VMI Cyber Corps

Alumni and Friends of VMI:

Number of Cyber Corps Subscribers: 611

Link to The Cadet: For those interested in checking out The Cadet newspaper online go to the following address: http://www.vmi.edu/cadet/. Not sure how often it's updated.

Items of Interest: In cruising the Electronic Turnouts lately I've noticed several interesting topics of conversation.

1) Alumni sending up cadets: I guess I didn't realize this, but if an alumnus sends up a cadet to the GC, etc. the penalty is double.

2) Alumni letting rats out of the ratline: A couple weeks ago it seemed that some alumni were letting rats of the ratline. The commandant intervened and asked them (told them?) to discontinue this practice. Rationale is the ratline is administered by the First Class and only they have such authority. This issue generated some lively debate among the Electronic Turnout contributors.

3) Alumni in Barracks: I believe that alumni will shortly be allowed back in barracks. However, and as I understand it, the alumni must sign in and must have an escort. If anyone knows anything different, please let me know and I'll pass along the clarification.

4) Appearance of the Corps: I'm hearing from some folks that Corps appearance is poor. Others tell me the Corps looks good. I was at the Institute a couple weeks ago and I thought the Corps looked OK (not great, not horrible). I will have to offer my personal opinion, however, that I'm not wild about the addition of the extra companies. I think it makes the companies look too small when on parade (even if you account for the fact that the rats haven't been assimilated).

5) Delinking of the Electronic Turnouts: I was told that the Executive Committee of the Alumni Association voted to remove the link to the Electronic Turnouts from the Alumni Association home page. I believe the delinking was to have taken place Oct. 1. Not entirely sure what the reason was.

Recent Article: The following article recently appeared in the Roanoke Times. I do not know if they have spell check software which should have picked up the misspelling of superintendent.


Sunday, September 26, 1999
VMI superintendant used state resources to write two books
Prosecutor pores over book deals

Council members were concerned the investigation could muddy the public's understanding of academic publishing.

By MATT CHITTUM
THE ROANOKE TIMES

A Lexington prosecutor's investigation into the Virginia Military Institute superintendent's use of state resources to write two books isn't complete, but it's already brought reactions from the highest echelons of state government.

The first resistance came when an assistant attorney general who is a VMI graduate issued a letter that questioned Commonwealth's Attorney Gordon Saunders' pursuit of the matter.

Then on Thursday night, the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia passed a resolution reaffirming its support for state college faculty members who publish scholarly works.

Both actions came after Saunders said on Sept. 17 that he was looking into the books -- for one of which Josiah Bunting III was paid $50,000 personally.

Saunders said Bunting used state telephones and shipping services to deal with his publisher and agent, and used institute staff to type and edit his manuscripts.

The assistant attorney general, Ashley Taylor, said the law clearly allows what Bunting did. Taylor's informal opinion was requested by the president of VMI's board of visitors.

The Council of Higher Education's resolution encouraged college faculty "to research and publish, and to use their support staff in advancing such scholarly and laudable activities." The resolution cited state law that directs each state college to set its own policy regarding the use of resources.

The resolution was "not directed at the Bunting thing in and of itself," said Paul Nardo, a spokesman for the Council of Higher Education , but it was prompted by news of Saunders' investigation.

"That kind of got them exercised," Nardo said. Council members were concerned the investigation could have a chilling effect on scholarly research and about public understanding that academics publish books using college resources all the time.

The resolution was introduced by Tom Farrell, vice president of Virginia Power, who first disclosed that he is married to the sister-in-law of Richard Cullen, the former attorney general who is Bunting's attorney.

Two other higher education council members who are lawyers at Cullen's firm, McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe, recused themselves from the vote, Nardo said.

Saunders declined to comment on the resolution.

The council's resolution also notes that it's public policy in Virginia for public colleges to encourage their faculty to research and write books and articles, and it's common for the authors to retain the copyrights.

Scholars stay on top of their field by writing about it, defenders of the practice say. Whatever resources scholars use, colleges are repaid several times over in prestige from having their faculty publish books.

"Bunting's reputation is a jewel in the crown for VMI," said Larry Sabato, University of Virginia professor, political pundit and author of 21 books. "He's published a good deal. That's free publicity for VMI."

But it's difficult to place Bunting's books squarely within the bounds of academic publishing.

The $50,000 Bunting received, for a book documenting his idea of the Utopian American college, is extraordinary in academic publishing. Most academic books are on specialized topics and publish only a few hundred copies.

Even for a book with popular appeal, "for an academic to get $50,000 advances is highly unusual," said Bob Denton, an author and communications professor at Virginia Tech. "Can the average academic get that? No."

Nancy Essig, director of the University Press of Virginia, which publishes only academic books, said the advances she pays are typically $500 to $1,000.

