Vol. 107, Iss. 22 | Tuesday, November 7, 2017
The Flat Hat The Weekly Student Newspaper
of The College of William and Mary
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GREEK LIFE
Graffiti found on frat houses
ELECTIONS 2017
WMPD still unsure who spray-painted ‘rapist’ on buildings
Law school group, VoteLine, provides non-partisan support ROBERT METAXATOS // THE FLAT HAT
SARAH SMITH FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
F
or many, Tuesday’s gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey will mark the most major of political events after U.S. President Donald Trump was elected a year ago. For non-partisan support, VoteLine, a telephone hotline run by students at the College of William and Mary’s Marshall-Wythe School of Law’s Election Law Society, is working to ease qualms as to how to arrive at the polls, make voting plans and understand the importance of the election. “We need to make sure that everyone who wants to vote is allowed to vote,” Mike Mullin, who is campaigning for re-election to represent District 93 in the House of Delegates, said. “Voter protection is particularly important for students at William and Mary because, if they are registered to vote here, we need to make sure that they are allowed to vote.” Such is the mission of VoteLine, which is funded by the Student Bar Association. Election Law Society Co-President Aaron Barden J.D. ’19 said that VoteLine aided approximately 20-30 people, most of whom were middle-aged voters. Barden said that given the lower turnouts of non-presidential elections, especially in an off-year, this number is significant and will most likely increase. See VOTE page 3
WHAT’S ON THE BALLOT? GOVERNOR
ATTORNEY GENERAL
Ralph Northam (Dem.)
Mark Herring (Dem.)
Ed Gillespie (Rep.)
John Adams (Rep.)
Clifford Hyra (Lib.)
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
HOUSE OF DELEGATES
Justin Fairfax (Dem.)
Mike Mullin (Dem.)
Jill Vogel (Rep.)
Heather Cordasco (Rep.)
CITY OF WILLIAMSBURG COMMISSIONER OF REVENUE Lara Overy
Ray Armstead
GRAPHIC BY MEILAN SOLLY / THE FLAT HAT
GREEK LIFE
Students show solidarity with DACA, walk out of classes Immigration rights event at 11:11 a.m. shares undocumented students’ narratives KIANA ESPINOZA, SARAH SMITH FLAT HAT OPINIONS EDITOR, FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
Nov. 1 at 11:11 a.m., a small number of students rose from their seats and walked toward the Commonwealth auditorium in the Sadler Center. In some classrooms, no students rose; in others, like the class of sociology professor Monika Gosin, class was cancelled entirely. Commonwealth filled with students entering and occasionally leaving to head to class, lunch or other events, in between showing their solidarity with student recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. As students entered Commonwealth, protest signs lined the walls and stage reading:
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“No human is illegal/Ningun ser humano es illegal,” “My skin color is not a weapon,” “Puentes no muros (Bridges not walls)” and “Los que estan aqui pertenecen aqui (Those who are here belong here).” On the stage, 11 chairs stood, each with a decorative silhouette. The center chair, differed and held a sign labelled, “La casa en solaridad con DACA (The house in solidarity with DACA).” Sept. 5, U.S. President Donald Trump stated his intentions to repeal the previous executive order established by former U.S. President Barack Obama. Since this national policy announcement, the College of William and Mary’s Board of Visitors has expressed its intentions to prevent federal interference
with students’ education at the College. Student protesters and activists continue to raise awareness concerning undocumented students and their narratives as another form of protection through events such as this Student Walkout for Immigration Rights. President of the Latin American Student Union Karina LizanoBlanco ’19 began the event by greeting everyone and thanking them for their attendance. She introduced the event as a gathering to express support for and solidarity with the 23 undocumented students at the College. She then said that the event is also — in part — a response to the series of posters that were hung in Morton Hall Oct. 9 that she said sent a threatening message to
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See DACA page 4
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Attempting to avoid allergens around campus
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minority students, but particularly singled out undocumented students and threatened deportation. Lizano-Blanco said that no student should fear their residential status, especially at the College. Lizano-Blanco continued by expressing gratitude toward a new campus activist group called UndocuTribe, which seeks to support undocumented students at the College by providing access to resources as well as engaging in public activism. Lizano-Blanco invited Diego, a founding organizer of this group, to the stage to officially begin the event. Diego’s last name is withheld for his protection and privacy, since he is a student
In the morning hours of Nov. 2, between 2:45 a.m. and 4:45 a.m., the words “rapist” and “rape” were spray painted on most of the on-campus fraternity buildings, including the Fraternity and Sorority Community Building. While it is not yet clear who committed the vandalism or why, the College of William and Mary Police Department has opened an investigation. Later in the morning, facilities maintenance workers began to clean up the spray paint. Some buildings, like the Fraternity and Sorority Community Building, were marked with the word “rapist.” Others, like individual fraternity buildings, were marked with one or two letters of the word. Interim Interfraternity Council President Jerry Shaen ’19, who is a member of the Delta Chi Fraternity, said that the act was targeting the entire fraternity community since multiple fraternity buildings were vandalized. Shaen sent an email to fraternity members informing them of the vandalism and encouraging members to support each other. “The Interfraternity Council is actively working with university administration to address this issue,” Shaen said in the email. “This is a critical time for us to practice interfraternalism and turn to each other for support and brotherhood. This action was not targeted at any one organization; it was targeted at our entire fraternal community. Therefore, we should all support each other to find the best way as a community to move forward. I will keep you all apprised of any updates.” Shaen said that in light of the incident, the top priority of IFC is the health, safety and wellbeing of students on campus. “In recent years, our community has worked hard to address sexual misconduct,” Shaen said in an email. “We are raising awareness through the Supporting Survivors Initiative ... Within the recent weeks, we have also added a position to our executive board, the Vice President of Health & Wellness. This position places a focus on well-rounded wellness for all our members, whether it be physically, mentally, or sexually. ... We acknowledge that sexual misconduct affects our community at disproportionate rates. Yet, progress is being made, and with the commitment of our community and the help of HOPE, Haven, Someone You Know and the Steering Committee on Sexual Misconduct Prevention, we will continue to better ourselves and move towards active prevention and support. College spokesperson Suzanne Seurattan said the incident was not targeting a specific organization. “Defacing university buildings or destruction of property is never an acceptable form of expression,” Seurattan said in an email. For some students, the vandalism of the fraternity houses was a reminder of sexual violence they had experienced. For others, it was a performative gesture. One, Brendan McDonald ’18, who is an executive member of 16(IX)3, said that while the graffiti was cathartic, it was performative because it did not provide a course of action for change. McDonald initially shared this opinion in the Facebook group, “Discourse.” “I commented because I was glad so many people were talking about sexual assault, but it was a performative gesture,” McDonald said. “I doubt that any of them will pursue the conversation further, and spray painting a frat building is performative. It is not gearing towards any change, it’s just saying there’s an issue without providing a course to resolve the issue by saying ‘hey, there are organizations on campus where we actually work hard to make tangible change to the campus and climate and provide reasonable options for survivors to pursue that give them justice in some sense.’”
Julia Urban ‘21 advocates for better labelling of allergens at Marketplace and more options for those who are affected by food allergies. page 5
Whatever happened to men’s lacrosse?
Over 30 years ago, the College of William and Mary made the decision to discontinue varsity men’s lacrosse. Today, former players and coaches reflect on the team. page 10
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The Flat Hat | Tuesday, November 7, 2017 | Page 2
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I commented because I was glad so many people were talking about sexual assault, but it was a performative gesture. I doubt that any of them will pursue the conversation further and spray painting a frat building is performative, it is not gearing towards any change, it’s just saying there’s an issue without providing a course to resolve the issue by saying ‘hey there are organizations on campus where we actually work hard to make tangible change to the campus and climate and provide reasonable options for survivors to pursue that give them justice in some sense.
— Brendan McDonald ‘18 on the graffiti left on fraternity houses Nov. 2
The Flat Hat
Traveling three continents for education Arabic professor Driss Cherkaoui talks passion for teaching, moving to U.S.
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CORRECTIONS The 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.
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A world-renowned Arabic department did not form out of thin air at a colonial, Virginian college. The program is rather new, especially when compared with the age of the College of William and Mary, having been founded in the 1970s. It formed through the work of the faculty, including that of Arabic professor Driss Cherkaoui. For Cherkaoui, one of the most important aspects of his life is his commitment to the Arabic program at the College. “I wish I could have more time to write and to teach. There was no big challenge [through my career],” Cherkaoui said. Cherkaoui’s career spans multiple decades and three continents, but he said that the biggest challenge is his lack of time to commit to students. Cherkaoui first received his undergraduate degree in Morocco and then went on to receive his master’s degree in Arabic studies from the University of Sorbonne in Paris. Then, in 1997, he was awarded his doctorate in classical Arabic literature from the same university. “It was a very big opportunity to be there,” Cherkaoui said. “The Sorbonne is like when you say Harvard here. I was lucky, since my parents didn’t come from a wealthy family or anything like that.” At a time when France had strict immigration policies, studying as a foreigner meant taking a series of tests to try and get into the program. “I remember that year there were over 300 applicants, and only about 19 succeeded,” Cherkaoui said. However, Cherkaoui said he has always felt at home in academia. Growing up, he went to a Quranic school, where he studied the Quran, of about 50 boys per grade. Cherkaoui remembers a teacher telling his family that he could see Cherkaoui’s future in Arabic studies, even then. Being a professor had always been a dream of Cherkaoui’s. What was more surprising to Cherkaoui was when he found a home in America, a journey that began when he was offered to teach an intensive Arabic summer program at Middlebury College. “I said to the Dean [of Middlebury], ‘I don’t speak English,’ and he said ‘Exactly, that’s what we want,’” Cherkaoui said. Cherkaoui said he first considered the United States as somewhere he could work for the long run after going to Chicago for the first time. “As soon as I landed there, it was a dream for me,” Cherkaoui said. “I will never forget that. I never thought that I would dance this kind of life, or that life would dance this kind of dance with me. Born in a North African country, then going into Paris — and it was tough being a young student and immigrant —
POLICE BEAT
MAX MINOGUE // THE FLAT HAT and then I arrived in Chicago.” Even though Cherkaoui never expected to live in America for so long, it has now been 26 years since his summer at Middlebury, and Cherkaoui said he is happy that he gets to raise a family in the United States. “I love being in America,” Cherkaoui said. “Americans really are welcoming. It’s the land for all people, including the immigrants. American people are very nice, very generous and they want to know about the other countries.”
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I want to spread, to teach people that Arabic and Arabs, this is not what you will see on Fox News. This is not what you will see in the negative media. These are people just like us, with their families, with their homes, with their wives, with their children. They are just people like anybody else. — Arabic
professor Driss Cherkaoui
Cherkaoui’s eight-year-old daughter, fluent in both English and Arabic, speaks English like an American, without any accent. He says it is very clear to see that she is an American girl. Like a true American, Cherkaoui said he loves Thanksgiving, either having the feast at his family’s home or going to a friend’s house. Working as a professor, Cherkaoui’s chief source of inspiration is his students, whom he said he considers brave for trying to learn such a difficult
foreign language. “When you go to a classroom, and you teach and explain something, the students demand more and then the more the teacher wants to give,” Cherkaoui said. “Yes, we are teaching students Arabic, history, Arabic culture, but also, we learn from the students. We never stop learning as long as we are alive.” Cherkaoui claims that the main way he has learned about American culture is through his students in class, speaking in Arabic. “They will say things they like, what they don’t like, what the social classes are, things about their families, their friends, and we’re listening,” Cherkaoui said. For Cherkaoui, teaching is more of a mission than a job. “It’s a talent,” Cherkaoui said. “It’s not something that you can come into the class and anybody can do. You have to be gifted and talented, and it’s a mission. The person has to believe in it. And the students appreciate that, they can feel it.” This mission is very much a team effort for Cherkaoui, as he said he is consistently thankful for the program’s faculty, the entire modern languages and literatures department and the College for everything they have done to foster the program. “This is all teamwork,” Cherkaoui said. “It’s a good program because it’s a good team, and it’s a good team because we’re dedicated. Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, these are different than other languages. They take more time, more effort to learn than other languages. This is not like learning other European languages, with the same alphabet and mostly the same sounds. The team here is committed, so you need to spend time with the students. It’s really serious training,” Cherkaoui said. For Cherkaoui, some of his future career goals include eventually getting a promotion, getting more courses established, attracting donors for the program and finishing a novel about the oral storytellers of Morocco. Cherkaoui said that this novel was an intense process of fieldwork, translating the Moroccan dialects into Arabic, and the Arabic into English. Most importantly, Cherkaoui said he aims to continue his mission of spreading Arabic language and culture around the world. “I want to spread, to teach people that Arabic and Arabs, this is not what you will see on Fox News,” Cherkaoui said. “This is not what you will see in the negative media. These are people just like us, with their families, with their homes, with their wives, with their children. They are just people like anybody else.”
