**45 percent**
Turnout for the SA presidential election among eligible voters at the College, including graduate and undergraduate students. A total of 3,146 students voted.

p. **216**
The number of involuntarily bumped students, 131 females and 85 males, who remain bumped from College housing as of yesterday.

p. **26,706**
The number of attendees at the first home game of the Washington Nationals this season. The Nationals were the team with the lowest attendance at a home game so far this year.

p. **500 hours**
The time it took a team of 20 artisans to produce a suit made out of only local materials, defined as those produced within a hundred mile radius of Philadelphia. Wired Magazine called the difficultly of the task “a demonstration of the massive manufacturing power of the global economy.”

p. **47 percent**
The U.S. and Canadian proportion of world spending on pharmaceutical products.

__Upper-level Chinese classes drop for fall 2007__

After courses for fall 2007 were displayed on Banner, students noticed a lack of upper-level Chinese courses, a situation caused in part by low funding and a small number of professors.

p. When classes first appeared on Banner, only 40 spots existed in the 200-level Chinese language course, but that number has since been raised to 60 available spots. There are currently 85 students enrolled in the 100-level Chinese language course. Despite the late addition of spots, 25 students will potentially be unable to continue studying Chinese. The department has expressed hope that this discrepancy will be mitigated by students leaving to study abroad.

p. In addition to basic language classes, there is high student demand for higher-level courses.

p. “While language is the emphasis of the department, it makes no sense to be able to communicate in China without understanding the context, culture and history of the country,” senior Helen Wong, president of the Chinese Student Organization, said.William and Mary provides a very holistic education, but faculty shortages definitely are limiting that multi-pronged approach for students interested in Chinese department courses.”

p. This shortage comes at a time when Chinese is an increasingly important language in the global arena. China’s importance has skyrocketed due to rapid economic development, huge population growth and rising power in international relations.

p. “Given China’s growing economic might and size, there has been a surge in student interest in courses relating to China. Large numbers of our students want to enroll in our language courses and participate in our study abroad programs in China,” Dean of Undergraduate Studies Edward Pratt said.

p. This rising interest creates a crucial need for faculty in the Chinese Department.

p. “There are enrollment pressures in several of the languages offered in the department of modern languages and literatures, as well as in other departments across campus. We hope to add new faculty lines when funding becomes available,” Pratt said.

p. The Chinese Department is looking for two new instructors because a tenured faculty member will be on leave next year, and a full-time instructor will be moving to another school.

p. Last fall, Student Assembly Sen. Will Coggin, a senior, introduced a referendum to channel funds toward a new Chinese professor.

p. The referendum was successful in reaching a majority of student support, but the actual funds have not yet been allocated. The funds would be taken from the Student Activities budget.

p. “Still, I think it raised awareness of the shortage, and that’s an important effort for underclassmen to carry on,” Wong said. “If we continue vocalizing the issue, I believe that the administration will eventually realize the importance of allocating resources to strengthen the Chinese department,” Wong said.

Honor Council Chief Justice junior Judd Kennedy hopes to eradicate the image of the Honor Council as an intimidating body that meets secretly in dark chambers. He has worked to educate students about the council’s process of trying a case in an effort to make it more representative of the student body and to increase its transparency.

p. The Flat Hat will now publish details on Honor Council cases at the end of every semester, and information on last semester’s proceedings are printed today.

p. Kennedy sat down with The Flat Hat last week to discuss the Council’s goals and explain how it works.

p. He said the council serves two purposes: to act as a group of peers that tries honor violation cases against students and to provide outreach within the community to promote trust.

p. “I would hope that it allows students to trust and really want to uphold the honor code themselves,” Kennedy said. “And I hope that it allows students to know that they’re not being judged by the administration or anyone else — it’s a panel of their peers.”

p. The council is comprised of 24 students. The process begins when a member of the faculty, administration or student body submits an accusation letter. Kennedy said that the majority of these letters come from the faculty and administration.

