The Flat Hat November 27, 2018

Vol. 108, Iss. 20 | Tuesday, November 27, 2018

The Flat Hat The Weekly Student Newspaper of

The College of William and Mary

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FACULTY

The real cost of parking Ludwell Apartment residents see higher rates of tickets along Rolfe Road

MADELINE MONROE // FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR Student parking around Ludwell Apartments at the College of William and Mary have seen a 3.56 percent increase in the number of parking tickets issued by William and Mary Parking Services, William and Mary Police Department and the Williamsburg Police Department from 2016 to 2018.

Statistics from WMPS and statistics retrieved through a Freedom of Information Act from WPD show that in 2016, WMPS, WMPD and WPD gave out 25 tickets in their respective jurisdictions around Ludwell and Rolfe Road, but in 2017, that number rose to 73 tickets. As of October 19, the number for tickets given out in 2018 is 114. From 2016 to 2018, WMPS and WMPD gave out 53 tickets while WPD gave out 159 tickets.

Between 2016 and 2018, the month of October has seen the most tickets, with 46 out of 159 tickets given during that month. The most popular time tickets are given out is 11 a.m., and the average price of a ticket is $25.

WMPS serves as the main enforcement of parking violations on campus.

According to director of parking and transportation services Bill Horacio, when WMPS is not on duty, WMPD officers may give tickets as they go on security rounds and come across violations.

Horacio said that in Ludwell’s case, WMPS has jurisdiction over the curbside around the apartments and the parking complex within the apartments.

Williamsburg Police Department maintains the right side of Rolfe Road for the City’s residential parking, where only cars marked with black resident decals can park. Illegally parking in this area can incur $25 for one’s first offense, where second and third offenses can merit a ticket of $50 and $75, respectively.

While WMPS only has jurisdiction over Ludwell’s curbside and complex, there are violations that WMPS cannot address, including fire hydrant violations, according to Horacio. In these instances, a member of law enforcement, such as WMPD or WPD, addresses these violations instead. “[There are] certain violations that go beyond W&M Parking Rules & Regulations that constitute equally a violation of VA law may be cited by any sworn law enforcement agent even if out of their normal jurisdiction,” Horacio said in an email. “So for example a firelane violation, a handicapped violation, could be cited by the city police even on our property and those citations would be returnable in the city and county court system not on campus.”

As of Oct. 19, drivers parked in Ludwell have already been issued 27 tickets by WMPS and WMPD, while 45 tickets have been issued by WMPD. In the entirety of the fall 2017 semester, WMPS and WMPD issued 8 tickets while the City issued 23 tickets.

Kelsey Creech ’19 said she gets back to Ludwell around 10:00 p.m. after dance team practice. One time when she received a ticket she could not find parking after returning from dance practice. She decided to park near

a no parking zone, where part of her car was in between that zone and the zone in which students are allowed to park.

Creech, who had an 8 a.m. class the next day, said she went to move her car before her class but she had already been ticketed earlier in the morning for parking in a no parking zone and parking near a fire hydrant, which is a firelane violation.

According to Creech, the total cost of the citation amounted to $20. Creech said that she risks getting a ticket in order to park closer to her dorm if she is travelling alone.

“Most of the other residential areas are kind of far away,” Creech said. “Sometimes if I have other people with me, I’ll park in the resident space of that parking garage

by Adair. I don’t like to park far away from where I live when I’m by myself, because usually when I get back it’s nighttime. I don’t like to walk across campus by myself at night. … I’d rather work with the ticket.”

Horacio said walking back to Ludwell from Kaplan Arena or other parking areas on campus is not the only option, and students can park in those areas and use bikes, WATA and Campus Escort to return to Ludwell. “[Students are] seeing them as off-putting options, but the reason why they exist is to do exactly that — to facilitate that transition from that remote parking location to your final destination,” Horacio said.

According to Horacio, WATA’s system used to run until 1 a.m. before its hours were reduced over the past three years as no passengers were on late at night.

Horacio said that Ludwell has always been a part of WATA’s route and that WATA took passengers from Kaplan to Ludwell even in its later hours.

“So, if you’re not taking advantage of the complementary transportation system, then eventually, in order to save dollars and to prevent from having to increase rates for all of the other costs like fuel and maintenance and things go up, we have to cut back down on the operational hours,” Horacio said. “The first hours we would eliminate would be the ones with the least, or in this case, no ridership.”

Matthew Parciak ’19 said while he has never received a ticket while he has lived at Ludwell, he has parked elsewhere on campus when he has been unable to find parking. Parciak, who has lived at Ludwell during both his sophomore and senior years, said he did not have as much of an issue with parking during his first year at Ludwell. “… I also lived in Ludwell my sophomore year, and there was never an issue with parking at all,” Parciak said. “This year, you come back late at all, any night during the week, it’s so difficult to find parking. A lot of times I’ve come back where its 1 a.m. or something … and the closest resident spot is in DuPont and then I have to walk all the way back from there to Ludwell at 1, 1:30 in the morning, which is not fun.”

See PARKING page 3

NIA KITCHIN / THE FLAT HAT

CAMPUS

New Civil War memorial installed in Wren Building

Former plaque commemorated Confederacy, was removed in 2015 following BOV decision WILLIAM ALLEN FLAT HAT CHIEF STAFF WRITER

The Sir Christopher Wren Building is both the past and present face of the College of William and Mary. Through Convocation, Commencement, college tours and classes, the Wren Building and the memorials within it inform students and visitors on what the college stands for and stood for in the past. Nov. 9, 2018, a new memorial to the individuals associated with the College who fought in the Civil War was put up on display in the information center of the Wren Building.

The new memorial replaces the old memorial to students and faculty at the College who joined the Confederacy as soldiers and members of government after the school closed in 1861.

The old memorial, which was emblazoned with a Confederate flag, was in the central hallway of the Wren Building — where students walk through during Commencement and Convocation ceremonies — alongside other war memorials.

“It was a very negative symbol,” history professor and Lemon Project Director Jody Allen said. “You don’t want anyone walking through the Wren Building, see that, and getting the idea that they won’t be welcome.”

The old Confederate plaque was erected in 1914 when similar memorials were being erected around the American South to commemorate the “lost cause” of the Confederacy during the Jim Crow era. In the summer of 2015, former College

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President Taylor Reveley and the Board of Visitors voted to remove the memorial from the Wren building using private funds, which coincided with a similar decision to remove Confederate symbology from the College Mace.

“After the shooting at Mother Emmanuel church in Charleston, the decision was finally made to remove symbols of the Confederacy from public places,” Executive Director of Historic Campus and history professor Susan Kern Ph.D ’05 said.

After the Confederate memorial was removed, Reveley made a commitment to replace the Confederate plaque with a new plaque related to the Civil War. The new plaque was funded by private donations and was going to be placed in the main Wren hallway in fall 2017. However, the placing of the plaque was delayed, in wake of a fraught political climate.

“That change was made after white supremacists marched in Charlottesville in August of 2017,” Kern said.

The plaque’s placement was delayed for an entire year after the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally Aug. 12, which resulted in the killing of Heather Heyer. White supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. is currently on trial for charges of murder.

The new memorial was placed in the information center Nov. 9, 2018, instead of the main Wren hallway, accompanied by four panels providing further historical context for the memorial.

“We decided that anything that had to do with the Civil War in our current climate needed to be in a larger historical context,” Kern said. “That

putting up something about the Civil War without signaling that people are in a museum space where they are encountering it is not doing the job we do here with using the architecture and the furnishings of the buildings to indicate what kind of space they are in.”

The four panels detail the role played by enslaved African Americans in the construction of the Wren Building, the history of the College during the Antebellum period, and the history of the College and African Americans during and after the Civil War. “The charge was given to me to put [the Civil War memorial] in context, and the context of the Civil War is slavery,” Kern said. “So, it was an opportunity to move forward on longer term plans we had to make sure that our interpretation of the building here included William and Mary’s history with slavery.”

Compared to the 68 names on the Confederate plaque, the new Civil War memorial includes 390 names of alumni, students and faculty who fought as either Confederate or Union soldiers during the Civil War. Within these 390 names, all individuals actually fought in the Civil War as compared to the Confederate plaque which included people who joined the Confederate government and did not fight in the war. As marked by a “–U.S.” next to their names on the plaque, eight of these individuals from the College fought with the Union Army such as Lt. General Winfield Scott.

“The Welcome Center and the new panels

Inside Opinions

Colleagues help complete Paula Blank’s ‘Shakesplish’ CHARLES COLEMAN THE FLAT HAT

When English Professor Paula Blank died in 2018 she left behind an incomplete manuscript.

Monday, Nov. 5, following two years of work by her colleagues and friends to finish the book, Stanford University Press finally published “Shakesplish: How We Read Shakespeare’s Language.”

Not long after Blank’s death, English department professors found nearly completed files for “Shakesplish” on her hard drive. English professor Elizabeth Barnes then led the effort to complete Blank’s book.

English professor Erin Minear also worked with Barnes to complete their colleague’s book.

Minear said that while a majority of it was already written, they had to add the finishing touches such as citations and footnotes.

“As far as preparing the manuscript for publication, most of the chapters were largely complete,” Minear said in an email. “The argument was always clear. Sometimes we had to tidy up the writing or turn phrases into complete sentences. Sometimes we added a paragraph or two to fill out a conclusion or create a transition.

We also had to put in all the footnotes and check the references, which took the most time.”

Minear described Blank as a wonderful person and someone that she missed working with and knowing. She said Blank was passionate about her study of Shakespeare, and that they often had enjoyable conversations about the subject of the bard’s work. Minear said she hoped Blank’s book would reach a wide audience.

“I read this book, as I was helping to finish it, and I think it’s splendid,” Minear said in an email. “It’s really written for a non-specialist audience, though there is plenty for specialists to enjoy (and to learn!). I hope that it reaches a wide audience of non-scholars. Anyone at all interested in Shakespeare would enjoy it!”

“Shakesplish” examines the gap between Shakespeare’s Early Modern English and Modern American English. It details how this gap creates new unintended meanings for contemporary readings, and how that changes Shakespeare’s importance and legacy today.

The book also describes ways in which Shakespeare’s language and writings are still influential and relevant, identifying phrases and idioms some still may not realize come from his work.

English professor Erin Webster also took part in ensuring “Shakesplish” became a reality. Webster said she believed that Blank’s experiences in the classroom helped her to create the book.

“My sense is that her inspiration for the book came out of her teaching,” Webster said in an email. “She includes numerous anecdotal examples in the book itself of student reactions to Shakespeare’s writings, and of instances where her students have productively ‘misread’ a word or phrase. Rather than close these discussions down, Professor Blank thinks through their significance, much as I imagine her doing in her classroom.”

As one of the newer professors at the College, Webster said working on the “Shakesplish” project helped her create connections and friendships.

“Working on this book alongside Professor Barnes and Minear and with the support of others in the department has been a wonderful introduction into the W&M community,” Webster said in an email. “It has made me aware of how lucky I am to work with colleagues who respect each other’s scholarship and are willing to give their own time and energy to see it come to fruition.”

English department chair Suzanne Raitt knew Blank well and said she was immensely pleased that her book was able to be published.

“Paula worked here for well over 20 years and she was really funny, she was really charismatic, she was a true intellectual,” Raitt said in an email. “She could make you see things in a completely different way just in a couple of sentences. We really miss her.”

College President Katherine Rowe knew Blank well. Having both studied at Harvard University, the two were graduate students together who shared a passion for Shakespeare’s work. Rowe will host a celebration for the publishing of “Shakesplish” in January at the President’s House.

