DC Charter School Closing in a Month, Stranding 250

The Washington Academy, which serves 250 area children, is set to close in 30 days. It’s not clear how those kids are supposed to be absorbed into the schools system, as many neighborhood schools in that region are set to close if the chancellor’s plan is completed.

Georgetown Student/Staff Data Missing

If you’re currently a Georgetown Student, or work there, your identity may have been stolen yesterday, when a disk containing the records of the 38,000 students and staff of the University was taken from an office on campus. Georgetown is offering free credit monitoring for those affected. Give the University a call at 866-740-2458 or visit their identity site for more info.

More Rail News

Here starts the blame game. Rep. Jim Moran comes out swinging like it’s a little black boy near his car. Moran insists that this is clearly a political ploy to thwart democrats in Northern Virginia, and has nothing to do with potential risk. Meanwhile, the Examiner points out it could be about failing to resolve a series of technical problems in the proposal, that would have resulted in the failure to operate the proposed line.

It’s with incredible sorrow that I typed that headline just now. 20 students were killed this morning in a horrific tragedy the likes of which has never struck a university. Details are still coming out this afternoon as to how this happened. Currently the VT site reads:

Two shootings on campus today have left 22 confirmed dead, including students.

The university will open tomorrow at 8 a.m. but classes are cancelled.

My heart goes out to all those in Blacksburg today. I’ve been unable to reach via electronic means anyone down at the main campus, and I suspect that with the volume of response and the size of the campus, their main server is overloaded.

Jane Fernandes is done at Gallaudet after the Board of Trustees voted to terminate her appointment as the president of the University, resulting in a jubilant scene on Florida Avenue where the protestors not only burned Fernandes in effigy, but exulted in their triumph after 27 days of demonstrations.

They’re not out of the woods, yet. There have been no promises of a blanket amnesty for protestors, and they’ve promised to continue to protest until they are granted amnesty from reprisals from the administration.

For those of you keeping track of local sports fans disenfranchised by cable stupidity, please add the followers of the Maryland Terrapins and Virginia Cavaliers football to your list. Even though both teams represent leading state universities in the region, fans will not be able to watch them on their televisions (The Post) because of a dispute between ESPN which holds rights to ACC games and ComcastSportsNet which attempted to get the game on their channel. The specifics are unknown, but surely it comes down $, one way or another.

The only way to see anything about the game other than heading to Charlottesville is through ESPN360, a broadband service that is not available on many cable systems, including Comcast. An exception has been made for the University of Maryland community; anyone with a UMd IP address will get access on Saturday.

If I were a Terp or a Wahoo, I’d be really upset at the ACC for not locking down a TV contract that ensures all conference games are available on TV one way or the other. Other conferences like the Big11Ten have all their games broadcast over Pay-Per-View at the very least.

Then again that is no gurantee of succes either. Last weekend, MASN picked up the ESPN+ feed of the Penn State (my alma mater) vs. Minnesota game and provided completely inaudible sound. It figures the hated MASN would screw up. I would have rather paid $15 or whatever it was to have sound and no Anita Marks commercials.

This week’s CityPaper cover story goes after the home of the University of Maryland in just about every way possible.

What local colleges have a better student life than College Park? Strayer, AU, Georgetown, GW, Southeastern, GMU, Howard, NOVA, Catholic, Montgomery College, Marymount, Gallaudet, UDC…

…stocking the student body with mathletes has done little to address College Park’s greatest shortcoming: It has the locational charm of a highway rest stop.

…an ugly shopping strip, a scarcity of choice, an air of lurking danger, and the promise of thoughtless mayhem.

That the CityPaper is going after a large commuter school is not surprising. Only one of the five parts of this story takes a look at how College Park is trying to improve itself; the other four parts are details of how bad a place the CityPaper perceives it to be.

Is the CityPaper is being fair with this article? Terps, we await your reply.

Twenty years ago this morning, University of Maryland all-American Len Bias died of a cocaine overdose (The Post). It was one of the most shocking events of the 1980s in Greater Washington, not too mention all of sports. Bias, a Landover native, was a juggernaut on the basketball court who had dominated the ACC like no other, save Michael Jordan — maybe. Having everything to live for — he was drafted by the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics — Bias threw it all away.

In the aftermath, UMd athletics was in shambles. Coach Lefty Drisell was forced out (The Post) and further scandals would kick the Terps off live television for a season. It would take over a decade for Maryland to become a force in ACC basketball again and in 2002 they won the NCAA championship. The Celtics, who were expected to extend their dynasty into the 90s with Bias, have yet to win another championship. Bias’ mother, Lonise, convinced that her son did not die in vain (USA Today), has spent the last twenty years speaking out about drug awareness and parental responsibility. Statistics from the National Institute on Drug Abuse lend credence to her theory. I saw her speak during my senior year of high school. By then she had buried another son, Jay, who was shot to death (The Post) over a trivial matter in 1990.

To this day, there are still questions as to whether Bias was a regular cocaine user or tried it only once. I have heard rumors that it was an open secret in ’86 that Bias used coke, though that could revisionist history since up until his death, Bias passed every drug test. The late Jack McMahon, chief scout of the Philadelphia 76ers, who had the first pick in the 1986 draft, said `There’s just something about him I don’t like.’ McMahon never elaborated on that before he died in the late ’80s.

In the end, Bias leaves competing legacies — “oh what might have been” and cautionary tale. His mother thinks it is the latter.

Futher reading

Bias Death Still Ripples Through Athletes’ Academic Lives – The Post

Michael Wilbon: The Story of Bias’s Death Should Always Have Life – The Post

For many, Bias’ death still resonates – The Wash. Times

Rick Snider: Where has the time gone? – The Wash. Examiner

Remembering Len Bias – The Gazette

The Death of Len Bias – A Post section from 1996

David Steele: Memory of shock, emptiness still fresh 20 years later – The Baltimore Sun

Len Bias: 20 years later – The Baltimore Sun

Unforgettable anniversary – The Boston Globe

What might have been – The Boston Globe

Lonise Bias biography from Keppler Speakers

Yesterday, the faculty of Gallaudet University voted no confidence in the University administration’s choice to succeed the presidency of the university. Students are holding daily protests in front of the campus’ administration building in protest of their choice for President, Jane Fernandes. The issue at the heart of this is that Fernandes is not “deaf enough” to lead the University at this time, because she did not learn to use ASL until she was in her 20s.

It appears, though, that the student body is going to attempt to hold the University hostage until such time as the search is reopened, given the statements of students like Anthony Mowl:

“Jane Fernandes must resign as president of Gallaudet University. We will not accept anything less.”

With the faculty unwilling to cross the students, and the students holding the administration’s feet to the fire, despite the fact that Ms. Fernandes was the provost there for six years, one has to wonder how the University will take this sort of reaction from the students, and worse, their own faculty.

Though my brackets are a complete and total mess, what a great mess it is. Georgetown and George Mason are into the Sweet Sixteen, upsetting Ohio State and UNC in the round of 32. Georgetown absolutely manhandled the Buckeyes today and I’m betting M Street is a bit of a mess with all kinds of people out and about. GMU’s game was a bit closer, but the upsets of the 2 and 3 seeds is a huge deal.

Way to go, GMU and Georgetown!