OMAHA, NEB. - We’re about to get under here at Rosenblatt Stadium for North Carolina’s must-win game against Rice.

There’s not much to be said about the matchup, you can look at the old blog to get my take on Rice. The only difference is that freshman Ryan Berry will be getting the start for the Owls.

Berry has been one of the most dominant pitchers in the nation, going 11-2 with a 3.03 ERA in 22 appearances. Berry is your typical Texas power pitcher with 122 strikeouts through 119 innings of work. The Tar Heel hitters will have to be able to hit the ball better than they did against Louisville to have a shot.

One major change for North Carolina is the demotion of freshman first baseman Dustin Ackley to the bottom part of the lineup. Today, Ackley will be hitting in the 7-spot instead of his usual role as UNC’s third guy up to the plate. The reason for the change has been Ackley’s eye-opening struggles in the College World Series as well as the postseason.

In his three CWS starts, Ackley has managed to get just one hit in 13 at-bats. During this slump, Ackley has seen his batting average fall to .400 - the lowest it has been since early March.

-David Ely

OMAHA, NEB. - After two low scoring games Saturday, Louisville set the tone for an offensive explosion scoring in the first four innings en route to a 12-4 triumph against Mississippi State in Rosenblatt Stadium.

One of the biggest contributors to the high-scoring affair, besides the red-hot Cardinal bats, was the intense wind blowing out of left field. Throughout the entire game, gusts ranged from 20-to-33 miles a hour carrying multiple balls out of the park. Of the five home runs hit (four by Louisville and one by MSU), each was hit into the wind which carried the balls over the fence.

If the weather stays put, these gusts will figure to effect the outcome of North Carolina’s battle against Rice at 7 p.m. For one thing, the wind will figure to even the pitching battle from Rice’s favor to a wash. Left-hander Joe Savery has been more consistent throughout the year then UNC right-hander Alex White, but this wind could possibly turn tonight’s game into a traditional college slugfest.

And looking North Carolina’s right-handed power - Chad Flack, Tim Federowicz, Seth Williams and Benji Johnson - the wind might give the Tar Heels a key advantage.

Also check out the sports section of dailytarheel.com for a great slide show from Friday’s game against MSU put together by senior photographer Timothy Reese.
-David Ely

OMAHA, NEB. - For once there was an epic comeback in the NCAA Tournament that didn’t involve North Carolina.

Friday at Rosenblatt Stadium, Rice came back from a 10-4 deficit in the fifth inning to take the first game of the College World Series 15-10.

Led by second baseman Aaron Luna, who had three RBI on two hits, the Owls slugged 19 hits against four Louisville pitchers.

Pitchers for both sides struggled, the two squads combined for 34 hits and five home runs. Rice freshman Ryan Berry had one of his worst outings, lasting just 2.2 innings while giving up five runs on seven hits.

Rice now awaits the winner of tonight UNC-Mississippi State game. Here’s a few things to look for in the Tar Heels’ first game in Omaha.

1. 1-for 13. That’s how North Carolina left-handed hitters fared the last time they faced a southpaw starter. South Carolina’s Arik Hempy kept Reid Fronk, Tim Fedroff, Dustin Ackley and Josh Horton at bay for six innings last Saturday. The Tar Heels will face another lefty tonight in MSU’s Justin Pigott. North Carolina’s ability to get its lefty bats going will decide the game.

2. Struggling Starters.  UNC’s starters had a hard time finding their groove last weekend against South Carolina. Tonight’s starter Robert Woodard gave up six runs in his last outing, and if he struggles to find the zone it could be a long night for the Tar Heels.

3. Something’s gotta give. North Carolina has made a name for itself by coming from behind in four of its five wins in the postseason. On the other hand, the Bulldogs are 32-3 in games where they’ve led or have been tied after the sixth inning. If there’s a team the Tar Heels don’t want to fall behind against - it’s Mississippi State.

-David Ely

The crowd had thinned. The field was soaked. The temperature had fallen.

But none of that mattered to the Tar Heels.

UNC crushed No. 25 N.C. State 14-5 Thursday, earning their first win in the ACC Tournament in seven tries.
It was no short affair.

