Monday, March 24, 2014

Monday, March 24, 2014

Vol. 124, Issue 49

Honor, UJC pick Exec.

Committees College Representative Hine defeats Hopkinson, Lee; wins Honor Chair position Joseph Liss News Editor

HOW SWEET IT IS Men’s Lacrosse Recap PAGE 3

Women’s Swimming PAGE 4

Cavaliers tame Tigers, advance to Madison Square Garden Zack Bartee Sports Editor

RALEIGH, N.C. — In the final minutes of Virginia’s victory against No. 8 seed Memphis, "Sweet 16" chants filled the stadium. The 78-60 effort earned the top-seeded Cavaliers a trip to Madison Square Garden — their eighth Sweet 16 appearance in program history and first since 1995.

Five Cavaliers scored in double figures, as senior guard Joe Harris led the team with 16 points and redshirt sophomore forward Anthony Gill contributed 13 points and a team-best eight rebounds.

“It gives us a lot of confidence to beat a team like that by the margin we did,” redshirt sophomore guard Malcolm Brogdon said. Brogdon added 10 points and tied sopho-

Batten Graduate Council PAGE 5

more guard Justin Anderson with a team-high four assists.

Facing a group of Memphis senior guards touted for their speed and athleticism, freshman point guard London Perrantes continued his heady play. Perrantes dished two assists and did not turn the ball over for the second consecutive game.

“Actually, I think it’s fairly easy for him because he plays with … so many solid guys that don’t make a lot of mistakes,” senior guard Joe Jackson said. “He just runs his sets and takes what the defense gives him. … They just wait until you make a mistake, and then they do what they do.”

Freshman forward Austin Nichols led Memphis with 15 points, while Jackson, the team’s leadingscorer, managed just seven points.

see M Basketball, page 2 Medicaid Rally PAGE 6

The incoming Honor Committee elected third-year College student Nicholas Hine as its chair Saturday. The Committee also elected second-year College student Martese Johnson, third-year Commerce student Joe Martin and third-year College students Nick Lee and Henley Hopkinson as vice-chairs. All but Hopkinson ran in contested elections.

Hine, who defeated Lee and Hopkinson in the race for chair, said he hoped the Committee would focus on disproportionate reporting of minority students,

see HONOR, page 5 Judiciary fails to fill firstyear vice-chair position, selects Kimble as Chair The incoming University Judiciary Committee selected thirdyear College student Timothy Kimble as Chair, second-year Law student Sam Brickfield as vicechair for sanctions and third-year Batten student Shanice Hardy as vice-chair for trials Sunday night.

The Committee did not fill the vice-chair for first-years position.

Kimble said he was not concerned about the inability to fill the third vice-chair role and thought the uncontested chair race reflected the inexperience of many Committee members.

see UJC, page 5 Student Self-Governance PAGE 7

S

sports Continued from page1 Gill, senior forward Akil Mitchell and sophomore center Mike Tobey combined to hold sophomore forward Shaq Goodwin, the Tigers’ second-leading scorer, to seven points as well.

Memphis jumped out to a 4-0 lead before Tobey put the Cavaliers on the board with a jumper from the foul line. The game was closely contested for the first 10 minutes, with

The Cavalier Daily

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M Basketball First Sweet Sixteen for team since 1995 neither team leading by more than four points.

But with 10:15 to play in the half, Harris ignited a 20-6 Cavalier run to end the half when he drove the baseline and laid the ball in — the first of six consecutive Virginia baskets.

“I think we got the game at our pace,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “We were shaky early, but once we got back in transition defense and made Memphis play against the set defense we were good. We were patient offensively and screened them, and kind of wore them down it looked like.”

Following a Tobey jumper, Harris scored again in the paint and knocked down a 3-pointer, which Perrantes followed up with one of his own. After missing his first

two attempts, Perrantes’ 3-pointer pushed the Virginia lead to 27-18 and sent the primarily Virginia crowd into a fever pitch.

“Everyone can talk about how good [the Cavaliers] are defensively, I actually disagree with everyone,” Memphis coach Josh Pastner said.

“I believe the reason they're so good is because of their offense, because I think that sets up their defense. If you don't guard their offense, they move as well without the ball as any team in the country, they set great screens and those three starting perimeter guys can all shoot the ball.”

Anderson scored a pair of buckets in the final two minutes of the half and Gill tipped in a Harris miss with three seconds to play, capping the run and staking the Cavaliers to

a 35-20 first-half lead.

Virginia shot 56.0 percent from the field in the first half while stifling their opponent on the other end, holding the Tigers to their lowest first-half total this season. Memphis shot just 26.7 percent in the opening period, including 1-of-9 from longrange.

The Cavaliers missed their first two shots out of the break, but would make nine of their next 10 to push their lead to 59-38 with 11:17 remaining.

It was clearly Virginia’s night, as even Tobey sank a 3-pointer with 3:43 before the final buzzer to give his team a 73-47 lead. Tobey was 0-for-2 from beyond the arc this season entering Sunday’s game.

“I mean, I knew that was money

from the start,” Tobey said, jokingly.

“I knew if I missed that, I was coming right out, but I just wanted to shoot a 3.”

Sophomore forward Evan Nolte unleashed his “sneaky bounce,” as Tobey calls it, punctuating the night with a tomahawk dunk, assisted by a no-look pass in transition from Anderson.

Virginia will face No. 4 seed Michigan State Friday in New York City’s famed Madison Square Garden. Tip-off is scheduled for 9:57 p.m.

“It’s a great feeling,” Brogdon said. “We tried to get [to Madison Square Garden] twice last year and we couldn’t do it. It’s huge to get there, we call it rarified air. Only 16 teams get there, it’s a privilege.”

Cavs beat North Carolina, Duke

Marshall Bronfin | The Cavalier Daily

The pair of senior Justin Shane and freshman Thai-Son Kwiatkowski clinched the doubles point for the Cavaliers against North Carolina, defeating freshmen Ronnie Schneider and Jack Murray 8-7(4).

The No. 7 Virginia men’s tennis team traveled to North Carolina this weekend for a pair of ACC matches, handily defeating No. 6 North Carolina 7-0 and No. 13 Duke 5-1.

The Cavaliers (12-2, 4-0 ACC) faced the Tar Heels (15-3, 2-1 ACC) Friday afternoon in a clash of top-10 foes. Virginia took a 1-0 lead from the doubles portion with wins on two of three courts. Senior Justin Shane and freshman ThaiSon Kwiatkowski together clinched an 8-7(4) win after the teams split the first two matches.

In singles play, No. 6 junior Mitchell Frank, No. 33 senior Alex Domijan, No. 123 Kwiatkowski and freshman J.C. Aragone each won in

straight sets, putting the Cavaliers up 5-0 and guaranteeing the win.

Justin Shane and his brother, No. 45 sophomore Ryan Shane, followed with victories in three sets against North Carolina junior Oystein Steiro and No. 51 sophomore Brett Clark, respectively, to complete the shutout. This was only the second time the Tar Heels have been held without a point in a match in the last two seasons — both times against the Cavaliers.

Virginia returned to the court two days later against Duke (10-5, 2-1 ACC), a matchup of the conference’s best two teams in recent years. As part of the USTA College Match Day series, the singles portion was held first with doubles

only to follow if the teams were tied.

Two-set wins by Domijan, Ryan Shane and Aragone put the Cavaliers on the verge of victory with a 3-0 lead. Blue Devil sophomore Josh Levine kept Duke’s hope alive with a 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 win against Justin Shane, but Frank and Kwiatkowski ensured Virginia’s sevenyear undefeated streak in the ACC — now standing at 111 matches in a row — would survive with wins on the second and fourth courts.

The Cavaliers return home next weekend for a trio of matches against Miami, Florida State and William & Mary.

—compiled by Krishna Korupolu

Women swimmers claim 11th place at NCAA Championships Virginia achieves highest finish since 2010 in first season under head coach Augie Busch, All-American honors go to four freshmen, one sophomore The Virginia women’s swim team concluded a successful season under first year coach Augie Busch with an 11th place finish, earning 123 points at the NCAA Championships this past weekend on the backs of some stellar underclassmen performances.

In three days of competition, Virginia broke four school records and earned three All-American honors as well as four honorable mention All-American accolades.

It was the Cavaliers’ best finish at the meet since placing ninth in 2010. For the second straight year, Georgia was crowned national champions.

Two freshman and two relay teams highlighted Thursday. In the

500-yard freestyle, freshman Leah Smith finished ninth to set the school and conference record with a time of 4:33.75. Fellow freshman Kaitlyn Jones placed 10th in the 200-yard individual medley, and both earned honorable mention All-American honors. In preliminaries, the 200-yard freestyle relay and the 400-yard medley relay teams broke school records with times of 1:28.97 and 3:29.42, respectively.

On Friday, sophomore Courtney Bartholomew was named an All-American for her fifth place finish in the 100-yard backstroke.

Virginia again found success on relays, with the 800-yard freestyle relay placing fifth and the 200-yard

medley relay placing seventh.

Two Cavaliers won bronze medals and All-American accolades for their efforts. Smith finished third in the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 15:42.04, breaking her previous school record by six seconds. Bartholomew finished third in the 200yard backstroke in 1:51.84. Both freshman Laura Simon, who placed 11th in the 200-yard breaststroke, and sophomore Hanne Borgersen, who placed 16th in the 1,650-yard freestyle, earned honorable mentions for the All-American teams.

The men’s swimming and diving NCAA championships begin Thursday and run through Saturday in Austin, Tex. --compiled by Robert Elder

Ryan O’Connor | The Cavalier Daily

Freshman Leah Smith broke two school records in her two top-10 finishes in Minneapolis. She placed ninth in the 500-yard freestyle, then third in the 1,650-yard freestyle two days later.

SPORTS

Monday, March 24, 2014

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Cavaliers top rival Blue Jays in overtime, 11-10 Men’s lacrosse earns 600th win in program history, Doyle Smith Cup returns to Charlottesville in first win against Johns Hopkins since 2010 Ryan Taylor

Senior Associate Editor

The 10th-ranked Virginia men’s lacrosse team snapped its two game losing streak Saturday, defeating No. 11 Johns Hopkins. The Cavaliers trailed the Blue Jays for the majority of the second half, but were able to force overtime thanks in large part to a brilliant performance by freshman goalkeeper Matt Barrett, who made 16 saves.

Both teams were coming off their first losses of the season. The Cavaliers (7-2, 1-1 ACC) fell in back to back games against ranked opponents — including a 18-9 loss to conference foe Notre Dame — and Hopkins (5-2) narrowly fell to Syracuse a week ago.

“This was a great turn around win,” sophomore midfielder Greg Coholan said. “We’ve been battling the last two weeks, working hard in practice, working on the little things like groundballs, which showed today.”

