The Flat Hat April 5, 2016

VARIETY >> PAGE 7

PROFILE >> PAGE 2

Prewitt, Tarpey help College pick up a 78-62 win in revolutionary front of a packed Kaplan Arena.

Professor Ann Marie Stock explains how film spread ideals in Cuba.

Taylor Medley ‘17 had a conservative upbringing. Now she wants to be a midwife.

Exploring Cuban Cinema

Vol. 105, Iss. 24 | Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Thinking outside the VOX

The Flat Hat

The Weekly Student Newspaper

of The College of William and Mary

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DIVERSITY STUDENT LIFE

SA announces concert change New Politics to open instead of Kehlani SARAH SMITH FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR

Friday, April 1, members of Student Assembly and Alma Mater Productions announced that Kehlani would no longer be performing April 7.

Kehlani will not be performing as the opening act for the Chainsmokers for personal reasons. A press agent for Kehlani did not respond to a request for comment.

According to outgoing AMP music committee chair Ethan Baker ’16, Kehlani’s performance would have incorporated elements that previous concerts at the College have not included.

“The AMP music committee and myself are super bummed Kehlani can’t make it. I’m hurting pretty bad to be honest,” Baker said in an email. “Over the past month we’ve really gotten to know and enjoy her music in preparation for the concert and the fact that she was going to dance and have backup dancers — something we haven’t seen at any W&M concert over the past couple of years — would’ve made for a cool experience. At the end of the day, however, our thoughts are with her and we’re glad she’s giving herself the time and attention she needs to get better. Maybe we can snag her the next time a big concert comes around.”

New Politics will replace Kehlani.

Baker said that New Politics will provide a performance suited to opening for the Chainsmokers.

In the fall, SA president Yohance Whitaker ’16 announced that, instead of hosting a Charter Day Concert, SA and AMP a concert later in the spring.

SA senators sponsored the Spring Concert Act Part I, which allocated up to $50,000 from the SA reserves for the artist contract.

“I am looking forward to a great spring concert,” Whitaker said in an email.

According to Baker, students who wish for a refund for their tickets because Kehlani is no longer performing should contact the Tribe Athletics Ticket Office.

Black staff report bad treatment 15 percent reported unfavorable treatment in survey CAROLINE NUTTER FLAT HAT BLOGS EDITOR

Last year, the Office of Human Resources (OHR) partnered with a number of different committees and departments across campus to generate the 2015 Employee Climate Survey, administered anonymously by the Gelfond Group. Employees were asked about their treatment and whether the College was a good place to work. The rates of African American employees’ responses to these questions were more unfavorable than responses of the average College employee.

15 percent of African American employees reported unfavorable treatment, and nine percent found the College an unfavorable place to work. Out of all employees, nine percent reported unfavorable treatment and six percent reported that the College was an unfavorable place to work. By the Gelfond Group’s aggregate measure of employee engagement at the College, 74 percent of respondents reported favorably, a response higher than the average by three percentage points.

The OHR has partnered with the President’s Task Force on Race and Race Relations to provide more detailed survey data and analyses in order to better equip the task force to take on this disparity. The more detailed data reported a “concentration of negative responses” for African American faculty and staff within the classification of employees eligible for overtime pay or “non-exempt” employees. These are typically operational or administrative jobs, such as dining and building staff.

Chief Human Resources Officer John Poma ’86 discussed this negative concentration, stating that while African American exempt employees responded similarly to the university professionals, African American nonexempt employees responded more unfavorably.

Recruitment of diverse faculty and staff remains high on the priority list of on-going initiatives for the partnership between the Task Force and the OHR. Over 80 percent of faculty members are white and four percent African American, while over 50 percent of building and

The College of William and Mary is the least socioeconomically diverse college in the United States with only 12 percent of students receiving Federal Pell Grants, according to a March 2016 report from the New America Foundation.

“Undermining Pell: Volume

III” judges four-year colleges based on their proportion of Pell Grant recipients enrolled using data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Out of 824 public fouryear colleges studied, the College has the lowest percentage of students receiving Pell Grants.

Any student who fills out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid is automatically

No-contact orders offer brief respite Option sees uptick AMANDA WILLIAMS FLAT HAT SENIOR STAFF WRITER

considered for the Pell Grant, a form of federal financial aid that does not have to be repaid and is awarded to the undergraduate students with the most financial need nationwide.

According to the report, a common trade-off for the percentage of Pell Grant students enrolled is the average net price charged to students with the most financial need; schools with fewer low-income students tend to offer the ones they do have a better deal. Although the College has the lowest percentage of Pell recipients, it is not among the five most affordable public universities to students with total family incomes of 30,000 dollars or less.

According to Associate Provost for Enrollment and Dean of Admission Tim Wolfe ’95 M.Ed. ’01, the College is the only public university in the state to meet instate students’ full demonstrated

When a junior at the College of William and Mary filed a Title IX report last semester, she was also given a no-contact order against her alleged assailant. Following her discovery of these protection orders, she filed another against an ex-boyfriend who had routinely harassed her since their break-up, something she said she would have done years ago if she had known about them.

No-contact orders aren’t new to the College. Associate Dean of Students and Director of Student Conduct Dave Gilbert said that they have been around for at least the 11 years he has been on campus.

“I think it’s becoming fairly routine in Title IX contexts, at least as that initial placeholder, because we actually have a duty as an institution when a matter is reported to make sure that we are preventing further retaliation or harassment to the extent we can, so one way you can do that is to set up boundaries that set up expectations and consequences for further engagement,” Gilbert said.

The College issues no-contact orders to prevent the respondent, or the person against whom the nocontact order is filed , from interacting with the student filing the report by any means, which includes being in the same room or having third party contact through outside people or social media. The Dean of Students office, the William and Mary Police Department or the Title IX office can offer them.

That junior said her assault took place on a Friday and filed her report the next Monday, hoping that she’d get a no-contact order the same day. She said that instead she was encouraged

See PELL page 3

See NO-CONTACT page 4

See SURVEY page 3

College gives fewest Pell Grants in nation EMILY MARTELL FLAT HAT CHIEF STAFF WRITER

ADMINISTRATION

GRAPHIC BY ALEX WALHOUT / THE FLAT HAT

These numbers come from “Undermining Pell” which cites Department of Education data.

ORGANIZATIONS

Mattachine Project dives into archives to unearth Virginia’s LGBTIQ history Students discuss history of ABC laws, same-sex marriage as part of new research project EMILY MARTELL FLAT HAT CHIEF STAFF WRITER

Until 25 years ago in Virginia, laws illegalized the sale of alcohol to homosexuals; until 13 years ago, antisodomy laws criminalized sexual acts between LGBTIQ people; and less than two years ago, the state denied samesex marriages.

Members of the College of William and Mary community gathered Tuesday, April 4 to hear students present inaugural research for the William and Mary Mattachine LGBTIQ Research Project: Documenting the LGBTIQ Past in Virginia.

Speaking about different aspects of LGBTIQ Virginia history, researchers discussed Virginia LGBTIQ issues in

Today’s Weather

Index Profile News Opinions Variety

Sports

terms of student life, the repealing of discriminatory Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) laws, cases on child custody, the controversy surrounding extending employee benefits to samesex partners, and religious support.

The Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., a non-profit organization that conducts archival research to study LGBTIQ legal and political history, provided the initial funding for the project in Nov. 2015. Since then, the William and Mary Mattachine LGBTIQ Research Project has received support from 11 other individuals and organizations, including a recent IDEAS grant from the Center for Student Diversity.

Although some research has been done previously on the LGBTIQ history

in the southeast, project fellow and American studies Ph.D. candidate Jan Huebenthal M.A. ’13 Ph.D. ’18 said that it has not been given proper attention.

Sunny, High 50, Low 30

TUCKER HIGGINS / THE FLAT HAT

April 4, students from the Mattachine LGBTIQ Research Project presented their findings in Swem.

orientation, and I think our project is unique in that it kinds of inaugurates and institutionalizes a kind of attention to these questions on the William and Mary campus, which hasn’t really been done before,” Huebenthal said.

Student researcher Taylor Medley ’17 focused on the overturn of ABC laws discriminating against LGBTIQ people.

Before researching, she said she knew the main plaintiff was Alexandria’s French Corner Café in Alexandria, but she found something she was not expecting: a connection to the College.

“In that Virginia Supreme Court Case, one of the plaintiffs was the William and Mary Gay and Lesbian Alumni Association, so GALA, and we See MATTACHINE page 4

Inside Sports

Inside Opinions

The disastrous housing waitlist system

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“We live in a state that has a long and rich history of discrimination and oppression, not just in terms of race, but also in terms of gender and sexual

Hayley Snowden ’19 discusses the strenuous and unnecessarily stressful process of acquiring housing at the College. page 5

Investigating infamy

Flat Hat Sports looks back on the 1951 William and Mary athletics scandal. page 10

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The Flat Hat | Tuesday, April 5, 2016 | Page 2

THE BUZZ

In our own personal experience, the most fundamental thing we want is to be happy, and not have suffering.

— Lama Chodron Linda Jordan on the role of compassion in Buddhism

Thinking outside the VOX

Taylor Medley ’17 plans on being abortion provider, midwife The Flat Hat

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Page 2 Spotlight

SARAH SMITH // FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR

Activism and participation in social justice organizations may be common activities for some students at the College of William and Mary, but for Taylor Medley ’17, her work as an activist and advocate for reproductive and birth justice has been defining.

Growing up in a mostly conservative community, Medley said she had very little access to information about the pro-choice movement, but distinctly remembers the first time she began questioning what she was taught as a child.

“One time my mom and I were driving by the local Planned Parenthood clinic, which I had always sort of known was there but hadn’t thought of much, and I saw protestors yelling outside,” Medley said. “I remember asking my mom ‘Why would they do that?’ and she said that it was wrong but we didn’t talk about it much. It just made me so viscerally angry.

That’s when I really started questioning what I had learned.”

In high school, Medley and her friends sought out feminist-friendly spaces, but were turned down by the school. Their attempt at starting a gay-straight alliance was shot down, and, when they hung up posters once, each one was almost immediately torn down.

That’s why, when she moved into the College, she immediately joined VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood. During her first year, she increased her involvement with the organization, and she went to the Richmond Planned Parenthood one weekend to work as a clinic defense escort, helping patients get inside the clinic safely.

“The first time I really realized that I had to do more was when the current VOX president at the time organized for us to do clinic defense,” Medley said. “Everything really came together then. I was nervous, and it was terrifying. People were very vocal and screaming at us and at the clinic. We are nonconfrontational in that role, which means we can’t engage with the protestors. Toward the end of the day, I saw a woman trying to climb up the steps to a door that wasn’t the real entrance, and protestors swarmed her and just started praying around her. I was looking around for help, and I didn’t really know what to do. All of a sudden I just reached her and got her arm and asked her if she wanted to be there, and she was just sobbing, so I asked the protestors to leave her alone and got her inside safely.”

As Medley talked with the patient, the woman confided that she had felt too scared to say no the protestors who had swarmed her.

That was when Medley said she realized that the anti-choice movement regularly shamed women seeking care at medical centers that provide abortions. This pushed her to become more involved and to make use of any opportunity she had through VOX. Medley now serves as president of VOX. On campus, she is also a member of the lead advisory board for the Haven. Her work there helps to create a safe space for volunteers who support survivors, and she facilitates small groups for them to discuss their advocacy. She also serves as a regular volunteer at the Haven.