Inside Sports

College needs to reexamine student mental health care

Sunny, High 52, Low 31

See MEMORIAL page 3

Late professor’s book published

Former government professor David Dessler says the College is in desperate need of comprehensive mental health reform. page 5

Out with the old, in with the new

Tribe Athletics announced that Howard University’s Mike London will take over following the end of Jimmye Laycock ’70’s 39-year tenure. page 10

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newsinsight “

News Editor Leonor Grave News Editor Madeline Monroe fhnews@gmail.com

The Flat Hat | Tuesday, November 27, 2018 | Page 2

THE BUZZ

It’s a space where Jews can gather for holidays and events, but also just to study and hang out, where friendships are made. And so, Jewish students who want to get more involved or meet other Jews at William and Mary, they’ll know exactly where to go. When I come back for Homecoming in years to come, I know that I will be coming back to a larger and more engaged community as a direct result of this gift.

— Outgoing Hillel President Alexina Haefner ‘19 on the role the Shenkman Jewish Center will play in the campus community

From ships to seminars

POLICE BEAT

Nov. 21-25

U.S. Navy veteran Meg Roche ’18 moved cross-country to pursue physical therapy SARAH SMITH // FLAT HAT EDITOR–IN–CHIEF

1

Wednesday, Nov. 21 — Crash and dash: A hit and run incident was reported at Second Street.

2

Thursday, Nov. 22 — Stuffing and smoke: Kenneth Cosgro was arrested on charges of possesion of marijuana on Governor Berkely Road.

3

Sunday, Nov. 25 — Havoc on High Street: an incident of destruction of property was reported at High Street.

4

Sunday, Nov. 25 — Drinking, driving and DUI: Christopher Bryon Daniel Whitehusrt was arrested on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol on Richmond Road.

POLICE BEAT BY SARAH GREENBERG, KARINA VIZZONI / THE FLAT HAT

A THOUSAND WORDS COURTESY PHOTOS / MEG ROCHE

During her time in the Navy, Meg Roche ’18 was deployed around the world during her career from the Persian Gulf, San Diego and U.S. South Pacific Islands.

Each week, The Flat Hat profiles one person — a student, faculty or staff member, or alum that is deeply connected to the College of William and Mary. This week, The Flat Hat presents its third profile in a series about student veterans on campus.

SARAH SMITH / THE FLAT HAT

CORRECTIONS An article in the Nov. 13 issue, “Elaine Luria wins 2nd Congressional District seat following close race” incorrectly stated that Elaine Luria was a Navy veteran.

Luria is actually a former Marine pilot.

Another article in the Nov. 6 issue, “Scholarship to aid DACA students” incorrectly listed Diego Rodriguez ’19 as the director of UndocuTribe. He is currently just a member.

The Flat Hat wishes to correct any fact printed incorrectly. Corrections may be submitted in email to the editor of the section in which the incorrect information was printed. Requests for corrections will be accepted at any time.

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A little over a year ago, Meg Roche ’18 took her first classes at the College of William and Mary. Now, in just a few weeks, she will be graduating and moving on to post-baccalaureate work at Fordham University, en route to accomplishing her dreams of being a physical therapist.

Her path to becoming a physical therapist involved a sixyear detour — a detour that led her around the world. Roche joined the U.S. Navy in January 2010 and served until January 2016. After two years of training, she was stationed in San Diego, California, working as a fire controlman, a position where she was responsible for maintaining combat and weapons systems on ships.

“I did two deployments,” Roche said. “The first one was to the Persian Gulf and we went everywhere. I met the ship in Singapore on Christmas Day in 2011 and they were just starting a deployment. I went with them to the Persian Gulf and we went to places like Petra and Bahrain and Dubai.”

Roche’s second deployment was a little different. During her first, she was on a ship responsible for transporting U.S. Marines.

In 2013, she was on a ship transporting doctors, humanitarians and environmentalists to islands in the South Pacific. She visited the Marshall Islands, Tonga, American Samoa and Majuro on missions including sustainable resourcing and health care projects.

Before she came to the College, Roche had to make a crosscountry move from California to Virginia. She started out at Tidewater Community College in Virginia Beach, hoping to transfer to Old Dominion University, but then someone told her to aim for the College — what she now sees as the best stepping stone to physical therapy school.

“I was working at a school where there were a lot of kids with disabilities,” Roche said. “In the classroom that I was working in there was a 10-year old boy with multiple disabilities, he had never walked. A physical therapist said, ‘I think he can walk,’ and sure enough, every day we worked with her, the teacher in the classroom and I, and we got him up and got him doing his therapy. In six months, he was not just walking, but running and going up and down ramps. It was so motivating and awesome to see. I want to be able to identify those benchmarks that a lot of doctors might say, ‘It’s not going to happen.’ I want to be the doctor that says, ‘Yes you can.’”

On campus, Roche is majoring in kinesiology with the Allied Health Concentration, which is designed for students pursuing physical or occupational therapy.

“I think that definitely my favorite classes have been with

[kinesiology professor] Bob Cole,” Roche said. “Like Motor Control, I really enjoyed the seminar class where we can discuss the topics that are interesting and relevant to the course. I find a lot of it is really motivating, learning how motor systems work. I find it relevant to what I’m trying to do in physical therapy.”

When she’s not in the classroom, Roche spends her time in Williamsburg as an employee at Aromas on Prince George Street and as a member of the Student Veteran Association. With SVA, she said she participates in monthly meetings where the group discusses ways for student veterans to share their military experience with the broader campus and ways to increase resources allocated to student veterans.

“It’s kind of hard for us as students to just walk in … with very different backgrounds and try to be able to relate to other students,” Roche said. “One thing we are trying to do is recruit more student veterans. I think [the College] is a good learning environment. That’s one goal we have. … We want to get to know everyone better and be more immersive so we are working on ways to do that.”

Roche said she has mixed feelings about how being a student veteran has impacted her time at the College.

“I think it’s been a blessing and a curse at the same time if that makes sense,” Roche said. “It’s been really interesting to take a look at the way we are learning things and how we are learning.

I guess, as a veteran, it’s different when we’re coming in with a different background. We find importance in different things, it’s a little difficult because we are older, we don’t see things the same way. I feel that other people perceive us differently as well.”

One of her favorite memories at the College, however, comes from a time when she realized she did belong. Roche said that during her first semester fall 2017, she was very stressed and was having a hard time feeling like she fit in on campus. She said this was also something she had been worried about before she transferred, because she knew that there would not be many other older students in her undergraduate classes.

“There was one night in my Science of Nutrition class, where I said something strange when I raised my hand to answer a question and I was really uncomfortable,” Roche said. “It was a really stressful thing for me. … Another student had sort of noticed that and when I went to the restroom during our break, someone had left one of those ‘You Belong Here’ sticky notes in the bathroom and she passed it over to me. Maybe she didn’t notice I was stressed out and having a hard time, but it was a great feeling that someone did that.”

Now, when she graduates in a few weeks, Roche will be moving once again — this time, to Fordham University in New York. She will be completing post-baccalaureate work there, primarily in physics, and then applying to graduate programs in physical therapy for the fall 2019 semester.

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COURTESY PHOTOS / MEG ROCHE

Meg Roche ’18 is hoping to take her experiences like her six years in the Navy and her major in kinesiology the College and pursue a career in physical therapy .

The Flat Hat

Page 3

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

STUDENT LIFE

YDSA enters ‘concentrated agitation’ phase Rally to End Prison Slavery aims to break away from VCE contract NIA KITCHIN FLAT HAT MANAGING EDITOR

Climbing the stairs at the end of the Sunken Garden Friday, Nov. 16 were many windblown students and one lone professor. Below, a group of primarily undergraduate students at the College of William and Mary huddled together at the base of the stairs holding on to signs that decried the College’s use of furniture made by prison labor.

A few weeks prior, students, professors and community members had been invited to gather together for a rally to end prison slavery by the College’s chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists. YDSA also created a petition demanding that the General Assembly put a stop to prison labor for unfair wages, which they regard as slavery. Attendees were encouraged to sign this petition during the event.

“The petition describes the injustice and cruelty of mass incarceration and prison labor, then makes two demands of the Virginia General Assembly: 1) reclassify incarcerated workers as ‘legal employees’ rather than ‘slaves’ and 2) pay them what they have earned rather than garnishing the vast majority of their wages,” the YDSA Facebook event states.

Under its state contract with Virginia Correctional Enterprises, the College is obligated to purchase furniture made by inmates in state prisons at wages ranging from 50 to 80 cents per hour. Since 2014, they have spent an average of $1,176,246 per fiscal year on this furniture.

This contract has been under increased scrutiny during the fall 2018 semester primarily due to the actions of William and Mary Students United to protest it. These actions included an unauthorized protest that culminated in two students placed on probation. However, YDSA, whose members had previously attended Students United meetings, decided to host this rally on their own.

Speakers at the rally included representatives from YDSA, a professor, a law student and others interested in the issue. The attending crowd totaled in roughly 30 people. Speakers from YDSA expounded on the importance of their petition and steps students could take to protest this injustice, including joining their organization on the Road to Richmond — an annual event hosted by the College where students travel to Richmond to lobby their legislators.

YDSA Co-chair Josh Messite ’20 began the rally with a historical explanation of how criminalization has been used in the United States to continue legal slavery. He emphasized the race and class implications of this system and the oftentimes brutal NIA KITCHIN / THE FLAT HAT treatment these incarcerated workers face. He also touched on how the current minimum wage across the nation is an inadequate living wage and contributes to this issue.

“If you had asked me a year ago, ‘When did America abolish slavery?’ I would have told you, ‘1865,’” Messite said. “And I would have been wrong. Because in fact, there are currently thousands of enslaved people in Virginia right now. That’s because when the 13th Amendment ended slavery, it made one big exception: prisons.”

Messite said the goal of this campaign to end prison slavery was for the Commonwealth to recognize prison laborers as workers and compensate them fairly. YDSA Co-founder Billy Bearden ’19 said that this rally marked the end of the awareness phase of their work and the beginning of their “concentrated

agitation” phase, which will include more action in pursuit of their goals.

“Join us or some other organization seeking the end of prison slavery and write the history we wish to someday read together, without walls or iron bars separating us from one another,” Bearden said.

Included in the rally were readings from incarcerated workers, written specifically for this rally. One prisoner who provided a statement has been incarcerated for nearly 23 years in various prisons in Virginia since he was 18 years old and said he thus had an intricate understanding of the labor systems in place. In his statement, Rho explained how he came to the realization that he was being taken advantage of by VCE. “When I was standing on the assembly line, assembling bed frames and high-quality cabinets and dressers and watched as the goods I just produced passed through quality control carefully wrapped in bubble wrap and then shipped off to some unknown destination, I couldn’t help but feel exploited,” the prisoner’s statement said as read by YDSA Co-chair Katherine Zabinski ’21.

Following these statements, anthropology professor Jonathan Glasser was introduced. He began by saying that he was hesitant to speak at this event because he has been following this issue on campus for many years now, and that as a professor, he is able to observe issues rise up and then disappear quite often.

“What’s really striking to me is that even if the issue and the attention comes in waves, the problem doesn’t go away,” Glasser said. “The problem is still there.

Even if it’s beneath our consciousness.”

Glasser said that what he thought was most admirable about this movement is the awareness it is generating on campus. According to Glasser, there is a rise in students understanding that the furniture they use every day to sleep on or study with is made by people who have been denied their fundamental human rights.

He said that this issue requires developing tools to help individuals act and seize the moment.

When the microphone was opened up to anyone in attendance, students took the chance to speak about their passion for the issue. Some speakers also referenced the occasionally adversarial relationship between the students and the administration regarding student protests.

“I think this institution has a really bad relationship with activism on this campus,” Ben Milburn-Town ’20 said. “The institution here arrested its own students; it didn’t just fizzle out; it wasn’t because the students graduated, it’s because William and Mary violently stopped it from happening. It’s invested in maintaining low wages for its workers. … I have been sanctioned by this campus, and I’ve gone through some bulls— because of this campus.”

