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Staff Editorial: Outrageous rental plan

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The latest anti-student measure undertaken by the Williamsburg city council — converting rental housing near the College to owner-occupied units — represents our local tax dollars at work in the most irresponsible and unnecessary way.

p. The converted houses will be sold to the new owners on the condition that they are never rented without city approval. The subtext of this unfair stipulation is clear: students not wanted.

p. The first house converted under this plan is already a financial disaster for the city. The house, located near the College on Harrison Avenue, a neighborhood inhabited by both students and older residents, was purchased last year by the city at the urging of Vice Mayor and economics Professor Clyde Haulman. $416,000 was invested in the house, which is now on the market for $389,000, resulting in a likely loss of at least $27,000 for taxpayers. The failure of the pilot project does not bode well for the future of the program and should serve as a warning that the city should not get involved in the volatile housing market, especially during a downturn.

p. We are saddened that Haulman, who interacts with students daily, would take the position that rentals are unhealthy for the community. Much of Williamsburg’s vibrancy comes from its students. Students are the primary renters in houses near campus, and the primary victims of the city’s plan. Decreasing the already meager off-campus housing options could push students farther away from campus, and Residence Life has left open the possibility that the city’s plan could impact on-campus housing in the future.

p. What is most troubling about the council’s plan is that it is not just poor fiscal policy, it is poor social policy. The city says that it is targeting rentals because they are harbingers of unhealthy neighborhoods.

p. What we see is a city going after the few off-campus options for students that are still within walking distance of the College. The new plan shows the great lengths the city is willing to go to in order to keep students from renting. In the long run, students must continue to send the message to the city that it has nothing to fear from student renters in this college town. In the short run, students need to vote in May to elect council members who support student rights and oppose this city policy.

Faculty smear culture

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Recent articles in the Daily Press and the Virginia Gazette reported a complaint we filed against the College administration for abusing its authority in conducting a program review of the philosophy department last spring. The heart of the matter, however, remains obscure to many.

p. The best way to see the danger of allowing the administration to conduct business in the way that it did in regard to the philosophy department is to think about the alarm caused by the bias reporting network unilaterally set up by the administration. In assigning itself the authority to use anonymous reporting to regulate discrimination on campus, it never seems to have occurred to the administration that others might be concerned about their abusing that authority. “Why would those who have such a noble goal as preventing discrimination ever abuse their authority?,” they seemed to be asking.

p. For very good reasons that shouldn’t have to be explained to any intelligent person, the campus community didn’t buy that response and insisted that regulating discrimination through anonymous accusations is a danger to the community that it will not abide.
Such a system would be vulnerable to abuse in all sorts of ways, not only by the administration, but by students, faculty and staff as well. For example, a faction within the faculty with an agenda having nothing to do with preventing discrimination might exploit the system to smear other faculty members in order to advance themselves or their agenda.

p. Hiding behind anonymity, they could target people to be portrayed as abusers of women or minorities and, over time, spread rumors about what those targeted are like. They could exploit disagreements among faculty members on policy issues by spreading rumors that attribute discriminatory motives to some as a means of empowering themselves. Once the rumor mill (informal talk over lunches, after church, in favorite bars) had done its work, the reporting system would provide access to the administration. Anonymous accusers could then direct the administration to a well-prepared rumor network to confirm their complaints and to escape the responsibility of facing the accused.
How is this relevant to the controversy over the philosophy department?

p. Here are some publicly verifiable facts:

p. 1. During a routine academic review of an academic program last spring, an external review team composed of faculty from other institutions wrote a report accusing an unnamed block of senior faculty in the philosophy department of abusing women faculty, cultivating a learning environment detrimental to student learning and creating a hostile environment for junior faculty.

p. 2. The accusations were unspecific, unsubstantiated and made anonymously by current and former faculty members.

p. 3. At no point in the review process prior to writing their report did the reviewers reveal to any of the unnamed bloc of senior faculty any of the accusations made in the report or give them an opportunity for rebuttal. They never sought any evidence that might disconfirm the accusations and were very solicitous of evidence against those accused.

p. 4. Against the written policy governing the program review, the administration released the report to other departments under review as a public document without any of those accused knowing what was in the report and without having any opportunity for rebuttal.

p. 5. The administration canceled the written requirement of the policy governing the review that called for a department-wide response to the external review report thereby protecting those making the accusations from facing their accusers before the evidence.