Additionally, she is a member of Health Outreach Peer Educators. Through HOPE, she plans and helps write the script for First Year Initiative conversations on consent, bystander intervention and healthy relationships.

This month, the Healthy Relationships and Sexual Violence branch of HOPE is helping

POLICE BEAT

organize events for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. HOPE is focusing on supporting survivors by creating a visible community of supporters and hosting events like Take Back the Night, a walk to raise awareness on sexual assault, and a class called “How to Support a Survivor.,” for friends of survivors.

“The biggest thing I have learned through these organizations is that there are people from all different experiences and backgrounds,” Medley said. “I think it is so important to listen to their stories and hear why they’re involved with these organizations. I’ve really learned how to listen to their experiences and integrate those experiences into events and outreach, to really see how things fit in. I think that people’s experiences are more important than theory.”

Medley’s academic pursuits relate to her passion for activism as well. She is a gender, sexuality and women’s studies major and part of the public health program. When she first came to the College, she planned to study marine biology. Although she says she still has a passion for environmental justice, the intersection of her passions in health and feminism led her to the GSWS and public health programs.

Through her involvement with VOX, she has connected with reproductive and birth justice opportunities off-campus to help her further pursue her passions. She interned for NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia last summer and plans to work with them and Planned Parenthood again this coming summer. Over spring break, she participated in a Branch Out program at the Fan Free Clinic in Richmond.

During this alternative break trip, she worked with LGBTQ, homeless and incarcerated communities and their health, especially as it pertained to addiction and HIV/AIDS. Most recently, Medley had the opportunity to present a speech about what Planned Parenthood meant to her at Governor Terry McAuliffe’s signing of the veto for HB 1090, which would have prohibited the Department of Health from spending any funds on abortion or clinics in the state and specifically targeted Planned Parenthood clinics in Virginia if passed.

“It was very last minute,” Medley said. “The night before I got a call inviting me to go to the veto signing the next morning, and I was informed that the patient speaker, for whatever reason, didn’t want to speak anymore, so I was invited to prepare a few words on what Planned Parenthood meant to me since I’ve been involved as a patient, volunteer and intern. I could present a holistic view since I’ve been there in different capacities. I was nervous because I hate public speaking, but I thought that I would just speak to the citizens and volunteers before the governor came into the room.”

The morning of the veto signing, Medley was informed that instead, the CEO of Planned Parenthood’s Richmond location would introduce the governor, who would then introduce her. Medley said she was so nervous, but knew it was something she wanted to do.

“Governor McAuliffe was introduced and he said why he was vetoing HB 1090 and then he introduced me and said, ‘Here’s Taylor Medley, a student at the College of William and Mary,’ and I was star-struck,” Medley said.

“So I shared my story, and he moved to his discuss where he signs bills and he normally signs with two pens. So he capped one pen

and gave it to the CEO, and then he capped the second and handed it to me. It was really amazing. Afterwards I did like ten interviews with local news stations, and it was all a blur. It was so exciting seeing him sign the veto.”

Continuing her work with Planned Parenthood, Medley will travel to a national summit in Pittsburgh in May where she will learn how to do organize communities to empower them. According to her, these lessons are important because of the high number of anti-choice legislation introduced this year and the high levels of violence against abortion providers.

After graduating, she plans on going to graduate school to become a Certified Nurse Midwife to help promote birth justice. Through her work with Planned Parenthood, she also hopes to become certified in providing first trimester abortions. In the meantime, she is in the process of completing her doula certification. A doula is someone trained to assist a midwife who can help with special massages for women in labor.

Although the profession can be mentally taxing and even, on occasion, dangerous, Medley said it is important to her to push past her fears and work in the field.

“I try not to think about the fear,” Medley said. “Hopefully we’re moving a point to where this will no longer be an issue.”

Medley said that her time at the College has taught her that it is possible for her to reach some of her bigger dreams and has helped shaped her journey to become a midwife.

“Being in this atmosphere where students, professors and staff are supportive shows me that I don’t always have to play it safe,” Medley said. “I have learned that I can do more than I thought I could. I kept doubting myself. When I realized I wanted to be a midwife I thought it was too late because I hadn’t taken intro biology yet, and I didn’t really want to take intro biology. I talked to my friends and my amazing advisor Jenni Putzi, and they told me it wasn’t a far off idea. I started working towards that and they supported me. They taught me to reach for these big dreams.”

COURTESY PHOTO / TAYLOR MEDLEY Taylor Medley ‘17 watches Governor McAuliffe veto HB 1090.

Apr. 1-3 1

Friday, Apr. 1 — An individual was arrested for possession of marijuana on Richmond Road.

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Saturday, Apr. 2— An individual was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol on Richmond Road.

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Saturday, Apr. 2— An individual was arrested for larceny on Scotland Street.

The Flat Hat

Tuesday, April 5, 2015

Page 3

CAMPUS

For the Bold campaign reaches $550 million College aims to increase alumni participation rate to 30 percent by June 30 EMILY MARTELL FLAT HAT CHIEF STAFF WRITER

According to Dec. 2015 numbers, For the Bold: The Campaign for William and Mary has $550 million of its $1 billion goal. The campaign had raised $532 million by the start of its Oct. 22 campaign, surpassing the final total of the College of William and Mary’s largest previous fundraising campaign.

Now five months into the campaign, the College is working to reach their campaign goal by 2020. However, For the Bold’s goal includes more than attaining a billion dollars; the College also seeks to achieve a 40 percent alumni participation rate. By the end of Fiscal Year 2016 on June 30, the College aims to raise this statistic

from 27.1 percent to 30 percent. With approximately 63,000 undergraduate alumni, raising the participation rate a percentage point would require donations or pledges from 630 alumni.

According to Assistant Vice President for Lifetime Philanthropic Engagement and Annual Giving Dan Frezza, as the alumni participation rate increases, the College must be more innovative to reach new donors. He said that one key component of that is the Class Ambassador model, where volunteers reach out to ten of their classmates and encourage them to give to the College.

“It gives an opportunity for volunteers to come back to the College to learn about philanthropy, learn about the impact of philanthropy, build the tools and conversation to carry on

that conversation to their classmates and see the impact come full circle when those classmates make gifts,” Frezza said.

Frezza noted what is most important is building a culture of sustainable giving.

According to Vice President for University Advancement Matthew Lambert ’99, the College has already recruited over 600 volunteers to serve as class ambassadors and seeks to reach 1,000 by the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

“That’s pretty innovative,” Lambert said. “If you look around the country right now there’s only a very small amount of places that have anything like that and really the places like that that are most successful are Princeton

and Dartmouth.”

The College also aims to recruit some of its closest scholars to donate — current students.

The Class of 2016 is currently at a 40.6 percent participation rate, which means that the College is right on track to raise the figure to 70 percent

by June 30, according to Lambert. The College also seeks to raise freshman, sophomore and junior class giving to 25 percent. Right now, about 10 percent of students in each class have donated.

In a Feb. 26 campaign release to students, College President Taylor Reveley discussed the need for philanthropy.

He noted that a low student to faculty ratio, emphasis on undergraduate research and small student body

provides for an expensive model.

“The bottom line is we cannot maintain our current quality much less continue to move forward without ever growing philanthropic support,” Reveley said.

To attract new donors, the College has some upcoming events, including the third annual One Tribe One Day event.

During global events, the College will undergo a 24-hour challenge encouraging alumni, students and supporters to give back April 19. Back on campus, Students for University of Advancement will put together a carnival on the Sunken Garden.

The next quarterly release of For the Bold numbers will be available soon, in early April.

College aims to increase financial aid for students

More than twice as many in-state as out-of-state students receive Pell Grants PELL from page 1

financial need in grants.

There is a considerable spread between the percentage of in-state and out-of-state students at the College who receive Pell Grants.

While in-state students account for approximately 15 percent of Pell recipients, the figure drops to 6 percent for out-of-state students.

“

I remember that when I first came to college here, I thought that I had gotten in because I was black and poor.

— Christine Fulgham ‘17

According to Wolfe, this discrepancy is due to the College’s inability to meet full financial need for out-of-state students.

Expanding financial aid capabilities, including to out-of-state students, is a priority for the College’s billion-dollar For the Bold campaign.

By 2020, the College seeks to raise $350 million in scholarship money. Center for Student Diversity Director Vernon Hurte noted this funding is critical in providing students from low-income backgrounds access to the College.

“As I’ve spoken to many students and families over the years, it is clear to me that many are attracted to what William & Mary has to offer; however, it often comes down to affordability,” Hurte said in an email. “This campaign will be a major part of making William & Mary more accessible to students from low-income backgrounds.

We never want a student’s decision to not attend William & Mary be based on their inability to afford to come.”

The challenges for low-income students, however, do not end after enrollment. Students at a William and Mary Scholars Undergraduate Research Experience seminar noted feeling conflicted about their ability to succeed at the College.

Christine Fulgham ’17 is one of these students.

“I remember that when I first came to college here, I thought that

I had gotten in because I was black and poor,” Fulgham said. “I was very convinced that I was only accepted into college because I was black and poor and I didn’t have the qualifications to be here.”

After voicing these concerns, Fulgham’s professors assured her that she belonged and would succeed. Fulgham is now an Honors Fellow at WMSURE. Established in 2010, WMSURE is a faculty-led program that provides resources in undergraduate research to students who have overcome significant adversity or are members of underrepresented groups on campus.

Students in the program have the opportunity to participate in workshops, receive advising and conduct research on campus year round.

“How many of you are the first one in your family to go to college?” co-director of WMSURE and English, linguistics and Africana studies professor Anne Charity Hudley asked at a WMSURE workshop.

Most hands of the students sitting at the computers in Earl Gregg Swem Library’s Dulin Learning Center went up.

Hudley was a first-generation college student herself. Now a tenured professor, Hudley said she ultimately co-directs WMSURE because she simply believes it should exist.

“I know sometimes people do a lot of argumentation — oh, diversity adds to the richness of thought, the values in the class,” Hudley said. “Have you heard that? That’s legit, but I think on this campus sometimes, we don’t say enough — you just deserve to be here.”

Hudley called the College’s Pell Grant news a “catastrophe.”

Hudley, however, said she was pleased with the level of faculty support she has received thus far for WMSURE. At a recent WMSURE faculty workshop Hudley held, the room was full of professors, most of whom she had never met before.

Although the College hopes to improve the 12 percent Pell Grant statistic, Wolfe noted that there are limitations to defining socioeconomic diversity solely through the proportion of students receiving Pell Grants.

“It is based on a specific federal formula that lacks the more thorough assessment of financial need conducted by our Financial Aid staff,” Wolfe said in an email. “As a result, there are students enrolled at William & Mary who might miss qualifying for Pell Grant eligibility, but who still have significant financial need met through university resources.”

According to Wolfe, one issue the College has in increasing representation of low-income students is the small size of the potential applicant pool. Out of 88,000 SAT test takers in 2015, less than one percent of students who scored a 1200 or higher on a combined reading and math score reported a household income of

40,000 dollars or lower.

Attracting more of these high performing low-income students will require more money for financial aid.

According to Financial Aid Office Director Ed Irish, at the College, out of the 35 percent of undergraduates who receive need-based financial aid, 32 percent of them are also Pell Grant recipients.

“We’ll need significant additional grant funds in order to provide more competitive need-based financial aid packages for out-ofstate students,” Irish said.

For the Bold prioritizes this goal. Although she acknowledged the importance of raising scholarship money, WMSURE undergraduate fellow Ebony Lambert ’16 noted feeling uncomfortable about the festivities surrounding the campaign.

