Friday, August 27, 2010 Print Edition

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Friday, August 27, 2010

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Community at crossroads

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Four debut with BOV GORDON BLOCK associate news editor Virginia Tech’s budget and research opportunities will be the top priorities for the Board of Visitors over the weekend in the first meeting for several recently appointed members, including former member John Rocovich.

The board will approve budget initiatives in preparation for the 2011 general assembly session, along with an overview of Tech’s year-to-date financial performance.

DANIEL LIN / SPPS

Balloons were tied to the cross that memorializes the deaths of Tech students Heidi Childs and David Metzler. Vigil attendees lit candles and prayed as the sun set.

VIGIL UNITES CALDWELL FIELDS COMMUNITY ON ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF SHOOTINGS LIANA BAYNE associate news editor Caldwell Fields area residents affected by the year-old deaths of two Virginia Tech students they never met were drawn to a camp fire Thursday night at the site of a crime that turned their community upside down.

About 13 people gathered Thursday night around a cross in the Caldwell Fields parking lot where Heidi Childs and David Metzler were found dead on Aug. 27, 2009. The Tech sophomores had gone to the remote field on Aug. 26, 2009, to light a campfire and play the guitar.

Attendees were protected and questioned by multiple law enforcement officers, including members of the Virginia State Police, Tech Police and Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators still have no strong suspects. In a press conference last week, representatives of a multiagency task force said they have followed more than 1,100 leads.

Lisa Gardner, a former police officer in Washington, D.C. area and a Blacksburg native, organized and publicized the vigil, which was not associated with Tech or the Childs or Metzler families.

Gardner spent most of the afternoon walking the field and watching police officers file in and out of the parking lot as they continued to search for new details.

Although Gardner said she was not afraid to be in the area, she was openly carrying a handgun and said she had another in the car.

“It’s kind of eerie, too, if you think about it this moment, I think, he

could be watching us,” she said. “And you know, you’re thinking, this guy’s come back on the one-year anniversary and he’s just as interested in it as we are, but for different reasons.”

Though the guests gathered around the camp fire had known Childs and Metzler, the loss of the students’ lives affected the lives of those in attendance.

Carol Glass, who owns, runs and lives in Camp Tuk-A-Way, a Christian camp for children from the third to 12th grades with her husband, had recently moved to the area when Childs and Metzler were killed.

The camp is about five miles down Craig Creek Road from the site of the murders.

“It was a shock,” Glass said. “We had kids here when it happened.”

The police presence Thursday, she said, was not much different than a normal day.

“We’ve seen quite a few,” she said, “They make their presence known.”

Though Glass was shocked by the crime that happened close to her home, “we don’t live in fear,” she said.

“It’s a quiet valley.”

Glass gathered with others in that quiet valley. The fire was lit along with candles while marshmallows and hot dogs roasted.

Gardner, currently a resident of Christiansburg, likened her feelings on the students’ deaths to the sense of incredulity she felt following the April 16, 2007 shootings on Tech’s campus.

“I’m a native of this area,” she said.

“And I guess it’s that I feel a sense of, as a local community member and a mother, just a sense of responsibility of some sort, that, ‘How could something like this happen?’ And,

DANIEL LIN / SPPS

Local Mix 100.7 radio personality Kerri Taylor led the group in a rendition of “Amazing Grace.”

‘It couldn’t possibly happen here,’ just like the Virginia Tech massacre.”

Matusevich said the aspect of the murders that bothers her most is the lack of answers investigators have been able to provide.

“The only thing that scares me to death is that it keeps on going,” she said.

The informal ceremony culminat-

ed in a group rendition of “Amazing Grace,” led by Kerri Taylor, a radio host for Radford-based Mix 100.7.

Taylor, as a member of the media, said she wanted to participate in the vigil to help the community honor the memories of Childs and Metzler.

“Anything that can bring closure for them,” she said.

After the song and a closing

prayer, the guests filed out down Craig Creek Road, where they were stopped at a police roadblock.

Licenses and vehicle registrations were recorded. Drivers were questioned about their motives for attending the vigil and their level of involvement with the case.

“You never know when a clue could happen,” Taylor said, “and that’s why this is important.”

Virginia Tech’s BOV meets Monday, Aug. 30 for its quarterly meeting in Room 2100 of Torgersen Hall at 1:30 p.m.

The board will also vote on whether to make the Standing Research Committee permanent. The committee has run on a temporary status since its formation in 2006.

The board will also vote to delegate adoption enforcement of trespassing regulations to the chief of Tech’s Police department. Also scheduled for vote are resolutions to approve easements for land to the Virginia Tech Foundation and the town of Blacksburg.

Also under review is a survey gauging employee approval.

The meeting will be the first for new members appointed by Gov. Bob McDonnell. Joining Rocovich, a former rector, on the board as new members are William Holtzman, Suzanne Obenshain and Michael Quillen.

Rocovich, who sat on the board from 1997-2005, was key in the formation of ICTAS, the Edward Via School of Osteopathic Medicine and in Tech’s admission to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

However, Rocovich was at the center of a 2003 controversy involving Tech’s affirmative action policy.

