Volume VI I I . Issue 8 . NoV 7 2012

The INdepeNdeNT paper of record aT The college of WIllIam aNd mary www.Virginia‑Informer.com follow us:

the virginia informerNEWS INBRIEF

William and Mary named 11th smartest college

A new study recently released by Lumosity, a cognitive training site, re-cently named the College 11th on a list detailing the 50 smartest colleges in the United States. The site conducted an analysis of the world’s largest da-tabase of human cognitive performance, and sought to seek out the cognitive core of the student body rather than relying on factors such as endowment or average SAT/ACT scores. It con-trolled for factors such as gender, and age, and only used data from users who had completed at least one game on the site. Accord-ing to the report, the study “looked at user’s scores the first time he or she played a game in each of the five Lumosity Brain Areas: Speed, Attention, Flexibil-ity, Memory and Problem Solving.” William and Mary is ranked 15th in Memory, 24th in Speed, and 22nd in Problem Solving.

William and Mary receives Grand Challenges Exploration Grant

The College recently announced that it has been selected as a Grand Chal-lenges Exploration Win-ner to be used for a global health and development research project by John Swaddle, professor of Biolo-gy, and Mark Hinders, pro-fessor of Applied Science. The project, which is called “Employing sonic nets to exclude past bird species from crops”, will address the problem of crop loss to birds. Grand Challenges Exploration is a $100 mil-lion initiative funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Initial grants of $100,000 are awarded twice a year to recipients, with an opportunity for a $1 million follow-up grant if the proj-ect is successful. To receive the grant Swaddle and HInders outlined their idea in just two pages, citing their project as an impor-tant contribution to global health and development in the fields of agricultural de-velopment, immunization, and communications.

features opinion sports arts & culture

Tribe loses to New HampshirePAGE 6

The Crimson Crown: full of fantasy and romancePAGE 8

Veritas hosts MIT professorPAGE 5

Finances Fragile but stable

Recently, The Virginia Informer sat down with Mr. Samuel E. Jones (’75, M.B.A. ’80), Vice President for Finance at the College. Jones discussed the lack of financial resources, privatization, tuition increases, and the effects of the national economy on William and Mary.

The Virginia Informer: The College has held onto its strong academic reputation, despite the lack offinancial resources. How much longer do you predict this will be able to continue? What steps are being taken to shore

up that gap?Samuel Jones: It is a challenge. William and Mary is a classic overachiever as an institution. We can achieve that

ranking because we put money into the academic side, and we have a very low student to faculty ratio. We are 33rd aca-demically, and 112 financially. So while I’d like to tell you its my brilliant management, its actually because we put our priority there[academics]. However, this can’t go on forever. When a faculty member a faculty member retires, you want to bring in the best possible faculty, and offering them a competitive salary will close the gap. This will stay a challenge. For now, we are being smarter for how we spend money and doing a lot of reallocation- for example if something is a lower priority, we don’t invest as much. We’re also having success with private fundraising.

VAI: In the past, there have been discussions of privatization- what is the current consensus; how much are we receiv-ing from the state currently and does that outweigh the revenue of privatizing?

See “FINANCE” page 2

Erin WagnerSenior News Editor

GOTV Act focuses on getting the vote out to students

continued on page 2

funds will be allocated for brochures, flyers and book‑marks with information on voting places and times.

VIcE PRESIdENt FoR FINaNcE Sam JoNES dIScuSSES collEgE FINaNcES

citizen lucas: Disney buys lucasfilm PAGE 11

For the fiscal year 2011TuTion and fees: $117.3 million ‑ 40.5%sTaTe funds: $43 million ‑ 14.8%GranTs: $24.3 million ‑ 8.4%PrivaTe GifTs: 27.4 million ‑ 9.5%oTher: $7.6 million ‑ 2.6%auxillary enTerPrises: $70.3 million ‑ 24.2 %

W&M: oPeraTinG revenue

Election post-scriptPAGE 10

Mr. Mark Constantine has officially resigned from the post of Executive Direc-tor of Student Activities and Unions after a leave-of-absence. Constantine was formerly in charge of the oversight of student activi-ties, scheduling, and the student activities building office.

Curt Mills, the president of the Student Assembly, expressed disappointment at the loss of Constantine. “Without hesitation I can say Mark Constantine’s resignation is a loss for the College. A big loss.”

Robert C. Knowlton is currently serving as Interim Executive Director of Student Activities and Unions, though it is at present un-clear whether he will assume the post permanently or another candidate will be appointed.

“Mark had his strengths and weaknesses like anyone else, but at the end of the day, there were few people who more quietly, but extremely effectively lobbied for students behind the scenes”, continued Mills. “I will miss him.”

Mark Constantine resigns as Exec. Director of Student Activities and UnionsErin WagnerSenior News Editor

courTesy phoToRESIGNATION: mark constantine on far right.

NE WSPAGE 2

The Student Assembly Senate meeting, which was delayed due to Hurricane Sandy, was called to order on Wednesday, October 31st by Vice President Melanie Levine (’13). Chairwoman Kendall Lorenzen (’15) gave the opening announcements, focusing on What Else Can SA Do For You tabling and the mandatory budget orga-nization meetings, which are required for all organization trying to qualify for funding. These meetings are being held on November 6, 7, and 12 at 4:00 PM in the Little Theater in the Campus Center.

The attendance was called with 21 present and 1 absent. The minutes from the last meeting were then read and approved by unanimous consent. The chairs of each committee gave their up-dates from their committee meetings for that week. Notably, the Policy committee elected Senator Colin Danly (’15) as their new chair. Many of the committees discussed the Swem Snacks Act.

Executive updates revisited What Else Can SA Do For Your tabling and also mentioned replacing Spooktacular, their canceled Halloween event, with a Thanksgiving Festival. Chairwomen Lo-renzen then continued her Code Simplified presentation. This week she focused upon the sections of the code pertaining to the creation, the requirements, and the power of the Senate. The Senate then moved into discussion of Passed, Past, and Pending Business. Up-dates for the Indecent Disclosure Resolution Act revealed that it was not going “swimmingly” with Dean Gilbert, pushing the Sen-ate to look for new avenues. Testing for the app funded through the Steer Clear Support Act is going well. The I am W&M Week Con-cert Act, which will bring an artist to campus for I am W&M week, is still in the negotiation phase with the artist.

Next on the agenda was Old Business. First was the Swem Snacks Act, sponsored by Senator Lavern. This act was updated to more specifically list costs for this initiative. $18 will be allocated for purchase of plates and a total of $510 will be allocated for the purchase of snacks for six weeks, allowing $85 to be spent on food per week. This SA initiative will not take place during finals week and the money to support this initiative will come from the Student Activities Reserve. This act was approved by unanimous consent.

The first piece of New Business was the GOTV Act, which fo-cuses on getting out the vote to students. This act allocated $146 for flyers on campus with information about voting places and times, $70 for brochures with nonpartisan information about candidates, and $12 for bookmarks with information similar to the flyers. This act also grants access to the SA vans to drive students to vot-ing places. This bill was moved to Old Business and approved by unanimous consent. The Code Revision Committee Act was then discussed. This act serves to create a committee, including several senator and other SA members, to improve wording and update the Student Assembly Code. This act was assigned to the Executive Committee for discussion.

After a few closing announcements, the meeting was adjourned.

student assembly meeting delayed by sandy

Mission StatementThe Virginia Informer is an independent, non‑partisan, student run publication devoted to reporting the news

to the William and mary community. We exist to pro‑vide an alternative to school sponsored news sources.

We do not, and never will, receive any financial support from the college of William and mary. We will not shy away from controversy or be afraid to challenge the

norm. We strive to inform and engage our readers via responsible journalism and in‑depth reporting, while fostering and giving voice to opinions that are often

shut out by the campus establishment.

