LOVE LETTERS Based on a book by Nicholas Sparks, romance fans will be disappointed with ‘Dear John.’ SCENE page 5
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EDITORIAL
WHO’S THE NUT? The debate over ACORN’s legitmacy rages on as Isaac Stone weighs in page 3
SCENE ACADEMY IS... Nominees for Best Picture show tastes are changing at the Oscars. page 5
SPORTS POSITIVE PRESS Positive athletic exposure helps AU’s public perception page 8
PEYTON OR BREES? The debate over who will win the big game this Sunday page 8
TODAY’S WEATHER
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Senator, prez reach CERF deal By ALLIE MOONEY Eagle Contributing Writer Student Government President Andy MacCracken and Class of 2010 Senator Steve Dalton reached a compromise over recent legislation regarding the Clean Energy Revolving Fund, The Eagle learned Wednesday night. The new bill, to be debated Sunday, would ban the use of student activities fees to fund the program. However, fundraising done by the SG would be permitted for use. Students would also be able to indicate that they wanted to donate money to the fund. MacCracken said he would not veto the new bill, which will be brought before the Undergraduate Senate on Sunday, he said in an interview with The Eagle. “There’s really no specific reason for writing a new bill other than to ... re-establish support from the Senate’s perspective and establish set policies in how it’s funded through the Student Government,” he said. This comes on the heels of a legislative tug-of-war between some members of the Senate and MacCracken over how CERF will be funded. CERF is a new program under the umbrella of the administration, in the office of the Vice President of Finance and Treasurer. Contributions to the fund would go towards renewable energy generators in an effort to help make AU carbon
neutral. The fund is “revolving” in the sense that money saved from the university producing its own energy would then be used to fund other renewable energy projects. The legislation MacCracken vetoed the last bill regarding the CERF on Saturday. Despite opposition of the veto in the Senate, the measure was allowed to stand since it did not garner the necessary two-thirds of votes needed to override the veto. The vetoed bill, which was passed in the Senate Jan. 26, imposed stricter definitions of whether SG could contribute funds from student activity fees into CERF. MacCracken vetoed the bill because SG should be able to contribute to CERF, he said. “[CERF] is an idea that promotes an industry that is blooming within the United States, and we’re able to become a leader in that field,” MacCracken said. “I feel that there would be benefit to the campus community in general.” MacCracken said he thought the Senate had rushed through the passing of the bill and called for fresh start for the legislation. “We haven’t spent time to answer questions or even ask the right questions,” he said. “I believe we should take the proper steps and make sure every word in there says what we want it to.” As a result, a new bill has been drafted and will be presented to the
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Senate this Sunday, according to Dalton. Some senators thought the Jan. 26 bill, authored by Dalton, was unclear in whether SG had the ability to transfer funds if the body decides to support CERF through running fundraisers. There were worries that the bill would have prevented any money from transferring from the SG to the fund, even if the money was specifically raised for CERF. The vetoed legislation’s main purpose was to articulate exactly where the CERF money would originate. “No money can be transferred by any member of the Student Government from any Student Government account to the Clean Energy Revolving Fund,” the bill stated. This bill sought to close a financial loophole in the system where extra money in the SG budget at the end of the year could potentially be transferred to CERF. “There is this loophole that I want to close,” Dalton said. “By not calling it [transferred funds to CERF] a donation or whatever at the end of the semester, at the end of the year you could essentially get away with it. I don’t think we should be getting away with anything. If it’s not allowable during the whole year, it shouldn’t be able to get away with it at the end of the year.” The new legislation will allow SG to temporarily hold funds for CERF after fundraising, and then transfer the money into the CERF account. n
see CERF on page 2
AUTO hiatus hinders service clubs’ transport By MEG FOWLER Eagle Staff Writer During the weeks following winter break when the AUTO program was shut down, Community Service Center operations were forced to adjust to accommodate for their loss of the usual mode of transportation. DC Reads lost tutors who could not find ways to travel to their sites, and this year’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service spent an extra $2,000 on transportation in the absence of AUTO. DC Reads involves 300 students who travel to six different sites in the District, largely in Columbia Heights and Anacostia, according to Robin Adams, assistant director
of the Community Service Center and coordinator of DC Reads. Usually, 30 DC Reads tutors are transported per day, Adams said, but with just one Community Service Center-owned van, a maximum of 12 students can be transported at a time, Adams said. Instead, DC Reads groups traveled to sites using the Metro and city buses. Madison Pollock, a sophomore in the School of International Service and a volunteer at the Community of Hope site in Columbia Heights, said she formerly used the Community Service Center van free of charge to transport 20 other volunteers to a volunteer site. While AUTO was offline, other sites had to use the Community Service van
Juniors, seniors to be equal in housing lottery
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WEDNESDAY
FEBRUARY 4, 2010 VOLUME 84 n ISSUE 33
By ETHAN KLAPPER Eagle Staff Writer Housing and Dining Programs will not differentiate between rising juniors and seniors during this month’s housing lottery, according to the department’s Room Selection Guide, released Monday. Chris Moody, executive director of Housing and Dining, said the decision was made as a result of last year’s Brailsford & Dunlavey facilities study, which urged AU to “rethink campus housing priorities.” “Shifting priorities to first-year students would put us in a place where rising juniors were next,” Moody
said. “Rather than completely alienating the senior class, which is what happened at the University of Maryland-College Park, we didn’t feel like [flipping the priorities] based on our numbers.” UMD’s housing allocation process gives highest priority to the youngest students and explicitly does not guarantee four years of on-campus housing, according to the UMD Department of Residence Life Web site. Currently, 84 percent of seniors live off-campus, Moody said. Courtney Klamar, the president of the Residence Hall Association, said n
see HOUSING on page 4
and Pollock had to substitute city buses for the van. “[The bus] is not free ... Besides the financial aspect, it is really inconvenient and unreliable,” Pollock said in an e-mail. “The bus has been making us late most days to our site.” The necessity to use public transportation made traveling to the volunteer sites more challenging for students in all the programs, Adams said. “Most of our students in our program are freshmen who are new to the city and have a busy academic and social calendar,” she said. During the weeks after winter break, DC Reads lost five members, according to Adams. n
see AUTO on page 2
AARON BERKOVICH / THE EAGLE
STRIKE A POSE — The glittering Athena Ducockis struts her stuff on the catwalk at the annual drag show that took place on Monday night in the University Club. The AU Student Government and Queers and Allies put on the show to raise money for Whitman-Walker Clinic.