p. 6. Despite over nine months of trying, we have yet to be given a formal hearing governed by any public standard of evidence to evaluate our complaint.

p. What this shows is not just an administration that abjures transparency, but also a faculty culture all too receptive to the anonymity of cloak and dagger politics. We have become a smear culture.

p. Last week, a former colleague wrote to warn us that if we continued to push these issues, he feared that others might come out against us. He may not have been threatening us, but someone is. We are not intimidated. We will continue to make our case. Anyone who wants to come out of the shadows of anonymity against us is welcome to do so.

p. __Professor George Harris and Associate Professor Paul Davies are members of the College’s philosophy department.__

Generation I and belligerent, faceless blogging

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In its Dec. 7 issue, The Flat Hat published “Class on ’68 provokes thought,” a brilliant and insightful piece by Confusion Corner columnist Dan Piepenbring. In it, he notes that our generation is perceived as lazy, apathetic, unintelligent and, worst of all, unsympathetic with regard to our fellow man.

p. They’ve named us Generation Q and Generation Z, accusing us of being the “New Silent Generation,” alone and uninformed in an ever-expanding world of communication and Wikinformation. They also call us Generation Y, a nation of embittered unbelievers and uncultured Culture War activists.

p. Yet we’re anything but quiet, and we certainly have our beliefs. Bill Gates got it right when he named our generation the iGeneration, an impersonal electronic community out of touch with humanity, disconnected from a hyperconnected world. It is out of this familiar, electronic isolation that we’ve become what I like to think of as Generation I.

p. Generation I is two-fold. First, as Piepenbring communicated through David Foster Wallace’s Commencement speech, we are, at bottom, a lot of self-celebrating narcissists. It is in our image that we paint the world, and our perception of others is appreciated only in relation to the self. This state of violent self-inspection renders it impossible for us to see beyond ourselves, negating the very humanity of our peers and objectifying them as markers of how much better we can be. The virtues in others must only be ours, and so we go about ambitiously outdoing and obsessively overdoing the other. This is how we are hungry.

p. So, in effect, we have our beliefs. They are as strong and stubborn as any religion known to man, proselytized by Tyler Durden, practiced by Patrick Bateman. Naturally, the poster boy for this facet of Generation I can be found in the character of Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, Esq.

p. Between Facebook and phone tapping, no other generation has been so thoroughly examined as our own. Never has there been a mass of people so seriously self-surveiled, so consciously self-inspected, so eagerly self-exploited as us. We are a Generation of “Eyes,” a generation of voyeurs, compulsively seeing, always unseen. We are a nation of gazers, spaced out on MySpace and YouTube. It is out of this perpetual absorption of the insignificances of others that we’ve become little less than an assorted accumulation thereof.

p. The other face of Generation I is faceless, an entity whose anonymity trounces that of the Lost Generation and whose post-’60s activism is without action. Our irrelevance is made known to us.

p. In a last-gasp attempt to prove otherwise, we blog.

p. The College community is in a rage, heaping its irrelevance onto a given article. They are unforgiving, unyielding and unknown, hiding behind the blanket of a false e-mail address, a friendly first name or an alias. Your given blogger will impersonally attack the character of the author and the integrity of his fellow bloggers in a string of idiocy, incoherence and intentionally incendiary irreverence. Rather than praise an article’s merits or argue a point worth noting, anonymous bloggers beg to differ, disagreeably expressing their misgivings toward a given campus-wide event, activity or known figure — not for the sake of genuine concern, but for their own sake. It is a wonder the belligerent bloggers don’t take up an open forum beneath a relevant, urgent and intelligent article concerning our incapacity for human compassion, opting to rant and rave like mad against a piece on facial hair.

p. Just as staff writers, guest columnists and featured members of the community are being held accountable for their words, unsympathetic bloggers should be held accountable for their posts. The Flat Hat needs to modify the settings on its website so that some sort of e-mail confirmation takes place before the comment is posted.

p. Either way, I can guarantee that the Flat Hat writers are uninterested in what these anonymous bloggers have to say. Only a few will build upon the tradition of investigative journalism; most write with either themselves or their future employers in mind as their primary audience.

p. __Sherif Abdelkarim is a junior at the College.__

Town and Gown Relations: William or Mary for city council?