Volume VI I I . Issue 8 . NoV 7 2012esTablIshed IN 2005

The Virginia Informercsu 7056, p.o. box 8793Williamsburg, Va 23186

editor@virginia‑informer.comwww.Virginia‑Informer.com

FoundersJoe luppino‑esposito & amanda J. yasenchak

the virginia informer

Editorial Boardmadeleine aggeler, Editor in Chief

allison Jones, Managing Editorcatherine belte, Executive Editor erin Wagner, Senior News Editor

catherine boardman, News Editorcharles gillespie, News Editor

Will mann, Features EditorWade cupcheck, Sports Editor

Nate Kresh, Sports EditorJoel White, Arts & Culture Editor

chris dodson, Opinion EditorT.J. o’sullivan, Editor Emeritus

Associate Editorsdaniel carlen, featuresKrissa loretto, features

sophie goewey, arts & culture

Photography and Layout Staffabigail howarth, photography editor

austen dunn, senior layout editoremma feeney, layout editor

Business EditorsTyler Vuxta • Tighe Ebner

Cartoonistmolly adair

Staff WritersJacob Evans • Emma Sunseri • Cody Sigmon

Britaney Coleman • Victoria FairchildShannon Crawford • Luke Nicastro • Alex Cook •

Matt Muller • Jacob Evans • James Joseph • • Daniel Fischer • Pratik Sinha • Jabria Craft

• Michaela Wright • Stephen Sides • Sara Garey-Sage

The Virginia Informer is produced by students at the College of William and Mary. The opinions expressed in articles, photos, cartoons, or ads are those of the writer(s) or sponsor(s). This paper is produced for the benefit of students at the College and is available at no cost for members of the greater Williamsburg community. However, copies should be taken only if they are meant to be read and enjoyed. Letters to the editor are welcome and can be submitted via e-mail or mail.

FINANCE: Jones discusses W&MFrom page 1

StudENt SENatE dIScuSSES SWEm SNackS, gotV actBy Sara Garey-SageStaff WriterJones: Some people argue that charging everyone the

same would eliminate the need for state money. However, privatization is a tough sell. Its not feasible to go to legisla-tors and propose an exchange of the $43 million they would have spent on the College for less students in their constit-uency being admitted, and a higher tuition for those that did attend. Another issue is the ownership of the property and the buildings. Virginia is proud to have WM as part of its system, and doesn’t have an incentive not to be flexible when we need it.

VAI: The economy has been down for awhile- how is this affecting finances at the College? What further changes could be seen if conditions continue to stagnate?

Jones: As the country went through the recession we lost over $17 million in state money, and a result cut $9 million from the budget. Beginning last year, the state began reinvesting, around $1 million each year back into the institution. They’ll never restore what we had unless there is huge econom-ic growth. So it is highly unlikely that the state will give us a lot. The big unknown is what happens nationally. If Washington can’t deal with the budget, the state will take a hit, which translates into less to invest in higher education. Virginia is a major beneficiary of funding, in terms of federal employees and military. The government needs to come up with a budget that deals with the debt. Washington needs move forward and come to a compromise- there is a lot of money waiting to be invested, but no one will invest if they don’t know what their tax and healthcare situation is going to be. Hopefully they come up with a budget and compromise, raise some revenue, cut some things, and get us towards a balanced state. VA will be strong and the country will be stronger. The big picture stuff is going to push us or not push us.

VAI: Tuition increases have come to be expected annually by the campus com-munity-is there an end in sight? Is there a chance that out-of-state quota will be raised to generate more funds for the College?

Jones: We’re at 65% in state, 35% out-of-state is unlikely to change. There is pressure and continue to be from the General Assembly in Richmond to raise the in state quota to 75%, which primarily is coming from Northern Virginia, which has a multitude of qualified students. The legislators hear from parents that have a kid with a 4.0 and leadership experience who got rejected from UVA and WM, and they argue that raising the quota would allow more Virginians to benefit. The current quota of 65/35 is important to us financially, and we will continue fighting off pres-sures from the state. On the tuition side, out of state tuition, fees, room, and board are now approaching $50,000 sticker price, which is a lot. I think that our abilities to keep pushing that number up is limited. I would suspect that tuition increases on a percentage basis will be a little bit less than they have been historically. In-state students certainly have relative value for the degree, but there are issues there as well.. In the budget for ‘13 they increased the retirement system and we have to generate most of that money, if the state authorizes a salary increase, the state pays a certain percentage. There are always going to be drivers in the budget that say we need more tuition value. We always reallocate before raising tuition. How-ever, the way the state funds us almost mandates it. The school is good about being really sensitive to students that have financial need to the extent that when we raise tuition roughly 35% of the money raised goes back into financial aid. You’ve got to be sensitive to it.

courTesy phoToSAM JONES

While the whole nation is buzzing with opinion and analysis regarding this past Tuesday’s election, William and Mary students have been deeply invested in campaign efforts and election-related events since the beginning of the semester. Voter registration efforts by the Student Assembly and a le-gal hotline run by William and Mary Law students called VOTEline ensured students and community members were able to vote and stay informed in an important election year.

Though Supreme Court doctrine on the matter dates as far back as 1979, many students still face a tough battle when registering in college towns. Misinformation often complicates matters. In Symm v. United States the Su-preme Court found that students have a right to vote in either their hometown or college town. Additionally, it affirmed that voter intimidation violated this right. William and Mary’s Student Assembly carried out an elaborate voter registration drive to inform students of their rights when it comes to voting in Williamsburg.

“The Student Assembly was bipartisan,” said Tram Phong, a registration volunteer, “I wanted to register people, so they could participate.”

PAGE 3NE WS

With new voter identification policies in affect and complicated policies at the polls, William and Mary Law School’s Election Law Society offered legal assistance to Virginia voters. Founded in 2007, VOTEline is a non-partisan le-gal hotline that adds to the programs already run by the Election Law Society, including guest speakers and voter registration efforts. Volunteers that staff the line are trained to answer foreseeable questions on Election Day.

“VOTEline has been promoted with the help of the Law School’s Commu-nications Office. A press release has been sent to various news agencies in the state with the hope that the VOTEline number will be promoted on Election Day,” said Brad Blount, a first-year law student and VOTEline coordinator.

Efforts by partisan groups such as the Young Democrats and College Re-publicans on campus include canvassing and phone banking on behalf of the presidential and senatorial campaigns.

“In September alone we made more than 11,000 calls and knocked on nearly 2,500 doors,” said Meg Schwenzfeier, Campaign Coordinator for Young Democrats.

“The Republican campaign on campus has had a very active role in this election. Everyday you will find us tabling, making calls on call night, knock-ing on doors and attending election functions,” said David Branton, Chairman for Students for Romney.

Voter registration and political activism abound

By Justin ShawlerStaff Writer

Sa, laW School, YouNg dEmS, collEgE REPuBlIcaNS gEt out thE VotE

The William and Mary Young Democrats and Col-lege Republicans held a Pres-idential Debate on Thursday, November 1, in Millington 150. The debate was mod-erated by Professor John Gilmour of the Government Department, and featured Michael Payne (’15), Zach Woodward (’14), Jacob Stal-naker (’16), and Alise Orlick (’15) debating for the Young Democrats, and Cassie Black (’14), David Blanton (’13), John Gunnison (’13), and Marcell Crawford (’16) de-bating for the College Repub-licans.

The first question was addressed to the College Republicans and dealt with the relationship between the federal government and the states. Branton argued that the federal government had become too involved in issues that the Constitu-tion reserved to the states, specifically education, social policy, and stimulus spend-ing. Black cited Medicaid as an example of a program in which the federal govern-ment should have a reduced role, and noted that Rhode Island had managed to cut its Medicaid budget by $100 million while improving ser-vice.

Gilmour next asked the Young Democrats about President Obama’s plans to grow the economy. Payne argued that Obama would continue investments in in-frastructure and education and warned that “if we sin-gularly focus on deficit re-duction I think we will…hurt the gains we have made.” Branton rebutted the state-

JoIN The

the virginia informer

laYout NEWS

FEatuRESSPoRtS

aRtS aNd cultuRES oPINIoN

PhotogRaPhY

meetings at 8:00 pmmondaysBlair hall

Young Democrats and College Republicans debate before elections

By Chuck GillespieNews Editor

ment by arguing that most of the jobs created by President Obama were low-skill jobs in the retail sector, and went on to attack President Obama’s record on green jobs, claim-ing that “Obama’s picking winners and losers and so far he’s only picking losers.”

The next question, ad-dressed to the College Re-publicans, dealt with the increasing cost of higher edu-cation. Gunnison stated that, while “Obama has cut pri-vate lenders out of the loan market,” Romney will in-crease the role of the private market in providing student loans, which would cut costs, and noted that Romney had made college education more affordable through a scholar-ship program while Governor of Massachussetts. Payne countered that the scholar-ship only amounted to $300 a year and that President Obama has expanded Pell Grants and capped student loan interest rates.

Gilmour also asked the College Republicans what Governor Romney consid-ered the greatest foreign threat to the United States. Gunnison said that Romney considered the acquisition of a nuclear weapon by Iran America’s greatest external threat, noting that Iran was enriching uranium at the fastest rate ever, and taking aggressive actions includ-ing a plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the US and smuggling weapons to Lebanon. Gunnison said that this aggression was because of America’s military weak-ness and because “we haven’t made it clear that we’re not ruling out military action in the region.” Payne coun-tered by saying “I will make it clear right now, President

Obama is not ruling out mili-tary action against Iran,” and claiming that “Iran is currently more isolated than it’s ever been,” as a result of President Obama’s diplomat-ic efforts.

