COLLEGIATETIMES
july 28, 2011
what’s inside News .............2 Opinions........4 Features ........6 Sports ...........9 Classifieds ...11 Sudoku ........11 108th year issue 68 blacksburg, va.
Research improves Garage inflates cost of permits helmet safety ranks JOSH HIGGINS news staff writer The Virginia Tech department of Athletics and the department of engineering have been working together on groundbreaking research in the field of football equipment safety and awareness. The athletic and engineering departments have collaborated on a study of football helmets and their ability to prevent concussions in athletes, resulting in the first ever safety rating system for football helmets and concussion prevention. The program began a few years ago, when Stefan Duma of the engineering department began working with Steve Rowson, a then Tech Ph.D. engineering student, who participated in the project as part of his dissertation on a study of head acceleration experienced by college football players. “It started with looking at head acceleration experienced by college football players, and we collected many years of data that, once we had enough data, we understood how players get hit on the football field,” Rowson said. “So we had the idea for applying this knowledge in a setting where we could evaluate helmets and how different helmet designs might reduce concussion risk.” The research began when Duma and Rowson began studying the head acceleration impact in different types of helmets in a lab setting to measure a helmet’s ability to reduce head trauma and injury. To measure head acceleration, the engineers fashioned head forms for helmets to be placed on and dropped them onto different types of material at different heights, forming varying configurations that create impact conditions similar to those regularly found during football games. The team also installed sensors in football players’ helmets to measure the force that players were receiving during football practices and games. The study also discovered that some positions played on the football field were more conducive to head injury than others. After years of collecting data, the engineering team created a formula to make the results of the study easy for consumers to understand.
PAUL KURLAK / SPPS
Prices of parking permits continue to increase especially because of the newly built Perry Street parking garage.
PARKING SERVICES HAS PERMITS AVAILABLE AT A HIGHER COST THAN THE PREVIOUS YEAR more parking decks to accommodate the university’s desire for continued growth. These new decks would be placed where the cage is now, in addition to either the Cassell Coliseum parking lot or the Squires Student Center parking lot. Tech has also considered removing parking from the Drillfield entirely.
CARA MCBROOM news editor
PAUL KURLAK / SPPS
Steve Rowson demonstrates the apparatus used to measure simulated acceleration experienced in a football helmet. “We took all the test results from the experiments we performed, and we condensed them to a single value – the stars represent that, so it’s easily understood by the general public,” Rowson said. The new safety rankings are publicly available on the Virginia TechWake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Science’s website. Researchers involved with the project tell consumers to use helmets with a four- or five-star rating, while also taking factors such as helmet shape and size into account. “It’s a combination of both (helmet ratings and fit) – we recommend any of the four- or five-star helmets,” Rowson said. “All the four- and five-star helmets did a very good job of reducing head
acceleration and impact. Which one a consumer chooses from that group is going to depend on a number of factors, and one of those is helmet fit.” Gunnar Brolinson, a team physician for the Tech football team, also agrees that choosing a highlyranked helmet improves safety. “You substantially lower the risk of concussion when you look at the best helmets versus the worst helmets,” Brolinson said. “You probably reduce the risk by one-half to two-thirds.” The project has generated awareness for sporting equipment safely, and Tech has received much acclaim for its innovative ranking system. see HELMETS / page three
Permits for the new school year are available, with higher prices than previous years. Parking permits increased in price as a direct result of the construction of the Perry Street parking garage. Despite the project being completed as of late August last year, anyone wishing to park at the university will have to pay for the costs for the next 20 years. So far, this is the fourth consecutive year prices have been raised. Liz Roop, a senior architecture major, thinks that other alternatives could be made. “I feel like they should could charge more for daily permits,” Roop said. “That way it’d be more for people going to Tech for the day.” Parking services officials said permit prices would be increased to cover expenses, since parking is not state funded. Unfortunately, they said, this is what it takes to keep parking at Virginia Tech functioning. The future of prices looks bleak in regard to this $26 million project. The master plan of development includes the construction of two
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In comparison to other schools, it’s an adequate price but I also feel like there should be more availability of parking space” LIZ ROOP SENIOR ARCHITECTURE MAJOR
This is to ensure a pedestrianfriendly environment is kept in tact. This plan, however, will not be happening for many years. Typically with the construction of parking garages, parking prices will increase. According to parking services assistant manager Bo Frazier, “The increase is pretty minimal.” While Tech continues to pride see PERMIT / page two
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NEWS
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what you’re saying //comments from online readers...
virginia
On FDA regulates supplements:
County plans funds for building schools
Mike>> I think it’s pretty obvious that lobbyists and lawyers for the big corporations get in bed with regulating bodies (FDA, USDA, etc) so that the regulators enact rules that were written by the big corporations. They probably envision a world where a handful of mega corporations control all the mass-produced garbage food, and where we fork out chunks of our paycheck to pay for pills from big pharma because we are all sick from eating garbage for food. Luckily there are always black markets, so I’m sure I will always be able to buy real meat and veggies, no matter how hard big agra tries to kill off all the organic and family farmers.
Rosemary Jacobs>> No, it isn’t any of the fed’s business what people put into their bodies, but it is their business to verify that what is sold commercially to put into their bodies is safe and truthfully marketed. While some small companies may go out of business if the law is passed, I doubt it will have a big impact on the billion $$$ supplement industry. In fact, as I’ve told the guys and gals who pitch sups at my local independent natural products store, they are pawns in the hands of the supplement industry’s MBAs who used them to open the door, to take supplements mainstream, but they will be kicked out the same door when they are no longer needed which might be now that supplements are big sellers in the mainstream marketplace. The mainstream market is where the real money is and becoming big players in it has been the goal of the MBAs all along.
On concern for bigotry: 25 Kids>> One of my biggest problems with Bachman is that she runs around catering to the Tea Party by pretending to be anti-state and for a small government. The fact that she fostered 25 kids shows that she is a poser. How can she be anti-state, and yet, support a system where the government kidnaps children from biological parents and hands them over to complete strangers? She was a part of that system, which means that she is not really antistate and for the government out of our lives. This means that she is a poser who is just trying to woo the Tea Party.
On enhancing homecoming: Anonymous>> Homecoming stuff should stay in high school, this is college, time to grow up.