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__Students can now vote in high numbers, but none are yet running for office__

With Williamsburg voter registrar-student tensions finally settled for the time being, a perception seems to be gaining strength on campus and in the community that students could wield significant influence in the May 6 city council election.

p. “Students need to realize the incredible opportunity of this election,” Gary Shelly, a Williamsburg landlord and local guru of student rights issues, said. “They can initiate a real change in the community, but only if they get out and vote on Election Day.”

p. New Registrar Winifred Sowder has eased student-focused voting restrictions to levels unseen since 2004, when former Registrar R.W. Davis first denied students the right to vote in Williamsburg. After facing a series of significant and sometimes bizarre obstacles to initiate student voting by Davis and next by former Registrar Dave Andrews over the course of the next few years, Sowder’s appointment has mobilized campus political leaders who want student voices to be heard at a community-wide level.

p. “The Student Assembly has allocated a large sum to politicizing and increasing student awareness on the campus in the run up to the election,” said SA President Zach Pilchen.

p. Student Assembly plans for the spring semester include a large get-out-the-vote campaign and hosting a debate for City Council candidates. Pilchen stressed, however, that the SA’s role did not include endorsing a specific candidate.

p. “That’s not going to be the goal of this campaign. Legally, the SA can’t even give money to the Young Democrats or Republicans, so endorsing candidates isn’t a possibility, nor would it be fair. Our goal is to create a student voting bloc which will force the candidates to recognize students as an integral part of this community,” said Pilchen. “We’ve already seen the city pursuing more student-friendly policies in the last few months, and this can only increase that awareness.”

p. Despite this optimism from some student leaders, others question the degree to which students will affect the election’s outcome. A primary concern is the lack of any declared candidates who haven’t previously served on the Council and who would, presumably, maintain the status quo. At the moment, only Clyde Haulman, vice-mayor and economics professor at the College, and Councilman Paul Frieling, both of whom are incumbents, have publicly expressed their intentions of running for reelection.

p. Mickey Chohany, who won the highest percentage of voters in 2004, has announced his decision not to pursue another term of office. His decision presently leaves one spot on the City Council open for candidates planning to declare their candidacies in the coming weeks and months.

p. Recent activities, along with past history, have fueled speculation that a student will run for the office this year. Students contested City Council positions in each of the last two election cycles with David Sievers ’08 receiving 713 votes, just 156 shy of the total needed to assume office, in 2006. Matt Beato ’09, who already serves on the Colonial District’s Soil and Water Conservation Board, which includes Williamsburg, has been among the names floated as potential candidates. Pilchen, who won the SA presidential election last spring, has adamantly denied rumors that he will run for office.

p. If a student does run for office, they will be faced with significant obstacles, not the least of which is time constraints.

p. “The students who have run in recent years for office took the semester off and really focused three months of their lives on the campaign,” said Haulman. “They made really monumental efforts, and, while I encourage students to vote and to run, I haven’t heard yet of any students doing that this time around.”

p. Another issue which could affect the election is student turnout. While the College campus teems with political activity and the SA hopes to significantly increase political participation, the students still represent an age group with a very poor record of showing up to elections nationwide. Voting rights advocates are also concerned that the elections take place during final exams, which may negatively affect student voter turnout considering the high workload.

p. Despite this, many hold out hope. Over 700 students have already registered to vote in the city — a significant increase over the 70-odd students who came out for Sievers in 2006. Pilchen, though tightlipped, expressed an optimism that a student candidate may emerge.

p. “I think you may hear something, maybe in the next month or so,” he said, pointedly, before quickly adding, “But I don’t know anything.”

‘We’re all in need’

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__Governor Tim Kaine speaks on the importanceof ‘civic engagement’ __

p. A $3 million budget cut for the College will not impede its nation-leading commitment to international and domestic service.
That’s what Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine told The Flat Hat after he spoke to students last Friday about the value of service in the University Center atrium.

p. “I think they’re already showing it,” Kaine said when asked if student service organizations would be able to cope with the state-mandated 6.25 percent budget cut for the College. Kaine said that while he had no plans to provide funding in his budget for service organizations, the College would still be able to continue its “civic engagement,” both domestically and internationally.

p. “The economy goes up and down,” Kaine said, stressing the importance of statewide fiscal sacrifice. Kaine has already cut more than 300 million dollars in spending to balance the Virginia budget, but said he planned to implement “capital expansion plans” to alleviate the state’s financial crisis, which includes a predicted $641 million shortfall at the end of the fiscal year, June 30.

