September 2018

A Voice for the Students

Title IX

By Olivia Rowland ’21 Copy Editor

Last April, the Herald published six articles about Title IX and sexual assault on campus. The series investigated how reports of sexual assault are handled on campus in addition to the campus culture around the issue.

The Herald found that there seemed to be less openness to discussion about sexual assault on campus than there was in 2014. In part, the articles published last semester hoped to begin to change that. The Herald is still committed to making sure that the conversation about campus culture that started in 2014 does not stop, and through updates like these we hope to change campus culture as a community.

Beginning Again: The Presidential Search

By Abbey Frederick ‘20 Managing Editor

When an individual is appointed to the presidency of an institution of higher education, he or she takes on the responsibility to guide the institution into the future.

This year, Hobart and William Smith Colleges face the challenge of selecting the person who will not only represent the alumni, faculty, staff, and students of the Colleges, but also represent the long-term aspirations and priorities of the institution as a whole.

As the Colleges’ second

presidential search in three years gets underway, feelings of hope, skepticism, anxiety, and excitement proliferate throughout the HWS community. The process of selecting a president is time- and resource-intensive. Professor Justin Rose, one of four faculty members serving on the Search Committee, stresses the implications of this year’s search: “we have to get this one right.”

The appointment of the new president is scheduled for a start date of June 2019. In anticipation of this deadline, the Search

Committee has begun to compile information that will be used to create an official position profile.

The position profile is meant to draw candidates with the traits and skills the institution prioritizes to apply for the presidency.

To gauge these priorities, forums were held in July and September for the participation of faculty, students, staff, and Geneva community members. The Search Committee has held one meeting so far, where they discussed the process of the search and began a

Elections Reveal Apathy

By Ryan Skinner ’19 Herald Staff

This year’s class president elections were defined by a continuing trend of uncompetitive elections, voter disengagement and revealing defects in the electronic ballot. As the vice president of Hobart Student Government, I have made the unusual decision to publicize some limited data from the elections. I believe this is a necessary course of action because only through a shared understanding of how political apathy has become worse over time can we hope to reverse this pernicious trend. The Herald has access only to data on the Hobart class president elections. (Full Disclosure: Ryan Skinner is currently Hobart Student Government Vice President. The Herald did reach out to William Smith Congress, who responsed, but were unable to obtain the participation numbers in time for our print deadline.) The Herald

contacted William Smith Congress to request information to make our report comprehensive for both colleges, but it declined to release any election data.

The winners of the class president elections are as follows: Marcel Johnson (Hobart ‘19), Ifuanaya Okeke (William Smith ‘19), Tanner Arnold (Hobart ‘20), Thomas Carroll (Hobart ‘21), Mahdia Ahmed (William Smith ‘21), Michael Bamah (Hobart ‘22), and Nuzhat Wahid (William Smith ‘22).

During the class president elections, which took place on September 14, the Classes of 2019, 2020, and 2021 all failed to produce elections with more than one candidate. In the case of the William Smith Class of 2020, not a single candidate could be recruited to run for the position.

The upshot is that the Class of 2022 has successfully completed extremely competitive elections. In this election, a 2 percent difference between candidates was literally

one vote. Moreover, the existence of this fierce competition drove up the total number of votes to 60 for the Hobart Class of 2022, which was by far the highest turnout of any Hobart class. However, this still represented a decline in voter participation among Hobart firstyear students compared to 2017, when 63 students of the Hobart Class of 2021 voted for four candidates, the same number of candidates first-year students could select from during this year’s vote. Likewise, in 2016 a whopping 101 first-year students voted in class president elections, and in 2015 as many as 112 first-year students voted. Both of these Hobart elections featured five candidates.

This disturbing trend of increased student apathy over time is not limited to the firstyear classes, but extends to older students as well. This lack of concern for campus politics appears to grow

The new semester brings with it some important staffing changes for the Title IX Office. Following the resignation of Deputy Title IX Coordinator Tremayne Robertson, Katie Stiffler, former Education and Prevention Coordinator, has taken over his position. The office has also welcomed a Title IX Fellow, Regina Gesicki, as a third staff member.

Robertson left the Colleges in late July, leaving the Title IX Office with one less staff member and only a few weeks to find a replacement before Orientation. A national search was ruled out, says Title IX Coordinator Susan Lee, because the office did not feel there was enough time to run one. The consensus was that there would also not be enough input from the community, with most students and faculty members off campus for the summer.

An effort to find a member of the community able to serve in the position did not pan out.

Regina Gesicki was then identified as someone who “has significant Title IX background and was able to start work immediately,” according to Lee.

Gesicki comes to the Colleges from the University of Notre Dame, where she worked in bystander prevention and as an advisor for students going through the Title IX process. She is still getting to know the campus but is excited and “looking forward to the year.” Gesicki will work alongside Lee and Stiffler to run the office and help with training and programming. Lee says that she has been “fully participating from day one.” As of right now, her position is only for the year.

In the meantime, Stiffler has taken over the role of Deputy Title IX Coordinator. She has not lost any of her duties working in education and prevention but has gained responsibility in the office.

“It’s a promotion, not a removal of duties from her position,” says Lee.

Despite these changes, Lee says that not much has changed in

Update… continued page x Elections… continued page 6

The Herald

Established 1879

By and for the Students of Hobart and William Smith Colleges

www.HWSHerald.com

Alex Kerai, Editor-in-Chief

Abbey Frederick, Managing Editor

Wren Andrews, Arts & Entertainment Editor

Grace Ruble, News Editor

Olivia Rowland, Copy Editor

Albright Dwarka & Alex Kerai, Podcast Editors

Alex Kerai, Web Editor

Wren Andrews, Social Media

Ani Freedman, Photography

Contributors

Wren Andrews

Elise Donovan

Henry Duerr

Abbey Frederick Ani Freedman

Layout

Alex Kerai

Abbey Frederick

Copy Editing Olivia Rowland

Alex Kerai Charlie Wilson

Will Fuller

Alex Kerai

Olivia Rowland

Grace Ruble Ryan Skinner

Distribution

Alex Kerai Wren Andrews Grace Ruble Abbey Frederick

Submission Guidelines

The Herald is currently accepting submissions for our upcom ing issue. The deadline is Monday at 5 p.m.

