COLLEGIATETIMES
friday february 29, 2008 blacksburg, va.
www.collegiatetimes.com
news CHEER CAMPAIGN ACCEPTING ENTRIES The “Hokie Cheer Campaign” is accepting YouTube videos of cheers to compete for a spot on the big screen at upcoming football games. The Campaign, sponsored by the Student Government Association and the Graduate Student Assembly, will be receiving videos any time between March 10 and April 5. The top ten cheers, which will be announced before Spring Game, will win contest prizes. The grand prizewinner will also win a special prize from the athletics department, along with implementation at the football games. A developing Web site will be created for entries during spring break.
STATE DELEGATES TO DISCUSS CONCEALED CARRY ON CAMPUSES On Monday, March 3, a press conference is scheduled for delegates Marshall and members of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus to discuss proposals regarding carrying concealed weapons on campus. Delegate Robert G. Marshall (R-13) and Delegate Todd Gilbert (R-15) will be present to talk with the students about their recently sidelined proposals as they feel the timeliness of these decisions is imperative after two campus shootings and the recent Ferrum College lockdown. “Potential killers need to know that Virginia’s colleges and universities are not ‘gun free zones’ where no one will be able to stop them from killing as many people as they can,” said Marshall in a press release. The conference will take place at 10:30 a.m. in the House Briefing Room of the General Assembly Building in Richmond.
weather CHANCE OF SHOWERS high 46, low 31
corrections “BZA denies First and Main appeal,” (CT, Feb. 28) should be clarified. Larry Spencer said that the (rezoning application) was essentially just a “sales piece.” The comprehensive plan is a document created by the town to guide zoning decisions. The Collegiate Times regrets this error.
A NEW FILM SET TO BE RELEASED THE WEEK BEFORE THE ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY of April 16 has many close to Virginia Tech up in arms because of the plot’s familiarity. The new release, “Dark Matter,” portrays the account of an Asian graduate student who carries out a shooting on his campus. The story, inspired by the 1991 shootings at the University of Iowa by foreign graduate student, Gang Lu, was one of personal significance for director Chen ShiZheng. “I was once a foreign student myself,” said Chen Shi-Zheng, director of the film. “I was in graduate school when the incident happened.” Because of his related situation, Shi-Zheng was greatly disturbed by the event, and the impact it had on him led to the making of the film. “I was haunted by this story for years because the student was the same age and generation as I was,” Shi-Zheng said. “It wasn’t just some random person. I couldn’t walk away from this story.” Shi-Zheng said that after seeing the how much damage the shooting had done to the surrounding communities, he wanted to make a film to “prevent future tragedies.” However, the film, as well as its timing, has come under criticism from many in the Tech community. The film’s release date is set for April 11. “(The release date) really concerned me. I don’t think that they were being sensitive to us, and they should consider changing the release date,” said Adeel Khan, SGA president. Larry Hincker, university spokesman,
NEXT ISSUE The Collegiate Times will stop publication for Virginia Tech’s spring break. Publication will resume March 11. Check Barrineau’s blog over break for updates from Yankees’ spring training in Florida.
index News.....................1 Features................2 0pinions................3
Sports....................4 Classifieds..............5 Sudoku..................5
An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 105th year • issue 28
NEW MOVIE OF COLLEGE GUNMAN CAUSES CONTROVERSY agreed that the release date was made in poor taste. “It is pretty disgusting,” said Hincker. “It’s kind of contemptible.” The film was originally completed in early 2006, but the release was pushed back because of April 16. “We were going to release it late last summer, and it was in April last year that we were beginning to look at theaters to book,” said Janet Yang, producer of the film. “When Virginia Tech happened it stopped us dead in our tracks.” Larry Dodge, CEO of American Sterling Corporation, which financed the film, disagreed with Khan and Hincker about the new release of the movie. “We focused more on the amount of time that has passed since the shootings at Virginia Tech,” Dodge said. “It was important for the film to come out while school was still in session.” Though “Dark Matter” has sparked controversy, the film has already received some positive feedback. When screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007, it won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, an award given each year to a feature film that either focuses on science or technology or depicts a scientist, engineer, or mathematician as the main character. It has also been screened at some universities and colleges to spark debate and discussion on campuses.
“When I first saw it at Sundance I couldn’t help but think it would be a wonderful catalyst for discussing issues between parents and their sons and daughters about things that are most relevant to universities, such as cultural assimilation, emotional well-being, and security issues,” said Jim Doti, president of Chapman University, where it was screened in October 2007. Doti said he felt the movie was an opportunity to speak on issues not usually touched on. “Some of the questions asked included: where do students go when they need help, and what happens if a student needs help but doesn’t seek it out? I wasn’t liking some of the answers we were giving,” Doti said. The filmmakers appealed to viewers of the film to give it a chance. “Now that these issues occur at such an alarming frequency, we felt even more motivated to be sharing this film,” Yang said. Yang also stressed importance of addressing the issues, even if it may be difficult to look back on. “We need to look at this, as uncomfortable and tragic as these may be to look at,” Yang said. “We are even more motivated to present this film to have it be a catalyst for discussion.” The film Dark Matter is set for release on April 11, and the filmmakers have invited those with comments on the film to contact them at darkmatterthefilm@gmail.com.
