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BAD BUSH LASH

Tackle Campbell takes over on left side for Terps

W. has all the timeliness and insight (or lack thereof) of a bad SNL sketch

SPORTS | PAGE 12

DIVERSIONS | PAGE 8

THE DIAMONDBACK THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2008

Budget cuts get official approval Oakland Hall project receives $88M from Board of Public Works

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER

Duncan resigns from VP post Duncan will move to government consulting firm after 17 months in a top university role led the East Campus and M-Square development projects and oversaw the university’s fiscal and administrative departments.

Starting Nov. 10, he will act as cofounder and senior vice president for research and business development of CivicUS, an advisory firm on executive-level management within state, county and municipal government, Duncan said.

“State and local governments find themselves having to do even more than in the past, but with lower tax revenue and lower Federal funding,”

BY JEANETTE DER BEDROSIAN AND KEVIN ROBILLARD Senior staff writers

Vice President for Administrative Affairs Doug Duncan is leaving the university to take a new position as a senior vice president for a government consulting firm, he said yesterday in a statement.

Duncan, a former Montgomery County executive and Rockville mayor, will step down from his position at the university Nov. 7, ending a 17-month tenure during which he

DOUG DUNCAN VP for Administrative Affairs he wrote. “I am excited to be joining a company which provides advisory services to government leaders looking for timely analysis so they can be effective in today’s rapidly changing world.”

University President Dan Mote

Senior staff writer

Please See BOARD, Page 3

The Board of Public Works met yesterday to approve cuts to the state budget after analysts predicted revenue would be lower than expected. Here’s how the cuts breakdown: ■ Nearly $350 million cut from

state budget ■ About $35 million cut from

University System of Maryland ■ More cuts may be necessary

in December

Please See DUNCAN, Page 3

Some employees decry long hours, short breaks Senior long-snapper Andrew Schmitt (left and below) and redshirt freshman long-snapper Tim Downs (right) both attended Derry Area High School in Derry, Pa., a town of just 3,000 people. PHOTOS BY JACLYN BOROWSKI/THE DIAMONDBACK

Long-snapperville, USA Small Pennsylvania town exports Terps’ long-snappers out for a couple years.”

But something might be abrewin’ in the southwestern Pennsylvania borough.

Derry, and more specifically Derry Area High School, has given the Terrapin football team both its current and future long-snappers, Schmitt and redshirt freshman Tim Downs, respectively. One has only been perfect throughout his collegiate career, while the other graduated high school highly touted at a position that receives little acclaim.

Schmitt arrived on the campus in large part because of Jon Condo, who roomed with Schmitt’s

BY JEFF NEWMAN Staff writer

BUDGET CUT BREAKDOWN

said he learned about a month ago Duncan had been looking for other jobs, but he said the university tried to change his mind. But Ann Wylie, Mote’s chief of staff, said she was surprised by the news.

“We didn’t have much warning,” Wylie said.

With the removal of such a key player in the East Campus development, Wylie said she hopes losing Duncan will not set back the project’s timeline.

Bus driver shortage puts DOTS in a pinch

BY KEVIN ROBILLARD The state finalized almost $350 million in mid-year budget cuts yesterday, including about $15 million in cuts to the University System of Maryland.

The cuts, caused by declining revenue from sales and income taxes, had been expected for weeks but were only made final yesterday when the state Board of Public Works — which consists of Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), Comptroller Peter Franchot (D) and Treasurer Nancy Kopp (D) — voted to approve them.

The board also voted to approve construction of Oakland Hall, a North Campus dorm board members had delayed voting on during its last meeting.

The roughly $15 million in cuts to the university system is equal to 1.5 percent of its general budget, and about $4 million will come out of this university’s budget. The university system will also see about $20 million cut from one-time funds for special projects, and about $8 million will be cut from this campus’s projects.

During the meeting, Franchot and O’Malley sparred for the umpteenth time over the legalization of slots in

99TH YEAR | ISSUE NO. 33

Derry, Pa., is a square-mile town of roughly 3,000 people where the annual Railroad Days Festival, meant to remind its citizens of the town’s once-thriving railroad economy, marks the apex of local celebration.

For Derry youngsters seeking a change of scenery, they might want to give long-snapping a go.

“Something about Derry is that you kind of want to get out of it for a few years,” Terrapin starting long-snapper Andrew Schmitt said. “It’s a place where you can raise a family, but being an 18-to22-year-old kid, you want to get

Please See SNAPPERS, Page 10

BY TIRZA AUSTIN Staff writer

Overworked university bus drivers say a shortage of student workers is straining DOTS. The Department of Transportation Services had 300 three-hour shifts each week not covered at the beginning of the semester, forcing other drivers — and maintenance and human resources staff — to take on extra driving.

DOTS Director David Allen said students do not see the effect of the shortage because buses will continue to run on schedule. But bus drivers are feeling the pinch.

“There are drastically low numbers [of bus drivers] in relation to the number of routes,” said one full-time bus driver, speaking on condition of anonymity because DOTS does not permit most employees to talk to the media.

The driver said the shortage is “putting drivers in dangerous situations.”

DOTS officials said it is Maryland state law to make sure drivers get breaks after three hours. The driver said everyone drives more than three hours in a shift — usually four to four and a half. He added drivers regularly lost 15 to 20 minutes of their lunch breaks because DOTS is constantly trying to fill holes in the driving

Please See DOTS, Page 7

Scrounging for spirits Economic downturn forces some students to cut leisure expenses

BY CHRIS YU Staff writer

Last week, after spending $30 to attend a Shwayze concert, Feliks Goldin starved himself the next day to compensate for the expensive purchase.

“I feel guilty if I don’t save money,” the sophomore letters and sciences major said.

Goldin is just one of many people who are cutting back because of the financial crisis

TOMORROW’S WEATHER:

plaguing the country. Rather than going out and partying, students say they are now more careful with their finances.

“The money that would have gone to drinks is [now] going to bread,” senior government and politics major Robert Hardin said. “You start realizing how much you should be spending.”

Hardin is not the only

Please See ECONOMY, Page 2

Sunny/60s

Students pinpoint campus’s unsafe locations

BY MICHAEL LEMAIRE Staff writer

The SGA asked students yesterday to pinpoint areas on the campus where they feel unsafe during “Bringing Safety Back,” an event held each year before the Safety Walk.

Members of the Campus Affairs Committee stood outside the Stamp Student Union with a large map of the campus and thumbtacks. Passersby were asked to identify dark or eerie campus locations and University Police officers were on hand to hear their reasons why.

Capt. John Brandt, a University Police spokesman, said the program gives officers an

INDEX

opportunity to hear directly from students what areas they find troubling and why.

“That’s one of the reasons I am out here,” Brandt said.

“When someone puts a pin in that map, I tend to ask them, ‘Why? What is it about that area that makes you feel unsafe?’ Then the goal is to go there, assess the problems and fix it.”

The most commonly identified areas on the campus will be the focus of next Tuesday’s Safety Walk, an annual event where student leaders, safety officials and administrators traverse the campus to discuss possible safety improvements.

Last year, many students

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Please See SAFETY, Page 7 CLASSIFIED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Students use thumbtacks and a university map to identify unsafe areas on the campus. JACLYN BOROWSKI/THE DIAMONDBACK

DIVERSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . .8 SPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

www.diamondbackonline.com

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THE DIAMONDBACK | NEWS | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2008

WE WANT YOU Story ideas? News tips?

E-mail them to The Diamondback at newsdesk.dbk@gmail.com.

MONDAY | NEWSMAKERS

BEST of the BLOGS

Football Luncheon Roundup Jeff Newman

Ralph Friedgen and the players present at [Tuesday’s] luncheon all designated this weekend’s matchup against No. 21 Wake Forest as their most important of the season. The players stated the most important game is always the next one, and Friedgen continued on to point out what a victory could do for their conference record and what implications it could have later in the season should the Terps and Demon Deacons end up with identical records.

Friedgen spoke at length about Wake Forest’s experience, particularly on defense, which is led by linebacker Aaron Curry and cornerback Alphonso Smith, — POSTED ON WWW.TERRAPINTRAIL.COM OCT. 14, 2008

BRIEFS

TODAY

@M

CLOTHESLINE PROJECT T-SHIRT MAKING

ARYLAND

TUESDAY | OVERHEARD

The Sexual Assault Response & Prevention Program is hosting two days of Clothesline Project T-shirt making, 10 a.m., Stamp Student Union Art & Learning Center

WEDNESDAY | Q + A

student buying less alcohol.

Goldin said he spent $40 at a bar in one night. But now, he chooses the cheaper nightly specials. Goldin has also made his visits to Chipotle much less frequent, opting to eat at the campus diners instead.

This trend does not surprise Douglas Gomery, a resident scholar at the University of Maryland Library of American Broadcasting.

He predicted that as the troubled economy continues, more people will stay home and watch television instead of going out as it is a cheaper source of entertainment. The average household watches TV for eight hours a day, a figure that is likely to rise, Gomery said.

“Despite all the changes that has happened in the society in the last 50 years, TV

viewership has gone up,” Gomery said. “People are attached to television.”