Intermittent rain in Jacksonville, Fla. postponed the game until 10:00 p.m. — a full three hours after the planned starting time. And it wasn’t finished until after 1:00 a.m.

On a night like that, staying patient is key.

The Tar Heel batters waited on pitches, frequently going deep in counts. As a team, UNC had 19 hits, and three players drove in three runs. Right fielder Tim Fedroff connected for four hits in five at-bats.

The Wolfpack came up with plenty of hits — 10 — but hurt themselves defensively. In the 5th inning, N.C. State committed three errors. UNC took advantage, breaking the back-and-forth pattern of the game and opening up a 7-2 lead on four runs.

Robert Woodard, who broke UNC’s career wins record in his last start, had another successful outing. He threw seven and two-thirds innings, allowing five runs while striking out six batters on his way to a playoff win.

Ramon Corona and Marcus Jones led N.C. State’s offense. They combined for four hits and three RBIs.

UNC eliminated the Wolfpack’s last glimmer of hope when they added four runs in the top of the ninth and increasing their lead to nine runs.

The Tar Heels will face Virginia on Saturday at 1 p.m. The winner of that game will play for the championship on Sunday against the winner of the second bracket.

The UNC men’s baseball team continued added to a streak of bad play in the ACC Tournament.

They lost 8-4 to Georgia Tech on their first day of action. Since 2004, the Tar Heels have dropped six consecutive games in the tournament.
UNC’s offense — normally a force to be reckoned with — was contained by David Duncan. Duncan pitched eight innings, allowing only two runs on three hits. Patrick Long reached base four times in the game, posting three hits and one RBI.

Chad Flack and Tim Fedroff each drove in two runs.

Faculty council mustn’t use AI to avoid hard questions

TO THE EDITOR:
On Friday the Faculty Council will consider a resolution adopting the Achievement Index as a supplement to GPAs in awarding academic distinction to undergraduates. The resolution also calls for recording the AI on student transcripts.
While I respect the efforts of the Educational Policy Committee in developing this proposal, I hope my colleagues will join me in voting against the resolution. Here’s why.
The AI is a poor assessment policy. The recent SACS reaccreditation process emphasized the need to put educational goals first and use assessment tools to measure achievement of those goals. Let’s really worry about assessment, and not avoid the question by emphasizing ranking instead.
The AI provides an alternative to GPA ranking, but fails to look below the surface. The real question is, “What are we ranking and why?” Graduate schools look at achievement in students’ majors and recommendations from their advisers. University awards should be based on measures of excellence.
Generic GPA is a poor proxy for excellence when fine distinctions must be made. Let’s challenge departments to recommend their top 10 percent of majors for University distinction, or develop an index to convert GPAs by major to establish an even playing field.
The AI uses a missile to kill a mouse, but fails to hit the mark. The AI’s stated purpose is to award academic distinction fairly, yet the proposal affects all students. It supposedly reflects collective faculty judgment but uses statistically insignificant differences in ranking students in a new and confusing way. Can flawed use of GPAs really be cured by equally flawed arrays of students using different statistical algorithms?
The AI uses a new form of “artificial intelligence” to absolve faculty members from understanding and addressing underlying problems of student performance and grade inflation. Do entering students differ in their competence in writing and science? Do students who gain advanced standing through AP credit influence statistical norms? Are those in some disciplines easier graders than others? Let’s not use AI as an excuse for avoiding hard questions like these.

Judith Welch Wegner
Former Chairwoman
Faculty Council

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Letter wrongly described scholarship requirements

TO THE EDITOR:
Professor Bob Proctor’s description of minimum academic standards for Morehead-Cain Scholars in his April 23 letter was inaccurate. The requirement for Morehead-Cain Scholars is a 2.7 semesterly and cumulative GPA for the first and second semesters (freshman year) and 3.0 thereafter. However, if a student falls below this minimum, he or she does not immediately “permanently lose funding,” and instead would be placed on academic probation, during which the foundation’s advisers would be available to help the student with strategies for improving his or her GPA. It would also be unlikely that a student with a GPA above the minimum cumulative requirement would be penalized for a 2.99 semester — particularly a student who is “dependent upon” the scholarship and who is attempting a challenging and difficult major.
The pros and cons of an Achievement Index aside, it is common for full merit scholarship recipients to have minimum GPA requirements. Morehead-Cain GPA requirements are below the mean GPA for all UNC undergraduates and are not unreasonable for any major.