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors learned Monday what financial moves it will need to make to build three new schools for $125 million. The county must borrow about $98.4 million through bond sales this fall, a financial adviser said. The money will provide for high schools in Blacksburg and Riner by fall 2013 and a renovated Auburn Middle School, also in Riner, a year later. The debt analysis wasn’t the first for Montgomery County this past year as officials have considered the trifecta of building projects. But Monday’s recommendation from Richmond firm Davenport & Co. stands as the final word, because the supervisors authorized the school system this month to sign an agreement with a private group to build the schools for a set price. The debt would require a 10-cent real estate tax increase beginning in 2013, said Courtney Rogers, a Davenport adviser. That jump would cause the average homeowner, with a $218,000 property, to owe $218 more in taxes per year. That 10-cent tax bump would pay for an estimated $7 million yearly expense for the debt’s principal plus interest, which is structured over 20 years to minimize the tax impact. “We’re making sure we don’t push too much debt out too far,” Rogers said. With this bond sale, the county’s debt would reach its highest levels ever, and the tax rate increase would be the largest one in recent memory, county officials have
said. The debt level would push past—and remain above for almost 10 years—the county’s self-imposed policy on how much it should carry compared with expenditures. Still, Rogers told the board he expects that the county would maintain its current bond rating, which promises low interest rates. The amount to be borrowed doesn’t reach the $125 million construction price tag because of earmarked funds the supervisors have set aside. These include $15 million in qualified school construction bonds and $12.1 million left over from another bond and the Blacksburg High School roof collapse insurance settlement. The county hopes to collect another $10 million to offset debt payments by selling four former school properties—old Blacksburg High School on Patrick Henry Drive, old Blacksburg Middle School on South Main Street, tobe-closed Price’s Fork Elementary School and Elliston-Lafayette Elementary School. Once the bonds are issued, the county could buy some back or choose other options to pay down the debt early, Rogers said. The supervisors took no action on the adviser’s proposal Monday night. A public hearing and the board’s vote on the bond sale may happen in September, County Administrator Craig Meadows said. Until then, the school district may begin some construction on the schools with the $12 million it has at hand. -katelyn polantz, mcclatchy newspapers
Permit: Higher cost due to garage collegiatetimes.com july 28, 2011
from page one
itself in its low-cost parking permits, other universities in Virginia cannot say the same thing. The University of Virginia charges $204 per year for general commuter parking. While James Madison University charges $212 for one year of parking, according to their respective parking services websites. “In comparison to other schools, it’s an adequate price but I also feel like there should be more availability of
parking spaces,” Roop said. Frazier said parking services is able to keep the prices relatively low because of our location. “A lot has to do with the demographics,” Frazier said. “We’re fortunate to have a lot of real estate. We have a lot of property that allows us to build surface lots.” It costs about $3,000-3,200 to build a space for a surface lot, but it’s about $14,00-19,000 to build a space for a parking garage. Faculty, staff and resident students
all pay $225 for a permit for a full year or $113 per semester. Commuter and graduate students pay $198 per year or $99 per semester. Students who choose to travel together can purchase carpool passes for $151 each year or $76 each semester. One new parking services feature will allow graduate assistants to buy parking permits using payroll deduction, like faculty and staff members. This availability is said to allow qualified students to purchase per-
mits with pre-tax dollars and spread the cost over the duration of their assistantship appointment. The amount deducted from each payroll will be determined by the time frame of the appointment set by the sponsoring department. The department responsible for the assistantship will need to enter the position into a program prior to being able to enroll in the pre-tax permit deduction program. This option is only available to graduate assistants whose appointments
begin at the start of the fall semester. Tech parking permits for the 20102011 year will expire at the latest on Aug. 26. Students and staff are now able to purchase 2011-2012 parking permits online with Parking EZ-Biz. Permits can also be purchased in person at the Parking Services office located at 455 Tech Center Drive. For permit price and information, visit the Parking Services website at parking.vt.edu or contact Parking Services at parking@vt.edu or 540231-3200.
from page one
JOSH HIGGINS
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acceleration, in addition to the linear acceleration methods used in the current project. They also plan to conduct the same study for lower level and little league football to see how impact affects the pediatric brain, according to Mike Goforth, the head athletic trainer for the Tech football team.
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We all love sports, and we want to continue to enjoy contact and collision sports, but as sports medical professionals, we want to try to make sure that those sports are enjoyed in the safest manner possible.” GUNNAR BRONLINSON TEAM PHYSICIAN VIRGINIA TECH FOOTBALL
The researchers also hope to expand their research beyond just football, conducting similar studies on sports such as baseball and hockey. The team is extremely excited
about the success of their project, and they are enthusiastic about the future of the research. “It’s really impressive that Virginia Tech is kind of at the forefront of this,” Goforth said. “It makes me proud to work here and be a part of it, and hopefully we’re doing our part to help keep kids safer.” Brolinson said he hopes that the work the research team has done will help ensure athletes’ safety in the future. “We all love sports, and we want to continue to enjoy contact and collision sports, but as sports medical professionals, we want to try to make sure that those sports are enjoyed in the safest manner possible,” Brolinson said. Brolinson also expressed excitement about the future of the study. “We’re just really excited to be adding to this literature in this area and to promote player safety,” Brolinson said. “And we look forward to continuing to work in this area, and over the coming years we will develop more newer and better techniques to ensure player safety.”
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collegiatetimes.com july 28, 2011
of concern,” although the amount of drug use by teens has decreased over the past decade. The research also contends that The threat of new drug screening MRSDT is a way to address the stupolicies loom over area schools. The Montgomery County School dent substance abuse problem, along Board has looked at research on the with other prevention and abstinence results of implementing manda- awareness. The results of the research tory-random student drug testing found that schools that implement(MRSDT), although the school system ed MRSDT reported less usage than isn’t considering a new drug testing schools without a MRSDT program and participation of students participolicy at the present time. Virginia public schools have begun pating in school-sanctioned activities creating mandatory student drug test- was not affected. According to Brenda Drake-Bowdel, ing policies after the 2003 Virginia General Assembly amended the Code public information officer and clerk of Virginia, giving school systems the of the board for Montgomery County option to develop policies for volun- Public Schools, the school board has tary and mandatory drug testing for looked at the research and has not asked to keep the topic on the agenda students. The law does not require drug test- for future discussion, although DrakeBowdel said ing policies other studies on drug testing that there is in public a possibilschools, -“Outcomes of a prospective trial ity for future but it gives of student-athlete drug testing: The c on s i d e rlocal school ation. boards the Student Athlete Testing Using Random “ They discretion Notification (SATURN) Study” from the [school to require Journal of Adolescent Health board] have or promote not asked student drug us to bring testing. -“Impact of Drug Testing in High School it back as After the an agenda drug testSports” from The Sport Digest item,”Drakeing amendBowdel ments were -“The Effectiveness of Mandatorysaid. “That passed, the doesn’t mean Vi r g i n i a Random Student Drug Testing” from the that they Department Institute of Education Sciences won’t in the of Education future, but conducted at this point, research by studying schools that implemented they have not.” Drake-Bowdel was also policies that subject students that vio- uncertain about the effectiveness of a late school drug and alcohol policies to program for the Montgomery County drug testing and compared the results school system. “We would only be able to gauge to schools that do not have a drug testthe amount of people who are caught ing program. Many of the schools that participated using drugs so it would be very difficult in research also submitted some stu- for us to say, ‘Yes, it would decrease the dents that participated in school sports amount of drug usage in the county,’ and activities to drug testing, in addi- when all we could talk about is the tion to those who had already violated amount of students who are caught and brought forward to the board,” school drug and alcohol policy. A report and summary of the research Drake-Bowdel said. For now, the school board does not was disseminated to the Montgomery County School Board during a regular have any plan to alter the current drug school board meeting held earlier this policy. Current policy states that students possessing or under the influence month. The research includes observations of drugs and alcohol will be subject to from Roanoke, Buchanan, Russell, suspension or expulsion. It is unclear whether implementDinwiddie, Fairfax, Henry, Mathews, Northumberland, Scott, and York ing MRSDT in Montgomery County counties, along with the cities of Falls would decrease student drug usage. “Could we eventually reduce those Church, Fredericksburg, Galax, and Norfolk. The research states that “the numbers,” Drake said. “It’s a possibility, prevalence of illicit substance use but you really don’t know until you try among youth remains high and a cause a program like that.”
