Vol. 108, Iss. 9 | Tuesday, April 24, 2018
The Flat Hat The Weekly Student Newspaper
of The College of William and Mary
Williamsburg Police ‘THE NEWS OF THESE Department arrests 10 individuals in culmination of first phase of monthsARRESTS WAS BOTH long investigation SURPRISING AND DISAPPOINTING’ SARAH SMITH // FLAT HAT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
According to WilliamsburgJames City County General District Court documents, the Williamsburg Police Department, in a joint drug investigation with the Tri-Rivers Task Force, used a confidential informant to purchase drugs at various locations around the College of William and Mary’s campus, including two residence halls. This was part of the first phase of a several-month-long investigation that resulted in 10 arrests connected to the College. What happened in the investigation? These 10 people — including eight students, one professor and a dining services worker employed by Arby’s and Sodexo — were arrested April 17 on multiple accounts of narcotics possession and distribution. According to WPD Major Greg Riley, this investigation began when information was received about unreported sexual assaults due to an increase in drug activity on and around the College’s campus. “We received information from a variety of sources, community reporters, who advised that there was a rise in sexual assaults that were unreported, so we don’t actually have victims or incidents of sexual assault being reported to us,” Riley said. “We were being told that there was a rise in these things that occurred because of drug activity on or around the college campus involving parties. We decided to tackle the narcotics side of the
investigation and focused on [offcampus allegations].” Riley said he believes these reports were of people unknowingly consuming intoxicants at parties and then being assaulted, although he does not believe the intoxicants used were typical date-rape drugs. He said the Tri-Rivers Task Force’s role in the investigation was to help the WPD identify individuals distributing drugs that he believes were fueling sexual assaults. However, none of the individuals arrested have been charged with offenses related to sexual assault. Riley said he does not know how in the course of the investigation the suspects arrested were identified, but they were targeted because they were dealing drugs. Riley said more arrests and more charges are possible in continuing phases of the investigation. “The genesis of this was the information we received,” Riley said. “We decided to target illegal drug activities. I can’t say specifically … that these are the ones providing drugs to the parties … in targeting that particular activity.” Criminal complaints from the 10 arrests date as far back as Dec. 7. The majority cite offenses beginning in February 2018. These complaints reveal at least one informant bought drugs such as cocaine, marijuana, LSD, steroids and amphetamines, including from rooms in residence halls such as Brown and Barrett halls. The court documents also indicate
that police used drug-sniffing dogs to detect these substances, while other controlled purchases were recorded by surveillance. Riley said he was not familiar with the specifics of either, and could not comment further on the use of drug-sniffing dogs and controlled purchases. The WPD seized LSD, cocaine, psilocybin (mushrooms), opioids, amphetamines, steroids, hashish and marijuana. In one suspect’s room, they also recovered approximately $14,000 in cash. While the WPD ran the investigation jointly with the TriRivers Task Force, which consists of police departments from places like Matthews County and Gloucester County, the William and Mary Police Department was not involved in the investigation and was not notified of the arrests until the day they were made. According to Riley, the WPD did not notify the WMPD because the sexual assault allegations that prompted the investigation referenced off-campus locations, which he said meant their participation was not required. He also said that the WPD notified the WMPD the morning before officers made arrests. College spokesperson Suzanne Seurattan said the news of these arrests was not expected by College officials. “The news of these arrests was both surprising and disappointing,” Seurattan said in a press statement. “We know the university is not immune
$14,000 Amount of money confiscated from one suspect’s residence
10
Number of suspects arrested by Williamsburg Police Department
5
Number of possession and distribution charges for marijuana See DRUG ARRESTS page 3
CAMPUS
Wren plaques recognize women, African-American students College acknowledges role of students in shaping history, progress in moving forward SARAH SMITH FLAT HAT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Just days before College of William and Mary President Taylor Reveley read an official apology on behalf of the Board of Visitors for the College’s role in slavery and segregation, he unveiled two new plaques on the Sir Christopher Wren Building’s piazza. One plaque commemorates the College’s 24 first female students, the other commemorates Lynn Briley ’71, Karen Ely ’71 and Janet Brown Strafer ’71, M.Ed. ’77, the College’s first three African-American students in residence. In a ceremony Thursday, April 19, Briley, Ely and Strafer — known as the Legacy 3 — and the descendants of the first 24 female students walked through the doors of the Wren Building, leading the rest of the crowd to see the plaques for the first time. Before this, Executive Director of Historic Campus Susan Kern, Chair of the 50th Anniversary Committee Jacquelyn McLendon and Co-Chair of the 100 Years of Coeducation Committee Valerie Cushman gave remarks. Reveley said that he believed the day of the unveiling would be an important one for the College and that the addition of these new plaques
Today’s Weather
Index Profile News Opinions Variety Sports
shows the College’s commitment to acknowledging its past. “By the plaques on the wall on the Wren just erected, we are recognizing the role of African Americans and of women over the vast sweep of William and Mary’s history,” Reveley said. “They played significant parts since the beginning. The parts they will play going forward will only continue to grow. Indeed, for William and Mary to thrive in this century and succeeding centuries, the parts played by African Americans and women at William and Mary must not just continue to grow. They must grow robustly, vibrantly. It’s good and long overdue that we are here today.” Kern’s job was to work with McLendon and Cushman’s committees to develop the content of the plaques and to oversee their creation and installation. In her speech, Kern said that in examining the history of the College, it is important to acknowledge that women, both free and enslaved, played a role in shaping the College before they were admitted as students. She also said that women were at the forefront of the movement to create some of the Wren Building’s other plaques through the formation of a regional preservation society. “Like most other early American institutions, William and Mary has a long history entangled with slavery, Jim Crow and
