The VWC athletics department has just added its 15th varsity ODAC sport, women's volleyball. New head coach Jennifer Strauss is forming a team of 12 to 15 girls to begin training for Fall 2002. "Right now, I am in the process of recruiting," Strauss said. " I have a list of around 250 prospective players that I'm going through." To start a program in the ODAC you must have a minimum number of students. There has already been a strong interest among the female athletes.

"I just want to generate some interest on campus," Strauss said. "However, much of my effort will be on incoming freshmen." According to Athletic Director Sonny Travis, the decision to create the team was based largely on the prospective students who might be drawn to the school by it. "We've had a ton of interest in our admissions," Travis said. "And it is a very popular ODAC sport."

The team will be the twelfth to compete in the intercollegiate level. This will bring VWC totals to eight women's sports teams and seven men's. "That's OK, because of the imbalance in population here," said Travis. "There is no men's volleyball team, or we would add that, too." This is Strauss's first coaching position on the collegiate level. Two years out of college herself, she was a four-year varsity captain at Fairfield University in Connecticut where she received a B.A. in philosophy.

There she led her team to four consecutive Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular-season championships, three MAAC tournament titles and three appearances in the NCAA Division I national championship tournaments. "We were very impressed with her enthusiasm and background," Travis said. Strauss is currently obtaining a M.S. at ODU in education with emphasis in sports management.
"A lot of it is the business aspect," Strauss said of her studies. "How a budget works, how to make a budget. It's important to learn the business aspect of collegiate athletics."

When she learned of the coaching opportunity here at VWC, she was coaching club volleyball at the Tidewater Volleyball Association. "I've always wanted to coach at the collegiate level," Strauss said. "This is the opportunity of a lifetime! This is what I want to do as a career. This is it!" Although she comes from a Division I background, Strauss encourages girls who participate in other sports to come out for the team. "The coaches want the girls to be in as many sports as possible," Strauss said. "I have no problem when the seasons don't conflict. They'll be in shape." While the team will not practice as much in the off-season as Division I, Strauss demands maximum effort from her athletes.

"I'm going to treat them like athletes with 100 percent commitment," Strauss said. "The only way to make the program work is to treat them like collegiate athletes." This year a "developmental varsity" team will form that will play a 10-date schedule of tri-matches and tournaments in Fall 2002. "As a developmental varsity," Travis said, "We set a solid foundation for the following year. With our facility, we become an instant competition."

Strauss agrees that the developmental year is a great time for growing. "They like for teams to have a transitional year before they are a full-fledged varsity," Strauss said. "I think it is an intelligent way to start a program, and it's a great learning experience." Currently, Strauss is trying to have open gym time in the convocation center for the girls to practice without pressure, "just to get their hand on the ball." Their first match will be against Hollins University on Aug. 31, so the team will start official practice in mid-August. With a strong leader and the support of the athletic staff, the team will be ready to compete in the fall of 2003. And the goals are high for what this team should accomplish. Travis said, "Just like all our sports, we want an ODAC championship."

"I honestly think with the athletes I have and the enthusiasm, it's not a far-off chance," Strauss agreed. Although Strauss will be pleased with whatever accomplishments this team makes, she admits a title "would be icing on the cake."

She hunts stories instead of live game. And, as of this February, she is the newest addition to the Learning Resource Center tutoring staff. Charlotte Gullick has joined the Wesleyan community as a writing tutor. Gullick, a native of northern California, holds a B.A. in literature and creative writing from the University of California at Santa Cruz and an M.A. in English and creative writing from the University of California at Davis. Gullick's first novel, By Way of Water, will be published in August. "It's very stark," she said. "I always feel like I should warn people, because I have such a positive personality. It's a whole different ball game when you enter the world of the book."

Gullick began her novel while she was a student at Santa Cruz, and it was there that she first met Louis Owens, a teacher and writer who became her mentor. "I had written a few stories, but he was the one who validated what I was writing about," she said. She was then accepted to graduate school based on the first few chapters of the novel. The first draft was completed while Gullick was staying at a ranch in Colorado. It was submitted to an editor, but Gullick was told that it needed work.

She rewrote it three times before it was finally accepted last August. Gullick said that she was "high as a kite" the day that she received the call from the editor. "But also scared. So many of us are creative. For a long time we hang out in the potential because it is a comfortable zone. To actually put yourself out there, to take that risk -- it's terrifying. A terrifying blessing." Her debut novel is a story about a family of loggers that takes place during winter in a California forest, and some of the material is drawn from Gullick's own life.