p. Little was spoken Friday about the cuts and what — if any — effect they would have on student volunteer services. The event was meant as a pep talk for the College’s volunteers.

p. “Gov. Kaine has been an avid supporter of [the College’s] service efforts having met with students involved in service activities on several occasions the past three years,” said Dr. Drew Stelljes, the Director of the office of Student Volunteer Services.

p. Stelljes also said that Kaine met with leaders of various service organizations before his speech Friday.

p. “I am certain he is impressed,” Stelljes said.

p. In terms of service, the College needs little goading; according to the OSVS, it has the most international service trips per year — 19 in all — of any College in the country and is the fifth largest producer of Peace Corps volunteers among medium-sized universities. That is, according to Provost Geoffrey Feiss, the highest number of Peace Corps volunteers per capita of any research university in the United States.

p. Funding may be a different story. While the College has received generous support for its volunteer work, the increasing number of service trips, while welcomed by the College, has put a strain on available funds.

p. “We received an infusion of financial support four years ago and at the time, with three international trips, the funding was significant. Now with close to 20 trips, the same funding is spread among the trips and therefore leaves each trip responsible for the vast majority of fundraising,” Stelljes said. “We are all working diligently to find significant sources of funding for the [international service trip] program.”

p. Stelljes remains enthusiastic about the College’s growing service community, which he continually describes as a
“movement.”

p. “We now have more international service trips than any other school, It is an accomplishment we are all so very proud of. With additional funding we can examine the social, cultural, and political influences of the region we are working.”

p. On Friday, student volunteers seemed largely enthusiastic, with many carrying “I love Kaine” posters and wearing the t-shirts of their respective organizations.

p. Kaine was accompanied and introduced by College president Gene Nichol, who said that he was “honored to report an explosion of civic engagement, of public service, of advanced citizenship, of applied, ennobling learning that owes both credit to this ancient university and its historic commonwealth.”

p. The governor was also joined by Judd Kennedy ‘08 and Jeree Harris ‘08 and the event’s emcee, Cosmo Fujiyama ’07, who had returned from her non-profit work in Honduras to lead the night’s discussion.

p. Fujiyama—who co-founded the charitable organization Students Helping Honduras — said that the forum would allow Kaine, Nichol and the entire nation to see the extent of the service in what she called “our tiny but lively ‘Burg, the best ‘Burg of Virginia.”
In his speech, Kaine reflected on his own years of international service, when he left Harvard Law School in his second year to work in a Honduran Catholic school, teaching students welding and carpentry skills.

p. “[The trip] was tremendous in personal growth and spiritual growth,” Kaine said. “It changed my whole life.”

p. One of the most important values Kaine gained from his time in Honduras was humility, saying that all people find themselves in need, not just those in third world countries.

p. “We may think we got the whole package: education, family, health, resources or whatever,” Kaine said. “You do have to be humble enough to recognize that we’re all in need and we’re all in need of help from somebody else.”

p. Kaine honored the College for its role in public service, but expressed “pessimism” over declining voter turnout in local and national elections. Responding to Kennedy’s question on the role of the university in fostering democratic activism and social responsibility, he said that “we’re on the path of creating a new form of government” where everyone has a choice regarding their government, but no one wants to make one.

p. “Education can further selfishness, it can further your ability to insulate yourself off from the problems that other people experience in the world or it can give you a great ability to get the skills you can use to serve others,” Kaine said.

p. Kaine also fielded questions on the environment and his stance on the controversial Sex Workers’ Art Show, which was recently allowed funding by the Student Assembly Finance Committee.

p. “I gotta admit I’m a little out of the loop,” Kaine said, having never heard of the event or its surrounding controversy. “If colleges are not places of strongly different points of view, than we don’t learn how to be in an environment with strongly different points of view,” he added.

p. After the event, Nichol and Kaine had dinner with Jim and Barbara Ukrop, prominent donors of the College who graduated in 1960 and 1961 respectively. Nichol would not mention the topic of conversation, but said that he “was always interested in talking to friends of the College.”

Students to run for city council?

