Inthisissue:Collegerelaxes COVID-19 policies p. 2 Reflections of a transfer student p. 4 Course scheduling tips p. 5 Sadler expansion unveiled p. 8 The student newspaper of the College of William and Mary | Vol. 112, Iss. 6 | Tuesday. August 30, 2022 | flathatnews.com T HE F LAT H ATT HE F LAT H AT Inside Sports Tribe eyes CAA title this fall After finishing last season with a 3-13 record, William & Mary field hockey begins the year with two overtime victories. page 7 Summer in Williamsburg Adam Jutt ’2 5 goes over the pros and cons of staying on the College’s campus during summer break. page 3 Index News Opinions Variety Sports News 2 3-4 5-6 7 8 Inside Opinions student newspaper of of William and 112, Iss. 6 | Tuesday. August 30, 2022 PHOTO BY RYAN GOODMAN/ THE FLAT HAT Inside "BecauseVarietyIdidn't have it..." Activist Diana Kim ’25 fghts fo r i ncreased represe ntation of Asian Americans in Vi rginia’s K-12 education syste m s. page 6 BEGINNINGSNEWBEGINNINGSNEW Inthisissue:Collegerelaxes COVID-19 policies p. 2 Reflections of a transfer student p. 4 Course scheduling tips p. 5 Sadler expansion unveiled p. 8
“ “THE BUZZ THE FLAT HAT | Tuesday, August 30, 2022 | Page 2 News Editor Anna Arnsberger News Editor Callie Booth News Editor Abigail fhnews@gmail.comConnelly CORRECTIONS Te Flat Hat wishes to correct any fact printed incorrectly. Corrections may be submitted in email to the editor of the section in which the incorrect information was printed. Requests for corrections will be accepted at any time. news insight Youʼve got to have difficult conversations. But, trusting that teachers can have those conversations in an appropriate way, I think, it would be huge if our elected officials sort of led the change on this. ̶ Emma Zahren-Newman ʻ17 Emma Zahren-Newman ʻ17 reflects on teaching career, importance of community conservation Committed to leaving her mark on the community A THOUSAND WORDS COURTESY PHOTO / LU CY CROSS ANNA ARNSBERGER / FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR MOLLY PARKS // FLAT HAT MANAGING EDITOR FLAT HAT NEWS BRIEF
The College of William and Mary’s slogan of “those who come here, belong here” certainly rang true for alumna Emma ZahrenNewman ’17 M.A.Ed. ’18. For almost a decade, Zahren-New man has served the Williamsburg community as an elementary school teacher, conservation and diversity advocate and local artist, while also working at local businesses Culture Cafe and Silver Hand Meadery.In2020, Zahren-Newman started Real Kids Play LLC, a business promoting creative, playful, standards-based and screen-timelimited learning for young students. While at the College, Zahren-Newman majored in twodimensional studio art and art history, with a minor in psychology. She studied abroad in Havana, Cuba, took part in the debate team and honor council and waitressed at Culture Cafe, where she felt herself starting to love the larger Williamsburg community. “My minor was in psychology,” Zahren-Newman said. “Specifically, I took a lot of child development classes. I’m the oldest of nine, so I was really interested in kids. Growing up, I started my own camp and I was always the camp counselor and so it just was like a natural fit.” With her cultivated interest in child psychology and dev elopment, Zahren-Newman stayed in Williamsburg for the five year masters program at the William and Mary School of Education. In this program, she student taught third graders at Matoaka Elementary School in Williamsburg. It was during this interactive experience that she decided to make Williamsburg her“Ihome.didmy student teaching at Matoaka Elementary School with the third grade team, and I was very gung ho set on going back to New Jersey and teaching in Newark or something,” ZahrenNewman said. “But then I just totally fell in love with the teachers I was working with, and the whole program, the whole school. And, again, like with working at Culture Cafe, I just really realized that staying in Williamsburg sounded awesome.”
For the next four years, Zahren-Newman worked as a third grade teacher at Matoaka, where she welcomed student teachers from the William and Mary School of Education into her classroom. Zahren-Newman also became the multicultural engagement advocate for Matoaka Elementary in the district. In this role, she represented Matoaka Elementary for the Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools district committee regarding multicultural attention in public education. The program brought a focus to Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month and Native American Heritage Month to elementary students through b iographical teaching, reading challenges, trivia games and display cases. Native American Heritage Month is especially important at Matoaka Elementary School, whose namesake is a famous Powhatan woman. “Matoaka is Pocahontas’s real name. Pocahontas is just the nickname, but her real name was Matoaka. So we always did something around that to shed light on the history and cultural diversity of our area,” Zahren-Newman said. Zahren-Newman spoke about the importance of culturally responsive teaching, something she learned from Professor BarkoAlva, an Assistant Professor of ESL/Bilingual Education at the William and Mary School of Education. Culturally inclusive education is starting to become a hot topic in the public school community across the United States as far-right lawmakers crack down on more progressive approaches. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin passed multiple executive actions on his frst day in ofce regarding public education. One ordered “ending the use of divisive concepts, including Critical Race Teory, in public education” and another allows parents to decide whether or not their child needs to wear a mask in public schools. Furthermore, in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis and the Republican state legislature passed a series of laws reforming public education in the state, including the “Stop WOKE Act” and the “Parental Rights in Education Act,” known by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
As of Aug. 5, the College of William and Mary is no longer operating COVID case management or contact tracing. The College issued this change alongside amended isolation guidelines for students who test positive. Those students are expected to isolate off-campus if possible, but the College will not coordinate individual isolation housing. Vice President for Student Affairs Ginger Ambler announced the new policies in an email to the community on July 28. Ambler stated that the threat posed by COVID-19 is on the decline and that day-to-day emergency response is no longer“Today,needed.COVID-19 is one illness among many the university will help students and employees manage on a daily basis,” Ambler wrote. In lieu of formal university management programs, Ambler directs students to resources for COVID-19 protection. The College encourages students to remain up to date with vaccinations and welcomes mask-wearing, though it is only mandatory at the Student Health Center. The email also includes guidance on recognizing symptoms, proper isolation and balancing academics. Ambler strongly urges community members to stay home and get tested if they feel sick.The College will provide one free rapid test to all residential students at the beginning of the semester upon arrival to campus. Students may also obtain limited free tests from the federal government and Williamsburg library. The Sadler Center will continue to provide testing kits for purchase.
Aug. 20, 2022, Silver Hand Meadery unveiled a 270 feet mural outside their store. The mural, titled “Flight of the Honey Bee, circa 1622,” pays homage to the honey bee and other pollinators and is the first public mural approved through Williamsburg’s public art program. When Emma Zahren-Newman, ’17, M.A.Ed. ’18 first conceived of the idea to paint the wall, Silver Hand Meadery co-owne rs Sherri and Glen Lavender were immediately excited about the possibility. After the design was approved and Zahren-Newman painted the blue background of the mural, Glenn Lavender knew it was going to be incredible. “We are so excited about it… it’s beautiful,” Lavender said. “To have a very large piece of art on our property that will always be here, I think it’s a great thing for the city. You know, we’re always wanting this town to feel more artsy and artistic.
Williamsburg Public Art Councilʼs first approved mural showcases honeybees and other local pollinators
College updates COVID-19 policies and guidelines
Zach Lutzky
Read more at flathatnews.com. Read more at flathatnews.com. Business unveils new mural outside storefront LULU DAWES FLAT HAT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF COURTESY PHOTO / EMMA ZAHREN-NEWMAN A THOUSAND WORDS Lulu Dawes Editor-in-Chief Molly Parks Managing Editor Ashanti Jones Executive Editor Erica Smedley Digital Media Editor T HE F LAT H AT ʻSTABILITAS ET FIDESʼ | ESTABLISHED OCT. 3, 1911 25 Campus Center, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va. 23185 Anna Arnsberger News Editor Callie Booth News Editor Abigail Connelly News Editor Madeleine Harris Variety Editor Vivian Hoang Variety Editor Jake Forbes Sports Editor Adam Jutt Opinons Editor Caitlin Noe Opinions Editor Nick Reeder Data Editor Justin Sherlock Social Media, Photos Editor Yelena Fleming Graphics, Podcast Editor Tara Vasanth Graphics Editor Lucas Harsche Copy Chief Susie Stark Copy Chief Emma Henry Chief Staff Writer Sarah Devendorf Assoc. Standards Editor Editor flathat.editor@gmail.com Managing flathat.managing@gmail.com Executive flathat.executive@gmail.com Magazine editor@flathatmagazine.com News fhnews@gmail.com Sports flathatsports@gmail.com Copy flathatcopy@gmail.com Opinions fhopinions@gmail.com Variety flathat.variety@gmail.com Photos flathatphotos@gmail.com Online flathatonline@gmail.com Advertising flathatads@gmail.com Graphics flathat.art@gmail.com Ombudsman flathat.ombuds@gmail.com Veronica Bondi Copy Editor Anu Desai Copy Editor Ian Ha Copy Editor Crystal Wang Copy Editor Daniel Kalish News Assoc. Editor William Kobos News Assoc. Editor Hannah Ray News Assoc. Editor Naomi Fraser Variety Assoc. Editor JR Herman Variety Assoc. Editor Ellie Kurlander Variety Assoc. Editor Linda Li Variety Assoc. Editor Miles Mortimer Variety Assoc. Editor Bushra Bablu Opinions Assoc. Editor Lauren Meyer Opinions Assoc. Editor Seth Novak Opinions Assoc. Editor Eduardo Rodriguez Gonzalez Opinions Assoc. Editor Kelsi Putnam Sports Assoc. Editor Jason Tukker Sports Assoc. Editor Ryan Goodman Photos Assoc. Editor Zach Lutzky Photos Assoc. Editor Taylor Robertson Business Manager Van Monday Standards Editor Alexandra Byrne Operations Coordinator Ryan Leventhal Webmaster COMMUNITY
And I think this is a good thing for when visitors are in Zahren-Newmantown.” spent over a year hand-painting the mural and said the idea to paint this particular mural actually originated during an interview for a parttime position at the meadery. “We have this shared passion for pollinators,” Zahren-Newman said in reference to the Lavenders. “In my interview with them they said, ‘You know, of the qualities hungry, smart and humble, like which one do you feel a little out of whack?’ And I said, ‘For hungry, like I bite of more than I can chew. Like, for example, all I want to do is paint that wall outside of your establishment.’ Tey were like, ‘Oh, that’s a great idea.’” A third grade teacher during the day, Zahren-Newman used to come after work multiple times a week to spend a few hours on the mural. Following these long sessions, she said her students were always excited to see the progress she was making and sh e would consistently take pictures to show them updates. Some of her students were in attendance at the unveiling to support their former teacher. “I’d come in the next day with a picture like, ‘All right, this is what I did last night,’ and they were like, ‘Tat’s so cool,’” Zahren-Newman said.