resistance to change,” Kern said. “Like other seeming bastions of male privilege, women underpinned the fabric here also. What these tablets do is mark the moment when William and Mary promised change, the moment when first white women, and, almost a half century later, African Americans, entered here under the assurance they could be students, scholars, professionals — in short, they could be peer and equal to the men served at this fountain of knowledge for its first 2 1/2 centuries.” McLendon, who chairs one of the committees that sponsored the plaques, said that they represent a commitment to diversity and inclusion on behalf of the College. She also said that it is important that these plaques are hung on the Wren Building, which to her is the soul of the College. She added that this symbolic connection is important because of the role that the concept of soul plays in African-American culture. “It is particularly fitting that the names of the three women — Lynn Briley, Karen Ely and Janet Brown Strafer — who were the first African Americans to be fully integrated into the academic life of this university, along with a reference to earlier pioneers who had been denied full access but played a key role in the process of integration,
Rainy, High 61, Low 59
BOARD OF VISITORS
Reveley reads BOV apology College acknowledges its historical role in slavery, segregation LEONOR GRAVE FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
For close to two centuries, the College of William and Mary used slave labor. The College admitted its first AfricanAmerican residential students in 1967. Friday, April 20, the Board of Visitors voted unanimously to approve a resolution apologizing for the university’s role in slavery and segregation at their full board meeting. “The Board of Visitors acknowledges that William and Mary enslaved people, exploited them and their labor and perpetuated the legacies of racial discrimination,” College President Taylor Reveley said, reading from the resolution. “The Board profoundly regrets these activities, apologizes for them, expresses its deep appreciation for the contributions made by the African-American members of its community to the vitality of William and Mary then, now, and for all time coming, and commits to continue our efforts to remedy the lingering effects of past injustices.” Almost a decade ago in 2009, the BOV formally acknowledged that the College had a role in exploiting slave labor and failing to resist segregation during the Jim Crow era. At this time, the BOV also supported the establishment of The Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation. The Lemon Project — named in honor of a man once enslaved by the College — has led the effort to both conduct research into the history of African Americans and to carve a path of reconciliation. Today’s resolution also arrives at the end of a symbolically resonant year marked by the commemoration of 50 years of AfricanAmerican students in residence at the College. The resolution acknowledged the work of history professor Robert Engs, whose scholarship was instrumental in the foundation of The Lemon Project and of history professor Jody Allen, its director. Engs conducted research about the history of African Americans at the College and how to further the study of that history. Allen’s research focuses on the College’s role in slavery and Jim Crow. Another step the College has taken toward reconciliation was the creation of the Race and Race Relations Task Force and the Implementation Team in 2015. Task Force Chair Fanchon Glover M.Ed. ’99, Ed.D. ’06 presented the Implementation Team’s final report at the BOV meeting, in which she noted the recent hiring of Deputy Diversity Officer Dania Matos at the Center for Student Diversity, the hiring of nine faculty members of color over the last two years and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ vote to move forward with the COLL 199 curriculum requirement. The Implementation Team will no longer formally exist. BOV member Warren Buck M.S. ’70, Ph.D. ’76, D.Sc. ’13 praised the apology resolution as an important step in moving toward an equitable future. “It warms my heart that William and Mary, being essentially ground zero for a time that African people were enslaved in this country almost 400 years ago, to have this resolution approved by the Board,” Buck said. “This university has been a leader in creating this country. … It’s time that this university does step up and the greatness of William and Mary will shine for all time coming with the passing of this resolution. This is a journey. It’s not over. But I think it sends a signal to everyone in this country and around the world that we are serious about inclusion and equity.”
Inside Sports
Inside Opinions
Saying goodbye to the College
2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10
be prominently and forever integrated into the soul of the College with the installation and dedication of this beautiful plaque,” McLendon said. “We will continue to build upon the richness of their legacy not just for this academic year, but for all time.” When it was time for Cushman to give her remarks, she spoke about the history of how the first female students came to be at the College. She said that because of World War I, there was a shortage of students leading to a shortage of revenue from tuition, which caused the administration to consider admitting women as students. In February 1918, legislation passed allowing for co-education. Cushman also read excerpts of articles published in the Virginia Gazette, The Flat Hat and the Virginia Informer from 1918, offering different opinions on this decision to move toward co-education. “Those first 24 women all were pioneers and all allowed William and Mary to claim a spot as the first public or private formerly all-male institution in Virginia to admit women,” Cushman said. “Today, built on their shoulders, William and Mary has over 55,000 alumnae who are doctors, scholars, teachers, entrepreneurs, actors, members of Congress, world-class coaches and university presidents.”
Flathatnews.com | Follow us:
College of William and Mary President Taylor Reveley says serving as president of the College was a great honor, and he looks forward to seeing what the future holds for the alma mater of the nation. page 5
Record-setting player to relatable tennis coach Jeff Kader ’05 talks about his time on the Tribe men’s tennis team and his experiences years later as the coach of that same team page10