Home Blog Page 58

Law School discusses Art and War

By
-

A panel discussion held Monday evening at the Marshall-Wythe School of Law entitled “All is Fair in Art and War,” focused on armed conflict.

“Cultural property often equates to our national identity… If you think about symbols of our republic, the Statue of Liberty, the World Trade Center, when people decide to attack those it goes beyond just loss of life, its a loss of part of our identity, part of our culture,” Marion Werkeiser, an attorney and former professor at the Law School said.

Werkeiser also cited recent examples to emphasize the importance of cultural property, showing a picture of a human chain in front of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, trying to protect the museum from being looting during the unrest.

She also discussed international law to try to prevent the destruction of cultural property, the 1954 Hague Convention being, she said “the first international attempt to deal with cultural property in times of war.”

Thomas Kline moved from talking about the importance of cultural objects to the purposefulness groups have in destroying them.

“[Removing cultural objects] can change memories and can change history,” Kline said.

After citing the atrocious human suffering the Nazis created, he cited the Holocaust as not only being murderous but a great theft.

“[The Nazis were] trying to destroy other cultures that they deem inferior.” Kline said. It wasn’t something that just happened, it wasn’t accidental, it was policy and program.”

Ambassador Pavlos Anastasiades, the American Ambassador to Cyprus, built on this point by saying that removing cultural property is a form of ethnic cleansing. He discussed the 1974 invasion of Cyprus by Turkey where he said there was a “cleansing of historic and religious signs.”

“The heritage and an identity, that was made up of an 11,000 year old history of the Island, was put in jeopardy over the course of a only few years,” Anastasiades said.

He put the issue in a more global perspective as well.

“It would be truly a shame to let part of the world’s civilization perish due to the acts of one country. When we talk about the capture of cultural property of one state, we are talking about part of the world’s heritage,” Anastasiades said.

Dr. Allan Gerson emphasized the implications of looting cultural property long after armed conflict. He is currently representing a Russian family whose artwork was looted during the Bolshevik Revolution. Pieces of his artwork, according to Soviet law, became their property due to the 1918 nationalization decree, and were later sold to both Yale as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Gerson is part of the legal case to help the Russian family reclaim their artwork, where he will, in essence, have to dispute the validity of the Soviet claim saying that they rightfully owned the artwork.

“The larger issue at stake in the MET case and the Yale case and all cases generally where they are against a government is how we want to weight the balance between the interests of governments in having non interference of their affairs and the interests of individuals,” Gerson said. “I am betting is that the rights of the individual will surpass the rights of the state.”

Candidates discuss stances

By
-

On Sunday evening Student Assembly presidential candidates Kaveh Sadeghian ’12 and David Alpert ’13 and their respective running mates Molly Bulman ’12 and Tamara Middleton ’14 took to the podium in a presidential debate.

Candidates started off the evening with a five-minute introductory speech, presenting their views and goals, then proceeded into a formal question and answer period. They finished by taking questions from the audience.

Both Sadeghian and Bulman have served in positions of leadership in the Student Assembly before; they currently serve as Vice President of the Student Assembly and Secretary of Student Life, respectively. The rising seniors are running on three pillars: collaboration, practicality and accountability.

“They’re not just ideal prototypes of what we can get done,” Sadeghian said. “[Our ideas] have been researched, they’ve been looked into, and there’s a practicality to all these goals that we’ve been talking about.”

While Sadeghian and Bulman both tout experience, Alpert also emphasized that he has gained a considerable amount of experience during his two years as the president of the Class of 2013. Middleton has never held an SA position before, but enters the ticket with a broad perspective, as she has been involved with Project S.W.A.G., Tribe Ambassadors and H.O.P.E in less than a year on campus.

“As a younger ticket we’re really excited to just get in and get things done,” Middleton said. “With my fresh perspective and David’s experience, we’re just really excited to jump in and work with Student Assembly and talk to you guys.”

