Monday, August 31, 2009

RIP (Free) Hillside Tailgating

As the evening sun goes down on a cool Fall evening, a car pulls into C4 (affectionately known as Hillside lot) to save a spot for the upcoming Saturday morning. A bleary-eyed student makes their way down to a parking lot overflowing with purple. Many current students and alumni can relate countless memories of good times had in Hillside. In the years leading up to the National Championship year of 2004, tailgating on the campus of JMU was something quieter and was something to do, but wasn't out of control. As the years passed and as the excitement of each football game grew, so did the tailgating. Soon, Hillside and the Baseball lot (R1) became an event on Saturdays apart from the actual football games. The lots were teaming with happy people in purple and gold. Tailgating became something that JMU thrived at, for logical reasons.

Now, because of supply and demand (among other reasons), Hillside is transitioning into a donor lot for the Duke Club. For those uninitiated with the Duke Club, it is "the fundraising arm for James Madison University Athletics. Through its annual fund drive, the Duke Club raises unrestricted contributions in support of student-athlete scholarships and the athletic budget. Additionally, the Duke Club aids athletic facility enhancements and other needs through capital campaigns." Basically, through donations from thousands of Dukes, the Duke Club supplements the cost of scholarships and helps to raise money for larger projects, such as the football stadium expansion. The Student Duke Club is a small (though essential) part of the Duke Club (making up less than 5% of the $1.1+ million yearly contribution). So please do not mistake the President of the Student Duke Club as the Director of the Duke Club, or vice versa.

Now that we've covered the background stuff, let's review why we, as JMU football fans, still have it made. They're taking away Hillside as a free lot...which still leaves the Baseball lot within a third of a mile of the stadium. Oh, and don't forget the huge Convo lots or R2 across Port Republic Rd. as free places to tailgate either (both within a half mile from the stadium). You'd be hard pressed to find a school with a football program as big as ours, with as many fans as we have, that has tailgating so close to the stadium (that doesn't cost thousands of dollars for a parking pass). Especially when you take into consideration that we have so many lots within a five minute walk that are FREE. Here's two possibilities that I'll go ahead and lay out for those who used to tailgate in Hillside. First, you can talk to your friends and decide which of the other three spacious lots you want to tailgate in. A second option would be to get those same friends and scrap together $150 to get a parking pass for Hillside for the season through the Duke Club. Many people have already bought a parking pass and will continue to make (and possibly quickly forget) memories in Hillside. The bottom line is, to say that "the man" taking away one of the free tailgating lots and turning it into a paid lot will hurt JMU tailgating is belittling of all the James Madison students, alumni, and fans that have created the amazing atmosphere that we enjoy.

GO DUKES!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Third Eye Blind To Perform at Fall Convo Show

Today, at the University Program Board's Crazy Commons Day, UPB announced that the performer for this semester's Convo show would be Third Eye Blind. For those that have been disappointed in Convo shows in the past, I thought I'd provide a little insight into how much work goes into just lining up who is coming for the show (with some help from Angela Morton, Director of Center Stage).

To start the process, UPB receives a list of artists compiled by their middle agent, Melissa Boyle Aronson from Babco Entertainment. Melissa helps provide insight and guidance through the entire process from getting the avails list to getting feedback after the show. The avails list is a list of artists that are touring for the fall/spring, their general price and general availability. It includes a wide variety of artists, from well-established bands that can cost well over $100,000 to bands on the rise that may be $10,000 (most of which 95% of the student body has never heard of). The Center Stage Committee, along with the Executive Council of UPB go through this list and try to narrow it down a little. They have to consider what artists are within UPB's budget and the band's availability. In addition, they have to take into account all the additional costs of setup, lighting, sound, stage, security, marketing, etc., when looking at costs, because it can add upwards of $15,000-20,000 to the cost of the show. The stage plus rental of JMU Convocation center can cost around $9,000 on their own. UPB generally tries to book the Fall Convocation show in September/early October, before basketball season begins. They also have to work around a schedule of pre-scheduled events that take place at the Convo.