Bunting's supporters say the book, while not scholarly research, is academic in nature and in line with his job.

Bunting's other book -- an as-yet unpublished novel about a prep-school girl who develops an eating disorder -- seems less clearly related to his job as head of the college.

On the surface, the books look like cases of using public resources for private profit, but in Virginia, state law gives special privilege to colleges in that regard.

Each college sets its own policy. So whether Bunting did anything wrong is up to the board of directors he serves.

Virginia's law on the matter dates to 1986, and commands each state-supported college in Virginia to promulgate its own copyright and patent policy, based upon guidelines provided by the State Council of Higher Education. It also provides for the state agencies to take a cut of the profits from scholarly work.

Most college policies on copyrights note that under the Federal Copyright Act, when an employee develops something copyrightable within the scope of his employment, the employer owns it. But the policies go on to state that in most cases, the college will not assert its right of ownership in order to encourage scholarship.

However, the policies typically leave the college the option of asserting its interest under certain conditions.

Generally, if significant college resources were used in producing the book or other publication, and it could potentially have commercial success or generate sizable royalties, the college expects to share in the profits.

The definition of "significant use of resources" varies from college to college. At Radford University, the bar is set at $10,000. At some other colleges, including UVa, it's decided on a case-by-case basis.

At UVa, the university is more interested in patents, which are generally more lucrative, said Dave Hudson, associate vice president for research and public service. It's very rare for UVa to take an interest in a copyright.

UVa has not taken a cut of the profits from Sabato's commercially successful books, "Feeding Frenzy" and "Dirty Little Secrets."

"I suppose we try to err on the side of promoting scholarship, while protecting the university's resources at the same time," Hudson said.

The policy and practice are the same at Virginia Tech. Faculty are free to use college resources as long as what they are doing is within the scope of their employment, spokesman Larry Hincker said. As long as an engineering professor is writing about engineering, there are no problems.

The situation becomes murky, however, when the publication isn't so clearly related to the professor's specialty.

"The university has no reason to expect to own my work if I wrote a brownie recipe book," Hudson said. But in turn, the school wouldn't expect him to use university resources to write the book, he added.

"If I write a novel, they certainly didn't hire me to write a novel, so I probably shouldn't be writing it sitting here at my desk," he said.

Bunting's novel about the girl with the eating disorder would seem to stretch the limits of his job as head of VMI, but Bunting also holds a position on the faculty as a professor of humanities, and has taught three literature courses at VMI.

"From a public relations standpoint, it can't help but benefit VMI and enhance the image of the school," VMI spokesman Mike Strickler said.

But should VMI expect to own the copyrights or share the profits of that book?

VMI's copyright policy is 10 years old and makes no specific mention of significant use of resources. It provides in general for copyrights to be retained by the author.

There are a few examples of VMI sharing in a royalty or refusing financial resources for the publication of a book.

For a 1978 book by a faculty member, VMI agreed to pay for part of the book's printing and in return took ownership of the copyright and shared the royalties with the author.

In the last few months, VMI unwittingly paid $3,750 to help publish a book by a faculty member, but the faculty member retained the copyright, documents provided by VMI show. VMI's business officials objected and, on the advice a deputy attorney general, recovered the money from the publisher.

A VMI board member has since suggested that VMI set aside funds to help with publications.

Whatever has been the practice at VMI, however, the decision ultimately rests with the board of visitors, which sets the policy.

Board president Bruce Gottwald has made his feelings on the question clear already.

Bunting's "authorship has been consistent with board policy and is in total compliance with state law," he said last week.

VMI Football: Keydets were trounced by Georgia Southern 62 - 0 yesterday. I think Georgia Southern is ranked number one in 1-AA.

Other Football Stuff:

Tuesday, September 28, 1999

Watching VMI more fun from other side

By MARK BERMAN
THE ROANOKE TIMES

This time, Ted Cain was on the winning side of a lopsided VMI game.

Cain, who was fired as VMI's head coach in November, is now the receivers and tight ends coach at Furman. Cain's new team squashed his old one 58-0 on Saturday night in Greenville, S.C.

"It's the same offense that we were running at VMI. We're just executing it a lot better here at Furman," Cain said with a laugh Sunday.

Furman (2-1 overall, 1-0 Southern Conference), which dumped William and Mary 52-6 two weeks ago, piled up 546 yards of total offense to VMI's 103. The Keydets (1-3, 0-2) have lost 24 straight games to Division I-AA foes.

It was the Keydets' first shutout loss under coach Cal McCombs; they were shut out four times under Cain the past two years.

"I don't think it's who's coaching there or who the players are or if they're running the I-formation or the flexbone. They need to do some things to help the team win," said Cain, a Furman graduate who also was a Paladins assistant from 1977-85.

"I just hope VMI modernizes a little bit to give those players and coaches a chance to win, just do some of the things the academies have done and even The Citadel -- they've made some changes in their military-type system."

