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Just before Chuck Brown took the stage at a George Washington University Alumni Weekend concert in September, the “Godfather of Go-Go” chatted with GWU President Steven Knapp, who is a percussionist.

“He said, ‘Why don’t you come up on the stage and play with us?’ ” Knapp recounted Friday morning, the day after Brown died at the age of 75.
Chuck Brown performs during the GWU Alumni Weekend Kickoff Party in September 2011. (David Scavone/GWU)

Knapp figured he would play a drum solo for a few minutes and then sneak off the stage. Twenty minutes later, he was still playing. At one point, Brown got the crowd to chant: “Go President Knapp, Go President! Go President Knapp, Go President!”

“It was pretty intense,” said Knapp, a Romantic literature scholar-turned-administrator who has led GWU since 2007. “That’s an unusual experience for a university president.”

After the concert, Knapp said that Brown gave him one of the greatest compliments he has ever received: “I haven’t seen hands that fast since my calypso days.”

Being a college athlete often means spending hours on the road in a bus or van, heading to or from games at far-flung schools. And what do these students do to kill time? Apparently, learn all the words to Carly Rae Jepsen’s hit song, “Call Me Maybe,” choreograph a dance and then film a lip-sync music video to share online.

Carly Rae Jepsen: The singer who has inspired college athletes everywhere to dance, lip-sync and possibly embarrass themselves. (MARIO ANZUONI - REUTERS) It’s mostly a women’s sports trend, as it appears that nearly every women’s lacrosse team in the country has filmed their version of the peppy song. But the guys are getting into it, too: The Harvard men’s baseball team filmed its version in a van, while the University of Florida team did so in a bus.

Which ones are the best? I’m definitely not going to wade into that debate. But here’s what we can learn about the lives of college athletes from these videos:

1) Life on the road is not exactly glamourous. The women’s lacrosse team at Kean University in New Jersey filmed its video during spring break in March — which they spent on a bus traveling around Virginia. Scenes include hotel rooms and hallways, a Cracker Barrel front porch and a McDonald’s parking lot.

About three months ago a Charlottesville jury found former University of Virginia lacrosse player George Huguely V guilty of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Yeardley Love, in May 2010. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the public will have access to some of the evidence that was presented during that trial.

Here are answers to some questions that you might have, and you can pose additional questions in the comments section below. I will try to answer those questions throughout the day.

Wasn’t this evidence already made public during the trial in February? No. The jury had full access to the evidence in making their decision, but the general public and reporters did not. The Charlottesville courtroom is set up differently from most courtrooms: the jury sits in two rows in front of the judge and facing the audience (to see this, take a look at the sketch to the right).
Sketch of the Charlottesville courtroom during George Huguely’s trial. (The Associated Press) That means that spectators could not see the monitor where prosecutors played Huguely’s videotaped police statement and showed text messages that Huguely had sent other women hours before Love died. Prosecutors also gave jurors copies of heated, profane e-mails that Huguely and Love exchanged days before her death, instead of reading those e-mails aloud in court.

So why now? During the February trial, The Washington Post, Gannett and several television outlets asked to see the exhibits. Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Edward L. Hogshire denied that request, saying that it would have interrupted the proceedings, which were delayed by a longer-than-expected jury selection and the illness of a defense attorney. The media outlets have continued to push for access.

Sarah Cooper and Sam Miller met during an American University freshman orientation event. Within a week, they had gone on their first date to Georgetown Cupcake. About three months in, Miller says he knew Cooper was the one.

But their families encouraged the two college students to wait until after graduation to tie the knot.

So, after Cooper received her diploma from AU’s School of Public Affairs on Sunday morning, there was a surprise waiting on the end of the stage: Miller, dressed in a dark suit and with a ring in hand.

He got down on one knee. She said yes. As the crowd cheered, the couple embraced. Awwwww. Here’s the video evidence:

A University of Maryland senior history major named Greg Nasif has just confessed to being the guy who runs a Twitter account that parodies U-Md. President Wallace D. Loh, @FakeWallaceLoh.

On Friday afternoon, the fake president tweeted about undergoing surgery and then sent out a link to a column in the student newspaper that is headlined, “I am Fake Wallace Loh: And so can you!”

The real University of Maryland President Wallace Loh. (Christopher Anderson) In the column, Nasif wrote that he got the idea for the parody account last year while watching an episode of “The Colbert Report” that featured the guy behind @MayorEmanuel. Nasif says he does not despise or disrespect Loh, he just found that the president provided “excellent comedy fodder.” Plus, some of the funniest jokes were simply hashtags that played off Loh’s name — like #OverLohd, #UnstoppLohble and #GetLoh.

“Never would I have thought social networking could be so much fun,” Nasif wrote. “I tried my best to stay on top of every major event at the university, from athletic cuts to bar cLohsures, $7.2 million mansions to phantom tornadoes.”