The three candidates for president of the College of William and Mary’s Student Assembly debated topics ranging from sustainability to sexuality in the Sadler Center’s Commonwealth Auditorium, Sunday.

The debate, moderated by government professor Clay Clemens, consisted of prepared questions submitted by each campaign, followed by questions taken from audience members.

Presidential candidate Sen. Ben Brown ’11 and vice presidential candidate Sen. Betty Jeanne Manning ’12 began the debate by highlighting their sustainability efforts, including a campus-wide recycling program and the possibility of a communal bicycle program.

“Our ticket is the only ticket that has been able to work with other organizations for sustainability,” Brown said.

In response, presidential candidate Jessee Vasold ’11 and vice presidential candidate Caitlin Goldblatt ’11 said their sustainability platform had been crafted with the input of members of the Student Environmental Action Coalition. Vasold said the campaign’s goals included phasing out blue books for exams and ending daily purchase of copies of the New York Times and Virginia Gazette.

Presidential candidate Chrissy Scott ’11 and vice presidential candidate Kaveh Sadeghian ’12 said they would continue the College’s current sustainability efforts.

“When it comes down to sustainability, I think we’re seeing a lot of initiatives already taking place on campus,” Scott said. “I think [the Committee on Sustainability] has been very successful in its funding of initiatives on campus.”

The candidates then discussed the ideal role of the SA.

Vasold said the SA should take an active role in College issues.

“We think that the [SA] is, by definition, an activist organization,” Vasold said. “Not a left-wing organization, but one that takes student input into consideration.”

Scott said that to be truly effective, the SA must increase transparency.

“We want students to be aware of what the SA is doing,” she said. “We want to be as accessible as possible.”

While the candidates agreed students at the College should have more input in SA decisions, they disagreed on the value of prior SA experience.

Brown and Manning said their time in the senate has given them the chance to affect student health and safety issues, including “know your rights” cards and potential alterations to the College’s medical amnesty policy. Collectively, the two have five years of experience in the SA.

Vasold also touted previous SA experience.

“As the only presidential candidate with extensive experience with the executive branch of the SA, I’ve worked with two SA presidents as undersecretary of LGBT affairs,” Vasold said.

Scott and Sadeghian said activity within the College also provides insight. Their SA experience is Scott’s tenure as treasurer for the Class of 2011.

“My involvement with the SA has been minimal, but my involvement on campus has been strong,” Sadeghian said.

Addressing criticisms about the distribution of SA funds, the candidates also described plans for financial reform within the senate.

“What the SA really needs is an attitude shift,” Vasold said. “I know what it’s like to be denied funding. We need to get past the petty nit-picking of funding events that we like.”

Scott said the SA should be more active in the promotion of new events and groups.

“New events just get zero [funding] right away,” Scott said. “If a group wants to hold a new event, we want to know the details and what they want to do, so they don’t automatically get zero.”

The candidates also addressed how their own sexuality would affect their campaigns.

“Sexuality is something that I think affects all of us at a personal level,” Brown said. “As far as my sexuality affecting my candidacy, I would never let my personal sexual preferences affect a policy decision.”

Vasold said that his involvement in the LGBT community influences the campaign.

“As a queer [identified] student, my sexuality has allowed me to work with different groups and organizations on campus,” Vasold said.

Scott said she did not have the same insights into sexuality as other candidates, but that the SA has made efforts to improve connections to diversity at the College.

“As a straight woman, I understand that I’m in a privileged position and that I don’t understand all the issues,” she said. “But that’s what great about exec — that we have an undersecretary of LGBT affairs.”

The debate ended with closing statements from each campaign.

Vasold encouraged students to vote, regardless of who they ultimately choose.

“Your voice is echoed through these decisions and elections,” Vasold said. “Caitlin and I have experience in the SA. We can get the job done.”

Scott reiterated her desire to make the SA a more inclusive body.

“We want the SA to be representative of the school,” Scott said. “I want the SA to embody the students at William and Mary.”

Brown and Manning said their history in the SA made them the better choice for president and vice president.

“Experience and hard work are two different things,” Manning said. “Ben and I are the only ticket to have worked on all the issues that were brought up.”

SA elections are scheduled to take place March 31.

Former Virginia Attorney General Bill Mims ’79 was appointed to the Virginia Supreme Court March 10.

Mims replaced current Gov. Bob McDonnell as attorney general after McDonnell resigned last February to run for governor. He served through January, at which point he was replaced by Ken Cuccinelli.