Gilmour followed up by asking the Young Demo-crats what President Obama planned to do in response to unfriendly regimes that might take power as a result of the Arab Spring upris-ings. Stalknaker said that “we have already made sure that we are going to have more friends in the region than ever because we have supported democracy,” and that “we are always vigilant, but we do need to recognize that…we cannot override the actions of a democratic people” when they elect anti-American leaders. Gunnison called these claims “malar-key,” and said that “we’re taking out our friends, and leaving threats,” by support-ing the overthrow of Hos-ni Mubarak, but allowing Bashar al-Assad to remain in power.

In the concluding state-ment for the College Repub-licans, Crawford said that “we are in a bad place right now,” and that “we need re-form, and that simply hasn’t happened under President Obama’s administration.” Branton concluded by tell-ing the audience to “make the next four years a lot bet-ter for yourself” by voting for Romney. Payne concluded on behalf of the Young Demo-crats by admitting that “we are just as upset with the current state of the country,” but saying that “President Obama on day one has be-gun to deal with these condi-tions.”

FEATURESPAGE 4

If you have turned on the news within the last week, you have seen the mass destruction left in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. You might have seen my hometown of Toms River, New Jersey, which has been decimated. Perhaps you have heard of our neighbor Seaside Heights, where roller coast-ers from the famous pier now sit in the Atlantic Ocean. Hundreds of homes have seemingly van-ished from their foundations. Unclaimed boats float in the place where traffic intersections used to be. Hundreds, if not thousands of homes are complete-ly destroyed. Toms River, New Jersey sits on the mainland between the Barnegat Bay and the Toms River, which both surged over ten feet during Hur-ricane Sandy. To the east of Toms River is a bar-rier island where the ocean met the bay and water rushed in like a tidal wave.

Hundreds of people in my area had to be res-cued from their houses by boat and helicopter after water flooded the first floors of their houses and they were literally trapped. Those from the seaside towns of Seaside Park, Seaside Heights, Ortley Beach Lavalette, Brick, Point Beach and Man-toloking to name a few, have had to take jet-skis and kayaks to their homes to survey the damage because all of the bridges connecting the mainland and the island are destroyed or have been declared unsafe. All of the high schools and middle schools in my hometown are currently shelters for masses of people who lost everything in the storm. These people have absolutely nothing. The damage is un-fathomable right now and city officials have said that it might be six to eight months before the is-land is inhabitable again. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has said that the shore will never be the same.

Given that New Jersey is the most represent-ed state amongst out-of-state students at The Col-lege, I feel that this is pertinent to address. I know those hailing from shore towns in New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Delaware, Rhode Island, Con-necticut and Massachusetts can sympathize much the same. For the past week, I have been practi-cally unable to peel myself from CNN. Something about seeing reporters on television live from my hometown is surreal. In the past few days, many people have shown sympathy and support, but I have also heard “the world is better off without the Jersey Shore” and similar comments. To those ut-tering sentiments like that of the latter, let me pose a question. Have you no respect or regard for hu-man life? Or is it that you do not comprehend that several thousand people on the East Coast have absolutely nothing besides the clothes on their backs right now? All of their possessions are gone-

photos, furniture, electronics, cars, everything, and yet there are people making jokes about the same situa-tion. I have not had a single profes-sor address what happened or ask if families and friends are okay. Life has gone on unaffected here at The College while I am haunted by pic-tures of my hometown.

The Jersey Shore is hard to ex-plain if you don’t live there. It is not a mass of greasy juice-heads that you see on TV fist pumping. Us lo-cals actually despise the MTV show that has made a terrible name of our home. The beaches where I live are actually beautiful, and the ocean is a place I have always gone to for solace. For locals, it our home year round, not just a place we went after prom. Shore kids like me rode our first roll-er coaster at Casino Pier and learned to make K-turns in the beach park-ing lot. The boardwalk is the first place we were allowed to go without our parents and where we went with our families after church on Easter Sunday. For me, the Jersey Shore is sitting on the beach at the end of Au-gust after all the tourists have left. It is where my friends and I made body surfing a competitive sport growing up. It is where my team met for high school cross-country practice every summer morning for four years. It’s where I had my first job selling ice cream on the boardwalk and where I checked badges for three summers on the sand. It is where my friends and I go after hitting up Wawa on a Friday night with nothing to do. It is the first place I go when I’m back in New Jersey because it always makes me feel home.

My heart aches for the people living in shelters in the middle school and high school that I went to. I am praying for my friends who have been without power for over a week and for those who have been told that they will not be able to return to their homes for several weeks, if not months. I am thankful for the Army National Guard for risk-ing their lives to rescue those in my town who were trapped after the storm surge. I am thankful for the state police and US Coast Guard who are armed and roaming because looters have been breaking into homes and businesses, taking advantage of those without power. I am thankful that my family is safe and there was minimal damage to my house

and property. I am wishing that I was back in the Garden State, volunteering with The Red Cross and various nonprofits who have come to the aid of so many in need.

Here in Virginia, it is only just setting in that the place where I grew up is now a biohazard zone of rubble and sand. Imagine if the beloved “Nova” looked like a war zone of wooden planks and scat-tered debris. Maybe then people on campus would begin to understand what those of us hailing from shore towns are going through right now. Some of us will be going home on Thanksgiving to places that are completely broken. I ask that everyone be mindful of this and harvest a bit of compassion as the semester winds down.

A hometown perspective after Hurricane SandyBy Krissa LorettoAssociate Features Editor

courTesy phoTos

courTesy phoTos SANdy: photos show devastation in New Jeresey left by the hurricane.

PAGE 5FEATURES

This Week in Greek

Another exciting week for Greek Life here at The College of William and Mary! Sorority philan-thropies began this week, and each chapter will host their philanthropic event between now and November 27. Examples of philanthropic events include Alpha Chi Omega’s AXOctoberfest and Kappa Kappa Gamma’s Kappaccino on Thursday, November 1. These events raise money for an orga-nization affiliated with each sorority, and they are also great fun for the students involved!

The ARC Fall Dance took place on Friday, No-vember 2, at Trinkle Hall in the Campus Center. Volunteers from the William & Mary Fraternity/Sorority Community helped set up and run the event in conjunction with the Arc of Greater Wil-liamsburg, an organization providing support ser-vices to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The dance had a costume theme, and everyone had a great time.

By Pratick SinhaGreek Columnist

The William & Mary Chapter of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity currently has 21 active broth-ers. Sigma Phi Epsilon, abbreviated SigEp, does not have a traditional pledging period; instead they have a Balanced Man program in which there is continuous member development. Each broth-er must complete the four levels of the program: Sigma, Phi, Epsilon, and the Brother Mentor chal-lenges. At the completion of each level, brothers go through a ritual that allows them to move onto the next level. Sigma Phi Epsilon encourages the pur-suit of high ideals including virtue, diligence, and brotherly love.

Fraternity Profile: Sigma Alpha Epsilon

Whether good or bad, every student at William and Mary has some kind of opinion about the Units. They have been around for as long as each of us has been on campus, so when it was announced that a new set of fraternity buildings were to be built, history was made.

The site for the new fraternity complex was announced last April. The designs were made by Mosely-Treanor Associates, and the current construction project has been undertaken by WM Jordan Company. It will be located along Ukrop Way across from William & Mary Hall. After years of fraternities be-ing unable to fill their housing quotas, the twelve building fraternity complex will be built to include 11 housing units featuring three different elevations as well as one community building.

College officials unveiled the elevations for William & Mary‘s new fraternity complex last September during a meeting of the Board of Visitors “Buildings and Grounds Committee.” One of three elevations for 11 fraternity housing units will be built on the William & Mary campus. Six of the buildings will sit north of Yates Drive and six south.

“This complex will transform that part of campus,” Vice President for Administration Anna Martin told the committee.The housing units will provide a total of 187 beds – 17 in each unit. While the housing units will feature different elevations, with varying floor plans,

Martin said all of the residential units are approximately 6600 square feet and feature the same components including 17 beds; a kitchen; social, study and laundry rooms.

The fraternity project is estimated at a cost of $26 million and will be funded principally through room fees. The existing fraternity housing units will be refreshed and converted back to the undergraduate housing inventory. “As the birthplace of the American college fraternity (Phi Beta Kappa was founded here in 1776), W&M has an important role to play as an advocate for and host to a thriving undergraduate fraternity experience,” said Virginia Ambler. “These new chapter houses will affirm and strengthen fraternity life at the College, celebrating a rich tradition in which our students and alumni feel a deep sense of pride.”