Sadeghian’s and Bulman’s main ideas for the College include fostering more collaboration between student organizations, as well as between undergraduate and graduate students. They emphasized that they realize there is a lot of work left to do.

“Something that’s different about our ticket is that we focus on what we can get done,” Bulman said. “We really wanted to make sure we could deliver and get results within a year.”

Student life reform is at the forefront on both candidates’ campaigns.

Sadeghian’s goals for student life include increasing the accessibility of parking services, offering a non-credit personal finance class and looking into low-cost school health insurance options.

Sadeghian and Bulman’s brainchild, HARK, is a student-based web portal that allows members of the College community to post event flyers, sell textbooks, organize carpools and advertise local jobs. The website, which has already been formulated, will launch by the end of the semester.

Alpert and Middleton, meanwhile, also have a wide range of new ideas to improve student life including free laundry machines on campus and the return of the William and Mary Movie Chanel.

In addition, Alpert and Middleton also focused on improving the student experience in Earl Greg Swem Library. They advocate Swem being opened 24 hours year round, room reserve systems, and phone and computer charger checkouts in the library.

In terms of the organizing their budget, Sadeghian and Bulman plan to bring online bill payments back and to allow an online book exchange through HARK. Alpert and Middleton hope to increase funding for larger student organizations while decreasing arbitrary budget restrictions on clubs and streamlining the budget process with in the SA.

Both candidates are pro gender-neutral housing, with Sadeghian promising to advocate for students who require such housing and push the administration to follow through. Alpert pledged to appoint an undersecretary geared specifically toward working to clear the remaining hurdles involved in the issue.

Another issue upon which both candidates agree is that students should be more involved in the 2012 Williamsburg City Council Elections. By bringing candidates to campus, Sadeghian hopes to spread awareness and increase voter registration, while Alpert hopes to get more students out to the polls.

Student Assembly elections will take place online March 24

Japan disaster personalized

By
-

Although the epicenter of the March 11 earthquake was miles from Williamsburg, the tragedy was brought a little closer to home when students from Sendai, Japan, visited the College of William and Mary Saturday.

The Japanese Language House and the Japanese Cultural Association facilitated the discussion, which emphasized the culture of Sendai, thus providing a cultural context in which to understand the devastating impact of the Japanese earthquake.

“A characteristic of the people is that they have the ability to persevere,” Japanese student Izumi said. “Tohoku is a cold region that gets a lot of snow. Because of the cold winters, it is very important to work together and collaborate. A strong bonding is characteristic of the region.”

The discussion went beyond the destruction to emphasize the uniqueness of the Tohoku region and the character of its people. The area is known for its distinct dialect and strong traditions. Students also discussed the commonalities that tie the cultures of Japan and America, including the cherry blossom festivals of both nations.

A student noted that a large body of the population in Sendai is elderly, which made the effects of the earthquake even more disastrous.

“Earthquakes have happened in the past, so it was expected to happen,” Japanese student Yoshiaka said. “From about ten years ago people were told by parents that a big one will come soon.”

The tsunamis was not a surprise to the Sendai population either.

“Tsunamis were also not new to the region. People in some regions built tsunami walls. This tsunami surpassed the protections, though,” Yoshiaka said.

Izumi noted that two of the most pressing problems in the aftermath of the earthquake are a lack of food and of gasoline.

Pete Dorrell, the father of a current undergraduate at the College who has also worked with the visiting Sendai students and done outreach work in Japan for the past 15 years, hopes to bring students to Japan to help with relief efforts. Dorrell mentioned falling in love with the culture and people, which he says inspired him to invest so much time in Japan.

“The elderly are respected,” Dorrell said. “You don’t have to be fascinating. You don’t have to be interesting. They just love you.”

Lemon Project studies College’s history of slavery

By
-

The Lemon Project, an interdisciplinary research effort examining the relationship between African Americans and the College of William and Mary, held its first annual Spring Symposium Saturday at Bruton Heights School in Williamsburg.The day-long event, entitled “From Slavery toward Reconciliation: African Americans and the College,” brought together students, faculty and Williamsburg community members to highlight the project’s ongoing research.