Nov. 3 - 6 1
Friday, November 3 — Rodney Lamont Lee was arrested for marijuana possession on Roland Street.
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Saturday, November 4 — Lasacia Denique Allen was arrested for being drunk in public at the interesction of Richmond Road and Ironbound Road.
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Sunday, November 5 — Justin Ray Hale was arrested for assault and battery of a family member on York Street.
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Monday, November 6 — A hit and run was reported on Merrimac Trail.
The Flat Hat
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
Page 3
PANEL
LGBTQ history panel convenes, suggests improvements Three professors answered LGBTQ history questions concerning the College MAGGIE MORE THE FLAT HAT
A group of students gathered in the theatre of St. George Tucker Hall Thursday, Nov. 2 to learn about the history of the LGBTQ community at the College of William and Mary as well as in the greater areas of Williamsburg and the state of Virginia. However, what began as a simple question-and-answer session turned into a clear example of what students and community members at the College do to help each other. The event was put on by the Lambda Alliance, the College’s LGBT+ student organization for undergraduates, in place of their regular Thursday night meeting. The panel was comprised of three professors: Leisa Meyer, director of American studies and a professor in the gender, sexuality and women’s studies program; Laurie Wolf of the theatre department; and Maureen Fitzgerald of the religious studies and American studies departments. All three said that they identify as lesbian when they introduced themselves. When asked why she agreed to be a part of the panel, Meyer said it was because she thought it was important for queer students to see themselves represented in the wider community. The occasion began with a short presentation by Meyer on the College of William and Mary Mattachine LGBTIQ Research Project, which she leads. The project aims to search out and preserve the LGBTQ history in Virginia through methods such as oral histories. Through the project, Meyer and the student researchers hoped to find parts of LGBTQ history that official archives and Swem special collections don’t
always contain, such as the experiences of queer people of color. “In many archives, the archive is sort of the vault of the victors. The documents are largely about white people,” Meyer said. In its first year, the project revealed many stories from other perspectives. A student researcher on the project, Maya Farrhenderson ’20, was in attendance at the panel. “The first person that I interviewed was this, like, 99-year-old guy, and he had so much to say — it was just amazing,” Farrhenderson said. “I’d never heard anything akin to that in my life. … It was a really amazing and intimate experience.” The project also uncovered some of the impact that the Virginia LGBTQ community, specifically groups at the College, had on the national LGBTQ movement. For example, the Gay and Lesbian Alumni Association (GALA for short) was a key litigant in a 1991 suit against Virginia’s ABC board. The ABC board did not allow felons, prostitutes, racial agitators or homosexuals to serve alcohol at gatherings. GALA, along with several other groups, successfully worked to overturn the law. “They were in the VCU special collections, and they were all jumping up and down, which you do not do in an archive,” Meyer said of the discovery’s impact on the project and researchers. Following Meyer’s presentation, the panel itself began. Panel organizer Alexina Haefner ’19 asked all three professors questions she had prepared about their experiences as part of the LGBTQ community. Fitzgerald began by acknowledging Meyer’s optimism in Virginia’s fight for progress, but emphasized that things were often not that easy in the Commonwealth.
“I think it sucked to live here, as a lesbian for 20 years,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s been hard to live in Virginia. I’ve lived here for almost 20 years, and there is not a physical space between Norfolk and Richmond where you can walk in as a lesbian or gay person and say ‘this is my space.’” Meyer agreed that Virginia is a hard state for LGBTQ people to live in, noting specific personal and national instances in which discrimination has occurred and had to be fought against. She noted that the state of Virginia as a whole is one of many that still does not have antidiscrimination laws for LGBTQ people on the books. “As a state, there’s no anti-discrimination provision for sexual orientation or gender identity expression,” Meyer said. “[This is one of the] reasons why Virginia is hard.” However, all three professors agreed that the area of Williamsburg and the College are both much more welcoming now than when they arrived, especially in terms of the way other faculty view them. Wolf said that she came to the College from London, after living in Los Angeles, and that the theatre students were very welcoming. “I didn’t feel that same sort of camaraderie from colleagues,” Wolf said. “It was difficult. Now, however, the extent to which people feel free to be openly out has changed tremendously.” Meyer noted that students in particular feel much more “comfortable with who they are.” Despite this, the professors agreed that there is still a wide range of how comfortable people are with coming out, especially to their families, depending on their background. As the panel continued, what began as an informative question-and-answer session became a communal
attempt to come up with ways to continue to make the College’s LGBTQ population more comfortable and confident. “What do you lack that we can do for you?” Fitzgerald asked of the audience. The crowd then began throwing out suggestions for how the College could continue to improve its treatment of LGBTQ students. One student proposed an LGBTQ center to improve outreach to students who need it. Another expressed a desire for professors to ask students what pronouns they use via private surveys, so students wouldn’t be placed on the spot in class. Yet another student mentioned improving the visibility of LGBTQ-related events, using next week’s Transgender Awareness Week as an example. The students and professors went back and forth, brainstorming ways for the campus LGBTQ community to move forward. This method of using a shared history was central to the panel’s stated purpose. “Because being LGBT isn’t hereditary, you don’t inherit it from your family, and we don’t learn anything in school. It’s very hard to get [LGBTQ history] passed on if you’re not like actively seeking it out,” Haefner said. “So I wanted to do something.” Other students talked about what they wanted the LGBTQ community to do in the future with their shared historical knowledge. “I would like [it] to become a more mainstream idea, that we deserve to feel comfortable without having to explain ourselves to anybody,” Madeline White ’18 said. “And then if we would like to engage other people, and explain things to them, and explain what they’re doing that’s hurtful, or whatever, we can. But that shouldn’t be a condition for respect and acceptance.”
CAMPUS
National Title IX policy change sparks campus conversation DeVos’ revocation of Obama-era sexual assault policy fosters community dialogue ROBERT METAXATOS THE FLAT HAT
In a Sept. 7 speech at George Mason University, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced plans to revise the government’s approach to campus sexual assault, primarily by revoking the 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter, which offers unofficial procedural guidelines. Since then, DeVos has issued interim guidelines, but has not established official procedures. For students at the College of William and Mary, this has caused concern over how university administration will respond to DeVos’ revocation of the “Dear Colleague” letter, which recommends procedures such as a 60-day timeline for hearing cases. However, at a panel discussion led by administrators, students were told that university policy will not change in response to new guidelines. This panel discussion, hosted Oct. 25 by 16(IX)3, Student Assembly and Someone You Know, provided student-faculty interaction on the issue of campus sexual assault policies. Weighing in on the discussion were Sexual Violence Prevention Specialist and Assistant Director of Health Promotion Mayanthi Jayawardena, Director of The Haven Liz Cascone, Chief Compliance Officer and Title IX Coordinator Kiersten Boyce and Dean of Students Marjorie Thomas. Title IX, introduced in the Education Amendments Act of 1972, states that no person shall be subject to discrimination under any educational institution or financial assistance program; it has been popularized by equal opportunity in athletics but has gained traction in the last 30 years as an assurance for victims that sexual assault will not go unheard. 2011’s “Dear Colleague” letter from the Obama administration elucidated the measures an institution of higher education must take to protect the rights of students. One criticism of DeVos’ move to rescind the letter is that there is less burden
placed upon perpetrators and, therefore, less protection for victims. In her speech at George Mason University, DeVos said she wanted to create a space of justice for both the doer and the accuser, equalizing the burden of sexual assault. Proponents of the retraction praise its fairness, and opponents critique it for putting more pressure on those who have been assaulted. Because the “Dear Colleague” letter was not a mandate, its rescindment was uncomplicated, and DeVos has made clear that any law now made regarding Title IX will be more concrete. “I’m one of those worried people,” Renata Botelho ’21 said before the panel. A preview of the College’s 2016-17 climate survey reveals that campus statistics are not much different than the national average. 16(IX)3 members commented that the College’s statistics are higher than the national average. The panelists said they did not have concrete answers for why this is, but that they plan to increase initiatives regarding sexual violence education. “[Freshmen] realistically get three hours [of education],” Jayawardena said with regards to Orientation discussion and EFYIs on sexual violence and prevention. Thomas said that she allied herself with student organizations who were working for sexual assault prevention and policy change, and said that she wanted to “obliterate” the College’s statistics on violence. Boyce, another panelist, said that the College will remain in a state of uncertainty while waiting for more concrete guidelines from the federal government. “We will be in limbo for a significant period of time … 18 months, two years,” Boyce said. Overall, the panelists agreed that the College’s so-called feedback loop has improved in response to change in national policy. They also underscored that it may not seem as if the administration or the various help
centers give feedback or are transparent, but it is their topmost goal to do so. After the panel, audience members had time to ask questions. “I was just very happy that people came and participated in the conversation at the end,” 16(IX)3 executive board member Brendan McDonald ’18 said. “And I was glad that the administration was so willing to … participate.” Fellow 16(IX)3 executive board member Tess Thompson ’19 said she lauded the ability to have meaningful discussion with people in a position to make change. “I think it’s great that we were able to have an open dialogue,” Thompson said. “I think a great part of that was the question-and-answer session.” Thompson also said she thought the passion of the panelists for transparency was important. One panelist, Cascone, admitted that, during busy times, those running the operations are human too, and stepping back is a fair remedy to bolster communication. Similarly, Boyce said that the process of preventing sexual assault has become more malleable than before, especially as the College is under Title IX investigation for a case reported last summer. Both this investigation and one that was opened in 2014 were the result of individual students filing concerns. Under the changes put forth by the Department of Education, the College will continue in the same manner of including faculty, staff and student communication, so Boyce said the interim guidelines will not impact this second Title IX investigation. After the panel, Thomas said she wanted to emphasize the issue of sexual assault and how it impacts certain populations, including Greek life and the LGBTQ community. “[D]o students feel … that they can come to the table?” Thomas said. “Who do you sit at the table with?”
Voteline attempts to make voting easier for residents, facilitate change, improvement Non-partisan hotline run by students at College of William and Mary ’s Marshall-Wythe School of Law’s Election Law Society works to help voters VOTE from page 1
Barden said that there is one case of him helping a voter that stands out in his mind.
Residence Life Campus Center 212 living@wm.edu Off Make checks payable to: William & Mary Pay at: The Cashier’s Office in Blow Hall Or mail to: The Cashier’s Office P.O. Box 8795 Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795 Or: Paid on-line using an e-check or credit card from the room selection website. IMPORTANT NOTE: POSTMARKS WILL NOT BE HONORED. DEPOSITS MAILED AND/OR RECEIVED AFTER FEBRUARY 16TH WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.