Milburn-Town encouraged fellow students to become involved in a multitude of ways and not just on Facebook. They said that in order to create this change, it is necessary to band together and resist collapsing under pressure.

“Together we do have power,” Milburn-Town said. “But it’s hard. And you have to claim it, and you have to work hard for it. Because there are people trying to take it from you, and there are people here trying to take it from you, and there are people who don’t want you to have power.”

Messite said that he feels invigorated because of the collective action he sees on the road ahead.

“These bonds that we’re forming, these networks, will allow us to build on these victories, both past and present,” Messite said.

WILLIAMSBURG

Annual poverty panel focuses on homelessness Greater City coalition offers insight into issues of housing, mental illness, criminalization JAE CHUNG THE FLAT HAT

Wednesday, Nov. 14, Greater City hosted “People not Problems: Poverty in Williamsburg” as part of its annual panel focused on building awareness around poverty and homelessness.

Greater City is a coalition of students from a variety of different campus ministries that seeks to alleviate poverty.

The group brings meals to local motels that house those on the edge of homelessness and strives to meet the physical, relational and spiritual needs that those in poverty may have.

“Here in Williamsburg … you see poverty portrayed as such an important issue, something that’s so prevalent in the community,” Greater City member Matthew Tucker ’22 said. “So, I think it’s important to engage the college students that make up such a large portion of the community in this problem that we have the ability to efficiently address.”

The panelists began the event by introducing their personal backgrounds in poverty and their continued experience with tackling the issue.

The speakers offered insight into the different contributing causes of homelessness. Executive Director of Williamsburg House of Mercy Shannon Woloszynowski highlighted the tourism-driven economy in Williamsburg, which leaves people unemployed during certain seasons.

“Because [tourism is] at the crux of it,” Woloszynowski said. “We talk about housing, we talk about affordable housing, but if we can get people employed at a living wage, we can get them stabilized.”

Panelist Charvalla West, who works with United Way, a nonprofit that seeks to help those in need get out of poverty, drew attention to the impact of relationships. She recounted the importance of having social support in her upbringing, which she doesn’t see happening much in the community.

“There’s this relational poverty that we need to address,” West said. “This social capital is another that’s coming around as a buzzword. But being able to call on people who can be there for you.”

Williamsburg Housing Department’s Public Housing Manager JaLauna Burton discussed other factors that contribute to poverty, including mental illnesses and criminal backgrounds. She explained that people with criminal backgrounds face barriers not only in employment but also in housing. She also talked about the set amount of Social Security benefits given to people with mental illness, which may not be enough to pay the bills but would be cut if the individuals sought out jobs.

“There are a lot of things that go hand-in-hand to tie individuals to poverty,” Burton said. “It starts with having a good job, but you have to have the tools to get that job.”

The panelists discussed how poverty looks different in Williamsburg compared to nearby cities.

“For the City of Williamsburg, because it’s smaller, there is a concentration of poverty that looks a little different than in James City County, Edward County,” West said. “You add to it the student population in the City of Williamsburg, the percentage of people living in poverty is higher … but I think part of that is because it’s spread over a smaller geographical distance.”

“The common perception in Williamsburg is that we don’t have homeless people in Williamsburg,” Woloszynowski said. “The homeless in Williamsburg are by and large hidden.”

3e Restoration founder Fred Liggin said his nonprofit aims to help individuals transition out of poverty and break the cycle of homelessness. Liggin said Virginia’s high eviction rates make ending that cycle difficult.

“Virginia is the number-one state in the United States of America for evictions, and [the] top-six cities in all of the USA of evictions are in Virginia,” Liggin said. “So, you’re within earshot of some of the most evictions takeing place … [and] Williamsburg does become a landing spot.”

All four of the panelists agreed that the most impactful way students could contribute is by being open minded and helping to humanize those living in poverty. Burton urged people to be more compassionate and to try to escape the common stereotype of poverty being caused by laziness. He said that people have to look beyond what is in front of them and try to figure out how someone in poverty could have gotten into their current situation.

“Do not look at individuals that are in poverty as something below you, because we are all one check away from being where they are,” Burton said.

Liggin brought up the emotional impact of living in poverty and talked about how trauma that is often coupled with homelessness can affect a person’s cognitive and social realities as much as their physical one.

“When you encounter the man or woman living through homelessness, and they seem very disconnected or very despondent, remember that they were something,” Liggin said. “They hadn’t always been that way. Enter into that moment with them, be present with them, and maybe offer them a cup of coffee. Humanize their humanity, just for a moment, and you’ll be surprised at how far that goes.”

Woloszynowski emphasized the effect of volunteering on bridging the gap between those in poverty and those who are not. She said that it is essential to humanize the homeless and see them as not so different from ourselves.

“Don’t come in to observe — this isn’t a zoo,” Woloszynowski said. “Come in to roll your sleeves up and serve. You see these people as people, as human beings, as people who are struggling.”

West also encouraged students at the College to vote.

“As students in a college, in an institution, [you are] in a very privileged position in our community, and you have a voice that will be heard,” West said. “I say this on every panel: please vote. This is your home for the time that you are here. You count.”

Ludwell parking passes oversold; residents report increased tickets, difficulty Limited parking on Rolfe Road result of efforts to preserve College’s historical environment, new buildings PARKING from page 1

Parciak said that he has encountered problems with parking space most on the weekends, which he thinks arise from non-Ludwell party guests dropping off their cars and poorly parallel parking.

“I’d say it’s mainly Thursday through Saturday nights,” Parciak said. “I think a lot of people come to Ludwell Apartments for people to host before they go out and people leave their car here and they’re not always people who live here even though they have a resident sticker. … People are also really bad at parallel parking — they take two spots.”

One of the issues facing Ludwell is that it will not expand, Horacio said.

“The problem is the area will never grow,” Horacio said. “The area is limited to 156 spaces and it’s [going to] serve the first 156 customers that come in on a [first-come, first-serve] basis. And then everybody else after that has to go to an alternate location.”

Horacio said Ludwell currently houses 226 residents, according to information from Residence Life. Of those 226 residents, 161 residents have decals.

“Currently, if every single person … who is a resident at Ludwell who currently has a car and bought a resident decal were to park there, we’d only have a net difference of [five] — there are [five] more cars than there are spaces at Ludwell,” Horacio said.

Ludwell Community Council Treasurer Connie Lee ’19, who said she received two tickets in October from the WMPD for no parking and fire hydrant violations totaling $20, has worked with community council to address Ludwell’s parking availability. She and other community council members met with Horacio to discuss parking at Ludwell. During this

meeting, one alternative option Horacio suggested was the reinstatement of a Ludwell-only decal, which Parking Services used to offer students prior to 2008.

Lee said she brought up the exclusive decal during community meetings but currently does not see the option being reinstated for the current academic year.

“In both exec and general meetings, we discussed this option and people noted that this is not a desirable option because it takes away parking options across campus,” Lee said in an email. “This would also not be feasible this year because Parking Services oversold parking passes this year by 5 passes. This means that every night, 5 people (give or take) will not be able to find a parking spot in Ludwell. Nonetheless, as a community council, we would like to bring up this option again to residents beyond meetings (because our meeting attendance tends to be low).”

According to Horacio, potential issues with the Ludwell-only pass include its ability to limit who gets a pass and when, and its non-applicability to other residential areas.

“There would be a limited number of those [passes],” Horacio said. “But they would also then lose the ability to drive to other locations on campus, [and] it would be almost equivalent of having a reserved space all of the time, because there would be only 156 decals in circulation, there’s only 156 spaces, and we would not sell another [decal]. … So now where does that car go? It’s the same issue. It’s under control in terms of limiting rather than enabling.”

Horacio said that Parking Services has never had a waitlist and has never had to turn away drivers who are eligible to bring a vehicle who have wanted to purchase a decal.

Lee said she believes Ludwell’s limited parking is reflective of a lack of availability of parking elsewhere on campus. Statistics provided by Horacio indicate that at least four out of five zones are above capacity most of the time, as parking industry standards mark a parking lot as full when 85 percent of the lot is occupied, with lot layouts and design as factors in determining remaining parking availability. Currently, residential parking at the College falls short of full capacity.

“On campus we have seen occupancy rates of 93% - 95% in the Faculty & Staff areas within 50-100 yards of major epicenters of activity,” Horacio said in an email. “Resident Parking being on the perimeter and closer to the residential zones of campus remains at 78% - 80% occupied. Commuter parking is also high on the south side off campus near School of Business measuring 96%-98% during the peak hours of 8:30 am to 4:45 pm (Mon Thu) and drops to 82% on Fridays. North side of campus near the Bryan complex is at steadily at 84% with Harrison Ave experiencing the highest underutilization rate, with over 50% of the spaces open all day.”

According to Horacio, limited parking is one result of the desire to preserve the College’s historical environment and prioritize other additions.

“The expectation is that, ‘William and Mary will make room for me,’ or, ‘You owe me room. You owe me somewhere to park my car.’ And that’s not necessarily true,” Horacio said. “Again, we’re working with a finite space, and while we go to great lengths to constantly look for where we can add space, parking is not one of the desirable additions to the campus environment.

Anybody who has an appreciation for the campus landscape, the age of the campus [and] its historic value would easily come to the conclusion that taking away beautiful space or available space just to build a parking lot is not necessarily the best use of that space or the most desirable use.”

The Flat Hat

Page 4

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

CAMPUS

Shenkman Jewish Center opens to public

New building to serve as Hillel gathering spot for students LEONOR GRAVE FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR

At the corner of Jamestown Road and Cary Street, the Jewish community at the College of William and Mary now has a dedicated home. The Shenkman Jewish Center opened its doors to the public the morning of Wednesday Nov. 14, only nine months after its groundbreaking ceremony in February of this year.

There was not much elbow room on the first floor of the two story, 3,000 square foot center, as a crowd of students, faculty, staff, administrators and community and religious leaders packed the Shenkman Jewish Center’s main room to watch the dedication ceremony. The center is named for the Shenkman family, and donations from Mark Shenkman and Rosalind Shenkman funded the project, with its associated seven-figure monetary cost.

Before the ribbon-cutting, College President Katherine Rowe, President and CEO of Hillel International Eric Fingerhut, Director of Hillel at William and Mary Rabbi Gershon Litt, outgoing Hillel President Alexina Haefner ’19 and Mark Shenkman all took to the podium to speak about the center’s importance for the Jewish community at the College. Former College President Taylor Reveley, who presided over the groundbreaking ceremony in February, was also present at the event.

Haefner said she was looking forward to using the space for Jewish students in her last semester at the College before she graduates in May, and that its impact will extend beyond her time as a student here.

“It’s a space where Jews can gather for holidays and events, but also just to study and hang out, where friendships are made,” Haefner said. “And so, Jewish students who want to get more involved or meet other Jews at William and Mary, they’ll know exactly where to go,” Haefner said. “When I come back for Homecoming in years to come, I know that I will be coming back to a larger and more engaged community as a direct result of this gift.”

Mark Shenkman, in his remarks, emphasized that he hopes to see the Center brought to life with engaging students,

impactful programs, memorable social events and kosher food. Additionally, Shenkman — echoing other remarks made at the event by others involved in the development of the Shenkman Jewish Center — said that he hopes its existence will attract more Jewish students to enroll at the College.

“Many of you may know that my dream was to matriculate at William and Mary,” Shenkman said. “It started when my parents visited Colonial Williamsburg when I was 10 years old. ... Today, as an amateur historian and collector of documents and political artifacts connected to America’s Founding Fathers, strolling around this campus, reflecting on the great impact this college has had on American history is a unique and inspiring experience. One of our family’s philanthropic objectives is to ensure that our gifts will make a difference.

I was always struck when I visited my son Greg at the College, how could the nation’s second-oldest college fail to have a visible Jewish presence?”

