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UMass partners with med school to offer joint program

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The University of Massachusetts plans to launch a joint program with the UMass medical school to increase the number of minority doctors practicing in the state of Massachusetts. The program would allow students from underprivileged backgrounds to gain admission to both the University of Massachusetts and the UMass medical school.

Under the new program, the UMass medical school would reserve 12 of 125 first-year spots for minority students in the program, four from each of the different UMass campuses. There would be no quota placed on the number of students accepted from certain ethnic groups.

“This helps other UMass campuses to attract more highly qualified students and helps us to entice those very talented individuals to stay in the state and practice medicine here,” Dean of UMass Medical School Terence Flotte said to The Boston Globe.

The program targets high school seniors who are of African-American, Hispanic, Brazilian and southeast Asian descent. Administrators hope the program will help address the shortage of minority physicians in the Massachusetts Bay area. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges and recent census data, only 5 percent of doctors in the bay area are of black or Hispanic decent.

“For a kid from a small town whose parents did not go to college, becoming a physician is just seen as such a long haul,” UMass President Jack Wilson said to The Boston Globe. “The beauty of this program is that we can start talking to them in high school, and they have a certain assurance that if they do what is expected of them, they will have a chance to make it through medical school.”

The program will also provide opportunities to low-income and first-generation college students. They would join Boston University, Tufts University and Brown University, among others, to offer a joint baccalaureate-M.D.

“I would automatically want to join something like that,” Jessica Zina, a first year student at the UMass medical school, said to The Boston Globe. “To be that much closer to medical school would really be an advantage. That would be golden.”

The program would also help increase awareness of cultures with approaches to dealing with illness and disease.

“Students learn by learning from each other,” Anthony Garro, provost and vice-chancellor for academic affairs at UMass- Dartmouth, said to The Boston Globe. “This will make for a broader education.”

Airport security targets students arriving from ‘state sponsors of terrorism’

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_Click image to enlarge._

Art for our sake

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Right when you think the Williamsburg City Council is a body of hidebound old curmudgeons, they do something like this: Over the last month, the city has started laying the foundation for a Williamsburg art district in the triangle between Lafayette Street and Richmond Road. Yes, the hipsters may be coming to town. This is an exciting initiative that deserves the College of William and Mary’s and the city’s full support.

Over the summer, the General Assembly passed a bill that allowed any Virginia locality to use tax incentives and regulatory flexibility to create and support local arts districts. Developing local cultural offerings has been a long-term goal of the city, so this month, Williamsburg allotted money for consultants to perform a feasibility study that will address whether or not one of these districts would be right for this area. Simultaneously, the mayor has created a focus group of local investors, creative talent and others that will meet over the next six months to discuss the issue. While this is just the beginning of a several-year process, the ball is officially rolling.

We fully support this effort and hope the city sees it through. As has been shown in other states that have implemented similar policies over the last decade, creating a space in which theaters, performing arts centers, museums, art galleries and artist studios are encouraged to locate near one another tends to have a positive economic ripple effect that draws in a range of other kinds of businesses, from restaurants to advertising agencies. Doing so can also lead to an increase in desirable, if slightly immeasurable, quantities such as civic engagement and local activism. It can also encourage younger, creative-minded workers to locate to an area they otherwise might not consider. We are all for it.

With the influx of tourist shoppers in this area of Williamsburg and the new arts center the College will soon begin constructing, we have little doubt that an art district can be economically viable here. However, we need to proceed carefully; we already have gift shops in which tourists can buy reproductions of classical landscapes. If we are to create a district like this, it should be done with true intentions to actually support the arts. Doing so will produce a district that will pay dividends to all members of the local community.

This, of course, includes students who will be within walking distance from the proposed location of the district and will be able to take advantage of all of its offerings. This could even include housing, if the previously proposed mixed-use model is applied as it should be. Having student apartments over gallery space this close to campus would be a boon to those lucky enough to live there.

Our only criticism at this point is that the city has missed a step in the creation of its task force. Currently, this is a group on which there is only limited representation from the College — one professor from the art history department. If the city means what it has said — that working with the College should be an integral part of this process — a student should be asked to join the task force.