“Last year, I walked a voter through Google Maps directions to his voting precinct over the phone because he lacked the resources to find it himself,” Barden said in an email. “That is one voter who might not have voted, but
ROOM SELECTION 2018 If you plan to live in campus housing for the 2018-2019 academic year and want to participate in any part of the Room Selection process, you must pay the $200 non-refundable Room Reservation Deposit by the Friday, February 16, 2018 deadline. Pay it now to alleviate the stress of trying to pay it while you are away or forgetting until the last minute.
This includes students who plan to live in Fraternity/Sorority Houses, Language Houses, Africana House, Mosaic, and Flex Housing, students with Priority Housing Approval, and those planning to live with student staff or apply for a student staff position. Students on full scholarship, including full scholarship athletes, must complete paperwork at Residence Life before the Friday, February 16th deposit deadline to be included in the Room Selection process. All Special Interest Houses will conduct their room selections prior to spring break; all others who submit a deposit will select their rooms during the on-line section process in March or April.
For more information visit: http://www.wm.edu/offices/residencelife/rsp/undergraduate
did vote due to the VoteLine.” Because of student voters, Barden then created a Twitter account so that students could have their questions answered. “I believe it’s a pretty thin race and it’s gotten very gnarly,” Co-Coordinator of VoteLine Alannah Shubrick J.D. ’19 said. “And I think it’s a time when confidence in elections is generally very low.” The gubernatorial race, which is at the top of the ballot for Virginians, has three candidates: Republican Ed Gillespie, Democrat and former Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam and Libertarian Cliff Hyra. According to Shubrick and Barden, it is important for voters to study the candidates’ policies before voting. VoteLine Co-Coordinator Matthew Catron J.D. ’20 said that, compared to the office of president, he believes the office of governor has more day-to-day impact on citizens’ lives. “Strangely enough, governors tend to have a lot more direct impact on people within the state’s lives,” Catron said. According to Catron, some of the issues that will impact voters include taxation and education. Additionally, one issue close to the College is that the governor appoints the Board of Visitors[K1] . One of the largest issues Shubrick and Catron expect to clarify on the hotline is Virginia’s new photo ID laws, which have stiffened in recent years. “There are processes to get voter IDs even on Election Day that would work for the election,” Shubrick said. They explained that votes can also be held until voters produce identification later, but before votes are tallied. Shubrick and Catron said that this information, which the public may not know, is something that
VoteLine can make accessible. They believe that this helps encourage citizens who might have previously thought that their identification is faulty to vote. “[Voting] is a kind of a difficult process if you think about it, especially just for somebody who works a 40-plus-hour-a-week job,” Catron said. Barden said that one of the reasons the law school hosts the hotline is because it believes that it is important to enfranchise as many voters as possible. “Voters are provided relatively few opportunities to ask questions on Election Day, and we believe that the VoteLine truly allows us to enfranchise a set of voters that may otherwise be barred from the polls simply due to a lack of information,” Barden said in an email. According to Shubrick, election laws can sometimes be difficult to understand and might hinder citizens from turning out to vote. She said that because it is possible that voters do not have time to research election law, VoteLine works to provide voters with information about election law, so that they can feel prepared to vote without having formal political education. Catron said that another thing that is important about VoteLine is that it is not a service limited to residents of Williamsburg. “We try to advertise as far across Virginia as we could,” Catron said. “[We advertise] north, south, east and west.” Catron said that this hotline is significant because it works on a case-by-case basis. The workers at VoteLine believe that even if they help one person to vote, that would be enough. Shubrick said that she agreed with this. “I think it’s a great exercise, that you can facilitate change or improvement and, if something seems unmanageable, especially in this sphere, to do it on a smaller scale, or an individual scale and actually know that you affecting a positive result or a positive outcome,” Shubrick said.
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The Flat Hat
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
PANEL
Mason School of Business debuts TechDay Professionals present on business experience, network with business students MAX MINOGUE THE FLAT HAT
The Mason School of Business debuted its first TechDay event Friday, Nov. 3, aiming to connect employers with students by putting on a keynote and series of panels on the role of business analytics and technology in the business world. A total of 23 employers were in attendance, with a wide array of businesses represented, including Ferguson Plumbing and Accenture. The event was capped out with 150 students in attendance. TechDay began at 11 a.m. with keynote speaker Christer Johnson ’92, who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in economics. Johnson, who was formerly employed at International Business Machines and now works at Ernst and Young, has worked as a business analytics consultant across many industries in both the public and private sectors. Johnson spoke about what he described as his current passion project of using analytics to combat the opioid epidemic, using a variety of variables to determine the groups at risk for addiction and getting them help. Johnson also spoke on the importance of creativity in the industry and said that he credits some of his creative thinking in the field to his liberal arts education at the College of William and Mary. “The people from William and Mary that I’ve worked with, those are the people that actually bridge the gap between technical skills and actually figuring out what needs to be done from a business perspective,” Johnson said.
At the same time, Johnson said that the master’s in business analytics should be a great way to give students at the College a competitive edge. “I think equipping William and Mary students with a little more technical aptitude, combined with that liberal arts education, is going to allow our students to really add a lot of value in the business world,” Johnson said. The first moderated panel focused on ethics in analytics, touching on privacy concerns and other unintended consequences of business analytics. Greg Wallig from Grant Thornton LLP said the College is unique in putting such emphasis on the ethics of data analytics. Elena McGuire, a first-year grad student in the Master of Science in Business Analytics program in attendance at this panel, said she appreciated that ethics were discussed for a section of the presentations, but wished the panelists had delved deeper into the topic. “I think [ethics] are incredibly important in business analytics, and I wish more people were talking about it,” McGuire said. “Because, to some extent, it is the companies who are collecting our data, who are taking it with or without us fully knowing it.” The following moderated panel focused on how to effectively communicate complex analyses. Alex Fantine ’21 said this was one of the most interesting panels he has ever sat in on. “I’ve sat on a lot of pretty boring ones before, but that one was pretty great,” Fantine said. “Storytelling is something I do a lot in theater, so I feel like that could be something I want to pursue in business because it’s more realistic in business than it is in theater.”
At 1 p.m., students were released to network with the employers. FedEx representative Rob Fisher ’93 said that the company was interested in connecting with students who had the technical skill sets and problem-solving abilities necessary for the industry. “We’re having a very difficult time finding the right skill sets just staying locally, so we need to start expanding and building relationships with various colleges and universities, of course William and Mary being one of them,” Fisher said. Director for Corporate Relations and Employer Development of the Mason School’s Graduate Career Management Center Michael Ryan helped organize the inaugural TechDay through a partnership with the Sherman and Gloria H. Cohen Career Center. “I thought TechDay was a great success especially for our first year,” Ryan said in an email. “It is clear that employers are very interested in networking with William & Mary’s tech talent at this special career-focused event and students enjoyed the engaging thought leadership keynote and panels as well.” With an employer-to-student ratio of 1:6.5 at the event, TechDay aimed to demonstrate that technology will only become more dominant in the changing business world. According to Ryan, the inaugural TechDay’s success is encouraging for the implementation of similar programs in the future. “We are already discussing ways to improve the event for next year and how we can include more employers, alumni and students across William & Mary’s STEM programs,” Ryan said in an email.
STUDENT ASSEMBLY
SA clarifies voting procedures, session behavior amidst legislative conflict
Disputes over Hobble Wobble Gobble Act continue in Halloween meeting after presidential veto SARAH SMITH FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
When the 325th session of the Student Assembly Senate convened Oct. 31, the room was filled with superheroes, a slice of pizza, a piece of bacon and a banana, as well as the usual slew of senators. While the senate celebrated Halloween, those in attendance discussed legislation and behavioral practices to address issues that arose during last week’s meeting concerning the Hobble Wobble Gobble Act. Prior to the Oct. 24 meeting, SA President Elijah Levine ’18 vetoed the Hobble Wobble Gobble Act, which allocated $3,007 to purchase turkeys for low-income families in the City of Williamsburg. Levine’s primary reason for the veto was that he believed the community service fund, not the SA reserves, was the proper source of funding for the bill. Although there was disagreement about what options the senate had to ensure that money would still be allocated to purchase turkeys, senators voted to overturn the veto during the meeting.
Then, senators had the option to vote on an amendment to the bill that would change the source of funding within the text. Some, like the sponsor of the bill, Class of 2019 President Jonah Yesowitz ’19, said that they believed it violated senate code to amend a bill that had already been passed. Others, like Sen. Colleen Heberle ’18 said that they wanted more time to think about amending the bill and would prefer to address it during a later meeting. After further discussion, a vote to pass the amendment failed At the start of the Oct. 31 meeting, Chair of the Senate Alaina Shreves ’18 asked that senators not text or use social media during senate meetings, or talk to their friends while someone else is speaking. Additionally, Shreves announced that she no longer wanted senators to vote unanimously, but rather to move to vote by roll call or by a show of hands. Shreves said this is because over the last few weeks, bills were passed although not all senators were truly in agreement, and she wants to ensure that no senator is assuming that everyone agrees. If her recommendations are enforced, each senator will have to indicate
their opinion on a bill. Following her suggestions, senators will also have to meet certain criteria before abstaining from voting. Shreves said she does not want senators abstaining from votes unless they have a personal reason or a conflict of interest that would keep them from voting. During last week’s meeting, over the course of two votes by roll call, seven abstention votes were cast. “You should only abstain from voting for personal reasons,” Shreves said. “Don’t abstain vote because you don’t want to say your opinion out loud or because you feel as if you don’t have an opinion on something yet.” Another problem that arose during last week’s meeting is that some senators were speaking over each other, or were speaking out of turn. When there were moments when multiple senators wanted to speak, Shreves or SA Vice President Annelise Yackow ’18 assigned an order of speakers and encouraged senators not to speak unless they felt their opinion had not been previously stated. To address this, Yackow reminded the senate
about the speaker list, and said that moving forward, it should be followed. “Don’t keep talking when one of us talks,” Yackow said. “You shouldn’t be speaking after another senator speaks, that’s why we have a speakers list. It keeps us from getting sidetracked and going in circles.” One piece of legislation, The Service FundReserves Reconciliation Act, was introduced to address whether the senate should transfer funds from the community service fund to the SA reserves to pay for the Hobble Wobble Gobble Act. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Jack Bowden ’18 and Sen. Sikander Zakriya ’19, would transfer $3,007 from the community service fund to the SA reserves to pay for the purchase of turkeys and Thanksgiving food. “The bill is in response to the veto that the senate overrode last meeting,” Bowden said in a written statement. “It simply moves monies from the service activities fund to the reserves fund since the former fund is a more specific fund for Hobble Wobble Gobble to pull from.” The bill will be seen by senate committees this weekend, and senators will vote on the bill during next week’s meeting.