Holtzman, president and owner of Holtzman Oil Company, had Tech’s Holtzman Alumni Center named in his honor. Obenshain has worked with several charitable organizations, while Quillen has worked primarily in the coal industry.

Va. ACLU petitions for Collegiate Times, Cav Daily GORDON BLOCK associate news editor The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review a case challenging a ban on alcohol-related advertisements in Virginia’s student publications.

In April 2010, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ban from Virginia’s Alcohol Beverage Control Board prohibiting college publications from advertising beer, wine and mixed drinks, overturning a 2008 district court decision that deemed the advertising prohibition unconstitutional.

The suit was first brought by the Educational Media Company at Virginia Tech, the Collegiate

Times’ parent company, and The Cavalier Daily, Inc., which owns the University of Virginia’s student newspaper, in the case Educational Media Company at Virginia Tech v.

Swecker.

The Virginia ACLU’s petition, released Monday, centrally revolves around the application of what is considered the Central Hudson test, based on the 1980 Supreme Court case Central Hudson Gas & Electric v. Public Service Commission.

The Central Hudson test allows the government to restrict commercial speech if it is unlawful or misleading, and directly and materially advances a “substantial governmental interest” as long as the restrictions are not more extensive than necessary.

The Fourth Circuit Court determined there was a record supporting a link between the ban and decreasing alcohol demand among college students, noting college papers primarily target college students.

In its petition, the Virginia ACLU argued the Fourth Circuit court’s application of the Central Hudson test conflicted with decisions made in similar cases, including a 2004 case in which a ban on paid alcohol advertising in the University of Pittsburgh campus newspaper Pitt News was found to be an unconstitutional restriction of expression.

The Virginia ACLU in the memo also disputed the Fourth Circuit court’s connection between a ban on alcohol advertising and underage drinking, citing a lack

“

In the absence of evidence, it’s dangerous to go to common sense, because it can take you in a variety of directions REBECCA GLENBERG VIRGINIA ACLU

of evidence.

“In the absence of evidence, it’s dangerous to go to common sense, because it can take you in a variety of directions,” said Rebecca Glenberg, Virginia ACLU’s legal director.

Kelly Wolff, general manager of EMCVT, said while reducing risky drinking behaviors among young people was a “wor-

thy goal,” the ban didn’t advance that goal.

“It just doesn’t work in this case,” Wolff said.

She noted that while the government has the ability to limit what advertising is printed, there has to be a compelling reason.

“Not only have they not shown this, but there is no way for them to show it in this case,” Wolff said.

Glenberg said a paper’s advertising was directly connected to the freedom of the press guaranteed by the First Amendment, noting it was a part of the editorial decision process and the revenue generated from the advertising allowed the paper to continue working.

In court filings, the two papers

argued each lost approximately $30,000 a year in advertising revenues as a result of the ban.

“By depriving the papers of an important type of revenue allowed to other newspapers, the state is infringing on college newspapers’ First Amendment rights in a discriminatory fashion,” Glenberg said.

Kathleen Shaw, a spokeswoman for Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control, said an “appropriate response” would be from Virginia’s Office of the Attorney General, but did not give a timeline for when the response would be released.

Glenberg said if the case were to be accepted, arguments in the Supreme Court would likely begin in the spring 2011.

2 news

news editors: philipp kotlaba, gordon block, liana bayne newseditor@collegiatetimes.com/540.231.9865

august 27, 2010

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virginia headlines

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Va. prison cited for sexual misconduct Based on a national survey of inmates completed last year, the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women and the Eastern Shore Regional Jail were cited in a federal report released today as having high rates of sexual misconduct.

The report, Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, 2008-09, by the Justice Department’, surveyed more than 81,500 inmates in hundreds of jails, prisons and confinement centers.

Nationwide, 2.1 percent of all prison inmates and 1.5 percent of jail inmates reported sexual activity with another inmate. Some 2.8 percent of prison inmates and two percent of jail inmates reported having sexual contact with staff.

Sexual victimization was defined as all types of sexual activity, and any sexual activity with staff.

Among the 463 facilities in the survey, eight male prisons, two female prisons, and six jails were identified as “high rate” facilities based on the prevalence of inmateon-inmate sexual victimization.

Four male prisons, two female prisons, and five jails were identified as “high rate” based on the prevalence rate of staff sexual misconduct.

The 1,200-inmate Fluvanna prison in Troy opened in 1998, and was the only female prison designated as having both high rates of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization as well as staff sexual misconduct. The 280-bed jail is in Eastville. Spokespersons for both facilities could not be reached immediately for comment.

-Frank Green, mcclatchy newspapers

CORRECTIONS JUSTIN GRAVES -Contact our public editor at publiceditor@ collegiatetimes.com if you see anything that needs to be corrected.

COLLEGIATETIMES

Tech halfway through hurricane test PHILIPP KOTLABA senior news editor An ongoing statewide emergency simulation held on university grounds reached its midpoint Thursday, as 146 staffers prepared a hypothetical evacuation procedure for thousands of refugees in Lane Stadium.

