Tuesday, August 31, 2010
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State funding eyed in board’s meeting GORDON BLOCK associate news editor Virginia Tech’s financial future and growth plans were high on the agenda as the university’s Board of Visitors met Sunday and Monday. Some of the weekend’s most heated discussions involved Tech’s relationship with Virginia government and the funding that the university receives. President Charles Steger, speaking at Monday’s full board meeting, said he didn’t expect the state to provide any substantial increase in funding. “There’s simply not going to be enough for all of us to do all the things we have to do,” Steger said. “We’re going to have to become more financially independent and entrepreneurial to grow our resource base.” Figures reported at the meeting stated the university will lose $75 million in state funding by the 2011-12 school year compared to 2007-08. “This year, we will get more money from out-of-state students than we will from the general assembly,” Steger said Sunday. Also of concern during the weekend’s meetings was the possibility of adjusting Tech’s financial reporting to fit into a new commonwealth accounting system, which was presented as an unfunded mandate with little benefit for Tech. “They signed a contract, they didn’t consult with us. We spent $30 million fixing the Y2K program, and they signed on to another system,” Steger said. “Now they want us to shift all
together. That’s nonsense ... we’re not going to do it. We can’t afford to do it.” The board also approved more than $100 million in debt financing, including $53 million for creation of the Performing Arts Center, more than $45 million for the Academic and Student Programs Building, and $750,000 to pave the Upper Chicken Hill parking lot. The board granted Tech the ability to create a health science division, which would work with Tech and Carilion Clinic. The board also discussed expansion plans for India and China. Sherwood Wilson, vice president for administrative services, was appointed to serve as Tech’s representative to the Regional 911 Emergency Communications Authority. The board made permanent the standing research committee, and approved the formation of the Virginia Tech Technology Services and Operations Corporation. Tech football worked its way into the discussion, when rumors of allblack jerseys for Tech’s Sept. 6 game versus Boise State University fell into the conversation of Monday’s finance and audit committee meeting. “If there’s anything good it’s that Nike gives us these uniforms,” Steger said. The weekend meetings were the first for appointed board members John G. Rocovich Jr., who returned after serving on the board from 19972005, William Holtzman, Suzanne Obenshain and Michael Quillen. The four appointees replaced Ben
LUKE MASON / SPPS
Board of Visitors undergraduate student representative Shane McCarty, left, and graduate student representative Deepu George, right, look on during deliberations at Monday’s full board meeting in Torgersen Hall. McCarty and George were among eight new board members. Davenport, John Lawson, James Smith and Lori Wagner. Davenport and Lawson had each served as rector during their tenure on the board. Also present for their first meetings were undergraduate representative Shane McCarty and graduate rep-
resentative Deepu George. McCarty used his constituent report to highlight engagement, inclusion and educational quality, while George focused on collaborative learning and increases to graduate fees. Mike Ellerbrock appeared for the
No resolution in work session on future of area high schools LIANA BAYNE associate news editor The Montgomery County School Board met in a special work session with the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors Monday night to determine a long-term solution to a long-term problem. The two boards, chaired by school board chairman Wendell Jones and board of supervisors chairwoman Annette Perkins, struggled to communicate concerns over safety of school buildings and tax increases while attempting to come to a consensus on a plan for the construction and repair of Blacksburg and Auburn schools. Since the gymnasium of Blacksburg High School collapsed on Feb. 13, the school board has worked to find functional solutions to the plethora of problems the loss of a 1,200-student school has brought the county. However, in the county’s 2006 capital plan, both Auburn High School and Auburn Middle School were identified as critical capital projects in need of repair. Montgomery County students started school Monday, with Blacksburg High School students attending school at Blacksburg Middle School, Blacksburg Middle School students attending school at the previously unused Old Christiansburg Middle School and Auburn Middle and High School students attending schools in buildings that were constructed in the 1930s. Current solutions have all been classified as temporary. The two boards considered five possible solutions, ranging from repairing BHS for $14.5 million and addressing Auburn’s needs at a later time to simultaneously building a new BHS, a new AHS and renovating the current AHS to become a new AMS for $124.6 million. After the three-hour work session, no decision was made and no votes were taken. Instead, individual members presented concerns to one another and a handful of citizen observers who gathered in the auditorium of Christiansburg Middle School. “We sure spent almost three hours, talking,” Perkins said to end the meeting. “I just want to end things here, we were not to come to any conclusion tonight and we were not to come to any decision. ... I truly leave here with a heavy heart.” BUILDING CONCERNS “We must have a long-term solution for Blacksburg High Schools students,”
first time as faculty representative, and Maxine Lyons debuted as staff representative. William Lewis, newly appointed vice president of diversity, was also introduced during the meeting. Calvin Donnell Jamison Sr. suggested
User-friendly dorm unveiled at Illinois school JODI S. COHEN mcclatchy newspapers
REBECCA FRAENKEL / SPPS
No solution was found after more than three hours of debate on the future of the county high schools. said Brenda Blackburn, schools superintendent, in her opening statement. Discussion centered on whether the current BHS building could be repaired to safe standards. Some members of both boards opposed repairing BHS. “I need to feel, personally, that when someone says it’s safe it’s safe,” said Mary Biggs, a board of supervisors member. Though some board members were in favor of repairing BHS to save taxpayers from the burden of potentially more than $100 million, others remained strongly opposed to what they saw as a quick fix to Blacksburg’s current problems. “I don’t believe we fully understand the scope of the repair, and I don’t think we fully recognize the cost. It’s not going to be $14 million,” said Jones, the school board chairman. Other board members disputed the concerns over the stability of BHS. “You can’t go anywhere that the land in this county doesn’t have rocks and holes and caverns and it’s just part of where we live,” said Gary Creed, a board of supervisors member. “You’re probably going to have some cracks, it’s typical.” TAX CONCERNS However, many members, mainly of the board of supervisors, have reservations about the potential property tax hike to 17 cents per $100. Additionally, if the county borrows enough for the most expensive plan, it would likely not
REBECCA FRAENKEL / SPPS
Rebuilding costs were among the issues of the work session debate. be able to borrow again for many years. “Think about it,” said John Muffo, a board of supervisors member, “we won’t be able to issue debt again for another eight to 10 years. Eight to 10 years.” Board of supervisors member Bill Brown expressed concerns over the less financially stable citizens of his district. “There’s 80,000 people that are going to pay for the renovation for these two schools, and some of these people are afraid of losing their homes,” Brown said. “Anything higher than two cents, they don’t know where they would go.” School board member Wat Hopkins,
also a communication professor at Virginia Tech, pushed the two boards to work together and find parallel solutions to both the building and tax problems. “It’s up to the school board to find out if (BHS is) safe,” he said. “It’s the task of the board of supervisors to deal with creative means for funding.” The two boards left the work session with more questions and frustrations than answers or agreements. The two boards expressed interest in holding another joint session, but no meeting is currently scheduled.
