuor representatives from dent elections. In recent the College of Arts & years, student election Sciences. season has been defined If we wish to connot by community-wide tinue to claim to be a debate and engagement, community defined by but by pictures of candistudent self-governance, dates on the Lawn with these numbers should bolded slogans. As colwarrant more than a lege students, it seems raised eyebrow. Most of MARY RUSSO that more and more the Facebook events that Senior Associate Editor time and energy is spent I have seen for elections on our online presences. this year have between By that logic, it makes sense for cam- 400 and 2000 invitees (see screenpaigning to be done largely online. shots). So, perhaps these campaigns However, in order to address issues are effective in getting the number of of community apathy and disengage- votes the candidate requires to win. ment with groups such as the Honor However, can a student body presiCommittee and Student Council, the dent elected by less than one quarter campaigning process must be duly of the student body really claim auscrutinized. thority?

In an ideal world, student elecI should note that I am not crittions might be characterized by en- icizing individual candidates who gaged students and a 100 percent choose to use social media as a way participation rate, embodying the to reach out to students in time for values of student self governance. elections. I am sure that if I were runUnfortunately, this has not been ning for a position, I would do the the case in the University’s recent same. It would almost seem silly to past. In the 2014 student elections, not use the social network as a tool.

Not doing so would likely leave me far behind the other candidates. Leah Retta— a third-year College student running for Studco CLAS Representative—said, “I especially wanted to run a social media campaign because I wanted to raise political efficacy among my direct network of friends. This way, their incentive to vote would be to support me because they already know of my experience as well as my capability.”

At some point since Facebook spread across America like wildfire, that first “Vote so and so for

is to win an election, we should be concerned.

Many clubs and organizations around Grounds (including The Cavalier Daily) use social media to promote their events and recruitment periods. For the most part, such campaigns are harmless. However, at a certain point we should question whom social media campaigns are reaching. If I did not have any friends who wrote for The Cavalier Daily, would I have known when Opinion tryouts were happening? If I did not know any of the candidates running for positions this year, would I even know elections were this month? I am not so sure.

As a college student in the twenty-first century, it’s When the number of attendees on a Facebook impossible to say whether or not stuevent becomes the primary indicator of who is to dent campaigns were more tangibly personwin an election, we should be concerned.” al and substantive before the Internet. My honor” event was made, and the guess is that students had to work a precedent was set. There is nothing lot harder to campaign, reaching out inherently wrong with using social in interpersonal ways which are now, media. However, when the number unfortunately, a thing of the past. of attendees on a Facebook event be- Reaching almost 15,000 undergradcomes the primary indicator of who uate is not an easy task. However, a

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Campaigns must move beyond Facebook to fully engage the University community more rigorous and comprehensive campaigning process would benefit both candidates and the community.

If I felt that my vote would have an actual effect on the results of an election (other than supporting a friend or a friend’s friend), I certainly would be more inclined to learn about the candidate and his or her platform.

It is easy to feel like a small fish in a huge, overqualified pond. Social media helps individuals reach their friends, and their friends’ friends, but doesn’t seem to go beyond that.

While that small group may be enough to ensure that the candidate will win the election, it is not enough to ensure a high standard of accountability and communication between the student leaders and the community in the year that follows. It is vital to remember that any democratic system relies on community participation. The responsibility of engagement must fall on the candidates and the community rather than one or the other.

Mary’s column runs Thursdays.

She may be reached at m.russo@cavalierdaily.com.

Honor referendum three is a step backward magine most students at elite uni- despite potentially mandating Comversities would argue their great- mittee representatives to act upon est moments of learning have come platforms on which they did not from their lectures, disrun. However, I find the cussion sections or labs. discussion about these JOE MARTIN That has not been the two referenda to be less Guest Viewpoint case for me. Throughout urgent. I want to discuss my four years at this Unithe third referendum beversity, the most formcause it is a step backward ative experiences have occurred in for student self-governance and the my extracurricular activities, ranging ideal of honor. from leading an ASB trip to making The Campaign for Self-Governa closing statement at an Honor tri- ance paints the Honor Committee al. Student self-governance has made as a group of individuals who have all of this possible. I write to enhance been sitting around, twiddling their this practice and add my opinion thumbs for the past decade, when it on the Campaign for Self-Govern- cites figures from 2004 as indicators ance. As vice chair for education of of how out of touch the Committee the Honor Committee, I would like is. Yet the discussion practically igto clarify that I am not speaking on nores the biggest change to the honbehalf of the Committee, but rath- or system since 1977: the Informed er based on my individual beliefs in Retraction. Selectively using favorahopes to further discussion among ble statistics, the campaign does not the student body. recognize that the Honor System is I write to address the third ref- fundamentally different today than it erendum of the Campaign for was 10 years ago, and that it was stuSelf-Governance, as it is the one with dents who drove this change in the which I am most concerned. I have system. feelings both in favor of and against We are taking a vote on whether the other two referenda. The first is the Honor Committee should confairly unobjectionable, but it may sider a multiple sanction system, be unnecessary to add to the Honor without considering that the system Committee constitution. The second already offers opportunities for forholds the Committee accountable, giveness. However, these opportu-

