Wednesday, October 28, 2009 Print Edition

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An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

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COLLEGIATETIMES 106th year, issue 107

News, page 2

Features, page 5

Opinions, page 3

Sports, page 6

Classifieds, page 4

Sudoku, page 4

Rugby suspended after hazing violation JOE CRANDLEY sports editor On Oct. 19, the Office of Student Conduct officially suspended the entire Virginia Tech Men’s Club Rugby team until May 15, 2010, because of a hazing incident at an Aug. 28 party held by a member of the club.

According to a document obtained by the Collegiate Times, the team received a “loss of recognition” sanction from the Office of Student Conduct, which “means that the organization must cease all operations and activities in the organization’s name including but not limited to, any competitive play on or away from campus, any recruitment of members, any social activities, correspondence or communication, and any financial transactions.”

The club currently consists of approximately 90 members.

Now dismissed from the club, the

Byron Hughes, the assistant director of student conduct, held a hearing with the three freshmen on Sept. 18 and subsequently recommended that the entire Men’s Rugby Club be charged with student code of conduct violations.

On Sept. 21, Alan Glick, the assistant director of sport clubs, suspended the entire club until more information could be gathered prior to a meeting on Sept. 23 to hear the official charges.

The club conducted its own internal investigation and determined that only one member of the Division I team, a roommate of the host and not an officer of the club, was present during the party. Fourteen out of 40 Division III members attended.

Once the club heard the charges at the conduct referral meeting and concluded the investigation, it reinstated the Division I team and left the Division III team suspended.

host of the party invited younger members of the Division III team to an informal gathering after a Friday practice at the beginning of the semester.

The Division III team competes against Virginia colleges and does not practice with the Division I team, which competes nationally.

At the party, alcohol was served, and six new members to the club, or “rookies,” were told to enter a closet and finish a 1.75 liter bottle of bourbon before being let out.

After being let out of the closet, the six “rookies” continued in various types of beer “chug racing.” Once the party concluded, three of the freshmen “rookies” received a ride home from a designated driver.

Upon arrival to campus, the three freshmen received possession of alcohol tickets from a police officer and were required to attend a hearing at the Office of Student Conduct.

see RUGBY/ page six

BRIAN CLAY/SPPS

Tech’s Division I club rugby team last season against Delaware.

Sink or swim University Division

Coop Extension/ Agric Exp Station 2 0 0 7-2 0

2 0 0 7-2008

Faculty jobs at risk as university balances budget

Eminent Scholars

08 2008-2 0 0 9

2 0 0 8-20 0 9

2 0 0 9-20 1 0

200 9 - 2 0 1 0

Maintenance Reserve Program 200 7 - 2 0 0 8

200 9-2 0 1 0

Since 2007, the university’s general fund has been reduced by over $68.5 million in three rounds of state budget cuts.

The university division of the fund has sustained the most cuts, and was reduced by over 33 percent in the most recent round of cuts.

LIANA BAYNE news reporter the economy continues to gasp for air, state funding for higher education continues to sink.

Virginia Tech is facing a new reduction of over $26.4 million in state funding this semester, sending the total reductions since October 2007 over $68.5 million.

This decrease in funding, taken from the university’s general fund, will force Tech to find ways to significantly decrease its expenditures.

On Oct. 7, university president Charles Steger sent an e-mail to all faculty and staff stating that senior resource managers would begin investigating alternate severance options for the upcoming months.

University budget director Timothy Hodge said that this cycle of state budget reductions began in October 2007, which coincided with the relative beginning of the latest major period of national economic recession.

“The rate at which the economy eroded was so fast,” Hodge said.

Since 2007, there have been five separate state deductions from general university funds — October 2007, February 2008, October 2008, December 2008 and September 2009.

In February 2009, Hodge said, no money was actually taken from higher education in an effort to cope with the large amount taken in October 2007. Each round since then, though, has seen a significant reduction from money that would have gone to Tech’s general fund.

After each round of reductions, Tech looked for ways to cope.

Associate provost Dixon Hanna said that the administration has struggled to find more extraneous expenditures to eliminate.

“What the provost concluded in discussion with the president is that the colleges in particular have given up about everything they have in terms of low-hanging fruit,” Hanna said.

Hanna said that most academic units, specifically colleges and departments, have attempted to cut their budgets back to the bare minimum since 2007.

“You can’t just take $60 million out of the university and life goes on all rosy,” Hanna said.

The latest round of reduction has led Tech to the decision that it is now time to begin examining making cuts in the workforce.

“We’re out of options,” Hanna said.

Tech is not the only university impacted by budget cuts. The same percentage of the total budget is being taken from the general funds of all public universities in the state.

Don Egle, spokesperson for James Madison University, said that budget cuts are always challenging for university officials across the state.

“We’ve done what we could to anticipate cuts,” he said.

The University of Virginia’s executive vice president and chief operating officer Leonard Sandridge addressed the latest budget concerns in a university-wide memo sent Sept. 11, which addressed plans for dealing with the latest round of reduction.

“In order to meet the required state budget reduction, schools and libraries will be asked to reduce state expenditures by 2.5 percent on average in the current fiscal year.

Administrative units will be asked to reduce state expenditure budgets by 3 percent on average,” Sandridge wrote.

The general consensus at Tech, supported strongly by Steger’s e-mail, seems to be that in light of the vast amount of reductions already made over the past two years, it is prudent to investigate ways to reduce internal costs before the outline for next fiscal year’s budget is released.

“We’ve explored everything,” Hodge said.

“We’re using less energy, we’re becoming more efficient — we just don’t know what’s over the horizon. We’ve got to keep going over things and trying to become more efficient,” he said.

It appeared after the most recent round of reductions that the only option was to begin talks about reducing Tech’s workforce.