the board recognize Charlie Yates, Tech’s first African-American graduate who passed away Aug. 12, but the resolution was tabled for the next meeting. The next BOV meeting is scheduled for Nov. 7-8.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — With very limited use of her arms and legs, Kelsey Rozema has needed her parents help with most daily tasks — getting out of bed, showering, putting on a coat, and even opening a water bottle. In 18 years, they’ve been apart for only six nights. So moving into a college dorm this week — and away from the reliance on her family — is even more of a milestone for Rozema than for the thousands of other wide-eyed freshmen at the University of Illinois, a ritual that will be repeated on college campuses throughout the country in coming weeks. It helped that she moved into the university’s first new residence hall in 44 years, and the most user-friendly dorm in the country for students with severe physical disabilities. As Rozema wheeled into her single room for the first time Tuesday, a disability advocate showed off the features: A wireless pager that will call for help 24 hours a day, and a remote-controlled ceiling lift system to transport her from her bed to the in-room bathroom. “That’s cool, Kelsey. You will be sailing through here,” said her mother, Mary, taking a break from carefully tucking orange and turquoise sheets into her daughter’s bed. After several tries, she gave up on getting a dust ruffle to fit on the hospital-style bed. As much as moving into Nugent Hall was a remarkable accomplishment for Rozema, it also was momentous for the University of Illinois. Already recognized as a frontrunner in disability services for students, the dorm will allow students with the most severe disabilities — all use motorized wheelchairs or scooters — to get the personalized care they need while being integrated with typical students. They will live on the first floor, with about 150 other students on the floors above them, a number that will expand to 500 when the dorm is completed in two years. The building is connected to a new dining hall, convenience store and meeting spaces. Down the hall from Rozema, 21year-old Ben Fultz, a transfer student with cerebral palsy, also moved in Tuesday. His mother, Ellen, was overwhelmed by the features, remarking how even the window blinds can be closed with a button. “It is truly better than what we have at home,” she said.
The sinks, thermostats and light switches are at an accessible height. Dorm room doors open by waving a wireless card. Faucets are sensor-activated. And the roll-in showers come with chairs. But most unique are the personal assistants, known as PAs, who live in the building to help students shower, use the bathroom and hook backpacks on their wheelchairs before leaving for class. Most are fellow students. After the Rozemas accidentally hit the pager while putting away books Tuesday, a PA arrived in under two minutes. “Did you buzz?” she asked.
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My worst fear as a mom is, what if she is just lying there and needs help? MARY ROZEMA MOTHER
Through the program, residents learn how to hire, schedule and manage their personal assistants, who they will need to rely on for the rest of their lives. In a newsletter article last year about the life-changing program, one resident observed that students could have conversations like, “Which PA wipes the best after you use the bathroom?” All of the features make Mary Rozema feel slightly more at ease about being separated from her only child. “My worst fear as a mom is, what if she is just lying there and needs help?” she said. Kelsey, who is mature, confident and seems to easily make friends, acknowledged having some last-minute anxiety before leaving south suburban New Lenox for Champaign. “I wasn’t worried until last night and I was like, ‘I am leaving home. I am leaving my parents,’ said Rozema, who plans to major in English and art history. In all, 17 students with severe physical disabilities will live this year on the first floor of the new hall, named for Tim Nugent, who in 1948 founded the university’s division of disability services, the first higher education program of its kind in the world. “It is a remarkable statement about the commitment of this campus to ensure that those who are most marginalized in their access, if they have the desire and the capacity and see DORM / page two
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news editors: philipp kotlaba, liana bayne, gordon block newseditor@collegiatetimes.com/540.231.9865
august 31, 2010
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Court rules against Va. attorney general
NY mosque leader downplays protests
A judge ruled today that Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli hasn’t shown the University of Virginia has documents relevant to his fraud investigation against former U. Va. climate scientist Michael Mann. In a six-page decision, Albemarle County Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. also ruled that the attorney general also has not sufficiently “stated the nature of the conduct” believed to constitute possible fraud by Mann alleged to satisfy the requirements of the law under which the office can issue a civil investigative demand for information from the university. “However, the University of Virginia is a proper subject for a CID and the attorney general may investigate grants made with Commonwealth of Virginia funds to professors such as Dr. Mann,” Peatross ruled. Mann, who works at Penn State, said he was “very pleased” with the decision. “It is a victory not just for me and the university, but for all scientists who live in fear that they may be subject to a politically motivated witch hunt when their research findings prove inconvenient to powerful vested interests,” Mann said in an e-mail to The Daily Progress in Charlottesville. Cuccinelli, a global warming skeptic, had issued the demand to U. Va. under the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act. Cuccinelli said in a statement that he will revise his demand to conform with the judge’s order.
BEIRUT — The leader of the proposed Manhattan Islamic cultural center near the site of the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attacks told a Persian Gulf newspaper that there was no conflict between Islam and America and dismissed the opponents of the Park51 project as being led by “very small, vociferous voices.” Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s interview with the Abu Dhabibased daily newspaper the National, which was published Monday, provided the first extensive comments he’d made about the controversy over the community center, which will include a prayer room, in the weeks since a New York City planning board gave it final approval. He’s currently in the Middle East on a U.S. State Departmentsponsored tour of Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, where he is speaking to groups of Muslims in an attempt to boost relations between America and Islam. Last week, several hundred activists protested the placement of the proposed center so close to ground zero as insensitive to the victims. Cable-news channels have been giving the issue extensive coverage, with some guests accusing Abdul Rauf of harboring sympathies for radical Islam. Some worry the heated rhetoric is harming America’s reputation in the Muslim world. But Abdul Rauf said the clash over the proposed center, formerly called the Cordoba House, is not “between Muslims and nonMuslims, but between moderates of all the faith traditions and the radicals of all the faith traditions.” He said there were “very small, loud and vociferous voices who are beating the drum for the opposite kind of discourse.” He said he planned to speak out more about the controversy when he’s back home.
-by jim nolan mcclatchy newspapers
CORRECTIONS JUSTIN GRAVES -Contact our public editor at publiceditor@ collegiatetimes.com if you see anything that needs to be corrected.
