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Dukes ready for second leg of season
Vol. 92, No. 18 Thursday, October 24, 2013
Teaching the craft
Political science professor designs virtual strategy game to teach students
Football rested after bye week, face William & Mary Saturday By Connor Drew The Breeze
Students. Teachers. Athletes. Coaches … Reporters. Who doesn’t love a week off from working? While they may not have been sitting on their couches all day, the Dukes (5-2, 2-1 Colonial Athletic Association) are rested and ready to get back into the the thick of the season after their bye week. “We took advantage of the bye week,” Head coach Mickey Matthews said. “We were beat up even before the Richmond game. We needed a week off. We practiced in our sweats all week — we did not hit … We’re as healthy as we’ve been all year.” The week of rest couldn’t have come at a better time for JMU, as it is in the middle of an eight game stretch against CAA opponents with five more to go. If the Dukes want to have a shot at postseason play, Saturday is when they need to begin their big push. “We have five hard games coming up,” redshirt senior running back Dae’Quan Scott said. “They’re all going to be competitive and I know that every team in the CAA right now is, basically, even. So we’re going to have to work that much harder to be where we want to be.” The Dukes are preparing for a ride to Williamsburg to face conference rival the College of William & Mary (4-3, 2-1 CAA) during the Tribe’s Homecoming Weekend. While JMU is 0-2 on the road this season and William & Mary is undefeated at home, the Dukes are 10-4 under .Matthews coming off a bye week and are hoping to continue to develop their game on the offensive side of the ball as they have in recent weeks. “I think that the offense knows what it’s capable of now,” redshirt junior wide receiver Daniel Brown said. “I think that [offensive coordinator Mike O’Cain] is comfortable with calling whatever and knows that we’re going to execute. The morale with the offense is really high and we know that we’re one of the best and that, when we execute, we’re unstoppable.” This offensive success has been growing each week and, according
brian prescott / the breeze
Students in Jonathan Keller’s foreign affairs class discuss political strategies for their simulated counties in Keller’s foreign policy game, Statecraft. By Mary Kate White The Breeze
Students looking to take over the world will finally have their chance, thanks to one professor’s interactive program of world-domination. Statecraft, though originally a pen-and-paper system similar to the strategy board game Risk, is now a fully-automated computer program used around the world to teach students about foreign policy. Associate professor of political science Jonathan Keller created Statecraft 14 years ago to give students hands-on experience with international dynamics. “It’s a fantasy world with problems that parallel real-world problems,” Keller said. In the simulation, students take a political ideology assessment and are put into groups based on their governmental preferences. The team then works together to use the country’s resources to
improve simulated citizens’ quality of life. In the game’s analog days, Keller spent hours every week calculating his students’ countries’ resources, growth and approval ratings. He was eventually inspired to simulate Statecraft by strategy games like Civilization and Warcraft. “I wanted to use the most addicting parts of those games to draw students in. Those were my two goals: It had to be fun and addictive, and it had to be informative,” Keller said. Each “country” is given a certain area on a map chosen at random, and must use that area’s resources to achieve certain goals including healthiest, most educated, safest and most cultured. Although participation and basic understanding will get students a passing grade, achieving one or more of these goals gets students extra credit. Using that extra credit as motivation, Keller hopes to show students how difficult it is to achieve and maintain world peace. see Statecraft, page 10
Matt Schmachtenberg / the breeze
Lighting up I-81
A new illuminated James Madison University sign has been built on the north-bound side of I-81 below the Biosciences Building.
see football, page 12
Students take on government bills Social work majors take social advocacy bill assignment to the next level By erin flynn contributing writer
Matt Schmachtenberg / the breeze
Some JMU students are taking their thoughts on social issues to Congress. Several social work majors in the social policy class required of their major are participating in an optional day trip to Congress today as a follow-up to recently completing their bill advocacy assignment. The assignment required students to work with a partner and choose a bill of interest that is currently going through the Senate and House of Representatives. They were asked to research information about their bill and advocate for it. To gain support for their bills, several students are attempting to contact legislators, but others are making attempts to gain support across the JMU campus. Matt Taylor, a senior social work major, is advocating the youth Prison Reduction through Opportunities, Mentoring, Intervention, Support and Education Act, also known as PROMISE. This federally funded act would support youths who are at high risk for committing crimes. “I chose this bill simply because I have an interest in the prison system and its overcrowding. So I wanted to look at a bill that may contribute to lowering those rates,” Taylor said. Taylor is doing his part by working on creating a chapter at JMU for the Joined Youth Action Team, an organization he recently joined that fundraises and supports the Youth PROMISE Act and other related bills. Taylor and his partner sent out bulk emails to get people to sign their petition and also collected postcards from everyone in their class and sent them to their legislators. “If you remain voiceless in these policies, you can’t have any impact on the outcome,” Taylor said. “It’s like, yeah, it might not affect you directly, but indirectly, it will come back and affect you.”
Matt Taylor and Marybeth Fox, social work majors, discuss their respective bills with social work professor Laura Trull.
news 10/24 Inside 3 Wind Learning in the sky turbine provides
students with a unique classroom experience.
6 Fit mom’s “no excuses” opinion What a dumbell
picture unfairly points fingers.
see bill, page 4
9 Virginia breweries step up to 11 Men’s soccer trying to life Brew the day
sports Searching for success
the plate and win awards for exceptional beer.
finish season strong despite struggles.