The Virginia Senate approved an amended version of a new state budget Monday, ending an extended bout of partisan bickering over power sharing and spending priorities that stalled two previous spending plans and required a special session to resolve.
Senate passage came despite rejection of a key Democratic demand – an amendment that would have required the state or private insurers to pay for ultrasounds that will be required of women seeking abortions under a bill that Gov. Bob McDonnell recently signed into law.
The amendment failed 20-19, with anti-abortion Sen. Charles J. Colgan, D-Prince William, voting with 19 Republicans. Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, R-Fauquier, the original sponsor of the ultrasound legislation in the Senate, who later asked the chamber to strike her bill, did not vote on the amendment Monday.
Senate Democrats had sought $3 million in state funding to cover the cost of the imaging procedures for low-income women without insurance, as well as for women already covered by private insurance policies.
Last week, Democrats said that approval of the amendment was critical to winning Democratic support for the budget, which needed at least 21 of the Senate's 40 votes to pass.
The House of Delegates voted 69-23 to reject the Senate's amendments to the state's two-year, $85 billion budget.
Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch
More than two and a half years after the slayings of two Lynchburg-area Virginia Tech sophomores at a campground near Blacksburg, investigators are set to release more information about their deaths this week.
A man walking his dog found the bodies of Heidi Childs, 18, and David Metzler, 19, on the morning of Aug. 27, 2009.
Investigators believe the two had been shot to death the previous evening at the Caldwell Fields campground off Craig Creek Road, about 15 miles off campus in the Jefferson National Forest.
Metzler’s body was inside the car. Childs’ body was on the ground. Other than that, task force members investigating the deaths have been tight-lipped until now.
Montgomery County Sheriff Tommy Whitt announced Monday he will hold a press conference Thursday afternoon to release more information about the weapon used, stolen items, physical evidence and vehicles of interest in hopes of generating new leads.
Investigators have pursued more than 1,400 leads in the case.
Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch
About 13,140 miles of the state's rivers and streams are dirty, a report said Monday. That's a quarter of Virginia's river miles and an increase of 840 miles since 2010.
Agency experts keep finding dirty waters because they keep looking at stretches that haven't been checked before, said DEQ spokesman Bill Hayden.
Problems in the James in the Richmond area include fecal bacteria from sewage overflows and other sources, and toxic pollutants such as high mercury levels in some fish. The mercury could have fallen as air pollution.
Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch
The Vatican has canceled a stem cell research conference whose speaker lineup included scientists whose work involves human embryonic stem cells, a practice opposed by church teaching.
The Pontifical Academy for Life had organized the “Responsible Stem Cells Research Congress” for April 25-28 at the Vatican. But its website said that because so few participants had signed up, the event was canceled.
A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, quoted on Tuesday from an Academy memo blaming “organizational, logistical and economic factors.”
“Unfortunately, the scarce number of sponsors and registrations would have adversely affected the positive outcome of the meetings, and therefore this prompted the organizers to take the necessary steps to cancel the conference,” the Academy website's said.
Academy officials couldn't immediately be reached about media reports that the speaker lineup irked scientists opposing embryonic research, while others declined invitations for fear of lack of open discussion.
Among the invited speakers was Alan Trounson, president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state stem cell agency based in San Francisco.
Brief by the Associated Press
A strong earthquake has shaken northern Japan, but there is no risk of a tsunami.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said this evening's earthquake recorded 6.4 preliminary magnitude. The agency said there may be a small change in sea levels but did not issue warnings.
The epicenter was off the coast of Iwate and was about 6 miles below the sea surface.
Iwate was in the region heavily damaged by last year's earthquake and tsunami.
Brief by the Associated Press
A former Kansas abortion provider isn't likely to face criminal charges for discarding hundreds of patients' private medical records in a recycling bin outside an elementary school, but anti-abortion lawmakers called Tuesday for the state Legislature to investigate.
Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said he doesn't expect to pursue a criminal case against Krishna Rajanna, who confirmed that he left records from Affordable Medical and Surgical Services in a school recycling bin blocks from his home in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park. The Kansas City, Kan., clinic closed in 2005, shortly after the State Board of Healing Arts, which regulates physicians, revoked Rajanna's Kansas medical license.
The Board of Healing Arts' general counsel said it will consider going to court to have an outside custodian take possession of any remaining records from the clinic. Rajanna told The Associated Press he still has documents stored in his home.
Several lawmakers who oppose abortion said the Legislature should investigate to determine whether Kansas law, which requires providers to keep patients' records for at least 10 years, adequately protects privacy when patient records are discarded or adequately punishes providers who dispose of documents improperly.
Rajanna said when he discarded the documents Friday in the recycling bin, he expected it to be emptied quickly.
Brief by the Associated Press
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817 W. Broad St., P.O. Box 842010 Richmond, VA 23284-2010
Hundreds of Richmond citizens gathered Monday night on VCU’s campus for a demonstration in honor of Trayvon Martin.
The community was responding to events that happened Feb. 26, when 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a self-appointed neighborhood watchman, George Zimmerman.
Zimmerman said that he shot the teen in an act of self-defense and has yet to be arrested or charged for anything relating to Martin’s death.