Charles E. Lovelace, Jr.
Executive Director
Morehead-Cain Foundation

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Column right to highlight performing arts problem

TO THE EDITOR:
Kudos to Erika Stallings for calling attention to a growing problem with Carolina Performing Arts in her guest column on Wednesday. The recently announced 2007-08 performance calendar features a guest performer almost every weekend, leaving few opportunities for our own campus organizations to take advantage of the beautiful theatre at Memorial Hall.
This is our campus and our hall, it is not the Carolina Ballet’s or Merce Cunningham’s. Although I love the performers who come to Memorial Hall, it is unfair for the University to ignore the needs of its own students.
The rising cost of renting the hall also squeezes out student organizations that have performed in the hall for years, but can no longer afford it. They do not have the same financial resources as professional performers.
I would like to add that the University won’t need to worry about student performance groups if it continues to take away their rehearsal space too, like the dance studios in the women’s gym.

Alison Grimme
Journalism
Senior

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Take time to reach out to someone at Virginia Tech

TO THE EDITOR:
In the wake of the tragedy at Virginia Tech, we have the opportunity to reach out and touch the lives of the students affected by this tragedy. Eve Carson made the suggestion to find someone at Virginia Tech to “adopt.”
For student groups, search for a “sister organization.” Student leaders, look up your counterparts in Blacksburg. Then, make some contact with them. Let them know they are in our thoughts. Need somewhere to get started? Get a shoebox, throw some candy and some pictures in it, and then write a letter. Be creative. Be genuine. Be Yourself.
If you need any help, we are personally available and extremely willing to do anything we can. We are not experts, but we will call upon what resources we have. We are available by e-mail, Facebook and phone. We also urge you to call upon your fellow students here in Chapel Hill and take advantage of this opportunity to grow closer to those in the UNC community as well.
As the school year draws to a close, keep in mind that time is of the essence. This is a call to action. We know many people feel helpless, but this is simple, cheap and easy yet personal way to positively affect the Virginia Tech community.

James F. Eby
Carolina Advocacy
Executive Branch

Logan Liles
Carolina Advocacy
Executive Branch

When I walked into Memorial Hall, there was a clear plastic podium with an unobtrusive mic attached to it onstage. When I got back from meeting with my photographer, that podium was gone.

And I was kind of confused. But Carolina Union Activities Board President Erika Stallings set the tone for the evening by saying that the podium wouldn’t be representative of lecturer Spike Lee’s style.

This was, she said, going to be a Spike Lee joint at Memorial Hall.

What follows are brief quotes — what I was able to gather in between blips of being awestruck in the second row — from Lee’s lecture.

“A funny thing happens when you wait by the phone — the phone gets turned off.”
Spike said this in reference to his time spent immediately after his graduation from New York University’s film school and after his student Academy Award win. He waited for the call for a gig, but nothing ever came. He later said that one must get out there and work to make their dreams a reality.

“Parents kill more dreams than anybody. No need to applaud that.”
Spike urged everyone in the audience to follow their dreams so that they can be happy and, as he said, sometimes this entails going against the traditional grain.

“Ghetto is really a state of mind. That’s why they call it a ghetto mentality.”
In his discussion of gangsta rap versus hip hop, Spike made mention of how many aspire to be “ghetto.” In dispelling this aspiration, he broke down the idea by saying it merely was something trivial, a figment.

“The days of ‘I know he’s callin’ me a bitch and a ho, but I like the beat’ are over. We have to start listening to lyrics, to substance.”
Lee railed against gangsta rap particularly for what it stood for in his eyes. This sentance was used a means to dispell the notion that he finds social value in the genre.

“We’re going to hell in a handbasket.”
Lee on the state of the United States, particularly in reference to the denegration of society and the government’s involvement in the Middle East.