Tribe traps students in groupthink

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Does anyone else feel like running a mile every time someone mentions the College of William and Mary community? As a transfer student, my orientation week — read: disorientation week — was one long exercise in emphasizing how much a part of the College family I already was, until endless repetition caused the words to lose their meaning. I have been unable to shake these negative connotations ever since. Apparently my enrollment in this tribe will control my free will here at the College.

The College’s strong sense of cohesion and identity is not necessarily a bad thing. The College is understandably very proud of its history. Any academic institution with such rich connections to the political and intellectual establishments of this country has a compelling case for asserting its uniqueness, even if it likes to do so by piling on the kitsch — 1693 weather vanes, I’m looking at you.

The more intimate university experience offered by the College contrasts favorably with other much larger and more impersonal establishments such as Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia. Individual academic departments, sports teams and groups all add to a sense of belonging that students may not feel again in their lives.

However, being in a community must never be confused with conformity, and there’s plenty of that in the air from the way students dress — you’d think the College was sponsored by The North Face — or the excessive focus on grades, which I have already bemoaned in previous columns.

None of this is helped by the vaguely insidious concept of the “Tribe.” Sure it’s a great thing to shout at football games, but its bastard offspring — the Tribe Choice — sounds a bit like former First Lady Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign, complete with the same levels of popular ridicule. As much as such policy is meant to encourage students to make sensible and informed choices about drugs, alcohol and sex, it’s also a way in which the College tries to do its students’s thinking for them. It’s as if a Tribe Choice is assumed to be a more informed decision than an individual choice.

The College website claims that we’re all “serious about having fun,” yet both the College and the city are equally serious about stopping it with draconian restrictions on alcohol consumption and noise levels — not to mention the newly-revised, but still laughable three-person rule — all contributing to an atmosphere in which students feel they’re being treated less like young adults and more like children. There is a thin line between legitimately protecting students from harm and restricting the natural tendency of young people to make and then learn from their own mistakes. The College often straddles this line, but its inaction in the debate over the three-person rule and the current alcohol policy paints a fairly restrictive picture of life in Williamsburg.

Ultimately, college is about self-discovery as much as it is about forging connections with others. After a high school career, which is often all about fitting in and jumping through academic hoops, college is when you should be learning to think for yourself. A community is only as strong as the individuals within it; after all, those weather vanes always follow the prevailing winds, and students should be wary of doing the same.

E-mail Tim MacFarlan at trmacfarlan@wm.edu.

As tuition rises, some college presidents in Virginia are still raking it in

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Many colleges have called for an increase in tuition, which is not surprising considering the dire situation in which our nation’s economy currently finds itself. Institutions across the country are asking students to reach even further into their pockets to help alleviate the pressure of severe budget cutting. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, Virginia is one of four states currently experiencing drastic cuts to financial support for higher education, receiving 16 percent less funding than last year.

The decision of many top Virginia schools to raise tuition was a necessary one — or was it? Disturbing information has surfaced that calls into question the relationship between a college, its students and its president: Some Virginia schools are forcing a value on students that their own presidents can’t keep — frugality.

Not only are tuitions increasing, but so are the salaries of college presidents. The Chronicle of Higher Education determined that the median salary of public university presidents during the 2008-2009 school year rose more than 2 percent from the previous one, an increase that is particularly troubling in the case of two other Virginia public institutions — Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia. Both U.Va. and Tech increased tuition for their students, yet both have presidents who are among the top-ten-highest paid in the United Sates.

Charles W. Steger, Tech’s president, ranks eighth in the nation, receiving $732,064 a year for his role. However, Steger’s salary is significantly smaller than that of John T. Casteen III, U.Va.’s president, who ranks fourth, and receives an annual salary of $797,048. Many other presidents face large budget cuts, yet are compensated considerably less than are U.Va. or Tech’s presidents.

College of William and Mary President Taylor Reveley receives $332,100 for his position. And even President Barack Obama is awarded only $570,000 annually for his service as leader of our nation.

