p. An alum opposing President Gene Nichol’s decision to remove the cross from the Wren Chapel altar has created a website, savethewrencross.org.

p. The domain name was purchased Oct. 31, and was accessible Nov. 8.

p. In addition to the website, Facebook groups, a petition and a website have been created to challenge the decision. Currently, the cross is kept in a chapel sacristy, a room designed to store religious items. Students may request use of the cross at times when a staff member is on duty.

p. The website includes a link to a petition addressed to Nichol. The petition is still growing and currently has over 1,300 signatures from students, alumni and others. A portions reads, “The Wren Cross was given to Wren Chapel by Williamsburg neighbor Bruton Parish Episcopal Church in the 1930s and has been a fixture on the altar ever since that time … We petition you to rescind your October 2006 order and return to the policy that had governed the display of the Wren Cross prior to your inauguration as the 26th President of the College on April 7, 2006.”

p. Today, the petition will be presented to the Board of Visitors.

p. “We hope to present a copy of the petition with signatures to the members of the Board of Visitors during the Nov. 17 meeting on campus, along with a collection of student and alumni letters about the subject,” Vince Haley, ’88, creator of the website, said.

p. The website links to news coverage of the issue, facts about the cross, a profile of Nichol and letters from students and alumni.
“The website is providing exactly the type of forum for a broader College dialogue that President Nichol invited in his Oct. 17, 2006 e-mail to students,” Haley said.

p. A few Facebook groups were created to voice student criticism of Nichol’s decision. “Save the Wren Cross” is the largest group with over 400 members. It posts a link to the petition and The Flat Hat editorial written by Haley.

p. “I’m not exactly opposed to [Nichol’s] decision, but rather the method in which the decision was formulated. I believe there should have been, and still needs to be, a dialogue between students and the president … I do not believe the full view of the students has been understood or solicited,” junior Charlie Bauer, a member of the Save the Wren Cross Facebook group, said.

Wednesday, Pakistan’s lower house of Parliament voted to criminalize rape under its civil penal code, allowing for prosecution under secular rather than religious law. Until now, Islamic laws mandated that rape victims have four male witnesses to the crime or they would face prosecution for adultery.

p. This move curtails the scope of Islamic laws that have long been denounced by human rights organizations as degrading and unfair to women. The new legislation, called the Women’s Protection Bill, allows the government to prosecute rapists under secular rather than religious law.

p. This legislation is seen as a barometer of President Pervez Musharraf’s commitment to a vision of “enlightened moderation,” according to a Nov. 14 Reuters report. However, it is also a harbinger of another major conflict in a protracted struggle between progressives and religious conservatives to set the course of Pakistan’s future.

p. “It is a historic bill because it will give rights to women and help end excesses against them,” Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told the lower house after the vote. However, it remains to be seen whether the upper house will ratify the bill; it must do so in order for the legislation to become law.

p. According to Pakistan’s independent Human Rights Commission, a woman is raped every two hours and gang-raped every eight hours. However, the BBC argues that the figures released by the commission are probably an underestimation, because many rapes are not reported.

p. Women fear retribution and punishment for coming forward against men under the current laws. The laws regarding four witnesses, as well as the victims’ fear, have made it virtually impossible to prosecute rape.

p. The old statutes are called the Hudood Ordinances; they were put in place by President Zia-ul-Haq in 1979. The new legislation would remove the requirement for four male witnesses and allow convictions to be made on the basis of circumstantial and forensic evidence, according to Reuters.

p. For years, human rights campaigners have appealed for the complete abolishment of the laws. They welcome the current attempts at reform whole-heartedly.

p. However, there is a significant roadblock. Religious conservatives wield tremendous clout as they control the main opposition bloc in parliament. Also, this type of legislation has been rejected before.

p. In September, Musharraf’s government abandoned its attempt to pass the bill after the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Alliance, an Islamist political group, threatened to pull out of the national and provincial assemblies if it was passed.
Pakistan’s religious parties pronounced the legislation a “harbinger of lewdness and indecency in the country.” Furthermore, they denounced it as going against the scriptures of the Koran and Sharia law. These groups have threatened nationwide protests regarding the new bill.

p. Islamist legislators walked out of parliament and boycotted the vote after MMA Islamic Alliance leader Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman pronounced the bill would create a free sex zone in Pakistan.

p. “Existing laws are correct and should be maintained,” Rehman said. “The changes are not in line with Islamic teaching.”

