F r o n t   L i n e Before Your Time by Jim Steichen You just couldn't get here a year earlier, now could you? No worries though. The Dec will catch you up on some of what you missed last year. Here are three top news items that are likely to continue rearing their heads in years to come, and if not rearing their heads, they'll at least be mentioned in passing. We figured you ought to have some background. And don't forget to check this page every week for in-depth coverage of both hot-button issues and overlooked news stories. The Bus Stop Debacle Parking and Transportation (P&T) officials didn't know what they were getting into when they decided early last September to move the Commerce School bus stop down the road a ways to Clark Hall. Moving any other stop on the route wouldn't have unleashed the outcry that this particular move did, but The Comm. School stop is more than just a drop-off and pick-up point for black students at U.Va. The "Black Bus Stop" -- a lot of people wince when they hear it called that for the first time, but it's not a derisive term -- or BBS for short, is one of the most popular and visible gathering spots for black students. Although they did not make the move for racial reasons, the fact that P&T officials would make such a decision without considering the feelings and concerns of the community angered many students and faculty. Things might have gone more smoothly had P&T let the reasons for the move be known -- it was actually out of concern for the structural integrity of the steam tunnels below the street, which is also the reason for the current construction on McCormick Road -- and if the change had not been effected so abruptly: the stop was moved before the start of classes, making for an unpleasant discovery for returning students. In the end, things worked out. After pressure from students, the Black Student Alliance, Student Council, faculty, and administrators, P&T acted quickly to return the stop to its original location. P&T primarily cited safety and not racial reasons for the move -- the danger to pedestrians due to the lack of space for people to wait near Clark Hall. When the dust settled everyone seemed content, but when the McCormick construction concludes (which shouldn't be terribly imminent if past projects are any indication) this issue might again come to the fore. Rape and Rohypnol One of the most significant and talked-about legal proceedings of last year, Commonwealth vs. Guerrini is sure to come up in many a future discussion on issues of sexual assault. Then fourth-year student Keith Guerrini was charged this past January with "animate sexual penetration," a charge equal in seriousness to rape. The key issue of the trial proved to be the alleged use of drugs on the part of the defendant to alter the mental state of the victim. The victim testified that after consuming a drink made for her by her date, her fourth of the evening but the first she herself had not mixed, she became ill and left for home with her date. She recalled being kissed and rubbed and the defendant vaginally penetrating her with his finger but was unsure whether penile insertion occurred. Her roommate took her to the emergency room that same evening for examination. Blood tests found traces of the depressants Valium and Librium, but none of Rohypnol, the infamous "date rape" drug ("Roofies" in common parlance). Officials testified that the effect of the amount of the drugs found even in conjunction with the alcohol was "virtually insignificant." The judge in the case apologetically dismissed the case on the second day of the trial citing lack of evidence. For a more complete presentation of the evidence from this trial, see Elizabeth Beauvais' article "On Trial" in the January 22 issue of this year's Dec. In a Rush In by far the single most controversial act of the past school year, Dean of Students Robert Canevari moved fraternity rush to the spring semester. The beginning of the discussion of moving rush from fall semester can be dated to a speech at Fall Convocation by English professor and then Faculty Senate Chair Jahan Ramazani. In an address calling for a renewed commitment to "intellectual community" (a phrase that has become a watchword over the past year), Ramazani modestly proposed moving fraternity and sorority rush to second year. Countless students, faculty, and administrators took up the issue from there. Events proceeded like chess moves over the spring semester, with the issues becoming remarkably clouded as both administration and students began to conflate the question of intellectual community with issues of alcohol abuse and pervasive alcohol culture. The Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC) adopted resolutions banning hard liquor at guest-list parties, and the Inter-Sorority Council (ISC) voted to discontinue Thursday night mixers. Then the Faculty Senate of the College of Arts and Sciences passed a resolution in support of second-year rush. Although the ISC -- in perhaps the most conciliatory, rational, and largely overlooked act of the whole debate -- voluntarily moved rush to the spring semester, IFC continued to hold out for fall rush, citing economic necessity. The final showdown occurred when IFC failed to formally ratify Dean Canevari's ten-point proposal for keeping fall rush, which would have prohibited fraternities from purchasing alcohol. Fraternities and sororities will hold formal rush during the spring semester this year.

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