Six agencies are involved in the “state managed shelter exercise,” WHICH is testing plans that would shelter humans and companion animals in response to a hurricane affecting coastal Virginia.

Thursday’s drill featured about 150 people — 90 of whom were directly involved, whereas another 60 served either as observers or those controlling the exercises.

Although the preparations began at 9 a.m., during the afternoon segment most activity was focused on a realtime simulation of a planning process around accommodating the hurricane evacuees, according to university spokesman Larry Hincker, mostly within the press box and surrounding areas of Lane Stadium.

“Today is really a sort of commandand-control operation to see if it all works from the top,” said Michael Kiser, university spokesman, “and tomorrow is the closest thing you’re going to see in terms of actual intake of evacuees.”

“The reason that it’s here (for the

“

When we respond out on Interstate 81, you can’t just stop the clock and say ‘Let’s back up and do it again.’

HAMPTON HART VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

first time) is because this is a designated shelter for people with companion animals, cats and dogs mainly, because we have the facilities to handle them,” he said.

Hampton Hart, the director of training and exercises at the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, said drills such as these are highly important in order for the state to ensure maximum efficiency in a real-world scenario.

“When we respond out on Interstate 81, you just can’t stop the clock and say, ‘Let’s back up and do it again,’” Hart said. “But in an exercise, you can do that. You can look at your

[

nation & world headlines

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Gitmo trial reporter honored for efforts

PAUL KURLAK / SPPS

Captain Vince Houston, operations captain for Virginia Tech Police, directs the Public Safety task force at Lane Stadium. Tech prepared a fictional evacuation for refugees in Lane Stadium Thursday. processes, you can stop it and say, ‘You know what? Is there a different way to do that?’”

The maximum number of people affected in this exercise was set at 2,500, but the state might throw some twists into it to test the agencies’ responsiveness to changes in on-theground conditions, according to Hart.

“They’ve written their plan, they believe they’re going to execute it this way,” Hart said, “but we may try to put a little wrinkle in them.”

Possible wrinkles include shifting the number of evacuees — within the 2,500 limit — and increasing the percentage of children less than 10 years old or those needing special medical attention. The default numbers set the pet count at nearly 700 and the general population at 2,100, with 140 with special needs.

“Now, let’s say it goes up to 200. Well, you then must be able to segregate those patients, make sure you can identify their needs, coordinating with all the local hospitals,” Hart said.

The final day of the simulated emergency drill is Friday and transitions from the command-post-style functional exercise to one that includes handling actual people and animals playing the roles of evacuees being admitted by the agencies.

“Tomorrow is what we’ll call the

PAUL KURLAK/ SPPS

Members of the logistics group practice procedure for a state emergency. The emergency simulation wraps up on Friday. ‘boots on the ground,’ where we’ll actually have ... a representative group of individuals that will present themselves and they will actually go through the intake process,” Hart said, “and so we’ll actually work through the mechanics.”

About 25 dogs and cats — some “volunteered” by their caretakers in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine — will accompany volunteers from the general student population as well as from

Tech’s Corps of Cadets.

Since 2005, Virginia agencies have held more than 160 simulations of this type, varying in size and complexity.

Hart said drills allow the agencies to maintain a level of proficiency and readiness to counter decay through inevitable employee turnover.

“You’re always trying to maintain a fit level of proficiency, so exercises give us a great opportunity to train, to learn, to experiment in a low threat, low-cost environment,” he said.

WASHINGTON _ Carol Rosenberg, The Miami Herald reporter banned by the Pentagon earlier this year from covering military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been awarded the Society of Professional Journalists’ First Amendment Award for her efforts to cover the detention center there despite “consistent hostility in covering her beat.”

Rosenberg will receive the honor Oct. 5 at the organization’s annual awards banquet during its convention in Las Vegas.

Two other people also will be honored: Herschel Fink, a First Amendment lawyer who represented the Detroit Free Press in its push for access to public records that helped prove corruption by disgraced former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and David Cuillier, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona School of Journalism.

Initsannouncementoftheaward, SPJ said that Rosenberg’s “expertise has been vital in chronicling opposition to President Obama’s order to close” Guantanamo and that “she alone kept close track of Supreme Court-ordered habeas corpus hearings that resulted in release orders and judicial criticism of insufficient evidence that had kept prisoners confined for years.”

The announcement also noted that Pentagon officials have repeatedly tried to obstruct her work.

Rosenberg was one of four journalists the Pentagon banned permanently from Guantanamo in May for allegedly violating ground rules that prohibited the naming of a witness who had already been publicly identified. Challenged on the constitutionality of such a ban, the Pentagon eventually lifted it and agreed to rewrite its ground rules for journalists covering Guantanamo. The new ground rules have not been made public, however.