p. The MMA Alliance’s outcry is working to some extent. Musharraf’s government appears more willing to compromise in order to bring about a consensus, according to BBC News.

p. “Some of the MMA’s proposals have been included in the bill,” Wasi Zafar, the Law Minister, said.

p. In order to induce the conservatives in the lower assembly to vote for the bill, an amendment was introduced setting down punishment of up to five years in prison for extra-marital sex, according to Reuters.

p. In an effort to individualize coffeehouse locations and refute claims of homogenization, Starbucks Corporation has decided to tailor store locations to specific neighborhood atmospheres and surroundings.

p. A Nov. 10 Wall Street Journal article reported that over the course of the past two years, Starbucks has placed interior designers in different regional offices across the country in order to focus on designing store locations that adapt to local surroundings. Starbucks claims that this move was not designed to fight against common complaints of the chain’s overexposure and institutionalization, but instead to combat fears that additional Starbucks locations would ruin city character. This fear is exemplified in locations such as Arroyo Grande, Calif. and Denver, Colo., where Starbucks has recently run into trouble obtaining building permits. The company has also had permit problems in Williamsburg.

p. In an interview with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer last April, Launi Skinner, senior vice president for store development for Starbucks, said that Starbucks is “less about the transaction, and more about the experience.” By localizing store design, the company hopes to individualize and improve that experience.

p. At the College, with three coffee shops offering Starbucks products within five minutes of one an other and a potential fourth on the way, and where the competition for the coffee market is fierce, this decision has wide-reaching effects.

p. Many fear the presence of an additional Starbucks would hurt small independent coffeehouses, such as the on-campus Daily Grind. But Grind manager Scott Owen does not seem worried about such a prospect, citing marked differences between the Grind and Starbucks.

p. “Starbucks has made drinking coffee a family experience. From a business standpoint, I think they’re smart. If I can’t withstand the competition from a Starbucks opening across the street from the College, maybe I shouldn’t be in business,” Owen said.

p. Owen said that he would continue to rely on individual preferences and widespread customer loyalty to keep customers choosing the Grind over the numerous other coffee shops across campus.

p. “I like the individual feel of the Daily Grind; I feel that it’s more intimate and homey. At an individual coffee shop, I feel more welcomed. Starbucks isn’t designed for students; it’s so much more corporate,” Leah Fry, a freshman who works at the Starbucks in the College bookstore and a frequent Grind customer, said.

p. With the possibility of an additional Starbucks opening in the location now occupied by the College Delly, the City of Williamsburg will not have a major say in potential store decor or design, but Starbucks may choose on its own to follow its own trend and embrace the local character.

p. According to Vice-Mayor Clyde Haulman, “The city does have certain zoning and architectural requirements [that businesses must meet], but other than that, it’s really up to the market to decide what types of firms can come in and operate.”

p. The internet is swiftly redefining the way our world works, and the recent midterm election was no exception.

p. Online communities like Facebook.com and the proliferation of personal blogs have transformed the way in which politicians communicate with their supporters, especially young voters.

p. Election Pulse, a new feature on Facebook.com, compiled the candidates sponsored by each member of the site. Users accurately voted for winners Jim Webb (D-Va.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Jon Tester (D-Mt.) in close senatorial elections.

p. “All of the student choices were Democrats except Dick DeVos, the Republican candidate for Governor of Michigan, who won,” Government professor John McGlennon said. “But the Facebook results were generally consistent with the preferences of young voters, who were among the most pro-Democratic groups in this election.”

p. Jim Webb was one of many candidates given a personal profile on the popular website. Webb’s content was updated regularly, and his page informed users of his basic political and personal information. Webb lists “Taking Back Virginia!” as his only interest.

p. “I can’t wait for January! a Democrat Congress? I really didn’t see it coming … I’ve been smiling since Tuesday! Gosh I’m such a geek, this has really made the holiday season for me,” Chastity Bowman, a senior at East Mennonite College, wrote on Webb’s Facebook.com wall Nov. 12.

p. According to the Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper at Harvard University, Facebook.com administrators created personal pages for the candidates, who were allowed to edit these profiles as they saw fit.

p. Of the 12 top races that Facebook.com identified, Election Pulse correctly identified the winners in nine. A majority of users supported the Democratic or independent candidate in all but one of the races.

p. In the tight Senate race in Tennessee, Republican Bob Corker edged out Facebook.com user favorite Harold Ford, a Democrat. Republican Rick Perry also beat independent competitor Kinky Friedman despite an overwhelming majority of Facebook.com support for Friedman. Facebook.com users supported Michigan gubernatorial challenger Republican Dick DeVos over incumbent Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat. DeVos was the only Republican favored by Election Pulse.