news staff writer
Many teams in the football industry at the high school, collegiate, and professional levels have used the ranking system to determine the best helmets to use for their players. “Based on the phone calls and emails I have gotten, as well as members of our research team, there’s no question that we’ve raised quite a bit of awareness regarding helmet safety and helmet testing throughout the country,” Brolinson said. “High schools, colleges, and professional teams are changing helmets as a result of the data.” The researchers involved with the project believe that this is just the beginning of studies in sports safety. “I think it’s a big step forward, and I think it shows that there’s more work that needs to be done. So with this project, we used what we knew now to do something that might reduce injury incidents in the future,” Rowson said. “However, it has limitations, and what we want to do is expand on those in the future.” The team plans to expand its research in helmet safety by incorporating rotational
3 NEWS
Drug testing for Helmet: Strides toward Montgomery safer athletic equipment County schools
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The relevance of campus art
OPINIONS
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ecently at an art exhibit in Madrid, I came across the following quote R by Joseph Beuys, “Todo ser humano es un artista”, or in its English version, “Every man is an artist”. The simple phrase really caught my attention and made me think about the relevance of art on the Virginia Tech campus. How do we celebrate or embrace art within our community? If you travel to different cities or countries, a lot of national pride is placed with their respective art museums and galleries. Regardless if it is the National Gallery in London, or the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, these places are MCT CAMPUS important and have meaning. Where can we find art on our campus? Do we have formal galleries where works are presented? Well the short answer is yes, we have places on campus where art is portrayed, but I suspect that many outside of the arts would not know about these places, nor could they locate them. Take for example the Perspective Gallery, which is located on the 2nd floor in Squires. This gallery falls under the auspices The president certainly made all of Student Affairs. Two other locations the efforts he could to compromise fall under the auspices of the School with the Speaker. of Visual Arts, one being the Armory He allowed for consideration of Gallery, and the Experimental Gallery entitlement spending reform includof Creative Arts. ing some very serious anti-Democrat I suspect that many of us have passed measures such as rising the Medicare right by the Armory located on Draper age. Road, without even knowing about its In addition to this, he has consisrole and function. tently proven himself to be always The same can be said for the available for more talks and time with Experimental Gallery located on the the Republicans allowing all points ground floor of Kent Square. In addiof view to be heard and all ideas tion, there is the XYZ gallery located in considered. Downtown Blacksburg that has a relaBut whereas he was worktionship with the School of Visual Arts. ing for compromise Boehner The reason I highlight this is because was vying for power and thus I believe that these areas do not get the the position of leadership in support and attention that they need Washington has shifted from the and deserve. Oval Office to the office of the There is a growing and thriving art Speaker of the House. community in the New River Valley, I applaud the president’s efforts and recently, we have seen an increase to try to find a compromise with in the arts focus with the renovation the Republicans but in-so-doing he of Henderson Hall, the new Theater allowed himself to lose all leverage building, and the ongoing construction he had with negotiations by allowing of the new Performing Arts Building. the Speaker and the Republicans to While these have a focus on the lively call the shots. arts on campus, what about the visual By allowing consideration of all arts? opinions the president has made The three galleries from the himself appear weak with regards Perspective Gallery, the Armory to the few issues (i.e. revenue Gallery and the Experimental Gallery increases) that he refuses to bend provide opportunities to really grow on. and enhance to art profile for the instiAs a result, the president has lost tution. Could these galleries rival their his ability to lead regarding this peers at other major institutions? In issue and thus has made himself these challenging budget times, there look inept regarding his ability to is often no support for the arts, and this successfully continue as leader of this has been seen with limited budgets to nation. bring in different artistic shows, limited gallery opening hours and limited proJASON S. CAMPELL motions of exhibits. regular columnist If we want the visual arts to flourish
Debt on a growing path, despite conscious efforts
collegiatetimes.com july 28, 2011
Tuesday, McDonald’s announced its intention On to begin a campaign to make their ‘Happy Meals’ more nutritious. The plan begins with a few small steps like reducing French fry portions and adding some sort of produce but moves to larger steps such as reducing sodium and fat levels in their menus later on. Essentially the corporation which haslongbeenthebastionofobesityand ill-health is beginning to make their products healthier for their customers by not allowing either a radical health food or radical junk food craze to take full control of their menu. For the members of Congress and President Obama currently in the middle of one of the most important debates of this year, the example provided by McDonald’s regarding compromise and reasonable decision-making may prove fruitful for their endeavors. On Monday night, President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner spoke to the nation regarding the status of the debate to increase the debt limit. It was difficult to remember while watching these speeches that all of the bickering we have been hearing from Washington over the past several months has really been about the single issue of whether or not to raise the debt ceiling. Instead, Republicans and Democrats have both been screaming over the need to reduce our debt long-term and not simply pass the buck for another Congress. With this many in Congress now
feeling that the central issue being decided on Aug. 2 is over the future of the federal government’s debt and not simply whether or not to continue to pay its bills. I sincerely commend the outspoken attitude both parties in Washington have made regarding the need for our government to find solutions to our growing debt. What is so frustrating to me and to a great deal of the country right now is the pitiful manner in which they are doing so. In an earlier column I stressed the need for compromise in the pursuit of solving this crisis. When I wrote it I assumed, perhaps naively, that our government would be able to prevent a catastrophic event, yet now I am not as sure. As the Aug. 2 deadline approaches closer with every day and with communications appearing to be severed between Capitol Hill and the White House, any hope for a compromise appears to be remote. Under the leadership of the Speaker and his Republican cronies the House has its own bill while the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, and his Democratic yes-men have their own separate bill. Neither appears to have appeal to members of the other side and neither is seriously expected to reach the president’s desk. With President Obama now caught in the middle of this fight and finding himself to be the central target of GOP attacks his opportunity to act seems to have passed.