Drag queens storm MGC with style By ASHLEY DEJEAN Eagle Staff Writer Six drag queens from the D.C. area sit in a small room adjacent to the University Club, most of them shirtless with tights, busily preparing for the show that will take place in half an hour. Queers and Allies along with AU Student Government put on the event in the University Club to raise money for the WhitmanWalker Clinic, the non-profit that specializes in HIV care. Although she usually does it herself, a friend glues on Athena Ducockis’ eyelashes for her debut performance as she explains the getting-ready process. “Usually with eyebrows we get a glue stick and glue our eyebrows down and put powder over it,” Ducockis, an AU alumna who participated in the yearly Drag Queen Race at Dupont Circle where the queens race in high-heels, said. “That way we can draw in our eyebrows later since girls have higher eyebrows than guys. Then we put foundation on, a little pan stick and powder that in together- blending it all in to make sure it’s even.” Next Ducockis moves to the blush. “We go on to the blush just making sure that our face is contoured to give more of an elegant, female look,” she said. Akasha Cassadine, who performed in the group Diva League on “America’s Got Talent” in 2009 and appeared in an episode of “The Maury Povich Show” makes sure to blend her make-up for a smooth, sexy look.
“[You have to do a lot] of blending to make sure you don’t have too many harsh lines, but enough lines to give you some definition and then making sure that everything is smooth and blended,” Cassadine said. “It’s not that easy tonight because I left my contacts at home, so I can’t really see.” Wearing her teddy-velvetshade lipstick, Cassadine’s “diva” came through when asked about the process of getting dressed. “Oh honey, that’s painful,” she said. “It’s hiding things, putting on a pair of spanks, putting my pads in. At least two pairs of tights: one darker, one lighter and then a complimentary of pantyhose to my actual skin tone. One girdle and all-in-one body suit for my breast forms to go into and them I’m ready — other than the lashes of course.” The outfit and makeup are not only the physical part of the transformation, though. “Inner transformation is when you’re sitting around talking to the people around you,” Mercedes Cassadine, Akasha’s drag daughter said. “It helps get you in the mood to do the show.” Mercedes then explains this ritual further. “A weird thing about the drag community is sometimes before they get ready they’ll sit around and they almost seem like they’re insulting one another, but they’re not,” she said. “It’s called reading. It’s not insulting per se, but you just sit there, talk and make fun of each other.” After that, the queens perform. n
see DRAG SHOW on page 4
Student struggles to fill long-vacant ANC seat By MITCH ELLMAUER Eagle Contributing Writer School of Public Affairs sophomore Sami Green is in the process of running for AU’s seat on the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3D, a position which has remained vacant for seven years due to complications with District zoning laws. Green petitioned to fill the ANC seat for Single Member District 07, which includes the South side residence halls and all buildings west of New Mexico Avenue. “It has been a trying and interesting process,” Green said. Student Government President Andy MacCracken said that Green’s campaign has been fraught with difficulties. “It is very unfortunate that there have been a lot of structural challeng-
es [concerning Green’s campaign],” MacCracken said. “The seat hasn’t been filled in over half of a decade, which is unacceptable.” ANC’s address local issues such as zoning, economic development, parking, police protection and sanitation, according to the D.C. government Web site. AU recently released a new campus plan, which calls for building residence halls, offices and new academic buildings in the Nebraska Avenue Parking Lot. The campus plan must be approved by ANC 3D. However, the commissioners and AU’s neighbors are opposed to new construction, said Tom Smith, the commissioner for District 02. “Some people don’t like the idea of having 1,000 students living in what is now the Nebraska Parking Lot,” Smith said.
Certain laws have been a major obstacle to filling the ANC seat, according to AU’s Community and Local Government Relations Director Penny Pagano. Students who tried to fill the seat in the past were unable to collect enough signatures from AU students who were also D.C. residents in the appropriate single member district, Pagano said. Candidates for the position of commissioner must live in their single member district for at least 60 days prior to the election, and candidates must be registered voters in D.C., according to the D.C. government’s Web site. In addition, voters who sign the petition to name a commissioner and who vote for that commissioner must also be registered to the District, n
see ANC on page 4