Issuu

For online updates, visit @TheBreezeJMU and @breeze_sports on Twitter and “Like” The Breeze on Facebook.

Check out our video channel,

Serving James Madison University Since 1922

BreezeVideo

breezejmu.org

Vol. 87, No. 9 Monday, September 27, 2010

Rainy  73°/61° chance of precipitation: 80%

PREVENTION

Organizations collaborate to end hazing at JMU By RYAN PLATT The Breeze

Hazing on college campuses across the country has led to students being beaten to death, poisoned with alcohol and being mentally and emotionally scarred for life. Last week, a variety of JMU organizations participated in Hazing Prevention Week, a national effort to eliminate hazing and the negative effects it has on college campuses. A collaborative effort from the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, the Center for Multicultural Student Services, the Office for Substance Abuse Prevention, the Department of Athletics and

Judicial Affairs put together a week’s worth of programs, posters featuring athletes and other campus leaders, and giveaways to help raise awareness and prevent hazing. In addition, Active Minds, Outriggers and REACH Peer Educators played a vital role in the education of students from a peer-to-peer perspective. As the week was focused on students preventing hazing, the three organizations’ involvement was an essential part of the entire week. According to Fraternity and Sorority Life coordinator Paul Whatley, the event was possible thanks to the efforts from a various campus organizations and help from administration.

In addition, $, from an innovative program grant was received from the office of Mark Warner, vice president of Student Affairs and Academic Planning. Lanyards handed out on the commons read, “I took the pledge. Ask me why.” On the reverse side, the lanyards had stories and statistics about hazing. Some lanyards mentioned previous students in other universities killed by hazing antics involving physical violence and abuse of alcohol. Others included statistics, such as nine out of  students who have experienced hazing behavior in college do not consider themselves to have been hazed, and that  percent of students who

experienced hazing did not report the events to campus officials. Adam Sutphin, a ’ graduate and first-year graduate student who is working with FSL, explained that cooperation between all the different groups was key to building a program to gain as much attention as possible. “We’ve been on the commons everyday from  to , and it’s been great,” Sutphin said. “People have been coming up to us, which is the complete opposite of the usual commons behavior where you have to practically force your information on people. They were honestly interested in what we had to say.” see HAZING, page 4

ROBERT BOAG / THE BREEZE

Hundreds of Dukes Against Hazing T-shirts were passed out on the commons last week.

JMU, ALCOHOL, POLICE S R E B M U N BY THE

Total violations

Alcohol violation referrals

594 this year 437 last year

152 this year 116 last year

43 25 last year

219 this year 218 last year

Alcohol-related arrests

On-campus alcohol charges

this year

(in the first month of school)

Alcohol-related incidents have increased so far this year, due in part to additional police enforcement By AARON KOEPPER The Breeze

Despite efforts to curtail alcohol-related problems, the number of arrests and citations for the first month of the semester tell a different story. Judicial Affairs has seen  referrals for alcohol violations in the first month of the semester, compared to  at the same time last year. The number of total violations remains almost identical, with  violations this year and  at the end of September . Judicial Affairs gives out violations based on arrests referred by JMU and the Harrisonburg Police Department.

But even with these higher numbers, Josh Bacon, director of Judicial Affairs, says he has seen success in the university’s attempts to curb alcohol use through a reduction in the severity of violations. “At the beginning of last year there were serious cases, assaults and assaults on police officers,” Bacon said. “That’s gone way down.” In the first month of last year Judicial saw five violations for throwing objects, five for disorderly conduct, four for violence to persons, four destruction of property and one for dangerous practices. Three violence to persons and three dangerous practices violations were issued this semester.

Charges issued by JMU police officers increased this year because four new officers were hired for off-campus patrol, leading to  alcohol charges off campus,  of which were for underaged possession, according to JMU police chief Lee Shifflett. Last year, JMU police did not issue off-campus charges. Shifflett said the hiring of new officers makes it difficult to make a comparison to previous student behavior. “I suspect that the numbers would’ve been more last year as parties were larger and more open, however, we did not have the additional manpower off campus last year,” Shifflett said. Shifflett said he believed smaller parties

and crowds meant that regardless of charges, there was a change in student culture. There were  alcohol-related charges on-campus this year, compared with  in September , including open container, underaged possession and drunk in public. Harrisonburg police made  alcoholrelated arrests last September (including non-students), compared to  this year, according to HPD spokeswoman MaryHope Vass. Bacon and Shifflett said despite increased arrests by JMU police, they have seen smaller parties and what they see NUMBERS, page 4

FOOTBALL

Post-Va. Tech hype boosts school spirit at JMU, in city By COLLEEN HAYES The Breeze

Sitting in the sold-out stands on an unusually warm fall night in Bridgeforth Stadium, -year-old Nathaniel Layman proudly cheered on his favorite team, donning an interesting choice of apparel. Typically, the star quarterback gets the most notoriety, but for Nathaniel, it is backup quarterback Justin Thorpe who remains the hero. “My favorite player is No. . He is the guy with the hurt leg,” Nathaniel said. “I already am a quarterback on my team, so I want to be a Duke Dog one day.” Despite an underwhelming match up

9/27 INSIDE

against Liberty University, purple and gold spirit was alive and well on Saturday. The combinations of JMU’s historic win against Virginia Tech, a stadium renovation and former players making the cut in the NFL have brought fans out in droves to support the Dukes. Jackie Clark, a Roanoke native whose nephew Ryan Dixon is a freshman wide receiver, feels the team is deserving of moving up in the ranks, but maybe not quite yet. “Honestly, I don’t think they will move up to D-I any time soon,” Clark said. “But I think they deserve to. I am going to root them on regardless.” The program, which began in ,

NEWS Emergency space

RMH expands to new facility off Port Republic Road.

Student section tickets are becoming a hot commodity and are quickly running out on JMU’s new online reservation system. For more on the game, see page 13.

has come to mean more to some locals in the recent years, especially after the  FCS National Championship. Area native Wayne Witmer has been coming to JMU games for  years off and on and feels Harrisonburg is slowly turning into a football-crazed town. “I think it is neat to have this quality of a college sports program in a small town like this,” Witmer said. “You don’t have to drive an hour; it’s right here.” Wi t h t h e Du k e s  -  f o r t h e first time since , some alumni say they are more proud than ever to return to their alma mater. see SPIRIT, page 15

OPINION Changing of the guard

Political unrest invokes the removal of incumbents.

RYAN FREELAND / THE BREEZE

LIFE A full serving

Performances at Spaghettifest make the trip to West Virginia worth it.

SPORTS Not much of a win

JMU squeaks by Liberty University.