COLLEGIATETIMES
friday september 19, 2008 blacksburg, va.
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news BIKE THEFTS ON CAMPUS The Virginia Tech Police Department has reported 28 bicycle thefts between May 1 and Sept. 9, 2008. Students are advised to notify Sergeant Tony Haga at 540231-8122 if they have any information regarding these thefts. The Police Department is advising students to use U-shaped locks, remove a part of the bike such as the seat or wheel, and park in high-traffic, well-lit areas.
GEOSCIENCES RECEIVES $1.75 MILLION GRANT Virginia Tech geosciences and civil and environmental engineering researchers have received a $1.75 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study nanomaterials and how they interact with the environment. Tech is part of a 10 school collaboration working on the project that was allotted a total of $14 million.
Gildan responds to GJA entreaties ZACH CRIZER
ct news staff writer Global Justice Alliance leaders held the “Sweatshop Effect” on Wednesday, asking Virginia Tech to explore joining the Worker’s Rights Consortium on the alleged basis that Tech apparel is possibly made in sweatshops. Some shirts sporting the Virginia Tech logo are made by Gildan Activewear of Montreal Canada. This year’s Maroon Effect shirts were produced in factories operated by Gildan. Gildan representative Genevieve Gosseline insisted that the company neither owns nor operates plants that follow illegitimate business practices. “I can assure you that we don’t have any. We’ve been recognized by many organizations including the Fair Labor Association for labor compliance, based on many aspects of inspection,” Gosseline said. In 2003, the National Labor Committee issued a report stating certain Gildan shirts may have been
produced in a factory that operated under illegitimate business practices, such as unhealthy working conditions and poor pay rates. The alleged 2003 “sweatshop” factory was in the Honduran municipality of Choloma. When asked specifically about the plant that allegedly produced Gildan products in 2003, Gosseline said it is not in use by the company. “It was not one of our plants. I don’t have any records of it,” Gosseline said. “I don’t know if it’s closed, but we are not contracting from this facility.” Gildan owns several facilities in Choloma, including a distribution center that opened last year. Tech is currently a member of the FLA, which monitors factories producing licensed Tech apparel. GJA is urging university administrators to join the WRC, specifically the Designated Suppliers Program. National Labor Committee Assistant Director Barbara Briggs said WRC is a transparent, student-friendly organization. “Essentially, the WRC was formed out of student movements and
demands for greater transparency and greater input into the process by the workers themselves,” Briggs said. Briggs added that many companies do not own the facilities that their products are produced in, a practice known as subcontracting. “Subcontracting is pretty common, and the better companies have worked hard to make sure they are only in factories in their committed list of contracting,” Briggs said. Gildan has closed at least one plant in Honduras that was cited for workers’ rights violations, complying with FLA requests. Briggs said many companies that produce Tech apparel, such as Nike and Fruit of the Loom, have dealt with violations. “They are all companies that have had to engage with this issue and that have come under a lot of pressure,” Briggs said. “They aren’t the worst of the worst. Gildan especially, has been involved in union busting. All the companies, no matter what their code of conduct says, have engaged in activity that doesn’t allow collective
Factory Facts cents per shirt (alleged pay rate of a Honduran t-shirt worker)
8 30 119 "5 or 6"
Gildan facilities in Choloma, Honduras (3 state of the art textile facilities, 4 sewing facilities and 1 distribution center)
workers fired
FLA Factory Audits in 2007
FLA complaint investigations a year,
from Perez-Lopez
BEN MACDONALD/COLLEGIATE TIMES
see FACTORY, page three
Dear Future Residents: Part Three
Faster than the speed of spruce
DAY RESERVED TO HIGHLIGHT INTERNET PROS OneWebDay will be taking place on Sept. 22 as a dedication to preserving the free flow of online information. Legal scholar Susan Crawford originally began OneWebDay as a means of emphasizing the positive effects that the Internet has on today’s world. Students are encouraged to enter a contest by posting their own short video on YouTube entitled “onewebday2008.” For more information visit action.onewebday.org.