“The provost said, ‘Let’s explore,’” Hanna said.

Provost Mark McNamee’s office has asked senior management, mainly deans, to create business plans examining the potential positive benefits of employing alternate severance options with faculty and staff.

The alternate severance option is a mechanism designed to provide a severance payment under the Virginia retirement system to staff and faculty who have been terminated.

Hanna said that the severance works differently for staff and for faculty.

“For staff, you decide where you can afford to reduce workforce, and you give notice of layoffs,” Hanna said. “But with tenured faculty it doesn’t work that way.”

The alternate severance option comes into play when those tenured faculty identified in the business plan are given the opportunity to give up their tenure. Usually, these individuals may be close to retirement, or have achieved seniority in their department.

Sue Ott Rowlands, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, said that age is not a factor in deciding which faculty members are eligible to be considered for alternate severance.

“We can’t look at age,” Rowlands said. “Our plan will be looking at years of service.”

After the faculty member voluntarily gives up his tenure, he is ranked at the status of Virginia state employee and can then be terminated in

the same way as staff members.

A policy then kicks in under the Virginia retirement system, the state pension system. A severance payment grants the retiree two weeks of pay for every year of service he performed.

The person can either take the payment in cash or add the payment to the formula that determines all retirees’ pension payments. This formula is based on years that the employee served his organization.

Hanna said that it would benefit faculty who were already contemplating retiring in the near future to take the alternate severance payment since it would improve their pension payment formula.

Hodge said that the alternate severance options “require an intersection of business plans and personal choices.”

Rowlands concurred with Hodge.

“It’s a very personal decision,” she said. “For some faculty it might be good, and for others, not so good.”

Rowlands said that her chief concern about employing alternate severance options was the risk of losing the “faculty line.”

“We’re running the risk of losing some of our best faculty,” Rowlands said. “I don’t think anybody’s particularly thrilled about employing the alternate service plan due to that risk.”

Dean Richard Benson of the College of Engineering wrote in an e-mail that he declined to comment on the subject out of courtesy to his faculty and staff.

Hanna said that the university does not want to look at the “precious resource” of faculty, but that Tech now has no choice.

“The university’s budget is about 80 percent people,” Hanna said. “We’re trying to find the best option to try to keep the quality of the educational program as high as we can, and that may mean that we may have to look at faculty.”

Egle said that JMU is also “definitely taking a look at” employing an alternate severance program, but he added that it is currently “really too early in the process to talk about it.”

UVa is also dealing with the question of examining its workforce. However, Sandridge wrote in the memo, “when the university has faced funding difficulties in the past, a primary goal has been to avoid layoffs.”

Hanna also said that the provost’s office is trying as hard as possible not to raise tuition an exceptional amount next year.

“There’s a balancing act here between how much more we can afford to increase the cost of education and how much we can afford to reduce the expenditure,” Hanna said. “What the provost and president are struggling with is the balance point. We could raise tuition a lot, but we can’t do that to students.”

Hodge also expressed his concerns for students’ wallets.

“There are always significant questions of

Tuition only funds education The multifaceted Virginia Tech budget can be a confusing subject, especially in a time of state funding cuts and tuition increases.

University spokesman Larry Hincker said most student money goes directly toward education.

“Think of it as if there is not one huge bucket of money, but lots of buckets of money that the university takes from,” Hincker said. “Each one is for a certain thing.”

With an increase in campus construction and a seemingly correlating increase in tuition, it is conceivable to think the two are related — but this is a misconception.

Tuition goes directly to education and general programs of the university division of Tech, Hincker said.

Construction, however, comes from completely different funding from the state and private agencies and often results in debt, Hincker said.

“Lane Stadium, for example, was built how will this impact stakeholders,” Hodge said.

UVa, however, is relying on the combination of tuition prices and a $1.8 million reserve fund to help offset the costs of the budget reductions.

“When tuition is added to the general fund in the academic division budget, the overall reduction in the current year will be less than 3 percent,” Sandridge wrote in the memo.

Hodge said he is staying in touch with lawmakers in Richmond to make sure that they “understand the bind this puts the institution in.”

Hanna emphasized that the administration under no conditions wishes to negatively impact students as the university works through the process of examining whether alternate severance will be a viable option for faculty. If faculty members end up utilizing the alternate severance next school year, he hopes that students would merely see a changing in the faces instead of in the size of the faculty.

“While there may be some bumps, we will do everything we can to keep classroom seats available where we need them,” Hanna said.

“We will do everything we can to make certain that students really don’t see a direct impact.”

At both JMU and UVa, administrators are attempting to do the same.

“We’re just trying to make sure we protect the instructional mission and retain services to

with debt,” Hincker said. “Private gifts and revenues from tickets were used to pay off the debt.”

Students are occasionally charged increased fees, but these go to things such as bus service, dining hall and dorm renovation — things that students directly use, Hincker said.

Increasing tuition is a direct response to state funding cuts because tuition must now go to teachers’ salaries and other things the state used to fund, Hincker said.

“In the beginning of the decade, the general fund was at $185 million,” Hincker said.

“In the recommended budget for this year it was at $150 million, and it has been slashed even more than that.”

Federal funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will attempt to soften the effects of state cuts by giving Tech $17.3 million in federal stimulus funding. by billy mitchell students,” Egle said.

Overall, “the budget’s a fairly complicated beast,” Hanna said.

While the economy continues to fluctuate at both state and national levels, Tech will continue to monitor the budget situation carefully. More information will be available when the state legislature releases an initial budget proposal in mid-December.

Hodge said Tech’s future budget plans are still very uncertain because of a combination of unstable factors that are out of the university’s control.

According to Hodge, Virginia has identified a state-level revenue shortfall of $1.2 billion.

Unfortunately, the state constitution dictates that the state legislature must completely balance the budget each year. Unlike other states, there is to be no holdover of debt from previous years.