UPB tries to include a variety of artists to try to reach the maximum number of students. Then, they create a survey for the students to take, asking what nights they prefer to see a show, who they would like to see, how much they'd be willing to pay to see them, etc. This year, they divided the artists into genres and tried to get the top 3-5 for each. The survey is distributed via mass email, Facebook, and the UPB website. UPB tracks the results and sees if any favorites emerge, trying their hardest to book the students' number one choice, given that they are within the budget and all parties can agree on a show date. From there, it moves into a bidding and negotiation period, working with Melissa and the artist's manager to come to a reasonable agreement. In the past, UPB has had numerous artists decline their bids, so they've had to go back to the survey results, find the number two or number three pick and start the bidding process over again. Booking an artist can be a long and stressful process.

"This year, we really wanted to make an offer to Third Eye Blind, especially after the students' overwhelming disappointment when they fell through last year," said Angela. Third Eye Blind received over 3,300 votes on the survey and were the clear favorite of the JMU students (OAR, Jack's Mannequin, Dashboard, and MGMT were also among the top picks this year). Luckily, we were able to work with them this time and come to an agreement. Angela said that when it was announced, "It got an overall positive response from students." To help decide on future performers for Convo shows and the rest of the University Program Board's events, there are several ways to get involved. Visit their website, office (Taylor 234), or talk to one of their members to find out more.

Show info
October 8th at 8pm, Convo
Tickets on sale Thursday, Sept 17 at Warren Box Office at 8am
Prices: $26 reserved seating for students with JAC, $31 for floor seats/general public in advance/students at doors, $36 general public at doors

JMU 2009-2010 Complete Men's Basketball Schedule

The full JMU Men's Basketball schedule for the 2009-2010 season was announced yesterday. Check it out. Exact dates for the CAA schedule are still subject to change as the TV schedule is worked out, so be warned that until that's set in stone (probably around October) you might not want to make definite plans. The Bracket Buster opponent will be chosen in late January. Conference games are starred and all teams are listed with last year's end-of-season KenPom rankings in parentheses.

UPDATE: Now includes exhibition game, game times, and TV schedule


Exhibition Game: Oct. 31 - Philadelphia (DII) - 3pm

Nov. 12 (Thu) - 7pm - @ Ohio State (37) - Coaches vs. Cancer Classic
Big Ten Network

Coaches vs. Cancer Classic @ Florida International
Nov. 20 (Fri) - 4pm - Murray State (137)
Nov. 22 (Sun) - 6pm - Florida International (262)
Nov. 23 (Mon) - 4pm - North Carolina Central (343)

Nov. 28 (Sat) - 7pm - UMBC (256)

Dec. 2 (Wed) - 7pm - Norfolk State (297)

Dec. 5 (Sat) - 2pm - Georgia State* (219)
CSN-MA; CSN-P; CSN-NE; CSS
----Dec. 11 - End of Fall Semester----
Dec. 12 (Sat) - 7pm - @ Eastern Michigan (306)

Dec. 17 (Thu) - 7pm - @ Gardner-Webb (252)

Dec. 19 (Sat) - 7pm - Radford (188)

Dec. 23 (Wed) - 7pm - Fordham (317)

Dec. 29 (Tue) - 10pm - @ Stanford (49)

Jan. 2 (Sat) - 4pm - @ Northeastern* (101)

Jan. 4 (Mon) - 7pm - Delaware* (201)

Jan. 6 (Wed) - 7pm - @ Old Dominion* (90)

Jan. 9 (Sat) - 2pm - Towson* (248)
CSN-MA; CSN-P; CSN-NE 
----Jan. 11 - Beginning of Spring Semester----
Jan. 13 (Wed) - 7pm - @ William & Mary* (227)
CSN-MA

Jan. 16 (Sat) - 2pm - George Mason* (88)
CSN-MA; CSN-P; CSN-NE; CSS

Jan. 20 (Wed) - 7pm - @ Drexel* (133)
TCN; CSN-NE

Jan. 23 (Sat) - 7pm - @ North Carolina Wilmington* (298)
MASN

Jan. 27 (Wed) - 7pm - William & Mary* (227)

Jan. 30 (Sat) - 12pm - @ George Mason* (88)
CSN-MA; CSN-NE; CSS; TCN-P

Feb. 3 (Wed) - 7pm - Hofstra* (175)

Feb. 6 (Sat) - 4pm - @ Towson* (248) 

Feb. 10 (Wed) - 7pm - Old Dominion* (90)


Feb. 13 (Sat) - 6pm - Virginia Commonwealth* (53)
CSN-MA; CSN-NE; TCN-P 

Feb. 16 (Wed) - 7pm -  Georgia State* (219)

Feb. 20 (Sat) - TBA - @ Bracket Buster

Feb. 22 (Mon) - 7pm - Longwood (313)

Feb. 24 (Wed) - 7:30pm - @ Virginia Commonwealth* (53)

Feb. 27 (Sat) - 7pm - Drexel* (133)
----March 6 - Beginning of Spring Break----
March 5-8 (Fri-Mon) - CAA Tournament - Richmond, Va.