Gomery referred to the stock market crash of 1987 as a time when TV viewing increased. He believes this time around, history could repeat itself.

Sophomore journalism major Stephanie Goldberg used to spend her weekends going out with friends; now she is only able to go once a week. Goldberg said she is seeking cheaper alternatives to pass her time, such as watching movies at other people’s apartments and attending free sorority events.

She said by going out less, she is probably saving $50 to $100 a week.

Hardin said the struggling economy has also impacted his social life. Rather than going out three or four days a week, he is now only able to party about twice a

month.

Besides cutting back on the late-night scene, students are finding other ways to save money. Hardin has moved back to his parents’ house, after living in a Commons apartment for the past two years. This will save him about $700 a month, he said.

Hardin has even stopped paying for a gym membership and instead uses free campus facilities.

Some students, however, are unfazed by the financial crisis. Tamima Ahmed, a graduate student studying education policy, said she does not have to cut back because she has always been a careful spender. She is, however, concerned about her future career.

“I’m worried about people losing their jobs,” she said.

“And me trying to get one.” chrisyudbk@gmail.com

CELEBRATING SUKKOT

Officer fires at driver of SUV ramming cruiser TEMPLE HILLS – Prince George’s County police say an officer fired at a man who repeatedly rammed his sports utility vehicle into her cruiser.

The man was not hit.

It happened around 4:40 p.m.

Wednesday on South Anvil Lane in Temple Hills.

Cpl. Clinton Copeland says the officer was sitting in her cruiser when the SUV started ramming the car. He says the SUV pushed the cruiser into a barrier and continued to ram it.

That’s when Copeland says the officer, fearing for her safety, fired her weapon. The driver was not hit, but he was apprehended.

— Compiled from wire reports

Anaya McMurray speaks about the connection between music and spirituality, 7 p.m., ArtSociology 2309

THURSDAY | BEST of the BLOGS

Partying no longer a priority ECONOMY, from Page 1

BLACK WOMEN'S MUSIC IN THE HIP-HOP GENERATION

Sophomore letters and sciences major David Richman shakes a gathering of myrtle leaves, willow leaves, a date palm branch and a citrus fruit to celebrate the Jewish holiday Sukkot. Yisroel Cohen (right), a rabbi in training, brought the items to students outside the South Campus Dining Hall to help them celebrate. JAMES B. HALE /THE DIAMONDBACK

FRIDAY | SCENE + HEARD

Athletics clarifies fee hike rationale Associate Director says increase needed to cover rising mandatory costs

BY ERICH WAGNER Staff writer

After the GSG on Friday opposed a $5 student fee increase requested by the Athletics Department, Associate Athletic Director for Business Randy Eaton realized how badly his recent presentation went.

The Graduate Student Government passed a resolution Friday opposing the fee increase based on the justification members said Eaton provided at the last Committee for the Review of Student Fees meeting: free student seats for men’s basketball games would be worth $11.5 million if sold to non-student ticket buyers.

But Eaton said the $5 increase is to account for a state-mandated 2-percent increase in cost of living as well as an increase in utility costs, not $11.5 million in revenue lost.

The Athletics Department’s proposal also included two decreases because of an overestimation of the cost of employee health insurance and higher-than-expected 2009 student enrollment that will lead to more student fee revenue.

Eaton said he did a poor job of presenting the proposal to the Committee for the Review of Student Fees.

“The $11.5 million that students are getting through tickets was just something in the proposal as a point of reference,” Eaton said. “We weren’t asking for money in return for the seats.”

GSG president Anupama Kothari said the increase itself was not the primary issue, but rather the way it was presented.

“He should have rephrased it,” Kothari said. “But he kept clinging to the $11.5 million stat.”

Kothari said Athletics Department representatives acted arrogantly during their presentation.

“Many departments come in requesting student fee increases,” Kothari said. “But the Athletics Department comes in thinking they can get whatever they want, and that’s not fair.”

Eaton said he would be more careful mentioning such a statistic in the future.

“Next time there won’t be any mention of the value of the seats, either in the presentation or the proposal,” Eaton said.

Kothari said the GSG would continue to pursue its resolution opposing the fee increase.

GSG Director of Operations Roberto Münster said he still stands behind the resolution because the purpose of the Committee for the Review of Student Fees is for departments to make their best arguments for fees.

“You make a decision based on the information presented to you, and they presented the information poorly,” Münster said. “With the reasoning and information provided at the committee meeting, there’s no reason to approve the fee increase.” ewagnerdbk@gmail.com

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2008 | NEWS | THE DIAMONDBACK

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Board agrees to dorm funding plan BOARD, from Page 1 the state, which O’Malley supports and Franchot opposes. At one point, Franchot was pressing T. Eloise Foster, O’Malley’s budget and management department secretary, over the revenue the state would bring in from slots when O’Malley interjected.

“I think we can all agree we’ll be better off with slots revenue than without it,” O’Malley said.

“Want to take a vote on that?”

Franchot replied.

Franchot was referencing a study recently released by a group at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County that suggested slots would bring in less revenue than the $660 million state budget analysts have predicted. Franchot said the study indicated the state would receive about $300 million a year in revenue, but that increased social problems like crime would cost the state about $300 million, making it a fiscal wash for the state.

Franchot also pointed out that any revenue from slots won’t help the state deal with its current fiscal problems because money won’t start arriving for at least three years.

“Please do not think for a moment they will allow us to avoid

the hard choices that lie ahead,” Franchot said.

The state’s financial situation is largely the result of a structural deficit created in 2002, when the ambitious Thornton Education Plan was enacted by the General Assembly without accompanying funding. During a special session last fall, the state made $1.8 billion in cuts and raised numerous taxes in order to decrease the deficit, but the recent global financial collapse has led the state into a cyclical downturn.

On Tuesday, the Department of Legislative Services — a nonpartisan policy analysis agency — projected the state would have a $1.3 billion deficit next year.

Warren Deschenaux, the state’s chief fiscal analyst, said the state’s tuition freeze “needed to be examined in light of the new fiscal reality.”

Student Government Association President Jonathan Sachs said he believed the tuition freeze could continue, but he added it was more important to develop a “sustainable, predictable, affordable model for funding higher education.”

The Bohanan Commission, which is charged with developing just that, is scheduled to deliver its final report in December.

“There was a lot of pain all around,” O’Malley told reporters after the meeting. He pointed out that 80 percent of the state’s budget goes to education, public safety and health care, making it hard to cut without hitting those areas. He also said Maryland was doing much better fiscally than other states like New York and California.

The Board didn’t approve Oakland Hall at its last meeting two weeks ago because Franchot wanted to know why the dorm wasn’t going to be funded through a private-public partnership like South Campus Commons and University Courtyards.

The university said a privatepublic partnership would be impractical for the 650-bed dorm because the residents — primarily freshmen — would have to pay different rents and sign different leases under a private developer than if the Department of Resident Life controlled the dorm.

“In the quad we want to build in, the dormitory model is what is needed,” Joe Vivona, the university system’s chief operating officer, told the board. He also said no state funds would be involved in building Oakland Hall — the money will come from student fees and room and board.

“We had a very good case for more housing, and we had campus support for it, and we had student support for it,” said Deborah Grandner, the director of Resident Life.

Two SGA members — Governmental Affairs Committee Member Elliot Morris and Ellicott Community Legislator Dmitriy Portnyagin — went to the meeting to support the project.

Sachs said he couldn’t go to the meeting but instead wrote a letter to Franchot expressing the need for on-campus beds at the university.

“There is already a great deal of uncertainty about living in College Park for students at our University. Some students are unable to find affordable housing offcampus or are apprehensive about the dangerous nature of College Park,” he wrote.

In the letter, Sachs included a photo he took while campaigning of a white board containing a joke about a student who will have to live on McKeldin Mall.

“I think between the letter and our presence there, it was definitely helpful,” Sachs said.

Staff writer Derby Cox contributed to this report. robillarddbk@gmail.com

Replacing Duncan could take until next summer DUNCAN, from Page 1 “There’s a lot of people working on [East Campus]. Him leaving is a big loss to the project, but we’re going to do everything in our power not to let us get off course,” she said.

This same optimism holds true for Wylie’s outlook on the rest of the university’s day-today operations. Dedicated staff and strong departments should be able to continue their initiatives despite Duncan’s resignation, she said. Duncan was responsible for managing the university’s human resources, facilities management, procurement and public safety departments.

“There are a lot of adjustments we have to make,” Mote said, but he added Duncan’s resignation shouldn’t negatively impact the timelines for any major projects.

Frank Brewer, associate vice president for Facilities Management, worked closely with Duncan on the East Campus development project. Both Brewer and University Police spokesman Paul Dillon said Duncan’s strong interpersonal skills will be missed when he leaves in November.

“He was a great collaborator,” Dillon said. “He was great at bringing different people together. He’s going to be tough to replace, honestly.”

Brewer and Dillon both expressed confidence in Duncan’s replacement but said he leaves tough shoes to fill.

“He’s going to be difficult to replace,” Wylie said.

Both Mote and Brewer cited Duncan’s ability to work with nearby governments such as the College Park City Council and Prince George’s county as key to his success.