“Part of the Lemon Project is to disseminate information that’s gathered,” Project Coordinator, history professor Jody Allen said. “The other thing is to provide a place where people can come together to share their thoughts, opinions and ideas.”

The Lemon Project, named after a slave owned by the College at the turn of the 19th century, was originally created by a Board of Visitors’ resolution in 2009 as an effort by the College to acknowledge and better understand its role in the subjugation of African Americans over its long history.

“I don’t think that until we’re willing to tell the whole story that we can move forward,” Allen said. “Once it gets out there, you can really start to deal with it.”

The symposium began with an address by College President Taylor Reveley, who spoke about the project’s history and plans for the future.

“Words can be extremely important. But words aren’t enough,” Reveley said of the 2009 BOV resolution. “William and Mary wanted to take actual, concrete steps towards reconciliation.”

Part of this process was compiling work that had already been done but had not been properly showcased, Lemon Initiatives Co-Chair, History Professor Kim Phillips said.

“It was sporadic as opposed to [a] systematic effort,” she said.

The symposium continued with a morning plenary showcasing effort by the College and Williamsburg community members to investigate the historical involvement of African Americans at the College.

“These are stories that seem like local stories but are actually at the heart of a national struggle,” Phillips said.

The day’s events continued with a series of student presentations, covering topics ranging from the portrayal of slavery in historic sites to the shortage of African-Americans in the scientific community.

The symposium then concluded with a showing of Arianne Daniels’ documentary, “Their Eyes Were Watching Jim Crow” and remarks by Democratic Committee of Williamsburg co-chair Dr. John Whitley.

The Project’s organizers shared their thoughts on the symposium and hopes for the future.

“I think [the Project] has sparked a collective conversation in ways that I had not anticipated,” Phillips said. “My hope is that this brings together people from the College … to think about new, collaborative research efforts.”

This Spring Symposium is the first of what project coordinators hope to be a long series of similar events, designed to encourage further discussion among the College community.

“Moving forward, my hope is that people will feel more comfortable [participating in discussion],” Allen said. “Hopefully, people will come to know [the symposium] as an opportunity to talk.”

Allen said that she hopes to expand the symposium to include more of the College community, and she discussed the possibility of making the day-long event into one which spans an entire weekend.

Other plans for the project include the creation of an informative brochure and the possible compilation of a scholarly journal highlighting research done at the College, although the specifics remain unclear.

“This is an open-ended project,” Phillips said.

Behind Closed Doors: Bigger doesn’t always mean better

By
-

My best friend and I were out buying condoms when she picked up a box of magnums. “That’s a total scam,” I said. “You can stretch a regular condom over your fist down to your elbow. And unless your boyfriend actually has a third leg instead of a penis, you don’t need those.” She gulped and looked at the floor as she replied, “Uh, the other ones don’t fit right. They stop too far up and are too tight around the base. He says they’re uncomfortable.” I looked at her in amazement and said, “Your boyfriend must be hung like Seabiscuit.”

So, how important is size, really? Pop culture tells us that size is the be-all, end-all of the sexual experience; all of the movies say, “Size really does matter”. Truth be told, there is a whole lot more to sex than size. The chemistry between two people is not to be underestimated. That spark can make very rational people stay in completely irrational relationships. My high school boyfriend and I went on our very first date the summer after seventh grade and broke up the summer after senior year, and yet we actually had very little in common. He was a jock, I was a brain. He was into cars and I was into the arts. In spite of this, we spent many of our formative years tethered together. Ke$ha said it right – his love was my drug. Maybe he wasn’t as focused on school as I was. Maybe we had different groups of friends. Maybe he hooked up with other girls when I wasn’t around. But we had chemistry, damn it. I thought we were going to be together forever because for five years all I could think about was the heart-pounding, gut-wrenching, wet feeling I had when we were together. In my case, chemistry held together a relationship that should have fallen apart.