A Blacksburg Transit bus stop and a neighboring pole took some heavy damage Monday evening after an unidentified driver’s car plowed through it while traveling down Prices Fork Road. There were no injuries reported at the scene. photo by daniel lin
Dorm: Students receive assistance from page one
the willingness to pursue a degree ... Illinois is committed to making that a reality,” said Brad Hedrick, director of the university’s disability services. The opening of the dorm continues the university’s legacy of making college accessible: It was the first college to introduce curb cuts, offer bus routes equipped with wheelchair lifts and have a wheelchair sports program. There are only about five U.S. colleges that offer some kind of personal assistant services, and until now, Illinois students lived in a stand-alone facility called Beckwith Hall. Students at other colleges hire assistants through a private agency — or stay close to home for school. Most campuses set aside dorm space for
students who use wheelchairs or have significant disabilities, similar to a hotel, said Richard Allegra of the Association on Higher Education and Disability. Allegra called program “a rare concept.” Students get five hours of PA help a day, and can schedule the hours around their classes and social life. That will be a change for Pultz, who previously studied at the University of Rochester. He said it was difficult to find an assistant willing to help him get to bed after 9 p.m. The aides were more accustomed to the schedules of elderly clients than college students. Kelsey Rozema said she will rotate between about a half-dozen personal assistants who she scheduled to help with bathroom breaks, showering
and getting in and out of bed. The goal is for students to learn independent living skills and transition to more mainstream housing, whether on a higher floor, in a different dorm or to an apartment. Born with a rare brittle bone disease, Rozema has had more than 300 fractures in her life, starting with a femur fracture in utero. She speaks nonchalantly about the broken bones — “just a couple of broken ribs in the last couple of months” — but she also packed codeine because the pain from just moving out of her wheelchair can be hard to bear. After spending the morning unpacking, the Rozemas went to the adjacent dining hall, where the fountain drink station is at a height that Kelsey can reach. Out of routine,
Kelsey’s mother began pouring soup into her bowl before realizing that it was at an accessible height. “Here, get your own soup,” she said. The family then sat down to eat. After focusing all morning on arranging Kelsey’s books, clothes, makeup and posters in her room, Mary unexpectedly became overwhelmed with emotion as she looked to her daughter. “I promised I wouldn’t do it,” she said, putting a napkin up to her nose and mouth and looking away to stifle the tears. “Don’t make me cry,” Kelsey said. Her mom couldn’t help it and turned back to Kelsey. “This is what I always dreamed of, for you to one day go to college. I am so proud of you.”
-by borzou daragahi mcclatchy newspapers
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editors: scott masselli, gabi seltzer opinionseditor@collegiatetimes.com/540.231.9865 COLLEGIATETIMES
august 31, 2010
The Collegiate Times is an independent student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903
More problems stem from lack of research A
lthough, idiomatically, a very beaten dead horse, the topic of embryonic stem cell research never ceases to amaze me. Recently, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Obama administration from using federal dollars to fund research on the subject because it involved the destruction of embryos. It is always so wonderful to see the power of the appeals court in action. In a country now dominated by chronic illness — the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2005 one out of every two adults had at least one chronic illness, I fail to understand why society has not let our scientists take action, especially in time where our baby boomer generation is growing old, and chronic illness will most likely reach an all-time high. A common argument I hear against ESC research — in addition to the myth that a fetus must be aborted in order to obtain stem cells — is how there exists multiple types of stem cell research. Why bother with research involving the controversial embryo? Although there does exist two other forms of stem cell research, adult stem cells and umbilical cord stem cells, they lack what most people attribute to them — the ability to be manipulated and grown into any type of cell in the body. It is a common misconception that all stem cells have this property; this is characteristic only of embryonic stem cells. As a result, ESC can be used to form nerve cells, liver cells, pancreatic cells and so on. Only they have the potential to cure the incurable, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, not to mention one of the top killers of the United States citizens — heart disease. Promise has already been shown with stem cells in the areas of nerve regeneration and sickle cell anemia. This is not to say adult stem cells and umbilical cord stem cells are without merit, but rather to acknowledge that the potential energy of ESC research cannot be matched simply by using other forms of stem cells. The Nightlight Christian Adoptions group is a major voice against ESC research. This group, along with others against ESC research, argue that the destruction of an embryo is the destruction of life. Doing such research, as Fox News reports, would “decrease the number of human embryos available for adoption” — AdoptUsKids already reports more than 123,000 kids waiting to be adopted. Regardless, the fate of most embryos is not to be a candidate
for adoption. Fertility clinics are a boon to couples who want to start a family but are having trouble conceiving. The couple can elect to do in vitro fertilization in which many embryos — anywhere from five to 15 — are implanted in the woman’s uterus. It is hoped that at least one of these eggs will “take,” so to speak and start developing — the CDC reports a 28 percent success rate when a woman uses her own eggs. Oftentimes, there are many leftover embryos, and they are simply frozen or discarded. Studies at the University of Michigan report many of these embryos are not donated to other couples, but rather discarded — specifically, for every embryo donated to others, more than one-hundred are discarded. The term for a donated embryo that develops into a fetus and is eventually born is a “Snowflake Child” — the Snowflakes Frozen Embryo Adoption Program reports less than 200 births through this method since it began in 1997. The University of Michigan also reported there are more than 400,000 embryos frozen, most of which will be discarded — either because of genetic defect or because people simply do not want them. Embryos are going to waste — scientists and pro-life advocates can agree on this. Perhaps choosing to do research with the embryos opposed to discarding them is the lesser of two evils. Ultimately, ESC research provides promise for the future of health and medicine that is necessary in this time period. The germ theory of disease worked to surface many “magic bullets,” penicillin, for example cured many diseases. However, acute diseases such as syphilis are not responsible for the ill-health of many of America’s patients. Instead, chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer whose origin cannot be traced to a single bacterium but rather to a multifarious assortment of factors are center stage. Embryonic stem cells are encoded with the genetic information for every cell type unlike the other stem cells. The fact that such a type of cell exists is incredible. The notion that we have the ability to research and take advantage of said cells is remarkable. To ignore such an opportunity is foolish.