Must include the:

1. Name and Class Year

2. Individual phone number or e-mail E-mail submissions must be made via file attachment.

If criteria are not met , The Herald may not be able to print the submission.

Dear Readers of the Herald,

Welcome back to campus – and welcome as well to the Classes of 2022! As we continue adjusting to the new school year and semester, there are a lot of changes taking place, from a day added to Orientation to the Presidential Search.

This is the 139th year of the Herald: it launched in March of 1879 as The Hobart Herald before merging with William Smith College’s Twig on April 23, 1942, to become the Herald. I was recently going through the archives and found, among many other great issues, the first issue of The Hobart Herald. It had many advertisements on its front page, along with a note on the structure of Hobart College, written by the President at the time, Rev. Hinsdale. But what stuck out to me most was at the bottom left of the page. The title of the article read “Purpose” and it laid out the mission of the newspaper to its fellow students at Hobart College:

“

The Herald is not published to present grumblers’ and growlers’ grievances, though it has always been ready to give publicity to matters need reform, and will continue [to be] ready and willing to afford space to such communications; yet its object is a higher one. Its aim is to benefit the students of Hobart, and it calls on them in return for their co-operation.”

Although we are now two Colleges and the Herald writes and functions as the voice for both, I do not think that many things about the original statement of purpose have changed in the past 139 years. In fact, I think that now, more than ever, the Herald is a relevant institution which needs the cooperation of its readers and fellow students to make a difference.

The Colleges are at a unique place in their history when we can advocate for great change and shape the future of Hobart and William Smith. I have spoken frequently about how we are at a crossroads and the decisions this year will have lasting ramifications for future generations. On our podcast, The Seneca Scene, Hobart Dean Khuram Hussain spoke of the upcoming bicentennial for the founding of Hobart College and how the traditions within those ceremonies may have to be re-examined. There has been renewed conversations on whether the coordinate system is viable today, and what avenues there are for changing or abolishing the system. The Colleges are at a crossroads, and the need for change and decisive action is clear. But it can only be taken with the cooperation of the students of the Colleges: you have the power and voice to lead the charge.

To our new readers: welcome to the Herald, the student newspaper of Hobart and William Smith Colleges that is published monthly by and for the students of the Colleges. We function as an independent student news source, unaffiliated or bound to any faculty or staff; our only rule is to abide by journalistic standards in an effort to be a fair, fact-based and informative news source for the community. That is the renewed journalistic mission of the Herald today.

But we still call on you for your cooperation and assistance in the issues we discuss. We cannot do what we do without you and without your work as students and agents of change. It is your voice that we represent; this is your student newspaper.

For four years of our young adult lives, we live and work and study on this campus; we call it home. In order to be part of this community, we cannot be apathetic. We must co-operate and work together to maintain the ideals of Hobart and William Smith for the next generation. Our aim as the Herald is still to benefit the students – we are a voice for the students – but we do call on students in return for advocacy and action.

In April, the Herald concluded its year with its strongest issue to date. We plan to continue that level of journalism this year. There is too much going on, of great important to the future of the institution, at Hobart and William Smith Colleges to not report or inform our community. We will endeavor to bring you the latest news and updates in print, online, through social media, and on our podcast.

I wrote in my last letter to our readers, back in April, that our great work was now beginning. I believe that sentiment to still be true. There is work to be done and we must chart our next course. We aim to benefit the students of Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and we call on you in return for your co-operation. Let your voice be heard; this is not the time for idle apathy.

Sincerely, Alex Kerai Editor-in-Chief of the Herald

Davis Gallery Exhibition: Faculty Work

By Abbey Frederick ‘20 Managing Editor

This month, the Davis Gallery began its 2018-2019 exhibition lineup with the Faculty Exhibition, featuring artworks in sculpture, printing, photography, drawing, digital rendering, fashion, installation, and textile arts.

This collection displays the wide range of talent held by the faculty of the Department of Art and Architecture. The Davis Gallery usually features the work of one faculty member each academic year, but this year’s group exhibition displays the works of eight faculty members: Ted Aub, Michael Bogin, Christine Chin, Gabriella D’Angelo, Alysia Kaplan, Kirin Makker, Nick Ruth, and Phillia Yi, each of whom ground their scholarship and teaching in artistic practice.

The diverse pieces of artwork in the exhibition were carefully curated to interact with one another and with the Davis Gallery space. The entire department worked collectively to install the exhibition, led by Anna Wager, the Davis Gallery’s new Curator.

Wager is especially excited to share this exhibition with the HWS community because of “the variety and creative range, materials, and techniques of the pieces, which respond to topics relating to health, equity, social justice and housing, music, movement, and the processing of political events.”

In the Solarium Gallery, visitors can see the Womb Chair Speaks installation, an in-progress piece that explores “material culture, conceptions of feminine/female identity, and women’s health,” according

to Wager. As an artwork that engages with the concept of slow growth over time, the Womb Chair Speaks installation invites visitors to witness and interact with the object as it is transformed over the course of the month of September.

Gabriella D’Angelo’s Garmitecture series is also on display; it examines “clothing as wearable architecture and as potential sources of safety and shelter.”

A closing reception for the Faculty Exhibition will be held on Friday, September 28th from 5-7 p.m. Many of the artists will be in attendance to engage with viewers and celebrate the creative work of the department faculty.

Coming up from October 12th until November 9th, the Davis Gallery will display Mara Baldwin’s Infinitely Able exhibition, which explores the legacies of the Shakers through lenses of memory and survival, labor, tradition, and utopia.

First Impressions from the Classes of 2022

By Grace Rubke

According to the “Welcoming the Classes of 2022” article published by the HWS Update before the new class of First Years arrived on campus, the Classes of 2022 include “class presidents, all-star athletes, engaged volunteers and inspired artists.”

Statistically, this same article identified that 40 percent of the Classes of 2022 applied to HWS Early Decision, 25 percent identify as students of color and nearly 15 percent are legacy students. While all these descriptors are informative, they are equally vague. Who are the students of the Classes of 2022, really? How do they differ as individuals? And what does it mean that they chose to come to HWS at a time when the institution is facing many a crossroads?