The fraternity project is the second stage of an effort by the College to address the need for additional college-operated student housing. Nearly 75 percent of William & Mary students live on campus, a percentage the College strives to maintain. The College announced plans earlier this year to modestly increase its number of undergraduates. Starting with 50 additional undergraduates this year, William & Mary has agreed to add 150 in-state undergraduates as well as 50 out-of-state undergraduate over the next four years. The College is also adding another 20 entering students over the next four years as part of its new joint degree program with the University of St Andrews.

Buildings are expected to be ready for use in fall 2013.

campus construction update: Fraternity complexBy Dan CarlenAssociate Features Editor

The stately atmosphere of Trinkle Hall last Thursday night was filled with a small but substantial collective of students and community members gathered to hear a lecture about how science and faith by an MIT physicist. Put on by the Veritas Forum the lecture was titled Monopolizing Knowledge: An MIT Physicist on Science & Faith. Veritas Forum describes itself as a university event which brings lecturers to campus to speak on hard issues of life concerning topics such as the origin of morality, doubts about faith and world views, and the sources that give meaning and fulfillment to one’s life. At first look, I thought the Veritas forum looked like simply an organization dedicated to open think-ers, furthering the perpetual state of thought and learning this college fosters so well. However with closer investigation I discovered that the forum is sponsored by several of the Christian ministries on campus. Reading the fine print, Veritas Forums promise to “duscuss life’s hardest questions and the relevance of Jesus Christ to all Life.” Predictably then, lecturer Ian Hutchinson gave another recon-ciliation of faith and science as valid ways of knowing, ultimately justifying faith as a legitimate way to gain knowledge. However predictable this outcome may have been Hutchinson gave a strong and valid argument is not slightly wordy and hard to comprehend.

Hutchinson opened his talk by exploring the definition of what the word science really means and how the word’s meaning contributed to the concept of scientism. According to him the word has gained a modern day connotation that strays from it’s original meaning. The word science used to be more broadly defined as something closer to knowledge known for certain gained from “self evident principles” or from systematic demonstration. Hutchinson put in a conscious effort to explain the con-cept and history of science giving a well fleshed out start to his argument. Hutchinson then launched into debating the merits of scientism, the concept that no knowledge exists outside facts derived from empirical science. Hutchinson supplied a diverse portfolio of postmodern philosophers posed against arguments from resolute atheists to drive an extremely balanced explanation of the acquisition of knowledge. All the while Hutchinson threw in examples deriving from areas like music, art, language, sociology, law, politics and even religion. Ultimately Hutchinson arrives at the conclusion that reli-gious ideology can be legitimized as significant, meaningful and true knowledge.

For someone with such a strong science background Hutchinson gave an extremely diverse and intellectual argument. Dr. Ian Hutchinson’s primary research revolves around the magnetic con-

finement of plasmas. His ultimate goal is to capture the energy source of stars via enabling fusion reac-tions for use in practical energy production. Dr. Ian Hutchinson is currently a Professor of Nuclear Sci-ence and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hutchinson has authored over 170 scientific journals and is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the Institute of Physics. Hutchinson frequently trav-els to universities, confer-ences, and church audiences throughout America.

Veritas Forum hosts MIT physicist to talk about science and faithBy Michaela WrightStaff Writer

courTesy phoTo

SPOR TSPAGE 6

Late touchdown dooms Tribe at New HampshireFOOTBALL: michael graham.

William and Mary (2-7, 1-5) traveled to 11th-ranked CAA foe New Hampshire (8-2, 6-1) on Sat-urday. The Tribe gave the heavily favored Wildcats all they could handle, but a late touchdown drive put New Hampshire up for good, 28-25. With two difficult games remaining on the Tribe schedule, this season threatens to be Jimmye Laycock’s worst since he took the helm in 1980.

Meanwhile, the Tribe contin-ued its revolving door behind cen-ter, as Junior quarterback Brent Caprio started the game in place of the injured Raphael Ortiz (’15). Caprio completed five passes in as many attempts, good for 47 yards and a touchdown, before he was knocked out of the game with 3:41 remaining in the first half. Down to the third string, in stepped experienced Junior signal-caller Michael Graham. Graham would give the College a fighting chance, completing 13 of 25 for 167 yards, a touchdown, and an interception.

With the quarterback situa-tion unsettled at best, the Tribe went to the ground on 60% of its offensive plays. Freshman tail-

back Mikal Abdul-Saboor and his sophomore counterpart Keith Mc-Bride carried the brunt of William and Mary’s rushing attack. Sab-oor took 16 hand-offs for 89 yards, while McBride carried the ball 17 times for 75 yards. The College netted 191 rushing yards on the afternoon.

Late in the first quarter, Caprio hit sophomore wideout Tre McBride for a 30 yard touchdown pass to put the Tribe on top 7-0. But the Wildcats dominated the second frame, racing out to an 18-7 lead by halftime. A 23-yard field goal from sophomore John Carpenter put the Tribe within 8 at the beginning of the third quar-ter.

On the Tribe’s ensuing pos-session, Graham used a 23-yard completion to sophomore Sean Ballard and a 19-yard touchdown strike to McBride to cap a 7 play, 62 yard scoring drive. Graham to McBride worked again on the two-point try, and as the third quar-ter drew to a close, the score re-mained tied at 18.

The Wildcats took a 3-point lead early in the fourth, but the Tribe answered with a methodi-cal 13-play, 78 yard touchdown drive to put the visitors on top 25-

phoTo courTesy of TrIbe aThleTIcs

21. With just under six minutes to play in the game, William and Mary appeared poised for an up-set.

But on the Wildcat’s very next possession, they marched straight through the Tribe defense with a balanced mix of runs and passes, putting the Green and Gold be-hind for good. It took the Wildcats six plays to go 84 yards, and they never looked back.

Defensively, William and Mary was led by senior safety B.W. Webb’s 9 solo tackles. Wil-liam and Mary dominated the game’s time of possession, and was nearly equal to New Hamp-shire across all other major statis-tical categories. But the Tribe had no answers for New Hampshire’s offense when it counted most.

The Tribe returns to action this Saturday, traveling to Nor-folk to take on CAA rival Old Dominion. The noon road game marks the third meeting between the two teams, and the last for the foreseeable future. The Monarchs are scheduled to depart the CAA for Conference USA beginning in 2013. The Tribe will wrap up the season the following Saturday, November 17th, at home versus longtime arch-rival Richmond. Kickoff is slated for 1:30.

MEN'S BASkETBALL SCHEdULE

fri, Nov 09 hampton Williamsburg, Va. 7:30 p.m. mon, Nov 12 at liberty at lynchburg, Va. 7:00 p.m. sat, Nov 17 at high point at high point, N.c. 7:00 p.m. Wed, Nov 21 miami (ohio) Williamsburg, Va. 7:00 p.m.

fri, Nov 23 at Wake forest at Winston‑salem, N.c. 7:00 p.m.

Wed, Nov 28 at richmond at richmond, Va. 7:00 p.m. sat, dec 01 old dominion Williamsburg, Va. 7:00 p.m. Thu, dec 06 howard Williamsburg, Va. 7:00 p.m. sat, dec 08 at radford at radford, Va. 2:00 p.m. fri, dec 21 salisbury Williamsburg, Va. 7:00 p.m.

for the full schedule, please see www.tribeathletics.com

By Wade CupcheckSports Editor

Tribe sPoTliGhT: chRIS alBIStoN #16sPorT: men's soccerPosiTion: back/ midfieldyear: sophomore, class of 2015hoMeToWn: Virginia beach, Va

albiston scored one of the two goals in the recent game against hofstra, see page 6

PAGE 7SPOR TS

Women’s soccer falls in CAA semifinalsBy Nate KreshSports Editor

SOCCER: mallory schaffer, now two‑time caa player of the year, charges down the field.

phoTo courTesy of TrIbe aThleTIcs

This past weekend, the Tribe women’s soccer team faced off against Hofstra in the semifinals of the 2012 Colonial Athletic Association Tournament at Martin Family Stadium. The Tribe, who finished the regular season with the best record in the CAA, earned not only a home field advantage for the entire tournament, but also a first round bye, allowing them to be well rested for their showdown with Hofstra.

The game itself could only be described as a defensive clinic, with the Tribe ben-efitting from a virtuoso performance from freshman goalkeeper Caroline Casey. In the game, Hofstra would get 10 shots on goal, and Casey would turn away each and every shot for a career high 10 saves in the game.