In tandem with the state’s budget deficit that must be made up during this fiscal year, November’s gubernatorial election to replace current Gov. Tim Kaine brings a heightened level of anxiety.

“We will wait and see what Gov. Kaine puts in the budget,” Hanna said.

This budget proposal will not be available until mid-December. After the new governor see BUDGET / page two

2 news

new river valley news editor: zach crizer university editor: philipp kotlaba newseditor@collegiatetimes.com/ 540.231.9865

october 28, 2009

T

COLLEGIATETIMES

he Collegiate Times interviewed all 10 of the candidates for the four Blacksburg Town Council spots.

Paul Lancaster stopped campaigning for a position in September to dedicate his time to his health, but his name will still appear on the ballot.

SUSAN ANDERSON

We already worked together in numerous ways.

There are lots of committees where staff, faculty and students at Virginia Tech work with the community members, members of town staff, and members of town council.

This is the fourth installment of this series, which runs every Wednesday and Friday leading up the Nov. 3 elections. Candidates were asked to address relations between the town and Virginia Tech. Many proposed resolutions to a conflict involving the meals tax in Blacksburg. Univer-

I think one way we can work better together is to have more students involved in town-Tech committees.

PAUL LANCASTER

Well they do work together. It’s a symbiotic relationship.

Clearly, there are some issues where we could do better. One of the main things that people are talking about a lot now is this thing called meals tax.

JOHN It’s an unfair advantage to the shops and restaurants at the Inn at Virginia Tech BUSH to provide meals and services to people when there are places right next door to them that have to provide this extra tax.

Student plans would not be affected.

(I think there are instances of this) that happen in town in regards to student drinking and student behavior.

Students need to understand that they’re living in a neighborhood with people that need to get up in the morning and go to work. And likewise, people like me need to understand that students are students, and they need to do the things that they do to a certain degree.

A lot of people don’t even associate with Blacksburg. So to help develop this I’m actually working right now with the SGA. We’re creating a student advisory committee to send out surveys to all the students soon asking specific questions, BRYCE such as, “How do you perceive the relationship between Virginia Tech and CARTER Blacksburg?” and so on.

From this, we’re going to set up this committee in which we’re looking to have SGA representatives and GSA representatives, the president of each year’s class, and other representatives who apply to be on the committee. It’s something that should be well established in the next month or two.

Virginia Tech is the largest economic driver of the region. And it needs Blacksburg for services, and basically the environment that Virginia Tech lives in is an environment that Blacksburg has to continue to maintain.

KRISHA So there are already examples of partnerships everywhere, so I think we need CHACHRA to continue to maintain those partnerships

and maintain those interests. And also, provide an environment that students will thrive in, not only academically, but also later on after they graduate. If they want to stay, they should be able to do so, and that takes a synergy between Virginia Tech and Blacksburg to create opportunities for the students to stay, if they want to, if they wish to.

They’re already doing a pretty good job, (but) they can do a whole lot better.

The CEO of Google said this was one of the most “wired” towns in the country, and what I see in this Blacksburg — you have all of these alumni retiring back here in Blacksburg. They have a lot of time, GREG energy and wealth, and you have these

entrepreneurs here at the Corporate Research Center, and they’re trying to grow their business.

We need to attract the entrepreneurial spirit here in Blacksburg, and we need to have affordable housing for these people to come in, live in Blacksburg, help grow it, and give back to the town.

FANSLER

sity dining facilities are not required to collect the tax on food, which some candidates say puts local businesses at a disadvantage.

I think we’re going to see a lot in the next few years as this whole arts area develops on the border between Virginia Tech and downtown.

We’ve got the new performing arts theater that is going to be built and also the Black Box Theatre that is opening now, and also you’ve

They’re not really working together.

I think the discussions that have been going on are at too high a level, and the agendas on both sides really don’t match what FRANK the needs are of the people who make up the community.

LAU I don’t see it happening right

compiled by ct staff

got the Lyric. I think there is a real chance for a lot of cooperation there.

I still would like to see Virginia Tech collect food taxes on the franchises that are on campus, like Au Bon Pain and Cinnabon.

now, and whenever I hear the term “Town and Gown,” my eyes start rolling because I just don’t see anything coming out of the conclusions of the Town and Gown that would make a difference to the quality of life of the residents of the town.

Well, I think they are doing a better job of that in the last few years, and I would like that to continue.

I would like to see more of a partnership rather than two separate entities elbowing along

together in the same space. I would like to see a relationship where we are both helping each other out. I think that is happening in a lot of ways, but like everything, it could be better.

I think part of these things that we need to look at is there is a big issue out there, which is the tax on the hotel that Virginia Tech owns.

I mean, that is run by Hilton, which is a private organization, and because it’s owned by Tech, there is no lodging tax or anything else that’s being charged there that everyone I think that we need to build upon our current, strong relationship that we already have.

One thing I think we need to focus on is settling the meals tax issue.

In a nutshell, Virginia Tech and its on-campus dining centers don’t collect the meals tax even though

else in Blacksburg has to pay.

I mean, granted, I don’t want to tax the students a meal tax or their meal, whatever it is that the students have now. But when Virginia Tech actually owns a fast food chain, and because Virginia Tech owns it, they don’t have to pay tax on it. That I don’t think is right. its peer institutions do, and it is straining relations between the Blacksburg Town Council and the university administration at Virginia Tech.

I think that there is an opportunity to work between both parties and find a workable solution to this problem.

CECILE NEWCOMB

TOM ROGERS

MICHAEL SUTPHIN

Budget: State plans in limbo from page one

assumes the office, he will almost certainly propose amendments. The finalized state budget for the next fiscal year, beginning July 1, 2010, will probably be available around mid-January.