The same day, thousands gathered across the country for the same reason. Sanford, Fla., Martin’s hometown, and larger cities like Chicago and Washington D.C. also came together to show their concern over Martin’s case.
Twin sisters and VCU students, Breonca and Brittni Trofort, grew up in Miami, Fla. and said they were prompted to help organize the event because of their own experiences in their hometown.
Both said there have been times when they've been followed and questioned by members of their community.
“We have (both) faced different times where we have been followed (and) we have been questioned,” Breonca said.
“I'm not going to say that I'd expect it to happen all the time, but the fact that it did happen, I wasn't surprised at all,” Brittni said.
Demonstrators gathered in the Plaza wearing hoodies with 'weapons' – Skittles and iced tea, the two things Martin was carrying when shot.
Miracle Allums, one of the student organizers, said they plan to send the empty bags of Skittles and iced tea to the Sanford Police with a note saying, “We surrender our weapons.”
The crowd was filled with Richmond residents who lived through the Civil Rights movement as well as younger members, like 17-year old speaker Johnathon of Huguenot High School.
Johnathon who did not provide his last name, shared a poem he wrote, asking how easily he could have been in Trayvon Martin's situation because of his Hispanic heritage.
“It shocked me so much that something like that could happen,” he said. “I'm Hispanic, and we have struggles that we go through, too, and we have injustice served to us, and this is just a chance for me to see it happen to other people.”
VCU student organizer Jerry Solomon echoed Johnathon’s sentiments.
“A lot of people feel like it's not their problem,” Solomon said. “We can say, 'That could’ve been my brother, could’ve been my sister,' but racial profiling (and) racial injustice happens to every culture.”
The “RVA Marches for Trayvon Martin” demonstration featured speakers present at last week’s vigil put together by the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice and Equality at the Richmond Burial Ground in Shockoe Bottom.
Paul Wilayto from the Defenders asked the crowd, “How much is a life worth?”
According to Wilayto, between the years 2001 and 2008, Richmond Police shot 28 people. Twenty-five of them were black.
Wilayto also told the crowd that 11 of the 28 died, and nine of the fatally wounded were black.
Despite this, Wilayto said the problem in the Trayvon Martin case is ultimately about legal issues.
“We need to hold the people in account (that are) in support of the “Stand-Your-Ground laws,” Wilayto said.
Florida law, along with 23 other states, states there is no duty to retreat so long as the person using deadly force "reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself."
“What we would really like is for the laws in Florida to be reassessed,” Allums said. “It sets a precedent for other states to follow.”
In Virginia, a similar law, better known as the Castle Doctrine, was introduced in the General Assembly.
Continued on page 4
The bill never made it out of conference committee but has been a mainstay in proposed legislation in the state.
Ray Tademy, a social psychologist and director of evaluation at VCU's Raise 5 project emceed Monday's demonstration and said that the most pressing issue coming out of Martin's case is the prevalence of stand-your-ground laws.
"I personally think, in trying to look at it from the perspective of race is a distraction, a red herring and taking the eye off the ball," Tademy said. “The reason this is a case is because of a law that allowed an individual to literally kill someone else, not be prosecuted and go
home.”
“If it wasn't for that law, I doubt that this would be as much of a case,” he said.
Tademy said it would be inaccurate to say race wasn't a factor in Martin's case, but communities rallying around the cause should be careful identifying what the problem is.
“It is a legal issue more than anything else because it allowed race to be the big factor that it was,” he said. “The race issue was highlighted ... because of the law. If the law had allowed for this person to be prosecuted ... this raging fire would have been largely muted.” CT
At a university the size of VCU, student voices can get lost in the mix. VCU’s Student Government Association is trying to help student voices be heard this week as they host their first-ever forum week. The forums this week will focus on different aspects of VCU life, including housing, financial aid, advising, tuition and dining services.
Ryan Evans, a third-year member of SGA, believes the program attempts to bridge the gap in correspondence between students and administration.
“Forum week is just to advocate the transparency between (the) university and students,” he said. “You always hear complaints about the university not caring or wanting to listen, and we're trying to correct that.”
The week-long event offers the opportunity for students to talk in a small-group setting with school officials and specialists on the different topics, have their questions answered, provide insight and offer feedback on improvements that could be made at the university.
At 3 a.m. on a Wednesday morning, Thao Nguyen is propped in front of a computer screen studying for her physical chemistry lab on the second floor of Cabell Library.
Bleary-eyed, she plans to call it quits at 4 a.m., maybe.
The senior chemistry major is one of thousands of students who are taking advantage of the library’s new extended hours.
When classes resumed after Spring Break, Cabell Library adopted a 24-hours-a-day, five-days-a-week schedule. Extended weekend hours include 10 p.m. closings on Fridays and Saturdays and 10 a.m. openings on Sunday morning.
More than 2,000 students came to the library during the longer hours in the first week, a VCU Libraries press release said. The longer hours on Friday and Saturday nights night drew over 1,000 students alone.
“In the daytime, it’s so crowded,
and it’s hard to find a computer,” Nguyen said. “I like to work on the desktops because they have a big screen.”
Nguyen takes refuge in the library to escape her loud apartment when she needs to study. The library’s new operating schedule makes it easier for her to do so.
University librarian John Ulmschneider said more students are taking advantage of the new hours than he expected. Continued late night attendance will justify the cost to maintain the longer hours, he added.
