The Flat Hat
Vol. 101, Iss. 27 | Friday, January 27, 2012
The Twice-Weekly Student Newspaper
General Assembly
of The College of William and Mary
101 years old never looked so good The Flat Hat’s new website launches today at Flathatnews.com.
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Politics
Richmond controversy Democrats allege map minimizes minority votes
On the road again
increase in faculty and staff salaries for December 2012 as well as a base salary increase. Students also stressed the importance of out-of-state students to the College for their financial contributions as well as for the diversity they bring to campus. Currently, the General Assembly is considering a bill that would change the in-state and out-of-state student ratio from the current ratio of 65 to 35 percent to a new ratio of 75 to 25 percent. “While we could fill up an entire freshman class with very qualified students from Northern Virginia, William and Mary, U.Va. or Virginia Tech could not sustain themselves on 100 percent in-
The Virginia General Assembly and federal government could soon clash as a result of the political shift caused by last November’s elections. State Republicans recently succeeded in promoting a controversial congressional redistricting map drawn based on results of the 2010 census. In the past two weeks, the redistricting bill has successfully passed through both legislative houses, despite allegations by Democrats that it unfairly weakens minority votes while preserving the seats of both liberal and conservative incumbents. “This plan is one that protects communities of interest and the core of existing districts so that citizens will know who their congressman is,” State Senator Mark D. Obenshain (R-26) said in a press release. Republicans hold a sizable majority in the House of Delegates and 20 of the 40 seats in the State Senate. Lt. Governor Bill Bolling, whose position allows him to cast deciding votes in the event of a tie in the General Assembly, is a Republican. They maintain that the plan does not usurp minorities’ rights. The bill passed the Senate Friday along party lines, 20-19, with State Senator John Edwards (D-21) absent. The bill passed the House of Delegates 74-21 the previous Friday. Democrats argue that the plan fills a single district with minority voters, thereby weakening their strength in other districts. “Sixty percent African-American voting age population is not necessary in the 3rd congressional district to afford minorities the opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice,” State Senator Donald McEachin (D-9) said in a press release.
See lobby, page 3
See Redistricting, page 4
GRAPHIC BY MICHELLE GABRO AND KATHERINE CHIGLINSKY / THE FLAT HAT
Students and administrators travel to Richmond to lobby for the College by ARIEL COHEN FLAT HAT assoc. news Editor
The halls of the Virginia Capitol Building rang Wednesday with the hurried footsteps of College of William and Mary students lobbying state legislators on behalf of the College. The annual student-organized Road to Richmond program began 20 years ago as part of the College’s Strategic Plan to allow students to voice their opinions to local legislators. “This is a really important time for our school financially, and if we want to see a change, we have to find ways to lobby and gain support,” Road to Richmond participant Drew Chlan ’13 said. “We should do everything we
can to support the school so that William and Mary can act in its best interests.” College President Taylor Reveley briefed the students on their main lobbying agendas during the students’ short time with their delegates. Although the College is currently facing numerous issues, Reveley stressed communicating their love for the College. “Basically, this session we’re just going around saying, ‘thank you for not cutting us, please don’t hurt us and just let us do our thing because we’re a great school. We’re really glued together, so please don’t screw it up and just let us alone,’” Reveley said. Reveley also stressed the significance of student lobbying efforts and the College’s dire need
for increased monetary support. “The jewel in William and Mary’s crown does remain in the undergrad program. There actually is no undergrad program at a state school like William and Mary,” Reveley said. “There are a few private schools of our caliber, but, of course, they are richer than God, while we live hand to mouth.” Main legislative agendas for the day included general fund support, such as a $1,457,842 advance from Governor Bob McDonnell to finance base operations, degree incentives, student research and financial aid. This money would make up for only 14 percent of the funding the College has lost since the fiscal crisis in 2008. Reveley emphasized support of McDonnell’s proposed 3 percent
by Chase hopkins flat hat assoc. news editor
international
Computer Science team codes its way to worlds in Poland College coding team places second at CNU’s regional contest for international computer science BY Sarah caspari flat hat assoc. variety editor
Computer language may be Greek to some students at the College of William and Mary, but the campus coding team’s fluency is taking them beyond campus and national borders. For the first time in the College’s history, the school’s coding team will be participating in the Association for Computer Machinery’s International Collegiate Programming Contest in Warsaw, Poland.
The College sent two teams to compete in the regional contest at Christopher Newport University earlier this year. Team Gold, which is comprised of Michael Christiensen ’11, M.S. ’12, Aaron Dufour ’12 and Brett Cooley ’13, placed second in this competition and will advance to the international competition, which will be held in May. “The teams are three [people] and they’re given one computer, and they’re given then — the standard is eight — problems, and they have to solve as
many of those as possible using Java C++ or C, which are programming languages,” computer science instructor and coding team coach Debbie Noonan said. “These are from relatively simple to very complex, and they have a time limit. The regional contests are five hours; the international contest, I think, is five and a half hours. So, you have to know how to program, you have to know how to program well, in order to succeed at doing this.” COURTESY PHOTO / SASKIA MORDIJCK
See CODING, page 3
Christiensen ’11, M.S. ’12; Dufour ’12; and Cooley ’13 placed second in regional coding competition.
technology
Apple introduces e-textbooks, offering new alternatives for students iPad’s e-textbooks look to integrate both academic affordability and environmental consciousness BY sarah kleinkinecht the flat hat
Thirty years ago, Steve Jobs set out to enhance technology in schools. Apple received tax breaks for donating computers to classrooms, and the Apple II and the Mac became the first computers used by millions of children. At a Jan. 19 event at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Apple introduced its newest innovation: iBooks textbooks, designed specifically
Index News Insight News News Opinions Variety Variety Sports
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for the iPad. Dynamic and interactive, the iPad e-textbooks are an entirely different kind of textbook, if they can be categorized as such at all. Apple’s multi-touch iPad textbooks go beyond the printed page, providing the reader with 3D interactive images and features such as highlighting, note-taking and glossary definitions. Created using Apple’s new authoring tool, iBooks author, textbooks are available from the iBookstore on any iPad. Customers can download
Today’s Weather
free samples or purchase the entire textbook for a fraction of the price of a normal textbook. Students can even download updates to textbooks at no additional cost. “I would definitely buy an iPad if my organic chemistry and biology books could be read on it; over the four years of college it would save students so much money spent on textbooks,” Anna Green ’15 said. “I think having interactive textbooks on an iPad is, at the very least, much more
Inside opinions
A tough chew
New lunch take-out meal options at Sadler leave students hungry and disappointed. page 5 Partly cloudy High 65, Low 36
environmentally friendly, because it would save a lot of paper. So much is used for the actual books, and also for note-taking.” Few argue that technology is not a vital component of the world today, yet the $10 billion textbook industry has been slow to make the changes taking hold of other media outlets as it works to adapt to changing demands. Currently, textbooks by top K-12 publishers McGraw-Hill and Pearson Education, and educational content
Inside VARIETY
from E.O. Wilson are available on iBook. More than 2,000 elementary and middle schools have begun utilizing the iPad over the past year, and about 1,000 K-12 schools have adopted Apple’s program, designed to provide an iPad to every student in the school. Arlington County in northern Virginia is already committing hundreds of thousands of dollars to
Bite-sized reviews
See apple, page 4
The Flat Hat takes a bite out of the newest addition to the College’s campus life, Tribe Square, with reviews of Subway Cafe, The Crust and PitaPit. page 8