A Pell Grant recipient and first-generation college student, Lambert said money has always been a problem for her family.

Growing up in Richmond a few blocks away from neighborhoods she described as “really terrible,” Lambert said she learned to make do with the resources she had.

“When the tent went up for homecoming, for the campaign launch, I was just looking at this thing like this thing is probably worth more than my entire family has ever made,” Lambert said.

Providing scholarship money for low-income students alone is not enough, Lambert said.

From her own community at home, Lambert observed that several of her qualified classmates in high school did not apply to the College because they felt their physical appearance, background or socioeconomic status would make them outsiders.

In order to make an environment more welcoming to low-income students, Lambert said that the College needs to provide better services, not only financially, but also socially and academically. For her, WMSURE was one such program that helped her gain access to research and a supportive community.

At the Center for Student Diversity, Hurte pointed to two other transition programs for this purpose: Preparing for Life as a University Student and the SPAN Peer Mentoring Program.

Although neither are specifically for low-income students, both are designed to support under-served and underrepresented students at the College.

Ultimately, Hurte said that every student admitted to the College belongs at the College.

“William [and] Mary admits the best and brightest from around the world, some of which just happen to be students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, etc.,” Hurte said in an email. “The facts speak for themselves. Every student admitted to William & Mary comes with records of incredible academic and leadership achievement. Period.”

Racial discrepancies in work environment apparent in responses Results of survey show African American staff more likely to find College unfavorable workplace, report negative treatment SURVEY from page 1

dining staff are African American.

Poma said his office is committed to bringing attention to affirmative action and recruiting efforts of staff and faculty.

“We want to be of help to the task force without getting ahead of the important work they’re doing now,” Poma said.

According to the Office of Student Diversity student coordinator Pallavi Rudraraju ’17, diverse faculty members are important to students.

“When you do not see diversity in Poma faculty, you don’t see a high diversity in students,” Rudraraju ’17 said. “[Diversity] increases your chances of learning — if there’s not greater diversity of experiences in a classroom, students will not question these normalized problems.”

Additionally, Rudraraju discussed the importance of representation, particularly among professors.

“Representation … is important,” Rudraraju said. “When you see people like you in positions of power or leadership, it makes you feel like you can fit in that space as well.”

The survey also brought attention to upward professional mobility and pay concerns.

Only one-third of employees favorably rated their opportunity for advancement, and less than one-third of employees favorably rated their pay.

Poma said that these responses are an opportunity for improvement across all employee groups, and that Human Resources can make a positive impact on these responses through training and education programs.

In terms of Title IX and discrimination training, the College scored much better than in other areas.

98 percent of employees responded that they had a good understanding of what discrimination constituted and over 90 percent responded that they knew how to report any discrimination problems they were having.

Deputy Compliance Officer Pamela Mason said that she was satisfied with the results in those areas.

“We wanted people to know how, where, and what to report,” Mason said. “I was pleasantly surprised.”

The response rate for the survey, administered anonymously, was 71 percent, which was significantly higher than 2010’s 46 percent response rate.

Poma attributed this rise in response rate to the use of the third party organization and the guaranteed anonymity of the respondents. Poma said he was pleased with this increase.

According to Poma, one of the important changes to the survey was that Gelfond ensures complete anonymity.

Poma said that when people felt their jobs were secure they could be candid.

Another change in the survey from previous years was the inclusion of instructional faculty.

Employee engagement will continue to be an

6% 90% 96%

important part of the OHR’s strategy for improving the climate of working at the College.

Programs will include a “Get to Know You” program wherein randomly selected employees will be able to meet with Poma once a month, as well as the implementation of a feedback mechanism on the Human Resources webpage for suggestions or advice about issues in the workplace.

“The climate survey is an important part of making this school not only a Public Ivy, but also one of the best places to work,” Poma said.

Six percent of college employees said they found the college an unfavorable place to work. The number among black respondents was 9 percent.

90 percent of college employees said that they knew how to report discrimination problems they faced at work.

96 percent of college employees said that they had a good understanding of what discrimination constituted

The Flat Hat

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Page 4

STUDENT LIFE

Religious leaders talk compassion in panel Compassion Action Board hosts five leaders from different religious groups NATE WAHRENBERGER FLAT HAT ASSOC. NEWS EDITOR

Leaders from five different faith traditions met to discuss the role of compassion in their spiritual practices Sunday, April 3. The Compassion Action Board, i-Faith and the Wesley Foundation organized the event, which was housed in the Commonwealth Auditorium.

Representatives from the Compassion Action Board Matt Lentini ’16, Reaa Chadha ’16 and advisor Leslie Revilock opened the event by welcoming the five speakers. College of William and Mary President Taylor Reveley then gave opening remarks, in which he stressed the importance of compassion and empathy in the modern world.

The speakers each gave a 20-minute presentation outlining the role of compassion in their respective religions.

Lama Chodron Linda Jordan, a teacher of the Karma Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism in Richmond, spoke first on the role compassion plays in Tibetan Buddhism.

Due to transportation issues, Jordan gave her presentation via Skype. She described compassion as central to the ethics and spirituality of Buddhism.

“In our own personal experience, the most fundamental thing we want is to be happy, and not to have suffering,” Jordan said. “And we recognize that every other person in the world wants these just like we do.”

The next speech came from Swami Gananath-

amrit-ananda (Swami Ji), a Hindu Priest and Spiritual Director of the Soma Matha Organization in Richmond.

Swami Ji began his presentation with a prayer. In his speech, he described Hinduism as a “monism” rather than as a monotheistic or polytheistic religion. Hinduism, according to him, holds that all god is in all things, and that this belief results in an attitude of compassion toward all things.

Imam Rachid Khould spoke next on the centrality of compassion in Islam. According to Khould, the true concept of “Jihad” does not involve military struggle, but rather the spiritual struggle to act with compassion rather than with selfishness. He also said that Arabic Jews, Christians and Muslims all use the same word for God and can be understood to worship the same God. “‘Jihad,’ in Arabic, in the Islamic teaching, is the struggle within,” Khould said. “It is this constant struggle within us all the time. Can we be kind all the time? Let’s be honest. We all lose our temper. We all forget about the neighbor. All religions … teach us that we have an obligation to think of the other.”

Williamsburg Baptist Church’s senior pastor, the Rev. Daniel Wilson spoke next about the current struggle to follow Christianity’s teachings on compassion, citing the ongoing presidential race.

He described his upbringing as a Christian fundamentalist and his journey to progressive Christianity. Wilson said that Christianity, as the

world’s majority religion, needs to focus on being a force of compassion rather than oppression.

“The rise of evangelical support for Donald Trump reveals, quite visibly, I would argue, the dearth of compassion among American Christians,” Wilson said.

Finally, Rabbi Ellen Jaffe-Gill talked about the importance of compassion in Jewish law.

She emphasized the many requirements in the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud that stress compassion toward animals. Additionally, she said she was shocked by the lack of compassion

shown by the state of Israel in its military occupation of Palestine.

Although there was little time left in the twohour period for the question and answer session after the speakers finished presenting, one audience member asked the speakers about their thoughts on theodicy, or the ways they reconcile the goodness of God with the suffering in the world. This question sparked a brief discussion about the nature of evil in the world.

About 30 people attended the event, many of whom were not College students.

COURTESY PHOTO / WM.EDU

Five leaders from different faith traditions met Sunday to discuss the role compassion plays in each of their religions.

Administrators issue no-contact orders under Title IX Students seeking protection receive unilateral, bilateral protection against their alleged offenders NO-CONTACT from page 1

to wait until the Title IX investigators met and decided whether they would pursue an investigation.

“I was convinced — or they tried to convince me — that I would be safe in those, what I assumed was going to be 48 hours, but I was very scared for those 48 hours,” the junior said. “I wanted the school to place a no-contact order before he was made aware that I had placed a criminal report against him.”

The College’s Title IX Coordinator Kiersten Boyce said that nocontact orders can be granted the same day, but more often take longer.

No-contact orders do not only apply to Title IX cases, and a student does not have to open an investigation in order to gain protection.

“It seems we’re having an uptick in requests for [no-contact orders] but we don’t always grant them,” Gilbert said. “I try to discern someone who is uncomfortable versus someone who feels threatened and sometimes when a student first presents themselves they use the word of ‘threat,’ but as we tease it apart we actually hear, ‘I’m uncomfortable interacting with this person.’”

Another junior at the College who wished to remain anonymous said that she was in a long-term, abusive relationship that ended poorly and pursued a no-contact order against her ex-boyfriend when he wouldn’t leave her alone, but did not open an investigation.

She said the Dean of Students office denied her request because there wasn’t enough evidence that he was a threat to her. She said that now she feels like she has to act like nothing is wrong and still

say hi to him.

“Because I was denied I just had to take personal steps to ensure my own safety,” this junior said. “So I started taking measures through my own daily routine — taking long detours to class, avoiding places where I used to study because he would just be there studying and, you know, TWAMPs like to study where they like to study.”

Abbey Childs ’17 and Francesca Maestas ’17, co-founders of the 16(IX)3 project, opened their Title IX investigations last fall along with a third friend at the same time — all against the same student.

Maestas said that once the three got together and realized that they all had incidents with the same student, they decided to report and stop his pattern of behavior.

“None of us felt particularly good about how he would react to being notified of this,” Childs said. “They asked us a couple of times, ‘Do you feel safe, do you feel threatened if he remains on campus?’ and I think the overwhelming answer was no, we don’t feel safe having him on campus.”

All three were granted unilateral no-contact orders at the beginning of the investigation.

Unilateral no-contact orders are a one-way street; the respondent cannot contact the person filing the order, but that does not apply the other way around. This means that if the reporting party is studying on campus somewhere and the respondent walks in, the respondent must then leave.

The other kind of order is bilateral, where all rules apply to both parties. This one operates under a first-come, first-serve basis.

Whichever party is at a location first has the right to be there, and

whichever came second must leave.

Boyce said that while the orders don’t have a specific expiration date, their terms are often revisited, including almost always at the end of an investigation.

“If there is a finding of responsibility … that could be a situation where it could be appropriate to have the unilateral stay in effect or go into effect if it weren’t already,” Boyce said. “By contrast, we have had cases where the case concludes, the dean did not find a preponderance of the evidence of a violation, … it would be difficult to keep a unilateral in place in that kind of situation.”

That is what happened in Childs’ case. The respondent was found responsible for Maestas’ case, but not in that of Childs. While Maestas’ unilateral no-contact order stands, Childs’ transitioned to a bilateral one.

“There are a lot of feelings when you go through that process and you get that kind of decision back — ‘We don’t see what you see,’ basically,” Childs said. “That, compounded with ‘By the way, don’t talk to him,’ was this sense of ‘We don’t trust you, we don’t trust what you say and we don’t trust your ability to control yourself.’”

Within Title IX, Boyce said they try to treat all parties equally although in reality, one is being investigated for a violation and the other is not, so they are in different positions.

“A bilateral is a great example of that, it sounds very fair — ‘She’s not going to talk to you and you’re not going to talk to her, everything is equal,’” Boyce said. “Well, wait a minute, they are not in exactly the same situation and this could result in some significant burdens on someone; and is it just fair if it falls to whoever was there second?”

Student researchers highlight Virginia’s LGBTIQ histories

Project uncovers primary sources detailing pasts of lesbian, gay citizens MATTACHINE from page 1

didn’t know that — nobody knew that,” Medley said.

Another student, Ming Siegel ’17, conducted research on the politics of various LGBTIQ issues in Virginia throughout the state’s history.

