*Professor Cristol discusses effects of pollution*

An interview with biology professor Dan Cristol will air this week on the Virginia public radio show “With Good Reason”. On the program, Cristol discusses how mercury pollution is affecting birds living in the Virginia watershed. The interview will broadcast through Oct. 22 and will also be available online as a podcast.

*Advisory board created for women’s law journal*

The William and Mary Journal of Women and Law is founding an advisory board in response to the encouragement of their editorial board.

“The Journal benefited greatly in its early years from the wisdom and enthusiasm of its advisory committee,” faculty advisor professor Jayne Barnard said. “We decided that assembling a group of outstanding women to provide ideas and encouragement to today’s students could only strengthen an already strong journal.”

The panel will be comprised of 11 women from Virginia and Washington D.C.

*Database created to track effects of foreign aid*

Project-Level Aid in conjunction with the non-profit organization Development Gateway, has created a database that provides information on the effects of international aid on economic and social development around the world.

“We originally built PLAID to do academic research, but input from the policy community made clear that a publicly accessible database could also promote accountability, coordination, best practices and, ultimately, [could] reduce poverty,” Director of International Relations and PLAID researcher Michael Tierney said. “The database has become a useful tool for academics and researchers, but there is great potential for a much wider audience to benefit from it.”

The database will be online and available to the general public this spring.

*Area hospitals ban non-patients under age 18*

In an effort to help reduce the spread of all flu strains , 18 regional hospitals including Sentara Williamsburg regional Medical Center are not allowing non-patients under the age of 18 into the hospital. The higher rate of flu-like symptoms in children is the main reason for the implementation of the new policy. Those complaining of flu-like symptoms are also requested not to visit area hospitals.

Thursday, Oct. 8 — An individual reported an assault at the 3000 block of Richmond Road.

Friday, Oct. 9 — An individual was arrested for alleged shoplifting and public drunkenness in public at the 1200 block of Jamestown Road.

— An individual was arrested for alleged possession of marijuana at the 100 block of Merrimack Trail.

Saturday, Oct. 10 — An individual was arrested for alleged possession of cocaine at the 1900 block of Richmond Road.

Sunday, Oct. 11 — An individual was arrested for alleged public drunkenness and underage possession of alcohol at the 1000 block of Lafayette Street.

Monday, Oct. 12 — An individual reported vandalism of a window at the 100 block of Braxton Court.

Wednesday, Oct. 14 — An individual was arrested for allegedly stealing a wallet at the 1400 block of Richmond Road.

Thursday, Oct. 15 — An individual was arrested for allegedly driving with a suspended license at the intersection of York Street and Quarterpath Road.

Sunday, Oct. 18 — An individual was arrested for alleged public drunkenness and underage possession of alcohol at the 300 block of Richmond Road.

Earlier this month, Hampton University, a historically black college, selected its first non-black homecoming queen. Nikole Churchill’s victory triggered a beauty pageant walkout and led Churchill to write a public letter to President Barack Obama in which she claimed Obama would be able to relate to the racism she was facing at the university.

Churchill competed against nine black students in the 15th annual Miss Hampton University scholarship pageant and won a $1,500 scholarship. The pageant included evening gown, swimsuit and talent competitions. Churchill will serve as the homecoming queen Oct. 24 and participate in the 2010 Miss Virginia Pageant.

Churchill attends Hampton’s Virginia Beach campus. While some feel that her victory embodies Hampton University’s spirit of diversity, others complain that she does not attend the main campus, located in Hampton.

The main campus has about 5,700 students, while the Virginia Beach campus accomodates only 90 students.

“They’re saying that people don’t know who she is, people don’t even see her, so how can she represent us if she’s not even from the main campus?” Hampton sophomore Juan Diasgranados said.

Diasgranados said a noticeable number of students walked out of the pageant when Churchill was crowned. He, however, was among the majority who stood and applauded. Approximately 900 students attended the pageant in Ogden Hall.