JOSH TREBACH -regular columnist -junior -biological sciences major
MCT CAMPUS
Debate over Ground Zero mosque lacks legitimacy F
or the past few weeks I’ve been keeping an eye on current events and items in the news in hopes of stumbling across an appropriate subject to write about. I wanted to pick a subject that was topical — a current event college students would at least have a vague awareness of and interest in — but also not too controversial. After all, I’ve been warned several times already that no matter what I say here, there will be people who passionately disagree with me, and I will hear from them, so I didn’t want to come on too strong. Unfortunately, I think I’m on the verge of delving into a discussion that’s likely to be very heated. The reason I chose my particular topic for this week is it’s an issue that I really don’t think should be that controversial at all. In fact, I can’t fathom how it’s generated so much debate thus far. The issue I’m referring to is the question of building a mosque near the site of Ground Zero. This issue can be further broken down into two separate questions: firstly, does the Muslim community have the right to do this, and secondly, is it appropriate for the Muslim community to do this? In general, there seems to be less debate on the first of these two points. Basically, it seems pretty hard to argue for the idea that our capitalist nation can deny someone with the money and desire to purchase a piece of land, within the boundaries of the law, the right to do so. So, as far as I can tell, there’s not much
to argue about there. The more sensitive question is whether it’s appropriate to build a mosque, a Muslim place of worship, so close to the site where Islamic extremists attacked our country and our ideals. It surprises me that so many people seem to find the idea of this offensive. The most common argument I’ve heard against it is that it’s “insensitive,” but I just can’t begin to see how that’s the case. The American Muslim community should not and cannot be held responsible for acts perpetuated by extremists whose faith, while technically called by the same name as their own, is in all likelihood not recognizable to that of the American Muslims who want and will benefit from the building of this mosque. Just as there have been throughout history, and are today, many Christians whose understanding of the label is completely different from that of most American Christians, the terrorists who attacked us on Sept. 11, do not subscribe to the same beliefs as the Muslim community here in America that has happily embraced our country and what it stands for. Saying that it is “insensitive” to build a mosque near Ground Zero would seem to be trying to hold American Muslims accountable for people and events they really aren’t in any way associated with. There is nothing for them to be sensitive toward, not any moreso than the rest of America, because this was not their crime.
When you really get down to it, what is a mosque? It’s a place for worship, reflection, self-betterment. It’s a place of healing, renewal and coming together. Isn’t that what we all needed, and still need, in the face of the tragedy that occurred at Ground Zero? And I think nothing could be more fitting for the site of this hallowed ground. Would those who oppose the building of this mosque have the same problem with the construction of a church next to the site of a former Holocaust concentration camp? A lot of Christians were responsible for horrors committed during the Holocaust, albeit Christians who subscribed to a morality that was repulsive to many others who identified themselves that way. I think this situation is much the same. I implore those against the building of this mosque to put themselves in the shoes of those who will benefit from it — people who are Muslim, yes, but people who are also fellow Americans. Hopefully then they’ll see it for what it really is: Not an insult, but a resource for their community that can do much more good than it could ever cause harm.
LIZZ WENSKA -regular columnist -sophomore -political science major
President Obama, “The View” and race relations P
resident Obama botched it again. From the beginning, I knew things were going to be tough for him, what with the economy and two wars and all. But I assumed he could at least strike the right tone on matters of race and color. Yes, I know he was the black guy elected to not say anything about color, but I refused to believe Obama would stick to that deal, at least not all the time. But then came the humiliation of watching Obama backtrack on his (correct) opinion about the racial profiling of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.; more recently, there was the panicky, pre-emptive firing of Department of Agriculture employee Shirley Sherrod for allegedly making anti-white comments. And late in July, Obama described black folks as a “mongrel people” on the morning talk show “The View.” Responding to Barbara Walters’ question about why he didn’t call himself a biracial president, he explained that blacks are mixed and always have been. That’s strictly true. But “mongrel” was a terrible choice of words, the kind
of animalistic imagery segregationist whites once used to justify their treatment of blacks (especially men), who they feared would poison a “superior” gene pool. “Mongrelization” was in fact a word used passionately by the Democratic Party in the 1850s, by the Ku Klux Klan and by early eugenicists to describe that awful outcome. But I can forgive Obama’s use of the word. What was less forgivable was that the president missed — or consciously passed up — a racial teaching moment that he is uniquely suited for. He started off in a promising direction: He told Walters that early in his life, he decided that if he was going to be called an African-American, he “wasn’t going to run away from that.” Not exactly a ringing endorsement of African-Americans, but all right. But in a rhetorical triangulation of the sort that has become all too familiar, he went on to say colors were “labels” that were far less important than how people treated each other, a sentiment that got predictable applause. What that moment revealed is the
constant pressure on Obama to gloss over questions of color, starting with his own, and subvert the entire history of black people whose experience he shares. The celebrity interview glitter of “The View” masked a clearly white supremacist attitude that demands blackness be defined to its liking and adjusted to its comfort level. When Walters pressed Obama on why he doesn’t call himself biracial — after helpfully reminding him that he had a white mother — what she was really asking is why he doesn’t put white folks like her more at ease by downplaying or modifying his blackness, which, post-racialism notwithstanding, continues to be so nettlesome. Obama essentially obliged her. He implied that his black identity was somehow a choice. But that’s nonsense. In America, there has never been any choice about being black. One white parent makes you lighter, or maybe gives you different hair texture or a social advantage. But the historical reality is that you are not equal to whites; you are,
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‘Mongrelization’ was in fact a word used passionately by the Democratic Party in the 1850s, by the Ku Klux Klan and by early eugenicists...
like Obama, only the exceptional Negro. Such a reality is the choice of white people, by the way. It was whites who made and brutally enforced the racial rules, including the one-drop rule that declared that any black heritage (one-sixteenth, to be exact) made you too black to be anything but. Racist? Of course, but it was meant to be. But the fanatical separation of races codified in Jim Crow laws and customs also helped create a diverse community of blacks who understood that blackness in America was never monochromatic, and that all blacks — half, three-quarters, whatever — were in the battle for justice together because they had to be. Now, to recast “mongrel” blacks, which is to say almost all black Americans, as biracial or “black lite” is not a stab at
equality; it’s just stupidity. The problem is that the real experts — ordinary black Americans — are rarely in on these debates. They aren’t asked to be. Or they’re invited to participate only to co-sign the “raceless” point of view that’s already been sanctioned. That is the corner Obama was in on “The View.” He may be president, but what the show made clear is that he’s black first. Compounding the surreal quality of the moment was black cohosts Whoopi Goldberg and Sherri Shepherd sitting silently, nodding at Obama’s conclusion that color is less important than people respecting each other. Again, true. But color and mutual respect are closely connected in this country; there is only a shade of difference between them. Obama not only knows this, he has seen it up close. Next time, he needs to tell us that in no uncertain terms.
