T HE F LAT H AT
Vol. 112, Iss. 4 | Tuesday, April 19, 2021
The Weekly Student Newspaper
LAW SCHOOL
Immigration clinic endorses House bill
H.R. 6577 proposes to establish independent immigration courts ABIGAIL CONNELLY FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
U.S. Rep Zoe Lofgren (D-CA 19th district), chair of the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship, recently introduced a landmark congressional bill that would establish immigration courts as independent and assist in the protection of immigrants’ rights in court. H.R. 6577, known as the Real Courts, Rule of Law Act of 2022, was introduced Thursday, Feb. 3 and was considered by the House Committee on Judiciary Tuesday, April 5. Members of the Immigration Clinic at the MarshallWythe School of Law Studies have been working to garner attention and support for the bill in the local community. Dylan Abrokwa-Jassor ’24 is a government major interning at the Immigration Clinic and is responsible for the promotion of the bill. “Basically, the bill would establish immigration courts as independent under Article I of the United States constitution," Abrokwa-Jassor said. "To understand why the bill is so important, you have to look at how immigration courts are structured now. And, essentially, immigration courts are a part of, or are housed under the Department of Justice, and the Department of Justice is an executive agency headed by the United States Attorney General." Professor Stacy Kern-Scheerer, acting director of Clinical Programs and the director of the Immigration Clinic, briefly summarized the Clinic’s overall interest in the bill. “You know, we were really looking for something that we could do outreach on and educate the community about, something that folks could think about,” KernScheerer said. “It’s something that people may not find on their own, because it’s not on the front page of a lot of media, but it’s something that we are very interested in and passionate about because, as advocates who go into immigration courts and sometimes deal with immigration courts with our clients, we really see how the system is not independent” Kern-Scheerer explained that the interrelationship between the Department of Justice and its immigration courts has profound impacts on the system of immigration justice. Abrokwa-Jassor also expressed concerns regarding current immigration courts, as the current function of courts under the jurisdiction of the Attorney General can be interpreted as an inherently political system, as it can represent the interests of certain presidential administrations. “Another big reason that this is important is that the people who are called immigration judges are not actually judges at all,” Abrokwa-Jassor said. “They more so function as employees of the executive branch. They actually don’t require any prior immigration law experience before becoming a judge, and they are just hired and can be fired by whatever attorney general is in the office at that point.” Currently, there is a significant backlog of asylum and deportation cases under the Biden administration. See LAW SCHOOL page 8
of The College of William and Mary
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"AS YOUNG PEOPLE, THIS FUTURE IS OUR OWN"
GRAPHIC BY ANNA ARNSBERGER / THE FLAT HAT
The College of William and Mary, UVA students promote sustainability HANNAH RAY // FLAT HAT NEWS ASSOC. EDITOR Tuesday, April 12, students representing sustainability projects at the College of William and Mary and the University of Virginia came together to present the Climate Action Partnership webinar highlighting ways to stay green on a college campus. Hosts for the event included Madeline Bertagnolli ’22 and Olivia Wachob ’23 representing the College and Morgan Foster ’22 and Nora Raleigh ’24 representing UVA. The event featured two student speakers: Neel Simpson ’22 from the College and Julianne Feutcher ’22 from UVA. The Climate Action Partnership was established between the two schools to support each other’s initiatives of making campus carbon emissions net zero by the year 2030. “It's been really great to see how similar our goals and actions from both universities are to kind of pull it together as opposed to almost like competing against each other," Wachob said. "So it seems very collaborative, which is nice." The partnership focuses on three areas: sharing information and resources on climate action planning and implementation processes, collaborating on outreach and engagement opportunities within the universities and surrounding communities and supporting other institutions of higher education and their communities in Virginia with climate action. “This presentation is the culmination of one of the byproducts of this partnership, wherein which student representatives will be talking about their involvement in their respective universities, partnerships for sustainability and then how we all come together to better further these initiatives that are set through
this partnership,” Foster said. Wachob and Bertagnolli introduced the Climate Action Roadmap at the College. The initiative’s central focus is learning and empowerment, with three different areas included to support that goal. Sustainability working groups on campus drafted the plan last year. These areas of focus are a carbon neutral campus by 2030, education and research, and community action in the College community. The Climate Action Roadmap seeks to make climate sustainability an integral part of life at the College. In March 2022, the Environmental Science & Policy program was officially renamed to the Environment & Sustainability Program. There are also plans for student orientation sustainability programs, setting a price for carbon offsets for department vehicles and reducing municipal waste to landfills by 65%, among many plans. Foster and Raleigh of the UVA Office of Sustainability laid out their university’s goals for 2030 as well. These consist of ten goals persisting to implementation at all levels of the university, engaging the community, becoming carbon free by 2030 and fossil fuel free by 2050, as well as promoting sustainability in their curriculum. Following the rundown of each institution’s sustainability goals, Simpson gave a talk on how college students may work towards climate action in their everyday lives. Throughout his time at the College, Simpson has promoted sustainable living among the student body. “This is really important because as young people, this future is our own and it's