Two of the nine contestants scowled for the traditional portraits of winners and runners-up.
Churchill, whose father is from Guam and whose mother is Italian, who grew up in Hawaii. Her Hawaiian background led Hampton University students to nickname her “Lil Obama.”

In her letter to the president, Churchill invited Obama to speak about racial tolerance at the university. The letter was posted Sunday on Congress.org.

Brittany Riddock, a second-year student at Hampton, told the Washington Post that there was “no comparison between a black man becoming president and a white woman winning a beauty pageant at a black school.”

Churchill is not the first non-black student to become homecoming queen at a historically black college.
In April, Kentucky State University elected Elisabeth Martin as its 80th homecoming queen, making her the first white student to win.

Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan visited the Sadler Center’s Commonwealth Auditorium at the College of William and Mary Thursday. His address, titled “Stability in West Asia: Short-Termism or a Vision for Peace,” dealt with the issues of humanitarianism and multilateralism in the Middle East.

“We have a saying in my country, it is an auspicious visit by him who brings rain,” Hassan said, commenting on the weather outside.

In his speech, the prince stressed the commonalities of all peoples by emphasizing the universality of the “golden rule.” He demonstrated this by reading passages of many different religious texts, including selections from Daoisim, Confucianism, Islam and traditional Native American beliefs.

The prince suggested that humanity has been diverted from this empathy, stressing the need for a common dialogue. On the world stage, Hassan noted that governments have “lost their good bedside manner” and are no longer able to step into the shoes of others.

He stressed the need for policies that are concerned with the worldwide effects of policies, not simply individual geographic regions.

He concluded his speech by stressing the need for “partnership in saving our common humanity.”

During the question-and-answer session, Hassan reflected on his home country and its international role, specifically on how Jordan has tried to maintain a middle ground while surrounded by Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Israel and the Palestinian territories, among others.

He related a past conversation with former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres. Noting the difficulties facing Israel in the Middle East, Hassan said that Peres told him, “Look at us, we are surrounded by enemies.”

‘You think you have it bad,’” Hassan said he responded, “‘We are surrounded by friends.’”

As part of a continued debate, the Williamsburg Planning Commission discussed amendments to a proposal regarding the three-person rule Oct. 7. The session provided an opportunity for students and members of the community to voice their opinions while listening to the planning commission’s thoughts.

At the conclusion of the Sept. 23 work session, planning commission members reached a consensus to delete all provisions that had altered the three-person rule to a four-person rule.

The revised proposal, discussed on Oct. 7, includes revisions to the definitions of “family” and “bedroom”
but does not mention changing occupancy of unrelated persons in a rental unit from three to four.

“The current three-person rule is not effective in the City of Williamsburg,” Student Assembly Undersecretary for Public Affairs Dave Witkowsky ’11 said. “In fact, the document in front of you doesn’t change much except for language.”

Head of Students for a Better Williamsburg Josh Karp ’11 agreed that without a change from a three-person to a four-person rule, the proposal will not solve the housing problems many students face when living off campus.

“The new proposal strikes me as a little thin,” Karp said. “I don’t think it really addresses the issue submitted to the planning commission. Without the fourth person material, I don’t think that any legislation decided on here or in the near future is going to satisfy students.”

Several members of the planning commission stressed the importance of protecting the quality of the neighborhoods throughout the city. planning commission chairman Doug Pons said that it is not necessarily student behavior that is stopping the commission from adopting a four-person rule.

“It really has nothing to do with who you are as a group or as individuals,” Pons said. “We are looking at protecting our single-family homes. We are not trying to suppress you in any way.”

If the three-person rule changed to a four-person rule, many members of the planning commission believe it would cause harm to the city as a whole, creating higher population densities which would increase traffic and possibly lead to the deterioration of family neighborhoods.

“We are trying to take an entire community view,” planning commission member Greg Ballentine said. “We are taking a look at this entire city and the effects the proposal will have on it. We need to accommodate everyone’s needs. One of the key elements here is preserving the neighborhoods.”

Planning commission member Joseph Hertzer went so far as to recommend reducing the number of occupants from three to two.