then we as an institution need to be willing to help raise its profile. Why not have key links on the main Tech website highlighting the Arts on the campus? Could not the information for the three major galleries be in one place? I know that we already have a calendar of events, but that doesn’t provide the whole picture of the Arts. While we have these three galleries, I also realize that students’ work is also displayed in a number of other areas. Take for example the Cowgill colonnade area, where at different points of the year, we are witness to some of the different projects that the students have done. For example, it is always fun to see the displays that the students create with cement blocks. Or you can walk into the Cowgill lobby to see student’s work, or even the Landscape Architecture suite in Burruss. Even this past year, the community was a witness to the award-winning Solar House, which was displayed on the Drillfield. Where else can we profile the work by our students and that of our faculty and staff? For example, the library does a good job in featuring the latest works written by Tech authors. We also have different symposiums, where students can showcase their work from the Graduate Student Symposium to the Undergraduate Research Conference for example. The Tech website, as well as some of the college websites will profile some of the work and efforts of the students, faculty and staff. The challenge is that there is often no consistency in these efforts, or that the same efforts continued to be profiled. While art is displayed in the abovementioned galleries, what about art in other places on the campus? In some of the academic classrooms, you can find famous prints of classical images or of exhibitions that once toured the country. In other places, you can find depictions of the campus through photos or illustrations of Hokie pride. In other places like Squires, you can find the drawings of Tom Butterfield. My question is what type of coordination is taking place in regards to art on the campus? Is there a complete listing of the art that is currently on display? As the quote by Joseph Beuys implies, many things can be seen as art, as each of us is an artist. In this particular case, what else can we do as an institution to better recognize, sup- RAY port with resources, elevate and coordi- PLAZA nate art efforts on the regular campus? columnist
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he oppressed have become the oppressor. In the future, this T may be said of unions and organized labor. I say this because unions are increasingly adopting tactics that big businesses used against unions a century ago. Rewind to the year 1920. A few hours north of campus, on the Virginia and West Virginia border, an event known as the West Virginia Mine War took place. Most parties involved in the war committed wrongs. However, a root cause of the conflict was that the coal mine operators intimidated and inflicted violence upon miners who tried to unionize. “Thunder in the Mountains: The West Virginia Mine War 1920-21,” by the late Lon Savage of Virginia Tech, chronicles these events extensively. Life was extraordinarily harsh for miners working in our part of the country during the early twentieth century. It cost more to ship coal to market from rural Appalachia than it did from mines close to industrialized centers. In order to absorb these costs, operators paid miners very low wages. To attract workers to the mines the operators provided housing, churches, stores and other necessary goods. During the 1920s over eighty percent of southern West Virginia’s miners lived in company towns. This meant that aside from working one of the most dangerous jobs in the nation, they also lived under some of the worst housing conditions. With a desire for higher wages and better living and working conditions, many of the miners tried to form unions. The reaction from coal operators was harsh: harassment, intimidation, violence, and in some cases, murder. Mine operators along the border we share with West Virginia hired the famed Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency. The goal of these Bluefield-based “thugs,” as they became known, was to prevent miners from unioniz-
ing. To this end the detectives drove striking miners from their homes; dumped their furniture, dishes and clothes alongside roads and railroads; and at gunpoint in time of winter or heavy rains forced the wives and children of miners from company homes and tent colonies. Coal operators also paid law enforcement to selectively enforce the laws they liked. At one point miners were jailed for carrying union literature; union officials were forced to remove signs and literature from their offices; and hundreds of striking miners were imprisoned for months without charges brought against them. During a gun battle in Matewan, WV, Baldwin-Felts Detectives killed Cabell Testerman, the local mayor who was sympathetic toward the miners’ plight. Months later the detectives murdered Matewan’s elected constable and chief of police, Sid Hatfield, on the steps of the McDowell County Courthouse. These are some of the trials that area miners faced when they tried to unionize. Fast-forward to 2011. In my hometown of San Diego, California, there is an excellent restaurant called Off The Hook Seafood Grill. Recently my family was dining at this small, locally-owned restaurant, which is located just north of San Diego in Encinitas, CA. After enjoying a wonderful dining experience, a bright orange flyer was found on the windshield of the car. The flyer asked citizens to not buy products from Off The Hook because the restaurant bought fish products from Chesapeake Fish Company, a company that “strips collective bargaining rights for all of its workers.” Being the inquisitive person that I am, I contacted Off The Hook’s owner and asked him the story behind the flyer. The Mascotti family opened Off The Hook last December. They invested every penny they had into the restau-
rant with no backup plan. This took a great deal of courage because of the poor economic situation, especially in California—a state that was hardest hit by the bursting of the housing bubble, has one of the highest rates of unemployment and is in worse shape financially than most other states. Over the past thirty years, the Mascottis have always purchased fish from Chesapeake Fish Company in San Diego. Chesapeake had been around since the early 1900s, was locally-owned and family-operated, had the best quality of fish, a great reputation and was the only fish supplier to use unionized labor. Chesapeake was not immune from the economic downturn and last year it faced bankruptcy. A bankruptcy was avoided by selling to a new company earlier this year. Trouble started for Off The Hook when Chesapeake’s new owners tried to push the Union out. Because negotiations between Chesapeake and the Union were not going well, the Union decided to attack some of Chesapeake’s customers, including Off The Hook. Initially the Union just mailed letters or showed up in person and asked the restaurant to stop buying fish from Chesapeake. However, when Off The Hook continued to do business with Chesapeake, the Union embarked on a six-week crusade against the restaurant. The Union showed up on the busiest days and passed out flyers to customers waiting in line; left hundreds of bright orange flyers on cars in the parking lot; setoff a Facebook campaign against the restaurant; and emailed members of other unions in the area, asking them to write letters and stop dining at the restaurant. The Union almost succeeded in driving Off The Hook out of business. Sales immediately dropped 20 percent. To get the Union off its back the restaurant switched from Chesapeake to another supplier. Doing so meant paying an extra
$1.50 a pound for fish, as well as putting the restaurant on collect on delivery, because the good credit standing it had with Chesapeake was now gone. So besides the lost revenue from customer sales, Off The Hook’s cash flow suffered a $30,000 hit when it switched suppliers. As if the crusade against their business was not enough, the Mascottis also received hate mail, email and notes on the back of flyers. Learning about this family’s plight reminded me of what the miners just north of our school went through a century ago. I found myself wondering how unions of today could deploy threats, harassment and intimidation against a small, family-owned business. A hundred years ago it was big business that harassed and intimidated workers who were trying to unionize. When threats and intimidation did not work violence was deployed. Today, some unions harass and intimidate businesses that do not want to, or cannot afford to, unionize—or in the case of Off The Hook, harass and intimidate anyone who even maintains relationships with non-union businesses. So far it appears as though unions are not using force and murder to achieve goals. However, this does not mean that violence is absent. What if the Union bankrupted this family by driving their livelihood out of business? Have unions done this to other families? To other small business owners? Has this type of extortion caused anyone to suffer a heart attack or commit suicide? When unions first formed in the United States it was to protect the oppressed. If members of unions are not careful, one day CHRIS they may wakeup to realize that they DUNN have become the regular columnist oppressors.
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5 OPINIONS
Collegiate Times Editorial Staff Editor-in-Chief Sarah Watson Managing Editor Kelsey Heiter News Editor Cara McBroom Features Editor Ally Hammond Sports Editor Zach Mariner Head Copy Editor Kayla St. Clair Photo Editor Paul Kurlak Online Director Jamie Chung
Modern day unions are off the hook
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FEATURES
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FloydFest promises a unique experience
CARA DISILVIO features staff writer
ALLY HAMMOND features editor Nothing to do this weekend? Floyd County has you covered. About 45 minutes away from Blacksburg, one of the state’s greatest music festivals will occur this weekend, July 28 through July 31. With over 90 performing groups, FloydFest holds promise for music lovers of all types. This is their 10th year, so staff and volunteers are gearing up for an incredible weekend. They’ve obtained a variety of renowned acts, as well as many local bands to perform for the weekend. Some of the lead acts include Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Old Crow Medicine Show, and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. Not feeling the music scene? Not to worry, FloydFest offers other options. FloydFest has various other entertainers to perform throughout the weekend-long event. These include, but are not limited to Incredible Larry, a circuslike entertainer, a trapeze show and an award-winning balloon twister. For the weekend-long concert, FloydFest offers camping located around their stage. They describe the campsite as, “primitive; meaning no electricity, running water, perfectly level campsites, etc.” So now you’re thinking, well why would I want to sleep on a non-flat surface for 3 nights in the middle of nowhere? Luckily, I have already thought of an answer to this question: because it is a
Students continue to save with deals
DANIEL LIN / SPPS
Galactic’s Robert Mercurio performs at last year’s FloydFest as part of Thursday night’s headline act on the Dreaming Creek Main Stage. completely unique experience. Let’s get real. Our generation has always been pretty jealous of our parents for living in the Woodstock era. While FloydFest is a little different than Woodstock, it’s still more or less in the spirit. You get with your friends, jam out to some bands, and on top of that, meet new people. It’s a big event, but the campsites can get cozy. The campsites range from “quiet” to “semi-quiet” to “not so quiet” so it’s a pick-your-own party experience. You
can be well-rested in the quiet mountain air for a day full of concerts and acrobats and whatever else FloydFest decides to throw your way. FloydFest sells tickets for the entire weekend in a 4-day pass, a 3-day pass, or daily passes ranging from $55-$60. Tickets are available pre-sale, or at the gate, but there are a limited amount, so get them quick. This music festival promises an adventure for you and your friends. For more information, visit floydfest.com
Times are hard and our pockets are feeling much lighter than they were a few years ago. As college students we are constantly reminded of the debt we are accruing or about to collect after we pay tuition, buy our textbooks, and all the other necessary supplies to stay on top of the game. As a senior I know how stressful balancing a checkbook can be. With all of the extra costs required to stay competitive and even pass our classes, college has become far more than just annual tuition and books. After three years of undergrad my mother was horrified to find out that I had been paying for online homework software so that I could turn my work in each week. Whether it was the iClicker you bought and used for one semester, or that online Aplia account you had to purchase to turn your homework in, we are paying for so many extra things, and the dollars are beginning to add up. In light of all the financial stress, there is one bonus to being a broke college student. With the age of coupon clipping, discounts and deals come the many benefits thrown toward us students, you just have to know where to look. Websites like studentbistro.com and globestudentdiscount.com list multiple deals on clothing, food and even air fare. Did you know that most clothing companies like Gap, Old Navy and
even J.Crew have a student discount up to 20 percent if you show them your student ID at the register? It may not pay the whole bill, but saving a few dollars here and there will add up in the end. After all, most of the people working behind the register at our favorite stores have been or are currently students themselves. Even in our very own community, Blacksburg offers discounts for Tech students. Sky diving, BREAKzone bowling, and many other activities around campus offer printable coupons and discounts for current students. After doing some online surfing, I came across a list put together by Melody Warnick of the top 10 best deals offered to students. This list includes discounts on car insurance, price cuts on Apple products, and so much more. Many of the best deals listed require a membership fee of around $20 a year, which may seem a bit questionable at first, but if you are spending more than that on travel, lodging and entertainment fees, you may want to look into it. Your years in college are supposed to be some of the best of your life. Don’t worry too much about the financial frustrations everyone keeps reminding us about. Savvy students can find ways to save, and in the end all of those dollars will add up. Whether it is coupon clipping or flashing your student ID at your favorite clothing store, look out for those deals that are only around for college students.