Virginia started strong, scoring the game’s first three goals. However, Johns Hopkins offense settled down half way through the first quarter and started to put pressure on the Cavalier defense. Momentum fully shifted in favor of the Blue Jays when sophomore attackman James Pannell committed an illegal body check that put the Cavaliers a mandown for a full two minutes, leading to two Johns Hopkins goals and a tie game at 4-4.

Pannell made up for his mistake early in the second quarter when Johns Hopkins was penalized for a slash. The sophomore wasted little time giving the Cavaliers the lead, as he fired a rocket that beat the goaltender under his stick. The lead would be short lived, however, as the Blue Jays quickly responded to even the score.

The rest of the half followed this trend as well: Virginia would take the lead only to have Hopkins even the score seconds later. In the final minute however, the Blue Jays took control when they were awarded a questionable extra man opportunity, scoring with 40 seconds left in the half to take their first lead.

“Hopkins is a good team, so I certainly thought before the game it was going to be a tight game the whole way through,” coach Dom Starsia said.

Sophomore attackman Ryan Brown — Hopkins’ leading scorer — rifled a shot through traffic at the 13:32 mark to push the lead to two. But Virginia’s leading scorer, senior attackman Mark Cockerton, answered Brown’s goal with a strike of his own less than a minute later.

The tide began to shift back to Virginia’s favor with just less than 10 minutes remaining in the third quarter. Senior midfielder Bobby Hill perfectly executed a stick check to gain possession, and flicked the ball to senior defenseman Scott McWilliams who charged down the field and found Pannell wide open to bring the score to 9-8. The goal energized a packed Klöckner Stadium and gave life to the Virginia comeback bid: the defense stopped allowing quality chances and when the Blue Jays were able to get a shot off, Barrett made sure to cover the entire net.

At the start of the fourth quarter, the Blue Jays began a slow, deliberate attack on the Cavalier defense to keep the ball out of the sticks of Virginia’s dangerous offense. For the first five minutes of the period, the strategy paid dividends, and Hopkins was able to stretch the lead to two again and Virginia couldn’t get anything going on attack.

“When we were down two in the second half there, I thought we were always battling and I give a lot

of credit to our guys for that,” Starsia said.

However, with eight minutes remaining, Cockerton fought hard for a ground ball that freed up freshman attackman Ryan Lukacovic for an easy goal. Just three minutes later, Pannell made a pivotal defensive play, forcing a Hopkins midfielder out of bounds to give Virginia the ball. On the ensuing possession, Lukacovic took the ball from behind the goal and swiftly turned around and flicked home the tying goal.

“I knew that if he got to come in, he would make an impact,” Barrett said. “It was awesome to see him get the first one, but for him to get two … it was just awesome.”

With the score knotted at 10, the Cavaliers took a page out of the Hopkins' playbook and initiated a calculated attack on the Blue Jay goal. Though the strategy did produce a couple of quality scoring

chances, Hopkins senior goaltender Eric Schneider continued his stellar play and stonewalled Cockerton and company.

Barrett was forced to be equally effective, and he stood up to the challenge by making a beautiful stick save with just over a minute remaining. The Blue Jays retained possession with 55 seconds left and called a timeout to draw up a play.

The staunch Cavalier defense immediately forced a turnover to give Virginia a chance to win, but the team was unable to convert and and the lone shot went far wide of the goal.

“I just tried to focus a little more in practice this week,” Barrett said.

“Our defense played really well, kept the shots out far, so I do have to give it to the defense.”

Virginia won the overtime faceoff and immediately seized a quality chance to end the game. Junior midfielder Ryan Tucker let off a laser

of a shot that easily beat Schneider and caused Klöckner to erupt. Unfortunately, the cheers drowned the sound of the referee’s whistle out, and the goal was washed out because of an offside call.

On the other end, the Cavalier defense stood tall and took the ball away to allow Virginia another opportunity to win the game, this time not squandering the opportunity.

With just more than a minute remaining, Coholan found himself open and unleashed a hard underhand shot that ended the game.

“I got the ball behind and went hard to my right and hit the brakes coming up the side," Coholan said.

"No one came to me so I saw the open shot and took it.”

Virginia is back in action Monday when they take on VMI. Faceoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Klöckner Stadium.

Marshall Bronfin | The Cavalier Daily

Freshman goalkeeper Matt Barrett tied his career high of 16 saves in the win against Johns Hopkins, rebounding from allowing 18 goals against Notre Dame.

Sulzer named All-American at NCAAs

Emily Gorham| The Cavalier Daily

Junior Nick Sulzer finished in fourth place at the 165 pound weight class, earning All-American honors for the second year in a row. He was the only Virginia wrestler to advance past the opening session.

No. 12 Virginia wrestling competed at the NCAA Championships in Oklahoma City during the weekend. At the conclusion of the three day tournament, the Cavaliers (18-3, 5-1 ACC) stood in a tie with Old Dominion for 23rd place with 18.5 points.

Junior Nick Sulzer played a star role, finishing in fourth place and claiming All-American honors for the second consecutive year. Sulzer is only the second multiple-time All-American in Virginia history — Chris Henrich was a three-time All-American.

Sulzer cruised into a quarter-

final matchup against No. 11 seed junior Turtogtokh Luvsandorj of the Citadel. The match was decided by a razor thin margin, with Sulzer requiring an overtime period to clinch a 4-3 victory.

The win earned Sulzer a rematch with Oklahoma State senior Tyler Caldwell, the 2nd seed. Caldwell — having already defeated Sulzer once this season — bumped the wrestler from Virginia into the consolation bracket with a 5-0 decision.

Sulzer reached the third-place final with a 13-1 major decision victory against junior Michael

Moreno of Iowa State. North Dakota State senior Stephen Monk got the best of Sulzer and pinned him in the second period to claim third place.

No other Cavalier wrestler made it past the first session. Junior Joe Spisak and senior Jon Fausey were both eliminated on the first day after going 0-2. The remaining wrestlers advanced into the consolation bracket before they were handed an eliminating loss.

—compiled by Matthew Wurzburger

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faculty resistance to honor system participation and student ambivalence with the system.

“My goal of the year is to make significant headway in tackling

news

Continued from page 1

these three problems,” Hine said.

“But I think that the last committee has set us up really well. … The internal structure of the Committee is very strong.”

Hine is the third consecutive Honor Committee chair who is a white, male third-year College student and member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. Hine said he plans to lean heavily on the rest of the Committee and the more diverse support officer pool to represent views across the University.

“I am not the Honor Committee,” Hine said. “I can only hope to represent the Committee itself, and then the Committee

Martese Johnson

Vice-Chair for Community Relations

The Cavalier Daily

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HONOR Johnson, Martin aim to improve outreach is definitely charged with representing the student body as a whole … and we definitely don’t do a good job with that.”

Lee, incoming vice-chair for trials, said he shares the concerns of his predecessor Conor O’Boyle, a fourth-year College student, about inconsistent jury verdicts. Lee worked with O’Boyle to create a new jury training curriculum during the Committee’s past term and said he wants to see jury deliberations in practice before he recommends any further changes.

Both Lee and Hine said the Committee could not make any changes to its bylaws and constitution without substantial support from the student body. Hine said the outgoing Committee is hosting an “Honor Congress,” where groups of students will discuss issues within the honor system and potential solutions for these more fundamental concerns.

“This event grew out of this

Joe Martin Vice-Chair for Education

idea that we need to work with students to fix the problems with Honor,” Hine said. “If something is going to require student-wide referenda … we believe that it has to come from the student body.”

Hopkinson said the entire Committee must confront the issue of disaffected faculty, especially since the University is experiencing a period of high faculty turnover. The Committee’s Faculty Advisory Committee is a largely self-selected, long-tenured group.

“The way we can actually make this system no longer the perception of a stuffy tradition … is by codifying new ways for the next generation of faculty to come in,” Hopkinson said.

Hopkinson, the incoming vice-chair for investigations, said he plans to alter the investigations process. Currently, the VCI delegates work on an uneven basis to support investigation coordinators. Hopkinson wants to

better-define and the investigation coordinator role.

“Oftentimes we’ll get no reports for a long period time [and then get a lot of reports],” Hopkinson said. “That’s when the investigation coordinators come in and distill it into a manageable set of things.”

Martin, the incoming vicechair for education, said the Committee wants to promote education efforts, but wants to ensure information the Committee absorbs outside feedback and information in addition to educating the larger student body. “[We want to] provide information, but also turn it into more of a discussion,” Martin said.

Both Martin and incoming vice-chair for community relations Johnson said the Committee needed to broaden the reach of its events.

“When you have an Honor week, you are specifically reaching students in the College, the Comm School, maybe a few oth-

er schools,” Martin said. “There are several student groups that are just not really connected to the honor system.”

Johnson said his current leadership positions with groups in the University’s minority communities will help him reach out to this broader audience. Johnson said the outgoing Committee’s support officer recruitment efforts showed the potential effects of sustained outreach.

“Before the average number of interviewers was 150 and just from that one outreach, it doubled to 300,” Johnson said.

Johnson said he also wants to encourage conversations between faculty members, who report most honor offenses, and students who must confront the honor system.

“We’ll have [faculty members] not lecture the students, but actually hold a valuable conversation,” Johnson said. “That really portrays the seriousness of honor.”

Nick Lee Vice-Chair for Trials

Henley Hopkinson Vice-Chair for Investigations

Nicholas Hine Chair Marshall Bronfin | The Cavalier Daily

The Committee elected second-year College student Martese Johnson, third-year Commerce student Joe Martin and third-year College students Nick Lee, Henley Hopkinson and Nicholas Hine, above left to right.

UJC Brickfield to expand community service sanction partnerships Continued from page 1 “I know that the incoming Committee has a lot of new representatives on it,” Kimble said. “I happen to be one of those people who was more experienced.”

Outgoing UJC Chair David Ensey, a fourth-year Engineering student, said the Committee did not need to fill the first-year vicechair position until the fall.

Brickfield said many current support officers were comfortable in their support officer role and did not want to transfer to the judge position. “[Support officers] got involved to do that specific purpose,” Brickfield said. “You have to be the one who tells students there are consequences for your actions.”

Ensey said the University Board

of Elections did not provide good information about how to run for UJC positions, and UJC should have also encouraged more people to run in order to avoid empty positions.

“The filling of the first-year vice-chair position is something that sprung from the low number of committee positions that were filled out of the UBE election cycle,” Ensey said. “I think this year we did not engage the schools as effectively as we could have in educating on what it means to be a UJC member.”

Kimble said the incoming Committee was still working to solidify its agenda, but that he hoped to encourage additional outreach.

Kimble currently serves as UJC’s senior educator.

“I always think that better interacting with the student body

is something that we will always be able to work on,” Kimble said.

“That could mean having mock trials at graduate schools, that could mean partnering with different organizations whose missions overlap with UJC’s.”