As you can see it's a decent schedule. It might not be as tough as some were hoping, but like I said in my previous article about the out-of-conference schedule, some of these are series games that we can't exactly just say, "No, we're not gonna play you." The average ranking from last year for our OOC opponents is 230. Our CAA schedule averages out to 178. Considering we finished the year ranked 140 in the nation, I think we should finish the year pretty high.

With 31 regular season games, I don't see us losing more than 10 of them. Ohio State and Stanford are the only teams that are even close to guaranteed loses for us (though, I could see us coming close to an upset if we play well against Stanford). Murray State might give us some trouble, and we might have a tough opponent for Bracket Busters, so that's maybe 4 losses. As for our conference schedule, I think we'll do really well this year, especially at home. I think this is the year we will really start to see the Electric Zoo come back to life (though I don't see consistent sell-outs happening until next year). I count our possible losses as @Northeastern, @ODU, @Drexel, @George Mason, and @VCU. VCU will be down this year though, from losing their star point guard and a couple other big players to transfers, so we might not even lose at their. I'll allow for another random loss in our schedule somewhere. So I could see us, pretty realistically, have a loss record in the single digits.

Another thing to keep in mind is home games during winter break. We only have 4 home games during this period, and the best teams we play are Radford and Delaware, which should be fairly easy wins. We'll have students in session for all the major home games this season. In addition, Denzel Bowles, our next big man who is a transfer from Texas A&M, becomes eligible after Fall exams are over, so his first eligible game will be at Eastern Michigan. Denzel makes Dazz Thornton looks like an average height basketball player. He is a tree and I believe will be an immediate difference maker. Speaking of Dazz, he is in the best shape I've ever seen him in. Check out the pictures from the Pep Rally to see Dazz, Denzel, Julius Wells, and Ryan Knight. This is definitely a season to be optimistic about.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Want To Help With the Windbreaker?

Do you have a great idea for an article? Is there an area of campus life that you don't feel is being covered? Please let me know. Right now, I'm just writing articles that I believe people want to read (and that I have time to write). Even if you're an alumnus and think the JMU community should know about something, feel free to shoot me an e-mail. Or, for the aspiring (or professional) writers out there, go ahead and send me an article - I would suggest clearing the idea with me first, so you don't write an article that won't get published.

The key is to let me know what you're thinking and what's going on; if I don't know about something, there's no way I can cover it. JMU, after all, is a community, and I want this blog to mirror that. The Windbreaker is meant to be an ongoing conversation about what's going on at JMU and with alumni across the globe. If you want to be a contributing writer or photographer, I'm definitely open to that too, so send me an email. Thanks!

GO DUKES!

JMU.edu Website Redesign: Round 2

On August 14th, I posted an article asking for critiques of the redesigned JMU.edu site. I got six great, detailed responses of what people thought. JMU has responded to the feedback from everyone and has made some revisions to the website. Are you satisfied with what has been done? Do they need to make more edits? The readability has greatly increased thanks to the purple type, but was there anything else you wanted to see done? I personally miss the emphasis on 'Be the change', but that's just because I loved the idea in general.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Meet The Dukes Day On Saturday

"Meet the Dukes Day is a great opportunity for the JMU Nation to catch a glimpse of the team prior to the season starting," says Alyssa Gerlando, Director of Athletics Marketing. "We have many family-friendly activities planned, including a post-scrimmage
autograph session, inflatable games, face painting, and caricaturists." This is a day where the football practice is open for everyone to come hang out and watch the team scrimmage. The team will start stretching at 9am and autographs will start at 11:15. For people coming from off campus, you can park in the stadium parking deck or the Godwin/Bookstore lot. Student Duke Club will also have a table for sign-ups. Here's a list of all that's happening:
  • Free admission!
  • Watch the Dukes scrimmage!
  • Concession stand will be open, offering $1 hot dogs!
  • Post-scrimmage autographs!
  • Inflatable games for kids!
  • Rosie the Clown will be face painting!
  • Caricaturists!
  • Single game tickets and mini plans will be on sale at Gate A!

