COLLEGIATETIMES
wednesday september 24, 2008 blacksburg, va.
www.collegiatetimes.com
news STUDY ABROAD FAIR HELD TODAY The Office of International Research, Education, and Development will be conducting its education abroad fair today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the Drillfield. During the fair, students can find information on a wide variety of study abroad programs.
BOV REP SEEKS STUDENT INPUT The Virginia Tech undergraduate representative to the Board of Visitors, senior international studies major Arlane GordonBray, is now accepting letters containing questions, comments, and concerns about the university at lanieb05@vt.edu. Gordon-Bray will provide published responses in the Collegiate Times. GordonBray will hold office hours from 11-1 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in 333 Squires Student Center.
sports KICKOFF SET FOR WESTERN KENTUCKY GAME The Hokies’ Oct. 4 Homecoming game against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers will kick off at 1:30 p.m. The game will be telecast on ACC Select.
FANNING WINS ACC AWARD Tasmin Fanning was honored with the ACC Women’s Cross Country Performer of the Week after winning the Virginia Tech Invitational. FANNING Fanning took first place in the 5K event and set a new Virginia Tech Cross Country Course record with a time of 15: 33.3.
weather PARTLY SUNNY high 63, low 49
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.
coming up TOMORROW’S CT Take a look at the decision making behind running back prospect Ryan Williams’ redshirt. See our Web site for a photo gallery of the Tech volleyball’s exciting win over UVa.
index News.....................2 Features................3 0pinions................5
Classifieds..............7 Sports....................4 Sudoku..................7
An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 105th year issue 85
Female cadets share trouble, triumph T. REES SHAPIRO
ct campus editor Being a girl doesn’t score you any points in the Corps of Cadets, and Christine Barry knows this better than most. Everyday, when she wakes up at 4 a.m. to prepare her uniform, she’s unsure of what the breaking day will bring. So she’s certain to make that extra effort to trim a stray stitch, polish leather just a shine more, and hope today she doesn’t get another five demerits for being improperly dressed. If Cadet Barry does get those demerits, Cadet Kimberly Vowell will know. She’s Comand Seargent Major — the top cadet in the junior class and responsible for the Corps’ disciplinary system. As Command Sergeant Major she’s in direct line to become the Regimental Commanding Officer — the top position in the entire Corps. If offered the command she’s almost guaranteed, she wonders whether she’d even accept; whether she could make it through her grueling senior year of classes. Cadet Tavia Cawley knows how tough juggling the Corps and classes can be. She’s going to take a fifth year to finish her degree in civil engineering, and then pursue her career in the Air Force. As the Golf Company commander, Cawley’s purview includes 56 cadets. But Cawley has never been one to aim low — she aspires to be a NASA astronaut. Through different roles and perspectives, Barry, Vowell and Cawley, along with 82 others, make up the women of the Corps of Cadets. Tech has produced several notable military leaders. Most recently, former cadet Michelle Compton, class of 1983, received a promotion to Brigadier General. The history of females in the Corps is a long one. The first females admitted to Tech came in 1921 as civilian day students. However, it wasn’t until over a hundred years of Tech’s existence as a senior military academy that females joined the Corps. In 1973, the Corps established L squadron, enrolling 25 females, eight of whom were sophomores. Six years later females were completely integrated in to the Corps line units with the disassembly of L Squadron. Cadet dorms became co-ed by hallway in 1991. Today’s Corps has 688 members, with 85 females, wrote Lt. Alex Kibler, recruiting officer for the Corps, in an e-mail. Maj. Rewa Mariger, Corps recruiting officer, said the Corps has 700 total students including those taking a fifth year to finish their degree. 583 of the 700 total members are military option cadets in an ROTC program. There are 71 females in ROTC in the Corps, Kibler wrote. The past four years have seen a decline in numbers of female cadets. In 2005 there were 104 females out of 746. Then there were 98 of 732 in 2006, and 92 of 618 in 2007. However, each year the percentage of females out of total cadets increased from 7.17 percent in 2005 to 8.09 percent in 2008. In 2007, females composed 41 percent of the undergrad population at Tech. If
CHRIS STACK/SPPS