As for why many First Years chose HWS, there are a multitude of answers. Study abroad programs and financial aid were a common thread through many interviews. Some decided to come here based on specific programs. First-year Ellie Muckstadt admitted to not loving HWS until she saw the arts campus, saying, “I toured the summer before my junior year ... and I hated it ... I came back to look at the arts campus because I wanted to go into architecture and I fell in love with the arts campus.” International student Sky Markaki, who hails from Greece, was excited to come to college in the United States. Sal Fabio and Leela Willie both cited similarities between HWS and their respective high schools that made them comfortable with their decision.

When asked about what they knew about HWS before coming here, answers also varied, though most cited Seneca Lake as an integral part of their pre-admission image of HWS. Abigail Leyson said she “knew that most students have a close relationship to their professors due to the small community.” Others relied on current students for information about the school. Sarim Karim said he’d heard about elements of student life like Friday Flix from his friend and current sophomore Gizem Hussain. But most First Years alluded to the realization that they knew comparatively less during their Admitted Student Days than they do now as current students.

Though the First Year class is full of arts campus lovers, excited United States visitors

2022 use

phone lights

field

Orientation

Orientation

By Henry Duerr ’21 Herald Staff

Orientation. For some, it marks an exciting new chapter in life. For others, it’s a tooth-grinding formality. Regardless of background, all students, be it First Year or transfer, undergo the process. Except this year, the incoming Classes of 2022 had a few things changed for them.

Tanner Arnold, one of the two student Orientation Leaders, spoke to me a bit about the changes implemented this year. Tanner and his counterpart, Miranda Smith, spent nearly their entire summer on campus, preparing for this year’s batch of incoming First Years and transfer students. Miranda, as a transfer student herself, was able to provide a rare and useful perspective for the transfer students. Tanner, on the other hand, was “interested in introducing First Years to the resources that they would need, before they needed them.” This was the idea that gave rise to the additional online training that incoming students underwent.

When designing the revised Orientation weekend, Miranda and Tanner did their best to incorporate feedback from previous years. This feedback didn’t just come from students, but parents as well. An overall issue that Tanner wanted to address from previous years was “the way one person or one issue would dictate the conversation,” citing that in previous years, parent and student info sessions would take

and Friday Flix goers, they also are members of the larger HWS community and face the same campus issues as upperclassmen, including the outcome of the Presidential Search. When asked whether the resignation of former President Vincent influenced their choice to attend HWS, a good number of First Years said it didn’t, with some such as Cameron Miguel admitting that they didn’t know anything about it when they were accepted and still don’t. Others such as Dom Marshall and Jack Caniff admitted that the only information they knew about the search came from the string of emails sent to students by faculty members liberally using the “Reply All” function over the summer.

First Years were also asked what values they would like the next president of HWS to have. Cameron Miguel said he wanted “someone who can get the job done.” Freya Birkas-Dent wished for someone with a “global perspective.” Many First Years echoed Abigail Leyson’s statement that she wanted someone with “concern for the community as a whole and for individuals. You care about each student even if you don’t know them.” One HWS student who asked to remain anonymous took this opportunity to address the probability that HWS will return to having a “typical” president, saying “I don’t think it’s going to be a man of color. I think it’s going to be a white man that has the usual look, like the Interim President. There’s nothing wrong with the Interim President, but the Interim President has the typical look and has the typical background of what a college president is and I think that’s what HWS is going to do. I think they’re going to go back to typical because they can do that, because they’re allowed to do that.” They stated that they hope the future president values “acknowledging the privilege of the Colleges and the whiteness of the Colleges and trying to get in the community and actually support its students of color.”

Emma Cusanelli said that though she knew about former President Vincent’s resignation and she “wasn’t really expecting anything of that magnitude to happen” during her college decision process, what gave her more pause when accepting a spot at HWS was finding the 2014 New York Times article about sexual assault on the HWS campus, which caused her to do more research into the subject of campus sexual assault. She said she chose HWS despite the Times article because she felt “it’s better ...

to see schools with numbers like sexual assault and to see that they have that database, because even though a school has a small number that’s not necessarily good because the number nationally is so high.”

Turning the conversation to Title IX as a whole, the incoming First Years had a varying amount of experience with Title IX before coming to campus, though all learned much about it through Orientation and Kaleidoscope. Reed Herter said she knew “an okay amount about the sports side of it” but through discussions in Kaleidoscope has learned the “specifications” and has appreciated that it’s allowed her to “gauge kind of where other people are” in their knowledge of Title IX and “find all of [the First Years] on the same page.” Sarim Karim said that the Title IX Office “seems a lot like an afterthought” and that having the Title IX Office was something HWS thought “should happen but realized too late.” Emma Cusanelli shifted the discussion of campus sexual assault away from the Title IX Office itself and toward the discussion of rape culture and student attitudes towards sexual assault when she stated, “there’s still that culture that’s still on campus and you can see it, I think, with some people, but it’s hard to change the culture.”

When asked about how she thought students could change the culture on campus, Cusanelli recommended “being open, trying to be more empathetic towards what’s going on.” Sal Fabio said that as a male student “[he] can get really creative in getting [another male student] to come chill with [him] ... and [get] him away from a really intoxicated girl.” Leela Willie recommended a more activist approach where more clubs try to raise awareness for the issue with “flyers or brief skits ... maybe during lunch in Scandling Center. That would grab people’s attention.”

The last major issue First Years that sat down with the Herald were asked to consider was the coordinate system. Though many did not know that “the coordinate system” was the name for the relationship between Hobart College and William Smith College, all were aware of its existence. When presented with the different arguments for keeping or doing away with the coordinate system, Jack Caniff stated, “In all honesty, I wouldn’t really care if it

place in group settings, almost like lectures. The feedback indicated that so much information over such a short period of time was hard to take in, especially if a specific concern went unaddressed. So Miranda and Tanner worked to incorporate a roundrobin style of spreading information. Each department would have a table, and people could move from resource to resource, all while receiving more individualized attention. Noah Ball, a Hobart sophomore and Orientation Mentor, said “that the organization by the Orientation staff was sound, but the representatives of some resource offices were ill-prepared, making it a less useful experience for the First Years in those particular sessions.”

