WEDNESDAY | 12.4.2013 | MaceandCROWN.COM | Vol. 56, Issue 13
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Mace & Crown
ODU students help form statewide environmental coalition By: Sean Davis Staff Writer Mace & Crown Old Dominion University students met with student representatives from other universities around the commonwealth on Nov. 24 to discuss purpose, leadership and campaigns in establishing a state-wide student environmental movement. The Virginia Student Environmental Coalition was proposed during a state breakout session at the Powershift Student Environmental Conference in Pittsburgh earlier this year. It was created as an answer to the lack of intercampus organization and action to deal with Virginia-specific climate change and environmental justice challenges. ODU students Erin Fagan and Miriam Notvana sat around a crowded conference table and listened as representatives from
Mary Washington and Virginia Commonwealth University debated leadership roles and decision-making processes. Someone sped typed a note into the group’s Googledoc. “Be mindful of the reality of problems with power structure on groups.” Immediately apparent is that this is not your average feel-good service organization. Almost everyone involved has experience in community or student organizing and have learned lessons about what does and does not work. Caught in the post-occupy climate of left-leaning movement politics, conversations like these are essential to finding the right line between being completely consensus-based and actually effective. They eventually agreed for campus representation to use a system of “tree and acorn”. The “tree” is an upperclassman representative and the “acorn” is an underclassman.
The “tree and acorn” are students who can trade roles but essentially handle in-bound and out-bound communication with the larger VSEC body. The Googledoc flashes “not decision makers” under the phrase “campus reps.” Other positions were discussed and defined, such as who will facilitate conference calls, who will handle the social media pages, who will compile the newsletter, how will the roles be filled and other important aspects of running a successful campaign. Toward the end of the meeting, a member from each school discussed campaigns and challenges they each faced. Most had notably positive news about meetings with faculty to discuss “socially responsible investing” or were beginning to make headway in campus sustainability projects. A group from the University of Mary Washington even planned a skype meeting with climate
scientist and 350.org founder Bill Mckibben. Despite only creating an officiated environmental organization “EcoReps” in the last year, ODU was not without positive news. Fagan informed the group about a series of events including a documentary screening and panel put on by EcoReps, as well as the success of the Safe Coast Conference last month. Both dealt with the threat and mitigation of sea level rise due in part to melting sea ice in The Arctic. Sea level rise is the most immediate climate change-related challenge facing Norfolk and ODU. The city is the most atrisk for such problems in the country behind only New Orleans. The other students were visibly stunned when Fagan spoke of having kayaked down her own street after heavy rains inundated them. There was initial talk of convening a “Virginia Powershift,” a statewide environmental
justice conference that would take after the late September event. The goal of this conference would be to further build solidarity and interconnection between campuses and students. The idea had been pitched by members of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and The Sierra Club. Back in Hampton Roads, the group maintained an attitude of constructiveness, planning an interest meeting complete with free “ethical” food and discussing which potential campaigns would work best. Although timed to occur as the semester closes, upcoming meetings and conference calls should allow the group to further build membership and support. One action already planned for late January when students return to school is in the works to call for much-needed progress and leadership on sustainable energy in the state capital.
Old Dominion Dominates Georgia Southern Monarchs Win Fourth Game with 89-69 Victory Over Eagles
By: Jasmine Blackwell Staff Writer Mace & Crown The Old Dominion Monarchs (4-3) won their fourth game of the season after defeating Georgia Southern (1-7) 86-69 in the second game of the Cancun Challenge on Nov. 23 at the Ted Constant Center. Old Dominion shot a ferocious .593 percent from the floor in the first half (16-27) and went 8-from-12 from behind the arc. Much of this stellar shooting can be attributed to the spark that freshman guard Jordan
Baker gave the team in the first half. “He was feeling very confident. He pretty much shot them out of their zone in the first half,” head coach Jeff Jones said of Baker’s contributions coming off the bench. Baker went 4-for-4 from three-pointrange in the first half, finishing off with a career high 17points. “[I was] just coming off the bench trying to make a spark for my team to rally us to extend the lead. My shot was just falling and my teammates kept coming back to me so I had to reward them with the assist by making the shot,” Baker said. Baker’s three-pointer at the 13:16 mark in
the first half put Old Dominion ahead 12-9 and the Monarchs never looked back, leading by as many as 17 in the first half. The Old Dominion defense also played a huge role in this lead, holding Georgia Southerns’ offense to zero fast break points in the first half. The Monarchs led the Eagles 47-33 at halftime. The Eagles did not give up that easily, rallying together in the second half to get as close as 11 with 3:42 left, but could not get any closer. Fans began clearing out of the Ted Convocation Center with a little over two minutes remaining as the Monarchs were up 78-63 with 2:12 remaining in the game.
Baker was not the only Monarch who got hot throughout this game. Aaron Bacote fell just two points short of his season high with 26 points, shooting 7-for-13 from the field and a nearly perfect 11-for-12 from the free throw line. The Monarchs did a great job sharing the ball ending up with 15 assists for the night. The Eagles on the other hand struggled with ball distribution as they had a total of just two assists on the night. “We like playing together. We like each other. This year the attitude is just way different and the chemistry is better. Everything is just better,” said Bacote.
The Monarchs who have only loss one game at home this season and seemed to have turn things around under the leadership of the former American University head man. Since the game, the Monarchs have dropped to 4-3 but still remain on pace to shatter their previous win total of five games in 2012-13. Old Dominion is back on the court on Dec. 8, on the road for a 1:30 p.m. rival showdown against Virginia Commonwealth University.