Photos by Amber-Lynn Taber
Hundreds demonstrate for women’s rights at state Capitol, 31 arrested
Thirty-one women’s rights demonstrators were arrested Saturday in a state Capitol protest that drew hundreds of people and a police response including officers in riot gear.
The rally was the latest held in opposition to contentious General Assembly bills that have drawn attention far beyond the state, including a measure that would require women to undergo a transabdominal ultrasound before having an abortion.
Some protesters, wearing red armbands and holding signs that included “Gov. McDonnell get out of my vagina,” urged the governor to reject the legislation, which is headed to his desk.
Capt. Raymond J. Goodloe of the Division of Capitol Police said 17 women and 14 men were arrested, though representatives of groups involved with the event said they believed more were taken into custody. Goodloe did not have a breakdown on charges, but said those arrested were likely accused of either trespassing or unlawful assembly, both misdemeanors.
Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch
Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones wants to use savings on old debt to pay for the city’s share of financing a new baseball stadium on North Boulevard.
The stadium financing plan is part of the mayor’s ambitious package of priorities for using $62.1 million from repayment of the city’s loan to the Richmond Metropolitan Authority in 1966 to pay off debts, build reserves and jump-start priorities in the 2012-2013 budget he will present to the City Council on Tuesday.
As part of the plan, Jones wants to pay off $26.1 million in debt that carries an average interest rate of 5 percent and then issue $36 million in new debt at an interest rate of 3 percent.
The difference would allow Richmond to save $1.5 million a year for its share of debt service on a $50 million stadium it proposes to build with the Richmond Flying Squirrels and the counties of Henrico and Chesterfield.
“When it’s time to play ball, we want to be ready to step to the plate,” Jones said Friday in a news conference at City Hall to preview his budget proposal.
Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch
The civil action brought by the families of April 16th victims Julia Pryde and Erin Peterson is set to begin Monday morning in Montgomery County circuit court.
In anticipation that it might be harder to select a jury, the court summoned approximately 90 people to report to the courthouse as part of a pool where attorneys for both sides will select a jury panel of seven and two alternates.
The trial could last two weeks.
The families of Pryde and Peterson are suing the commonwealth over the way Virginia Tech officials handled the response to the April 16th massacre at Norris Hall, alleging the university bungled its response to the first set of shootings that morning at West Ambler Johnston Hall.
Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch
Syrian forces launched a fresh assault on Homs on Saturday as the Red Cross pressed forward with efforts to deliver badly needed aid to thousands of people stranded in a besieged neighborhood despite warnings from regime troops of land mines and booby traps.
Two days after they fought their way into the rebel stronghold of Baba Amr, government forces shelled several other neighborhoods of the city, the country’s third-largest with about 1 million people. They included districts where many of Baba Amr’s residents had fled, activists said.
Conditions in Baba Amr are believed to be dire, with extended power outages, shortages of food and water, and lack of medical care. The Red Cross said the regime blocked its entry to Baba Amr on Friday.
“We are still in negotiations to enter Baba Amr,” ICRC spokesman Hicham Hassan said Saturday in Geneva.
The Syrians said they were not letting the Red Cross into Baba Amr because of safety concerns, including land mines, Hassan said, adding that the organization had not been able to verify the danger. The government has not offered an official explanation.
Brief by the Associated Press
Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh apologized Saturday to a Georgetown University law student he had branded a “slut” and “prostitute” after fellow Republicans as well as Democrats criticized him and several advertisers left his program.
The student, Sandra Fluke, had testified to congressional Democrats in support of their national health care policy that would compel her college to offer health plans that cover her birth control.
“My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir,” Limbaugh said on his website. “I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.”
Fluke said earlier that she anticipated criticism but not personal attacks from prominent pundits including Limbaugh, and from hundreds of people who have typed even more offensive slurs on Twitter.
“I understood that I’m stepping into the public eye,” said Fluke, 30. “But this reaction is so out of the bounds of acceptable discourse. ... These types of words shouldn’t be applied to anyone.”
Brief by the Associated Press
BP’s settlement with plaintiffs suing the company over the 2010 oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico may address harm to individuals and businesses, but there is nothing in it that compensates the public for damage to its natural resources and environment, the Justice Department said Saturday.
That’s a potentially critical issue because a separate victims’ claims fund that was set up months after the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion was also meant to cover environmental damages, but it’s now expected to be used to cover the BP settlement with plaintiffs. BP said it expects to pay out $7.8 billion in the settlement with the plaintiffs that was announced Friday.
Brief by the Associated Press
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Although they are still grieving, the friends of VCU student Carolina Perez will not let the cause of her death be forgotten.
A small group of students who knew Perez plans to push initiatives that address drunken driving within the VCU community to the university’s administration.
They plan to request that the university devote more resources to raise awareness about the dangers of drunken driving, as well as implement more aggressive preventative measures, like more DUI checkpoints throughout the school year and stricter punishments for students who drink and drive.