Photos Assoc. Editor
COURTESY PHOTO / EMMA ZAHREN-NEWMAN Emma Zahren-Newman ʻ17 discusses the importance of culturally responsive teaching in the classroom reflecting on previous lessons by Professor Barko-Alva.
opinions(maybeAdamJutt’25isplanningonmajoringinwhoknowswhatpublicpolicyandeconomics).Asidefrombeinganeditor,heisamemberofClubTennisandinvolvedwithInterVarsity.FeelfreetoemailAdamatadjutt@wm.edu.
6. Be prepared to not have a per fect GPA. Look, I get it, some peo ple can keep a 4.0 in college, but not everyone, and certainly not me. Living on your own is hard, and so is managing your own time, and that’s going to affect your grades. Be pre pared for a C on your first assign ment.
7. Don’t smoke in your room. We can all smell it in the halls, and by we, I mean specifically your RA. Some RAs don’t care, but some really do. Just go outside.
opinions THE F L AT HAT Opinions Editor Adam Jutt Opinions Editor Caitlin Noe fhopinions@gmail.com // @theflathat | Tuesday, August 30, 2022 | Page 3 Summer in Williamsburg: Hot or Not? (Oh, It’s Hot) STAFF COLUMN incomingDear,freshman GUEST COLUMN Adam Jutt FLAT HAT OPINIONS EDITOR FLAT HAT GUEST WRITER Katharine Luzzatto
1. Communicate with your room mate. Whether you know each other or they’ve been randomly assigned, communicate boundaries and expec tations with each other. Maybe your roommate is uncomfortable with sub stances in the room, perhaps you’re uncomfortable with them having sex 6 feet away from you. You and your roommate will not be on the same page unless you talk about what you expect from each other.
2. If you’re living in Green and Gold Village, invest in a fan or some great headphones because those walls are paper thin. Also, please play music if you’re getting freaky with someone. Absolutely no one wants to hear someone getting pounded into your twin xl mattress.
4. If you don’t know campus that well, make sure you know where your classes are the day before they start. Just go with your roommate or a friend, walk through campus, and try to learn your way around a little bit. It’s much better to do that than walk into your 100-person lecture 10 minutes late because you couldn’t find the room.
For most of this past summer, I was what the French call “sur le campus,” which roughly translates to “on campus.” Was I on campus just to be able to write this article about the summer experience? Gosh no, I was a research assistant. However, in case my editor-in-chief is reading this, know that I would happily give up months of my life, or even my life itself, pursuing a good scoop for this estimable paper. The fact that I was a research assistant is actually an important point to bring up in qualifying the scope of the findings which I will shortly — though admittedly not too shortly, for this introduction is pretty long — share. You see, my experience in the research world was surely in some ways a radically different ‘summer on campus’ experience than those had by class-takers, intrepid Flat Hat journalists falling down rabbit holes of anonymous tips and red herrings or even other research assistants. More candidly, there is a decent chance my experience is not generalizable, and therefore not relevant or useful whatsoever. But, in fairness, if relevance or usefulness were requirements for articles then I would have been out of a job here long ago!I had no idea what to expect campus to feel like over the summer. I recall telling my mom on one occasion in late May a few days before flying back out here, “I think it is either going to be amazing or horrible. Like, I’m either going to make some great new friends and have the time of my life — soaking in all the great parts of college without any of the stress of grades — or I’m going to be perpetually miserable and bored. There is no middle ground.” There is a middle ground, as it happens. Whether it leans more to the amazing or horrible side of my invented dichotomy is a question to which I promise to circle back, as I’m sure many of you who chose to engage with this article did so under the pretense that this question — or something close enough to it — would be answered. However, I want to spend most of my allotted words for this article focusing on protuberant differences between the College of William and Mary during the fall and spring semesters and the College during the summer. Of course, being the bad boy of the opinions section — as is well documented and universally accepted — here’s what I have to say about word limits: who needs ‘em? The most notable difference — for me at least — was in terms of time. I had more of it. For example, I actually started writing this article, which is seeing the light of day in late-August, in the middle of July. Just because I could. Before I go any further, however, I need to harken back to my point about the potential differences between mine and other campus dwellers’ summer lives. I am friends with a couple people who were in the “Data Science Jump Start” program (I think it was called), which entailed taking three classes both summer sessions, and they were not in the same boat as me timewise at all. Seldom were they done with work in time for any sort of social activity — normally a board game night, movie night, or other classic crazy YOLO college shenanigans — before very late in the evening. I, on the other hand, had time enough for game and movie nights for the three of us. Well, that is a very slight exaggeration. During the day, my research kept me pretty busy. But when five o’clock rolled around, and I’ll admit there were days where by five I’d already watched an incriminating amount of YouTube — my work was primarily done independently — the world was my oyster. It was delightful. Based on my discussions with other people doing research over the summer, my situation was not fully unique in that respect. I don’t know exactly how they all chose to spend the vast expanse of hours between five and whenever bedtime is (plus, in my situation, those couple half hours littered throughout the day where I spontaneously fancied myself deserving of a break), but I know how I chose to spend mine: hobbies.Ipicked up three hobbies (although I think routines would be a more precise word) this summer, and I am very grateful to have done so. Partially because I think each served to better me in some small way and all that nonsense, but mostly because without them I would have had nothing to do but binge John Mulaney’s three Netflix specials back to back to back every day. The first hobby I pursued this summer was re-learning as much Chinese as I could from my middle and early highschool days. As much as I wish I could claim I was pursuing this hobby to be a more worldly or well-rounded person, that would be disingenuous. The truth is that I was preparing for a standardized exam I took in the middle of August. My goal was to receive a score of at least intermediate and thus fulfill the foreign language requirement here at the College. To be honest, I did not think a score of intermediate was possible based on my sparse arsenal of canned Duolingo phrases and scattered vestiges of vocab from seventh grade units on bartering and colors, but to my delight I am now the proud owner of an electronic certificate brandishing in a curly font the words “Intermediate-Low.” The certificate also includes a description of what the intermediate-low rating means on a practical level, replete with such praises as: “speakers at this level manage to sustain the functions of the intermediate level, although just barely,” and “their responses are often filled with hesitancies and inaccuracies.” I’ll take it.
Email kfluzzatto@wm.eduat
3. Try to find an extracurricu lar that you’re interested in. I met some of my best friends in the first week of freshman year through my extracurriculars. Most students that I know are in at least one extracur ricular, and sure, some look good on a resume, but it’s also a great way to meet people on campus and to get some socialization outside of class and outside of trying to use your fake I.D. to get into bars.
