E-Scape

Computer games are played in the new E-Scape house on campus. Office of Communications

Competitive Gaming Starts on Campus

By Jackie Steinman ’20 Herald Contributor

The new E-Sports Gaming House opened on Pulteney Street with its ribbon-cutting ceremony just a few weeks ago. E-Sports refers to video gaming competitions in which individuals or teams can play against one another at the amateur, collegiate, or professional level. Overwatch and League of Legends are two games that have their own professional leagues and have led the pack in popularity in the United States. States and even countries have their own teams that compete on the international stage.

The E-Sports program at HWS was pioneered by several residents of the Levels gaming theme house ¬¬¬¬— located right next door. The director of E-Sports, Aaron Donahue — with whom the writer has a personal relationship — worked closely alongside Dante Herrera and Jamie Kaewwanna, co-presidents of E-Scape, the casual gaming club that was started last year, to build E-Sports from scratch. The board helped to get the necessary funding and build the beautiful and complex computers they have now. Donahue, Kaewanna, and Herrera all worked with Robb Flowers to apply for funding to buy all the necessary parts to build the six high-capacity computers necessary for an advanced gaming team. Dante Herrera became the resident technician as he personally designed and constructed the computers. Brad Markowski was also instrumental in the creation of the new group and is preparing for his new position as an E-Sports Analyst for SMITE and League of Legends. Being an E-Sports analyst includes understanding and manipulating the overall strategy for each game, the individual positions and responsibilities of each player, and how team dynamics affect game play.

E-Sports and E-Scape have built a fruitful, intertwined partnership to develop HWS into a modern and progressive collegiate community. These groups have two separate goals but people who are interested in gaming often participate in both. E-Scape is focused on casual gaming and bringing students together on campus, while E-Sports was created for gaming at the collegiate level in a few specific areas such as Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. The focus of E-Sports teams is on League of Legends, Overwatch, and CS-GO but there is room for growth as interest increases in the program from students, faculty, and staff.

E-Sports is growing rapidly throughout the world and HWS is looking to compete with teams around the country later this semester. Many other colleges and universities around the country have gaming teams, including Dartmouth, Boston College, Illinois State University, Keuka College, and the University of California-Irvine. Even major sports outlets such as ESPN have begun to report on E-Sports competitions, as they draw hundreds of thousands of viewers and readers. Donahue attended Worlds Semi-Finals in 2016 and was inspired by how “excited [people are] to invest time and be part of it all. I want to bring that aspect of the competition to HWS.”

Donahue has high hopes for the program and wants to “start recruiting students to play at HWS and to build a better and stronger team each semester.” Now that the arduous process of setting the foundation is over, the team can begin tryouts and practices. The research that these students did on each computer part as well as running league tryouts and building the computers by hand shows that their dedication and hard work over the last several months has paid off. Donahue also thanked Robb Flowers and Professor Newby for their extensive support. And as the gamers say: GLHF (good luck, have fun!)

continued from page 5 History & Context

specific roles within the Administration. The goal was to gather more information on the coordinate system and answer questions about procedures and policies. Interim President Patrick A. McGuire L.H.D. ’12 wrote back to the Herald with a statement from the administration as a whole. “As observed in the Culture of Respect report,” the statement begins. “The Colleges have work to do to realize a contemporary definition of our coordinate heritage and structure. We are clearly committed to this effort and recognize that we have work ahead of us to realize our goals. In our efforts, we remain committed to ensuring that our students have an educational environment that gives them access to the support and resources they need to thrive. We look forward to working collaboratively with our students, faculty, staff and alums to do so.”

McGuire noted that “policies and resources regarding students who identify as transgender or non-binary can be found on the LGBT page of the Student Life section of the Colleges’ website and in our Community Standards Handbook.” He also noted that HWS is ensuring that every residence hall will have an all-gender bathroom and that the Colleges offer fully gender inclusive housing.

When discussing Campus Life, headed by Robb Flowers, McGuire noted that Campus Life staff “engage first-year students in a dialogue around gender, pronouns and contributing to a culture of respect on the first day of their arrival. The Kaleidoscope program further explores these issues with a session dedicated to introducing new students to the Colleges’ coordinate heritage and traditions.” That heritage is also announced on tours and information sessions, and also can be found in admissions print materials. Admissions recently surveyed the firstyear class and found that “90% of students know about our coordinate structure.”

In September, Campus Life also began “a dialogue series on the coordinate system with Campus Life staff and the Deans of Hobart and William Smith.” In the meeting, there was conversation about “safe spaces on-campus and how gender differences are perceived.” This dialogue series will hopefully be continued, but can also be supplemented with the project that the deans and student governments are working on.

McGuire also said that “the Office of Advancement serves all alumni and alumnae, as does the Board of Trustees.” There are currently two alum associations – “one for Hobart and one for William Smith with the majority of initiatives and programming designed to serve the entire constituency” – and “alums who identify as transgender or non-binary are welcome as part of either Association or both.” There have been conversations “regarding our coordinate heritage and structure” led by the Alumni / Alumnae Associations, including one webinar in the middle of September, that will continue this weekend with the Board of Trustees and Alumni / Alumnae Associations meeting.

President McGuire concluded that “we are pleased that so many of our alums are engaged in discussions about the Colleges and remain committed to fostering these productive conversations.”

In March 2018, the social justice theatre group at HWS, Mosaic NY, began an online video campaign: #OneHWS. The campaign primarily focused on videos, with select members of the company. A statement about the project online reads, “Mosaic NY believes that the coordinate system is a social injustice, standing in the way of the Colleges achieving its desired goal of inclusive excellence by denying full rights to trans and gender non-binary/nonconforming students.”

The campaign was created as a way to, according to the same online statement, “begin a conversation about the real, lived experiences of students under the coordinate system and to generate public pressure on the Colleges to reconsider their commitment to it.” In recent weeks, Mosaic NY has continued to work on the #OneHWS campaign. In addition to the three videos produced, all released in March 2017, Mosaic has a performance scheduled for the Alumni / Alumnae Association meetings on campus this weekend.

Additionally, a letter was sent by members of the faculty to President McGuire and members of the Board of Trustees. It was a group letter, signed by forty-two members, that said they “believe it is time to move toward uniting the Colleges and ending the coordinate system.” The letter wanted a “community-wide conversation” about the coordinate system with emphasis on “The voices of transgender and non-binary students and graduates…Respect for the dedicated work of staff and administrators whose jobs are tied to the coordinate system” and “Celebration of the rich history of the Colleges and an optimistic vision for the future.”

It is that first point – “the voices of transgender and non-binary students and graduates” – that has led to this issue of the Herald.

We have collected viewpoints from eight transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming identifying / questioning students and alums on the coordinate system. Beginning in mid-September, the Herald emailed and reached out to students on campus and recent graduates to ask if they would share their perspectives. We chose to ask transgender, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming identifying / questioning students and alums because they were specifically mentioned in the HWS faculty letter. Because their voices deserve to be heard.

Our goal at the Herald is to be a Voice for the Students, to provide an outlet for students to voice a wide range of opinions and ideas. We, as a newspaper, are not taking a stand but rather providing a way for these viewpoints to reach a wider audience.

There are eight viewpoints on within this section. They have not been edited for content and length. They represent a diverse range of opinions from current students and alums – all of whom have a stake in this conversation. We are proud to publish them here in the pages of the Herald.