INDEX 1. News 2. WV History/Crime 3. News 4. Culture 5. Opinion 6. Chill WVU’s Independent Student Newspaper
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2018
7. Sports 8. Roster 9. Roster 10. Sports 11. Classifieds 12. Ad
danewsroom@mail.wvu.edu
Gee speaks to the DA on Greeks, abortion, Sodexo
A LOOK INSIDE
STAFF REPORTS WVU President E. Gordon Gee spoke to the Daily Athenaeum Monday evening and discussed a variety of campus and state topics. Below are a few notable excerpts from the meeting.
Displaced Summit students speak out
Greek Disassociation Recent requirement changes in Greek life spurred two fraternities, Kappa Alpha and Sigma Chi, to disassociate from WVU. “They have no access to the resources of the University, Panhellenic rules are that they can’t have any relationship with a sorority, I mean, they’re basically an isolated group,” Gee said. “Parents need to understand that those groups are not sanctioned by the University, and I think they’re unfairly representing themselves as part of the institution.” “I’m a strong believer in their role in the institution,” Gee continued. “But I think they need to be representative of the best quality in the leadership that we have.” Gee said the main disagreement between some fraternities and him was first semester freshmen recruitment, which the University has banned. He said students need to get acclimated to the University and questioned whether first semester freshmen could really know if they wanted to join a fraternity or which one they wanted to join. “When people join too soon, their grades go down, they don’t graduate as fast, they drop out, a variety of other things,” he said. The recent changes in Greek life are about creating a pathway to success, he said.
amendment in the state Constitution that would outlaw abortions for any reason. A yes vote on the proposition would add the sentence “nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of abortion.” Gee said the University will not take a stance on the vote. Personally, Gee said he would vote against the proposition. “I have a daughter who’s the secretary of health for the state of Louisiana and she’s an OB-GYN. She’ll tell you that these kind of amendments are not helpful in increasing the quality of healthcare for a state,” Gee said.
WV Abortion Amendment This November, West Virginians will vote on whether to put an
WV Sports Betting At the beginning of the month, West Virginia’s first weekend of
Some students say the move made them closer page 3
A photo from the Nov. 17, 1981 edition of the Daily Athenaeum shows President E. Gordon Gee during his first time as WVU’s president. legal sports betting netted the state $320,631.70 in taxable revenue, according to the Charleston Gazette-Mail. Gee said he was against legalizing sports gambling. He said this is an issue that needs to be monitored closely on campus. “They talk about sports betting in the professional sports, NFL, NBA, etc., but the answer is this; if someone offers Lebron James $10,000 to throw a game, he’s going to smack them on the side of the head, he’s going to think that’s very funny,” Gee said. “If, on the other hand, if someone offers $10,000 to a college player, they may think about it seriously, and so I think this is a very serious issue for us.” “I think it presents a whole new pathway for mischief in college athletics,” he continued.
The Press The Daily Athenaeum ran an editorial on the front page of the Aug. 30 issue rebuking one of Gee’s comments about the media during a Aug. 27 meeting. He said “You’ve learned the common truth of public life, which is don’t believe what you read in the newspaper.” During the Monday meeting, he said the statement was taken out of context by a journalist who reported the statement. “If you’re going to be a member of the press, be responsible. The second thing is get a goddamn sense of humor. We’ve got to learn to laugh about stuff. The problem in this country is that we have lost our sense of humor and lost our ability to be able to poke a little fun at each other,” Gee said.
SEE GEE P. 11
Play brings 1800s England to WVU “The Moors” will play at the CAC through the end of September page 4
Third down efficiency takes big leap for WVU Improvement on third down could put Mountaineers over the hump in 2018
page 7
WVU Medicine to begin state’s first heart transplant program BY JARED SERRE STAFF WRITER
WVU Medicine announced on Wednesday the creation of a heart transplant program through the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute that is set to begin in 2019. With Gov. Jim Justice and WVU President E. Gordon Gee, WVU Medicine President and CEO Albert Wright announced the plans
for the program during a Morgantown press conference. “We have 22 West Virginians today that are on the heart transplant list,” Wright said. “This organization over the last few months, with the support of our board of directors and our medical staff at the Heart and Vascular Institute, we submitted a certificate of need with the healthcare authority of the state of West Virginia to
begin a heart transplant program in 2019.” According to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, this would be the first such place in the state of West Virginia. Justice praised WVU’s impact on the state as a whole and as a great home for productivity. “To see what is happening right now in West Virginia, nobody, nobody can say we’re not moving,”
Justice said. However, WVU believes the program’s creation would impact more than just West Virginians. “We are on a sacred mission, as the governor had outlined,” said Vinay Badhwar, executive chair of the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute. “We are really here to bring the most advanced cardiovascular care to every citizen of this proud state and beyond.”
WE’RE HIRING!