And secretly? That boy was well-endowed. He had a nickname at school: The Italian Stallion. Even now the name makes me vomit in my mouth a little, but the fact of the matter is, it was more appropriate than most people could have expected. There was great chemistry. Size was a non-issue. But what? The sex was terrible. We didn’t communicate, and I didn’t know what I wanted. I was basically a body, and he was basically a jack-hammer. If that sounds crude and painful, you pretty much hit the nail on the head. I think there are definitely potential perks to being with someone who can tickle your stomach from the inside. But can there be too much of a good thing? Giving head can get tricky with a long member and a sensitive gag reflex. The most helpful tip I’ve learned from Cosmo in the 12,000 editions I’ve come across since middle school is to wrap your hand around the base of the penis in order to give yourself a guide as to how far you are comfortable going with your mouth. Another potential problem is that the bigger your partner, the greater the possibility that your sexual experience is going to feel reminiscent of a trip to the gyno. If you’re at the wrong angle, your partner may enter too far, and it could be uncomfortable. Absolutely say something to your partner; he has no way of knowing if you’re uncomfortable. Just change positions or support yourself and control the depth of the thrusts. The movies have it wrong. Maybe there’s more to it than size after all.

One of the greatest friends I’ve had since elementary school has been having sex with the same guy since our junior year of high school. She has always refused to use lube. “When I use it,” she told me, “I can’t feel him inside of me.” It sounded just awful to me, but he is her lay of choice, forever and always. My number one question was, “Well, is it good?” She nodded. “Maybe he’s not very big,” she said, “but he knows how to have sex with me.”

But let’s not hate on those that walk among us who are blessed, either. There’s definitely something to be said about width. Feeling full is a good thing, and I don’t mean in an “I just ate Chipotle” kind of way. The good thing about being with someone wide enough to fill you is that all of your nerve endings are being hit at once, which drives up the pleasure.

A sizeable member seems like it can be either a blessing or a curse, but it definitely isn’t the only thing that defines pleasure. When it comes to the shifting seas of sex, I truly believe it’s not the size of the vessel, but the motion of the ocean that really matters.

Gender-neutral housing vote

By
-

Students at the College of William and Mary will have a chance to voice their opinion on gender-neutral housing on Thursday’s Student Assembly ballot.

Following a vote by the Senate Tuesday, the SA ballot Thursday will include a referendum question regarding student support for the second stage of “A Guideline for Adapting Residence Life Policies to Demands for Greater Gender Inclusiveness.” This is a proposal by the SA that has outlined stages by which the College could implement gender-neutral housing.

Stage two of the gender-neutral housing proposal provides for a gender-neutral housing option in certain Ludwell quad apartments, but would still require students to share same-sex rooms.

“Students could opt to be placed in those Ludwell Quad apartments, the same as if they would opt for a language house; none of it is forced,” Jake Lewitz ’13 said. Lewitz is a senator who contributed to the SA gender-neutral proposal.

After the second stage of the proposal was met with resistance by the College administration, the policy was revised over winter break, deleting the option of same-sex rooms.

“This would be the first time the support of the full student body will be assessed,” Jesse Vasold ’11 said.

Despite the unanimous passage of the gender-neutral housing bill by the SA in November 2009, the administration still does not believe it is the right political climate for such residential change.

“There have been no discussions about moving beyond our current arrangement,” Director of Residence Life Deb Boykin said.

Boykin referred to Vice President for Student Affairs Virginia Ambler, ’88, Ph.D. ’06 statement which did not express support for the second stage of the proposal.

“The administration is generally really receptive to student responses to these kinds of issues,” Lewitz said.

Neither Lewitz ’13 nor Vasold ’11 conveyed confidence that the administration will change their opinion no matter the result of the possible referendum.

“I don’t expect the administration’s response to change even with student support. But if a large amount of students are supportive of stage two, then we can at least get the logistics of the policy ready for when they say the political climate is good enough,” Lewitz said.