p. The accuser must first meet with the accused student and ask for an explanation. If the explanation is not sufficient, the accuser should submit an accusation letter and tell the accused student that he or she has 24 hours to report to the Honor Council’s office in the Campus Center or send an e-mail to the council.

p. Once the council receives the accusation letter, Kennedy assigns three or four members of the council to an investigating committee that talks to all parties involved and collects evidence. The committee has access to records of the times and places where students swiped their identification cards.

p. Next, Kennedy appoints a sufficient evidence panel, consisting of three members who have never seen the case before, and they decide if the evidence collected by the investigating committee is enough to warrant a hearing.

p. “The purpose of that panel is to weed out cases that could be brought to us on hearsay,” Kennedy said. “They make sure there’s enough evidence to support the initial accusation.”

p. If the panel rules that there is enough evidence to support a hearing, Kennedy appoints six students who have never seen the case to determine guilt. The six students meet with everyone involved and follow procedures outlined in the Student Handbook.

p. Four of the six students must vote that the accused is guilty in order to issue a guilty verdict, and they base their decision on the same standard of proof used by criminal courts in the United States: guilty beyond reasonable doubt.

p. If the six students rule that the accused is not guilty, all papers relating to the case are shredded, and it never shows up on the student’s record. If at any point before a guilty verdict is issued the case against the accused ends, all papers relating to the case are shredded.

p. After a guilty verdict is issued, the case enters its last stage. Another panel of six students is appointed to decide what sanction to give the guilty student.

p. Ultimately, four members of the six must agree to a sanction.

p. All Honor Council members are sworn to confidentiality and can never discuss cases outside the council.

__The College’s law school fell four spots in popular magazine’s rankings__

The College’s Marshall-Wythe School of Law dropped four places to 31 in the annual graduate school rankings issued by U.S. News & World Report magazine.

p. The law school is currently in a three-way tie with Ohio State University and the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

p. Last year the College was ranked 27, tied with Boston College, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and University of Washington.

p. Illinois rose this year to be ranked 25, BC and Washington both fell to 28, UNC, where College President Gene Nichol was dean before becoming the College’s president, fell nine ranks to 36.

p. Law school Dean Taylor Revely said he did not think that the fall in the ranking reflected negatively on the quality of the law school.

p. “One ‘overall score’ point separates us from the schools now ranked 28 and two points separate us from the schools now ranked 25,” Reveley told William and Mary News. “Some years the U.S. News rankings are more alluring than others. The Law School has never been in better shape than it is now.”

p. The College’s law school remained the third highest-ranked law school in Virginia, after University of Virginia (10) and Washington and Lee University (25). Ranked right below the College, at 34, is George Mason University’s law school.

p. Law school rankings are determined by several categories, including selectivity, prestige assessment, student faculty ratio, employment information and the percentage of students who pass the bar.

p. The College’s education school also made an appearance on the top 50 graduate programs for education in the U.S. News rankings. The school ranked 49, tied with the education programs at Temple University, University of California – Santa Barbara and Virginia Commonwealth University.

p. “These rankings – which affirm the strength of our programs and research efforts – come at a great time, as the Commonwealth and the College are investing in a new facility for the School of Education,” Virginia McLaughlin, dean of the education school, told William and Mary News. “We continue to be one of the smallest programs in this elite group – our reputation and opportunities will only be enhanced by a state-of-the-art building.”

p. The education school was not ranked in the top 50 this year, but was ranked 45th in 2004 and 47th in 2005.

p. The College’s business school was not ranked in the top 50 graduate programs by the magazine.

p. The U.S. News & World Report graduate rankings are released every April and also rank graduate programs in medicine, engineering, humanities, sciences and social sciences.