YELENA FLEMING/ THE FLAT HAT YELENA FLEMING / THE FLAT HAT
The second routine I tried to adopt this summer — especially the second half of the summer — was to read more than I usually do (perhaps “read” is the wrong word considering I primarily consumed books in audiobook fashion while on walks), which is to say I tried to read an altogether unimpressive amount. That isn’t false humility; at the time I wrote the first draft of this article in mid-July, a draft which to my deep embarrassment already included an account of my reading obsession, I had read just one and a half books. However, while one and a half books is undeniably unremarkable, the effect it had on me mentally is remarkably undeniable; if you were to have a conversation with me before and after my first bout of reading this summer (which, once again, is to say before and after I opened the Audible app for the first time), you would think I had just been told by Kanye West that he thought I was a more talented individual than he. Undeservedly and disproportionately proud of myself is the best way I can think to put it without metaphor, though that doesn’t quite do it justice. I felt so wise and learned I might as well have been listening to a reading of “The Book of Life” (The Bible’s version of Santa’s nice list, for those of you who don’t get that joke) by God himself. My need for the approval of others instantly evaporated; I was a reader, gosh darn it. The third routine I adopted this summer was working out. I was hesitant to include this point at first, because — unlike the other two routines I adopted — working out is a hobby whose fruits should be evident externally. To cut to the chase for those of you who don’t know what I looked like both before and after the summer, the external fruits of my effort were…marginal at best — presumably well within the range of change one could fallaciously observe due to the placebo effect — and so I imagine downright invisible if you had not been made privy to my efforts. Still, I maintain that I made some small amount of progress on that front, and am glad I stuck with it through the summer. As the first half of the summer came to an end, I was actually feeling very proud of my progress. I had watched in satisfaction as the size of the circles I could manage to push, pull or lift got bigger and bigger and then, on certain equipment, eventually turned into two circles (albeit one large and one smaller). What served to diminish my sense of accomplishment? Well, as I said, my pride was at its highest as the first summer session came to an end. What happened at the start of the second session, you may ask? The athletes came to campus. Using the chest press machine with one big circle and one littler circle on each side feels much less impressive when you first have to remove two big circles from each side. That’s more than enough about the routines I adopted. To summarize, summer research on campus presents a great opportunity to pick up new hobbies; if there is any activity or skill you want to set time aside to pursue on a regular basis, summer at the College represents a wonderful opportunity, especially if you are involved with a number of extracurriculars and other time-sucking obligations throughout the school year. That wasn’t the only important difference between the College during the school year and during the summer. I thought of three others that I would be remiss to exclude. Since I am beyond out of space, however, I shall have to mention them each very briefly. There are far more animals on campus in the summer. I assume this is simply because there are less people to scare them away. Deer outnumbered humans. A turtle tried to pee on me as I moved him from a tennis court to the woods behind the tennis courts. Little lizards were always to be found darting to and fro on sidewalks. Bats flew about at night trying desperately and in vain to conjure up thoughts of Batman and not of Morbius in onlookers. One night, a black bear was sighted behind the business school. At the time, I was on a walk very near (a select few of you know exactly how near) said business school. Nature is amazing. Second, I feel like I should include a point about the summer from the social perspective. The problem is, I am confident that collectively we summer campus dwellers ran the gauntlet from ‘never said a word to another person’ to ‘partied every waking and sleeping moment,’ meaning my personal experience would not mean anything and should absolutely under no circumstances be brought up. Personally, I was somewhere in the middle of the continuum, though closer to the former pole than the latter. I played some board games and watched some movies with friends over my ten weeks on campus, but spent at least as many hours on walks by myself and on the phone trying to convince my parents that, despite what they may be inclined to believe, I am not bored or severely socially under-stimulated. Third, it was hotter. On the whole, I had a positive experience on campus over the summer. The work I was doing was interesting and rewarding, the ample free time was glorious, and the low stress environment was a stupendous change of pace. I would definitely recommend it to anyone considering spending a future summer in Williamsburg. To answer the earlier question, then, it was closer to amazing than horrible. However, to reiterate, I cannot speak authoritatively for those considering taking a bunch of classes. Reach out to me and I can direct you to someone who can elucidate that experience more personally. Regardless of your role on campus, however, the heat is not fun, boredom and social under-stimulation may make an appearance or two, and if you start working out for the first time in your life you will surely be disheartened come early July when all of a sudden you are sharing the gym with people curling weights you aren’t convinced you could deadlift.
The transition from high school to college is going to be full of new expe riences. It is probably going to be hard to move away from home to a new place with new people, so allow me to impart upon you ten pieces of advice that I learned through my own incred ibly tumultuous freshman experience.
5. The food truck on Sadler Terrace has the best food on campus, but it isn’t year-round. They usually have pretty okay vegetarian substi tutions that aren’t just the tofu and undercooked rice you find at The Caf. Marketplace and The Caf are tied for second, I usually don’t even bother with Sadler.
8. Talk to your professors. I know they seem scary, but they’re (with a few exceptions) all incredibly nice and care about their student’s wellbeing. If you’re having trouble in class, it never hurts to ask them what you can do to better prepare. Most of them truly just want their students to learn something and don’t want you to fail. Talk to the people in your classes too. Having someone’s num ber in your class is going to be helpful when you inevitably miss a lecture and need the notes. 9. Go and see the animals in Colonial Williamsburg. It’s a fun firstweek activity and gives you a little bit of the lay of the land around you. Just be aware that there is horse shit everywhere on those cobblestone roads.10. Let me reiterate that college is a hard transition, so please utilize the mental health services offered if you think you might need them. It’s free, just call and set up an appointment. I promise it won’t be as scary as you think. You can set up a triage appoint ment or an urgent one if needed. You can call the counseling center at any time if you’re having a mental health crisis and they will advise you on what your next steps should be. You also don’t have to be in crisis to seek counseling: it can be incredibly helpful if you’re struggling with the stress of classes or just feeling over whelmed and Katharinehomesick.Luzzatto ‘25 is a pro spective government major from Suffolk, Virginia. When she’s not writing for the Flat Hat, she serves as social chair for the William and Mary Cleftomaniacs.
First off, welcome to the College of William and Mary, and congratulations on the hard work and persistence that got you here! Being a transfer student means your start at the College is a little different than that of the freshman, and it can be tempting to feel yours is a forgotten introduction. Transferring is a radically different experience for everyone, and it heavily depends on your prior encounters, your personality, and from where you transfer. Coming from another four-year university or online is a different feeling than coming from a community college, abroad or wherever else. I chose to write this article because, as a student who transferred to the College myself, i know that it can be easy for transfers to feel overlooked, though the College makes a valiant effort and ultimately does an excellent job of ensuring they are Theseen.best way to explain this transition is by comparing transfers to a fish halfway in the water. You are not a fish out of water because you most likely, by this point, have some miles of the college experience behind you. College life’s joys, stresses, excitements and frustrations are not alien ideas. You have probably had your fair share of writing a college-level thesis, taking a class that has nothing to do with your major and having a passionate love affair with caffeine. Transferring is also being a fish out of the water because there are new experiences of getting lost trying to find the library and new interactions with people. In addition, the College has a particular culture of its own, one that includes the desperate longing to abbreviate everything and reference obscure facts. In this sense transferring is being a fish out of water. Within the experience of transferring, there is a lot of ambiguity, which makes it a complex encounter. Sometimes you will understand the plight of a freshman trying to find DoG street, but you will also understand the references of the upper-level students as they discuss the time crunch they have to complete all their credit requirements. Transferring is occupying two worlds at once. By now, you probably have experienced the positives and negatives of being in the strange straddling world of a transfer. You have had speakers in orientation express the sentiments that you have four years to do everything here at the College and thinking in the back of your mind about the different time table you are on. You might have been able to bond with other transfers because of a shared understanding, allowing for a sense of specialized comradery. The duality of your experience does not make it any less valid or significant. It is ok if this is tougher than you thought it would be. Having previous college experience does not mean all this has to come easily. The one note I want to leave you with is that you will always be a transfer, that’s part of the story of how you got here, but you will not always be a fish out of water. A day will come when you will not get lost anymore (well, hopefully; if that never comes, that’s on you). You, too, at some point, will find yourself offhandedly referring to Colonial Williamsburg as CW, it becomes a reflex, and one day you will not get called a freshman eight out of ten times. You are not forgotten or overlooked and with that, welcome to the College of William and Mary!