“Don’t be hoodwinked into thinking everything’s alright. It’s still messed up down there.”
Lee has garnered critical acclaim for his documentary on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The documentary, “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts,” was Lee’s segue into discussing the situation in New Orleans following Katrina, and this statement from the ensuing question-and-answer session spoke volumes about Lee’s dedication to the relief effort.

“HBO wants to continue it, the process. The story is not dead. One criticism that I find particularly true is that it’s too New Orleans-centric. We have to focus on other areas.”
Spike Lee fielded a question about the status of his cinematic work in New Orleans. His response offers the hope that his work in the Gulf Coast isn’t done yet.

“We still don’t know the real deal.”
Spike said this in reference to two current issues of race in America. Its most immediate reference was to the Tawana Brawley case, in which a black New York woman claimed a a number of white men raped her. This incident was mentioned briefly in Lee’s Oscar-nominated film “Do the Right Thing.” Lee also used this as a segue into his (very brief) discussion of the Duke University lacrosse scandal. The statement, he said, applies to both cases.

“Technology has leveled the playing field in terms of filmmaking.”
When asked about how filmmaking has changed since Spike began his career at New York University, Spike had a simple answer. People now can edit their films on their computers. When Spike was in film school, he said people went to school to get access to equipment and cheap crews. Now, he said, that’s not an issue.

“Baseball is a tough place.”
Lee said this in response to whether or not he thought Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball’s color barrier, would be disappointed that his vision of a fully integrated league hasn’t survived. Lee also pointed out that only seven percent of the MLB is black.

“You have to be better than other races if you’re a minority. You can’t use racism as a crutch.”
This was Lee’s advice to a Hispanic woman who asked him how to succeed in life in the face of racial discrimination.

“Anybody that says (that historically black colleges and universities merely are a continuation of high school) is someone who’s not intelligent. HBCUs are still essential. Look at Notre Dame. Loot at Yeshiva. Hell, look at Brigham Young.”
An audience member from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University asked Lee what he thought of the idea that some people view HBCUs as a continuation of high school. Lee, a graduate of Morehouse College, an HBCU, promptly refuted the claim.

“That’s why diversity is so important. The impact that colleges and universities make on students is immeasurable.
Lee said this in response to an audience member’s question on how to effectively bridge the racial divide in a collegiate atmosphere. Understanding diversity, he said, is the key.

“The more we can learn about each other, the better. You really can’t give lip service to diversity.”
Again, here Spike Lee mentions why diversity is the key to helping to eliminate the racial divide. It isn’t something to pay minimal attention to, he said. According to Lee, it’s the crux of the matter.

Harry Kaplowitz
Arts Editor

Students should support baseball team tonight

TO THE EDITOR:
On behalf of our players and coaches, I am encouraging everyone to come out to Boshamer Stadium tonight to watch your fourth-ranked Tar Heels take on East Carolina at 6 p.m.
ECU will bring a large and vocal crowd, but this is our home game and we need your support to help build a true home field advantage at The Bosh. The Pirates would love nothing more than to come in here and beat us, and your support can play a role in a Tar Heel victory.
Our players will feed off a large and enthusiastic crowd pulling for them, so come out and enjoy a beautiful spring night and watch your Tar Heels in action. Admission is free with your UNC OneCard, so come be a big part in helping us beat ECU. Go Heels!

Mike Fox
Baseball Coach

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Marijuana should be legal because it is not harmful

TO THE EDITOR:
Regarding Clint Johnson’s April 20 article, if health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms marijuana would be legal.
Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Like any drug, marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents.
The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican migration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best.
White Americans did not even begin to smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched government bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda.
By raiding voter-approved medical marijuana providers in California, the very same Drug Enforcement Administration that claims illicit drug use funds terrorism is forcing cancer and AIDS patients into the hands of street dealers. Apparently marijuana prohibition is more important than protecting the country from terrorism.
Students who want to help end the intergenerational culture war otherwise known as the war on some drugs should contact Students for Sensible Drug Policy at www.SchoolsNotPrisons.com.