However, according to Tanner, the largest change made to Orientation weekend was the addition of a new day. This new day was added to address the terror that strikes every First Year: registration day. Over the summer, incoming students chose just three courses, unlike the traditional four that had been chosen in the past. The deans then placed the incoming students into appropriate courses, while a fourth class was reserved to mimic the registration process on the new day of Orientation. Students underwent a mock registration in which they could meet with their advisors, select a class, and learn how to actually sign up for classes. This is in contrast to the past decade of orientations at HWS, where students ended up learning how to register for courses the week before registration, or whenever their

advisor saw fit. For Tanner and Miranda, this was a big step in addressing not only the feedback from past students, but the needs of the current incoming class. According to Victoria Kata, a William Smith sophomore who served as an Orientation Mentor this year, “students are more excited to take the classes that they chose, they got a say in their classes the way previous years hadn’t.”

Tanner feels that “we were ready” for this year’s incoming class, but admits “what sounds good on paper is different in reality.”

A common complaint from those who participated in this year’s Orientation was, as Noah said, “extending the pace that they were at for the extra day, that burnt them out.” However, Noah added, “it allowed for us to add a lot of activities that weren’t here last year.” In light of the varied reactions from the First Years and Orientation staff, Tanner has said that “We were the test year for a lot of it, and we knew that going into it. We didn’t let it deter us when things went wrong. I like to think we did good job.” Noah said that “this year had to happen in order for future years to improve.”

Yet, as Tanner himself said, “it doesn’t happen with one person, it’s everyone that worked on it all summer.” The Orientation Team from this year worked tirelessly for the incoming class, and is in the process of “learning what we can and can’t control.” Noah sums it up in saying, “As much as we can do to excite them and make it a positive weekend, the end result is a direct product of the attitude they went into it with.”

HWS Presidential Search

conversation about their priorities for the new president.

The Committee is charged with selecting and interviewing qualified candidates and recommending a finalist to the Board of Trustees. From this slate of candidates, the Board of Trustees will ultimately decide whom to appoint. The process will be guided by an executive search firm, Isaacson, Miller, which will advise the Search Committee on structuring the search process, work through outreach to attract candidates, and deal with references and background checks. The search is confidential, meaning the candidates’ identities will not be revealed to the public; the HWS community will learn of the new president’s identity only once he or she has been hired.

The Search Committee is composed of several members of the Board of Trustees, Student Trustees Edens Fleurizard ’20 and Caitlin E. Lasher ’19, the William Smith Director of Athletics Deb Steward, Vice President for Marketing and Communications Cathy Williams, and four faculty members: Professor of Dance Cynthia Williams, Professor of Physics Donald Spector, Assistant Professor of Psychology Sara Branch, and Assistant Professor of Political Science Justin Rose.

Professor Rose asserts that the committee aims to act as a single voice for the Colleges. He spoke with the Herald on behalf of the Search Committee as a whole. According to Rose, the Committee’s composition reflects diversity of experience, academic discipline, tenure status, gender, and race, but this does not mean that each faculty member imagines herself or himself as representing any specific group of people within the HWS community. Rather, the committee aspires to select a president for “the entire institution.”

At an institution where priorities, goals, and opinions range tremendously, however,

one voice is only achievable through extensive dialogue. Rose recognizes this, noting that the committee’s first meeting was characterized by “vigorous discussion and debate.”

“Our job is to give voice to all concerns,” he says. He encourages every student to get involved with the process by sharing their thoughts at forums or through the search’s designated email address. Only seven students attended the open forum held on September 17.

According to Rose, the committee is looking for a candidate who works collaboratively and can engage with the diversity of opinion on campus. The committee’s ultimate priority is to select a finalist who will develop the aspects that make HWS a great institution, promote the Colleges’ academic mission, and celebrate HWS.

At the student forum in September, many students echoed the desire for a president who will embrace the HWS community. One student recalled spending Friday afternoons in the Gearans’ home as a First Year and added that HWS needs a president who will be “a listener first,” someone who is open-minded, excited to become part of a small community, and eager to learn about HWS by being accessible to students.

Other students agreed, pointing out that HWS is in the process of “figuring out our identity,” so a president who genuinely wants to get to know all the diverse groups of people that make up the HWS community is essential.

As the discussion of transparency and accessibility progressed, another student noted her concern that a confidential search will limit candidates’ ability to engage with the community in this way, asking if there was a “more personal way” for the candidates to get to know HWS. In response, the Isaacson, Miller representatives asserted that this is the purpose of the Search Committee. Open searches, the representatives noted, significantly limit the pool of people who will engage. Additionally,

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they said candidates obtain the most important information about the institution not through short visits to campus but through extensive conversation with the Search Committee.

In July, several professors voiced dismay at the idea of a closed search in an email thread sent to the campus community, asserting that a closed search is not fitting for a small institution like HWS. Several of the emails stressed the value of significant engagement between the candidates and the HWS community as a crucial part of the selection of a new president, which a confidential search precludes.

Associate Professor of Psychology Brien Ashdown says it is important to “speak up and be heard during the search process, both through our formal representatives on the Search Committee and informally through communication with the Board of Trustees and search firm,” while being “professional and respectful of all community members during the process.”

During a time of uncertainty and change at the Colleges, it is crucial that people raise their voices and engage with the trajectory of the institution in every way they can.

Members of the HWS and Geneva communities are encouraged to share their thoughts through the email HWSpresident@ imsearch.com. For further reading, information about the presidential search has been compiled at http://www2.hws.edu/ presidential-search/

Impressions

from page

changed. I don’t think it would really change anything. It’s the same education, same everything, it’s just names. I assume the only pushback we’d ever get from something like that would be alumni.” Sky Markaki stated that though she appreciates the opportunities the coordinate system provides for women to bond because she feels “girls are more dynamic when we stick together,” she doesn’t like how the system might exclude students who identify as transgender or non-binary. The student who asked to remain anonymous addressed a feeling that Hobart College and William Smith College hold their students to different standards, saying, “don’t talk about a united college ‘cause I know you both have different expectations of different students and I know one of you has lower expectations and lower standards about what your students can do than the other one.”

