The Flat Hat, August 30 2016

Vol. 106, Iss. 2 | Tuesday, August 30, 2016

The Flat Hat

The Weekly Student Newspaper

of The College of William and Mary

Man shot first weekend back Witnesses report altercation outside The Crust CRIME

NEWS ANALYSIS

Crust shooting a rarity in quiet town 5 shootings in 6 years

CAMPUS

30th birthday party ends with gunfire

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1,100 students lived within 1,000 feet of shooting

SARAH SMITH FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR

Witnesses reported a late-night argument unraveling into gunshots Saturday morning, leaving one injured. The gunshots were reported outside The Crust, a pizzeria and bar frequented by students on Richmond Road.

According to bar manager Michael Poissant, before the shooting took place, the night was much like any other Friday night.

A local man chose the venue to host his 30th birthday party, Poissant said. Though the venue remained open to the public, the man had requested that the club play reggae music that night.

By midnight, hours into Poissant’s shift, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. If anything was unusual, it was that the night was going better than normal, he said, as people danced and listened to the music.

“Everyone was giving each other hugs and loving each other,” Poissant said.

The patrons were in their 30s, not college students. They were polite, Poissant said. The type who, after they finished a drink, would look for a trash can.

According to Poissant, The Crust isn’t prone to violent incidents. The worst incidents that had taken place there — tame in comparison to what would unfold later in the night — are marked on its walls: a remodeled bathroom, fixed after students had trashed it at a sorority formal; a repaired wall, repainted after it was punched through by football players (Tribe Athletics had no comment). With students, Poissant said, there is often wear-and-tear on the facility, but seldom violence or drama.

By chance, there was a small police presence at the party that night. A food

Over 1000 students lived or were at local establishments within 1000 feet of where shooter fled down Richmond Road following incident.

Exactly four months prior to Saturday morning’s shooting, on April 27, 2016, the Williamsburg Police Department responded to a report of multiple shots fired at a Williamsburg residence on Page Street. The responding officers discovered several rounds had struck a residence at that location. Witnesses reported that shots were fired from a black SUV, which fled the area. In the four months following the incident there were no other shootings in Williamsburg.

For new students on campus, Saturday morning’s shooting outside The Crust happened during their second weekend at the College of William and Mary, at a time when they had little context of Williamsburg’s crime history. But, for returning students and Williamsburg residents, this shooting may be an anomaly. There have only been three similar incidents since February 2015.

According to Major Greg Riley of the Williamsburg Police Department, Saturday’s incident was not normal for Williamsburg. In fact, in his over 25 years at the station, he does not remember a similar incident occurring.

“Let me put it in this context for you,” Riley said. “We do not have a lot of this type of incident.”

Riley said that other cities, such as Richmond and Newport News, have much higher rates of violent gun crime, mostly because they are larger, more populous cities.

Riley added that in their work with the William and Mary Police Department, the Williamsburg Police Department takes the enforcement of gun laws very seriously.

Out of 61 recorded crimes involving a gun — which include charges of brandishing a firearm and of being a felon in possession of a firearm — 41 resulted in an arrest.

But, at a national level, violent gun crimes are not as unusual. Since the mass shooting at Virginia Tech in April 2007, mass school shootings have been at the forefront of the conversation on campus safety.

“Regardless of the situation, our primary concern is always the safety of the campus and its members,” William

See SHOOTING page 3

See PROXIMITY page 3

See GUN VIOLENCE page 3

Bouncer shot, halting night of reggae TUCKER HIGGINS AND KAYLA SHARPE FLAT HAT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AND DIGITAL MEDIA EDITOR

KAYLA SHARPE FLAT HAT DIGITAL MEDIA EDITOR

It was 1:00 a.m. when Cece Hess ’18 was awakened by police sirens as they sped past the Delta Gamma Sorority House on Richmond Road. She initially assumed that a freshman in Monroe Hall needed medical attention or that a fraternity party was being broken up. It wasn’t until an hour later that she received a text from a friend alerting her that a shooting had taken place outside The Crust, a local pizzeria and bar located in Tribe Square. The next morning her parents called to check on her and express their relief that the shooting hadn’t taken place on campus. “[The email] made it sound like [Tribe Square] wasn’t centrally located on campus,” said Hess. “That’s crazy because now my parents thought it was far off, but really it was right there.”

In fact, over 1,160 students live within 1,000 feet of where the shooting occurred along Richmond Road. On-campus residence halls in the area include the Bryan Complex, Sorority Court, Old Dominion Hall, Monroe Hall and Tribe Square, an upperclassmen apartment complex which is situated directly above The Crust.

In addition to the residents in the area, students spent the evening in local bars and making late-night trips to

Wawa. Tribe Square resident Rukmini Bhugra ’17 was in Paul’s Deli with friends when she received a text from a friend who was in the vicinity when the shooting occurred.

“I started getting increasingly nervous because I realized that there were people I cared about in the area, but also I realized that there was somebody armed in the area,” Bhugra said.

Bhugra said she immediately called her friend to get more information.

“He said someone fired into the air and I started getting very flustered,” Bhugra said. “Meanwhile, no one in the bar seemed perturbed at all. No one seemed to have known about this.”

Bhugra said that it took about 30 minutes for people in the bar to learn about the incident and that students learned about the shooting by word of mouth and social media. When she saw police cars outside, she knew that an incident had indeed occurred.

Across campus, students checked on their loved ones.

Sorority members sent warnings to group messages, Orientation Aides made sure their freshmen were home safely and friends woke their roommates to tell them what had transpired.

Hannah Major ’19 was passing through the area with friends when she witnessed events unfold. Around 12:45 a.m.

KAYLA SHARPE / THE FLAT HAT

NEW STUDENTS

New students march through Christopher Wren building to open semester

Entrepreneur Nicco Mele ’99 encouraged students to embrace their curiosity at the College SARAH SMITH FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR

Each academic year, the College of William and Mary’s Convocation marks the start of fall classes and new students’ journey. This year, students heard from entrepreneur Nicco Mele ’99, College President Taylor Reveley and Class of 2017 President Emily Thomas ’17.

“William and Mary is now yours, personally yours,” Reveley said.

Following official remarks, new students walk through the Christopher Wren Building and down to the Sunken Garden, where they are met by hundreds of returning students to exchange high fives and cheers for the College. Before they did this, however, they listened to the words of an alum who has spent

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his years post graduation working as a venture capitalist, entrepreneur and media mogul.

“I’m not sure what Nicco uses on his business card, but Renaissance Man, superhero … would be plausible,” Reveley said.

In his speech, Mele spoke about his time at the College, specifically finding a job on campus and pursuing a variety of interests. During his freshman year he began working for the Tech Department, where he fixed computers for all four years he spent at the College. Mele emphasized that curiosity will help students navigate a complex university and complex world and will help them figure out the big and small things in life.

“We are living in a moment of brokenness,” Mele said. “In the midst

of all of this, you must have the courage to hope, you must have the courage to imagine a better and brighter day, and you must take the curiosity that this university will feed you and use it to discover innovative and imagine solutions that will heal this brokenness.”

Mele’s speech also touched on the possibilities that attending a liberal arts university provides for new students.

“The biggest takeaway [is] that William and Mary really supports you no matter what you want to do, whether it’s medicine or art or glass-blowing,” Alexis Dorsey ’20 said.

To mark the Class of 2020’s arrival at the College, was the tradition of presenting the new class with their official banner. Thomas, Class of 2018 President Laini Boyd ’18 and Class of

Carley Schanck ’19 discusses the emergency notification and its unseen personal impacts. page 5 Sunny, High 91, Low 72

Building and into a sea of high-fives.

For the new students, these highfives were exciting — and also a physical workout. Joanna Schroeder ’20 said that while it was “awesome” and “welcoming,” her arm was exhausted half-way through.

“Honestly I feel very welcome,” Schroeder said. “I feel like so much more a part of this school after that. It was so much fun and there was so much energy.”

During Convocation, Reveley also presented the President’s Awards for Service to the Community to School of Education Professor Debbie Ramer and Jiajia Chen ’18. These awards came with monetary contributions to the service organizations of the recipients’ choice. Spokespeople for the service organizations were also in attendance.

Inside Variety

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Trauma caused by delayed response

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2019 President Jonah Yesowitz ’19 aided in this tradition, unfolding the banner from the top of the Wren Building.

Reveley also urged new students to take breaks when they were stressed and to enjoy their time at the College.

He said that it is normal for students to feel overwhelmed as they learn their way around campus and start taking their first collegiate classes.

Most importantly, he wanted students to feel free to sing the alma mater with The William and Mary Choir.

“I know you can sing the alma mater,” Reveley said. “Guys, in particular guys, it’s perfectly okay to sing the alma mater — it does not constitute a loss of virility.”

With the words, “Are you guys ready to do it?” Reveley welcomed new students to walk through the doors of the Wren

Gordo’s Dog Days

Take a look inside the charitable life of the College’s most famous golden retriever. page 7

newsinsight “ Now it’s easier than ever to stay upto-date on all on-campus news.

If there is potentially a shooter at large, as we learned in the Virginia Tech case, the warning needs to go out sooner rather than later.

— Independent campus security consultant S. Daniel Carter on the College’s emergency notification sent Saturday morning

Taking the stage

William Ivey Long ’69 has costumed 68 Broadway productions Page 2 Spotlight

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Despite being born into a family of theater enthusiasts, Tony Award-winning costume designer William Ivey Long ’69 took a winding path to the stage, one that led him first through the halls of the College of William and Mary.

In fact, when Long was selecting what school to attend and what to study, he wanted to avoid anything that his parents had done.

“My parents were both theater people,” Long said. “They had gone to Chapel Hill, they had met at the [University of North CarolinaChapel Hill]; they were Carolina playmakers.

So I was trying to avoid the family business, which was the theater, and the family school. I was a rebel, so my rebellion meant that I went to William and Mary.”

So, in 1965, Long arrived on campus with the intent of studying English. However, the aura of the College soon changed his mind about that.

“I originally thought I was going to major in English, but I majored in history,” Long said.

“It’s pretty strong at William and Mary … All of us were just thrilled to be studying history in the cradle of American history. You know it sounds like I’m doing a Hallmark greeting card answer but it’s true.”