Since 2016, Donald Trump has conjured “witch-hunt” imagery to denounce the futile attempts by adversaries to dismantle his right-wing crusade. As the former president may not know, the seventeenth century women who were persecuted for witchcraft did not manage to avoid the stake for as long as he has. Now more than ever, there is hope that Donald Trump’s legal and political immunity may be up. Impeachment, FBI raids, congressional committee hearings, legal indictments, you name it — he still stands. How can there be accountability when increasing polarization breeds alternative realities? The reality of this political moment is difficult to accept and interpret, but it’s important to remember that the new generation of voters does not have the perspective of the 60s, 70s and 80s that many elected officials and older voters do. While the political architecture of the day may surprise or frustrate the generations before us, young voters feel immobile, dissatisfied and resentful of the political gerontocracy. While women’s rights are compromised and Black lives are at risk, America’s latest season of reality TV politics hogs airtime and monopolizes content. The lack of transparency, absence of accountability and everincreasing polarization leaves young voters exacerbated. The College of William and Mary’s seniors and juniors were eligible to vote in 2020, but that leaves roughly half of the student body voting in their first presidential election — and maybe even first state elections — between now and 2024. What does this particular moment mean for young voters in a changing democracy? How do we navigate the nonsensical? How can we stay energized to be politically active when we feel hopeless in the face of injustice, corruption, and economic stress? One thing is for certain: it is imperative to stay informed. Listening to podcasts, subscribing to newsletters or following news outlets on social platforms are easy ways to work information into your daily routine. Consume your content critically: engage with the material you absorb, ask questions, and maybe even do brief research on what interests you. Still, staying up to date can be exhausting. We are constantly battered by the twenty four hour news cycle and chronic exposure to social media. It’s hard not to get overwhelmed or discouraged by the absurd amount of information we digest on a daily basis — not to mention school and classwork. Taking strategic breaks from the news or your phone can help evade burnout and protect future engagement. Further, recognizing that people are imperfect — and therefore politicians and our systems are also imperfect — can be a useful tool. For one reason or another, Americans celebritize politicians, so much so that celebrities are actually running for office. A recent episode of “The Argument,” a New York Times opinion podcast, discusses the “political cult of celebrity” that Americans experience today. We tend to ascribe misleading or inaccurate attitudes and characteristics to politicians, shifting focus away from their policies, history, and practices. In turn, politicians rely on their egos and dedicate money and effort to soundbites, likes and viewers to get ahead rather than researching their constituency, constructing effective policy or just doing the right thing. If there’s one thing the last few years have shown us, it’s that incumbent politicians get far too comfortable. Let them do their job by earning your vote. For young voters, maintaining political obligation can seem feckless when elected officials appear to be anything but responsible. America appears locked in a battle of attrition, fighting for inches in no man’s land, using unagreed-upon facts and figures as ammunition. To young voters who may be becoming less energized to participate in politics, I say that young people can generate the much needed momentum — for everyone — to do better. Our temporary discomfort trumps the disintegration of democracy. Staying politically informed, personally inspired and collectively motivated to do right by ourselves and our neighbors is essential to leading our communities through this complicated political moment. William & Mary students can register to vote in their home states OR in Virginia. Check your registration status or register to vote here: https:// vote.gov
reviewerGraceinGraceBrooks’23isfromFairfax,Virginia,majoringhistoryandminoringinFilmandMediaStudies.isamemberoftheSpotswoodSociety,apeerfortheJamesBlairHistoricalReview,andisinvolvedwithInterVarsity.EmailGraceatgcbrooks@wm.eduLetusknowwhatyouthinkaboutthisandtheotherarticlesbyfillingoutthispoll! Fish in and out of water: the transfer student experience STAFF COLUMN GUEST COLUMN We need young voters now more than ever GUEST COLUMN GRAPHIC BY YELENA FLEMING / THE FLAT HAT Seth Novak FLAT HAT ASSOC. OPINIONS EDITOR Grace Brooks FLAT HAT GUEST WRITER Carina Pacheco FLAT HAT GUEST WRITER
One of the things I take pride in is the walkability of the College of William and Mary’s campus. It takes no more than 15 minutes to walk from any location to another, which is especially convenient when I’m running late to class. The College considers this one of their biggest attractions and I completely agree with it. If this is the case, though, why is the campus so unsafe for pedestrians? The three roads that create the boundaries for our school trap students within them, for to cross the boundary is a risk. To get to Wawa, I first have to cross Richmond Road. This does not seem a daunting task at first, with it only being two lanes and a posted speed limit of 25 mph, but this is misleading. Cars are coming from higher speed limits and expect to maintain that speed through the campus area. In an effort to make crossing this road more favorable to pedestrians, Williamsburg County erected light-up cross walk signs to indicate someone will be crossing the street. Good! Drivers might see the light and slow down for the pedestrian peeking their head out from the street parked car that obscures most of their body.
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THE FLAT HAT Tuesday,
Jamestown Road, on the other hand, mostly has residential areas across from campus, so there is less foot traffic crossing this road. Because of this, the county instead decided to only have three crosswalks for the entire length of the street for students who would like to return home after classes or other activities. Cars have a lower expectation for pedestrians and less deterrents, so they are usually well above the same posted speed limit of 25 mph. Students are corralled into campus by busy, speeding streets with a threat of injury looming over if they decide to leave. I would think that at the very least, the road that runs right through campus would be an effective thoroughfare for students who just want to travel from point A to B. This is not the case, unless you have a car. There are brick sidewalks, unfriendly to bikers or wheelchair bound students, so there is a bike lane. An unprotected bike lane. There are four crosswalks for students to get from one side to the other, but only one lights up to alert drivers. I don’t often use these cross walks specifically because they are at inconvenient locations along Ukrop Road. After being at the College for a year, I’ve begun to notice some trends. Once it gets dark, all traffic laws go out the window, especially on Ukrop Way. Cars speed up and down the road, trying to get from one side of campus to the other, rarely stopping for pedesrians, or just not seeing them. After realizing this was a major issue that affected all students, I decided to do something about it. There were clear hazards towards the students and I thought there would be someone able to help in mitigating those hazards. First I called Mayor Doug Pons, and he informed me that Ukrop Way was under the school’s jurisdiction and that I should contact them. I did not question him about Richmond or Jamestown Road. I contacted Parking Services in an attempt to discuss this issue, and instead got redirected directly to WMPD Police Chief Deborah Cheesebro, the Chief of William and Mary Police. In my original email to Parking Services, I mentioned that speed bumps might be a sound way to protect students and deter speeding, because they physically bar a car from going faster than they should. There is nothing to stop a car from blowing through a stop sign or crosswalk, but a speed bump forces a car to slow down. In response to this, Cheesebro gave me some reasons why bumps “are no longer the preferred traffic calming measure in a situation such as our campus” which I will now dissect. I would like to mention that some of these criticisms are completely valid, but I weigh them against the possibility of a student getting hit by a speeding car. This first group of reasons I will put into a section that I would say does not understand my true intention. I do not want cars inside our campus because they are a danger to the students that inhabit it, which takes priority over everything. We, as students, deserve to be safe and comfortable on our own campus, and cars do not have a place in that picture. Some of the reasons that do not address this are as follows: Speed bumps are a source of excessive wear on tires, brakes, suspension systems, shock absorbers and rattle dashboards. Many areas have been forced to remove speed bumps because of overwhelming and constant complaints by drivers and residents of the areas. On roads with speed bumps, carbon monoxide emissions increase by 82%, carbon dioxide emissions double and nitrogen oxide increases by 37%. Reduces fuel efficiency and increases gas consumption. All of these work with the idea in mind that we are catering to the driver when we install speed bumps. This is simply not the case. It is a good thing if these problems happen to a car, because it also means they’ll be less likely to drive through that street. We need to orient our mindset towards the vast majority of pedestrians, not the drivers who could easily kill said pedestrians. I think it is also necessary to say that speed bumps do increase response time for emergency response vehicles, which I do not wish upon anyone in any situation, and I do not yet have a fool-proof solution for this problem. I don’t claim to know the answer in every situation, but I still believe it is important to point out when something does notAswork.forthe other reasons given by Cheesebro, I believe they are blatantly untrue and produce more questions than answers in Cheesebro’s argument: Speed bumps may not change driver behavior and may result in other dangerous driving behaviors, such as going “off road” to avoid the bumps. Speed bumps are not bicycle friendly. Let’s be honest here. We’re in Williamsburg, VA. No one is going “off road” to avoid a speed bump near the campus and if you build a speed bump effectively, there will be no way to avoid it while on the road. This second reason is honestly amusing to a certain degree. I don’t want to go into this more than I have to because it is cut and dry, but speed bumps are not a deterrent to bicycles. I emailed Cheesebro back hoping to generate an in-person discussion with them, but I never got a response back. We often are forced to use cars because there aren’t many other quick and easy options on campus. I’ve been attempting to get the College on board with a partnership with an electric scooter company, as they were attempting a few years back, but without much luck. This article is a call to action for the College, and I hope they heed it.
The streets of Williamsburg
ThebaristaNewhistoryCarinaPacheco’23isamajorandanativeofJersey.Sheisapart-timeandafulltimedoglover.InadditiontocontributingtoFlatHat,CarinaisamemberoftheclublacrosseteamandtheYoungDemocratsclub.EmailCarinaatcapacheco@email.wm.edu.
August 30, 2022
lacrosseSethNovak‘25ismajoringingovernmentandAmericanstudies.HeplaysontheclubteamandisamemberoftheSigmaPifraternity,whilealsobeingthepresidentoftheRandolphComplexCommunityCouncil.EmailSethatstnovak@email.wm.edu.