ERIN AUBRY KAPLAN -mcclatchy newspapers
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Rapid fire reviews: Kick-Ass soundtrack
listen
read
play
Kick Ass: Music from the Motion Picture
“The Hunger Games”by Suzanne Collins
While Kick Ass doesn’t contain many memorable original scores, it does have a soundtrack that appeals to various tastes. The film’s theme “Stand Up” by The Prodigy is a perfect fit for the film’s hero, a no-name kid turned vigilante who suddenly finds himself adored by millions. Possibly the best track on the CD is Mika’s and RedOne’s collaborative track “Kick Ass.” The song begins strong as Mika seems to channel the vocals of Freddie Mercury at points and the lyrics reflect one of the messages of the film: Individuals are capable of causing drastic positive change.
Part one of a trilogy, The Hunger Games feels like a mix between George Orwell’s famous “1984” and Koushun Takami’s cult classic “Battle Royale.” The story is set in a futuristic United States renamed “Panem” which has suffered a second civil war. The country is split into 12 (13 if you count the one that was obliterated) districts circling the capitol. Each year, every district must send two children to compete in the Hunger Games, a gladiatorial battle to the death, as a way of the capitol saying, “Hey districts, remember that time we kicked your collective asses? Don’t do it again.” The book is sold as a young adult novel, and the reading is far from difficult, about the same level as Harry Potter. Despite this, it is far from a children’s book. The subject matter can be mature at times and Collins successfully demonstrates true emotional distress as the main character, Katniss Everdeen, has to cope with the pressures of being expected to kill 23 other people in order to survive. The action is well-paced, but there are a few dull moments, like the literally — and figuratively — forced romance segments. The end also suffers from feeling too much like a rushed segue into a sequel, most likely because it is. The book’s shortcomings are few though.
Alien Swarm is a relatively new thirdperson shooter for the PC published by Valve. It draws heavily on the oftenreplicated struggle of a crack team of Space Marines pitted against a seemingly unending hive of razor-clawed aliens. The flavor draws strongly on the quintessential Space Marine film, “Aliens,” and innumerable books and short stories. Alien Swarm’s strength lies in its ability to pay homage without feeling like a direct rip-off. The game itself is a squad-based shooter. The player controls a Space Marine, specializing as either a sergeant, special weapons officer, medic or technician, from a top-down view. Gameplay relies heavily on teamwork as each player uses his or her special talents to navigate the labyrinthine colony. One aspect of the game, drawn from Aliens, is the motion detector. When aliens are approching you will hear the tell-tale “ping” as they get closer, before you can actually see anything. This sets a wonderfully suspenseful mood. One downside to the game, as any gamer can attest to, is the significant lack of teamwork found when playing with strangers. The game was definitely meant to play with friends online or on a LAN as opposed to public servers with random players. Despite a few flaws, this game is actually a gem. Count in the fact that it is available absolutely free via Valve’s Steam platform (http://store.steampowered. com) .
“The Hunger Games” receives four out of five loaves of bread.
This game receives four spent bullet casings out of five.
The Kick Ass soundtrack truly kicks ass and gets five bandages out of five.
PC - Alien Swarm
Pulitzer prize watch winning author to come to VT
Youtube - Is it a good idea to microwave this?
With movie ticket prices approaching $10 each, students can really appreciate the quality of some (and let me reinforce, some) YouTube channels. “Is it a good idea to microwave this?” falls into the category of “so stupid it’s great.” Since 2007, pyromaniac and self-proclaimed microwave expert Jory Caron and sidekick Riley Mcllwain have been attempting to answer the question everyone has always wondered, “Is it a good idea to microwave this?” Over eight seasons, the hundreds of items they have microwaved have included: gold, a lava lamp and an undeployed airbag. Surprisingly, and after a few close-calls, all of their body parts remain intact. If you’re looking to pass the time when you should be studying, or you’ve actually ever wondered what happens when you microwave a Barbie, then check out “Is it a good idea to microwave this?” on YouTube. The show gets a full five trips to the hospital. Please don’t try to replicate any of the show’s “experiments,” especially in the dorms. The show gets a full five trips to the hospital.
MATTHEW BORYSEWICZ -features reporter -senior -history major
MAJONI HARNAL features reporter Award-winning author Junot Diaz will visit the Inn at Virginia Tech Wednesday, Sept. 1. Hosted by the department of English, the event will include a reading and a book signing by the author who received the Pulitzer Prize for his first novel, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.” Born in the Dominican Republic, Diaz later emigrated to the United States where he lived in New Jersey. Much of his writing focuses on the experiences of immigrants in the U.S., but his work appeals to readers who enjoy a broad range of genres. Diaz has been published in The New Yorker magazine and in Best American Short Stories, just to name a few. In addition, Diaz is the recipient of a more-than-admirable list of awards, including the famed Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics
Circle Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Currently a creative writing professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Diaz is also the fiction editor at the Boston Review and Rudge. He is spending the next three months visiting various universities and will be at The New Yorker Festival in October. Diaz is also an outspoken activist of various causes and has been tapped to sit on the board of Pulitzer Prize jurors.
Mock DUI crash and rescue will be important learning experience MATTHEW BORYSEWICZ features reporter Don’t be alarmed by the flashing lights Thursday on the Drillfield. It will just be the Virginia Tech rescue squad, in conjunction with Virginia Tech Police and the Blacksburg Fire Department, staging a mock DUI car crash.
Part training exercise and part public awareness event, the mock crash will serve to both test VT Rescue’s level of training and preparedness, as well as show students the end result of drinking while driving. “I think most people are aware of the end result of drunk driving, but some people just don’t care” said Mike Sty, a junior industrial and systems
engineering major. VT Rescue seeks to combat both ignorance and apathy this week by staging the mock crash, which will simulate exactly how the police, fire department and VT Rescue would respond to a real one. Kimberly Heald, VT Rescue president and junior spanish and business major, explained how the entire
event will occur. Two wrecked cars will be placed at the lower end of the Drillfield near the Duck Pond. Each participating agency will arrive and begin its role. The police will arrest the actor portraying the drunk driver, while the rescue squad and fire department extract the victims and perform triage. In order to simulate a real crash as closely as possible, VT Rescue will be using all of the equipment they would normally use. This means they will be using heavy equipment like hydraulic rescue tools, more commonly known as the “Jaws of Life,” to cut the damaged cars open. Carilion will be providing a helicopter not only to simulate the possibility of severe injuries requiring air transport to a hospital, but also to attract attention of students around campus. There will be a narrator on hand to explain what is happening to any passerbys as part of the effort to promote community involvement and awareness. “We want to show that this is a real possibility,” Heald said. “We also want to get the community involved in how to respond.” Heald said Blacksburg is lucky that DUI crashes are rare, but noted the problem is always present. “Alcohol is always a problem in a number of cases, but it is not a worse problem in Blacksburg when compared to other areas,” Heald said. The annual mock crash aims to make students think twice before getting into a car intoxicated. “I remember last year people were walking by and would ask what we were doing. We would tell them that this was the result of a DUI,” said Johnathan Sorah, a junior biochemistry major and VT Rescue member. “We want them to say, ‘Maybe I should think before I get into a car
GREGORY WILSON/SPPS
Police officers, VT Rescue Squad members and fire fighters will be in attendance at the mock DUI by the Drillfield, Thursday, Sept. 2. drunk.’” Sorah said since VT Rescue deals with on-campus emergencies, many of the calls they field involve alcohol poisoning or vomiting, although he added that the majority of Tech stu-
dents do not seem to have an alcohol problem. The VT Rescue Squad hopes to continue displaying the carnage that can result from driving while intoxicated.