Cain was 1-20 at VMI before being fired with one game left in the 1998 season.

"I was just very disappointed I didn't get to stay any longer to try to see the task through and very upset about being let go with one game left in the season," he said. "That's usually held for gross misconduct legally or morally or NCAA-wise and that was not the case at all. That bothers you."

VMI plays host to Georgia Southern (3-1), the top-ranked team in The Sports Network I-AA poll, at 1 p.m. Saturday.

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DAVIDSON SWEEPS TITLES AT VMI CROSS COUNTRY INVITATIONAL

VMI's Joe Smith and Rachel Love top Keydet finishers

LEXINGTON, Va. -- The Davidson College men's and women's cross country teams captured the men's and women's tiltes at the VMI Invitational held Saturday at Rockbridge County high school in Lexington, Va.

The Davidson men's team finished with 46 points while VMI and James Madison tied for second place with 52 points each. Davidson runner Brent Ferrell finished first place completeing the 8k course in a time of 26:33.9. College of Charleston runner Mike Aiken finished second place 19 seconds behind at 26:52.8 and VMI's Joe Smith (Livermore, Ca./Livermore) was the highest Keydet finisher finishing third at 27:24.0.

The Davidson women's team finished 33 points, while VMI finished in second place with 41 points followed by College of Charleston who finished third with 48 points. Davidson runner Lucy Billingsley completed the 5k course in a time of 19:35.6. VMI's Rachel Love (Emmaus, Pa./Emmaus) finish second place at 19:56.8 followed at third place by College of Charleston's Holly Munnis at 20:05.4
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September 25, 1999
For Immediate Release

EDWARDS' HEADER LIFTS VMI IN SUDDEN DEATH

LEXINGTON, VA -- Freshmen Eric Edwards' (Fredericksburg, Va./Fredericksburg Christian) header one minute into the second overtime was the lone goal in VMI's 1-0 double overtime victory over UNC Asheville.

Edwards' goal, the first in his career for the Keydets, came off an indirect kick from Tony Conway (Reading, England/Erleigh School). In the game that featured great play by both goalkeepers, Andrew Heath of UNC Asheville and Steve Swann (Hudson, Ohio/Hudson) for VMI stopped numerous shots in the match.

With the win VMI improves to 5-2 for the season, while UNC Asheville falls to 3-4. VMI will next face the defending Southern Conference Champions, UNC Greensboro on Wednesday September 29 at 4pm at Patchin Field on the post of the Virginia Military Institute.

Scoring by halves 1 2 OT 2OT F W-L-T
VMI 0 0 0 1 1 5-2-0
UNC Asheville 0 0 0 0 0 3-4-0

© Virginia Military Institute. All rights reserved. . VMI Sports Information Office.
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September 30, 1999
For Immediate Release

DUNAWAY'S TWO GOALS LEADS UNC GREENSBORO OVER VMI 4-2

LEXINGTON, Va. -- Sophomore Mike Dunaway scored twice to help UNC Greensboro overcome a 2-1 second half defecit to defeat VMI 4-2 in a Southern Conference match today at Patchin Field on the post of VMI.

Dunaway opened up the scoring at the 39 minute mark of the match, when his shot sailed over the outstretched arms of Keydet goalkeeper Steve Swann. The match remained at 1-0 until VMI senior Ian Doyle (New Port Richey, Fla./ River Ridge) scored his first career goal at the 53rd minute of the match off an assist from Eric Edwards (Fredericksburg, Va /Fredericksburg Christian). VMI took the lead at 2-1 when senior Paul DeRose (Williamsburg, Va./Lafayette) scored at the 55th minute of the match off an assist from Jason Seagle (Richmond,Va./Clover Hill). UNC Greensboro tied the score at 2 when Mike Dunaway scored his second goal on the afternoon at 69:51. The Spartans re-took the lead less then a minute later when Chris Goos scored at 70:18 in the match. Justin Wisdo scored the final goal of the match off a feed from Goos. The time of the goal was 82:13.

VMI MF Paul DeRose '00 gave VMI the lead with his 2nd half goal

With the win, UNCG improves to 6-4 overall, 3-0 in the Southern Conference. With the loss, VMI falls to 5-3 overall, 0-1 in the Southern Conference. VMI will next face Appalachian State on Saturday, October 2 at 11AM at Patchin Field.

Scoring By Halves 1 2 F W-L (SC W-L)
UNC Greensboro 1 3 4 6-4 (3-0)
VMI 0 2 2 5-3 (0-1)

A Taste of Fall at the Institute: Check out the following for a bit of Institute nostalgia. Enjoy.
http://users.erols.com/thigginb/calendar/1998cal.htm

Hey, that's it for this week.

Yours in the Spirit,
RB Lane '75

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