Upperclassman imparts her knowledge of course planning, utilizing websites like RateMyProfessor, Coursicle to create perfect schedule. charting your course for the upcoming semester
afternoon is free while others prefer afternoon and evening classes. One semester, a friend even rigged his schedule so that his first class began at 3:30 p.m. on any given day (allowing him to sleep until 3:00 p.m.). While that level of schedule manipulation is certainly not possible for everyone (I still am in awe that he managed to do that), it’s a good example of knowing your weaknesses and trying to plan around them as much as you can. Not only can late classes interfere with dinner plans and club activities, but they also can result in decreased productivity if you’re not careful. If I have a 9:30 AM class, I’ll be perpetually exhausted, yes, but at least I’ll have finished class and the next day’s homework by noon. Last semester, when my first class began at 3:30 PM on Mondays and Wednesdays, I was sleeping in until noon. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I would go to class at 12:30 p.m., go to class again at 2:00 p.m., then go to class again at 3:30 p.m., and I wouldn’t be done until 5:00 p.m. After four hours of classes in a row, all I wanted to do was eat dinner, relax and not do homework. After all, it was evening already. This segues into my next point: take into consideration how many classes you have in a row. It doesn’t have to be (and sometimes shouldn’t be) a deal-breaker — I’d still choose the same schedule of four hours of classes in a row again because they were hard-to-get courses that fulfilled major requirements, and I ended up loving the classes. Just realize that having multiple classes in a row without a break is exhausting, and when you add clubs and activities on top of that, it’s even worse. My Tuesdays were booked non-stop (with only a dinner break) from 12:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. because of classes and clubs. It was rough. Another point to consider when taking classes is geographical distance. Can you physically get across campus in the amount of time between two classes without sprinting, biking or using a time-turner like Hermione Granger? Ten minutes is practically enough to get a sloth from Chancellors to James Blair. Boswell to ISC is a bit of a hike but doable, but what about from Boswell to Blow? What about from the Business School to Blow? Yikes. Also, keep class frequency and length in mind. I tend to prefer two 80-minute classes twice a week over three 50-minute classes, but that’s a personal preference — there are advantages and disadvantages to both. Twicea-week classes tend to have a heavier course load each night, but you don’t have to do the homework or attend class as frequently. Meanwhile, thrice-weekly classes give less homework and require less time per class, but you must attend more classes in a given week (and usually on Friday). Other miscellaneous tips: try to spread out your writing-intensive classes or more difficult classes (especially important if you’re a STEM kid, at least from what I’ve heard). Taking classes with friends can be fun, but don’t take a class you’re not interested in just to be with a friend — and remember that things can go south fast if there’s drama. Also, always try to balance requirements with fun electives when youForcan.those hoping to get into an already full class as we near add/drop, download Coursicle, an app that sends you notifications about seat openings, and email professors for overrides (cross your fingers that there is classroom space and that the professor is in a generous mood)! And of course, if you have questions, talk to your advisor. Add/drop begins August 30th at 2:00 PM and runs through September 12th at 11:59 PM. Hopefully, you’ll get everything you need by then, but if not, there’s always the next registration… HATFLATTHE//
| Tuesday, August 30, 2022 | Page 5variety THE FLAT HAT Variety Editor Vivian Hoang Variety Editor Madeleine Harris flathat.variety@gmail.com // @theflathat
Syllabi are on Blackboard, and classes are right around the corner — the new semester (and add/drop season) is finally here! Planning the theoretically ideal schedule is hard enough on its own, and as any seasoned student knows, it’s not uncommon to be going into add/drop week without the classes you need due to limited seats and the absolute horror that was registration. We sure love waking up at 6:00 a.m. after a solid four hours of sleep only to brave Banner crashes and not get the classes we need! Ever since one of my friends overslept registration by over six hours and frantically texted me while in class asking what he should sign up for, I have considered myself the “schedule-planning consultant” friend. I genuinely like helping others get the best schedules they can, and as we near add/drop, I thought I’d assemble a list of things that I keep in mind when planning my schedule in case these tips prove helpful for other students, especially incoming freshmen (for whom this is the first add/drop rodeo). These tips mostly apply to electives because — let’s face it — we don’t always have much of a choice when it comes to required classes. Rate My Professor, a website commonly used by students to determine which professor to take classes with using their fellow classmates’ anonymous reviews, can be helpful if you use it properly. I know some people who choose their electives almost entirely based on RMP difficulty ratings, but I would caution against that. Difficulty ratings on RMP should be taken with a ginormous grain of salt. I have taken “easy” classes with “easy” professors and found them just as hard or even harder than so-called “hard” classes with “hard” professors. One of the main problems with the difficulty rating is that there are no set guidelines for defining difficulty. Sometimes, someone who self-reports a B in the class gives it a one for difficulty and says it’s an “easy A” … but didn’t you say you got a B? Alternatively, I have seen reviews by students who have given a class a four or a five for difficulty … but then again, they got A’s? People’s standards of difficulty depend not only on the grade they’re aiming for (for those aiming for an A, a class could be considered hard; for those aiming for a B+, the same class could be perceived as easy), but also on skills, interests and what they’re accustomed to. What may be an easy class for one could be a difficult class for another, just based on previous experiences alone; a student from an extremely competitive prep school may find a class to be a one or a two while someone who came from a less academically rigorous high school may rate the same class a five. Skills and interests are perhaps even more important to consider. As someone who loves writing, reading and learning languages (and who is not a STEM person), I’m going to have a very different experience in a humanities class than my friend who excels in STEM. I’d probably get destroyed in his math and physics classes, and he’d probably get annihilated in my language and writing classes. So, consider the difficulty rating with a grain of salt and try to take electives that genuinely interest you, especially in subjects that you’re strong in. I would much rather take a harder class on material that I’m interested in than an easier class on material I’m not. If you like the material, the ‘hard’ class doesn’t seem as hard … and on the flip side, if you’re not interested in the material, the ‘easy’ class is the one you likely will dread every day. Instead of focusing on professor difficulty, consider the percentage of students who would take the class again and look for trends in the quality discussion?reading?grade?athecombinationPapers?basedbulkessays?Timed,groupLecture?classhavesyllabusevencommentsalsoMakerating.suretolookatRMPorthecourseifyouit.Istheaseminar?Arethereprojects?in-classIstheofyourgradeonexams?Someoftwo?IsthereparticipationSignificantClassThebest
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JR HERMAN // FLAT HAT VARIETY ASSOC. EDITOR
advice I can give is to know your interests, strengths and weaknesses, and try to align them as much as you can with both what you have to take and what you want to take. My favorite classes are seminars with lots of group discussions. I prefer papers over exams because I like writing, but I try to avoid in-class essays and group projects because I tend to find those more stressful. I try to take classes that fit these preferences when I can because I thrive best in (and am happiest in) those conditions. I have friends, though, who love to hide in the back of huge lecture courses, hate class discussions, love group projects and prefer exams to papers. One of my friends refuses to take any elective that requires memorization, another refuses to take any psychology class and yet another picks art electives because they require the least amount of reading and writing. What works for you may not work for your friend. Another thing to note when using RMP is to take claims that a class is ‘interesting’ or ‘boring’ lightly, especially for classes without prerequisites. An intro-level class on Greek Art and Archaeology may be ‘boring’ for a STEM major who needs a COLL 200 ALV but ‘interesting’ to a Classics or Art History major. If the “this is such a boring class” review came from a Classics or Art History major, you may be right to be worried! But what if the review was written by a student who took the class thinking it was going to be easy despite having no interest in the topic? One of my favorite classes of all time — and one which I also found to be easy — was deemed not only really hard but also incredibly boring by one of my friends. I did what any sensible TWAMP would do and immediately removed this person with terrible taste in classes from my life. Kidding. The point is: same class, two completely soearlySomeday’sakeepgraduate,thismusthard,theissameofvaluable.thatareexperiences.differentAndbothequallyvalid.Iwouldadd,however,patternsproveIfthemajorityreviewersmaketheclaim:thematerialincrediblyinteresting,classisridiculouslyyouabsolutelytakeaclasswithprofessorbeforeyouetc.youshouldthatinmind.Considerthetimeofclassaswellasyourgeneralschedule.peopleprefermorningclassesthattherestoftheir
considerclass
If you like the material, the ‘hard’ class doesn’t seem as hard ... and on the f ip side, if you’re not inter ested in the material, the ‘easy’ class is the one you likely will dread every day. Instead of focusing on professor di f culty, consider the percentage of students who would take the class again and look for trends in the quality rating. “ ” - JR Herman
“ʻBecause I didnʼt have it, I want others to have it.ʼ”
At its core, @raggedy.dollz arose from Saeed and Sabir’s mutual love of documenting and sharing their lives. Te account was initially created on March 7, 2022 from a simple joke shared between the two for as long as they could each“Weremember.bothwanted to become infuencers, and we would constantly joke about it to each other, but we were not serious about it,” Saeed said. “We kept being like, ‘Oh, let’s start a whole YouTube channel,’ and then the other person would be like, ‘Yeah, yeah, totally, let’s do it.’ And we would kind of diss each other like, ‘Oh, you were supposed to work on the vlog channel today!” But their running streak of lighthearted jabs would inevitably culminate in Sabir launching what would become a fully-fedged, successful Instagram account for the two to regularly express themselves on. “One day, we were studying, and Rameesah was like, ‘I have nothing to do.’ She was just watching some show. And I was like, ‘well, it would help if you were working on the vlog channel!” Saeed said, giggling at the memory. “And then … she created the vlog channel!” Tough the two had toyed with the idea of opening a YouTube channel together, they settled on Instagram as the host for their new online persona because they felt more familiar with the platform and enjoyed the greater control that Instagram allows with its privacy settings. Te private nature of their account is also one of the most unique aspects of @raggedy. dollz. Despite creating highly interactive, publicfacing content that emulates many mainstream infuencers, the duo chooses to keep their content private — meaning the two must manually approve who follows them — and limited to only people identifying as women. Te choice to keep their account femalecentric was infuenced by their strong Muslim faith. Saeed explained that at the inception of the account, Sabir did not yet wear a hijab, so she did not feel comfortable allowing people who identify as men access to the account. Under Islam, Muslim women are traditionally expected to dress modestly and cover their hair from men they are not blood relatives of. “I think part of Islam is to present modestly, especially for the women,” Sabir said. “So just keeping the account private and knowing who’s watching our stuf, like knowing our stuf is being seen by people we know of — it allows us to be more comfortable.” Monitoring the gender of their audience allows Saeed and Sabir to more comfortably express their authentic selves. A women restricted audience removes the pressure for them to present themselves aesthetically in every post or rush to dress up in their hijabs every time they want to make a quick post — especially since a large portion of their content is more spontaneous rather than meticulously planned out in advance. “It defnitely makes us more comfortable because this way, we can just vlog whenever, and we don’t have to, you know, get ready and put on our hijab quickly, like, ‘Okay, now we can make a video,’” Sabir said. “And it ended up working out because when we started the account, I wasn’t a hijabi. So we had posts with my hair out, vlogs with my hair out and everything. And it ended up being convenient because when I did become a hijabi, we didn’t have to delete any of that stuf.”