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p. With Williamsburg voter registrar-student tensions finally settled for the time being, a perception seems to be gaining strength on campus and in the community that students could wield significant influence in the May 6 city council election.

p. “Students need to realize the incredible opportunity of this election,” Gary Shelly, a Williamsburg landlord and local guru of student rights issues, said. “They can initiate a real change in the community, but only if they get out and vote on Election Day.”

p. New Registrar Winifred Sowder has eased student-focused voting restrictions to levels unseen since 2004, when former Registrar R.W. Davis first denied students the right to vote in Williamsburg. After facing a series of significant and sometimes bizarre obstacles to initiate student voting by Davis and next by former Registrar Dave Andrews over the course of the next few years, Sowder’s appointment has mobilized campus political leaders who want student voices to be heard at a community-wide level.

p. “The Student Assembly has allocated a large sum to politicizing and increasing student awareness on the campus in the run up to the election,” said SA President Zach Pilchen.

p. Student Assembly plans for the spring semester include a large get-out-the-vote campaign and hosting a debate for City Council candidates. Pilchen stressed, however, that the SA’s role did not include endorsing a specific candidate.

p. “That’s not going to be the goal of this campaign.
Legally, the SA can’t even give money to the Young Democrats or Republicans, so endorsing candidates isn’t a possibility, nor would it be fair. Our goal is to create a student voting bloc which will force the candidates to recognize students as an integral part of this community,” said Pilchen. “We’ve already seen the city pursuing more student-friendly policies in the last few months, and this can only increase that awareness.”

p. Despite optimism from some, others question how much students will affect the election. A primary concern is the lack of any declared candidates who haven’t previously served on the Council and who would, maintain the status quo. Only incumbents Clyde Haulman, vice-mayor and economics professor at the College, and Councilman Paul Frieling have publicly expressed intentions of running for reelection.

p. Mickey Chohany, who won the highest percentage of voters in 2004, has announced his decision not to pursue another term of office. His decision leaves one spot on the City Council. Recent activities have fueled speculation that a student will run for the office this year. Students contested City Council positions in each of the last two election cycles with David Sievers ’08 receiving 713 votes, just 156 shy of the total needed to assume office, in 2006. Matt Beato ’09, a member of the Colonial District Soil and Water Conservation Board, has been among the names floated as potential candidates. Pilchen, who won the SA presidential election last spring, has denied rumors that he will run for office.

p. If a student does run for office, they will be faced with significant obstacles, not the least of which are time constraints.

p. “The students who have run in recent years for office took the semester off and really focused three months of their lives on the campaign,” said Haulman. “They made really monumental efforts, and, while I encourage students to vote and to run, I haven’t heard yet of any students doing that this time around.”

p. Another issue that could affect the election is student turnout. While the College campus teems with political activity and the SA hopes to increase political participation, students still represent an age group with a poor voting record nationwide. Voting rights advocates are also concerned that the elections take place during final exams, which may negatively affect student voter turnout.

p. Despite this, many hold out hope. Over 700 students have already registered to vote in the city — a significant increase over the 70-odd students who came out for Sievers in 2006. Pilchen, though tightlipped, expressed optimism that a student candidate may emerge.

p. “I think you may hear something, maybe in the next month or so,” he said pointedly. “But I don’t know anything,” he added quickly.

Governor: ‘We’re all in need’

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p. A $3 million budget cut for the College will not impede its nation-leading commitment to international and domestic service.
That’s what Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine told The Flat Hat after he spoke to students last Friday about the value of service in the University Center atrium.

p. “I think they’re already showing it,” Kaine said when asked if student service organizations would be able to cope with the state-mandated 6.25 percent budget cut for the College. Kaine said that while he had no plans to provide funding in his budget for service organizations, the College would still be able to continue its “civic engagement,” both domestically and internationally.

p. “The economy goes up and down,” Kaine said, stressing the importance of statewide fiscal sacrifice. Kaine has already cut more than 300 million dollars in spending to balance the Virginia budget, but said he planned to implement “capital expansion
plans” to alleviate the state’s financial crisis, which includes a predicted $641 million shortfall at the end of the fiscal year, June 30.

p. Little was spoken Friday about the cuts and what — if any — effect they would have on student volunteer services. The event was meant as a pep talk for the College’s volunteers.

p. “Gov. Kaine has been an avid supporter of [the College’s] service efforts having met with students involved in service activities on several occasions the past three years,” said Dr. Drew Stelljes, the Director of the office of Student Volunteer Services.
Stelljes also said that Kaine met with leaders of various service organizations before his speech Friday.