Brickfield said he hoped to ex-

Shanice Hardy Vice-Chair for Trials

pand the community service organizations UJC partners with when it gives out sanctions, since some of the current groups require particularly punitive service.

“Maybe looking at some community service for students who have done something wrong and

are pretty aware of it … but maybe they can get something positive out of it for themselves,” Brickfield said.

Hardy said she preferred not to discuss her goals for the coming term.

Timothy Kimble Chair

Sam Brickfield Vice-Chair for Sanctions Marshall Bronfin | The Cavalier Daily

The UJC selected third-year Batten student Shanice Hardy, third-year College student Timothy Kimble and second-year Law student Sam Brickfield.

NEWS

Monday, March 24, 2014

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Study finds transfer credits predict student success Attewell, Monaghan say ‘empty’ credits cause concern, University students, administrators say articulation agreements ease transfer process Sarah Hainbach Senior Writer

Studies have shown students who begin at community college before transferring to four-year colleges or universities are less likely to earn a bachelor’s degree than their peers who begin their undergraduate educations at four-year institutions. Research published last Tuesday by City University of New York scholars Paul Attewell and David B. Monaghan pinpoints the process of transferring credits as contributing to this discrepancy.

Attewell, a professor at the CUNY Graduate Center, and Monaghan, a sociology doctoral candidate, conducted the study, which was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in response to the increasing number of students starting at community colleges rather than four-year schools.

Community colleges are attractive to students because they are often cheaper and more convenient, Attewell said. “They are a way to try out college for students who weren’t academically strong in high school,” he said.

But only about 25 percent of students who start at a community college obtain a bachelor's degree in six years. This is a much lower proportion than the 46 percent of students who start at four-year colleges. Attewell and Monaghan conducted their study to find out why

this disparity exists.

Transferring to the University University students and administrators described a transfer experience which deviates from the norm suggested in the study. Dean of Transfer Students Frank Papovich and several transfer students said the articulation agreement between the Virginia Community College System and U.Va. is helpful in ensuring students' academic credits transfer successfully.

According to its website, the University grants transfer credit based on several factors, including applicability of the courses to fulfilling degree requirements of the student’s intended major and accreditation of the institution at which the work was completed.

Alumna Rachel Boag transferred to the University from Lord Fairfax Community College in Middletown, Virginia. She said no one she knew from her community college had any difficulty transferring their credits to the University.

“The articulation agreement between the Virginia Community College System and U.Va. seems very well organized and really facilitates credit transfers,” Boag said in an email. “In my experience usually all the credits transfer as something, though not always as credit towards a major or minor.”Attewell and Monaghan also identified “empty” credits, which count toward graduation but not the requirements students

need to fulfill, as another problem with the transfer process.

Third-year student Ben Colallilo came to the University as a second year from Trinity College in Connecticut. Colallilo said about half of his credits are “just there,” because classes which fulfilled Trinity’s requirements did not fulfill University requirements.

“Since I didn’t know exactly what I was doing from day one, I wasn’t able to double major or minor,” Collalilo said.

Having a specific plan seems to help transfer students achieve their academic goals. Third-year College student Ruoxi Cao transferred from James Madison University after her first year of college.

“Some people really take advantage [of opportunities],” Cao said. “The entire transfer experience depends on the individual.”

Shraddha Prasad, assistant director of the University’s Orientation and New Student Programs, is the faculty leader for Transfer Student Peer Advising.

“Many [transfer students] are really motivated from the get-go," she said. "They’re ready when they get here to take on the challenge."

But Prasad acknowledged some things are more difficult for transfer students. Some selective programs, such as the Commerce School, are difficult for students to transfer into because of the prerequisites.

Second-year Pete Hanner transferred to the University from the University of North Carolina.

He said his transfer process was inconvenient, but not impossible.

“My credits were relatively easy to transfer,” Hanner said in an email. “I feel that is largely due to Virginia and North Carolina being similarly structured schools.”

Though their study emphasized problems with the transfer of credit process, Attewell and Monaghan said the transfer process in general is problematic.

“About half of students who get a BA nowadays do not graduate where they began [school],” Atwell said. He said colleges and universities should adjust their transfer

policies to accommodate this new reality.

Boag said transferring can be difficult whether or not students’ credits transfer easily.

“As a transfer student you’re thrust into a situation where your peers are already comfortable in their routines and you have to break into that environment,” Boag said. “Expectations are higher for you than for a first year because you’re a second or third year in terms of your academic status, but you’re very much a first year in knowing the ins and outs of University academic and social life.”

Will Brumas | The Cavalier Daily

Admissions officers in Peabody Hall, above, determine admissions decisions for transfer students. A new study finds credit decisions, made at the different schools, play a large role in student success.

Wallace, Fu seek Batten Graduate Council presidency Fu seeks to transform Council, increase transparency, Wallace to improve alumni relations, Narayan, Foley run for Treasurer position Meg Gardner Associate Editor

Eight candidates have kicked off their campaigns for Batten Graduate Council positions this week.

Responsibilities of the Council include planning and organizing events to promote student life at the Batten School as well as determining which students will receive funding for professional development.

The candidates for Batten Council President are fourth-year College student Alex Wallace and third-year College student Yuhuan Fu. “We decide which events are best for community development and professional development,” said Wallace, the current represen-

tative for the Accelerated Master of Public Policy 2015 class. “We also approve funding for professional development applications, which is a program where any Batten student can apply to go to any professional event around the world, such as a conference.”

Wallace said he hopes to focus on improving Council’s alumni relations, large-scale events and volunteer programs.

“A lot of Batten students volunteer, but there’s not really a central program,” he said. “I would like to work on that.”

Fu said he wants to promote new goals such as increasing Council transparency and promoting events to increase Batten’s presence in the community.

“A more transparent council will feature public monthly expenditures, so students know exactly

where our money is going, and a calendar of open meetings will offer students the chance to sit in on Council meetings and voice their opinions,” Fu said in an email. “Finally, new events, including Batten Paintballing with proceeds going to the Wounded Warriors Project and a Pink Ribbon Casino Night with proceeds going to Relay for Life will both increase our presence in the community, and unity towards a common purpose.”

In addition, Fu would like to increase student participation in curriculum decisions within Batten, emphasizing students can have a huge effect in shaping the school’s history.

“Batten is still a very young school, and there are vast opportunities for students to shape its development,” Fu said. “Moving forward, it is my hope to get our

students to be vocal in the development of our curriculum.”

First-year Batten Graduate student Shilpa Narayan, one of two candidates for Batten School treasurer, also said she hoped to create more programs for Batten students both within the school itself and within the community.

First-year Batten graduate student Chris Foley did not return requests for comment.

“Batten Council is responsible for the whole Batten community,” Narayan said. “I really want to raise more funds, which would give me the opportunity to have more programs, and then more students could participate in these programs and benefit from them.”

Narayan would also like to improve the Batten School by providing more programs for international students.

“We don’t have many programs [for international students]. … Batten Council can do more,” Narayan said. “I think we need to have some programs or information sessions or maybe a club that can educate them about U.Va. and Charlottesville in general.”

Batten Council is one of the few graduate programs which decided not to hold elections through the University Board of Elections this year. Current President Alex Dumitriu said the election change was mainly related to timing, and will not have a huge effect on the Council election process.

“This year our timeline doesn’t really seem to match U.Va.’s timeline for elections, so we just decided to have our own elections,” Dumitriu said. “The only effect it has is it’s just slightly more extended, but nothing more than that.”

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NEWS

The Cavalier Daily

State appoints Route 29 commission, rejects bypass option

Lacking Federal Highway Administration funding causes Virginia Department of Transportation unease, former VDOT Administrator Schucet says Leopold Spohngellert Senior Associate Editor

The $200 million plan to create the Western Bypass on Route 29 through Charlottesville has been shelved, said Philip Shucet, incoming chair of the Route 29 Advisory Panel.

The Federal Highway Administration said the project had not met the criteria necessary for environmental approvals in a February letter to the Virginia Department of Transportation, causing VDOT to question whether the bypass would ultimately be workable.

“If the bypass was to continue then, VDOT would basically have to start over with the environmental approvals process,” Shucet, a former VDOT chairman, said.

With the long-discussed bypass tabled, VDOT has assembled a 10-person advisory panel to create a new proposal which will address severe congestion on the 29th corridor in Charlottesville.

Shucet will lead the panel of rep-

resentatives from interested parties on the local, state and national level.

“It’s a collection of interests, and the collaboration between them can lead to solutions,” Shucet said.

The panel must also consider how their proposal would affect the local businesses, many of which profit off of traffic on the 29th corridor.

“Traffic that travels from one end of the 29th corridor in Charlottesville to the other represents about 15 percent of the total traffic,” Shucet said. “We’ve got to think about ways to take that 15 percent accrued traffic out of the mix of local traffic, move it through the corridor in a way that does not disrupt local traffic’s ability to access all of the commercial and business interests.”

Though a bypass is no longer being considered, the panel will have years of research and studies at their disposal as they examine how to best move forward. Still, there is concern the panel will not

be able to find a comprehensive solution which stays under budget in such little time.

“We want to act quickly,” Shucet said. “While it’s certainly

tight and will require a lot of work, I’m confident that we can come up with some reasonable concepts that make things better in the 29th corridor.”

The panel will present its proposal to VDOT May 14. A new plan would need to be approved by both VDOT and the Federal Highway Administration.

Marshall Bronfin | The Cavalier Daily

The Virginia Department of Transportation appointed a 10-member advisory panel to consider changes to Route 29, above, near Charlottesville.

Virginia Organizing holds Medicaid expansion rally Republicans demand clean budget passage to help localities, Democrats, McAuliffe seek low-income health insurance program growth Kaelyn Quinn Associate Editor

Virginia Organizing, a liberal advocacy group, held a rally in nearby Waynesboro Friday encouraging the Virginia state legislature to pass a large expansion of the Medicaid program.

The Virginia General Assembly

adjourned March 8 and has yet to pass the coming year’s budget, polarized over the issue of Medicaid expansion. Republicans want to consider Medicaid expansion as a separate issue, but Democrats want the expansion included in the general budget.

The 2010 Affordable Care Act required states to expand Medicaid, a health insurance program

for low-income individuals. But a Supreme Court ruling in 2012 gave states the choice on whether to expand Medicaid, and Virginia has, thus far, chosen not to do so.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe, however, campaigned on expanding Medicaid and has been vocal about his desire to do so since his election to office.

Virginia Democratic Party

Isabel Castillo | The Cavalier Daily

Virginia Organizing held a rally in nearby Waynesboro, Virginia to encourage the Virginia state legislature to vote for Medicaid expansion.

spokesperson Ashley Bauman said the Democrats’ demand is in line with Republican policy. “[A] Republican Governor put Medicaid expansion in the budget,” she said.