Qasim Kazmi, a junior biology major in the pre-med concentration, knew Perez through the VCU Acceleration Program. He said if immediate action is taken by students and the administration, Perez’s story could have national impact in the fight against drunken driving.
“If this story was to reach others, and they knew that there was a university student who was killed by a student from the same university because of drunk driving, it would really wake people up,” Kazmi said. “But before it gets out to the entire country, we need to realize it ourselves.”
Carolina Perez, a sophomore biology major at VCU, was killed in a DUI accident on Wednesday, Feb. 22 that also left two other students injured.
The accused driver, Varinder “Vick” Chahal, is also a VCU student. He has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, driving under the influence and refusal to submit to blood and breath tests; he faces up to 20 years in prison.
Neither Chahal nor any of the four passengers in his car were injured in the accident.
About 84 percent of VCU students who responded to the 2011 American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment said they always or mostly use a designated driver when they party or socialize. Note: The 20.2 percent of people who responded that said they do not drink are included in the 84 percent.
Currently, the VCU alcohol and drug policy does not specifically address drunken driving. Kazmi said there needs to be clear, harsh consequences for students who drink and drive. Offcampus incidents should be punished as severely as on-campus ones, he said.
“This is something that affects the entire university so the administration should take the lead on this, make it a higher priority and address it,” Kazmi said.
Reuban Rodriguez, associate vice provost and dean of students at VCU, said in general, the university takes an educational approach to drunken-driving prevention.
If a student is caught and convicted of DUI, whether on or off-campus, they are required to attend counseling and go through the judicial affairs process to be punished, Rodriguez said.
The university relies on bystander training to reach the small percentage of students who self-identify as drunken drivers. Because the statistics show an overwhelming majority of students who do not drink and drive, the students who do are not easy to target, Rodriguez said.
“It’s a small percentage, and we may not be able to find those people very readily,” Rodriguez said. “If we’re doing extensive marketing and education, there are still going to be some people, perhaps, who don’t receive the message or don’t understand the message.”
Each spring, VCU participates in the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment. The survey collects data about student alcohol, tobacco and drug use, as well as sexual and mental health, nutrition and personal safety.
Five thousand VCU students were emailed the survey in 2011; more than 1,800 responded.
About 84 percent of VCU students who responded to the survey said they use a designated driver all or most of the time if they drink alcohol. Less than 4 percent of VCU students who responded said they never use a designated driver, according to the survey.
Linda Hancock, Ph.D, director of The Wellness Resource Center at VCU, said society has conditioned the majority of people to recognize drunken driving is dangerous. Even so, she said, a small segment of the population ignores the societal norm.
More than twice as many male students (5.3 percent) as female students (2.1 percent) will drive after drinking five or more drinks, according to the survey results.
That number of male students at VCU who will drive after drinking more than five drinks is slightly higher than the 2010 national average from the same survey (4 percent).
“It’s not surprising that there is this recalcitrant group of people that just won’t budge,” Hancock said. “Those
Continued on page 4
are the people you’ve got to pick up at a DUI checkpoint. You’ve got to change the culture.
“It takes a culture that sets up a system that will give people who are doing the wrong thing – that have major biological addiction issues – a reason to change,” Hancock said. “So we do need more DUI checkpoints. We do need to advertise it. Everyone needs to feel like they’re at risk.”
Last year, the VCU Police Department held six DUI checkpoints on campus with the help of the Richmond Police Department, State Police and Alcohol Beverage Control.
The number of checkpoints held each year depends on how much funding the VCU Police receive through a DMV grant program, said Chris Preuss, interim assistant chief for the VCU Police.
As a condition of receiving a grant, the DMV requires that an announcement is made before a checkpoint occurs. The police do not have to say where the checkpoint will be, but do have to publicize that it will happen, Preuss said.
“It makes people think the next time they’re sitting in a bar two weeks later, having an extra drink and planning to drive. They think, ‘Maybe this isn’t a good idea,’” Preuss said. “It’s an educational tool to make people think and make them aware that these things are going on.”
Small jurisdiction limits where the VCU Police can have a DUI checkpoint. The 700 block of West Main Street is chosen most often because it is spacious enough to ensure both officer and driver safety, Preuss said.
Visibility is also considered when
choosing a checkpoint’s location because future prevention is a high priority, Preuss said.
There have been 82 DUI arrests made by the VCU Police so far this school year, compared to 81 at this point last school year, VCU Police liaison Mike Porter said. Because VCU is an open campus, many of the people arrested in DUI cases on campus are not students, Preuss said.
There is no set date for the next DUI checkpoint on campus, but Preuss said there will be more checkpoints this semester if the state grants VCU police the money.
Some of the grant money is also used to pay patrol officers overtime to work between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., which are peak hours for DUI arrests, Preuss said.
For the friends of Carolina Perez, the message is simple: Take action or we’ll
grieve again.