-staff reports, mcclatchy newspapers

opınıons 3

editor: scott masselli, gabi seltzer opinionseditor@collegiatetimes.com/540.231.9865 COLLEGIATETIMES

august 27, 2010

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

Helping coral reefs, oceans and ourselves T

he recent tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico has focused our nation’s attention on the challenge of balancing competing uses of our marine resources. The threat from oil spills, however, is just one of the problems our oceans face today.

Fortunately, President Obama recently signed an executive order establishing a new unified national ocean policy. This new national policy has the potential to dramatically improve the state of our oceans — providing us with an invaluable tool to untangle the maze of laws and regulations that currently govern everything from reefs to offshore energy resources.

Coral reefs, among our world’s most striking natural treasures, provide a prime example. Their “sparkle” is now diminishing. Over the last 36 years I have witnessed their extensive degradation, as pollution, global warming and destructive fishing practices continue to take a tremendous toll on these fragile ecosystems and the people who depend on them.

These reefs provide economic benefits for many U.S. communities, valued at hundreds of millions of dollars each year. They also provide important cultural benefits and invaluable ecological protection. In fact, nearly half of all federally managed fish populations depend on coral reefs and adjacent habitats for a part of their life cycles.

Existing federal legislation, though, is largely outdated. The century-old Rivers and Harbors Act, for example, allows the Army Corps of Engineers to engage in or provide permits for activities destructive to coral reefs, over objections from more biologically oriented agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Moreover, when it comes to the effects of water pollution on corals and associated organisms, federal pollution limits are based more on chemistry than protecting key biological processes, such as reproduction, and they often ignore the harmful effect of combinations of pollutants. As a result, it is possible to be in legal compliance with established standards for a number of toxicants, while a reef’s ability to survive is threatened by the com-

bined effects of the “soup.” On July 19, the White House announced the creation of a unifying national ocean policy that will protect key natural resources and ensure that sustainability will drive future economic activities both offshore and onshore. This long overdue initiative presents us with a unique chance to end the political paralysis that has compromised the ability of many coastal communities around the nation to protect reefs and other threatened marine ecosystems.

Our oceans are currently managed by more than 140 laws and 20 agencies, in a disjointed system with often conflicting goals.

President Obama’s executive order, however, creates a National Ocean Council to coordinate activities with an eye on the bigger policy picture.

Although an integrated national ocean policy will not clean up our oceans or restore depleted resource stocks overnight, this achievement is a key step forward. And action now is critical, as time to fix current problems is short. Indeed, a colleague’s research shows that a collection of coral reefs possessing roughly 80 percent live coral cover in the early 1900s averages only 38 percent or less today. Unless policy changes are made and implemented quickly, these reefs could drop to less than 10 percent live coral by the year 2100.

Reefs and other marine ecosystems cannot truly be managed.

Fish, corals and other sea creatures will do whatever their genetics dictate. The best we can strive for is to manage human activities responsible for the degradation and devastation of marine ecosystems.

President Obama’s newly announced national ocean plan is an invaluable insurance policy on the future health of our oceans — providing us with the chance to make decisions on the use of our limited marine resources based on the best available biological, physical, economic and social sciences.

As illustrated so dramatically by the tragic Gulf oil spill, today’s mistakes will only increase the hardships felt tomorrow and become more costly to fix the longer we wait.

ROBERT RICHMOND -mcclatchy newspapers

MCT CAMPUS

Vindicating Virginia Tech’s ‘easy’ majors — liberal arts T

rue to its namesake, Virginia Tech is an engineering school. If you’re a liberal arts major, this means putting up with a lot of ribbing from friends studying engineering about taking a “soft” or easy major — or about having small course loads and that free time thing that is only whispered about in the hallowed halls of Whittemore.

What I hear the most — and find the most irritating — is that liberal arts majors are wasting money on a useless degree.

This is, of course, incorrect.

Small course loads are typically a matter of choice. An English major, for example, requires 120 credits; for a standard, four-year, two-semester college, that means 15 credits a semester — the recommended number.

Many students entering Tech require fewer credits to acheive a degree; International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement credits tend to knock out many Curriculum for Liberal Education requirements and prerequisites for core classes. Because of this, students in liberal arts majors have more space to take up minors, double majors and extra courses.

In general, this makes for a more balanced student — a French major, for example, can take physics recreationally; it is very unlikely that a physics major would find the time to take French. In fact, many liberal arts

majors are taking just as many — if not more — courses than a hard science or engineering major, and they are likely more diverse.

Free time is a blessing of the liberal arts degree. It allows the exploration of social groups, fraternities, honor societies, athletics, clubs, jobs and many other opportunities. While “I’m a straight-A electrical engineer,” sounds good on paper, “I’m a B-average English major, I volunteer on the rescue squad, I play intramural soccer and I’m a member of the pre-law society,” has a more satisfying ring to it.

The college experience is more than a degree. It’s the chance to meet new people, discover new things; while a technical degree may guarantee a job, a liberal arts degree usually comes with memorable life experiences you can’t find in any book.