“We are committed to these residential neighborhoods, and we are going to do everything it takes to keep them intact. Going to the four-person rule is just taking the opposite stance,” he said. “I would even like to say while we are having this discussion, why don’t we put the option out there of going to two people?”

Community members voiced concerns regarding an increase in population density, specifically regarding increased traffic due to more residents per unit.

“There are 40,000 cars a week that travel along Longville Road,” Williamsburg resident Sharon Baker said.
“My concern is that High Street is one of the places that would be re-zoned. Considering adding a fourth car would increase traffic in adjacent neighborhoods like mine.”

Another Williamsburg resident, Terrance Wehle, believes that the efforts of the planning commission attempt to solve a problem that is not necessarily their concern.

“We are looking for ways to build dormitories in the city of Williamsburg,” Wehle said. “My concern is that we are trying to re-zone an entire area for a problem that is not the city’s.”

The planning commission recognized that the city has a diverse population. Williamsburg is a city that must balance the needs of the residents at large with a number of college students.

“For the first time, we are seeing efforts by many people to resolve the student problem,” planning commission member Jim Joseph said. “We know that changing the three-person rule to the four-person rule is not going to solve that problem. We need to put an emphasis now on trying to find alternative solutions [to the problem].”

While the planning commission and residents recognized that there is a problem regarding available off-campus housing for students, students themselves believe that more can be done to fix the problem without harming the city.

“We have listened and responded accordingly,” SA Undersecretary for Williamsburg Emily Gottschalk-Marconi ’12 said. “The framework for a four-person rule is already in place. It isn’t enough to just listen to the speakers before you. I would like to remind you that you are representing a diverse group of people.”

Utilizing the services offered by the City of Williamsburg just became easier for students at the College of William and Mary.

In an e-mail sent Wednesday by the College’s Office of Student Affairs, the city electronically distributed the 2009-2010 copy of the City of Williamsburg Resident Information Sheet: College of William and Mary Student Edition. The guide contains directory information for many of the city’s government officials and details about how students can best access city services.

“The City of Williamsburg and the College of William and Mary have a long-standing relationship and continue to work together to provide a safe and supportive environment,” Williamsburg Mayor Jeanne
Zeidler said in the e-mail. “To assist [students] in learning more about our city, we have developed the [guide] … We encourage you to read the guide, and keep it as a reference.”

Zeidler said that the guide is edited and printed by the city each year and represents the city’s attempt to educate students on its structure.

“[Students] should take from the guide that they are in a community that supports them and wants to provide them with this information about city government,” Zeidler said.

The guide is edited and updated by members of the city administration, then distributed to members of the community.

“We’ve been doing this for about four or five years,” Zeidler said. “It’s revised each year by the city manager and the communication manager based on feedback from the community.”

The city has often had difficulty delivering the guide to students in a timely manner. The October distribution of the 2009-2010 edition was one of the earliest releases of the guide.

“A couple of years ago, we had a problem where [the guide] wasn’t issued until after the holidays,” Zeidler said. “By that time, you’ve already lost a semester of use, so now we try to issue it as soon as we can. We would have liked it to be in earlier in October or even September. Ideally, it would be released when students get back.”

Student Assembly President Sarah Rojas ’10 said that the guide contains useful information that is now easily accessible for students. She also emphasized that the creation of a student-specific edition could benefit the College community.

“I think the guide is a nice gesture made by the city to welcome students back to campus every year,” Rojas said in an e-mail. “It shows that students are part of the city and that city officials are here to serve them as well as full time residents.”

The SA is also currently working on a similar guide for the College’s off-campus students.

The release of the residential guide is close on the heels of the decision by the city’s planning commission to not recommend altering the city’s three-person rule. Zeidler said that the two issues were not related.

“I think they are two separate issues,” Zeidler said. “It doesn’t really have anything to do with a three or four-person rule. The planning commission makes recommendations, and it’s still working.”

Rojas said that the timing of the guide’s release was coincidental and would not affect future discussions of the three-person rule.