Replacing Duncan could take until next summer, Wylie said.

Mote said an interim replacement and a search committee will be named next week. For such a high-ranking position, the university is required to undergo a national search and place advertisements in various publications.

Wylie expects the application process to end in early January, and interviews will continue throughout the spring semester.

“We’ll move as fast as we can, just as fast as we possibly can,” she said.

Brewer served as interim vice president for administrative affairs before Duncan was given the permanent job.

Duncan came to the university as a replacement for John Porcari, who resigned to become secretary of transportation for Gov. Martin O’Malley (D)’s administration. Before that, Duncan was the Montgomery County executive,

“Him leaving is a big loss to [the East Campus project], but we’re going to do everything in our power not to let us get off course.”

Ann Wylie University President’s Chief of Staff

where he was responsible for the redevelopment of Downtown Silver Spring and worked closely with Foulger-Pratt Argo, the same developer working on East Campus.

Duncan also ran against O’Malley in the 2006 Democratic gubernatorial primary, but he dropped out before the election, citing clinical depression. During the race, he was a fierce critic of slots in Maryland, an issue O’Malley now champions.

Much of Duncan’s staff went to work for Comptroller Peter Franchot (D) — a leading figure in the anti-slots movement — and his campaign manager, Scott Arcenaux, is a strategist for one of the main anti-slots groups, Marylanders United to Stop Slots.

Last month, Duncan was involved in a dispute with P.J.

Hogan (D), a former Montgomery County legislator who is now a lobbyist for the University System of Maryland. Duncan told The Washington Times Hogan delivered a message from O’Malley’s office threatening Duncan’s job and funding for university construction projects if Duncan appeared at a forum on the presidential election with former Gov. Robert Ehrlich (R) or if he criticized current Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett for supporting the legalization of slot machines. Hogan said he was merely offering Duncan friendly advice about how to make the transition from being an elected official to a state employee.

The next day, Duncan apologized for the “misunderstanding and resulting confusion,” according to a press release put out by the university and the university system.

Mote said he didn’t think the event had anything to do with Duncan’s resignation, though he admitted there was a chance it did.

Mote said he also wasn’t sure if Duncan was struggling against the boundaries of his apolitical position.

“It is true as a senior university official, you have no politics or religion,” Mote said. robillarddbk@gmail.com

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Thursday 10:45pm-12:30 am $3.00 admission

New alcoholic energy drink’s release delayed

BY BOBBY MCMAHON For The Diamondback

Due to pressure from Maryland’s attorney general and others across the country, MillerCoors recently postponed the release of its controversial alcoholic energy drink, Sparks Red. But students are not convinced the drink poses any new hazards to their health.

In a letter dated Sept. 18, Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler, along with attorneys general from 24 states, asked MillerCoors to “refrain from introducing Sparks Red to the marketplace” because it “mocks your company’s oft-stated goal of promoting safe and responsible enjoyment of its products.”

Gansler “has publicly voiced concerns about the marketing and promotion of ready-todrink alcoholic energy drinks for more than a year,” special assistant to the attorney general Marlene Trestman wrote in an e-mail.

“MillerCoors’ announcement that it would introduce yet another alcoholic energy drink to the market — with the highest alcohol content for Sparks yet — compelled the AG to take action by asking MillerCoors to reconsider.”

The worries from the attorneys general stem from Sparks Red’s high alcohol content and mix of stimulants — caffeine, guarana and taurine — and a sedative: alcohol.

The drink, originally slated to be released Oct. 1, contains 8 percent alcohol by volume, which is higher than the current versions of the beverage, including Sparks (6 percent ABV) and Sparks Plus (7 percent ABV).

In a statement released midSeptember, MillerCoors announced it was placing the release of Sparks Red on hold “pending a dialogue with state attorneys general,” but officials from both sides said no date has been set for a meeting. The statement claimed the drink’s ingredients had been approved by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau and stated

MillerCoors was “dedicated to ensuring all of our brands are marketed responsibly to legal drinking age adults.”

Some students, though, are skeptical of the action by the attorneys general and are unconcerned with the higher alcohol content of Sparks Red. Elena Komarova, a senior math major, doesn’t think raising the alcohol content to 8 percent will make a significant difference. She said she enjoys the Smarties-like flavor of the current version of Sparks and thinks it is a good drink for pre-gaming.

“It’s good when you’re tired and you want to drink,” Komarova said. “That stuff will never really get you drunk. You can only have one.”

But Kerry Green, an assistant professor in the School of Public Health, said public health professionals do not fully understand the true dangers of these drinks.

“The interaction [between sedatives and stimulants] is potentially dangerous, as research has shown an association between these types of drinks and risky behavior,” Green said. “The health consequences of combining multiple chemicals into a simple drink has yet to be studied indepth, which raises a lot of red flags.”

While aware of these concerns, students mentioned drinks already on the market they felt were more hazardous than Sparks Red. “You can always mix vodka and Red Bull, which is probably worse for you,” senior journalism major Andrew Smith said.

While the cocktail of Red Bull and vodka is considered “very popular” by employees at area bars, very few of the bars carry Sparks, which is sold in 16ounce cans. As for area liquor stores, few employees considered the current Sparks a very popular beverage.

“It’s somewhat popular,” said Joanna Lee, an employee of College Park Liquors. “We don’t sell a lot — probably less than a case a week.” newsdesk.dbk@gmail.com

SGA debates merits of anti-Juicy Campus bill

BY MICHAEL LEMAIRE Staff writer

When SGA Greek Community Legislator Gabi Band initially proposed a bill condemning gossip website Juicy Campus, he thought the bill would pass without contentious debate.

But last night the bill that passed through the second round of deliberations was markedly different from the one Band initially introduced.

“I didn’t think the bill was going to be as contentious, I thought it would be a faux pas to say anything in favor of the website considering the website has caused so many problems throughout the country,” Band said.

Juicy Campus trumpets its goals and privacy policy on its home page saying, “This is the place to spill the juice about all the crazy stuff going on at your campus. It’s totally anonymous — no registration, login, or email verification required.”

As the website has spread virally, it has become a hotbutton issue on the campus and in the SGA. Other student groups and the Greek community have rallied to have the bill banned, and the majority of the SGA wishes to add its voice to the growing chorus of detractors. But other members, while agreeing the website has been used negatively, believe the website can serve a positive purpose.

The title of the bill when introduced read “A Resolution Condemning the Website Juicycampus.com.” But after being vetted by the Campus Affairs Committee last week, the phrase “Negative Use of ” was put in front of “the Website.”

In addition to the name change, two clauses Band said were integral to the bill’s meaning were cut. One read, “WHEREAS other organizations are already exploring legal action that can be taken against the website,” and another read “WHEREAS such a detrimental website should be barred from having a Uni-

versity of Maryland account, if not completely terminated.”

SGA Senior Vice President and Chair of the Campus Affairs Committee Joanna Calabrese said the committee’s amendments were made under the assumption that the bill violated the First Amendment, which she recently learned is not the case.

“We were uninformed,” Calabrese explained. “We were working under the assumption that the First Amendment argument would kill the bill.

We all hate the website; we were just concerned that if we didn’t change the wording that people would assume we were taking legal action.”

Since amending the bill, Calabrese has spoken to the Office of Legal Aid and conducted research online. She now plans to make arguments to the legislature to restore the initial wording.

“If we inform the legislature of what is going on with the website nationally, there shouldn’t be any debate,” Calabrese said. “Now, we are discussing reverting the bill back to its original form with a few amendments.”

Aside from the First Amendment argument, Campus Affairs Committee member and Outlying Commuter Legislator Steve Glickman said it is not the SGA’s place to pressure non-student groups.

“We are not a police system; we are supposed to be looking out for what the student body thinks. Although the majority of the student body probably doesn’t like the website, we also have to look out for the people who do,” Glickman explained. “We need to be able to find a balance.”

The legislature plans to vote on the bill next week.

Band has promised to fight to have some of the language changed back to its original form.

“We plan on making some changes. We want to make the bill a little more loaded,” Band said. lemairedbk@gmail.com

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THE DIAMONDBACK | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2008

Opinion

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Digging for a new Doug

Organic goodness

A

nnouncing his resignation yesterday, Vice President for Administrative tary in the administration of former Gov. Parris Glendening. And Duncan’s reAffairs Doug Duncan will leave some big shoes to fill. Although his 17- placement will have to wrangle with a slate of hotly contested local issues, not only month stint at the university was relatively short, Duncan was still a tow- including East Campus and the Purple Line, but also the future of Route 1 and a ering presence on the campus, placing himself at the center of the cam- controversial Campus Connector road proposal.

The questions about the merits of picking a local politician ultimately boil down pus-wide debate on the Purple Line while orchestrating negotiations for East to whether a candidates’ past will hurt more than it will help. The answer will obCampus, the university’s most ambitious development project in 50 years.

In many ways, the former Montgomery County executive and Rockville mayor viously depend on the person, but facing a state deficit of $1.3 billion, the university would also be wise to look into a business-oriented selection. brought an ideal resume to the position. He had the executive exIn 2003, the three finalists not selected to replace Porcari had perience necessary to head the university’s $1.3 billion budget. previously held top financial posts at other universities.

