The Flat Hat March 14, 2017

Page 1

Vol. 107, Iss. 6 | Tuesday, March 14, 2017

The Flat Hat The Weekly Student Newspaper

of The College of William and Mary

Flathatnews.com | Follow us:

HOUSING

City votes 4-0 on Days Inn Hotel to house students in 2017 SARAH SMITH FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR

March 8, the City of Williamsburg’s City Council voted 4-0 to allow students to move into the Days Inn hotel on the 900 block of Richmond Road. City Council member Scott Foster ’10, J.D. ’14 recused himself because his wife is employed at the College of William and Mary. This decision comes after the William and Mary Real Estate Foundation filed two requests with the City to renovate the 102room hotel as a dorm for 180 students. Because the Real Estate Foundation was the organization making this purchase, it had to go through the City’s special use permit process. During the City’s Planning Commission meeting in February, Williamsburg residents voiced their concerns about having 180 students, the original number requested by the Real Estate Foundation, living that close to their homes. Following these presentations, the Planning Commission voted to conditionally approve the proposal but recommended that only 80 students be allowed to live there. The City Council’s decision to approve the proposal also comes with a 10-year “sunset clause” that would limit the special use permit’s length. It also voted in favor of the installation of bike racks, fences and landscaping and to require the College to submit a parking plan before opening the dorm. Depending on the completion of renovations, the Days Inn should be housing students as early as the 2017-18 academic year.

STUDENT CHARGED WITH ABDUCTION Feb. 27, the College of William and Mary Police Department arrested Tejaswi Shrestha ’18 on one count of felony abduction and two misdemeanor counts of assault. Following his arrest, WMPD issued a trespass notice prohibiting Shrestha from coming to campus until his case is resolved. The abduction charge and one of the assault charges are from an offense on Dec. 14, 2016, in which Shrestha is accused of assaulting another student and holding her against her will in Preston Hall, the dorm in which he resides. These charges were reported to WMPD Feb. 26. The second assault charge was made Feb. 26 when he was accused of assaulting the same student that day at One Tribe Place. Shrestha was transported to Virginia Regional Peninsula Jail following his arrest. His hearing is scheduled at 2 p.m. March 21. Spokesperson Suzanne Seurattan said it would be university practice for a student charged with a crime to face campus disciplinary actions. — Flat Hat News Editor Sarah Smith

O’Dea, Levine kick off campaigns Presidential, senatorial candidates begin race to 2017 elections SARAH SMITH // FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR The 324th session of the College of William and Mary’s Student Assembly saw the creation of a website designed to let students review local landlords, the codification of support for immigrants and victims of sexual assault, and the purchase of water for students affected by lead levels in Jefferson Hall. Students will elect new representatives March 23, marking the end of this SA session. This year’s contenders for SA President are current Chairman of the Senate Danny O’Dea ’18 and Elijah Levine ’18. Their running mates are Nami Srikanth ’18 and Sen. Annelise Yackow ’18, respectively. O’Dea, who has been a member of the SA senate since his freshman year, said that his experience this year as chairman of the senate would help him fulfill the position of SA president. “I ran for Student Assembly Senate as a freshman because I’ve grown up believing that, when you have the opportunity to help someone, you have the responsibility to help someone,” O’Dea said. “I have an immense love for the College as well as the extraordinary opportunity to change it for the better, and those are two facts I am extremely conscious of every time I walk into the senate, with every bill I

write and with every time I speak. In my time in the senate I have been able to sponsor bills that help sexual assault survivors, work for community service events that help the campus and our town around us and promote a Student Assembly that takes a more active interest in the student body.” Levine, who has never held a position in SA, said that he and Yackow’s platform is based on ideas and experiences of students who are “silenced” because of their identities. The platform is two-pronged, and Levine said he aims to dissolve cultural biases with institutional measures to foster a community of awareness. “SA and other arbiters of power espouse democracy so much. We feel it’s time to live up to those ideals and give students the floor,” Levine said. “This means activating the potential of student groups by connecting them to the resources they need to carry out their missions, thus empowering them. As a three-year member of SA, Annelise has the institutional knowledge to effectively run the senate, and I’ve made student connections that position me as a unique insider, living within the student body unhampered by the distance that accompanies years

in SA.” Current Class of 2018 President Laini Boyd ’18, Class of 2019 President Jonah Yesowitz ’19 and Class of 2020 President Kelsey Vita ’20 are running unopposed for re-election. Yesowitz, who faced opposition last year when he ran for re-election, said that he feels that no matter what, it is his job to make the College a better place. “William and Mary is consistently ranked to have one of the smartest student bodies in the country,” Yesowitz said. “As representatives of this body, it’s our duty to exceed the expectations of this base. We are put into a position where we can enact lasting change and have the responsibility to take that seriously and actually walk the walk. My promise has always been that I would do all I can to make William and Mary a better campus for everybody, and whether I’m running against nine other candidates or unopposed, that promise will never change.” Joining current Sen. Alaina Shreves ’18 and Sen. Colleen Heberle ’18 are Jack Bowden ’18 and William Jackson ’18 in the race to represent the class of 2018 See STUDENT ASSEMBLY page 4

