Laptop Loaner program

Student and faculty can borrow laptops now from the library under a pilot program spearheaded by the Virginia Commonwealth University Library Services and G2G Mobile at VCU.
The program, which started after Spring Break, allows students or faculty to borrow one of eight IBM Lenovo laptops for up to four hours.
Trying to fill a need for computers, the library and the G2G Mobile group struck up the new idea.
“We finally got a chance to start this due to the popularity of the computer labs in the building,” said Nell Chenault, head of the Media Reserves section of the library.
The library wanted to do something like this for a few years, with schools such as University of Richmond and University of Virginia already having programs such as the one at VCU right now.
The computing power of laptops, however, was an obstacle for the program to work.
“We only just implemented the program due to the power of the laptops finally available,” Chenault said. “We thought about doing this a few years ago, but the laptops were too slow to connect and work on.”
The laptops, which have 15 inch displays, 2 gigabyte of memory, and run at 2 Ghz, also allow students to play DVDs and CDs.
The laptops also connect to the VCU wireless network, allowing students to go anywhere in the library and work.
“If they try to leave with the laptops, however, the gates at the front of the library will go off,” Chenault said.
While the library hasn't gathered formal data yet, anecdotal evidence from students so far suggest that students love it.

Michael Montague, who decided to try the program after seeing someone in the library use it, noting the mobility it affords the user.
“They are about the same as using a normal computer in the library, except you can also move around with it, which is nice,” Montague said.
“However, I don't think it has the same programs that the computers in the basement have,” he said.
According to Chenault, all eight laptops have been in use starting in the afternoon every day.
The overdue fees for the service are $10 per hour, with a maximum of $250 you can be charged for, which is the same as holding for an entire day in the library.
Chenault, however, doesn't see that occurring, due to the batteries only lasting four hours.

Ethics Week article

Ethics in journalism is a murky beast, in which for every case presented the standards and decisions are different from every case before that.
Glenn Proctor, executive editor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, delivered this message to journalism students on Wednesday, April 23 in the T. Edward Temple building at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Proctor gave the students of a real-life example he encountered while working at the Richmond Time-Dispatch.
“[The Richmond Times-Dispatch] had someone covering a story in Herndon about a shelter for migrant workers to assemble and find jobs during the day,” Proctor said.
“Well, once the story ran, we got a call from The Washington Post, and we dug up and found that most of the article was made up, and stolen from,” Proctor said.
However, once the paper found out about the plagiarism, the decision to fire the reporter was swift.
“With plagiarism, the consequences for the reporter is not even something you think about,” Proctor said.
In recent years, more and more cases of plagiarism are being found out and ferreted out to the public. Two of the most famous cases involved Jayson Blair with The New York Times and Stephen Glass with The New Republic.
According to Proctor, one of the influences for plagiarizing these stories is the fame that comes with excellent reporting.
“If you have page one A stories, people notice,” Proctor said.
Sundra K. Hominik, a Senior Editor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, notes that unlike in the past, fewer editors see your piece and trust that you wouldn't plagiarize.
That trust, however, can be manipulated.
Hominik cited a recent example in the Richmond Times-Dispatch about an e-mail a reporter got from an Iraq War veteran.
The story that the veteran gave to the reporter was so compelling that they wrote the piece and published it, even though they didn't go through all the fact checking channels to verify the story.
“Once the article hit the Internet, we got an e-mail from someone who was in the platoon with the soldier that set us straight,” Hominik said.
“We then talked to his superior officer, and we realized then that this veteran was playing us for a good story and some fame,” Hominik said.
Hominik gave some advice to the students as a good guideline to avoid most ethical dilemmas.

“If it's not germane to the story, then just don't run it,” she said.
Proctor also gave another piece of advice to the students to help their ethical decision making.

“First, worry about reporting well, then worry about the ethics,” Proctor said.

The Presidential Campaigns at VCU

(note: I worked on this piece with Anisha Singh for a class we took together.)