“Somebody else is going to die because of drunk driving. We know it’s going to happen, and yet we just sit complacent and wait,” Kazmi said. “Everyone just pretends it’s going to be someone else. But in reality, it could be you. It could be your mother; it could be your father, your brother, your best friend. It could be anyone.”
Kazmi said the efforts to combat drunken driving must be student-based and administration-supported – a community effort.
“If others can learn from (this) then we can prevent it from happening again,” Kazmi said. “VCU is a community. It’s a family. If we don’t look out for each other, then who else will?” CT
VCU email users were alerted last week of a potential hiccup in email correspondence due to a phishing scam, but victims’ personal accounts may also be compromised.
• Any email from VCU will use the domain “vcu.edu.” Make sure to look out for domains like “vcu.edu.cn.”
• Look for spelling and grammar errors. If there are any, there is a possibility the email is a scam or phishing attempt.
• Any reputable company will not ask for passwords or credit card information unless you initiated the interaction.
• Some phishing emails will claim to be someone you know. Check with that person to see if they really did send the email.
• Always check the url of websites that emails advise you to click on.
On Friday, VCU Technology Services alerted VCU email users that the VCU email domain had been blacklisted from commercial email services. According to the alert, the blocking happened because of an increased amount of spam messages being sent from VCU email accounts.
The phishing scam was a targeted attack, said information security officer Dan Han. An email was sent to specific faculty and staff with a link. The link lead to a site that appeared to be VCU’s Central Authentication System and asked for the person’s username and password.
With that information, the attacker is able to access any VCU system that requires an eID and password including VCU’s wireless network, eServices and VCU email.
“Unfortunately we wont know whose eIDs are compromised until the eID is used to send out spam,” Han said.
Han said that VCU email users should be able to send emails to other email services with no problem once those services see a decreased amount of spam coming from the VCU domain.
According to the alert, VCU accounts had seen a “high rate” of phishing, or email scam, in the past week.
Han said that by Friday morning, Technology Services had been able to block the website and most of the spam had stopped, but there were still a few compromised accounts.
“We still had a couple of stragglers,” Han said. “I don’t think it’s quite over yet, but it is slowing down.”
In the week leading up to the block of VCU email, Han said there were
usually about five to 10 instances of an account sending a spam email.
On Friday morning, Han said there had been two.
VCU Technology Services blocked the website from the VCU network, so it can’t be accessed if a person is using the university network. The block does not protect users off-campus.
“This phishing scam is a little more sophisticated than others because the web page that you went to looked like a VCU webpage,” Han said. “It is unfortunate that people fell for it and were victimized by it.”
This is not the first major intrusion into VCU accounts this school year. Last semester, the FBI became involved in an investigation when a VCU server’s security was compromised and personal information of more than 176,000 current and former members of the VCU community were said to be hacked.
At the time of the attack, VCU Technology Services said there was a low risk of any of the personal information, which included Social Security numbers, had been taken.
The most recent attack is not related to last semester’s and Han said these attacks are not necessarily specific to VCU.
“As far as the scope of the attack and the number of attacks we’ve experienced, I don’t think VCU is being singled out for anything,” he said.
Han said that most phishing attacks, like last week’s, are generally easier for attackers.
“It is so easy for attackers to exploit a person...,” he said. “It’s a lot harder to jump through a firewall than trick a person into giving you information.”
VCU Tech Services said VCU email should have been removed from most other email services’ blacklists, but advises users to wait and then resend any messages that didn’t reach the recipient. CT
endorsed at least one alcohol dependence (AD) symptom
28%
endorsed at least one alcohol dependence (AD) symptom
(Knight, et.al, 2002)
endorsed two or more alcohol dependence (AD) symptoms
Students drank an average of 3.5 days per month
Students drank an average of 3.8 drinks during drinking days
endorsed two or more alcohol dependence (AD) symptoms
(Knight, et.al, 2002)
36% 41% 44% 6% 8% 11% 11% 4% 5%
Students drank an average of 3.8 days per month
Students drank an average of 2.9 drinks during drinking days
report trying marijuana report trying marijuana have used sedatives have used sedatives have tried stimulants have tried stimulants have tried cocaine have tried cocaine
*In 1999, the Harvard School of Public Health surveyed 23,751 students from 119 four-year colleges to report this data. The data above is from the full portion of the Spit for Science survey in which 3,623 students were eligible to participate. There was a 57 percent completion rate, meaning 2,056 VCU freshmen over the age of 18 completed the survey. For the spring survey, project manager Lisa Halberstadt says the study aims for 80 percent participation.
Liz Butterfield Contributing WriterThe Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics will conduct the spring portion of the Spit for Science study beginning in late March.
The study, which is open to all VCU freshman students over the age of 18, is a university-wide research project that aims to examine the effect of college life on students.
Approximately 2,000 freshmen –nearly 60 percent of the incoming class – participated last fall, said Spit for Science project manager Lisa Halberstadt. The project aims to involve more than 80 percent of the freshmen class in the spring survey.