The cradle of American history was undergoing some big changes in the ’60s, as was much of the rest of the nation. Long recalls watching Williamsburg transform during his time here. When he arrived on campus, the town was still very much a quiet one.

“There was a post-World War II lull which hung sort of over the place from the ’50s and the 60s, and I think it’s one of the things that attracted me there,” Long said. “I thought, ‘It’s small, I’ll get to know everybody.’ I loved the architecture, I loved Colonial Williamsburg and I’m a liberal arts person through and through, so it seemed to me to be a perfect fit.”

Four years later, however, Long said the atmosphere had shifted. Williamsburg in 1969 was a town that had fully taken part in the politics of a turbulent nation.

“By the time I graduated we were in the Vietnam War and we were protesting and everything,” Long said. “I mean life started.”

According to Long, the magnitude of this shift in atmosphere was something that could only be seen in hindsight, but had a great impact on his education.

“We were constantly looking back [thinking], ‘Oh gosh, that wasn’t like it was when we came here in ’65, look how much has happened,’” Long said. “I graduated in ’69 when everybody was being drafted and it was quite the time … so I think that overshadowed the learning process.”

Of course Long’s time at the College was also defined by the usual factors: professors, activities and classmates. He was a member of the student council and a dorm manager, as well as an editor of the William and Mary Review, where he published several young writers and photographers who went on to become distinguished in their fields.

To further his interest in history, Long joined the Lord Botetourt Bibliographic Society, becoming president in his last semester. The club was a spinoff of the history department and, according to Long, consisted of a volunteer group of interested historians

that met to discuss various topics, but not without the addition of a few beverages.

“We met in some classroom in the Swem library,” Long said. “It was a volunteer sort of group where we got together and I think drank. It was a very convivial way [of] interaction with the professors.”

Upon graduation from the College, Long found himself returning to his family tradition and attending Chapel Hill as a Samuel H. Kress teaching fellow to study art history with a focus on Renaissance and Baroque architecture.

While at Chapel Hill, Long stayed with family friend and playwright Betty Smith, author of “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.” Under her influence, Long transferred to the Yale School of Drama, where Smith herself had studied, and finally surrendered to the family career.

“I don’t know if it was just through osmosis or just the reassuring support of my family, who’s in the theater, [saying] ‘Why don’t you take all this learning to the theater?’” Long said.

Long studied under acclaimed designer and professor Ming Cho Lee, and graduated with a major in set design. From there he immediately moved to New York in search of a mentor to guide him in his work.

“There still is this natural instinct of looking for mentors, and people to help guide you,” Long said. “In college, they are there; sometimes you are assigned to them, sometimes you discover [them]. You end up [finding] the people who are inspiring, inspiring teachers.”

For Long, Lee and Smith had served as mentors while at school, so he was looking for a new inspiration when he arrived in New York City.

“I was scared to death and I had read about the great couturier Charles James.” Long said.

“He was alive and living at the Chelsea Hotel, so after graduation I moved there and stalked him and kept writing in that I wanted to work with him. It took six months of stalking until I finally worked with him, and then I was an unpaid assistant up until the day he died three and a half years later.”

By the time he lost his mentor, Long had already completed his first Broadway show as a costume designer. The play was titled “The Inspector General” and was directed by Romanian director Liviu Ciulei.

“The funny thing about that one was it was during a newspaper strike so there were no reviews, so in a way it never happened,” Long said. “Except for the Christian Science Monitor, the only review we got. It was a good review, but it didn’t mention the clothes so I just considered the whole thing a wash.”

Despite the false start, Long had indeed begun a highly successful career in costume design, one that would eventually earn him 15 Tony nominations and six wins.

Long’s first Tony win also happened to be his first nomination, for the musical “Nine.”

The competition was tough that year, as the show was up against several well established musicals.

“It was very controversial, very competitive. We were the upstarts compared to the established ‘Dreamgirls,’” Long said.

“It was quite the design assignment, making Fellini’s “8 1/2” come alive on stage no less.

And I won against “Dreamgirls,” which was an extraordinarily designed, amazing production so, well it changed my life.”

Since then, Long has designed for productions such as “Guys and Dolls,” “Hairspray,” “Chicago,” “Annie Get Your Gun,” “Cabaret” and the revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella.” Most recently, he completed work on his 75th show “On the Twentieth Century,” with Kristen Chenoweth, which earned him his 15th Tony nomination.

Though Long’s career has led him far from his original course of study, Long still uses the love and knowledge of history that he developed at the College in his role as designer for the United States’ oldest outdoor symphonic drama. “The Lost Colony” tells the mysterious story of Roanoke Island on the site where the old colony used to stand.

Long said he values the time he spent living and learning at the College.

“I’m pretty gung-ho about William and Mary,” Long said. “I really benefitted from my William and Mary experience.”

COURTESY PHOTO / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Long ’69 has costumed over 100 shows, including Paul Green’s 2008 outdoor drama, The Lost Colony.

POLICE BEAT

Aug. 24 - 27 1

Wednesday, Aug. 24 — An individual was reported missing on Roland Street.

2

Thursday, Aug. 25 — An indiviudal was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol at Lafayette Street.

3

Thursday, Aug. 25 — An individual was arrested for a hit and run on Richmond Road.

4

Saturday, Aug. 27 — Gunshots were fired at The Crust at Tribe Square.

The Flat Hat

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Page 3

SHOOTING

After shooting, College waits hour to notify community

First confirmation of shooting came from The Flat Hat’s Twitter timeline TUCKER HIGGINS FLAT HAT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Campus police responded to a report of a shooting in Tribe Square just before 1 a.m. Saturday morning. The notification sent to students and their parents — sent via text over an hour later — angered some community members and raised questions about security protocol in cases where violence and uncertainty commingle.

Aubrielle Gardner ’17, who lives in the Delta Sigma Theta house a few hundred feet down the road from the shooting, saw police lights come through her window as she prepared for bed. When she received the notification an hour later, she worried about her housemates.

“I felt like the text came way too late considering that the shooter could have been in fact very close to our house and we would have been in danger had we gone outside,” Gardner said in response to written questions.

The first confirmation of the shooting came from The Flat Hat, which posted a message on its Twitter timeline at 1:35 a.m.

At 1:58 a.m., the College of William and Mary’s emergency alert system sent a text that said: “From WMPD — Gun Shots fired Tribe Square, NO student injuries. Shooter has fled the area.”

Independent campus security consultant S. Daniel Carter said that an hour delay is not unusual, but he agreed with those who preferred that such notifications be sent earlier.

“An hour is probably normal, but I think the question is, under the circumstances, is it something that the community is comfortable with?” Carter said. “If there is potentially a shooter at large, as we learned in the Virginia Tech case, the warning needs to go out sooner rather than later.”

Colleges do not need to have conclusive evidence in order to issue a notification, Carter said. He said the original intent of campus-wide notifications was to enable students to take precautions to protect themselves and prevent similar crimes.

According to College spokesperson Suzanne Seurattan, campus officers who responded alongside the Williamsburg

Police Department worked immediately to secure the perimeter and block traffic along Richmond Road, noting that the incident occurred outside the jurisdiction of the William and Mary Police Department.

“Part of that process was the determination very quickly that there was no immediate threat to campus, no immediate danger,” Seurattan said.

“When they’re able to determine that imminent danger does not exist, then it goes to another kind of message, and that’s what went out.”

Seurattan didn’t say what information WMPD had that allowed them to make the determination that there was no imminent threat.

“What I can tell you, is that generally in an incident where William & Mary Police are called for mutual aid they may be provided information by the jurisdictional agency to use for immediate decision making and response,” Seurattan said in an email following a phone interview. “In a case like that, WMPD would not be authorized to share that information.”

Williamsburg Police Department Major Greg Riley, who was involved in the investigation Saturday morning, said he spoke to campus police at the scene when he arrived, about a half hour after the shooting. The busy atmosphere of the club made any thorough investigation complicated, he said.

“It took quite a bit of time to get anything as far as a coherent story,” he said. “We had no information whatsoever, other than we knew that the shooter had left the scene.”

Riley said as soon as he arrived on the scene he spoke to an officer from WMPD, who confirmed that the College would be sending out a notification. That notification went out about a half hour later, though Riley said he couldn’t say exactly how much time passed.

Riley said the Williamsburg Police Department occasionally advises the College to limit the information it disseminates in emergency situations to maintain the integrity of ongoing investigations.

But Riley said that was not the case this time.

Students shared news and concern for each other on social media as reports unfolded — and alarm that they had not received a notification sooner.

“The police took over an hour to send out an alert and I feel like that’s an issue,” Kenan Perry ’19 wrote on Overheard at William and Mary, a popular Facebook page used by students and community members.

College President Taylor Reveley sent an email to students Aug. 28 about the incident.

“William & Mary Police concluded very quickly there was no immediate threat to the campus community,” Reveley said.

He added that the Emergency Management Team would be reviewing the College’s response to the incident.

Saturday’s shooting, in which the bouncer was injured, occurred a week after the College’s emergency alert system erroneously alerted students to an active shooter situation on the VIMS campus. William and Mary Police Department Chief Deborah Cheesebro apologized Aug. 22 for the error.

Students turned to friends, loved ones for information after shooting Some were able to hear multiple gunshots from Bryan Complex, Sorority Court and local establishments PROXIMITY from page 1

they were on their way to the Bryan Complex when they saw a crowd of people shouting outside The Crust. That’s when they heard gunshots.

“There were multiple [gunshots]. I think there were about five of them,” Major said. “People started running across the street without even looking at the cars. We shouted at them asking what was going on and they said there were gunshots and that we had to get inside.”

Michael Mejia ’17 was also walking past The Crust with friends and said he recalls hearing arguing and profanity before The Crust’s security guards began to break up the crowd.

Dominique Rowinski ’17, who was with Mejia at the time, said that

the shooting happened next to The Crust’s patio.

“We started running,” Rowinski said. “We weren’t sure what was happening.”

“I went towards the church that was nearby,” Mejia said. “I was trying to get as many people [as possible] to leave but they didn’t really believe me. No one would listen because no announcement had been made.”

Bhugra said she remembers receiving little information in the hour following the shooting.

