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Online survey Praestare perplexes

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Just out of curiosity: Can you verbalize and quantify all your goals and beliefs? Could you dramatically improve your quality of living by weighing “positive life values”? Is becoming a better person as easy as taking a 20-minute survey?

p. The Praestare Project, available via a link in the myWM portal, says yes. Touted as “A Values-Based Personal Development Program” and a “Life Values Inventory (LVI),” the website is sponsored by the Counseling Center. And it is, to me, more than a little bit creepy.

p. Praestare is Latin; pronounced “preh-star-uh,” the project defines it as “to excel, to fulfill, to be responsible for.” In short, this survey aims to clarify your ambitions. Its six steps are brimming with vague jargon: “Crystallizing” and “Prioritizing” values, “Strategies for Optimal Expression of Values,” “Managing Life Transitions.” Looking for fun things to do this weekend? Try the “Leisure Activities Locator.”

p. The questionnaire asks you to rate the degree to which certain values “guide your behavior” on a scale of one to five — a misleading exercise, to say the least. What’s most important to you: God, money, art, nature, exercise, alone time? Decide. Right now. On a scale of one to five.

p. Trickier still is its tendency to rephrase the same values in different language. On page one, you rank “Believing in a higher power;” on page two, this reappears as “Believing that there is something greater than ourselves.” Page one’s “Having financial success” becomes page two’s “Making money;” “Being sensitive to others’ needs” is “Helping others,” etc. Page three has even more rewordings. Surely there’s a psychological rationale to this, but it strikes me as deceptive.

p. At its core, Praestare operates under a dubious assertion: Personalities and values are formulaic. Praestare believes our aspirations can be loaded into a hierarchy. Plug our hopes and dreams into a computer and out comes the prognosis. It knows what our next move will be.

p. I don’t doubt that the project’s authors and sponsors are very intelligent people who want what’s best for us. I accept, furthermore, that distraught and lost students might find a friend in Praestare. But why proffer a website as a stand-in for face-to-face counseling? What good can come of trusting a program to do a psychiatrist’s job?

p. My own LVI was accurate, albeit reductive. To Praestare, I most value achievement, creativity, belonging and concern for others; I least value financial prosperity and spirituality. But this index holds true only at the broadest level. My “concern for others,” for instance, might fulfill the same requirements as “spirituality” without being explicitly God-oriented; this is what secular humanism is all about. And on some days — hell, on some hours — I respect independence more than belonging. On those occasions and others, Praestare’s got me all wrong.

p. Far from missing the forest for the trees, Praestare misses the trees for the forest. The survey boils down human potential until it’s no more than a series of clickable traits. Complicated sub-values, nature versus nurture, mood shifts and peer pressure — the stuff that causes problems in the first place — disappear.

p. The only thing standing between you and your desires is a big time-management chart.

p. Self-help book sales are booming right now, and the hottest titles make promises eerily similar to Praestare’s. Rhonda Byrne’s “The Secret” has topped the Times’ hardcover advice bestseller list for 55 weeks. Her thesis declares that constant positive thinking is a magnet that attracts unbridled success in all walks of life. It’s free will run amok: If you want something enough, it will be yours.

p. Maybe it really is this simple. Maybe our objectives fit into a few intuitive categories and happiness requires only persistence. Perhaps if subscribing to Praestare were mandatory, the College would face no more catastrophes, disagreements or conflicts of interest, leaving the student body steeped in good news.

p. However, all it takes is one act of fate, one victim of circumstance and the illusion is shattered. Praestare grants you total control of the future. Just out of curiosity: Do you have that? And do you want it?
Dan Piepenbring is a senior at the College.

Censorship, corruption as College bends to outside pressure

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This week the College suffered at the hands of nearly every leader we have. Though the Sex Workers’ Art Show received overwhelming endorsement from our community — the Student Assembly voted to fund it, nearly two dozen student groups joined to host it, and the vast majority of voices on campus called out in support of it — the leaders of the College have opposed it and, in doing so, opposed the College community itself.