august 31, 2010
page 5
Super Mash Bros. rock out DJ
trio Super Mash Bros. electrified Squires Commonwealth Ballroom Friday night, though the electricity wasn’t going to the overhead lights. “Yo,” announced group member Nick Fenmore to the screaming, glow-crowd of Virginia Tech students, “keep the lights off.” The hour-and-fifteen-minute long, free concert, which was sponsored by the class of 2012 and was a featured Gobblerfest event, brought a club-like atmosphere to attendees. Super Mash Bros., which is known for its mash-ups of popular songs and has been called “Girl Talk’s hot cousin,” is gaining popularity among college students. Both of Super Mash Bros. albums, “All About the Scrillions,” and “Fuck Bitches. Get Euros,” are available for free download on its website, SuperMashBros.com. And, while the concert was upbeat and entertaining, it was a slight disappointment for avid listeners of Super Mash Bros.’s albums. Much of the music was identical or very similar to the creatively named mash-up tracks from the two albums such as “Gucci Loafers (Our First Paycheck),” “Kisses & Thugs” and “Broseidon, Lord of the Brocean.” Those of us who bump Super Mash Bros. albums in our cars or during parties might have found much of the concert familiar, while the entertaining part of the show was the antics of the DJs. After opening the concert with a mash-up of Lil Wayne’s “Money to Blow,” Fenmore and co-group member Ethan Dawes requested the house lights be brought up. “Hold on,” Fenmore said, “we gotta get in a Tech mood.” He proceeded to strip-off his T-shirt and run off stage. He returned wearing an orange “Stick It In” T-shirt. Dawes, who was sporting a Tech basketball jersey, began to play the tune of “Stick It In.” The concert continued in a lighthearted and energetic fashion. Fenmore and Dawes’ singing and dancing antics continued to entertain the crowd, which sang loudly along with many of the songs. Two large screens also projected clips from old sports games, children’s cartoons
DANIEL LIN / SPPS
Excited students packed Commonwealth Ballroom in Squires Student Center Friday as the emerging DJ group played a free concert as part of the annual Gobblerfest festivities. and music videos. At one point, Dawes left his post on stage in front of his Apple laptop and began to snap photos of the jumping, dancing crowd on a digital camera. At other times during the show, he left the DJ table to splash water on the crowd and to hand out roses to girls in the front row. Around 8:45 p.m., however, Super Mash Bros. left the stage, and, to the disappointment of the rowdy, energized crowd, did not return for an encore.
Overall, while the lack of encore and familiarity of tracks could have left dedicated Super Mash Bros. fans slightly disappointed, the antics of the DJs and the energy of the crowd made the free concert worth attending. LIANA BAYNE -associate news editor -sophomore -English major
DANIEL LIN / SPPS
Members of Super Mash Bros., Ethan Dawes and Nick Fenmore, helped not only to create fun dance tunes for students, but also an energetic atmosphere.
‘The Obama Diaries’ proves critical of president’s administration Conservative talk radio personality Laura Ingraham’s “The Obama Diaries” is a disappointment for anyone expecting groundbreaking work in the fledgling subgenre of political RPF (real person fan fiction). The nonfiction book is not a diary at all, but rather Ingraham’s critical analysis of the Obama administration interspersed with fabricated “diaries” from a number of administration figures, up to and including the president’s mother-in-law. I’ll leave Ingraham’s arguments against the current administration’s actions for other reviewers to examine — see Steven Levingston’s recent review of this book in The Washington Post for a take with which I mostly concur — and focus on the “diaries” themselves and the conceit on which this book rests. American politics, while serving as a never-ending source of material for nonfiction writers and historians, is a fertile ground for fiction writers, the most recent example being a recasting of the life of former first lady Laura Bush in Curtis Sittenfeld’s 2008 novel, “American Wife.” However, Ingraham has figured out how to make political RPF sell by melding it with the nonfiction genre of the conservative polemic. For that feat, she should be applauded. Ingraham’s views regarding the current administration are on obvious display in the characterization of the
public figures depicted in the “diaries” themselves. They skew hyperreal and comical, with political and personal missteps amplified by 24-hour news cycles being trotted out in short first-person narratives for the reader’s amusement. Rahm Emanuel’s “diaries” are, unsurprisingly, littered with expletives, though Ingraham oddly limits profanity use to once or twice in a sentence and always inserts a pound sign or ampersand in just the right place so as to not actually use the profane word in question. Joe Biden comes off as your typical fat cat, foul-mouthed, lecherous politician — though not as foul as Emanuel, of course. Michelle Obama’s mother, Marion Robinson, is portrayed as sneaking candy and snacks to her grandchildren in small defiance of the first lady’s healthy eating agenda. Michelle herself is sarcastic and condescending, as if an entire persona was built around the right’s reactions, assumptions and extrapolations from her “for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country” remark during the 2008 presidential campaign. And the “diaries” version of Barack Obama is just this guy, you know. Of course, “this guy” needs a motorcade to visit his daughters’ private school and maybe get in a round of golf. All you Vladimir Putin fans will be happy to note that Ingraham found
him worthy of inclusion in this tome with his own faked “diaries” detailing his interactions with Russian and U.S. politicians. Of course, like any writer of political RPF, the author cannot resist a bit of self-insertion. Near the end of the book, one of Michelle Obama’s “diary” entries describes the first lady listening to Ingraham’s show while being driven from a public engagement. To Ingraham’s credit, she portrays herself in both a positive and negative light through the lens of Mrs. Obama. She even gets in a few jabs against her own hairstyle and clothing choices — “Ms. T.J. Maxx” is funny, admit it — though the line “How many women around the globe has Laura Ingraham inspired?” can be taken several different ways, depending on your political viewpoint. Even in fiction, Ingraham strives to be fair and balanced. And yet, I find myself sighing at Ingraham’s prose portrayals of political personas. Ingraham approaches the “diaries” of the public figures lampooned in the book from the perspective of The Opposition, always challenging and amplifying flaws, and so her characterizations gloss over other attributes that don’t fit her viewpoint, leaving the “diaries” without the realism needed to make them truly believable. Internet scribes operating under nom de plumes tend to be more sym-
pathetic and/or empathetic toward the public figures they write about in political fan fiction, while also undertaking background research to fully flesh out characterizations. I don’t doubt that Ingraham does her research — far from it. However, unlike Ingraham, some fan fiction writers have already written far more nuanced and compelling fictional portrayals of past and current government officials in near real-time. Of course, most of them haven’t made the mad bank Ingraham’s scoring with sales of “The Obama Diaries,” which is unfortunate. Perhaps fan fiction writers should, as Ingraham has capably demonstrated, consider incorporating another genre into the mix to gain publishing success beyond gushing feedback and recommendations on the Web. A bottom line: If you enjoy reading criticism and/or satirical portrayals of the current presidential administration, or simply want to be amazed at how far political fan fiction has infiltrated mainstream culture, pick up a copy of “The Obama Diaries.”
