This story has been published in Fairfax Times and Emporia News.
By Stacey R. Hamman
RICHMOND — On a tie vote, a Senate committee last week killed a bill that would have barred the Virginia Board of Education from complying with unfunded provisions in the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Sen. Janet Howell, D-Reston, voted against the bill, though she said most years she votes in favor of such legislation.
Howell said there are a lot of questions about the NCLB law, including whether it is forcing too much testing.However, Howell said she thinks these issues will be addressed on the federal level.
“I am confident that the Obama administration is going to look at the criticisms and try and make the program work,” Howell said.
Sen. Emmett Hanger Jr., R-Mount Solon, sponsored Senate Bill 1040. It would have prohibited the state Board of Education “from complying with any provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act that are unfunded and are not an integral or necessary component” of Virginia’s standards of learning, quality or accreditation.
Hanger said he thinks the federal government is not in a position to ante up more money.
“I really see it going nowhere except more federal involvement,” he said. “As you move further down the program in the parameters of No Child Left Behind, it becomes even more undoable in terms of cost and in terms of the requirements of No Child Left Behind.”
Legislation in recent years has been put forward essentially to encourage Virginia to pull out of the program, Hanger said. He described past proposals “as a bargaining chip with the federal government, saying, ‘You know, we in Virginia are serious about this. If you don’t grant certain waivers, then we perhaps will pull out.’ ”
On Thursday, the Senate Education and Health Committee considered Hanger’s bill. A motion to approve the bill failed on a 6-6 vote. Consequently, the bill cannot go to the full Senate for consideration.
Sen. R. Edward Houck, D-Spotsylvania, is a member of the committee. He voted against SB 1040.
Houck said one consequence of the bill would be that Virginia would lose funding under the federal Title I program, which helps low-income students.
“We’ve got enough problems with not enough money down here now,” Houck said. “A lot of us agree that we don’t like all the components (of) No Child Left Behind and would like to see a lot of it changed, but I’m not willing to give up Title I money.”
Hanger agreed the loss of federal funds would be a problem.
“They essentially threatened us over the last several years that if we were to pull out … we would potentially lose a larger source of funding,” he said.
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This story has been published in WPCVA.com.
By Stacey R. Hamman
RICHMOND — Legislators killed a bill Thursday that would have established a tuition-assistance grant program for students with autism.
The Senate Education and Health Committee voted 10-5 to defeat Senate Bill 956. The bill would have allocated up to $20,000 a year per student to attend any private school that could address the student’s needs.
Private schools, such as The Faison School in Richmond, provide autistic students with a one-on-one learning dynamic, which is specialized to their needs. The Faison School’s campaign manager, Sarah Swope, said the school’s ultimate goal is to mainstream a student whenever feasible.
“For some students a more intense and rigorous program is needed and unfortunately, many times, cannot be provided within the public school system,” Swope said. “It is critical that these children are educated in a setting appropriate and tailored to their individual educational plan.”
Sen. R. Edward Houck, D-Spotsylvania, the committee chairman, said he worked as a director of special education for almost 15 years. Houck said he understood the fundamentals involved but still opposed the bill.
“It’s focused too much on the individual and not enough on the system,” Houck said. “I would much rather apply the money that’s accomplished in this bill to the entire public education system in Virginia.”
D. Patrick Lacy Jr., of the Virginia School Boards Association, agreed.
“Rather than dodge the fact that school systems do not have the resources, why don’t we address the resources that the school systems need versus this fix, which at best is a temporary fix – a patch,” Lacy said.
John Toscano, the president and chief executive officer of Commonwealth Autism Service, said out of 40 school divisions, there are 11 or 12 autism specialty schools around the commonwealth. Virginia’s public schools accommodate students with disabilities by referring them to specialized private schools or by maintaining the students within the public school system.
“Public schools are coming to see, for some children, placing a child in private school is a good investment for a year, two or three, and bringing that child back,” Toscano said.
Rob Martin, a board member of Commonwealth Autism Service, said his autistic son had a good experience at a Richmond public school for six years.
“Public school has served him very well,” Martin said. He also said his son will be going to a specialized private school.
“You get a lot of bang for your buck at these kinds of schools. It’s a very good investment,” Martin said. “(These schools) are incredibly dedicated. And they work for not a lot of money, but they provide a lot of services.”