“The guiding principle will be whether around-the-clock service is making an important difference to enough students to merit continuing it,” Ulmschneider said. “The bottom line is that the service must contribute to student academic success and student quality of life.”
Cabell Library has expanded its security staff and employees to handle the new operating schedule, Ulmschneider said.
VCU senior Monica McLemory said she believes the tuition and financial aid forum on March 27 was very informative because it guided students through the financial aid process and broke down the different areas of tuition and funding.
The Cabell Library Starbucks will adopt the extended hours for the last three weeks of the semester, according to Michael Martin, resident district manager of Aramark at VCU.
VCU Dining Services is reviewing the library’s traffic during the extended hours to see if the Starbucks can generate enough business to adopt the new operating schedule, Martin said.
The added traffic of the new schedule will increase the wear and tear on the more-than-40-year-old building, Ulmschneider said; but VCU has a new housekeeping contract to try and offset the effects, he said.
Because most students will not shift their library schedule, Ulmschneider said, the extended hours do not address Cabell’s most pressing need: space.
“Around-the-clock service addresses the need for more flexible study hours, but not the need for space,” he said.
Cabell Library provides the least amount of library space per student of any public university in Virginia,
“I’ve learned a lot of stuff about the technology and financial aid and everything that would have been helpful before,” she said. “A lot of our concerns were heard by top people in the department, and I think it's something that they'll look ... to changing.”
The idea for SGA Forum Week emerged after SGA members continuously heard the same questions from students. By creating an event that combined all students’ questions and concerns, they can be addressed at one time and heard from the university as a whole.
Jazmine Tanner, vice chairwoman of the SGA Senate, said that the students who came out were able to get good answers to their questions and urged others to become involved before the week is over.
“Everyone has something to say about the various topics and something they would like to see changed at VCU," she said. “In relation to the dining services forum, everyone eats near campus or on campus, and if you have a concern about it you can come express it. There are upperclassmen dorms, underclassmen dorms and an office for off-campus housing – everyone is affected.”
SGA forums have already been successful in creating change. A forum last year presented the idea of a 24-hour library, a pilot program that launched last week at Cabell Library when students returned from Spring Break. CT
Ulmschneider said.
At the Board of Visitors meeting this past fall, VCU proposed renovating Cabell Library as a part of the revised Master Site Plan. The university is currently looking for funding for the $47 million dollar project.
“(Cabell Library) is the university’s number one priority,” said Brian Ohlinger, assistant director of Facilities Management.
“When you look at where we were and what enrollment was when (Cabell) was built and you look at where we are now and what the enrollment is … we need that additional space,” he said.
VCU expects money will be left over in the state budget to do some preliminary planning, Ohlinger said. He estimates planning and design could total $1.6 million.
The General Assembly is currently in a special session to approve a state budget. CT
Thursday, March 22
Alcohol violation/weapons violation 3 S. Allen St. – A male visitor was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and possession of a concealed weapon.
Fire alarm Grace Harris Hall, 1015 Floyd Ave. – A male employee advised that an unknown person(s) falsely activated the fire alarm pull station.
Larceny 907 Bowe St. – A female student advised that an unknown person(s) illegally entered her vehicle.
Theft from motor vehicle 1106 W. Grace St. – A male victim advised that an unknown person(s) removed an item from an unsecured location.
Friday, March 23
Alcohol violation At the corner of West Broad and North Allen streets – A female visitor was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.
Alcohol violation/drug offense 800 block of West Cary Street – A male visitor was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and possession of marijuana.
Drug offense Ackell Residence Center, 1100 W. Broad St. – A female student and male visitor were arrested for possession of marijuana.
Grand larceny Shafer Court Dining Center, 810 N. Cathedral Pl. – A female student advised that an unknown person(s) removed an item from an unsecured location.
Petit larceny Sports Medicine Building, 1300 W. Broad St. – A female employee advised that an unknown person(s) removed an item from an unsecured location.
Saturday, March 24
Aggravated asssault 1213 W. Leigh St. – A male victim advised that an unknown person(s) shot him with a BB gun.
Alcohol violation 800 block of West Franklin Street – A female visitor was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and underage consumption/possession of alcohol.
Disorderly conduct At the corner of North Belvidere and West Marshall streets – A male visitor was arrested for unlawful entry into the street.
Grand larceny Shafer St. Playhouse, 221 N. Shafer St. – A male student advised that an unknown person(s) removed items from an unsecured location.
Use of force Qdoba, 935 W. Broad St. – Two males were fighting and a Richmond police officer deployed his taser. One male was arrested for disorderly conduct and the second male was arrested for being drunk in public.
Sunday, March 25
Alcohol violation 1200 block of West Cary Street – A male student was arrested for underage possession of alcohol.
Damage to state property Bowe St. Deck, 609 Bowe St. – A female visitor advised that the parking gate damaged her vehicle.
Fire damage to state property 301 W. Cary St. – A male employee advised that a cooking fire caused the sprinkler system to deploy and produced water damage.
Theft from motor vehicle 800 block of Catherine Street – A victim advised that an unknown person(s) removed an item from a secured location.
Monday, March 26
No crimes were reported for this date.
