COLLEGIATETIMES
thursday october 23, 2008 blacksburg, va.
www.collegiatetimes.com
news AT WESTERN KENTUCKY, ALARM BUT NO SHOOTING Western Kentucky University was locked down Wednesday after reports of a gunman on the school’s main campus. Around 12: 44 p.m., the university sent out a text message to students warning them to seek shelter after reports of shots at Pearce Ford Tower, a dormitory building on campus. The university’s south campus was evacuated. Classes for the day were then cancelled. At 3:02 p.m. the university released an “all clear” message, and that message was relayed over the schools intercom system 15 minutes later. University officials at a press conference said there was a fight that occured but that there was no gunfire and that no witnesses reported seeing weapons. Five people have been taken into custody in relation to the fight. Classes will be in session today.
Colleges to handle one-third of cuts CALEB FLEMING
new river valley editor Virginia Tech President Charles Steger has asked deans and vice presidents to develop plans to reduce the academic operating budget for the current school year by 1.5 percent. Steger said in an e-mail to faculty yesterday that the university expects
additional budget constraints in the 2009-10 school year, in addition to what the state government has said could be considerable reductions. Programs not associated with individual colleges will absorb 3.5 percent of the budget reduction, ideally minimizing the effects on individual departments. University spokesman Mark Owczarski said the programs whose
funds will be affected have yet to be determined. “There’s probably 75 to 100 ways that they’ve done this,” Owczarski said. “Virginia Tech has a $1 billion operating budget. It’s very, very complex. There are a whole lot of people looking at every possible way to make up for this budget shortfall centrally.” The rise in the number of incoming freshmen at Tech could aid the
university’s attempt to compensate for their loss of funding. “This year we had some extra students coming here, so this year we had some extra revenue,” Owczarski said. “But that’s just an example of many.” Steger added that other than recognizing the need to protect core operations, the university administration would not direct how the cuts should be implemented.
sports WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PICKED 10TH IN ACC POOL The Hokies women’s basketball team was voted 10th in the preseason conference poll by a Blue Ribbon Panel. North Carolina, with 15 of 42 first-place votes, was chosen first for the upcoming season.
weather SUNSHINE high 55, low 35
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 After last week’s loss to Boston College, see how Tech football is preparing for Florida State.
index News.....................2 Features................3 0pinions................4
Classifieds..............8 Sports....................6 Sudoku..................8
An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 105th year issue 95
see BUDGET, page two
news in brief
Warner, Google CEO to talk technology at Lyric today
LATE-NIGHT ALTERCATION LEADS TO ARREST FOR ASSAULT Virginia Tech student Craig Troisi has been arrested after an altercation last night with his girlfriend Charlotte Lauren. Lauren, 21 of Columbia, Md., and Troisi, 21 of Easton, Md., got into a fight at his house on the 300 block of Franklin Drive after going out to celebrate his 21st birthday. Lauren, also a Tech student, was knocked to the ground resulting in severe head lacerations, and was also later determined to have suffered skull fractures. When police responded to the scene at around 1:10 a.m. they placed Troisi under arrest for assault and battery, as well as public intoxication. Lauren was transported to Montgomery Regional Hospital. She was later moved to the Lewis-Gale Medical Center in Salem. Blacksburg police officer Sgt. Nathan O’Dell said she is in good and stable condition. Troisi remains in custody at the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office jail, held on $1,500 secured bail. Sgt. O’Dell said Troisi may also face a felony malicious wounding charge because of the severity of Lauren’s injuries. O’Dell said Troisi’s current charge is a class one misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of 12 months incarceration and/or a $2,500 fine. Felony malicious wounding charges carry a maximum penalty of one to three years in jail and/or a $2,500 fine.
BIDEN TO SPEAK IN MARTINSVILLE FRIDAY Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden will speak for Barack Obama in Martinsville on Friday. The rally will take place at the Stone Hall at Patrick Henry Community College at 6:45 p.m. The event will open its doors at 4:45 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Though tickets are not required, the event is coordinated on a first-come, first-served basis and an RSVP is strongly recommended.