Martin said his son’s public-school option would not be able to customize programs to each student.
“By vesting in the education of children in private schools, you’re enabling them to prosper more and ultimately become tax-paying citizens that are gainfully employed,” Martin said.
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This story has been published in VillageNews Online, Henrico Citizen Online, Emporia News, Eastern Shore News, www.tobacco.org and The Coalfield Progress.
By Stacey R. Hamman
RICHMOND — Smoke will be curling through the General Assembly’s agenda this session, but there’s no fire.
Legislators such as Sen. Ralph S. Northam have noted this year an increased concern with how smoking affects not only those who light up but also people nearby.
“If you talk to Virginians, about 75 percent of them would like to be able to go into a restaurant and not be exposed to secondhand smoke,” said Northam, a neurologist and pediatrician who represents the Eastern Shore and parts of Tidewater in the Senate.
“It’s a health issue,” he said.
Northam is sponsoring two bills this session to address the matter — Senate Bill 1105 and Senate Bill 1106.
SB 1105 would ban smoking in all indoor restaurants, lounge areas and bars in Virginia. It also would require the venue to erect “No Smoking” signs. The bill would add a penalty for such violations to the Virginia Indoor Clean Air Act, which passed in 1990.
As the legislation stands, restaurants that seat 50 or more people must designate a sufficient no-smoking area for their customers.
Last year, Northam sponsored a bill similar to SB 1105. It cleared the Senate but hit a roadblock in a House committee.
“There are still some folks in the House that don’t agree with it,” Northam said. “Their point is that the less government in our lives, the better. But I think, as a government, we also have the responsibility of protecting our citizens.”
SB 1106, a bill to ban smoking in vehicles with minors present, resulted from a discussion between the senator and some students of Kegotank Elementary School in Accomack County.
“I was explaining to the children that I was their representative, that this was their government,” Northam said.
After the senator asked the students what they would like him to do for them in Richmond, a third-grader stood up.
“He said when he was in his seatbelt in the backseat, he didn’t like the fact that his mother smoked,” Northam said. “When you think about it, it’s really like a moving gas chamber — a car with the windows up and poor ventilation, especially in the wintertime or the heat of the summer.
“I told him that I understood that and that I would look into it.”
According to Northam, the student’s mother supports the bill. “She said, ‘I agree with you and agree with my child that I shouldn’t be smoking in the car,’ ” Northam said.
If SB 1106 passes, Virginia would join Arkansas, California, Louisiana and Maine in prohibiting smoking in a car with children present.
“Secondhand smoke is bad for everybody, but especially for children,” Northam said. “As an advocate for children, as a pediatrician, as a father, I don’t represent just adults. I represent all Virginians.”
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This story was published in the Jan. 24, 2008, issue of the Commonwealth Times.
By Stacey R. Hamman
When Jacob Leach began attending VCU three-and-a-half years ago to pursue a Ph.D. in engineering, his fellow students encouraged him to participate in the VCU Toastmasters Club.
The Toastmasters Club looked like fun to Leach, and he joined to reduce the feeling of intimidation that arises during public speaking.
Leach has been a member of the Toastmasters Club ever since.
“Ultimately, everyone will at some point in their lives have to give a speech in front of people,” Leach said. Leach said he continued with the club for fun. He is a former president of the club and its current vice president of public relations.
A couple months ago, Leach had to give a presentation in Boston.
“I wasn’t afraid to get up in front of people and talk,” he said.
The VCU Toastmasters Club is a branch of an international organization created to help individuals improve their public-speaking abilities.
According to VCU’s Toastmasters Web site, the organization currently has more than 200,000 members in 80 nations across the world.
VCU’s Toastmasters Club simplifies the process of developing public-speaking skills and providing constructive evaluation to its members, among other things.
“Evaluation is so critical to the success of Toastmasters,” said Chris Steele, VCU Toastmasters president. “To be better, you need to get practice and you need to get feedback.”
It takes a lot of effort to have everyone participate, Steele said, but one of the club’s main goals is to provide for the educational needs of its members.
“It’s about people working together,” Steele said.
About 10 to 12 people attend each meeting.