The Shenkman Jewish Center, in addition to being a longtime dream of Jewish students and community members, also opens its doors only a few weeks after the Oct. 27 anti-Semitic attack in a Pittsburgh synagogue, and the subsequent vigil held on campus Oct. 29. Litt’s remarks emphasized the symbolic timing of the ceremony.

“My friends, the Shenkman Jewish center is opening just a few weeks after the worst anti-Semitic act in Jewish history,” Litt said.

“The night of the attack right after the Sabbath ended, the President of William and Mary Katherine Rowe was on the phone with me, offering the full resources of the institution to be used for whatever needed to happen next.

That Monday afternoon President Rowe was on that lawn. I was on that lawn. University administration was on that lawn. And if you are a student here in the room today, you were probably also on that lawn.”

For Litt, the message that the opening of the Shenkman Jewish Center sends to the community is that the College is committed to religious diversity.

“The university’s commitment to this project shows all of us that William and Mary values unique opinion and practice

COURTESY PHOTO / WILLIAM AND MARY NEWS

The newly-opened Shenkman Jewish Center includes a kitchen and study spaces and will serve as the home base for the campus Hillel group.

and values religious diversity,” Litt said.

“The Shenkman Jewish Center should stand as a shining example to all colleges and universities, institutions of higher learning. exemplifying the message of equality, diversity and religious freedom and acceptance.”

The Jewish students in the room reacted to the new building mostly with awe and excitement for what it will mean for Jewish students on campus in future years. Growing up in heavily Jewish area of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, outgoing Hillel Vice President Emily Lichtenstadter ’19 said that Judaism was an integral part of her life. At 17, she wanted to experience a different community and meet people from diverse backgrounds, which led her to the College. However, once she started her freshman year, Lichtenstadter said she realized the importance of finding her own Jewish community on campus, and became actively involved in Hillel.

When outgoing Hillel Israel Chair Sarah Franklin-Gillette ’19 was a senior at

Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland and deciding where she wanted to go to school, she ultimately decided that she liked the College enough to not consider its small Jewish community a disqualifying factor in attending, but, like Lichtenstadter, has been involved in Hillel since her first year on campus.

Franklin-Gillette and Lichtenstadter met at the Day For Admitted Students Hillel table their freshman year, and now both have executive positions in the organization. One thing that the center will allow, FranklinGillette said, is a more permanent space for gathering, especially around holy days.

The first floor includes a large main room, a study room and a kosher kitchen. On the second floor, there is a meeting room and an office space for Litt and future rabbis on campus.

For Lichtenstadter, the Shenkman Jewish Center is the culmination of everything she hoped she would see in a Jewish community on campus in her time at the College.

“I think it’s an unbelievable thing that this has happened to our community,” Lichtenstadter said. “We’re also grateful for the Shenkman family and for all the support that we’ve gotten from the community as a whole. I think it’s going to be the start of something big. It’s the start of elevating Jewish presence on campus, and I think that’s super important.”

Franklin-Gillette said that constantly having to go to the scheduling office to book rooms for meetings and events and not having a designated kosher kitchen to prepare food were issues Hillel has dealt with in her time here. The kitchen, equipped with two dishwashers and two refrigerators, allows for kosher food preparation, which requires the separation of milk and meat.

“It’s definitely going to bring more students to the school because anybody that keeps kosher couldn’t come here before,” Franklin-Gillette said. “But now that there’s the kosher kitchen, that’s not going to deter people.”

BOARD OF VISITORS

Board approves tuition increase, maintains Promise $2.4 million donation to fund Century Project for women’s field hockey team SARAH SMITH FLAT HAT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The College of William and Mary’s Board of Visitors met Nov. 14-16 to discuss topics including First Amendment rights on campus, ongoing construction projects and tuition increases for the class of 2023. These discussions resulted in the presentation and approval of 17 resolutions.

Resolution 1: Following guidance from Gov. Ralph Northam’s office and in anticipation of the upcoming Virginia General Assembly session, the Richard Bland College Committee passed this resolution to seek legislative support for four budget amendments for fiscal year 2020 operating and capital budgets.

Resolution 2: The Richard Bland College Committee approved the final revisions to Weapons on Campus Regulation. This revision expands the prohibition of weapons at all events and activities on college property and in all outdoor areas. Individuals in violation of this policy may be subject to arrest for trespassing.

Resolution 3: The Richard Bland College Committee approved the final revisions to the Richard Bland College Open Flames on Campus Regulation policy. This finalized policy states that open flames are prohibited on all college property, including within college buildings and facilities unless a permit has been obtained for an approved event.

Resolution 4: The Richard Bland College Committee voted to name the Richard Bland College cafe the Mary Morton Parsons Café. The Mary Morton Parsons Foundation is a Richmond, Virginia-based foundation that supports the capital needs of charitable organizations. The Mary Morton Parsons Foundation gifted $100,000 to Richard Bland to support its first fundraising campaign and has also given Richard Bland $150,000 to renovate its library building.

Resolution 5: This resolution was discussed in closed session and was concerned with appointments to fill vacancies in instructional faculty.

Resolution 6: This resolution was discussed in closed session and dealt with designated professorships.

Resolution 7: : This resolution was discussed in closed session and concerned faculty leaves of absence.

Resolution 8: : The Committee on Audit, Risk and Compliance approved the 2019 Internal Audit Work Plan. This plan includes audits for financial aid, the office of the provost, international travel, minors on campus, volunteers on campus, America To Go procurement and accounting and consulting plans from Richard Bland. It also includes recurring audit activities such as the activity on small purchase charge cards and Commonwealth Fraud, Waste and Abuse Hotline investigations.

Resolution 9: The Committee on Administration, Buildings and Grounds approved the Virginia Institute of Marine Science’s resolution to demolish multiple structures at the Eastern Shore Laboratory. VIMS will demolish the Owns House, Bath House, Castagna Shellfish Research Hatchery, the Administration Building, Freshwater Pump House, Shop Storage Shed, Gas House, a storage shed, the Aquaculture Shop, Hill House and the Hill House garage and the King House storage.

Resolution 10: The Committee on Administration, Buildings and Grounds approved VIMS’ resolution to demolish multiple structures within the facilities maintenance complex. These structures include the Service Center and Laboratory, Maintenance Shop, Service Center Annex, Sediment Laboratory, Facilities Storage I, Facilities Storage II, Grounds Greenhouse, Hazardous Waste Storage, Radiation Waste Storage and Greenhouse III. Resolution 11: The Committee on Administration, Buildings and Grounds approved the naming of VIMS’ new aquaculture center. VIMS will name this center the A. Marshall Acuff, Jr. Center for Aquaculture in honor of A. Marshall Acuff ’62, who chairs the For the Bold campaign at VIMS. Acuff has also made charitable gifts to VIMS to advance sustainable shellfish aquaculture.

Resolution 12: Virginia code requires that public institutions of higher education update and revise crisis and emergency management plans every four years. In compliance with this code, the College’s Emergency Management Team and the Virginia Department of Emergency Management developed a plan for the next four years, which includes

procedures for both natural and human-caused disasters.

Resolution 13: The last of the Committee on Administration, Buildings and Grounds’resolutions officially renames the Busch Field Team Facility as the Tribe Field Hockey Center. Cathy Bessant and John Clay, parents of Meredith Clay ’18, have become lead donors to the Tribe Field Hockey program. As part of the recognition of the 100th anniversary of coeducation, their family lead donation efforts for a $2.4 million project that will create new facilities for the women’s field hockey team at Busch Field. This project has been titled the Century Project.

Resolution 14: The BOV’s Committee on Financial Affairs used this resolution to approve the continuation of the William and Mary Promise, a program that guarantees in-state students will not see changes in their tuition over four years. This resolution also increased tuition for incoming instate students by 5.4 percent, setting tuition at $18,375. This tuition increase was first addressed in September 2018.

Resolution 15: This resolution acknowledges the receipt of the consolidated financial reports from the College, VIMS and Richard Bland College for the fiscal year which ended June 30, 2018.

Resolution 16: This resolution acknowledges that the financial report from the College’s Intercollegiate Athletic Department for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2018 was presented to College President Katherine Rowe, Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration Sam Jones, Rector John Littel and the BOV. Resolution 17: This resolution concerns the partial interim allocation of the trust of Jeanne Baker of Mequon, Wisconsin, who died Feb. 14, 2018 at 102 years old. Her husband, Russell Baker, established a trust in her honor, naming the College one of three beneficiaries. The College’s share of the trust is $3,155,432, and the College has no restrictions on use of the trust. The Committee on Financial Affairs passed a resolution on the interim use of the trust, allocating $3 million for the Integrated Science Center 4 project and allocating $155,432 for campus beautification projects. Once reimbursed, the trust will be used to establish a fund to be used an an endowment for sustainability projects.

Placement of updated Civil War plaque delayed after Unite the Right rally Information center includes four posters providing historical context on College's role in slavery practices MEMORIAL from page 1

provide a new context that is not necessarily there if you just see the names,” Allen said. “If you see [the Civil War memorial] in conjunction with the plaques, you have a broader picture of William and Mary and of slavery.”

The new memorial and panels are already being incorporated into tours of the Wren Building given by student members of the Spotswood Society.

“We have not actually had a new exhibit in the

[information] center for I believe over a decade, so it was very much time for a new exhibit,” Spotswood Society member Thomas Voegelin ’19 said. “I’m glad we can have an exhibit talking about African-American history in the Wren building. … We have not devoted an exhibit that gives such a complete picture of African-American history at the college.”

The Lemon Project is currently working on establishing a new memorial to enslaved African Americans at the College. The memorial will include

the names of enslaved peoples within the design and will be located on the historic campus where enslaved African Americans worked. The contest for the design has received both local and international applicants, both professional and non-professional.

“Hopefully, it won’t be something you walk by without noticing but become something as much a part of the school as the Wren building itself,” Allen said.

Both Kern and Allen saw the Civil War memorial as an important measure to commemorate all those

associated with the College who fought in the war and an important exhibit piece to provide historical context for the College’s Civil War history, role in the institution of slavery, and complicit support for the Confederacy.

“I’m a historian,” Kern said. “I get a lot of intellectual gratification in the understanding why things are made to begin with and what decisions put them in the places that they are. To me as a historian, it’s just as interesting that it’s in an exhibit than in a hallway or somewhere else on campus.”

opinions GUEST COLUMN

Opinions Editor Ethan Brown Opinions Editor Katherine Yenzer fhopinions@gmail.com // @theflathat

The Flat Hat

| Tuesday, November 27, 2018 | Page 5

Case for reform:

College needs to reexamine student mental health care Coalition, the Life Values Inventory, the Kognito online At-Risk module and an emphasis on self-help literatures provided by disparate websites. No overall rationale glues these incommensurable activities together. No feature of the specified activities and no element of the logic of their implementation gives us reason to believe they make sense when combined. We have no basis for concluding that these activities and services will collectively promote either health or wellness. In short, given such a hodgepodge of services and lack of defined goals, we have no reason to think we will get anything from the current health and wellness program but a continuation of the status quo.

Fifth, in reviewing specifically the services for mental health disabilities, one finds inadequate, unclear or missing information; inadequate, poorly structured or missing services; or both. These problems appear where wanted or needed services apparently do not exist, should exist but are ruled out, or should and do exist but are made difficult to access or are clearly inadequate to the task. These problems are widespread in the Counseling Center specifically and the provision of mental health care at the College generally.