House Republican spokesperson Matthew Moran said Medicaid and the state budget are independent debates. “[Medicaid expansion] doesn’t belong in the budget. … Let’s get stability and then debate medicaid expansion in a separate section,” he said. “Our first priority is funding the state government.”

The General Assembly has been in stalemate since March 8. Moran said the gridlock causes a “tremendous amount of uncertainty” for state institutions, including the University, since they need to know the state budget before they can make their own funding decisions.

Elizabeth La Grua, a member of Virginia Organizing, said Medicaid expansion would not negatively affect the state’s budget since citizens would not have to pay for any of it until 2016. The federal government has already agreed to pay for the expansion for the first two years, she said.

“In that way, it doesn’t really have to be part of our budget at all," she said. "That’s a false idea.”

La Grua said the focus should

be on the 400,000 Virginians who fall into in what she calls “a coverage gap,” and do not currently qualify for Medicaid but would under the expansion. Many adults making less than the federal poverty line, especially those without children, are required to buy health insurance under the ACA but receive no federal subsidy to do so.

“Legislators have got to start thinking about being compassionate and taking care of these people,” La Grua said.

After two years of full funding, the federal government will phase down its contribution to 90 percent of Virginia’s Medicaid expansion cost. The government would pay $2 billion a year to the state, with Virginia paying the remaining ten percent, about $200 million, Moran said. Moran said he doubts the government would follow through on this promise.

“These are the same people that promised you can keep your doctor and your health care,” he said.

Moran maintained no expansion of Medicaid, which he called “a broken system,” should take place until the state legislature passes other reforms.

“You wouldn’t put 400,000 thousand people on a sinking ship, would you?” he said.

F

focus

Monday, March 24, 2014

THE

Farrar Pace Staff Writer

CHANGING FACE OF

Voter turnout, competitive elections decrease, CIO pluralism increases

LOW According to the University

VOTER TURN-OUT

in SPRING 2013

16.26 - 24.77 percent

OF ELIGIBLE VOTERS PARTICIPATED

in spring 2014 elections for the major positions of Student Council President, Honor Committee representatives and UJC representatives

Versus the 61.8% VOTERS in the 2012 Presidential election

as according to the U.S. Census Bureau

In fall 2010, the Gooch-Dillard residence area had a problem: the UTS bus schedule was a mess. One frustrated student posted his concerns on SpeakUpUVA.com, a website run by Student Council that lists student-generated proposals to change University policies, and sent his proposed solution around on the Gooch-Dillard listserv to encourage people to vote for his idea. As the idea quickly became the top post on the website for that month, UTS subsequently implemented a new, more efficient bus schedule for the Gooch-Dillard area.

That student was fourth-year College student Eric McDaniel, the outgoing president of Student Council.

Student self-governance is a storied University ideal that is traditionally traced back Thomas Jefferson's goal to educate an effective citizenry. For today’s administrators, faculty and students at the University, it is an integral part of daily life.

Patricia Lampkin, vice president and chief student affairs officer, said that navigating student self-governance is as much a part of the University as academics.

“Students are here to gain an education, and what occurs outside the classroom can be equally as important as what is learned inside the classroom,” Lampkin said.

Incoming Student Council President Jalen Ross, a third-year Engineering student, described student organizations in college as an effective bridge between the dependence of high school and the complete independence of the post-graduate working world.

“The best possible way to make that transition is to have [a] a system where you are allowed to fail, to make mistakes,” Ross said.

Lampkin echoed the benefits of giving students the possibility both to succeed and fail.

“If [students] don’t make good choices, which sometimes they don’t, I know that those poor choices and mistakes can be powerful learning experiences that lead to fuller character development and a clarification of personal values,” Lampkin said.

Statistics on voter participation in recent university-wide elections may belie this image of student interest in the system. According to the University Board of Elections, itself a student-run organization, spring 2014 elections for the major student government positions brought shockingly low participation rates, with 16.26 to 24.77 percent of eligible voter turnout. By contrast, the voter turnout for the 2012 national presidential election was 61.8 percent according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Ross says low voter turnout is a warning sign for future problems within student-self governance.

“That number is too low,” Ross said, “When national elections are doing better than [we] are … then that’s symptomatic of a problem.”

Krishna Korupolu, University Board of Elections chair and second-year Commerce student, said past data supports this ongoing problem.

“Overall, there has been a decline in voter turnout in recent years,” Korupolu said in an email, citing a “lack of competitive elections” as the reason for this decline.

Ross won one of several uncontested races this year. Others included Student Council vice president for organizations, the Second Year Council president, Second Year Council vicepresident, Fourth Year president, every College Council position, among many others.

Korupolu said UBE has considered install-

ing new polling stations and promoting events to encourage voting in future elections. Both Korupolu and Ross said student awareness is the real problem — organizations need to take it upon themselves to advertise available positions.

Still, they agreed concern about low voter turnout and uncontested elections may be excessive. “[It’s] facile to look at student self-governance as election [participation]," McDaniel said. "[It] is a really one-dimensional and sort of platitudinous way to think about what it means to be a student leader at the University.”

McDaniel pointed to the growth of smaller student groups at the University as a testament to the health of student self-governance. There are more than 700 active student organizations on Grounds, which translates to an active and independent organization for approximately every 20 undergraduate students. “[Contracted independent organizations] are some of the best examples of pure student self-governance,” Ross said. “A vast majority don’t involve [administration].”Ross also said that even the process by which CIOs are created and obtain funding — through Student Council — is completely student run.

Support for student self-governance also runs deep in administrative offices.

“Students are the lifeblood of the University, and I look to support them and advocate for them in every way possible,” Lampkin said.

Lampkin encapsulates the conflicting demands of a University administrator: balancing the demands of the cherished tradition of student self-governance with the need for administrative oversight.

Lampkin serves as a “guide or advisor” for Honor and UJC decisions, with even the power to demand a review or retrial of a UJC case, but in neither case is she able to directly “reverse or modify a decision.”

"I have rarely exercised these review options," Lampkin said. "I have found that the Honor and Judiciary Committees understand their huge responsibilities and make fair and well-thought-out decisions."

Ross said student self-governance must be vigilantly guarded.

"If we are not careful … there are ways it can slip away from us," he said. "There are things at the end of the day that we don’t have the expertise to run, [but] it is very easy for an administrator to say … this issue is too important to leave to student self-governance.”

McDaniel again pointed to the large presence of smaller-scale student organizations as an important part of the evolution of student self-governance. He cited recent grassroots opposition to AccessUVa cuts as an example of the vitality of student governance.

“Students rallied behind the program … and said that financial access and equity… are very important values for students at U.Va.,” McDaniel said.

Because of fervent protests and campaigns, AccessUVa became of the University’s top three funding goals, attracting funds from a major donor. “[The future of student self-governance is] fundamentally pluralistic … no longer [dominated] by these big three organizations [Honor, UJC, and Student Council],” McDaniel said. “If you care about something … you will be listened to.”

Krishna Korupolu is a Cavalier Daily sports writer. He did not participate in the writing or editing of this article.

7

The Cavalier Daily

O

LEAD EDITORIAL

The lessons learned

opinion

Formalized policies regarding intoxication and consent should be established to prevent sexual assault

Comment of the day SAT and/or ACT scores should not be optional for college applicants, as the author suggests. It is extremely unfair to base college admission decisions on high school GPAs, as they are nearly impossible to compare.

While these standardized tests may not be perfect, they are a necessary metric to use in order to have a common benchmark for applicants.

The College Board’s effort to make more preparation material publicly available shows a real desire to close the socio-economic gap.

“Publius” responding to Gray Whisnant’s column “SATs still unfair” on March 19

A former naval midshipman was recently found not guilty of sexually assaulting a female midshipman. A military judge issued the verdict, and also decided the Naval Academy should internally handle the additional charge of lying to investigators. The student has resigned from the Naval Academy in exchange for the Academy dropping that lesser charge.

This case has raised questions about the nature of sexual assault at institutions of higher education. The judge who delivered the verdict identified such questions as, “how drunk is too drunk” and “how does one know when someone else is too drunk.” His verdict hinged upon the conclusion that the prosecutors did not meet their burden of proof.

Some are calling this case a failure of the justice system to punish a sexual offender. And that may be true. But part of the reason sexual assault cases

are difficult to prosecute is that sometimes there are not clear answers to the questions the judge in this case identified. In order to facilitate more positive legal outcomes for sexual assault victims in the future, and also to prevent future cases of sexual assault, we have to address the ambiguity of these questions and try to make their answers as clear as possible.

In previous editorials we have discussed the importance of prevention over punishment of sexual assault, and the need for an “ask first” consent policy in addressing the issue of rape on college campuses. Now, we examine the issue of how alcohol consumption and intoxication level fits into the issue of rape.

A woman is more likely to be assaulted on a college campus than any other location. Since alcohol is often involved in incidents of sexual assault, it is conceivable that the prevalence

of drinking in college is a factor in the high rate of sexual assault on college campuses. Legally, if a person is intoxicated, the person cannot consent to sex.

But to assert that any sexual encounter which occurs when either party has consumed any alcohol is rape would be too broad of a definition. Drinking can be a positive social activity when done responsibly. In laying ground rules of acceptable conduct, we must be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

There must be an explicit standard for what level of intoxication disqualifies a person from being able to consent. It is not reasonable to expect that before sex someone pulls out a breathalyzer. But it is reasonable to expect that both parties think before they act. Some arguments for our “ask first” consent policy model can apply here.

We argued that an “ask first” standard of consent is based on

the principle that no one should be presumed willing. Our vested interests should not be prioritized over respect for others’ personal autonomy. The same reasoning gives us cause not to presume someone is in a condition to consent to sex.

We also argued that we must have open conversations about sexual intimacy in order to eliminate ambiguities surrounding consent. The same process should be used to establish appropriate boundaries when it comes to sexual encounters which involve alcohol.

The most important principle to abide by is this: when in doubt, assume it’s a no. We need to formalize this mentality as the standard, rather than accepting a mentality that assumes a green light without confirming. That is the lesson we should take away from this case, to turn an unfortunate situation into tangible change for the future.

THE CAVALIER DAILY CAVALIER DAILY STAFF

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8

OPINION

Monday, March 24, 2014

9

Lend a helping hand CIOs should support the Student Access Initiative

ast August, in a decision that classmates, our leaders, our friends reflected the tone-deafness of — and you may not know who they the University administration, the are.

Board of Visitors voted to remodel Third-year College student AccessUVa, the UniOlivia Beavers proversity’s financial aid poses a student-based program. Changes that initiative in order to become operative in support current and the 2014-15 academic future AccessUVa reyear for incoming firstcipients through the years will eliminate AccessUVa program. grant-only offerings Her project, Stuand introduce loans dent Access Initiative into financial aid pack(SAI), aims to work ages for low-income with CIOs and student NAZAR ALJASSAR groups over the next students.