And he had local connections he banked on in working with East Whatever its considerations, we hope the administration Campus’ developer Foulger-Pratt Argo, who also remodeled It will be difficult to find moves quickly to find a suitable replacement for Duncan. Dundowntown Silver Spring when Duncan was county executive.

Still, Duncan never seemed to entirely shake his political past another Doug Duncan, but can’s departure could not have come at a worse time for the unias it begins to embark on a 10-year path toward the draas Mote’s number-three-in-charge, and his tenure does raise the university must move versity, matic changes the Strategic Plan outlines. Plus, as the universiquestions about whether Mote should look for a replacement with quickly to find his ty hits the halfway point in its $1 billion capital campaign, an such a political background. While Duncan supported an eastopening in a top administrative post can’t look attractive to west rail link between Silver Spring and Bethesda as county execreplacement. donors. utive, his lively personality seemed to boil over early on in the Duncan was selected to replace Porcari a little more than two months after PorPurple Line debates. Moreover, a spat last month with University System of Maryland lobbyist P.J. Hogan spilled into the mainstream press. Though Duncan charac- cari’s resignation, and we can see why they acted fast to choose him. But it’s unterized the feud as a misunderstanding later on in a press release, in an interview likely a candidate with the political and executive credentials Duncan and Porcari possessed will emerge again. It took the university two search committees and a yesterday Mote said the incident “may have influenced [Duncan’s] thinking.”

But the importance of political connections for the job of vice president for ad- year and a half to settle on Porcari, and in this case, university officials won’t have ministrative affairs cannot be overlooked. Transportation Secretary John Porcari, that kind of time luxury. They’ve set a summer 2009 target date for their choice. who preceded Duncan, came to the job with experience as transportation secre- We’ll be holding them to it.

Our View

Editorial Cartoon: Mike O’Brien

Tuition: Putting a price tag on the priceless

I

generally try not to read the responses to the online versions of my columns. All right, I’m full of crap — I check every 10 minutes to see if anyone’s reading it at all. Unsurprisingly, I get a lot of angry messages. One of them on my Oct. 2 column, “The university: Imagining what it should be,” struck me as particularly interesting. A commentator calling himself Jimmy Bones wrote, “My degrees from the University of Maryland lose unrecoverable value every time this moron’s work is read by anyone anywhere.”

I think Bones is giving me a little too much credit here. The idea that corporate hiring managers everywhere read my column and, as a result, refuse to employ university graduates assumes a readership and influence I’m not sure I have. But what’s really fascinating to me is the idea that anyone’s degree could “lose value.”

We hear a lot these days about the “value of a diploma.” The assumption is that if you go to a school with a high level

MALCOLM

HARRIS

of prestige, you’ll be more likely to get a high-paying job than if you graduate from a “lesser” school. Thus the difference between a Yale diploma and one from this university should be measurable in terms of dollars made.

This is an incredibly convenient distinction, because it doesn’t require that anyone learn anything. This attitude turns a college education into a simple economic commodity. We pay our tuition money and four years of our time (with a calculable opportunity cost) for a line on our resumé that should increase our earning potential to an amount that is more than we paid. That’s why college is

generally a good investment.

Still, in the wake of the country’s economic crisis, an Oct. 14 story in the Chicago Tribune questioned whether some students would benefit more from getting jobs than going to college.

This is a terribly sad view of higher education. We don’t go to a diploma factory.

How do you quantify a class or a professor that turns your worldview upside down? How about a late-night dorm conversation or a guest speaker? Hell, how do you measure fraternity parties and taking the drunk bus? You can’t.

Most of what we do during our days in college isn’t measurable in terms of dollars. If you don’t allow for the possibility that you might just learn something new in college, then there’s no point in showing up. You’d be just as happy paying all the tuition in a lump sum in exchange for a piece of paper.

Of course, there is some (sad) truth to the commodification perspective. Corporations do associate college names with quality graduates. But if the economists

are right, then these companies are missing out and won’t be as effective as firms that look a little deeper. Is someone who slept through their Ivy League classes a more valuable employee than a student who goes to a state school and stayed up all night debating class readings with his or her roommates? I don’t think so.

Reducing time spent in college to a dollar value that can be increased or decreased by a school columnist is an insult to everyone who spends his or her life trying to expose students to new concepts and ideas. I imagine these students looking into teachers’ eyes and seeing nothing but dollar signs, listening to lectures and hearing nothing but the “chaching” of a cash register.

At the end of the day, a university diploma is valuable not for what’s measurable in dollars but for what isn’t.

Malcolm Harris is a sophomore English and government and politics major. He can be reached at harrisdbk@gmail.com.

Religion: The good, the bad and the godly

M

y fifth-grade teacher fell off the grid this summer after it was found that she allegedly sent a horribly violent letter to another congregant at her synagogue, the same one I attended while growing up.

“You should be taken out in front of a firing squad and shot to pieces,” said the letter, according to a Sept. 17 story in Washington Jewish Week. “You should be thrown down from a stairway of steps, that your whole body should be so smashed that no one should even recognize you — that’s what I am cursing you.”

What did the congregant do? Was she screwing my teacher’s husband? Was she badmouthing her around town? No. My old teacher allegedly didn’t think this lady dressed modestly enough.

“My personal feeling, when I saw you [at synagogue], and how you were dressed, you have exhibited yourself as a

kosher prostitute, that you are really a punk and the scum of the earth,” reads the letter.

When I hear stories like this one, and there are many, it makes me crazy. It makes me glad that I’m not a part of religion anymore. And after seeing comedian Bill Maher’s new documentary Religulous earlier this week, I was sure the movie was going to only reinforce that feeling. I was planning on sitting down and canning mainstream religions.

Maher’s film mocked as many religious sects as he could find clergymen to sit down with him.

But as I thought about how I was going to argue, I couldn’t help but think of all the good that comes from religion, as well.

From fundraising for charities to community service projects, affiliations with a church, mosque or synagogue can do a lot more good than bad. According to

NATHAN

COHEN

Christian Charity World Vision, 300 American churches closed their doors to prayer last Sunday to go out and serve their respective communities instead.

Maher’s film largely shows the opposite, as charity stays on the backburner.

The movie illustrates how the country’s most popular religions often preach intolerance and hate — and I’ve seen it personally. While I was attending high school in Maryland, my parents lived in Mississippi. When I would occasionally visit, I would get a terrible feeling in my gut seeing the bumper sticker on their

neighbors’ car advertising www.godhatesfags.com.

I know some portray god as violent and constantly dictating punishment for people who don’t follow his word. But the Bible also preaches kindness. Churches, synagogues and mosques are constantly stepping in to fight poverty locally and globally. Why can’t these charitable ideals inspire as many people as religion’s hate messages? Where’s the documentary about that?

I can do without the Rapture, the 70 virgins, reincarnation, heaven, hell and the Second Coming. But I’m still glad that in anticipation of the Rapture and the afterlife, religious people do good in their communities and around the world to stay in god’s good graces.

Nathan Cohen is a junior economics and journalism major. He can be reached at cohendbk@gmail.com.

POLICY: The signed letters, columns and cartoon represent only the opinions of the authors. The staff editorial represents the opinion of The Diamondback’s editorial board and is the responsibility of the editor in chief.

NEHAMA ROGOZEN In response to Fenan Solomon’s Oct. 10 column, “Health: Organic yet insignificant,” I would like to correct some mistakes to set the record straight on the issue of organic food, so students won’t throw their soy milk (which can actually be organic or conventionally processed, just like cow’s milk) out the window, at least not without some prior research.

Solomon asks, “Is organic food really that much better for you?” She quotes statistics from two sources showing organically grown produce has the same nutritional value as that grown conventionally, but let’s stop and consider something. No matter how any vegetable is grown, the nutritional content will be the same. Organic food is not about potatoes that suddenly have fewer calories, or bananas that have double the potassium.

Organic food is about avoiding chemicals in forms such as fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics, food additives and even sewage sludge. In the short time the effects of these have been studied on humans, many scary things have been found. With research continuing in this area, I have no doubt there are many yet to be discovered effects, which will make those who currently ignore organic foods regret it later in life.

I don’t know where Solomon found the data that allowed her to claim that pesticides have been “scientifically proven to have insignificant health risks,” but a Google search will pull up many hits from reputable scientific sources proving otherwise.

More than 985 million pounds of pesticides are used in America to control insects in conventional agriculture. This is 3.2 pounds of chemicals for each American. 20 percent of these pesticides are carcinogenic, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Many of these chemicals have other adverse health effects, such as endocrine disrupters, which lead to early puberty in children.

Organic agriculture, on the other hand, allows insects to remain in the fields to break down soil and control weeds. With careful control, our produce can be grown without these harmful chemicals.

Solomon also brings in the issue of fish cultivation, yet confuses an important concept: Food, whether meat, fish, fruits or produce, can be produced organically, free range or in a way that is morally conscious and sustainable. Those categories can overlap, but they are all different things.