p. “I am certain he is impressed,” Stelljes said.

p. In terms of service, the College needs little goading; according to the OSVS, it has the most international service trips per year — 19 in all — of any College in the country and is the fifth largest producer of Peace Corps volunteers among medium-sized universities. That is, according to Provost Geoffrey Feiss, the highest number of Peace Corps volunteers per capita of any research university in the United States.

p. Funding may be a different story. While the College has received generous support for its volunteer work, the increasing number of service trips, while welcomed by the College, has put a strain on available funds.

p. “We received an infusion of financial support four years ago and at the time, with three international trips, the funding was significant. Now with close to 20 trips, the same funding is spread among the trips and therefore leaves each trip responsible for the vast majority of fundraising,” Stelljes said. “We are all working diligently to find significant sources of funding for the [international
service trip] program.”

p. Stelljes remains enthusiastic about the College’s growing service community, which he continually describes as a “movement.”

p. “We now have more international service trips than any other school, It is an accomplishment we are all so very proud of. With additional funding we can examine the social, cultural, and political influences of the region we are working.”

p. On Friday, student volunteers seemed largely enthusiastic, with many carrying “I love Kaine” posters and wearing the T-shirts of their respective organizations.

p. Kaine was accompanied and introduced by College president Gene Nichol, who said that he was “honored to report an explosion of civic engagement, of public service, of advanced citizenship, of applied, ennobling learning that owes both credit to this ancient university and its historic commonwealth.”

p. The governor was also joined by Judd Kennedy ’08 and Jeree Harris ’08 and the event’s emcee, Cosmo Fujiyama ’07, who returned from her non-profit work in Honduras to lead the night’s discussion.

p. Fujiyama — who co-founded the charitable organization Students Helping Honduras — said that the forum would allow Kaine, Nichol and the entire nation to see the extent of the service in what she called “our tiny but lively ’Burg, the best ’Burg of Virginia.”

p. In his speech, Kaine reflected on his own years of international service, when he left Harvard Law School in his second year to work in a Honduran Catholic school, teaching students welding and carpentry skills.

p. “[The trip] was tremendous in personal growth and spiritual growth,” Kaine said. “It changed my whole life.”

p. One of the most important values Kaine gained from his time in Honduras was humility, saying that all people find themselves in need, not just those in third world countries.

p. “We may think we got the whole package: education, family, health, resources or whatever,” Kaine said. “You do have to be humble enough to recognize that we’re all in need, and we’re all in need of help from somebody else.”

p. Kaine honored the College for its role in public service, but expressed “pessimism” over declining voter turnout in local and national elections. He responded to Kennedy’s question on the role of the university in fostering democratic activism and social responsibility.

p. “We’re on the path of creating a new form of government” where everyone has a choice regarding their government, but no one wants to make one.

p. “Education can further selfishness, it can further your ability to insulate yourself off from the problems that other people experience in the world or it can give you a great ability to get the skills you can use to serve others,” Kaine said.

p. Kaine also fielded questions on the environment and his stance on the controversial Sex Workers’ Art Show, which was recently allowed funding by the Student Assembly Finance Committee.

p. “I gotta admit I’m a little out of the loop,” Kaine said, having never heard of the event or its surrounding controversy. “If colleges are not places of strongly different points of view, than we don’t learn how to be in an environment with strongly different points of view,” he added.

p. After the event, Nichol and Kaine had dinner with Jim and Barbara Ukrop, prominent donors of the College who graduated in 1960 and 1961 respectively. Nichol would not mention the topic of conversation, but said that he “was always interested in talking to friends of the College.”

Harrison house loses city $27K

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p. It appears that the Williamsburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority will lose at least $27,000 on the sale of a home at 110 Harrison Avenue in an effort to convert the former rental property into an owner-occupied residence.

p. The reportedly dilapidated property was purchased in March of last year by the WRHA after chemistry professor David Kranbuehl notified the city of its availability. According to Sharon Scruggs, chairman of the WRHA, city loans funded the purchase and subsequent renovations of the property, totaling $416,000 in costs.

p. The house re-entered the market at $425,000 under the stipulation that the new owners live in the house, and not rent it out to anyone else. Eventually, the listing price dropped down to $389,000 — $27,000 less than what the WRHA spent on the property. Nationwide, housing prices have been falling.

