__30 percent involved in ‘W&M in Washington’ were offered jobs__

It might be hard for many students at the College to imagine working and studying in Washington, D.C., but that is exactly what a growing number of College students are now doing each semester in the year-old “W&M in Washington” program.

p. In fall 2006, the “W&M in Washington” program was initiated to give a small group of College students the opportunity, for one semester, to take an internship in Washington, D.C. focusing on arts, politics, or the media, while earning 12 credit hours. This past semester, the popularity and benefits of the program grew when a reported 30 percent of the students involved were offered summer or full-time jobs at their respective internships.

p. One of those students is Ryan Powers ’08, who, after an intensive spring internship with the political blogging website Thinkprogress.org, was offered a temporary summer position, and a full-time job following graduation.

p. “It definitely takes the pressure off of senior year. It surprised me how easy it is, if you just take those opportunities out there for you, to get started and actively participate in politics,” Powers said.

p. Powers applied to various internships, but only Thinkprogress.org responded within a day.

p. “I’ve read Think Progress a lot, and I’m a government major, so this internship interested me right away,” Powers said.

p. He admits that he was worried about the program at first.

p. “The theme [at the time] was about arts, and it didn’t really apply to my interests, but I still found an internship that worked perfectly for me.”

p. His job included fact-checking, gathering the daily news from across the country, and “keeping track of the news and politics of the day.” Soon, Powers found himself by-lined in numerous articles. Some other highlights of his internship at Thinkprogress included meeting Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and sitting in on speeches by Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Ted Kennedy.

p. “Bill O’Reilly even responded to one of our web blog posts,” Powers recalls. “It was surreal. [Working there] was a blast.”

p. Thomas Gillespie ’09 summarized the program similarly. After working for National Public Radio during his spring semester, he was offered a summer position to further his knowledge of radio journalism.

p. “I worked with NPR on a show “All Things Considered,” a kind of afternoon news magazine with a wide range of stories from across the country,” Gillespie said.

p. During a typical day, Gillespie did everything from production work to editing, booking, cold calls and even running scripts to radio personalities such as Robert Segal.

p. “At first it was kind of daunting and I didn’t have any real expectations of the application, but then I got a call and was totally floored,” Gillespie recalls.

p. He theorizes that his lucky start in the radio world was based mostly on the W&M in Washington program itself.

p. “I think what helped me get an internship was the fact that employers know you’re in a structured environment with professors, grades and classes, and it’s a sense of security in that they know you’re going to give it your all because of what’s at stake,” Gillespie said.

p. He adds that “[W&M in Washington Program Director] Roxanne Adler is great with networking, and really was instrumental in legitimatizing our connections and internships in Washington.”

p. At the station, Gillespie did background research daily on guests ranging from the national spelling bee winner to “the guy that resurrected the American elm tree.” Though each day was interesting, Gillespie highlights a few special memories.

p. “One day I got to work with Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr, who created new journalism and was truly remarkable to work with. There are also many different interns for different shows at NPR, so we had this show, ‘Intern Edition,’ where I got to be host,” Gillespie said.

p. For someone interested in radio work, an internship such as this definitely reaffirmed Gillespie’s passion.

p. “[Public radio] is a really important source of information; it really is the most democratic means of distributing information,” Gillespie said. “This internship opened up a lot of opportunities I wouldn’t have had without that position.”

p. As for living in Washington, D.C., both students described the experience as priceless.

p. “Aside from being the center of the political world, D.C. is a very vibrant place to live⎯ full of venues, interesting neighborhoods and cultural centers,” Gillespie said.

p. Gillespie also cited his peers as part of the reason for his unique experience.

p. “Everyone came back each day with such different stories⎯ from internships ranging from art museums to online blogging. It was really enriching and beneficial,” he said.

p. Powers was also pleased with his experience in the nation’s capitol.

p. “I definitely recommend the “W&M in Washington” program. It meshed well with my major and interests. I got so plugged-in to Washington,” Powers said.