“One of my friends went and talked to a cop to ask what had happened and was given a vague answer,” Bhugra said. “Very little information was given and the ripples of information were very slow.”

Major and her friends ran into the Bryan Complex where she could

see police vehicles from her friend’s dorm room, but said that she was afraid to leave because she didn’t know the extent of the emergency.

“I had no idea what was going on. I just assumed it was a fight but people’s minds go to the worst case scenario,” Major said. “I just knew that I didn’t want to be anywhere near [the shooting].”

Major got in touch with her friends to notify them of the situation. For some of them, this was the first they’d heard of the shooting.

Major waited until she received William and Mary’s Emergency Alert System before going home around 2 a.m.

“Even when I did walk home, I was on the phone with [my friend] the whole time,” Major said. We were watching it together and wanted to keep in contact and make sure that everything was fine.”

Video footage shows altercation inside bar ending in shooting just outside The Crust For Crust manager, evening’s events were ordinary before multiple gunshots ended man’s birthday party at bar SHOOTING from page 1

truck ordered for the birthday party was shut down for serving food without the proper permits, Williamsburg Police Department Major Greg Riley said. Though the police cars left around 12:30 a.m., they were called back less than 20 minutes later.

Riley, who has reviewed The Crust’s security footage from the evening, agreed that nothing looked out of the ordinary before seeing two groups leaving the bar just before shots were reported.

The atmosphere of the club made it unclear how big those groups were, Riley added.

Poissant, who was present during the altercation and who also reviewed the tapes, said that a group including the shooter entered and left The Crust within 10 minutes of the shooting.

They were not associated with the people who were throwing the birthday party, Poissant said.

Both The Crust and the Williamsburg Police Department denied requests from The Flat Hat for a review of the footage from the night of the shooting.

It’s unclear whether the tapes contain footage of the shooting, which occurred just outside the establishment in Tribe Square.

Students reported hearing gunfire as far away

as the Bryan Complex.

According to Riley, the shooter fled the scene towards the parking lot behind Tribe Square.

In a press release issued Monday morning, the department said they had a suspect, but that he had not been located.

According to the release, the suspect, 22-yearold John Johnson of Newport News, was charged with one count of maiming, two counts of reckless discharge of a firearm, two counts of shooting into an occupied dwelling and one count of brandishing.

Poissant said when he first heard the gunshots, it was like a nightmare. He thought the mother of

his child was in the building, and feared for her safety. Patrons in the building rushed back into The Crust to seek cover.

It turned out the man who was shot was Corwin Lindsey, who was working security that night.

Lindsey, who goes by “Lord Lindsey,” was shot in the back, Poissant said.

Lindsey was checked into Riverside Regional Hospital in Newport News after the incident.

Monday morning he continued to post messages on his Facebook feed documenting his progress.

Monday afternoon, visitors to the hospital seeking Lindsey were told that he was no longer on the hospital census.

Williamsburg crime data shows that in almost four years there have been six shootings, including Saturday’s According to Major Greg Riley of Williamsburg Police Department, no similar public shooting has occurred in over 25 years GUN VIOLENCE from page 1

and Mary Police Chief Deb Cheesebro said in an email. “Several factors go into our assessment of an incident scene and we have to consider all of them almost simultaneously.”

Riley and other officers at the scene of the incident decided shortly after arrival that the incident was not an

active shooter situation. According to Riley, the police officers are trained to listen for “active sounds” such as gunshots, and to move to contain any active threats. When they did not hear any active sounds, the officers determined that the shooting was isolated to outside The Crust and that the shooter had fled the scene. They then made the call that it was not an

active shooting.

Following Williamsburg protocol, if police determine that there is no active shooter involved in an incident, they are not required to send an emergency release or contact residents through City government.

WMPD has separate reporting guidelines and, after consulting with the Williamsburg Police Department,

KAYLA SHARPE/ THE FLAT HAT

Over last four years, five shootings besides Saturday morning’s shooting at The Crust occurred in Williamsburg. Those five occurred at residencies.

made the call to not immediately notify students of an active shooter. An alert was sent approximately an hour later notifying students that a shooting had occurred and that the shooter had fled the scene.

“Part of the process was the determination, very quickly, was that there was no immediate threat to campus, no active shooter,” College spokesperson Suzanne Seurattan said.

Since active shooters on a college campus are a threat for which the Williamsburg Police Department wants to be prepared, each member of the force is required to go through active shooter training.

Additionally, they are encouraged to learn the layouts of all of the buildings they patrol.

As far as training goes, they regularly train in campus buildings, but are limited in where they can train since they do not want to cause panic. They have used the Dillard Complex for active shooter training before since it is miles off campus and is not currently used for anything other than the storage of College records. The building is scheduled to be demolished.

This means that the police do not have a chance to practice active shooter training on main parts of the College’s campus, but they are familiar with the buildings and the campus map.

However, Cheesebro said that her police department is trained to handle the threat of an active shooter.

According to Cheesebro, all WMPD officers are asked to regularly talk through and rehearse active shooter scenarios. They also have to pass designated shooting courses with a minimum score.

In an email sent out to students, College President Taylor Reveley also highlighted that this shooting is rare for Williamsburg, but comes at a time when the national climate on gun violence is strained.

Over the summer, events such as the shooting at Orlando, Fla.’s Pulse Nightclub made headlines and led many, like United States Congressman John Lewis, to advocate for stricter gun control laws.

Nightclubs, like college campuses, have been the home to shootings this summer.

Besides the shooting in Orlando, nightclubs in Toronto, Canada, Fort Myers, Fla. and Virginia Beach, Va. have seen recent fatalities. But for the City of Williamsburg, shootings at establishments are not common. Since 2012, no firearms have been discharged anywhere other than at a personal dwelling in Williamsburg.

“An incident so rare in Williamsburg and so close to campus is, nonetheless, enormously disturbing,” Reveley said in an email. “Our Emergency Management Team has as an immediate priority to review how we responded to this incident. Safety is an absolute necessity.”

The Flat Hat

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

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OBITUARY

Faculty, staff mourn professor Paula Blank English professor remembered for her influence on study of language TUCKER HIGGINS FLAT HAT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Paula Blank, an English professor at the College of William and Mary who was influential in shaping the study of language, died Sunday, Aug. 21 at her home in Williamsburg. She was 57.

Blank worked at the College since 1992. Her death was confirmed

by Provost Michael Halleran Aug. 22 in an email sent to students. No cause was reported.

Blank’s first book, “Shakespeare and the Mismeasure of Man,” was an early example of interdisciplinary research that combined the fields of literature analysis and mathematics.

On campus, Blank is remembered by her friends and colleagues for her creativity and sense of humor. She was a puppeteer and a chef, known for her unique perspectives on both literature and the world around her.

“She was funny. She was ironic. She was self-deprecating. And she found life funny,” English Department Chair Suzanne Raitt said.

Blank was born in Taenek, N.J. May 4, 1959. After studying for a year at the Universidad de Sevilla in Spain, she attended Wesleyan University, graduating with a degree in Language and Literature in

1981. She received her M.A. in linguistics from Harvard University in 1985 and her Ph.d. in English, also from Harvard, in 1991.

Blank authored a second book, “Broken English: Dialects and the Politics of Language in Renaissance Writings.” She was working on a third at the time of her death.

According to English professor Erin Webster, Blank was influential in her use of quantitative analysis in order to understand works of literature.

“She looked at how the history of mathematics and what was happening in mathematics at the time Shakespeare was writing, how Shakespeare worked it into his plays,” she said. “It was eye opening.”

Blank’s work showed Webster that there were still opportunities in what had first appeared to be an overcrowded field, Webster said.

In addition to her academic writings, Blank occasionally drew on her research to publish general interest stories in national publications. In 2014, Blank wrote an article for The Atlantic titled “Will Cisgender Survive?”

The same year, in the Washington Post, she turned to Shakespeare’s work to answer the question: Is Frank Underwood on ‘House of Cards’ gay?

Aidan Selmer ’17 said Blank was his role model — and that her influence on him would reveal itself with time.

“She had, at all times, an open heart and an open mind, and she offered them to everyone with an open hand,” he said in an email.

Outside the classroom, she was known for her art pieces — puppets described as large, comic and grotesque by colleagues — and for her creativity in the kitchen.

During her time at the College, Blank served as the Margaret L. Hamilton Professor of English and was awarded for her contributions to the English language both on campus and elsewhere. In 2010 she received the College’s Plumeri Award for Faculty Excellence. In the English department, she had served as chair of both the personnel and undergraduate program committees.

She also received fellowships from the National Humanities Center, the Folger Shakespeare Library and the American Council of Learned Societies.

“Professor Blank, who had been at William & Mary since 1992, touched many lives on and off campus through her work as a scholar and teacher,” Halleran said in his email to students.

Blank is survived by her parents, her brother, one daughter and her partner.

STUDENT ASSEMBLY

SA executives, senators renew focus on diversity goals Brown, McKiernan put focus on filling vacant positions, finishing last semester’s work SARAH SMITH FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR

Last March, Student Assembly President Eboni Brown ’17 and Vice President Hannah McKiernan ’17 won by a narrow margin of 39 votes — one of the closest margins in the last four years of SA elections.

They ran on a diversity-centric platform and, shortly before their inauguration, Brown sponsored a bill to address the climate of race and race relations on campus.

Now, a new semester is underway and Brown, McKiernan and the SA Senate are gearing up to address the issues laid out in the spring: transparency, diversity and effectiveness.

According to Brown, one of her biggest priorities in the next few weeks is filling vacancies in SA executive positions, including various vacant secretary and undersecretary positions, for example.

They will also be planning the first events of the “I AM W&M” initiative, which is a week during the spring semester where SA partners with other student groups to highlight diversity and inclusion at the College of William and Mary.

Brown will also be working to further her goals on diversity in the fall semester.

Secretary of Diversity Erica West ’17 worked all summer with her undersecretaries to plan an interfaith service to emphasize solidarity with Muslim communities and students. West and Brown

are also looking to put up an exhibit from the “No H8” photoshoot that took place in 2015.

Another goal listed in Brown and McKiernan’s platform was to lobby for funding to bring a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) to the Williamsburg area.

Currently, students must travel to Newport News for those services.

In their platform, the pair said they planned to attend this year’s Road to Richmond event to lobby for funding to bring one of these nurses to Williamsburg or to the College’s Health Center.