nities are not predicated on the severity of a student’s actions; they are predicated upon one’s own integrity, which should be the foundation of the honor system. If a student is reported for an honor offense, he has the opportunity to admit to the act in question by taking an Informed Retraction, finish his current semester and take a two-semester leave of absence. With this practice, students have the opportunity to learn from their mistakes.

Establishing a multiple sanction system, with the level of punishment

ance and the student-led effort that put the Informed Retraction on the ballot in 2013. Additionally, students going through the system would be incentivized to lie throughout the investigation and trial process to get off with the lowest possible sanction.

No longer would students have reason to act upon their own honor and acknowledge their actions by taking the Informed Retraction, which happened 12 times in 2013-2014 alone.

Honor could very well cease to be the ideal that many people feel permeates this University. Honor could simply become another sanctioning system.

I will vote no for the third referendum for the above reasons, and because I think there is much more progress the Committee can make next year We are taking a vote on whether the Honor Committee should consider a multiple sanction without spending the majority of their time system, without considering that the System considering a multiple already offers opportunities for forgiveness.” sanction system. After nearly a year on the Committee, I believe depending on the severity of the of- we can improve the Informed Retracfense, would render the Informed tion. It is, after all, brand new, and we Retraction useless. Such an act would are still finding out how it affects the be a direct affront to the self-govern- System and how it applies in various

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Students should vote against the third referendum scenarios. For example, currently if a student is reported for cheating on two papers in the same class, he can only take an Informed Retraction for one of these instances, regardless of whether he was in a similar situation or mindset during those actions.

Questions like this should be discussed, but that will be difficult if the Committee must design a multiple sanction system throughout its term.

While I have strong opinions about this issue, more than anything, I encourage students to vote and to do so in an informed manner. Visit honor2015.com to read about the referenda, read the articles from Rick Yoder, visit virginia.edu/honor to see Committee representatives’ responses and hear the varied opinions of Committee members this Thursday at 5 p.m. in the Chapel. Once you have considered all sides of the story, vote in a way that you feel is right for today’s honor system and the one we hope to pass down for generations of students to come. After all, student self-governance expects nothing less.

Joe Martin is a fourth-year in the Commerce school and the vice chair for education for the Honor Committee.

OPINION

Thursday, February 19, 2015

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The firm morality of a multi-sanction system ast week, second-year student Park, the students leading the reRichard Yoder authored an form effort, state, “We have never Opinion piece in which he decried expressed the opinion that the honor the moral failures of the system is not founded upcoming honor referon moral principles.” enda. Yoder’s grievances That this small interacseem to center on his tion, which inaccurately presupposition that the reflects the views of the students spearheading reformers, would lead the proposed reforms Yoder to conclude the efare not impelled by a fort for a multi-sanction driving moral princisystem lacks principle is ple. Instead, he finds a problematic. movement defined by a So: on what ground “post-modern” attitude, can a principled advoJOHN CONNOLLY characterized by an utcate of a multi-sanction Opinion Columnist ter lack of firm principle system stand? Yoder ofor grounding. “I would fers some clues in his arhave more respect for ticle, stating, “One must advocates of a multi-sanction sys- not abolish a rule before one knows tem,” Yoder writes. “If they, too, at- why it was first erected.” This reasontempted to justify their views based ing, known as “Chesterton’s Fence,” is on a moral principle.” a good starting point for recognizing The purpose of this column is to the core purpose of the honor system: articulate a moral ground on which to forge a more honorable University advocates of a multi-sanction system community, comprised of honorable can rest. But before delving into the individuals. This is and must be the meat of this reasoning, I first must true background of the institution point out an important discrepancy of the single sanction. The single in Yoder’s argument. Yoder’s overrid- sanction’s survival over the years, as ing point, that the honor reformers well as its moral underpinnings, are are not grounded in moral principle, grounded in the view that a single seems based on a small interaction sanction system is the best system with an Honor Committee support of- that we have for inspiring honesty, for ficer. But Ian Robertson and Jaeyoon banishing lying and for holding our

peers accountable for their actions.