Lawsuits against Virginia must be filed by April 16 CANDACE SIPOS
ct news reporter This first anniversary of the shootings at Virginia Tech marks the deadline for victims’ families to file notices of claim, which would show intent to file a lawsuit, against the Commonwealth of Virginia. October 16 was the six-month deadline for identical action against the town of Blacksburg, and Larry Spencer, the town’s attorney, said that about 25 families came to his office. “If the town got them, I think Virginia Tech would certainly anticipate that they’ll get something similar before the end of the year from last April 16,” Spencer said. “I’m sure Virginia Tech anticipates at least the same number if not possibly more.” Of the claims made against the town, 20 will be presented by Attorney Peter Grenier of Washington, D.C.-based Bode & Grenier, Spencer said there are an additional five or six claims spread
out among four or five lawyers. Abingdon lawyer Emmitt Yeary, who stated on April 19 that he had been contacted by a victim’s parent who was considering legal action against Tech, declined to comment on whether he will be representing victims’ families. “I think it would be presumptuous to predict any outcome, but you would think it would be a viable case or he or she would not file it,” Yeary said. Along with Brent Bryson, a Las Vegas-based attorney, Yeary represented plantiffs who won a $1 million lawsuit against the private Appalachian School of Law in 2004. On April 16, 2004, student Peter Odighizuwa fatally shot a dean, professor, a student and wounded three others. However, Tech’s status as a public university makes the legal circumstance different. Sovereign immunity, a principle remaining from earlier times, will be “a strong element of our defense if we ever have to try these cases,” according to Spencer. To protect the state from the ever-
present fear of being sued, sovereign immunity bars the state or town from being sued unless it permits that lawsuit. “The plantiffs will have to overcome sovereign immunity to be successful,” Spencer said. There are some exceptions, namely if students’ civil rights were evidently violated or if Tech is proven to have been very negligent. The latter will likely be the families’ basic claim. Any claims against the state must include “a written statement of the nature of the claim, which includes the time and place at which the injury is alleged to have occurred and the agency or agencies alleged to be liable,” according to Virginia code. These claims must be filed with the director of risk management or the attorney general, Bob McDonnell. His Director of Communications, Tucker Martin, said that 22 notices of claim have been filed so far. He declined to comment on the potential lawsuits. Although the possible town and state
Health services underfunded KERRY O’CONNOR
ct news reporter
coming up
DARK MATTER
STORY BY GORDON BLOCK CT NEWS REPORTER
The recent shootings at Northern Illinois University hit close to home for the Virginia Tech community and all of those who remember the events of April 16. After April 16, mental health and counseling services came under stringent review, and universities across the board are recognizing the disconnect between the need for these services and the funding available. “Nobody had been through what we had been through,” said Christopher Flynn, director of Cook Counseling Center. “Northern Illinois is going through it now, and I think they will be struggling as we did.” Kathy Folkes, associate director of administration for the division of Student Affairs at Tech, said that the Cook Counseling Center runs on a $1.9 million budget with $1.7 million of this budget going toward personnel. She also said since April 16, $160,000 has been added to that budget to create two new counselor positions and one case manager position. The case manager would work
with students who have been hospitalized and might need follow-up care. “Many centers are stretched very tight to provide all the services that are wanted on campus,” said Maggie Gartner, director of the Student-Counseling Service at Texas A&M. “There’s always a bigger pile of want than there is to provide.” According to the annual survey of the Association of University and College Counseling, many centers have begun to make improvements. Over the last year, 15 percent of all counseling centers have received a larger budget and 63 percent of the centers now have psychiatrists as well as counselors, which is a 5 percent increase from last year. “No one has ever said, ‘I don’t want to give you resources,’” Flynn said. “The provost has said to me, tell me what you need, and let’s make a plan to get there.” Folkes discuessed the issues of increased spending. “If any area gets more funding, it’s going to be in the area of counselors because most universities are understaffed,” Folkes said. “Universities are trying to remedy that now.”
lawsuits would be assigned separate numbers, he said they would most likely be tried together because they have a “common core of facts.” “If the same events occurred in one as in the other, judges and courts like to be efficient,” Spencer said. “I think that the natural path would be for those matters to be tried together if they’re ever tried.” However, each family’s case may be tried separately. “(Attorneys) are the ones who get to dictate how the cases actually get filed,” Spencer said. “They could enter as a group, or they could file separate suits at separate times. That aspect of it is probably a little bit overwhelming — the sheer number of potential claims.” Yeary noted that he would not be surprised if more families decide to file notices of claim before April 16. “Common sense would think that you could have a better warning system,” Yeary said. “Just to wait for two hours, just to rush to judgment it’s the boyfriend that may have done this and disregard all the common
sense warning signs — that’s really egregious.” The report released on Aug. 30 by Gov. Tim Kaine’s Virginia Tech Review Panel had similar assessments. After the first two shootings in West AmblerJohnston on the morning of April 16, “the university body was not put on high alert by the actions of the university administration and largely taken by surprise by the events that followed,” according to the report. “Negotiations and discussions are continuing with the families,” said Gordon Hickey, Kaine’s press secretary, who declined to comment further. Spencer said the families who have filed claim against Blacksburg have a span of two years in which to file a lawsuit. Although he said it is difficult to predict what people will do in a situation like this, he doubts that they would wait the entire two years. “We’ll see what happens later this year with regard to what plans are actually filing,” Spencer said. “We’ll just see how that pans out and go from there.”
Meeting of the minds
LINA GARADA/SPPS
Sherwood Williams (left), Elaine Carter (center) and Richard Benson (right), dean of engineering, met yesterday for the Black Constituency Conference, the first of a series of annual conferences designed to meet the needs of various university and community groups.
have a news tip? want to see something in the CT? e-mail tips@collegiatetimes.com