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Diverse backgrounds allowa for a strong at the College’s ROTC program. Diverse backgrounds build strong corecore at the College’s ROTC program
Men’s basketball forefeits a 16-point halftime lead in a road loss to the Blue Hens.
Tribe falls to Delaware
College Spiders ROTC athosts the College
Vol. 104, Iss. 24 | Friday, January 23, 2015
The Flat Hat The Twice-Weekly Student Newspaper
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of The College of William and Mary
Measuring belief
4
percent
13
percent
Majority worldview (Protestant, Orthodox or Roman Catholic Christian)
Other
Nonreligious
student life
Minority worldview
The College of William and Mary, broken down by worldview
Survey compares students’ beliefs about religion and spirituality with campuses across the nation ELLEN WEXLER // flat hat Executive editor
H
iba Vohra ’16 tries to pray five times a day, but she has trouble finding a quiet space where she won’t be interrupted. Sometimes she prays in the meditation room in the Campus Center. But sometimes she is on the other side of campus, studying in the library, and she feels guilty if she doesn’t walk the five minutes it takes to get back to her dorm. Vohra wants to learn more about her faith, but as the vice president of the Muslim Student Association at a college without a strong Muslim community, she is often considered the authority. There is no one to teach her. For students like Vohra, maintaining a religious identity in college comes with a host of unique challenges, and for the first time, the College of William and Mary and the Student Assembly are trying to quantify what that means. The Campus Religious and Spiritual Climate Survey compares students at the College with 13,776
students at 52 campuses across the country. The results, which were shared with The Flat Hat and will be released in full later this year, show a campus made up primarily of Christians (45.1 percent) and nonreligious students (37.7 percent). 12.8 percent of students identify as minority religions, and 4.4 percent identify as another worldview. Based on the results, each participating college received a score in 26 categories. In 18 of those categories, the College’s scores are significantly different from the national sample. Most of those differences are positive. Compared to other campuses, the College is more accepting of almost all religions and worldviews asked about on the survey: Muslims, Jews, Mormons, atheists and non-religious students are all accepted on campus at rates higher than the national average. For instance, 78.2 percent of students at the College report that nonreligious students are accepted on campus, compared See RELIGION page 3
38
percent
34 percent Students at other campuses who report a high level of informal engagement with diverse peers
45
percent
50 percent
Students at the College who report a high level of informal engagement with diverse peers
GRAPHIC BY ELLEN WEXLER / THE FLAT HAT
The visuals above were created using data from the Campus Religious and Spiritual Climate Survey.
student life
Alumni
Reveley, Faculty Assembly, NAACP chapter respond to racist online remarks
base consolidates
College reacts to racial harassment New York alumni Sarah Caspari FLAT HAT chief staff writer
To commemorate the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, students at the College of William and Mary organized a “die-in” last semester in which students lay
down in Earl Gregg Swem Library for four and a half minutes of silence. For many students who participated, those four-and-a-half minutes of solidarity were undermined by racist remarks and hostile actions that followed on several fronts. The comments and events caught
the attention of Vice President of Student Affairs Ginger Ambler ’88 Ph.D. ’06, College President Taylor Reveley and the Faculty Assembly. Faculty Assembly president and associate professor of government David Dessler said individuals leaving the library after the diein were met with hostility, as were students in a residence hall. “Students and faculty leaving that event were confronted with hecklers who shouted racial epithets,” Dessler said in an email. “Following that, some students in at least one residence hall ran through the hallways, banging on the doors of the rooms of black students and shouting, ‘Police!’” Several students also made racist remarks over social media. One Facebook post read, “i tell you one thing if i owned a business down there i would have been in the back room with a clear line of sight with a 12 gauge pump layin them [n***as] out one by one.” In response to the online comments, Ambler sent a campus-wide email denouncing the “incivility,” and the Faculty Assembly released a statement declaring solidarity with students and faculty of
William and Mary Club opens at Princeton Club
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See NYC page 3
COURTESY PHOTO / WM.EDU
College students in Earl Gregg Swem Library participated in a four-and-a-half minute die-in last semester.