A liberal arts degree is not a waste of time. The FBI and CIA, for example, prefer their intelligence analysts to have degrees in accounting, a foreign language or law. Speaking of law, the College Board recommends liberal arts degrees for students seeking to attend law school because they help develop “the thinking and communication skills you’ll need in law school and in professional practice.”

If law isn’t your fancy, but you still want to serve in blue, sociology is a favorite for police academies and a good start for future forensic patholo-

gists. According to Business Week, a minor in business or management is far more marketable to recruiters than a stand-alone degree because it cuts training time for new employees nearly in half.

Even art majors have their place in the world — commercial artists, graphic designers, photographers and even art therapists are highly sought after.

Despite all the barbs and comments, a liberal arts degree is a worthwhile investment of your time and money — perhaps even more so than a hard degree. While the course load is not unbearable, it is sufficient to keep students occupied, while allowing space for extracurricular classes and minors.

The work associated with liberal arts degrees, while demanding, is not as taxing as that of hard degrees, and students are free to invest time in clubs, sports and other social activities.

Most importantly, liberal arts degrees can be applied to many different careers.

JULIE DEISHER -regular columnist

Is a presidential run really in Palin’s future? War rages on despite messages F

rom Alaska to Georgia, Sarah Palin has pursued a familiar political path this year, endorsing Republican candidates and picking up political chits.

Potential presidential candidates have done that in midterm campaigns for more than a generation, often disclaiming any interest beyond helping their party or, in her case, the GOP women she calls “Mama Grizzlies.”

“That’s not where my focus is,” she said recently when asked about 2012 on “Fox News Sunday.”

She may have scored a notable success in helping oust Sen. Lisa Murkowski in Tuesday’s Alaska GOP primary, but overall her record has been mixed. She helped Nikki Haley win the Republican nomination for governor of South Carolina but failed in a similar effort for Karen Handel in Georgia.

One congressional backer of Handel’s rival noted pointedly that Georgians could do “their own thinking on things like this.”

But while the former Alaska governor often sounds and looks like a presidential candidate, her failure to pursue other aspects of the presidential playbook has created significant doubts about her intentions.

The consensus in the political community is that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will run in 2012. But it’s sharply split on what Palin will do, though she’d almost certainly rank among the GOP favorites.

The arguments in favor of her running are obvious: She’s the best known and most outspoken GOP opponent of President Barack Obama and, in a fairly drab field, the most charismatic. She creates more enthusiasm among the faithful than potential rivals.

She can raise money more quickly than most, though she probably can’t rival Romney, who spent $35 million in 2008.

Her base among religious conservatives would be an asset in Iowa’s leadoff caucuses. So would her primary endorsement of the likely next governor, Republican Terry Branstad. Haley would be a strong ally in crucial South Carolina.

Unless a governor like Haley Barbour of Mississippi or Rick

Perry of Texas runs, she’d do well in the Southern primaries that pick a significant proportion of GOP delegates. Though former House Speaker Newt Gingrich represented Georgia, it’s unclear how Southern his political base would be.

If timing is everything, Palin might be smart to run while she’s hot. In four years, the Republican field might include such newer stars as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and, if elected senator this year, Florida’s Marco Rubio.

Obama remains likely to enter 2012 as a favorite for re-election. (Since 1892, Jimmy Carter is the only elected president who restored his party to the White House but then lost re-election.)

Republicans might go with their heart on grounds they’d have little to lose.

But before awarding Palin the 2012 GOP nomination by acclamation, it’s worth mentioning some reasons indicating she might not run.

Though supporters love her, there aren’t enough. Polls show that most Americans consider her unqualified to be president.

Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston’s criticism of her Georgia campaigning is the tip of an iceberg of GOP establishment resistance. She might face tough going among the larger electorates of major industrial states.

It’s unclear if Palin has taken steps to correct the ignorance she often showed in 2008 when discussing major issues. While she might be able to avoid most questions, the inevitable candidate debates would contrast her knowledge with some experienced, knowledgeable rivals.

She’s done little to build the infrastructure for a presidential bid in the way several potential candidates have. Off-year campaigning provides an opportunity to test such organizations.

It’s not clear she even wants to be president. It’s a tough, 24-7 job, and she had enough of the far less taxing Alaska governorship after 2 1/2 years. Running for president, much less serving, is harder still.

So will she or won’t she? Everyone’s got a view, what’s yours?

CARL LEUBSDORF -mcclatchy newspapers

indicating end of Iraqi combat T

he war in Iraq ended last week. I cannot think of a more important topic for my first column of this academic year than the war, which has now found its way back onto television news after a lengthy (and unfortunate) recess.

There is probably some unwritten obligation to write my column on this first week of the 2010-11 academic year on something related to the stress of what is, for many of you, the very first semester of your college career. My excuse for choosing to write about the war is that many of the new (and current) students are in military programs, and will be active service members upon graduating — at least this is the excuse I am going to stick to.

Anyway, the war is over in Iraq, and many of those graduating in the near future will not have to fear being sent to Iraq as a combatant in the war that Bush built and Obama maintains. The very last combat brigade has left Iraq this past week, leaving only fifty-thousand troops behind as a security force. The other factor here is that the number of troops from private security firms are being increased, which I assume means more contracts to strengthen the already mighty military industrial complex.

