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41 Thursday, June 15, 2006 | The Red & Black
Colin Dunlop | Editor in Chief
editor (cvrandb.com
Lyndsay Hoban | Managing Editor
me@randb.com
Katy De Luca | Opinions Editor
opinions@randb.com
An independent student newspaper serving the University of Georgia community
ESTABLISHED 1 893, INDEPENDENT 1980
Majority opinions of The Red & Black’s editorial board
Construction Woes
Tate Advisory Board calls for student
input at an inopportune time
As construction is set to begin on Tate 2 in
the upcoming months, it is necessary for the
architects involved in the process to get input
from the students that it affects.
This week, the Tate Advisory Board is hold
ing meetings open to students to get their feed
back on what should go into the revamped
Tate Center. We are all for getting feedback
from the students, but summer is not the right
time to try and get it. Campus is lacking a stu
dent population to give such feedback to those
who need it. Even the allure of free pizza can’t
get students’ attention in the warm summer
months.
Maybe the lack of participation by students
isn’t all in the timing either. Perhaps students
aren’t as concerned with the construction as
they should be.
It’s your extra 25 bucks a semester they’re
using here, people. Let them know what you
think.
Baldwin Street closure causes
headaches for University commuters
Baldwin Street is closed this week due to
construction on Lumpkin Street and is expect
ed to be closed until Monday. Its closure has
peeved many members of the University com
munity — including The Red & Black staff.
We understand that construction needs to be
done in order to better not only the quality of
the streets but also the quality of campus in
general. Summer is a prime time to get it done,
but Baldwin is one of only a few roads that go
through campus. Closing down a main route
from east to west is creating quite a hassle.
The length of the closure is dependent on
both the weather and the construction process,
so conceivably, Baldwin Street could be closed
for longer than one week.
The detour provided is also irksome. There is
a sign at the intersection of Baldwin and
Jackson saying to go up Jackson, but there are
no more signs directing traffic. They just
assume people know how to get back on track.
What about all the people in town for orienta
tion or campers who aren’t familiar with the lay
of the land?
All we’re saying is help us out and make
things a little more straightforward.
Dorm construction in the Beed Quad
will help and hinder campus life
University Housing recently announced plans
to build a new residence hall in what is now the
Reed Quad.
Considering how in demand on-campus living
is, the new hall will allow for more students to
live conveniently close to classes and other
activities. It also will be of service to upperclass
students who want to stay on campus, since
most current dorms are dominated by fresh
men.
For all the pluses this new dorm will create,
there are also a few downsides to the project.
The construction of a new dorm will make
the Reed Quad area aesthetically displeasing.
The quad is one of the nicest green spaces on
campus, and building over it will take away
that natural beauty. Also, the proximity of the
new dorm to the other buildings on the quad
will make for quite a cramped situation.
The new dorm, along with Reed and Payne,
will be isolated from the other dorms as well as
the dining halls.
We get that the University population is
growing and more living space is needed, but
why sacrifice the beauty that is North Campus?
NEWS: 706-433-3002
News Editor: Cristen Conger
Associate News Editor: Jessica Jordan
Sports Editor: Alex Byington
Variety Editor: P.T. Umphress, Jr.
Photography Editor: Andy McFee
Editorial Adviser: Ed Morales
Recruitment Editor: Jessica Jordan
Design Editor: Andrea Askew
Online Editor: Thomas Houston
Chief Copy Editor: Jessica McClean
Cartoonist: Bill Richards
News Writers: Michelle Floyd, Lauren Morgan, David
Pittman, Brian "Aubrey" Smith
Sports Writers: Marshall Duncan
Variety Writers: Miles Moffit
Photographers: Leigh Auerbach, Waites Laseter III, Julia
Norman
Page Designers: Rachel Boyd, Nathan Evick, Tara Nelson,
Rebecca Rudolph
Stringers: Rebecca Ann Bowen
Copy Editors: Brooks Becker, Alicia Choi
ADVERTISING: 706-433-3001
Student Advertising Manager: Natalie Lawrence
Account Executives: Anne Marie Aycock, Irena Chernova,
Lindsay Nichols, Amanda Ryan, Travis Williams
Classified Manager: Kimberly Drew
Advertising Director: Rick Chapman
Production Manager: Sam Pittard
Office Manager: Mary Straub
Receptionist: Kimberly Drew
Publisher: Harry Montevideo
The Red & Black is published Monday through Friday fall and
spring semesters and each Thursday summer semester, except hol
idays and exam periods, by The Red & Black Publishing Company
Inc., a non-profit campus newspaper not affiliated with the
University of Georgia. Postal address: 540 Baxter St. Athens GA,
30605. Fax 433-3033. Subscription rate: $195 per year.
Opinions expressed in The Red & Black other than unsigned editorials are the opinions of the writers of signed columns and not nec
essarily those of The Red and Black Publishing Company Inc. All rights reserved. Reprints by permission of the editors.