Opinion Columnist While the Board’s academic year to raise decision is consistent $3,500 from each parwith the University’s ticipating group, the “commitment to a need-blind ad- maximum yearly cost of a needmission,” cutting grant money based loan for low-income, in-state and encumbering AccessUVa re- undergraduates. All funds collectcipients with loans will certainly ed will be given to the AccessUVa deter prospective low-income stu- program and then redistributed to dents. What’s at stake here is the AccessUVa recipients anonymousUniversity’s socioeconomic diver- ly. The goal, while challenging, is sity. Students from lower income feasible given that fundraising will brackets carry unique experiences extend through most of next year. and perspectives that are valuable Additionally, smaller CIOs and stuto our community. They are our dent groups will be encouraged to

pool with other student groups in order to meet the $3,500 goal.

Although SAI will not be able to recompense students for all the

the rest of the University. Reporters and writers for The Cavalier Daily supported by AccessUVa may be able to present unique stories and opinions informed by their experiences. Organizations ranging from a cappella to service groups will lose potential members and leaders who are unable to asSAI provides an opportunity for CIOs and other the financial organizations to exercise student self-governance sume burden imposed by and effectuate change within the University student loans.

Fur t her more, community.”

SAI provides an opportunity for CIOs changes made by the Board, the and other organizations to exercise initiative has the potential to con- student self-governance and effectribute a significant amount of tuate change within the University money to the program. Each CIO community. Fundraising through and student group benefits from such groups also demonstrates the the participation of individuals importance of AccessUVa to the from lower income brackets. Hon- University’s students and adminisor, for example, may value the per- tration. spectives of support officers from Opponents of SAI may contend lower socioeconomic backgrounds that the initiative shifts discourse in conducting trials and educating away from policy and fails to ad-

“

L

dress the Board’s decision. It’s important to note that SAI is not an endorsement of the decision. Other organizations have aimed to reverse the Board’s vote and have reached a dead-end. SAI moves beyond stagnant policy discussion and aims to tackle the issue directly.

It’s also possible that SAI will encourage further policy discussion. If organizational support for SAI becomes widespread, then perhaps the policy issues will be brought to the awareness of each member in the community.

Beavers hopes to launch SAI on Founder’s Day in April. Each CIO and student group should participate in order to preserve socioeconomic diversity on Grounds, show solidarity with low-income students and fight to protect future talented members who may decline acceptance to the University to avoid the burden of loans.

Nazar is an opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. His columns run on Fridays.

Why we should study hip-hop

Studying hip-hop would be a fulfilling academic exercise for University students Viewpoint Writer

Mainstream academia and this University wrongly regard hip-hop as an area of popular culture that does not deserve formal study. If asked why classes focused exclusively on hip-hop are not regularly offered when thousands of students (myself included) devote their time and course credits to the study of now-obscure works of Arthurian legend or Gothic horror, I am confident the University administration would respond that hip-hop is not as intellectually fertile as the aforementioned areas of literature.

But I would respond that hip-hop, a young and growing artistic domain, asks penetrative questions concerning consumerism, the American Dream and structural inequalities in the modern American macroeconomy in a thoughtful way. Furthermore, academic study of hip-hop will elevate and popularize those artists who deserve recognition, as opposed to those who have little artistic merit, separating the wheat from the chaff.

Hip-hop artists like Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar rival — perhaps even surpass — their peers in American art (representatives from contemporary literature, cinema and visual art) both in eloquence

and in influence when addressing some of America’s most pressing questions in the twenty-first century. The genre finds its intellectual merit and value in three ways. First, hip-hop provides critical commentary on American society and the contemporary American political configuration; second, it comments on the availability of the American

administration to drink upstream from the herd and offer study of an area of American culture that is too often overlooked by cultural commentators and formal academics alike.

Kendrick Lamar’s magnum opus, “good kid m.A.A.d city,” offers a poignant example of how hip-hop can push us intellectually and demand we question commonly held norms. In “Backstreet Freestyle,” the Compton thinker juxtaposes and syntactiThe status quo limits students’ exposure to hip-hop cally parallels the phrase “Martin to a non-academic, less critical, casual capacity had a dream” with that only ensures the continuation of the common “Kendrick have a misinterpretations that malign and pollute cultural dream” to present a two-tiered comperceptions of this artistic domain.” mentary on the failings of a “postdream from a countercultural per- racial” America. On the one hand, spective; third, following from the Lamar presents a microcosm of second, the genre finds itself unique- American counterculture in which ly placed to present and shape a new he, a troubled young African-Amervision of American consciousness. ican growing up in the projects, is Due to its widespread popularity, pushed by social forces like peer hip-hop wields unparalleled influ- pressure to enter a life of crime and ence in making sociological and po- vice; on the other, he links his early litical arguments, lending the genre life to the wider racial experience of further salience and importance to not only his childhood friends in the this generation’s public discourse. city of Compton but that of the onIt is for these reasons that I ad- going generational struggle for civil vise the University community and rights once led by Martin Luther

“

Ben Rudgley

King, Jr. And so Lamar both dismantles the cultural framework that leads some to conclude the fight for civil rights is already resolved and underscores how federal housing policies exacerbate structural racial inequalities.

Ann Powers from the Los Angeles Times described Kanye West’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” as "Picasso-like, fulfilling the Cubist mandate of rearranging form, texture, color and space to suggest new ways of viewing things.” West employs a wealth of metaphors to highlight the dangers of unfettered materialism and rampant consumerism while conceding, with refreshing self-awareness, that he himself is a walking contradiction in this regard. Throughout the work West illustrates the connection between everyday icons and symbols (like the clothes and masks we wear each day) and the monstrous excesses of contemporary American life and consumer-fueled corporatist culture.

Not only are hip-hop’s detractors misguided in their criticism of artists like Kanye West as intellectually bankrupt, but they also exacerbate the issue of false readings and misunderstandings of the genre. Like all art forms, hip-hop’s landscape is plagued by a deluge of mediocrity and vulgarity, but we should not allow the 50 Cents of the world to taint

what is a treasure trove of American art. Increased intellectual scrutiny of the subject — which would be made possible by University course offerings — would spotlight the culturally important and diminish the attention the vulgar gets. As the situation stands, however, the University does not feature hip-hop in its academic offerings, much to the student body’s detriment. The status quo limits students’ exposure to hiphop to a non-academic, less critical, casual capacity that only ensures the continuation of the common misinterpretations that malign and pollute cultural perceptions of this artistic domain.

University classes or — at the very least — University-sponsored forums or roundtables on hip-hop will increase our community’s critical engagement with an intellectually rich artistic realm that more and more finds itself at the frontier of American art. As a community founded upon innovative scholarship and the pursuit of knowledge of all disciplines, let us embrace a formal, intellectual approach to hip-hop artists, like Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar, who are at the cutting edge of American culture and consciousness.

Ben Rudgely is a viewpoint writer for The Cavalier Daily. His columns run on Mondays.

10

OPINION

The Cavalier Daily

Pledging not to haze

he Managing Board wrote a fraternity. However, there are better piece titled “A pledge by any ways to do this than hazing. other name” last week about Sigma I have heard of fraternities Alpha Epsilon’s decision to elimi- working out with their pledges, nate pledging. In the taking their pledges on column, they quote camping trips and havIFC President Tommy ing their pledges clean Reid, saying he bethe fraternity house lieves pledging can be and do chores for olda positive experience, er fraternity brothers. but that it can become These are all safe ways a negative experience if to observe and improve it is taken too far. a pledge’s physical abiliI agree that pledging ties, bond with him and can be a valuable exmake him aware of his MEREDITH BERGER subordinate, while properience. I myself have Opinion Columnist not experienced it but gressing his position in have talked to enough the fraternity without fraternity members, ridiculing him or hurthere and at other universities, to ing him. make a case for it.

A line is crossed when pledging The Managing Board argues incorporates hazing; when instead eliminating pledging, while an ad- of testing pledges’ physical abilities, mirable move, will not necessarily brothers test their tolerance of alcoprevent hazing. I agree hazing is an hol and other drugs; when instead abominable process, but pledging is of bonding with them, brothers not; the two are separate. The pro- torture pledges by pushing them cess of cultivating member loyalty past reasonable limits: forcing them should remain, while the more irre- to eat, smoke and drink countless sponsible process of hazing should substances, not to mention allowbe eliminated. ing them barely any time to sleep.

Pledging, by definition, is a way These are by no means actions of for men to pledge their loyalty to all University fraternities or limited their fraternity. Pledging can bring to fraternities at the University, but future fraternity brothers together. the fact that they happen anywhere It can be beneficial to have a period is troubling. where men prove themselves loyal Not many studies exist on hazto their brothers and worthy of the ing in fraternities due to the secre-

tive nature of the process, but those studying military exercises have observed that activities similar to hazing can in fact destroy relationships rather than build them. In the military, activities like hazing can be used to test recruits during situations of stress and hostility. The problem is that the psychological and physical torment comes from

of Greek life, and I don’t think SAE should have banned it. If anything, older boys will resent the younger members who do not have to go through a period of assessment and inferiority and may haze them even more severely out of spite and jealousy. As the Managing Board notes, “Pledging has become so deeply ingrained in the culture of fraternities…All brothers thus far have gone through a pledging experience, and will likely be resistant to a change in The process of cultivating member loyalty should the tradition.” It’s not pledging SAE remain, while the more irresponsible process of should ban; it’s the excessive hazing hazing should be eliminated.” that needs to go.

SAE should look inside the group, which has been to other fraternities that statistically shown to create suspicion and dis- have safer pledging, in terms of actrust towards superiors and other cessible information like number of group members, and leads to weak- casualties and insurance costs, to er, less cohesive units. Similar expe- get more ideas on successful ways riences can occur at the University. to pledge.

According to the Office of Student After speaking with a fraternity Judicial Affairs at the University of brother who was once a pledge, I Alberta, “Hazing is abusive, and saw the concept of hazing much fosters resentment and fear. People more clearly. He said it is a weak simply cannot form close bonds and insecure fraternity that has to with abusers, no matter how much haze; hazing is not about making they want to convince themselves the pledges want to stay, as pledgthat they can.” ing should be, but rather hazing is Pledging is an important part seeing how much pledges will toler-

“

T

The fraternity pledging process is valuable, but hazing needs to go ate to remain part of the fraternity, often causing pledges to drop out.

While the army hazes to prepare soldiers to confront the enemy (itself a questionable practice), fraternities haze with no opposing external motivation, so the fraternity that hazes and causes meaningless suffering therefore makes itself the enemy. If an institution founded on the principles of brotherhood makes itself appear as an enemy, those pledging will not feel comfortable, some may drop, and others will remain but have lingering distrust for those who hazed them.