“There are some true moments, but I'll never tell anybody what's what,” she said. Among her inspirations, Gullick counts Steinbeck, Faulkner, and Toni Morrison among the top writers on her list. "I think I became a writer because I have such a different background," she said. The middle of five children, Gullick grew up with a strong storytelling background, the hunting aspect of which can be seen in her writing. Of her four siblings, she is the only one who hasn't shot and killed a deer. "I'm capturing stories instead of game," she said. After a small book tour, she will continue to work on her second novel, which deals with issues similar to the first, but more from a humor perspective.

"I don't know what counts more, talent or discipline," she said. "All it takes is luck and determination." Adding to her long list of places she's been, Gullick moved to Norfolk three months ago with her fiancé, who is doing research for a historical novel set in North Carolina during the depression of the 1930s. She then joined Wesleyan after sending out her resume to many different colleges and universities. "I had no idea it was so nice here at VWC," she said.

She is also teaching a remedial composition class at Tidewater Community College. "I love it. The students are so cynical and hopeful ... It's so cool to see people encounter and develop critical thinking skills." Gullick will be available Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Learning Resource Center in the Clarke Building.

The Internet has been slow because there has been too much traffic on the net from students downloading shared files off of Napster. Napster has been shut down, and Computer Services have started using software called Packageshaper to manage online traffic this semester. Director of Computer Services Jack Dmoch is responsible for administrative and academic web presence for the campus. He was in charge of finding a solution for the heavy traffic on the Internet last semester.

"The philosophy here is to not prevent or prohibit any application," said Dmoch, "but give priority to business and academic applications." In the fall semester the Internet was "brought to its knees," according to Dmoch, from people downloading Napster files. Standard traffic could not function because the lines were "totally maxed out," and the only solution was to shut Napster down.

Dmoch did some research at other schools including The College of William & Mary and Virginia Military Institute. Dmoch found that at William & Mary students were using 63 T1, which is a type of modem that allows 1.5 mb per second. Their lines were at capacity fall semester due to students downloading music and video applications. At VMI they are using a T3 modem, which is equal to 26 T1, and their lines were maxed out, too. They tried one product to fix their problem, but it did not work. Then they turned to Packageshaper to solve the problem.

"Students off-campus using MARSIS will find it to very robust," said Dmoch, "because it has higher priority." Dmoch started looking at various applications and allocated the average bandwidth and the burst or peak bandwidth by application type. The college has a T1 modem, which has a total bandwidth of 1.5 mb per second. Dmoch took the recreational applications like Napster and, using Packageshaper, gave everyone 300 kb. If possible, students can burst to 1 mb if the bandwidth is available. Standard traffic such as http, ftp and telnet will use 1 mb and can burst to 1.4 mb.

Faculty and students can download normal applications, but file sharing will be slow. Having a T1 alone costs $1,030 per month, and this was a solution within the college's economic constraints. Had Dmoch done nothing, he believes everything would have come to a "screeching halt." "Rather than deny access," said Dmoch, "I put a solution in place to maintain traffic at a suitable rate."

Pi Delta Phi, the French Honor Society, became re-active last semester and had their first inductions on Mar. 18, since their inactivity. This was made possible with help from sophomore Alena Quigg a 300-level French student and French Professor Dr. Alain Gabon. “It was pretty difficult to start,” Quigg said. “We had to do research and figure things our for ourselves.”

Quigg wanted an opportunity to bring francophones, those who appreciate France and its culture, together outside of the classroom. Quigg researched other French Honor Societies for membership requirements and spoke to Lina Cottingham about how to get things going again. “Lina was very helpful,” Quigg said. Before the new members were inducted, Ryan Cooper was the only remaining member of Pi Delta Phi. Quigg expressed Cooper’s importance to re-starting the society because they, “. . . needed a link between old Pi Delta Phi and new Pi Delta Phi.”

A total of nine members were inducted. Requirements consist of a 3.2 in French, a 3.0 GPA, and the student must have taken a 300-level French course at VWC. The guest speaker at the ceremony was President of Old Dominion University Roseann Runte, who is very accomplished in the French world. Some of the guests who attended were President Greer and Dean Mansfield. According to Quigg the event was simple, elegant and formal. French and American flags were hung and the red and white carnations and candles were used in the ceremony.

At the end, all the members put their carnations together to symbolize the unity between francophones. Now that Pi Delta Phi is no longer dormant, they are already planning activities such as attending a French Film Festival in Richmond, Va.