I agree with Solomon that “every industry is evil to a certain degree,” but that doesn’t mean we should completely ignore their issues. For example, consider the clothing you’re wearing right now.

It was most likely made in a sweatshop, in unsafe conditions, by workers who are paid unlivable wages. Does that mean we should go naked and refuse to ever wear clothing? Or, on the contrary, should we say there’s nothing we can do and head to the mall to buy five shirts we most likely don’t need? On both accounts, the answer is no, but we do have the option not to purchase these clothes if we don’t agree with the production ethics behind them.

It is possible to buy food that is organic, free-range and sustainable, or any combination of those that matter to you, but it requires some research. I’m the first to admit eating in a morally conscious way is expensive, especially for students, but we are lucky to have cheaper options such as the Maryland Food Co-Op in the Stamp Student Union basement or the College Park Farmers’ Market every Saturday, in the Herbert Wells Ice Rink parking lot.

Beg to differ? I’ll be at the Co-Op, eating a delicious sandwich, where the tomatoes have nothing on them but their skin and the lettuce won’t give me cancer later in life. I’ll see you there.

Nehama Rogozen is a junior government and politics major. She can be reached at nrogozen@umd.edu.

AIR YOUR VIEWS Address your letters or guest columns to the Opinion Desk at opinion.dbk@gmail.com. All letters and guest columns must be signed. Include your full name, year, major and day- and nighttime phone numbers. Please limit letters to 300 words. Please limit guest columns to 600 words.

Submission of a letter or guest column constitutes an exclusive, worldwide, transferable license to The Diamondback of the copyright in the material in any media. The Diamondback retains the right to edit submissions for content and length.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2008 | THE DIAMONDBACK

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Features HOROSCOPESTELLA WILDER

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orn today, you are likely to have received some kind of message when you were young that compelled you to move swiftly down a path that was, on the one hand, quite solitary at times and, on the other, quite satisfying in both professional and personal terms. Despite the sense of destiny that you have at all times, remember that unless you dedicate yourself to a life of hard work and tenacity, success is almost certain to remain at a distance, out of reach and out of your life. The combination of determination and destiny will serve you well.

B

You are never afraid of errors.

You are quick to learn from them, and you would prefer to learn from mistakes and move forward than wait endlessly for things to come your way. You are a proactive sort of individual, always willing to put into use the lessons you have learned.

Also born on this date are: Kellie Martin, actress; Angela Lansbury, actress; Suzanne Somers, actress, singer, entertainer; Tim Robbins, actor and director; Eugene O’Neill, playwright; Oscar Wilde, playwright and humorist; Noah Webster, dictionary editor.

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To see what is in store for you tomorrow, find your birthday and read the corresponding paragraph. Let your birthday star be your daily guide.

N E S T S

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17

SOM OME AN T P I E

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) — You’re not one to take things too seriously, and you’re not about to tolerate those who insist that you take on a sober demeanor.

S A I L

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) — Capricorn natives are most likely to express surprise or dissatisfaction as a result of

E T T A

S E E N

you’ll realize there’s more in store for you in the coming days and weeks than you had remembered.

your words or actions. Increase communication.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) — Take advantage of your personal standing. Certain privileges should be open to you and you alone.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) — The time has come for you to stop making excuses and begin making amends. Others are depending on you for more than you are currently providing.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) — You are intent on satisfying your own needs; don’t let your current selfishness become too aggressive or transparent.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) — You are likely to attract considerable attention. Strength and stamina are reaching a peak.

You can take on more responsibility.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) — Don’t begin intruding on others. You’ll know when it is appropriate to make that call or drop in for a visit.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) — You may be unusually defensive, even a little paranoid. Don’t fire up the opposition unintentionally at this time.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) — You’ll enjoy an opportunity to express yourself in ways you have only imagined in the past.

Numerous doors are opening up for you at this time.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) — Don’t let secondary or peripheral activities sap your strength or erode your enthusiasm for those bigger things you have in store.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) — You’re wanting everyone around you to give you all the answers — but you should be perfectly able to come up with several for yourself.

Copyright 2008 United Feature Syndicate, Inc.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) — Spend time out of doors, and

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2008 | NEWS | THE DIAMONDBACK

7

Allen: Driver shortage Satellites to predict cholera outbreaks equals job opportunities PATSY MORROW Staff writer

DOTS, from Page 1 schedule.

Allen did not directly address these allegations but instead acknowledged once again there was a major driver shortage.

Allen said DOTS prefers not to hire full-time drivers when possible to free up jobs for students.

He added that only seven years ago, the Shuttle-UM system was driven exclusively by 150 students. Today, the university employs about 70 students and 60 full-time bus drivers.

Allen said having open shifts provides work opportunities for students looking to start a job midsemester or for current employees to take on extra work.

“We want there to be student employment and student management opportunities,” Allen said.

Allen suggested the increasing academic rigor of the campus has discouraged students from the $10-an-hour job. He said as the economy gets worse, DOTS may try to find more financial incentives for students to join the bus force. Allen said one idea is to pay for drivers’ tuition in addition to an hourly wage, but he said the department would continue to discuss several options.

DOTS also said it is having trouble retaining drivers.

“We’re always going to have people graduating or on study abroad,” DOTS Staffing Manager Michelle Cardoso said. “People don’t stay here for more than four years.”

She said despite low retention,

she hadn’t gotten any complaints about abbreviated breaks or drivers’ unfairly long hours, though she added student drivers would likely complain to their student managers first if there were any problems.

When bus drivers commit to paid training with DOTS, they sign a two-semester commitment acknowledging they’ll have $2,000 charged to their student account if they get fired or quit before the contract expires, Allen said.

DOTS requires students to work 12 hours a week and caps students at 20 hours a week, according to Allen and Cardoso.

However, the anonymous fulltime driver said he was working at least 25 hours a week while he was an undergraduate student at the university.

“We try not to put any unnecessary pressure on students’ lives,” Cardoso said.

But some full-time drivers feeling the strain are advocating a change in the Shuttle-UM system.

“They don’t deal with the problem and reduce services because the administration said they were going to increase the routes,” said the bus driver.

The driver advocated reducing the routes to lessen the strain on the drivers and the department.

“There are routes that don’t get enough ridership to justify their existence,” he said. “There is a pressure from upper management to make ends meet without the proper resources.” taustindbk@gmail.com

Stay connected Visit us online www.diamondbackonline.com

Rita Colwell has saved hundreds, possibly even thousands, of lives using cotton saris and satellites.

Colwell, a distinguished university professor, has conducted research on cholera for 30 years and has recently been working on using satellite data to create a model to predict cholera outbreaks four to six weeks before they happen.

“It allows the opportunity to do preemptive medicine,” Colwell said. “If you are able to predict very precisely, people listen.”

Cholera, an infection that can kill a person from severe dehydration within 48 hours, is a prevalent public health problem in developing countries. The infection is caused

by Vibrio cholerae, a naturally occurring marine organism. When people drink contaminated water from rivers and streams, they ingest the organism.

In developed countries such as the United States, water is filtered and chlorinated, killing any V. cholerae in drinking water. Though developing countries usually do not have the means to build a complex filtration system, it turns out they do not need one — they can use simple saris.

“It is so simple; it doesn’t cost a penny,” said Anwar Huq, a resident associate professor and one of Colwell’s colleagues. “The cheapest kind work best.”

A sari, a staple clothing item in Bangladesh, where Colwell’s research took place, can be folded to make a crude filtration system. V. cholerae attach themselves to copepods, small crustaceans found in nearly every aquatic habitat. Even though the saris are just cotton cloth, they create a small mesh when folded. When the water is poured through a sari, the copepods — and subsequently the V. cholerae — are filtered out of the

water. Through this simple measure, cholera cases were reduced by 50 percent, Colwell said.

However, Colwell said she thinks cholera could be further reduced by an early warning system.

Colwell and her team use satellites to collect data on the temperature, salinity and amount of chlorophyll — a value highly linked to the level of algae — in bodies of water. If there is a lot of algae, the zooplankton population will spike, because zooplankton feed on algae.

When the zooplankton population increases, so does the V. cholerae population.

Colwell and other scientists are working to develop a model to effectively use the satellite images to predict when and where cholera outbreaks will strike.

“If we develop a model, we should be able to predict cholera all over the world,” Huq said.

Cholera organisms are seasonal and rely on the per-

fect blend of temperature, salinity and nutrition. Huq said the ideal temperature for cholera is around 77 degrees Fahrenheit. With global warming, more waters around the world are becoming warmer and more conducive to cholera outbreaks.

The cholera organism is found in “virtually every estuary in the world,” including the Chesapeake Bay, Colwell said, but usually does not multiply and reach numbers high enough to infect humans. If the climate changes, however, cholera outbreaks could happen in countries — including the United States — that have not seen a cholera outbreak in the past 100 years.

“During peak summer season in Ocean City, Md., if there is a report of a cholera outbreak, this is enough to create a huge impact on beachgoers,” Huq said. “If we can predict, at least we can be careful.” morrowdbk@gmail.com

Students still fear areas that were addressed last year SAFETY, from Page 1 expressed concerns about lighting behind Fraternity Row, the Leonardtown apartments and the bridge behind the Eppley Recreation Center and Comcast Center. Those sites were also targeted yesterday, especially Leonardtown and the area behind Fraternity Row which were the most popular sites chosen by students.