The toastmaster of the week assigns parts to the attendees, choosing an evaluator, a grammarian and an “uh” counter, for example. Then, one speaker provides the first speech of the day and another presents “table topics” for group discussion.
In a typical club meeting, the process of speechmaking and evaluating is clearly spliced into sections for discussion.
Each individual has different reasons for joining the club.
Steele, who has been involved in Toastmasters for 12 years (and specifically at VCU for two of those years), said the club is open to people at any level.
The club’s a good way to network, because it has graduate students, undergraduates, VCU professors and non-VCU people.
“Some people (who join) are simply nervous; some are not natively English speakers. Some people just aren’t familiar with the customary ways of giving a presentation,” Steele said.
“The importance of being able to make a presentation … is critical. There’s no getting around that,” Steele said. “To make an impression, personal communication is needed.
“The VCU Toastmaster Club’s Web site can be found at www.vcutoastmasters. com. Or go international at www.toastmasters.org.
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This story was published in the Jan. 14, 2008, issue of the Commonwealth Times.
By Stacey R. Hamman
Even before the spring semester begins, VCU’s Capital News Service hits the ground running.
Student reporters participating in CNS had their orientation into the program this past week during the dregs of holiday intersession classes.
Provided by the VCU School of Mass Communications, CNS allows enrolled students to participate in a high-pressure news environment.
This is the first year CNS has operated as two separately listed classes (MASC 475 and topics course MASC 491). The program is split into a copy-editing section and a reporting section.
Adjunct faculty member Mary Ann Owens directs the copy desk, and associate professor Jeff South directs the reporters. Student reporters will cover the legislative process of state government throughout the 2008 session of the Virginia General Assembly.
CNS accepted about 30 students this year, practically tripling its typical enrollment numbers. The first week of CNS resulted in a distribution of 28 stories.
“That was the most prolific start in CNS history,” South stated in an e-mail.
According to the School of Mass Communications’ Web site, CNS was established in 1994 as an opportunity for students to cover the General Assembly and “to give the state’s weekly, twice-weekly and thriceweekly (newspapers) better access to the Legislature.”
Students also provide graphics and photos for clients of CNS. Images can be found at http://www. pbase.com/vcucns.
To the right is a taste of just some of the stories CNS reporters have written for the 2008 legislative session.
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This story was published in the Nov. 5, 2007, issue of the Commonwealth Times.
By Stacey R. Hamman
It took about an hour for things to get rolling at First Fridays Artwalk last week, but as the evening settled in, the number of pedestrians walking along Broad Street quickly grew.
“It’s a fun place to come and get inspired,” said Samantha Jeffrey, a high school junior.
Margeaus Huffines-Keener agreed. “We really like the atmosphere,” she said.
Both Jeffrey and Huffines-Keener are students at the Center for the Arts in Henrico County. They were examining artwork at the Visual Art Studio at 208 W. Broad St., having gone to First Fridays this month to earn extra credit.
Around 30 venues participated in what was First Fridays’ second multidisciplinary event of the season. A handful of street vendors took the opportunity to unofficially increase the number of participants, as well.
Keith Ramsey, a fine artist and graphic designer who graduated from VCU, was one of these vendors.
Ramsey set up his artistic creations in front of Curated Culture Inc., the non-profit organization that coordinates all the activities related to First Fridays Artwalk.
Ramsey said he knew about First Fridays from the start, personally knowing Christina Newton, founder and director of Curated Culture.
“It works out for both of us for me to work out here,” Ramsey said. Many people who are first attracted by the outside display are then drawn into the building.
Ramsey stood in front of his display, nodding his head to a techno beat that floated over the street from Turnstyle, where a disc jockey worked his magic. Many of Ramsey’s drawings and paintings depicted minuscule people standing in extensively large rooms. He used long shadows, a sense of contrast in size and the depiction of a large clock towering over a tiny individual to illustrate a drawing titled “Time Obsessed 2.”
This was one he sold Friday to VCU freshman William Barnett V – immediately after saying: “I find people usually buy things when it’s warmer outside.” Barnett was a first-time visitor to First Fridays and said he loves “just how alive it is.”
Artist P.J. Sykes, skilled in both photography and music, was another vendor who fought the chill but still came out with some success.