The SA still contends that regardless of such revision, stage two would at least address the issue of greater confidentiality for students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning. LGBTQ students will no longer have to identify their gender status to administrators in order to apply for special housing needs.

“For anyone who has qualms against this policy, it should be stressed that it is an option to housing, not a requirement.” Lewitz said. “Students have to actively elect to do so.”

Stage one, called the Adaptive Housing Policy, has already been implemented, and allows personnel from the Center for Student Diversity to petition for single-room residences for students who have special housing needs.

Stage three calls for the establishment of a gender-neutral housing option for students throughout all of Ludwell apartments. Neither stage two nor stage three has yet to be put into action at the College.

“As long as we are adhering to these guidelines, we will never have gender-neutral housing past Ludwell,” Lewitz said. “Honestly, I don’t expect gender-neutral housing across all of campus to happen any time soon.”

Lewitz expects a sizable portion of the student body will support stage two of the proposal. However, he said if student support for stage two of the proposal is minimal, the SA would re-evaluate the policy.

Yale University was recently the last of the Ivy League colleges to include a gender-neutral housing option in its residence policies. Yale joins over 30 universities who have implemented residential options similar to stage two of the SA’s proposal.

For further information regarding the Gender Neutral Housing Proposal, refer to the Student Assembly website.

__This article was edited Wednesday at 8:00 pm to include the confirmation of the referendum on Thursday’s SA ballot following the Tuesday Senate meeting __

Spring into action: Campus groups reach out to community

By
-

Soaking up the Williamsburg sun on Saturday, Myraida Davis ’11 spent her time outside in Jamestown Settlement quizzing pirates. While trying to get them to break character, Davis and fellow College of William and Mary students also assisted by checking in reenactors and by polling visitors about which historical performance they preferred.

While some might think of this Saturday activity as a history nerd’s class project, Davis was contributing her time to one of 12 community service projects as a part of the Office of Community Engagement and Scholarship’s Spring Into Action Day. About 150 students in total participated on March 19.

“We are an office that encourages more partnerships and continuous service,” Kristina Snader, VISTA for Student and Community Engagement, said. “This is a great way to get people in. A lot of times it’s groups that don’t really do service, but it is a great opportunity to do it all together.”

Davis completed her project with members of Circle K International, a service organization with a focus on children. Her group was stationed at Jamestown Settlement for the day, assisting with an event involving reeanactors from all over the country and all different time periods.

“My group was at the Jamestown settlement helping with military through the ages,” Davis said. “They had 40 different groups come out. There were hundreds of them. It was the most insane thing I have ever seen.”

From the forty groups, students polled visitors on their favorite performances. Later, a viewer’s choice award was given to the best reenactors’ performance as part of the event.

“We did get a chance to go and talk to [the reenactors],” Davis said. “It was really cool because they are very knowledgable about their time periods.”

While Davis’s project was focused in Jamestown, other projects on Spring Into Action Day included a variety of local community partnerships in the greater Williamsburg area.

“Usually it’s a lot more of outdoor things that need to be done,” Snader said. “We have projects at Jamestown 4-H Center, Jamestown Yorktown Foundation, Century Art Gallery, Heritage Humane Society, and Williamsburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority.”

Through these local projects collaborating with student volunteers, the OCES office strives to engage students in service opportunities in the Williamsburg area.

“The community partners really want to get connected to William and Mary students because they know they have a lot of talent and skills to use,” Snader said. “Students often want to do things for community service, so they want to tap into that.”

Spring Into Action Day encourages involvement from all student groups on campus. Student volunteers can be from service organizations, religious organizations or just groups of friends or hallmates. Davis volunteered through her service organization, CKI.

“We always try to send out big groups, so we usually have about 15 to 20 people,” Davis said. “It’s good to get to know other members in the club, because there are like 60 members total.”

In order to make this day of service an annual event, the OCES has started implementing some orientation programs beforehand.

“We are really trying to take this farther than just one instance of service,” Davis said. “We started giving them orientation packets and asking project leaders to come to [a] little training where we talk about issues and reflection.”