**Monday, Sept. 10 –** A white male was arrested at the intersection of Bypass Road and Parkway Drive for driving with a suspended license for the second time. **(1)**

p. – A black male was arrested for being drunk in public on the 300 block of Richmond Road. **(2)**

p. – A black male was arrested for being drunk in public on the 1300 block of Richmond Road. **(3)**

p. – An individual reported a laptop computer stolen on the 1400 block of Richmond Road. The suspect is still at large. **(4)**

p. **Wednesday, Sept. 12 –** A black male was arrested on the 400 block of Richmond Road for assault. The victim suffered a minor cut on the cheek. **(5)**

p. – A white male and a black male were arrested on the 3000 block of Richmond Road for possession of marijuana. The white male was also charged with impersonating a law enforcement officer. **(6)**

p. **Thursday, Sept. 13 –** A black male was arrested for being drunk in public on the 1400 block of Richmond Road. **(4)**

p. **Friday, Sept. 14 –** A white female and a male were arrested on the 2600 block of Westgate Circle for domestic assault and battery. The male suffered a swollen cheek and the female suffered scratches and bruises on her arms, neck and the back of her leg. **(6)**

p. – A black female was arrested on the 3000 block of Richmond Road. She was charged with a hit and run, driving under the influence for the third time and child neglect. **(6)**

p. **Saturday, Sept. 15 –** A black male was arrested on the intersection of North Henry Street and Lafayette Street for driving with a suspended license. **(7)**

p. – A black male was arrested on the 300 block of Dunning Street for being drunk in public, possession of marijuana and destruction of property. **(8)**

p. – A flat screen television was stolen from the 200 block of Thomas Nelson Lane. **(6)**

p. **Sunday, Sept. 16 –** A black male was arrested for assault on the 600 block of Scotland Street. There were no injuries. **(9)**

**1931**
The College started selling season tickets for sports games for the first time. A book of general admission tickets to sports events cost $3. A book of reserved tickets was $4.25. This was a dramatic saving over buying tickets individually.

p. **1962**
Jerry Van Voorhis, president of the Student Assembly at the time, announced that the sororities of Sorority Court would be represented in the SA for the first time. Under his system, the nine sororities would be split up into three groups. Each year, a designated group would elect three representatives that would represent all of sorority court.

p. **1972**
An electric motor used in a science experiment was found to be the cause of a fire that occurred in Rodgers Hall. The fire, termed by the professor in charge as a “freak accident,” was the latest of many that occurred that year. Earlier that May, flames damaged three dormitory rooms. A wastebasket in Washington Hall and the Boutetout Theater in Swem Library also caught fire the same day.

p. **1995**
After years of rumors that Lake Matoaka had a high level of pollution, the lake met state standards for bacteria levels. To protect the environment, the College prohibited swimming and fishing and restricted boating to daylight hours.

The U.S. State Department recently provided the College with a $200,000 grant to help establish student exchange partnerships with universities in Syria, Egypt and Morocco. The new exchange programs are responding in part to an increased demand for people skilled in Middle Eastern and North African languages and are crafted to compete with foreign students who are already skilled in other cultures who come to the U.S. to study.

p. Today, the College offers 15 exchange programs with foreign schools in several countries, along with 13 summer study abroad programs. Of the 5,500 current undergraduate students at the College, 706 studied abroad last year.

p. The College is also working with universities in South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and Poland as it adapts to an increasingly global society.

In a recent WSJ/Harris Interactive survey, the College’s Mason School of Business ranked 17th regionally. The survey asked various business leaders to rank each school on 21 different attributes. Characteristics considered include a business’s future plans to recruit at various business schools and the number of business leaders who said they had recruited at the school recently. Last year, the College also ranked 17th.

p. The survey also consisted of a national ranking and an international ranking. The ESADE academic institution in Spain received first place internationally while the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College received the same honor nationally. The Marriott School at Brigham Young University received the first place rank for regional standings.