Expr xpress ess Y Your ursel self. f.
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Alexander Black House keeps history alive features staff writer History is being kept alive on Draper Road. The Alexander Black House, located off Draper Road in downtown Blacksburg, has been a part of the town since 1897 and, at nearly 115 years old, the house is set to remain an integral part of it. Alexander Black was a descendant of William Black, one of the founders of Blacksburg. In 1872, at the age of 15, Alexander Black enrolled in the first session of the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, now known as Virginia Tech, where his father was the first director of the Board of Visitors. While attending the college, Black served as president of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. After college, Black owned several businesses in Blacksburg and served as the first president of the Bank of Blacksburg. Alexander Black built his first house in 1891. A simple home, it burned down in 1897. Black then began construction on a new, grandiose house modeled on Queen Anne Victorian architecture. When the structure was finished, it had cross-gabled roofs, colorful stained glass windows, decorated tin ceilings, a wrap-around porch and a tower. Needless to say, the Alexander Black House became a prominent part of Blacksburg.
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CODY OWENS
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The house was later converted to a funeral home, and was renovated to better serve its new purpose. The wraparound porch and the second-floor balcony were covered while interiors walls were knocked down. The top of the tower was removed and the exterior of the house was covered with vinyl siding. In 2002, the house was to face yet another change. In order to remedy the need for parking on Main Street, a parking garage and retail center called Kent Square was proposed on the site of the Alexander Black House. Instead of demolishing the historic home, Kent Square and the Town of Blacksburg decided to move the Alexander Black House. Buying the house for $250,000, the town council contracted Expert House Movers, best known for moving the Cape Hatteras Light House, to move the house. Spaced was cleared next to the historic Thomas-Conner House and in December of 2002, the Alexander Black House found its new home. While the house was saved from destruction and has a new location, renovations are still underway. In preparation for the Alexander Black House’s new role as the headquarters of the Blacksburg Museum, renovations aim to recreate the historic aspects of the home, including the wrap-around porch that was previously enclosed and the bedroom of Alexander Black, located on the bottom level of the house.
PAUL KURLAK / SPPS
The Black House on Draper Road is currently being renovated. The project is still trying to raise necessary funds to complete the restoration. In 2003, Bill Green, professor in the School of Architecture + Design stated that the structure of the home is very well preserved, with the foundation, roofing, and plumbing all in good condition. Green stated that the true problem rests in the aesthetic parts of the house. Exterior banisters and railings all were missing, as wwere the once elaborate
Summer Bellini
balcony and columns. Many of the needed additions are still to be addressed. The still-white house is planned to be painted in the original army green and the original furniture of Alexander Black will be added to his bedroom. In addition to keeping the historic aspects of the house, an accessible staircase and an elevator will be added to aid
touring visitors as they view the 19th century home. As of July 2011, the Alexander Black House has raised over $327,000 of its $1.5 million goal. Future fundraisers include the Alexander Black Tie Gala on Aug. 27 at The Inn at Virginia Tech, which will include a silent and live auction to raise funds for the renovations.
Give the gift of memories!
Let this summer champagne beverage tickle your nose and your taste buds. - sarah watson, editor-in-chief
CT Recipes Serves:
2
Ingredients: 4 ounces peach puree 4 ounces raspberry puree 8 ounces champagne Directions: 1. To create a fruit puree, cut fruit into small slices and add to blender or food processor. 2. Blend or puree until a juice is created.
Visit our website for more gift ideas for Hokies! collegiatetimes.com july 28, 2011
3. Add the puree to your champagne flute and pour champagne slowly on top.
Frame memorable moments or print them onto tshirts, posters, coffee mugs and more!
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FEATURES
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Sounds of summer fill the air PopMatters.com mcclatchy newspapers
Joss Stone “LP1” (Stone’d)
Oh boy, Joss Stone is angry. That should really come as no surprise to her fans. From the wise-beyond-heryears debut, 2003’s “The Soul Sessions,” to the overt jab at her now-former record label, EMI, “Colour Me Free,” the 24-year-old songstress has always been sure to wear her emotions on her English sleeve. It’s become expected of her to offer emotionally charged, oftentimes-raw performances on her albums, albums that are typically filled with a modernday mix of inspiring soul and rhythm and blues, mind you. But this time around, on “LP1,” the first release on her Stone’d Records imprint, Stone is missing the key element of why she has been so lauded over the course of her increasingly mature career: A groove. In fact, her latest release lacks so much of a groove, it would be safe to say the singer has almost completely abandoned her soulful roots altogether. Forget Aretha Franklin, Etta James or Dusty Springfield. With “LP1,” Joss Stone is trying her best to channel Melissa Etheridge, Sass Jordan, or even ... gulp ... Kelly Clarkson. The result is disappointing. It’s lowrent. It’s unexpected. And most of all, it seems like something Joss Stone was previously above. Taking a turn toward rock music wasn’t a turn she needed to take. An acoustic guitar and bland rhythms simply won’t do when you once recorded the powerful kissoff “You Had Me” or the enormously sexy “Put Your Hands on Me.” And poprock hooks seem like c h i l d ’s play when compared to the infectious bounce of “Tell Me ‘Bout It” or the Steely Dan meets Earth, Wind (and) Fire soul of “Incredible” or “You Got the Love.” So, yes. Joss Stone is awfully angry. Angry at what? Well, that’s still up for debate. Could it be another lover who has criminally done her wrong? Could it be that dreaded, evil record label that held her down for so many years? Who knows, really? What we do know, though, is that the songs that make up “LP1” are covered in spite.
