DEPARTMENT S N O I S S DISCU
This week, opinions writers take sides and discuss the pros and cons of their majors. page 3
Wednesday, December 4, 2013 An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 www.collegiatetimes.com
COLLEGIATETIMES 110th year, issue 60 News, page 2
Washington and Lee student dies in car accident
Lifestyles, page 6
Opinions, page 3
Sports, page 5
Study Break, page 4
Marching Virginians’ facility plans progress BY EMILY WYNN | news staff writer
CAMERON AUSTIN news editor
The Washington and Lee community is in mourning after a fatal car accident left one student dead and at least three others seriously injured. Kelsey Durkin, a 21-yearold senior from New Canaan, Conn., died in the accident, which occurred around 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday. A total of 10 students were in the car, according to the school. The accident occurred on Turkey Hill Road when the driver, Nicholas Perry, hit a tree stump in his 2006 Chevy Tahoe and overturned the vehicle. Perry was taken to Carillion Stonewall Jackson Hospital for minor injuries and was later arrested on a charge of driving under the influence. He was also charged with refusing to take a breathalyzer test. According to Facebook, Perry is a junior at W&L from New Orleans. According to the police, Durkin was sitting in the
DURKIN back seat of the vehicle, not wearing a seat belt, when the crash occurred and was ejected from the car. She was then taken to hospital and was pronounced dead upon arrival. “There are no words to express the grief we feel over the loss of someone taken from us so suddenly and tragically,” said W&L President Kenneth Ruccio in a statement to the public. “In the days ahead, in the weeks and months ahead, our sadness will be lessened only by the memories of her time with us.”
@CameronOAustin
ALISON NEARY/ SPPS
The Board of Visitors recently approved more funding for the new practice facility, sending the planning into the next phase. Plans for the new Marching Virginians’ practice facility are moving forward after the Board of Visitors recently approved additional funding for the project. The proposed plan, which was initially approved by the Board of Visitors in September, includes a 4,300-square-foot building with an outdoor pavilion of 3,500 square feet with coverage for bad weather
and a lighted outdoor practice field. The facility will be located near Lane Stadium and the Chicken Hill parking lot, the area where poultry science students study and work with flocks of hens. On game day, the marching band would be able to march down Southgate Drive and directly into the stadium. The board initially approved
$400,000 to go into planning for the project and approved another $800,000 for actual work on the construction site on Nov. 18. Currently, Virginia Tech’s marching band stores their instruments wherever they can: spare rooms from other programs, storage in the basement of the baseball team’s batting cage facility and even in the back of the old Kmart that the university owns for printing and surplus. see FACILITY / page two
World Cup champion Brandi Chastain reflects on career BRITTNAY KEUP sports staff writer
Olympic gold and silver medalist and World Cup champion in women’s professional soccer Brandi Chastain took time out of her busy schedule as Santa Clara University’s women’s soccer assistant coach and ambassador of the Capital One Cup to talk about her past as a soccer player and her thoughts on Virginia Tech’s women’s soccer team. Collegiate Times: What was your college experience like while playing at the University of California, Berkeley and COURTESY OF CAPITAL ONE Santa Clara University? Brandi Chastain is most famous for her celebration after scoring the Brandi Chastain: I think being game-winning goal in the 1999 Women’s World Cup final for the US. a young person going into the
collegiate ranks was an eyeopening experience, but it was one that gave me so many lessons for off the field use. I, unfortunately, had sustained two ACL reconstructions during my collegiate career and so it kind of gave me perspective on the gift that I was given to play soccer and how I needed to take better care of it and respect it a little bit more. It also reminded me that every player matters, no matter if you’re on the sideline or you’re in the game. What you contribute in training helps your team be successful and I carried that onto my national team career. I wasn’t always a starter with the national team, so my games were training
sessions and what I did there helped our team be successful. CT: Why exactly did you choose to transfer from the University of California, Berkeley to Santa Clara University? Chastain: I got myself into a scenario where I made a choice based on how happy my parents and my grandparents were (for me) to go to a university and I probably should have listened to my heart a little bit more. In terms of the experience, it was great. I played with some great players and I was freshman player of the year in the NCAA and I had a great season soccer-wise. Academically, I didn’t do so well and then I was hurt, so it
was a lot to take in one year of college but I use those lessons everyday now as a player, as a coach and as a parent. CT: Moving towards your professional career, you’re associated with what is known as the “sports-bra episode” from the 1999 World Cup and I was wondering if you could explain how it happened and how you felt in that moment? Chastain: It has a title? You know, I was just speaking with someone from Santa Clara, one of their student writers, and he asked me to explain it in one word and I had to say “amazing” see SOCCER / page five
Where are Hokies finding their new homes? see page 2
NEWS
LIFESTYLES
SPORTS Find out which Vet School dean doubles as Santa Claus during the holiday season and poses with pets.
How much money to the Marching Virginians need for their new facility? see page 2 You might be surprised to find out where the majority of Tech alums live after graduation. see page 2 see page 6
ONLINE Find out how the Virginia Tech men’s basketball team did in their early season matchup against Winthrop.
see page 5
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