“The timing of the guide had nothing to do with the planning commission’s recent discussions,” Rojas said in an e-mail. “The guide was completed by the city several weeks before that and was waiting to be distributed to students. The timing was simply a coincidence.”

Zeidler said the guide would benefit students by increasing their knowledge of city services.

“I hope it has a positive effect,” Zeidler said. “Students should know that they have access to these services.
That kind of information can only be positive.”

Rojas said informing students about the city administration could help resolve future issues between students and the city.

“I don’t see how this guide could have negative effects on town-gown relations,” Rojas said in an e-mail. “While there is obviously still a long way to go addressing town-gown issues, the guide serves to inform students about the community they are now a part of, [which is] a key step in solving issues.”

As green becomes the new black and the College of William and Mary increasingly strives to improve its sustainability and environmental awareness, its efforts are being nationally recognized.

The Sustainability Endowments Institute, a nonprofit organization engaged in research and education to further eco-friendly initiatives and techniques wih institutions of higher education, recently awarded the
College with an overall rating of ‘B’ on their yearly College Sustainability Report Card.

In 2007, the College scored an overall ‘D’ on campus sustainability and last year, the College scored a rating of ‘C.’

The Institute awarded the overall grade after looking at a variety of categories administration and green building.

Among the different categories, the College received an ‘A’ for its administration, noting the College’s annual budget for sustainability projects, which exceeds $200,000.
In addition, they noted that all paper purchased at the college contains recycled contents.

Sam Lockhart ’10, Co-Facilitator for the Student Environmental Action Coalition at the College, noted that the administration had been helpful in accomplishing much of the group’s activities in the past year.

“With the support of the school administration and faculty, we have worked side-by-side to achieve great strides towards many of the environmental goals students have been advocating for years,” she wrote in an e-mail.

The College received similarly high marks in other categories, including a ‘B’ in Food & Recycling as well as a ‘A’ in Student Involvement.

The Institute explained that the College had received a B in part for the College’s purchases of produce, seafood, bread, meat and dairy items from local sources and cited the efforts of its SEAC and its environmental advocacy.

The Institute cited the creation of the College’s Sustainability Fellow, a position filled by Phil Zapfel ’09, as evidence of the College’s improved environmental commitment, greeted the improved grade with enthusiasm.

“It’s fantastic news, and great to see the progress that’s been made,” Zapfel said. “To go from a D to a B in two years really shows how well we’ve adapted to making sustainability at the College a priority.”

Zapfel added that the College is surpassing other state schools.

No Virginia college received a grade higher than a ‘B.’

“We’re catching up,” Zapfel said. “We’re tied for the best grade in the state.”
Lockhart echoed similar sentiments and said that the College’s involvement and commitment to making the
campus green had been influential for the score.

“It has been incredible to witness the energy and commitment towards sustainability grow exponentially,”
Lockhart said. “I am so proud of William and Mary’s recent improvement, and am hopeful that these efforts continue for years to come.”

As the College works toward an increasingly eco-friendly school, he noted areas where the College’s could improve.

Zapfel listed efforts toward the creation of a compost heap for the campus’s dining halls, as well seeking to improve the energy that is used on campus by working with Dominion Power Company and the state to bring more alternative energy to campus.

The College of William and Mary Police Department has reported an increase in stolen bicycles on campus since the start of the school year.

Campus Police Chief Don Challis said that approximately 50 bikes have been reported stolen this year, an increase from previous years. However, about half of the bikes have been recovered by Campus Police.

“Maybe the increase is because students don’t see this as a crime, but stealing a bike is theft and could be a misdemeanor or even a felony,” Challis said. “We want to get across the message before people get arrested.”

Both locked and unlocked bikes have been reported stolen, Challis said.

“About two-thirds of the bikes are unlocked or not locked properly and around a third are locked ones. Non-William and Mary students typically steal the locked ones, and students typically steal the ones that are not locked,” Challis said. “A lot of the thefts are what we call theft of opportunity, or when someone sees an unlocked bike and uses it.”