Even more shocking than last year’s 2.3 percent median increase in pay for college presidents during a time when there is supposed to be a freeze on the salaries of all Virginia state employees, this increase was substantially smaller than the increases of the last four years, all of which were at least 7.5 percent and as high as 19 percent in 2005. Considering this statistic, if public universities were really trying to trim their budgets, they should have rolled back the haphazard pay increases of previous years.

Most of these pay increases have come from private sources. If public universities can raise adequate salaries for their presidents from private donors, then the state should find more practical ways to spend public funds. Just as decreases in public funding result in higher tuition, more private donations should just as soon lower tuition.

Where is the dedication to education that college presidents are supposed to uphold? When colleges stop rooting for the students and start turning into capitalistic entities, more and more students will slip through the cracks into less fruitful lives.

The salaries of college presidents reflect a blatant disregard of our current financial woes, and this disrespect is affecting our lives at the College. We continually experience more budget cuts that will eventually lead to higher tuition. While our president may not be as overpaid as his peers, we are still affected by the inflated salaries of neighboring institutions. In essence, we are all eating off the same plate.

E-mail Adriana Green at algreen01@wm.edu.

2010 Winter sports previews

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Men’s Tennis
by Wesley Stukenbroeker

For Head Coach Peter Daub the goals are the same every year: compete with opponents, improve as the season progresses, play the best tennis during the end of the year and earn a spot in the NCAA tournament.

Last year, however, the team was unable to check off the last item on that list. It dropped a heartbreaking 4-3 decision against VCU in the CAA semifinals, finishing the season 16-14 (3-1 CAA).

“I don’t measure the success of a season by the number of wins,” Daub said. “We always want to make the NCAA tournament.”

The Tribe has been working hard to do just that. A vigorous workout schedule, combined with fall practices and tournaments, has kept the athletes busy throughout the offseason.

“Coach Daub has been focusing mostly on having a positive attitude and competing with opponents,” senior Keziel Juneau said.

The team returns four singles starters and five doubles starters, led by Juneau and senior Richard Wardell. Wardell was plagued by injury last season but came up big in the CAA tournament. Junior Sebastien Vidal is coming off a breakout season in which he went 22-10 in singles competition.

So far, the College is off to a strong 5-3 start, remains undefeated at home. Catch them at the McCormack-Nagelson Tennis Center at 5 p.m. on Friday when they match up against East Tennessee State.

Key contributor: Keziel Juneau

After a 2009 season in which senior Keziel Juneau was ranked 103rd nationally and was named First-Team All-CAA in both singles and doubles, he remained dissatisfied by the team’s loss in the CAA tournament.

“My season was pretty good last year,” Keziel said. “But obviously I was disappointed with how the team finished.”

Juneau has continued developing his typically dominant serve and forehand, but is concentrating especially on his backhand, a part of his game that he knows could use improvement.

While Juneau has spent a considerable amount of time working on his technique, he also looks forward to the less competitive aspects of colligate tennis, such as the various road trips associated with the team’s schedule.

“Spring break is always fun,” Juneau said. “This year we are going to Athens, Ga.”

While Juneau takes time to enjoy the leisurely aspects of playing for Tribe tennis, his focus remains fixed on guiding the College to the NCAA tournament.

Women’s tennis
by Travis Triggs

After finishing last year at no. 49 in the country and falling in the semifinals of the CAA tournament in an injury-ridden campaign, William and Mary (2-1, 0-0 CAA) women’s tennis program, under second-year head coach Meredith Geiger-Walton, faces high expectations for the upcoming season. The young squad returns after a dedicated offseason regimen with four new freshmen and its eyes on the CAA crown.

“As a team, the theme this year is ‘energy, cohesion, and belief,’” Geiger-Walton said.

The Tribe returns three-time First-Team All-CAA senior Ragini Acharya, All-CAA senior Carmen Pop, redshirt junior Lauren Sabacinski and sophomore Katie Kargl. The four were appointed by Geiger-Walton to a leadership council to head the team this season.

“All four of us are very different,” Pop said. “We form a very strong leadership council.”

The Tribe will see a tough schedule featuring 16 matches against nationally ranked opponents.