To delve into the major issues for

some of the research she did, Siegel not even need to leave the College’s campus.

In Earl Gregg Swem Library’s Special Collections, she was able to look through stacks of former College President Timothy Sullivan’s correspondences and she unearthed information about his attitude toward LGBTIQ faculty

during his time as president.

In the early 1990s, the Faculty Assembly passed a resolution to allow employee benefits to extend to the partners of gay and lesbian faculty members in the same way they extended to the partners of straight faculty members.

However, an examination of

TUCKER HIGGINS/ THE FLAT HAT

Students and faculty involved in the Mattachine Project hope to incorporate the Project’s research into COLL 150 and COLL 300 courses at the College.

his letters to different groups and individuals revealed that Sullivan was strongly against the measure proposed by the Faculty Assembly.

“He was very adamant in his correspondence with faculty members, staff, alumni, current students, parents of students and several members of the General Assembly that this was not the position of the college,” Siegel said.

Employee benefits were ultimately not extended to the partners of gay and lesbian faculty until after Sullivan left the presidency.

Although Swem can be an important and helpful resource to students doing research into the College’s history, American studies and history professor Leisa Meyer said she expects further, more thorough research in Richmond and at the College.

Additionally, she seeks to expand the project geographically to other areas close to the College, such as Norfolk, in the future.

Noting the possibility of expanding the William and Mary Mattachine LGBTIQ Research Project formally into the College’s academic curriculum, Meyer cited the new COLL system as a potential home.

“The COLL 150, the COLL 300, these seem tailor-made for a project like this that would enable both research

to be done and energetic groups of undergraduates who are very interested in this research to do it and to get credit for it,” Meyer said.

After just one semester’s work on the project, Huebenthal said he was impressed by how much the William and Mary Mattachine LGBTIQ Research Project was able to complete since beginning research only 10 weeks beforehand.

“Just looking at how far we’ve been able to come and looking at the amount of work the students have been able to put in, to dedicate to the project, it’s really quite remarkable and I think heralds great things to come,” Huebenthal said.

Primary sources found and used by the team members in the project include documents from Swem Special Collections, materials from the Virginia Historical Society, documents from Virginia Commonwealth University’s Special Collections and materials from a field trip to the Library of Virginia.

These resources are currently available on the College’s Blackboard site and accessible to everyone with College login information.

The materials will eventually be available on the William and Mary Mattachine LGBTIQ Research Project’s website.

opinions

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

The Flat Hat | Tuesday, April 5, 2016 | Page 6

GUEST COLUMN

Invisible and homeless

Kaitlyn Bowan

FLAT HAT GUEST COLUMNIST

GRAPHIC BY KRISTIE TURKAL / THE FLAT HAT

GUEST COLUMN

The disastrous housing waitlist system

Hayley Snowden

FLAT HAT GUEST COLUMNIST

You’ve just gotten into the college of your dreams, the famous College of William and Mary. You’ve been dreaming for months of tripping on the same bricks over which countless others before you have deigned to trip.

In preparation, you do a handful of Google searches on various brands of squirrel repellant. Subtly, you begin to phase green and gold into your wardrobe. Your parents are ecstatic; your friends are proud. It would seem that the only uncertainty remaining is who your new friends will be — especially, who you’ll live with.

Then life throws you another surprise. You come to find that the stranger you Facebook-stalked (i.e. your current roommate) is everything the college advice books warned you not to hope for: your best friend, your future Maid of Honor/Best Man and the one person who will traipse two miles across campus in the dark to look for your missing bag of Student Exchange oatmeal.

You have a fantastic first year together. You both acknowledge that the level of friendship you’ve attained is the stuff of legend. It doesn’t take long for you to start dreaming about your four-year roommate lunch with President Reveley and to begin making plans for next year’s dorm décor.

Then, room selection begins. You and your platonic other half excitedly begin discussing escaping the horror that is freshman living. You scour the pages of upperclassmen housing, subject yourselves to hosts of uninspired Res Life videos, tour a few of the dorms and accidentally trespass in a few bathrooms of the opposite sex.

Then, you get an email.

The email regretfully informs you that, although you have complied with every dictum of the housing process, you have been randomly selected to be waitlisted. Feeling nauseous, you hope that the situation isn’t as bad as it appears. There must be a way to stay with your roommate, right?

Wrong.

You come to find that your amazing luck until this point has finally run its course. Not only will you be forcibly separated from your roommate, but you will also be unable to participate in the housing selection process. You were one of 79 students in 2016 left wondering what just happened — a number Res Life finds much easier to swallow than the upward of 400 students seen in years past.

You immediately schedule meetings with every authority you can. “This can’t be happening,” you lament.

“But, alas,” they assure you, “it can.”

They inform you that, though you’ve done nothing wrong, it’s just the way the system works. Due to the uncertainties for many in the housing process at this time of year, the College has more interested students than space in which to house them.

Unfortunately for you, who happened to have a solidified plan, the odds were not in your favor.

As you meet with the various authorities, you realize the administration did not put one iota of effort into determining who already had roommate groups and who did not. To you, this seems nonsensical. But maybe you’re biased.

Again and again, you are encouraged to “hope for the best” and “have a second plan or two.”

You are assured that because this misfortune fell upon you this year, you are safeguarded from the same scenario in every future housing selection process.

The fine print tells you that your roommate, however, will not be safe, leaving you prone to the whole debacle should the issue arise again.

The recurring script is that Res Life hates this time of year, as they recognize the strain it puts on students and their families.

Students on the waitlist are left to wonder, “Then why don’t you fix it?”

Though such a problem may fly under the radar for most students on campus, it is undoubtedly one worth examining.

This writer urges the administration to reform their housing process in the future so as to prevent the unethical cycle from continuing.

As the close of the second semester draws near, for many on campus, it seems that the college whose unofficial motto is “I can’t, I need to study,” may need to change their catchphrase to “Don’t get too attached.”

Email Hayley Snowden at hayleysnowden@gmail. com.

“

The administration did not put one iota of effort into determining who already had roommate groups and who did not.

This might be a bit biased, but I think students at the College of William and Mary are pretty great. We strive to be a presence both within the College as a student body and within the community as responsible citizens. We have, however, fallen a bit short in an important area.

We often think of Williamsburg as “old” and “monied” — whether these adjectives are used together or separately — but we rarely consider the Colonial Capital’s relationship with poverty and homelessness. In Virginia, the overall percentage of people living below the poverty line is 11.3 percent. In Newport News, the rate bumps up to 15.2 percent. According to the U.S. Census, the poverty rate in the City of Williamsburg is a distressing 20.5 percent.

Unsurprisingly, the largest employment industry in Williamsburg is tourism. The hourly living wage in Williamsburg for one adult is $12.76, or, by my calculations, around $26,500 annually. With annual housing costs at $10,956, this seems feasible. But, when further calculating typical expenses of a Williamsburg resident, the required annual income before taxes for a single adult is $26,550. Not to mention that this figure jumps to $50,423 when a single adult resident changes to a single adult and one dependent.

These high living wages are disheartening when we consider that the

“

The invisibility of this community’s homelessness epidemic is something we should want to change. lowest typical annual salary is that of food preparation and serving-related occupations, which is around $19,400. Personal care service occupations follow with an annual salary of $20,470, and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance then have $22,360. None of those occupations — occupations we see on this campus every day — provide enough to live on here in Williamsburg. Furthermore, average fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,200 per month, about $2,000 more than the average annual housing cost of one adult in Williamsburg. These earnings are hardly enough to live comfortably.

I was completely unaware of these numbers, and that concerns me. In this place that I call home eight months a year, I had no idea how many community members — my neighbors — are living with less than any human being should.

I was surprised that at least 14 motels near the College hold residents who could benefit from food assistance.

Why is this so surprising? Why aren’t we doing more to change it? The invisibility of this community’s homelessness epidemic is something we should want to change. Not just because we’re becoming responsible adults who care about our community, but also because we’re humans, and they are, too.

Last spring, two students from the College decided to examine the nature and scale of poverty in Williamsburg. When they did, they were overwhelmed by what they found, and they felt compelled to respond. Their response has grown into Greater City: a coalition of students prayerfully fostering genuine friendships with precariously housed residents of local motels (they provide warm meals, too). Greater City wants to share the love of Christ with every part of the Williamsburg community, especially the poor, marginalized and oftenoverlooked. Greater City is working to build the relational support network that these neighbors are lacking.

During their first visit to a local motel, students from Greater City met Farid, a single dad living in a motel room with three children, all early middle school or late elementary school age. The room had one bed.

Though Farid refused to talk with the two students or accept meals for his children during that first visit, he was surprised by the students’ persistence in visiting. In time, he opened his life to them. Every week, students from GC would spend an hour talking with Farid and playing in the parking lot with his kids.

Farid desperately wanted to provide his kids with a better home, and he received an answer to that prayer a few months after meeting the students from GC. When he settled into his new apartment, Farid did not hesitate to invite his friends from GC over to celebrate.

This is more than simply our “civic duty.” This is our human duty.

Williamsburg provides us with a great education, fantastic career opportunities and an environment where we can have engaging, challenging dialogue on any issue. We’re all excited about going out and changing the world, but maybe we should start with our home.

Email Kaitlyn Bowman and Greater City at greatercity@email.wm.edu.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

COURTESY PHOTO / WIKIMEDIA

It is with excitement that I write to The Flat Hat regarding Benny Zhang’s candidacy for Williamsburg City Council. When I met Benny my freshman year, I was struck by his character and integrity. He garners the respect of individuals of all ages; students at William and Mary see him as a passionate leader, and local citizens view Benny as a reasonable and reliable member of the community.

The College of William and Mary and the city of Williamsburg go hand-in-hand; you cannot have one without the other. The relationship

between the two deserves to flourish in order to benefit each of its community members, students and residents alike. The students need the embracing community of the City of Williamsburg to thrive, and the city itself benefits from the tourism and livelihood that students and their families bring to the area. This mutual relationship, however, has room to grow.

Looking back on my time here at William and Mary, I realize that it was not until recently that I fully realized the importance of the partnership between the City of Williamsburg

and the College. As an Orientation Area Director passionate about fully integrating new students into the community, I feel that having a student leader such as Benny involved in local government is absolutely critical in forging the bond and mutual respect between our students and our city. Benny Zhang embodies the good neighbor as someone who cares deeply about the community and those within it. This is why I am proud to support his candidacy for Williamsburg City Council.

Email Elizabeth Marcello ‘17 at emmarcello@email.wm.edu.

The Flat Hat

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Page 6

FROM THE WEB

Fighting senioritis

Annie Curran FLAT HAT BLOGGER

When I was in high school, my hilarious history teacher Mr. York frequently joked that he wanted to start the Apathy Club. In his words, it would be a club, “where seniors would be encouraged to apply … although they won’t.” While it would always make us laugh, in a not so subtle way, Mr. York was conveying the indifference he had witnessed among the senior class year after year, especially when it came to joining new activities.

Four years later, I have witnessed a similar apathy among my senior peers. To be fair, I am guilty of it myself. After three active years on campus, it’s nice that my extracurricular commitments are winding down, so I completely understand why seniors are not jumping at the opportunity to join new clubs. However, this blog serves to argue that it is not too late to do something completely new — even in second semester.

This year, I served on the Leadership Committee for the 2016 W&M Global Film Festival. Now that it’s been a couple of weeks since

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GRAPHIC BY KRISTIE TURKAL / THE FLAT HAT

It is not too late to do something completely new — even in second semester. the festival ended, the distance has provided me with the clarity of understanding that the GFF will be one of the most formative experiences of my college career. And I only just got involved in the making of the festival this year.