Crime reports compiled by VCU Police
Men's basketball notebook • 7 Baseball defeats Liberty on the road • 8 Hurt named Associated Press Honorable Mention All-American • 9
Last weekend, rumors of VCU and George Mason plotting a move from the CAA to the Atlantic-10 conference spread both on a local and national level, but have since been shot down by CAA commissioner Tom Yeager, as well as the schools themselves.
This season, a lack of quality wins in non-conference play raised questions about the legitimacy of the league, which subsequently caused RPI rankings to suffer, and once again the CAA was left with one measley automatic bid. Drexel went 16-2 in conference play and lost by three points to VCU in the conference championship, but still finished outside the bubble in what was widely considered the most surprising NCAA Tournament snub of the season.
Both universities issued statements on Monday saying they had not formally discussed a move, but speculation of eventual realignment still remains. With talks of Butler joining the A-10 as well, VCU and George Mason would have been the perfect ingredients for a mid-major super-conference, with teams like Xavier, Dayton, Richmond and St. Louis already in place. Temple, one of the A-10’s elite programs, is leaving for the Big East in 2013, which has led the conference to begin searching for new members.
For VCU and George Mason, the pros and cons of bolting from the CAA are numerous in both directions, but we’ll start with the cons.
For one, they would be essentially tearing apart an up-and-coming conference filled with quality programs, good coaches and legitimate rivalries. Both the Rams and the Patriots would be turning their backs on Old Dominion, which among the three schools, has been arguably the most heated rivalry in Virginia in recent years. In addition, Drexel and Delaware are coming off highly successful seasons, with seemingly bright futures ahead of them. Just a year ago, the CAA received two at-large bids into the NCAA Tournament, proving that the conference does have potential to be more than a one-bid league.
However, as we saw this year, potential is meaningless when it isn’t reached.
The easy answer for why Drexel didn’t get in would be to say they didn’t have enough non-conference wins, but if you look at their schedule, there were enough quality wins to put them over the edge. Yes, they lost to Virginia and St. Joseph’s early in the year, but they went on to earn top-100 RPI wins over Princeton, Fairfield and Cleveland State, as well as VCU and George Mason within the conference. So, maybe the reason Drexel missed the NCAA’s Tournament has less to do with whom didn’t they beat, but whom they did.
Buried at the bottom of the CAA standings is Towson, a team that has gone a combined 1-35 in conference play over the past two seasons. The Tigers ranked 307 in the RPI and received national publicity for an unprecedented 41-game losing streak which finally came to an end when they beat UNC-Wilmington Jan. 28. For a team like Drexel vying for an at-large bid, where RPI and strength of schedule are equally if not more important than overall record, playing against Towson hurts your cause regardless of whether you win or lose the game.
Drexel held Towson to an absurd 27 points in their first meeting and 57 in the second one, but saw its RPI drop 11 and 6 spots respectively, simply for playing the games. VCU, George Mason and all the other teams throughout the conference faced the same dilemma going up against Towson and 293rd-ranked William & Mary. VCU faced William & Mary and Towson two times apiece this season, and after each game took a significant hit in the rankings despite winning all four matchups. For the elite teams around the conference, the penalties for competing against these basement teams continue to multiply as
they play each other, which shows the importance of having a league that is solid from top to bottom.
Just three years ago, William & Mary finished ahead of both VCU and George Mason in the CAA, so the program itself is not the problem, nor is relegation a permanent solution. The problem is that the CAA consistently has teams, regardless of whom they may be in a given year, that are ranked near the very bottom in the country, and it reflects poorly on the rest of the conference.
In the A-10, there is no such problem. This season, the worst RPI in the conference was Rhode Island, who finished the season ranked 254. Beyond that, the league had nine teams finish within the top 100 in terms of RPI, compared to just three in the CAA –and two of those three were George Mason and VCU themselves.
If VCU and George Mason do decide to make a move, they would be opening doors for much easier paths to the NCAA Tournament in future seasons.
The A-10 has had multiple NCAA bids
for the past five seasons and had three this year. Rather than having to rack up non-conference wins in November and December, VCU and Mason would be able to prove themselves in conference play, and have it mean something to the selection committee.
The CAA is a competitive conference chocked full of solid programs, but when speaking in terms of at-large bids, there is not much of a comparison to the opportunities in the A-10, especially if Butler joins from the Horizon League as well. The schools will likely continue to deny any talks of a potential move, but it’s hard to believe that reports from CBS Sports indicating otherwise were completely erroneous.
For VCU and Mason, no such move would take place before the 2013-2014 season when Temple departs from the A-10, but as both look to establish themselves as elite mid-majors with atlarge potential every year, realignment could be a big step in that direction. CT
The VCU athletics department dismissed any speculation that the school might leave the Colonial Athletic Association to join the Atlantic-10 in a statement Monday.
Rumors emerged after CBSSports. com released a report stating VCU, George Mason and Butler were in talks with the A-10 to join the league in the 2013-2014 season.
“VCU is a proud member of the CAA,” VCU athletic director Norwoord Teague said in the statement. “There have been no discussions with any other conferences concerning changing out affiliation. Contrary to media reports, the VCU Board of Visitors has not met about nor discussed conference realignment.”
This comes just under a month after the VCU men’s basketball team won its fourth CAA Championship since 2004.