The opposition has taken many forms. College President Gene Nichol disparaged the College’s choice to host the Art Show on a tour that includes Duke and Wesleyan Universities: “I wish that the show were not coming to the College.”

p. Nichol severely censored the show, forbidding nudity though nudity is central to the show’s artistic discussion. He banned photography, thus censoring both the show and the students in attendance.

p. The Board of Visitors allowed Nichol’s censorship and is thus complicit. Rector Michael Powell hinted that the BOV may restrict what students can choose to bring to campus with our own money, citing “the need to develop a more coherent policy involving the allocation of limited College resources.”

p. But the worst has been Virginia’s General Assembly. Four members of the Board of Visitors, already appointed but awaiting the legislative approval traditionally no more than a rubber stamp, must now stand before the GA to, according to the Virginia Gazette, “be grilled” on the Art Show. Delegates “want to ask the candidates some ‘pointed questions’ about their views on Monday’s Sex Workers’ Art Show” as well as, surprise surprise, the Wren cross.

p. The GA’s worst crime is not in meddling in the College’s day-to-day affairs, but in creating an ideological “test” on personal political views. The BOV members know an honest answer to this public test may prevent them from rejoining the Board, an implicit threat akin to the loyalty tests of the Spanish Inquisition. But the GA is not seeking out Protestants — potential BOV members tolerant of free speech are the subjects of this political tribunal.
Why this backslide into censorship and witch-hunting? After all, this is the Art Show’s third visit, never before with this insanity. What drove our leaders to create what Art Show founder and director Annie Oakley called “a more arduous and degrading experience than anything in the sex industry”?

p. The reason is an absurd one. The sole motivation is the vitriol spewed forth from a handful of extremists, few of whom have a damn thing to do with the College or our community.

p. This tiny group — mostly over-emotional locals and distantly removed alumni still bitter over the Wren cross — has succeeded in swaying our leaders from Williamsburg to Richmond.

p. Should a three-century-old academic institution be guided neither by academics nor students, but rather by a smattering of overwrought ideologues with no investment other than their own selfish pride? Are the voices most valued those neither of wisdom nor reason but of volume?

p. So begins the ruinous precedent that decisions be made not in regard for students and professors, the members of the academic community that will bear those decisions, but only to appease those self-righteous few.

p. The priorities have been set: minimize criticism first, respect the self-rule of the institution second. Because the ideologues lack the tact or discipline for any but the shrillest tones, College leadership allows them to overpower the College community. Our so-called leadership has become an instrument in the corruption of the very institution they are charged to safeguard.

p. For corruption is not the viewing of a show that acknowledges the existence of the world’s oldest profession, predominant in both books of the Bible. Corruption is not the glorification of the human form, an artistic tradition including Michaelangelo’s “David,” the Venus de Milo, “Ulysses.” Corruption is not the discourse of new, diverse ideas.

p. Corruption is the censorship of that discourse and those ideas because they are new, because they are diverse. Corruption is breaking all the principles of free expression simply because a small group of meddling ideologues find that expression distasteful. Corruption is the willful cessation of academic thought.

p. Our leaders have taken the first step in yielding control to a small group of meddlesome extremists who lack the knowledge, the experience and the right to lay their hands on our education.
If our leaders lack the strength to lead on Jeffersonian principles of free discourse and expression in the face of retrogressive agitation, then they should not abandon that leadership to the agitators, as they have done, but to the students and professors who stand to suffer by their cowardice.

p. __Max Fisher is a senior at the College.__

Laycock signs 12 to letters of intent

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__ESPN.com ranks Kearney 52nd-best quarterback in nation__

p. Quarterback Nolan Kearney and running back Jonathan Grimes headline the Tribe’s 12-member recruiting class, announced by Head Coach Jimmye Laycock Wednesday.

p. The signees will join the Tribe over the summer in preparation for next season. The College returns 18 starters, nine on each side of the ball, from the team that finished 4-7 a year ago.