“Regarding nurses, while we’ve identified our goals, the Williamsburg City Council only came into office this summer,” Brown said in an email. “So we’re going to first meet with representatives there and see what their approach is and work with the State on a united front with the city government. We would like to start the conversation sooner, rather than wait for Road to Richmond.”

Another more long-term executive goal that coincided with the platform of City Council member Barbara Ramsey ’75, was the use of a website that would allow students to “rate” and provide feedback on their local landlords.

This was particularly relevant because three out of five of the City Council candidates were local landlords; two of those landlords, Ramsey and Benming Zhang ’16, were elected in May. This website has not been finalized, but members

of SA hope to announce it in the next few weeks.

According to Secretary of Public Affairs Jakob Stalnaker ’16 J.D. ’19, SA initiatives like this are important for community outreach.

One event that Stalnaker was particularly excited for was the Great Williamsburg Adventure Race, which was not planned by SA but was an event that he thought would help connect City Council, Williamsburg residents and College students.

“I’m looking forward to creating opportunities for students to become more civically engaged,” Stalnaker said. “We plan on continuing our voter registration efforts and encouraging student participation in city events.”

While efficacy was a buzzword dropped frequently during SA’s presidential election, it also became an issue with SA Senate when The Flat Hat reported that some senators were inactive in discussion and in the act of writing and sponsoring legislation.

Whether it is in response to these findings, Chairman of the Senate Danny O’Dea ’18 said he hopes to start off the semester by passing several bills that have already been discussed and written.

“This semester, I intend to change things a bit,” O’Dea said in an email. “Senators will be responsible for writing or co-writing at least two bills per semester.

Hopefully through this we will be able to pull from the different values that each senator brings to the table.”

When O’Dea was running for Chairman of the Senate, much of his platform revolved around

working to engage other senators and improve the social dynamic to make senate more effective. He also wants to make sure students are aware of what resources the SA Senate can provide.

“My goals this semester are centered around a more engaging student assembly,” O’Dea said. “I want students to have a working understanding of just how valuable a resource the SA can be to them and their organizations. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it all comes down to communication.

Within the Student Assembly as well as making sure our presence is felt as a guiding force and a voice for the student body, greater communication would go miles in terms of helping the student realize the potential for their various organizations.”

One SA initiative that temporarily ended last spring during the final weeks of former SA President Yohance Whitaker ’16’s term was the launch of an official SA website.

Moving forward, however, the website needs to be updated with new information about staff members and this year’s legislation. According to Class of 2019 President Jonah Yesowitz ’19, SA members plan looking to “heavily improve upon” their redesign of the website.

Yesowitz said that he did not know any specific details on what information will be added to the website or what the timeline for the redesign will be.

“All I know is what was rolled out last semester is not our final product,” Yesowitz said.

CITY COUNCIL

Benming Zhang ’16 nominates fellow College alum for Vice Mayor New term of City of Williamsburg’s City Council started July 1 with Freiling as Mayor EMILY MARTELL FLAT HAT CHIEF STAFF WRITER

Benming Zhang ’16, the second College of William and Mary student elected as a member of the Williamsburg City Council, nominated Councilmember Scott Foster ’10 J.D. ’14 for Vice Mayor July 1, 2016. With no objections, the first College student to join City Council became Vice Mayor.

Less than a decade ago, residential students of the College were not permitted to vote in the City of Williamsburg. This ban was overturned in 2007 and, in 2010, 22-year-old Foster, newly graduated from the College, was elected as a member of City Council. May 3, 2016, students and community members again voted a student to Council.

Zhang’s nomination of Foster to the seat of Vice Mayor reflects progress for student involvement in the City.

“I thought it was symbolic how our first student-elected representative had this chance to become the vice-mayor, and I thought that was going to mean a lot,” Zhang said. “Whether that means that we’re going to pass policies that are necessarily pro-student or what not, but it means that we’ve come a long way in the City, and I know that although he’s a number of years out of College, he still has students’ interest in his mind.

And I thought that was very special and I was more than happy to offer my nomination, which the incoming mayor let me, so that’s how it came to be.”

Although the choice of Paul Freiling ’83 as mayor appeared an obvious choice — Freiling served as vice mayor for three terms — the choice for vice mayor seemed to some less straightforward, with Freiling serving as vice mayor for three terms. Both Foster and Councilmember Douglas Pons had equal seniority.

Foster and Zhang gathered 1,559 and 1,148 votes, respectively, in their initial bids to City Council. Beyond both winning a seat on Council, the two share similar backgrounds. After taking a gap year, Foster entered the Marshall-Wythe School of Law. Zhang, too, has law school aspirations: he plans on applying to the College’s law school after taking the Law School Admissions Test this December.

Both already had experience in leadership roles, Foster as co-chair of the Student Conduct Council and Zhang as member of the Public Housing Advisory Committee.

According to Foster, Zhang’s experience on the Public Housing Advisory Committee may prove an advantage in getting acclimated to City Council over the coming months.

“I think Benny is better prepared to serve than I was because of his

involvement with the City prior to running for council,” Foster said. “He knows many more people than I did and has a better understanding of the interworking of the organization.”

Another factor that may make the transition smoother for Zhang is the shifting dynamic in the community’s outlook on having a student in City Council. Now, nearly 10 years since student enfranchisement and six years after electing Foster to Council, Williamsburg may be more receptive to students of the College in government.

“I think Benny is a great addition to the Council team,” Foster said.

“He has a ton of energy and a great perspective on the City and the College. We share a lot of perspectives but on others we differ, which adds a healthy dynamic to Council. I hope I’m able to help him through the first year or so on Council, which for me held the greatest learning curve.”

Like any new City Council member, Zhang said he faces a precipitous learning curve, as many of the current issues in the Williamsburg community have long memories.

Zhang and Councilmember Barbara Ramsey ’75, also elected in May, will soon be thrust into some of the more policy-heavy portions of the City Council role with the upcoming biennial Goals, Initiatives and Outcomes process, which plans and prioritizes goals for the City for the next two years.

Recalling his experience as a new City Council member, Mayor Paul Freiling ’83 spoke to the challenge of getting caught up on policy.

“There was still an incredible amount for me to learn and a lot of it had to do with the history of the issues as they have evolved over time,” Freiling said. “We could be talking about something like the school system which Doug, Scott and I have been intimately involved with for many years. We’re pretty intimately familiar with where the conversation is going, what the major pressure points or the forces at play, and those are the things Benny and Barbara will have to learn.”

But the new members will not face the process alone; Zhang said he has been looking to current and past Councilmembers for guidance. In particular, Foster has been and continues to be a mentor for the new Councilmember.

“I would consider Scott one of my mentors and he was someone that I knew and he actually encouraged me to get involved with the City,” Zhang said. “I don’t know if he remembers this, but I took it as his encouragement since my freshman year when I started going to City Council meetings.”

According to Zhang, Foster may have helped jumpstart Zhang’s political career in the community, even before Zhang’s City Council

aspirations. “[Foster] obviously played a role in my appointment to the Public Housing advisory committee,” Zhang said. “I don’t know if he was it, but what I understand for these boards and commissions [is that] some of them are discussed by the entire City Council before the mayor makes the appointment, and I’m sure he may have played some role, whether a little or a lot in it.”

Zhang said that he respects Foster’s quiet determination and ability to make sensible, nonpartisan policies, among other things.

Although Zhang currently shares an advantage over Foster in his personal connection to students currently at the College, this effect will fade as time passes and students graduate from the College.

According to Freiling, the distancing from campus life for City Council members is inevitable.

“You’re not living on campus … you’re not going to class, interacting in the same way with activities on campus,” Freiling said. “Benny obviously is going to have more connections than I would, it’s been a long time — but he’s even more connected than Scott, because there’s nobody now in school who Scott would have known. So Benny does have that advantage, but he can’t go into buildings just like we can’t go into buildings.”

Zhang said he will have to address this effect as his time on City Council lengthens. For now, Zhang said he is actively meeting with current student organizations to forge a close connection with the College.

City Council will enter the GIO process beginning with the City Council Retreat Sept. 10 followed by a Sept. 13 public workshop at 7 p.m. for community input.

Presbyterian Church 1677 Jamestown Road . Williamsburg info@gracecovpca.org . www.gracecovpca.org 10:00 Sunday School • 8:30 &11:00 Worship Service NEED A RIDE?

Look for the white van

10:25 in the parking lot by YATES 10:30 in front of BLOW 10:35 in front of BARRETT A Congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America

opinions

Opinions Editor Jennifer Cosgrove Opinions Editor Julia Stumbaugh fhopinions@gmail.com // @theflathat

The Flat Hat | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 | Page 5

GUEST COLUMN

A worrying “What-if ?”

Rick Stevenson

FLAT HAT GUEST COLUMNIST

GRAPHIC BY KRISTIE TURKAL / THE FLAT HAT

STAFF COLUMN

Trauma caused by delayed response

Carley Schanck FLAT HAT STAFF WRITER

In the early hours of Saturday morning, posts started flooding social media outlets such as Yik Yak and Facebook’s “Overheard at William and Mary” page.

“SHOOTING AT CRUST STAY AWAY” “Maximum of 5 rounds discharged. Heard from 3rd floor of Tribe Square.”

“Is everyone ok at the crust/bars? Did anyone get shot?”

The shots were fired around 12:50 a.m., but it wasn’t until over an hour later that an official alert went out from the College of William and Mary. The delay in notifying the public caused a lot of concern among students, many of who found out about the shooting through social media posts, which lacked all of the information.

In today’s world, when shootings are on the news daily, events like this strike a sensitive chord. We hear about atrocities on the news, and we refuse to believe they could happen to our family, our friends or our community. But the awful reality is that it could, and for some of us, it has.

I happen to be one of those people. In May 2014, my boyfriend of five years was shot and killed in a random act of violence while he was driving home. It was horribly traumatic and outside the realm of anything I had experienced before. Two years later, I still struggle to make sense of what happened and grieve his loss. With this unique perspective, I’m especially sensitive to events like the shooting at Tribe Square, and I wish it had been handled differently by the

administration.

As students at the College, we rely on the College’s administration and police department to keep us informed and safe. It seems dangerous that a campus-wide alert was not immediately sent out.