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Inside Opinions
Gilded pineapples are synonymous with Colonial Williamsburg, but many of the College of William and Mary’s alumni prefer the taste of the Big Apple. Following in the footsteps of the Washington, D.C. and Virginia chapters, the College’s New York City alumni base is the most active, with 8,000-9,000 graduates in the area. “To my knowledge, we are one of only two public universities to have a New York City office,” Managing Director of the College’s NYC chapter Renee Davis ’94 said. “We have a lot of alumni working side by side in this city that don’t realize they share a college connection.” The New York City chapter hosted its own Yule Log festivities, an annual event meant to mirror the on-campus tradition. Alumni tossed a sprig of holly into a bowl. The holly was then transported to Williamsburg and thrown into the Great Hall’s fireplace flames at the College’s Dec. 13 festivities. “[The New York location] is a beautiful place, very swanky,” Celeste Hall ’13 said. “I loved the Yule Log ceremony there; it’s a wonderful venue and it was especially meaningful celebrating such a cherished tradition with familiar faces in that setting.” This year, the event coincided with the grand opening of the William and Mary Club located at the Princeton Club of New York. Membership to the Club provides both former and current
Inside SPORTS
Tackling freedom of expression
Mostly cloudy High 48, Low 37
Vayda Parrish FLAT HAT STAFF WRITER
What should we take away from North Korea’s response to “The Interview?” Can offense place limitations on freedom of expression? page 5
Balancing Act
Tribe alum Josh Sundquist ’06 is a former paralympian, a published author, an international soccer player and a legitimate social media celebrity. page 8
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THE BUZZ
It’s tough because I want to believe this new idea of God, but that would somewhat require a change in the liturgy. I’m not willing to give up the traditional liturgy. — Jacob Robins ’16 on the religious crises students face
THE DIGITAL DAY
Snapchats from Students
This edition of Snapchats from Students sees College of William and Mary students in rare form after a restful break; from finding Brandon Flowers in the most unlikely of places, to learning that the best civics teacher is always Chinese food, to coming face to face with the Number of the Crust. As ever, be sure to share your days with The Flat Hat by snapping The Flat Chat. See all students snaps to The Flat Hat on Facebook.
Embedded in the ROTC The newest Story from Abroad features Daria Grastara, former Flat Hat opinions editor, as she participates in the William and Mary in Washington Program. Follow her as she navigates the Metro, inevitably falls under the spell of Bao Bao the panda, and works full-time at a media internship. See this and all Stories from Abroad at Flathatnews.com.
Ashley Richardson / THE FLAT HAT
CORRECTIONS The Flat Hat wishes to correct any facts printed incorrectly. Corrections may be submitted by email to the editor of the section in which the incorrect information was printed. Requests for corrections will be accepted at any time.
KAYLA SHARPe / THE FLAT HAT
Visit YouTube.com/flat-hat-online to see a video of Flat Hat News Editor Aine Cain as she embeds in the College of William and Mary’s ROTC for a Situational Training Exercise.
CAMPUS POLICE BEAT
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“I am fully prepared to be a complete tourist on my morning commute, taking pictures of Capitol Hill that are hopefully artsy enough to Instagram. I am fully prepared to go to every museum and monument I can. I am fully prepared to network as much as possible during my few months here. I am fully prepared to find cool, trendy cafes where I can have bottomless brunches or Nutella donuts. “I am not fully prepared to work in a professional environment for the first time in my life. I am not fully prepared to work eight-hour days — sometimes nine-hour days when Congress is in session. I am not fully prepared to take a senior seminar and complete a research proposal. Most of all, I am not fully prepared to wake up at 7:30 a.m. every morning when it was a struggle for me to get out of bed for my 11 a.m. class last fall.”
Thursday, Jan. 15 — An incident of a hit and run was reported on Scotland Street.
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Thursday, Jan. 15 — An individual was arrested for possession of marijuana on Longhill Road.
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Wednesday, Jan.21 — Property damage was reported on New Hope Road.
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Wednesday, Jan.21 — An individual was assaulted on Merrimac Road.
NEWS IN BRIEF Professor works to have mountain named for College Kinesiology and health sciences professor Ken Kambis is working with Colorado resident Marilyn Brown to create an application to the United States Board on Geographic Names. In the application, the duo asks that a mountain be officially named Mount William and Mary. College President Taylor Reveley has joined the campaign, emailing Colorado-resident alumni and asking them to share their support for the naming. There is also an online petition. Kambis has a long relationship with the now-unnamed mountain. He first climbed the mountain in 1998.
College appoints associate provost of e-learning initiatives Michele Jackson will become the College of William and Mary’s first associate provost of e-learning initiatives in February. Jackson will work with administrators, faculty and the Information Technology office to provide support and an infrastructure for e-learning initiatives and resources. Jackson, an associate professor of communication at the University of Colorado at Boulder, is also the founder and director of ASSETT: Arts and Sciences Support of Education Through Technology.
Alum named to Virginia Supreme Court Judge D. Arthur Kelsey J.D. ’85 was appointed as a Justice to the Virginia Supreme Court Tuesday. The Suffolk News-Herald reported that Kelsey was unanimously elected in votes by both houses of the General Assembly. Kelsey has served on the Court of Appeals since 2002 and was a circuit court judge in the Fifth Course, which includes Suffolk, Southampton County and Isle of Wight County. He attended Old Dominion University as an undergraduate before studying at the Marshall-Wythe School of Law.