p. “We didn’t sign as many players this year as maybe some other years just because of the number of returning players we have coming back,” Laycock said. “We tried to get guys that could do different things, that were versatile, could play different positions, could play different sides of the ball, and kind of go from there.”

p. Eight of the recruits have seen time on the offensive side of the ball, while six specialized on defense in high school. The Tribe inked four linemen, two on each side of the ball, while also adding depth at the skill positions, signing a tight end, quarterback and running back.

p. Robbie Gumbita, a 6’4,” 298 lb. offensive lineman, who received two stars on the recruiting website Rivals.com, is one of nine recruits from outside the state of Virginia. Four members of the class are from New Jersey.

p. “We want to cover in-state. It’s just the way things fall. Some years we’ve gotten a lot of in-state [recruits] and some years we haven’t,” Laycock said. “You can’t go focus on one particular position or one particular area, or you’re going to be in trouble.”
Highlighting this year’s class on the offensive side of the ball is Kearney of Glenmoore, Pa. Ranked 52nd among signal callers by ESPN.com, Kearney is a strong, athletic 6’4’’ lefty who threw for over 2,200 yards and scored 30 total touchdowns in his senior season.

p. Grimes of Palmyra, N.J., and wide receiver C.J. Thomas of Mount Airy, Md. have both received attention from national recruiting websites, as Grimes is ranked 166th among running backs by ESPN.com and Thomas earned a two-star ranking from Rivals.com. Thomas had 50 catches during his senior year for a total of 867 yards and 19 touchdowns. Tight end Alex Gottlieb of Delray Beach, Fla. will look to fill the gap left by the departure of All-Conference tight end Drew Atchison.

p. Defensively, Chris Johnson will lead a class that features plenty of speed and athleticism. Johnson, a defensive end from Virginia Beach, earned two stars from Rivals.com and used his speed from the weak side to record 14 sacks as a junior. Brian Thompson of Somerset, N.J., another two-star recruit from Rivals.com, will be a strong addition to the Tribe’s secondary, as will local prospect William Webb of Newport News.

p. While Laycock doesn’t expect every recruit to see action next season, the coach left open the possibility that we may see true freshmen on the field this year.

p. “You never know,” Coach Laycock said. “Hopefully these guys are good enough to play as freshman. They’ve got to be good enough, there’s got to be a need and they’ve got to want to play. That’s our criteria.”

Mann on fire

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A rim-bending reverse jam by sophomore forward Danny Sumner midway through the second half brought the ‘Kaplan Krazies’ to their feet and put the exclamation point on a 74-62 victory for the Tribe (13-9, 9-3 CAA) over visiting Hofstra University (7-15, 4-8) Wednesday night at Kaplan Arena.

p. Senior guard Nathan Mann paced the College, recording team highs with 22 points and five rebounds, and was complemented by senior forward Laimis Kisielius who notched 13 points to go along with a game-high seven assists to give the College nine wins in its last 10 contests.

p. “I am so impressed with our team right now,” Head Coach Tony Shaver said. “After a great win Saturday against [University of North Carolina]—Wilmington we really had a tough task [in facing Hofstra]. For our guys to play with such intensity, heart, effort and share the ball so well really impresses me.”

p. Sumner brought the crowd to its feet early by throwing down an alley-oop courtesy of a feed from sophomore guard David Schneider to score the game’s opening points. The contest remained close at 8-6 with 14:30 left in the opening frame before the College launched a 13-0 run behind two three-pointers from freshman guard John Sexton. Sexton entered the game as the reigning CAA Rookie of the Week.

p. The College stretched its lead to as many as 16, before Antoine Agudio of Hofstra connected on consecutive three-pointers, tallying 12 first-half points to bring the Pride within six points at the break. The Tribe entered halftime having been out-rebounded 24-10, yet clung to a 36-30 lead on the strength of 50 percent shooting from the field.

p. The College began the second half strong, mounting a 6-0 run to enlarge its cushion to 12 points.

p. “We always talk about the first four minutes of each half,” Mann said. “They’re very athletic and have quick guards. [We knew we had] to limit Agudio’s shots and touches [so that] it would be hard for their team to score.”