I support a multi-sanction system because I believe such a system would best promote a community where we do not tolerate lying, cheating or stealing. In short, I believe it is the best system for creating the community Yoder and other single sanction advocates also seek: the true community of trust. This is the firm moral ground Yoder was seeking. My experience at this University has taught me the single sanction dissuades students from reporting honor offenses.

Students often believe an act of lying,

lem, Yoder and others might answer, is to make reporting mandatory. But reporting honor offenses has been optional for decades now, and with good reason, too. No one seems to question this sound rule (at least at this particular moment in our honor discourse). And so it is the single sanction we must blame for low reporting rates, the single sanction we must blame for many of our failures to hold offending students accountable for their actions.

Yoder says, rightly, “Majorities make policies, not truths.” What is the truth, or the moral purity, we seek?

Justice? A true community of trust? If so, vote multi-sanction.

We need a majority of votes in order to bring us closer to the ideal that we seek.

Ultimately, honor is about our shared One often overcommitment to leading honest, moral, just, hears students of this decent lives.”

University saying, “Our honor system is cheating or stealing does merit pun- broken.” We ought to take such chatishment, but perhaps not expulsion. ter seriously. Remembering the goals And so reporting rates remain low as of our past, recognizing the failures of the single sanction inadvertently and our present and following guidance somewhat ironically lets offenders off of a strong moral compass into the scot free. future, let us vote to restore what the The natural answer to this prob- poets say is our best quality: honor,

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Ending the single sanction would encourage reporting and foster a true community of trust not honor-with-a-capital-H, but just ordinary honor, honor that can be found anywhere.

Can honor be preserved at this University without the single sanction? Unequivocally, yes. Some will argue the single sanction is what distinguishes our honor from that of other schools and places. But they are mostly wrong. Our honor stems not from the single sanction, nor from the purple shadows on the colonnade-swept lawn nor from the majesty of our history. Throw that all away, take us back to when this place was just an ancient forest in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and honor remains. Ultimately, honor is about our shared commitment to leading honest, moral, just, decent lives. If we are more honorable here, it is because students here care more about honor, because honor is prioritized here in a way that is very rare and very special. This, and not anything else, is what makes us Virginian. Letting the single sanction hide this truth for much longer would be a shame.

John’s column runs Thursdays. He can be reached at j.connolly@cavalierdaily.com.

Honor referenda aren’t about self-governance e write as third-year Law stu- for themselves the kind of commudents, friends and colleagues nity that this place ought to be.” On who, while respectfully disagreeing this account, the proposals are solely on more or less every major ques- about the ideal of student self-govtion of politics and public policy, are ernance. They complain the Honor unified in our oppoCommittee is unresponsition to this year’s COLIN M. DOWNES and sive to student input and referenda on the that the current generaW. ANDREW LANIUS tion of students has nevhonor system. We Guest Viewpoint strongly urge you to er spoken on the single vote “no” on all three sanction question. measures.

Glittering generalities Make no mistake: this election and subterfuge aside, the campaign is fundamentally about ending the is mistaken on its own terms. Student single sanction. Passing referenda input on the honor code has long two and three will compel the Honor been vocal, persistent and effective.

Committee to offer an amendment In 2013, the Honor Committee pronext year changing honor to a mul- posed an amendment which would tiple sanction system. Our friend have implemented both informed Richard Yoder has written about the retraction, a kind of plea bargain for moral underpinnings of our current honor trials, and the replacement honor system. We agree with Yoder of random honor juries with juries and strongly support the single sanc- composed solely of members of the tion. It is expressive of a fundamen- Honor Committee. In principle, the tal, ethical commitment to the kind amendment offered something for of community we want at this Uni- both those who supported the sinversity. Its rigor is at once aspirational gle sanction and those who favored and a badge of distinction. a more flexible regime. One of our The Campaign for Self-Gov- peers at the law school, Frank Belernance, the campaign behind the lamy, introduced a ballot initiative referenda, argues “the issue at hand providing for informed retraction has nothing to do with the differ- alone. The student body roundly reence between the single- and the jected the Committee’s amendment multi-sanction system.” Rather, the and approved Bellamy’s. campaign is about “students defining This episode demonstrates a few

things. First, student self-governance over honor is alive and well. It seems every few years we are asked as students to consider important questions of honor’s place in our community of trust. As third years, we will have voted on such student-led initiatives in two of our three years at the University. No popular assembly, the dictate of the first referendum, was necessary to present these choices to us. Ironically, the very fact the campaign was able to place their referenda on this year’s ballot demonstrates that the current system is not unresponsive to the concerns of students as is claimed. In this regard,

by an overwhelming margin. It likewise rejected the idea in non-binding form in 2007.