Brandt said not all the problems identified at the event can be fixed quickly.

The university also implements longer-term projects aimed at improving safety, he said.

He said improvements to the campus safety are made each year, using lighting improvements made to the bridge between the ERC and

Comcast as an example. He said trees were cut back and another light was installed after last year’s Safety Walk.

“If you look at a picture of that bridge from last year, you can see that trees had grown tightly all around the bridge and that all the lights shone in one direction,” Brandt said.

“If you go and look now, you can see the marks where the trees have been cut down and they put one extra light facing the other direction. All of this was a product of this program.

“So now, when you look at that map, there is one pin.

Last year there were 20 pins there, so that is a quick success story.”

Though officials weren’t sure when the event began, Brandt said holding it every year allows police to look at a number of campus locations

from different perspectives.

“I have been a police officer here for 29 years, but I may not notice that one light that has burned out that you walk by everyday,” Brandt explained. “So if you get fresh people to ask new questions, then we can make the campus a little bit safer each time.”

Student Government Association Senior Vice President Joanna Calabrese, who planned this year’s event, echoed many of Brandt’s sentiments.

“My goal for Safety Walk and Bringing Safety Back was to avoid repeating the same locations and concepts, because that way we can build on what we did in previous years,” she explained.

But both Brandt and Calabrese said it can be difficult to differentiate areas where

students feel physically unsafe and areas that are perceived to be unsafe. Trying to address a middle ground between the two makes the Safety Walk more difficult, Calabrese said.

“It’s a balancing act,” she said. “A lot of students naturally feel unsafe in areas that might be dark or feel claustrophobic. We tried to plan the walk keeping in mind those perceptions, and also areas with high crime rates.”

Brandt said police work to address safety concerns, perceived or otherwise.

“There may not even be any crime in that area, but if students perceive the area to be unsafe, it is my job to try and see what we can do to correct that,” Brandt added. lemairedbk@gmail.com

8

THE DIAMONDBACK | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2008

Diversions

TRAILER WATCH: What strange, psychedelic mess hath the Flaming Lips wrought? After about seven years in development, three years after shooting wrapped, the band’s passion project, Christmas on Mars, is set to hit DVD shelves on Nov. 11 with some limited theatrical screenings leading up to the release. The official trailer alludes to sci-fi, Ed Wood-inspired madness with a heavy dose of ... kitsch. Viewers beware: Repeated viewings may lead to some serious contact high.

Wayne Coyne in Christmas on Mars

arts. music. living. movies. weekend.

REVIEW | W.

SKIMMING HISTORY, DERAILING THE CHIEF Oliver Stone's George W. Bush biopic, W., proves neither insightful nor inciting

BY ZACHARY HERRMANN Senior staff writer

It’s only fitting the American public should get a simple-minded biopic to match its intellectually handicapped commander in chief.

From its inception, Oliver Stone’s President Bush film, W. (apparently Bushwhacked was already taken), seemed like a losing proposition. With no time left for introspection and even less reserved for editing, the dilapidated look at the president’s rise to power and decision to invade Iraq comes out as a second-rate re-creation more than anything else.

This is not so much Stone’s seething shot at the titular character in Nixon as just a limp trod through all the familiar mile markers we’ve read about. Stanley Weiser’s (Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story) script has all the telltale signs of topical television drama, pumped out to ensure relevance above all else.

At the heart of Weiser’s Bush tale is a lifelong struggle between father and son, apparently the most prominent reason the current president chose to finish Poppy’s (Bush Two’s name for Bush One) business in Baghdad.

While the factual validity is suspect (elsewhere in the film, too), the Freudian battle yields a few of W.’s finer moments.

Skirting any inclination toward

Dana Carvey’s spot-on Papa Bush, James Cromwell (Tortured) delivers the film’s best performance.

His detached feelings toward George, in preference for the relatively adept brother Jeb, provide the great tension necessary for the whole story (in other words, history as posited by Weiser) to unfold as it did.

Rather than rip Bush (Josh Brolin, American Gangster) a new one, Stone tries to paint a psychologically compelling reason for the president’s misdeeds. Tackling the incredibly thankless job of playing the lead, Brolin teeters between caricature and a fairly earnest portrayal. If he falls just short of selling the president as a tormented soul, the blame falls harder on the shortcomings of the script.

Close your eyes — or at least squint them a tad — and the resemblance to the real Bush is uncanny. But W. loses credibility instantly for surrounding Brolin with a cabinet of failing mimics.

They’re all there: Condoleezza Rice (a simply terrible Thandie Newton, RocknRolla), Dick Cheney (Richard Dreyfuss, Signs of the Time), Colin Powell (Jeffrey Wright, Blackout), Donald Rumsfeld (Scott Glenn, The Bourne Ultimatum), Karl Rove (Toby Jones, City of Ember) and the many others.

Outside of the White House cast, Elizabeth Banks (Lovely, Still)

shines through her costars as Laura Bush. All too quickly, though, she recedes into the shadow of her husband’s ascension through politics, leaving some pretty compelling marital territory largely unexplored.

While we go through Bush’s greatest hits on his path to redemption — from frat-boy alcoholic to governor — Stone takes us back to the sadly inauthentic White House cabinet sessions held from 2002 through the 2003 invasion. In Bush’s past we discover very little aside from his laundry list of pre-executive f----ups, all fairly well documented in nonHollywood channels.

Emboldened by the benefit of hindsight, Stone and Weiser effectively undo most of the pathos they build up for the president with cheap asides and forced Bushisms, none half as clever as anything this side of The Daily Show, or even Saturday Night Live, for that matter. The utter ridiculousness of the Bush administration circus ultimately loses focus as it lulls into boredom by the second half of the film.

It’s not so much of a stretch to see Rumsfeld reduced to a senile coot, Cheney elevated to supervillain proportions or Bush as a man seriously bummed when his re-

MOVIE: W. | VERDICT:

sponsibilities become too grave.

And maybe that’s where W. goes wrong. The script plays out roughly as one would expect it to, spiced up here and there with some speculative dream sequences involving baseball stadiums, shattered hopes and an imposing father.

In lieu of giving his audience something they couldn’t already anticipate, Stone opts for an inconsistent, off-kilter visual approach.

Cinematographer Phedon Papmichael (3:10 to Yuma) shifts his focus in and out with an avantgarde touch, often isolating characters (especially Bush) with extreme wide-angle lenses.

Stone and Papmichael have a few worthy tricks up their sleeves.

The seamless integration of Brolin into the 2003 State of the Union speech and the notorious “Mission Accomplished” declaration is pretty remarkable. But the gimmick is nothing new (see Woody Allen’s Zelig) nor a worthy enough cause to carry an entire Bush biopic.

Contrary to the pre-release buzz, Stone has failed to deliver anything too radical or controversial. There’s no question about where the director’s allegiances go, but cinematically, he’s copped out by playing to the middle. zherrm@gmail.com

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2008 | DIVERSIONS | THE DIAMONDBACK

online exclusives HAPPY-GO-LUCKY “At times, the film does feel overly frivolous and a bit disjointed.

But [Sally] Hawkins’ delightful performance does just enough to carry the movie while you adjust to its fluid structure and unusually hopeful tone.

Colorfully set, eccentrically costumed and cheerfully scored, HappyGo-Lucky is, as [Mike Leigh] puts it, his “anti-miserablist film.””

— Thomas Floyd RATING: 3.5 out of 5 stars

9

REVIEW | WHAT JUST HAPPENED

Lampooning the powermen and the money-go-round Director Barry Levinson shoots for Hollywood satire but just contributes another lame star-fest to Tinseltown’s fall slate

BY VAMAN MUPPALA For The Diamondback

RACHEL GETTING MARRIED “The attention to detail in Rachel is overwhelming — whether it be the drifting music creeping around the corners as Kym skulks like a stranger in her own home or the timed competition between Paul and Sidney ... There is never any doubt these characters have lived outside the brief window we are granted into their world.”

— Zachary Herrmann RATING: 4.5 out of 5 stars

SEX DRIVE “While Sex Drive appears at first glance to be a hodge-podge mix of Superbad and Road Trip, the film’s clichéfree writing and solid character work elevate it from just a run-of-themill teen comedy to a movie jam-packed with laughs.”

— Tripp Laino RATING: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Be sure to check out all the full reviews for the above movies and a review of The Secret Life of Bees under the Diversions section at:

WWW.DIAMONDBACKONLINE.COM

The movie industry is often the chief satirical target of, well, the movies. The maxim of “write what you know” is evidenced in everything from Singin’ in the Rain in 1952 to recent fare such as Adaptation and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Filmmakers are simply unable to resist the allure of mocking a world in which vain, greedy and sometimes stupid people are often allowed to decide both the fate of billions of dollars and the artistic future of American cinema.

In What Just Happened, Barry Levinson — a longtime director of perfectly middlebrow fare, such as The Natural and Rain Man — works off a script based on producer Art Linson’s tell-all memoir, What Just Happened? Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line. The veteran director enlists a large ensemble of A-list actors to create yet another critique of what Hunter S. Thompson termed “the cruel and shallow money trench” that employs them.

