As The Cavalier Daily goes to press for the final time this semester, the Managing Board presents this short list of resolutions for the new year.
During the past two decades, the General Assembly has generously continued to support the financial autonomy of Virginia's public colleges by decreasing public funding for higher education. With state support for many Virginia public schools sitting at 25 percent or less - the Assembly provides the University with a whopping 6 percent of its annual budget - we hope to see the legislature consider granting the same managerial independence to colleges as it does for their finances. Proposals to push the University's in-state student percentage to 75 or 80 percent sound a lot like unfunded mandates to us. Isn't Virginia supposed to be a conservative state?
Likewise, although Gov. Bob McDonnell has generally demonstrated a pleasantly supportive and innovative approach to higher education, his commission on reform would do well to recognize that giving each state university the same types of priorities is not what Virginia needs to prosper. Let the state's flagship public colleges - Virginia Tech, William & Mary and the University, among others - do what they deem necessary to become top-tier institutions, and the state as a whole will benefit enormously. Really guys, we don't have the energy to keep writing editorials about how continuously increasing enrollment at these colleges is a short-sighted effort to deal with northern Virginia's population boom. Throw us a bone here?
On to football: As much as we would love to see coach Mike London end next season with a bowl game instead of an eight-game losing streak, we actually have a different resolution to offer. We would like to see University students, alumni and supporters show that they can be true fans of the game. No one likes losing seasons, but a half-empty stadium and tepid cheering from the crowd won't lure many high-caliber recruits to Charlottesville. Even when the Cavs were in bowl contention routinely, Virginia fans would let Hokies invade Scott Stadium every other year around Thanksgiving. Yet how many students have been to a road game themselves? Certainly there is more to life than football, but if fans want to complain about the quality of the program, perhaps the first place they should look is in the mirror.
But there is a role the athletics department can play to make game days better. Remember that horse mascot that showed up earlier this season? (You may know what we are talking about but had no idea that it was, in fact, supposed to be CavMan's horse.) Please don't whip that one out again - the real CavMan is doing just fine on his own.
As for student self-governance, Student Council's Student Life Committee has decided that instituting an umbrella-sharing program would cast a "rain cloud" on its budget. Although we all probably could have used an umbrella when traveling across Grounds this week, perhaps this particular initiative simply wasn't meant to be. Instead, Council could consider rebuilding the technology and networking infrastructure for the Lambeth Field dormitories from scratch. That issue has remained the most popular on SpeakUpUVA for the better part of a year, and it doesn't appear University Housing or the Department of Information Technology and Communication has much of a solution to offer. Time to put Computer Science 1010 to work, kids!
We offer two words for the Honor Committee: intent clause. Just humor us. You can even pretend to change it and tell us the problem's fixed. We won't ask questions.
And last but not least for the resolutions: The University finds some way - any way - to remove the unsightly black netting that shrouds the Rotunda columns sometime before graduation. Or at least the next one. Pretty please?
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