“All the different colleges will have to decide for themselves how they will have to make up for the budget shortfall,” Owczarski said. “It may be that they have a position open but they don’t fill it right away. They may cut back on conference travel.” And with the expected cuts in the future, Steger requested the deans
—by T.Rees Shapiro
MIKE SHROYER/SPPS
Former Virginia Governor Mark Warner speaks to the Montgomery County Democratic Committee Dinner in Shultz Hall. Today, former Governor and current Democratic Senate candidate of Virginia Mark Warner and CEO of Google Eric Schmidt will be at the Lyric between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 pm. The event is sponsored by the Virginia Tech Alumni Association, and is open to the student body. Warner and Schmidt will be discussing the promise of increasing technology while also creating jobs and opportunities across the country, especially Q&A in rural America. “When speaking about technology and a global economy, you don’t leave smaller, rural communities behind,” Warner said in an interview Tuesday. “And I thought what better place to take this than Blacksburg and Virginia Tech.” Before his appearance, Warner sat down with CT staff writer Justin Graves. Look for a complete recap of the event in Friday’s edition of the Collegiate Times.
Q: How did you get involved with Eric Schmidt and Google in Thursday’s event? A: Google is one of the most exciting companies in the world and they have been supporters of mine for a while. Q: What is your view on smaller communities, such as Blacksburg, and the role they play in the global economy? A: When speaking toward technology and a global economy, you don’t leave smaller, rural communities behind, and I thought what
better place to take this than Blacksburg and Virginia Tech. Technology must withstand the boundaries of time, especially with the number of services available anywhere, any place.
Q: What is the driving force behind the economy, and the obvious factor of technology? A: I believe that the driving force behind our economy and the world economy is going to be a well-educated work force and capital innovation. As for as education, that’s what Virginia Tech does and that’s what Google does, allowing us to be a leader again. America has fallen to sixth in the world as far as foreign percentage of their GDP, and that’s not good enough. We need a renewed focus on research and development with technology. The next four or five years is going to be the age of energy for the world in terms of job creation. This is something that Google has taken the lead on, and something I would love to see Virginia take the lead on. Q: What would you say is the greatest factor in the whole technology — global economy spectrum? A: Beyond driving down health care prices, beyond education and innovation, you’ve got to have infrastructure. In the 21st century, it’s been mostly defined as roads and rail, but you also need broadband. What has really helped America in the last 20 years is innovation on the Internet and the telecom innovation such as things like satellite.
Q: What are the political implications for Virginia Tech students concerning the role that technology will play in the global economy? A: Political implications are two-fold. One is in the past; if you were left behind you might still have a place or a job that you can find. Those jobs are basically gone. They are disappearing in our society. The challenge we’ve got, from a political standpoint, is not to leave rural America behind. The real challenge is future versus past. We need elected leaders who are not afraid of the future. They don’t have to be a techno-whiz, but they sure have to be aware of technology and globalization. Q: What should Virginia Tech students do to be ready for their role in the future? A: Students have got to be educated and they’ve got to understand that they live in a global economy, whether they like it or not. And they’ve got to be involved. The world is changing at a great speed and you’ve got to engage in the political process. Do things that actually get results. Q: What is your view on America and their role in the future world economy? A: Just because America was the pre-eminent in the 20th century, doesn’t mean we still are. I think America can be the pre-eminent power in the 21st century, but we’ve got to earn it. And students must be ready for that, and they must demand leadership so that America can stay competitive.
Anti-war vet comes to campus Former Marine Corps reservist and anti-war activist Adam Kokesh will be on campus this evening to speak in LittonReaves 1670 at 7 p.m. Kokesh, who spent more than six years in the Marine C o r p s reserves and completed a tour of Iraq KOKESH before being discharged, has been a promiQ&A n e n t figure in protests against the war in Iraq, protesting speeches and events across the country. Kokesh was arrested at Hofstra University in New York on Oct. 15 for disorderly conduct while protesting at the final presidential debate with members of Iraq Veterans
Against the War. Kokesh also faced disciplinary action in 2007 after he wore portions of his military uniform to anti-war events. Interview by CT news reporter Gordon Block.