p. Despite its accuracy, some claim that such sites do a poor job representing the entire voting pool.

p. “[The outcomes have] no basis other than you have to be a member of Facebook to participate; that is not sufficiently reliable to glean any sort of overall trend in politics or in the electorate,” Brian Story, campaign manager for the William and Mary Young Democrats, maintained. Unlike polls, there is no science or method to the Election Pulse results.

p. Nonetheless, such sites were vital tools for candidates this November.

p. “In this election, activists, the ‘netroots,’ helped push the parties to support candidates who would have had a hard time gaining the attention of the national party organizations,” McGlennon said.

p. McGlennon pointed in particular to Webb, who acknowledged the importance of the internet in his victory.

p. Although the internet assumed a more central role in campaigns, it did not guarantee a win for candidates. Candidates Ned Lamont and Harold Ford both actively used the internet in their campaigns, but both lost.

p. Young voter turnout was at a 20-year high in this latest midterm election. This year, 24 percent of people under the age of 30 cast ballots according to CNN exit polls. This represents a 4 percent increase since 2002.

p. “I think having a Facebook profile is advantageous to campaigns. There is no reason for them not to try to get the youth vote via Facebook and other technologies,” Joe Luppino-Esposito, chairman of the College Republicans, said.

p. McGlennon, like Luppino-Esposito, remains optimistic about using Facebook this way.

p. “Finally, you ask about whether the intrusion of politics into personal pages is an encroachment,” he said. “I’d say that it is not, but more a reflection of a higher level of interest and involvement by young people in politics than we’ve been used to for the past couple of decades.”

p. The Student Assembly passed a provision of the Student Interest Return Act at its meeting Tuesday. The bill places an information request with the College’s Office of Finance regarding how interest earned on money from the student activity fee is spent.

p. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Will Coggin, a senior, is based on the concern that money designated for student activities is being spent on other projects. Every year, students pay an $84 student activity fee. Part of the SA’s budget process is to designate how the money will be dispensed among different student organizations. Any money the respective organizations do not spend is sent to the College’s general fund. Once in the general fund, the money is spent at the discretion of the finance office.
Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, a senior, said he was “appalled” that student money was not in the control of students.

p. Vice President for the Office of Financial Affairs Sam Jones said that he was satisfied with the way the process worked, relative to student affairs.

p. “Note that we play no role in how the revenue is allocated among the various student activities,” he said.
The bill, which passed 16-5, requests information about how the money is being spent. Sen. Victor Sulkowski, a senior, cautioned senators about the bill.

p. “It’s a little headstrong to go in, not even knowing if there is a problem,” he said.

p. The SA also sent several new bills to committee. Sen. Zach Pilchen, a sophomore, proposed a bill that would appropriate $550 from the Student Activities Consolidated Reserve Account in order to purchase a compost tumbler that would recycle food from the Commons. The compost would then be used as fertilizer in the garden outside the building. The bill was sent to be reviewed by finance and student life.

p. Sen. Andrew Blasi, a freshman, proposed the Laundry Services Room and Board Charge Combination Act that was sent to Campus Affairs. The bill proposes using the Student Information Network to find out whether students would be interested in a $40 increase in room and board if laundry was included.

p. Fitzgerald also sponsored a bill that he called the “most ambitious thing I’ve ever tried to do.” The R.A. Reform act, sent to Student Life committee, sends a petition to Residence Life to change the job description of RAs, asking that they no longer be required to “enforce campus policy.”

p. “Some RAs take their jobs completely too seriously,” he said. “We ought to have an environment where RAs are focused on student safety. RAs should be more supportive.”

p. The bill proposes that the RA staff work to help students with safety issues and not force them to write students up for violation of College rules.

p. After capturing majorities in both the House and Senate, Democrats have voiced a willingness to increase funding for higher education. Congressional Democrats are pushing forward with a plan that they say will make college educations more affordable and accessible.

p. According to Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.), who will become Speaker of the House in January, education has long been a part of the Democratic Party’s plan for reform. In an Oct. 27 letter, Pelosi said that if the Democrats gained control of the House, a plan to cut the interest rate in half for student loans would be a top issue to be addressed at the start of the 110th Congress.

p. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of full-time College students increased 30 percent from 1994 to 2004. Higher education reform is a part of what Pelosi refers to as a “bipartisan and achievable plan” developed by Democrats to address national issues such as health care, gas prices coupled with energy independence and retirement security.