My journey with the festival has been from the outside in. My freshman year, an English professor offered extra credit to volunteer for one night. I worked as a “bouncer” at the party tent and then immediately left when my shift was done. But I remember thinking that everyone looked like they were having an incredible time.

Therefore, my sophomore year, I enrolled in a 1-credit class where I had to attend a certain amount of films during the weekend. As an attendee, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience, but I envied the students running around in the STAFF t-shirts because it looked like they were thoroughly enjoying the work.

In my junior year, after I studied abroad for the summer in Galway, Ireland, I was involved with making a feature-length documentary about the experience. The documentary was going to premiere during the 2015 GFF. Therefore, I went from being a patron to a filmmaker, which provided me with yet another look into the festival. It also demonstrated how one experience (in this case studying abroad) can pull you into another.

Thus, as a senior, after being a “volunteer,” patron, and filmmaker, I decided to go for it and take the class that planned the festival during the fall. I enjoyed my work so much that it sparked a new passion. As a member of the creative committee, I loved making the promotional material for our events. That passion must have shown through, because by second-semester I was pulled up to be on the leadership committee.

During this experience, I learned a lot about how I work as a leader, how to work with people of varying personalities and how to pull-off a very challenging and dynamic event. But more than that, I’ve become friends with some really amazing people that I want to stay in touch with after graduation. Of course, now my only wish is that I had gotten more involved with this activity earlier on in my college career.

Email Annie Curran at arcurran@email.wm.edu.

GUEST COLUMN

Prioritizing health over housing Lillian Waddill FLAT HAT ASSOCIATE COPY EDITOR

students after the 2015–16 academic year. The Lodges will be demolished as part of the College’s construction plan, which, among other things, marks the end of these popular cottages.

The Lodges have been a part of campus since 1947, when they were built and originally used by fraternities. In 1994, some lodges were demolished to allow for the development of Sadler Center, and another one was later converted into the Daily Grind, an on-campus coffee shop. Now, each of the Lodges is serving its last seven residents; soon the buildings will be making way for the Integrative Wellness Center.

While many people mourn the loss of the Lodges, this new center will be, in the long run, much better for the College.

The proposed IWC will cater to all aspects of student health, and will include an expanded Student Health Center, the Counseling Center and Health Promotion and Recreation offices.

This development is a significant one that will better support student health in general, and hopefully increase the availability of resources for key areas, such as mental wellness.

The Lodges, which have been a part of the College for almost 70 years, will certainly be missed, but there should be no hesitation about trading an unconventional residence option for 49 students for a comprehensive wellness facility for the entire campus.

While residents will be no longer able to enjoy the unique experience of the Lodges, and while high schoolers won’t be able to have the interesting introduction to college that I had, the time has come for the Lodges to make way for something greater that will benefit the entire student body.

Email Lillian Waddill at lcwaddill@email.wm.edu.

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One of my first experiences at the College of William and Mary was on a denim couch in Lodge 10, where I sat watching as the Lodge’s residents, including my host for the weekend, enjoyed a glass of wine with their upperclassmen friends.

“So this is college,” I thought, eyeing the seniors with admiration and the wine with trepidation.

As a naïve high school senior and prospective student, I didn’t fully appreciate the Lodges. I saw a cramped kitchen, a dingy shower and a lot of roommates. Now, as a tenant of a typical residence hall, I can see why the Lodges are some of the most popular housing options on campus. The personal cooking space, the private bathroom and the opportunity to live with six close friends are definitely perks. The living room, front porch and back patio also provide great spaces for hanging out or working with peers. The Lodges are even in an ideal, central location, nestled in the woods near Sadler Center.

Unfortunately, these benefits will not be available to Tribe

There should be no hesitation about trading an unconventional residence option for 49 students for a comprehensive wellness facility for the entire campus.

The importance of teaching online privacy at orientation

Thomas Briggs FLAT HAT ASSOCIATE OPINIONS EDITOR

Almost everyone has experienced it — the unsettling advertisement, that thing that you Googled to buy for your mom on her birthday, skirting the edge of your vision, accompanied by suggestions for different wrapping paper, birthday cards, etc. Look closely at how much and how often “the internet” (to put it collectively) infers all kinds of minutiae about our daily lives. It really is quite startling, and it raises the question — is it still possible to freely navigate the internet?

And what are the implications for students at the College who aren’t fully informed about this process?

I don’t mean to suggest any overt loss of free will. The internet is still a great place to view or do whatever one wants, for better or worse. The above question is really twofold: firstly, to what extent is the commodification of personal data used to influence our actions online? And secondly, is it still possible to be online at all and maintain any sense of privacy? The answer to both is that it depends on whether or not we know what

is happening with our data and how much of it we allow to be taken.

Data is a product. Tracking people’s online activity gives profitable insights into all types of consumer information, allowing corporations to build detailed digital profiles on potential customers. Because there are so few regulations that limit this type of profiling, corporations have every incentive to collect as much information as possible, which they use to both predict and influence every action we take online. Targeted advertisements and personalized search engine results are just two of the many ways in which our experience online is molded by forces other than our own choices. This commodification of data has led many to demand a greater degree of “informed consent” — the knowledge that a service is collecting our data should be made explicit, not hidden in a bloated terms of use agreement.

Leave it to Apple to bring a related conversation into some light. Its bout with the FBI proves that debates over online privacy extend far beyond questions of whether or not a consumer’s con-

sent is “informed.” The very existence of digital privacy is being called into question. The FBI’s demands show a desire for indiscriminate access to information on any iPhone, not just the one owned by the San Bernardino shooters. It’s one thing to treat the iPhone of a known terrorist differently than other iPhones — but why are ours being treated as if they belonged to terrorists? Does this say anything about how our government is beginning to view us, its citizens?

Walking around campus, I notice that almost everyone has a smartphone, and iPhones make up the overwhelming majority of that population. As members of one of the country’s oldest institutions, that ultimately serves the United States itself, should we be offended?

Those who are disinterested, or feel as if they have no stake in this debate, take note of this (rather extreme) example: How many times has something less-thanmarketable occurred with a phone on hand? The likely non-zero number should be cause for concern. For a period of several years, intelligence agencies had it in their capacity to remotely oper-

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If the College’s mission truly is to mold us into informed citizens and consumers, an excellent place for it to start would be with this issue of data security and online privacy.

ate your smartphone. Turning on the microphone or camera was, at any given time, a possibility. It is not unreasonable, then, to assume that beyond your location, or the websites you visit, even the content of the messages you send — beyond all of this, that every word you speak can be heard at any given moment, so long as a smartphone is nearby. I made a promise to myself to never use tired clichés, especially ones that evoke images from certain popular works of dystopia — ­ but the clichés practically write themselves. Is there any sign worse than that?

The association of freedom and privacy is nothing new, and one hardly needs to explain that these two concepts are, in many ways, dependent on one another. When our privacy is threatened, our freedom is threatened. Even so, our most basic Fourth Amendment rights are not protected by the outdated Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986.

If the College’s mission truly is to mold us into informed citizens and consumers, an excellent place for it to start would be with this issue of data security and online privacy. Even a brief session during orientation would be an improvement; if not to teach us how to be fully secure in our data, then simply to let us know that it is not, by itself, fully secure.

An even better option, as suggested by Tracy Mitrano — an academic dean at the University of Massachusetts Cybersecurity Certificate Programs — would be a GER course in information literacy. Only then could the College say it produces truly informed citizens.

Email Thomas Briggs at tdbriggs@email.wm.edu.

variety Revealing The “ReEl” Cuba

Variety Editor Sam Dreith Variety Editor Sarah Ruiz flathat.variety@gmail.com // @theflathat

The Flat Hat | Tuesday, April 5, 2016 | Page 7

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KYRA SOLOMON / THE FLAT HAT

Professor Ann Marie Stock gave her installment of the Tack Faculty lecture Series on Thursday, March 31. Stock spoke about the stereotypical notions Americans hold about Cuban culture and the impact of revolution on the film industry.

Lecture explores Cuban culture through cinema ERIN MURPHY FLAT HAT STAFF WRITER

Cigars, old cars and colorful cocktails — during her lecture March 31, Ann Marie Stock, professor of Hispanic studies and film and media studies at the College of William and Mary, named these three stereotypes as the images that first come to mind when Americans think of Cuba. The talk, “Remix and Revolution in Cuba: Screening the Island’s Transformation through Cinema,” was part of the Tack Faculty lecture series.

The island country, only 90 miles off the coast of Florida, remains a mystery to the majority of Americans, but not to Professor Stock who, over the course of three decades, has visited Cuba more than 60 times. The lecture thus began with Stock calling out the stereotypical images of Cuba held by many Americans, which she attributed to the lingering isolation between the two countries.

“So when we think of Cuba,” Stock said, “we think of two-dimensional characters in predictable plots.

We think of bombshells, often with maracas. Or we think of bearded revolutionaries.”

The stereotypes, Stock said, persist through the majority of U.S. citizens viewing Cuba as an island stuck in time. “[Americans view Cuba] as a place that’s not changing,” Stock said. “As a place that’s static. Frozen, if you will.”

According to Stock, one aspect of Cuban culture that gets overlooked is cinema. Revolutionary cinema in Cuba dates to 1959 with the establishment of a film institute under the new government of Fidel Castro. The Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos was implemented as a tool for mass communication and education.

Cinema was chosen from the beginning of the Cuban Revolution to be the mode through which revolutionary ideals and fervor would be spread.

“I remember that during those years, I went to the cinema not to see films but to become Cuban,” Stock said, quoting Cuban writer Senal Paz. Through Cuban movies, the rights of citizenship were defined, as well as the basic revolutionary beliefs held by Castro’s dictatorial government.

Parallel to the institutional efforts to continue Cuban cinema is the story of struggling Cuban filmmakers during the years under the Castro regime.

Stock explained that the evidence of their success lies in the quality and quantity of their experimental output from the early years of the revolution.

“Cuban films — and here I’m speaking of all kinds of films: newsreels, documentaries, animations, feature films; they captured the turbulent 1960’s on the island and around the world,” Stock said.

The subjects of the films produced during this year ranged from literacy achievements in Cuba to the race riots occurring in the United States.

Cuba’s film industry served as a model to other regions to develop a flourishing film tradition. The industry also kick-started the New Latin American cinema movement, as well as the third cinema movement, in which films aspired to be socially realistic in portraying life and emphasizing issues including poverty, national identity, tyranny, revolution and colonialism. The International Festival of New Latin American cinema, held annually in Havana, has been and continues to be a major center for film.

Providing a brief history of the island, Stock touched on the tumultuous years she labeled the “special period.”

“And then came 1989,” Stock said. The breakup of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War resulted in the loss of Cuba’s major trading partner and political ally, leaving the nation struggling in the midst of an economic crisis and prevalent insecurity.

“But to say that this was a pivotal year in Cuba would be an understatement,” Stock said.

Filmmaker Fernando Perez, who during this time was working on a project titled “Madagascar,” relayed to Professor Stock that every day he worked on the film he believed it to be his last day as a filmmaker.

“He said he was concerned that there wouldn’t be food to feed the crew, that there wouldn’t be gasoline to move the equipment, that there wouldn’t be electricity to charge the batteries that were needed to operate the cameras,” Stock said.

Stock recently led her students in a research trip to Cuba during the College’s Spring Break.