UndocuTribe organizes walkout to promote visibility for undocumented students Board of Visitors has stated support to the 23 undocumented students on campus who currently receive DACA protections DACA from page 1
recipient of DACA. “So, what happened at the walkout wasn’t just on the William and Mary campus. It was also being done at UVA and at JMU, GMU and the NOVA campus,” Diego said. “We were just one of the schools that was like ‘This is a great idea.’ And once again, we really wanted to bring that it wasn’t about mainly the disruption of class, and I went through a lot of hurdles to make sure that professors and administration knew that it was not disruptive to the learning environment — that it was not a way to show discontent to the school — because the school has actually done a lot for our students. It was to bring visibility to the nation. It was to have students in the classroom, before people walk out, saying, ‘Why are 10 or 15 students leaving the classroom right now, what is important about that?’ That’s where the statement comes in.” Diego said that this walkout was important to him because he is personally affected by DACA policies and wants to humanize, as well as bring visibility to the issue. “So the biggest thing was that it really humanized the issue,” Diego said. “So a lot of people feel disconnected from issues because they are not personally affected, and that happens to everyone. This is personal to me because it affects me in more ways than one. So that’s why I feel so passionate and strongly about this. Let’s say someone else, let’s say a white, middle-class student who has never really had to think about questions of race because it’s never been a problem for them. … One of the results I wanted was that people such as these, who have never really thought about issues, to become a little more conscious. … Because what we really wanted was really
just to humanize these issues and to let people know that while we do talk very abstractly about immigrants and undocumented peoples and the push factors like violence and corruption and poverty that push people away from their homes, it’s very easy to become unemotional about these issues, especially in an academic setting. We talk about the issue, not the person, but there are people affected; and I think we really got that across, especially with the testimonies and the creative works, the poems. You never know who it will touch. I have people around campus who will stop me and say, ‘Diego that was beautiful.’” Professors, community members and students were in attendance and were speakers on behalf of undocumented students’ rights. Two students read pieces concerning their own accounts as undocumented students, while other speakers read first-person accounts from anonymous students or elected to share poetry and other forms of spoken word in support. The first-person accounts, shared anonymously or in person, detailed the experiences of an undocumented immigrant, especially one of college age. Other narratives shared family experiences or experiences with undocumented members of the community. One student, now a senior at the College, discussed how his high school experience was differently shaped by his immigration status. As DACA was not officially passed until very late in his high school years, he said that college was not an option for him preceding the executive order, despite being at the top of his class. Other students spoke of their inability to obtain drivers licenses or summer jobs, often in spite of paying full taxes to the IRS for whatever informal work they completed.
One speaker read an account that stated the only government agency that recognizes undocumented people’s existence is the IRS. A representative from St. Bede Catholic Church shared the story of a friend, for whom she used the pseudonym Josephine. In Josephine’s account, education was of import. A passage of the account said, “All of us are looking for education so that we can provide for our families and our community.” After all the speakers, which included several professors, including John Riofrio — head of the Latin American studies program — concluded, Diego returned to the stage to read his own account. He read this in the form of a poem that detailed his father’s and family’s experiences as undocumented immigrants. “Carlitos, he was called,” Diego said. “His life was hard. He would wake at 4:00 a.m., help his father pick the fields. It is now 6:00. He would walk an hour to the nearest bus, get to school at 8:00, leave school at 2:00, get home, eat sleep, repeat. Fast forward: Carlitos was a man now. Carlos was bright and ambitious. You see, Carlitos thought he was destined for greatness. He believed he could break a corrupt system. But little did Carlitos know God had other plans for him. Little did Carlitos know the system would break him. You see, Carlitos was a man now, so he fought his battles. He licked his wounds, he bled, he cried, he kicked, he screamed and he lost. … God whispered in Carlitos’s ear: ‘America.’ So Carlitos sought the American dream. … Like the Irish and the Chinese, we came like pigs to slaughter. America didn’t kill him; it took something more precious — his hopes and dreams.” Sociology professor Jennifer Bickham Mendez, who was also in attendance at the walkout, said that the issue of immigration is
very important, and that the College should remain a safe place for student recipients of DACA. “This is an extremely important issue to keep in our minds,” Bickham Mendez said. “We will become, and already are, a space that will exclude [these members of our community]. They won’t be able to claim domicile. It’s incredibly exclusionary.” One student who was in attendance, Maya Farrhenderson ’20, said that she chose to attend the walkout because as a queer student of color, it was important for her to show solidarity. Additionally, Farrhenderson said that one of her best friends is a DACA recipient. “I think one thing that is really amazing is seeing how many students came, because I think it’s a little bit different than going to something that’s after class, like at the Sunken Garden,” Farrhenderson said. “I think this is something that was really important to have during the day and have people actually doing an act, of leaving the classroom and raising awareness. I think it was really powerful to see how many other students were also interested and involved enough to do that.” Diego ended the event by saying that he wants students to be activists and to create a world that all students could be proud of. “Be the leaders, the activists, the pavers of the road less traveled, so in the end we can all be proud,” Diego said. Throughout his conclusion he said that the activism presented in the event was meant to be inclusive of all genders, sexualities and races, and that all people should be respected regardless of their paperwork status. The purpose of the even was to bring attention to an issue in a way that any person, regardless of immigration status, could easily receive.
opinions
Opinions Editor Brendan Doyle Opinions Editor Kiana Espinoza fhopinions@gmail.com // @theflathat
The Flat Hat | Tuesday, November 7, 2016 | Page 5
GUEST COLUMN
Holding out a helping hand for the homeless
Caleb Rogers
FLAT HAT GUEST COLUMNIST
BY KRISTIE TURKAL / THE FLAT HAT
STAFF COLUMN
Addressing allergy concerns on campus
Julia Urban THE FLAT HAT
After a full day of classes, I was dying to crawl back into bed, but even that was too much effort. I lacked the willpower to climb the two flights of stairs to my room; I couldn’t even get up from the couch I’d nestled into. When my friend Alexa entered the lounge, I found my motivation: the basket of Marketplace fries in her hand. I hardly visit Marketplace thanks to my seven food allergies. Unlike at Sadler Center and the Caf, many foods are not labeled for major allergens at Marketplace, and the online menu is never fully updated on the Sodexo Bite app. However, all I wanted was a basket of fries, and Marketplace seemed to be my best bet. I had been warned against Sadler fries — the fryer there is occasionally cross-contaminated with shrimp. I had not been warned against any such cross-contamination in Marketplace, and I couldn’t imagine them using peanut oil, since the College of William and Mary is typically very conscientious about food allergies. When I walked into Marketplace, I almost picked up a basket of fries from the Grille, but then I caught myself. “What oil do you fry with?” I asked. The two employees behind the counter glanced at each other, but neither knew. One of them kindly left her station to go find out and returned with the answer. “Peanut oil,” she said. I was shocked. Peanuts are a major food allergen and should be clearly labeled whenever used in a dish. However, there were no signs about peanuts around the Grille, and the employees were not informed that they were working with peanut oil. The lack of signs and other accessible allergen information at Marketplace
poses an enormous risk. A student could easily assume, based on their experience at the College’s other dining options, that Marketplace is also peanut-free or peanutconscientious. This assumption could be deadly depending on the severity of the student’s peanut allergy. The Sadler Center, on the other hand, is particularly good at labeling. Sadler employees label all foods with nutrition information and major allergens, and label seafood dishes with extra warnings in large red font. Marketplace does not come anywhere near this standard. To reach a basic level of safety, the College must increase labeling for all dishes and improve allergy training at Marketplace. People — students and staff — should know what is in their food. Even if the Grille was labeled for peanuts and employees were informed of the presence of peanut oil, the use of peanut oil in Marketplace would remain problematic. It, along with a general lack of allergy-related safety in Marketplace, alienates students with allergies. Social situations become complicated when students cannot eat with their friends at popular dining establishments. As I mentioned previously, peanuts are such a common allergen that I was shocked to learn of their use at Marketplace. It is possible that I was misinformed, and that Marketplace does not use peanut oil — my opinion is based on one personal experience and is by no means definitive. However, if I was misinformed, then my experience further demonstrates the need for better employee information and training at Marketplace. I understand that some students love peanuts — peanut butter, Reese’s Pieces, fries with peanut oil — and I understand that my suggestions can seem unfair. Making dining spaces peanut-conscientious requires students to give up a nutritional and tasty (so I’ve heard) food for a minority group of students. However, though students with allergies are a minority, we are by no means small. And though restricting peanuts on campus imposes on the comfort of some students, serving them imposes on the safety of others. I fully admit that I am biased due to my allergies, but I still believe that safety should come first. Email Julia Urban at jaurban@email.wm.edu
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The lack of signs and other accessible allergen information at Marketplace poses an enormous risk.
The cold typically has me thinking of the Sunken Garden blanketed in snow or the continuance of our holiday season. And that is not a wrong thing — it is very easy to think even more inwardly as the temperature drops and we huddle closer to ourselves. Furthermore, our status as students, especially during finals, keeps all thoughts directed toward our performance on exams, followed by plans over break. So it is again easy, then, to forget about those away from our school, but still in our Williamsburg community, that see the cold as a challenge to their lives. The homeless and those in need in our city are a significant group, but they are also a rarely discussed one. One of their primary outlets for help is the House of Mercy, located just feet away from Zable Stadium. The House works impartial to religion and serves all who come through its doors through a variety of programs. The service also works to alleviate medical copay burdens on participating members. They do all this through donations and volunteers from a wide and caring range of Williamsburg residents. For years, the House has been a staple in the community that at-risk, single residents and families can rely on for a warm bed, food and clothes in the trying winter months. It is important to note that those in need participants of the House’s programs are contributing members of society, many of whom have jobs. However, as a House informational video states, “one flat tire or one sick kid” can put those in need over the edge, causing them to default on payments and lose housing or the ability to put food on a table. Thankfully, though, the College of William and Mary is an untapped mine of giving and caring people who enjoy helping those in need. Next week, from Nov. 13 to Nov. 19, the College will keep these community members in mind with a clothing drive on campus. Consider donating old clothes or unused toiletries to donation boxes found in your dorms and general areas around the College. The House of Mercy is partnering with the Kappa Sigma Fraternity, which will head up this effort and accept all given clothes or other items. They especially appreciate jackets and unused toiletries, like razors, deodorant or shaving cream. This effort is a way for us to aid and think of those residents who are not as fortunate as we are. All people are not created equal. Some are born into lives that are far harder than others. They face challenges that have not even crossed the minds of others. The homeless and at-risk in Williamsburg are a kind and driven people. They fight through these far harder lifestyles seeking better ones, either for themselves or the families they have fighting with them. Organizations like the House of Mercy are some of our nation’s most noble and notable. They offer a helping, caring hand to these unfortunate people who are only trying to make it. Your donation will be given directly to the House. It has, no matter what you choose to give, the potential to help a struggling member of our community weather these colder months. It is incredibly easy to let slip from our minds the idea of some people having less, through no volition of their own. The less fortunate, who always outnumber our estimates, rely on organizations like these to help them get through trying times. For every reason we love our College, let us also look after the community it resides in. Email Caleb Rogers at ctrogers@email.wm.edu
GUEST COLUMN
How can someone protest campus injustice online? Just keep eating
Christopher Ahrens FLAT HAT GUEST COLUMNIST
Sept. 27, I departed a club meeting early with the goal of attending the nowinfamous AMP-sponsored talk that was to be given by the director of the Virginia Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. As has been recounted countless times since then by many sources, a Black Lives Matter-based coalition of students successfully managed to shut the talk down via protest. Nearly half a month later, our College’s president, Taylor Reveley III, released an email that in the eyes of many directly threatened those
who had protested and actively utilized current school policies to stifle further political activism. Oct. 21, I switched on a camera, threw on a bow tie, and ate that email to the sounds of “Unknown Pleasures.” Personal political leanings are often difficult to articulate, especially when one falls outside of reified party lines. My video fell under some scrutiny, as my actions at the actual event and on my Facebook page “Discourse” demonstrated a clear ideological opposition to the protest. However, I think this cuts to what I hope to accomplish with this piece. I have my own political reasons as to why I disagree with the BLM group on this issue while still being angered by the potential for the group to face administrative repercussions, but what matters here is the decision to state such beliefs and express them. I am not a great activist, and I don’t think people really should have to be. In writing this, I hope not to convince people to care about the First Amendment or rape
culture’s linkage to fraternities, but rather to implore all who are reading to care about something. William and Mary is a school built upon a varied populace, and
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Picketing and chants may not be for everyone, and the idea that one is obligated to do so helps no one. its students were brought to this campus not because of any one political ideology, but because they inform the polity with a unique perspective driven by their passion. If you care about animal rights, keep on caring. If you care about systemic, racialized violence at the hands of the
police, keep on caring. Continuing this line of reasoning, I don’t consider one’s “caring” to then immediately necessitate a specific kind of action. Picketing and chants may not be for everyone, and the idea that one is obligated to do so helps no one, drawing away from the love of a cause that so many of us feel. This love should not shoehorn one into action to which one is resistant. Rather, it should motivate acts that one enjoys doing. Make a sign if you want, eat an email if you want. The incorporation of one’s own brand of advocacy will uphold the tenet of diversity that defines this school far more than merging into a crowd. Working toward positive change and having fun should not be divorced, but should instead be the very basis of political activism. With that in mind, avoid eating paper on an empty stomach and drink plenty of water throughout. Email Christopher Ahrens at csahrens@ email.wm.edu.