Over the past few years, Diana Kim ’25 has dedicated her spare time to cultivating a greater understanding of the history of Asian Americans beyond the scope of the public education curriculum. Kim has sought to better comprehend and grow in her identity as an Asian American. “It’s very hard to be proud of something that you know almost nothing about,” Kim said. Kim has been a student in not only Virginia’s public education system, but also in that of North Carolina and Missouri. Te Asian American history that she was taught in K-12 typically did not go beyond Japanese incarceration, Chinese railroad workers and the Chinese Exclusion Act. Even these few topics were only covered to a minimal extent. She realized her public education rarely, if ever, included Asian American stories or voices. “Te lack of representation overall was something that stood out to me, which encouraged me to kind of seek it out on my own,” Kim shared. In her junior year of high school, Kim pursued an independent study into Asian American history. In her research, she learned about Asian American activists and the role Asian Americans played in events such as the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. Gaining a fuller understanding of Asian American history led her to continue this pursuit of knowledge as she wondered where Asian Americans were during other major historical events. From her readings, she experienced a sense of pride and fulfllment in, as well as validation of, her personal experiences growing up as an Asian American. “It was like fnding what was missing,” Kim refected. “And I think that’s what representation often does for people.” In July 2021, Illinois passed legislation to guarantee the teaching of Asian American history in Illinois public schools. Tis new law, in tandem with her advocacy work at her high school, inspired her to look into what was occurring in Virginia in terms of Asian American history education, but she could not fnd much. Tus, she decided to create a petition to include Asian and Pacifc Islander American (APIA) history in Virginia’s K-12 public education system. “A group of students and I did anti-racism workshops for our school, so that kind of got me onto the track of thinking about what more I could do for the greater community or for the anti-racism cause in general,” Kim said. “And that’s where I got my idea for the petition.” Her goal with making a petition was not necessarily for legislation to be passed. Rather, she aimed to have the public realize the depth of APIA history and the importance of teaching it. “Just knowing that much can push them to be a little prouder of themselves or understand more of where their identity comes from,” Kim said. Additionally, Kim hoped her petition would serve as a means to put herself out there as a liaison for others to contact if they were interested in learning about APIA history or advocating for it to be taught. “And I think even knowing that there is like a group out there that is dedicated to supporting people like them, even if they’re not directly involved in it, just knowing that a group is there, I think, is helpful,” Kim said. In the spring of 2022, Kim created the Asian Virginia Alliance. Her goal with AVA was to provide a community and support base for Asian Americans in Virginia. Recently, she decided to focus on empowering other students to feel pride in their identity as Asian Americans. She worked to achieve this aim by advocating for improved education on Asian American history. “It’s a cause that’s very near and dear to my heart,” Kim said in reference to the lacking coverage of Asian American history in public school systems. “It’s personally afected me and personally afected a lot of people I know.”
American history in a more comprehensive way that public education curricula does not do. Her program involved meeting once a week for fve to six weeks and learning about history as well as social issues afecting Asian Americans such as the model minority myth and the perpetual foreigner stereotype.
Activist Diana Kim ʻ25 seeks to spotlight underrepresented Asian American stories education
“Sometimes when I’m scribing, I’ll make a vlog,” Saeed said in reference to her position as a medical scribe at Riverside Doctors’ Hospital. “And a few times, people have reached out asking me like, ‘how do I get the job?’ or like, ‘what do you do?’ And I help them out. And I think Rameesah has posted a vlog of her shadowing in the operating room.”
In addition to medical content, Saeed and Sabir particularly enjoy creating interactive stories and challenges. Some examples include fashion polls in which their followers choose outfts they prefer, a “post a picture of” series in which the two post images of certain people or items that their followers request and time lapses of quotidian events like passersby walking.
A beautiful mess: content creators Rameesah Sabir ʻ23, Warisha Saeed ʻ23 share their ʻraggedy,ʼ ʻdolledʼ sides on social media
MADELEINE HARRIS // FLAT HAT VARIETY EDITOR
“I know some people have told us that they really enjoy that type of content because even though it’s kind of random, it’s also kind of calming, just watching people, you know, zoom by,” Sabir said in reference to their time lapses. As alluded to previously, Saeed’s personal favorite series was “Instagram Decides Our Day,” in which Saeed and Sabir allowed their followers to choose between diferent activities for them to do, clothes to wear, foods to eat and more for an entire day. “I had people come up to me in person and say they really like controlling our day,” Saeed said. “So I defnitely like pushing [challenges] outTomore.”fnd out more about the positive feedback the two receive and what their future plans are,
“I think the account is more for us to have fun, vlog our day and show people that what everybody does is relatable for a college student,” Saeed said. “We just live our lives, and we record it and have fun. So, like, if anyone else is having a bad day, they can relate to us or even smile and be like, ‘oh, they’re so funny, they’re so dumb.’”
“Around Ramadan, we did a few posts describing what it is, just to educate and let people know who didn’t have any idea what it is,” Sabir said. Beyond their shared devotion to Islam, the inseparable duo is bonded by a passion for the medical feld, with each of them serving as a copresident of the College of William and Mary’s Remote Area Medical and studying on a premedical track. Tis mutual interest manifests within their account as the two regularly post medical-related content and are followed by many others on the pre-med track.
“I would give them short readings on what I thought were the major Asian American events and people to know about,” Kim said. “And they would either do the reading, watch a video or do some sort of activity I assigned for the week, and we would have our meeting and have a discussion on what we read or what we watched to help them gain a deeper understanding about Asian American history and identity overall.”
Creating and running this program allowed Kim to witness the impact of other students fnally gaining a better understanding of their identity as Asian Americans, bringing to life her mission as an activist. She found fulfllment in teaching students about the history of their identity in a fuller way than what public school systems have historically provided Asian American students. “Tere is a change in their eyes,” Kim said. “It’s kind of this look of realization that there was something missing in their public education that they didn’t realize.” Kim shared how each student learning about their identity’s history could impact those around them as well, ultimately acting as a catalyst for pride in one’s identity through educating others on Asian American history.
“I was really hoping to kind of push them out of their comfort zones in what they knew about history, especially United States history, so that they could also share the wealth of knowledge with their friends,” Kim said. “And also, as they kind of go into the world, that they’re able to bring a diferent perspective for others so that we make a diference, little by little.” In addition to working with high school students this past summer, Kim was part of the College of William and Mary’s Asian Pacifc Middle Eastern research project. Tey conducted in-depth research on the frst three Asian women to attend the College. Kim also worked closely with the College’s School of Education to create lesson plans based on the project’s research on the frst Asian student at the College. Kim hopes to not only make more lesson plans in the future on what is found about the frst three Asian women at the College, but also share them to the public for any educator interested in teaching the subject to use. “Educators are underfunded, underpaid and underappreciated,” Kim said. “So what our project aims to do is to create the lesson plans for the teacher so that they don’t have to go through the process of making it themselves, having it be available so that they can use it in the classroom however they wish.”
Kim hopes to provide everyone with an opportunity to learn about Asian American history since the history and diversity of the United States is so diferent from how public schools often teach the“Itsubject.isn’tjust important for Asian students to hear,” Kim said. “But it’s just as important for everyone else to hear, especially when there’s this stigma of people of Asian descent who are American not being seen as ‘American’ because of the way they look or what their cultural heritage might look like.” Often when students don’t have the opportunity to learn about the history of their identity, they feel lost or alone, which is how Kim frequently felt growing up. She struggled to feel valid in both her American identity and her Asian identity. Learning about Asian American history has allowed her to embrace her identity as an Asian American, and she strives to provide this sense of pride to other young Asian“It’sAmericans.reallyjust the classic, ‘Because I didn’t have it, I want others to have it,’” Kim said.
THE FLAT HATTuesday, August 30, 2022Page 6 “I’ll have a mocha cookie crumble frappuccino,” a young woman says, placing her order at a local Starbucks. She’s dressed in a NASA shirt and a navy hijab. “And I’ll have an iced white chocolate mocha with sweet cream and cold foam,” another young woman says, a black clutch slung casually over her shoulder. For most people, this interaction is an everyday occurrence; everybody goes to Starbucks and orders cofee, right? Tink again. Tis isn’t any ordinary phenomenon — not everybody orders their cofee according to what their Instagram followers have chosen for them while wearing outfts that were voted on by those same hundreds of people online in a carefully curated day. For most, this is rather extraordinary. Luckily, Warisha Saeed ’23 and Rameesah Sabir ’23 aren’t everybody. Saeed and Sabir are the owners of and faces behind @raggedy.dollz, an Instagram account dedicated to everything and anything related to the pair’s lives. Named after Saeed’s longtime afnity for the word “raggedy” and Sabir’s idea to incorporate a wordplay on the phrase “rag doll,” the account features vlogs and other related lifestyle content for their over 800 loyal followers — or “dollies,” as the two lovingly have nicknamed them — to enjoy. As their account name suggests, the two are fond of getting dolled up and posing for Instagram photos, yet they are unafraid to show their more ‘raggedy’ sides with unfltered, realistic vlogs of their everyday lives.