p. 110 Harrison Avenue is one of several residences that the city and the WRHA have purchased and renovated in an effort to re-establish home ownership in Williamsburg neighborhoods.
Information on the purchasing and renovation costs of other properties owned by the city through the WRHA was not made available as public disclosure may inhibit the WRHA’s ability to sell the house.

p. Rental units currently comprise a majority of the residences in West Williamsburg Heights, a fact that the city council and the WRHA are trying to change.

p. “The statistic that one neighborhood is over 50 percent rental … is not healthy for the city,” Mayor Jeanne Zeidler said.
She added that the city neither desires to eliminate rentals nor keep students from living in the city, only to balance the ratio of rentals to owner-occupied homes at the benefit of the community.

p. According to Zeidler, the city allocates $300,000 to $500,000 of its budget to housing each year.

p. The WRHA uses these funds to purchase and renovate properties. These properties are then resold, sometimes at a small profit and sometimes at a loss.

p. The house on Harrison Avenue and homes on Braxton Court are among several properties the WRHA has purchased.
According to Scruggs, the current goal of the WRHA is to provide affordable home ownership opportunities to the working class employed in the many service industry jobs in and around the city.
However, some at the College consider the owner-occupancy clause as well as the WRHA’s willingness to take a loss on individual properties as an indication that the city may be trying to impact the availability of off-campus housing to students.

p. “It’s premature to predict how [the transformation of rental units into owner-occupied residences] will affect ResLife,” Deb Boykin, director of Residence Life, said, “It may increase the demand for student housing in the future.”

p. Mayor Zeidler dismissed the concern over mandatory owner-occupancy in residential properties sold by the city as negligible as it only pertains to a “handful of houses,” adding that the city does not desire to keep College students out of local neighborhoods.

p. Scruggs admitted that the owner-occupancy clause may not be the best tool in creating home ownership opportunities, but added that the WRHA is not building homes for people to “flip” after purchasing.

p. Furthermore, he said, the WRHA is not designed to make profits; according to Scruggs, its purpose is to provide affordable housing and hopefully break even marginally from property to property.

p. According to Andrew Hungerman, interim executive director of the WRHA, affordable housing is a relative term and depends heavily on the earnings of an individual or family.

p. While $389,000 may seem out of the price range for many families, it may be a price that attracts middle class families to Williamsburg.

p. Scruggs conceded that the WRHA does not consider specifically how the purchase and redevelopment of rental units may impact student housing, although it recognizes such concerns.
Citing a lack of available land and current zoning restrictions, Scruggs laid out the difficulties faced in creating more readily available student housing in Williamsburg.

p. “It’s a real issue [of] which I’m well-aware,” Scruggs said. “I grew up in this town, it wasn’t a big deal until recently.”
Currently, the influx of retirees in the Williamsburg area has hampered the WRHA’s ability to create affordable housing.
The Stop-22 movement kept zoning ordinances from allowing any more than 14 residents per acre.

p. As a result, fewer and fewer young families can afford to live in Williamsburg, which in turn forces the WRHA to sell renovated former rental units, like 110 Harrison Avenue, at a loss.
This decreases the supply of off-campus housing for students.
Scruggs went on to say that if there were more cooperation between the College and town regarding housing, she would be on board.

Horoscopes (Jan. 18)

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Scorpio: Oct. 23 – Nov. 21

Your mother always said to beware of things that go bump in the night; nevertheless, the law requires you to stop when you run over someone.

Taurus: April 20 – May 20

When everyone in your politics class stares at you in shock and disgust, you will realize it’s still too early to joke about Benazir Bhutto.

Sagittarius: Nov. 22 – Dec. 21

As Garrison Keillor says, one little thing can revive a guy, and that is a piece of rhubarb pie.

Gemini: May 21- June 21

The stares are having a hard time gazing into your future; all they can see is a jar of marmalade, hot wings and two monkeys.

Capricorn: Dec. 22 – Jan. 19

After leaving your English class with a D- paper, you will be angered and saddened to find it is raining. Then you will step on a rake.

Cancer: June 22 – July 22

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown; in light of this, remove any coronets or tiaras that may poke you as you sleep.

Aquarius: Jan. 20 – Feb. 18

Tomorrow you will see Nicholas Cage run out of the Wren Building. Turns out the Founding Fathers hid treasure there, too.