The spring survey is the last opportunity for current freshmen to participate in the study.
“Ultimately, we hope to use what we learn to (give) feedback and develop better intervention and prevention programming specific to the needs of VCU students,” Halberstadt said.
The study is being directed by researchers Kenneth Kendler and Danielle Dick of the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics. It will follow VCU students through their years in college, beginning with the current freshmen class.
According to the study’s website, Spit for Science combines genetic background and personal information to better understand how genetic predispositions combine with environmental
factors that may contribute to alcohol and other substance abuse problems.
“This really is a representative VCU study. The rate of alcohol use, smoking, other drug use ... exactly map on to what it looks like in the big surveys that have been done across other college campuses. Our findings should be applicable to college students everywhere,” Dick said.
Dick said she believes that the study will contribute to not just to healthier outcomes for students at VCU, but have a national impact as well.
“This is the first project of its kind ever, anywhere, where it’s this big university-wide opportunity that incorporates both the survey component and the genetic components, so that we really have a more holistic picture of all the things that contribute to those outcomes and human health essentially,” Dick said.
All eligible students will receive emails and letters with links to the online survey during early March. The survey will be available for students starting March 5 and will run through April.
Students will be able to pick up their survey payments and T-shirts at the Franklin Street Gym between March 19 and March 30, Monday through Friday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Survey payments and T-shirts will also be available at the University Student Commons kiosk during the month of April, Monday through Friday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. CT
A VCU student was among victims in two late-night robberies last week.
The student was walking toward the Randolph community when he was robbed at gunpoint a few blocks from campus.
The robberies took place Thursday around midnight. The first robbery occurred at 11:40 p.m. Wednesday at the 200 block of South Harrison Street when the student was approached by two men and robbed at gunpoint.
According to Richmond Police, the gunman fired what they think to be a warning shot into the air as they fled on foot.
The second robbery took place shortly after on the 1800 block of
West Cary Street, this time with a getaway crew. The robbers matched the description of the first robbery by the victims, a man and a women walking along West Cary, with the addition of a male driver in a green, older four-door Honda.
Police are still seeking the robbers, who have been described as all being black males in their 20s between 5 feet, 5 inches and 5 feet, 8 inches tall. The robber wielding the gun was wearing a green and black hooded shirt and a black mask.
VCU Police released that the Honda was a Civic with the license plate XBY-8475. CT
Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers anonymously at (804) 780-1000, VCU police at (804) 828-1234 or can text VCUTIP to 274637 anonymously.
In this section:
Brandenberg booming once again for VCU • 7 Rams use last year's championship loss as motivation • 8
With five minutes left in VCU’s (276, 15-3) 74-64 win over George Mason (24-9, 14-4) on Sunday, and the Rams holding a nine-point lead, Shaka Smart and point guard Darius Theus were at a crossroads: Sit on the ball and milk the clock, or continue to attack.
“It’s a fine line, and it’s something that we need to get better at, to be honest with you,” Smart told The CT. “When you get up by a big margin, you want the clock to run; you want to be smart. Conventional wisdom says you should be more conservative, but today that worked against us.”
It was a sticky dilemma, perhaps even a Catch-22 because if they tried to run out the clock, they would have put the offense at a disadvantage and risk wasting possessions as the Patriots rode a wave of momentum. However, if they kept playing for transition baskets, they would risk giving Mason an excess of possessions and opportunities. Luckily for the Rams, Smart and Theus found a medium between the two evils as some timely free-throw shooting sealed the game for VCU.
“We knew they weren’t going to give up that easily,” Theus, who recorded seven assists and three steals to go along with five points, said. “We would throw a few blows, they would throw a few blows, but like Coach tells us we keep battling for 40 minutes, and you saw the outcome. We did our job.”
“I was just telling Darius, ‘Run the show, make sure we get a great shot, make sure we eat all passes (meaning step out on passes),’ and he did a nice job of making sure we did that,” Smart added.
Despite the fact that his team scored the game’s first 22 points and led by as many as 28 in the first half, Smart said something didn’t quite feel right at halftime.
“It was a strange halftime speech for us because we were up 16 but at the same time didn’t feel like we were playing very well,” he said.
Mason trailed 41-13 at one point in the first half, but showed fortitude by getting the lead to as few as six in the second half. Bradford Burgess said that he and the coaching staff knew the Patriots would go on a run; it was just a matter of how big of a run that would be, and how VCU would respond.
Burgess and the Rams responded well enough, which mentally was a difficult task considering how the game began, with things being seemingly over five minutes into the game and VCU leading by 20. VCU connected on its first seven three-point attempts and hit 11 on the evening, with five coming from Burgess and four from Troy Daniels. Burgess finished with 20 points, and Daniels had 17 along with six rebounds and one of his best defensive performances all season.
With the win, VCU takes the season series 2-1 over Mason, and advances to the CAA title game to face Drexel on Monday night at 7 p.m. The Rams also improved their chances of earning an atlarge bid into the NCAA Tournament, should they fail to pick up an automatic bid by beating the Dragons in the championship.