Both gubernatorial candidates have stressed the importance of financially assisting higher education.

In the most recent debate, held Oct. 20 at Roanoke College, Democrat Creigh Deeds and Republican Bob McDonnell both spoke about their plans to increase the number of students attending college.

“We cannot afford the doubling of college tuitions every 10 years,” McDonnell said during the debate.

Hanna acknowledged that the new governor would affect state-funding levels for higher education in some yet to be defined manner.

“The new governor may be helpful to higher education, they may not think they can do any better than what Gov. Kaine has proposed, or they may decide to take more money out of our funding,” Hanna said.

Along with the state budget, another component of legislation that won’t be finalized until January is the new mandate that 12-month state employees take one furlough day per fiscal year.

Hanna said that the details of the furlough day are extremely unclear at the moment and that since they will likely come under significant legislative discussion in January, Tech is not overly concerned with how the furlough day will affect the budget at this point.

He said the university would wait to act on this legislation until it is finalized in the spring.

A final wildcard is an unknown amount of federal stimulus money that the state may receive during the upcoming fiscal year.

Hodge said that the state is currently working with the federal government to try to understand how the federal stimulus program will affect state funding.

He said the state is considering applying for a waiver for some of the criteria of the program.

“They have told us that higher education could be impacted by whether or not that waiver works out,” Hodge said.

Hodge said that the state would not know the status of the application for at least another few weeks.

Correction -In “Robotics professor named in ‘Brilliant 10,’” (CT, Oct. 27), bioinspiration was incorrectly defined. Hong practices bioinspiration, where he replicates actions from a living thing rather than duplicating physical features. This is different from biomimicry, where one duplicates physical features.

The Collegiate Times regrets this error.

k c o m

opınıons 3

editor: debra houchins opinionseditor@collegiatetimes.com/ 540.231.9865 COLLEGIATETIMES

october 28, 2009

Net neutrality will follow tradition, protects freedom T

he idea that “content is king” is a favorite slogan among media people, since it’s comforting to think that the industry is ruled by its creative side. Comforting, but fictional.

Who does rule the media kingdom?

Not the content creators, but the people who control their physical access to the public, that’s who. Sooner or later, channels trump content.

That’s why people who care about freedom of expression have to start by caring about the freedom of the channels through which expression flows.

Hence the importance of the simmering controversy over so-called net neutrality — a policy that is intended to keep the companies that rent us access to the Internet from playing favorites among Web services, information exchanges, content providers of all kinds.

Why does that matter? Because the pace and direction of media development have been historically set by the people who controlled the contact points with the public: The film industry was the creature not of moviemakers, but of early 20th-century theater-owners who wanted to fill their seats. They fled the East Coast for Southern California to escape the Edison Trust monopoly over supplies of film stock, a stranglehold broken up by the government in 1917. Freeing up those channels made Hollywood possible.

The Hollywood studio system that arose rested first and foremost not on content deals with stars and directors, but on ownership of movie theaters, which froze out independent producers. In 1948 the government forced the studios to give up the cinemas and a new Hollywood was born.

The story goes on. FM radio languished for decades, despite its inherent superiority over AM, until regulators forced radio owners to stop squatting on FM as a secondary outlet for their AM Top-40 rubbish and populate it with content of its own. That wasn’t until the 1960s, and the result was a robust appetite for sounds to fill high-fidelity channels — the ideal midwife for the birth of alternative rock-n-roll.

Channels rule content. It’s the promise of assured access to the public that inspires and emboldens content creators. During a 20-year period starting in the 1970s, when the three major TV networks were barred from monopolizing the downstream syndication channels for programs they produced, independent TV programming flourished and in the aftermath, three new TV networks emerged. Preventing channel control monopolies was pivotal.

Net neutrality is now the subject of a ruling by the Federal

Communications Commission formalizing a policy outlined in 2005, and is being written into congressional legislation with strong support.

The basic question is whether the companies that control the channels through which you access the Internet, generally big telecoms such as Comcast and AT&T, should be allowed to favor some content providers over others.

Will they be free to decide which content will flow easily and which content will go slowly? Will they be allowed to charge more for Web services that compete with companies they own, or force such independents onto slower transmission speeds, or strong-arm startups into cutting them in as partners in exchange for favored online treatment, or make it harder or costlier for you to hook up devices made by companies they aren’t in cahoots with?

Comcast, the country’s biggest cable-owner, already ran afoul of neutrality guidelines and was slapped by regulators in 2008 for furtively interfering with traffic on BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file-swapping network.

Comcast is moving heavily into the content business; it owns several sports channels and a big piece of E! Entertainment. It is also pioneering an offering of online programs such as HBO’s Entourage and AMC’s Mad Men exclusively for its Internet subscribers. It is now maneuvering to buy NBC-Universal from GE, which would give it a major TV network and one of its top movie studios.

It’s inevitable that Comcast will be competing with some of the same online services that rely on its cable systems to reach the public.

Likewise with AT&T, where’s the guarantee that it’ll give nondiscriminatory treatment to an online company like Skype, whose worldwide Internet phone service competes directly with AT&T’s core phone service?

Control over channels constitutes a perpetual, potential stranglehold over media development, even with a technology whose growth and flowering seems to be as unstoppable as the Internet’s.

Content may never be king. The throne may still be held by the channel-masters. But net neutrality, like an information age Magna Carta, is a way to ensure that their power is not absolute.

EDWARD WASSERMAN -mcclatchy newspapers

The Collegiate Times is an independent student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903

MCT CAMPUS

Blacksburg Town Council candidates for consideration At

a minimum, each Virginia Tech student spends nearly three quarters of the year in Blacksburg. As a result, each and every one of us is uniquely tied not just to Tech, but also to the town of Blacksburg. Everything that happens in Blacksburg happens to us.