This same student, in addition to addressing the divide between Hobart and William Smith, also addressed feeling a racial divide on campus during the first few weeks. Addressing an incident in which a friend of theirs overheard two white students calling African American students on campus “loud” and “ratchet,” they said they realized “there’s a lot of microaggressions that come from white people towards us students of color in the Colleges, microaggressions and just full blown aggressions.” They went on to say, “It is harder as a student of color to be in a predominately white campus. You don’t see yourself as often. You don’t see staff that looks like you as often. You don’t see your history. You’re not the majority here and your culture’s not the majority here ... so maybe teach your white students how to be accountable for that and have those difficult conversations that make them uncomfortable ... because they are needed. Some of these students come from a very closed community where they have never met people of color and then there are other students who do know and who are told and who are just plain racist.” Leela Willie echoed these sentiments when she stated that she hoped a future president of HWS would have “honor, justice as well, not really putting aside any racial or Title IX issues that happen on campus, really investigating that rather than just brushing it aside in order to take the good name or the good reputation of the school.”

With all the challenges HWS is facing in mind, all interviewed First Years were asked what they think the values of the HWS community are. The majority of First Years stated felt inclusivity and supportive community were values they’d experienced at HWS. Some diverged from this refrain of community in compelling ways. Sal Fabio said, “People love what they do at Hobart, at Hobart people get really passionate.” Sarim Karim stated that HWS values “teaching students to learn for themselves and not to just take everything at face value.” If “lives of consequence” was mentioned at all, it was only sarcastically.

All opinions expressed by the First Years are of course first impressions from a first month that is as much of a whirlwind as all upperclassmen at HWS remember. Many, like Reed Herter, were quick to point out that they were just “trying to get [their] feet wet” in the first few weeks of classes. Though these are first impressions, first impressions are telling both about those who express them and about the community they reflect. The view of a First Year can be a refreshing lens for those who have been on the HWS campus for years. Whether it is their perspective on the Presidential Search, Title IX, the coordinate system or discrimination, let us not forget the voices of the newest members of the campus community. Welcome Classes of 2022!

“Our job is to give voice to all concerns”

- Justin Rose, Faculty Member of the Presidential Search Committee

Geneva Arts Calendar: October

125 Years: the Smith Opera House

By Grace Ruble ’21 News Editor

For six weeks over the summer, HWS students Gretty Hollister ‘20 and Austin Jennings ‘19 assisted Associate Professor of Theatre Chris Woodworth in researching Geneva’s own Smith Opera House. Woodworth, who has performed and directed at the Smith and serves on the Board of the Opera House, said she wanted to “focus on the history of the building as the cornerstone of the [125th anniversary] celebration.” Both Hollister and Jennings’ love of the Smith brought them to the project. Hollister said, “I fell in love with the Smith the moment I walked in for the Variety Show during Orientation, and the idea of giving it an awesome 125th birthday was really pretty special.” Jennings echoed a love of the Smith, saying, “I love the Smith Opera House. I go to movies there. I’ve seen the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra there, Photo/Plays. I just love that space.”

Jennings admitted that despite his love of the Smith, he didn’t know much about it prior to his summer assisting Professor Woodworth’s research. Laughing, he said, “I didn’t even know the name ‘Smith’ came from our own William Smith.” Hollister stated that though the group started off with “so many” questions about the Opera House, they did find some answers. Interestingly, “all the shields were painted over during World War II because of their portrayal of the Axis Powers, and they were only rediscovered during the restoration efforts in the 1990s.” Professor Woodworth said that one question that still remains a mystery was “Who constructed the Smith?” She stated, “We were especially curious about who the craftsmen and laborers were that constructed the initial set of buildings. However, we have found virtually no record of them.”

Though the idea of researching an opera house for the summer might sound tedious to those who don’t possess the passion for theatre history that Hollister, Jennings and Woodworth possess, all involved in the project asserted that there were “no average days” on this research project and that each day brought new discoveries.

After they had collected enough information, Hollister, Jennings and Woodworth gave tours of the Opera House to the Geneva community, which Professor Woodworth will be continuing every Wednesday at 10 a.m. through the month of October. When asked what she enjoyed about giving tours, Professor Woodworth expressed the joy of learning about her tour groups’ personal history at the Opera House, saying, “It

is always amazing when the tour groups have their own Smith Opera House story. Maybe they had performed there once or graduated from high school there or had a friend or a family member that worked there. Sometimes we hear about someone’s first kiss happening in The Smith.” Hollister recalled that her favorite part of giving tours was “seeing everyone’s faces light up at the special moments--getting to stand on the stage, pointing out the shields, and dimming the lights to illuminate the starry sky. It’s like getting to share your favorite story with a group of strangers and seeing them enjoy it as much as you do.” Jennings, who some may know from his roles on the HWS stage, said that he appreciated how tours allowed him to experience a different type of performance. He said, “It was interesting. It was a different kind of performance than I’ve ever had to do before because I have more experience in acting as characters, whereas giving a tour there’s a performance, there’s script, but you’re playing yourself. So I found it almost a little more nerve wracking than that because I was presenting myself. I was presenting the work that I was doing, the research, and hoping that it would be engaging enough for people and it seemed to certainly be so, which was really nice.”

As a preview to what is likely a treasure trove of fascinating research, Jennings, Hollister and Professor Woodworth were kind enough to reveal their favorite fun facts from the summer. Professor Woodworth shared that “in 1894, when the Opera House was first constructed, it was actually two separate buildings!” Jennings’ fun fact is one that gave him a connection between the Smith and his father’s car repair shop. He said, “I’ve grown up in a very car-centric family, my dad having a car repair shop, so I love cars, and I found out, I believe, if I’m remembering this correctly, in 1898 there was a play called A Patent Applied For that was performed there. It was done by a touring company and we found the original program for it in the Geneva Historical Society. On the program there was a note that said that during the performance a ‘horseless carriage’ would be shown in operation onstage, so it was very exciting for me to see that that one of the very first automobiles was shown on stage

As for Hollister’s fun fact, she was kind enough to share two, the first being that “according to newspaper articles during the building of the original opera house, the third floor was originally going to be a ‘Hall of Science’ or lecture hall where William Smith, an avid spiritualist, hoped to bring in lecturers of all kinds to speak. We have a blueprint of the lecture hall, but no other information about it beyond those couple of articles.” As a second fun fact, she talked about a mystery organ in the Opera House, saying, “There was no organ installed after the 1931 renovations, but Austin found some info to suggest that it was installed in 1937. But then it had disappeared by the 1970s. We have no idea where it went. So, that’s a little Smith Opera House mystery.”

at the Smith.”