FLAT HAT GUEST WRITER Two examples are worth noting. They give a sense of the extent of disrepair in the College’s mental health care The student mental health care system at the College of William and Mary is broken. Reform is long overdue. I am system. First, consider two of the claims in the Counseling Center’s discussion of medications and therapy under the very familiar with the problems students face in getting adequate mental health care. In 2014-2015 there were four heading, “Things to know when seeking medication management.” They are: student suicides. I was president of the Faculty Assembly that year. I was devastated by those suicides, and I resolved (1) “Medications can help manage symptoms but cannot cure mental health disorders. The best course of to do something about them. I have a great deal of experience and training as a mental health activist, and I secured treatment is often a combination of talk therapy and medication management.” the support of psychiatrists in Richmond, where I live, in developing the Student-Faculty Mental Health Initiative, (2) “Of the many physicians who graduate medical school only a few choose psychiatry as their pathway. As which I cleared with Vice President Ginger Ambler ‘88, Ph.D. ‘06 and announced to my classes in September 2015. such there are often limited numbers of psychiatric providers... It is not uncommon for psychiatrists to have waiting The aim of the initiative was simply to start a conversation on campus. It was enthusiastically received by students. periods of 4-6 months for first appointments. Psychiatrists will not offer walk-in crisis appointments.”

Unfortunately, I was removed from my teaching position in October 2015. I will not get into the details of the lawsuit I These claims are false, as any review of relevant research or call to a medical professional will confirm. And was eventually forced to file or the discussions that continue today about how to gain closure on that event. these errors matter. If students who need help consult the College website and believe these claims are true, they Instead, to follow up on my student mental health care initiative, I would like to propose a full reform of the would conclude that medications won’t treat their conditions if used alone (when we cannot say this is generally student mental health care system. I worked on this proposal for three months this summer and, once again, I had true), and they may decide medications cannot be obtained in the short-term anyway (when such a conclusion is the advice of psychiatrists in Richmond. I will divide my proposal into two parts. In this essay I show that the current uncertain until one investigates it). We should not be surprised if such students give up on medication and decide system is fundamentally flawed and needs to be replaced. In a second essay I will lay out an action plan for moving to continue struggling with their conditions without getting treatment. If that happens, we cannot absolve the from the system we have to a system that works.

College of responsibility for a very unfortunate outcome. These two false claims about medications have been on the The College’s “health and wellness” approach is flawed in nearly every imaginable aspect of its structure: Counseling Center website for some time. They may have discouraged at least one College student, maybe more, - an unsupported and almost certainly false motivating assumption; from getting medication therapy already.

- an undefined and apparently meaningless overall goal; A second example of the profound need for reform of the College’s current mental health care system is the - an antiquated model of health care delivery (relying on administrative units in a centralized system); systematic way in which it discourages help-seeking behavior in the realm of mental health. For over two decades, - an unscientific model of care to address what is a public health problem and must be treated as such if mental health programs nationwide have stressed the need for colleges to encourage help-seeking behavior and evidence is to be brought into decision-making in appropriate ways; remove the barriers to treatment. In many ways — most notably, (a) with the many conditions and limitations the - subsidiary goals that are undefined and therefore useless as guideposts if we wish at some point to evaluate Counseling Center places on the services it will provide, (b) the number of times it states on its website that students our progress; have the option to go off campus for treatment, which it encourages them to pursue on their own by providing a - mutually inconsistent or collectively incoherent explanations of the database of off-campus providers and (c) the extensive resources provided on the self-help disparate activities and services making up the full program; page — the staff at the Counseling Center signal that they are not eager, willing or - an inability to assess either the effectiveness or able to treat students. The Center’s self-help page, for example, provides efficiency of the program’s component activities or overall 39 links to disparate organizations covering fundamental mental and structure; emotional problems such as eating disorders, trauma, anxiety, - provided medical information that is false; depression, sexual assault and helping the survivors of suicide.

- provided program information that Offering myriad self-help links (and another page dedicated discourages help-seeking behavior; to self-assessment materials) for these serious disorders and - program activities that are needed but are profoundly complex emotional issues can only have the not offered (suicide prevention) or are not offered effect of discouraging students from making a counseling in sufficient supply (counseling and therapist appointment even when they need one and are willing to meetings); and take the leap of requesting one.

- unilateral and opaque decisionSeeking mental health care is a daunting task for making by the administrative units charged with any student, even in the best of circumstances. A delivering health and wellness, coupled with their successful college mental health care program unwillingness to meaningfully engage different will not only send encouraging and welcoming constituencies, in particular the students, in an messages to students, making clear its desire to open, respectful, honest discussion of mental offer necessary treatment, but will work long term health issues. to remove barriers students face, for example, by To summarize, the current system implementing anti-stigma programs. of student mental health care, centered What would reform look like? In a second on “health and wellness,” does not work. essay I will outline an approach that fixes It is riddled with problems, starting the problems identified above and also with its core motivation and addresses longstanding student concerns. extending to multiple aspects of its News coverage of mental health issues programmatic structure. in both The Flat Hat and the College’s The “health and wellness” news reveals that students feel shut out program at the College is based of the processes and deliberations that on the claim that the primary determine their health care options. obstacle to better mental health These processes and deliberations are among students on campus not transparent, it might be added, is an academic “culture” and it must be admitted that the that, according to Kelly Crace, decisions taken have not been associate vice president for health responsive to student concerns. and wellness, “includes a At most times, no one at the kind of ‘stress glorification’ College is speaking to the issue of and the marginalization mental health. Discussion of this of people are who are matter on campus, which had intentional about healthy been vigorous in the 2015-2016 habits.” He adds, “The academic year, evaporated over whole point we’re trying the next two years, despite the to make with integrative fact that the administration never wellness is to try to show responded to the profound concerns that wellness and excellence students clearly and forcefully articulated don’t have to be competitive.” regarding their mental health care in 2015 and Crace said, “that we can create 2016. a culture of resilience where wellness Students at the College have long identified their and excellence can be synonymous and inability to engage the administration in a meaningful that they actually help each other and dialogue as problematic. One complaint is that the school that [students] can obtain a deeper level of does not acknowledge the realities that students face. At a campus excellence.” discussion in April 2015, former Student Assembly President Colin The main problem with this rationale is that Danly ‘15 made just this point in regard to student mental health. we have no evidence that such student attitudes Danly said that the College has done such a good job at marketing regarding academic achievement exist at the College, and if they do, “One Tribe, One Family,” that students come to the College expecting GRAPHIC BY KAYLA PAYNE / THE FLAT HAT we have no reason to think they threaten student mental health. National it to be “this perfect, wonderful community when the reality of life sets in data on student mental health care and the prevention of suicide, at least, would suggest as and it’s just like, some things aren’t perfect, and it’s hard to necessarily reconcile that.” much. In studies of mental health disorders and suicides at universities, “poor grades” is considered a risk factor. But it “And I think that’s the same idea of looking at the Counseling Center,” Danly said. “If you paint the Counseling is not, according to research, an important one. The College’s monocausal account, in any case, is simply not credible, Center as you go in one time and you’re fixed and that’s it, you’re going to have people more dissatisfied because even if students really do “glorify stress.” that’s not how life works. Sometimes it works, sometimes it takes two sessions, sometimes it takes 20, sometimes However, the claim that poor mental health among students at the College, where it exists, can be blamed on it’s never fixed, and so I think it’s about having an honest conversation about what are our expectations, and I think a self-destructive academic culture sustained by the students themselves, should be considered a myth, not a having an honest conversation saying, just because we say ‘One Tribe, One Family’ doesn’t mean one perfect, happy foundation for policy. family. No one wants a perfect family because that’s boring.”

A second problem with the College’s health and wellness framework is that its aims or goals are not defined. What In the SA election the following year, the main issue was mental health care, and the campaign platforms of all outcome is the College aiming for? Crace says the goal is to create a “culture of resilience.” We are given no sense the candidates stressed the need for fundamental change at the College. Each pair of candidates promised to make of what this means. How would student behavior be different in such a culture? What would it mean in terms of communication on mental health issues between the College and students their top priority. Each stressed the outcomes that might be measured? need for greater awareness of mental health issues across campus, and two of the presidential-vice presidential pairs The third difficulty with the College’s current mental health program follows from the second: without wellstressed the need for more education. Finally, all the candidates identified the reduction of stigma as a necessary goal. defined goals to aim for, we have no way of knowing how well the College is doing. Are the programs and activities in In pushing for such changes, the students made clear their view that what needs fixing is not individual policies place and intended to improve the health and wellness of our students effective? If so, according to what measures? but the encompassing mental health climate. In other words, they advocated for reform, or for a structural change What assessment tools does the College use to determine whether the resources devoted to health and wellness are that could not be realized by pursuing the limited adjustments the College said it might take. Danly had said a year well invested? How does it track the mental health and wellness of the student population? earlier: for the undergraduates at the College, “it’s about having an honest conversation.” What the students want Fourth, the College’s literature on mental health and wellness, as well as the materials and information supplied and deserve is a dialogue that treats them as adult stakeholders and responsible citizens who are ready and willing to on the websites of the Counseling Center, Health and Wellness Office and Dean of Students Office, all justify existing accept their share of responsibility for their own mental health. The proposal I will make does just that. programs, services and activities in terms of a number of different and collectively inconsistent rationales and policy Email David Dessler at documents. These include the JED Campus Program, the Authentic Excellence Initiative, the Healthy Campus 2020 dadessler@gmail.com

David Dessler

The Flat Hat

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Page 6

STAFF COLUMN

STAFF COLUMN

Make time for fitness during stressful fall finals season

Olivia Koenig THE FLAT HAT

While the College of William and Mary has a reputation for its academics and political activism, athletics and physical activity are not necessarily defining factors of student life. Unfortunately, because of immense academic pressure and an array of social obligations on campus, it is far too easy to lose sight of personal wellness. Most students, including myself, spend any free time holed up in Earl Gregg Swem Library rather than exploring Colonial Williamsburg, relaxing or breaking a sweat in the Student Recreation Center. Generally, people are discouraged from going to the gym due to a lack of results or boredom with the limited machines available. It is also often hard to rationalize time spent away from textbooks during such a vital period in the semester.

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Generally, people are discouraged from going to the gym due to a lack of results or boredom with the limited machines available. It is also often hard to rationalize time spent away from textbooks during such a vital period in the semester.

Studying is very important, yes, but taking time to take care of your body, that thing which helps you focus, study and produce your best work, is something that should be taken seriously. Exercise strengthens your body, your mind and improves your outlook. Why not take advantage of the incredible benefits that exercise grants?

A great place to start taking care of your whole self is located right on campus. As of this year, all group fitness classes at the Rec and the McLeod Tyler Wellness Center are free of additional charge to any full-time student at the College. With classes ranging from high-energy cycling and body pump to rejuvenating yoga, often taught by fellow students, there is something for everyone at every level of fitness. Given the looming stress of final exams, these classes are an incredible (and now, free) resource for students at the College.

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Stepping into the cycling studio, my mindset immediately improved. As the class progressed in intensity, my muscles began to burn; with each upbeat song, the stress of the day began to fade into the background.

Last month, during midterms, I impulsively decided to take a break from going through flashcards and study guides and signed up for a cycling class. Before that afternoon, I struggled with constantly getting sick, and with feeling unmotivated and worn out from hours spent in the library without breaks. Stepping into the cycling studio, my mindset immediately improved. As the class progressed in intensity, my muscles began to burn; with each upbeat song, the stress of the day began to fade into the background.

The transition from high school to college challenged me academically, socially and mentally. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when everything becomes so heavy, but the release and community I discovered in the group fitness class eased my mind and improved my outlook for the rest of the week. So, the next time you find yourself overly stressed and unmotivated in Swem, consider signing up for a class at the Rec. Email Olivia Koenig at ojkoenig@email.wm.edu.

GRAPHIC BY SARAH BRADY / THE FLAT HAT

Crosswalks vital for campus safety after accidents

Caroline Wall THE FLAT HAT

All crosswalks should have lights, especially those on a college campus, and the College of William and Mary’s campus is no exception. Yet, the College is severely lacking in this regard. If nothing else, I can at least feel secure when I go to get my weekly Chick-fil-A, as the crosswalk on Richmond Road between Blow Memorial Hall and Tribe Square is one of the few on campus accompanied by warning lights.