“Bill is an extraordinary public servant and a longtime personal friend,” McDonnell said in a press release. “He has long been one of my closest co-workers in nearly 20 years in public office … We need individuals of Bill’s character and intelligence in public service, and while he may have thought his time serving Virginia was over, [the] appointment is welcome news to all of us who know just how uniquely qualified and decent a person he is.”

Mims earned a B.A. in history from the College of William and Mary, also studying public administration and serving as student body president.

“Bill Mims has served the commonwealth brilliantly and selflessly throughout his career,” College President Taylor Reveley said. “He will be a superb addition to the Virginia Supreme Court. William and Mary is enormously proud of our alumnus, Justice Mims.”

Before his appointment as attorney general, Mims worked as McDonnell’s chief deputy from 2006 to 2009. Previously, Mims served in the Virginia General Assembly from 1992 to1997 and in the Virginia State Senate from 1998 to 2005.

“The overwhelming support for Bill’s appointment to the highest court in Virginia is a reflection of the high regard in which he is held by leaders from both parties,” McDonnell said. “Bill will make a tremendous Supreme Court Justice, and I congratulate him on yet another accomplishment in a life dedicated to serving the citizens of Virginia.”

Mims’ Supreme Court position goes into effect April 1.

The College of William and Mary Undergraduate Honor Council announced the creation of a task force March 23 aimed at reevaluating the election of Honor Council members.

“At this point, the entire process is going to be reevaluated,” Undergraduate Honor Council Chair Justice John Pothen ’11 said. “Questions are going to be asked about every step of the process.”

The Honor Council Election Reform Task Force is made up of eight members — Skyler Halbritter ’11, Andy Rudd ’11, Stefanie Felitto ’12, Asha Williams ’12, economics professor Jennifer Mellor, English professor Brett Wilson, Dean Dave Gilbert and Internal Audit Director Michael Stump. The committee contains two members each from the Honor Council, the general student body, faculty and campus administration.

Honor Council members are currently elected in the spring through an online student ballot. Each student is able to vote for up to eight members of the rising sophomore, junior and senior classes. Students are prohibited from campaigning for the Honor Council. The task force will consider alternatives to the ban.

“I think it is fair to say that no one believes the process works exactly the way we might want it to,” Pothen said. “We hope to elect individuals based on their character and whether they are suitable to do the job. While the people I’ve worked with on council during my terms have been excellent, I think there are serious, legitimate doubts about whether the current process is the best way to do that.”

The task force will also evaluate changing the ballot. Currently, students base their vote on each candidate’s 200-word response to a question.

Rudd said that the task force would discuss issues concerning the possibility for campaign and ballot changes, though that is not its sole responsibility.

“Those ideas have been mentioned, but certainly are not the explicit purpose of the task force,” Rudd said. “We hope to analyze things that have worked in the council’s elections process, and more importantly, identify areas for improvement.”

While this year’s voter turnout decreased from last year, Rudd said the issue is not a cause for concern.

“The task force was not formed in response to low voter turnout,” Rudd said. “Last year’s
turnout was abnormally high, which is largely attributed to the referendum that ran concurrent to our election last year. When looking at last year as an outlier, turnout has actually continued on an upward trend.”

The Honor Council hopes to receive input from the student body on the comments section of its website, and will also distribute a limited, random survey to the student body. The task force will provide a final report of recommendations to the Honor Council at an undeclared date.

A freshman club athlete, George sighs when he thinks about his three-year experience with prescription stimulants. While many healthy students actively seek prescription stimulants to get an edge or experience a high, George, who has ADD, sees Adderall as a necessary evil and a means to a successful academic career.

“Generally, people I know with a prescription don’t like it,” he said.

And yet, Adderall and other related stimulants are shared illegally on campus, providing students with medications an opportunity to make profit. George recalls during his senior year in high school, when the market for focus aids was particularly active. Although he never sold a pill, George admits to sharing with a friend who sold to a group of students taking the exam.

Perhaps the attractiveness of prescription stimulants is rooted in actual success stories like George’s, who began taking Adderall right around the SATs and claims that his scores improved in comparison to his practice results.

Standardized testing provides academic pressure that pushes some of the most motivated students to prescription drug abuse. Another student, Vinny, admits to becoming illegally involved with prescription stimulants, specifically Ritalin, Adderall and Vivance, during AP testing in his junior year.

“Any standardized test I took to get into this school,” Vinny says, brows furrowed for a moment as he appreciates the implications of his drug abuse. “I was fucked up,” he said.