For those interested in more information about the research that was done at the Opera House last summer, Gretty Hollister, Austin Jennings and Professor Chris Woodworth have been writing blog posts about their research, which will go up on the Smith Opera House website beginning this October. Interested community members may also attend one of Professor Woodworth’s tours every Wednesday at 10 a.m. through the month of October.

Rosary

Compiled by Wren Andrews ’21 Arts & Entertainment Editor

by Abbey Frederick ’20 Managing Editor

News

Elections

the longer students remain on campus, as demonstrated by the fact that 112 students of the Hobart Class of 2019 voted during their first year in college for five candidates and only 30 voted as seniors with only one candidate on the ballot. Yet this disparity in voter turnout cannot be explained by the number of candidates alone, insofar as 47 students of the Hobart Class of 2019 voted during their sophomore year and 32 voted in their junior year, even though only one candidate was on the ballot in both elections. Over four years, the Hobart Class of 2019 saw a decline in voter turnout during class president elections of more than 73 percent. If this trend holds true for the 60 students who participated in the Hobart Class of 2022 class president elections, then observers should fear that their future turnout may be disastrous.

The class president election for the Hobart Class of 2020 is more difficult

to judge in terms of voter turnout due to a serious error in the online voting process. Student Activities designs the electronic ballots through HWS Engage, which can distinguish students by class year. This ensures that when students click on the link of an email from Student Activities inviting them to vote, they will be seamlessly directed to the ballot of their respective class. When I went online to vote for the president of the Hobart Class of 2019, I was alarmed to discover that all seniors, myself included, were permitted to vote in the election for the Class of 2020 in addition to that of the Class of 2019. I immediately went to Student Activities to inform them about this problem. We agreed that the election for the Hobart Class of 2020 needed to be reset in order to prevent the ballot from being tainted by votes from seniors. This was a difficult decision because it invalidated dozens of votes, but it was the only response that would protect the right of voters to a secret ballot. The consequences were severe, as the total number of voters in the Hobart Class of 2020 fell

from 44 (inclusive of senior and junior voters) to just 13 votes. This drop in turnout also had a drastic impact on the results, as Tanner Arnold’s margin of victory in his reelection campaign declined from 77.27 percent before the reset to only 53.84 percent after the second ballot had finished. In the future, greater oversight of Student Activities from Hobart Student Government and William Smith Congress may be a necessary check to prevent future quandaries of this sort.

Left: Graph charting Hobart voter engagement in Class President elections

Below: The cast of the HWS Theatre production: Love/Sick Photo Credit: Kelly Walker/Chris Woodworth

Arts & Entertainment

Love/Sick from HWS Theatre

By Will Fuller ’22 Herald Contributor

My first time walking into the Gearan Center was an impressive feat – the scope of the building is huge and intimidating. After wandering the halls for a while, I was finally able to find and talk to Professor Chris Woodworth, the director of HWS Mainstage’s fall production Love/Sick, written by playwright John Cariani, author of the critically acclaimed play Almost, Maine. With nine individual “scenes,” which function independently as separate plays, and collectively as the life and death of a larger, universal relationship, this production features the largest cast to grace the stage of McDonald theatre. Woodworth characterizes the eighteen-member group as wonderful: incredibly diverse, with a contagious energy –overall, a joyful bunch.

With a bigger cast, the play’s separation into a series of shorter plays allows greater flexibility, which was helpful in recruiting and rebuilding the department after the graduation of a large group of active theatre students – Love/Sick could not be a better

play to welcome seven first-year actors, and three first-year assistant stage managers to the HWS theatre department. The combination of new and returning students has made the structure of the play even more meaningful – with only two actors per scene, the relationships formed within and outside of the play, between cast and crew members, have developed into great friendships and mentorships across colleges.

While Wren Andrews, the stage manager for the production, says the large cast makes managing the play a bit crazy, she adamantly vouched for the incredible spirits of each and every individual cast member, praising their commitment and energy. “They really make it easy for me, even though I’ve never done this before,” she explained. “I actually look forward to going into rehearsal each evening to collaborate with them. I love seeing all their smiling faces!”

Though performance and academics in the theatre department are wildly different, putting on a show wouldn’t be the same without the support of the entire Theatre Department. Its small size, featuring involved faculty and bright, welcoming students,

creates a community unlike any other on the HWS campus – and they excitedly invite anyone interested in pursuing theatre on campus to reach out, whether it be through classes, mainstage productions, work in the shop, Mosaic New York, or The Phoenix Players, the student theatre group on campus.

Set on a Friday night in an ordinary suburban town, John Cariani’s Love/Sick details the beauty and complexity of love through the context of successes and failures in communication that restore (and end!) relationships. I wish the cast and crew the best of luck and a great turnout. Learning about the play and meeting the people behind it has definitely sold me on Love/Sick

John Cariani’s Love/Sick premieres October 18th at 7:30 p.m.. Other showtimes include October 19th and 20th at 7:30 p.m., and October 20th at 2:00 p.m. Anyone interested in attending can purchase tickets the week leading up to the show in the lobby of the Gearan Performing Arts Center for $5. Students may arrive an hour prior to showtime for a chance to receive free rush tickets.

Created by: Ryan Skinner

News

Fostering Conversation & Self-Confidence

By Abbey Frederick ’20 Managing Editor

On the first Friday of the new school year, students wander from one table to the next at the Involvement Expo, writing their names down on mailing lists. For many students, signing up at the expo is the first step toward finding a community where they can explore their passions alongside like-minded peers.

But Isabelle Jeppsen ’21 had her sights set on one particular club before she even set foot on campus. When she visited HWS as an incoming First Year, she set up a meeting with the president of Eye to Eye. Over a year later, Isabelle is now the organization’s new Chapter Leader, and cites Eye to Eye as one of the strongest factors that drew her to HWS.

Eye to Eye has a small profile on campus, but it is making a big impact. A national organization with chapters at more than 100 colleges, universities, and high schools across America, Eye to Eye fosters mentoring relationships between students with learning disabilities or ADHD. Each mentor from HWS is paired with a mentee student from

Geneva Middle School. They meet every Wednesday to work on art projects together.

These meetings are about much more than making art, though. Isabelle says the projects are meant to facilitate conversations about what it is like to learn differently. “Oftentimes students with learning disabilities have less self-esteem and less confidence in their potential for success,” Isabelle says. Eye to Eye creates a safe and welcoming community where these students can talk openly with mentors who also learn differently. According to Isabelle, this is tremendously empowering for mentor and mentee alike.