However, the VCU players don’t have their minds on the dreaded bubble or any sort of Bracketology for that matter. They want the automatic bid.
“I’m pretty sure they’re (the selection committee) looking at us more now, but we don’t want to put it in their hands,” Briante Weber said.
Weber and VCU are one win away from taking it out of the committee’s hands, but will have to hand Drexel its first loss in 20 games in order to do so. CT
by chris conway
Adam Stern Executive Editor
With Rob Brandenberg having dropped double-digits in the scoring column in four of his last five games now, it’s easy to forget that the sophomore was in the most prolonged shooting slump of his career not long ago.
Yet with those recent double-digit scoring performances having being in BracketBusters, the CAA Tournament and against one of VCU’s biggest rivals in George Mason three times, Brandenberg himself has completely moved on from the struggles.
“What’s life without a little adversity?” Brandenberg asked rhetorically. “The shooting slump, whatever you want to call it … I don’t remember it.
“Its’ definitely made me stronger mentally … so it definitely made me a better person off the court as well. I’m just ready to play my game like everyone knows I can and just do whatever I can do make the team win.”
The way most people had known Brandenberg could play prior to the slump stemmed from his superb freshman campaign in which he played a major role in the Rams’ Final Four foray. Yet when his shot went cold midway through this season, he didn’t lose his muscle memory or his shooting form during that stretch, but he did lose his mental edge.
“It was definitely a mental road block: You can get in the gym and shoot a million shots, but it’s a whole different ball game when you get in the game,” Brandenberg said to The CT after the game. “Your mind has to be clear; you can’t play the game with a mental block in your head – you can’t do it – I passed that hurdle, and it’s all about right now.”
Right now, Brandenberg is on fire.
The shooting guard went 5-of-8 from the field – including 1-of-4 from distance – versus the Patriots. And this is
one night after going 6-for-11 and 3-of-5 from distance versus Northeastern in the tournament quarterfinal.
“I credit Coach Smart and my teammates for just always telling me to keep on shooting,” Brandenberg said. “Shots are going to eventually fall. I stuck with it.”
He also helped stick the dagger to the Patriots via the Rams opening 22-0 stanza – the sort of run that had men who had been around the game for decades questioning if they had ever seen such a thing before.
“That’s one of the craziest first halves I’ve ever been a part of: Everything was clicking, defensively we were on the same page – rotating at the right time –and offensively hitting shots getting and breakaways,” Brandenberg said.
“GMU definitely came back and threw us their best punch, but we withstood it and made enough plays to win the game.” And with that win, the Rams now have the chance to win the CAA Championship – and secure an NCAA Tournament berth that Brandenberg wants to have again desperately in the process.
“The NCAA Tournament, last year, I’m not trying to really think about it, but it’s probably one of the best basketball experiences I’ve ever had,” Brandenberg said. “To have a chance to play for a berth tomorrow night on national TV: This is what you play for, so I know we’re all going to be ready to go, and we’re going to have one another’s backs.” CT
I credit Coach Smart and my teammates for just always telling me to keep on shooting. Shots are going to eventually fall. I stuck with it.
“Sophomore guard Rob Brandenberg had 14 points, three steals and two blocks in VCU's win over George Mason.
”Photo by chris conway
Jim Swing
Sports Editor
A stroll through the VCU locker room Sunday night exerted a uncommon aura considering the circumstances.
The Rams had just dismantled George Mason to the tune of a 74-64 win in the CAA Tournament semifinals, earning a date with Drexel in the title game Monday night. It was a feat that usually warrants at least the tiniest bit of celebration.
Regardless, the mood was dour, and the faces looked unsatisfied.
Questions flooded into players’ ears about last year’s tournament final, where VCU fell to Old Dominion in a game that came down to the wire. Questions about the feeling of watching a championship slip away and its significance to this year’s final.
Junior point guard Darius Theus stared down at his burgundy colored beanie for a couple seconds before looking up and letting out a laugh.
“It's heartbreaking to lose that last one,” he said. “But it's a new year, and we're going to do our best to prepare to win.”
A year ago the Rams had to claw their way out of an 18-point hole against Old Dominion in the title game before closing to within one and eventually falling by five in the final minutes. At the time, NCAA Tournament hopes were seemingly dashed, and devastation fell over a VCU team that had come so far just to fall so hard.
“It's rough because last year we thought we had to win to get into the tournament,” senior Bradford Burgess said. “And we were all down, and it hurt.”
The loss left uncertainty surrounding
the Rams chances of an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament. A year later VCU finds itself in a similar position on the bubble. Freshman guard Briante Weber didn’t experience last year’s loss, for obvious reasons, but is well aware of the severity of the task at hand.
“This is where it starts; this is where that big run came in. They didn't win it last year but they were pretty close,” Weber said. “I just want to, as a team, I hope we just get a win and go from there.”