Cadet Christina Barry, left, is followed by cadets Matt Weiser and Brittany Hicks down the obstacle course located behind the Duckpond. cadets are a minority on campus, female cadets are a hyper-minority. Barry’s first four weeks at Tech have been characterized by a feeling akin to waiting to hear exam results. “It’s feeling of excitement, anticipation,” Barry said. “But it’s more of a fear than anything. A feeling of always being on edge.” Barry, 18, of Fairfax, is on an Air Force ROTC scholarship. She had originally considered the Navy because her dad is a retired Lieutenant Commander in that branch. But, if her dreams of becoming a pilot didn’t come true, she said it would have been an awful mess to be stuck on a boat; she gets sea sick. For now, she’s concerned about her coursework as a general engineering major, and ensuring she always has her “sensitive items” with her at all times. Freshman cadets are required to keep a pen, a notebook, the Guidon — the Corps of Cadets’ freshman guide — and three copies of demerit sheets. In case, for instance, an upperclassmen
cadet catches her without her sensitive items and wants to write her up for the infraction, which happened just last week during a quick trip to the bathroom. Barry said she used to be worried about different frivolities such as flirting and flip-flops. Now she’s more concerned about whether her cadre leaders will catch her with an extra swipe of eyeliner. “Flip-flops was like my life. I had all kinds of different colors, one with diamonds on them,” Barry said. “Here, the Cadre tell me those are shower shoes. I was such a girly-girl before I came here. I love wearing my hair down, I love wearing makeup.” But life in the Corps is much different than high school Barry has learned. “I don’t get the college experience everybody else does. I’m starting my job four years earlier,” Barry said. “I have to be an adult before all my friends. I’m not allowed to flirt anymore. I feel a little bit more masculine, more like one of the guys.” Already Barry senses personal transformation.
“It’s a lifestyle the corps lives by. It’s not just about you anymore,” Barry said. “Your image is the Corps. When people see you they don’t see you; they see the Corps. So that’s probably the biggest thing for me. I’m going to have to change what I’m doing because I’m now representing something bigger. I think about how I appear to other people” During training Barry expected the regimen to be difficult. However, she had been surprised to learn it would be upperclass female cadets who would provide some of training’s greatest challenges.. “I didn’t expect them to be softer, but I was definitely surprised by how in character they were the whole time,” Barry said. She thought, “‘Oh they are female they will kind of understand where I’m coming from.’ But more so, they are harder on you because they have been through it and know it’s no excuse that you’re a girl.” One upperclass female with the ability to drill
see CORPS, page two
Gilmore, Warner set for Pamplin offers broadly televised debate minor in diversity GORDON BLOCK
ct news reporter United States Senate candidates Mark Warner and Jim Gilmore will face off in the first statewide, televised debate of the election season on Oct. 3. The debate will be carried by WSLS of Roanoke. WSLS is offering to provide the debate to any station wanting to carry the contest. While the Oct. 3 debate is the third one taking between WARNER place the candidates, it’s the first to be broadcast to a statewide audience. A previous debate between the two Senate hopefuls, taking place the Fairfax GILMORE atChamber of Commerce, was broadcast only in the Northern Virginia region, while an earlier debate at the Homestead Resort was not broadcast at all. The first attempt for a televised debate between the two candidates did not succeed because Warner declined to participate. This debate was to be sponsored by the League of Women Voters, who during the 2006 election season had held a televised debate between thensenator George Allen and eventual winner Jim Webb. Officials from the Friends of Mark Warner attributed the missed debate to a scheduling conflict. “Due to a demanding campaign schedule, the Warner campaign was unable to accommodate that request for a specific date and time by their deadline of Aug. 25th and had to decline their invitation,” said Emily Kryder, press secretary for Friends of Mark Warner, in a statement. According to another statement released by the League of Women Voters, the group had issued
invitations to both campaigns in June when both candidates were certified. Craig Brians, a professor of political science at Virginia Tech, said that seeing candidates participate in debates could be a large help to voters. “One of the key advantages to seeing candidates in a debate is that the people know it isn’t a campaign ad, so the candidates aren’t able to control everything that happens at the event,” said Brians. “It adds an air of legitimacy to candidates’ Vresponses.” Brians also acknowledged a candidate’s wariness to appear in a televised debate. “It’s a big drawback to front-runners to appear in a televised debate. They can lose by appearing in the debates and then have something go wrong that makes them look bad,” Brians said. On the flip side, he also pointed out the harmful effects to trailing candidates by not getting televised.
