COLLEGIATETIMES
thursday april 10, 2008 blacksburg, va.
www.collegiatetimes.com
news HOUSE CALLS FOR 30 MINUTE NOTIFICATION A congressional bill has been proposed to require institutions to develop plans to notify their students within 30 minutes of an emergency. The law regulating higher education has to be reworked by April 30. The House and Senate currently have differences in their versions of the bill, which must be reconciled by the deadline. The bill also calls for greater cost transparency and an increase in Pell Grant amounts.
Kaine signs bills addressing mental health needs ASHLEY OLIVER
ct associate news editor Gov. Tim Kaine signed multiple bills concerning the treatment of people with mental illnesses yesterday. Prompted by the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech, the bills addressed a number of aspects of mental health treatment, including criteria for committing someone to a mental health facility when there is “a substantial likelihood that, as a result of mental illness, the defendant
will, in the near future, cause serious physical harm to himself or others as evidenced by recent behavior causing, attempting, or threatening harm and other relevant information, if any,” according to the press release, and disclosure of information that could be considered for committing someone to such a health facility. “The Virginia Tech tragedy reminded us that we must address the mental health needs of those in our family, among our friends, and in our community,” Kaine said in a press release. “Working with members of
the General Assembly, we will make significant investments in our mental health system and the bills before me today will establish standards for the system and increase accountability.” Kaine Other mental health bills put before Kaine included the role of mental health in schools, court procedures, access to firearms and for minors. The General Assembly also determined alloca-
tions of the biennium budget and the additional mental health budget. Gun control advocate Lori Haas, whose daughter Emily was wounded in the shootings, was pleased with the signing of yesterday’s bills. “They were all laws that were completely necessary,” Haas said. “And they will be helpful to the mental health community in treating people; they are good laws and I think that they were wisely supported.” The full press release from Governor Kaine can be viewed on our Web site www.collegiatetimes.com.
Students embrace ambassador roles ARLANE GORDONBRAY AND LINSEY BARKER WERE SELECTED TO REPRESENT THE STUDENT BODY TO THE UNIVERSITY BOARD OF VISITORS
sports LACROSSE GRABS FIRST ROAD WIN OF SEASON The Virginia Tech lacrosse team picked up its first road win of the season, defeating Longwood 22-12. The Hokies received a huge boost from junior Rachel Culp who scored six goals on the evening and got hat tricks from senior Kady McBrearty, and freshmen Kate Tracy and Allie Emala. The win brings the Hokies to 4-11 on the season heading into their final two games of the season. Tech returns home Monday evening, squaring off against Duke University at 6 p.m.
weather MOSTLY CLOUDY high 71, low 53
corrections “April 16 should be for remembrance not for agendas,” (CT, April 9) should be clarified. Alison St. Onge is leading this protest. “SGA election results in question,” (CT, April 9) had two mistakes. The undergraduate honor system does not report to the CSA, nor does it have precedence over the honor system. The undergraduate honor system reports to the Provost Office, and any changes within the system must go in front of the Commission on Undergraduate Studies and Policies. “Retired U.S. Marshall speaks about war on drugs,” (CT, April 9) misspelled U.S. Marshal in the headline and throughout the article. The Collegiate Times regrets these errors.
coming up TOMORROW’S CT One of the owners of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company will be speaking in Blacksburg tomorrow night — read the story Friday. T. Rees Shapiro is blogging live from the Masters Tournament; you can read it on our Web site.
index News.....................2 Features................3 Sports...................4
0pinions.................5 Classifieds..............7 Sudoku..................7
An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 105th year • issue 47
JIM DICKHANS/SPPS
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ourth-year graduate student and Ph.D. candidate in industrial and systems and engineering, Linsey Barker was recently selected as the graduate representative to the Board of Visitors. Barker has been a member of the Graduate Student Assemble, the graduate honor society (Alpha Q & A Epsilon Lambda), and the human factors in ergonomics society, as well as served on various other commissions. Q: Where is your hometown? A: Tucson, Arizona. I lived there until I went to undergrad at Washington University in St. Louis, and then I worked in D.C. for 10 years, and then I came here. Q: What prompted you to run for undergraduate representative to the BOV? A: I’ve been pretty involved since I started at Virginia Tech in graduate student governance and graduate student leadership, and I felt like this was a position where I could make a difference. This is a way to give back, a way to serve, a way to represent. Q: What do you love most about Virginia Tech?
A: The people, the community, the same thing everyone’s said since April 16. There’s nowhere else that I’ve ever been like it. I feel like it’s a community worth serving. Q: What sorts of changes do you hope to accomplish at Tech with your new position? A: Improving quality of life for graduate students, for students across the board, the whole student, so thinking about students’ personal lives and things that we can do. Health insurance coverage for graduate students, affordable housing, childcare; those are some of the issues that graduate students are concerned about, as well as just academically improving the quality of our programs. Q: Tell me why you think you were best fit for the job? A: The board reiterated to us a hundred times that this year especially, they really felt like all the undergraduate candidates and the graduate candidates, like they could have picked anyone and would have had a good representative for the next year. I think for anyone in this position, it’s just important that
see GRADUATE, page two
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unior and international studies major and French minor Arlane Gordan-Bray was recently selected as the undergraduate representative to the Board of Visitors. She also serves in a number of activities including the Black Organizations Council, the alliance of concerned students, resident Q & A advising in MOSAIC, resident advisor mentoring in Slusher Tower, and the International Relations Organization of Virginia Tech. Q: Where is your hometown? A: I’m actually a military brat, so that’s plenty of hometowns. I lived in Virginia Beach when I first came here, but my parents just moved last week to Hampton. Q: What prompted you to run for undergraduate representative to the BOV? A: Working with the alliance of concerned students, you kind of get to see a lot of student concerns. One of our main goals is we hear student concerns and we try to figure out how to help so what you want can be implemented in the university. Q: What do you love most about Virginia Tech?