**122**
The number of electoral democracies in the world, according to independent monitoring group Freedom House. Citizens of 89 countries, making up 46 percent of the world’s population, are considered to “enjoy a climate of respect for civil liberties.”

p. **754**
The number of students in the “Renew Gene Nichol’s Presidency” Facebook group, or 13 percent of the full-time undergraduate student body.

p. **50 percent**
The proportion of college students who used instant messaging in a July 2004 estimate, according to a Pew Center report. Over 75 percent of those students used AOL Instant Messenger.

p. **3.4 megabytes**
The amount by which Google increases its e-mail storage limit daily for users of its free Gmail service. As of Monday, the current limit was 2.902 gigabytes.

p. **1 in 4,165**
The odds of getting four of a kind in a poker hand.

Because of an increased demand for parking permits, there are about 100 fewer leftover parking spaces than last year, according to parking services.

p. Parking and Transportation Manager Bill Horatio III said parking services was trying to balance the desire for permits with the limited space and a campus design that encourages walking. He added that students should not be concerned about the lower number of extra spaces.

p. He said any given space will be used 85 to 90 percent of each year. This semester, parking services has estimated that spaces are more heavily occupied by day students Mondays and Wednesdays between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. than last year.

p. One reason for the fluctuation in parking availability is construction across campus.

p. “We take spaces away,” Horatio said. “Once the [construction] project is complete, they become available again. I don’t think we’d have day student parking problems if we had more space near Morton. When construction is done, spaces will return.”

p. Parking decal prices rose nearly 15 percent from last year for an increase from $240 to $275. While there were slight fluctuations in parking rates for faculty and staff, depending on income levels, student rates were set at $275.

p. Horatio felt the rate increase was justified.

p. “One of the responsibilities of parking services is to support itself — raise revenue for operational costs of the department itself and the maintenance of decks and lots,” he said.

p. Parking spots at Monticello Avenue’s Sentara Hospital lot have appealed to those students who are technically not allowed to have cars on campus — social sophomores with academic junior standing. Currently, parking services has sold 105 spots out of 215 available spaces, 25 of which are reserved for faculty and staff.

p.The College plans to continue maintaining the availability of parking spots and accommodating students’ needs.

p. “We do a very good job of managing utilization,” Horatio said.

Effective tomorrow, James Madison University student government President Brandon Eickel has resigned amid a plagiarism scandal that divided the JMU community. It was discovered that nearly half of the bulleted goals listed on Eickel’s campaign website were taken from the campaign website of College Student Assembly President Zach Pilchen ’09 and Vice President Valerie Hopkins ’09.

p. “In the best interests of the JMU student body and the Student Government Association, I have decided to resign as Student Body President,” Eickel said in a statement released Friday. “It is my hope that this decision will allow the SGA to renew its focus in helping students.”

p. JMU’s SGA senate voted Tuesday not to impeach Eickel but instead to censure him, reported JMU’s student newspaper, The Breeze. At least one senator had planned to resign and organize sit-ins at future senate meetings to protest the decision not to impeach Eickel. JMU will hold a special election to determine Eickel’s replacement.

p. JMU student government president Brandon Eickel has resigned effective Sept. 18 amid a plagiarism scandal that divided the JMU community. It was discovered that nearly half of the bulleted goals listed on Eickel’s campaign website were taken from the campaign site of College Student Assembly President Zach Pilchen ’09 and Vice President Valerie Hopkins ’09.

p. “In the best interests of the JMU student body and the Student Government
Association, I have decided to resign as Student Body President,” Eickel wrote in a statement released today. “It is my hope that this decision will allow the SGA to renew its focus in helping students.”

p. Tuesday night, JMU’s SGA senate voted not to impeach Eickel, but instead to censure him, the JMU student newspaper, The Breeze, reported.

p. At least one outraged senator had planned to resign and organize sit-ins at future senate meetings to protest the decision not to impeach Eickel.