Saturday, August 22, 2009

JMU 1787 2k9

Starting Tuesday afternoon, thousands of freshmen and transfer students have descended on campus for a week of getting to know the campus and each other through lots of fun and informative events. A full report on 1787 Orientation will be posted sometime next week. A quick thank you to all people involved with this, as it's a ton of work and is very important to the university. It also got us ranked in the recent U.S. News and World Report for having one of the best orientation experiences in the nation. I was able to stop by the first rotation for Quad Fest on Thursday and the Pep Rally last night and wanted to put up the photos. I've also started using an account dedicated to Windbreaker photos instead of just using my personal account and I'll be repopulating that with all my old JMU sports and events photos from the past couple years. Check back in a few days for the full report.









Thursday, August 20, 2009

JMU #1 Public University in the South for 16 Straight Years

U.S. News and World Reports has once again ranked JMU at the top of the list for Master's public universities in the South (4th overall in the South). This is the 16th straight year we've gotten this recognition. According to the rankings, master's universities, "offer a full range of undergrad programs and some master's programs but few doctoral programs." If we keep it up two more years, JMU will have been the #1 public master's level university in the South for the entire life of incoming freshmen. We were also ranked as the #5 "Up-and-Coming" college in the South (#2 public). I've never really understood this category, as George Mason was ranked at the top of the national university list last year and is #2 nationally this year, which begs the question, "Them?" Anyway, I prefer looking at the more concrete categories instead of colleges that, "were singled out as schools that have recently made the most promising and innovative changes in academics, faculty, students, campus or facilities."

JMU also made a list of "Programs to look for" in the "First-year experiences" category. It is deemed an experience, " that goes beyond orientation programs for making freshmen feel connected." I'm glad this report came out as the 1787 Orientation is going on right now for over 4,000 incoming students. A report on this program will be coming in the next week on this year's outstanding orientation experiences.

James Madison University is also on an 80-school list, "A Focus on Undergrads," of colleges and universities that "were singled out most often when experts were asked to identify schools where the faculty has an unusual commitment to undergraduate teaching. The university is the top-ranked public institution for "A Focus on Undergrads" among universities-master's in the south region. Anyone who has attended this school can attest to the fact that if you're in need of any extra help, the faculty is usually more than willing to help. We also have an outstanding faculty-to-student ratio.

JMU's 91 percent freshman retention rate and 81 percent average graduate rate were among the factors contributing to the university's stellar ranking in the public master's level.

JMU news article

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Incoming JMU Honors Students Set World Record For Blowing

Yesterday evening, nearly 6 months after a failed attempt at breaking the world record for number of people whistling at the same time, sophomore honors student Bryan Brady led over 200 people gathered in Grafton-Stovall Theater in whistling "The Star-Spangled Banner" several times to complete the task of breaking that record. The group was made up of incoming freshmen honors students and their parents who made the trek over from Shenandoah Hall (the newest residence hall on campus located beside Chesapeake Hall), along with JMU staff. Bryan had attempted this in the Spring, but couldn't find enough interested people. Here, he had a captive audience that was perfect to do the job. Who doesn't want to set a world record their first day on campus? Some stats from the DNR:

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the 200-plus whistlers were enough to break the record for "the most people whistling at the same time." The current record was set by Cauet and Virgin Radio in Paris on Dec. 12, when 125 people whistled together.

The record should be verified in a few weeks, according to organizers.

Anybody else want to break some records in the name of JMU? I'll keep a running list going, so get started!

DNR: Blowing Into Town

Friday, August 14, 2009

JMU.com Website Redesign

As I'm sure many of you have noticed, JMU recently redesigned their website. Now, so far I've heard mostly negative reviews. As a graphic designer and web designer, I wouldn't necessarily disagree, but we're going to do things a bit differently than the normal news story about this. Instead of just saying, "It sucks," how about we do an actual critique of the redesign. Let's keep this constructive and hopefully if we have some good ideas, they'll take them into consideration. I'll save my comments for later, as I want to hear your comments first. You can write pros and cons, give examples of websites you think they should model it off of...just be specific. Comments can range from the look of the site, to the information given, to the way the navigation works. Keep in mind all comments are moderated, so just writing words like ugly, horrible, terrible, (insert other choice words), or even "I like it" won't be published. I want to know WHY you like it or don't like it. This is about a website for an institution of higher learning after all. So let's hear it...