JOSETTE TORRES -features staff writer -WUVT DJ -MFA creative writing graduate
Author and conservative radio personality Laura Ingraham, offers a satirical look into President Barak Obama’s office.
august 31, 2010
page 6
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august 31, 2010
‘GameDay’ to feature men’s basketball team
Strasburg injury won’t prove a death blow for Nationals fans NICK CAFFERKY sports reporter
FILE / SPPS
Tech fans can look forward to the matchup against Duke on Feb. 26. The Hokies will be featured on ESPN’s College GameDay for the first time, and this will be the only Atlantic Coast Conference matchup.
COLLEGE GAMEDAY HEADS TO BLACKSBURG FOR FIRST TIME EVER. HOKIES WILL FACE DUKE ON FEB. 26 LOOKING TO AVENGE LAST YEAR’S DEFEAT MICHAEL BEALEY sports editor The Virginia Tech men’s basketball team will be put under the national spotlight on ESPN’s College GameDay — the first time in program history. The Hokies will meet fellow Atlantic Coast Conference foes, the Duke Blue Devils, on Feb. 26th in Cassell Coliseum. The matchup will be the only game on the program featuring two ACC opponents. “It’s a matchup that has created some great drama within our league. There’s been some great games between Duke and Virginia Tech since we’ve become a member of the (ACC),” said Seth Greenberg, head coach. “I think it’s a reflection of the tremendous passion and ownership we have from our student body, our community, our alumni, the Hokie nation, and (ESPN) had tremendous success here televising games from Blacksburg in terms of the environment.” The popular eight-week program returns for its seventh season on ESPN. GameDay will kick off 10 a.m. on ESPNU with the coverage moving to ESPN at 11 a.m. Then a one-hour special at 8 p.m., will be aired on ESPN, concluding with the tip-off at 9 p.m. “It’s huge, I think it’s big for Virginia Tech and it’s big for the basketball program,” said Terrell Bell, a senior forward. “We have a great team this year and the more we play as a team I think the better we’ll be. College GameDay is just a plus added onto our season, it’s going to be a big day for Virginia Tech.” Senior guard Dorenzo Hudson agreed, describing the impact it would have on Tech’s basketball program as a whole. “We’re definitely trying to put ourselves on the map,” Hudson said.
“We’re definitely trying to let people know that we’re not a joke. I think last year they kind of took us as a joke because of our schedule. Coach sat down with us and asked us what kind of schedule we wanted to play and we told him we wanted to play this tougher schedule.” The Hokies finished last season with a 25-9 overall record including a 10-6 record in the ACC, good enough for third in the conference. Nonetheless, the Hokies were snubbed from the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year with most pundits citing a weak out-of-conference schedule as their major resume weakness. Yet Tech has bolstered its schedule this season with games against Purdue, the No. 1 team in the Big Ten last season, as well as Mississippi State, a game that will be held at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. “As a team we all feel the big season that’s coming up,” Bell said. “I feel like everybody’s working harder and everybody’s excited. We know that we’re on the big stage, so we’re preparing ourselves like it’s time to play on the big stage.” “We think that the exposure obviously is only going to help us continue to build our brand,” Greenberg said. “That’s what we’re doing, we’re trying to grow our brand and I think this is a great stage to be on.” Last season, the Hokies fell to the Blue Devils 67-55 in Durham, N.C., however Tech will boast an experienced core that hopes to bring the same energy as last season. Four of the Hokies’ five projected starters are seniors, including guard Malcolm Delaney who led the team in scoring, and key reserve, senior JT Thompson, who will also contribute significantly. “I think we’ve got a lot of our team
Key games for Tech Virginia Tech vs. Purdue Dec. 1, 2010 ACC/Big Ten Challenge Presented by Dick’s Sporting Goods Cassell Coliseum Virginia Tech vs. Mississippi State Dec. 18, 2010 Battle At Atlantis Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, Bahamas Virginia Tech vs. Duke Feb. 26, 2011 ESPN College GameDay Driven by State Farm Cassell Coliseum returning,” Hudson said. “We did pretty good last year in the ACC and overall. Duke is going to be pretty good, so I feel like that was the best two teams they could have put on there.” In addition with the upcoming season as well as the GameDay announcement, Greenberg emphasized building Tech’s national reputation. “Obvious we’re very excited, I think it’s a great reflection on where our program is and where it’s going,” Greenberg said. “We’re trying to brand ourselves as a national program that’s one of the elite programs in the country. If you look at College GameDay per say it highlights and puts on a stage the premier programs in the country.”
......radio for everyone
The nation’s capital is mourning this week after hearing devastating news concerning its savior, Stephen Strasburg. The Nationals pitching sensation will be out for 12 to 18 months because of a ligament tear in his right elbow that will require Tommy John surgery. Strasburg was sensational in his rookie season, going 5-3 with a 2.91 ERA including 92 strikeouts prior to his injury. It’s hard to sugar coat the news because of Strasburg’s importance to the Nationals, but before you do anything drastic, know that Strasburg will return in 2012, back in dominant form. In addition, Strasburg will be only 23 entering the 2012 season, allowing him ample time to ascend to the top of the game. While it’s no small issue, the torn ligament that Strasburg suffered isn’t the career death sentence it was 40 years ago. The procedure was first performed by noted sports surgeon Frank Jobe on Tommy John in 1974, and now has an estimated 85 to 92 percent chance of complete recovery. That still means there is a 15 percent chance that the future ace of the Nats will never be the same, but it’s better than this being a careerending injury. If the scientific facts don’t console the weeping D.C. natives, then they should look up some of the current pitchers that have had the surgery, including Josh Johnson, Chris Carpenter, Billy Wagner, Tim Hudson and Francisco Liriano. Every single one of those pitchers has had to go through what lies ahead for Strasburg and the end result for each of those players is that they are some of the best pitchers in the game. For instance, the Cardinals’ Carpenter is currently 14-4 with a 2.93 ERA all at the tender age of 35. You could also make the argument that guys like Tim Hudson were actually better after they were fully healed from the surgery. Hudson is sporting a 15-5 record with a 2.24 ERA this season, the lowest ERA of his career, and like Carpenter, is doing it at 35 years old.