Bradford Burgess will don his VCU jersey one last time as the senior from Midlothian has been invited to take part in a pair of activities going on at the Final Four in New Orleans this week. Burgess will participate in the ESPN College Three-Point Championships Thursday evening before joining the West squad in the NABC Reese’s AllStar Game Friday afternoon.
“I’m excited to get another opportunity to put on the VCU uniform again and hopefully have some fun down there,” Burgess said. “Being a part of Final Four week is always special, and to get this opportunity two years in a row is something that not a lot of players get a chance to do. I’m really appreciative of getting an invitation to both of these events.”
The ESPN Three-Point Championships will be at the Fogelman Arena on the campus of Tulane University and will air on ESPN from 9 to 11 p.m. Thursday. The
All-Star game will take place at the New Orleans SuperDome Friday at 4:35 p.m.
Burgess participates in these events one year after helping guide VCU to its first-ever Final Four. He sits fourth in career points at VCU, finished second in three-pointers made (231) and seventh in three-point field goal percentage (.397).
Christian leaves VCU for head coaching job at Mount St. Mary’s Mount St. Mary’s University officially named former VCU assistant Jamion Christian its new head coach.
Christian spent one year with VCU, helping guide the Rams to a CAA Championship and a trip to the third round of the NCAA Tournament. Before joining the Rams, Christian spent three years at William & Mary where he helped build what was named one of the best mid-major recruiting classes by ESPN.com and Scouts, Inc.
Christian replaced former VCU assistant Mike Rhoades who left to become head coach at Radford after the Rams journey to the Final Four in 2011. A graduate and former athlete at Mount St. Mary’s, Christian was a three-year captain on the school’s basketball team.
“I am both thrilled and humbled to be returning to the Mount,” said Christian. “I look forward to bringing energy and enthusiasm back to our historic program one passionate day at a time.”
McCarter to transfer according to report
Redshirt freshman Reco McCarter will transfer from VCU, according to a report by CBSSports.com.
VCU’s sports information office could not confirm nor deny the report.
McCarter redshirted his initial year at VCU and averaged just 1.6 minutes a game. The 6-foot-7, 190-pound guard is a fan favorite for his acrobatic dunk attempts at the end of games.
Should McCarter transfer, it would free up one of VCU’s 13 scholarships. The Rams have three incoming freshman and lose just one senior from the 2011-2012 season. CT
Getting the job done in extra innings has become a normality as of late for the VCU baseball team.
On Tuesday, for the second time in three games, the Rams were forced to play extra innings. And once again, they came away with a victory.
VCU defeated Liberty 4-2 behind the bat of Joey Cujas, who went 3-for-4 with one run and three RBI.
With the game tied in the top of the 10th inning, Jordan Weymouth hit a double to left-center field, scoring Nick Kime and Paul Nice.
Junior closer Blake Hauser came on in the bottom of the 10th to finish the game and record his seventh save of the season.
VCU (13-12, 3-6) has now won two of its last three games heading into a three-game road series at Northeastern starting Friday night in Boston. CT
Courtney Hurt has racked up more than a couple accolades and awards in her four-year career at VCU.
The senior forward has even doubled up on a few.
Hurt achieved Honorable Mention Associated Press All-America honors for the second-straight season Tuesday. She became the first player in VCU's history to receive the award twice.
In her four-year career at VCU, Hurt led the Rams to the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament berth.
She finished her career as VCU's alltime leading scorer (2,092), rebounder (1,243) and double-double machine (58).
Most recently Hurt led the Rams to the WNIT's Round of 16 in her senior season. CT
In this section:
8 to 13-year-old girls field questions on rock stardom at Commons Theater • 11 Zut alors! Sacré bleu! and other French phrases surely to be heard at weekend festival • 12
Tonight will mark the opening reception of the annual Juried Student Fine Arts Exhibition at the Anderson Gallery.
Undergraduate students from all departments were invited to submit their strongest and most mature work to the undergraduate show, with all media eligible.
Each year, a different guest curator is invited to select pieces for the show. This year the responsibility fell to Tina Kukielski, previous senior curatorial assistant at the Whitney Museum of American Art (WMAA) in New York and current co-curator of the 2013 Carnegie International, an international survey of contemporary art.
Of the approximately 80 students accepted into the undergraduate show, Leah Paschal and Michaela Amato were two of five art foundation (AFO) majors to make the cut.
“I’m more surprised than anything else, I think,” Amato said. “I’ve never shown my work anywhere except for the confines of a classroom, so … I’m very excited and very surprised.”
Amato’s charcoal self-portrait “Grandma’s Lace” is the result of a “Reveal/Conceal” assignment completed during the fall semester under instructor Ryan Laterio.
“I’m still kind of sorting out in my own mind how I figure out if I like something or not,” Amato said of her opinions surrounding other accepted works. “I tend not to have a strong opinion on something because I’m a new artist – I don’t even know if you can call me that. I’m new to art. I don’t feel comfortable saying what’s good and what’s not. Everything I saw (submitted to the show) looked amazing.”
Paschal was perhaps even more caught off guard by her acceptance, which she heard by word of mouth from a couple of friends while walking home.
“I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’” Paschal said of her reaction to the various “congratulations!” she
received. “I thought they were being (expletive)s and were gonna say something mean like, ‘Your bike got stolen.’”