However, despite getting the benefit of such an impressive goalkeeping performance, the Tribe would be unable to capitalize on the offensive end, despite a few good looks. In the 22 nd minute, freshman Barbara Platenberg’s header on frame was turned away by Hofstra’s keeper Emily Morphitis, while a one-timer off the foot of senior Cortlyn Bristol in the 70th minute would go just over the post. The Tribe would get one last opportunity to score in regulation in the 88 th minute, when sophomore Emory Camper would send a shot on goal, only to once again be turned away by Morphitis at such a crucial juncture.

With no score at the end of regulation, the game would move on to its first overtime period. Hofstra would attempt to put the Tribe down quickly, launching three shots on net in the first period of overtime. However, Casey would be there each and every time, keeping Hofstra off the board and keeping the Tribe’s season alive. The second period of overtime would feature far fewer offensive attempts, with each side only managing one shot each.

Thus, with the score tied at the end of both overtime periods, the game would move into the dreaded penalty kicks, wherein the system only seems fair when it is your side that wins the match. Both teams would make their first two shots, with the Tribe’s goals coming from juniors Dani Rutter and Ali Heck.

With Hofstra making their next PK, the Tribe would need to keep pace with Bristol coming in to take the third shot. However, in a game so influenced by impressive goalie play, perhaps it is only fitting that it would be the prowess of a goalie that would help decide the match, as Bristol’s shot would be turned away by Hofstra’s Morphitis.

With Hofstra now up 3-2, Pride senior Brooke Bendernagel would put one past Casey to give her team a 4-2 lead in PKs.

The Tribe would now need to make both of their shots just to stay alive, let alone still have a chance of winning. As such, the game would fall on the shoulders of fresh-man Nicole Baxter. Baxter would rip a shot that looked as though it would hit pay dirt, but Morphitis would be there one final time to make the stop and send Hofstra into the finals.

The loss is disappointing for a Tribe squad that dominated in the regular season and had its eyes set on repeating as CAA champions. However, one must tip their hat to the Hofstra squad who, despite having a middling record of 10-8 on the season, has played this dominant Tribe squad very tough, taking them to double overtime in their previous match this season (a match which the Tribe would go on to win).

The loss will likely be a bitter pill for the Tribe to swallow, however, as their regular season dominance perhaps should have led to a more impressive postseason run. Per-haps the most painful aspect of this now “what if” scenario is that the Tribe, had they won this match, would have gone on to face the UNC-Wilmington Seahawks. Unlike their nail biter of a match against Hofstra from the regular season, when the Tribe and the Seahawks last met, the Tribe absolutely dominated the contest, winning 3-1.

Now, unfortunately, none of that matters, and the Tribe, a team that was once in control of its own destiny, must now wait on the NCAA Selection Show to see whether or not their season will continue as an at-large participant in the NCAA Tournament.

If this is in fact the end of the line for the Tribe, however, it is still a season that the team can be proud of. Despite losing some key seniors, including now two-time CAA Player of the Year Mallory Schaffer, the team has a young core of talent that can grow from an experience like this and come back next season hungry to prove that they are the best team in the CAA.

Hempstead, NY- The William and Mary Men’s Soccer team concluded its 2012 campaign Friday afternoon against the Hof-stra Pride, playing the quality opponents to a final score of 2-2. In a game where nearly forty shots were taken in total, the de-ciding goal actually came unintentionally. Seven minutes before the final second half whistle, Hofstra had the ball on a corner kick. The ball was driven in low and took an unfortunate deflec-tion off a Tribe defender into his own goal. Overall, despite the own goal, the game concludes a somewhat disappointing sea-son in total, that ended with serious promise for next year. The Green and Gold have come out victorious in two of their last four matches, against then eighth-ranked Old Dominion, and defending CAA champions Delaware, with their last loss com-ing against conference powerhouse JMU.

The first half began with a flurry of shots coming from both sides, forcing Tribe keeper Alex Harrington into two early saves, with one shot banging fortunately off the crossbar. After eigh-teen minutes of trading blows, and just three minutes after the close call, the Tribe would make the first breakthrough. Junior Chris Perez slotted a pass to sophomore Chris Albiston to the left of the penalty area. The Virginia Beach native proceeded to rocket the ball far post for his third goal of the season, capital-izing on Perez’s third assist on the year.

Only after five minutes of falling behind, the Pride took advantage of their third corner kick of the evening, with the tall defender Tyler Botte powerfully heading the ball past Har-rington, for his fifth goal of the year. After fifteen minutes of back-and-forth play, Chris Perez would notch his second assist of the game, measuring a beautiful ball to a streaking Zachary Montebell. The junior slotted the ball home on the breakaway for his first career goal, while Perez’s assist marks his fourth on the year, tying the team lead.

At the end of the first period, Hofstra held the edge in both shots, 10-7, and corner kicks, 3-0, forcing Harrington to make saves on three separate occasions. Harrington’s counterpart, Pride keeper Adam Janowski, though allowing two scores, also came up with two saves.

The second half began in much the same vein as the first, with the first shot coming off of the foot of goal-scorer Albiston just fourteen seconds after the kickoff. William and Mary al-lowed the Pride nine shots in the period, though almost all of them sailed high or wide. The game proved to be a battle for both sides, as Hofstra desperately tried for the break through, with the William and Mary defense and late-season standout Harrington both having strong showings.

With a spot in the conference tournament on the line, Hof-stra continued to pressure the leading side, with the aforemen-tioned own goal coming in the eighty-second minute off of a headed deflection on a low, driven cross. The fortunate break proved just enough to send the game into extra minutes, despite an attempt by Freshman Jackson Eskay that clanged against the upright, just three minutes before the end of the period. A follow-up shot by Roshan Patel forced the Pride’s Janowski to make his fourth save on the night.

Overtime began with the Pride leading the Green and Gold, 19-11 in shots, and 8-2 in corner kicks, though the Tribe were attempting to hold a tenuous lead for nearly forty- five minutes of the match. Shots continued to be abundant in the overtime periods, though no goals were scored, with the Tribe tallying four shots in the twenty minutes, compared to the Pride’s three. The Tribe also tallied two corner opportunities in the additional minutes, one of which resulted in a good-looking opportunity for Eskay that went wide.

The Tribe finished holding the edge in shots on goal, 8-7, and in goals scored by their own players as well. With the tie, Hofstra clinch the fourth spot in the conference tournament. The Pride will play the fifth-seeded George Mason University on Monday,

November 5th. The near-victory wraps up the Tribe’s sea-son at 4-10-4, with a CAA record of 2-5-3, though the squad’s form and class definitely seem to be on the up and up. Fans of Tribe soccer can look hopefully toward next season as many of the team’s prominent performers won’t be graduating until next year, though the team do lose their senior captain Ben Ander-son among others.

tribe plays to draw against Hofstra in season finaleBy Alex CookStaff Writer

AR TS & CULTUREPAGE 8

Staff Writer

The Crimson Crown: full of wizards, demon kings, and romance to boot

As the fourth and final installment in Cinda Williams Chima’s The Seven Realms series, The Crimson Crown (Hyperion, October 2012) has been one of the most anticipated young adult books released this year. Chima is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, and numer-ous publications have nominated her two series, The Seven Realms and The Heir Chronicles, for several awards.

Note: Because this is the fourth book in the series, the description will contain a lot of spoil-ers. If you’re a fan of Tolkien and other magical fantasy books and would like a fun read between school work or over Thanksgiving break, I recommend you check out the first book, The Demon King.

Recently crowned queen, Raisa ana’Marianna must struggle with the conflicts her mother left behind. First, the tension between the clans and the Wizards has reached an all time high as mys-terious bodies of Wizards turn up all over Ragmarket. Second, traitors are lurking in her armies that protect her queendom from Arden, the southern kingdom of religious fanatics who openly call her a witch, the clans savages, and Wizards demons. Third, all her advisors are telling her not to trust Han Allister, who appears to be responsible for the Wizard murders. Only they don’t know she’s in love with him.

For the first time in his life, Han Allister has a purpose: to marry Raisa. Too bad the entire world stands in his way. His first prior-ity is to keep her safe, which leads him to walking the streets of Ragmarket at night hoping to entice this killer to come after him, but after being found at the scene of the crime, not even his friends doubt his guilt. When Raisa asks him to run for High Wizard, Han might need to focus more on keeping himself safe. By sheer luck and friends with common enemies, Han manages to win the seat… and turn the entire queendom against him.

Crow, also known as Alger Wa-terlow, the Demon King who appar-ently broke the world in his quest for power one thousand years ago, resides in Han’s Wizard amulet. He also hap-pens to be Han’s ancestor. Crow gives him the location of the Armory of the Gifted Kings, a collection of magical weaponry believed destroyed for hun-dreds of years. Han plans to use it to strong arm the clans and Wizards into working together to protect the queen-dom from Arden, but he might just die before he has a chance to use it.