Robert Sharpe
Policy Analyst
Common Sense for Drug Policy

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Bible says God would be OK with marijuana use

TO THE EDITOR:
In response to the April 20 article “Health Effects Unclear For 4/20 Celebrations,” another reason to re-legalize cannabis that doesn‘t get mentioned is because it’s Biblically correct since Christ God Our Father (The Ecologician) indicates He created all the seed-bearing plants, saying they are all good, on literally the very first page.
The only Biblical restriction placed on cannabis is that it is to be accepted with thankfulness (see 1 Timothy 4:1-5).

Stan White
Dillon, Colorado

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ITS should announce policy of deleting spam to public

TO THE EDITOR:
I have painfully learned that ITS at UNC has a policy of deleting mail that it suspects may be spam without notification to either the sender or receiver. I have been told by a representative of ITS that ITS refuses mail from computers from which it believes that “spam has originated or been relayed.” On one occasion that I know of, mail from a particular server at AOL was rejected for several days, apparently because it was believed that spam was being relayed from this computer.
Presumably thousands of non-spam e-mails were rejected until (at my request) the server was reinstated. What is particularly obnoxious is that neither I nor the sender were ever notified. The ITS representative advised me that the sender should complain to AOL for not receiving notification that his e-mail was blocked.
The justification for this is stated on the Web site help.unc.edu as, “UNC-Chapel Hill reserves the right to discard mail identified as spam without notification to sender or recipient. In addition to spam, legitimate e-mail from organizations that permit the relaying of spam may be blocked, at the discretion of UNC’s system administrators, until efforts by the other organization to prevent further abuse can be corroborated.”
While I am in favor of blocking true spam, the blocking of a source such as AOL because it inadvertently forwarded spam seems ill-advised. Furthermore, the UNC community should be notified of this policy directly

Elliot Cramer
Professor Emeritus
Psychology

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Tour guides work hard to woo prospective students

TO THE EDITOR:
I’m writing in response to James Dillard’s column in which he lambasted the UNC cattle herders — oh, excuse me, I mean tour guides. Mr. Dillard, you may have gone on a tour, but listening to one and administering one are two different things.
You may have been too busy coming up with your clever quips to realize how hard tour guides work and how much information we give out during the course of an hour. Maybe we slip up once in a while, but as an economics major, I trust you understand that every once in a while an outlier can be expected.
It’s not easy to stand in front of strangers and field questions about everything from partying to professors who, by the way, are required by the University to hold four office hours a week. Meaning it’s your fault, Mr. Dillard, if they don’t know your name. Maybe you were “rolling too deep” in the back of the tour to hear that tidbit.
I can tell you in my two years as a tour guide that people appreciate, even love, the tradition and history at Carolina (which includes Davie Poplar). It’s a big part of what draws students here — the sense of school pride, a shared experience.
Please remember, Mr. Dillard, that Charles Kuralt did not say it was the graduate school admissions rates or the job prospects that bind us to this place. He said what binds us is that UNC is the University of the people. That is what we as tour guides are charged with showing people. And that, Mr. Dillard, is what we do.

Claire Williamson
Junior
Journalism

AI could allow Moreheads to major in other subjects

TO THE EDITOR:
The Achievement Index could eventually provide valuable supplemental information to the eternal GPA for fairly awarding campus-wide scholarships. The present uneven grading traditions between departments now put half of our students at a disadvantage to the other half of our students.
Every major should be equally accessible to all students. But under the current system, the Morehead program’s use of the GPA discourages their students from working class backgrounds from attempting science majors. If a Morehead scholar receives lower than a 3.0 for just one isolated semester, he or she will permanently lose funding. But in many departments the grades of B minus (worth 2.7) and C plus (worth 2.3) are still honorable grades, earned by many students (including some Moreheads) performing at their best.
Most of these Morehead scholars could instead earn A minuses and B pluses in some other subjects with the same just-below-median ranking in those classes. Students dependent upon scholarships do not now have the luxury of risking a stringently graded major. Reliance upon the raw GPA undercuts the goal of increasing diversity amongst high school science teachers.
The AI should be distributed only on an advisory basis within UNC while it is publicized. It would initially be used by scholarship administrators only as an additional reference point. Once the index is more widely understood, UNC could give more weight to it internally. This could begin in 2012, once it could be said that all students were told in advance about the future phase-in of the AI.