p. “Democrats stand for increasing the minimum wage, for making college more affordable, for bringing down the cost of health care and for finding meaningful solutions to our energy crisis. Democrats stand for a new direction,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said in an article on his party’s Senate website.

p. Plans to cut college costs include making college tuition deductible from taxes, expanding the federal Pell Grants and lowering student loan interest rates.

p. The Democrats’ plan would bring back tax deductions for families who earn up to $160,000 per year, The Wall Street Journal reported Nov. 15.

p. According to the Wall Street Journal, the College Board, the company that administers the SAT, found that over the past five years, the cost of public education has increased 35 percent while the real value of the Pell Grant for lower income families has fallen.
p. Democrats in Congress say that they hope to raise the Pell Grant from $4,050 a year to $5,100. Taking rising inflation and cost of living into account, the Pell Grant is worth $900 less than it was in 1975. In 1976 the federal grant for college students covered approximately 72 percent of the tuition for a four-year institution, while today’s grant covers 32 percent of those costs. More than five million students receive aid from the Pell Grant, which does not have to be paid back.

p. Since the 2000 to 2001 fiscal year, average annual tuition and fees at public colleges have jumped 57 percent. At private colleges, annual tuition and fees have increased 32 percent.
“[Neither] student-aid funds nor family incomes are keeping pace with college prices,” College Board President Gaston Caperton told The Wall Street Journal Oct. 25.

p. If Pelosi gets what she wants, the package would include cutting the cost of student loan interest rates in half from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent, and parent loan interest rates from 8.5 percent to 4.25 percent. The Wall Street Journal reported Nov. 15 that this could save students as much as $4,000 total.

p. The Democrats’ plan also includes creating a tax credit for college tuition that is the equivalent of a $12,000 tax deduction for middle-income families. This tax credit would cover 55 percent of the average tuition and fees at a four-year public college, a large increase from the status quo, which covers, at most, 30 percent.
The introduction of such initiatives in the new Congress could cause discord between the parties.

p. “If Republicans had liked these ideas, they would have implemented them, so they are likely to oppose them. Democrats who are worried about the size of the deficit … will oppose them,” Professor Robert Archibald, who teaches the Economics of Higher Education course at the College, said.

p. Congress will begin its 110th session on Jan. 3, 2007.

p. The University Center’s Center Court dining hall improved in its latest health inspection, receiving only two critical violations and no non-critical violations. In its previous health inspection, it received nine critical health violations.

p. In the Oct. 25 inspection, the UC was cited for a dented can of apple butter on the shelf and an improper ammonia concentration in a cleaning solution. Both were corrected during the inspection.

p. Director of Dining Services Phil DiBenedetto and Director of University Center Dining Jeff Brackett seemed pleased with the results, a drastic improvement from the May 2006 inspection, which cited the UC for nine critical and 18 non-critical violations. The number of critical violations tied for most in the district with Milano’s restaurant.
p. According to DiBenedetto, many of the violations can be attributed to the UC’s size.

p. “The average is about 2.1 [critical violations] or something like that for a fast food restaurant, and that’s a place with six or seven employees,” he said. “A place like the Commons or UC has six or seven restaurants in it. The opportunity to find [a violation] is six to seven times higher.”

p. While the UC may have received fewer violations, DiBenedetto said that the procedure was the same as usual.

p. “Each inspection is training for us and we go over it with the staff — the good, the bad and the ugly.”

p. According to the Virginia Department of Health’s report, the two violations were corrected immediately. The can was removed from the shelf and the solution was adjusted.

p. “We changed [the concentration],” said Brackett. “They’ll come back next semester, and our goal will be zero. If we get any, though, it will be handled in the same way.”

p. “The inspection was conducted to follow frequency guidelines for inspections,” VDH Environmental Health Specialist Carol Puckett said in an e-mail.

p. The online report states that it “was a scheduled inspection to ensure previous violations have been corrected.”

p. DiBenedetto and Brackett said that they are constantly examining dining hall safety.

p. “At each of my staff meetings, we review health inspections. All of those are being reviewed on a daily basis,” DiBenedetto added.

p. Brackett and DiBenedetto also noted that employee rewards are also based partially on sanitation and cleanliness.

p. According to DiBenedetto, the UC will take the results and learn from them.

p. “We took the inspection, we did the training and we moved on,” he said. “We’ll continue to be inspected and continue to do the job we’re supposed to do.”