Second, the 2013 referendum also demonstrates student self-governance is not about delegating the hard work of shaping our communities to an elite body of experts. In that election, the community rejected the carefully crafted political compromise that appealed to all parties inside the Honor Committee. It instead endorsed Bellamy’s grassroots proposal. The campaign’s ballot initiatives would funnel future changes to honor through a process centered on the Committee — hardly the democratic ideal at work.

The campaign does not provide the specifics of a future multiple-sanction system in its proposal. numbers The overall effect of the campaign’s referenda Referenda two and three would would be to fabricate a mandate for abolition of assign that challenge the single sanction in advance, without having a to the Honor Committee, which would concrete policy on the table. propose a constitutional amendment on it is worth further observing that as the question next year and inevitably recently as 2009 the student body shape its language in line with the considered and rejected a proposal Committee’s own peculiar instituto move to a multi-sanction system tional interests. Incidentally, both of

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The University should reject the proposed changes to the honor system

the organizers of the campaign are running for the Honor Committee this year.

This leads to a larger point. The overall effect of the campaign’s referenda would be to fabricate a mandate for abolition of the single sanction in advance, without having a concrete policy on the table. That would wait until next year, when the proposal would come with both the imprimatur of the Honor Committee and the weight of this year’s referendum behind it. This will preempt a full and open dialogue, precisely the opposite of the ostensible object of the campaign.

If student self-governance is to be our watchword, we deserve better.

We deserve a real debate in the public square over the future of the honor system. We deserve clarity and precision about the issues before us, not empty bromides or platitudes.

And we deserve a process centered on the community of trust, not on the Honor Committee under the guise of student self-governance.

We therefore strongly urge a “no” vote on all three of the proposed referenda.

Colin M. Downes and W. Andrew Lanius are third-year students at the University of Virginia School of Law.

HU MOR

The Cavalier Daily

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Just for wits.

How to have sex in a Lawn room

here are many reasons to yes/no result near the end of your have sex in a lawn room. It four years. It’s like finding a job, could be to give your resulting only far less rewarding. child some great admissions esDean Groves has said students say material. Perhaps should really join inthe construction has PETER SIMONSEN teresting, niche groups stymied your oh-sothat speak to their inGuest Humor Writer clever plans for the dividual talents, rather Rotunda Dome Room. Or maybe than focusing on the larger speyour life’s goal is to copulate at cial status organizations. This is a UNESCO World Heritage site, because the Honor Committee and you were permanently ban- and University Guides members ished before you could finish on on the Lawn already know each the Somapura Mahavihara pyra- other, and they’ll need a few devimid of Bangladesh. ants to bring to their dinner parBut how do you accomplish ties. Consider learning to walk a this goal? Fear not, weary stu- slack-line or juggle or become a dent, for this guide will help you third-string varsity athlete. make your mark on this UniverThe important things are to sity — as long as you wipe it up keep your GPA up, volunteer, afterwards.

Frank Underwood your way to the top of the group of your Step One: Live on the Lawn choice and get a prominent We start off with a doozy. “3711” tattoo.

However, by reading this guide, Once you move in, you can alyou’ve shown determination lude to your new pad with pickup that’s guaranteed to shift some lines like “With all the Rotunda cummerbunds on the selection construction you can hardly hear committee. my bed creak,” or “My chimFor best results, wait for Tom ney needs a good cleaning,” and DeLuca’s next appearance and “Come on, I’m way closer than have him hypnotize you to think Gooch-Dillard!” you're back in high school.

This will ensure that all of your Step Two: Seduce a Lawn Resdecisions are predicated on ident whether they will affect a single So you didn’t get a Lawn room,

SNAPCHATS

BY JACKSON CASADY

huh? Well, your odds for this one are probably worse. The Lawn's residents are split equally by gender, and while determining the sexual preferences of each Lawnie is left as an exercise for the reader, it's likely less than half will correspond to your orientation.