Isabelle worked as a mentor last year. She says that talking about learning disabilities can be uncomfortable for mentees who are not usually encouraged to speak openly about the topic. As they work on art together, Isabelle often uses color or shape metaphorically as a bridge into discussions about learning styles. Students discuss accommodations that help them, share their experiences, and build friendship and selfesteem as a result.

Jeppsen … continued page 8

New William Smith Deans Outline Vision

By Elise Donovan ’22 Herald Contributor

As of July 2018, two out of the three William Smith deans will have stepped into their roles within the past few months. However, despite being new to William Smith administrative roles, both Assistant Dean Kelly Payne and Assistant Dean Lisa Salter are far from inexperienced. Both Dean Payne and Dean Salter bring their experiences of teaching and advising at HWS, as well as their understanding of leadership roles stemming from their own pasts.

Dean Salter has held myriad roles in HWS over the past 10 years. Whether that be as a coach for William Smith athletics, a member of the HWS counseling staff, a teacher in the firstyear seminar program, or as a visiting faculty member in both the Religious Studies and Psychology departments, Dean Salter has made space for everything during her time here. As a new dean, she will preside over the classes of 2019 and 2021, as well as act as a liaison from the Dean’s Office to William Smith Congress. By right of office, she will also serve as part of the Committee on Global Education and Committee on Standards.

Coming to the position with more than 10 years of teaching and administrative roles under her belt, Dean Payne holds vast wisdom to impart on all students who walk into her office. Dean Payne has also taught aspiring professionals, those interested in American and African Culture, as well as first-year students in their obligatory seminar courses. She works as the advisor for the Laurel Society, William

Smith’s sophomore/junior honor society, as well as an administrator on both the Committee on Individual Majors and Committee on Athletics.

Dean Payne spoke of her transition and colleagues within the Dean’s office saying, “I was eager to join the William Smith Dean’s office after visiting during my interview —so many talented faculty, staff, and students who seemed genuinely invested in the life and learning that happens here.” She praised the HWS community, saying she “noticed right away how much attention was paid on campus to the mission around ‘lives of consequence.’ Like many of the students I have worked with over the years, I want to do work that challenges me intellectually and that matters to others.”

In reference to her vision for William Smith moving forward, Dean Payne continued to look at it from the perspective of a reader: “I have been reading the 1912 Pine yearbook, and in it, [the inaugural William Smith class] write that what they see in the college is ‘the opportunity to know each other intimately and to (be) united in helping to form the spirit of the college… to live and expand.’ I want our students to experience something similar—to learn and expand their ideas, to get to know other students who are united in the drive to be educated. There is power in receiving an education, power students can act on.”

It was no surprise that Dean Lisa Kaenzig P’22, William Smith Dean, had similar hopes for all future William Smith classes. She also looked

Title IX Update

the day-to-day operation of the Title IX Office. Last year, she and Stiffler worked with Robertson collaboratively on education and prevention. The dynamic is the same this semester. “All are cross-trained to help out in other areas so that they can best meet the needs for the students in the community—we’re a team that works on what needs to be done that day,” Lee explains.

But according to Professor Chris Woodworth, a member of the Title IX Coordinating Committee, this collaboration raises some concerns about the way the office is being run.

When the committee worked with the Colleges to set guidelines for the Title IX Office in 2015, many members fought hard for a separate education and prevention position. Woodworth and others felt as though there should be someone devoted solely to education on campus, because hearings could easily take priority over the education job. They were also interested in mitigating the possible conflict of interest that might arise if the staff member in charge of trainings were also involved in hearings.

Their concerns were appeased when the Colleges hired three fulltime Title IX staff members, with one working only on education and prevention, but the staffing changes this semester reopen the issue. Since Gesicki’s position is just meant to get the office through the year, they are making plans for more permanent staffing starting next year. It is not yet clear whether the office will return to its prior organization.

Again, Woodworth plans to advocate for separate positions. “It’s a conflict of interest when the Prevention and Education Coordinator is privy to information about cases and individual students,” she says. The office needs “someone solely dedicated to prevention education who is not involved in intake and facilitating cases.”

It is not clear, however, how much the committee can do. For Woodworth, “The Title IX Coordinating Committee feels like a group of people who are just receiving updates.” The committee was not informed about Robertson’s resignation this summer, nor were they informed about the office’s plans to fill his position until after they had already gone through.

Woodworth is hopeful that the new student members of the committee can help transform it. Their input may have an impact on how the staffing concerns are resolved, which will in turn have a significant

to the past for advice for the future, “Each day, I work to make sure that William Smith College continues to be a place where every student feels that she can reach her full potential and that each student has the support needed from all of us on campus to reach her ‘next step’ in the path to graduation and beyond.

She said that due to her extraordinary assistant, Gretchen DeWall, and the wonderful student workers she “could not be happier with our very talented and hard-working new deans and fantastic team.” Dean Kaenzig said that by assigning specific roles to herself as well as Dean Payne and Dean Salter, they can work to diversify their relationships with students. These such relationships can be formed with Dean Kaenzig serving as the advisor for the Public Leadership Education Network and Hai Timiai, the senior honor society; Dean Payne as the advisor for the Laurel Society, William Smith’s sophomore/junior honor society; and Dean Salter as the liaison for William Smith Congress, the student government body for the college.

“I also want to make certain that all students feel connected to our very powerful history and traditions that go all the way back to the Suffrage movement in Seneca Falls in the late 1800s and to our present and our future. And, we want to continue to work with our colleagues in Alumnae Relations to engage with our thousands of William Smith alumnae so that they continue to feel connected to this special place and to our current students.”

effect on how the Title IX Office functions.

Elsewhere on campus, some students are already working with Title IX to change campus culture. The Student Task Force for Education and Prevention (STEP) and One Love, the HWS chapter of a national organization dedicated to preventing relationship violence, are both now officially recognized student organizations. Like Woodworth, Lee is optimistic about the potential of student involvement. “Students learn best from other students,” she says. “The more student involvement, the more rapidly we’re moving into culture change.”

The Title IX Office is also working toward culture change through training, which has undergone some changes this semester. While some first-year students did not receive their bystander intervention training until late October last year, 90 percent of first-year students had received the training by the end of the first week of classes this year. Additionally, Title IX added all sorority and fraternity members to the student leader group that receives specialized training on top of the trainings assigned to all students.