The Rams will get a Drexel team that’s currently on a 19-game winning streak and hasn’t experienced a loss dating all the way back to Jan. 2. The Dragons boast a strong and powerful frontcourt that compliments its new and improved group of scoring guards. Drexel defeated VCU by six points in the only regular-season matchup between the two teams in Philadelphia
on Jan. 8.
“I told the guys the team that shows a level of toughness mentally and physically more than the other will win,” VCU head coach Shaka Smart said. “And that's the bottom line.”
As far as the Rams are concerned, you get the sense it’s not the opponent, it’s the game. A missed opportunity a year ago seems fresh on their minds, adding to the hunger of a young team that was deemed fit for a rebuilding year before the season even started.
For VCU, losing a second-consecutive conference championship game is out of the question, and out of mind.
“We experienced that last year,” Burgess said. “And we're trying to have a different outcome this year.” CT
In this section: Space: Art ed major’s final frontier • 12 VCU's Van Gogh specimen goes on display Tuesday • 13 Student Art Space features art from VCU Qatar • 13
She eats Fruity Pebbles for breakfast, her bathroom houses a lucky toilet, and last year, she entered a contest to win a telescope. Now, she has a 5 percent chance of going to space.
Painting and printmaking graduate and current art education major Meredith “KC” Cosier entered the sweepstakes Space Race 2012 in fall of last year with the intention of winning a telescope, although she never actually won the telescope.
More than 50,000 people entered the contest, operated by the Seattle Space Needle in collaboration with the company Space Adventures, and one grand prize winner will receive a ticket to space. Space Adventures is a pioneer company in commercial space exploration, offering the onceinaccessible adventure of space flight to private citizens.
The winner of the contest will fly to 62 miles above the earth, which is just below orbit. They will experience several minutes of weightlessness and earn the status of bona fide astronaut.
Although the aircraft system has yet to be built, Space Adventures says that it will be ready in three to five years.
“I’m still not 100 percent convinced that Space Adventures is going to build this thing, when all they have is a simulation video. It’s a very nice simulation video, but there is no landing in the simulation video,” Cosier said.
When Cosier entered the contest in September, she never thought she would win the ticket to space, she said. For September, the monthly sweepstakes prize was a telescope, which was Cosier’s main goal.
“I didn’t necessarily think I was going to space. … It’s space. You can see it. You can look at videos, but there’s no way in hell you’re going to touch it,” Cosier said.
In December, Cosier learned that she was in the top 1,000 randomly selected semi-finalists. These semi-finalists were given the chance to create a two-minute video describing why they deserve to go to space.
“When I got the video chance, I didn’t want to turn in anything halfassed,” Cosier said. “Nine hundred ninety-nine other people also have this
opportunity. Now, maybe not all of them are art students or have 17 hours of time to spend on a stop motion.”
On Feb. 15, Cosier received an email stating that she was one of 20 people left in the competition to go to space. Every email Cosier recieved from Space Race 2012, she opened while sitting on the toilet, she said. This, and the persistently positive nature of the news, led her boyfriend to proclaim the toilet lucky.
“It’s one thing to say, ‘I’m one out of 1,000 people.’ It’s another thing to say ‘I’m one out of 20 people.’ I have a 5 percent chance of going to space,” Cosier said.
The 20 finalists’ videos were put onto the Space Needle Space Race 2012 Facebook page, where voters can view the 20 videos and vote for their favorite. Videos can be up-voted once every day through March 18.
The finalists will be announced midApril, and will then travel to Seattle to compete in another, as yet unknown, contest to choose the one person who will go to space.
Cosier’s video is a stop motion of the Seattle skyline, rendered in tissue
paper. In her video, Cosier describes the history of the Seattle Space Needle and how, as a future art teacher, she could use this experience to inspire her students.
“I’m going to be an art teacher. This is something I can tell my kids about. A wild dream that I had and the reason you shouldn’t give up your dreams because of the chance,” Cosier said.
While Cosier admits to dreaming of being an astronaut as a child, she also confessed that if she is given the opportunity to go to space, she “will probably s--- (herself).”
“I didn’t sign up for space,” she said. “I signed up for a telescope, but through this process, what I really got was a reminder that impossibility is a matter of belief.” CT
For more information on the Seattle Space Needle and Space Adventures’ Space Race 2012, visit their Facebook contest page at http://apps.facebook.com/ spaceracecompetition. Cosier’s video entry can be accessed directly at http://apps.facebook. com/spaceracecompetition/entries/141.
Already known as one of the best public art schools in the country, VCU can add to its list of achievements the possession of an original etching by famed painter Vincent Van Gogh.
The etching, titled “Man with a Pipe (Dr. Gatchet),” will be on display at Cabell Library on Tuesday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Although it was donated to VCU’s Anderson Gallery in 1974, the true value of the work went unnoticed – until it was unexpectedly found almost two decades later in a completely different place.