But even with her biting words and sometimes-screamy vocal performances, something about the entire effort seems a bit put-on. What earned the singer so many accolades for so many years was her innate ability to channel and subsequently bare her soul while singing and performing. You simply “believed” what she was saying, no matter the backdrop. And while it’s impossible to truly define what makes “LP1” so frustrating, it’s safe to say that through all the angry growls and snoozy pop melodies that color the album, believing in Joss Stone becomes increasingly difficult each time these songs are played. -By Colin McGuire
William Elliott Whitmore “Field Songs” (Anti-)
William Elliott Whitmore comes from rural Lee County, Iowa on the Mississippi River in the far southeastern portion of the state and he still lives on a farm. He doesn’t romanticize the life. He delineates its many pitfalls and problems. He knows that farming today is a fool’s game. But he holds out hope despite the darkness. “Bury Your Burdens in the Ground” he sings on the first track. And this theme of holding on for a better tomorrow permeates many of the eight self-penned tracks. Whitmore plays banjo and acoustic guitar and sings with a deep, gravelly voice as rich as the state’s black soil on his latest release, “Field Songs.” But he’s not singing just about the Hawkeye State. He universalizes the situation by putting its historical and geopolitical contexts the way a Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger might. He sings of those who lost when the West was won as a result of homesteading, and how that was superseded by the injustice of “the Manifest Destiny of factory farms.” He knows that those who come from south of the border seeking work are no different than he is. He empathizes with the migrant worker as he sings in the first person, “To provide for my little ones/I’ll do anything I can/Jump the fence/outrun the dogs/Defy the laws of men.” The sovereignty of the individual and the family trumps all other concerns. This notion gets taken to the extreme on “Let’s Do Something Impossible” as he metaphorically com-
pares contemporary existence to Paris 1943 (when the French Resistance formed to fight the Nazis), and suggests we practice the strategies of Theodore Cole, who escaped fromAlcatraz,andtheAmerican Indians at Little Big Horn. This radical critique of present-day America as a repressive entity that treats us inhumanely suggests Whitmore’s Populist concerns, but he’s no tea partier. He’s much more Jeffersonian representative agrarian. But the secret to Whitmore’s genius lies in his musical presentation more than his literate lyrics. His booming voice resonates with authority, but there’s always a small ache in his voice, even when he croons “I’m Not Feeling Any Pain.” He plays his stringed instruments as if swinging a baseball bat and clubs the chords rather than finesses them. Oh, he’s no one-trick pony. Every song is different and he performs in several folk and blues idioms. But they all share a sense of power and influence. His guitar may not kill fascists, but it’s still a dangerous weapon that makes one think and feel. We Iowans may not be family farmers anymore, but we’d still like to think we share their values and that these are true American ideals. Whitmore connects us to that in an inspiring and stimulating way. -By Steve Horowitz
Fink “Perfect Darkness” (Ninja Tune)
Often the best things are said to be “more than the sum of their parts,” but sometimes the numbers don’t add up. Combining a DJ and producer for London-based independent electro label Ninja Tune with a subsequent successful career as the core of an acoustic trio, for example, seems quite a stretch. That such a man should have had collaborations with the likes of American rhythm and blues star John Legend and British rapper Professor Green sounds more improbable still. Yet this is the story of Fin “Fink” Greenall, still with Ninja Tune and now releasing his fourth album of dark, organic tunes. Enhancing the emotional impact of the songs is the ability of Greenall and his band to squeeze a special kind of wiry tension from their lean arrangements. Unwilling to add in too many embellishments unless they will palpably enhance his impact, Greenall chooses to focus instead on getting the most from his acoustic grooves.
It’sastrategythatgenerallypaysoff,but it does leave “Perfect Darkness” slightly lacking in variety; had the record lasted longer than its 46 minutes, the for mu l a may have grown tiring. As it is, the journey is just long enough. When Greenall m a k e s more of a feature of his distinctiveness, it is always to his credit – comparisons to Jeff Buckley are deployed far too regularly these days, but Fink s hares the late talent’s unwillingness to conform to standard singer-songwriter molds. Also bringing Buckley to mind is a tendency toward emotionally agonizing songwriting (“Save It For Somebody Else”) and some pendulous guitar work reminiscent of “Grace” (“Fear Is Like Fire”). Elsewhere, “Wheels” successfully adds a touch of the blues to Greenall’s effective formula. The best is saved for last, however, in the form of “Berlin Sunrise.” Artists too often squander the opportunity the closing track offers; to put a full stop at a record’s conclusion that vindicates their efforts up to then. Greenall and his band nail this chance, building their closer around a slowly surging chorus that oozes ambiguity. It’s a fitting end to an album which, while not perfect, is a noble effort at twisting folk into a vessel suited to communicating messages about the alienating and contradictory nature of modern life. Not just an oddity in the Ninja Tune stable, Fink should in fact be regarded as the jewel in the label’s crown. Penetrate the “Perfect Darkness” and there is a glow underneath. -By Andy Johnson
Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground “Introducing...” (Suburban Home)
When Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground hit the scene in 2007 after punk group, Gatsby’s American Dream, took a hiatus, they lit up my musical radar and caused “Hey Momma” to repeat on my iPod for a week straight. Keyboardist Kyle O’Quin had me questioning why he ever even made the transparent, power-chord rock of Gatsby’s. Notoriety?