Stiffler says the goal is to “tailor prevention education programming to various class years,” which will “benefit campus by not doing the same training over and over but getting an in-depth refresher about consent.”

Any student who is uncomfortable with the material presented in the trainings can reach out to Title IX to find an alternative, says Stiffler. “The last thing we want anyone to feel is that they have to attend a training they don’t feel comfortable with.”

With overlap, the Title IX Office has already reached 2,518 students through online and in-person trainings this year. According to Lee and Stiffler, the student response overall has been positive. They can see a clear increase in students’ understanding of Title IX policies and bystander intervention strategies.

Title IX is always open to student feedback, and the staff is willing to change programming according to student opinion. The office is actively looking to collaborate with student organizations to develop programming that students want to see on campus.

This confirms what the Herald concluded last April—if campus culture is to be truly transformed, it will need to be the result of collective action by the entire community.

Lasher: ‘And So There I Was in Poland’

By Elise Donovan ’22 Herald Contributor

On August 27, the greater population of Hobart and William Smith Colleges gathered in the Vandervort Room to celebrate the start of the 2018-2019 school year. Featuring remarks from esteemed alums, student leaders, and HWS faculty, the ceremony presented inspiratory comments for the Classes of 2019, as well as words of welcome for the Classes of 2022.

To commence the ceremony, keynote speaker Margarita Ramos ’85, Global Head of Human Resource Compliance for Bank of America Merrill Lynch and former HWS trustee, spoke of her own experiences on campus as well as how her past lead her to HWS.

Having grown up as “the youngest of five Latina daughters raised in New York City by a single mother,” Ramos yearned for a place where she could share her story and use her voice, as well a place away from the city. As a kid, Ramos spent her summers in upstate New York as part of the Fresh Air Kid program, a not-for-profit agency that provides free summer excursions around the country to New York City children from low-income communities. It was within this program that Ramos learned of Hobart and William Smith Colleges, as well as developed her newfound admiration and dedication to the school. Once at HWS, Margarita spoke of a time where she was given “freedom to explore who I was, to take appropriate risks, and to test my voice. Here, I was empowered to interact — to challenge and become my best self.”

In his speech, Interim President Patrick A. McGuire L.H.D. ’12 noted a similar idea of using your voice for change with reference to a speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr. at St. Peter’s College in the 1960s. McGuire spoke with the intention to inspire students to remain active in their education, saying, “The project of education is built on coming up short … Your time is now as you begin your career at HWS.” In ending his speech, Interim President McGuire left the crowd with the inspiration to make the most of their time on campus in the coming year.

Other speakers, such as HWS Trustee Dr. Jeremy T. Cushman ’96, spoke of the role of choices in one’s path to success, in that the choices made here “will reflect upon you, your community and this

Jeppsen

At the first meeting between mentors and mentees, each person introduces themselves and shares their disability with the group. “I had never done that before,” Isabelle says, recalling the experience. She emphasizes that in a world where having a disability is a huge part of so many people’s identities, creating opportunities and spaces to share one’s experiences and unique needs is crucial, and should be done more.

Eye to Eye has led Isabelle to venture outside of her comfort zone in ways she never imagined she would as an incoming firstyear. When she became the HWS Chapter Leader, she was invited to attend a conference at Brown University over the summer of 2018. The Young Leaders Organizing Institute, or OI, brings together Eye to Eye Chapter Leaders to discuss leadership.

Isabelle says she discovered a vibrant, supportive community of people she identified with at the OI, including four HWS alums, who inspired her to be a more authentic version of herself. “Everyone there

[Hobart and William Smith] family.” To add, both the William Smith and Hobart Student trustees made references to their time abroad in their advice. In line with the idea of taking the time on campus to make change, Gavin R. Gross ’19, who studied abroad in Nanjing, China, took time to address that not all change had to be immediate. In reference to the idea of making mistakes, Gross was quoted saying, “There is no better place to fail than here.” Caitlin E. Lasher ’19, who studied abroad in New Zealand and in the Netherlands, made reference to the same idea of failing to succeed by saying, “You will have challenges that you will face, and ultimately, only you can conquer these problems with the skills you have learned here.” She noted that her own challenges while struggling abroad – for instance, getting lost in Poland – were helped by “the skills I had learned and the people I have met while home at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.”

To help ease the obviously overwhelmed First Years, Associate Professor of Media and Society Leah Shafer provided some much needed relaxation techniques in wake of all the inspiratory messages. In one exercise, Shafer urged the audience to take part in yogic breathing, a form of breathing in which one exerts his or her pent-up energy in deep sighs. To remember the day, Shafer urged all attendees to take a selfie as a memento of Convocation.

Leah Shafer continued by encouraging all students to take advantage of the many resources available at HWS, as well as to take advantage of every day spent here on campus. She advised students to “make every day that you spend here a convocation, an opportunity for exploration” as well as to “build community, enlarge the small ... and strive to enjoy your privileged place as a person alive right here, right now.”

The ceremony concluded with the obligatory bagpipe procession, and a mass exodus of people from the Vandervort room directly to Saga. In discussion afterwards, many students were positively impacted by the speeches, with many pointing to the poignant words of Margarita Ramos. Others reacted similarly, but with a slight indignation towards the proceedings taking place inside rather than on Stern Lawn, the original location. Personally, I was glad the heat advisory and storm warnings allowed for air conditioning.

was so uninhibited to be themselves,” she says.

Isabelle has been involved in community service for eight years. As a high school student, she wrote a 55-page paper on the 2008 amendment to the Americans with Disabilities Act, and it was published in the Digital Maryland database. She is certain that service will remain a part of her life in the future; she is considering working with the Peace Corps before attending graduate school to study special education.

For Isabelle, seeking opportunities to grow outside of the academic sphere is a crucial part of a college education. Whatever the path to get involved, every student’s college experience can be enhanced by engagement with the dynamic community of clubs and service organizations on campus, says Isabelle.

Isabelle encourages any HWS student with a diagnosed learning disability who is registered with disability support services in the Center for Teaching and Learning to join Eye to Eye. New members can receive training to become a mentor on Oct. 4 and can begin working with a mentee the following Wednesday.