Reflection is a process included in many OCES service projects as a method of engaging volunteers in active citizenship. The idea behind it is to connect service to larger issues, and for volunteers to really understand the work they are contributing to through service.

“Reflection helps people understand the importance of what you did and incorporate that into your life,” Davis said. “Those are pretty important things that we try to incorporate into our service.”

While Spring Into Action Day offers the William and Mary community an opportunity for involvement in the William and Mary community, it also opens multiple doors for students to get in touch with the greater Williamsburg community and to further that volunteer service engagement.

“We want students to maintain this contact and get involved outside of William and Mary and in the community,” Davis said.

Decrease admission to bump problems

By
-

Housing sign-up season is upon us, and although almost everyone ends up making their housing situation work in one way or another, the process is full of declarations (“No way am I living in one of those cubicles you call a double”), ultimatums (“Jamestown or bust”), reassurances (“I don’t care what I end up with; it can’t be worse than Botetourt”) and fears (“Oh God, I could totally end up in the Units”). Even though some of us can’t wait to get off campus the first chance we get, many students don’t want to pass up the convenience that on-campus housing provides — enough so that the 4,500-or-so spots available aren’t enough to provide residence to everyone who wants it.

Having hundreds of students wait-listed every year inevitably means the worst nightmares of some students are realized, and it serves as a stark reminder that we’ve come a long way from the “hundred scholars” of our founding days. The College has gotten too big for its britches, and it can’t keep sucking in its gut (that would be us) forever. The long-term housing problem is much larger than the 56-person capacity of Tribe Square or any other proposal we might think of as a panacea.

The administration does what they can to provide as much housing as possible, and there are enough off-campus options so that no one has to live two ZIP codes over, but even as the College grows, the city limits of Williamsburg won’t. No one knows for sure what the exact carrying capacity of the surrounding area is (and ordinances like the three-person rule aren’t helping), but it’s beginning to look like a long-term problem, given the sheer number of students at the College.

The additional students enrolling at the College next year — an increase of 50 in the size of the freshman class, plus 20 additional students from St. Andrews University in Scotland — leave the College in a political and financial bind. With the uncertain state of the economy, flexibility is already limited, and our coffers are already empty. The state refuses to give back any of the funding we’ve lost over the past three years, leaving it up to us to fix our financial problems. Trying to raise revenue by increasing the number of out-of-state students has had the General Assembly threatening to cut our funding; increasing in-state tuition is likely to engender the same sort of cuts Gov. Bob McDonnell slammed down on Virginia Commonwealth University when they tried to do the same thing.

The College has no choice but to become more selective, in order to keep future incoming classes at their current, semi-manageable levels. It’s not a philosophical idea about the future of the College, it’s just a matter of pragmatism. The ideals we espouse as a school are going to run into financial and logistical boundaries sooner or later. Any attempt to raise revenue by increasing the size of incoming classes simply kicks the can down the road and creates more problems than it solves.

The College doesn’t need to be restrictive in a way that shrinks the size of the student body to a number that guarantees everyone on-campus housing on campus for four years. That’s not the College’s profile, and we understand there are certain physical limitations with a campus dating back to 1693. But we also don’t want a situation in which housing becomes such a problem that it’s a significant obstacle to students’ goals. Avoiding problems down the line requires preemptive action now. Otherwise, years from now, living in the Units might be the least of our worries.

Tuition hikes: Out-of-state student woes

By
-

When I was deciding between colleges four years ago, one of the College of William and Mary’s most appealing aspects was its price. Although out-of-state tuition was still expensive, it was lower than that of many private schools of the same caliber. Four years later, the College no longer has that draw. For the 2007-2008 school year, tuition alone was $26,930. This year, tuition costs $33,704, marking an increase of 25 percent. During these tough economic times for the College, out-of-state students have had to foot the bill.