Cory Scott ’10, president of the William and Mary Cycling Club, said the main issue concerning bike theft is that students are often in a hurry and forget to lock their bikes properly, if at all.

“Locking the front wheel to a tree or bike rack will not do much good because all someone needs to do is pop the front skewer off, and they have a whole bike — minus the front wheel, of course,” Scott said. “Also,
I’ve heard about locks being cut, which are 100 percent of the time cable locks. All you need are wire cutters to dismantle one of the locks to get the bike. The best lock to get is the U-lock, which is complete metal and nearly impossible to cut.”

Challis suggested that students follow a few rules of thumb to reduce the chance of their bikes being stolen.

“Students should register their bikes with the police department and check on their bikes regularly,” Challis said. “Also, students should get high-quality locks, of a Kryptonite style, and park them in well-lit areas.”

Challis said bicycle theft is one of the most severe problems on campus.

“I don’t know if it’s a good or a bad thing that our biggest theft problem is bike thefts. We appear to have a communal bike program here, in that students are using each other’s bikes and then leaving [them] somewhere else.”

Scott said if the Student Assembly were to get involved, it could reduce the number of bicycle thefts.

“I think having a legitimate bike rental program through the SA would help decrease theft,” he said. “I feel like a large number of the thefts are committed by people who are in a rush to get from one side of campus to the other, so they take a bike that is not locked.

They then just leave the bike in their final destination and don’t return it from where they originally got it.”
Scott said in addition to bike thefts on campus, bike safety is a big problem.

“A lot of people know how to ride bikes, but when they do it to get from point A to point B, they tend to disregard the traffic laws, such as riding against the flow of traffic and not stopping at stop signs.”

Scott said the College’s Cycling Club and Campus Police are planning to team up and hold a cycling safety program, as well as possibly selling lights and locks at a discounted price.

Nineteen members of the Lambda Alliance traveled to Washington, D.C. by car, bus and metro to attend the Oct. 11 National Equality March.

Participants gathered in McPherson Square and walked two miles to the Capitol Building, passing the White House along the way.

As the march began at noon, a rainbow appeared in the sky, receiving thunderous applause from the protesting crowd.

“It really struck me, the range of narrow interests that were unified in this march for a broader range of equality such as transgender, immigration and lesbian interests,” Jeff Bergemann ‘09 said.

Equality Across America, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit, organized the march to demonstrate support for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender rights to policy makers in Congress.

Gaining marriage rights for same-sex couples, adding sexual orientation and gender identity into businesses’ non-discrimination clauses and including sexual orientation in the hate crime laws were a few of the issues brought up by activists in the march.

“I’m strongly supportive of the gay rights movement,” Cory Hitt ’11 said. “I don’t understand why God wouldn’t want to keep two peaceful, loving people together in matrimony.”

The date of the rally coincided with National Coming Out Day, which is devoted to the celebration of LGBT identities. It also came on the heels of a promise by President Barack Obama to end the U.S. Military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy, which prohibits gays and lesbians from serving openly.

While there were no official crowd counts, estimates put the rally’s attendance in the hundreds of thousands.

Signs ranged from humorous ones such as “Zsa Zsa Gabor had nine husbands legally; I just want one” to signs held by young children saying, “Let my mommies get married.”

As the huge mass of people made their way toward the Capitol, supporters lined the road and cheered, including a group holding a sign saying, “Teabaggers for gay rights.” There were a few people protesting the demands of the marchers on religious grounds.

Still, an overwhelming majority of the protestors were marching in support of gay rights.

“This was not only a march for those being oppressed by not getting the proper rights,” Will Martin ’11 said.
“At every turn, you could find someone who was straight holding up a sign saying, ‘Not gay, but an ally,’ and that’s what really counted.”

On the lawn of the Capitol, activists such as Cleve Jones and Lady GaGa spoke, calling for equality in law.

Overall, members of the Lambda Alliance agreed that the march was a success.

“It brought the community together,” Martin said. “And truly showed that we are not alone.”