As a part of creating an online safe space for Muslim women, Sabir and Saeed strive to promote a greater understanding of Islam, intertwining their faith with the content they produce and Consciouspost.ofher status as a role model for many other women, both Muslim and nonMuslim, Saeed described how she is careful in how she presents herself to her followers as she wants to portray her identity with integrity. “Since I’m wearing the hijab, I want to put that correctly,” Saeed said. “I want to enforce that because I’m a hijabi, I’m not going to be showing my hair to everybody online. Like, you know, it’s not a public account — it’s not like there are guys on the accounts watching me and seeing my or Rameesah’s hair out.” Saeed further noted how she works to dismantle long standing prejudices held against Muslims by normalizing the presentation of Muslims in mainstream media. “For people who don’t know what a Muslim is, what a hijabi means, I want them to see that they’re like anybody else, you know, to take away that stigmatism of like, ‘oh, she’s a hijabi, this and that,’” Saeed said. Sabir also spoke about how the two work to educate their followers about Islam through the content they create.
INTRODUCING: RAGGEDY DOLLz! IMAGECOURTESY SABIRRAMEESAH VIVIAN HOANG // FLAT HAT VARIETY EDITOR COURTESY IMAGE / RAMEESAH SABIR COURTESY IMAGE // DIANA KIM READ MORE AT FLATHATNEWS.COM
Tis past summer, Kim used AVA as a platform to lead a summer program for Asian American high school students in Virginia, discussing Asian
in K-12
The field hockey team celebrates after senior Sally Snead scored one and a half minutes into overtime to lift the Tribe to a 1-0 victorty at Busch Field. With the victory, William and Mary is now 2-0 on the season, including their win against no. 19 Old Dominion.
Senior soccer goalkeeper Zoe Doughty is the Flat Hat Player of the Week. On Monday, the CAA announced her as the Defensive Player of the Week, marking the third of herDuringcareer. the Tribe’s win over Old Dominion last week, Doughty recorded seven saves to hold the visitorsDoughtyscoreless.isthe reigning CAA Goalkeeper of the Year and ranks second in the conference in shutouts and fourth in saves (17) this year. Last season, she also made the All-CAA First Team and VaSID All-State First Team. Doughty recorded a save percentage of 93.2% last season.
sports | Tuesday, August 30, 2022 | Page 7
The Tribe will again play a difficult non-conference schedule, with six of its 11 opponents ranked in the coaches’ preseason top 25. “Every CAA game is an exciting one for us to play because it is leading up to the semifinals and the championships for the conference,” Miller added. Heading into her final season, Miller explained her goals for the“We’veyear. been manifesting a CAA win since spring,” she said. “We have a date written down of where we sat down as a team and we said, ‘today was the day we decided we are going to win.”
Tis summer, the Tribe fnished fourth in the CAA preseason poll. At the start of each season, CAA coaches rank the top teams in the conference. Delaware claimed the top spot, ahead of Northeastern and Monmouth. Te Tribe will return eight players who started at least 14 games last season, boosting their performance in the preseason poll. According to Ellis, the team’s main goal during the preseason has been improving with every practice. “We know there will be games that we have to talk about other teams, but the big thing is we are getting stronger and that we can bring the ball out of the backfeld against any system,” Ellis said.
Tursday, Aug. 25, William and Mary kicked of their season at George Washington with a 2-2 draw. An impressive performance from senior Diba Nwegbo saw his two goals help the Tribe recover from two defcits in order to tie their opening match. Both sides played solid defense in the frst half, taking 41 minutes before GWU graduate student Omar Hayes Brown broke the stalemate. Tis late frst-half goal proved to be the highlight of the frst 45 as the Tribe headed to the locker rooms trailing 1-0. Te men in green and gold came out swinging in the second half, applying waves of pressure to the GWU backline. Teir break came in the 63rd minute when senior Alexander Levengood’s ball in from a corner took a few defections before Nwegbo applied the fnal touch, smashing the ball into the back of the net to level theTscore.eTribe maintained this constant pressure until the 71st minute when, against the run of play, GWU senior Tom Cooklin would take his opportunity on the top of the 18 yard box, with a curling efort tucked just inside the far post to grab the go ahead goal forTGWU.isblow was not enough to deter the Tribe. With just six minutes remaining in the match, freshman Lucas Caldas teamed up with Nwegbo to salvage a tie. Caldas’s skillful footwork allowed him to beat his defender one on one. He then took the defender to the edge of the touch line where he cut the ball back across the face of goal with a sharp cross that was tapped in by the awaiting Nwegbo. Last minute glory looked to be within reach after a cross from senior Alfredo Bozalongo. Nwegbo headed back across goal to Levengood who neatly fnished of the post. To the Tribe’s dismay, the referees called an ofsides penalty, nullifying the goal and ending the game. After an exciting night of soccer that saw ten total shots from W&M and nine from GWU, with six corners from each side, a 2-2 tie was a fair result for both teams in their season openers.
After last season 3-13, William & Mary begins the year with two overtime victories
William & Mary draws GWU in season open er Nwegbo scores two goals for Tribe to stay even with GWU MENʼS SOCCER
finishing
Senior Ireland Miller, a defender for the Tribe, agreed with Coach Ellis’ sentiment. “I don’t think we can look at where we are now without acknowledging last fall,” Miller said. “We look back on last season in a neutral way. Not a bad season, just another season.”
Senior Diba Nwegbo kicks the ball during a game against Coastal Carolina on Sunday, Aug. 28. Nwego scored both goals in the teamʼs match against GWU.
Later in the month, Friedman was named to the 2023 U-21 and Development Squad Selection Camp. The event, which will take place this upcoming December or January, helps coaches evaluate players for the 2023 U-21 and Development Squad. Te Tribe begin their season with three home games at Busch Field, before starting a four game road trip to powerhouses including Duke and James Madison. Te team will travel to Monmouth for its first conference matchup on Sept. 30, then begin a five game tour against CAA rivals on Oct. 7.
On Sunday, Doughty recorded two saves to slow down High Point, the defending Big South Champions. On Sunday, the Tribe will face American at 1 p.m. and hold Senior Day fesitivities.
THE F LAT HAT JAKE FORBES FLAT HAT SPORTS EDITOR FIELD HOCKEY
Ellis emphasized the team’s efort to improve scoring opportunities and put more shots on goal. “We changed our system a bit to have more numbers in the backfeld and help get the ball out quicker,” Ellis said. Last month, senior Tabby Billingham and sophomore Pyper Friedman were named to the 2022 Preseason All-CAA Field Hockey Team. Last season, Billingham made the All-CAA Second Team for the second consecutive year after tallying three assists. Billingham’s 40 career starts with the Tribe have all been in the defensiveFriedman,backfeld.whoplayed all 16 games of her freshman season in the midfeld, was named to the CAA All-Rookie Team last season. She won CAA Rookie of the Week last year after scoring a critical goal during a shootout victory over Hofstra. Tis past June, Friedman traveled to Dublin, Ireland to play for the U-21 Women’s National Team in the Uniphar 5-Nations Tournament. In July, USA Field Hockey selected her to compete in the 2022 Senior Nexus Championship at the Virginia Beach Training Center. Junior midfelder Jayden Moon participated in the NXC, as well.
Last season, William and Mery field hockey finished 3-13, totaling a win percentage of .188. However, the team played half of their games against ranked teams. So far this season, the team is 2-0, including an overtime victory over no. 19 Old“IDominion.wastalking to somebody not in our program who was impressed by how many close games we had against some very tough opponents,” head coach Tess Ellis said. Ellis explained the importance of those match-ups in building the team’s confdence. “We now realize we can compete with those teams, and I think the scrimmages that we have had recently give it that stamp of approval, that validate how hard we have worked the last two years to bring the senior class to this level,” Ellis said.
The Tribe lost their first six starts before defeating Hofstra in their first conference match-up of the season. The Tribe ended the season on a five-game losing streak, including a 1-3 loss to Delaware in the first round of the Colonial Athletic Association Championship.
The CAA Championships are currently scheduled for the first week of November.
JASON TUKKER FLAT HAT SPORTS ASSOC. EDITOR
Tribe sets high expectations for season, eyes CAA title
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“I think we put in so much work in the spring as a team to all be committed to the same goal, and we are all on the same page. So, as a team, we do not want to regret a single thing, be proud of the journey that we have made, and hopefully win a ring in the process.”
New electoral districting map redesignates Williamsburg to the first congressional district
Along with this, working within various departments exposed Abduhalikov to many advantageous policies and requirements put in place by the city that may not be as known to members of the public. For example, Abduhalikov is now more passionate about teaching his friends and fellow students about zoning ordinances and renters codes.