The rest of the time, I simply must hope that cars notice me trying to quickly scurry across the street. At night, I can only hope that they see a dark blob ahead that vaguely resembles a human.

While it is ultimately up to the driver to pay attention and stop in time, lights provide advance warning that something is going on ahead that requires caution. With two accidents involving a car hitting a pedestrian occurring in the past month, I think it is certainly time to reevaluate the safety of crosswalks across campus. The scariest part about these scenarios is that I was not at all surprised when I heard about the incidents, and I doubt others were either. In fact, I was more surprised that these incidents had not happened sooner.

Most major cities or areas with large pedestrian flow, like college campuses, have traffic lights directing pedestrians or warning lights at all intersections. At the College, the majority of crosswalks can be found across busy roads with no traffic lights or even stop signs to control traffic flow. Rather, pedestrians are on their own, having to wait for an opening or, more often, make their own opening and hope that the cars react in time. The more time that passes, the more complacent we become.

We stop taking a minute to look both ways as we are in a hurry to pick up lunch from Marketplace and say “hi” to Christian before class. I have even heard many people declare that they do not wait for cars to stop because, “if I get hit, then I can sue.”

That may be true, but it does not comfort me much. Unlike Jean-Ralphio Saperstein from “Parks and Recreation,” I would rather not make my money the oldfashioned way.

However, I do sometimes take more risk than maybe I should. After only about 10 seconds, I become sick of waiting and decide that if I take one step into the road and make aggressive eye contact with the drivers, I will then be OK to cross.

The problem is that they might not get the message, or even worse, they might not see it.

Flashing lights, however, would not be missed. Not only do they warn cars, but pushing the button to turn on the lights forces pedestrians to slow down and take note of their surroundings, giving them the assurance that the next couple cars to pass through will surely stop.

While accidents can still happen at any time, lights take out some of the guesswork and help ensure safety for both cars and pedestrians.

Therefore, more crosswalks across the College’s campus should be equipped with warning lights, particularly the ones at busier crossings on Richmond and Jamestown Road.

Email Caroline Wall at cewall01@email.wm.edu.

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With two accidents involving a car hitting a pedestrian occurring in the past month, I think it is certainly time to reevaluate the safety of crosswalks across campus.

GUEST COLUMN

‘Sexchange’ is offensive moniker for Student Exchange: Making light of sex reassignment surgery disrespectful to transgender students

Flora Valdes-Dapena FLAT HAT GUEST WRITER

Since I started at the College of William and Mary, the store in the bottom floor of the Sadler Center has always been introduced as the Sexchange. During my freshman year, I regarded it as a slightly distasteful joke, but nothing more.

However, as I have advanced to my senior year, and realized that I was transgender, the nickname now strikes me as archaic and insensitive, and I believe it no longer has a place at the College.

The term “sex change” usually refers to Sex Reassignment Surgery, a complicated gender affirming surgery that alters a transgender person’s anatomy.

There is an assumption that a transgender person’s goal is always to get SRS, and that they are not truly their gender until they do. This myth is an expression of the societal desire to control our gender non-conforming bodies. In reality, SRS is an expensive surgery that is often not covered by insurance, let alone the fact that transgender people experience rates of poverty twice as high as the general population. Furthmore, transgender Americans are more likely to be uninsured according to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey.

Many transgender people go their whole lives without getting SRS and some never desire to. It is a complex and invasive surgery with a long and painful recovery period — enough to rule SRS out for just about anybody, save for those whose dysphoria is allencompassing.

Some transgender people do not feel dysphoria towards their anatomy at all; it does not necessarily make us uncomfortable to have sex characteristics that don’t match with what society expects of our genders.

Rather, it makes society uncomfortable. Aside from all the technicalities, the term “sex change”

smooths over all the nuance of the issue of SRS and makes a joke out of the very idea that one’s sex can be changed.

It dismisses the concept with a cold, nonchalant tone that we as trans people are all too accustomed to. Aspects of our lives and struggles are made into comedy every day.

An episode of “Futurama” comes to mind in which the main characters come upon a planet of beings without genders — which is treated as a joke in and of itself — who punish their foolish visitors by switching their sexes.

Oh, the humor! Hilarity ensues, all at the expense of actual people who have transitioned from one gender to another.

The social pressure to get SRS, the barriers to access, and the continuing crassness with which it is treated make SRS a very sensitive, very personal subject for trans people.

It is therefore not appropriate to jokingly refer to the Student Exchange with a colloquialism for SRS; it feels trivializing and disrespectful.

As an alternative nickname, I would like to fully endorse “Stu-Change,” or “Stooch.” Both are short and to-thepoint, and “Stooch” is just plain funny.

Email Flora Valdes-Dapena at gavaldesdapena@email.wm.edu.

variety

Variety Editor Heather Baier Variety Editor Carmen Honker flathat.variety@gmail.com

Clothes, books, accessories more displayed at Free Market ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN // THE FLAT HAT

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dimly lit closet, gold and red fairy lights and slow saxophone music. A baggy sweatshirt with the word “Pastafarianism” and a squid with pasta for legs printed onto its front.

This is the ambiance of the College of William and Mary’s Free Market, open Wednesdays from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Campus Center. Located within the Student Environmental Action Coalition office, the Free Market is a space where students can donate used clothes, accessories, school supplies and more, as well as take showcased items for themselves at no cost.

Daniel Morgan ’20 joined SEAC as a freshman and is part of SEAC’s Eliminate the Footprint subcommittee that is responsible for running the Free Market. He feels that the market yields benefits to both those donating and receiving new clothing.

“It’s the purpose of a thrift shop with a little bit of an emphasis on environmentalism,” Morgan said. “Instead of throwing away your old stuff, you can just give it to the Free Market, and then other people who look at it and like it can take it. And it’s free, which makes everything better.”

The Free Market first opened on campus March 31, 2012, and the SEAC Eliminate the Footprint subcommittee — formerly the Recycling committee — has been managing it since then. However, according to Morgan, the market was closed to College students for much of the fall 2017 semester and all of the spring 2018 semester due to construction within the SEAC office and a potential floor collapse. The closure of the SEAC office made continuation of the Free Market impossible, which was disappointing for members of the Eliminate the Footprint subcommittee.

“They kept telling us it was going to get fixed [but it didn’t],” Eliminate the Footprint subcommittee member Andrea Mares ’20 said. “We were sad, because [Free Market] was one of our biggest projects and we weren’t able to do it.”

The subcommittee continued meeting during the 2017-18 school year despite the temporary shutdown of Free Market, coming up with alternate ways to benefit the college community while waiting for the market’s reopening.

“Last year, there were four or five of us,” Mares said. “We would get meals together and plan other [initiatives] along with our branch.”

The SEAC office opened its doors again in time for the 2018-19 school year, but the Free Market faced a couple more obstacles before it could begin letting students back in. The Eliminate the Footprint subcommittee returned to the SEAC office to find Free Market slightly different from how they remembered it.

“Once we got back and settled [into the SEAC office] there was just all this stuff in the Free Market that we had to clean out; just bags of things,” Eliminate the Footprint subcommittee member Shannon Redifer ’20 said.

Now that the market is once again open to the public, the subcommittee is attempting to spread awareness to the College community in the wake of the market’s one-year hiatus.

“We have to re-found ourselves; new freshmen came in last year and didn’t know about [Free Market], so it’s a new thing to a lot of people,” Redifer said. “Also, [spreading the word] is hard because we’re in Campus Center, which isn’t the most central place.”

To introduce more students to the market, the Eliminate the Footprint subcommittee posts in the “william and mary ppl selling their clothing” Facebook group, encouraging students to turn to a free option for clothes as opposed to a more costly one.

The subcommittee is trying to steer away from printing physical flyers due to their negative environmental impact. Redifer feels that if the group must print flyers, it should print them on recycled paper.

Redifer has multiple finds from the Free Market in her own closet, including a scarf she acquired her freshman year which she has used every winter since. She has also picked up several pieces of a more unusual type of clothing.

“I like to use bandanas for washing dishes in my room, and they’re just very handy to have,” Redifer said. “Honestly, the bandanas are the best things I’ve gotten from [the Free Market].”

Redifer has also found articles of clothing in the Free Market that are suited for more fancy occasions, including a gray skirt for the summertime and a shiny, silver dress originally from Charlotte Russe.

“I wore [the dress] to my friend’s formal last spring, so that was a good find,” Redifer said.

“I still have it now, and if I don’t wear it to

something else, I’ll probably bring it back to the Free Market.”

Mares feels the Free Market addresses the key issue of fast fashion in the retail industry: clothes that are trendy for a year or two before being thrown away in favor of the next new style.

“Not only is [fast fashion] not sustainable, but in a humanitarian aspect, it’s really bad because workers are treated really poorly and they don’t get free wages,” Mares said. “I think Free Market’s really great because not only is it promoting a sustainable environment, but at the same time we feel we’re raising some awareness on these issues. It’s a great space for people to come.”

Students can bring clothes to the Free Market for donation Wednesdays from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., as well as look for finds of their own.

“Even if you’re sick of a shirt, you can still bring it in here and someone else will find it and be way more interested than you were,” Redifer said. “We’re just trying to reinforce the idea that you don’t need to produce new things and get new things. Thex stuff that is around you already is perfectly good.”

In addition to sharing styles with other members of the College, donating clothes to the Free Market allows for reuse and student contribution to a healthier environment. “[Free Market] allows students to get rid of old stuff without feeling like they’re just throwing it away and contributing to a landfill,” Morgan said.

Redifer feels that the idea of reusing materials is critically important as it often doesn’t get the same emphasis in discussions of sustainability compared to recycling.

“There’s a lot of focus on recycling, but we don’t think as much about things that you can just reuse,” Redifer said. “You can throw away clothes, you can throw away pieces from your dorm, but you don’t necessarily have to throw that away; we’re trying to exemplify that and extend from the recycling part, because it’s more applicable to things outside of just waste and physical trash.”

TH EF LA TH AT

NOW OPEN: REUSABLE, RECYCLABLE, FREE CLOSET

| Tuesday, November 27, 2018 | Page 7

AD ITH I RA MA KR ISH NA N/

The Flat Hat

The Flat Hat

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

ROCKET shortlisted for prestigious Stack Award for Student Magazine of the Year

For Amy Zhang ’19 and Emmel El-Fiky ’19, traveling to London for the award ceremony of an international magazine distributor seemed like a pipe dream — until it happened.

It wasn’t until they were in the airport Nov. 16, 2018, about to fly to England, that it really sank in.

“We were in a daze,” Zhang said. “Like, ‘Is this really happening?’”

The trip was the result of ROCKET magazine, the College of William and Mary’s student art and fashion publication, being shortlisted for Stack’s “Student Magazine of the Year” award, along with 14 other student publications from across Europe and the United States.

Stack, according to its website, is an independent magazine distributor based at Somerset House in London, and it delivers around the world. The company has two options available for distribution: customers can either choose from the collection of magazines in the Stack shop or sign up for a subscription service to receive one pre-selected magazine per month delivered to their door. “[It’s] kind of like BirchBox, but with magazines — but like, indie magazines,” Zhang said. “So like a ‘keeping print alive’ type of thing.”

The company also holds the annual Stack Awards, for which magazine staffs submit their own issues for consideration. This year’s awards were the fourth in the company’s history, and the event took place Nov. 19.

“Because they work with so many independent magazines, they opened it up to judging,” El-Fiky said. “And they were like, ‘We work with so many great publications, it would be great to honor some of them.’”

ROCKET, under the direction of Zhang, the editorin-chief, and El-Fiky, the managing editor, submitted the spring/summer 2018 issue for consideration in three of the 10 categories in Stack award ceremony.

The magazine was shortlisted for one.

For Zhang and El-Fiky, ROCKET’s shortlist status

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ROCKET shoots for the Stacks

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was an honor in and of itself.