JOE RIKMUS JR. / MCT CAMPUS
Nationals catcher Ivan Rodriguez, left, pats Stephen Strasburg on the head during a game against the Florida Marlins on July 16. A strong comeback for Strasburg is also likely because of his repertoire of pitches. People are dazzled by his 100+ mph fastball, but that isn’t what has led him to dominating baseball’s best hitters. Closer Armando Benitez had a 100 mph fastball too. Ask any Mets or Orioles fan about him and you’ll realize that throwing hard doesn’t always translate into success. No, it is Strasburg’s changeup and curveball that make him an exceptional pitcher. Both of Strasburg’s off-speed pitches are clocked in the low-80s, meaning that there is an unbelievable 15 to 20 mph difference between his fastball and changeup. That is what made the dazzling heat so powerful — the fact that a batter had to be ready to face both speeds. Now, let’s say that Strasburg doesn’t get back to triple digits when he throws his fastball, will it really
matter? He will always throw hard, although his mechanics might need to be tweaked to make his wind up less volatile. Now assume he still pitches in the mid-to-high-90s. That makes his fastball still amongst the best in baseball, his changeup will still be devastating as it is still at least 10 mph slower than his fastball and his curveball is probably one of the best in the league. The bottom line is that velocity can make you a good pitcher, but it doesn’t make you great. To be great, you need a handful of pitches that can keep batters guessing. Strasburg, at the age of 22, already has that and his fastball is just one of those pitches. When he comes back, whether his fastball tops out at 95 or 105 mph, he will be among the best pitchers in baseball and racking up the K’s just like he did this season.
august 31, 2010
page 8
Tar Heel football takes a turn for the worse JOSH PARCELL sports reporter Call it a sharp change in the tide, or an intervention of fate. Six weeks ago, the gap between the football and basketball programs at North Carolina was as close as it ever will be. The storied basketball program was left searching for its soul after a dismal 2009-10 season. Meanwhile the football program, usually an afterthought on campus, was buzzing that big things could be in store this fall. Then, in July, the NCAA pulled the shades on coach Butch Davis’ team when it announced it was investigating the program concerning improper contact between players and agents. The first reaction was that Marvin Austin and Greg Little, the two players most visibly implicated in the saga by a variety of news sources, could be suspended for the season opener against LSU and possibly another game or two. Both would be huge losses, but the Heels could have kept their heads above water. Smoke: Meet fire. Last week, InsideCarolina.com reported an academic advisor illegally wrote class papers for players, eliciting an unexpected news conference Thursday night in Chapel Hill. All of a sudden, the outlook for the Tar Heels’ season was put in serious jeopardy. According to ESPN’s Joe Schad, at least nine players were relegated to the scout team Thursday, including several prominent starters. The only explanation for this would be
that head coach Butch Davis fears for those players’ eligibility come Sept. 4. “Before their start of training camp, because there was speculation on some of these issues, we made a statement — that there would come a point in time in preparation for this first game where we would have to prepare with the players that we assumed that we would be able to compete and play with,” Davis said. “That’s what we’ve done.” Predicting who will or won’t be suspended and for how long would be premature speculation, but it is safe to say the Heels won’t be at full strength for some portion of the season. “It is likely that the review would extend beyond the start of the season,” said Dick Baddour, UNC athletics director. In other words, any players who may have let this unnamed tutor write even a sentence of their assignments would have to sit out every game until the investigation is complete, or risk being retroactively ineligible and forcing the Tar Heels to forfeit any game they played in. It is safe to assume that said players would be the same ones reportedly relegated to the scout team last week. If that’s the case, the ACC Costal Division, which includes four teams (Virginia Tech, Miami, Georgia Tech, North Carolina) ranked in the Associated Press preseason top 25 rankings, just turned into a three team race. The potential for a memorable season in Chapel Hill could be
nullified prior to the first game. Depending on the investigation’s findings, this could easily turn out to cost Davis and Baddour their jobs. It’s not often that a prominent athletic program undergoes a major NCAA investigation without enduring significant administrative change. Nonetheless, Baddour expressed full continuing commitment to Davis as the school’s head football coach. “When we hired Butch Davis, we believed he was the right fit for the University of North Carolina, and I continue to believe that. He has my full support,” Baddour said. Chancellor Holden Thorp just wants to retain the integrity of his university. “We are treating this issue with the seriousness that you would expect from this university,” Thorp said. “We will straighten this out.” He went on to make two more promises — one more feasible than the other. “We will not let these mistakes define our university and what we stand for. We will use this to be…a better football program in the years to come,” Thorp said. Save face for the university? Not too difficult in this case. Keep a traditional non-power in college football afloat after a major scandal? It may not be possible. No matter what kind of hit the university takes, it is likely that football at North Carolina is headed for a return to familiar territory. Mediocrity.
June 21 North Carolina athletic department learns NCAA is conducting a review of possible rules violations.
July 12-13 NCAA investigators arrive on campus to interview student athletes.
August 4 NCAA investigators return to North Carolina campus.
August 12
June 24 North Carolina asked the help of former NCAA investigator, Rick Evrard to help the school with the investigation.
July 15 Athletic director Dick Baddour confirms school is being investigated by NCAA for violations involving agents providing improper benefits to players.
August 6 UNC practice opens, Austin and Little are demoted to second-string.
During UNC media day Baddour stated he was the University’s spokesman for the investigation so that Davis could focus on football.
August 26 September 4 No. 18 North Carolina opens against No. 21 LSU in Chickfil-A Kickoff Game.
Athletic director Dick Baddour, Chancellor Holden Thorp, and head coach Butch Davis hold a press conference concerning alleged academic violations involving a former tutor. VICTORIA ZIGADLO / COLLEGIATE TIMES
UNC football has endured two months of investigations on possible agent and academic violations.