“I believe it was the 1990s,” said Cliff Edwards, Ph.D., professor of philosophy and religious studies. “I was in the President’s House on Franklin waiting to meet with him. I looked in a corner, and I saw a strange little dark thing. … No one seemed to realize where it was, much less what it was.”
This “strange little dark thing,” he
realized, was an impression of the single etching Van Gogh did in his life.
Although Van Gogh made several of these impressions, the piece is no less valuable. Its subject is Van Gogh’s doctor, one of his only friends in the last 70 days of his life. After Edwards recognized it, the work was sent away to verify that it was indeed a work by Van Gogh.
The display of the etching at Cabell Library is perfectly timed with VCUarts’ current focus on the “Mystery of Van Gogh,” which includes an exhibit that opened at Art6 gallery this past Friday. VCUarts students were asked to independently interpret and recreate two lost Van Gogh paintings of Jesus at Gesthemane, based on only the few available descriptions and what they thought the paintings would have looked like had they survived. Around 20 of these interpretations were chosen
In preparation for VCU Qatar Day this Tuesday, the walls of the Student Art Space at the VCU Student Commons are being stocked with artwork by students at VCU Qatar’s own art department.
Each of the VCU Qatar art program’s four branches – fashion design, interior design, graphic design and the newly instated painting and printmaking – will be represented, each featured on their own wall.
Two of the 15 students visiting the Richmond campus from Qatar will visit the exhibit on Tuesday and give a brief presentation as part of their Qatar Day itinerary.
Senior sculpture major and Student Art Space co-curator Egbert Vongmalaithong visited VCU Qatar as part of a visiting-artist program last semester, engaging in what he called a “week-long conversation” with the art students there. Vongmalaithong also used his experience as one of the Student Art Space curators to help
Qatari students start their own studentrun gallery. Together, they developed an interactive exhibit similar to the Student Art Space’s premiere exhibit last fall, where gallery visitors were encouraged to draw and post their own artwork on the walls.
“We wanted to give them an idea of the potential that a gallery can have,” Vongmalaithong said. “It doesn't have to just be sculptures and paintings; it can be any kind of project.”
In a manner of exchange, for their Qatar Day exhibit, the Student Art Space curators have worked to recreate VCU Qatar’s famously pristine, streamlined design in their own –considerably smaller – space.
“Their amenities ... are so far above what we have,” said Cameron Robinson, senior sculpture major and fellow Student Art Space co-curator. “So we’ve been struggling to make this (Student Art Space) as beautiful as possible.”
“We cleaned the windows ... vigorously,” she added.
Other renovations have included sanding and repainting the walls and installing new projectors and wall-
to be displayed at Art6 Gallery this past Friday, along with other artists who chose to take on the task.
Other events throughout the week will commemorate the public display of the etching. On Tuesday Professor Edwards will speak at Cabell Library at 3 p.m., and also on Wednesday in the Richmond Salons at 7 p.m. He intends to discuss his upcoming book on the “ghost paintings” and his findings
through research on the topic of Van Gogh.
Edwards has been teaching at VCU since 1975, and although he is a religious studies professor, that interest is exactly what began his journey as a Van Gogh expert.
About 40 years ago he went to Japan to do work with art in Zen Buddhism; and he visited a Zen master in Kyoto at a monastery.
“I was asking him if I could see a famous piece of art (at the monastery), and he laughed and asked, ‘Why is it that you Westerners want to see this piece of art?’”
A Japanese gallery had just bought one of Van Gogh’s many iconic paintings of sunflowers, and so it puzzled the monk as to why Edwards was so interested in Eastern art, when there was so much western art to explore, Edwards said.
Edwards said the monk asked him to solve a “koan,” a type of puzzle, in order to see the artwork. But the monk’s comments, he said, inspired him to travel the world, collecting knowledge of Van Gogh and his works. He eventually wrote four books with the vast amount of information he discovered. Now, he says, that knowledge will give him the opportunity to educate others.
Van Gogh’s etching will be displayed at the Special Collections and Archives section on the fourth floor of Cabell Library. CT
mounted flatscreen televisions.
Co-curator and sophomore communication arts major Philip Wisenhunt said that through this project, he is eager to witness an exchange of viewpoints from across cultures.
“One of the things with any art form is you get to see ... a curated view of other people’s lives and viewpoints. ... We'll see how people design fashion, for example, or how a fashion show is put together, in Qatar. And then when
they’re here, they’ll get to see our own view,” he said. “That’s something that really excites me.”
“It’s sort of like having a sister town,” Robinson said, noting that the VCU Qatar campus was modeled after its counterpart in Richmond.
“It’s amazing to see and learn about a culture so radically different from ours,” she said. “But ... it might even be more amazing to see how similar some aspects are. That might be just as surprising.” CT
In this section: Figuring out real plans before graduation • 14 Ultrasound bill soundoff unheard by Republicans • 15
Columnist
In May, that special day that many students dream about will become a reality. Basking in the excitement of graduation will last until someone asks the dreaded question, “So, what are you going to do now?”