Q: You are currently a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, a group that opposes the war in Iraq. What has led you to oppose the war in Iraq? A: Part of the disillusionment for me since I went to Iraq, I was against the war before it started, but I thought we had a responsibility to clean up our mess and I thought that’s what we were doing. I had to go for myself to find out that wasn’t really the case. That’s not the way the occupation was being conducted. There was no handover of power. I also thought that when I left that there’d be less Marines in the
region, more would be leaving and that wasn’t the case. We’ve not only had the surges of late, but we’ve had really four or five surges since then. I mean if we had really started to wind these things down I never would have come out publicly against the war, but the fact it’s still going on at this point when there’s absolutely no point of being there, and yet there’s still fellow Marines dying every day, I have to do something about it.
Q: With Election Day only a few weeks away, the presidential race is getting a lot of attention. Does either of the major presidential candidates, John McCain or Barack Obama, have the right plan for America’s wars in the Middle East? A: Well, ironically, it’s anybody but Obama and McCain. All four of the third-party indepen-
dent candidates are committed as Ron Paul brought them together on a joint platform on foreign policy for non-interventionism. This wasn’t just drawn from Iraq and Afghanistan but from most of the other 150 countries where we have troops in the world. That’s the important philosophical difference between principled candidates who really believe in something versus the corporate sponsored candidates that base their beliefs on the people that put money toward their campaigns. Q: What would be the best resolution for military forces fighting in the region? Can victory be achieved in the war on terror? A: The idea of victory is such a joke, since you can’t win an occupation. The idea of winning
Nonviolent felons see voting rights restored CANDACE SIPOS
ct politics editor Thousands of former felons may be voting in the upcoming election thanks to Virginia’s two most recent Democratic governors. Former Gov. Mark Warner and current Gov. Tim Kaine both worked to restore the voting rights of nearly 6,000 nonviolent felons in Virginia. During his 2002-06 term, Warner helped 3,414 of these felons regain their right to vote. Kaine did the same for 2,576 felons in the first three years of his term. “When (Warner) was campaigning for governor in 2001, he became aware of a significant number of folks who had been convicted of crimes,” said Warner spokesman Kevin Hall, adding that most of these crimes occurred when the felons were young. After serving their time, paying their fines and turning their lives around, they “still were being denied an opportunity to participate in the election process,” Hall said. “When he took office as governor, he discovered that there was a very paperwork-intensive, arbitrary process that existed to allow former felons to rejoin society.” Hall noted that Virginia and Kentucky are the only two states that do not allow nonviolent felons such as these to regain their voting rights directly following their release from prison. Instead, it was up to the discretion of the governor to allow these Virginians to vote. Hall said that when Warner took office, there were “boxes upon boxes” of unopened paperwork requesting the restoration of felons’ voting rights. Warner also made it easier for these felons to request the right to vote. For most Virginians convicted of a nonviolent felony, he decreased the paperwork from 13 pages to one. The requirement of three letters of recommendation was also eliminated. Warner also reduced the waiting period for approval from five to three years. The Sentencing Project, a national advocacy group working toward sentencing law and practice reforms found that about 20 percent of the black population of Virginia was included in those who lost their right to vote, or 208,000 Virginians. Some might question the motive behind these governors’ actions, as the vast majority of these felons would statistically be assumed to vote Democrat. Delegate Jeffrey Frederick (R-Prince William County) said restoring voting rights to these nonviolent felons is Kaine’s “constitutional prerogative” and he has the authority to do so. Frederick said the part that “leaves a bad taste in peoples’ mouth” is Kaine’s position as co-chair of the Obama campaign. This, coupled with the timing of Kaine’s move, may give some Republicans ammunition. “If it’s so important, why didn’t he do it last year?” Frederick asked. Hall finds it “absurd” that anyone would posit political
see KOKESH, page two
have a news tip? want to see something in the CT? e-mail tips@collegiatetimes.com
see VOTING, page two