Leo: July 23 – Aug. 22

After a friendly challenge to a dessert-eating contest at the Caf, you will have the unique experience of literally tossing your cookies.

Pisces: Feb. 19 – March 20

Sunday, you will receive a tempting offer via e-mail to increase your penis size, despite the fact that you are a woman.

Virgo: Aug. 23 – Sept. 22

You should have learned that bananas have potassium the same way everyone else did: “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.”

Aries: March 21 – April 19

Ex-astronaut Lisa Nowak wore a diaper so she could drive far without stopping; you should wear a diaper to get through next Tuesday’s classes.

Libra: Sept. 23 – Oct. 22

This week your mailbox will transform into a portal to the Star Trek universe, ejecting thousands of Tribbles into the UC.

Writers’ strike: understanding the demands

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Since Nov. 5, 2007, over 12,000 members of the Writers Guild of America have been on strike and most of us have felt the consequences. A few television shows were cancelled this season (“24”), while others hold little hope of being able to finish (my cherished “The Office”) and some are in danger of being cancelled entirely (“Entourage”).

p. Before we start throwing our remotes at yet another commercial for another reality show, we should at least understand why there’s a strike at all, and how necessary it is for those who work so hard to create the programs we love.

p. Every three years, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the Writers Guild agree to a basic contract, according to the Writers Guild of America’s official website. This year they were unable to agree on several issues, causing the nationwide strike.

p. The Guild’s biggest concerns are the internet and other “new media,” as networks play episodes for free online and run advertisements throughout, creating an additional source of revenue. The people who created the content — the actors, writers and producers — are not compensated in any way. The Writers Guild has taken the position that the writers should receive residuals if the show re-airs online, just like they receive residuals if it re-airs on television since in both cases the studios make money.

p. AMPTP has offered to pay the small amount of residuals for downloaded “new media” (not the free streaming episodes) despite the increased revenue due to no manufacturing or shipping costs.

p. According to HollywoodUnited.com, over the next three years studios are expected to earn $4.6 billion off “new media,” but, writers will receive no additional compensation. Because a program they created is being shown in a new way, writers are demanding that, when shows are played over the internet, they get paid just as they would were the shows to air on television. The issue is particualrly salient because the future of entertainment appears to be on the internet.

p. Another issue is the residuals writers receive from DVD sales. When VHS tapes were first introduced in the 1980s, studios cut writers’ residual pay 80 percent to help stimulate the fledgling market, reassuring writers that they would be compensated for their losses. However, as DVDs have replaced VHS tapes and sales have skyrocketed, their pay remains the same. The Writers Guild is justly demanding the DVD residual rate go up, asking for 0.06 percent residuals instead of 0.04 percent.

p. So why are residuals so important? As Jenna Fischer (Pam Beasley from “The Office”) writes in her online blog, “We all count on the extra income that residuals provide, as it can help us through a slump in our career when we aren’t working as regularly. It is our safety net … Hollywood is a fickle town. If in 10 years, everything is rerun on the internet, the current union contracts say the studios don’t have to pay us a dime.”

p. Residuals provide the means for writers to make a few thousand dollars per year during downtime, helping them support their families and pay for costs of living.

p. While many programs have shown re-runs, some heavily scripted shows have come back on the air sans writers. Conan O’Brien returned, but voiced his support for the writers’ strike.

p. “I support their cause … I believe what they’re asking for is fair … my biggest wish is that they get a great deal very quickly and get back here because we desperately need them on the show.”
Jay Leno, “The Daily Show,” “The Colbert Report” and others have also returned.

p. The effects are not limited to television shows — the Golden Globes ceremony was reduced to a half-hour long press conference. The strike has led the Writers Guild to refuse letting union members work on awards shows, causing actors to unite with the writers and declare a boycott of the ceremony rather than cross picket lines. Variety reports that two Oscars shows are planned: one for if the strike ends, one if it doesn’t. The Grammys, too, are at risk.

p. Our televisions won’t be flooded with too many repeats or reality TV shows in the coming weeks — several networks have unaired episodes or new series (‘The Sarah Connor Chronicles’ is passable for now) but are using them up quickly. The last strike in 1988 lasted over 21 weeks, so it may take a while for the AMPTP to concede. Writers deserve to be paid when studios make money off their work.

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