Paschal’s graphite portrait “Army Veteran,” one of two works that were accepted into the show, is the product of exactly 20 hours of drawing – no more, no less.
Kinetic imaging junior Aissatou Barry returns for a second year after previously featuring a sound piece in last year’s undergraduate show. Barry received the juror’s choice award for her video “Wake Up Call,” which features the “rhythmic struggle of a young lady refusing to get out of bed despite her alarm clock.”
“VCUarts is full of talented students,” Barry said. “I do not doubt that the pieces, whether they made it into the show or not, are wonderful and inspiring. … Even if you have doubts about your work, it is always good to submit something.”
An international student hailing from China, sophomore graphic design major Yanci Wu received the Dean’s Award for her two-and-a-half minute stop-motion animation, “China Doll.”
With characters and settings crafted entirely by Wu’s hand, the animation celebrates the traditional Chinese New Year and is thus meant to be a lighthearted and playful piece. Wu’s process, as with any stop motion animation, involved the manipulation of her characters by hand and the documenting of the process through thousands of images, which comprise the final short film.
“When I was in AFO, I submitted some of my favorite works, but none of them got in. I was disappointed, so this time I didn’t expect anything,” Wu said. “I didn’t plan to submit any work (this year). I submitted my pieces five minutes (before the deadline).” CT
Tonight’s opening reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. The undergraduate show will be on view at the Anderson Gallery from March 19 to April 15. Viewing hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays through Fridays, noon to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, with the gallery closed on Mondays.
The Student Commons Theater held the premiere of a Richmond-made documentary on last summer’s Girls Rock! camp this past Monday.
GR! RVA, a newly formed volunteerbased, free-admission summer camp, took place – and was filmed for a documentary – July 25 through July 29 last summer. Twenty-two girls ranging from ages 8 to 13 from the Richmond metropolitan area attended.
The idea behind GR! originated 11 years ago in Portland, Ore. and has since gained momentum, not just in the U.S. but also as far away as Sweden and Germany. This past July, the idea was picked up as a collaboration between the VCU Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies and the VCU Office of Multicultural Student Affairs.
Strapped with donated guitars, drums, basses and speaker systems, the program’s young staff came together in St. Andrew’s school in Oregon Hill with the sole intent to bring out confidence and empower young potential rock stars, one note at a time.
“I want to create that safe, positive space for girls to be empowered, for girls to see it’s okay to express yourself in other ways including music,” said staff member Susan Segura, a senior urban
studies and geography double major at VCU. “Even if you don’t know how to play an instrument, we will teach you.”
During the week-long venture, campers received basic instruction on how to play the instruments they were randomly assigned – drums, bass, guitar, keyboard or vocals. They then formed bands with each other, decided on their own name and wrote their own songs to be performed at an end-of-camp showcase.
In addition to music lessons, workshops were set up to raise campers’ awareness of topics such as women’s images in popular media. This was one of the more important aspects of the camp for volunteer and VCU social work
major Melissa Giorgi.
“It’s important because women do not see themselves represented in magazines, media, music and really anything mainstream,” Giorgi said. “I think having a camp where the volunteers get along with each other and working with each other and us kind of modeling that behavior.”
The camp can “show girls it is okay to act yourself,” Segura said, and to “not be ... influenced by others, but take their positives and break their own person out of what they see out of each person.”
During a Q-and-A with the audience after the documentary screening Monday night, the young Girls Rock! alumnas seemed giddy with joy to come together on the floor and have a chance to answer some questions from the audience. After much loud banter and expressed admiration for the volunteers, the girls chanted in unison, “This camp is the coolest ever!”
The Q-and-A ended with a chant that was quite prominent throughout the documentary where the volunteers and campers shout “Girls Rock!” and the audience responds, “RVA!” CT
Samantha Foster Assistant Spectrum Editor
The French Film Festival is back to celebrate its 20th year of providing French films and culture to American Francophiles this Friday.
The brainchild of Françoise Ravaux-Kirkpatrick, professor of French and film studies at the University of Richmond and her husband Peter Kirkpatrick, professor of French and film studies at VCU, the three-and-ahalf-day festival is held every year at the Byrd Theatre.
Those who do not speak French need not fear: Every film is subtitled in English.
One of the more well-known attributes of the festival is that actors, directors, producers or screen writers
will attend the showing of their film and hold a Q-and-A session after the film. The session is also translated into English if the visitor does not speak English. There is never a point during the French Film Festival where a lack of French-speaking abilities will hinder its attendees.
More than a dozen films will be shown this weekend, of which the following several have been deemed must-sees. For the festival’s 20th anniversary, all of the films shown Thursday evening – as well as the Saturday night screening of “Cyrano de Bergerac” – will be free of charge. Tickets for the remaining films are $15 and available at the door.
“La Clé des champs” is playing at 11 a.m. on Saturday, with a Q-and-A session with the two directors after the film.
The basic concept of the film is that two children are playing alone at a pond when they encounter a secret realm. There, they see imaginary creatures which both delight and frighten them. The two children are drawn closer together through these experiences and are given the strength to grow up and
continue with life.