Easy money? Great friends he couldn’t deny? The ragtime, jazz-infused pop of Kay’s Kay’s self-titled debut seemed like a practical joke on the Absolute Punk community. There was no way these guys were former members of the posthardcore genre of the early 2000s. O’Quin and Kirk Huffman (the pioneers of the giant 10- to 12-piece band) weren’t joking, though. This was the music they’d had up their sleeves all along: Scott Joplin-influenced piano pop accompanied by tuba, cello, trumpet and flugelhorn. This time around, Kay Kay lays off the bombastic music and instead applies more chilled-out, mellow tunes, and the change manages to do the band justice. This sophomore effort is a much more listenable experience for those unfamiliar with the Seattle natives. Whereas their debut tended to overkill the drastic breakdowns and stop-on-a-dime-and-changetempo mentality, “Introducing...” plays as a much more straightforward album with great background accompaniment. The opening track, “Sweet Strange Dreams,” starts off with a slow burn but eventually gives a taste for the ragtime pop for which Kay Kay is known, but the next track, “You Motherf(ASTERISK) (ASTERISK)(ASTERISK)ers,” resembles a country hoedown, while single “Diggin’” sounds like something Ben Folds Five would have written while attempting to mimic the breakdown halfway through “A Day in the Life.” From there, though, the album starts to level out, save for the finale, “My Friends All Passed Out,” which could fit right in with their debut LP. “Paycheck and Pipedreams” has that same circus melody that defines Kay Kay, but it’s much more tightened and fine-tuned, using all the background noises exactly for their purpose: background noise. This time, the band doesn’t go insane for the sake of sounding insane but instead builds layered melodies in the vein of a sedated Man Man. Though the ragtime antics of Kay Kay’s original LP aren’t as prominent here, fans will still be treated to a band hard at work in a genre that’s difficult to pin down. Huffman and O’Quin mix jazzinfused piano pop with alt-country, as well as take a stab at ethereal, Indianinfluenced percussion on a singular track, and isn’t that something that sounds just a tiny bit enticing? -By Matt Edsall
CODY OWENS sports staff writer With the July 31st non-waiver trade deadline of baseball nearly upon us, speculation abounds about potential trades. The current rumors all feature a few particular players, chief among them Carlos Beltran. The 34 year-old New York Mets right fielder has been connected to many possible trades in the past several days, however, no team seems to be in the lead. The Mets have been in talks with teams such as the Atlanta Braves, the Philadelphia Phillies, the San Francisco Giants, and the Texas Rangers; however, none of the teams have been willing to trade their players and pick up Beltran’s high salary. The Mets state that they are not concerned with money as much as getting the best player in return for Beltran, though with what they are paying the right fielder, the money is certain to be a factor. Beltran’s agent Scott Boras told ESPN.com that Beltran will accept or block trades based on his chance of winning a title with the new team. This was shown when Beltran turned down the Cleveland Indians, who offered to pay his salary and offer a good player to the Mets. Currently, the two teams to watch in this trade are the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants. Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman states that the Rangers may put forward the best trade offer, while the Giants are a “possible favorite” for Beltran. B.J. Upton, center fielder for the Tampa Bay Rays, has also been
linked to several teams. The Braves, the Cincinnati Reds, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Pittsburgh Pirates have all been involved in potentially obtaining the player, according to the New York Post’s Joel Sherman. The Giants have indicated strong interest in Upton. The Washington Nationals have also been linked to Upton, but have turned down the Rays’ request for pitchers Ross Detwiler and Brad Peacock in return. Another team interested in the outfielder is the Indians. No frontrunner has emerged in this deal either. It is probable that the fate of outfielders such as Upton will not be seen until a top player like Beltran has been traded. Many teams that are interested in Beltran are also in talks with other outfielders, but are likely holding back on other names in the hope of getting a good trade with Beltran. ESPN’s Buster Olney reports that once Beltran has been permanently linked with a team, other outfielders will see trade deals come in for them. While the Rangers want Beltran, they also have their eyes on Heath Bell. The closing pitcher for the San Diego Padres has seen interest from the Cardinals, the Reds, the Rangers, and the Phillies, but rumors favor the Rangers and Phillies, both of which have players that would best suit the Padres. In particular, rumors have circulated that the Padres want Phillies pitcher Brody Colvin for Bell. Another Padres relief pitcher, Mike Adams, has been connected to the Braves, Reds, and Cardinals, among others. Los Angeles Dodgers’ Hiroki
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Beltran, Upton tops among trade
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PASATIERI / MCT
New York Mets right fielder Carlos Beltran connects for a two-run homer against the Giants back in May. The aging veteran is one of the biggest names in this year’s trade market. Kuroda, the top starting pitcher in the trade talks, has seen interest from teams such as the Indians, the Tigers and the Reds. However, the soughtafter pitcher has a full no-trade clause in his contract, thus giving him great control over where he goes.
Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman has stated that while the Tigers have made efforts to acquire Kuroda, a source says that he would not want to move to Detroit. Even if the Dodgers manage to find a good deal with a team such as the Indians, Kuroda would
still have to accept, thus raising the possibility of high incentives being offered to the pitcher. The non-waiver trade deadline will end on Sunday, July 31 at 4 p.m., and will likely see many of these players finding new homes.
ACC needs better teams for NCAA basketball LUKE DECOCK mcclatchy newspapers
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You want to play teams that you think will have winning records at the end of the season.” MARK GOTTFRIED ESPN ANALYST
“If you look at the scheduling of our conference teams over the last five years, it hasn’t been good, in some cases,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said earlier this summer. He’s right, but the league has a bigger problem than that. The reason why the ACC hasn’t gotten as many teams into the tourna-
ment as it expects is a simple one: There haven’t been enough good teams in the ACC. Duke and North Carolina have held up their end of the bargain, competing for national championships and holding down the top two spots in the conference on a regular basis. The rest of the league hasn’t kept up. Rarely in recent years has the league’s third-best team been as good as the top two. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, the ACC could count on Virginia, N.C. State, Wake Forest, Maryland and Georgia Tech putting together teams with legitimate national-title or Final Four credentials on a regular basis. None of those teams has done that lately, nor anyone else in the ACC. Florida State last season became the first ACC team outside the 919 area code to make the Sweet 16 since 2006. Throw out Duke and North
Carolina, and the ACC’s NCAA tournament record over that span is 12-18. That argues for less participation, not more. If the ACC were as strong and deep as it once was, nonconference opponents wouldn’t matter. The lack of quality depth within the conference leaves the ACC playing the NCAA’s little RPI game just like everyone else - Virginia Tech and its annual bubble snubs serving as the cautionary tale. The real solution is better basketball, top to bottom: Better coaches, better players, better facilities. There has been a ton of turnover in the ACC coaching ranks over the past two years, eight jobs in all. In the long run, that new blood collectively may do more for the ACC than tweaking nonconference scheduling ever could. But ACC coaches aren’t going to say that. They have nothing to gain by criticiz-
ing their peers; it serves their purposes to extol the strength of the league, not its mediocrity. So they talk about scheduling, a subject on which Krzyzewski and Roy Williams, both of whom play brutal nonconference schedules as a rule, can lecture from a position of authority. In that respect, Krzyzewski said he was pleased to see the league’s new coaches have embraced the scheduling imperative and understand the stakes. “They took responsibility for it, instead of saying something like ‘We’ve been messed over.’ OK, you know?” Krzyzewski scoffed. “Once we get over that, let’s ask, ‘Why do we only get four teams picked?’ “ Scheduling is part, but not all of it. When programs like Virginia and N.C. State come around, when the gap between the top two and the bottom 10 closes, so will the ACC’s image in the eyes of the NCAA tournament committee.
collegiatetimes.com july 28, 2011
The question came up again Tuesday in Mark Gottfried’s first summer news conference at N.C. State: What does the ACC need to do to get more men’s basketball teams into the NCAA tournament? The answer, again, was who ACC teams play, not how ACC teams play. “There’s too many teams in this league that have played teams with a (poor) RPI,” said Gottfried, who observed the ACC from the outside as an ESPN analyst last season. “You want to play teams that you think will have winning records at the end of the season.” This has been a constant theme of not only this summer but recent summers. Most coaches want to point the finger at scheduling as the reason why
the ACC had only four NCAA tournament teams for the second time in four years, and there’s validity to that. Too many ACC coaches have spent too much time going after too many easy wins.