Bob Proctor
Professor
Mathematics

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Offering incentives could increase organ donations

TO THE EDITOR:
I thank the DTH editorial board for highlighting the growing shortage of donated organs in the US. The current national policy based upon the altruism of individuals is killing thousands of people every year. Policy makers need to look into other options to increase the number of registered organ donors by giving incentives to them. Since 2001, there have been more live organ donors in the US than dead organ donors for kidneys. This is preposterous considering the number of people who die daily who could have donated organs.
While I like the theory that a market for live donations will optimize the supply of organs, this is limited because living donors can only donate a single kidney, part of the liver, lobe of a lung, or a portion of their pancreas. Another concern is that living donors would not need to risk surgery if there were a greater number of cadaver donations.
Therefore, states should offer greater incentives to increase the number of dead organ donors. To do this states could offer a tax credit or a discount off the price of a driver’s license to people who sign up to be an organ donor, give preference to people on the organ donation lists who have already signed up to be an organ donor, or pay for the funeral of the deceased donor.

James Pitcavage
Graduate Student
Public Health

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Students were immature to reply to listserv e-mail

TO THE EDITOR:
Good Burger happens to be one of my favorite movies of all time. I, however, didn’t care Thursday night to have my inbox filled up with e-mails from students that think the proper forum for movie watching and party planning discussion is a listserv that was sent to students with classes in Chapman Hall or Caudill Labs.
Who thinks it’s funny to annoy so many people at one time? I recognize that some of the population was amuse. I’m not trying to judge anyone’s sense of humor, but most likely the vast majority of students were not.
One e-mail said something to the effect of, “If you don’t want to get the e-mails, unsubscribe to the listserv.” This advice won’t help the people tomorrow morning that weren’t checking their e-mails during this drawn out thread and will wake up to an inbox full of immaturity.
Also, the listserv was not put in place for people to discuss non-lead in water issues.
I remember reading about responses to the Pit Breakup from outside the student population. A lot of the responses mentioned that the enormous crowd and the chanting of “slut, slut, slut” showed our students at their worst. The news observer said that we know better than to act like that. And we do know better than to act like that.
This is another example, although on a smaller scale, where students have poorly represented the population. We’re all adults, we shouldn’t need to be babysat. That’s what growing up means. But it also means we have taken on the responsibility to act with thought to and respect for others.
Whether you like it or not, each one of us represents the Carolina community as a whole. If we want the legacy to continue as strongly as it always has, we all need to grow up.

Michelle Tolbert
Junior
Economics

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Decision shows Court’s outdated sexist notions

TO THE EDITOR:
Wednesday’s Supreme Court decision demonstrates how prevalent outdated notions of gender are in the minds of some of the country’s most prominent officials.
In upholding a ban on the abortion procedure known as intact dilation and extraction (probably better known as “partial birth abortion” — the emotionally raw misnomer that conservatives have successfully attached to it), the Court decided that its members’ moral qualms were more important than the opinions of actual medical professionals.
Not only that, however, they also justified their decision with the sort of sexist reasoning that has been used to discriminate against women for centuries. The Court’s decision, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, says, “Respect for human life finds an ultimate expression in the bond of love the mother has for her child.” It also said that “some women” who choose abortion later develop feelings of “severe depression” and “loss of esteem.” Therefore, intact dilation and extraction should be banned to prevent women from making “so grave a choice.”
This reasoning is an expression of old sexist stereotypes that women are so flighty and irrational that they will make decisions that aren’t really in their best interests. Therefore, they need responsible and level-headed men like Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito to step in and override their judgment before they do something they’ll later regret.
It’s easy to feel like men and women have equality in the United States today because such blatant examples of sexism as denying women to right to vote no longer exist. However, reading the Supreme Court’s decision shows that many of America’s governmental elite still cling to outmoded sexist beliefs that women cannot be trusted to make important decisions on their own.