Downtown Blacksburg is where we spend our weekends, where we get our lunches and where we stroll in our free time. Although you will never see advertisements for local elections in the middle of Monday night football or between episodes of “So You Think You Can Dance,” this does not mean that these are unimportant elections.

In fact, in recent years Blacksburg has come across several issues that could change the town radically. Most famous was a failed bid by large retailer, believed to be Wal-Mart, to build a big box store in Blacksburg at the expense of the beauty of our town. These issues are by no means resolved as Blacksburg is a burgeoning town that will continue to experience growing pains as it struggles to become a larger city while retaining its original class and character.

Nearly 70 percent of the population of Blacksburg is comprised either of students or people directly involved with the university. It is important that we the faculty, the students and the staff of Tech find a strong voice in our town council. This year we have a wonderful opportunity to elect several candidates who can give a voice to the citizens of our fine university. There are three candidates who are not only involved with the university but also have already taken active roles in our community.

Bryce Carter is an undergraduate student who is a senior at Tech and

send an e-mail to opinionseditor@collegiatetimes.com with your letter or guest column attached.

revitalization projects, which were designed to improve awareness of local products and venues such as the farmers market, the Lyric and the Stepping Out festival. Similarly, Anderson has pushed for growth that allows Blacksburg to expand while not losing the qualities that make it special.

Finally, Michael Sutphin is a writer for College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, a job he accepted after graduating from Tech in 2006. As a student he was a member of the LGBTA and pushed for SafeWatch, a Tech Web site to report and monitor harassment and discrimination of all kinds. Similar to Carter, Sutphin wants to increase student involvement by including students in the town’s liaison group with the university. Additionally, in an attempt to encourage small business growth, Sutphin wants to use Tech’s arts initiative to drive foot traffic to local businesses.

This year we have several interesting candidates, many of whom are heavily involved in the university and therefore in a unique position to represent the issues important to you. Each of these candidates has important ideas on how to grow Blacksburg responsibly.

Since Blacksburg is a growing town, we need to take care of how it grows. This means electing people who not only share a sense of where we come from but where we should go.

PATRICK BUTLER -regular columnist -graduate student -computer science

Don’t let your skepticism stop you from voting in elections N

we’re YOUR newspaper. send a letter to the editor and express your views.

is heavily involved in community-oriented clubs. Recently, he was awarded the Gwin-Parker-Gwin Community Service Award for engaging students in their community. He is heavily involved in the Environmental Coalition and was one of the main coordinators for Power Shift, a conference created to support sustainable energy. While Carter is an undergraduate, he states he has fallen in love with Blacksburg and considers himself a permanent resident with plans to settle down here after graduation. One of his most interesting ideas includes starting a group called the “Student Advisory Committee” to empower students by interacting with the local government. This committee would be entirely made up of students and would work closely with the SGA to bring issues of interest to students to the town council. Furthermore, Carter is an avid supporter of the environment and intends to promote the infrastructure required to make and keep Blacksburg a bike-friendly town.

Finally, Carter has been an advocate of improving downtown without turning it into the faceless, generic, sprawling suburbia that many growing cities have become.

Susan Anderson, another candidate, is an instructor in the mathematics department and has been a resident of Blacksburg since coming to Tech in 1980 to get her master’s degree. She has made a name for herself outside the council by being heavily involved in women’s issues and Amnesty International, and she is the faculty adviser for the student organizations representing these issues. She has been a powerful force in shaping our community through the town council since 2006. She has pushed for downtown

ext Tuesday will be the first Tuesday in November, and that means that it is Election Day across the country. A year ago, the whole world was fixated on how the electorate would react to the race between Barack Obama and John McCain. While the results of that election were indeed historic, this year’s election is equally as important for our local area.

Today, the electorate across the country is more polarized than ever before. If anything, more are becoming increasingly skeptical of government due to the state of the economy, the progress on the war and other domestic challenges. While natural skepticism of government can be healthy, it can also be dangerous. Although we pride ourselves on the principles of democracy and the voice of the people, the decision of the winning side in an election can have significant consequences.

Take, for example, the result in last year’s election when California voters passed Proposition 8 and the aftermath that followed. Some considered it ironic that a majority of Californians would vote in favor of a black president but then deny the rights of same-sex couples to marry. This led to initial outcries against the black community because they voted in large numbers for Proposition 8 and also against the Mormon Church because it helped to finance the organizers of the Proposition 8 movement. While no one group was responsible for the passage of Proposition 8, the issue is still being fought today and is just as divisive.

Or consider what is happening in Great Britain with the British National Party. The BNP has made strides even though it has an agenda that is antiimmigrant and ultra-nationalist. Just recently, the BNP leader claimed that London was no longer English when he appeared on the BBC’s “Question Time.” While its policies are extreme, the BNP is providing individuals with an outlet that the current parties, Labour and Conservative, are not providing. While it only has won two seats in past elections, its growing success is raising alarm bells and yielding

interesting discussions throughout Great Britain.

Skepticism of government can be dangerous because it can lead to a lack of participation in the process.

Historically, when there are no major races in an election, the voting percentage of registered voters is dramatically lower. Whichever group can mobilize its constituent base will often sway the result.

In Virginia, the statistics show that in non-presidential election years, the average percentage is often less than 50 percent. Here is a glimpse of the numbers: In 2008, total registered voters that voted were 74.5 percent; in 2007, 30.2 percent; in 2006, 52.7 percent; in 2005, 45 percent and in 2004, it was 71.4 percent. In 2003, 30.8 percent; in 2002, 39.4 percent; in 2001, it was 46.4 percent; and in 2000, it was 68.5 percent. Please note that the 2006 election included the race for Senate between Jim Webb and George Allen, while the 2005 and 2001 elections included the race for governor.