“I actually just met a guy who’s running for City Council. He’s probably going to have me shoot a bunch of photos for him,” Sykes said.
“This is the third month I’ve been here at this spot,” he said, standing beside an eye-catching photography display. “You meet a lot of people who aren’t usually likely to see this stuff.”
Sykes said he has been serious about photography for five to six years but also plays music and has his own label. “I have my hand in a little bit of everything,” he said.
Speaking of a little bit of everything, that’s exactly what there was. Theater IV at 114 W. Broad St. hosted its first live cabaret, featuring songs such as “All That Jazz,” “Good Old Days” and “The Wizard and I.”
Sandy Dacus and Billy Maupin directed the cabaret, which was set overlooking an exhibition on costume design. The exhibition included selections mainly from children’s theater.
Libby Thurston, who volunteered at the theater 10 years ago, was interested in seeing the exhibit. She used to do set design there, “when this wasn’t a big deal,” she said.
Skyy Restaurant & Jazz Palace, although not officially a First Fridays venue, was holding its weekly live music simultaneously with the event.
A three-man band – Steve Kessler on the keys, VCU adjunct professor Taylor Barnett on flugelhorn and trumpet, and sophomore Dean Christesen on drums – played in the semi-darkened Jazz Palace, where patrons and guests alike could sit and tap their feet to the funky groove.
The restaurant drew more people in as the night progressed, but even a light applause of the initial few caused Kessler to say, “Much better! There’s somebody in here.”
For the people who began wandering in, the restaurant was offering all the artwork on the walls at a 40 percent discount.
The First Fridays Artwalk continues to cater to the young and the youngat- heart, encouraging people from all walks of life to experience the heartbeat of Richmond.
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Victims remembered; Words of abused encourage student reflection;
Clothesline Project promotes message against violence and sexual abuse
This story was published in the Oct. 11, 2007, issue of the Commonwealth Times.
By Stacey R. Hamman
“There comes a day of reckoning … when the weak become strong, and the silent speak.”
This was just one voice that hung from a clothesline in the Commons Plaza Wednesday.
This message was written on a white shirt – color-coded to represent an individual who died from a form of violence.
The display stood as witness to past atrocities, depicting a reality that directly affects 20 to 25 percent of women in colleges nationwide. The Clothesline Project is a national program designed to raise awareness about violence against women and to show support for victims and survivors of sexual or physical abuse.
“It’s an awareness event. It gives survivors and their loved ones a voice,” said Tammy McKeown, VCU’s coordinator for sexual assault services.
The Clothesline Project, whose cosponsors included several student groups, such as Sexual Assault and Dating Violence Education by Students, made its way to VCU about 10 years ago and continues under McKeown’s direction.
It is one of several events that highlight October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a title it acquired in 1981.
A number of students stood around the clothesline with notebooks and pens, writing down personal responses to the display. The students copied phrases from the shirts they considered particularly striking.
“A lot of professors offer extra credit to their students if they write a reflection paper on The Clothesline Project,” said McKeown, who presented this opportunity to the students in her Introduction to Women’s Studies classes.
“You get an emotional response from reading what these victims have written,” said Linda Hancock, director of the Office of Health Promotion and McKeown’s supervisor.
Most of the shirts on display were part of a traveling Clothesline Project and were disbursed by one source, McKeown said. Last year, the sponsors of the event directly invited VCU students to contribute.
“We display all of the shirts contributed by VCU students, but we don’t have space to hang all the community shirts,” McKeown said.
VCU hosts The Clothesline Project twice a year, in October and April, the latter of which is Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
“It is a never-ending job informing students about the things going on in campus,” and the resources that are available, Hancock said.
“The OHP has a health resource room that houses all types of health empowerment information for students, including sexual assault … information,” she said.
Some students think the resource room is inefficient in providing resources along those lines.
The resource library is “severely insufficient,” said Ashton Hudgins, member of Students for a Democratic Society at VCU. SDS is one of several organizations petitioning for a resource center to be established on a permanent basis.
“There was a small resource center opened in 2005, but it was funded by a temporary grant and was closed after representatives from the grant-issuing organization visited the center and found it severely lacking,” said Ethan Labowitz, student life committee delegate of the Monroe Park Campus Student Government Association.