Cindy Centeno ’16 enrolled in Stock’s “Theories of Visual Culture” during her sophomore year and is currently a student in her “New Media Workshop.”

“This course and our trip to Cuba was lifechanging for me in terms of career paths. It solidified what it is that I want to do with my life: to travel the world, seek out the stories of people, places, cultures, social issues, etc. and share them with the rest of the world through visual media,” Centeno said.

Stock became a member of the College faculty in 1993 after completing her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota in cultural studies with an emphasis on Latin American cinema. After joining the faculty, Stock introduced film courses into the new Hispanic studies curriculum and helped found the film studies minor, which has since evolved into an interdisciplinary major.

According to Provost Michael Halleran, Stock is able to engage students in a wide array of topics under the umbrella of Film Studies and Hispanic studies.

“She does this through translating an array of texts, subtitling documentaries, filming interviews, curating exhibitions and more,” Halleran said.

Stock is also the author of four books on Cuban cinema, the most recent of which, “On Location in Cuba,” was released in Havana on Monday, April 4.

Stock was recently selected to receive funding totaling $14,000 to create a course that brought student researchers at the College to Cuba over spring break in 2016. The support for the project came from the Sharon Philpott and Marta Perez Faculty-Student Research Endowment and the Charles Center fund for spring courses.

The SPMP endowment annually funds awards to provide Hispanic studies majors with the opportunity to conduct research with support from faculty mentors. Stock is also the founder and director of Cuban Cinema Classics, an initiative that facilitates access to subtitles Cuban documentaries in the United States.

Carl and Martha Tack, both members of the class of 1998, founded the Tack Faculty lecture series to allow the College’s faculty to address the community on a topic of interest at least once per semester.

Halleran spoke briefly before Stock’s lecture, introducing the Tacks and stating the purpose of the lecture series.

“Our intellectual energy as a university comes first and foremost in the creative work of our faculty as they conduct research and lead students into greater understanding and new knowledge,” Halleran said.

“So we should not hide our light under a bushel, but rather let it shine brightly”.

Cuban films ... captured the turbulent 1960s on the island and around the world.

— Professor Ann Marie Stock

KYRA SOLOMON / THE FLAT HAT

Stock recently led a research trip to Cuba for students in her New Media Workshop during the College’s spring break.

KYRA SOLOMON / THE FLAT HAT

The Tack lectures allow the College’s faculty to address the College about a topic of interest at least once a semester.

The Flat Hat

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Page 8

One is the loneliest number

FUNNIEST

Independent student comedians carve out their own niche on campus.

LIZZY FLOOD FLAT HAT CHIEF FEATURES WRITER

If any lesson can be learned from Bo Burnham’s sold-out Charter Day show, it’s that students at the College of William and Mary enjoy watching standup — even to the point of petitioning for more seats. For some students, just watching isn’t enough. These students have decided to take up the mic and try standup on their own.

For Chris DeProspo ’17, the idea to try stand-up originated not just from the College’s visiting performers, but also from a final project for one of his classes.

“I took a course called ‘Science and Communication,’ so it was last year, last spring semester, and there was a science comedian that came to talk to us,” DeProspo said. “And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s so cool,’ because that’s

“

DeProspo also said that performing alone can be a lot of pressure but was ultimately rewarding.

“When you’re in comedy group, usually you might have like a little monologue on stage, but if something bad happens, you all kind of take the fall together,” DeProspo said. “When you’re alone, you’re on your own, buster. And it’s kind of a cool and not cool thing.”

Both House and DeProspo have performed standup on and off campus, going to open mics in Newport News and Richmond. The Comedy Conservatory is working towards making similar opportunities available on-campus, House said.

Since its inception, the Comedy Conservatory has put on two improvised standup shows — both of which, House said, were a success.

House also organized an improv mixer, where people, some new to improv and some experienced, were paired together to perform on

DeProspo said that the Comedy Conservatory is a great opportunity to bring affiliated and unaffiliated comedians on campus together. The two improvised standup events were a collaboration between the comedy groups and unaffiliated comedians.

“What’s cool about that is when you do improv with five other people, they become like a de-facto group,” DeProspo said. “Regardless of whether or not you’re in Sandbox or I.T., it doesn’t matter, you’re all in it together, and they want you to succeed. We all want each other to succeed.”

House said the collaboration has been great, but that ultimately the Conservatory hopes to draw more people outside of groups and give them the same opportunities available to comedians in groups.

“People in the groups tend to be, it’s a little bit of a fraternity/sorority type thing, it’s very insular,” House said. “So it’s really hard to be an

When you’re alone, you’re on your own, buster. And it’s kind of a cool and not cool thing.

­­— Chris DeProspo ‘17

not something career counselors tell you about. So I was like, ‘Professor Zuber, I’m gonna do this for my final for the class,’ and so my dad’s a physicist so I just did a final based on doing stand-up about physics, and ever since then, I was kind of just hooked on doing it.”

DeProspo auditioned for comedy groups this past fall, but after not making the cut, he found his way into doing individual stand-up with the help of Lydia House ’16 and her club, the Comedy Conservatory.

House started the Comedy Conservatory this past November as a club dedicated to organizing comedy shows on campus in order to help provide more opportunities for students to perform, she said.

“Lydia was great about, especially when I told her that I didn’t get in to the comedy groups, she was great about helping me pursue these other opportunities, stuff like that,” DeProspo said.

House said the decision to start the Conservatory came from a desire to both get personal experience in producing shows and to help other comedians on campus.

“Basically, I decided that I wanted to produce shows after I graduate,” House said. “So I wanted to give myself experience producing shows, and I wanted them to be accessible to other people on campus.”

House said she first became interested in stand-up at age 13, when her father gave her an iPod for Christmas and forbade her from listening to stand-up on it. She disobeyed, and her love of listening to stand-up transformed into a love for performing when she transferred to the College her sophomore year. She performed at ComedyBrew, an event organized by Alma Mater Productions and one of the biggest stand-up opportunities on campus. Offered once a semester, it allows student comedians to audition for 15-minute time slots where they can perform their own stand-up routine.

“I transferred to William and Mary, and I didn’t know anybody, and I saw that they were doing a stand-up competition, ComedyBrew,” House said. “So I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll do that,’ and I won. And I was like, okay, maybe I’m good at this, so I started writing more and I started doing mics.”

House said she, like DeProspo, initially was interested in joining a group, but decided to stick to solo stand-up instead. She said getting over the fear of performing alone is not as difficult as people might believe.

“When you’re doing improv, you’re one of a team, so if you’re not your best you can support other people,” House said. “But when you’re doing stand-up, it’s just you. I think that scares a lot of people, but it’s like, I’ll tell you a little secret: Stand-up is not that hard.”

stage.

“I think people want to do stand-up, but everyone’s very focused on next time, you know,” House said. “They’re like, ‘Oh, I’ll do the next event,’ but there won’t be a next event if you don’t show up to the first event.”

Riley McGrath ’16, a member of the on-campus group 7th Grade Sketch Comedy who has done standup on campus, said the writing process in a group is very different from writing for a solo performance.

“The writing for 7th Grade is a lot less direct,” McGrath said. “If I start from an idea of something that I think is funny, then the immediate process is more being what’s the analogy, how can I frame this in terms of people performing to write it. Whereas with standup, I can just be like, ‘Oh yeah, I think this is funny; just talk about that for a few minutes.’”

“

outsider for that, but I guess I’m very much like, if no one gives you an opportunity, create your own.”

House said that anyone interested in comedy on campus but has yet to perform will hopefully reach out to the Comedy Conservatory for opportunities. She said that performing stand-up is unlike any other kind of performance and that students wanting to try it out should give it a shot.

“Once you get on stage … you feel that connection with the audience,” House said. “And you’re making art in a lot of ways, even if though your art is like a fart joke, that’s fine. It’s such a unique experience, and there’s no other type of interaction between people than the performer on the stage because it is a conversation, but I mean ideally it’s a one-way conversation. Life is too short to wait for next time.”

. . . if no one gives you an opportunity, create your own. ­— Lydia House ‘16

TUCKER HIGGINS / THE FLAT HAT

Lydia House started the Comedy Conservatory back in November. The Conservatory has since hosted two improvised standup shows and an improv mixer.

CONFUSION CORNER

Wake up and smell the coffee, whether you like it or not

Why you should start looking at Sadler’s bitter brew as a blessing, not a curse.

Sarah Salem

CONFUSION CORNER COLUMNIST

I am the most unfortunate type of morning person. By that, I mean my body hates me and won’t wake me up any later than 10 a.m. in the morning, and that’s on a Saturday. I am forced out of my slumber at approximately 8 a.m. on weekdays, even when I don’t have class until 1 p.m., and I have never once been happy about it or energized enough to make use out of the early hours. That is, without any caffeine in my body.

So instead of lying on my back and grumpily counting ceiling tiles until at least noon, I usually figure the best remedy to my predicament coincides with the morning routine of many: physically roll out of bed, trek over to Sadler and slither hot coffee down my throat until I’m ready to be at least somewhat productive.

This antidote, however, presents another problem: Sadler coffee is disgusting. For anyone who doesn’t take their coffee black and can’t taste the coffee because they’ve drowned it in creamer, just know that when you’re descending into the fiery depths of hell, you will be simultaneously drinking black Sadler coffee. The problem is they trick you with delicious sounding flavors like vanilla and hazelnut, only to

disappoint your high expectations with, as Kevin Malone would call it, a “hot circle of garbage.”

Long before Central Perk and Lorelai Gilmore started gracing TV screens everywhere, coffee was an integral facet of our culture. Coffee has been there for us ever since we were introduced to the beautiful world of procrastination, hence late nights scrambling to finish homework as early as our high school days. Part of the reason the majority of the world can’t even muster a simple greeting before even sipping the nutty tones of a cappuccino has to do with the highly-caffeinated beverage being forced into our bodies and our minds. And for good reason: coffee is amazing. It makes us more alert. It gives us energy. It brings us joy. And don’t pretend you haven’t felt like a super cool adult with your life together at least once while you’re having your morning cup of joe.

So when the dining hall drops this magnificent part of our lives down to a lower standard, naturally we freak out and don’t know what to do. Some might switch to tea, which is probably a healthier alternative, but then complain that the caffeine content is not up to par with what is necessary for them not to bite someone’s head off at their 9:30 a.m. bio lab. Others will switch to soda, which probably contains the same amount of caffeine, but carries a greater risk of cancer in the future.

“

Keeping all of this in mind, how do we deal with such a first world — yet incredibly significant — obstacle in our lives such as mediocre coffee?

The easiest, best solution I can provide would be to simply deal with it.

I believe that you can actually reap grand benefits from the bitter, unsettling taste of Sadler coffee. For one, you don’t have to pay for Sadler coffee. If you don’t count the thousands of dollars that go toward your meal plan, you are essentially paying nothing for those coffee grounds at the bottom of your cup. And who doesn’t love free stuff?

For another, this type of coffee brings an edge to your morning. Are you more likely to wake up with the warm, comforting taste of a professionally whipped latte in your mouth, or with unprocessed coffee grounds sliding against your teeth? Obviously the latter. The former will just send you back to sleep the way I used to when my mother gave me warm milk before bed as a child.

Just like you want to set a loud, blaring alarm to wake you up early in the morning instead of a Sarah McLachlan song, you want your cup of coffee to jolt your taste buds the way it jolts your heart, not stroke you gently into consciousness. You’re not a puppy, you’re a college student, and you need to wake up in the quickest way possible, because time is precious.