Nevertheless, the final combat brigade has left Iraq, and we are all supposed to see this as the end Americans have been longing for.

The reality of what this means is certainly less straightforward than the spin given by the Obama administration, which is also being spewed by the television news media. I watched all the major network’s coverage on this, and it seemed impossible to find a commentator who didn’t begin the segment by saying something to the effect of, “Seven years after the war began, American troops are finally leaving Iraq.” Of course

this really is nothing more than a complete joke, and the American public is the one being tricked. What does this mean to have the last combat brigade leave Iraq? Not a thing.

The occupation of Iraq will continue for years to come, until it becomes the norm in the eyes of the majority of citizens. Considering most media pundits incorrectly label Obama as “anti-war,” it’s reasonable to assume the media will also accept that he ended the war, and that those 50,000 troops left behind are truly there to help the Iraq military regain its independence.

I want all of you to imagine 50,000 armed foreign soldiers within the United States. How would the Obama administration and the news media feel about that? Would these troops be called invaders? An occupational force?

Terrorists? Apparently, the correct answer is that we think of these troops as our buddies, kindly lending their fully-automatic rifles to help maintain a safe, free and secure land. Of course this reasoning only works because it involves American troops on foreign soil.The Obama administration and the news media would have us believe that 50,000 troops is not an occupational force — mostly because these soldiers are American.

There is apparently some understanding that America and its soldiers are an altruistic bunch, whose armed gunmen (and their corporate partners) can be trusted to do many, many things foreign people simply cannot do. America and its soldiers can never be invaders, especially when their mission involves spreading democracy and independence to other nations.This goal is apparently achieved by maintaining a military presence for years to come.

The other piece of information that I

am confused about is where this combat brigade that left Iraq will be sent to. My guess is that they will be sent to Afghanistan, where President Obama has vowed on several occasions to focus the brunt of American military might.

I am apparently part of some old way thinking that sees the war in Afghanistan to be virtually the exact same war as the more demonized Iraq — the two wars really function as two fronts of the same invasion. Both involve building nations, spreading American influence, and the corporatist profiteering that has become a staple of modern warfare.

I have made this statement before, but I will make it once again: If Obama ends the war, I will vote for him and completely support him in 2012. That’s how very important this issue is for me.

However, I am not gullible enough to accept that this is in any way the beginning of the end of the war. This is just one more tactic the state is using to gain support for the war, and to shift focus to thinking of the war as more of a temporary peacekeeping operation.

The war will only end when all the troops come home, without leaving several thousand behind, or shifting them to a new country. It’s election year 2010 and there is still no end in sight to what can now be officially called Obama’s war. I can only wonder if the war will still be raging when all you new freshman are ready to graduate. Regrettably, I am fairly certain it will.

CHAD VAN ALSTIN -regular columnist

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editors: lindsey brookbank, kim walter featureseditor@collegiatetimes.com/ 540.231.9865 COLLEGIATETIMES

he she

august 27, 2010

SAID

T

JAMIE MARTYN / COLLEGIATE TIMES

She said: Learn from your silly mistakes F

reshman year was a bumpy ride that left a few bruises, but if I could go back I wouldn’t have changed a thing. So what are these rough times I speak of? Well, here are the confessions of a freshman Hokie.

Coming to Tech after living in Delaware meant I knew no one. I couldn’t believe how alone I felt among thousands of people as I walked across the Drillfield, or as I like to call it, the battlefield.

First piece of advice: Prepare for the mob. The Drillfield may look like a nice shortcut, but beware of paper cuts from flyers and tread marks from bikers.

I thought I was going south for school, but I was lucky enough to find that once I came to Tech, Virginia saw its most brutal winter in years. Do yourself a favor and buy a raincoat.

Expect the unexpected when it comes to Blacksburg weather.

But I can promise you, football Saturdays in Blacksburg are like nothing else. As poised as I am, it wasn’t surprising to have a shelf dropped on my foot hours before the Nebraska game. Although the doctor thought my foot might be broken, I bled orange and maroon. Over my dead body was that game going to start without me.

Word of advice, if you have a bro-

Winter’s Bone

R

ken foot, Tyrod throws a last-minute touchdown, and you’re standing next to a 10-foot wall contemplating jumping it to storm the field, do it. This is going to hurt like hell, but it is — and will always be — worth it.

Football isn’t the only great event at Tech either. Let’s be honest here, whose favorite holiday isn’t one where you get candy? However, last Halloween I learned to never spend as much money on a costume again when I wore pajamas and a facemask instead.

The swine flu was a great reminder of what happens when you go to a school with about 24,000 people.

While holidays and events are a blast, you still have to work hard to play hard.

That being said, beware of your laptop. It can and will be a dangerous thing. Farmville spread like a disease on campus as I watched people in large lectures tending to their crops while chatting on Facebook. And maybe you’ll remember someone’s computer hollering, “you’ve got mail” in a geology lecture. Well that blonde who searched the room to find the perpetrator was me. And if you haven’t figured it out already, that screaming laptop was mine as well.