The 2004 and 2000 elections were also presidential elections.

Will the 2009 numbers be similar to 2005, when 45 percent voted statewide when we had a Governor’s race? Or will we be able to get above the 50 percent threshold or even match the 74.5 percent from the presidential election? I raise this issue of the voting percentage because it will have an impact on the local races.

One of the most important will be the race for the town council in Blacksburg.

Town council elections are always important because of the role that the council plays in helping to shape the direction of the community.

What makes this even more intriguing is the fact that this town council election is taking place in November and provides for the first time an opportunity for a majority of eligible registered student voters to participate. In the past, town council elections took place in late May when a majority of the students had already left for the summer, so they had no electoral say in what was taking place in the community.

We all remember the huge participation of students in last year’s election. It

wasn’t easy for the students as they faced challenges when they tried to register to vote in Montgomery County, and when it was time to vote, they encountered difficulties in accessing polling places.

While the students were able to overcome these challenges, will they overcome possible apathy and come out to vote in the Blacksburg town elections? This is the one variable that no one knows about, and it could be the deciding factor in a close race between the 10 candidates vying for seats on the town council.

Another race that will have an impact is the contest for governor between Bob McDonnell and Creigh Deeds. In this statewide contest, the candidate that is able to able to energize his or her particular base may be the final victor, but it will be close as there are still many undecided voters. Recent commentaries indicate that the Virginia race may be a bellwether to how the country is thinking and a snapshot of elections to come.

Other important races in the area include those vying for seats on the Montgomery County School Board and the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors.

While it is not a presidential election year, the results of this election in our area will be significant. As I ponder my own voting decisions on Election Day, I hope that registered voters (students and non-students alike) in the area will come out and vote in the local elections.

Regardless of whom you vote for, it is important to exercise that right to vote.

Don’t let your skepticism in the government override your constitutional right to vote and make you stay away from the polls. Your decision to stay away could have serious implications for years to come.

RAY PLAZA -regular columnist -faculty -academic support services

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5

ACROSS 1 Run smoothly 5 Uzi filler 9 Bench warmers aren’t on it 14 Excellent 15 Known as “the Impaler,” prince who inspired “Dracula” 16 American competitor 17 Life insurance clause 20 Printers’ widths 21 A deadly sin 22 Posh 23 Neurologist’s test, briefly 24 Publicizes 25 Hoedown activity 30 Poor, as an excuse 33 Second most populous Oklahoma city 34 Alan of “The West Wing” 35 Marquis de __ 36 Youngest of the musical Jacksons 37 Golfer’s concern 38 Mass of grass 39 Vocalized 40 Defendant’s answer 41 Accountant’s review 42 Barely squeeze (out) 43 Apple variety 45 Petting places 46 BMOC, for one 47 Washington neighbor 49 Yoked beasts 51 Psychic’s asset, for short 54 Inadvertent remark 57 Common news hr.

58 “I’d advise against it” 59 Brand with a paw print in its logo 60 Bears, in Latin 61 Pump or loafer 62 17-, 25-, 43- and 54-Across begin with a kind of one

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DOWN 1 Lose brightness 2 Weaver’s machine 3 “We’re treating” 4 Surfing area with no water, with “the” 5 Get even for 6 LXII x XVII 7 Quite a few 8 Unusual 9 Regard highly 10 Portable shelters 11 Part of QE2: Abbr.

12 ABA member 13 Perhaps will 18 Ogle 19 “Fear of Flying” author Jong 23 Painter’s stand 24 Like llamas 25 Missouri city nickname 26 Fundamental particle 27 Radii neighbors 28 City in which the State Fair of Texas is held annually 29 Out of this world 30 Riyadh resident 31 Fess up

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32 Pool measurement 35 Batter’s dry spell 38 Vegas attraction 40 Evidence 43 End a vacation, say 44 Mimieux of “The Time Machine” 45 Mothers of Invention musician 47 Robert of “The Sopranos”

10/28/09

48 Cacophonies 49 “Whoops!”

50 Strange: Pref.

51 Alaska’s first governor 52 Japanese wrestling 53 Nuisance 54 Early Beatle Sutcliffe 55 NFL six-pointers 56 Ending with beat

features 5

editors: topher forhecz, teresa tobat featureseditor@collegiatetimes.com/ 540.231.9865 COLLEGIATETIMES

Roanoke fashion show Alumnus’ play opens black box theatre struts chic, stylish apparel DAN WAIDELICH features reporter

LIZ NORMENT/COLLEGIATE TIMES

Eight Virginia Tech students modeled during Monday’s fashion show.

HOTEL ROANOKE HOSTED VIRGINIA FASHION WEEK WHICH FEATURED DESIGNS BY TECH STUDENTS LIZ NORMENT features staff writer It’s difficult to imagine high fashion being part of the southwest Virginia scene, but on Monday night the Peacock Hallway at the Hotel Roanoke was transformed into a runway.

Virginia Fashion Week christened Roanoke as the newest addition to a growing repertoire of Virginia cities.

The event welcomed local residents, students, designers and fashionistas alike to take in a night of chic style as models strutted their stuff. Models donned designs from local stores and Project Runway contestant Johnathan Kayne. The show also featured a section for Virginia Tech student models and designs.

After an introduction from Chris Wilmer, a Charlottesville native on the Virginia Fashion Week board who is in charge of the event, the spotlights turned on and energetic dance music flooded the hallway.

The first section featured gowns from the local boutique Brides’ House and Formals, which Virginia pageant hopefuls and Miss Teen Virginia Liz Barker modeled. The dresses showed off some of this spring’s most enticing prom styles — bright, long dresses opulent with beading and glitter.

The sparkling dresses and prom updo’s set a glamorous tone for the Tech student section. The designs showed off a range of talent from tie-dyed maxi dresses to gold leggings. Eight Tech students modeled each of the 17 featured student designs.