In the wake of the Wren cross controversy, members of the College and Williamsburg community came out to hear Erwin Chemerinsky speak on the topic, “Why Church and State Should be Separate.” The event was the first in the Committee on Religion in a Public University Speaker Series, part of the mandate laid out by College President Gene Nichol during his State of the College address.

p. Chemerinsky, the Alston and Bird professor of law and political science at Duke University, is a noted constitutional law scholar who has argued several cases before the U. S. Supreme Court, including Van Orden v. Perry, the 2005 case about the display of the Ten Commandments on the lawn of a Texas statehouse.

p. Chemerinsky began his lecture by presenting an objective outline of the differing approaches to the establishment clause of the First Amendment.

p. “I thought he was really clear in the way he spoke about different perspectives,” Kate Perkins, a member of the Committee and a senior at the College, said.

p. Chemerinsky then went on to articulate why he prefers a “strict separationist” approach to church and state issues.

p. “I believe deeply that our government should be secular,” he said, identifying three core reasons for his argument: government alignment with religion makes others feel like outsiders, unfairly taxes people to support the religion of others, and coerces people to participate in religion.

p. Chemerinsky cited many recent controversies, such as debates about the phrase “under God” in the pledge of allegiance and concerns of religious coercion in the Air Force Academy.

p. Chemerinsky then applied his philosophy to the controversy surrounding the removal of the cross from the Wren Chapel and its subsequent reinstatement.

p. According to LuAnn Homza and law school professor Davison Douglas, co-chairs of the sub-committee for the speaker series, Chemerinsky was the first to respond to invitations sent to names on a list drawn up by the subcommittee. The list was compiled with input from the president’s committee as a whole, as well as from the Religious Studies department and others.

p. “Professor Chemerinsky has given talks at William and Mary’s law school, but we asked him to be a speaker because of his expertise in constitutional law and in church/state issues,” Homza said in an e-mail.

p. “I think the rational aspect of his talk was very helpful to the situation,” Paul Brockwell, a senior religious studies major in attendance at Chemerinsky’s talk, said. Brockwell is already planning on going to the other lectures in the speaker series.

p. The next speaker will be author Os Guinness, appearing April 12. Homza said that a conscious effort was made to balance the perspectives of the various speakers, and Perkins expressed confidence that next week’s lecture will be “pretty obviously opposite.” May 1, Regent University Law Professor Steve Fitschen will be the series’ third speaker.

After the final buzzer sounded in Monday night’s NCAA basketball championship, thousands of self-proclaimed bracketologists eagerly watching the game across the nation had one more thing to do – figure out their final standings for online pools sponsored by Facebook, ESPN, Yahoo and other companies.

p. For those who did not even pick the University of Florida or Ohio State University to make the final, the game’s outcome meant nothing.

p. But for others, such as sophomore Ben Heller, who had the highest-ranked bracket in the College’s Facebook network going into the championship game, Florida’s nine-point win solidified his reign atop the College leader board come Tuesday morning.

p. “It’s definitely a pretty cool feeling,” Heller said. “I didn’t get any money from Facebook, but I did get a lot of bragging rights.”

p. Heller finished with a global Facebook ranking of 2,154 and 163 points, just fourteen points lower than the global leader who took home $25,000 for winning the competition.

p. While following enough college basketball to know who the top teams were this year, Heller does not profess to being an expert when he made his bracket predictions.

p. “I think this is a once in a blue moon thing. I’ll do well again, but not this well,” he said.

p. Close behind Heller in the standings was freshman Emily Law. Law, who finished as the top-ranked female in the College’s Facebook network in fourth place overall, was surprised she did so well.

p. “I was like, ‘Are you kidding?’” she said.

p. Along with Heller, Law admitted to having no real strategy when filling out her bracket this March. She said her family organizes tournament pools every year and her dad frequently watches college basketball, but other than that, her knowledge of the game is limited.

p. “This was definitely a luck victory,” she said. “Some of it was hearsay and what I heard from people, some of it was the higher seeds winning more, but most of it was luck.”

p. Ranked 3,822 in the global Facebook standings, Law racked up a total of 161 points in the competition. Not only did she finish strongly among her peers, she also took home top prize in her family’s NCAA pool.

p. Twenty-five members of Law’s family all bet five dollars before the tournament started, meaning Florida’s victory put a cool $75 in her pocket.

p. “My sister, my cousin, who’s a freshman in high school, and me were the only ones who picked the whole Final Four in our family. It was obviously not the guys who knew exactly what they were doing,” she said. “I’m going home for Easter, so it should be fun to pull that out.”