p. Agudio entered the contest as the 10th leading scorer in the country, averaging 22.6 points per game while shooting over 43 percent. Agudio finished the night having made five of 14 from the field, pouring in 22 points.

p. The Tribe played with energy and hustle for much of the game. After Schneider set the tone with a tremendous diving effort to save the ball early on, Sexton showed some intensity of his own by sliding headfirst to deflect a ball to Kisielius, who then passed it into the paint for Sumner’s aforementioned reverse slam.

p. “Anytime you get a dunk, it can swing momentum for the team,” Sumner said. “The reverse stopped [Hofstra’s] momentum and got the crowd into it.”

p. According to Shaver, Sumner’s athleticism is unparalleled on the Tribe roster.

p. Showing his grit and determination, Schneider outdid his first launch into the courtside seats with an equally impressive sprawling effort to save a ball with 2:25 remaining. Schneider finished the night with seven points, six assists, four rebounds and three steals.

p. After spending 10 of its last 15 contests in Kaplan Arena, the Tribe will play three road games during the next two weeks, taking on Northeastern University, UNCW and Towson University. The Tribe has beaten all of these teams at home this season, yet Shaver calls these next three games the toughest stretch of the year.

Men’s Basketball Commentary: College faces challenging end schedule

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With another CAA victory in tow, the Tribe now stands at 9-3 in the conference and sits in a tie for second place with George Mason University. Since a Jan. 2 home loss to the University of Delaware, the College has won nine of its last 10 CAA contests, including four consecutive road victories.

p. Throughout this stretch, the Tribe has proven itself as a conference contender and as a team that can finish close games. Of its past nine victories, the College has won six by less than four points. And in four of those wins, the Tribe erased double-digit deficits.

p. Its largest conference victory to date came yesterday in the form of a 74-62 defeat of Hofstra University. The wire-to-wire win should give the College even more confidence heading into the latter third of its CAA schedule.

p. Now, the Tribe will face a series of tests as they hit the road for three straight games away from Kaplan Arena. Moreover, just two of its final six conference games will be played at home. Granted, the College is 4-1 on the road in conference play, but in the middle of February, CAA games become more important, and opposing arenas become even tougher places to play.

p. At this point in the season, about eight teams are vying for a top-four seed and first-round bye in March’s CAA tournament. For the Tribe to remain near the top of the conference, picking up a few road victories becomes imperative.

p. The next three games will all be rematches for the College, and first up is a date with Northeastern University in Boston Saturday — one of the four teams the Tribe defeated after trailing by 10 or more. After that, the Tribe heads south to face the University of North Carolina—Wilmington in Trask Coliseum, arguably the CAA’s most difficult arena in which to play. From there, the
College heads to Towson University.

p. Sure, the conference did the Tribe no favors when it back-loaded its schedule with road games and contests against Mason and Virginia Commonwealth University, but the College has proven that its methodical offense can win games.

p. In two of its most emphatic CAA victories the Tribe committed only eight turnovers, and in its past two games the College has a team assist-to-turnover ratio over three. Seniors Nathan Mann and Laimis Kisielius have come alive offensively, and the team defense has remained steadily strong, ranking third in scoring defense in the CAA. The Tribe is playing its best basketball at a critical juncture in the season.

p. To win ballgames, the College knows it has to make shots, play strong defense and win the turnover battle. In order to pass its road exam, the Tribe must rely on what has led to its victories and operate within its offense. Doing so could keep the College in the mix at the top of the conference, and in position to grab a first-round bye in the CAA tournament.

p. __E-mail Andrew Pike at aapike@wm.edu.__

Women’s Basketball: Tribe edges Tigers in road CAA victory, 56-53

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Led by senior forward Kyra Kaylor’s 20-point, 14-rebound performance, the College was able to hold off a tough Towson University squad last night, earning a 56-53 road victory. Towson missed two three-point attempts in the closing moments that would have tied the game.