“Our big challenge this year will be handling the ups and downs of the season,” Sabacinski said. “We’re relatively young, so we’ll need to adapt as a team in order to have success.”

The College, which surprised no. 13 Texas last season, will look to reprise its upset role this season in highlight matches against no. 1 Duke and no. 5 Notre Dame in Puerto Rico over spring break.

Key contributor: Ragini Acharya

Senior Ragini Acharya will fill the no. 1 slot for the singles and doubles squads this year. Acharya enters the year as a three-time First-Team All-CAA singles and a two-time First-Team All-CAA doubles player. She is likely to reach the College’s all-time top 10 in career singles wins by the end of the year. She will also look to add to her legacy, teaming up with junior Lauren Sabacinski in doubles action. The Tribe’s success this year will be heavily dependent on both Acharya’s on the court efforts and off the court leadership.

Men’s gymnastics
by Mike Barnes

Although it might seem like a tall order to eclipse a 2009 season that featured a variety of accolades, including a USA Gymnastics National Collegiate Championship, a third place finish in the East Coast Athletic Conference (ECAC) and the designation of National Academic Championship Runner Up, the Tribe will look to continue its winning ways in 2010.

In his 37th season at the College, Head Coach Cliff Gauthier aspires to guide the Tribe to a repeat performance as USAG national champions, which would be the College’s 14th USAG Championship in 17 years. The 2010 squad features a lot of talent, including several highly touted incoming freshmen.

“We would like to win the USAG National Colligate Championship again, and maybe we can win some national [individual] titles there,” Gauthier said. “We will then try to get as many guys into the [USAG] top six as we can, which would make them All-Americans.”

Additionally, Gauthier would like to pilot the Tribe to an appearance in the NCAA Gymnastics Championships, a distinction the 2009 squad missed by mere fractions of a point.

Key contributor: Derek Gygax

In order to accomplish those goals, the College will need another strong year from senior co-captain Derek Gygax.

The reigning USAG Colligate All-Around Champion, Gygax is optimistic about the 2010 season and likes the Tribe’s chances to capture a national championship.

“We are looking talented, we are looking good, we just have to get working harder, and start pulling things together,” Gygax said. “I think we are going to do pretty well as long as we can keep it up, everyone should be the best they can be by the time the ECAC season comes around.”

Women’s gymnastics
by Jack Lambert

The Tribe women’s gymnastics team begins the year with 13 gymnasts, the smallest team Head Coach Mary Lewis has ever fielded in her 16 seasons. Due to their small numbers, Lewis knows the key to the team’s success this season will rely on the Tribe’s execution.

“Fortunately we have a couple of kids who do all-around, which helps if you have a small team,” Lewis said. “We need to make sure that what they are doing when they perform are skills that we know they can do and do well.”

Leading the Tribe will be senior co-captains Ali Medeiros and Jen Stack. Medeiros and Stack both compete on the uneven bars, an event in which Lewis expects the Tribe to show well in this season. Lewis also has six gymnasts who can compete in the all-around event, led by junior Teenie Beck and sophomore Kristen Milardo.

Milardo, a USAG Collegiate First Team All-America last season, enters the season looking to build on an impressive freshman campaign in which she was honored as the ECAC Rookie of the Year.
“[Milardo] has upgraded her skills on beam and we’re hoping to be adding a new dismount in on bars, probably at the earliest by midseason,” Lewis said.

Despite a small team though, Lewis said the goal this year remains the same for the Tribe.

“There are two really big goals, to win the conference title, the ECAC’s, and the USAG’s,” Lewis said. “My comment to them is always if you did your best, and you know you did your best, no one can ask for more from you.”

Key contributors: Christina Beck

Covering Teenie Beck requires strict adherence to the first rule of journalism: always double-check names.

“Oh, no one calls her Christina. You’d actually be better off referring to her as Teenie,” Head Coach Mary Lewis said of her junior gymnast. “I think she’s going to have a breakout year for us.”