There are ways throughout the pledging process, like the ones aforementioned, to observe the loyalty and commitment a pledge has to his fraternity, ways that do not include hazing and pushing pledges to their limits. Statistics show that 82% of deaths from hazing involve alcohol, and the deaths SAE has tragically and unfortunately encountered are no exception from that statistic.

So, if SAE wants to prevent further tragedy, it should stop hazing with alcohol and other substances and redefine its pledging process by making it safer, and more about bonding and brotherhood than idiotic hazing.

Meredith’s columns run Mon-

Let there be options

tarting in the spring of 2016, to the SAT after last year’s announcestudents will encounter a re- ment that the ACT will be available vamped SAT that aims to be more to take online starting in the spring “focused and useful” than ever be- of 2015. fore. The SAT makeover, Either way, it is clear however, won’t change that the ACT and SAT the fact that SATs conare competing to win tinue to be a faulty preover students. And it’s dictor of college success. working. With some obFor this reason, over vious overlap, 2012 saw 800 American colleges more than 1.6 million and universities have students take the SAT become test-optional as well as more than 1.6 or test-flexible, and the million take the ACT. University should join While this may be benthe ranks. eficial in the short-run JARED FOGEL Although the Colfor standardized tests Opinion Columnist lege Board might say that are seemingly more otherwise, the SAT effective for admission overhaul seems to be decisions, it distracts admostly a market-play in response missions from the larger problem at to the rise in ACT-takers in recent hand: the SAT and ACT shouldn’t be years. In 2012, for the first time in its given such large weight by colleges.

55-year history, the ACT surpassed A three-year study led by former the SAT in popularity. This no doubt dean of admissions at Bates College had a large influence on the College William Hiss found that standardBoard’s recent revamp decision, as ized tests, the SAT and ACT includthree of their eight changes will make ed, do not predict academic success the SAT more similar to the ACT: no nearly as well as GPAs. The study penalties for wrong answers, more also showed that test-optional polirelevant vocabulary and an optional cies at schools help increase diversity essay. The College Board also likely while having no significant changes wants to attract more students back to college academic success or grad-

uation rates.

College Board’s decision to team By switching to a test-optional up with Khan Academy in offering policy, the University could put free SAT preparation is a noble gesa larger emphasis on high school ture. But there are already all sorts GPAs and, more importantly, open of free SAT and ACT prep courses the door for a more diverse appli- available online. Regardless of these cant pool. Just as the study charac- options, higher income families will terizes with test-optional schools, continue to give their children undethe University would see a sub- niable advantages with tutors or test stantial increase in first-generation, prep classes. This is reflected in the low-income, and minority student applications and therefore likely admit a more diverse student body.

Wake Forest, considered by many to be a By switching to a test-optional policy, the University top-25 school nacould put a larger emphasis on high school GPAs tionally, has also and, more importantly, open the door for a more proven that a successful university diverse applicant pool.” can effectively become a test-optional school. Wake Forest director strong correlation between family of admissions Martha Allman stated income and standardized test scores in an interview that in the first year that persists in American schools. A after becoming test optional, non- test-optional policy would combat white student applications increased this correlation by providing low-inby 46 percent and African American come students with an opportunity student applications increased by 70 to prove themselves outside of stanpercent. dardized tests.

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The University should become a SAT/ACT-optional school Overall, one of the largest problems at hand with switching to a test-optional policy is the sheer size of the University’s applicant pool.

While over 30 of the nation’s top 100 liberal arts colleges in U.S. News and World Report have switched to testoptional approaches, only nine of the nation’s top 100 universities have followed suit. But New York University, which has about 20,000 undergraduate students and is considered “testflexible,” has proved that it is possible for a larger school to take on such a policy.

The SAT overhaul itself proves College Board recognized that the current standardized tests offered were not providing accurate information on student performance for colleges. Furthermore, their stress on realigning the test with schoolwork merely shows that from the start it was never properly aligned with high school curricula. This is not to say the changes aren’t for the better, rather that the need for these changes shows the test is not a reliable indicator for the University, and other schools, to require its submission.

Jared’s columns run Fridays.

OPINION

Monday, March 24, 2014

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Jester-in-chief Presidents should make tactful use of talk and comedy shows that have a large youth following

ith so much gridlock in “Ellen.”

Washington, it seems like Politics aside, I don’t want politicians should be scrambling to see every YouTube channel to find the most effective means and talk show being inundated by which they can with politicians seekpromote a goal or ing to promote both message. When trathemselves and their ditional commercials, objectives.

Political press releases and happenings and destops on mainstream velopments are imnews channels fall portant events about short, making slightly which people should offbeat media appearstay informed, but that ances presents an endoes not mean that ticing option. That politics has to bleed ALEX YAHANDA said, when the Presiinto every kind of meOpinionist Columnist dent of the United dia. People specifically States himself appears turn to the news for on a small-time Inpolitical coverage and ternet comedy show, his decision analysis, and other forms of telewill generate some questions and vision or internet content often controversy, even if doing so is ac- present a welcome escape from tually a viable means to publicize politics. ESPN, for instance, is at an important issue in which he its best when it avoids political believes. coverage that does not pertain For many, President Obama’s to sports. Even humorous shows recent guest appearance on co- with a slightly stronger political median Zach Galifianakis’ web tinge, like the “Colbert Report” or show “Between Two Ferns” was a “South Park,” fortunately refrain shock, and understandably. Until from overtly backing political this point, Galifianakis had in- causes. A politician’s occasional terviewed celebrities for nothing foray into comedic or entertainbut humorous purposes, doing ment programming, though, can his best to ensure intentionally be refreshing — and it can be a awkward experiences. Obama, very effective political tool if done however, appeared on the show to correctly. promote the Affordable Care Act Obama’s — or, for that matter, (ACA) before its March 31 signup any other politician’s — decision to deadline. He has also been appear- venture into more unconventional ing on other non-news outlets for media could yield significant benthe same purpose: recently he was efits for promoting any number of featured on both ESPN Radio and future causes. Indeed, that much

is already becoming evident with president by saying that President the ACA: soon after his interview Abraham Lincoln would not have with Galifianakis, Healthcare. made the same choice to appear gov’s user traffic increased by 40 on a YouTube show. O’Reilly subpercent. It is not hard to see why sequently explained that Obama’s this strategy could be immensely choice to appear on “Between Two effective, either. Obama’s appear- Ferns” did not send a satisfacance on “Between Two Ferns” freed him from the inherent rigidity and partisanship that exists on shows for stations like Fox News or MSNBC. Nobody wants an unrelatable, robotic leader, and The show's infor- it is already too easy to dehumanize politicians by mal setting and Galifianakis' ca- either praising or denouncing them purely based on sual style allowed their political beliefs.”

Obama to speak informally and, at times, humorously about his tory image of a stalwart president goals, which is a welcome change during a time in which America given how serious mainstream needs to project strength, espenews networks try to make every cially towards Vladimir Putin and issue. Though the conversation Russia. O’Reilly’s objection — no and questions were no doubt me- matter how ridiculous of an exticulously premeditated, Obama trapolation it may have been — is nevertheless appeared more per- not an uncommon one. Critics of sonable than is generally possible Obama's choice believe it is unbeon national news. Additionally, coming of the president to appear his appearance in a niche YouTube on talk shows or YouTube chanvideo likely increased his likabil- nels, as a president is too impority among the youth — a crucial tant and worthy of respect to be demographic the ACA hopes to treated like any other celebrity. target.

Taken to the extreme, such Of course, Obama’s slightly concerns are valid. A president unconventional attempts to push should not undermine his respect the ACA have not come with- and authority by appearing on out backlash. Perhaps most no- too many talk shows or by seektably, Bill O’Reilly castigated the ing too strongly to promote his

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image as a just another “ordinary guy.” As much as he may actually have in common with the average citizen, the president’s job as America’s leader makes him fundamentally different from everyone else. Conversely, the president should demonstrate a joking and personal side. Nobody wants an unrelatable, robotic leader, and it is already too easy to dehumanize politicians by either praising or denouncing them purely based on their political beliefs. In fact, I would argue Obama’s appearance on “Between Two Ferns” is no more gimmicky than, say, throwing out the first pitch during a baseball game. Both allow him to extend some form of solidarity with the average citizen — at least as much as possible from within his role as president.

Obama’s talk show circuit is a practical way to promote causes about which he his passionate.

And, as long as they do not abuse the frequency of their appearances or seek to push small, inane goals, similar appearances could be beneficial to other politicians.

Ultimately, the president should do what he deems most effective in getting his points across. If that means personally appearing on a YouTube channel to create an even broader audience, then taking that step is the wise decision.

Alex’s columns run Mondays.

Hoop by hoop, goal by goal The Sports section has done a good job live tweeting the University’s sporting events Public Editor

The Cavalier Daily Sports staff has been absolutely killing it on Twitter for the men’s basketball team post-season games. If you’re not following @CavDailySports, that’s something you should fix, at least while the game is happening.

The live tweeting is a great mix of play-by-play with just enough commentary that one can really get a feel for the game. Whoever is writing the tweets also does a good job of showing some respect for our opponent — even if it’s Duke — which I appreciate because there’s no need to be snarky all the time, and ultimately, it’s a bunch of college-aged people doing their best. The bottom line on the live tweeting of the games from The Cavalier Daily crew is that it’s worth reading, even if you’re watching, and if you’re not

able to watch but want to follow the game, I don’t think you can do better than keeping up with the feed. I’d love to see more events live tweeted where it’s possible.

Likewise, the photographers for the Sports section have put

men’s lacrosse game versus John’s Hopkins University are both nicely documented. The multimedia section of the website continues to improve and offer good content.

Last point on the Sports section: keep your eye out at the end of the week for the Weekend Previews. They cover what appear to be The bottom line on the live tweeting of the games from all of the upThe Cavalier Daily crew is that it’s worth reading, even coming University sportif you’re watching, and if you’re not able to watch ing events for but want to follow the game, I don’t think you can do the weekend better than keeping up with the feed.” with excellent capsule-style summaries of together some terrific galleries of what’s going on with each team other events. The Virginia Cup, and where you can find the events the opening event for the Univer- to watch or listen to if possible. sity track and field team, and the There are some talented athletes

“

Christopher Broom

at the University, and they’re competing at the highest levels in their sports. The coverage keeps up with them, as it should.

In other sections, the staff of the paper is also doing good work.

The Health and Science articles are consistently interesting and well written. The pieces that are published are varied and almost always have a good, local connection. There have been five articles published this month (though three on the same day and a total of four in the first few days, with only one in the three weeks or so since) that covered University-based research or work being done by local groups around medicine and science. The Q&A with a medical student was interesting and made a good idea for a piece. I’d be interested to read conversations with students of all of the various schools around Grounds. I, personally, don’t have much of a sense of what a day as a

Batten School student might look like, for instance.