Matthew Braswell
Junior
Political Science, Sociology

From DTH senior writer Jessica Schonberg:

Booking it to Blacksburg

I had about five seconds to decide if I wanted to go to Blacksburg. State and National Editor Erin France screamed at me to get out of the newsroom so I grabbed a stack of notebooks and ran out the door. I didn’t grab the bag with my keys, my wallet or any other of my personal belongings in it. When we left we didn’t know very much about what was going on at Virginia Tech except that about 20 people were dead. We listened to news coverage the whole way there and it became apparent that this was going to take way more than an afternoon to report so we went ahead and booked a hotel room.

Day 1

When we got there the media was just starting to flood in. The folks at the Collegiate Times were generous enough to let us use their newsroom in the student union to set up camp.

The first day was a frenzy of trying to figure out the story. Each press conference was more packed than the last and security got tighter every time. By the end of the night the room was so packed people were locked out and had to watch the conference in an overflow room on TV. The huge parking lot was completely full of news trucks and so was every spare patch of grass. We didn’t have official media credentials and the folks working the door were starting to give us a hard time about it. First thing the next morning our ad director e-mailed us some homemade press passes that Timothy, the photographer with us, took to a copy shop and got laminated. It’s amazing that your own little Photoshop project is legitimate enough to get you through the door, but it was.

We worked on our story until well after midnight. We never stopped. As a journalist, it is exhilarating when major news breaks. As a human, it is very difficult to suppress your feelings about the situation so you can effectively do your job. We didn’t get to our hotel until after 3 a.m. and probably slept less than three hours, but when we woke up the next day the adrenaline was pumping and we were ready to go.

Day 2

Our second day there I spent almost the entire day on campus talking to people and immersing myself in the student body. As I did this, the adrenaline started to wear off and it became harder and harder to focus on doing my job.

Administrators on campus planned a big Convocation ceremony for Tuesday afternoon to give the community an opportunity to come together and grieve. I showed up two hours early because I was concerned about getting through security and the line was already wrapped around the building that houses the basketball arena.

The tears were flowing inside that stadium. And it wasn’t a show for TV and it wasn’t because people were just a little bit upset, it was because people were truly aching from the devastation on their campus. I can’t imagine how scarred I would be if my own fond memories of Carolina were tainted by such bloody and horrific incidents as those at Virginia Tech. I cannot begin to tell you how hard it was to look at those faces of pain and anguish and keep a straight face. That could have been our campus. That ceremony could have been to grieve our friends and community members. Sitting there with my notebook and pen, furiously scribbling down the sights and sounds taking place around me, I have never felt more heartless. People around me were grieving and I was pushing away grief that I know doesn’t even begin to compare to what they were going through. I positively hate the color orange, but Tuesday at that convocation there is nothing I wanted more than to be wearing a Virginia Tech T-shirt.

Back home

Now that I have had a chance to watch a little more TV coverage of the tragedy, there is something I think is being misrepresented. The way that many news outlets are talking about campus makes it sound like the spirit of Virginia Tech will never recover. In contrast, the feeling I got walking around that campus was one of resilience. People are bound and determined to overcome this tragedy and to continue to love Virginia Tech as much as they always have. The spirit of the school will never be exactly the same as it was, but the spirit isn’t broken either. There is a very powerful feeling of unity and strength that can only be experienced by walking around and talking to those who are dealing with this horrific incident firsthand. People have remained amazingly positive in the face of great tragedy.

Another thing is the generalization that everyone is mad at the Virginia Tech administration. They aren’t. Feelings are very mixed about the way the situation was handled. I urge everyone reading and watching the news to use caution before jumping to conclusions about who is at fault. From talking to students at Virginia Tech I can tell that they are taking their time in passing judgment.

It wasn’t until I got home that everything really started to sink in and the emotions started to flow. I think some people have the idea that journalists are story-hungry workers with no compassion. We are story-hungry, but we are emotional as well. We have to strike a balance between being reporters and being people and sometimes that balance is hard to find. For me personally, it involved setting my feelings aside until I got home. I can assure you, however, that it all came out when I got back. My heart goes out to the entire Virginia Tech community. Blacksburg is a community just like Chapel Hill where people are bound together by their love of a university. Their love is being put to the test right now and I wish them the best of luck.