On the runway, the models juxtaposed the beaming pageant smiles with fierce attitude, adding a bold edge to each step.

Off the runway, the girls were met with a necessary rush of urgent excitement between each garment change.

“It was crazy backstage,” said Brittany Michels, a sophomore apparel merchandising major, “trying to change into your next dress and find shoes to match and make sure everything was zipped and ready before walking out on the runway.”

She said she heard about the event on her department’s listserv and wanted to model in the show with a friend.

Standing at 5 feet, 11inches, they both met modeling height requirements.

Tenley White, also a sophomore apparel merchandising major, added, “It was a good way for us to see another side of the industry.”

Of the garments, White said, “I was

so impressed by all of the designs in the show. I wanted to take them home with me.”

Highlights of the students’ promenade included a deep V-neck dress with hand-braided detail, a neon cocktail dress with a rave feel, and a fitted pinstripe business suit complete with matching fedora.

An audibly impressed audience included a mix of Roanoke and Blacksburg residents, as well as Tech students, all applauding and commenting as the outfits were shown.

Eduardo Pinto, a senior Mechanical Engineering major, attended the event to support one of his friends who had two garments in the show.

“I thought they were all very attractive,” Pinto said. “It seems like the design students here put in a lot of time and effort.”

Wilmer, who organized the show, also recognized the hardworking students and creative potential of including a Tech section in the show. Impressed by the designs, he awarded LuAnn Gaskill, head of the department of apparel, housing and resource management, with a plaque honoring the Tech apparel program and offering an official spot for the school in Virginia Fashion Week starting in 2010.

Lauren Hill, a senior public relations major at James Madison University, heard about the event and came down with a few friends.

“I hadn’t heard of anything high fashion happening anywhere in this part of Virginia,” Hill said. “I thought this would be a fun night to see a fashion show in Roanoke and make some contacts in the industry.”

“They cut (JMU’s) fashion program a few years ago, so I was interested to see what the Virginia Tech fashion students had to offer,” she said.

Underfunding and lack of exposure is a common problem with many designforward departments.

Gaskill was impressed by the participation and enthusiasm the students brought to the event.

“It was great to see numerous quality designs from our apparel students featured in the show in Roanoke,” she said.

Gaskill said she is hopeful the award will advance the future for her department.

“The opportunity for continued involvement with the Tech apparel program and Virginia Fashion Week events will offer future students a unique presence in a venue with statewide appeal,” Gaskill said.

The Department of Theatre Arts and Cinema at Virginia Tech kicks off the main stage theater season this week and will host its first performance in its new Theatre 101 building with “Made in Taiwan,” a one-woman performance Tech alumna Michelle Krusiec created.

The acclaimed show has been performed off-Broadway in New York City and around the rest of the country.

“Made in Taiwan” explores the life of a young Asian-American woman and the relationships she has with her family.

“The show originated at Tech,” Krusiec said. “I was writing about my relationship with my mother in this one class, and I ended up developing the story into an honors thesis. Because I was a theatre major I decided to turn it into a performance piece.’’

Krusiec continued to refine the

show postgraduation after she found early success. “Made in Taiwan” impressed HBO enough to begin to develop a television pilot that did not ultimately come to fruition, she said.

“Since then I’ve been performing it at various workshops,” Krusiec said.

“I did it once before at Tech, but this time I’m coming back with a fuller show.”

“Made in Taiwan” is a comedy with some heavy dramatic elements. The blend of these elements plays to the actress’ strengths and creates a richer emotional experience, Krusiec said.

“I think life is a series of parallel moments where on one side of it, things are very funny and on the other they can be tragic and painful,” Krusiec said, “but when you are going through life, if you approach things with a sense of humor they are much easier to handle.”

Krusiec has enjoyed success in television and independent film. But her return to Blacksburg is marked by changes in Tech’s vision for the arts,

[

check it out

]

What: “Made in Taiwan” When: Oct. 31 - Nov. 1, 2 & 7:30 p.m.

Where: Theatre 101 - College Avenue, next to Squires

said Susan Sanders, spokeswoman for the School of Performing Arts and Cinema.

“Made in Taiwan” is the first public performance in the new Theatre 101 building on College Avenue.

“As part of our grand opening, this is sort of kicking it off,” Sanders said.

Theatre and cinema alumni have been invited back for the opening of the new theater, and Krusiec’s return is intended to be the centerpiece.

“We want to create this allencompassing view of the program and what people have gone out and been able to do,” Sanders said.

The theatre department chose “Made in Taiwan” to inaugurate the

new theater for several reasons.

“We wanted it to be a contemporary piece because it’s a very modern space,” said Patty Raun, director of the School of Performing Arts and Cinema. “We wanted it to be something that would link our past with our future, so we wanted an alumni performer.”

Theatre 101 is the first building at Tech to be constructed solely for use in the arts, Raun said. The building is used for theater classes and public performance.

The 8,000-square foot theater will be able to seat 80 to 120 people.

Theatre 101 is meant to offer a link between the Blacksburg community and the arts at Tech. In addition to “Made in Taiwan,” the theatre department will be holding an open house on Saturday to strengthen that connection.

“When I was there, I don’t remember a lot of funding for the arts,” said actress Michelle Krusiec.

“I’m excited to hear they are finally doing that. I’m glad, in the end, that I get to be a part of it.”

sports 6

editors: joe crandley, alex jackson sportseditor@collegiatetimes.com/ 540.231.9865 COLLEGIATETIMES

october 28, 2009

Rugby: Team cannot resume play until fall 2010 from page one

At the hearing, the club was given the opportunity to wait several weeks for a student panel hearing or one week for a hearing by a single individual — the team chose the individual in an effort to speed up the process.