I strongly suggest you mute your computer.

And how can you motivate yourself to work hard? Let’s just say I sometimes let papers go until the last minute, so caffeinated soda became my savior. In case you know as much as me about soda machines, they don’t accept pennies. You soon realize how broke you are when you’re walking around the dorms asking someone for a nickel.

Everyone says it, and they’re right.

College is about making mistakes and finding balance. So what if I told you some embarrassing parts of my life?

Life is so much better if you can laugh at yourself and enjoy the crazy ride.

My last piece of advice is to keep your room semi-clean if you don’t want to hate yourself at the end of the year. And to the girls out there, look for a strong guy to help you carry your fridge across campus next May. Guys? You’re pretty much screwed on that one.

For all of you freshmen out there, know that you’ll be surprised, but it will be the best four years of your life.

CHELSEA GUNTER -features staff writer -sophomore -communication major

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he signs are everywhere — beer sales plummeting in beach towns, interns being released from modern serfdom, ESPN dutifully ignoring the Hokies as title contenders — and this can only mean one thing: Our ninemonth vacation from the real world is about to begin anew.

The return to Blacksburg is welcome for those of us who find adjusting to parental standards for cleanliness and sobriety difficult. There’s nothing quite like heading back to freedom amid a backdrop of pigskin hysteria and the last tolerable weather for months. The only thing in the universe better than the fun of September in Blacksburg is experiencing it for the first time.

On that note, I’d like to welcome the freshman class of 2014 to Virginia Tech. The answer to your first question is yes, everyone on campus reads the Collegiate Times. It’s the topic of discussion at all the cool parties, and its writers are glorified among the student body.

If you were also wondering what the next four years are going to be like, then I can give no answer more specific than sweet as hell. Shelve any silly anxieties about college — nearly everybody finds a way to be happy and successful.

Note that this reassurance does not apply to engineers, for whom misery is an academic prerequisite.

No matter what major though, newly arrived freshmen can be a lot of fun.

You remind us all of the innocent days of yore when Blacksburg still seemed large and late-night Hawaiian pizza at DX was a revelation. The benefits aren’t limited to nostalgia. The arrival of new crops of girls is a serious morale booster to the male upperclassmen, and you

all infuse life into campus by making the dining halls quite entertaining for a month or so.

You are also, however, like monkeys at the zoo. It’s not your fault you throw feces around — it’s natural behavior.

Our job as the learned elders is to discourage this poo-flinging and teach you how to be respectable university students. Each and every one of you has the potential to be an excellent addition to the Hokie family, but first you must learn not to suck so hard at college.

The first — and in my opinion, most important rule — is hide your maroon and orange effect T-shirts until game day. Tech students may be known for wearing school gear but that does not mean it is acceptable to parade around like an army of style-impaired clones.

Newsflash: Every single student at this university owns these shirts. They are only recommended to the celibate population, because wearing one to a party is the best way to avoid close encounters of the sexual kind.

The second most egregious sin of many freshmen is an inability to recognize limits. We’re all very thrilled that you beer-bonged 15 Natty’s at beach week — really. We’d be even more thrilled if you exercised some restraint before vomiting on the Wii and commandeering the sofa for the night. I neglected this rule my first semester and woke up with charming aphorisms tattooed all over my body. Fair warning.

Also, guys, this should be self-explanatory, but for the love of God, do not show up to social events rolling eight deep with your Vawter bros. Meet girls to go with you or split into manageable

wolf packs — just don’t be a traveling sausagefest.

In fact, walk around Blacksburg on weekends at your own peril. My mother told me that if you don’t have anything nice to say about the Blacksburg Police Department, don’t say anything at all. So, I won’t say anything except that the town’s finest combine with the occasional militant resident advisor to provide a formidable threat to those with poor judgment. Keeping your head is a necessity to avoid a semester banishment to purgatory.

On that note, be aware that Tech has a draconian drug policy allowing no wiggle room and even less common sense. As tempting as it is to impress your roommate with that freakin’ sweet bong you picked up in Ocean City, repel the impulse.

Finally, remember Blacksburg is not your personal stomping ground for raging debauchery. It’s possible to have a great time without being obnoxious to town residents. A little respect reflects well on you and the university community as a whole.

Other than that, new Hokies, go out and live it up — you will never have another freshman year.

One final, hard-earned piece of advice: Campus maps provide maximum value when consulted before your first class begins.

ANDREW REILLY -features staff writer -junior -communication major

sports 6

editors: michael bealey, garrett ripa sportseditor@collegiatetimes.com/ 540.231.9865 COLLEGIATETIMES

august 27, 2010

NFL fantasy football draft guide: sleepers and likely busts I

t’s that time of year again.

After a long summer watching poor excuses for professional sport, like the ever-changing, never entertaining XGames — or the Baltimore Orioles, for example — football is back.

And as the NFL season’s kick-off stands just a couple weeks away, fantasy football is back, too.