The Flat Hat
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
Page 6
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Letter to President Reveley: Preserve Title IX protections Dear President Reveley, As alumni and current students of the College of William and Mary, we write to urge you to uphold the standards put into place by the U.S. Department of Education’s 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter, which clarifies academic institutions’ obligations under Title IX to protect students from sexual assault. We urge you to lead with conscience, to take a stand so that other institutions may follow our example and to publicly declare your decision to uphold and support the 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter standards. Sep. 22, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos withdrew her department’s enforcement of the 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter and the 2014 Questions and Answers on Title IX and Sexual Violence. In advance of the notice and comment period, Secretary DeVos issued interim guidance that denies students their right to receive an education free of sexual violence and the hostile environment it creates. In both her statements and her interim guidance, Secretary DeVos continuously emphasizes protection of accused students, and her interim guidance chiefly considers only accused students’ rights to education. Title IX is not intended to protect only students accused of sexual misconduct. Title IX protects students from sexual discrimination, harassment and violence. We firmly believe in the importance of fair, equitable and impartial sexual misconduct investigations and adjudications, both for students reporting sexual assault and students accused of perpetrating sexual assault. However, it is also the right of survivors, students and the entire William and Mary community to live, learn and work in a setting free of hostility and sexual violence.
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We urge you to continue your committment to survivors and the prevention of sexual assault ... The changes in Secretary DeVos’ interim guidance skew in favor of students accused of sexual misconduct and do not provide a prompt, fair and equitable process for survivors. For example, Secretary DeVos’ interim guidance allows institutions to deny survivors their right to appeal, but requires that institutions allow accused students to appeal findings and disciplinary decisions. We fear that Secretary DeVos’ new interim guidance will discourage and deter survivors from reporting sexual assault, as well as from receiving information on the adjudication process and support services to which they are entitled. Secretary DeVos’ interim measures will prevent survivors who report sexual assault from receiving a prompt, fair and equitable investigation, will re-traumatize reporting survivors and will deprive them the right to continue their education in a safe campus environment free from sexual violence and hostility. Secretary DeVos’ issuance of interim guidance does not change the fact that Title IX as well as the clarifying guidance of the 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter and the 2014 Question and Answers on Title IX and Sexual Violence document remain law under the Title IX implementing regulation 34 CFR 106. William and Mary has both a legal and a moral obligation to protect all members of the Tribe from sexual assault on campus. No student should be made to fear that they will be stuck in a hostile learning environment, where only perpetrators have the right to appeal disciplinary decisions and where institutions may use the most stringent standard of evidence. It is no secret that, like at every other academic institution, sexual assault is far too prevalent at William and Mary. In William and Mary’s Sexual Misconduct Campus Climate Assessment, 46 percent of the students who responded to the survey in 2014 reported experiencing some form of sexual misconduct. Under your leadership, William and Mary has made excellent progress in sexual assault prevention and support services for survivors. You established the Task Force on Preventing Sexual Assault and Harassment. Campus climate surveys were distributed to students so that William and Mary can better prevent campus sexual assault and direct services where they are needed. Survivors now have access to the Haven, a confidential and inclusive center where survivors of sexual violence may receive resources, guidance and support. William and Mary also established a student-led Survivor Support Group, providing survivors a safe and supportive place to share their experiences. Overall, William and Mary’s sexual misconduct policies are now more accessible, and survivors’ reporting options and available support services are publicized widely. William and Mary has made strides in preventing sexual assault, in implementing clear, fair and equitable disciplinary procedures and in supporting survivors of campus sexual assault. Now is not the time to move backwards. You yourself [Revely] wrote that “[this] job is not someone else’s to do; it’s for each of us and all of us, students, faculty and staff.”We must continue to enforce the 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter guidelines and be a model university, an example that other universities follow. We urge you to continue your commitment to survivors and the prevention of sexual assault at William and Mary. Publicly state your continued commitment to uphold the 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter guidelines. All members of the Tribe deserve to receive an education free from the hostile environment created by sex discrimination and sexual violence. Sincerely, 66 students, alumni, and student organizations. See online article for full list of contributors.
GRACIE HARRIS/ THE FLAT HAT
Fraternity spray paint protests justified in their accusations
Aditya Mohan
FLAT HAT GUEST COLUMNIST
The spray painting of “rapist” and “rape” on the fraternity houses was a much-needed action against terrible and powerful institutions. There are legitimate concerns both about erasing the vandalism and letting it stay: Erasing it would constitute censorship and possibly the silencing of survivors, while leaving the text may make the already traumatizing environment of fraternity row worse for survivors. I intend to focus on why actions that directly combat fraternities are preferable to actions that try to initiate discussion with them or appeal to the administration. Within universities, fraternities are a microcosm of the patriarchal, classist and white supremacist structures that exist in society. It is important to recognize that instances of sexual violence are never isolated. Rather, they are the manifestations of a culture with an ingrained imbalance of power that normalizes the violation of autonomy of one by another. And therefore, while sexual assault statistics should be enough to convince you that fraternities should be dismantled, I think it is a good idea to look at what lies at the essence of fraternities to see why they embody the culture of authoritarianism and inequality. On the surface, the primary feature of fraternities is that they’re usually only inclusive to those whom fraternities recognize as men. There can be no justification for this segregation. Cis men in most societies — and particularly in our western society — have held power over women and forced non-binary and trans people into hiding. Fraternities’ hold on social power allows them to objectify women and reinforce the gender binary. That is what is immediately apparent to most of the campus community. This is a symptom of a larger structure
that enables people born with privilege to retain their privilege. By creating an exclusive, protected environment for rich, white, cis men to network, fraternities are instrumental to a wider structure that protects and magnifies the power of the ruling class in society. It is no coincidence that fraternity members are overrepresented in Congress, the business community and other powerful institutions. They are a network built to further nepotism and favoritism in employment, politics and civil society. This is the reason why the relation between fraternities and the campus community mirrors the relationship between the ruling class and proletariat in society at large. Fraternities are not, as they say to defend themselves, free associations of like-minded men. They are constitutionally institutionalized structures that perpetuate an imbalance of power and allow a certain section of society to believe they can control the bodies of another. This is why labeling all members of fraternities as rapists is justified. Not every member of a fraternity has necessarily committed sexual assault, but they are all complicit in a structure that deprives women and victimized people of power and, by extension, the ability to fully consent. It is therefore futile to try and reform fraternities; everything that is wrong with them is part of their essence. It is important to realize that a call for the abolition of fraternities does not mean that we should prohibit any group of people from congregating; it means that this group of people is not protected by the college administration, and that the College stops endorsing and legitimizing the injustice. It is unjust to leave those hurt by fraternities at the mercy of an administration that is a part of the same power structure that fraternities are part of. Direct actions such as spray painting fraternity houses return power to the campus community and victims. It is all of our responsibilities to stand in solidarity with victims, trans people, poor people, women, people of color and others hurt by fraternities and destroy the structures that harm them. Email Aditya Mohan at amohan02@email.wm.edu.
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Not every member of a fraternity has necessarily committed sexual assault, but they are all complicit in a structure that deprives women and victimized people of power ...
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COMMENTS @THEFLATHAT
At a recent attorney mental health Continuing Legal Education seminar they told us: 10% of the general population suffers from anxiety or depression 40% of law students do 30% of lawyers do 33% of lawyers are problem drinkers. Attorneys are 6x more likely to commit suicide than general population.
— Charles B. Jordan Jr. on “Building a case for mental health allege Student Health Center mishandled depression screening data”
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Variety Editor Akemi Tamanaha Variety Editor Heather Baier flathat.variety@gmail.com // @theflathat
The Flat Hat
| Tuesday, November 7, 2017 | Page 7
Dancing the way to Scottish and Irish roots
Bobby Oldfield makes a place for himself in basketball management
The Celtic Irish Dance Club adds Scottish dance to fall showcase COURTESY PHOTO / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
CARMEN HONKER THE FLAT HAT
From the humble beginnings of small performances in local restaurants to hosting their first showcase, the Celtic Irish Dance club has grown from a group of four people to a cohort of talented dancers who performed for a packed house Nov. 5. The Celtic Irish Dance Club meets every Tuesday evening to rehearse Irish and Scottish dance routines. Co-president Sarah Hardy ’19 said the group had extra practices leading up to their performance Saturday. Hardy said the group has existed on campus for some time but was not active until the spring of her freshman year, and from there, the dance group has been slowly growing, adding more performances throughout the school year. Hardy, who grew up competing nationally in Irish dance, sees the club as a fantastic way to introduce people to Celtic dance. Hardy taught Irish dance while she was in high school and said that she loves teaching her peers a dance style that has been a part of her life for so long. “My favorite thing is definitely being able to introduce Irish dance to other people, because I think that a lot of people don’t know a lot about it,” Hardy said. “I love that we have members who have never danced before, [who] decided to [join the group] and just pick it up, how amazing it is, how they get into it and how they are so excited to learn things.” Co-president Erin Gallagher Howell ’19 has also been dancing and competing in Irish dance since a young age. Gallagher Howell said her Irish heritage is initially what inspired her to begin exploring traditional Irish dance, and she loves that the dance club exists, enabling Celtic dancers to continue their involvement through their college years. “I think what originally got me into [Irish dancing] was
that I am almost completely Irish,” Gallagher Howell said. “My grandparents are all from Ireland and Scotland, so I think it was a way for me to connect to that. I did ballet for a while, but I just love Irish Dance, and I love how different it is. What inspires me to keep going is that it was such a big part of my life until college; I practiced every day and competed every weekend, and I think that is really hard once you get to college to not do that anymore. So, this is a way for me to keep pursuing that. It’s in a different way, but I still enjoy it.” The team is composed of dancers with all levels of experience. Along with Hardy and Gallagher Howell, Claire Johnston ’18 and Katherine Olrick ’18 began Irish dance between the ages of three and five and have competed in national competitions. The other team members’ experience levels vary, with some entering into the club without any prior knowledge of Irish dance. There was much anticipation for the showcase amongst the dancers as they prepared for their Saturday performance. Previously, the club had performed at small local restaurants like the College Delly and Green Leafe. Hardy said she was excited about the opportunity to perform in a larger space, which unlike the previous performance locations, allowed the group to include a wider variety of dances, including several competition pieces. “I think we are really showcasing the talents of everyone in our group a little more,” Hardy said. “[It’s] really exciting, and it’s fun for us to be able to relive our glory days of competing and being able to do these dances that are a little bit harder, [as well as] to also have our other members show what they know.” The fall showcase also included the addition of a traditional Scottish dance performed by Anne-Marie Berens ’21. Gallagher Howell said she was looking forward to watching Berens perform and learning from her as the club explores the Scottish style. Gallagher Howell was
also excited about each dancer’s solo during the show. The audience in attendance at the fall showcase was encouraging and enthusiastic. Saturday’s performance concluded with a group piece performed to Ed Sheeran’s “Galway Girl.” Morgan Pincombe ’21 said that she particularly enjoyed this piece and was very excited when the pop song came on the speakers. “My favorite part of the Irish Celtic Showcase was the diversity,” Pincombe said. “I loved the differences in styles and in experiences and in songs. I loved how they had people doing Irish dances and Scottish dances and also [dancing to] traditional music as well as pop music.” Andrew Peck ’21, attended the show with a group of friends to support a friends as she performed. Peck said that he really enjoyed the show and seeing the different types of dance. “It was really nice seeing how they all worked together,” Peck said. “It was nice knowing how people were at different levels. Even entering college, some hadn’t done this before, and they did a really nice job putting on the show.” In addition to performing, the dancers also cherish the community aspect of their club. Hardy said that the club is more than a dance group — it’s also a social group. She said that she wants the club to mix more with other dance groups, become more involved in campus events and become an outlet for meeting people. Gallagher Howell also said that she treasures the friendships that her involvement with the dance club has brought her. “I would love to maintain the members that we currently have,” Gallagher Howell said. “Even though we only meet once a week, it is truly a friendship. I’ve become friends with people that I probably would not have known otherwise, and [although] we have only seen each other for a few weeks, I truly do consider them my friends and enjoy spending the one hour a week with them just dancing.”