The protagonist of the film is Ben (Robert De Niro, Righteous Kill), a decent if flawed movie producer who is slowly devoured by both the industry and his personal life.

Among the typical crises that Ben must deal with are a vitriolic and narcissistic Bruce Willis (playing himself, Live Free or Die Hard) refusing to shave for a role, a drugaddicted director (Michael Wincott, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) fighting to keep a controversial climax involving dog-killing in his movie and an ex-wife (Robin Wright Penn, Beowulf) sleeping with his married screenwriting friend (Stanley Tucci, Space Chimps).

On its surface, What Just Happened is a rather broad comedy.

Bruce Willis portrays a fictional version of himself in What Just Happened. Refusing to shave his beard for a role, Willis tears in to Ben (Robert De Niro), an increasingly disillusioned producer. COURTESY OF MOVIEWEB

Every character in the film is mocked mercilessly, especially John Turturro’s (Miracle at St. Anna) meek and cowering agent, who is so stressed by Hollywood he develops stomach ulcers that cause him to involuntarily produce choking noises.

De Niro, however, does not handle his comedic load very well. The satirical chops he displayed so adeptly in his previous Levinson collaboration, Wag the Dog, are largely absent. He delivers a few zingers, but his performance is mostly subdued and bland, causing a large majority of his jokes to fall flat and die. Throughout the movie, one could not help but wonder how the actor who was Travis Bickle and Jake

LaMotta could have such trouble bringing energy to his performance.

This sleepwalking approach to acting also affects the vast majority of the cast and is the foremost flaw of What Just Happened.

Every actor knows what archetype they are supposed to be playing — perhaps because they have all done it before — but they cannot bring anything fresh to their performances.

For example, Willis poking fun at himself by throwing tantrums and demolishing wardrobes should be funny, but the gag simply does not work. Willis is too in

on the joke, and so is the audience. What Just Happened’s satire falls flat.

The film’s saving grace is the underlying weariness and melancholy of select sequences. When the jokes stop, the pace slows and Levinson’s camera lingers on a lonely De Niro driving against the Los Angeles skyline, one sees what the film could have been.

Instead, What Just Happened ends up exactly the type of generic staid movie that its characters would be apt to produce. diversionsdbk@gmail.com

MOVIE:What Just Happened | VERDICT:

1/2

10

THE DIAMONDBACK | SPORTS | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2008

Long-snappers protecting a streak SNAPPERS, from Page 1 older brother Kyle and was the longsnapper before Schmitt took over in 2005.

Condo, who did not return several phone calls, now snaps for the Oakland Raiders but still keeps in regular contact with his former protégé.

“Jon was the guy who, for the five years he was here playing, I hung out with a lot when I came down,” Schmitt said. “I’d pick his brain every chance I could when I was down at games. He kind of showed me the ropes early and his work ethic towards everything, not just long-snapping, just football in general was really something I tried to take to heart.”

The apprentice This season and last, Schmitt has switched roles, with Downs serving as his apprentice. The two did not play together for the Derry Area Trojans, but Downs knew of Schmitt because he was the only football player from the high school to attend a major university for football.

The senior Schmitt has shown Downs the ropes this season as he prepares to hand him the long-snapping duties.

“I try to be tough on Tim, try to let him know that he’s got a legacy to carry on,” Schmitt said.

“Constructive criticism,” said Downs.

“Basically he’s like the big brother right there making sure I do the right things and not the wrong things.”

While Schmitt wasn’t heavily recruited as a long-snapper, Downs was rated the No. 6 long-snapper in the nation by former Oakland Raider Ray Guy after attending a camp hosted by the College Football Hall of Fame punter.

“I knew who he was, so I YouTubed him, and that’s how I found out more about him,” Downs said. “But throughout the camp, you never think you’d see a 65-year-old guy punt a football still as well as him.”

So, if there ever were such a thing as a heralded long-snapper prospect, Downs would be it. When it came time to pick where he would snap in college, he only had to think back to hearing about Schmitt, who was also friends with Downs’ older brother.

“Not a lot of people from our town go to out-of-state schools or play sports in college,” Downs said. “It showed me that people from a small town can make it somewhere else.”

No glory and no mistakes One place Schmitt isn’t likely to be, whether the Terps win or lose this weekend against No. 21 Wake Forest, is the next day’s newspaper.

That is, unless the fifth-year senior does something he hasn’t done his entire career — mess up. During a season where consistency has been in short supply for the Terps, Schmitt, known as “Dewey” in the Terp locker room, has been its model.

“You never know ’til you don’t have one what the luxury is of having a good long-snapper, and he’s definitely been consistent over his career,” first-year special teams coach Danny Pearman said.

For Schmitt, a quarterback in high school, playing the position was different, but necessary.

Early on, he played safety on the Terps’ scout team. But he knew if he wanted to play, it would have to be at long-snapper.

“I became a long-snapper [in high school] because I was a quarterback and I had the strongest arm on the team, so they told me to bend over and throw it between my legs,” Schmitt said. “I kind of taught myself how to do a lot of things, and then once I got here, I learned more technique.”

A lineage of success

Long-snapper Andrew Schmitt (No. 31) has taken freshman Tim Downs (No. 64), from the same small Pennsylvania town, under his wing and is training him to take over next season and inherit the active record for most consecutive unblocked punts. JACLYN BOROWSKI/THE DIAMONDBACK

Since taking over the long-snapping duties in 2005 as a redshirt freshman, Schmitt has continued a nation-long 104game streak in which the Terps have not had a punt blocked. Yet he plays one of the few positions in sports where perfec-

Freshman long-snapper Tim Downs will inherit the starting position from senior Andrew Schmitt next season.

JACLYN BOROWSKI/THE DIAMONDBACK

tion can go relatively unnoticed by those outside the locker room.

“It’s kind of an all-in opportunity every time they’re out there,” Pearman said. “If it’s a field goal, he’s a part of the battery that either makes points or doesn’t make points. If he’s a part of the punt team, he’s a part of the team that either gets us good field position or doesn’t. So it’s kind of a win or lose. There’s not as much gray area as there is at other positions.”

The streak began in 1999 under thenspecial teams coach Ray Rychleski and continued when Condo took over the long-snapping duties in 2001. Schmitt hopes to pass down not only the streak, but the same lessons he learned from Condo to Downs.

“There’s a lot of pride in it and it’s the one thing that a long-snapper would, other than of course being bad, that would get you in the paper,” Schmitt said. “It’s something that I try and show my pride and passion for to Tim and pass it on to him.”

If recent history is any indicator, Downs will succeed at the position.

And maybe other college football teams can head to Derry when they need a long-snapper.

“Probably,” Pearman said, “something’s in the water or the milk up there.” jnewmandbk@gmail.com

Dinner is around 8:00 pm at the large Sukkah in front of Chabad, 7403 Hopkins Ave.

The Sukkah mobile can be found in front of the Union, the dining halls, Greek houses, offcampus...Want it to visit you? Contact us today!

Including a Sukkah party with make-your-own edible Sukkah

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16 7:00 pm outside Cumberland Hall 8:00 pm outside Hagerstown Hall 9:00 pm outside Elkton Hall

chabad@umd.edu

(reading and writing NOT needed)

Join Us for Shabbat Dinner 10/17

Do you speak Russian?

Take a Language Test and Earn $80!

A Russian language study seeks the following kinds of speakers to participate in a research project: 1. Learners of Russian who speak Russian fluently, at the 400 level or better (Must be native speaker of English, NO Russian spoken at home) Or 2. Native speakers of Russian (Must have graduated from college in Russia and know English) • Participants will take a listening and speaking test.

• Test will take 4-5 hours. No reading or writing required.

• You will receive $80 in cash immediately upon completion of the test (no partial compensation will be given for incomplete test).

• Free oral proficiency testing of all Russian learners This is an officially approved study being conducted by the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, University of Maryland, College Park. Any information collected will be kept confidential.

Call 301-405-0976 and leave your name and phone number, or email us at russiantest@umd.edu.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2008 | SPORTS | THE DIAMONDBACK

11

TERRAPIN FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK

Muracco’s big game pushed Terps to win

BY MICHAEL KATZ Staff writer

One of the biggest mysteries heading into Saturday’s game is the status of former first-team All-ACC kicker Sam Swank.

The senior who also handles punting duties missed the Demon Deacons’ win over Clemson last Thursday after straining his right quadriceps in practice. He is listed as questionable for Saturday’s game.

“That’s a big injury right there,” Friedgen said. “He really impacts the game not only scoring points and kickoffs, but also with field position on his punting.

We’ll have to keep a close eye on that.”

Redshirt freshman kicker Shane Popham replaced Swank against the Tigers and converted two of his four field goal attempts with one of his short misses coming on a botched snap.

Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe said during a teleconference Wednesday he was not sure if the Demon Deacon’s career leader in points would be ready to play against the Terps.

Friedgen, who called Swank the best kicker in the country, said he expects to see Swank back in the lineup.