The resource center was more academically oriented, Hancock said. The materials currently housed in the resource room in the OHP include materials taken from the center after it was closed down.
VCU collaborates with organizations, such as the YWCA and Faith Harbor, “sharing resources as often as possible,” Hancock said. “It’s a never-ending process educating people about what resources exist.”
The Clothesline Project Color Code
White – for those who have died.
Yellow and beige – for those who have been battered or assaulted
Red, pink and orange – for survivors of rape or sexual assault
Blue and green – for survivors of incest or child sexual abuse
Purple and lavender – for those attacked because of their sexual orientation
Black – for those attacked for political reasons
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This story was published in the Sept. 6, 2007, issue of the Commonwealth Times.
By Stacey R. Hamman
Two years have passed since Hurricane Katrina turned an evil eye on the once-flourishing birthplace of jazz.
Before its quasi-transformation into a modern-day Atlantis, New Orleans was a city flooded with life and culture. Images of the city at its best still live on in the heart and mind of Antonio J. García, director of jazz studies at VCU.
García, 48, was born and raised in Uptown New Orleans, where he spent the first 25 years of his life. He describes it as a unique place – “a city of risk-taking.” He said it had a powerful influence on his future career and made him painfully aware of the transience of tomorrow.
García remembers sitting in Ottoman Park as a boy, looking skyward and watching ships glide past on the Mississippi River. They seemed to be much higher than they should be – a reminder that much of the city lies below sea level. “There’s always a sense of ‘let’s party because tomorrow we may not be here,’” García said.
“It’s a city that loves experimentation, loves risk-taking, loves expression.”
This mindset creates a greater motivation for the residents of the city to experiment with music, with dance and with theater. “That was an all-powerful force in influencing me to give it a try,” García said.
Surrounded by tremendous musical variety, García’s parents, neither of whom were musicians, encouraged their six children to enroll in music lessons and helped propel him into the life of a musician.
In 1977, García enrolled in the college of music at Loyola University of the South, studying in the jazz program. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in music in 1981, García remained at Loyola for a year of graduate school.
By going to college in New Orleans, García said, “I could be a musician while studying how to be a musician.”
In 1983, after living 25 years in New Orleans, García enrolled in the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, in upstate New York. He studied there two years, and received a master’s in music in jazz studies and contemporary media.
García went on to teach in Illinois for 14 years – initially at Northern Illinois University, and subsequently at Northwestern University. In 2001, García moved to Richmond to begin working at VCU.
On Aug. 29, 2005, when Katrina made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane near Buras-Triumph, La., to the south of New Orleans, devastating winds and torrents of rain slammed into southern Louisiana.
The next morning in New Orleans, when the rain had stopped, water was still pouring in, García said. The levees holding back portions of the natural river had collapsed because of system design flaws and inadequate maintenance. “It was a man-made disaster,” García said.
García’s family had sold their house in New Orleans just two years before Katrina thundered through, and both his parents had passed away within the preceding years. Although the family’s old house had been built to be elevated 5 or 6 feet off the ground, the block on which it was located was completely flooded.
One of García’s brothers, a professional photographer, was the only member of his family living in New Orleans at the time.
As soon as García knew what was happening, he immersed himself in the news and found aerial photographs of the area online. Through text messaging, he passed on all the information he could to his brother and to other friends who had evacuated the city.
“It was terrifying,” García said.
He has visited his hometown twice since that fatal day. He returned the first time in March 2006 but didn’t see much progress. “It looked like it could have happened last week.”
García returned once more this past June. He saw some improvement, but said that areas like the 9th Ward “still look like a bomb hit it; you’ll see one house in 30 lived in.”
“Call it the jack-o’-lantern effect,” he said. “At night you’ll see lights in scattered windows like the teeth of a jack-o’-lantern.”
Many of the evacuees won’t be returning and are struggling financially.
“They have to pay mortgage on their old property while paying for living expenses in their new location,” García said.
There has been an exodus of musicians from New Orleans: They have relocated all over the nation, taking with them a composition of jazz history and culture. If there is a bright side to Katrina, it is that other areas of the United States have been exposed to the sounds and mystique of New Orleans.
“The only good part of the whole thing is people around the country have had an increase of the New Orleans influence,” García said.
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