Apart from issues of safety, this way of handling the situation created fear that could have been avoided. For a whole hour, many students were anxiously wondering if someone had been shot, if anyone had died, and whether the shooter had been apprehended. Hearing about a potential active shooter situation minutes away from where you live (especially through social media) would be scary for anyone, but for students who have experienced violent trauma, it can be especially damaging.

You never know what people have been through. In light of that fact, it’s incredibly important that events of this caliber are handled in a way that makes everyone at the College feel maximally secure and cared for.

But we are human and we don’t always handle situations perfectly. Additionally, even if the administration had notified the students more promptly, it wouldn’t have changed the fact that someone was shot at Tribe Square this weekend.

As someone who lost a loved one to violence that I couldn’t control and couldn’t prevent, I had to wrestle with where I find my security. On some level, I think we all have to. For some of you, it’s the test you studied so hard for but still failed. For others, it’s the family situation that’s crumbling back at home as you’re watching helplessly from college. At some point, we are all confronted with circumstances or situations that we cannot control.

What can we stand firmly upon in all these shifting sands? What or who can we truly rely on when everything seems out of control?

Events like those of this weekend cause questions to surface, and I’d ask you to consider just one.

Where do you find your security?

Email Carley Schanck at ceschanck@email.wm.edu.

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It’s incredibly important that events of this caliber are handled in a way that makes everyone at the College feel secure and cared for.

COMMENTS @THEFLATHAT

Whether it’s WMPD or WCPD, police have a duty to provide timely information to protect and inform the public. An hour’s delay is inexcusable for a shooting incident.

— Alex Bramsen

Last Friday night, at around 1:30 in the morning, I was sitting on the roof of the College of William and Mary parking garage with some friends of mine. It was a nice night, so we took a walk and wound up overlooking new campus from an empty car lot, watching students below us walk home from their nights out.

As we were sitting there, my roommate Facetimed us to warn that he’d heard from someone else that a shooting had occurred at the Crust. I frantically checked my phone for any kind of update or emergency message, but I found nothing. We stood on top of the parking garage, wondering if this could be just a bad rumor, or if it were safer to stay where we were or walk home.

Suffice it to say, it was a confusing and frightening moment. And I’m sure many of you experienced something similar.

A half hour later I received an email saying that the shooter had fled and that everyone should be on alert, but that no students had been injured. That was over an hour after the event occurred.

Now, I don’t know why both the school and police neglected to inform the College for so long, and I certainly have no experience being in their shoes. But I can think of only two plausible reasons for the lack of information: negligence — which I truly hope was not the case — ­ or an attempt to avoid widespread panic.

If the cause was negligence, there’s really nothing complicated to say. So let’s assume for the moment that the professionals in charge of our campus safety were not negligent, and that my

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I trust this community to respond responsibly, but we can’t do that without first being informed. latter explanation is more likely. After all, this was not a mass shooting. It was a late-night dispute at a bar that happened to involve a gun. It’s reasonable to assume that there was low danger to anyone uninvolved in the incident, and the fear of causing mass hysteria via an overly anxious email is at least comprehensible.

But the thing is, there are multiple ways to cause mass hysteria. One could be an emergency alert message that leads to false fear of a terrorist attack. Another is leaving students entirely to their own devices to determine if they are, in fact, in real danger.

Thankfully, this event didn’t actually endanger anyone at the College. But I have to wonder if, in a different scenario — one with a different shooter loose in Colonial Williamsburg — we would have heard about it sooner. I chose to rule out negligence earlier, but that still doesn’t justify leaving students in the dark because someone decided it didn’t concern us. I trust this community to respond responsibly, but we can’t do that without first being informed.

Not everyone may have felt as exposed as I did on the roof of a parking garage with a potential shooter sneaking around, but I hope we can all agree that it shouldn’t be up to drunken word-ofmouth to ensure our safety. That being said, I’m so thankful for a student body that banded together on Friday to get the word out and make sure everyone was safe. Hopefully next time we won’t be left to our own devices.

Email Rick Stevenson at rwstevenson@email.wm.edu.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Please thank Sarah Smith for me for the front page article about my late husband Tom Graves. His years at the College 1971-’85 were good years and especially so, as he loved the students and enjoyed talking with them and learning from them. To have his writeup in the student newspaper warmed my heart. I can hear him saying: ‘Hot Dog! Wasn’t that nice !’ I agree.

Zoe Graves COURTESY IMAGE / WM.EDU

The Flat Hat

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Page 6

A worthwhile adventure

Meilan Solly

FLAT HAT GUEST COLUMNIST

At the end of last summer, I visited the College of William and Mary to say goodbye to my friends and the place I had called home for the last year. It was a surreal experience — I sat in on my friends’ classes, ate at the dining halls, and explored the Matoaka Woods when everyone else was busy.

It was like I had returned to the College for sophomore year, except for the very important fact that I hadn’t. My plane for Scotland left in a week, and I was terrified. I told my friends that I’d probably see them next semester because I was convinced I was going to drop out of the Joint Degree Programme after a miserable few months at St Andrews. I loved the life I had built at the College, and I was terrified of starting all over again.

As I reach the end of my first year at St Andrews, I know that I made the right choice in deciding to be open to life in Scotland and the possibilities of what was, essentially, a second freshman year. I’ve been lucky enough to make friends from both America and Europe, and they’ve shown me perspectives I never saw last year. For example, my

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GRAPHIC BY KRISTIE TURKAL / THE FLAT HAT

As I reach the end of my first year at St Andrews, I know that I made the right choice. roommate is from Norway, but she spent most of high school at a boarding school in the United States. Another friend from Hungary attended a language school where most of his lessons were taught in France. Even my American friends draw on very different backgrounds, including a Miami arts high school and a fashion internship in London.

These educational experiences are a far cry from my public high school in Northern Virginia, a background that I saw replicated in many of my classmates at the College.

The friends I’ve made at St Andrews have also taught me lessons I wouldn’t have learned otherwise: on a lighter note, how to curse in Hungarian and pilot a submarine in Grand Theft Auto, and on a more serious note, that American visions of Great Britain align more with fictional TV shows like Downton Abbey than the realities of contemporary life in the sea town of Cornwall or ex-mining communities of Durham County.

In addition to meeting a set of very unique individuals, I’ve expanded my academic interests. I decided to take an art history module on a whim, and I discovered that the subject is basically my life’s passion.

I still miss the College every day. I see photos of my friends at Holi or on a night out, and I wonder what it would’ve been like if I was there with them. I read The Flat Hat every Tuesday. When it’s 50 degrees here and we’re lucky to have such “warm” weather, I wish I could experience a sweltering August day in Williamsburg, just for a change of pace. In the end, one of my anthropology project sources offers the best advice for dealing with the constant battle between missing the College and embracing a new home: “You can think, ‘Things keep happening at William and Mary. Am I missing out?’ But things are happening at St Andrews, too.”

Email Meilan Solly at mmsolly@email.wm.edu.

HIRING: Must be at least 18 years of age and enjoy an active environment.

2:30pm – 6:00pm, Monday – Friday $8.50/hour Contact Ms. Scottie Boyd, Director Email Scottie Boyd at sboyd@walsingham.org

University of Chicago letter deserves a debate

Aastha Uprety FLAT HAT GUEST COLUMNIST

The University of Chicago’s recent letter to incoming freshmen has stirred up its fair share of controversy. It welcomes the class of 2020 by stating that the institution’s “commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called ‘trigger warnings’, we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial and we do not condone the creation of intellectual ‘safe spaces’ where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.”

An official statement as straightforward as this one likely wouldn’t come from the administration at William and Mary, where progressive movements have generally had strong support. But the criticism remains all too familiar: liberals are “too pampered” and “politically correct.”

UChicago’s blatant dismissal of “trigger warnings” and “safe spaces” is ignorant, disrespectful and demonstrative of institutional disregard for student needs and concerns — but the ideas conveyed in the letter do bring up some important points.

In the context of college, trigger warnings usually take the form of professors notifying students of what (potentially triggering) content will be covered in class. These warnings help prevent victims of trauma, such as sexual assault, from experiencing flashbacks, anxiety or mental illness relapse.

People who are offended by trigger warnings often believe that they apply to “every silly thing” and prevent people from being exposed to differing viewpoints — a misconception that applies to safe spaces as well.

Safe spaces are places where generally underprivileged experiences can be shared and validated, away from criticism that could target a marginalized person’s lived experience.

Safe spaces are important for the mental health of individuals, communities and entire campuses. Just because safe spaces exist does not mean that other forums of discussion don’t exist, which seems to be what many critics think.

The university might have a point in one regard — it’s important to be exposed to differing ideas and perspectives.

Classrooms should be places where students should feel free

to exchange ideas of all viewpoints, as long as it is not hate speech. This is critical to fostering free speech, and humanizing your “opponent” by listening to their reasoning is necessary to change their mind — or your own.

The most complicated part of the letter is the statement that “[UChicago does] not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial.” In recent years, this has occurred at some schools due to student protests. In 2014, Condoleezza Rice was set to speak at Rutgers University, but declined due to outrage at her involvement in the Iraq War. Students have every right to protest and bring to light the morally-reprehensible things in which potential speakers may have partaken, as these people have huge influences on society and shouldn’t be revered just for being prominent figures. But at what point does preventing people from speaking on a campus become an attempt at censorship?

Where do we draw the ethical line? Would students also protest President Obama, who has been accused of war crimes? Is there a difference between problematic rhetoric and a controversial resume? Donald Trump’s campaign has been met with a lot of student opposition due to the hateful things he says, but Secretary Rice’s commencement speech likely would not have contained any political viewpoints.

These issues are not foreign to the William and Mary community — in 2014, some students were outraged that conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was invited to speak at the Law School commencement ceremony. We can all safely say a KKK member or neoNazi would not be invited to speak at this campus, but the line gets blurrier when judging others. As society progresses and mainstream viewpoints are challenged, is the moral standard changing as well?

UChicago’s stances on trigger warnings and safe spaces are harmful to trauma victims and dismissive of minority students. Content warnings for classes are necessary for the mental health of a student body. Historically underrepresented ideas need a place to flourish, as academia for years has only reflected privileged mainstream views.

