COLLEGIATETIMES
thursday january 17, 2008 blacksburg, va.
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bulletin board PHOTOS CHRONICLE BLACK AGRICULTURE Located on the 2nd floor of Squires Student Center, the Perspective Gallery is hosting “Distant Echos: Black Farmers in America,” an exhibit by John Ficara. The exhibit features 60 black and white photos that commemorate black agriculture in the United States. Perspective Gallery is open Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from noon to 10 p.m., and is closed Mondays.
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PARTY LIKE IT’S 1968 VIRGINIA TECH BEATS VIRGINIA IN CHARLOTTESVILLE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 40 YEARS
CHARLES R. BARRINEAU
ct associate sports editor
news TECH HALFWAY TO SERVICE GOAL Virginia Tech announced yesterday that VT Engage is halfway to its goal of 300,000 hours of community service from students, teachers and staff by the end of spring semester. The community has pledged 150,000 hours so far.
OSCARS MAY BE CANCELED LOS ANGELES — A drastically scaled-back Golden Globes raises the question of whether the Writers’ Guild of America strike will hit Hollywood’s showpiece awards event, the Oscars. And the answer is: most likely, unless the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences can work out an agreement with the guild ahead of time. The solidarity displayed in helping to cut the Golden Globes from an awards party to a much briefer news conference is likely to have some effect on the Feb. 24 Oscar ceremony, unless the academy strikes a deal. -MarketWatch
corrections In the story “Repercussions of April 16 still felt,” (CT, Jan. 15), it was erroneously reported that H. Morgan Griffith is behind the bill requiring background checks before firearm sales at gun shows. Democrat Delegate C. Charles Caputo created that bill. Griffith is working on a bill to prohibit those committed to involuntary mental health treatment from purchasing guns. Steven Davids’ quote should have read, “I would feel very safe knowing they were holding (firearms).” Yesterday’s quote correction, (CT, Jan. 16) was inaccurate. The correct quote is, “We felt these people (with mental illness) were not properly screened (when buying weapons), and this legislation will change this.” The Collegiate Times regrets these errors.
weather WINTRY MIX high 32, low 27
coming up Log on to check out a photo gallery from last night’s 70-69 men’s basketball win over the University of Virginia.
index News.....................2 Features................4 0pinions................3
Classifieds..............5 Sports....................6 Sudoku..................5
An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 105th year • issue 3
MIKE SHROYER/SPPS
The last time it happened, Johnny Cash was preparing to record “Live at Folsom Prison” and Lyndon B. Johnson was in the Oval Office. After a winless streak that spanned four decades, the Virginia Tech men’s basketball team finally defeated the University of Virginia Cavaliers in Charlottesville last night, winning in overtime 70-69. Deron Washington’s buzzer-beating basket clinched the Hokies’ first win in the Wahoos’ hometown since 1968. “It felt great,” said Washington of his shot. “I didn’t know what to do with myself for a second. I was just stuck like it was a dream.” Tech’s victory also marked Virginia’s first ever Atlantic Coast Conference loss in John Paul Jones Arena. “It was real important, especially to me, ‘cause I haven’t won … in this building,” said Deron Washington who scored 11 points. “It was a (also) big win for … the program.” The Hokies came out on fire offensively, starting the game on a 9-0 run against the favored Cavaliers, but Virginia rallied, fighting back to take the lead. Singletary led the Cavaliers all game, accounting for 23 of Virginia’s 38 first half points. The Hokies began the second half much the same as the first, going on a 7-0 run to take a 41-38 lead. The Cavaliers would come storming back once again with a 13-3 run en route to a 59-50 lead. Down nine late in the game, the Hokies closed the game with a 13-4 run, forcing the game into overtime. “We had stops,” said Vassallo, who scored a team-high 22-points. “That was really the momentum changer … That was a priority. We knew we were going to be able so score at some point in the game.”
Seth Greenberg celebrates with his team after Deron Washington’s buzzer beater in overtime powered the Hokies past Virginia, 70-69.
see HOOPS, page six
Advocacy Day lie-in to be held in Richmond ANDREA WOODS & CANDACE SIPOS
ct news reporters Hundreds will be flooding the Virginia State Capitol on Jan. 21, joined by the families of Virginia Tech shooting victims, to ask their elected officials to implement the Virginia Tech Review Panel’s gun policy recommendations. Following April 16, the panel requested to eliminate the gun show loophole, which allows private gun sellers the ability to bypass background checks. Other issues the panel recommended include a request that guns stay away from college campuses and school grounds and to require background checks for all potential gun purchases. Abby Spangler, founder of protesteasyguns.com, began advocating for these changes following the shootings. So far, 17 states have at least partially closed the gun show loophole. Virginia is one of 33 states that has yet to make a change. “Every gun sale at a gun show should have a background check,” Spangler said. “Ultimately, the protest movement hopes to change gun laws.” Spangler has put together numerous lie-ins throughout the country in which 32 participants lay down for three minutes, symbolizing the length of time it took for Cho Seung-Hui to purchase the guns used on April 16. Monday’s event, deemed Advocacy Day, falls on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Buses from all over Virginia, including Tech, University of Virginia, Norfolk and Hampton Roads, and Northern
Virginia Community College, will be joined by students from Virginia Commonwealth University for a day of peaceful protest. The buses are provided free of charge. Around 8:45 a.m., the participants will be briefed on the legislation in question before meeting with their respective elected officials. The lie-in is scheduled for 1 p.m. and a vigil featuring speeches by several victims’ families will follow. Omar Samaha, brother of victim Reema Samaha, joined the movement after sister, Randa, who attends the University of Virginia, participated in the UVa-32 lie-in and was contacted by Spangler via Facebook. The Samaha family plans to speak at the vigil. “We are trying to make a sensible change out of a senseless tragedy,” Omar Samaha said. Associate Professor Jack Lesko and Tech student Larissa Mihalisko have also become involved with the cause and plan on attending the lie-in. Along with Omar, Mihalisko has been trying to get students and faculty motivated to participate in Advocacy Day. “It’s refreshing to see people getting involved that aren’t normally involved,” Mihalisko said. The lie-in, which usually includes 32 participants, has been expanded to anyone who wishes to participate and will occur on the lawn of the Capitol building. “We owe it to our 32 students and professors,” Samaha said. “We are given a second chance, and I think that every student that is behind us should make their best effort to come to Richmond on Monday.” Since the beginning of Spangler’s movement,
COURTESY OF PROTEST EASY GUNS
Thirty-two people held a lie-in at the University of Virginia in support for increasing gun control following April 16. A second protest is planned for Monday at the Virginia Capitol. shortly after April 16, several bills have been proposed in the Virginia State Senate and House of Delegates requiring vendors to perform background checks and preventing the mentally ill from handling firearms. “We desperately hope that legislators respond
to our calls across the state to improve gun laws, and we want the gun show loophole closed so that criminals and dangerous individuals don’t have easy access to guns,” Spangler said. Spangler has recently begun to organize a national lie-in to occur on the anniversary of April 16.