Thursday, August 13, 2009

East Campus Dining Hall Opens Monday

The new East Campus Dining Hall is set to open on Monday, August 17 (name still TBD). For those that haven't driven by campus lately, the place looks AMAZING. And that's just the outside. The 700-seat facility is also the campus' first LEED certified building, with measures in place to save money on lighting, heating, water, and lots of other green initiatives (including getting lettuce and potatoes locally). It also features a very nice banquet room upstairs.

Now for the list of cool stuff that should move us up another couple spots for the list of best campus food in the nation. First, and probably coolest, JMU has hired a pastry chef from Disney to work in the new ECDH. This means that everything from cinnamon buns for breakfast to pies for dessert will taste that much better. Next, the new eatery will include traditional naan and other Indian food fixed in a tandoori oven. Also on the menu will be fresh, made-to-order pastas and California and New York-style pizza, using herbs grown in the Arboretum. There will be a Bistro, as well, that will be like classic home-cooked meals, along with having a large salad bar. All of this food will come plated, garnished, and fixed like you're in a restaurant.


I can't wait to try out all this new food that is guaranteed to be top of the line. Recent JMU alumnus and current intern on campus John Johnson got a chance to try it out today, and it is apparently, "Off the heezy." I'll update with new pics and more info once I get in (hopefully in the next few days).

New Dining Hall Serves Up Sustainability, Restaurant-Style Meals

Peter Rose Joins JMU Football

For those that follow JMU football closely, you may have heard about Peter Rose. He was a standout football star from Amherst County High School who was given an offer by VT which was later withdrawn when he was arrested on May 16, 2008, and convicted of two felony counts of selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school and two misdemeanor charges of selling marijuana. A judge "set aside" the two felony convictions, which allowed JMU football coach Mickey Matthews to start recruiting Rose. After a year at prep school it was finally time for Peter Rose to get his chance to get into real college football.

Now, some readers may be asking why we would bother with him if a school like VT wouldn't take him. Look at it this way, if you're VT, you're already walking a pretty thin line as far as their athletes' extracurriculars go. JMU on the other hand has a great track record at keeping all but a bad egg here or there out of trouble. In addition, we have the X-factor that will help make sure Peter keeps his nose clean. That would be Peter's older brother Jonathon, who is a tailback turned strong safety at JMU. I think with his older brother here he will be much more likely to keep out of trouble. I also have full faith in Coach Matthews to take care of business if he doesn't keep in line. So on Wednesday, he finally got admitted to JMU and cleared to start practicing with the team. We'll have to wait and see what position he will be playing (somewhere in the secondary) and if he'll be making an immediate impact, but with a rather thin depth chart at safety and linebacker, it definitely couldn't hurt having him on the team. Good luck to Peter on and off the field.

DNR: JMU Football Blog

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Forbes Ranks JMU #37 Public School In Nation

A rankings list released last week by Forbes.com listed James Madison University as the #37 public school in the nation and #234 overall. Now, let's look at how Forbes decided on this list, as it's a bit different than most other college rankings. Seven factors determine a school's rank:
  • Student Evaluations from RateMyProfessors.com (25%)

  • Four-year Debt Load for Typical Student Borrowers (20%)

  • Four-Year Graduation Rates (16.66%)
  • Listings of Alumni in the 2008 edition of Who's Who in America (12.5%)

  • Salaries of Alumni from PayScale.com (12.5%)

  • Students Receiving Nationally Competitive Awards (8.33%)

  • Faculty Receiving Awards for Scholarship and Creative Pursuits (5%)

As you can see by the fact that faculty rating site RateMyProfessors.com is given the most weight, this is not a traditional rankings list, but tries to take in an array of factors. This is opposed to most lists that will focus only on academics. The full methodology behind the rankings can be found here.

Agree or disagree with how it's setup, it's time to look at the rest of the list. We've seen where JMU ranks, so let's check out some other rankings from the area and CAA. Top 100 Public schools have their rankings from that list in parentheses.