“Some of the magazines that were up in the running for some of the other categories were huge,” Zhang said. “Big name recognition, like Kinfolk, AIGA Eye on Design — it’s a really big design organization; Harvard GSD — the Graduate School of Design; just like huge, different things.”

The honor was compounded by the fact that ROCKET was selected as one of 15 shortlist nominees for its category from a list of over 400 entrants.

“It was really interesting to see the scale of it too, in that these magazines were from all over the world,” El-Fiky said. “And there were a couple U.S. magazines, but a lot more from Europe, given that Stack is based out of Europe. To be included among so many really cool and really accomplished publications was really, really amazing.”

Being present at the awards also represented the culmination of all of the work that went into ROCKET’s spring/summer 2018 issue. The publication only prints once a semester, with the staff spending the entire semester leading up to publication working on the magazine.

An issue starts with a general, catch-all theme that gives the magazine structure and loose limits.

For the spring/summer 2018 edition, the theme was “perspective.” However, this concept is kept purposefully vague to allow the different teams on staff to develop ideas for photoshoots, articles, styles and interviews as needed to build the magazine.

“The art and the photoshoots kind of take on a life of their own beyond just the theme,” El-Fiky said.

“But for the features, we try to stick to it, just to keep it cohesive. ‘Stick to it’ [is used] loosely. That’s why we chose ‘perspective’ as our loose, catch-all theme, because it was so vague that you could spin everything to apply to it.”

The initial ideas for articles and photoshoots build on each other as they go and create new ideas that get added throughout the semester until the magazine is published.

MAGGIE MORE // FLAT HAT VARIETY ASSOC. EDITOR

The magazine is not based on top-down choices; in addition to the general theme, there are all-staff meetings and an all-staff Google Doc that allow members to contribute new ideas. ROCKET staff also draw on the media they consume to create their own publication. This collaborative atmosphere is how most decisions are made, including the one that decides the loose theme that starts everything.

“We have one idea, it develops either visually or in written form and then we work around that to create the whole piece,” El-Fiky said.

ROCKET’s goal with each issue is to make fashion and the arts accessible. The magazine tries to stretch its student and campus resources to become as avantguarde as possible — without becoming insular to the arts community.

“We only use — for the most part — student models and clothes,” Zhang said. “So all the clothes that we do get are owned by people on staff, or people that they see … The only exception was actually our cover shoot last year, where we did have an actual [professional] stylist come. We used professional designer clothing and things.”

Zhang said that the balance between the highfashion and artistic portrayals of regular students, clothes, makeup and photography helps ROCKET remain relatable to the College’s student body.

“We’re trying to foster a creative community on campus … because the fashion community here doesn’t really exist,” Zhang said. “I’m actually an art major … so I definitely care a lot about the art community here. For fine arts, I definitely feel like I do have my own community … but I think ROCKET is trying to encourage other people on campus who don’t necessarily have a creative outlet to be able to express themselves.”

The drive to reach this goal has involved a lot of growth and redesign for the ROCKET staff in recent years. Last year included a major aesthetic overhaul for the magazine’s design, resulting in a larger magazine with different fonts, more pages, different

paper weight and a more defined identity overall.

The progress ROCKET has made in recent years is even clearer to other members of its staff, such as Digital Director Andrew Uhrig ’20.

“In my opinion, being shortlisted for the Stack Awards means that we’ve hit a new stage in our development as a magazine,” Uhrig said. “If you look at other fashion magazines that have established brands, ROCKET looks to be comparatively still very much in its infancy. This marker of achievement means that we have succeeded in growing and establishing our brand, and it makes me proud to be a part of this success.”

For both Zhang and El-Fiky, the Stack Awards shortlist position was symbolic of hard work, hard changes and hard decisions paying off, despite the fact that ROCKET did not win this year.

“Seeing all the content that was there and what they did with their pages … just bringing in new types of innovation that we hadn’t even considered before, or that we had done in the past, but not very well, so we dismissed it — we’re like, ‘let’s bring it back,’” El-Fiky said. “We could do so many things. I want to take all of this and like, grab it in my hands, and hold onto it really tight. [There are] such good ideas that we could apply to ROCKET in our own way. It’s awesome.”

To both editors, getting onto the shortlist for the Stack Awards said a lot about ROCKET’s progress toward fulfilling its goals on campus and as an arts publication more broadly, especially as both spend many hours a week — often on weekends during their limited free time — contributing to the publication.

“ROCKET is like our whole lives, both of us,” Zhang said.

The fact that there is so much still to do is exciting for the members of ROCKET rather than intimidating, because they are now reaching the point where they can really see what lies ahead.

“We have only just tapped the surface,” El-Fiky said.

“That makes it — like, all the hours are worth it.”

Activist, model speaks about career, life as refugee

Halima Aden talks journey from Kakuma refugee camp to working with UNICEF

SUZANNE COLE THE FLAT HAT

Students from the College of William and Mary gathered in Commonwealth Auditorium in the Sadler Center Wednesday, Nov. 14 to attend a talk with Halima Aden, a model and UNICEF ambassador. She spoke about her experiences living in a refugee camp as a child and being the first woman to wear a hijab on the cover of British Vogue.

Aden began her talk by speaking about how her mother fled from the civil war in Somalia into Kenya, where she lived in a UNICEF refugee camp called Kakuma.

“Kakuma is the refugee camp that I was born in, and in Swahili it literally means ‘middle of nowhere,’” Aden said. “I was like, ‘how fitting, you put all these people in literally the middle of nowhere.’”

When she was six, Aden and her family moved to the United States, first to St. Louis, Missouri and then to St. Cloud, Minnesota, where she spent her middle and high school years. In middle school, Aden had to deal with fellow students making fun of her.

“It became the cool thing, you know, when one kid says something about you and then other kids hear and, instead of defending you, they think that’s funny and so you’re stuck with that,” Aden said. “It just

became the cool thing to tease the hijab wearing, the hijabi, the Muslim girl, the Somali girl.”

When she reached high school, Aden stepped out of her comfort zone and made more friends.

In her senior year, Aden was nominated for homecoming queen. She was the first Muslim student to be nominated for homecoming queen at her high school, and she went on to win the title.

Aden talked about the difficulty of conveying the importance of being nominated, and winning, to her Somali mother.

“My mom was super confused,” Aden said. “She was like, ‘I sent you to school to learn. What is this crown business in American schools?’...but to us, it’s a big deal! It means your peers liked you and approved of you.”

After winning homecoming queen, Aden went on to compete in the Miss Minnesota USA Pageant in 2016 and was later signed to IMG, a modeling agency. When negotiating her contract with IMG, Aden made sure she would have the opportunity to work with UNICEF. “Before I could even write my own name, before I could even tell you how to spell Halima, I literally knew the spelling of UNICEF,” Aden said. “I used to spell my name with an ‘x,’ because I didn’t know my own spelling, but I could tell you UNICEF, and I

could tell you exactly what each letter stood for. You know, for me it always stood for hope. Even though we were in the middle of nowhere, Kakuma, it was still a place of hope. The world did not forget about us. Our voices matter, you know, and as children we deserve the chance to just be children. So for me I was not about to let that go, and I’m so grateful that ended up with such an amazing agency because they made that happen.”

Aden ended the talk by opening the floor to attendees and answering their questions, including questions about her philanthropic work with UNICEF. She talked about her return to Kakuma with UNICEF to deliver the first TED Talk held in a refugee camp.

“You need people who have lived in your shoes to come back, because it’s one thing for a missionary to come back, but you can’t relate,” Aden said. “You’re like, ‘This person looks nothing like me. They’ve never even lived here.’ You just can’t relate personally, on a deep level. But with me, those kids could not believe that I was living in their shoes just a couple years ago.”

Aden also answered questions about balancing her American and Somali backgrounds.

“At one point it was like, I’m not good enough for the Somali kids, I’m not Muslim enough for the Muslim kids, and I’m not American enough for the

American kids,” Aden said. “So it can be really hard when you have multiple identities … That’s how this should work, when we come together we should blend everything and learn from each other and grow with each other.”

“Find your tribe, wherever you go,” Aden said to encourage audience members at the end of her talk and was met with applause.

Fay Dawodu ’20 heard about the event from the William and Mary Muslim Student Association, of which she is a member. Like Aden, Dawodu is Muslim, and she could relate to Aden’s experience with her mother.

“Halima is Muslim, and you don’t really see a lot of black Muslims around, so I thought she was, like, a powerful person to look up to,” Dawodu said.

Grace Burns ’21 is the president of UNICEF at William and Mary, which co-hosted the event with AMP. “It really is difficult to come from that perspective, come from our Western perspective as being Americans and growing up here and see that when you’re a child, you don’t see the refugee camp,” Burn said. “You just see the community and the people, I think that was a really profound way of talking about something that really doesn’t get talked about a lot today.”

sportsinside FOOTBALL

The Flat Hat | Tuesday, November 27, 2018 | Page 9

Out with the old ...

2018

2004

1990

1986

1980

1970

GRAPHIC BY BRENDAN DOYLE / THE FLAT HAT FILE PHOTO / THE FLAT HAT

Laycock plays four years of varsity football at William and Mary, his first two at defensive back. His junior year, Laycock switches to quarterback. After starting for two years, he graduates in 1970.

FILE PHOTO / THE FLAT HAT

In 1980, after a number of assistant coaching jobs, Laycock returns to the College to be named head coach of the Tribe. The College goes 2-9 his first year in the gig, but soon turns it around.

COURTESY PHOTO / WM.EDU

Following a number of solid seasons, Laycock and the Tribe finally break through and make the NCAA playoffs for the first time in program history.

The College loses its first round game to Delaware.

FILE PHOTO / THE FLAT HAT

After the season, Laycock accepts the head coaching job at Boston College.

Less than a day later, he changes his mind and decided to stay with the Tribe. Laycock cites “personal” concerns.

COURTESY PHOTO / WM.EDU

William and Mary makes the NCAA semifinal for the first time in school history.

The Tribe hosts James Madison for the nationallytelevised, sellout matchup, but eventually falls to the Dukes, 48-34.

COURTESY PHOTO / TRIBE ATHLETICS

In August, Laycock announces his retirement, effective at the end of the season. The Tribe finishes at 4-6, losing Laycock’s final game against Richmond.

Mike London is hired as the new head football coach.

After 39 legendary years leading Tribe football, Laycock finally hangs up headset BRENDAN DOYLE FLAT HAT SPORTS EDITOR When Jimmye Laycock ’70 was hired as the William and Mary head football coach before the 1980 season, he did not think he would be in Williamsburg for the next 39 years.

But here he was, in 2018, giving up the reins to a program that he led to new heights. A career spanning nearly four decades, 10 National Collegiate Athletic Association playoff berths, five conference championships and appearances in the national semifinals in 2004 and 2009 finally came to an end Nov. 17.

Laycock, originally from Hamilton, Virginia, first came to the College in 1966. Marv Levy, future hall-of-fame coach of the Buffalo Bills in the National Football League, headed the Tribe for the first three years of Laycock’s tenure. Lou Holtz, future hall-of-fame coach of Notre Dame, took over his senior year. Laycock credits the two with giving him a good foundation to coach.

“I was very fortunate, I didn’t realize at the time how fortunate I was playing for those guys,” Laycock said. “What really hit me was that after I got into coaching … I realized I had a really good background of fundamental football. I really knew a lot of football compared to some people I was associated with.”

After graduating from the College, Laycock bounced around college coaching jobs. In 1977, he was hired as the offensive coordinator at Clemson. Laycock spent three years with the Tigers until the head coaching job at the College opened up. Although he wasn’t the first or even second choice for the position, Laycock accepted what would turn out to be a challenging job in late 1979.

“I knew William and Mary from having been here, but I also knew what, quote, ‘big-time football’ was all about, too,” Laycock said. “I

felt like, hopefully, I could mesh the two and understand what things we needed to do and what things we could do. I was a little surprised when I actually got back here and took the job and found out that it was a tougher job than I even imagined it to be.”