Members
ARNSBERGER, CALLIE BOOTH & ABIGAIL CONNELLY FLAT HAT NEWS EDITORS THE FLAT HATTuesday, August 30, 2022Page 8
“It’s a pretty progressive initiative that I was surprised to hear about. But I was happy to work on a project for them to think about that for the city,” AbduhalikovAbduhalikov’ssaid.project could potentially be used in future policy, something that stands out to him as he fnishes his undergraduate degree in economics. As a full-time student, having the opportunity to make an impact on real policy changes was something he had never experienced before this past summer.
Ofces such as Center for Student Diversity, Dean of Students, Student Accessibility Services, Te Haven and Student Services and Care Support have moved to the new expansion. Student media groups are now located in Sadler, where new recording rooms have been set up. Associate Director of Student Unions and Engagement Taylor Locks explained how the centralization will provide benefts for both students and staf “Students will have increased access to resources as ofces are more visible,” Locks wrote in an email. “Departments also have more space to meet privately with students or conduct workshops within their individual suites. We know this will lead to more events throughout the building. Colleagues across student afairs will also have new opportunities for collaboration.”
When working on his project, he mentioned working with various city ofcials in order to discuss where the city was ranking within certain aspects of city planning. Abduhalikov found that many people working for the City of Williamsburg were incredibly passionate about making the city a better place, as well as displaying a certain level of consciousness when it came to introducing improvements.
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Kimberly L. Weatherly, assistant dean and director of the CSD is excited about being located near other ofces. “I think it’s a great opportunity for all the student success ofces together in one area,” Weatherly said. “Now students can kind of come in one area and do one-stop shopping.”
Sadler expansion centers student ofces at heart of campus
Summer 2022, the College of William and Mary opened its latest expansion to the Sadler Center. Te new space centralizes student activities and houses departments that were previously spread throughout campus. Te addition includes three stories and 53,000 square feet overlooking the McLeod Tyler Wellness Center and Montgomery Football Practice Facility. Te focal point is a gathering place called Te Slice which features chairs and tables surrounded by foor-to-ceiling windows. Plans for the expansion began in 2018, but construction didn’t start until November 2022. Te project cost an estimated $38 million.
“When I was doing my research, there’s going to be someone out there who’s actually afected by this if my plan works, if it’s a good plan. So it made me motivated to be very nitpicky,” Abduhalikov said. “I feel like the work I did for the city might have been better than some of my schoolwork. Just because the aspect of having it afect a real person just made me more conscious of my research and what I was writing.”
City of Williamsburg Internship encourages community engagement
Sadler Center expansion hopes for a new hub for student life, c ampus organizations to thrive
“One thing that I learned that I would defnitely advocate to the William and Mary community is that a lot of times it feels like landlords will have a leg up on students,” Abduhalikov said. “I was prepared to sign an unfair lease. But one thing I learned through the city, I drove around with the housing inspector one time and he gave me this sheet of Virginia renters codes or something. Basically it laid out all the things that, if you were renting something and so-and-so is not in order or correct, then by law your landlord has to fx Abduhalikovit.” mentioned that the Williamsburg community, especially students, could beneft from knowing more about student living conditions and renting requirements. He believes the city
Results from 2020 census causes Williamsburg to switch from a Democratic to Republican district this fall / HAT of the Class of 2026 are utilizing the Sadler Center expansion during their orientation before the first day of classes for the Fall 2022 semester.
Maxim Abduhalikov ʼ23 contributes to future city planning throu gh city manager internship
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EMMA HENRY FLAT HAT ASSOC. NEWS EDITOR JAKE FORBES FLAT HAT SPORTS EDITOR READ MORE ON FLATHATNEWS.COM READ MORE ON FLATHATNEWS.COM READ MORE ON FLATHATNEWS.COM RYAN GOODMAN
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Te new CSD is located next to Te Slice on the main foor of Sadler, with welcoming glass walls. Weatherly sees this as an improvement from their more-isolated former ofce in Campus Center.
In 2020, three districts in Virginia were considered competitive, decided by a presidential vote margin of less than fve percentage points. If the new district lines went into efect before the 2020 Presidential election, only one district would be considered competitive: VA-02. Rep. Elaine Luria (D) represents VA-02. She won the seat in 2018 by less than two and a half points over incumbent Scott Taylor (R). In 2020, Rep. Luria again defeated Taylor, this time, by nearly six points.However, with the start of the 118th Congress on January 3, 2023, the College and the City of Williamsburg will become part of the frst district (VA-01). Rep. Robert Wittman (R), who has represented VA-01 since 2007, will likely be the new congressman for the Williamsburg area. According to FiveTrityEight’s election forecast, is very likely to win reelection this fall. Despite the change in district, political organizations on campus are still focusing their attention in VA-02. As of Friday, Aug. 26, FiveTirtyEight forecasts Jen Kiggans, a Virginia State Senator and challenger to Rep. Luria for VA-02, as slightly favored to win the district.
ANNA
“I feel like there’s just a level of innovation within the city of Williamsburg that I feel like I don’t see in other places. It’s something that I really appreciate because I’m excited to come back and visit ffteen years down the line to see if Williamsburg is more walkable, or if I see golf carts around,” Abduhalikov said. Another aspect of his internship that stood out to him was his work with the Public Works Department – assisting with sewer repairs and building a retaining wall. Abduhalikov mentioned that growing up, he commonly helped his father with building and repairs around the house. Tough many of the concerns and restoration work he faced were entirely new to him, it was nostalgic to feel as if his experiences as a child were being put to use during his internship.
Updated congressional map of Williamsburg, showing that the entirety of Williamsburg is now located within the first disctrict, instead of partly in the second district.
Another interesting moment for him was when he was invited by the Williamsburg Police Department and Williamsburg City Fire Department to participate in a ride along as well as a fre department workout. “It was fun, but it was probably the hardest workout I’ve ever done,” Abduhalikov said. In terms of initiatives, Abduhalikov was able to contribute to future city planning through his summer intern project focused on creating a comprehensive proposal to make slow moving vehicles, like golf carts, street legal in Williamsburg. A relatively new idea, Abduhalikov was able to research golf cart communities in Southern states, as well as analyze safety concerns such as stop sign and light compliance, drunk driving, illegal parking and vehicle registration.
In the spring of 2022, Maxim Abduhalikov ’23 scrolled through the Tribe Careers website to fnd a summer opportunity. A listing to be a city manager intern with the City of Williamsburg piqued his interest. Growing up in a family of Peace Corps volunteers, the chance to spend his summer working closely with community development and public service heavily stood out. Tis internship was probably the best internship I could’ve asked for. If I had written an internship for myself, it probably would have been this,” Abduhalikov said. During his internship, Abduhalikov was able to work closely with a number of diferent divisions, including the Finance Department, Planning Department, Williamsburg City Fire Department, Williamsburg Police Department and the Parks and Recreation Department. Every week, Abduhalikov would be placed with a diferent ofce in order to learn about city operations and various initiatives for theOutfuture.ofall of his experiences, Abduhalikov mentioned that the Williamsburg Planning Department was the most interesting due to his interest in city and urban planning. As a potential career path for him, the department provided him with the opportunity to envision plans for the future of Williamsburg, as well as how the organization of the city could be impacted in upcoming years. “Every department had their own fun,” Abduhalikov said. “I remember when I was with the department for Parks and Recreation, Waller Mill Park in Williamsburg has a big lake on it. So I got to go and they just spent a morning taking me out on a boat. We just kind of explored the area and that was part of the internship.”
“If you came to the campus center before, you really were taking care of business or you were going to the marketplace,” she said. “I think people will naturally walk by like, ‘Hey, we’ve heard about this center, let’s go in’ or, ‘Hey, what’s that? ’— The curiosity — ‘Let’s go in.’ So the foot traffic will then improve.”
Te College of William and Mary will have a new congressional representative this coming January. Tis midterm election cycle will be the frst following the 2020 census, and with an updated electoral map, Williamsburg now falls under the frst district in Virginia. Every 10 years, the U.S. Census Bureau conducts a national census to determine the number of people living in the United States. Te Bureau then reports their fndings to the President, who then reports the results to Congress. Te Clerk, an ofcer in the House of Representatives, then alerts governors the number of seats their state has been alloted. State legislatures then redraw congressional districts, and apportionments take efect three years after the census. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for election every two years. However, according to RealClearPolitics (RCP), an organization that creates election forecasts based on aggregate polling data, only 34 seats are toss-ups. Of these 34 seats, 29 are currently held by Democratic incumbents. Additionally, RCP considers 148 seats safely in Democrats’ control, and 179 seats safe in Republicans’ control.According to Princeton Professor Samuel Wang, who manages the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, there is actually an increase in competitive seats compared to a decade ago. His project, which looks at all recent elections instead of only presidential elections, claims there has been an increase in competitive seats since 2012. Wang also cited the importance of independent commissions and neutral map-drawing processes to ensure better congressional maps in swing states, including Virginia. However, in Virginia, the commonwealth’s Supreme Court chose new district lines after the bipartisan redistricting commission failed to agree on a new map. Te court appointed special masters to redraw the map, before approving the update last December.According to James George ’24, president of the College chapter of College Republicans, the redistricting process has an overall positive“Whileefect.Virginia did not gain or lose any seats this cycle, the way the districts were redrawn have given Republicans the opportunity to pick up a couple of seats in the Commonwealth from the Democrats, particularly the 2nd and 7th districts,” George said.