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NFL lockout could cause long-term damage Earlier this week, NFL players and owners finally agreed on a new collective bargaining agreement. Surprised? Neither was I. After four long months and half of SportsCenter being taken over by the faces and quotes of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, the lockout finally came to an end. Most fans, myself included, have felt that ever since the lockout began back in early March, that there would, undoubtedly, be a season. That there was no way that the players and owners would allow a few million dollars to prevent so many Americans from actually having to do yard work on Sundays this fall. Fortunately, we were right. They did reach an agreement and there will be a season, and a Super Bowl on the first Sunday in February 2012. But, as happy as football fans are that the lockout has ended, it doesn’t make up for the fact that we just had to sit through four months of listening to sports broadcasters talk about absolutely nothing. I’m not ashamed to admit that every single time I was watching ESPN and started hearing about money and greed and legal terms I don’t understand, I immediately changed the channel. Does that make me a bad sports reporter? Maybe. Does that make me a bad sports fan? Absolutely not. The majority of the fans of America’s most popular sport are made up of 30k-60k/year, hard-working, middleclass people; people who have no interest in listening to greedy multimillionaires whine about missing out on a small portion of their already gigantic salaries. When NFL fans turn on SportsCenter, they don’t do it to hear about money. They do it to hear about trade rumors, injuries, and free agent signings, as well as position battles, and why Terrell Owens showed up late for training camp again. I’m sure I’m not the first writer to point this out over the last four months, but without fans, there is no NFL. No ticket sales, no merchandise sales, no NFL Sunday Ticket royalties
from DirecTV, etc. There is no money to be whined over in the first place. But, just so everyone reading is clear on the subject, I’d like to take a moment to share with you my understanding of what the NFL lockout was really all about, and how the geniuses in charge of all of it decided to settle everything. The last NFL collective bargaining agreement expired after last season, leaving disgruntled team owners and players the job of creating a new one. The NFL is currently a 9.3 billion dollar industry, and the biggest argument was over revenue distribution between said owners and players. The previous CBA allowed owners 47 percent of the revenues. The players felt they should be getting less. The owners felt they should be getting more. Of course there was a little bit more to it than just that; there were salary cap disagreements, the idea of the owners pushing an 18-game season, rather than the current 16-game season, the notion of putting restrictions on rookie contracts, and several other issues. But, more than anything else it was about money, and, more important than money, greed. So who got the best end of this deal? Pretty much everyone who was actually involved in the debate, and by that I mean the players and the owners. The owners will now receive 52 percent of the revenue distribution, along with a $120 million dollar salary cap to manage their respective teams. The players also benefited, because minimum salaries will now increase, and training camp will be five weeks shorter than before, lightening their workload. And so it would appear that everyone is happy. That is, except for the millions of fans who are now all of the sudden expected to just be thankful that we’re actually going to get a season this year. As if getting to listen to virtually no off-season discussions about anything relevant to what actually takes place on the field was not bad enough, we now have all of two weeks to cram almost a half a year’s worth of information into our heads before the preseason starts. Not to mention fantasy drafts are
JENKINS / MCT
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell meets with referees before Super Bowl XLV. Earlier this week, Goodell helped to finally put an end to the NFL lockout. right around the corner. I realize that this comes across as just some fan whining about having nothing to watch on TV besides MLB highlights since the NBA Finals ended, but I think the lockout hurt fans in more ways than just one. Not only did it deprive us from satisfying our cravings for 24/7 access to real NFL news, it also showed us what this league really is: a business, and nothing more. It’s nothing more than a bunch of rich men trying to get even richer. There is no passion. There is no love of the game. There is only money. I know that sounds a little extreme, and I’m sure it can’t be said for every single NFL player and employee, but if there’s anything I’ve learned from this lockout, it’s that all that matters in this league is money. I might even go as far as to say that there could potentially be harsh long-
term effects of this lockout on the league itself. If a lockout ever did prevent a season from actually taking place, fans would flock to college football. It would be all they had come fall. If that were to happen, then fans would only be watching guys who play every week with the same passion and intensity that the fans themselves have for the game. Yes, not every college football player cares about the fans of their school, but the numbers of those who do far outweigh those who don’t. Very few college football players play the game because they know they can make a career out of it. Most play because they love the game and they want to win for their school. If fans were to only watch those guys play, it would only make them further question the standards of their NFL counterparts. I don’t mean to make this a
debate between college football and the NFL. And thankfully, fans will still get to watch both of them this year. We don’t have to worry about missing out on anything – yet. But, if this happens again in ten years when this new CBA expires, it’s only going to remind fans of what we’ve had to deal with this summer, and responses might not be as subtle as they were this time around. So, what’s the best way to fix the NFL? Stop the greed. Tell the players and owners to be satisfied with their multi-million dollar per year salaries and go back to playing the game for the right reasons. If only it were that easy.
ZACH MARINER -sports editor -sophomore -communication major
......radio
for everyone
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Thursday, July 28, 2011
For Sale
For Rent
VPI COLLEGE RING, never worn, pristine, $1000. email mfcauthen@ gmail.com 803.754.1064
WINDSOR HILLS APARTMENTS 1200 square ft. 2 bedrooms 1 bath with a den. First floor. $856/ month. Ready for immediate move in. Contact Jeremy for more details. 757-270-6244 or mejeremy@vt.edu 757.270.6244
Events SKYDIVE! One-day first jumps from 13,500’ from 22-jumper twin engine airplane. Gift Certificates! www. skydiveorange.com 540.943.6587
Help Wanted
it's summer. it's beautiful. it's blacksburg.
go camping.
Advertise in the
Classifieds. www.collegiatetimes.com
BECOME A BARTENDER UP TO $300/ DAY. No Experience Necessary. Training Course Available. 1-800-965-6520 EXT210 THE TOWN OF Blacksburg is currently accepting applications for the following part-time wage position: Parking Lot Attendant. For more information, please visit our website: www. blacksburg.gov. An EEO Employer M/F/D/V
By Donna S. Levin
ACROSS 1 Equipped with 6-Across 6 See 1-Across 10 May or Ann 14 Permission 15 Natural shade 16 Turow memoir 17 Game show about bribery at a checkpoint ? 20 Warning 21 Understanding words 22 Elite octet 23 Paragon of redness 25 Maneuver
Buy and sell your camping equipment in the Collegiate Times Classifieds today!
www.collegiatetimes.com
7/28/11 27 Game show about an Algerian governor ’s search for his spouse? 31 Muse who inspires poets 32 1,000-yr . real m 33 One-tim e neighbor of French Indochina 37 Arabic is one of its two of ficial langs. 38 Surfer ’s guid e 42 “Exodus” hero 43 Suf fix with gramma r 45 Nonsens e 46 Links coup
48 Game show in which “Stuttering pig” might be a clue? 52 Biblical betrayer 55 __ dixit 56 Up in the air 57 They may be wild 59 Stage group 63 Game show in which couples confess indiscretions? 66 Relax 67 Slobbering canine 68 Mobile one of song 69 Batik artist 70 Tech support caller 71 Worry about
DOW N 39 “__ la Douce” 1 As wel l 40 Points of initia l 2 Chew (out) progress 3 Gander , e.g. 41 Some motel 4 It’s as likely as not guests 5 “In __ Speramus”: 44 Napoleon vessel ? Brown U. motto 47 Recanted in 6 Bothers embarrassment 7 Dull discomfort 49 Der __: Adenauer 8 Timber producer epithet 9 Pension start? 50 “That sly come 10 Transmits __ stare”: 11 They’re not pros “Witchcraft” lyric 12 Famille members 51 Church area 13 “Family Ties” mo m 52 Out 18 Feudal holding 53 His Super Bowl 19 Strauss’ s “__ MVP performance Nacht in was his last NFL Venedig” game 24 Slaughter on a 54 Out diamond 58 Play to __ 26 Notion 60 Cryptic 27 Former Cunard character fleet member, for 61 Italian short volcano 28 Starry-eyed bear? 62 Comedy 29 Make 30 Bonnie Blue’ s routine daddy infielder ... 34 “I hate the Moor” 64 ... and Bud’s speaker partner in the 35 Woodstock singer routine before Joan 65 QB’ s scores 36 Manner Thursday’s Puzzle Solved
Complete the grid so that each column, row and 3x3 box contains the numbers 1-9. Copyright 2007 Puzzles by Pappocom
(c)2011 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
7/14/11
Solution, tips and computer program at www.soduku.com.
collegiatetimes.com july 28, 2011
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