The Men’s Rugby Club president Grant Furnary said the Division III team was initially suspended by the club, and not the university, after the conduct referral meeting. He felt the team as a whole was innocent.

“At the time, we didn’t think the entire club would be held responsible,” Furnary said. “We thought individuals would be charged as individuals, but we didn’t think the entire club would be suspended for the entire year because nobody knew that the party was going on as far as leadership.

“We thought maybe we may get a sanction,” Furnary said, “maybe an alcohol charge or something, and maybe a deferred suspension at the worst, but we didn’t think an actual suspension would be given to us.”

At the conduct hearing on Sept.

30, the club received the “loss of recognition” sanction. The club was found responsible for hazing, violating Virginia alcoholic regulations and a failing to observe rules and regulations issued by the university.

Furnary sent in an appeal because he felt the club was unfairly and overly punished.

“We had two things that were the main basis for our appeal,” Furnary said. “The first one is that we felt the punishment was too severe. We thought the year suspension for something like this was too severe, and we outlined that in the appeal.

“And the other one was we didn’t think we met two of the six criteria to make the event an official Rugby Club event,” Furnary explained. “We felt we only met the one that six or more members of a club were there.”

The “Organizational Cases” section

BRIAN CLAY/SPPS Junior Ryan Dill tries his best to get through Delaware’s defense during a Division I Tech club rugby game on Sept. 20, 2008.

of the Student Conduct Web site states two out of six possible criteria must be met in order to declare an event an organizational activity, which therefore allows the organization to be punished by the university.

Furnary does not dispute that the party involved six or more people, which would fulfill one of the two criteria. However, he disagrees with the second cited criteria against the club, which states that, “The incident involves or is actively or passively endorsed by a majority of the members of the organization.”

According to Furnary, the club held 34 Division I members and “about 40” Division III players at the time of the incident. With just 13 Division III players and one Division I player present, 19 percent of the club attended the event. The six “rookies” that attended had only been a part of the team for a week at most.

In addition, 33 Division I players, 44 percent of the team, were completely

[

on the web

Go to collegiatetimes.com to see PDFs of the case file.

]

unaware of the party because they were not at the Division III practice.

The only Division I player to attend was a roommate of the party host.

“The majority of the team didn’t even know that the event was going on, so there was no way it could be endorsed actively or passively,” Furnary said.

In a letter to the club after reviewing the appeal, Frances B. Keene, director of student conduct, wrote: “I disagree with the assertion that the event in question does not meet the definition of an organizational event outlined in the student code of conduct and the University Policies for Student Life, contained in the Hokie Handbook. The party was mentioned at practice (redacted) so everyone on

that team was aware of the gathering.

Plus, the information about the party was translated to new members of the team, suggesting more than a casual invitation in passing. Furthermore, there were members of the Division I (redacted) and Division III (redacted) present at the event. Both of these facts refute your assertion that the majority of the organization did not know about the event.

“Additionally, there were enough members of the Rugby team for the newest members to associate the event with the team. Therefore, I do not find any basis to your argument that this was not a Rugby event.”

Glick also felt the punishment was appropriate due to university policy that views the Division I and Division III teams under the same umbrella, thus justifying the suspension of both teams.

“I know that not everyone between those Division I and Division III teams were involved, but unfortunately, Men’s Rugby is looked at as one organization at the university,” Glick said.

“Even though you might have an ‘A’ and a ‘B’ team in the case of rugby with the Division I and III, it’s one registered organization as Virginia Tech Men’s Rugby. There isn’t a distinction made between the two teams. In this case,

what some members of one of the teams did unfortunately has to impact the entire team. That’s just the way it is.”

Furnary contends that only one member of the Division I team was present, and he does not understand Keene’s contention that multiple members of the Division I team were present.

This information was not disclosed to the club, and despite multiple attempts to speak with Keene, the CT could not get in touch with her.

With the suspension now official, the Division I team is discouraged with the end of its season despite almost no involvement with the incident, but it places no blame on those who were caught.

“They’re extremely frustrated, extremely disappointed,” Furnary said.

“This was a year we thought we had the potential to do a lot of great things, and so the team is really angry that we can’t play. I feel like they sympathize with the freshmen that got in trouble, and nobody really blames them for saying anything because you put yourself first, you’d say the exact same things, you’d say what happened, and that’s the right thing for them to have done, so nobody is mad at them at all.

“Nobody is irritated about that,” Furnary said. “I think it’s just shock that it happened to begin with — sort of angry that that sort of thing was going on with the team, and disappointment that we’re not going to play for the rest of the year.”

Despite the unfortunate end to both the fall and spring seasons, the team is already working hard to restructure the club to ensure that this does not happen again.

“We will likely fold the Division III team completely,” Furnary said. “That way, everybody is practicing together, everybody is practicing at the same time, and there’s no way that the team leadership would know about this and let it go on, because if everybody is there together and somebody says, ‘Hey, I’m having a party, come over’, the team leadership is going to say, ‘No that’s not allowed, don’t go, don’t have this party.’ By not having separate practices and two separate teams, that should go a long way in keeping that from happening again.”

Rugby Suspension Timeline Aug 28 Division III team practices, holds informal party later that night

Sept 18 Student Conduct meeting with the three freshmen who received alcohol possession tickets

Sept 21 Rec Sports suspends Division I and Division III teams

Sept 23 Notification sent to Rugby Club by Office of Student Conduct Division I resumes practice (Division III remains suspended)

Sept 31 Conduct Hearing suspends the team

Oct 9 Appeal sent in by Rugby Club

Oct 15 Appeal response confirms suspension

Oct 17 Final game allowed by the university against Maryland cancelled due to bad weather

Oct 18 All Rugby Club events after this date suspended until May 15, 2010

CLAY COLLINS/COLLEGIATE TIMES

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