Finally, for this week, I turn to the Arts and Entertainment sectiontheir blog on tumblr. Links to tracks on Spotify, Soundcloud or YouTube and brief reviews, descriptions or stories make for an entertaining and informative quick read or listen. Beyond that, the movie, television and arts reviews tend to be solid and often funny to read. I would like to see a revival of The Local section (or at least an update of the webpage if there is content we just can’t see on that page right now) but otherwise, it’s another good section of the paper.

Christopher Broom can be reached at publiceditor@cavalierdaily.com or on Twitter at @ cd_publiceditor.

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The Cavalier Daily

THE ADVENTURES OF THE AMAZING <THE> A-MAN

graphics

MOSTLY HARMLESS BY PETER SIMONSEN

NO PUN INTENDED BY CHARLOTTE RASKOVICH

DJANGEO

BY STEPHEN ROWE

BY EMILIO ESTEBAN

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Monday, March 24, 2014

13

H&S Second chance for sale of toxic drug health & science

Emily Dinning Associate Editor

The development of antibiotics to reduce bacterial infections in the 1940s drastically changed health care. Despite benefits from this development, a steady increase in the number of bacteria that are resistant to various antibiotics have become a major threat to public health.

Drug-resistant bacteria are problematic because they are resistant to many currently available antibacterial agents, resulting in ineffective treatments of diseases. According to the Center for Disease Control, at least 23,000 Americans die each year because of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

“One of the problems with bacterial resistance is that the appearance of drug resistant bacteria far outpaces the development

Researchers seek to make Trovafloxacin safe for consumption, aid in antibiotic resistant bacteria

of new antibiotics,” microbiology Prof. Dr. Kodi Ravichandran said.

“Moreover, some potent previously used antibiotics were discontinued over the years because they were found to be toxic to humans.

Antibiotics that are no longer in use may hold the key to dealing with this new phenomenon.

"One possible resolution is to resurrect older antibiotics by tinkering with the toxic parts of the molecule so that it does not affect mammalian tissue, but leaving the antibacterial parts of the drug so that it can still be bactericidal," Ravichandran said.

In their most recent study, Ravichandran and Pharmacology department chair Dr. Douglas A. Bayliss studied the interactions of trovafloxacin, an outdated toxic antibiotic, and found it inhibited specialized channels along a cell’s plasma membrane, known as mammalian pannexin channels, causing apoptosis, the process of cell death, to accelerate. This

causes cells to fragment irregularly.

Apoptosis occurs around 200 billion times each day and is a balancing act indispensable to normal cell turnover and the development of the body systems.

The proper execution of cell death process is influenced by pannexin channels, which span the cell’s plasma membrane.

Pannexin 1 channels, which are expressed by many cell types in the body, specifically regulate the influx and efflux of molecules throughout cell differentiation, activation and cell death.

During cell death, the dying cell begins the process of cellular disassembly, which includes formation of membrane blebs.

When pannexin channels are not performing properly, the dying cells fall apart quickly.

Ravichandran’s study found that the antibiotic trovafloxacin, by inhibiting PANX1 channels, affects how quickly the apoptotic cells fall apart, and causing irreg-

Courtesy University of Virginia

Courtesy University of Virginia

Dr. Douglas A. Bayliss, chairman of the pharmacology department (left), and Dr. Kodi S. Ravichandran, professor of microbiology (right) co-authored the study.

ular fragmentation of cells during which the cells release an excess of apoptotic vesicles.

Because of the cross-reaction between trovafloxacin and the mammalian pannexin channels, Ravichandran hopes to “find out which parts of the antibiotic af-

fect mammalian components, and potentially tinker with them so that they can’t target pannexin channels, but can inhibit bacterial growth” in an effort to develop drugs that will limit the toxicity to human cells but keep their antibacterial property.

Student Health alerts to possible mumps Disease strikingly similar to common cold, spread through contact with infected saliva, mucus Jenna Dickerson Senior Writer

A University student was recently diagnosed at Student Health with a suspected case of the mumps, a contagious viral disease, Director of Student Health Dr. Chris Holstege announced in an email to the University community Thursday.

University spokesperson McGregor McCance said the suspected case is alarming, as mumps is a serious illness that can spread quickly.

“The proper procedure is to try to quarantine people for five days until they are no longer contagious,” McCance said. “We are working closely with the CDC to determine how to proceed.”

It is difficult to tell the difference between mumps and a common cold, Holstege said.

“The only difference between the two is that mumps often make the salivary glands swell, but not always,” Holstege said. “Often the symptoms, headaches and fever, are the exact same.”

Mumps are especially dangerous

because they are an extremely contagious disease.

“The incubation period for the disease is quite long and symptoms may not manifest for several weeks after exposure,” Holstege said.

McCance said no one is completely safe from contracting mumps, as even vaccinated people can contract the disease, though these cases are rare.

“We are now in surveillance, closely watching the people coming through Student Health,” McCance said. “We have also been in contact with the Virginia Department of Health, which is running further tests.”

Holstege said outbreaks occur when populations are very close, such as a university or college population.

“Mumps is spread [through] contact with an infected person’s saliva or mucus, so students should not share water bottles, should be careful when sneezing and coughing, and make sure to wash their hands frequently,” Holstege said.

Students are urged to visit Student Health if they experience any symptoms.

Marshall Bronfin| The Cavalier Daily

Even those students who have already been vaccinated can still contract a case of the mumps, McCance said, though these situations are rare.

The Cavalier Daily

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Iran Day event celebrates New Year

life

Persian Cultural Society holds dancing, art festival to ring in Iranian cultural holiday

Darby Witherspoon Feature Writer

Every year, nearly four months after the ball drops in New York City, another New Year celebration occurs. To help to ring in the Iranian New Year, referred to as “Nowruz” in Persian, the University’s Persian Cultural Society holds Iran Day to commemorate the spring equinox holiday —

which fell this year on March 20, at 12:57 p.m. The festivities are complete with Iranian dances, poetry and music.

PCS Cultural Chair Saba Chinian, a second-year College student, became involved in the organization to meet new people who share her interest in Persian culture. She helped to make sure the event was culturally cohesive and authentic.

“In Iran, they have a month off of school and work [to celebrate], so it’s a really a big deal,” Chinian

said. “We do this every year as a way to not only celebrate the Iranian New Year but also to explain what it is and represent it as clearly as we can.”

The main attraction during Iran Day is the dances. Extensive rehearsals and planning go into the female-only and co-ed performances.

Zarei helps choreograph the dance in addition to working with event funding.

“I think my favorite part is the dances,” Zarei said. “The girls’

dance is a mix of the modern dance in Iran [while] the co-ed dance is sensual. It’s very slow and not very provocative, but it’s fun.

That one’s a little bit more traditional. “ Though the Iranian population at the University is small, it has grown and developed a more significant presence in recent years.

“We would always welcome more participants but especially this year, it’s kind of unexpected how many people we’ve had come out to our events,” Chinian said.

“We are a relatively small group on Grounds because there just aren’t as many Iranians as we’d like at U.Va., but in terms of nonIranian participation, [it] has been through the roof.”“The best way I could put it is that it’s like Christmas and the New Year,” said PCS treasurer Melika Zarei, a thirdyear Commerce student. “Not only do you celebrate the New Year but you also get gifts and you’re with family. Usually with us, you’ll have [about] 20 family members around you and that’s nice.”

Top 10 People You Meet During March Madness Fans of all kinds emerge during bracket chaos Annie Mester Life Columnist

1. The know-it-all Did you know 34.5 percent of 14-seeded teams which score more than 4 points in the first 2 minutes and 46 seconds of the second half win 54 percent of their games if they’re wearing the color orange and the third quarter starts no later than 5:12 p.m.?

No, we probably didn’t because a) who in their right mind knows that? and b) you definitely made that up. Don’t try to ask these know-it-alls a simple question — an innocent query about the current score will most likely lead to an unwelcomed set of predictions about the projected 2020 NBA Draft order and a detailed analysis of what your mother ate for lunch yesterday.

2. The bracket-obsessed These individuals are most commonly found cheering for the number 16 seed North Central Africa State University because there’s nothing like a good upset, right? So what if they’re surrounded by fans of the opposing team? All that matters is life, liberty and the pursuit of the perfect bracket. The bracket-obsessed fan probably has twelve ESPN bracket apps, a high anxiety level and zero friends left. They’re frequently spotted screaming at completely inappropriate times, scheming about what they’ll do when they win a million dollars from their perfect bracket and proclaiming their love for tiny symmetrical charts. The bracket-obsessed fan goes hand-in-hand with the know-it-all.

3. The bandwagon fan Bandwagon fans love a good Cinderella

story. Though they may try to tell you that they’ve been “rooting for this team since December” because they “knew the boys had it in them,” odds are bandwagoners probably didn’t know this team existed until they accidentally picked them to make the Elite Eight in their brackets. (i.e.

“I always knew Dayton was the best team in Ohio! What’s a Buckeye?”) Also, don’t be fooled by the shirt they’re wearing in support of their “lifelong favorite team” — though it may look vintage, eBay rush shipping and some bleach work wonders for quick and easy DIY clothing aging.

4. The “clueless” fan In an attempt to at humility, this fan will probably tell you he or she picked a bracket without any thought and he or she is just watching the games because there’s nothing else to do. In reality, this is a façade. This fan is well-read, well-versed, very knowledgeable and very likely to be the person to have achieved the perfect bracket. Upon winning, this person will act surprised and you’ll act like you don’t want to punch him or her in the face. This is the March Madness equivalent to the person who tells you that he or she totally “didn’t study for that test” then does two letter grades better than you. Ugh.

5. The actually clueless fan Not to be confused with the “clueless” fan, this fan is lacking facetious undertone and actually knows nothing. This one’s rooting for the team with the prettiest jerseys, the best looking players and the mascot that sort of looks like a funny animated character they saw in a movie once. He or she will ask you what the score is when he’s surrounded by televisions, and was likely shocked to learn U.Va. is actually doing well this year.

6. The die-hard fan The die-hard fan redefines the limits of appropriate face paint use. He or she doesn’t wear one foam finger, but two. Real hair? No time for that, an orange and blue wig will do. Six T-shirts sewn together with a personal supportive hashtag is the only acceptable top to wear, and don’t even get them started about the full-body spandex morph suit. Don’t stand too close to this fan, because odds are they haven’t washed any of their clothing because they’re superstitious. He or she will probably try to account for the odor by telling you that they’re just trying to get as close to the players as she can. If the players are sweating, the fan must too. Note: bring deodorant to the viewing party.

7. The fair-weather fan When the going gets tough…this fan is out of there in a second. He is only into it when he realizes his bracket doesn’t actually suck and it’s warm enough to leave his couch to make it to Boylan. This one can be found watching only U.Va. games, spending the entire game playing Candy Crush, cheering twenty seconds later than everyone else because he was playing Candy Crush, and actually cheering because he beat a level in Candy Crush rather than because of the game.