But the debate over censorship and free speech remains relevant. Liberals, too, can be very close-minded. Even within our bubble of supposed open-mindedness, mainstream viewpoints prevail, callout culture abounds, and norms are defended sometimes aggressively.

The discussion is too multifaceted to fully cover in one article, and the complexity of this debate might make it seem like the arguing will never end. But amidst the fighting are valuable discussions that can both further intellectual exchange and build heathier societies, at William and Mary, on all college campuses and beyond.

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At what point does preventing people from speaking ... become an attempt at censorship?

Email Aastha Uprety at auprety@email.wm.edu.

Letter to the Editor: An Alumna’s response to the shooting at Tribe Square I am a 1989 graduate of the College and I just dropped off my son to start his freshman year.

I was very dismayed to hear about the way the shooting on early Saturday morning was handled by the College. I would like to share a few thoughts with you which I have discussed with another W&M alumnus with more than 3 decades of experience in law enforcement as well as emergency preparedness, planning and response in some of the most complex environments in the world. I would appreciate something other than a canned response.While I understand that this, technically, was an off-campus incident, it took place on the first floor of a building that the College uses to house students. Very nearby are the sororities on Richmond Road as well

as several dorms directly across the street.

Accordingly, I believe this should have been treated as a potential immediate threat to residential students. At that time of night, particularly on a weekend, many students are out, either in the process of returning to their dorms, visiting friends, leaving other very nearby establishments. For an hour, those students had no official word from the College that anything that may have compromised their safety had occurred.

While I respect the need for investigation, in the immediate minutes after the shooting, the College could not have known whether anyone else that was with the shooter or part of the group that had been in the argument with the shooter was armed, whether friends or foes also fled the immediate area seeking cover and/or revenge, whether either group

had called/texted others who may have been armed to come to the area to pick them up, provide back up, etc. I believe that the unfortunate series of campus shootings in the years leading up to this event would dictate that an overabundance of caution cannot be wrong while a delay in notification can have devastating consequences indeed.

Why was there no word for an hour? Why was there no “shelter in place” notification?

(In fact, my son’s RA sent a text to his hall residents basically telling them to do that and my son followed those instructions.)

Such an instruction could have had students safely housed while the initial investigation was being conducted and could have been rescinded once the threat assessment was made. On a related point, have there been any drills with the students, particularly the

freshmen? A plan not regularly drilled is not worth the paper upon it is written; and drilling only once can pose its own dangers as people forget what they are supposed to do and chaos can ensue.

In light of this, recent threats made to current faculty from former faculty as well as the typical safety issues facing college campuses all over, I believe it is imperative that the entire community — students, faculty, staff and the families that love them — have complete trust that the College will put their safety as the utmost priority until and unless it is determined that there is no threat.

Elizabeth C. Mooz, Esq. Law Office of Elizabeth C. Mooz, Esq., PC 1915 Huguenot Road, Suite 203 Richmond, VA 23235

The Flat Hat | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 | Page 7

w s a i t p iv e a g i m n i v

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SARAH SMITH // NEWS EDITOR

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variety

Variety Editor Sam Dreith Variety Editor Lizzy Flood flathat.variety@gmail.com // @theflathat

Meet Gordo: the golden with a taste for philanthropy

W

hether it’s helping out an overwhelmed college student in the lobby of the Earl Gregg Swem Library or snuggling with children practicing reading out loud, K9 Connection’s Gordo is there.

Students may be familiar with the 10-year-old golden retriever who typically comes every few weeks to Swem Library to receive belly rubs. While he has gone through many rounds of obedience training, his owner Donna Jones says Gordo’s favorite part of his job is being petted.

Jones adopted Gordo when he was just a one-year-old pup. When she got him, he was at the perfect age to begin the necessary training to be certified as a service dog. Jones said she knew he would do well helping people because of how much he loved being around people, and she felt that he had a calming presence.

While being a lovable dog is a big part of his job, Gordo put in hours of work to get certified to visit places like local libraries and blood drives. When he was old enough to begin training, he had to meet certain requirements before he was eligible for certification training.

Gordo had to go through basic obedience classes and learn commands such as “sit,” “stay” and “heel.” Then, he had to pass the American Kennel Club’s Good Canine Citizen Test to make sure he knew those basic commands and to see whether he would be friendly to approaching people and dogs.

After he passed all of those tests, he was eligible for K9 Connection’s training, which involved harder obedience classes as well as tests to see how he would react in potentially overwhelming situations. These situations included times when lots of people were moving around, lots of strange noises were going on, people were bumping into him, and situations where he had to walk past treats and toys while ignoring them.

“One of the coolest things he has done is visit a blood drive so that people could pat him,” Jones said. “People get nervous at blood drives and their blood pressure goes up, so when that happens they go outside and get to pet Gordo

which helps them drop their blood pressure so that they can give blood.”

One of his favorite places to volunteer is Williamsburg Regional Library’s Paws to Read program. This is a program that gives children of all reading levels a chance to read to trained K9 Connection therapy dogs. According to Williamsburg Regional Library, this program has improved

“

He doesn’t care who you are and what you do, he just wants to be patted.

— Donna Jones

the children’s reading abilities because when the dogs react to their voices — like when they wag their tails — it gives the children more confidence in their reading ability.

While Gordo enjoys these events with the kids, it can be hard for a dog to be around so many children who may not know how to appropriately

engage with furry friends yet. Jones said that no matter what, Gordo stays calm and lets the children pet him while they read him books.

“There are a couple of times when we were in a situation at the library when a little kid got up close to him and was really fascinated by his teeth,” Jones said. “I was worried that would upset Gordo, but he just stood there and the little kid was right in his mouth. He is always very calm and settled with the kids.”

Another place that Gordo frequents is Swem, where he stays in the lobby for students to pet him when they need to relax. He typically comes every few weeks and comes more frequently during final exam weeks. According to Jones, bringing Gordo to Swem is really good for students who just need to release stress.

“He’s a very happy and calming presence,” Jones said. “He doesn’t care who you are and what you do, he just wants to be patted. He is really a non-judgmental dog. It just really seems to help people when I bring him to the library.”

At the end of the day, Gordo is a happy dog who loves playing around at home. According to Jones, one of his favorite hobbies is eating potato chips.

“One of his favorite things, which he really knows he’s not supposed to do, is eat potato chips,” Jones said.

“Especially if you leave an open bag on the counter, you’ll walk away and come back and all the chips will be gone.”

Gordo's Resume Professional Profile

Degree American Kennel Club Good Canine Citizen K9 Connection Training Pedigree Golden Retriever Relevant Work Experience Blood Drive Helper Helped to lower blood pressure of donors by

receiving pats.

Paws to Read Program Received pats from children at the Williamsburg Regional Library.

Student Stress Relief Slobbers over students at Earl Gregg Swem

Library.

Skills Receiving belly rubs | eating potato chips COURTEST PHOTO / William & Mary Libraries

The Flat Hat

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Page 8

Parachute beats the heat GABBIE PACHON / THE FLAT HAT

Despite the high temperatures, Parachute’s lead singer kept the energy up, switching up instruments with other band members during the show and poking fun at Colonial Williamsburg’s old-fashioned traditions in between songs.

Late into the hot night, dedicated, nostalgic fans sing along to Parachute’s best tunes

JULIA STUMBAUGH OPINIONS EDITOR

Will Anderson, the lead singer of Parachute, knew just how to relate to a crowd full of William and Mary students: talk about churning butter in Colonial Williamsburg.

As a native Virginian, Anderson was happy to play up the band’s regional pride. He spent time between songs complimenting Colonial Williamsburg to cheers, though he admitted that he hadn’t applied to William and Mary — instead attending the University of Virginia — to a chorus of boos.

Parachute’s music fit the atmosphere of the Martha Wren Briggs Amphitheatre at Lake Matoaka; the easy-listening music filled the muggy summer air and the bass thumped through the soles of bare feet on the grassy tiers of the Amphitheatre. The music washed over the crowd, a mix of people who braved the mid-90’s temperature of the summer night to hear beloved old favorites and others, like me, who were unfamiliar with the band but willing to let Anderson’s smooth voice make them new fans.

I hadn’t realized before this concert was announced how much of a big deal Parachute was to some people. I recognized the band name, but wasn’t familiar with them beyond that, which was not the case for others.

A few days before the concert, I asked my friends if they’d ever heard of the band.

“Do you know any Parachute songs?” I asked my roommate.

“My email address in middle school was literally parachutemania,” she said.

So, you know. A big deal.

Parachute was formed in 2006, and the fact that they’ve been doing this for a decade was apparent in their sound. Their music was polished and expertly played; they transitioned from one song to the next with little more than a pause for Anderson to grab a sip of water. He didn’t immediately say anything directly to the audience, just moving seamlessly through the opening songs. It was clear that they’ve played

sweating at the Amphitheatre for hours already. By the time Anderson introduced his final song, the crowd in the grassy tiers above him had thinned out considerably. Despite the difficulty Anderson might have had with connecting in the crowd towards the back, the pit at the front of the concert stayed engaged through the whole show with a passionate knot of fans singing along with every song.

Parachute is a talented band that effectively delivered a sense of nostalgia to a tribe looking for a blast to the past. Despite the jabs from a U.Va. alum and summer air like lukewarm soup, they made the Amphitheatre the place to be this Friday night. Even as college students, it turned out we aren’t too old yet to feel the Parachute mania.

GABBIE PACHON / THE FLAT HAT

The air was thick and humid, but the band kept things cool with an upbeat sound.

this set many times before. As someone new to Parachute’s music, I recognized more than one of the songs being played. I certainly wasn’t the only one singing along to “She Is Love.”

The band has considerable musical talent. Anderson would sometimes play the keyboard as he sang while a fellow band member ripped through saxophone features. Anderson would point to him — “one-way ticket to sax town, guys” — and off he’d go. The talented musicians, the radio-ready songs and the inherent nostalgia their music invoked made for a good time.

For all their talent, Parachute was fighting with the temperature, the humidity, and trying to keep the attention of a crowd that had been

GABBIE PACHON / THE FLAT HAT

For many fans, the concert was an exciting throwback to their middle school days.