You may be in one league, playing just for fun. You may be in two leagues, because you’re popular like that. Or — if you’re like me — you may be in six to seven leagues with half of your last paycheck of the summer and your pride up for grabs.

Whatever the case may be, I can guarantee you didn’t decide to play because you wanted to lose.

The only people who do that are delusional elementary school gym teachers and mothers of five. This isn’t a charity, Mom — this is fantasy football.

It’s time to study the league, keep upto-date on injuries, and take your best guess at who may bust and who may be that diamond-in-the-rough who will take your team to the promise land.

Here are just a few of my many guesses:

SLEEPERS: Matt Cassell, quarterback, Kansas City Chiefs If Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and Matt Schaub are off the board, and you’re looking for a starting quarterback, take a look at Matt Cassell.

While it’s been hard to consider drafting anyone playing for the Chiefs in recent years, this may be the year for an offense that hasn’t cracked the top 20 since 2006.

Since joining the Chiefs last season, Scott Pioli, former New England Patriots vice president of player personnel, now serving as the Chiefs’ general manager, has gotten down to business.

Through this year’s draft, Pioli added the talented Dexter McCluster to the team’s backfield — a running and receiving threat who may soon take over full-time duty behind Cassell.

Pioli also hired offensive guru Charlie Weis to serve as the team’s offensive coordinator after Weis was fired from his head coaching job at Notre Dame.

Add a non-suspended star wide receiver in Dwayne Bowe to the mix, along with a talented receiver like Chris Chambers, who now has a year under

his belt working with Cassell, and you’ve got an offense with weapons.

When was the last time you could say that about the Chiefs?

Projected Stats: 3,300 yards passing, 26 TDs, 13 INTs Ahmad Bradshaw, running back, New York Giants Everyone knows about Brandon Jacobs, the Giants’ larger-than-life, bruising running back who made a name for himself three years ago when the team won the Super Bowl.

Jacobs has been the first and last person thought of when discussing the Giants’ running attack ever since.

However, behind the scenes at practice this year, beat writers and fans have begun to notice a change in New York’s plans.

Now, Ahmad Bradshaw, a midget in comparison to Jacobs, standing at 5 feet 9 inches and weighing in at 198 pounds, is the man taking the first snap with Eli Manning’s offense.

To a stat freak, this isn’t shocking. In three years, Bradshaw averaged 5.2 yards per carry and, despite an injury-plagued 2009, ran for 778 yards and averaged 4.8 yards per touch. Meanwhile, Jacobs

averaged just 3.7 yards per carry and had his most unimpressive year to date.

As the Giants offensive line has aged, holes along the line have become smaller, and a smaller running back fits the team better every day.

While head coach Tom Coughlin won’t discuss who is No. 1 and who is No; 2, it’s clear Bradshaw’s time has come.

With two surgically repaired feet, the smaller guy in the Giants’ backfield has impressed in two preseason games thus far and looks to be “the guy” in 2010.

Projected stats: 240 carries, 1,100 yards, 9 TDs BUSTS: Brandon Marshall, wide receiver, Miami Dolphins Every year, the hopes for Brandon Marshall get bigger. Since his breakout season in 2007, the often-disgruntled wide receiver has been one of those “he’s too good to not take” picks, despite his issues on and the off the field.

And he’s done well.

As the go-to-guy in Denver, Marshall made his living as the key contributor to a pass-happy offense. In 2008, for

example, the Broncos ran the ball less often than 27 teams in the league — a wide receiver’s dream.

This year, though, Marshall enters his fifth season with a different club in the Miami Dolphins.

After three consecutive 100-plus reception, 1,100-plus yard seasons, Marshall will have a hard time matching his recent numbers with his new team.

Why? Because there are only two teams that ran the ball more than the Dolphins did in 2009.

Specializing in the wildcat formation, the Dolphins’ offense must change its whole dynamic if it plans to accommodate Marshall’s lofty goals. It’s hard to see that happening with a quarterback like Chad Henne and a healthy Ronnie Brown returning to even further bolster Miami’s running attack.

Projected stats: 75 receptions, 760 yards, 7 TDs Matt Forte, running back, Chicago Bears If you want a guy with heart, draft Matt Forte. If you want to win your league, don’t.

Forte enters 2010 with several problems. First, a guy named Chester Taylor

is breathing down his neck on the Bears’ depth chart. So, right away you can guarantee Forte won’t amass the carries he usually does in an NFL season.

Second, Forte is banged up. Since being drafted in 2008, he’s simply been overworked. In his first year, the Tulane grad ran 316 times. To put that in perspective, the Arizona Cardinals’ entire team ran the ball just 24 more times all of last season.

If that doesn’t steer you away from Forte, check out how many yards per carry he’s gained over the course of his career. Sub-4.0 numbers don’t cut it in the NFL for long and Forte hasn’t improved, dropping from 3.9 yards to 3.6 yards per touch last season.

Projected stats: 710 yards rushing, 5 TDs

ALEX JACKSON -sports reporter -super senior -communication major

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