So if you want to start your morning with a bang,

. . . just know that when you’re descending into the fiery depths of hell, you will be simultaneously drinking black Sadler coffee.

start looking at the brighter side of a cup of coffee that’s darker and more bitter than your soul (another plus right there). Once you view dining hall coffee in a more positive light, you can use it to your advantage and actually be productive at an early hour. Whether that means watching Netflix before your first class without falling asleep, cleaning your room or founding a nonprofit — you do you. But know that a gross cup of coffee doesn’t have to stop you from doing these things; it can actually help you.

Sarah Salem is a Confusion Corner columnist who swears she was not paid by Sodexo to write this column.

GRAPHIC BY KRISTIE TURKAL / THE FLAT HAT

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The Flat Hat | Tuesday, April 5, 2016 | Page 9

BASEBALL

TRACK AND FIELD

Tribe bests Georgetown Tribe hosts Colonial Relays Men come in fourth, women fifth in event’s 51st edition DOMINIC BURKETT FLAT HAT SENIOR STAFF WRITER

William and Mary hosted the 51st Colonial Relays in Williamsburg over the weekend, with the men finishing in fourth place, while the women took fifth. Four champions, three individual and one relay, along with a bevy of ECAC qualifiers and top 10 finishers on both teams, highlighted the College’s performance.

The women had solid performances across the board. Sophomore Leia Mistowski kicked the weekend off on Thursday in the hammer throw, finishing as the top collegiate performer in the event with a throw of 53.28 meters, a potential ECAC qualifying mark and good for second, following only unattached thrower Nicky Grant.

Saturday was highlighted by two event victories.

First, the 4x1,500 meter relay team of junior Molly Applegate, senior Meghan McGovern and sophomores Molly Breidenbaugh and Regan Rome finished first with a time of 18 minutes, 25.32 seconds, the fourth fastest time in school history. Rome followed up by winning the 5,000 meter run and qualifying for the ECAC Outdoor Championships, coming in at 16 minutes, 12.82 seconds.

“I felt really relaxed out there and I was really happy with the race this weekend,” Rome said. “It’s so nice to come out and win at the home track.”

Breidenbaugh also qualified for the ECAC Championships in the 5,000 meter, finishing 13th overall with a time of 17 minutes, 8.12 seconds.

The Tribe had a plethora of top 10 finishes throughout the weekend, including senior Rochelle Evans in the hammer throw, shotput and discus, senior Becca Eudailey in the 10,000 meter run, junior Molly Applegate in steeplechase, sophomore Jacqueline Meeks for pole vault, and freshman Grace Becker and sophomore Minna McFarland in the high jump and a strong showing in the 4x400 meter relay.

The men’s weekend included strong finishes and IC4A qualifiers as they battled hard in a wide range of events. The qualifiers were sophomore Dawson Connell in the 1,500 meter run, junior Faris Sakallah in the 10,000 meter, sophomore Davion Hutt in the 100 meter dash, senior Brian Waterfield in the hammer throw, sophomore Derek Trott and senior Robert Smutsky in javelin, and senior Ryan Gousse, junior Cavender Salvadori and sophomore Mac Haight for steeplechase.

The College rounded out the weekend with two champions on Saturday. A 4.97 meter pole vault by senior Derek O’Connell was enough to win the event, the first time a William and Mary athlete has won the event at the Colonial Relays since 1971. Hutt won the 100 meter dash in 10.74 seconds, the fifth fastest time in school history, also setting a personal best of 21.68 seconds in the 200 meter dash, good for an 11th place finish. The 100 meter win was the first time a member of the Tribe won that race at the Relays since 1976.

The Tribe competes next weekend at the Liberty Collegiate Invitational in Lynchburg, Va. and the Lou Onesty Invitational in Charlottesville, Va.

College takes two out of three from visiting Hoyas HENRY TROTTER FLAT HAT STAFF WRITER

This weekend, William and Mary suffered its first home loss of 2016 in extra innings, but fought back to claim two consecutive defeats over Georgetown, outscoring the visitors 26-11 in the final two games. The Tribe entered the weekend on a four-game winning streak, unbeaten on the year at Plumeri Park.

Friday, the Tribe (14-12, 3-1 CAA) trailed 2-1 after three innings thanks to a two-run Georgetown third inning. However, the College evened the score in the seventh, with sophomore second baseman Cullen Large getting hit by a pitch before stealing second, then scoring on freshman shortstop Kyle Wrighte with an outfield single. However, the Tribe was back behind in the eight after Georgetown (13-16) put runners on second and third via a combination of errors and walks, then Hoya third baseman Christian Sanchez doubled to right field to score two runs. Georgetown added another run to lead 6-3 after eight.

The Tribe pulled a run back in the eighth and rallied in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings. With two out and a runner on first base, the Tribe loaded the bases through savvy at-bats, before junior designated hitter Ryder Miconi clipped a single into right-center, knocking in two runs and advancing the winning runner to third base. The Tribe could not take advantage of the runner, and the game went to extra innings.

The Tribe stranded runners on first and second in the 10th inning, and the game looked to be in danger when Georgetown had the bases loaded with two outs in the top of the 11th, but senior right-handed reliever Joseph Gaouette struck out Georgetown first baseman Joseph Bialkowski to preserve hope for the Tribe. Eventually, the Tribe’s offense stalled, and when Georgetown punched in two runs on a series of errors, the Tribe went down in order to end the game.

The Tribe had a chance for revenge on Saturday, and they took it, breaking another ninth-inning tie with a walk-off homer by senior centerfielder Josh Smith home run to take game two 10-9. Smith had a hot day at the plate, hitting 4 for 5 with three RBIs, two home runs and a double. His first homer gave the Tribe the lead after a four-run sixth inning tied the game at eight.

The Hoyas tied the game in the top of the ninth, and the Tribe looked to be in trouble after sophomore right-handed reliever Robert White threw a wild pitch to the first batter he faced, then walked Hoya shortstop Dante Riccardi to load the bases. White then got Georgetown centerfielder Beau Hall to pop out to second, preserving the tie game. Then, with one out, Smith launched a hit over the center-field wall to even the series 1-1.

The Tribe did the job in convincing fashion on Sunday, putting out a dominating 16-2 performance in the rubber game to take their season record to 14-12. Although no Tribe hitter had more than three hits, a balanced attack saw seven hitters grab an RBI, led by Large, who notched four RBIs on 3 for 5 hitting, including a two-run homer in the fifth inning.

Large’s roundtripper came after the Tribe had already opened up a four-run lead. Junior outfielder Charles Ameer also hit two home runs, one each in the sixth and eighth innings. The latter homer was part of the Tribe’s killing blow — a seven-run, eight-hit inning in which the College travelled through the batting order and almost back through it.

Equally impressive was the Tribe’s defensive performance. Although junior right-hander Daniel Powers has the highest earned run average of the Tribe’s four starters at 7.08, he tossed a controlled seven innings. Georgetown managed nine hits. The Tribe turned two double plays, and Powers allowed two runs, earning his fourth win of the season.

The Tribe’s two wins this weekend take the all-time series with Georgetown to 20-4 in favor of the College. Senior first baseman Charley Gould boasts a streak of his own, as the first baseman has reached base safely in all 26 games so far. This weekend, Gould had a lone eighth-inning single in the first game, while he managed five hits in the latter two.

Next up for the Tribe is a midweek trip to face in-state rivals Virginia Tech (Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in Blacksburg) and Old Dominion on the road. The Hokies host Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., while the Monarchs play the Tribe Wednesday at 6 p.m.

COURTESY PHOTO / TRIBE ATHLETCS

Sophomore Davion Hutt won in the 100 meter dash at the 51st Colonial Relays this weekend with a time of 10.74 seconds.

LACROSSE

College crushed by James Madison Lopsided loss to JMU ends three-game winning streak JOSH LUCKENBAUGH FLAT HAT SPORTS EDITOR

William and Mary headed into its Colonial Athletic Association opener with James Madison brimming with confidence, having won three straight games and owning an impressive 6-4 non-conference record.

The Tribe was brought back down to earth by the defending CAA champions on Saturday, falling behind 12-0 in the first half before ultimately losing 17-4 on the road. The Dukes had similar success against the College last season, triumphing 16-7 in the 2015 regular season finale.

JMU (5-7, 1-0 CAA) found the back of the net early and often, building a 6-0 lead after just 10 minutes of play. Senior goalkeeper Meredith Crizer got the start for the College (6-5, 0-1 CAA), but was replaced by freshman Claire Duchene at 23:14 after allowing five quick goals.

Duchene didn’t last much longer than Crizer, brought back to the bench at 14:46 with the Dukes ahead 9-0. Junior goalie Alex Lista stepped in between the posts and fared better than the other two, giving up just two goals, but was substituted out with Gagnon 1:30 left in the half. Crizer stayed in the net for the remainder of the match. The three Tribe shot-stoppers combined to make just one save in the half, with Crizer adding two more in the second half.

Offensive opportunities were few and far between for the College in the first half, with the Tribe taking only five shots compared to JMU’s 16. While the Tribe bested the Dukes in draw controls and free position shots, a bevy of turnovers along with the strong performance of James Madison goalkeeper Ellie Harmeyer, who made three saves, kept the College scoreless. Freshman attack Eloise Gagnon came closest to beating Harmeyer and putting the Tribe on the board at the 8:36 mark, but the post denied her free position attempt.

The College’s deficit stood at 12 after JMU attack Cristina McCarthy scored to beat the halftime whistle by a second. The Tribe had committed its 10th turnover of the half 15 seconds earlier, presenting the Dukes with yet another opportunity. JMU’s lead blossomed to 14 in the beginning of the second half, JMU attack Betsy Angel tallying two of her game-high four goals at 25:58 and 24:27, respectively.

With the win almost certainly locked up, the Dukes put Harmeyer on the bench for the second half, replacing her with backup Emily Poelma. Perhaps as a result of the change, the Tribe’s offense began to find success, finally scoring with just over 18 minutes to go. Gagnon ended the scoreless run with a strike from free position, her seventh goal of the season.

JMU midfielder Elena Romesburg answered Gagnon’s goal with three of her own over the next seven minutes, pushing the Dukes’ lead to 17-1. JMU took only one more shot the rest of the way as the Tribe found the net three times in the final five minutes of the match. Junior midfielder and leading goal-scorer Shannon Quinn claimed two of the goals, finding the mark from free position at 4:44 then converting on a pass from junior midfielder MC Curran at 2:53.

Junior defender Abby Junior’s late free position goal gave the game its final score 17-4, the College unable to duplicate the success it found in recent weeks. The Dukes outshot the Tribe 24-9, turning the ball over seven times compared to the Tribe’s 16 giveaways. The College will need to cut down on its turnovers if it wants to compete in the CAA, a conference it has never won.

The Tribe returns to action this Saturday, hosting Hofstra at Martin Family Stadium in its first conference home game. The match is set to start at 6 p.m. In last season’s matchup the College came out victorious, defeating the Pride in Hempstead, NY, 13-6.

COURTESY PHOTO / TRIBE ATHLETCS

Senior center fielder Josh Smith smashed a walk-off home run in the Tribe’s 10-9 victory over Georgetown Saturday.

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

The Flat Hat

| Tuesday, April 5, 2016 | Page 10

Scandal and secrecy

FEATURE

Looking back on the College’s 1951 athletics controversy NICK CIPOLLA // FLAT HAT SPORTS EDITOR

Recently the National Collegiate Athletic Association has come under fire for its handling of academic requirements as well as its treatment of collegiate student-athletes. William and Mary is a mid-major school in Division I, and, while usually far from news of scandals and violations, was the center of controversy 65 years ago. In 1951, the football program fell under fire for allegedly manipulating transcripts and grades during a time of emphasis on athletics at the College, leading to several prominent employees resigning.