#34Washington & Lee
#48William & Mary (4)
#54Hampden-Sydney
#64Virginia (6)
#68UNC (7)
#69Sweet Briar
#79VMI (10)
#95Hollins
#102Emory & Henry
#121Mary Washington (13)
#146Richmond
#34Randolph
#217Delaware (31)
#234JMU (37)
#256VT (44)
#257Randolph-Macon
#263Villanova
#289Roanoke
#338George Mason (75)
#368Towson (89)
#387Maryland (99)
#410ODU
#465CNU
#529VCU
#564Liberty

Complete list of overall rankings

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Return of the Quad

After a few years of the Quad being at least partially blocked for construction, it is finally opening back up. The fence that had been blocking off nearly half of the Quad has recently been taken down and most of the construction done on the Quad side of the tunnel has been completed. Walking around the newly reopened Quad was like seeing a friend you haven't seen since sophomore year and they're dressed a little nicer and are in a little better shape than you remember them. The new paths are really looking nice and, as you can see in the photos, the walls are bluestone. No matter which angle you look at the new construction from, it looks great. Once the PAC (which is also coming along nicely...hopefully a photo tour of which will be coming soon) is done it will really complete the Quad. So now, the photos:


















Additional photos

And what post about the Quad would be complete without...
Madison Project's I'm On The Quad

Monday, August 3, 2009

Women's Basketball 2009 OOC Schedule

For those disappointed with the Men's Basketball out-of-conference schedule for this year, check out Women's Basketball's lineup. We have lots of great returning players and some incoming freshmen that look very promising. I think Coach Kenny Brooks is starting to put together the type of schedule he really wants with some of the more well-known schools in the region. So without further ado, let's check out the schedule. Last year's final RPI's are in parentheses.

Nov. 6 (Fri) - @UVA (17)

Nov. 18 (Wed) - Georgetown (75)

Nov. 22 (Sun) - VT (166)

Nov. 24 (Tues) - @Austin Peay (170)

Nov. 29 (Sun) - @Western Carolina (95)

Nov. 1 (Tues) - @Liberty (72)

Nov. 6 (Sun) - Siena (205)

Nov. 18 (Fri) - @Duke (5)

Nov. 21 (Mon) - Longwood (323)

Nov. 29-30 (Tues-Wed) - JMU Tournament with Lafayette (329), UNC Asheville (297), Western Michigan (248)

That puts our average RPI at 167. If you take out the opponents in the JMU tournament, the average RPI is 125. The low quality of opponents in the tournament is to be expected for a first year tournament. It's just great to see Coach Brooks pull together the tournament that he's been working for a couple years. The experience will pay off during the CAA tournament at the Convo this year and hopefully the team will be able to build some excitement so there will be a better student turnout this year (though it was really hurt last year thanks to the tourney being over Spring Break).

It'll really be exciting to see how we do against top-level opponents this year. With three opponents from the ACC (though Virginia Tech's Women's team can't really be considered a top-level opponent) and one from the Big East, we'll have some decent OOC competition before going into post-season tournaments.

We've also secured some great deals for future games with ACC opponents. In addition to the games this year, UVA comes to Harrisonburg next year, as does Duke. The year after next, JMU will travel to UVA again to complete the series.

DNR article

Trailer Truck Crashes Into Rockingham Hall

File this under the "Wait....what?!" category. On Friday (8/1) afternoon, John Wodecki, 79, of Centereach, N.Y., went to switch lanes on his way south on I-81. He apparently didn't see the 2009 International tractor-trailer driven by James Melton, 52, of Wytheville. The push veered Melton over the median, through the northbound lane, up a hill, through a fence, up another hill, and into the side of Rockingham Hall. I enjoyed this comment on the DNR's website: "Ever driven a semi up a hill at 60mph? #%&@ gets confusing." While it does seem crazy that it went so far and still couldn't stop, one has to take into consideration the weight that the semi could have been pulling, the fact that he was trying to slow down on grass, and the possibility that the initial hit from Wodecki's car could have messed up the internals of the engine or the drivetrain making it harder to slow down or steer.


Luckily, there was only one other car involved in the accident - David Walker, 54, of Houston - and there were no life-threatening injuries. Melton was transferred to UVA, while Wodecki was treated at RMH and released. In addition, it's a great thing that this happened in the summer while students were not living in the residence hall or things could have been much worse. The truck and both cars were totaled, and it looked like 2 rooms in Rockingham Hall had significant damage, but things could have easily been more damaging. A construction company has already been contacted to have the repairs done by the time the new students move in.




DNR article
HFD photos