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Correction: This story has been modified from its original version. — The headline to this story previously contained a typo. The Collegiate Times regrets this error.
In the second issue of the “Plaid Avenger” comic book series, the protagonist found himself in Burma, in order to rescue Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi from her state-military-imposed house arrest.
John Boyer, the Virginia Tech geography instructor who depicts himself as the “Plaid Avenger,” to teach World Regions, brought his colorful comic book pages to life as Suu Kyi Skyped with the 3,000-student class.
“I’m really excited because I’ve been doing this since the semester started, and it’s been a long process, but it’s finally happening, and I didn’t think it was going to be like this,” said Thet Aung, a junior food science major who moved to Virginia from Burma in 2005.
Aung first presented the idea of having Suu Kyi Skype with the class and worked with Boyer to make it a reality.
“I didn’t think it was going to be this big when I first got the idea,” Aung said. “But now it’s a big event for the whole campus.”
The World Regions class put together a YouTube video imploring Suu Kyi to Skype with them. After a brief speech, Boyer turned the cameras over to the students who cheered, yelled and even presented a sign that said “Welcome” in Burmese.
“People from there, after they saw the video, they said ‘we have to do this,’” Aung said.
The original meeting date was Nov. 30, but Tech had to reschedule with Suu Kyi because U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton was to visit Burma that day.
The visit wraps up a star-studded semester for the class, including visits from Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez, who came to premiere their new movie, “The Way.”
“This semester was totally insane,” Boyer said. “It was the best semester I’ve taught in almost 15 years. The most outrageous in terms of participation and class events. I only hope the students got a fraction out of it what I did.”
At 7:30 p.m., Suu Kyi went live to a standing ovation of loud, excited students chanting both her name and the word “democracy.”
“I would like to thank you all for a great start to my day,” Suu Kyi said after the crowd died down.
Students proceeded to line up and ask various questions concerning her political ideals, what her life was like both in India and Burma, and what students like themselves could do in order to make a change in the world.
“I believe democracy is a fine line between liberty and security,” Suu Kyi said.
Many people not in the class filled the room to see Suu Kyi, including Barry Simmons Sr., Director of the Office of University Scholarships and Financial Aid.
“I thought it was awesome,” Simmons said. “Not only with the Skyping of a Nobel Prize winner but also the enthusiasm and content of the lecture afterward.”
A version of this article appeared in the Dec 7 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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Lovin' the typo in the title, Collegiate Times! I know, you guys have to be CONSISTENTLY bad, but at least wait until AFTER the title to completely defecate all over the article.
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Who is the editor for the CT??? These typos are embarrassing!
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I'm pretty sure when used as a verb, skypes has a lowercase "s." simliar to Google is the proper name of a company but when you use it as a synonym for searching on the web, it is written googles.
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"Suu Kyi was born in Burma — then called Myanmar — in 1945." Nope, it was called Burma then. It's called Myanmar now.
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Beyond bad spelling, check your facts, seriously. It might be dubious, but the military junta officially handed over control to a "civilian" government within the past couple months.
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