8. The rowdy fan Said fan probably missed the lesson on inside voices in kindergarten. The bar becomes her personal fraternity party/boxing ring hybrid, complete with the lack of con-

cern for personal space and the tendency to massage the nearest set of shoulders like they’re gearing up to fight. The rowdy fan couldn’t care less if she knows you or not — no person within a 10-mile radius is exempt from the in-your-face cheering and characteristic lack of social awareness.

Once, a fan of this type tried to chest-bump me when I wasn’t paying attention and I was essentially body-slammed into the floor. All’s fair in love and March Madness.

9. The overly enthusiastic fan They’ve been waiting for this day “literally their entire lives” (or, since last March).

There’s no place they’d rather be than “on this barstool RIGHT NOW with all of my BEST FRIENDS during the BEST TIME OF THE YEAR.” There’s often clapping, squealing, and if you close your eyes it’s almost like you’re at sorority bid day. These guys probably really wanted to be cheerleaders in high school and will probably acquire early-onset face wrinkles from smiling so much.

10. The social mediaobsessed fan @UVA @JoeHarris @AnyoneWithATwitter @World #I’mWatchingTheGame #ButNotReally #BecauseI’mOnMyPhone #INeedEveryoneToKnowILikeBasketball #Sports #OMG #WeScored #WeScoredAgain #NowTheyScored #BasketballIsGreat #TagsForLikes #Here’sALinkToMyInstagr amOfMeWatchingTheGame. Reasons why no one is favoriting your tweets/liking your Instagrams/liking your Facebook statuses: they’re actually watching the game. Take note.

Image courtesy Wikipedia Commons

LIFE

Monday, March 24, 2014

LOVE CONNECTION:

DOUBLE DATE

JIMMY

A double date done right

CLAIRE

Year: Third Major: Mechanical Engineering Hometown: Staunton U.Va. Involvement: WTJX Ideal Date: Fun, sane, high tolerance of my shenanigans.

Favorite Pick-Up Line: Can I borrow your phone? Because I promised my mother I’d call if I fell in love.

Year: Second Major: Undeclared Hometown: Arlington U.Va. Involvement: PSP, Center for Global Health, WTJX, Learning in Action, Jefferson Public Citizens.

Favorite Pick-Up Line: Are you from Tennessee? Because you’re the only ten I see.

CORY

CARLY

Year: Third Major: Computer Science Hometown: Williamsburg U.Va. Involvement: 91.1 WTJU show host and WJTX co-manager Ideal Date: Willing to try new things, intelligent.

Favorite Pick-Up Line: Will you go out with me? And is the answer to that question the same as this one?

Year: Second Major: English Hometown: Burke U.Va. Involvement: Women’s Ice Hockey Team, WTJX, Adopt-A-Grandparent, Student Council Public Service, Tom Tom Food and Music Intern, PSP. Ideal Date: Witty but considerate. Must have an appreciation for the written word. Music-lovers are preferred.

Favorite Pick-Up Line: All the other girls here are stars; you’re the Northern Lights.

Allie Griswold Love Guru

Carly, Jimmy, Claire and Cory met at the Rotunda at 5:30 p.m. and went to Crozet Pizza.

Carly: I applied [to Love Connection] because I had encouragement from personal friends who thought it might be fun. I had just gotten out of a long relationship and thought it would be a fun change of pace.

Claire: I was a little nervous. Carly and I had been trying to go on a double date for a while, but she is always in relationships, which poses a problem. I think that going on blind dates adds to the intrigue of the first meeting. I’m a hopeless romantic.

Jimmy: I’ve been set up on a date before. I’m a big fan of Love Connection, and I expected that my date would be pretty similar to other ones — meet at the Rotunda and go to the Corner for dinner.

Cory: I was walking around the Rotunda for a little bit and I was recognized by Carly and Claire. After that, we were just waiting for Jimmy.

When he arrived, he [looked] to the casual viewer pretty much exactly like me: tall, dark-haired and wearing dark rimmed glasses.

Jimmy: I was waiting by one of the side columns when I spied Cory walking, and [I] left to meet the group. I thought Carly and Claire looked like generally attractive and interesting people.

Claire: It was super awkward for about the first 15 minutes. We all worked in the radio station so we tried to focus around that.

Carly: When I first saw the guys, I noticed how handsome they both were. When we discovered we were all WTJX DJs, I knew it would be a good time. I figured that if they ended up ditching us, I could just go on a date with Claire.

Jimmy: It was an awesome day and we were just walking around after we left the Rotunda. We wanted to find somewhere to eat outside.

Carly: After we got cheated out of a table at the Virginian, we decided Elliewood was our next destination. All roads led to Crozet Pizza.

Jimmy had been there before and raved about it.

Cory: We noticed that Buttz Barbeque had an open sign outside, but it wasn’t lit up, so we speculated about whether it was closed. We asked the server at Crozet, and she didn’t know either. I had the seat facing Buttz, so it was lingering in my mind throughout dinner.

Jimmy: Cory kept talking about

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Buttz Barbeque, which was weird.

We didn’t know anyone who had been there, but he was obsessed.

Cory: We were never told which one was our date so Jimmy and I were trying to communicate under the table to figure it out.

Jimmy: Cory kept kicking me under the table and making intense eye contact. I thought he was telling me to choose which girl I wanted.

It seemed like he just wanted both though, and I was like, “OK, dude.”

It was pretty confusing, and I got a couple [of] bruises on my shin from it.

Carly: The conversation flowed pretty easily once everyone opened up. We talked about music and concerts for a while and we talked about amusement parks for a very long time. Jimmy and I talked about different jobs and how Charlottesville is better without students.

Claire: We’re all such old souls.

Cory and I talked about gap years and different education systems. I knew he was the man of my dreams when I found out that he was an art snob like me.

Cory: WTJX seemed to be the root of our association. We were all from very different areas, which was kind of cool. We talked about high school jobs. Everyone had worked in food service and had fascinating

stories and trade secrets about that.

Jimmy: Carly plays hockey and me and Cory are pretty big U.Va. club hockey fans. Luckily no one was a vegetarian, so we enjoyed a chicken barbeque pizza together.

Cory: The end of the date was foretold by the slow removal of pizza until there was one slice left, which I think I claimed. The waitress brought us a vat of water and a check, which we split four ways. I thought that seemed equitable.

Claire: There was a lot of intense eye contact during the date. At one point I think Cory scooted his chair closer to me. That was cool.

Cory: I don’t know if there was flirting. It was good conversation and it went on well enough that there was no time to think of it. If there was any, it was subconscious.

Carly: It felt like Jimmy kept trying to hold my hand under the table.

Jimmy: After dinner, Carly and Claire went to Para to meet up with someone later, and Cory and I headed back to where we live.

Claire: We didn’t even hug at the end. Cory just said, "peace."

Carly: Jimmy and I almost went in for a handshake, but then realized that we were all going to the same party on Saturday night. Claire and I have both seen Jimmy since the date.

Claire: Jimmy was in a scientific mood when I saw him because all he remarked was, “We went on a date.” You’re right, Jimmy. Good job.

Carly: I think we will probably all hang out again, but I don’t know if it’s necessarily romantic. Jimmy and I have agreed to see each other on a weekly basis in a platonic sense.

Cory: It’s foreseeable that I could clear up a night in the future to see them.

Jimmy: Overall, I would give the date a 7.5. It was a good time with a lot of laughing and hanging out, but it wasn’t romantic. The weather was just awesome. It was a long week, and I just wanted to sit outside and chill out.

Carly: I would give it a 7.62. I had a lovely time with lovely friends, but I think Jimmy will have to prove himself more next time if he wants anything more.

Cory: I thought the date overall was great. The pizza was good, but it kind of complicated the Buttz Barbeque issue with the barbeque sauce. I would lose focus on good conversation trying to figure out if that d*** restaurant was open.

Claire: Cory can’t be quantified, but he can be qualified. I would give him an A+. He can do no wrong in my eyes, even if he doesn’t believe in tipping.

16

LIFE

The Cavalier Daily

Working out? Don’t sweat it

Student-taught workout classes at AFC provide benefits beyond staying in shape Kelly Seegers Feature Writer

Working out can bring about a sense of dread, obligation and exhaustion — but student instructors at the Aquatic and Fitness Center aim to make exercise fun for their peers.

“I love that [classes are] an opportunity to exercise without feeling like time is moving really slowly,” fourth-year College student Shravya Kovela said. “I think that it’s great that these types of things are coming up because it gives more versatility for people who are not really into running or sports.”

Kovela teaches Zumba Sundays and Tuesdays at the AFC, bringing the Zumba slogan, “join

the party,” to life. She creates a music playlist ahead of time, and is sure to include a warm up, a cool down and some slower pieces more suitable to squats and toning.

In order to become a Zumba instructor, Kovela completed a workshop through the Zumba Corporation in addition to a class at the University. In order to become a group exercise instructor, the University suggests students take EDHS 3500, a three-credit class about body structure, fitness levels and possible exercise dangers.

Third-year College student Jesse Peterson currently teaches “Pure Strength” — a dumbbell based, bodyweight strength class. She said working out in groups can serve as a catalyst for

motivation, as people generally work harder in fear of others seeing them slack off.

“The peer effect really makes you work hard because you don’t want to be seen as the slowest person or struggling, but if there’s not as many people around it is hard to stay motivated,” Peterson said.

English doctoral candidate at the University Ann Mazur teaches yoga and cycling in addition to her classes in the English department, and she said she sees a connection between learning and exercise.

“There is no way that I would have done all the academic things I have been able to do if it weren’t for [exercise],” Mazur said. “It’s not worth sitting in your chair for 10 hours a day and getting

your work done if it means that your body is suffering.”

She says both forms of teaching took some time to get used to.

Mazur said she finds it strange to watch students write down everything she says in her English classes, and in exercise classes, it is strange watching people mimic her every move.

“People should try yoga,” Masur suggests. “It can be hard and challenging and you can still get the relaxation benefits out of it while you get stronger, and that has really great mental benefits for all the academic things too.”

Some students become regulars in certain classes. Kovela said when she slips up and forgets pieces of her choreography, she has people who remember it and keep going.

“After class having people come up to me and say that it was a great workout just really seals the deal,” Peterson said. “That is awesome.”

The instructors emphasized how important it is for each student to find an exercise routine that suits them best.

“Give different formats a shot because there is probably something out there that you love, but it’s just hard to find that,” Kovela said. “Zumba’s not for everyone and it hurts my heart to say it, but I am aware of that. I think it is just that sometimes you have to let go of your inhibitions, just try something new. It is just so much easier to become healthier and focus on your health if you are doing something that you love.”

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