Thinking of an answer that will please my parents and sever the lips of the person who popped my commencement bubble always baffles me because I don’t know.
Many don’t know that walking across the stage will be one of the biggest moments in your life, alongside marriage and having children. Let’s be honest: Most of us don’t know our plans for the rest of the week ahead of us, so it’s mind boggling for us to sit and figure out
what we’re going to do when our college career is over.
How many options are really out there? Even though it doesn’t seem like a lot, the possibilities are really endless. Getting a job ranks number one on the list for most, and I find myself sitting in a daze staring at job applications daily. Yes, it gets tiring, but I know I have to do it.
But maybe you want to do something different like join the military or the Peace Corps. Maybe you want to travel the world. And there’s always grad school right?
What are a couple more years and a couple more thousand dollars to add to your already-overflowing pile of debt?
A long time ago, society pointed its parenting finger at us and said, “Go to college,” but what society didn’t tell us was that there may not always be a job waiting for us on the outside. We’ve got-
ten too caught up in what society thinks we should do, and we let that dictate our path instead of creating our own.
It’s a scary feeling not knowing your next move, but for some, that’s how they live their entire life.
I could easily apply for grad school or enlist in the military if a job isn’t handed to me, but I want to choose the path that’s correct for me, and I don’t want to rush into a decision that I’ll soon regret.
Don’t kid yourself. The real world is a cold, scary place, but with the right determination, goals can still be achieved. Having a plan is one of the best things you can do for yourself, whether it’s your first year of college or your last. Do things to build your résumé and don’t be afraid to take internships after you graduate because it could turn into a job. Keep bettering yourself because
there are always people out there willing to do your job better than you in order to take your spot.
May graduates, we’ve already taken the first step, which is getting through these four challenging years of college. Hopefully you haven’t spent all your glory days cramming for exams to which you may not have known the answers, partying and drinking.
Hopefully you've been spent the last four years preparing for this moment. If VCU has taught me anything, I’ve learned that it’s OK to stumble, and it’s OK to not have all the right answers at the right times, but it's important to ask questions.
The time is upon us to really sit and ask ourselves: What are we going to do next? CT
Virginia has been the butt of jokes for late night TV shows during the past two weeks. Both “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “Saturday Night Live” have taken aim at House Bill 462, a controversial ultrasound bill, bringing national attention to Virginia’s General Assembly.
For those opposed to the bill, national media coverage is the best-case scenario. Originally, the bill stated that all women seeking an abortion must undergo a transvaginal ultrasound. Now,
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that 55 percent of Virginians oppose women undergoing an ultrasound before having an abortion. If you visit the governor’s official Facebook page, his wall is littered with post urging him to veto HB 462.
These numbers and actions should speak to Republicans and make them aware that they need to stop pushing their own agenda over Virginian’s opinions and rights. But Republicans seem intent on tyrannically intent on shoving their agenda right down our orifices.
Since when has the Republican Party wanted so much control over an indi-
rights and an individual’s civil liberties. Numerous groups have protested outside of the Capitol in opposition to the bills, with national coverage adding pressure to lawmakers. With the recent amendment to the ultrasound bill, it’s obvious the governor wants to avoid media attention and criticism.
If Virginia continues to be the punch line for late night comedians’ jokes, maybe Republicans in the General Assembly will reconsider the bills altogether.
What is most frustrating about the bills may be the Republican Party’s identity crisis and double standards. If Obama’s healthcare plan is a violation of an individual’s rights, requiring an ultrasound before an abortion should be equated to the same idea. It’s as if conservatives are saying, “It’s only okay for us to violate your rights.”
With the upcoming election, Republicans’ toughest opponents are themselves. Along with confusing voters on what the party stands for, the party is focusing on issues that the general population isn’t worried about at the moment.
Opinions expressed are those of individual writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Commonwealth Times or Virginia Commonwealth University. Unsigned editorials represent the institutional opinion of The CT.
after public pressure, Gov. Bob McDonnell has amended the bill so a woman could reject an invasive ultrasound.
Along with the ultrasound bill, a “personhood” bill has also received much attention. Thankfully it was shelved last week, but the mere idea that it still lives now, waiting until next year to be readdressed, is brutally offensive.
vidual’s life? The last time I checked, Republicans stood for a small government that doesn’t invade it’s citizen’s lives. How is this bill any different then the Obama healthcare plan that conservatives constantly criticize? Clearly government intervention is okay when it’s conveniently aligns with the Republican agenda.
Both bills are a violation of women’s
It’s common knowledge that the country’s economic status is the most important factor in upcoming elections. Americans are focused on jobs, unemployment and the general health of the economy, not taking away women’s rights.
Republicans, do yourselves a favor and stick to the economy. This is the area in which you’d be most likely to win votes. CT
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Trying too hard by Andy Kay COMICS
"Both B ills A re A viol A tion of wo M en’s rights A nd A n individu A l’s civil li B erties."