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

Four full years, four great sexy lessons Be sure to learn outside the classroom as well

Mallory Walker BEHIND CLOSED DOORS COLUMNIST

GRAPHIC BY / KIRSTIE TURKAL

I realized something the other day while I was on my way to the good ol’ College of William and Mary to start my fourth and final year here: I’m now a big bad senior. With all that seniority I’ve suddenly inherited, I figure there’s a bit of wisdom and knowledge to go along with it. And there’s no way I could let all this newfound wisdom — especially my intellect of the sexual variety — go to waste. So, in honor of my old age and a new school year, I figured I’d hit you with a few tips on navigating sexy time in your college years, whether this is your first year on campus or your last.

Don’t yuck someone’s yum You might have heard this back in elementary school in regards to your classmate’s food during lunch but now the clever terminology can be applied to the bedroom. In other words, don’t kink shame for the sake of kink shaming. If your boo thang is a fan of toes and finds your footsies particularly attractive, don’t give them unnecessary beef if foot massages aren’t up your ally. If your partner is open enough to express an uncommon fetish with you, it’s ultimately a sign of trust.

And if they respect your disinterest in foot play, there’s no need to make your love bug feel uncomfortable.

Safe sex is the best sex I’m not going to lie to you guys, when I discover a pal of mine is having unprotected sex, it keeps me up at night.

Wrapping things up, popping a little pill, and using any other form of birth control before coitus isn’t difficult — and it keeps you and your loved one safe from not only pregnancy but also a laundry list of sexually transmitted infections. I know I’m not your mom or your doctor, but that doesn’t mean I’m not afraid to lecture you when it comes to safe sex. Using two forms of birth control (a condom and IUD, for example) keeps you and your junk safe and keeps all of those who care about you sleeping easy at night. And if you don’t want to shell out

the five bucks to buy a couple condoms at Wawa, the College has a number of resources that’ll give you a glove free of charge. Just swing by the Health Center or mosey on over to the Health Outreach Peer Educators website.

Always speak up Communication can feel different when it comes to sex, but it’s so vital to always remember that your needs and wants are important. This is monumentally important when it comes to consent, but also applies to something as simple as expressing your limits or turn-ons to your partner. If you don’t know how you feel about anal but are also not interested in finding out, there’s no shame in expressing that.

If you’re worried that your love buddy might be embarrassed if you let them know they’ve been misidentifying your clit, don’t be. It’s so much better to let your partner know what feels good and what is off limits so you both can enjoy sex to the fullest. And I don’t know about you guys, but I find chatting about sex can be great for a relationship; it helps to develop a level of intimacy that banging alone cannot create.

It might not be a “phase,” and that’s alright As young college students, we have a lot to learn about ourselves. This learning experience can range from finding that you love chemistry a lot more than English to finding that penises are much more your thing than vaginas. Exploring your sexuality is totally ok — don’t let anyone tell you differently. There’s also no need to label yourself if that doesn’t sit well with you. Sexuality is a weird and sometimes stressful thing to consider, especially when society puts so much pressure on us to not only label ourselves but also to fit with the stereotypes associated with that label. And, hey, if your sexual exploration results in you realizing it might have been a “phase” all along, there’s nothing wrong with that either. At the end of the day, do you and always remember you’re not alone.

I know what you’re thinking now: “Mallory, if you’ve shared all your wisdom with us in this article, is this the end of your reign as co-columnist for Behind Closed Doors?” Of course not. I’ve got a wealth of information to share in the next year.

So, buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Mallory Walker is a Behind Closed Doors columnist who is looking forward to the many lessons senior year will bring.

THE HAVEN A CONFIDENTIAL RESOURCE The Haven provides confidential peer support and services to students who are impacted by sexual assault and harassment, relationship abuse, stalking, or other gender-based discrimination.

CONFIDENTIAL ADVOCATES PROVIDE A safe and confidential space to connect with peers

Trauma-informed support and crisis response Resources and connection to multiple services and options on and off campus Information on Title IX and sexual misconduct policies/procedures and reporting options Assistance with accomodations related to class absences, classwork, exams, schedules, housing and campus living LOCATION Campus Center 166 (757) 221-2449 thehaven@wm.edu WALK-IN HOURS For current hours, please visit www.wm.edu/thehaven www.facebook.com/thehavenwm FOR MORE INFORMATION Liz Cascone, MSW Director, The Haven (757) 221-7478 lizcascone@wm.edu

Confidential resources means that information will not be shared with any other school official without consent.

sportsinside

The Flat Hat | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 | Page 9

MEN’S SOCCER

COURTESY PHOTO / TRIBE ATHLETICS

Road to Redemption

After a mediocre 2015 campaign, College focuses on making a resugence The Tribe disappointingly finished in seventh place in the Colonial Athletic Association in 2015, but with experience up and down the roster, and the addition of several talented freshmen, the College looks ready to be competitive in the CAA.

HENRY TROTTER FLAT HAT STAFF WRITER Three years ago, the Tribe suffered back-to-back heartbreak losses to end the season, falling to Drexel 1-0 in the 2013 Colonial Athletic Association Championship game before losing on penalty kicks to George Mason in the NCAA Tournament. This year might be William and Mary’s best chance to take home the CAA title since that season.

In 2013, Jackson Eskay ’16 led the Tribe in goals and points. Fast forward three years to his brother William Eskay, a junior forward, spearheading a returning group of nine starters from last year’s team. The attacking trident of Eskay and sophomore Ryder Bell and sophomore reigning CAA Co-Rookie of

the Year Marcel Berry accounted for 56 percent of the Tribe’s goals last season.

The dynamic midfield trio of last year returns in full, with redshirt junior Riley Spain sitting in front of the defense, redshirt senior Jeff Bombelles roaming from box Eskay to box, and last year’s All-CAA Third Team midfielder sophomore Antonio Bustamante filling the attacking role.

The defense is also relatively settled.

Last year’s center back pairing of redshirt senior Ryan Perry and sophomore Remi Frost started every game together and return this year. Additionally,

experienced senior Reilly Maw makes the shift from forward to right back.

The two positions that look up for grabs are left back and goalkeeper.

Redshirt junior Phil Breno, a transfer from Maryland-Baltimore County, was tabbed to start in goal for the Tribe’s season opener against George Washington. However, redshirt senior Mac Phillips played a half against Old Dominion in preseason and is the most experienced of the keepers on the roster.

Redshirt sophomores Sam Onyeador and Logan Jones both saw time in net last year, while the Tribe also added a 6’3” freshman goalkeeper, Daniel McBride.

The other positional duel, at left back, seems to favor redshirt junior Alfonso Speed. Speed started only four games last year, so senior Jordan Petit and redshirt

sophomore Geoffrey Young could figure into the equation as well. Freshman Ricardo Acosta also joins the team as a touted outside back, as does transfer Hristo Bustamante, a redshirt freshman.

The Tribe’s other acquisitions are versatile Speed freshman attacker Julian Ngoh, Williamsburg native freshman midfielder Reeves Trott and freshman center back Tanner Shane, who earned the nod in place of Perry in Friday’s season opener.

Last year, the College disappointed, finishing seventh in-conference and missing out on the CAA tournament. This

experienced team will face some tough tests this year, including four teams in the preseason NCAA rankings: No. 8 North Carolina, No. 10 Georgetown, No. 17 Virginia and No. 21 Coastal Carolina.

The Tribe is tipped to finish fifth in the CAA by the nine conference head coaches, and will have to battle past 2015 champion Hofstra, as well as other talented teams such as Delaware, Elon and North Carolina-Wilmington.

Although the team opened the season with a 2-1 loss to George Washington, the future looks bright for the Tribe this year. It faces a few early tests in September with Coastal Carolina, North Carolina and Georgetown, and kicks off its CAA schedule on Sept. 17. The season culminates with the CAA tournament on Nov. 5.

sports

Sports Editor Nick Cipolla Sports Editor Josh Luckenbaugh flathatsports@gmail.com @FlatHatSports

The Flat Hat | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 | Page 10

VOLLEYBALL

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Looking to repeat CAA picks Tribe as favorite CHRIS TRAVIS FLAT HAT ASSOC. SPORTS EDITOR

New year, new hope

COURTESY PHOTO / TRIBE ATHLETICS

Head coach Melissa Ferris, hired to lead the program toward the end of spring, instructs the volleyball team in Kaplan Arena during preseason training camp.

New staff, players give volleyball fresh start NICK CIPOLLA FLAT HAT SPORTS EDITOR Coming back from a long offseason, William and Mary’s volleyball program looks to start a new era this fall. A new coaching staff and new team members bring new hope with them to the squad, which finished sixth in the Colonial Athletic Association in 2015.

Last year’s 10-20 overall record and 4-12 conference record leaves plenty of room for improvement. That improvement began in late spring with the addition of head coach Melissa Ferris.

Ferris’ resume includes 19 years of assistant coaching split between Ferris Rice, Wyoming and Texas State. Of those 19 seasons, 13 ended with winning records and nine ended with 20 or more wins. For perspective, the Tribe has not had a winning season since 2009 (18-11) and has not had a 20-or-more-win season since 2005 (22-9).

On the court, fans of the team will recognize 11 veteran players. Headlining the returners are three seniors: defender Gabrielle Pe, setter Stephanie Paul and middle blocker Kristen Larrick. Pe is the most experienced of the trio and certain to be a starter, though Paul and Larrick will

likely see lots of time in the starting rotation.

The team’s junior class is a solid mix of experience at several positions. Defender Sara Zumbach returns at the libero position with Pe, while middle blocker Paige Humphrey, a starter in her first two seasons, joins Larrick. Setter Austyn Ames and outside hitter Maddie Sanford aim to develop their roles and vie for regular starting positions. Likely starter and outside hitter Sydney Biniak returns as a leader among the outside hitters, as the departure of Dessi Koleva ’16 and Mallory Brickerd ’16 leaves Biniak as the most experienced at her position.

The College has three returning sophomores, middle blocker Katie Primatic, outside hitter Heather Pippus and setter Katie Kemp. Primatic will be working hard to earn playing time with Humphrey and Larrick, while Pippus and Kemp look to keep and improve their starting spots after breakout rookie seasons.

New to the Tribe are a pair of outside hitters as a well as a setter and a defender/ outside hitter. Casey Foote and Alex Stein will be working on the outside while Autumn Brenner will play as a setter and Samantha Conway works as a defender with the possibility for outside hitting as well.