The infamous scandal of 1951 became known to the public in August of that year, right before students were coming back to campus. Despite gaining public attention at that time, the allegations can be traced to a few years prior and were subjected to several internal investigations before the news broke to the local press.

During the early days of NCAA membership, the Tribe — at that time known as the Indians — was pouring resources into growing a large football program, bolstered by a secretive resolution passed by the Board of Visitors in 1946.

“The Board adopts as its athletic policy a program that would produce athletic teams that could compete successfully with other teams in the State of Virginia belonging to the Southern Conference and to such extent as it could be reasonably expected that the College teams would win more games than they lost,” the BOV minutes from Oct. 12, 1946 said.

This resolution remained an only need-to-know policy until everything fell apart in 1951. The athletics surge likely stemmed from an increase in male students after the end of World War II in 1945. Students at first were skeptical of the apparent emphasis on athletics. In 1944, 8 a.m. classes had been added to the schedule to accomodate afternoon football practices.

From 1946-1950, head coach Rube McCray was in charge of both the football team as well and served as the Athletics Director for the school and as a faculty member for the now-defunct Department of Physical Education. The team had a combined record of 34-172 in the five seasons before the scandal broke, making appearances in the 1948 Dixie Bowl and the 1949 Delta Bowl and winning the Southern Conference in 1947. Despite a 4-7, 3-3 SoCon record in 1950, this era remains part of the most successful era of football at the College. However, that legacy was tainted by allegations of McCray and former basketball head coach Barney Wilson tampering with high school transcripts and awarding unearned credit to keep players eligible.

As many scandals start, it began with rumors. Former Dean of the College and member of the athletics committee Nelson Marshall had been approached by a mix of faculty and students at the College with complaints concerning the rumors, so he began to investigate.

This was in 1949. Marshall submitted his resignation to College President John Pomfret in a letter expressing concern for the school as he began to search for the truth April 20, 1951.

“The recent administration of our intercollegiate athletic program is dishonest, unethical, and seriously lacking in responsibility to the standards of William and Mary,” he said in his letter.

“I am puzzled at the realization that to resign is not to accomplish anything … it seems to constitute forfeiting the hope of so doing.”

Although Marshall was resigning, he remained in the area to aid in investigating the mysterious events.

The scandal itself was a pressure cooker about to burst in the following months.

In the mid-1900s, the College had a men’s physical education major, which was the principle major for studentathletes, especially football players, who wanted a degree while trying to enter the National Football League. With McCray as the head coach, athletics director and department of physical education chairman, it was an inevitable disaster.

In late June, correspondence between Pomfret and Marshall shows evidence of a private meeting to talk about the rumors. July 3, 1951, the faculty of the

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COURTESY PHOTO / COLONIAL ECHO

Head coach Rube McCray poses with his captains for the 1950 season, the last of McCray’s tenure at William and Mary.

allegations later.

Heading back to the Report itself, two cases were established of alleged malpractice, inspired by Marshall’s concerns. The first was of unearned credit given to students during summer sessions in 1949 and 1950, the period of interest for the committee. Earned credits were listed on college transcripts despite the students, members of the football team, having not actually been on campus for more than a few days in the summer.

“At a meeting of Administrative Offices with Mr. McCray and Mr. Wilson June 26, Mr. McCray admitted that several of these students were not in residence,” the report states.

McCray provided some insight into the problems right before the committee formed, providing a basis for the first case. The second case relates

The recent administration of our intercollegiate athletic program is dishonest, unethical, and seriously lacking in responsibility to the standards of William and Mary.

— Former Dean of the College Nelson Marshall

College held an emergency meeting to form an investigative committee made up of five staff members and to establish a media blackout by the faculty for anyone except Pomfret. The committee, chaired

by Richard Morton, set out to make an official report for Pomfret to present to the BOV. The report, titled “Report of the President to Board of Visitors relating to academic malpractices in the Department of Physical Education,” was published Aug. 15, 1951. However, a great deal happened in the month between.

According to the Report, on the same afternoon as the committee’s formation, Pomfret wrote to McCray to answer the committee in its investigation.

“I stated also that if [McCray] felt that he could not defend his conduct in these matters it was my personal belief that he should give serious though to resigning his position at the College,” Pomfret said in the Report.

If McCray had not resigned, as he did July 7, he would have had to defend himself in a more serious sequence of hearings and likely bring an NCAA response down on the College. One of Morton’s manuscripts about the events showed that the resignation was not even Pomfret’s idea, but rather that of concerned alumni who wanted to avoid investigation and met with Pomfret.

“Mr. Pomfret thus informed the committee that Mr. Hoffman, accompanied by several influential Norfolk alumni, [met] him on the afternoon of July 3,” Morton said in his writings. “These gentlemen [proposed] that the College accept the following solution to the McCray case: That Mr. McCray be permitted to resign from his position, the resignation not to take effect until after the 1951 football season.”

These mysterious “influential alumni” are not mentioned again in Morton’s manuscripts, but the effects they had are mentioned throughout the archived files on the scandal, as McCray did end up resigning, which did not give the College any real power to indict him for any

to tampering in admissions by altering high school transcripts, which McCray denied in the June 26 meeting. He was asked about it because student-athlete transcripts went through the department of physical education prior to the scandal. Some proof was discovered in late July by the committee of this ethics breach, accompanying supplemental information about Wilson’s mishandling of funds for jobs for athletes, a smaller third case.

“On July 29 also evidence was presented indicated that four women secretaries had said that they had knowledge of the altering of high school records by Mr. McCray,” the report said.

McCray and Wilson’s resignation letters were sent in July 7, although Pomfret did not accept them until Aug. 13, three days after official letters of resignation were received. July 7, 1951 marked an important day for the investigation, as the committee, upon receiving news of the resignations before they were made public, decided not to pursue the allegations, although the matter was not settled. Additionally, Pomfret met with the faculty that day to give news of the coaches’ departures.

“The two men charged with academic malpractice will sever their connection with the College through resignation after a reasonable period permitting them to seek other positions,” Pomfret said in the report.

The committee wished to continue investigations since there was no closure to the problem, only avoidance. Due to apparent pressure from the BOV, Pomfret, Morton and the other faculty were limited in their ability to reprimand McCray and Wilson further. Pomfret expressed an official version of the story in the report.

“Since the Special Committee of the Faculty was not called upon to hear Mr. McCray and Mr. Wilson, the College cannot prove or disprove seriatim the allegations made on July 11 or the supplementary allegations,” Pomfret

wrote. “There is ample precedent for tempering justice with mercy.”

The July 11 date referred to is in agreement with the College’s disclosure of news to the press, which was only writing articles based on rumor at the time, and how William and Mary would limit its interaction with media concerning the scandal.

The findings of the report mention seven students listed as having unearned credit, while the committee could not obtain all of the falsified high school transcripts due to limitations of the search.

The day after the report came out, the BOV resolved that the committee examine the gathered evidence for a more in-depth report. Morton’s committee completed that report by Sept. 12, 1951.

Pomfret resigned the next day, as his administration was condemned on Sept.

8 for not promptly responding to the rumors.

By this time, the fall 1951 semester and football season were underway, as well as the BOV’s search for a new president.

The Flat Hat released a special edition issue Sept. 21, 1951 containing a faculty statement on the academic irregularity.

“We are agreed that the fundamental cause is an athletic policy which at William and Mary, as at many other American colleges and universities, has proceeded to the point of obscuring and corrupting the real purposes of an institution of higher learning,” the statement said.

The faculty statement denounced the current program, citing concerns that varsity athletes could not pursue anything except physical education majors and that the athletic emphasis was taking away from the core mission of William and Mary as an institute of higher education. The Flat Hat’s publication of the statement was signed by all 90 faculty members, including Marshall and Morton, and resolved to make changes including the establishment of separate committees on admissions, athletics, scholarships and student aid as well as academic status, elected from and by faculty.

While the faculty was making amends and trying to bring athletics down a peg, the student response to the faculty’s actions was mixed, according to the results of a poll published in The Flat Hat October 9, 1951.

“I do not think we will gain anything through de-emphasis of athletics,” respondent Fred Allen said. “I know of no better tie between alumni and their alma mater than good athletic teams.”

Others supported the ideas behind the faculty statement.

“I support entirely the manifesto of the faculty, because it is forthright and stern,” respondent Richard Hutchenson said. “Every college should have a well integrated physical education program, but professionalism insures both the college which promotes it and those who must participate in it.”

Meanwhile, alumni were on board to report on the matter while the search for a new president still was underway. In Oct. 1951, The Alumni Gazette published the first of three planned editorials about the football program from 1939-1951.

Written by editor Charles McCurdy ’33, the article tries to explain some of the incident to alumni.

“Before the bombshell broke the usual summer calm, many persons

seriously interested in the welfare of the College, including administrative officers, members of the faculty, alumni and students, had begun to question the extent to which athletics, particularly football, had become powerfully absorbing in practically every center of the College,” McCurdy wrote.

The second and third editorials never printed, the BOV jumping on the Alumni Society Board of Directors to censor the pieces, leaving McCurdy and much of his staff no choice but to resign. The articles still have not been published.

As the semester got underway, acting President James Miller held the reigns, but was replaced by President Alvin Chandler, whose inauguration was the front page of the Oct. 16, 1951 issue of The Flat Hat. Miller praised Marshall’s efforts in exposing the scandal, as seen in the Sept. 29, 1951 Newport News Daily Press in an article by Lloyd Haynes Williams. “[Marshall] did what few men in the world would have had the courage to do,” Miller said to Haynes Williams.

In the aftermath, Chandler took over in a quick transition, allegedly in a decision rushed by the BOV to get over the bad publicity and avoid a large hit to the College’s reputation. Marshall resigned fully after the appointment, explaining his reasoning in his “1951 Christmas season letter to all friends.”

“Confronted with [the investigation] the College’s Board 1) accepted the resignations of the two responsible coaches, 2) reaffirmed rather than revised the athletic policy, and 3) blamed the President and thus claimed the fault was one of administration rather than policy,” Marshall wrote in his letter.

Marshall was not wrong, as the censorship of The Alumni Gazette and the suspicious handling of the resignations that tied the hands of the special committee show more of an effort of covering up and getting past the whole thing rather than fixing it. The main change was the faculty committees as well as the separation of the physical education department from athletics. Marshall criticized the new administration further in his letter.

“This Board turned on the Faculty with a surprise presidential appointment,” he wrote. “It was clearly an anti-Faculty appointment, an administration to which [I] could not be loyal.”

Further examination proved impossible, as most of the administrative members are deceased, Pomfret passing in 1981 and McCray in 1972.

Head coach Marvin Bass took over Indians football the next year, which posted a 7-3, 5-1 SoCon record in his first of just two seasons he held the position.

Chandler held the presidency for 10 years.

The scandal remains an important example of almost a century of American higher education battling for superiority with varsity athletics, as colleges and universities across the nation split resources between the ever-growing NCAA sports and staying true to the academics that higher education was made for. As a result of that tradeoff reaching a breaking point in 1951, William and Mary is no longer a football powerhouse in its current state, holding middling records and perennially making the playoffs for the NCAA’s Division I-AA, instead aligning its priorities more toward academics while keeping athletic tradition alive with less emphasis.