The Flat Hat March 17, 2015

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SPORTS>> PAGE 8

VARIETY>> PAGE 5

Check out our women’s CAA tournament coverage and NIT preview for the men’s squad.

The Colonial Williamsburg Garden Shop preserves 18th century horticulture.

Postseason basketball

Vol. 104, Iss. 33 | Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Gardening past and present

The Flat Hat The Twice-Weekly Student Newspaper

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of The College of William and Mary

STUDENT ASSEMBLY

campus

Off to the races

TEDx set to host third conference

7 speakers to convene March 29 MEILAN SOLLY Flat hat ASSOC. news editor

executive board, is the operations coordinator for Camp Kesem, a College of William and Mary tour guide and a Girl Scout troop leader. The two candidates met while making arrangements for Charter Day. Whitaker and Pinkerton want to connect the Student Assembly with the entire student body, to engage students and to inspire the SA to improve its leadership. They already have several programs in mind, such as making textbooks more affordable, assigning alumni mentors to undergraduates, and expanding the SA’s online presence. “We, as hopeful SA president and vice president, would really have a responsibility to the student body,” Pinkerton said. “We

The College of William and Mary will welcome eight speakers and hundreds of students, faculty and community members to the Commonwealth Auditorium for the third annual TEDxCollegeofWilliam&Mary conference March 29. TEDx — the “x” stands for independently organized — is an offshoot of TED, the group known for producing TED Talks on topics ranging from entertainment to design. The College’s chapter was founded in 2012. “[TEDx] was started by two students, who have since graduated, that realized the compatibility between TED’s mission of ideas worth spreading and the intellectual curiosity of the William and Mary community,” TedxCollegeofWilliam&Mary Steering Committee CoPresident Lewam Kefela ’15 said in an email. Since its founding, the College’s event has grown into one of the largest college TEDx conferences in the country. “We have, each year, doubled or tripled in size, which is a very exciting energy to continue,” TedxCollegeofWilliam&Mary Steering Committee Co-President Chase Jordan ’15 said. “Originally, TEDx was very much about [College] alumni coming back and sharing their ideas and now we’re looking at professional industries and industry groups, bringing in people outside academia, and people within academia but outside the [College] community.” Previously, the College’s TEDx event hosted alumni, professors, and entrepreneurs, such as the vice president of Adobe Systems. This year, the conference’s seven speakers are award-winning Composer Mark Wood, NYC-based sex researcher Dr. Zhana Vrangalova, associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Dr. David Casarett, Director of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate Colonel Michael Coolican, associate professor of biology at the College Dr. John Swaddle, Dr. Sean Tarter, an economics professor at the College, and Pulitzer Center Journalist Stephanie Hanes. “[TEDx’s] mission is simple: spread ideas,” Logistics Committee member Ryan Kelley ’18 said in an email. “In other words, we want to get people thinking about subjects they may not spend much time thinking about.” In order to accomplish this goal, 2015’s conference will focus on the theme “Beyond.” According to Kelley, this theme will discuss topics

See CANDIDATES page 3

See TEDx page 3

GRAPHICS BY K.J. MORAN / THE FLAT HAT

Third-term Senator Yohance Whitaker ’16 and Catie Pinkerton ’16 (top) will run against Claire Etheridge ’16 and Marcell Crawford ’16 in the 2015 election.

Two tickets launch Student Assembly presidential race AMELIA LUCAS FLAT HAT ASSOC. NEWS EDITOR

Student Assembly election season kicks off Monday, March 16 at 12:01 a.m. with the announcement of candidates and the start to their 10-day campaigns. Elections are to be held March 26. Two candidate pairs are running for president and vice president of the SA for the 2015-16 academic year. The two tickets are Yohance Whitaker ’16 and Catie Pinkerton ’16, and Claire Etheridge ’16 and Marcell Crawford ’16. Whitaker currently serves as a senator for the class of 2016, a position he has held for two years. Pinkerton has no previous SA ties, but she formerly held a position on the Kappa Alpha Theta

DINING

student ASSEMBLY

Evaluating Cosi’s place at the College

This year marks the least competitive presidential election in 3 years

ELEANOR LAMB FLAT HAT ASSOC. News editor

QUENTIN PALEO FLAT HAT STAFF WRITER

Cosi’s opening at the start of the spring semester marked the first time students could walk through Lodge 1 in months. Since then, hundreds of students have stopped to eat at the new campus restaurant. According to Director of Auxiliary Services Cindy Glavas, Cosi has served an average of between 400-425 customers a day, Monday through Friday, and 200 customers on weekends. Resident District Manager Jeff McClure reports the majority of customers come in to Cosi for lunch and dinner, with lunch being slightly more popular. McClure reports that on an average day about 275 students come to Cosi for lunch, between 100-125 come for dinner, and 20-25 come for breakfast. “We’re hoping our squagels will catch on,” Glavas said. At this point, Cosi’s profit has reached a break-even sum from their opening in January. McClure stated that Cosi expended about $1,000 within the first four weeks of the year for additional training and maintenance fees. He said he anticipates the warmer weather will help the café, as students will be able to eat their food outside instead of vying for one of the limited tables in Lodge 1. “The weather has really hurt us,” McClure said. “When it gets nicer out, it’ll pick up.” Over spring break, Dining Services worked on enhancing Cosi’s appearance. Construction began on an additional set of doors leading from Lodge 1 to the Sadler Terrace. Additional signage also started to go up around the restaurant. Cosi is scheduled to launch a catering program, which will be an option for student groups and departments at the College. The catering is

The 2015 Student Assembly elections were expected to be competitive because of the reduced number of SA positions

Cosi breaks even 30 candidates run for 17 SA positions

See COSI page 3

Index News Insight News Opinions Variety Variety Sports Sports

Today’s Weather 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

14 12

Number of SA Senate candidates by class

10 8 6 4 2

0

Sophomore Junior Senior 2013

2014

2015 GRA{PHIC BY AINE CAIN / THE FLAT HAT

The above graph shows the rise and fall in the number of candidates based on social class and year.

candidates in the running. In total, of the 30 students running for office in the Student Assembly — including the positions of senator, class president and SA President and vice president — the class of 2018 comprises over half of the candidates. Class of 2017 President Phoebe Galt ’17, who will not be running for reelection this year, discussed why she believed there was such a sharp disparity in candidates, especially between the classes of 2017 and 2018. “I’m on the outreach committee within senate and I know we’ve been trying to do a lot to get people more involved, and I think also through the exec we’ve been doing a lot more successful programming to get the SA name out there, so it may just mean that the freshman class has been more exposed,” Galt said. Elections Commission Chairman Ryan Brophy ’15 had a different perspective on the cause of the disparity in the number of candidates between the class of 2017 and class of 2018. “We see a lot of involvement in the freshman election especially, and now those 2018 people represent the See SA RACES page 3

Inside Sports

Inside Opinions

Fighting with fraternities

Cloudy High 77, Low 54

after the dissolution of the Undergraduate Council this past February. While the class of 2018 has 14 students running for four senate seats, the Class of 2017 only has three students running for four positions. The class of 2016 has six

Wesleyan University’s recent conflict with Delta Kappa Epsilon highlights the flaws in policies that target Greek life in an attempt to address sexual assault and student safety. page 4

Baseball in full swing

The Tribe began conference play over the weekend, taking two of three games in a road series at Hofstra. page 7


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