T. REES SHAPIRO
ct campus editor
ROY T. HIGASHI/SPPS
The Splinter, a sports car made of wood, was showcased on Thursday, Sept. 18, as part of Wood Week 2008. Each wheel is made of 300 separate pieces of wood. The calculated projected speed of the car is about 240 miles per hour.
SEED deals with market dive RILEY PRENDERGAST
ct news reporter Visit the CT online to vote for 2008 Best of Blacksburg and enter to win an 8GB iPod Touch
weather SUNSHINE high 71, low 67
corrections If you see something in today’s paper that needs to be corrected, please e-mail our public editor at publiceditor@collegiatetimes.com, or call 540.231.9865.
Check out the CT Politics Round Table for a discussion of the media’s portrayal of Sarah Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy, and oil drilling.
index News.....................2 Features................6 0pinions................5
Classifieds............B3 Sports..................B1 Sudoku................B3
An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 105th year issue 83
Certain Hokies on campus are multi-millionaires playing with Virginia Tech’s money. Sound too good to be true? Enter SEED: the Student Endowment for Educational Development. It’s “an organization that manages an equity portfolio and acts as a unified equity manager of the Virginia Tech Foundation,” according to its Web site. It’s in charge of investing almost $5 million of the Virginia Tech Foundation’s funds. SEED is ranked third in the nation for assets under management in student-managed funds and is the largest non-curricular student-managed fund in the nation. “We have done really well as a benchmark,” said Christina Todd, the co-CEO of SEED. “We have a student-run portfolio, and we make all of the decisions ourselves.” As for taking a hit while the market has been in a decline, SEED seems to have been relatively unaffected because of its market exchange prowess. “Our portfolio did not take a big hit. We didn’t have any exposure to the banks,” Todd said.
“We are more focused on long-term investment, and we know that there are always going to be short-term lows, but everything is cyclical and will eventually build back up.” “We didn’t take a big hit, and that’s saying something for the market right now,” said Will Hudson, a finance major and analyst in the health care sector of SEED. As for the market itself, not in relation to SEED, it’s going to take a little while to recover from this recent crisis and the mortgage disaster of the past couple years. “The market will build back up, but it’s going to take a while. … In the long term it will be resilient,” said John Pinkerton, a SunTrust professor of finance. Even the experienced market analysts could not have predicted the 500-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial earlier this week. “This is a very interesting time for the market right now,” Todd said in reference to the latest trends in the Dow. Companies that were once fixtures of market trade are now consolidating, merging and desperately needing government bailouts. Merrill Lynch, one of the world’s leading financial management and advisory companies, is merging with Bank of America. As with
any merger, the company restructuring creates instability for stockholders. American International Group, an insurance and financial services organization, required an $85 billion bailout to keep its company afloat and once again attempt to bring the market out of its severe slide. “People have never seen anything like this before. … It would be a great time to learn about investment strategies,” Hudson said. SEED is composed of students who are knowledgeable about the current status of the stock market and are devoted to learning the tricks of the trade, keeping their investments out of the red. “We’re able to take a step back and examine the situation before we invest in a company. … I think that is what’s making us so successful,” Hudson said. Todd stated in an e-mail requests to see an update of their portfolios performance in the current rocky market may not be able to be released “due to confidentiality agreements.” Students interested in finance or learning the ropes of the stock market can attend SEED information sessions at 7 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 29, in Holden Auditorium and again at 7 p.m. on Sept. 30 in Pamplin 2030.
