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Flat Hat endorses Whitaker
Women win ECAC again
Whitaker and Pinkerton offer experience and realistic goals.
Vol. 104, Iss. 35 | Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Tribe gymnastics takes first in conference championships, men finish third in USA meet.
The Flat Hat The Twice-Weekly Student Newspaper
of The College of William and Mary
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STUDENT ASSEMBLY
Candidates face off CAROLINE NUTTER / THE FLAT HAT
KJ MORAN FLAT HAT NEWS Editor
Yohance Whitaker ’16 and Claire Etheridge ’16 faced off in the 2015 Student Assembly presidential debate Monday night. All 6,271 undergraduates are eligible to vote in Thursday’s elections, but just over 50 attended the debate hosted by the Election Commission in a primarily empty Commonwealth Auditorium. The Elections Commission, headed by Ryan Brophy ’15, moderated the debate with prepared questions before opening the floor to prospective student voters. “We have chosen questions that illustrate a wide variety of topics and we ask the candidates to focus on comparisons and specifics in their answers,” Brophy said in his opening statement. Both candidates focused on their leadership experience — while Whitaker spoke heavily about his role as an SA senator, Etheridge emphasized her work on hall councils throughout her three years and the unique perspective she could offer as an outsider. “I’ve been in the senate for three years,” Whitaker said. “I am the chair of the finance committee. Throughout my career, I’ve sponsored 35 bills, and a third of those bills have been passed this year.” “I have not been in SA, but I have taken on many leadership roles,” Etheridge said. “I have been president of my hall council for the past two years … and in that role, I have had to be an advocate for the residents I serve. In those roles, I have had to communicate what they want … I’m an implementer. If I say I’ll do something, then it gets done.” When asked what they would most like to change about the College, both candidates emphasized the current problems within the
Counseling Center. “I would make our Counseling Center better,” Etheridge said. “I know there has been an SA push to de-stigmatize the Counseling Center, and I think that’s great, but that doesn’t help a Counseling Center that is understaffed, overworked, where a lot of students have mediocre or bad experiences. If I were SA President, I would make sure there are enough spots so that people would get to speak to a counselor — not just a grad student; that people wouldn’t be pushed into group therapy if they didn’t want it; or be asked to meet every two weeks when they needed it once a week.” Whitaker echoed Etheridge’s sentiments regarding the Counseling Center in his response in addition to noting his sponsorship of the STI Bill, which subsidized STI testing at the Student Health Center. The Election Commission then asked the two candidates to make the distinction between their two platforms and highlight the differences. “If you will indulge me, my father is a Baptist pastor — so we come from an experience where we have ‘making it plain,’” Whitaker said to laughter and applause. “So if I could make in plain … if you were driving a car, you would want to make sure you had someone in the car who had experience to drive it, who had experience navigating Student Assembly and really understood how to navigate the twists and the turns of the roads — I would say that’s one of the key differences between Claire and I. Between Catie and I, we have the experience to steer Student Assembly.” Etheridge responded, highlighting the lack of specifics in Whitaker’s campaign. “A big difference is that we have so many more specifics in our platform,” Etheridge said. “We don’t just say that we want to ‘promote’ things. We have specific plans for what we want to do. For example,
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one of Yohance’s tenets is the “One Tribe, One Click” to make the SA website more streamlined. The problem is, making the SA website more streamlined doesn’t help if it doesn’t have more information on it, if it doesn’t have the SA agendas that we all want to say, if it doesn’t have more resources for students. If SA is so closed that you have to be in SA to navigate it, then that should change.” Etheridge continued to emphasize her commitment to online transparency. “An SA agenda was last published on Jan. 25. SA is too isolated — people don’t know what SA does for them, or what they can do for them,” Etheridge said. She added that the SA must expand its work with diversity and multicultural organizations. “I would say that my lack of SA experience would be a shortcoming, but in learning how to be SA President, everything would have to be explained to me and I would be able to say, ‘Why? Why are we doing things this way?’ I would be able to approach SA with fresh eyes and be able to say, ‘This isn’t working anymore’ and I would really be able to improve SA efficiency in that way,” Etheridge said. Whitaker responded, emphasizing his balance with his running mate, Catie Pinkerton ’16. “I wouldn’t describe it as a weakness, but I have been in SA for the majority of my collegiate career, and sometimes when you’re in a swimming pool and you’re a fish, you don’t necessarily understand that there is more water around you,” Whitaker said. “That’s why I picked Catie to be my vice president — we have a pair of wise eyes and a pair of See DEBATE page 3
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Campus receives threat Remembering Dr. George Grayson Credibility of threat being evaluated by police
Community reflects on Grayson’s life as a professor, politician and scholar
tucker higgins FLAT HAT executive editor
madeline bielski flat hat News editor