The North College Woods — an 80-acre tract of land that runs along the north side of Monticello Ave. — is becoming an anomaly within the Williamsburg city limits, where open land is becoming increasingly scarce.

p Despite its value, administrators from the College claim that no plans exist to partition off the property, one of the most valuable pieces of land in Williamsburg.

p. Unlike other portions of woodlands owned by the College, the Board of Visitors did not reserve the woods for recreation and research.

p. “The history of the site is such that the College has considered selling it off to private development,” said Randy Chambers, a biology professor and director of the Keck Environmental Laboratory. “But luckily that sell-off has not happened.”

p. In 1995, the College won the right to restrict transfer of the land, making sale of the North College Woods more difficult. Sale of the land would require a two-thirds approval from the BOV. Approval of Virginia’s General Assembly would also be needed before any sale is final.

p. “There are no plans to develop that property,” said Jim Golden, associate vice president of economic development and corporate affairs. “In addition, the College has a master plan in which guiding principles seek to preserve green space on the campus.”

p. Chambers pointed out that this “economic gold mine” sits on prime realty space. Currently, commercial New Town and High St. border the property. But Ironbound Village, a new housing development, and the soon-to-be constructed School of Education will eventually border the property as well.

p. “That tract will be bounded by a dense cluster of homes and businesses,” Chambers said.

p. Despite guarantees by administrators, Chambers remains unconvinced of the permanence of the North College Woods.

p. “Of course I’d like to see it retained as forest, but the pressures are great and from all sides,” Chambers said.

__Planning Commission supports law that would increase maximum stay limit to 180 days__

p. At a work session meeting last Wednesday, the Williamsburg Planning Commission showed initial support for weakening a law that limits visitors’ stays to 30 days in hotels. The proposal would change the maximum hotel stay to 180 days.

p. The commission will formally vote on the measure at their April meeting, and the Williamsburg City Council could consider the matter in May.

p. Some residents fear that removing the maximum would effectively turn hotels and motels into apartment buildings with permanent inhabitants. Doug Pons, chairman of the Planning Commission, said that those opposing increasing the limit are also afraid that the buildings would become “neglected eyesores.”

p. “All residents want to live in a safe, clean, attractive community,” he said.

p. However, most of those who spoke during the meeting, including local businesspeople, vouched for the increased stay. Reasons for increasing the stay included long-term tourists, military personnel, film and construction crews, as well as refugees from natural disasters and the out-of-state workers, like damage assessors and insurance agents, who would accompany them.

p. The largest group mentioned, however, was international students who spend the summers working jobs in the restaurant, retail and tourism industries. Currently, the rule forces the students to live outside the city in James City County, which, according to hotel industry representatives, places them too far away to work in Williamsburg.

p. “The rule is deemed to be a restraint of trade,” said Pons. He added that some hotels are designed to attract long-term visitors, and that hotels provide housing for temporarily displaced area residents.

p. To appease both sides, the commission decided on a compromise of 180 days, and is considering allowing roughly 10 percent of hotels to have no limit on stays. It is also considering requiring owners to record and report to the city the length of visitors’ stays. Rooms for on-site managers and other employees would be exempt.

p. “I believe the 180 days compromise was floated because it prevented motels from becoming permanent residences and significantly lessoned the restraint on the lodging industry,” said Pons.

p. Currently James City County, along with a variety of other localities from Alexandria to York County that commission staff researched and reported on, has no limit on hotel stays.

p. According to a city memo, the Williamsburg Zoning Ordinance defined “transient occupancy” as “less than one week” between 1947 and 1989, when it was changed to “less than 30 consecutive days.”

p. Also in the memo is a note that Busch Entertainment Corporation, the entity that operates the nearby Busch Gardens, has filed for a special exemption to provide housing for 80 exchange workers in a nearby Econo-Lodge Motel. The City Council granted the same exemption in 2006.