Vol. 109, Iss. 18 | Tuesday, November 5, 2019
The Flat Hat The Weekly Student Newspaper
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of The College of William and Mary
CAMPUS
College changes relations policy
College workers unionize, demand living wage
College updates rules concerning graduate, faculty relationships AIDAN WHITE THE FLAT HAT
This semester, the College of William and Mary will implement a new policy regarding consensual amorous relationships between faculty members and graduate students. In the new policy, consensual amorous relationships between faculty members and graduate students are considered to violate university policy if the student is enrolled in a degree-seeking program in the school of the faculty member’s primary appointment, as well as if the faculty member has an “evaluative, collaborative or supervisory role” with the student at the time the relationship begins. Faculty members may engage in these relationships if they recuse themselves from any future professional role with the student. The former policy prohibited any romantic or sexual relationships between faculty members and graduate students over whom the faculty member has direct professional responsibility. According to the faculty handbook, this responsibility entails supervision in academic, co-curricular and extracurricular settings. Vice President of the Faculty Assembly David Armstrong said the former policy was created by a subcommittee during the 2000-2001 school year at the request of Gillian Cell, the provost at the time. “The policy that was arrived at was one of the strongest such policies amongst U.S. universities,” Armstrong said. “Previous to this, the topic had not been addressed in the Faculty Handbook, i.e. there were no restrictions.” In October 2018, former Provost Michael Halleran, who retired from his position earlier this year, asked the FA to reconsider the consensual amorous relationships policy. “The issue at hand is whether the current policy properly addresses power imbalances, particularly in the case of graduate students,” Armstrong said. According to Faculty Assembly President Tom Ward, Halleran’s request sparked a long and thorough decision-making process. It began within a subcommittee of the FA, which was tasked with examining the policies of colleges and universities across the country to determine if any change in the College’s policy was necessary. The committee brought their initial recommendations to the executive board of the assembly, which then voted to allow the proposed changes to go to a full plenary vote. Ward and Armstrong both said that the proposed changes fomented lively debate when they reached the full Assembly. Some opposing the policy alteration argued that the Faculty Handbook already covered the issues which the changes were designed to address. Others argued that relationships between faculty members and graduate students should not be allowed whatsoever and that the policy allowed too much flexibility regarding these relationships. “The position that received See RELATIONSHIPS page 4
Students announce new workers’ union, seek better treatment for employees, graduate students on campus GRAPHIC BY EMMA FORD / THE FLAT HAT
NIA KITCHIN / THE FLAT HAT
Organizers, student workers and student groups gathered on the Sunken Garden to discuss the need for a union and higher wages among College workers to a crowd of onlookers.
ETHAN BROWN, NIA KITCHIN // FLAT HAT MANAGING EDITOR, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Friday, Nov. 1, student organizers at the College of William and Mary gathered on the Sunken Garden to rally on behalf of the newly established William & Mary Workers’ Union. Undergraduate and graduate students spoke about the importance of establishing a union for College workers to a crowd of around 30 individuals. The crowd grew during the event, as some custodial workers, professors and supportive parties who were not employed by the College joined the rally. Members of the College’s Young Democratic Socialists helped with canvassing before the event and were credited by union organizers with tabling and organizing in the weeks prior to assist in spreading the word and encouraging workers to join the union. The Workers’ Union became public four days earlier, Oct. 28, following 11 months of planning and development. Union Executive Secretary Jasper Conner said the group first came together in November 2018 and has since held weekly meetings in anticipation of going public. While improvements to healthcare coverage, enhanced parking accessibility and greater equity between graduate students of different programs are among the union’s major priorities, members are primarily focused on obtaining a living wage for graduate students and the College’s contracted workers. “The biggest and broadest demands are for a living wage for all employees of William and Mary and all those contracted to work for William and Mary,” Conner said. “We understand a living wage to be $28,000 a year, annual, if you’re working full time … functionally, for most humanities grad students, that’d be like a $4,000 pay raise.” Union President Jim Rick spoke at the rally about how organizing as a collective group is the most effective strategy in approaching these broad issues. Rick indicated that while most of the current union members are graduate students, the organization is designed to advocate for the rights of all College workers. “Our strength is chiefly in our numbers and in our unity,” Rick said. “When we approach our employers as individuals it can be easy for our concerns to be put on the backburner or
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for them to drag their feet even if they’re not necessarily intending to. But when we come together and approach this collectively, we can add a sense of urgency to our concerns. And it helps that so many of our concerns are the same across anyone who works for wages.” Conner said that the union grew from concerns over the College’s treatment of graduate students, specifically those studying in humanities departments. In a press release published Oct. 29, Conner referenced an incident in the anthropology department as a key instigating factor for the union’s activism on campus. According to Conner, graduate employees within the department were delayed in receiving compensation by five weeks in summer 2019 because of a processing error. Since the College’s summer payment schedules are organized by single lump-sum payments, Conner said that graduate workers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, may have struggled to afford basic necessities as a result of the delay. According to anthropology Ph.D. student Jennifer Ellis the late compensation has still not been explained to the graduate students fully. She said that after this incident, the anthropology graduate students realized that this was representative of a larger structural issue of their cohort not being treated fairly, and they decided to act. “I joined the union because we were getting screwed over a lot and not getting the answers for it,” Ellis said. “... It’s part of the university not caring as much about grad students and grad workers and other workers. There are these big structural issues that we’re all concerned with and they start with being treated fairly.” Conner also argued that the substantial disparities in benefits enjoyed by graduate students in the College’s different graduate programs suggests that the administration has enough funding to subsidize them more generously. According to Conner, graduate students in the College’s STEM programs receive more university-sponsored coverage options than those in the humanities and social
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1. A LIVING WAGE FOR ALL WORKERS — $28,000 PER YEAR ACCORDING TO THE UNION 2. HEALTHCARE FOR ALL WORKERS 3. LESSEN PARKING’S FINANCIAL BURDEN
NIA KITCHIN / THE FLAT HAT
Inside Variety
Campus ghost stories highlight tragedies prevalent throughout College’s history
Partly Cloudy High 70, Low 46
See UNION page 3
UNION DEMANDS
Robert Goolsby ’23 says that traditional ghost tales at the College can distract from their true origin stories and the College’s negative history. page 6
From Script to Stage
South American Student Association hosts their annual “Expressions” showcase featuring a play, dance performances, vocal performances, spoken word and a catered dinner. page 7