Put simply, this film is very foreign. The cinematography is beautiful and the colors are stunning, but there will be long moments of complete silence during the film. Small jokes will be thrown into the dialogue that will go right over the American audiences’ heads. Art students will love the look of the film, but no promises are made as to whether or not the story line will deliver.
“Camus” will be shown at 10 p.m. on Saturday, probably to a very specific audience of literary nerds. The film follows the last 10 years of the author Albert Camus’ life and the women he loved. During this time of Camus’ life, he was called the “steady inconstant”
and became obsessed with the concept of absurdism.
The actor who portrayed Albert Camus, Stéphane Freiss will be attending the Q-and-A after the film. “Camus” is the perfect film for those who have read novels by Camus and no one else.
“Des vents contraires” is showing Friday at 5 p.m. This film tells the story of a man whose wife goes missing suddenly. After a year of searching for her with no luck, he moves back to his hometown, with his two sons, where he builds an unexpected but still better life.
The wife in the film is played by Audrey Tautou, most famous in America for her role in “Amelie,” but since she immediately goes missing, there isn’t much hope of seeing her for long.
This film promises to be the quintessential sad but still uplifting story. Go with a friend or significant other and a box of tissues.
Playing Saturday at 7 p.m., “Cyrano de Bergerac” is free as a special-anniversary screening. “Cyrano de Bergerac” played at the very first French Film Festival in 1992. This year though, the director, Jean-Paul Rappeneau, will be attending the screening and holding a Q-and-A session after the film.
“Cyrano de Bergerac” follows the title character as he falls in love with his cousin, Roxane. Cyrano writes her beautiful poetry, but because of his usually large nose, he fears that Roxane
will never accept him. Cyrano then calls upon his handsome yet shy friend Christian, who is also in love with Roxane, to read Cyrano’s poetry. Roxane falls for Christian’s poetry readings, not knowing that Cyrano is the true author of the poetry which has captured her heart. There is a classic love story element, with the physical humor of having a giant nose. This comedy is sure to entertain viewers, once you get past the fact that Cyrano is in love with his own cousin.
“Poupouidou,” or “Nobody Else but You,” will be playing at 1 p.m. on Saturday. This film has already been making its way to American audiences and is the film pictured on the French Film Festival posters.
“Poupouidou” follows a best-selling crime novelist as he meets Candice Lecoeur, the beautiful woman pictured on cheese packaging. Candice believes that she is the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe and the novelist only meets
Candice after she has died because of an overdose of sleeping pills. Confused yet? The novelist does not believe that Candice died of an overdose and continues on a mission to find the truth and the inspiration for his next novel.
While this comedy will leave the audience laughing, they will also be utterly confused at what they just witnessed and continue to ramble incoherently about it for days.
‘DES vEnTS ConTRAiRES’
‘PoUPoUiDoU’
‘LA CLÉ DES ChAMPS’
‘CyRAno DE BERgERAC’
Dear Rachel, I’m freaking out over my housing situation. I want to choose the right roommates, but I’ve done really poorly in the past with picking the right people. What are some red flags I should look out for?
Sam, 19
The great misanthrope Woody Allen once said, “Confidence is what you have before you understand the problem.” It seems your confidence in how good a roommate you obviously are has overshadowed the fact that you have really bad taste in people; I hope you never come to me for relationship advice because I wouldn’t know how to fix you.
When choosing a roommate, I find it hard to gauge a person’s true intentions without interviewing them and/or following them with binoculars. That, however, can take up a lot of time that you aren’t willing to spend off of Facebook. So here are some quick tips and questions to ask yourself while you choose a roomie for that outhouse-apartment you call home:
• Is the person a jerk? Get to know them a little better by either hanging out on a Saturday night or buying a cell phone interceptor. Either way you’ll know their true nature soon enough.
• Is the person clean? You don’t live in a pigsty! You did that last summer! Find a person who is willing to take the trash out at least once a month.
• Did this person really enjoy high school? If the words “lax” or “bro” ever comes out of a potential roomie’s mouth, you need to leave. I can’t think of a bigger red flag.
• How do they deal with stress? Stage a fake mugging, but make it as real as possible: usage of a crowbar and bodily harm included. If it came down to it, you need to know if they’d fight off a robber to save your television.
• If all your friends turn you down, try a different approach like a casual acquaintance or the “seeking” section of Craigslist.
• If the person you’re considering is morally bankrupt or actually bankrupt, that is a red flag. Also, why are you talking to a poor person in the first place?
You seem like a nice, not-crazy person so I’d stick with being clear about what you want in a roommate. Don’t make yourself out to be a perfect roommate because you probably aren’t, and that will only create unnecessary tension – I should know. More simply: Life is short, so pick someone who won’t make you cry.
In this section:
Demanding more than justice for Trayvon Martin • 14 Studies report decrease of empathy in college students • 15
The definition of corruption is when power abuses power in order to protect power.
That’s what happened here: An unarmed youth is shot and killed by an empowered individual on little evidence and against the will of authority. But what started as a case of injustice evolved into an issue that reignited the status quo of race in America.
What the issue is being made in to, however, almost detracts from the core problem affecting America today: Laws used to protect the people are time and time again used to circumvent justice, protect those in power and their interest, and punish victims.