Helpful tip: If someone you're talking to claims to be on the Lawn, ask her room number. If it's even, you can easily verify her claim by waiting until sundown and watch as the residents of East Lawn seal themselves in their chambers, never to emerge until first light. Build your relationship

gument with campus police on how easily someone could mistake the Medical School Parking Lot’s toll booth for the Academical Village.

Step Three: Make an Arrangement with a Lawn Resident For the remainder of this guide you will need to obtain a willing sexual partner beforehand. Fortunately, all of the individuals reading this guide share your noble goal, so you’ll be sure to find a swath of equally brave and eager potential partners in the comments section. Obtaining the consent of a Lawnie to have sex in her room is a daunting task. Ironically, the only people well-connected and personable enough to persuade There are many reasons to have sex in a Lawn a Lawnie would be the other ones you room. failed to seduce.

This is why before until you too can join their col- making any advances, it is imlective-bathroom hermitage. portant to carefully research and Be sure to verify your hook- understand the interests of Lawn up’s identity against the brass residents. nameplate on the door. Really, just make sure the door has a nameplate, to avoid a lengthy ar-

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MORE AWKWARD THAN SOME

Step Four: Secure an Empty Lawn Room So, it has come to this.

To surreptitiously gain access to a Lawn room, some manuals may instruct you to make a wax copy of the key you purloined from the resident’s robe as they showered. Others say to send them on a quest for an example of student self-governance, or something equally fictional.

No, simply slip the resident a note on some forged Seven Society letterhead regarding initiation.

Once she reads it and runs off, you’ll have a few hours, depending on how authentic of a “mandatory Edwin Anderson Alderman costume” you demanded.

Now that you’re finally inside, you and your comments-section hook-up can do whatever you like in there, even if it’s just sit by the fire and pretend you’re not jealous. Don’t worry too much about getting caught — breaking and entering isn’t an honor offense, so at least the Lawn residents won’t be running your trial.

Peter Simonsen was the Chief Financial Officer for the 125th managing board of The Cavalier Daily.

BY CHAUNCEY LEE

THE ADVENTURES OF THE AMAZING <THE> A-MAN

BY EMILIO ESTEBAN

Like what you see? Join Humor! For more information, contact humor@cavalierdaily.com

Thursday, February 19, 2015

A&E arts & entertainment Nina Lukow Senior Writer

Visiting one of the final dress rehearsals for the “Vodka Variations,” one immediately gets the sense that a play of this size has not been performed in a while.

A spiral walkway acting as the major set piece coils around Culbreth Theatre, with just enough space for a live string quartet to sit in the middle. Actors in petticoats and thick Russian accents perform a dizzying waltz around the stage.

Watching the rehearsal, one can get swept away in the whirlwind of emotions and whimsical, passionate characters who cry, then faint, then dance, then laugh at themselves.

‘Vodka Variations’ is expansive, ambitious Adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s short stories runs Feb. 19-28 in Culbreth Theatre

“It’s a huge production. I’ve never worked on something so ambitious before,” actor Evan Bergman, a College graduate student, said.

Rightly so — as the “Vodka Variations” is not simply one play, but a compilation of at least 10 Anton Chekhov short stories. The production balances multiple storylines and characters to create “variations” on a theme of Chekhov’s early works. The composite work, compiled and directed by Assoc. Drama Prof. Marianne Kubik, is meant to be a celebration of Chekhov and his ability find humor in humanity.

“I hope we all take away an evening to laugh and have fun [in] recognition of our own ridiculousness in the characters we meet, and an appreciation of a time period and culture unlike our own, but very real and vibrant,” she said.

Kubik said she was drawn to

Chekhov for his humor and comedy in the face of anger and passion.

“I like playwrights who aren’t afraid to laugh at people and at life,” she said. “I’ve always found Chekhov’s objective observations about human nature charming.”

Compiling the various short stories was certainly not an easy process.

“I read at least 100 of his short, comedic stories, looking for stories that were immediately compelling, and with a lot of action or dialogue,” Kubik said. “After I made a short list of 30, I spent a few months imagining each story in action on a stage, and speaking the text aloud to hear the characters. I narrowed it down to about 15 stories and started writing, letting the ones that emerged the fastest help guide me in my choices.”

Actors would like to see the au-

Laughter strikes the Annex Charlottesville native to perform satirical stand-up Dhwani Yagnaraman Staff Writer

Stand-up comedian Lee Camp, a former humor columnist for The Cavalier Daily, is returning to Charlottesville Saturday to perform at the Main Street Annex.

Camp has been writing and producing the comedy news show “Redacted Tonight” since 2014, in addition to writing for The Onion. He is the author of the book “Neither Sophisticated Nor Intelligent,” a collection of his best humor columns.