This book deserves all five stars. Even this far into the series, the char-acters continue to surprise the reader, as does the depth of the magical world Chima created. This series beautifully combines magic, action, romance, and adventure into one amazing story, and I recommend it for all fantasy lovers, from J. K. Rowling to Tolkien.

By Amanda FoodyBook Columnist

courTesy phoTo

Well Fed: a date with doughBy Sam ReichmanFood Columnist

Experimenting with dough is an art, but not a particularly difficult one. The combi-nation of flour, water and yeast yields bread dough. Oil, vinegar, flour, water and salt can become phyllo dough in a matter of hours. Iter-ations of variations allow unlimited creations.

No matter that pumpkin puree or golden raisins can find their way into homemade car-bohydrates; if the final product cannot find its way into a broader dining context, then butter is really the only option.

Then again, few college students have the time for “proofing” – allowing the dough to rise for the first time – or “fermentation” – when products of the yeast modify the physical prop-erties of the dough. The low cost and simplici-ty of premade dough should not be overlooked.

I am a huge proponent of in-home Date Nights with a girlfriend, a boyfriend or a bot-tle of Rioja. So, when Hurricane Sandy hit, I hit the grocery store. With a desire to cook and bake, I sought out some pre-made components.

First, Trader Joe’s white and whole-wheat pizza dough are, in my opinion, some of the more beautiful things on this planet. For no more than $2, it is a fantastic base for a din-ner. It is a versatile-enough product that it need not be pigeonholed into pizza making alone; I’ve seen recipes that transform this dough into various types of rolls and even cin-namon buns.

But, here, a mere pizza was my prize. To begin, allow the dough reach room tempera-ture and preheat the oven to 450°. Clean a working surface on a table or countertop and flour it. Flour the dough as well, just enough that it can be easily rolled or stretched. Trans-fer it onto a baking sheet or pizza stone.

Slice two large zucchinis into very thin rounds. Toss them in a bowl with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. For the cheese, you want soft, not crumbled, goat cheese. I would use a cup, but I’m sure more is always welcome. Spread it evenly over the dough, leaving a ½” edge around the circum-ference, and arrange zucchini as desired. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned.

As I’ve discovered, two people can demolish a pizza of this size without a second thought, especially while watching a good movie.

Now, refrigerated piecrust dough for des-sert. I purchased Pillsbury brand piecrust for about $2.50. All I had to do was unfurl the cyl-inder of dough and place it in a pie pan, though it can also be rolled thinner on a floured board if preferred. Additionally, if you’re feeling cre-ative, try using pre-made piecrust to make quiche or pot pie!

To appropriately ring in the season of giv-ing thanks, I attempted to make a sweet pota-to pie: Keep the oven at 400° – an easy enough transition – and line a pan with the aforemen-tioned crust. Mash 1½ cups of canned sweet potatoes in a big bowl and, once smooth, com-bine with 2/3 cup packed brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp nutmeg, ½ cup of half and half (or any milk that’s lying around) and 2 beaten eggs. Pour the mixture into the crust and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a knife comes out clean from the center.

So much food, so cheap is just so good. Pick a movie, pick up some dough and pick at your creations all night. And, leftover pie will always sit well in the stomachs and hearts of housemates.

courTesy phoTo

PAGE 9AR TS & CULTURE

courTesy phoTo

By Joel WhiteArts & Culture Editor

This week, as we move into the final William and Mary Theatre production for this fall semester, I find my-self realizing that I never wrote my usual “what to look forward to in PBK” column for the year. Oh, well. Such is life. I suppose I’ll just assume that all of you dutifully supported your artistically inclined peers and viewed the four marvelous productions over the past two months. Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, one of the greatest works of contemporary American playwright August Wilson (and his personal favorite), opened to marvelous reviews on the main stage last month. College senior Ben Lauer’s new and exciting take on the Shakespearean classic The Winter’s Tale garnered similar acclaim later that month, followed by the Orchesis Dance Company in DANCEV-ENT, the annual showcase of dance faculty choreogra-phy. All of this has made for a solid start to the season.

Opening this Friday is Pippin, this year’s musical comedy. Featuring swords, sex, and intrigue, this excit-ing smorgasbord of spectacle promises a resounding con-clusion to the first half of the school year. You won’t see me writing a review of it (conflict of interest and all), but I encourage everyone to come over to PBK Hall either this weekend or the next to check it out. Pippin features an uncommonly talented mix of William and Mary The-atre veterans as well as many fresh faces that will no doubt delight audiences from onstage for years to come. The show runs this Friday and Saturday at 8 PM with a Sunday matinee at 2 PM as well as the following Thurs-day, Friday and Saturday also at 8 with a final Sunday matinee at 2.

Now, at this point, I’m sure one question is burning in your minds: what can you expect from William and Mary Theatre next semester? Rest assured, the agenda for this spring is just as ambitious and exciting (if not more so) than the fall. First up is the directorial of senior Nick Martin, who will be experimenting with masks (yes, as in the ones you wear over your face) in his production of Attempts On Her Life, the signature work of British playwright Martin Crimp. Crimp’s wide-open and in-your-face format lends itself to Mr. Martin’s knack for outside the box creativity and should make for quite an experience.

Next up is another Shakespearean gem, The Merry Wives of Windsor. This comedic double love story will be performed in full Elizabethan swing, with all of the elab-orate costumes and pratfalls that come with the territo-ry. Expect veteran director Richard Palmer to contribute his sage wisdom toward what will surely be true laugh-out-loud entertainment. In March, the Orchesis Dance Company will return in An Evening of Dance, this time to showcase student choreography. If there ever were an incentive to see the artistic ability of your fellow students on display, this would certainly be it.

Going back to the Studio Theatre in April, the the-atre department will showcase their third and final se-nior directorial of the year, this time under the steward-ship of Christopher Richardson. He will be directing the psycho-thriller The Pillowman by acclaimed playwright Martin McDonagh. This incredible script—coupled with Mr. Richardson’s uncanny ability to engage audiences with his work—will likely keep you squirming in your seat from start to finish. And, trust me, that’s a good thing.

Closing out the season on the mainstage is Profes-sor Francis Tanglao-Aguas’ interpretation of Sitayana, a companion story to the ancient Sanskrit epic Ramayana. After spending the summer conducting research in Bali with his students and colleagues, Mr. Tanglao-Aguas is sure to bring new and fascinating life to what is essen-tially the Sanskrit “Adam and Eve” story, but from Eve’s perspective. Expect this production to nab the yearly award for best costumes.

I think we can all agree that five shows in three months makes for a pretty exciting time. From masks to modern dance and folktales to Falstaff, next semester will showcase just about the entire breadth of what Wil-liam and Mary Theatre has to offer. I’ll certainly be there for each show (in one way or another). You should be, too.

the green room: what to expect next semester

By Jake DayStaff Writer

Adventures at the CMJ Music Marathon: Part 2

My experience on the first night of CMJ, one which saw me walk into a $13 show for free, throw my shoes at the band, and stroll backstage after the show, was not to be re-peated. Suddenly, Brooklyn started taking itself seriously.

I had known that a lot of the clubs around the city had age restrictions. I was told that these more like formalities than enforced practices. But at an event like CMJ, where there is a deluge of underage college students who don’t really know their way around what can be a rather dangerous city, venues decided that it might be a good idea to enforce the drinking age and keep all those underagers out of scary alleys, county jails, stranger’s basements, body bags, and – most importantly – the news. In hindsight, this was a good call. But after getting rejected by the fourth venue I showed up to, I wasn’t really in the mood for paternalism.

The afternoon portion of events didn’t go quite as poorly – as in, I got to see some music. We took the train to Union Square, one of New York’s most scenic areas, where ir-regular buildings burst out from behind one another, shooting up into the air like the ten-tacles on a sea anemone, leering over weaving, narrow streets. We entered through small door labeled “CMJ,” scrunched in between a gaudy restaurant and a hulking department store, entered past a bouncer who, judging by his decision to question my “attitude” after merely looking at my face, was probably ex-military, and walked down a flight of steps into a bright, modern looking recording space. A series of four bands were playing a live recording session with some radio station.

The first band was Wild Nothing, a group of former Virginia Tech students, each of whom is surprisingly dashing, who specialize in hazy, swirling synth-pop. Each of their albums, Gemini, and the recently released Nocturne, has received much critical praise, and the accessibility of their sound has made them one of indie music’s more popular acts. We were late and only saw the last song, “Shadow,” the first song off their new album, a swooning, string-heavy song with a sad-eyed, lilting guitar riff at its center. The band’s recordings are fairly dreamy and placid, but the live performance of this one song is burst-ing with energy and is played impressively loud. I wish I’d seen the whole thing.