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
A short lesson on the usefulness of the dental dam Using the underrated protection tool for safe and enjoyable oral sex
Elizabeth Barto
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS COLUMNIST
Dental dams. What is a dental dam? It’s the plastic wrap of the oral sex world (and sometimes is actual plastic wrap). And, before you ask — yes, it does have its origins in actual dental surgery. No, it’s not actually placed over your mouth for safe oral sex (it’s placed over the vulva or anus), and yes, it’s basically a square of plastic. With a little lube for the receiver, a little communication and a little digital tact to keep it in place, it’s a handy (except your hands are occupied) way to practice safe oral sex on a person with a vulva. If you’re having sex with a partner who hasn’t recently been tested or with whom you aren’t in an exclusive arrangement with, and you aren’t using a barrier method for oral sex, you are putting yourself at risk for exposure to STIs. Yet, despite the relatively widespread knowledge that you can also transmit infectious sexual diseases through the exchange of sexual fluids or skin-toinfected-skin contact, it seems that very few people are choosing to use protection during oral sex. While Planned Parenthood lists oral sex as a “low risk” activity on its webpage about “Safer Sex,” it goes on to specify that, “When it comes to HIV, oral sex is much safer sex than vaginal or anal sex. But other infections, like herpes, syphilis, hepatitis B, gonorrhea, and HPV, can be passed during oral sex.” HPV is an especially important infection to protect against when having oral sex with someone whose sexual history you aren’t familiar with (especially
if you haven’t been vaccinated), since an infection in the mouth or throat can increase the likelihood of mouth or throat cancers (although this is most prevalent in cases of frequent exposure over time). Used correctly, dental dams and condoms can protect against these STIs. A 2006 study of Oral Sex and Condom Use Among Young People In the United Kingdom (Yeah, that’s the closest thing I could get to an easily accessible, general statistic concerning condom usage with oral sex. Students aged 16-18 … in the U.K … ) reported: “Among those who had experienced fellatio once, 17% had used a condom, but only 2% of respondents who had engaged in fellatio more than once reported consistent use.” In an interview for the Buzzfeed article, “Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Dental Dams,” sex therapist Dr. Madeleine M. Castellanos is quoted as saying “despite offering great protection, less than 10% of women use them at all, with only a fraction of them using dams regularly.” For dental dams, what does this mean? Well, with such little demand, that means that few brick-and-mortar stores can afford to supply dental dams. While you can make your own out of a condom with little effort, the size of your latex or polyurethane
SYDNEY HAMRICK / THE FLAT HAT
rectangle will be smaller than the amount provided by a dental dam, which may make usage a bit more finnicky. You can order them online off Amazon, but on Walgreens’ and CVS’s websites, I couldn’t find any after a cursory search. Availability of dams in particular aside, one reason why many people don’t use a barrier method with oral sex is because both condoms and dental dams change the sort of sensations experienced by the giver and the receiver. This doesn’t stop heterosexual people from using condoms to have safe vaginal sex, nor does it mean that good sex can’t be had with a condom. Duh! That being said, here are some tips to make your protected oral sex a little easier. You can make a dental dam out of a non-lubricated condom by unrolling it, cutting off both the tip and the rim of the condom, and then inserting your scissors into the remaining tube and cutting lengthwise down one side. If you’ve done your condom crafting correctly, you should have a rectangle of latex. Don’t use a condom with spermicide or lambskin condoms for your DIY dental dams, though. It’s not safe to ingest spermicide, and lambskin condoms are too permeable to protect against STIs. Don’t use oil or oil-based lubes on latex condoms or dental dams. This may increase friction and cause them to break. The jury’s out on plastic wrap, since very little scientific research has been conducted concerning its usage as a sexual barrier. That being said, the general consensus is that if you are using plastic wrap, you should use the less porous, non-microwaveable kind. So what’s the bottom line if all this prophylactic talk has made you a little squeamish? If you’re sexually active at all, get tested on a regular basis. Even if you’re only having non-penetrative sex. Or invent latex panties so that hands-free oral sex is easier for people with vulvas or a penchant for anal play. Even though STI transmission risk is lower with oral sex, it is still a risk. If you don’t want to use a barrier during oral and you practice sex, get tested VERY regularly for STIs. Seriously. I mean it. Don’t give your Tinder date throat gonorrhea. It’s curable, but that’s not the point. Swipe left on that, hard. Elizabeth Barto is a Behind Closed Doors columnist who wants to put a dam on the flood of STD’s.
The Flat Hat
Tuesday, Novemeber 7, 2017
Page 8
Not much, just science College junior’s research on proteins published in multiple scientific papers KARINA VIZZONI // THE FLAT HAT Although she couldn’t be there for the actual discovery, she was still excited. She was in the lab for other successes, such as when they found ligands capable of binding to proteins, but this discovery was bigger than the rest. Brennan’s fascination with science spawned from her own family, as most of her relatives have a background in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. “For me, the reason why I really enjoy science is because I wanted to do something with my life that benefitted others,” Brennan said. “I always wanted to do something that had an impact, and for me growing up, being around my mom, and most of my family kind of has a STEM background, what I always saw was them making a difference in the world with STEM, and for me that just seemed the way to do it.” She is interested in pharmaceutical research as well as space — an interest piqued by her mother’s background at NASA. After graduate school, Brennan expressed interest in a career in research, saying she enjoys spending time in a lab. She finds that as society progresses, the need for in thousands of different research progresses as well. conditions, a feat that took her “It’s like I go into the lab about a day using the advanced and it’s its own mini laboratory equipment, hoping to get a little adventure, hit on one of them. Brennan waited for seeing what them to grow in these varying conditions and then searched for any evidence of protein crystals. After her internship, Brennan received works and a late-night text from her mentor in what doesn’t,” October. One of the proteins she worked Brennan said. Despite the mark with had gotten a hit and the structure she has made already was solved. within the scientific “My mentor said, ‘I wanted you to be community, Brennan the first to know because you’re the one remains eager for who poured hours and hours into this,’” additional discoveries. She Brennan said. is currently volunteering Brennan said she recalls being extremely excited and unable to stop in a bioinorganic chemistry laboratory un chemistry smiling. “I went to one of my housemates and professor Deborah C. Bebout said, ‘Oh my goodness, I just solved the at the College, where she hopes to make her next breakthrough. structure of a protein,’” Brennan said.
It’s like I go into the lab and it’s its own mini little adventure, seeing what works and what doesn’t. – Haley Brennan ‘19
COU RTES Y PH OTO S/H ALEY BREN NAN
A
s a College of William and Mary junior, Haley Brennan ’19 is a double major in chemistry and biology and a member of the equestrian team. She will also soon have her name on multiple, published scientific papers. Last summer, Brennan had the opportunity to pursue a research-based internship with Brookhaven National Laboratory, a structural biology lab at the National Synchrotron Light Source 2 in Long Island, New York. For 10 weeks, she spent her days doing advanced laboratory work eight to 10 hours a day with her mentor, Alexis Soares. It was here that she discovered the conditions necessary to reveal the structure of a protein through crystallization. Brennan’s work involved trying to make proteins of unknown structures crystallize in order to determine their structures, a task that had been worked on by other interns for about three years. Often, different collaborators would come into the lab with proteins they wanted solved so they could use them for their specific purposes. Proteins are typically brought to the labs purified. They then go through the process of protein crystallization, where they are run through different conditions to see how they grow. Afterwards, members of the research lab determine what chemicals form interactions with the proteins. “The goal with a protein that you don’t know the structure of is that you want to be able to crystallize it so you can shoot an X-ray through it and you can get a diffraction pattern which gives you the
structure of it basically. So that’s the big goal of what I was working on in the lab,” Brennan said. Brennan worked with a wide variety of technology in the laboratory, such as an echo machine that utilizes acoustic droplet ejection, a mechanism that allows sound pulses to move liquids and small objects without human interference or contamination. She also grew the proteins
Debate Society argues their way to victory
Group competes in national and international competitions againts top tier schools WILL ALLEN THE FLAT HAT
College of William and Mary students with strong opinions have turned their love of debate into a string of successes through the William and Mary Debate Society. The Debate Society is composed of over 50 members who compete on a national level. The Debate Society competes regularly in national tournaments and travels weekly. It travels all across the country from Boston to the District of Columbia. In past years,
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We’ll get people who
are interested in biology
debate, but it sometimes pairs up with debaters from other schools. The Debate Society debates a large number of interesting topics. The teams argue over anything from philosophy to government policy. For example, the Debate Society has tackled the idea of the African Union creating a joint military task force to fight terrorism, as well as the merits of empiricism and rationalism as philosophies. “It can really be anything,” Debate Society Vice President of Finance Jessica Berry ’18 said. “It can be ‘Should we allow earmarks in congress again?’ to ‘Kendrick Lamar really shouldn’t be using the name Kung Fu Kenny.’” Tournaments for debate typically happen on the weekend. Fitting it into their already tight schedules, students in the Debate Society choose to attend when convenient. Debate Society members are involved in various activities around campus. For example, Debate
Society President Sraavya Poonuganti ’19, is a member of Tribetones and Berry is an editor for The Monitor. “Most people on the debate team major in government, public policy or international relations, but we’ll get people who are interested in biology or French and they bring a totally different perspective to the team,” said Debate Society Vice President of Education Evan Dotas ’19. “So instead of having a bunch of debates about Syria, someone will write a case about fish conservation.” The Debate Society has a long track record of success. Currently, Berry is in the top 10 for rankings for Debater of the Year, and just last year, the Society made it to the semi-finals of Nationals. At the start of this debate season, Berry and Poonuganti won speaker awards along with two of their novices, or new members of the debating world. Over the past three years, the Debate Society has had two of the top
or French and they
debaters in the country. Aaron Murphy was the first African American to take home the title of top debater, and Jerusalem Demsas was the first African-American woman to win the title. “One of the really cool accomplishments is that our team, at this point, is the most diverse it has been,” said Poonuganti about the diversity of the Debate Society. “We’ve accepted the most amount of girls. We lead very well by example in making our team inclusive.” Poonuganti is also a chair of the APDA’s Equal Opportunity Facilitators Committee. The EOFS
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One of the really cool
accomplishments is that
our team, at this point,
bring a totally different
is the most diverse it has
– Evan Dotas ’19
– Sraavya Poonuganti ’19
perspective to the team.
the Debate Society has traveled as far as Mexico City to participate in competition. It competes within the American Parliamentary Debate Association, which includes such schools as Princeton, Harvard and Dartmouth. The Debate Society engages in parliamentarystyle debate. The typical debate matchup is two teams from separate schools composed of two members each. One team, in the role of government, will propose a topic for debate to the opposing team, which the two teams will argue over for a round. After each round, the two teams switch who presents the topic. The Debate Society typically sends 10-15 people to a
been.
COURTESY PHOTO / THE DEBATE SOCIETY
The Debate Society argues on a wide variety of topics from goverment to biology and students of many majors participate.