Arts & Entertainment sat down with Camp to hear what he had to say about coming full circle and performing in the same place where he started.

Q&A

Arts & Entertainment: How does it feel to come back to Charlottesville? Is there anything in particular that you’re looking forward to?

Lee Camp: It’s really exciting to come back. I started stand-up at U.Va. and then I opened for Jimmy Fallon, Tracy Morgan and Lewis Black, which were my first huge shows while I was here. I’m looking forward to performing here again.

A&E: What was your favorite place when you were a student at U.Va.?

LC: What’s the name of that sandwich shop? Littlejohn’s? It’s great when you’re starving at 2 a.m. I also really liked living on the Lawn, which you

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can’t tell anyone after you leave U.Va. They just don’t get why you want to live in a place with minimal heating and no bathrooms. They don’t understand what the hell you’re talking about. But there’s nothing more enjoyable than opening your door at midnight and seeing naked people run by.

A&E: You started writing humor columns in high school. What was your inspiration for them? How has that changed over time?

LC: Well, when I was 12, I started writing my own stuff. I actually went to high school in Richmond, and I started performing stand-up at 17.

When I got to U.Va., most of my columns were about college life — about papers, frat parties and eating ramen noodles in the middle of the night.

Now, I write political comedy or a cultural commentary … on things I think are important. And as for the political humor, I don’t just tell John Boehner jokes!

A&E: When and how did you realize that you wanted to do something related to comedy? Was there a certain moment when you knew for sure?

LC: I mean, I always liked comedy and wanted to pursue it, but there was a specific moment I knew that this was what I wanted to do after I graduated. I opened for the Whethermen [while at U.Va.] and it was a great show — about 400 people came. I remember walking out after the show right after and realizing that this was what I wanted to do. I moved to New York City after graduation and that’s how everything started.

A&E: What were some changes

dience walk away amused by the performance.

“I hope they can laugh at the human condition,” Bergman said.

College graduate student Roger Ainslie recalled a quote by Chekhov which encapsulating the show: “Any idiot can face a crisis; it’s this day-to-day living that wears you out. It’s about the struggle of everyday interactions with people.’”

The show is the first Drama Department production of the spring semester and should be a robust, vibrant beginning to a promising drama season. It opens Feb. 19 and runs through Feb. 28. Tickets are available now through the University Arts Box Office.

Courtesy MBaily UVA Drama

“Vodka Variations” compiles over 10 Anton Chekhov stories into a realistic yet riotous portrait of the human condition.

Q&A

that you wanted to see in the paper when you were working on it?

What did you like about writing for The Cavalier Daily? If you could write for any other section in The Cavalier Daily, which one would it be and why?

LC: I always thought it was a damn good paper.

It’s really impressive how so many college kids were willing to stay all night in a basement and work on a paper. I was only involved in the Humor section all four years I was here, but if I had to do any other section, I’d do serious News, the front page kind of stuff. I have to know these things anyway because of my job now so I feel like that’s something I would do if I weren’t doing humor. But I wouldn’t love it anything as much as Humor.

A&E: What is your favorite thing about Redacted Tonight?

LC: My favorite thing about the show is that it’s about news stories that are not covered in the mainstream news or are hidden or censored. I recently did a monologue on political prisoners in the United States. I like how the show lets me talk about

Lee Camp, former Cavalier Daily staffer, is headed back to his old stomping grounds to bring comedy to a new generation of Wahoos.

with Lee Camp on making it better. y rtes I also really like Cou performing live and I want to keep doing that, which is why I came back to Charlottesville. And lastly, I’m interested in activism and making changes. I’m currently working on the right to neutrality, which is basically internet freedom.

A&E: Is there anything you’d like to add?

LC: Yes! Tell everyone that even if I sound boring in this interview, the show will be fun and David Swanson, an anti-war activist and Charlottesville native, will open. It’s going to be a great night.

Lee Camp will perform at Main Street Annex Feb. 21 at 7:00 p.m. edia

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things that aren’t really spoken about in the media — things I think are important.

My favorite moment was from two weeks ago when I interviewed Green Party member Jill Stein, who’s launching an exploratory [presidential] campaign. It was really cool to have her on the show because she was the first presidential candidate on the show.

A&E: What's next for you?

LC: The show [Redacted Tonight] is what’s next for me. The show is my dream. I get to write and host and produce a news comedy show that I think is important and I want to work

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The Cavalier Daily

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