As a freshman at Penn State, Beck posted career highs above 9.800 on the vault bars and floor. Beck will compete in the all-around for the Tribe and, with the chance to qualify for regionals, will definitely play an un-tiny-like role in William and Mary’s success this season.

Women’s basketball: College splits pair of CAA road games

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William and Mary split two games on its conference road trip last week, bouncing back from a tough loss at Hofstra Thursday to defeat George Mason in the Patriot Center Sunday afternoon.

After holding the lead for the first ten minutes of the Hofstra game, poor second half shooting eventually caused the game to get out of hand.

“We just played awful,” Head Coach Debbie Taylor said. “We had every opportunity to take that game over. I don’t think there was a player on our team who played well.”

Hofstra closed out the game by shooting 60 percent from the floor, while the College (10-8, 3-4 CAA) struggled to get in any sort of offensive rhythm. The Pride led the Tribe in nearly every statistical category.

“We didn’t show up,” Taylor said. “We missed layups. We missed free throws, and other easy opportunities.”

Three of the Tribe players — Janine Aldridge, Jaclyn McKenna, and Tasha Pye — were playing in their homestate.

“Hopefully the Hofstra game was a learning experience for us,” Taylor said. “We have a young team and it taught us how to play on the road.”

On Sunday the players proved that it was, answering the frustrating performance with a big win against GMU. After an early 3-pointer by Patriots freshman Amber Easter, the Tribe came back to score 14 unanswered points and would never relinquish the lead.

Mason came out hot in the second half, scoring the first six points to cut its deficit to four at 35-31. But the Tribe answered with six of its own and never looked back. The Patriots shot only 26.5 percent from the floor, compared to 42.4 percent for the Tribe.

“We played a lot more mentally tough,” Taylor said. “It was a much needed win on the road.”

The Tribe pulled down 54 rebounds, compared to the Patriots’ 35. The dominant inside play was led by freshman Emily Correal, who finished with 17 rebounds and 14 points. Senior Tiffany Benson put up a double-double for the second game in a row registering 10 points and 11 rebounds.

“We had great inside play from Benson and Correal,” Taylor said. “They were owning the boards, dominating the paint, and scoring off of blocks.”

The College continues CAA play Thursday when it takes on Old Dominion at 7 p.m. at Kaplan Arena.

Men’s basketball: ‘A tough one to lose’

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After suffering a double-digit road loss to conference rival Virginia Commonwealth earlier in the week, William and Mary (14-5, 6-3 CAA) looked forward to Saturday’s matchup against Old Dominion as a chance to rebound and keep pace in an increasingly tight CAA race.

But at the end of a captivating, back-and-forth matchup between two evenly matched teams, the Tribe dropped its second consecutive conference loss in heartbreaking fashion, as senior guard David Schneider’s game tying 3-point bid rimmed out as time expired, giving Old Dominion (16-5, 8-1 CAA) a razor-thin victory.

The 58-55 decision, in front of a raucous capacity crowd at Kaplan Arena, was played at a frantic, breakneck pace, allowing the game to live up to its considerable expectations. The contest featured 10 lead changes, including four in the final three minutes.

“It was a great college basketball game,” Head Coach Tony Shaver said. “We had a good atmosphere, and it was a well-played ballgame. I don’t think I can ask our guys to compete any harder than we did. It was a tough one to lose, but a great one to be a part of.”

The game featured a clash between Old Dominion’s nationally acclaimed defense and the Tribe’s vaunted Princeton-inspired offense. Although the Tribe held a four point halftime lead, the Monarchs’ intimidating zone defense allowed Old Dominion to pressure the College’s stable of sharpshooters.

“They are so big,” Shaver said. “They are one of the biggest basketball teams I have ever coached against. [With] their size and strength, it is tough to get the ball inside. When we do get inside, they collapse on us, so it was tough. I was disappointed with how we handled their zone tonight, but it is a great zone.”

That zone became even tougher to attack when the College posted its second straight sub-par shooting performance.

“I felt that a lot of the shots in the second half were in and out, and it happens,” senior guard David Schneider said. “It’s just something you have to deal with as a shooter — some are going to go in and some are going to go out.”