It took four seasons, but Laycock slowly built a winner. In 1983, the Tribe went 6-5. It matched that record in 1984 and improved to 7-4 the next year before soaring to 9-3 and gaining the school’s first NCAA playoff appearance in 1986.

As the Tribe became a consistent powerhouse and Laycock’s reputation grew, many higher-profile schools came calling. After scoring the most wins in school history with a 10-3 record and advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 1990, Laycock accepted the job at Boston College. Just hours after the move was announced by the Eagles, though, he recanted, taking the podium at a press conference to announce his decision to stay at the College.

“That was a traumatic experience,” Laycock said. “People look at it, say, you get an interview at this job, or that job, but it puts a tremendous strain on you personally if you go through that, if you try to do it the right way. That one really did, and I just knew that it wasn’t the right fit for me.”

Laycock continued to helm the Tribe to successful seasons throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. It is the College’s 2004 season that may be the most memorable for alumni and fans, as the Tribe, led by Laycock and Walter Payton Award-winning quarterback Lang Campbell ’05, won the Atlantic 10 Conference and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. The College hosted James Madison in an ESPN-televised NCAA semifinal, the first game under the lights at Zable Stadium. While the Tribe fell 48-34 to the eventual national champion James Madison, the visual of that game still sticks with Laycock.

“That game in the playoff, the semifinal game against JMU here, that night, it was exciting,” Laycock said. “It was so neat to see the students lined up forever trying to get into the game. And seeing the crowd at the game, and, obviously, the ESPN stuff and all that, to just look around and take it all in and see that we had gotten our program to this point, it was very humbling and very exciting.”

The Tribe went to the national semifinal again in 2009 and made it back to the NCAA playoffs in 2010 and 2015. Following a couple of disappointing seasons, Laycock announced this August that the 2018 football season, his 39th as head coach at the College, would be his last. After the Tribe’s 10-6 defeat at the hands of Richmond, Laycock hugged his grandchildren and walked off the Zable turf for the last time.

“It’s disappointing not to win the game, obviously very disappointing,” Laycock said after the game. “That’s really the overriding thing now, but I’m sure the rest of the [emotions] will kick in as we go along.”

Nobody knows what the future holds for Laycock, least of all himself. He’ll stay in Williamsburg and continue to be involved with Tribe Athletics in some capacity. Laycock was at new head football coach Mike London’s hiring press conference, showing he will not slip into the shadows. But for now, he will sit back, without recruiting trips to go on, game tape to watch or plays to draw up for the first time in at least 39 years.

“I don’t know what I’m looking forward to in retirement,” Laycock said. “People ask me what I’m going to do … I haven’t spent the season thinking about what I’m going to do afterwards, I haven’t been thinking during the season about that. I’m sure there will be some things that will pop up and some things that will happen, but we’ll take those when it comes.”

BASKETBALL

Down 20 in second half, College comes back in thrilling victory Audige, Owens kick-start offense, Knight hits last-second shot to complete 87-85 win over Hawks BRENDAN DOYLE FLAT HAT SPORTS EDITOR With the clock winding down in Saturday’s contest against St. Joseph’s and the score knotted at 85, William and Mary junior forward Nathan Knight caught the ball on the block. He took two dribbles with his right hand, then spun back to his left, banking a hook shot softly off the backboard and in with 1.7 seconds to play. Knight’s bucket would stand as the game-winner, helping the Tribe (2-4) claim an 87-85 come-from-behind victory over the Hawks (3-3).

“We needed to break through against a tough schedule,” head coach Tony Shaver said to Tribe Athletics. “We beat a great basketball team today … what a courageous comeback.”

Earlier in the afternoon, it did not look as if the game would come down to the last possession. The Tribe jumped out to a quick lead, but the Hawks soon took control of the first half. Knight scored six of his team-leading 21 points as the Tribe took a 9-4 edge early. That five-point advantage would be the largest of the game for the Tribe.

From there, Hawks forward Charlie Brown, Jr. put on a show. Brown scored 23 of his game-high 37 in the half as the Hawks charged ahead to a 14-point lead at the break.

After leading 49-35 at the half, the Hawks extended their lead to as much as 20 points. Hawks guard Lamarr Kimble made two free throws to make

the score 59-39 with 17:04 left in the game and the Tribe’s offense sputtering.

It was then that freshman guard Chase Audige and junior forward Justin Pierce sparked the Tribe into action. Pierce began the comeback with two free throws, while Audige scored 13 to lead a 27-9 run, cutting the Hawks lead to 68-66. Freshman guard LJ Owens completed the comeback with a trey, giving the Tribe a 72-70 advantage with 8:33 to go in the game.

“I thought Chase Audige was incredible today,” Shaver said to Tribe Athletics. “LJ Owens had some big baskets for us. … I’ll have to change my phrase. I’ve often said that the best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores, but the best thing about these freshmen today is that they were on my team.”

With a little more than a minute left, Kimble knocked down two free throws to hand the Hawks an 85-82 lead. The next possession, Audige took a dribble, stepped back behind the three-point line and buried a game-tying jumper from downtown.

The Tribe would get a stop on the next play, setting up Knight’s heroics.

“This is a team that doesn’t execute a lot of times,” Shaver said to Tribe Athletics. “But, the last play, they executed extremely well. We had a couple options we wanted to look for.”

The Tribe is back in action Wednesday, as it travels to Conference USA foe Marshall. It will return home Saturday to face Atlantic 10 rival George Mason.

COURTESY PHOTO / TRIBE ATHLETICS

Junior forward Nathan Knight lets go of the left-handed hook that would win the game for the Tribe over St. Joseph’s.

sports FOOTBALL

Sports Editor Brendan Doyle Sports Editor Julia Stumbaugh flathatsports@gmail.com @FlatHatSports

The Flat Hat | Tuesday, November 27, 2018 | Page 10

... and in with the new

COURTESY PHOTO / TRIBE ATHLETICS

COURTESY PHOTO / TRIBE ATHLETICS

Mike London hired as 30th head coach in Tribe football history Nov. 19, ending 39-year tenure of Jimmye Laycock ’70 JULIA STUMBAUGH // FLAT HAT SPORTS EDITOR When Mike London served as a police officer in Richmond in the 1980s, he had a weapon aimed at him and the trigger pulled. The gun kicked, but the bullet failed to reach its target; an internal malfunction meant it never fired.

From experience facing down a loaded gun to years in some of the most high-profile coaching positions in college sports, London knows what it means to keep his cool under pressure. That’s part of the reason why William and Mary brought him in to fill some of the biggest shoes the College has to offer: the position of head football coach, a role that Jimmye Laycock ’70 held from 1980 all the way through 2018.

“Athletics can be successful on the field without jeopardizing academics, integrity or sportsmanship, and no one epitomized those values more than Coach Laycock,” director of athletics Samantha Huge said.

“His almost four decades at the helm of our football program will be a part of the fabric of this university for generations to come.”

The rubber pellets had barely settled on the artificial turf of Zable Stadium from Laycock’s last career game as head coach — a 10-6 loss to Richmond, highlighted by hundreds of former players returning to say farewell to their coach — when the College announced his replacement. The two-day turnaround time was possible because of the August announcement of Laycock’s retirement.

With the rare gift of a full season to look for a new coach, Huge was able to start the search by first building the profile of an ideal candidate. Once the profile was established, a list of more than 20 possibilities was compiled, which was eventually whittled down to eight then four names. Finally, a shortlist of two interviewees was created.

It was from talking to higher-ups in the University of Virginia athletic department that Huge started to get the idea that London was the person who would best fit this profile.

“What I really appreciated hearing was that he’s a department guy,” Huge said. “What I mean by that is, he’s going to be at field hockey. He’s going to be at a volleyball game. He is going to be at a play on campus. He is going to go to the fraternity and sorority houses and get to know them. … Here’s someone who is really going to embrace university and embrace being a member of this community.”

Making that transition into the Williamsburg community will be natural, given that London has family members in the area and has lived in the City before. He even met his wife, Gina, at a local bank; she was working as a teller when London came in to drop off a recruiting check in one of his years as an assistant coach at the College in the 1990s.

“She thought it was my salary, but it wasn’t,” London said. “That’s what sealed the deal there for me.”

London’s coaching career spans all the way back to 1989, when he started out as an outside linebacker coach at his alma mater, Richmond. His next position was with the College, where he managed the defensive line for one of the best eras in Tribe football history; the team went 28-3 from 1992-94 and did everything from playing a bowl game in Japan to competing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association playoffs.

When asked to recall a memorable moment from that era, London’s answer isn’t the almost-30 victories or the postseason appearances; it’s a game against the Citadel, where a trap gone wrong on the five-yard line caused an opposing fullback to sprint all the way across the field for a 95-yard touchdown. Laycock, quivering with disbelief, turned to his defensive line coach and demanded answers: “Why? Why did he run 95 yards for a touchdown, London?” And London eventually snapped back the obvious answer — “Because that’s all he needed.”

That ability to roll with the punches, even when things went awry, sustained London’s career for the next two decades. He returned briefly to Richmond, then headed over to Boston College and Virginia before dipping into the National Football League for a year with the Houston Texans.

His first head coaching gig was again at Richmond, where he assumed a role at the helm of a team stacked with potential. The lineup featured over a dozen returning starters from a squad that had, just one year prior, surged all the way to the semifinals of the Football Bowl Subdivision playoffs. But after an opening night blowout to UVA followed by a few close losses, London’s Spiders had gotten off to an underwhelming 4-3 start.

After a seven-point loss to James Madison in October, the team turned its season around. One week later, it clobbered Massachusetts to begin a win streak that spanned the rest of the season, all the way through a NCAA championship and out the other side to open the 2009 season, 8-0. By the time the streak ended, the Spiders had won 17-straight games and London had both a ring from the first ever Richmond national championship and a job offer from UVA. “[Through adversity] you can also learn how to handle success,” London said. “I know what it feels like to raise that trophy on the final game of the season. I know what it feels like to share in the accolades.”

London would spend the 2010-15 seasons as head coach at UVA, where the heady success of his days in Richmond mellowed into a more modest 27-46 overall record. He followed that tenure with two years and an 11-10 record at Howard. For Huge, the focus on London’s career after Richmond isn’t on win totals.

“He had some pretty significant success at Virginia,” Huge said. “He’s the first guy who took a team to both Florida State and Miami and beat them in the same season. … He did some great recruiting there, and Virginia has proven to be a challenge for a lot of coaches.”

Recruiting will be a focus for London at the College, as he will try and snap three-straight losing seasons for the program.

“You have to make sure that you cover your state high schools and the places that will produce players, and sometimes not,” London said. “There are a lot of William and Mary grads all over the state of Virginia. It’s important that we get into these schools and establish relationships … I’ll be on the road myself, try to have home visits and also recruiting weekends.”

Part of the strength that London brings to the College’s recruiting pipeline is the fact that he is the first head coach of color in Tribe football history. Huge, the first female athletic director for Tribe Athletics, and Katherine Rowe, the first female president in College history, both believe that adds a crucial element to the program.

“I wanted administration, and staff, and a leadership team that reflects the world I walk around in, and the world that our students walk around in,” Huge said. “It’s important to me that there’ll be individuals in leadership who each of our student athletes can identify with.”

On London’s part, he’s looking forward to both taking over the program and returning to Williamsburg two decades after he last lived there. Everything from his laundry list of coaching positions to the gun that misfired all those years ago has led him to be named the first new head coach at the College in 39 years.

“This is home,” London said. “The circle is complete. I’m excited about the challenges and the opportunities.

I’m excited about bringing the quality of student athletes in football to this area, in the community. I’m excited about following a great man like Jimmye Laycock.”

— Flat Hat Sports Editor Brendan Doyle contributed to this report.