There’s about an hour between sets. We strongly consider hitting up the whiskey sample station because they don’t seem to be carding, but none of us can work up the intrepidity to risk being slightly embarrassed for a couple of minutes. Instead, some Aus-tralian girl grabs us and takes us backstage where we get to sample their hair product, “Fatboy,” and take modeling shots for them (pictures are on WCWM’s Twitter account if you’re super curious). Then a couple of us leave because we’re not that interested in see-ing Of Montreal’s touring violinist, Kishi Bashi, so we walk around the city for a little while, find an Israeli coffee house where everybody who works there has a beard and no shame about their chest hair. We sit down on some stools that are about 15 inches off the ground and two feet from the opposite wall. The coffee is pretty bad, but the tomato on the sandwich I got was freakishly good, so much so that I question whether what I ate was a tomato or a rainbow. We make it back to the studio in time for the last band, The Antlers. The room is so packed that I got legitimately worried about the oxygen supply and had to step out for a second. The band played material almost exclusively from their 2012 EP, Undersea, which I can only describe as an ambient record. I’ve always struggled to appreciate this kind of music and I can’t say I was particularly into this set. The band is very heavy on synth washes. They utilize the instrument to alter mood rather than create melody, like Wild Nothing. Interspersed are shrill, quick guitar strikes and slow, weeping percussion. The band’s centerpiece is the voice and song-writing of front-man and founder Peter Silberman, who sings with a remarkable, heart-breaking R&B croon. I liked their earlier stuff when they were less electronic, but I’m not a huge fan of the band’s moody di-rection. I, however, am in the minority on this issue. The packed crowd was really engaged and erupted in applause upon the conclusion of a set, which, I will admit, was performed

courTesy phoToTHE ANTLERS

See “CMJ” page 12

OPINIONPAGE 10

The dust is still set-tling on the 2012 Presi-dential election. I won’t be talking about that, primarily because at this point I imagine the collec-tive nation is exhausted from the amount of nega-tivity it brought out. An-other consideration is the fact that it takes a few days to print the Inform-er, so at the time of this writing I don’t know who won. Instead I want to talk about Robert Frost. In perhaps one of his most known poems, “The Road Not Taken,” Frost tells of a decision that a trav-eler must make between two paths. One path is commonly used; the other path is less traveled. The poet opts for the latter, and that “made all the dif-ference.”

Since coming to col-lege, the only dynamic that I have seen being presented by our elected officials in the federal government has been one of division. Democrats and Republicans alike have eschewed compro-mise and public service. They undermine unity, rather than fostering it. They reject compromise, rather than embracing it. They dismiss intelligent discussion, rather than expanding it. They create untruthful talking points and use propaganda out-lets in the media to broad-cast these as fact. They take opposing views on all issues, simply because they can’t bear to support their opponents on any-thing. They have taken our representative democ-racy, and turned it into a winner-takes-all game that reduces representa-tion and dooms the people to purposeful neglect.

This is by no means a new phenomenon. In the late ‘90s, Republicans brought Democratic Presi-dent Bill Clinton up for impeachment, primarily because of his own pri-vate indiscretions. They made baseless accusations

election post-script: the case for compromise

By Chris DodsonOpinion Editor

about him being corrupt, about him abusing his of-fice, some even claimed he had a secret list of asso-ciates he was murdering one-by-one. This was par-tisanship to the extreme. The Democratic response was 8 years of similar partisan antics against Republican President George W. Bush. His very election was undermined, by blatant lies, including claims that the Supreme Court “stole” the elec-tion for him in 2000 and that voting machines in Ohio “stole” his reelection in 2004. The Democrats blocked his political ap-pointments in record num-bers. They filibustered non-controversial bills whenever possible to deny Republicans a victory. They held fake, pro forma sessions to prevent Bush recess appointments. In 2006, they voted against raising the debt ceiling. Some even claimed that Bush planned the 9/11 attacks to enable a “war for oil.” The Democrats screwed over the Repub-licans whenever possible, purely for political gain, and the country suffered. Enter Obama in 2008, and the Republican minority adopted all of the tactics used by the Democrats under Bush. It was tit for tat, and again, the results were bad. This dreaded cycle must end.

The 2012 elections have now passed, and re-gardless of the outcome, some Americans will be happy and others sad. That’s politics. But that it no way means that we must continue down the same path of hyper-par-tisanship. In the coming months, we face a fiscal cliff. Those responsible for preventing it are in a unique position. On Janu-ary 1st, all of the Bush-era tax cuts expire. On January 1st, massive across the board spend-ing cuts will go into effect, touching every federal program. This alone is expected to contract GDP 2% and risking a new re-cession. At the same time the debt ceiling must be increased; something that both parties have refused to do in the past when in suited them politically. A budget must be passed to guide spending over the next term. Countless other authorizations for

popular laws and bureau-cracies expire at the same time. And the legislature tasked with solving this crisis, is the same 112th Congress that currently has 10% approval. Lame duck sessions, in which many incumbents are free to vote without fear of re-percussions from voters, allow for more compro-mise than is usually al-lowed. The lame duck ses-sion of 2010 for instance, saw a bipartisan deal extending the expiration of the Bush tax cuts and unemployment insurance to next month. It also saw bipartisan support for a much-needed, nuclear arms treaty with Russia and a bipartisan repeal of don’t ask don’t tell. Given the sheer amount of meaningful legislation that must be addressed in the coming year, Congres-sional action is a given. I assume that many of the legislators who will not be returning to the 113 th Congress will be much more inclined to compro-mise on these issues than normally. And in modern politics, compromise is the road less traveled.

A free country neces-sarily has competing ideas for government. Nobody thinks the same, and our political system suppos-edly reflects this. Popu-lar governance is entirely normative; it relies purely on value judgments. As no one view can be “correct” then, compromise is a nec-essary tactic for settling differences. Compromise isn’t a sign of weakness. Casting necessary votes that benefit the country, yet anger constituents is a sign of strength. Rather than reject compromise, we must embrace it. Prag-matic solutions benefit all parties involved. That is why I hope Congress will join together now that the dis-g u s t i n g p a r t i -sansh ip of the e lect ion is past. But the only way to ensure that is if you call for it. We face an uphill battle in the fight for pragmatic gov-ernance against blind partisanship. Gerryman-dering ensures politically

homogenous districts that allow for more and more uncompromising candi-dates. That’s why there are so few moderates left in Congress. A lack of term limits ensures that only those long- standing representatives who can build up huge fundraising war chests will win, curs-ing us to more of the same. Rather than striving for accuracy to attract view-ers, the media now relies on appealing to ideologi-cal groups by presenting lies and spin as fact. This further pushes moderates out of the picture, as a pol-itician is labeled as “us” or “them” depending upon the outlet. If these trends continue, the federal gov-ernment will become even more dysfunctional than it is now.

All of these prob-lems however can be overcome if citi-zens from both sides of the political aisle join to-

gether and reject them.Now that this election

has passed, our country has come to a fork in the road. One path has been taken many times before. It entails partisanship, lies, hatred, and the un-derlying idea that those who disagree with us are different, and thus should not be accommodated. The other values competing view-points, champions pragmatic compromises that give all sides a stake, and seeks to find those areas in which we are the same, rather than differ-ent. Now that the elec-tion is over, I implore the President, Congress, and all of you to take the road less traveled; in the end, it will make all the differ-ence.

courTesy phoTo

PAGE 11OPINION

Imagine my shock, dear reader, on Tuesday, October 30th, when I read the news. The startling news that Lucasfilm owner and the iconic Star Wars director and creator George Lu-cas sold his beloved franchise for $4 billion to the Walt Disney Company, along with the rights to iconic character Indiana Jones and not-so-iconic charac-ter Howard the Duck.

First, a conceit: Star Wars is kind of an obses-sion of mine. Since I was little and first watched the original trilogy, Star Wars has been a part of my life. From the movies themselves to toys, books, video games and countless bits of merchan-dise, I ate up all the Star Wars I could. I even took my first date to see Episode III in May 2005, and a VHS copy of The Empire Strikes Back that I found at the Williamsburg Goodwill stands proudly on my dorm-room bookshelf.

So, my first reaction to this news was from the viewpoint of fan. Could Disney ruin Star Wars more than Jar-Jar, midichlorians, and Hayden Christensen’s acting ever could? Would the fran-chise I love be forced to go down the kid-friendly route, and suffer the same unnecessary sequels as most Disney classics? (Bambi 2, anyone?) Al-though, to be fair, Disney has done well with a lot of the properties it has bought over the years. Pix-ar, The Jim Henson Company, and Marvel have all found post-Disney-merger success and still re-main rather autonomous within the ranks of the company.