The season began this weekend with a tournament at Clemson, where the Tribe went 1-2. Between now and Sept. 21, the College plays in three more tournaments

before beginning a new run at the CAA title. Next weekend the team heads to the Belmont Invitational in Nashville before heading home Sept. 9-13 for the Colonial Classic at Kaplan Arena. The final tournament before conference play will be the Gamecock Invitational hosted

by South Carolina in Columbia, S.C. The Tribe’s home stands are split a bit more than in the past. The first time to see the Tribe at home after the Colonial Classic will be Oct. 7 against Charleston and Oct. 9 against defending conference champion North Carolina-Wilmington.

After fall break and a road trip, the College returns to Kaplan with matchups on Oct. 21 vs. Hofstra, Oct. 22 vs Northeastern, Oct. 24 vs Elon and Oct. 28 vs James Madison. When basketball season begins in November, the Tribe will be wrapping up the regular season with a pair of home matches, one vs. Towson on Nov. 11 and the regular season finale Nov. 12 vs Delaware.

With the mix of solid experience and a fresh staff, the Tribe could be a surprise contender as the season progresses. The CAA preseason poll placed the squad at No. 7 and did not name any Tribe players to the All-CAA preseason team, giving the College motivation to prove to critics that 2016 is more than a rebuilding year and instead the start of a lasting upswing for the program.

FIELD HOCKEY

College seeks to rebuild

More questions than answers in 2016 JOSH LUCKENBAUGH FLAT HAT SPORTS EDITOR William and Mary enters the 2016 season facing several daunting uncertainties, most notably the gaping hole left in goal by the departure of Meredith Savage ’16.

For the first time since 1986, the Tribe will begin a campaign without an experienced goalkeeper.

Two-time Colonial Athletic Association Coach of the Year Tess Ellis will have to choose between redshirt-sophomore Meredith Clay and freshman Morgan Connor, neither of whom has played a second of collegiate field hockey. Clay has failed to get playing time in her two years at the College due to injury as well as the presence of Savage, but both she and Connor have the talent to Clay start, having earned dozens of accolades at the high school level.

Despite the question mark between the posts, the rest of the College defense is filled with seasoned veterans. Redshirt-senior defender and co-captain Maddy Moore and sophomore defender Caroline Arrowood, a 2015 CAA AllRookie selection, should form an intimidating pair for any opposing attacker, with junior defender Katherine Hull primed to make an impact after starting seven games in 2015.

The Tribe also boasts a talented midfield, spearheaded by junior Booter Ellis, a pre-season All-CAA selection. Ellis earned recognition for

her work on the ball as well as off of it, assisting on three goals last season along with making five defensive saves, tied for No. 2 in the CAA. Ellis will be flanked in the midfield by, amongst others, juniors Erin Menges and Estelle Hughes.

Both Menges, a pre-season All-CAA Honorable Mention recipient, and Hughes struggled with injury last year, but both are now fully healthy and should be ready to provide the all-important balance every strong midfield must strike.

Up front, the Tribe must figure out how to retain the Menges production of the recently graduated Pippin Saunders ’16, who scored 13 of the team’s 39 goals in 2015. The College has several experienced options, including juniors Cammie Lloyd — another pre-season All-CAA Honorable Mention recipient — and Emma MacLeod, who tallied 16 points apiece last year, but it remains to be seen if either they or anyone else can effectively replace Saunders as the primary attacking option.

The Tribe is slated to finish sixth in the CAA, a conference featuring two nationally ranked teams in No. 14 Delaware and No. 19 James Madison.

The Tribe did receive four votes for a spot in the National Field Hockey Coaches’ Association Coaches poll, but the team must prove it deserves a spot in the national conversation despite a season-opening loss at No. 4 Duke over the weekend.

While football and men’s basketball take the main spotlight on campus, William and Mary women’s soccer has been an underrated success story. Jill Ellis ’88 has had a successful stint coaching the U.S. Women’s National Team, despite an early exit from Olympic play this year. Former goalkeeper Caroline Casey ’16 is one of the most decorated players in school history, as she finished last season with an All-American honor and was subsequently drafted to play professionally in the National Women’s Soccer League for Sky Blue FC. This year’s Tribe squad looks to continue its strong legacy and justify its preseason ranking of first overall in the conference.

In 2015, the Tribe won the CAA regular season title and was selected to play in its 25th NCAA tournament as a program. In 2016, the College is the CAA’s preseason favorite. Six starters are returning, headlined by senior defender Clara Logsdon, a First Team All-CAA selection last season. Junior midfielder Rachel Moore (Second Team All-CAA), junior forward Sami Grasso (Third Team All-CAA), and sophomore midfielder/defender Mackenzie Kober (CAA AllRookie team) will also be ready to take on even larger roles for the Tribe this season.

The scoring attack of the College will have to regroup and rebuild after the graduation of Samantha Cordum ’16 and Katie Johnson ’16, who tied for the team lead last season with seven goals each.

Redshirt freshman Sara Segan is expected to quickly gain playing time and contribute after she missed all of last season due to injury.

In the midfield position, Moore leads a talented group of returners that should allow the Tribe to control possession and pace of play in the middle of the field. Junior Elysee Branton will likely play extended minutes alongside Moore in the defensive midfield position. Seniors Kady Kriner and Haley Kavanaugh will likely slide into attacking midfield roles for the Tribe this season.

Logsdon will again head the College defense, joined by redshirt junior Corrine Giroux. Despite battling many injuries during her collegiate career, Giroux is healthy and ready to contribute in her junior campaign. Junior Haley Kent, who started all 22 games last season, will play opposite of Kober as the two outside defenders.

In goal, the competition to replace Casey was fierce, but it appears that redshirt junior Grace Smith has earned the early nod through the first three matches.

Even with a strong returning group, including two players named to the preseason All-CAA team with two others receiving honorable mention nods, the competition for the Tribe in the CAA is as stiff as ever. Four CAA teams made the NCAA tournament last season, the most in conference history. The Tribe also faces a tough nonconference schedule, including dates with Old Dominion Sept.

1, Virginia Tech Sept. 4 and Virginia Commonwealth Sept. 8. The conference portion of the schedule is highlighted by a key matchup with James Madison in a rematch of last year’s CAA tournament title game, which the Tribe lost.

Despite the loss of standout Casey and a tough schedule, the Tribe looks poised to strongly contend for the conference title and return to the NCAA tournament.

ONLINE William and Mary soccer kicked off its home slate for both the men’s and women’s teams over the weekend. The women split a pair of matches while the men dropped their opener.

For complete coverage of the games as well as the openers of volleyball and field hockey, check flathatnews.com.

SCOREBOARD Volleyball (1-2)

Football 2016 Schedule Sept. 1: at N.C. State, 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 10: at Hampton, 6 p.m.

Sept. 17: vs Norfolk State, 6 p.m.

Sept. 24: vs Elon, 7 p.m.* Oct 1: at New Hampshire, 3:30 p.m.* Oct. 8: at James Madison, 3:30 p.m.* Oct. 15: vs Delaware, 3:30 p.m.* (Homecoming) Oct. 29: vs James Madison, 4 p.m.* Nov. 5: at Stony Brook, 2 p.m.* Nov. 12: at Towson, 12 p.m.* Nov. 19: vs Richmond, TBA* * = Colonial Athletic Association game

Aug. 26: W, College 3, Clemson (2-1) 2 Aug. 27: L, Wofford (1-2) 3, College 2 Aug. 27: L, High Point (2-1 3), College 2 Sept. 2-3: at Belmont Invitational Sept. 9-10: Colonial Classic Sept. 13: at VCU (0-3), 7 p.m.

Field Hockey (0-1) Aug. 26: L, No. 4 Duke (2-0) 8, College 4 Sept. 2: at American (1-1), 4 p.m.

Sept. 4: vs Rutgers (1-1), 1 p.m.

Sept. 9: at Georgetown (2-0), 1 p.m.

Sept. 11: vs Old Dominion (1-1), 1 p.m.

Men’s Soccer (0-1)

Women’s Soccer (2-1)

Aug. 26: L, George Washington (1-0) 2, College 1 Aug. 29: vs No. 21 Coastal Carolina (0-1), 7 p.m.

Sept. 2: at Liberty (1-0), 7p.m.

Sept. 6: vs Longwood (1-0), 7 p.m.

Sept. 10: at Campbell (0-1), 7 p.m.

Sept. 13: vs No. 10 Georgetown (0-2), 7 p.m.

Sept. 20: vs No. 8 North Carolina (2-0), 7 p.m.

Sept. 24: at UNC-Wilmington (1-0), 7 p.m.

Sept. 28: vs James Madison (0-2), 7 p.m.

Oct. 1: vs Northeastern (0-1), 7 p.m.

Oct. 8: at Hofstra (1-0), 7:30 p.m.

Aug. 19: W, College 5, East Carolina (2-2) 0 Aug. 25: L, Maryland (1-1-1) 3, College 2 Aug. 28: W, College 2, DePaul (0-2-1) 1 Sept. 1: at Old Dominion (1-3), 7 p.m.

Sept. 4: vs No. 18 Virginia Tech (3-0), 2 p.m.

Sept. 8: at VCU (1-2), 7 p.m.

Sept. 11: at UNC-Greensboro (2-1-1), 2 p.m.

Sept. 15: vs High Point (3-0-1), 7 p.m.

Sept. 18: vs Marshall (1-2), 2 p.m.

Sept. 23: vs James Madison (0-4), 7 p.m.

Sept. 25: vs Towson (0-3-1), 2 p.m.

Cross Country Sept. 3: at Richmond Invitational Sept. 16-17: William and Mary XC Invitational Sept. 23: at Panorama Farms Invitational Oct. 14: at Penn State National Invitational Oct. 15: at CNU Invitational Oct. 29: at CAA Championships

Women’s Tennis Sept. 16-18: Tribe Invitational Sept. 30-Oct. 2: at Cissie Leary Invitational Oct. 4-9: at ITA All-American Champs Oct. 14-18: at ITA Atlantic Regional Nov. 4-6: at Kitty Harrison Invitational Jan. 21: at Navy, 1 p.m.