With 1:01 remaining, freshman guard Katy Oblinger hit a three-pointer to give the Tribe a 56-51 lead. The College shot better from beyond the arc (35 percent) than they did from the field (33.3 percent), but were able to hold Towson to only 30 percent shooting from the field. Junior forward Dani Kell scored eight points, dished out four assists and pulled down four rebounds, and sophomore guard Kelly Heath pitched in eight points.

Men’s Basketball: Second-place Tribe travels to take on Northeastern

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The second-place Tribe will travel to Boston Saturday to take on the Northeastern Huskies at 1 p.m. Senior forward Laimis Kiselius (12.0 ppg) and freshman guard John Sexton (44.4 FG percent)
will look to build upon their recent CAA accolades and extend the Tribe’s winning streak to four games, while picking up a crucial, late-season conference win. To make the trip a successful one, the squad must stop Northeastern’s sophomore guard Matt Janning (16.4 ppg), who posted 20 points in the Huskies’ 67-60 downing of Old Dominion Wednesday. The game begins a critical stretch of three straight road games for the Tribe, who will seek to maintain their lofty CAA position going into the CAA tournament.

Women’s Tennis: College competes in ITA National Team Indoors

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The Tribe squared off Thursday in the first round of the ITA National
Team Indoor Championships against the University of Miami (Fla.). Results of the event were posted too late for this edition. If the College advances past the Hurricanes, they will meet the winner of the match between top-seeded Stanford University and Baylor University today at 3:30 p.m.

Sex Workers’ Art Show shocks

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Honestly, I went for the sex.

p. However, the Sex Workers’ Art Show turned out to be so much more than that. Its performers ranged from a gay prostitute/stand-up comedian to an actress-turned-pole dancer to a transsexual stripper with sparklers sending bits of light exploding out of her ass. It featured all kinds of foreplay to form a brilliant, provocative, shocking and often hilarious exploration of the humanity of an industry stigmatized by objectification and disgrace.

p. The show was a hodgepodge of different performance styles. Artists of all kinds combined their talents into a hilarious, horrifying night of tastefully tasteless entertainment, at times socially and politically conscious, and at other times mocking anything close to good taste.

p. The show started out with an effeminate gay male comedian and (I assume) former prostitute. His stories about coming out of the closet in a conservative area, trying to act manly for a former customer who was a West Virginian blue-collar worker and his trysts at truck stops where he would go to get picked up and “abused” by truckers, brilliantly blended humor with sadness. My macho, straight-guy side couldn’t help but giggle at his painted face and girly garb, but his humor and wit were abundant and thoroughly enjoyable. His removal of layers of underwear to show his different roles as a prostitute succeeded in making the audience uncomfortable, but certainly did not fail to amuse.
Other acts, such as the poetry reading by a former porn star, proved to be, ironically, in good taste. Audience members were offered a fascinating glimpse of the sensitive, almost innocent side of a starlet whose past includes flicks such as “Gang Bang My Face.” Acts like these were a great contrast to, and a nice break from, some of the more shocking acts. Well, except for the humorous porno title.

p. The climax of the show — a dance performed by a transgendered stripper who had “Fuck Bush” taped on her chest — was disappointing. The political message was hackneyed and unimaginative as a feeble attempt at biting commentary. The performer’s shouting was inaudible. Presumably the muffled words casted aspersions against anyone anti-gay, anti-liberal, pro-Bush … blah, blah, blah. All of this seemed meaningless when the stripper finally shut up and lit a sparkler stuck in her ass. In that moment, the confused and muddled purpose of the act was finally made clear: an outrageous clincher to a provocative night of entertainment.

p. Perhaps the most shocking thing to consider when thinking about the show is the fact that adult entertainment is a $12 billion dollar industry, which, according to those in the Sex Workers Art Show, is more than sports and (normal) entertainment combined. Millions of Americans indulge in this guilty pleasure every year, yet state government officials went to great lengths to censor a show put together to demonstrate that adult performers are real people.

p. Some of the performers are university graduates, others respected art critics, yet all have had to deal with sub-human levels of respect. Contrary to the opinions of outspoken conservative pundits on campus, the show was a fantastically entertaining celebration and exploration of a prevalent element of American society. In opposition to anything typically considered high entertainment, the show proved that low art can be used for lofty aims.