Committee’s members are made up of students from several colleges such as Tufts, Brown, Harvard and UVA. In this role, Poonuganti serves as an equity officer at tournaments. For example, Poonuganti will make sure that people refer to each other using their preferred pronouns and avoid sexist comments during debates. Dotas is also chair of the Novice Mentor Committee, which tutors debate novices. Students interested in joining the William and Mary Debate Society can visit the William and Mary Debate Society Facebook page and the American Parliamentary Debate Association’s website.
sportsinside
The Flat Hat
| Tuesday, November 7, 2017 | Page 9
FOOTBALL
College crushed 35-16 by New Hampshire Tribe falls to 0-6 in CAA as disappointing season with QB shakeups continues KEVIN RICHESON FLAT HAT ASSOC. SPORTS EDITOR After a 23-6 loss on the road against Colonial Athletic Association opponent Maine, William and Mary (2-7, 0-6 CAA) returned home to take on 21stranked New Hampshire (6-3, 4-2 CAA) for another conference matchup. The College was able to move the ball some in the first half, but failed to convert in the red zone. The Wildcats were able to use their high-powered pass attack to take an early lead and cruise to a 35-16 victory at Zable Stadium. Saturday’s defeat was the College’s sixth in a row; it has yet to pick up a win in conference play this season. The Wildcats jumped ahead early by scoring on their first drive of the game. After receiving the opening kickoff, the Wildcats started their first possession at their own 25-yard line. Picking up a total of seven yards after two straight running plays, the Wildcats were faced with a third down, needing to pick up at least three more yards. Quarterback Trevor Knight found running back Evan Gray for an eight-yard gain, giving the Wildcats a first down. Three plays later, the Wildcats converted on third down again. Knight’s 11-yard strike to wide receiver Kieran Presley put the Wildcats into Tribe territory at the 46-yard line and gave them a fresh set of downs. Two plays later, the Wildcats executed on the first of several successful long passing plays in the game. Knight hooked up with wide receiver Neil O’Connor for a 48-yard touchdown. Less than four minutes into the game, the Wildcats seized a 7-0 lead that they would not relinquish. The Tribe’s first drive lasted over six minutes,
but ultimately ended in a punt by freshman Will Michael. Junior quarterback Tommy McKee, who played all 60 minutes as quarterback, was effective on the opening drive. After two completed passes, McKee scrambled for nine yards to pick up the first down at the Tribe 39-yard line. McKee picked up another first down with his legs three plays later, gaining three yards this time. After another third down conversion, the College stalled at the Wildcats’ 35-yard line. Michael’s punt bounced inside the five-yard line and was downed at the one by redshirt freshman wide receiver Zach Burdick. Despite starting their second drive in the shadow of their own goalposts, the Wildcats were able to put together another scoring drive. Early in the drive, the Wildcats faced two more third downs, but picked both of them up. The Wildcats broke into Tribe territory at the 49-yard line when Knight completed another long pass, this time to tight end John DiCaro. The catch and run totaled 43 yards and set the Wildcats up with a first-and-goal from the six-yard line. Just two plays later on the first play of the second quarter, Knight found running back Donald Goodrich to extend the Wildcats’ lead to 140. However, McKee and the College were able to fight back and cut into the deficit on their next drive. On the second play of the drive from the Tribe’s 39yard line, McKee completed a pass for six yards to junior wide receiver Isaiah Kinder, who drew a 15-yard personal foul penalty on the defense. This penalty moved the ball to the Wildcats’ 40-yard line, where the College’s drive continued. After picking up two yards on first down, McKee found freshman
tight end Nick Muse for a 30-yard pickup. This put the Tribe inside the 10-yard line. McKee finished off the drive for the College with two straight runs, including a two-yarder to cut the deficit in half, 147. On the next Wildcats drive, once again, the College’s defense was unable to stop the Wildcats’ air attack. After starting at the 10-yard line, long passes helped the Wildcats move down the field. Knight completed a 37-yard pass and 19-yard pass to set the Wildcats up at the Tribe’s 25-yard line. After a pass interference penalty against the College, Knight threw his third touchdown pass in as many possessions, this time to wide receiver Nick Lorden. The extra point sailed through the uprights, giving the Wildcats a 14-point lead again, 21-7. “Defensively we had a very difficult time. We’ve been playing really good defense up to this point. For one reason or another we were not able to react, especially to their passing game,” head coach Jimmye Laycock ’70 said. The final two possessions for the College were crucial in preventing it from having a chance to come back for its first CAA victory. With 7 minutes, 53 seconds remaining in the half, the College took over at its own 44-yard line. After a first down, McKee took a shot downfield looking for Burdick. While the ball fell incomplete, Burdick was able to draw a pass interference call against the Wildcats, moving the ball to the Wildcats’ 30-yard line. Three straight rushing plays by Evans, sophomore running back Albert Funderburke and McKee set the College up in the red zone at the 10-yard line. However, McKee threw two straight incomplete passes on second
and third down and the drive stalled. Nevertheless, sophomore kicker Kris Hooper was able to make the 27-yard field goal to cut the lead to 21-10. After the Wildcats moved into Tribe territory once again on the next drive, the College finally stopped them on third and fourth down, allowing the Tribe offense to take over at its own 29-yard line with 1:30 left in the half. McKee completed several passes to move the Tribe down to the Wildcats’ 11-yard line, but the drive stalled again. Hooper came in for a 28-yard field goal as the first half ended, but he missed it, and the Wildcats took a 21-10 lead to the half. “We did not convert like we needed to,” Laycock said. “It was encouraging on offense, but it certainly was not good enough.” After a McKee interception and a punt by each team, the Wildcats were able to extend their lead even further with another touchdown pass by Knight. With 4:22 remaining in the third quarter, Knight found Presley for a touchdown for the second time in the game. With the touchdown, the Wildcats took a three-possession lead 28-10. In the fourth quarter, the Wildcats scored their fifth touchdown of the day before McKee rushed for his second score of the day, bringing the score to 35-16 after Hooper’s extra point bounced off the upright. However, with just under 2:00 remaining, the Wildcats simply knelt down three plays in a row and let the clock run out. With this 35-16 loss, the Tribe will continue to try to earn its first conference victory of the season with two games left. It will host Towson for the final game of the year at home Nov. 11 before traveling to archrival Richmond Nov. 18 for the season finale at Robins Stadium.
FIELD HOCKEY
MEN’S SOCCER
College ends great season with loss to reigning NCAA champs
Bustamante scores four in quarterfinals victory
Tribe falls to Delaware Tribe beats Hofstra KEVIN RICHESON FLAT HAT ASSOC. SPORTS EDITOR Last weekend, William and Mary traveled to Newark, Delaware for the Colonial Athletic Association tournament. In the first semifinal, the top seed and four-time defending champion Blue Hens defeated the Huskies, 3-1. Then, the College upset the 15th-ranked Dukes, 2-1, coming back from an early deficit to advance to the championship. Nov. 5, the Tribe came up short of earning an automatic bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament. The Blue Hens erupted for three second-half goals to claim a 3-0 victory over the College and win their fifth-straight CAA championship. In last weekend’s match in Delaware, the host site for the tournament, the Tribe (13-7, 5-3 CAA) fell behind in the first 10 minutes to the Dukes (12-6, 5-2 CAA). After a couple of early shots by senior midfielders Cammie Lloyd and Emma MacLeod, the Dukes converted on their first shot of the match. Just over seven minutes into the match, midfielder Miranda Rigg scored an unassisted goal to give the Dukes an early 1-0 advantage. She blasted a low shot into the right corner of the goal that sophomore goalkeeper Morgan Connor was unable to save. Four minutes later, the College had an opportunity to bounce back and even the match at one goal apiece. The Tribe earned a penalty corner, and sophomore forward Cata Days lined up to take it for the College. She passed the ball to senior midfielder Booter Ellis. who fired a shot on goal, but goalkeeper Sara Kraeutler made the save to keep the Dukes in front. Most of the next 15 minutes were played away from each teams’ goals, as there were no shots and very little chances until much later in the first half. The Tribe had the next shot, off of the stick of junior midfielder Jenny McCann with 7:32 remaining in the half. This time, the Tribe was able to convert on its scoring chance. Lloyd had the ball to the side of the net and fired a cross in front of the goal. McCann was able to get her stick on the ball and redirect it into the goal to tie the match, 1-1. The College earned its second penalty corner of the half a couple minutes later. Once again, Days took the corner and this time ended up getting the ball back to take the shot herself. However, her
shot flew harmlessly wide of the goal. Neither team was able to get another shot before halftime, and the match went to the break tied, 1-1. Just over two minutes into the second half, the Dukes threatened to reclaim the lead. Midfielder Corey Mayer had two consecutive shots. Her first shot was saved by Connor, but rebounded back toward Mayer to give her another chance to score. However, her second shot was blocked and did not get all the way to Connor. Just two minutes later, the Tribe nearly took its first lead of the match on a shot by freshman midfielder Ella Donahue. Midfielder McKenzie Ridgely made a defensive save for the Dukes to keep the match tied and prevent Donahue from scoring the second goal of her career. With just over 25 minutes remaining in the half, the Dukes earned their second penalty corner of the match. Rigg took the corner, got the ball back and fired a shot towards Connor. However, the Tribe’s defense stayed strong once again and blocked the shot. After the Dukes’ penalty corner, the College started to take control of the match momentarily, earning a penalty corner less than a minute later. Off of the corner, Days found Ellis, who fired another shot on goal for the Tribe, but Kraeutler kept the match tied with a big save. However, the rebound came to sophomore defender Christie van de Kamp. She ripped a shot at Kraeutler, but she was up to the task again. With about 20 minutes left in the match, the College was able to convert on a penalty corner for the first time all match. Days passed to Ellis again, but as Ellis hit the ball toward the goal, Hooper was able to tip the ball over Kraeutler. The Tribe took a 2-1 lead on the goal. Most of the action in the final minutes was dominated by the Dukes. Rigg had three shots in the 12 minutes after the Tribe’s goal, one of which hit the post, but the College still clung to a 2-1 advantage. As the match came to a wild finish, the Dukes had five penalty corners in the last five minutes, but Connor made saves on both of the shots that resulted from them. The Tribe held on for a 2-1 victory, setting up a championship match with the Blue Hens. Looking to avenge another regular season loss, the College took on the Blue Hens (15-4, 8-0 CAA) in the CAA championship Sunday. The Tribe
held most of the possession in the first half and limited the Blue Hens’ chances. Senior midfielder Estelle Hughes and Lloyd each created shots in the first 10 minutes of the match. Hughes’ sailed over the top of the goal and Lloyd’s was saved by goalkeeper Emmeline Oltmans. Despite controlling most of the firsthalf possession, the College was outshot 7-2 in the half and gave up four penalty corners, while earning none of its own. Many of these chances for the Blue Hens were in the last 10 minutes of the first half, but Connor and the rest of the Tribe defense stood tall and kept the score even. After the College failed to capitalize on a lot of possession in the first half, the Blue Hens made the Tribe pay with a three-goal outburst in the second half. The scoring started in the first minute of the half, with forward Taylor Lister breaking the scoreless tie. She knocked a loose ball into the back of the goal to give the Blue Hens a 1-0 lead that it would not relinquish. The College threatened to even the match in the following minutes, but was once again unable to convert. Lloyd nearly scored, but her shot was stopped on a defensive save by defender Sarah Horgan. Just two minutes later, sophomore midfielder Annie Snead took the Tribe’s first and only penalty corner of the match. However, sophomore midfielder Cassidy Goodwin’s shot off of the corner was not on target. After these two chances, the momentum swung back to the Blue Hens until they were finally able to extend their lead. On their seventh penalty corner of the match, the Blue Hens finally converted. Forward Greta Nauck, CAA player of the year, scored her 23rd goal of the season to put the match nearly out of reach for the Tribe. Just five minutes later, Nauck scored off another penalty corner to put the Blue Hens up 3-0. The College was unable to cut into this lead, and the match ended with Delaware winning the CAA championship, 3-0 over the Tribe. The College is unlikely to make the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament with an at-large berth, so the Tribe is most likely done for the season. The Blue Hens will look to defend their national championship.