MENTAL HEALTH

Student translates mental health resources into Chinese Confucius Institute sponsored ‘translate-a-thon’ event for $500 NIA KITCHIN FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR

Students at College of William and Mary worked to translate mental health information from English to Chinese April 20, 2016. This event brought together Chinese learners and speakers to help translate the information and begin a conversation about mental health within the community. This “translate-a-thon” was organized in order to raise awareness about mental health among Chinese-American and international students. It was also intended to help eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health in the Chinese-American and international community. By discussing this topic openly, the organizers hoped to reduce this stigma. Howe Wang ’16 organized the translate-a-thon last year. He said he did not intend for the event to encourage people to seek help but rather to start a conversation. He also said he was excited about the

Today’s Weather

Index Profile News Opinions Variety Sports

COURTESY PHOTOS / ELIJAH LEVINE AND ANNELISE YACKOW, DANNY O’DEA AND NAMI SRIKANTH

SA presidential contenders Danny O’Dea ‘18 and Elijah Levine ‘18 announced their campaigns March 13. Elections will conclude March 23 after students vote throughout that day over eletronic ballots.

possibility of friendships forming between the native and nonnative speakers during the event. “I want to create a closer community where people are more comfortable to talk about mental health and to reduce the language barrier that might prevent these conversations,” Wang said. The event paired together a native and non-native speaker who worked together to translate mental health pamphlets from English to Chinese. The pamphlets were provided by the Counseling Center. The pamphlets were from the University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign’s Counseling Center Self-Help Brochures and included topics such as coming out, crosscultural journey for international students, relationship readyness, identifying eating disorders, racism and race-related stress, self-confidence, suicide prevention, understanding and treating anxiety, and understanding and treating depression. “I first went to the counseling

center to see what sort of materials they had easily accessible to the public and they had a bunch of pamphlets regarding a variety of topics, so that’s what I used,” Wang said. Director of First Year Experience Lauren Garrett helped to distribute the translated information during the new student and family events in China last summer. Garrett said she would like to see this partnership continue. Garrett said that the translated pamphlets helped to engage new students and families in conversations about personal health and wellness, especially during the student’s transition into university life. “The idea of many students working together to translate W&M documents for their incoming peers is a heartwarming thought, and quite in character for our student body,” Garrett said in an email. “W&M students tend to be extremely caring of one another and keen on supporting new students.” Associate Director of the

Rain, High 52, Low 27

The College of William and Mary Police Department has charged Rakeem James, a 24-year-old resident of the City of Williamsburg, with a misdemeanor count of reckless handling of a firearm and a misdemeanor count of discharging a firearm in public following an incident where shots were fired near Stadium Drive Feb. 26. James is scheduled to appear in court March 21. He was served warrants for the two misdemeanor charges, which only required his signature. He has not been taken into custody. In an email sent out later that morning, WMPD Chief of Police Deb Cheesebro said that WMPD had detained five suspects involved in the shooting. At that time, no charges had been filed against any of the suspects. While the other four initial suspects have not been charged, College spokesperson Suzanne Seurattan said that WMPD does not anticipate any other charges in this case. — Flat Hat News Editor Sarah Smith

Inside Variety

Inside Opinions

The ethics of wearing green and gold

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Confucius Center Ying Liu Ph.D. helped with publicity and funding for the translate-a-thon. The Confucius Institute sponsored the event and provided $500 for the event, including catering. Liu said that the mental health information would be very helpful for Chinese students and their families to have access to. She emphasized that this would allow parents of the students to have access to mental health information as well. Liu said that some Chinese speakers do not consider mental health an issue or something to be fixed. Instead, they think it is something that will simply go away eventually. She said they would sometimes not consider treatment for depression or bipolar disorder in the ChineseAmerican community. She said that these translated pamphlets would bring awareness to this issue. Liu said that after the event the Confucius Institute edited the translated information and then sent it to the Reves Center for International Studies.

WMPD SERVES WARRANT

Phebe Meyer ’18 discusses her involvement in The Committee on Social Responsibility in Manufacturing and its role in ensuring only ethical vendors are used to produce collegiate apparel. page 5

Two Bands, Ten Shows, Ten Cities

Two student bands, Swete Dreams and Talk to Plants, look back on their spring break tour. page 7


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