Editorial board members include Colin Dunlop, Lyndsay Hoban, Katy De Luca, Andrea Askew, Jessica McClean.
Reaching Us
Phone (706) 483-3002 | Fax (706) 433-3033
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540 Baxter St., Athens, Ga., 30605
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Editor’s Note: This cartoon appeared in the June 8 edition of The University of North Carolina’s The Daily Tar Heel.
College isn’t providing life clarity
T he boy I had a crush
on all through middle
school is getting mar
ried on Friday. Anyone who
talks to me for longer than
10 minutes (especially if
beer is involved) has heard
my ranting and raving
against marriage. Frankly, I
just can’t believe a person
can be so sure their person
ality is set for life at the age
of 21 that it’s okay to get
married.
But then when I do girly
things like see bridal gowns
or small children, I realize
it’s not marriage I’m
against. Believe it or not,
I’m a little jealous, but not
of people getting married.
Until I can balance my
checkbook successfully two
months in a row, I know
there’s no way I’m even
close to mature enough for
marriage.
But that’s the kicker —
maturity. I’m jealous that
my friend is so confident
with his life plan post
graduation. I want to be in
that place.
This summer marks my
last one as an undergrad.
Come August, I’ll be starting
my fourth and final year of
college. I know that I have
about 30 hours of classes left
and then — according to my
parents — I have to be an
adult.
I’m nowhere near ready.
When I was little and
people asked what I wanted
to be when I grew up, the
answer changed from
actress to tightrope walker
with no constant pattern.
Now when my family asks
me, they expect something a
little more grounded in
reality.
I have a plan, of course. I
want to teach high school
Rachel Boyd
like my grandfather did, and
I’d love to follow in my
father’s footsteps and go to
law school. And of course,
I’m going to write the next
Great American Novel.
I’m not trying to put off
being an adult. Truthfully, I
think it’ll be an exciting next
stage of my life. But the
problem is the eleventh-
hour doubt that’s making
me continually queasy.
I’m no longer nervous
that I’ve spent four years
studying the wrong major.
It’s the feeling that no major
would have been useful and
I would have just done bet
ter to take four years worth
of tuition from my parents
and gone to Europe to open
a second-hand book store.
I know it’s not just me, so
don’t get smug and pretend
you have no idea what I’m
talking about.
In an effort to comfort,
many well-meaning people
have told me “Don’t worry,
most people never get a job
in the field they majored in
anyway.”
So, they’re going to let
me be a brain surgeon with
just my English degree?
Sweet! I didn’t even have to
take Organic Chemistry.
The problem with that
line of thinking is we still
have too many options.
We’re supposed to graduate
college with a set of skills to
get a job in a field for which
we feel at least some
mediocre degree of passion.
We’re not supposed to admit
that we spent four years
doing something we might
not even like.
I just thought it would be
a lot easier than it’s turning
out to be.
I would get to do all of
this stuff I’ve dreamed of
doing my entire life, but
now technicalities are get
ting in the way. When am I
taking the GRE? How am I
going to pay for things —
like rent — once the Bank of
Mommy and Daddy closes
its doors to me? Do I want
to get my Master’s degree
immediately after under
grad, or should I do some
thing like Teach for America
first?
While insanity slowly sets
in and I try to figure out
something realistic to do
with my English degree, I’ll
wish the best of luck to my
friends who are getting
married or are doing things
post-graduation I never
would have expected of
them.
Their choices are ones I
know aren’t right for me —
at this stage — but I com
mend them for at least mak
ing a choice.
I’ll spend the rest of this
school year figuring out
what’s right for me. And for
all of the glorified trade-
school aspects college has
become, at least there’s still
a little room for some self-
discovery.
However, if I don’t come
up with something, you can
always visit my book store in
Europe.
— Rachel Boyd is a
page designer for
The Red & Black
Students really want relationships
W hen two people are
romantically inter
ested in each other,
something called “the
chase” ensues.
The chase is simply the
process in which two
people get to know each
other and decide to either
get involved with one anoth
er or move on to other
prospects.
The chase, and the
games that follow it, are all
too familiar to many college
students. The modern chase
has become a barrage of
drunken hook ups, crudely
remembered make-out ses
sions and seemingly effort
less bar chitchat.
It would seem we live in a
fickle culture where men
and women are always seek
ing the romantic love high,
but as soon as that high
wears off, many men and
women move on to
others to fulfill their love
high.