The William and Mary Campus Police Department, in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is investigating the credibility of bomb threats sent over the past 24 hours by an unknown sender to four College of William and Mary email addresses. Emergency Management Team chair Sam Jones notified students, faculty and staff in an email sent at 4:57 p.m. Monday. According to Jones, the threatening emails from the unknown sender were not sent to any individual, but to email accounts belonging to offices of the College. The emails did not give any indication that the threat was immediate, he said. “[The emails] used the word ‘future’ … and they used the word ‘bomb.’ Those were the two things that would certainly get anybody’s attention,” Jones said. Although he declined to say whether there were any leads in the investigation, Jones said that police efforts were focused on identifying the sender of the emails. He encouraged students to be observant and cautious and to notify the campus police if they see anything suspicious. College spokesman Brian Whitson said that the threats were made in four identical emails sent to generic email addresses. “We don’t believe there is an immediate threat to campus but the W&M Police Department is working closely with the FBI to investigate,” he said in an email. According to Jones, the Emergency Management Team is prepared for any situation. “We run tests, we do training, you know, should something come up the campus is ready for it,” he said. Heather McPherson, host of the William and Mary Campus Radio program Periwinkle Waves, urged listeners to remain calm about the email Monday. “I think we’ll all be okay here in Williamsburg,” McPherson said. The last time the College reported receiving a bomb threat was Aug. 28, 2007. The threat was received in an email sent to staff members.
Colleagues, friends and former students of Dr. George W. Grayson J.D. ’76 gathered for a remembrance service at the Mason School of Business March 20. Grayson was a professor emeritus of government at the College of William and Mary for 44 years, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and a leading scholar on Mexican politics. He died suddenly March 4. During the remembrance service, hosted by professor John McGlennon and the College’s government department, several of those close to Grayson shared stories reflecting on the many different roles Grayson played during his lifetime. McGlennon began the service by recounting Grayson’s life as a scholar. Grayson received his B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, his master’s degree and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and earned a law degree the William and Mary Law School. “He was restlessly curious and creatively opportunistic,” McGlennon said. Grayson was hired by the College in 1968 and quickly climbed the professional ranks. He was selected as the class of 1938’s Professor of Government in 1988. Grayson retired from the College in 2012. In his lifetime, Grayson wrote more than
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25 books and monographs and appeared as a guest on NPR and CNN. Grayson was a widely respected expert on Mexico. He made more than 200 research trips to Latin America in his lifetime. McGlennon shared comments from students about Grayson compiled from the government department’s Facebook page. A common theme in the memories shared was Grayson’s ability to inspire his students through his love of politics. Many students and speakers referred to the iconic felt-tip markers he used to mark up student papers. “Here was a man that cared so deeply. He often would come to visit me to talk about his experiences with students and invariably talked about how important it was to maintain the standards that would distinguish William and Mary students from those at other universities,” McGlennon said. Alan Diamonstein, who served alongside Grayson in the Virginia General Assembly, reflected on Grayson’s role in the state legislature. Diamonstein described Grayson as an advocate for the environment, mental health and consumer protection. “He constantly worked for those that needed help. He had a strong sense of social justice,” Diamonstein said. “He understood the difference between just doing what’s right for today and doing what’s popular for tomorrow.” Diamonstein also discussed Grayson’s
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dedication for the College and his push within the legislature to support intellectual capital through funding universities. “He believed the single most important competitive advantage of any state was the intellectual capital that college education and research grant. He knew and he believed that education was a constructive instrument for whatever social changes were going to come in our society,” Diamonstein said. “He knew that having a degree from a big college was a passport to a good life … He believed if you really wanted a good life that degree had to be from William and Mary.” College President Taylor Reveley also spoke at the service. Reveley stated Grayson’s death was a great loss for the College and remarked on Grayson fulfilling double-duty; teaching and serving in the Virginia House of Delegates at the same time. Grayson’s daughter, Gisele, spoke on behalf of the Grayson family. She recounted stories of her father, explaining how he taught them to listen to what every person has to say. Grayson is also survived by his wife Bryan Grayson and his son Keller. “George was a dad and he was involved in my and my brother’s life before being an involved dad was cool,” his daugther said. “We learned a lot from him in terms of the way he had us explore the world. He always made us curious about the world and we had this amazing example of watching how he treated people throughout his whole life.”
In light of the recent scandal at the University of Oklahoma over a racist fraternity chant, we must evaluate how we address racism and free speech. page 4
Not your average spring break Branch Out provides alternative breaks featuring social justice and service. page 6