DMC recounts hip-hop history GORDON BLOCK
ct news reporter Students packed into the Haymarket Theatre in Squires Student Center Thursday evening for an opportunity to hear rap icon Darryl “DMC” McDaniels speak. McDaniels, currently on his History of Hip Hop Lecture Series, took time to enlighten the audience in attendance about not only his story, but the history and story of hiphop music as a whole. Students in attendance were happy for a chance to see the legend in person. “I’ve always been a big fan of Run-DMC. With DMC coming to Tech, I had to be here,” said James Cummings, senior international studies major. In starting his lecture, DMC talked about the notion of ‘old-school’ hip-hop music. “It’s just like classic rock, old school when it comes to hip-hop isn’t a time period, it means
better than anything that will be made after it,” McDaniels said. McDaniels began with how he got into music, starting from hearing a cassette of hip-hop while he was a boy in Hollis, N.Y. McDaniels also went over the beginnings of hip-hop, from when DJs would come together and play for people in local parks and playgrounds. Continuing from there, McDaniels described the universal nature of hip-hop music. “Hip-hop gives you the total being of our existence,” McDaniels said. McDaniels explained how hip-hop rose into its popularity. “It was an epidemic, but the reason hip-hop did what it did was because it was good, and it was universal, and it was relatable to every one of us,” McDaniels said. While McDaniels’ focus was on the history of hip-hop music, McDaniels also stopped to
see DMC, page three
PAUL PLATZ/SPPS
Rapper DMC comes to Tech to discuss the emergence of hip hop in America.
The managing company of Smith’s Landing Apartments is pleased to report its “Future Residents” are now current residents. Though the project has made significant progress over the past few weeks, much construction remains to be completed said Cathy Cook, Blacksburg’s building official. The construction, which if not properly monitored, she said, could put the residents of Smith’s Landing in a dangerous environment. Three of the apartment buildings have been issued temporary certificates of occupancy: A, B and C. Building A received its temporary CO Monday, Sept. 8. The remaining two buildings, D and E have not finished construction. Cook also said site improvements are hindering the project’s entire completion. “There’s a lot of site work that hasn’t been done yet. You can drive over there and see that,” Cook said. “A contactor will contact the planning office and request a final inspection, so we go out, my building inspection staff, we call the fire department, we notify zoning and engineering, and so everybody goes out and does their perspective inspections. But all of them have to be approved before I will issue CO for a building,” Cook said. One aspect of great importance for Cook when passing buildings for permanent inspections is overall safety of the site. Smith’s Landing is constructing a hotel to accommodate incoming football fans during the fall. However, the hotel’s building site is very close to where residents currently live. Cook said the most important remaining facet of the project is completion of the hotel in a safe manner to residents. Construction sites, she said, are inherently dangerous. “With the hotel you’re going to have cranes, you’re going to have big heavy trucks and equipment and you know we’re looking out for the safety of the citizens of the tenements out there,” Cook said. “In order for them to final out the whole apartment side of it, they’ll have to give us a definite phase line of how they are keeping construction away from the tenants before we issue them permanent COs. I don’t want them mixing.” Andrew Warren, Blacksburg’s zoning administrator, said Smith’s Landing had fully cooperated in matching its site’s design according to plans. Warren expressed grave concern over the safe separation of hotel’s construction activity from residents. “We want to make sure that the allowed uses, that are active now, the resident portion, is not being jeopardized by construction activity,” Warren said. “A construction site is dangerous. There is a lot of heavy equipment moving around quickly and materials people really shouldn’t be walking around, and we’re just trying to make sure those things are separated.” The expected completion of the hotel is in the fall of 2009. A representative for Armada Hoffler, the managing company for Smith’s Landing apartments, said the project is nearing completion, and all leasees have officially moved into their apartments. “We have no students left in hotel rooms,” said spokeswoman Danya Bushey. “Our main priority has been to finish the actual apartments so that the students could move in there.” The complex has 284 units total, 140 of which are currently occupied. Building D is expected to be finished in late October, and Building E in late November, Bushey said. The Clubhouse, which is located in building C, has not passed final inspection. Bushey said it should open in about four weeks. “I don’t think it would have been very fair for us to be working on the clubhouse while students are living in hotel rooms,” Bushey said.
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