Good wine and genuine
conversation has been
replaced by cheap beer
and superficial dialogue,
whose sole purpose is to
guarantee sexual gratifica
tion at the end of the
evening.
The chase does not have
to involve drunken hook ups
and one night stands, nor
do men and women always
have to pursue the next love
high, resulting in a string of
shallow relationships.
There is another way
and, some would argue, a
more emotionally fulfilling
way to pursue relationships
on campus.
Vaughn Wilson
The other way to pursue
love and relationships
involves the notion that the
idealism of romantic love
still exists, but one simply
has to want it.
I believe there are many
men and women out there
who want to love and be
loved, to appreciate some
one and feel appreciated
back. It is one thing to have
a sex partner, but it is
another to have a genuine
lover and best friend.
I am not one to judge
others because I am in no
way perfect. It is safe to say
most men and women on a
college campus have had
hook ups and shallow rela
tionships sometime in their
college career.
All I propose is that when
the novelty of the hook up
culture wears thin, one
realizes there has to be
more to relationships than
sex and cheap draft at the
bar.
My feelings on love and
relationships may make me
a minority on this campus,
but so be it. When it comes
to love and relationships, all
we have to fear is fear itself.
Everyone is capable of
having a fairy-tale Nicholas
Sparks romance full of emo
tional and physical gratifica
tion if he or she only works
at it.
There are two options
when two people are still
attracted to one another
after the chase wears down.
One option is to run,
hoping to seek someone
new and more exciting who
will make the butterflies in
your stomach stay around a
little longer. Or one can fol
low another path.
This is a path where your
new love interest is not your
mere acquaintance and sex
ual appeaser, but instead is
your lover, emotionally and
physically in every possible
way.
I hold hope that everyone
who seeks a relationship
of deeper substance, a rela
tionship that is genuine and
true, can find it.
I understand that my
opinions on relationships
may not resonate with
everyone, but I at least
have peace of mind and that
is something I hope every
one can one day obtain, no
matter their views on rela
tionships.
— Vaughn Wilson is a
senior from Leesburg
majoring in
political science.
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Matt Brandenburgh
Bush needs
to stick to
true beliefs
I remember back in late
October 2004 when the
presidential election
was finally coming down
to the wire, and George W.
Bush did an interview
with Brian Williams where
he stated outright he was
against a gay marriage
amendment.
Williams asked him his
views, and Bush’s words,
were pretty much as fol
lows: “I don’t support it. I
believe marriage is
between a man and a
woman, but it’s not the
government’s role to tell
people who can and can
not marry.”
After running on a
platform catering to the
far right, this was a last-
ditch effort to bring in the
moderate, undecided vot
ers who also were against
a gay marriage ban.
Bush went on to win
the election, fueled by his
speeches about John
Kerry’s flip-flopping on
issues. I even recall in a
debate he made some
crack about how it was
hard to attack his oppo
nent when he didn’t even
know where he stood on
the issues.
It seems Bush has for
gotten about the virtue of
consistency now that
midterm elections have
rolled around. He has
come out and said about
a proposed constitutional
ban on gay marriage, “I
call on the Congress to
pass this amendment,
send it to the states for
ratification, so we can
take this issue out
of the hands of overreach
ing judges and put it back
where it belongs — in the
hands of the American
people.”
Now after an
extremely wearing
six months of scan
dal, war and droop
ing poll numbers,
he’s decided to deny
this class of citizens
the right to live life
as they want to.
I thought we were
against flip-flops in the
White House, but appar
ently that has changed
and I wasn’t notified.
Everything is wrong
with this latest ploy by
George Bush and the
Republicans. Not only is it
extremely two-faced and
traitorous, it exposes how
lightly he takes the issue
of human rights — only
part of a more universal
crisis it seems this admin
istration has.
Back in 2004, he sup
ported marriage for homo
sexual people in an effort
to bring in a slim majority
of voters. Now after an
extremely wearing six
months of scandal, war
and drooping poll num
bers, he’s decided to deny
this class of citizens the
right to live life as they
want to. It seems he really
has no sacred ideologies
himself, just a desire to
keep winning elections.
Of course this amend
ment has failed. If it even
got passed by the two-
thirds needed for both
houses, then it would
need three-fourths of the
states behind it to be
added to the
Constitution.
For those who approve
of how Bush is weighing in
on this issue, and those
who distrusted John
Kerry because of his sup
posed habit of flip-flop
ping on the issues,
remember how Bush
stood on this same issue
two years ago, and don’t
be surprised when he
comes out against it again
in the future.
— Matt Brandenburgh
is a sophomore from
Columbus majoring
in physics.