NOVA’s men’s soccer team overwhelmed the Cecil College Seahawks 8-0 on September 24 at the Virginia Highlands Park located next to Pentagon City. For a sport that generally sees few goals, the score represented a huge win.

NOVA went out to a 6-0 lead at halftime as it had little difficulty scoring against the porous Cecil defense, as Cecil’s goalie generally had little chance to make saves. Scoring play was tempered in the second half as NOVA scored only two more goals. One goal was a bit of an oddity, as the NOVA goalie took a penalty kick against the Cecil goalie, scoring to make it 7-0. Goals by a goalie are a rare occurrence.

At NOVA’s Loudoun campus, student-based theater and community theater have combined for a modernized version of John Guare’s 1990 play, Six Degrees of Separation. The play centers around the way a gay con man — who is also a sensitive, moving speaker — affects the wealthy Kittredge family in New York.

Marijuana legalization is a topic that is becoming ever more popular in recent months. A 2009 Gallup poll found that 52% of Americans now support regulating and taxing the sale of marijuana to adults in a manner similar to alcohol. A conservative estimate by Harvard Economist Jeffery Miron suggests that the US could save $14 billion a year by ending marijuana prohibition. Less conservative estimates put that figure at around $40 billion. Opponents of legalization say that any savings would be offset by the costs to public health in increased …

The way Virginia colleges operate could depend on the state’s future governor.

Both the Democratic and Republican candidates for governor have outlined plans – in other words, made political promises — to improve education and its affordability. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? It’s quite possible every gubernatorial candidate has promised something similar, and the current crop of candidates, Democratic State Senator R. Creigh Deeds and Republican Robert “Bob” McDonnell, are no different.

Five! Six! Five, six, seven, eight! When I walked into the dance studio, at the Alexandria campus, I felt a surge of intensity come over me. There stood Kathy Harty Gray, wearing all black, hair pulled back in a low ponytail, clapping with vigorous rhythm. Every move, bend, kick and flex came so naturally to her — she had been dancing since childhood. The girls seemed to mirror her unconsciously.

Gray’s love for dance shows in the lightness in her footwork. Her graceful movements are illustrated the moment she steps foot in a dance studio.

Socialism. The word has a recent emerging presence in the vocabulary of media folk, likely because leading Republican figures like John McCain and Mike Huckabee flaunted this word in opposition of any idea remotely associated with President Barack Obama or his budget plans.

“The stimulus, the omnibus, the budget — it’s all one big down payment on a new American socialism,” House Minority Leader John Boehner said.

The Annandale campus was bustling with activity on Sept. 15 as the students gathered at NOVA Day to join clubs, get involved with campus activities, and just have fun.

Student organizations and clubs set up tables throughout the CF Plaza where students could stop by and pick up information and join mailing lists.