“I don’t believe any of it,” Friedgen said. “I’m planning on him playing.”

At one point during the 5-0 drubbing the Terrapin field hockey team handed No. 12 Princeton, Nicole Muracco turned to back Ali Morawski on the bench.

The junior forward made a simple observation about her team.

“I told [Morawski], ‘If we play this way all the time, we are a really, really good team,’” she said.

And if Muracco continues to play as she did Tuesday, look out.

Muracco poured in four goals against a Tiger defense that had no answer to her presence in the circle. While nobody expects Muracco to regularly match that torrential pace, her offensive productivity goes a long way in opening up the Terp attack.

Opposing defenses are often bent on slowing forward Katie O’Donnell and back Susie Rowe, leaving Muracco free to take her defender oneon-one to the goal or slip unnoticed into the circle.

Tuesday, Muracco buried two open shots after assists from O’Donnell.

“I always know where [Muracco] is going to be,” O’Donnell said. “She’s always up there with me.

Sometimes she checks the goalkeeper, and other times she’s there for the pass. It’s a connection that has always been there.”

And when Muracco receives a pass in the circle, she knows what to do with it.

The junior has had no problem finding the back of the net this season, and after Tuesday’s output, she is the team’s second-leading goal scorer.

While the four-goal outburst came in a lopsided game against an overmatched Tigers team, Muracco’s shooting ability has come up big in the clutch this season as well.

Her goal with just over 11 minutes left against then-No. 14 American provided the Terps with the necessary insurance to hold on for a 2-1 victory on Sept. 17. Weeks later, against then-No. 10 Virginia, Muracco deflected in a shot by back Emma Thomas to tie the game with 4:15 remaining. The Terps went on to win in overtime.

Muracco also boasts the highest shooting percentage (.318) of any Terp with at least 10 shots. At times, the Terps have had trouble capitalizing on scoring chances, making Muracco’s ability to finish a prized commodity.

“Sometimes, half the struggle is to get the ball up to the forwards,” goalkeeper Alicia Grater said.

“For [Muracco] to be able to finish the way she does, it’s really important. [Muracco] did a great job in the circle [against Princeton] in terms of getting open then putting the ball in the net.”

edetweilerdbk@gmail.com

mkatzdbk@gmail.com

Nolan Carroll is one of several Terp secondary members returning after the bye week.

ADAM FRIED/THE DIAMONDBACK

Secondary getting healthy NOTEBOOK, from Page 12 per game through the season’s first four contests, but the running game has struggled in the last two, culminating in a season-low 79-yard effort against Virginia.

Friedgen’s remedies were the lineup change and an increased focus on footwork and technique.

“It’s not where I’d like it to be yet,” Friedgen said. “But it’s a lot better than what it was.”

Thomas said the line needs to make a statement against Wake Forest on Saturday and show it can stay consistent for a full game for the first time all season.

No matter who is playing Saturday, Thomas said the last two weeks should help the Terps pick up their play.

“It’s something we needed,” Thomas said. “We had to get back to the basics. Sometimes when you get older you start to focus on other things and forget about fundamentals. We needed to refocus.”

Secondary rest The Terp secondary also benefited from a week off to get healthy.

The unit has been hit by earlyseason injuries causing a lot of different players to see the field and a few players to stay on the field most of the game.

While Friedgen did not update the Terps’ injury status Wednesday, he did say cornerback Nolan

Carroll, who missed the last three games with an ankle injury, should be ready to play even if he is not 100 percent.

Friedgen also lamented that safety Terrell Skinner, who missed time earlier this season with a high ankle sprain, is still not playing as well as he did to begin the season.

The team has used safety Jamari McCollough, who leads the team with three interceptions, as a cornerback in the last two games.

Friedgen said the move was an effort to get his best players on the field. McCollough came to the Terps as a cornerback before switching to safety, where he entered the season third on the depth chart.

Cornerback Kevin Barnes said the bye week has left the secondary in its best position since the rash of injuries knocked Carroll and Skinner temporarily out of action and defensive backs Richard Taylor and Dominique Herald out for the year.

“We have a lot deeper rotation now that the younger guys have experience,” Barnes said.

But that doesn’t mean Barnes, who has played nearly every down for the Terps throughout the season, is ready for a rest against Wake Forest.

“I don’t want to come out of the game,” Barnes said. “I don’t want guys to get hurt, but I like to stay in there. I was fine the last few games.”

The Swank question

Terps have struggled to finish goals VIRGINIA, from Page 12 Now they’re taking on the ACC’s second-best defense, as the Cavaliers (10-2-1, 4-1-0 ACC) have allowed just 0.62 goals per game this season.

The Cavalier defense has been stingy and dominant in protecting goalkeeper Celeste Miles, who is just ninth among ACC netminders in save percentage. The Cavaliers’ smothering defensive style limits scoring opportunities for opponents.

“Virginia does not give away many opportunities in the back,” coach Brian Pensky said.

“They’ve only allowed 26 shots on goal in 13 games.”

If the Cavs defense plays up to its billing, the Terps know they’ll have to make each opportunity count.

To create more scoring chances, the Terps have been trying to improve all facets of their offense. By working on everything from through balls to set pieces to finishing, they’re hoping to be more dangerous in the Cavaliers’ third of the field.

“We’ve tried to refine our forwards’ runs this week in training,” Pensky said of some changes the offense has worked on. “We’ve also worked on our restarts, both from service and finishing standpoints. I’m confident we’ll see a difference.”

As if finding ways to score goals against the Cavaliers defense wasn’t enough to worry about, the Terps will also have their hands full on defense. They’ll be focused on slowing down one of the ACC’s most prolific scorers in forward Meghan Lenczyk.

The sophomore leads the Cavs with 10 goals this season and commands a double team up front, opening up space for her teammates.

But the defense has been solid of late, allowing only two goals in the last three games. If the Terps are to stage the upset tonight, it’s going to be their offense that needs to set the pace and create scoring chances to relieve the pressure off the defense.

“We can’t be passive,” Pensky said. “The more they’re able to establish a rhythm, the more dangerous they become. So we have to take the game to them.” dmorrisondbk@gmail.com

12

THE DIAMONDBACK | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2008

Sports

NSCAA/adidas Women’s Soccer Top 10 School

Record

1. Notre Dame (14-0-0) 2. North Carolina (13-1-1) 3. Portland (11-1-0) 4. UCLA (11-0-2) 5. Stanford (12-0-1)

Prev. School 1 2 3 4 6

6. Texas A&M 7. USC 8. Florida State 9. Duke 10. Florida

Record

Prev.

(12-1-1) (11-1-1) (10-2-1) (11-2-1) (11-2-1)

7 5 9 11 12

TERRAPIN FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK

Campbell to start at left tackle

BY ERIC DETWEILER Senior staff writer

blowout win against Mount St. Mary’s. They’ve managed only one goal in five ACC games.

As the Terrapin offensive line has struggled the last few games, coach Ralph Friedgen has preached a return to fundamentals rather than making changes to a unit featuring four senior starters.

But after stressing the basics throughout the team’s off week, which has included work on the blocking sleds in all five practices since a 31-0 loss to Virginia, Friedgen is finally ready to make a personnel move.

Yesterday, Friedgen announced sophomore Bruce Campbell will start at left tackle with Scott Burley moving to right tackle in place of Dane Randolph.

Campbell, a four-star recruit who attended Hargrave Military Academy after high school for one season, said he has been working for the opportunity to start since spring practice. After being forced into action last year as a true freshman because of injuries on the team, the 6foot-7, 285-pounder is ready to step in and contribute.

He’s not “going off the wall” like he was before his first start last season.

“I just want to play,” Campbell said. “I’m not overexcited, because I started last year. I’m just trying to go with the flow now, be laid-back and chill.”

Campbell, who has earned praise as a pass blocker who needs to improve his run blocking, said the line has stuck together through the last five practices and will remain united through the changes.

Guard Jaimie Thomas, who will play beside Campbell on the line, said the new starter stepped up his efforts in practice and will fit smoothly into the Terp game plan.

“Bruce has played last year and this year,” Thomas said. “He’s ready to go. It’s not like we’re throwing a true freshman in there.”

The line paved the way for 197.3 yards

Please See VIRGINIA, Page 11

Please See NOTEBOOK, Page 11

Forward Annesia Faulkner and the Terp offense are facing the secondbest defense in the ACC tonight. ALLISON AKERS/THE DIAMONDBACK

Women’s soccer tackling top-tier Cavalier defense

BY DAN MORRISON Staff writer

For a team that’s struggled to score goals all season, the last thing the Terrapin women’s soccer team wants to see is one of the nation’s best defenses.

But that’s what they’ll get when No. 12 Virginia travels to College Park tonight to take on the Terps at 7 p.m.

The Terps (5-7-1, 1-4-0 ACC) have had plenty of problems scoring, regardless of defense.

They’ve only scored 23 goals in 13 games this season, with 10 of those goals coming in a

Terps vs. Virginia Where: Ludwig Field When: Tonight, 7 p.m.

Radio: WMUCsports.com

Sophomore tackle Bruce Campbell is getting a chance to start. ADAM FRIED/THE DIAMONDBACK