With the presidential election close at hand, campaigns from both the Democratic and Republican parties are forced to compose strategic methods to win votes from various “battleground” states.
Virginia, usually noted for its conservative nature, has become a so-called “swing state,” meaning the vote can go either way.
With 13 electoral college votes at stake, camps from both sides know how crucial winning this state can be.
A common tactic used by campaign parties to lure in votes is to target the younger voter demographic, usually those between 18-24 years old. Although the voter turnout rate among college aged students is fairly low, Obama campaign worker Jackie Marshall believes that the young population, especially those in college, have the change to make or break the election.
“College students have the potential to be extremely influential in the outcome of the election,” Marshall said.
On the Virginia Commonwealth University campus, college students can express their affiliation by joining a political club aligned with either party.
Casie Fowler, a sophomore business major and an active member of the Young Democrats at VCU, has an objective to educate people on the importance of voting.
“Our main goal is to generate an interest in voting,” Fowler said. “Many students feel like their vote doesn't matter, but it really does.”
“Also, we try and get facts out there so people can make an educated decision on who to vote for,” Fowler said.
With the Democratic nominee still undecided, college campuses have yet to see an excess of campaigning; however, once a nominee is in place, Fowler believes colleges will be swarming with campaign propaganda.
“Once the election gets closer, you'll definitely be able to see the importance of the college vote,” Fowler said.
For college students who affiliate with the Republican party, the nature of colleges present a problem to trying to bring candidates to possibly visit VCU.
Aine Norris, president of the College Republicans of VCU, doesn't foresee Senator McCain having a pleasant experience at VCU.
“It's hard enough to bring in conservative speakers as it is, but it's not on our list to bring a GOP candidate to campus,” Norris said. “It just wouldn't be very fruitful, especially in a college environment.”
Norris, who was a student during the 2004 elections, does offer an insight for students now as to what they will see walking around campus come September and October.
“They might bombarded by new campaigners, trying to court voters walking around,” Norris said.
However, she doesn't see much use in this tactic.
“Campaign veterans, however, know that bombarding people with literature and information only upsets them and more likely makes them vote the other way,” Norris said.
Even then, with the race already breaking ground by having a black and a woman candidate as major front-runners, it is unknown how this election will play out.
“The race is pulling in so many students and so many different voters, since it isn't just two old white guys running against each other, it is a totally different election,” Norris said.

Attendance at Women's Basketball Games

Three minutes are left on the clock, and University of North Carolina-Wilmington has a narrow lead over Virginia Commonwealth University at the Alltel Pavilion in the Siegel Center.
As play runs out, the team gets close, but not close enough to beat UNC-Wilmington. The score at the end of the game is 64-58, and with the final buzzer the band plays while both teams shake hands.
For the women's basketball team, 275 people saw them lose at home on Valentine's Day against UNC-Wilmington.
Despite finishing the season with 22 wins, the average attendance for their home games is 521 people, which fills the Alltel Pavilion to about 7% capacity.
The team does notice this fact.
“It makes me angry,” said D'Andra Moss, sophomore and small forward on the women's basketball team. “People just don't come.”
The team says that it gives them a boost when fans show up and cheer them on.
“It's like having another team with more people,” said Kita Waller, sophomore and guard for the team.
The average attendance for their games is also half of what the average was for when they played on the road. When they traveled to other other schools, the average attendance was 1,039 people.
Beth Cunningham, the head coach of the girl's basketball team and a former player at Notre Dame, sees the issue differently.
“[Attendance for the games] depends on who you are playing, when you are playing, what else is going on, and how much marketing goes into the games,” she said. “It's part of the process.”
While VCU's attendance is low, some schools that always have consistently strong teams year after year have higher attendance, such as the University of Tennessee, University of Connecticut and Duke University.
Yet, the sport still has to fight back stereotypes that prevent its widespread acceptance.
Freshman Kristine Armour, who since January attends the women's games as often as she can, explains what happened when her dad stumbled upon a VCU Women's basketball game being broadcast locally.
“I get a text from my dad, saying 'it's a slow game compared to the boys, huh?'” she said. “I just don't think many people take women's sports seriously.”

Reponse to the Millenial Piece from "60 Minutes"

A link to the "60 Minutes" piece: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/08/60minutes/main3475200.shtml

For a generation that grew up on the Internet and living in such an individualistic world, having a label seems ludicrous.
The only common link between everyone in our generation is that we lead two lives, one digital and one in the flesh. The digital one actually defines us more than the one in the flesh. Our motto isn't “actions speak louder than words,” but, “thoughts speak louder than words.”
While we spent years trying to find others to connect with, the rest of the world was oblivious. Parents thought the harm was in video games, violent movies, and television shows. They overlooked that they weren't parenting anymore, the Internet raised us. The Internet weaned us from when we could form ideas, and in it's enormity we thought we had no new ideas.
Sure, that isn't true. New ideas occur all the time, since forming new ideas and implanting them is a reactive thing. Instead of working in isolation or with the people immediately around us, our generation was competing with and against the world. Instead of a girl in India and a guy in Canada coming up with separate ideas and never meeting each other, they could meet each other and realize that they aren't alone.
Our generation still has growing up to do. Our ideas are just calls to action instead of an informed examination of all the sides involved. We're being told of a problem, and we've been conditioned to just act. We learned not to disseminate information, but instead just take whatever information we've been conditioned to accept.
In the report, some of the sources mention, “helicopter" parents and how they'll call company HR about getting a raise. While this is pathetic, I can almost see this is an extended search for one's self, and what trying to figure out who we are. After all of the time we've spent building our digital selves, and trying to connect into something bigger than ourselves, but what are we after that? The answer to that question, which normally plagues the existential philosophers, is so widespread because our digital lives don't cozy up to the real world.
All of this doesn't group us though; it's the equivalent of saying everyone who uses the neighborhood pool in the summer is one identifiable group because they all use the pool. Before the Internet, identities were like that though. Everyone who went to a disco was immediately one person, while another who listened to hip-hop was another. But now, the geeky kid can be listening to that hip-hop, but this doesn't make him. It takes an examination of all of his parts, of all his identities and facades before we can say who that person is, and in this Internet age, we don't have time to do that.
Older generations try to pigeonhole us because that is what others have done to them beforehand. The world has had a paradigm shift, in that there are two worlds now, and while older generations scramble to figure out what to do we sit dazed at it all. We may all be the same age, somewhat sheltered from the real world, and a tiny bit narcissistic, but that isn't enough to lump us together.