Virginians should be the primary benefactors of their great system of state-supported higher education, but out-of-state students are crucial to the College’s national reputation and should not be forgotten. Diversity has become a major tenant of the ranking and appeal of colleges, and a commitment to geographical diversity increases both the College’s status and the quality of our education. Spending 17 years of school solely with students exclusively from Virginia will not benefit Virginians. Unfortunately, Gov. Bob McDonnell disagrees. With his plan to increase the number of spots for in-state students in Virginia’s schools, McDonnell claims to have Virginians’ best interests at heart. However his efforts are sorely misguided. The College’s national reputation already suffers from its low economic resources, which places even more of the school’s financial burden on out-of-state students and makes the College neither more secure nor more competitive.

Virginia’s public colleges are renowned nationwide, and plans such as the Virginia Prepaid Education Program, which allows families to freeze tuition prices so they are not subject to inflation and increases such as those outlined above, are enviable resources for residents. Virginians deserve such benefits, and it is reasonable that out-of-state students pay more; however, the College’s practice of telling families one price and raising it drastically each year is unethical and unwarranted. In its efforts to increase its own financial resources, the College has turned a blind eye to the needs of its students and to the struggles of their families.

Perhaps the College should stop constructing new buildings and hosting fancy dinners for the Board of Visitors in order to avoid misleading its primary supporters. When you include room and board and other additional costs, the difference in cost is even more profound. During the 2006-2007 academic year, the cost of my sister’s senior year at James Madison University totaled at around $30,000. My last year at the College will total at around $44,000. In just four years, the cost of my schooling will have cost nearly 50 percent more than that of my sister, despite the fact that both of us attended state schools in Virginia.

The education I have received at the College has been nothing short of excellent, but the College has been deceitful in its treatment of out-of-state students over the last four years. We have never been directly notified of the increases, and it has been expected that the small out-of-state population bear the burden of the College’s poor financial planning. Many families would not have sent their children to the College had they known that tuition would be 25 percent more expensive by the time they graduate. If the College plans on continuing its practice of drastic cost increases each year, it should let prospective students know that the original price is meaningless.

Redrawing the lines

By
-

Over the past month, teams of students from 13 Virginia colleges and universities competed to redraw Virginia’s voting districts. Redistricting reflects the results of the 2010 National Census, including population shifts and growth. Two teams from the College of William and Mary competed, and the results of the competition are expected to be announced soon.

I want to know: What does this process really do for the communities it affects? Redistricting primarily gives incumbants an advantage in the gain of additional voters, and it allows for greater representation of already highly represented and populated areas in the state and federal governments. Redistricting also affects public school districts and communities as a whole.

Redistricting can change the competitors in district-wide and regional-wide elections. It allows smaller schools to be placed in districts with much larger schools — with much better funding for sports, academic and forensic competitions. The disparity in size and funding can affect how well the smaller school does when competing against the programs available at other larger schools. On the other hand, it can have a good outcome for smaller schools: Grouping less-populated areas into one larger area, smaller schools could have a better chance to do well at competitions and possibly increase their funding.

Redistricting dramatically affects community voting habits and can even affect the district under which a community is classified. This can cause voter confusion because they can no longer vote for familiar candidates for whom they may have voted before. Whether the outcome is positive or negative, all possibilities should be discussed before redistricting a community so drastically.

Through redistricting, current elected officials are given an unfair advantage over their opposing candidates with the population of a new district. Adding new communities to a district changes the voter distribution for elected officials, especially those with high approval ratings, who are most likely to be re-elected if citizens know the district, the incumbent and are familiar with the way the district has been run. However, it could also mean the end of a candidate’s political career if a district is being run poorly; after redistricting, new votes are available for the opposing candidate.

To me, redistricting seems like a tedious process that politicians and their staff undergo in order to possibly win more votes, but that usually causes more harm than good — especially for public school systems. While there are some benefits of the process, the cons far outweigh the pros for most redistricted communities.

1...575859...456Page 58 of 456
© 1911-Present. The Flat Hat. All Rights Reserved.