A: That’s a hard thing to explain because I really like this place a lot. I love the student atmosphere, but what I really like in Virginia Tech is that it has given me a lot of opportunities. I got the chance to study abroad in Paris through Tech, I’m doing research right now through Tech … there’s just so much to do out there. We have, what, 620 organizations at Tech? I just love the opportunities that it gives. Q: What sorts of changes do you hope to accomplish at Tech with your new position? A: Right now I’m kind of researching, meeting with different students. Generally, I’m just trying to look at other students’ passions. I just want people to feel the same way I feel about Virginia Tech, that they can get any opportunities they want out there. Q: Tell me why you think you were best fit for the job? That’s a hard one. (The candidates) were all equally qualified and we probably all brought something different to the table that (the selection committee) saw. I’m really charismatic and kind of quirky, and I’m really outgoing.
see UNDERGRADUATE, page two
Police discover student had gun, bullets KEVIN ANDERSON
ct new river valley editor
SHAOZHUO CUI/SPPS
Billy Brubaker, chief justice of the Undergraduate Honor System, logs on to the Course Hero Web site from his office.
Course Hero draws controversy GORDON BLOCK
ct news reporter A new Web site offering help to students through the distribution of course material has raised eyebrows throughout the academic community. The Web site, coursehero.com, carries lecture notes, study guides, exams, formula sheets, outlines and textbook solutions among other documents. Currently the Web site boasts that it has over 500,000 courserelated documents from over 200 universities. Creators developed the site as a way to find use for old course documents. “The idea was to instead of students throwing away course materials at the end of the semester to share them for others to see,” said Andrew Grauer, junior arts and sciences
see CONTROVERSY, page two
Over the weekend, Virginia Tech police discovered a handgun and ammunition cartridges, among other items, in possession of the former Virginia Tech student who allegedly attempted to stab his roommate last week. The student, Michael Tilrico, who was sophomore mechanical engineering major, was arrested last Wednesday and was banned from campus. He is being charged with attempted malicious wounding. Upon searching Tilrico’s dorm room in Lee Hall, police found shooting glasses, a Gunmaster Universal rifle cleaning rod, a Glock
Firearm carrying case, a journal, a receipt for a National Bank deposit box, an external hard drive and shooting targets.
ON THE WEB PDF: Check out a PDF of the affidavit and court records on our Web site The receipt for the deposit box in addition to a statement from Luke Burris, a friend of Tilrico’s, led police to discover a black Taurus Millenium semi-automatic .40 caliber handgun with a total of 270 bullets in the deposit box at the National Bank on South Main Street. The warrant stated that prior to his arrest, Tilrico approached Burris with a back-
pack saying that the police were after him and that the backpack contained his hunting knife. The bag also contained a road atlas, a GPS system, a flashlight, batteries, a water purifier, potassium iodide tablets, a utility tool, fire starter tools and a compass. Burris also stated in the warrant that Tilrico had become a loner, gained a passion for firearms, began to have academic problems, and was beginning to act strangely. Tilrico has made statements in the past about harming himself and has previously been evaluated by mental health professionals. He has been released from holding on $25,000 bail, and is currently living by obligation at his parents’ home in Georgetown, Texas.
Weaver prepares to tee off at The Masters T. REES SHAPIRO
ct sports reporter AUGUSTA, Ga. — If you had asked Virginia Tech Golfer Drew Weaver what his plans were a year ago for the middle of April, he probably would have said he’d be getting ready for the biggest tournament of his life: defending Tech’s title at the 2008 ACC championship. But the future has a way of never working out the way we intend for it to. Instead, Weaver woke up in Augusta this morning on the verge of what has materialized to be possibly the greatest weekend of his life. After a year of smiles, tears and sweat, tomorrow afternoon Weaver, a junior finance major from High Point, N.C., will be teeing off at the 72nd Masters tournament. Weaver received an invitation into the field after claiming the 2007 British Amateur Championship. Since then, Weaver has taken numerous trips to Georgia during the spring for practice rounds. Each time he bent down to tee his ball, he’d envision a gallery of spectators 10 bodies deep lining the fairway. This week the crowds have swarmed and swelled; each day more people are in the gallery. On Wednesday, more maroon started to appear in the gallery and cheers of “Let’s Go, Hokies!” could be heard emanating from behind the ropes. Droves of followers could be seen queuing down the fairway, and for the rest of the day they would walk every step of the 4,000 yards
T. REES SHAPIRO/COLLEGIATE TIMES
Tech student Drew Weaver signs autographs for fans yesterday at the Masters Tournament. of the back nine, eyeing every clank of his driver, swipe of his iron, stroke of his putter. Tomorrow, those visions he had back in January will be gone entirely. At 12:45 p.m., Weaver will take the tee with an extra swish in his swagger knowing that all the excitement, all the hours spent practicing will not have been in vain.
While the events of April 16 won’t be immediately on his mind — he’ll be thinking about making pars and birdies — they have given him a new perspective. “This week has been so much more than what
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see MASTERS, page six