Kimball festival harkens back to classics

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If you’re still unfamiliar with a tiny little flick called “Lars and the Real Girl,” you’re missing out. It’s a funny, character-driven movie about a guy (Ryan Gosling, “The Notebook”) who falls in love with a Real Doll.

p. It’s clever because, despite the obvious sight gags, it’s ultimately a very moving and heartbreaking film. I saw it for $4 about 200 yards from my front door, and my roommate and I were the only two students in the entire theater.

p. “Lars and the Real Girl” was playing at the Kimball Theatre, which every student necessarily passes on the way to the bookstore, or to the Cheese Shop or to screw with Lady Skipwith. Yet, up until a few weeks ago, it seems the majority of those people weren’t even aware that the Kimball even showed movies.

p. But then promotion started on something which has me waiting in a sort of movie-nerd ecstasy that you would expect from someone who was raised by Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies. That is what the Kimball Theatre’s “When the Movies Come to Town,” a three-day film festival celebrating the historic theater’s 75th anniversary, has brought me to.

p. The seven films and the small handful of shorts selected for the free festival form a package that is eclectic, to say the least. But they are individually regarded by many, including myself, to be some of the best movies of all time. A Western, a romance, a detective story, a war story, a mobster movie, a monster movie and a transvestite sci-fi musical make up the larger part of the bill, with a little Shirley Temple and Three Stooges thrown in for good measure. There’s also going to be a screening of an eighth movie, “Blowup,” in Washington Hall on the final day of the festival.

p. Personally, the film I’m most excited about (and I don’t think I’m alone on this one) is widely regarded as one of the best movie in film history — Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 masterpiece, “The Godfather.”

p. A medley of strong writing, acting and directing that is nothing short of brilliant across the board, “The Godfather” has always been one of my personal favorites. I’ve lost count of the number of times I watched it on our tiny TV in days gone by, so the opportunity to see it in the same theater where it originally showed 36 years ago is, to put it mildly, mind-bogglingly cool.

p. The same goes for “King Kong.” When I was five I hit a phase where I fell absolutely head-over-heels for all of those big, rubbery monster movies. Since that phase is still going strong today, I’m very much looking forward to this one as well.

p. The problem with Kong and Don Corleone, as well as Scarlett O’Hara and Dr. Frank-N-Furter (with whom they share the bill), is that they’re so well known I’m afraid they’re going to leave the less-well-known gems of this festival unattended. Namely, I’m concerned about “In the Heat of the Night,” the 1967 Best Picture winner about a black detective who gets sucked into a murder investigation in a racist Deep South town.

p. I first saw “In the Heat of the Night” when I was in 10th grade, and have since been utterly shocked by how few people have actually heard of it. I’m hoping that, after next weekend, I’ll have at least one or two people on campus with whom I can schmooze about it.

p. Unfortunately, it’s playing on the same day as the four-hour monster that is “Gone With the Wind,” so a lot of potential moviegoers might be at home resting their eyeballs. If you do feel up to the challenge, I guarantee it will be totally worth it. It’s one of the most tautly acted and beautifully filmed movies I’ve ever seen, and the way director Norman Jewison (“The Thomas Crown Affair”) captures the long, slow death of the Old South is sheer genius. At the very least, I’ll be there, so you’ll have one other person for company.

p. And yet, despite all that, the thing I’m looking forward to most about this festival isn’t Marlon Brando or Clark Gable or seeing all my mild-mannered classmates decked out in their best fishnets for “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” It’s the foolish pipe dream that maybe, just maybe, a small handful of the moviegoers from next weekend’s festivities will stick around for a little while to see what else the Kimball has to offer. There’s always something good showing there and plenty of room to stretch out. And you don’t even need to take the bus.

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