CATHERINE SCHEFER THE FLAT HAT Saturday, William and Mary traveled to New York to face Colonial Athletic Association opponent Hofstra in the CAA Quarterfinals. The Tribe (9-4-5, 3-2-3 CAA) left with a 4-1 victory over the Pride (6-6-6, 3-1-4 CAA), which has now been eliminated from the CAA Conference Tournament. “Overall, we are certainly pleased,” head coach Chris Norris told Tribe Athletics. “Obviously to go on the road to a tough venue and beat a team that you have already beaten is tough to do. The guys’ attitude was good, and they did a great job of following the game plan. As a result, we were able to get an early goal to ease the pressure. Hofstra upped the tempo, and it was good for us Bustamante to answer after they equalized. I felt like all our goals came at critical moments in the game.” During the game, junior forward Antonio Bustamante set not only the school record, but also the CAA Championship record in a quarterfinal match. He is the first Tribe member to score four goals in a game in 30 years and the fifth player in the country to score four goals in a single game this season. Bustamante set the tone early with an unassisted goal in the sixth minute of the game. He moved the ball from midfield toward Pride goalkeeper Alex Ashton before chipping the ball around him into the open net. Hofstra answered this goal in the 27th minute with its only goal of the game. Pride defender Jon Fraser sent a corner kick to the front side of the six-yard box where midfielder Frost Oscar Ramsay was ready to drive the ball to the near post with the back of his heel. In the 36th minute, Bustamante added his second goal of the night to the scoreboard. Sophomore midfielder Julian Ngoh beat his defender to the end line and centered the ball to Bustamante, who netted it from the six-yard line. This marked Ngoh’s third assist of the season and of his career. The College entered halftime leading 2-1. Nine minutes into the second half,
sophomore midfielder Reeves Trott was awarded a free kick for the Tribe after earning a foul at the 22-yard line. Bustamante took the free kick, bent it over the wall and placed it in the upper left corner of the goal, tallying his third goal of the evening. Bustamante then registered his 12th goal of the season in the 78th minute to extend the Breno Tribe’s lead to 4-1 with an assist from junior fullback Remi Frost. The 12 goals contributed by Bustamante mark the most goals in a season since 2001, when Carlos Garcia registered a total of 15 goals. Bustamante is also the first player since Andrew Hoxie to score 10 goals or more in two consecutive seasons. Hoxie achieved this in 2008 and 2009. “It was special,” Norris told Tribe Athletics. “One of the best things about the goals Antonio scored tonight, outside of the free kick, is that he got behind the defense. Last year, he was doing that a lot, but this year, his goals have come different ways. We have been preaching to our attacking players to get behind defense and get on the end of one. It was really encouraging to see Antonio do that, and he made three of them count.” The Pride outshot the Tribe 18-11, with nine shots on goal as opposed to the College’s seven. Ngoh Redshirt senior goalkeeper Phil Breno kept the Pride at bay as he registered eight saves throughout the match. During the game, the Pride was issued an array of colors, as three yellow cards and a red card were displayed to three men. Oscar Ramsay and Danny Elliott each received a yellow in the 55th and 80th minutes, respectively. Meanwhile, Luke Brown saw a yellow in the 85th minute followed by a red in the 86th. Looking ahead, the Tribe will make the trek to Harrisonburg Nov. 10 to compete against James Madison (9-6-3) in the CAA Semifinals. This is the second consecutive year that the Tribe has advanced to the CAA Semifinals and the 15th time in the College’s history. Previously in the season, the Dukes beat the Tribe 4-3 in a match hosted on Duke turf. The game will be streamed live on CAA.TV. The victor will then play in the CAA Finals Nov. 12, also in Harrisonburg.
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Sports Editor Alyssa Grzesiak Sports Editor Chris Travis flathatsports@gmail.com @FlatHatSports
The Flat Hat | Tuesday, November 7, 2017 | Page 10
Whatever happened to men’s lacrosse? Coaches, players reflect on the 17-year legacy of varsity men’s lacrosse team SARAH SMITH // FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR program was a big part of my life while I was a student,” Doughty said. “I was a supporter of the team and a fan after I left. I know a lot of people down through the years because I stayed at William and Mary to go to law school, and I was the assistant coach while I was there. I was really disappointed to see it go.” Doughty said that during his freshman year at the College, lacrosse was still fairly obscure, especially in Virginia. He said that it was more popular at Ivy League universities, but that there were still other students who had grown up playing it in his freshman class. During the mid-1960s, a physical education coach, Jim Carpenter, agreed to coach a club men’s lacrosse team. As it grew in popularity, the College promoted it to a varsity sport, and Carpenter stayed on as the head coach until 1972. “There was an immediate upgrade in the quality of competition. We switched from a schedule that played some other club to one that played other, better varsity teams,” Doughty said. “We were attracting and recruiting much better, and the quality of the team improved.” Following Doughty and Carpenter’s careers with the men’s lacrosse team, Tribe Athletics Associate Director of Development Al Albert ’69 began his tenure coaching for Tribe Athletics. Albert went on to serve as the head coach from 1972-78, and eventually left to begin coaching the men’s soccer team. Albert said that one of his biggest challenges during the years he was coaching
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You had the combination of starting to spend more money on the women’s side, but also having less money.
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AL ALBERT, TRIBE ATHLETICS ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT
student, so I don’t know what went into the decision of starting lacrosse, but at that point in the mid-60s, the team began to expand and there were a number of sports added,” Albert said. “There was no master plan for how we were going to pay for all of those things, nobody really knew how much athletics in college would grow. And of course, at that time, there were two separate [athletic] departments, and we didn’t have the impact of gender equity.” One part of the budgetary problem arose from Title IX, which was established in the Education Amendments of 1972. It mandated that no student should be denied the benefits of athletics or discriminated against in an athletic program, and it required colleges to have equal opportunities for male and female athletes. Additionally, Albert said there was a recession hitting the College in the early 1980s. “That’s really when things started to come apart,” Albert said. “You had the combination of starting to spend more money on the women’s side, but also having less money. It was basically the perfect storm.” While Albert was working as the head coach of the men’s soccer team, Franke stepped up as head coach, reshaping his career for the first time around lacrosse. “I fully expected when I graduated that I would go back to the Baltimore area and teach school and coach lacrosse, and I had a job in one of the local school systems in the Baltimore area to do that,” Franke said. “Al asked me to stay on instead as his assistant. I had a great time at William and Mary and I got to stay in Williamsburg. … For me personally, that was a lot of fun. I love living and working in Williamsburg and at William and Mary, but when the team got discontinued, one of the reasons I was going to stay was gone.” Franke said that one of his favorite memories from coaching was during his first year, when the team had its best record in 1979. At the time that the team was cut, its 17year record was 94-89-1. He too felt the challenge of recruiting talented players, although by the late 1970s, he said there were growing programs in Norfolk and Richmond. “Obviously, you dealt with admissions and the in-state and out-of-state thing,” Franke said. “That’s changed dramatically in the last decades; lacrosse has grown drastically and there’s lots of outstanding programs in Virginia now. We struggled to get five or six guys a year that could get through the admissions process and come to William and Mary. We had outstanding students in our program, we were a Division I team, but we didn’t have any scholarship money. Guys had to pay the full bill to go to school, and that was a hindrance to out-of-state students.” For Franke, the phone call he received in 1984 led him to pack up and move back to the Baltimore area. At the time,
was recruiting out-of-state athletes without scholarship money. “We had a lot of success in the early 1970s recruiting in Baltimore and Long Island, and we were successful, but with limited scholarship money,” Albert said. “Back then, there weren’t in-state kids playing lacrosse, and we didn’t know it was going to take off in Virginia. It was looking pretty tough to recruit kids without much scholarship money.” When Albert was at the College, he too played on the team from his sophomore to senior seasons, but while the team was still considered a club sport. The year the varsity team was founded was the year after Albert graduated, but Carpenter stayed on to coach the team. “I was a
he believed that his spring season would be the very last one that the team would play. However, in the following months, Copeland and West worked to accommodate freshmen athletes who had been recruited. Those freshmen could transfer without NCAA penalties, but for lacrosse, Franke and Copeland reached a compromise where if the team could come up with a skeleton budget, the team could continue until it’s members graduated. Alumni contributed money to fund the skeleton budget, and the College agreed to match what the alumni group came up with. Franke said that the team existed as essentially
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It still hurts to this day. I grew up here in Baltimore, I am now 63 years old, and I played lacrosse starting when I was five. FORMER HEAD COACH CLARKE FRANKE
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he morning of Jan. 3, 1984, former head coach of the varsity men’s lacrosse team Clarke Franke ’76 M.Ed. ’79 received a phone call from his boss, former men’s athletic director Jim Copeland, letting him know that his upcoming season with the team would be his last. That morning, Copeland and women’s athletic director Millie West announced that six varsity sports would be cut, and men’s lacrosse would be one of them. Franke, who had been on the team himself for three seasons prior to graduating, had worked as the head coach since 1979. The morning he found out that the men’s lacrosse program was getting cut, he was at his main job, working as a teacher at Lafayette High School. “I will never forget, it was a Tuesday morning in early January in 1984, and Jim Copeland was the athletic director at the time,” Franke said. “I was at the high school before the school started, and they paged me to the English office to take a phone call, and I found out they were cutting some of the men’s programs [at the College].” The 1984 decision was the result of budget cuts. At the time of the announcement, West said that she and Copeland had been approached by the Board of Visitors in the spring of 1983 regarding their budget, because expenditures and revenues were not balancing out. They initially tried other methods, like raising the student athletic fee and working to balance their respective budgets. However, when Copeland and West realized this was not possible, Copeland said they began to decide which sports would be cut. Men’s lacrosse was just one of the sports to go — men’s fencing, swimming and riflery as well as women’s golf and fencing were cut, and the sub-varsity programs for women’s field hockey and lacrosse were also discontinued. The cuts in total amounted to $100,000. Now, over 30 years later, men’s swimming and women’s golf have returned to Tribe Athletics, but men’s lacrosse remains just a club team at the College of William and Mary. Additionally, varsity programs have been established for women’s field hockey and lacrosse. For some like Franke, this has tinted memories of collegiate experiences and reshaped careers. The men’s lacrosse team at the time of the budget cuts had not rounded out its second decade of existence, and the sport was just gaining traction in Virginia. Tom Doughty ’70 was one of the team’s captains during its first years as a varsity sport. For him, lacrosse was a large part of his experience on campus. “The lacrosse
a club team in 1986, when the athletic department announced that it wanted to end the program officially. For those last two years, Bill Devine J.D. ’86 coached the team. Now, the question of bringing back the men’s lacrosse team is not an easy one, Albert said. Because of Title IX stipulations, to add a men’s team, the College would have to add a comparable women’s sport and be able to pay for both of them. “Lacrosse was a huge part of my college experience, it can’t not be,” Doughty said. “I am very thankful that I had the experience and very sorry that I do not have the team now. William and Mary is a natural place for a lacrosse team. Its peer schools all have men’s lacrosse.” For Franke, it still is disappointing to him that the College does not have a men’s lacrosse program. “It still hurts to this day,” Franke said. “I grew up here in Baltimore, I am now 63 years old, and I played lacrosse starting when I was five. It is very close and near and dear to me. I absolutely loved being at William and Mary, I loved playing lacrosse at William and Mary. I will tell you that when I found out that morning, it was like getting the wind knocked out of you. … I think most people feel like there’s a hole in the fabric of their William and Mary experience. I love the school, I promote the school … but I feel like there is something still missing from my little part of that world, and that was losing lacrosse.”
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE COLONIAL ECHO