Profile: Brittany Allen

Brittany Allen grew up heavily involved in her church, singing in her gospel choir every Sunday.
Yet, since taking a class on black religion, she has questions about her faith.
“I've been debating with whether I should go on with what I've known all my life, or whether I should go for new stuff,” Allen said.
This search for finding meaning in her life also extends to her studies, where she debates about what she wants to stay in broadcast journalism.
Allen became attracted to broadcast journalism her in high school.
“I was talking to my mother one day, and she was telling me that one of her co-worker’s daughters was majoring in broadcast journalism at Virginia Tech,” Allen said.
“Most ideas that I had for college before broadcast journalism my mother didn’t like, and I was really into doing something she would like as well,” Allen said.
Allen, though, isn’t so sure she wants to stay in broadcast journalism.
“I want to do a double major with African American studies so I can go either way, and instead of having to be a newscaster I could help the community,” Allen said.
Allen became attracted to African American studies by what she can’t discover on her own.
“It’s not something that is given to you, you have to find it and want to learn it,” Allen said.
Her plans for beyond college though aren’t certain.
“I plan on being a reporter at first, since they have contracts that go for three to five years, and then seeing what I want to do after that. Or I could be in graduate school in five years, who knows?” Allen said.
While Allen holds high hopes for the future, her best friend, Anekye Louis, sees Allen in a slightly different place.
“In five years, I see her in a cubicle at a TV network, working a nine-to-five job,” Louis said.
However, Louis praises Allen for her questioning a lot of beliefs she has held dear to her.
“She talks about faith quite often, asking questions, and not getting into what people have told her all her life,” Louis said.
Louis met Allen in middle school, where they both lived on the same street.
“We met because her house was the one where the bus stop stopped to pick us up every morning,” Louis said.
“During the summer, I had nothing to do, so I would go over to her house since it was just down the street and hang out with her,” Louis said. “I sort of forced myself as being her friend.”
Their friendship led them through high school, and into college, where by luck they lived right across from each other.
“We had planned on being in the same residential hall, but we ended up living right across from each other on the same floor,” Louis said.
Allen is 20, and her birthday is November 16, 1987.
She grew up in Henrico County, with her parents and a younger sister, Jillian, who is 12.
Allen went to Henrico High School, which is a majority black high school, and experienced a culture shock when she came to Virginia Commonwealth University.
“High school was more predominately black, and when I came here it was so much of a culture shock, and I wanted [my classmates] to see this, to see what it was like,” Allen said.

A Day in the Life Slideshow

Captions for each photo:

1. Outside of VCU Commons.
2. E'ian Brown, Junior, and James Taylor, Freshman, talking on their phones outside of the VCU Commons.
3. Entrance to the library, with Hibbs Hall in the background.
4. Phil Boyle, Junior, studying for a test.
5. Steve D'Souza, Freshman, browsing for a book in the library stacks.
6. Shannon Foley, Sophomore, and Rebecca DuPont, Junior, checking Facebook while sitting on the bottom level of Shafer Court Dining Center.
7. Kolby Keene, Freshman, at the entrance to Johnson waiting for a friend to pick him up so they can attend the Black Awakening Concert.
8. A shot of Laurel Street going to Broad Street, taken in the middle of Franklin Street.
9. The patio of Rhoads and Brandt.
10. Mike Novitsky, Freshman, and Drew Call, Freshman, trying to get cover under an awning while smoking a cigarette.
11. Nate Mollick, Freshman, and Zach Snowden, Freshman, walking to Extreme Pizza to have lunch.
12. Todd Jeffries, Senior, Robert Dunn, Senior, and Kevin Banks, working on Dunn's car.
13. A shot from inside the VCU Commons on the second floor, looking down on the first.

Song: "Plainsong" by The Cure