The Tribe converted just 33 percent of its shots from the field, including 10 for 30 from behind the arc. Sophomore guard Quinn McDowell led all scorers with 16 points, while Schneider contributed 14 points, including four three-pointers.

Meanwhile, Old Dominion was efficient offensively, utilizing their size advantage to thwart the Tribe’s defensive efforts. The Monarchs shot 42 percent from the field and made 81 percent of their free throws. In the waning minutes, Old Dominion center Gerald Lee proved an invaluable threat inside against the Tribe defense.

“They certainly did pound it inside, and we had a very difficult time stopping them down the stretch inside the last 10 minutes,” Shaver said. “I thought in the first half, we did a great job keeping them off the boards. In the second half, it was so close. Again, it wasn’t a lack of effort.”

Although the College failed to deliver a victory, Tribe players and coaches were impressed with the electric atmosphere at a usually sedate Kaplan Arena. The attendance of 7,261 was the largest crowd since 1993, and the largest ever to witness a CAA contest in Williamsburg.

“Coming in here as a freshman, I set two goals,” Schneider said. “One of them was to sell out Kaplan, and the other was to make the NCAA tournament, so we have one goal left.”

Both teams will now look ahead to their Feb. 3 rematch in Norfolk, a game that will likely contain enormous conference ramifications.

“It was unfortunate that we couldn’t get the win, but stuff like that happens,” Schneider said. “ODU is a great team, and we just have to come out next time and get the win.”

Men’s basketball: Tribe vs. ODU live blog

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The Flat Hat is live, courtside at Kaplan Arena as the College (14-4, 6-2 CAA) takes on Old Dominion (15-5, 7-1 CAA) in a crucial CAA matchup for both teams. Tune in for play-by-play, commentary, analysis, and more.

Chime in below with comments or questions in addition to the live commentary.

City Council votes down hotels as student residences

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The Williamsburg City Council voted down a motion Jan. 14 to allow College of William and Mary students to reside in hotels and motels throughout the city.

The proposal would have expanded the ability of the College to house students in hotels throughout the city rather than just in the Museum Support district, the only area of the city currently permitted to lease to students.

It was passed 6-1 by the Planning Commission in December and seemed likely to pass through city council. Council members, however, were swayed by landlords and rental agencies who spoke against the change.
“I can’t tell you the impact this would have on the apartment industry in Williamsburg and James City County,” Peninsula Apartment Council Executive Committee Chairman Kathy Scott said. “The ordinance is more open-ended than is needed … and it would make it even harder for apartment businesses to compete.”
Lawson Enterprises property manager Ryan Hunt told council members that apartments in the city average a 10 percent vacancy rate; he demonstrated his point by asking the landlords present to raise their hands if they had vacancies — nearly all did.

Aside from the bad economy, Hunt said the city’s rental industry has experienced several legislative setbacks recently, including the recent council decision to allow some houses in the city to house four unrelated people instead of three.

College representatives testified last year that the ordinance would assist primarily with finding housing for summer transfer students. Currently, approximately 10 students live at the Governor’s Inn. Officials also testified they did not expect more than 50 students to live in hotel housing, were the ordinance to pass.
City Planner Reed Nester estimated that 50 students living in hotels instead of rental units would represent approximately a $200,000 annual loss to the city’s rental industry.

No hotel representatives spoke at the meeting.

Various city council members noted they had been prepared to pass the ordinance but were swayed by the testimony from the rental industry.

“I had my mind set,” council member Bobby Braxton said. “But after listening to people here, it gives me lots of food for thought.”

Council member Judy Knudson, who also noted her change in opinion, argued that the College can handle its own residency issues.

“There seems to be a feeling at the College that there’s some big crisis in housing, but there’s not,” she said.
Williamsburg Mayor Jeanne Zeidler M.A. ’76 asked City Attorney Joe Phillips what would happen in the event of a dorm fire or other catastrophic incident requiring emergency housing for large numbers of students. Phillips responded that, technically, long-term hotel housing is not legal, but in similar past emergencies the city has not stopped the College from using hotels during emergency situations and would be unlikely to do so in the future.

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