George admits to abusing Adderall on occasion, in order to stay up all night for papers or late-night games, although he expresses frustration with students like Vinny, who abuse in order to get “fucked up.” He believes it has the opposite effect, and accuses students who claim otherwise to be trying to look cool.

“I’ve never been high from it. I hate it. I enjoy not taking it. I take it only when I have to. I don’t like the way it makes me feel, like a zombie,” George said.

After five years at the College of William and Mary, Dr. Virginia D. Wells, director of the Student Health Center, refrains from commenting on the severity of a stimulant abuse problem on campus, which she reserves as a matter of opinion. However, she acknowledges that the policy in place at the College of referring ADD and ADHD patients elsewhere is due to a commonly perceived potential for abuse of stimulant drugs at universities.

“At many colleges, there are policies in place that students come armed with their information and be prescribed medication by either their psychiatrist or practicing physician, and that that relationship continues, so that we don’t get into the position of being drug dealers,” Wells said.

Wells acknowledged a particular risk associated with the unregulated use of Adderall. The drug will work to treat other underlying disorders such as depression, and without a complete evaluation, a student may be inappropriately treating more serious problems while masking their symptoms.

Unfortunately for Vinny, his abuse of prescription drugs led to a far more serious problem with stimulants that drastically affected his life. He succumbed to a classic behavior pattern associated with addiction: seeking a more extreme high.

“I trace the huge drug problems I had later in life — my coke addiction — back to those days,” Vinny said.

Cocaine, like Adderall, causes increased energy, decreased appetite and an increased heart rate. The difference is that cocaine is highly illegal, and Adderall is becoming increasingly available.

“It was really cheap. I’d get five pills for five dollars,” Vinny said.

George, who has some experience sniffing lines, describes fellow students who snort Adderall in order to create an experience similar to the cocaine rush.

“It kicks in right away,” he said. “It doesn’t curb your appetite, although you don’t get the same concentration, and it doesn’t last as long.”

For George, dependency has never been a personal concern, but his outright distaste for the medication led him to question the necessity of the drug. He said he didn’t understand why students with ADD and ADHD get not only medical help, but also extra time on tests, teacher’s notes and other accommodations. The answer lies in the chemistry of his brain.

“Picture my sensory input as a hose with a kink in it,” George said. “I process things slower, and in that lapse it becomes easier for my mind to become focused on something else.”

Vinny came away from his experience with stimulants claiming to be a different, less positive person, while George, who has been exposed to a spectrum of stimulants such as Ritalin, Concerta, Welbutrin, Provigil and Dexedrine, insists that the drugs make him less goofy and more argumentative and uptight. Despite the negative side effects, George said he does not plan on getting off drugs any time soon.

“I’ll have a prescription as long as I need it to work,” he said.

While misuse of the prescriptions can lead to dependency, Wells said that the medication has benefits.

“When used appropriately, these drugs can be life saving, and they should be available to young people; but they need to be prescribed judiciously. I have had maybe one student come in and seek help for drug dependency and have referred that student to the appropriate place,” Wells said.

Alan B. Miller Hall experienced serious leakage problems when a pipe fitting on the hot water heating system failed and sprayed water on the ceiling of one of the classrooms. According to College spokesperson Brian Whitson, the room suffered damage to a portion of the ceiling, minor damage to a hallway ceiling and potential damage to a number of the computers.

Tuesday, Mar. 23 — An individual was extradited to New Mexico for alleged possession of marijuana at College Landing Park.

Wednesday, Mar. 24 — An individual reported burglary at the 600 Block of York Street. Damages included broken glass.

Saturday, Mar. 27 — A driver was arrested and faced suspension of their driver’s license at the 100 Block of Bypass Road.

Virginia First Lady Maureen McDonnell opened the eastern trailhead of the Virginia Capital Nature Trail in a dedication ceremony March 26.

The Virginia Capital Trail is expected to be completed in 2014 and will connect Virginia’s past and present capitals, Williamsburg and Richmond, along Route 5.

“The Virginia Capital Trail embraces the Commonwealth’s scenic beauty and rich history,” McDonnell said in a press release. “Like the informational stations in Virginia State Parks, the interactive kiosk at the eastern trailhead will enhance the experience for all who use it.”

The trailhead includes an electronic, interactive kiosk that provides information on public accommodations, historical sites and wildlife along the trail.

According to Beth Weisbrod, the executive director of the Virginia Capital Trail Foundation, a $110,000 grant from The Dominion Foundation allowed for the installation of two additional kiosks.