But when my inner fanboy calmed down, I got to analyze the Disney/Lucasfilm merger as a consumer. After all, isn’t another term for “fan” that of “consumer”? Merchandise ties fans to their franchise of choice, and as such, media franchises are big business. Whether they originate on film like Star Wars, comic books like The Avengers, or books like Harry Potter, popular properties do more than enter the popular consciousness, they generate revenue beyond their creator’s wildest dreams.

Maybe that is one of the more troubling as-pects of the merger: the corporatization of art and entertainment. Love him or hate George Lucas, whether you think he’s a hack-fraud who got in-credibly lucky or an unparalleled creative genius, you do have to admire that Star Wars was owned solely by his own company. Lucas could, at the very least, control the direction of the universe he created. He could, theoretically, know when to draw the line. Now? Star Wars belongs to a corpo-ration, with shareholders and a bottom-line profit margin that must remain constant. Disney knows that if you’re a fan, you want more of it. They may not be able to draw a line like Lucas theoretically could, and in doing so not even realize that they are diluting a cultural touchstone. Soon enough, it won’t just be Star Wars Mr. Potato Heads you’ll be seeing at Target. It will be Darth Vader Coffee Makers and Death Star Disco Balls.

So, what’s there to do? Well, Star Wars Epi-sode VII is coming out whether you like it or not. But if fans are indeed consumers, then, as consum-ers they should send signals to Disney through their choice of what to buy. If a product seems to ruin the bold universe Lucas created, here’s a radical thought: don’t buy it! Your money and the

decisions you make with it says a lot about you, so don’t squander it on products that don’t do the franchise well.

Ultimately, the merger between Disney and Lucasfilm seems a culmination of George Lucas’ shift from filmmaker and artist to businessman. The expanded universe of books, TV shows, video games, etc. stray too far from the good lessons and epic story that attracted so many people to the fran-chise in the first place. The creators and corporate owners of properties like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, etc. seem to be focused on creating good, memorable, or even artful content rather than diluting the franchises’ themes either by straying too far from them or through useless merchandising. George Lucas starts to resemble another cinema icon, Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, a rich businessman increasingly out-of-touch with the common man who brought him his wealth. Art and entertainment affects us on an emotional level, and the more effectively it can do that, the more likely it is something will become popular.

But a creator’s intent and goals for what they want the audience to feel matters more than bottom-line business. In our era of mass-media, maybe the cor-poratization of Star Wars is an outlier, or the be-ginning of a dangerous precedent that says money matters more than content or art.

One creator I respect a lot is comic book writer Alan Moore, known for his rebellious, buck-the-system attitude when it comes to corporatizing his iconic comic book properties like Watchmen and V For Vendetta. These words, given in an interview months ago, rang through my head as I continued to ponder the merger: “There’s a widespread cul-tural barrenness across art and culture. It seems that every movie is a remake of something that was better when it was first released in a foreign language, as a 1960s TV show, or even as a com-ic book. Now you’ve got theme park rides as the source material of movies. The only things left are breakfast cereal mascots. In our lifetime, we will see Johnny Depp playing Captain Crunch.”

or why the Lucasfilm/Disney merger shows the modern economics of art and entertainment

Citizen Lucas

By Will MannFeatures Editor

courTesy phoTosCITIZEN LUCAS: george lucas sold lucasfilm to disney for $4.05 billion.

lucasfilm will join pixar, abc, marvel, and epsN under disney. The corporation plans to release star Wars: episode VII in 2015.

TheWalTdIsNey.com

George Lucas, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lucasfilm

“

”

“For the past 35 years, one of my greatest

pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed

from one generation to the next. It’s now time

for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation

of filmmakers.

PAGE 12

By Madeleine AggelerEditor-in-Chief

From November 2nd to November 4th, over 150 student journalists convened on the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas, Texas, for the 2012 Collegiate Network Edi-tor’s Conference. The historic location, which has the housed the likes of presidents Warren G. Harding and George H. W. Bush, as well as Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, transformed for a weekend into a forum for the discussion of conservative journalism on college campuses.

The Collegiate Network has provided grants for conservative and libertarian campus publications since

1980, fostering the ideals of the free market and free speech. In addition to its grants, it hosts events like the annual Editor’s Conference. Given that the CN has such illustrious alums serving as writers and editors at the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Time Magazine, it certainly fulfills its goals of training and connecting professional journal-ists.

This year was particularly exciting given that the Informer was the re-cipient of the CN’s Publication of the Year Award. On the night we received the award, we heard a speech by Hannah Giles, the woman who famously broke the ACORN scandal in 2009. In addition to explaining her own jour-nalistic path, Giles spoke of the role of investigative journalism, and what an important role it plays in reaching and sharing the truth, whether it be the truth of your college, town, or country, as well as the necessity of pursu-ing the truth relentlessly. While the highest point of the evening certainly came when Executive Editor Catherine Belte and myself made our way to the front of the dining room to accept our satisfyingly hefty plaque, Giles speech reminded us both of the important role the Informer plays on cam-pus.

The conference further underscored the importance of upholding the In-former’s ideals of thorough, professional, and independent journalism, and the importance of holding schools accountable for the educational experi-ences of their students. It also highlighted the significance of the Informer’s continued partnership with the Collegiate Network, not only to advance college journalism, but also to raise its standards, and ensure that it bet-ter trains the journalist of tomorrow. It is with my sincerest gratitude, and the gratitude of the Virginia Informer’s staff, that we thank the Collegiate Network for their work and for our partnership.

Letter from the Editor:

Conference serves as reminder of Informer’s role

phoTo courTesy of caTherINe belTe

flawlessly.The night is where things got weird. We ate a Chinese restaurant whose

health code rating was advertised as “pending;” still no signs of meningitis, so I’ll chalk that up as a victory. Then we left for the Brooklyn Bowl, whose stellar line-up that night included shameless retro glam-rockers Free En-ergy, masters of catchy, clever arrangements Born Ruffians, and rising, roof-rattling dance-hall lords Icona Pop. The Brooklyn Bowl is a 21+ venue. The bouncer with the puffy coat looked like he might let us in for a second, then decided – after teasing us mercilessly with sympathetic glances and begrudg-ing sighs – to be a professional and ask us to leave. We went around the back and tried to sneak in that way, but a guy with a curiously Midwestern sensi-bility, one which made him seem awfully anomalous in a Brooklyn warehouse district, said that he “just couldn’t do that.” We were defeated, at least until we remembered that we were in New York City, where are there are “things to do.” We decided to just walk around the neighborhood and enter build-ings. We saw an art gallery displaying African-seeming sculptures, the kind of thing that you have to be expecting in order to appreciate. Let’s just say this art didn’t resonate with me. Feeling adequately cultured, we wandered into what I was later told was a salon/hair studio thing. They had platters of tiny cupcakes with fancy icing, so I’ll call that experience a win. We saw some loud, obnoxious clubs, then, finally, walked to the Brooklyn water front, stared out at the Manhattan skyline, and made hacky Great Gatsby refer-ences.

We were so inspired that we decided that 1:00 AM wasn’t too late to take the train into Manhattan. But on our way out of Brooklyn we saw a bunch of similarly weird people standing outside of a door from which strange sounds were emanating. This had to be checked out. After walking past a group of people that looked like extras from a Tim Burton movie, we entered a small, one room warehouse with a really high ceiling, a bar, and a modest stage set back away from the entrance. In this room were four people: a bartender with

CMJ: Bands from day two of music marathonFrom page 9

deep red hair wearing a corset, a short, squat, flamboyant gay man wear-ing Juggalo makeup (basi-cally clown makeup if you don’t know the reference) who presumably is a big fan of dancing, a girl with a shaved head who looked like she had just auditioned for the lead in an off-Broadway re-working of V for Vendetta doing some ballet moves in the corner of the room, and a DJ wearing a skull mask, hammering out gaudy dub-step/air-horn/heavy metal mash-ups, seeming completely oblivious to the fact that nobody was listening to him at all. We just stood there gasping in that dark, dingy room long enough to see the girl with the shaved head start climbing drapes hanging from the ceiling Cirque-de-Soleil style and a dangerously amateurish fire-breathing ex-ercise from some guy also wearing Juggalo makeup. We decided that staying any longer would surely lead to becoming accomplices to arson, so we left without being able to fully comprehend what our eyes had just seen.

Manhattan was a bust, as when we showed up to the venue where former Wu Tang Klan member Ghostface Killah was hosting a showcase, we were told that the club was “actually 19 and over.” But the beauty of CMJ is that even on a night where you literally see zero bands, great stuff will inevitably happen to you. And there’s always the next night, where there will be hun-dreds of more shows that you can try to sneak into.

courTesy phoTo