Delegates seek to loosen gun restrictions Golf course to build new clubhouse NEWLY-PROPOSED LEGISLATION AIMS TO PREVENT STATE AGENCIES FROM FURTHER TIGHTENING GUN CONTROL POLICIES CANDACE SIPOS
ct news reporter
Many Virginia congressional representatives have increased their efforts to pass legislation in favor of stricter gun control policies since the Virginia Tech campus shootings last April. Though such bills have had a tough time making it through the largely Republican Congress in the past, many felt that the shootings would bring to light the supposed need for harsher gun-related laws. However, since the General Assembly began its annual session Jan. 9, some bills appear to loosen gun control. One such bill, presented by Republican Delegate Mark Cole, would prohibit any state entity from restricting the “purchase, possession, transfer, ownership, carrying, storage, or transporting of firearms, ammunition, or components or combinations thereof, unless expressly authorized by statue.” “It would just say that state agencies cannot adopt regulations more strict than state law concerning guns,” Cole said of his bill. “This bill does not include colleges; it’s just strictly state agencies. I specifically left colleges out of it just because I know, with the Virginia Tech tragedy, that it’s a
very emotional issue right now.” Although Cole said that he did not present his bill in direct opposition to recent legislation promoting stricter gun control, he said that he did not think the tragedy called for such harsher gun-related laws. “Virginia Tech was basically a gun-free zone (on April 16),” Cole said. “You can’t get more strict gun control than that, and that really didn’t protect anybody.” A ban on all guns on Tech’s campus has been in place for several decades, although Virginia code does not mention guns in relation to public universities. One bill that Republican Delegate Bob Marshall hopes will help to impede a similar incident regards colleges’ full-time faculty members. Shortly after the April 16 shootings, a professor at George Mason University told Marshall that the knowledge of instructors’ possession of guns might discourage attackers. Marshall’s bill would allow faculty members who have a valid Virginia concealed handgun permit to carry their firearms on campus. “I thought that this could be a way to beef up security and not cost a lot of money,” Marshall said, adding that anyone who possesses a concealed handgun permit has gone through a clearance process and demonstrated some proficiency handling a gun. Republican Delegate C. Todd Gilbert proposed a similar bill in 2005, but it dealt with students who have obtained valid concealed handgun
permits. The bill was killed in committee. This session, Gilbert has presented a related bill that would restrict colleges’ boards of visitors from prohibiting any person’s possession of a handgun on state property if he or she possesses a valid concealed handgun permit. His proposition has been referred to the Committee on Militia, Police and Public Safety, where both Cole and Marshall’s bills also landed. Some doubt that more guns on campuses would prevent or help stop events like those of April 16. Chad Ramsey, spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, advocated fighting back efforts to get more firearms on campus. “We think there ought to be efforts made to ensure that the background check database is more complete, so you have all of the mental health and felony records at the state level,” Ramsey said. “We think that the gun show loophole ought to be closed to ensure that background checks are conducted on every gun sale.” Among the other six bills proposed since Jan. 9 that oppose stricter gun laws is one which would allow hired security officers to carry guns into private schools and child day care centers, and a bill allowing people who lawfully possess firearms to carry a handgun in his or her car or boat if it is locked in a container or compartment. The General Assembly session is scheduled to last for 60 days, but a longer meeting would not be unusual.
CALEB FLEMING
ct news reporter The Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech, rated as one of America’s top five golf destinations by Golf Digest, will break ground on a $5.5 million clubhouse in March 2008. The clubhouse will feature a pro shop, conference rooms, outdoor patios, a dining room, and a grill area. It will also be complete with a Hokie Stone fireplace and patios overlooking the New River. The venue will replace the doublewide trailer currently serving as a makeshift clubhouse. Raymond Smoot, the Virginia Tech foundation’s chief operating officer, said a new clubhouse has been in the plans since the course’s opening. “We decided when we claimed the River Course four years ago that we would eventually build a clubhouse,” Smoot said. “At a recent foundation board of directors meeting, the board
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see CLUBHOUSE, page two