From celebrities that are arrested for DUIs and drug possession to the moral and financial injustices that brought about the Occupy Wall Street movement, we see our justice system being carried about like change in a purse, to be doled out at the whim of
whomever carries it.
For every moment that George Zimmerman walks untried, for every moment that Trayvon Martin and his family are delayed their justice, the powers that be stand guilty. Justice delayed is justice denied. That imbalance alone should have struck a cord and rang against the scales of justice.
But now a movement, clad in solidarity against racial injustice, has been unleashed.
We are imbued in a struggle to reconstruct and fix the broken, controversial and sensitive narrative of race in America. Our society and culture passively encourages the enforcement of stereotypes and racism, from casual jokes in sitcoms to individuals that get away with publicly disrespecting and comparing the president of the United States, a black man, to a monkey.
The struggle is as real as racism, and to deny it is criminally ignorant. There is an unspoken burden upon young, black men in America – a burden that
denies us the right to dress as we want; a burden that dictates we avoid certain areas at certain times, a burden that mandates store clerks peer more closely at our browsing.
We are inherently suspect, and it is physically and mentally exhausting.
We have to follow a different social curriculum than other youths.
When Martin was shot while abiding by those unspoken rules passed onto us by fearful parents, we all shuddered.
But when the sun set, Martin wasn’t solely shot because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, or because he was black, or wearing a hoodie.
massive overarching issue of race and stereotypes, we seek to correct an imbalance and miscarriage of power. The current movement of “I am Trayvon Martin” is a movement to correct that balance by recognizing and taking action against a significant instability within that equation: racial injustice.
We should view the issue not solely as a miscarriage of power that resulted in the death of a 17-year-old boy, but also as a miscarriage of power, one that speaks volumes about a system.
There is an unspoken burden upon young, black men in America – a burden that denies us the right to wear to dress how we want, a burden that dictates we avoid certain areas at certain times, a burden that mandates store clerks peer more closely at our browsing.
Martin was shot because a man with power sought to enforce his power.
He was shot because of a corrupt system.
He was shot because Zimmerman had and has the backing of a system of compliance and skewed acceptance.
When we hold rallies and talk about the racial aspects of the issue, we don’t just seek to correct the
The power that should be condemning and trying Zimmerman is instead protecting him. The power that should be bringing justice to a boy’s senseless death instead rests impotently. Making this issue solely about race does not critically trivialize it, but takes away a more human aspect and component of it.
Remember Trayvon Martin. Remember that racial injustice is also human injustice. CT
How much do you really care about others?
According to a study done by the University of Michigan, college students are less empathetic today compared to students 20 to 30 years ago. Overall, students today are about 40 percent less empathetic than those of the ’80s or ’90s.
While the study reveals the drop in empathy, the research done by the university does not address the reason behind it. Some people have speculated that social-networking sites have made us self-obsessed, and because of this, college students have become less empathetic.
Whether or not these are contributing factors, it is clear that the students to whom we are being compared came from a completely different world than ours.
Today, our society is fast-paced and dominated by technology. Society has numerous ways of connecting with one another through the emergence
of social-networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.
Technology is growing, and our society is rapidly changing. We are drifting farther from the reality of the late 20th century. Maybe the speculators are right, and the decrease in empathy is due to the possible self-obsession that results from social-networking websites.
These websites allow us to connect, at least on a superficial basis, with hundreds of people, many of whom we probably do not know on a personal level. No matter where we are or what we’re doing, we can usually find a way to connect with the cyber-realm; most of us are guilty of checking these sites on a constant basis, despite what else we may be doing.
Social-networking sites can be seen as very self-centered. While they may have originated as a way to stay connected with people, they are also methods of constantly letting people into our world and minds, at least the aspects which we dare to share.
On Facebook, we have a profile that we update religiously, telling people what we are up to, what we are thinking,
and even where we may be. On Twitter, we do the same thing: we share what we’re thinking, doing or we comment on the thoughts and actions of others.
Despite this, I would hesitate in dumping the majority of the blame on these sites. Just looking at the last couple of weeks, we can see the empathy students displayed as a nation through social networking.
Through Facebook and Twitter, numerous people have expressed their outrage toward the Trayvon Martin case or disgust toward the Kony 2012 situation because of the awareness raised through these very sites. This support comes as a result of the feeling of social injustice toward both situations, which comes as a result of the empathy that allows us to feel this injustice.
I will admit that I have met many people who fulfill the image of a typical self-obsessed teenager that seems to lack the ability to empathize with others and is unable to or struggles to see situations from another’s perspective.
There is evidence to support the claim that empathy is a trait with which
we are born because it appears naturally in children. The ability to empathize, however, can be influenced as we progress through our lives, diminishing or growing.
If we are truly less empathetic now than before, then there is not a single or dual cause. If people are becoming less empathetic, it probably has more to do with the way society is structured and how kids today are being brought up.
In this fast-paced society, many of us struggle to keep up and build a place for ourselves, which is perhaps why we sometimes fail to take a glance at the world around us. The way empathy is defined by this study is outdated and should not be measured by daily acts of kindness towards strangers or how much of our day we dedicate to thinking of others.
Martin’s case and Kony 2012 have proven that when we want – and when we feel passionately enough – we are able to empathize and feel for the wrongdoings of the world. These sentiments are strengthened, not diminished, by social networking. CT