“Without debates and the exposure they can bring it really can hurt a campaign,” Brians said. Despite the lack of opportunities to debate Warner, the Gilmore campaign remained upbeat. “We’re not missing anything. People are missing a chance to hear both candidates talk about the issues,” said Dick Leggitt, campaign manager for Jim Gilmore. Leggitt expressed confidence in Gilmore’s abilities when the two debate. “The thing about Jim Gilmore is he is who he is, while Warner is one thing one day and another thing the next day. People will get a chance to see this when they see the two debate,” Leggitt said. At the moment Warner holds a substantial lead over Gilmore. According to the latest poll from Rasmussen Reports, Warner leads by a margin of 59 percent to 33 percent. The candidates are vying for the seat of retiring Republican Senator John Warner.
news in brief GILMORE SUSPENDS COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR The Jim Gilmore for Senate Campaign suspended communications director Ana Gamonal on Friday, according to a press release. She admittedly sent a misleading e-mail using a different name to the campaign of Mark Warner, Gilmore’s rival for the U.S. Senate seat up for grabs this November. Without the Gilmore Campaign’s knowledge, Gamonal sent an e-mail from a personal e-mail account using a different name requesting that the Warner campaign add her to their press list. She released a statement apologizing for her “lack of judgement,”
but she will be suspended from work for two weeks without pay for her actions. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Warner’s campaign told the Gilmore campaign about the suspicious email on Friday, and Gamonal was immediately suspended. She used the name Alexis Navarro, though her real name is Ana Gamonal de Navarro. Warner, via his press aide Kevin Hall, accepted Gamonal’s apology. In 2001, during Warner’s race for governor, he experienced a similar situation. Amanda Crumley, one of his press aides, called into a radio show where Gilmore, who was running aginst Waner, was speaking and referred to herself as “Jennifer”. — by Candace Sipos
JUSTIN GRAVES
ct news staff writer This fall, the Pamplin College of Business added a new minor in business diversity. With hopes of changing the make-up of the work place and attracting new students, the program is open to Virginia Tech sophomores, juniors and seniors who are currently enrolled in the Pamplin College of Business in good academic standing. Mary Connerley, director of the Business Diversity Center, has championed the program and is excited to finally be able to offer it to students. Initially, the program was Dean Richard Sorenson’s brainchild, stemming from the fact that Tech is 73 percent white. The program hopes to enhance the diversity-related competencies in students, while also giving them the chance to take many courses that wouldn’t be offered without the minor. “It’s a traditional 18-hour minor, with many courses designed specifically for the minor along with management courses, amongst others,” Connerley said. “There is a great focus on developing the awareness, knowledge and skills of the individual, while also giving them the chance to expose themselves to many different areas of diversity in the work place through their course load.” The curriculum was developed in order to provide students with a broad view of diversity as it impacts the work place. That is a quality that many new businesses are looking for in prospective employees. “Diversity has become a significant part of the fiber of our organization,” said Greg Kendrick, vice president of Internal Audit at Wachovia. “From the hiring phase to many senior management groups, informing others about diversity is an ongoing awareness process. It’s even better if we can hire someone who already knows what it’s all about.” Representatives from Ernst & Young, one of the world’s leading professional services organizations, practice the same idea. “We have a focus in diversity recruit-
ing to raise awareness and identify the top students early in their college careers,” said Amie Phillips Pablo of Ernst & Young’s Fraud Investigation and Dispute Services division. “Last year, we hired over 300 multi-year interns across the U.S. and Canada targeted at underrepresented minority groups.” Connerley believes that the minor is primarily a building block to help students get jobs and cited that it’s an ongoing process. “We also want to help our students be able to compete more and have a better chance at earning a job or internship after graduation,” Connerley said. “People often think they are experts at it, but you can always learn more, even if you have a solid diversity-related foundation.” Since August, nearly a dozen students have declared the business diversity minor. Connerley hopes for at least forty declarations by the end of the year. She personally receives all of the applications, reviews them and conducts personal interviews with applicants. “Students can start the minor as late as first semester of their junior year and still graduate on time,” Connerley said. Laura Jones is a junior ACIS major who has applied for the minor and begun the courses. “I applied because I thought it would increase the opportunities available to me,” said Jones. “Today’s business executives are a lot different than those forty years ago, so I wanted to be able to bring something different to the table.” Connerley agrees with Jones’ intentions by furthering what she is already learning with an accounting and information systems major. “Overall, the business diversity minor is a nice addition to their course work and to their major,” Connerley said. “A lot of people are dedicated to this program. … It’s a nice compliment, and hopefully we’ll hear great things about how it helped them in the job market and getting into the workplace.” If interested, students can obtain an application form from the Undergraduate Programs Office in Pamplin Hall and will meet with the director to discuss the program.
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