important to be able to live and practice what we preach and make sure that as we go forward with climate mitigation and plans that we are actively seeking to improve our own practices in our everyday lives,” Simpson said. Simpson went over various ways students can reduce and reuse their everyday products instead of throwing them away in landfills. “A lot of the time, the most sustainable option is just not buying something new,” Simpson said. Simpson also explained ways to maximize recycling on campus. Recycling bins accepting a mix of plastic, paper, metal and glass are typically found outside academic buildings and residence halls. More particular items like plastic bags, batteries and lightbulbs may be recycled using special facilities found at Swem Library or the Sadler Center, for example. However, contamination is important to take into consideration when recycling. A lot of recycled materials, like greasy pizza boxes, will just be thrown away to go to landfills, which should be avoided. “It doesn't only make that item unrecyclable, it can end up making an entire batch unable to process. While we want to emphasize recycling, I definitely want to emphasize that refusing, reducing and reusing are a lot more effective than recycling because of issues like this,” Simpson said. Simpson also suggested composting as a way to reduce food waste. He explained that students can find a campus composting map and easily make a compost bin themselves if they live off campus like he did. See CLIMATE page 8
ART
AAH Distinguished Lecture hosts Harvard Professor Eugene Y. Wang Guggenheim fellow presents on the electrification of art, formation of consciousness in China ABIGAIL CONNELLY FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
Tuesday, April 12, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art at Harvard University, Eugene Y. Wang gave a lecture titled “How was Art Electrified? The Formation of the Global Brain in China” in Andrews Hall. This lecture was sponsored by the College of William and Mary’s department of art and art history and contributes to the celebration of the Asian Centennial at the College. Wang is also a Guggenheim fellow and the founding director of the Harvard Chinese Art Media Lab, which is devoted to showcasing art and cultural works through multimedia representation and allows viewers to access archival work through modern, cutting-edge formats. Wang’s current research is centered on integral art and consciousness. Wang was introduced by Dr. Xin ConanWu, the Margaret Hamilton associate professor
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of art history and the associate chair of the department of art and art history at the College. “Professor Wang’s scholarship probes into the depths of the long history of Chinese art with insights and interpretations of new materials and the rigorous reexamination of established canons,” Conan-Wu said. “His current research centers on art and consciousness, integrating historical inquiry with cutting edge technology through digital humanities. The depth and the breadth of Professor Wang’s scholarship reminds us of the rigor of the discipline of art history itself,” Conan-Wu said. Wang then began his lecture by introducing the basis of his research, briefly outlining the relations between artistic mediums and modern technological innovations. “So, I want to talk about something that actually concerns nowadays a great deal, and that is ecology and art, and also the status
Inside Opinions
Williamsburg pollen needs to be addressed
This spring, Rachel Bartz '25 writes about how the severity of pollen in Williamsburg should not be overlooked. page 4
of photography in this day and age when digital culture makes so much change in our landscape. So, all of these kind of converge on the subject which I call ‘Art and Electricity’,” Wang said. Wang displayed a list with three key notations which described three crucial components from 1897, marking critical moments in Asia and the United States. The list contained the name of Tan Sitong, the name of Nikola Tesla and the Shanghai south city power plant. A photograph taken at the Picadilly of China Studio in Shanghai was then shown, featuring a grouping of modern intellectual elites from China, including the well-known Chinese politician and thinker Tan Sitong. “The way that these figures are grouped is extremely, as I said, qualified and loaded,” Wang said. “And also, they were really some of the bigshots in China. The formation, the choreography actually do contain a number
of allusions. For one thing, if you count, there are seven of them, which is culturally very significant. It actually refers to the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove in early medieval China, when these eccentric figures would lounge around in nature, defying conventions.” The photograph also alluded to a traditional Chinese “elegant gathering,” which was depicted in pieces such as Xie Huan’s handscroll, “Elegant Gathering in the Apricot Garden” from 1437 and involved scholars gathering in garden settings and exchanging poetry, making remarks and enjoying tea. Wang discussed Tan’s eventual execution, which served as punishment due to his affiliation with a group of reformers who attempted to assassinate Empress Dowager Cixi. Though Tan had the chance to flee the country, he chose to stay in China, returning to his home in Beijing. See ART page 8
Inside Variety
Inside Sports
Senior thesis musical "Spectacular" transforms Williamsburg into 18th century France through song, dance, wigs galore. page 5
Davis will serve as the sixth coach in Tribe women's basketball history. page 7
Spectacular: a royal extravaganza to remember
Erin Dickerson Davis named new women's basketball coach