Friday, January 23, 2015
The Flat Hat
Page 3
Student life
Ludacris to perform at Charter Day SA, AMP book pop singer Andy Grammer as Grammy-winning headliner’s opening act Madeline Bielski FLAT HAT Assoc. news editor
Ludacris will take the stage Feb. 7 at Kaplan Arena for the College of William and Mary’s Charter Day Concert. Ludacris is a Grammy-winning rapper whose songs include “Money Maker,” “Area Codes” and “Rollout.” He has also acted in the “Fast and Furious” series and guest-starred on “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.” Singer Andy Grammer will open for Ludacris. Grammer, who is known for his hitsingles “Keep Your Head Up” Lorenzen and “Fine By Me,” contrasts with the headliner, as he exudes a pop vibe that diverges from Ludacris’s hip-hop dynamic. Vice President of the Student Assembly Kendall Lorenzen ’15 said she believes the unconventional combination of Ludacris and Grammer will be a hit with students. “I actually think it’s going to be a good thing because hopefully it will be able to please more different people who like different kinds of music,” Lorenzen said. The Charter Day Concert committee selected the artist and is composed of SA and AMP representatives, as well as several College administrators. The Charter Day student chairs did express some concern about bringing another hip-hop artist to campus after Wiz Khalifa performed at Charter Day last year and Shwayze appeared a few months ago. The committee initially set their sights on a bringing a pop or rock artist to campus to break up the stream of rappers performing at the College. However, the committee had difficulty booking
artists in those genres. “We set out with the mentality that we couldn’t do another hip-hop artist, due to the [recent performances by] Shwayze and Wiz … but we had very, very bad luck with our avails. And the truth is that hip-hop is what is popular in the mainstream right now, as a result, much more famous artists are available for cheaper,” AMP’s Music Committee Chair Arvin Alaigh ’15 said in an email. “In a sense, we get more bang for our buck with hip-hop, and when push came to shove, we couldn’t pass up an artist as widely and critically acclaimed as Ludacris, especially given the urgency of the concert.” The announcement of the Charter Day Concert performer came later this school year, as it was announced at the Yule Log Ceremony in 2013.
Lorenzen explained that the Charter Day Concert committee encountered trouble when artists didn’t sign contracts the committee was putting out. The Grammys, which will be held Feb. 8, the day after the Charter Day Concert, also presented a dilemma. “This year, it seemed more difficult than most to get artists to agree to come,” Lorenzen said. Alaigh also explained that touring season for many artists doesn’t begin until spring, which adds to the difficulty of booking performers. “Artists are cheaper when they are routed in for a tour, which essentially means that they already have a tour planned and are in the area in a particular date,” Alaigh said. “For charter day, the case is usually that we have an artist only play our
date, and as a result, it costs more.” Student Assembly President Colin Danly ’15 suggested that it might be time to take another look at the idea of Charter Day Concert. “Don’t take the Charter Day Concert concept as set in stone moving forward to future years. … I think it is a little difficult [to bring an artist to Williamsburg] with the Grammys and tour dates all smack dab in the middle,” Danly said. So far, Alaigh said responses to the announcement of Ludacris and Grammer have been positive. “The initial response to the announcement has been superb, and I think I can speak for the entire committee when saying that we are absolutely thrilled for concert day,” he said.
COURTESY PHOTO / WM.EDU
Ludacris is a Grammy-winning rapper whose songs include “Money Maker,” “Area Codes” and “Rollout.” He has also acted in the “Fast and Furious” series and in “Law and Order.”
New York office seeks to expand opportunities NYC from page 1
COURTESY PHOTO / WILLIAM AND MARY NEW YORK OFFICE FACEBOOK PAGE
The College of Wiliiam and Mary’s New York office is currently seeking to expand professional opportunities for alumni in the area.
students at the College with perks to living in or visiting the city. “It’s a pretty exclusive thing,” Davis said. “Members of the club receive preferential rates on hotel rooms in Midtown Manhattan, access to athletic facilities, event spaces, lounges and restaurants, all of which are covered by a one time initiation fee and annual, reasonable dues. The club has potential to become a home for all of us. We have amazingly accomplished alumni in New York; there is so much they can do for William and Mary students’ access to jobs and internships up here.” Much like the professional opportunities available to students of the College in the D.C. area, similar prospects are on the horizon for the New York office. The city’s alumni office is collaborating with graduates such as Tony award-winning costume designer William Ivey Long ’69 and multiple
Wall Street employees to provide students with internship and career options that will be made available to them through the College’s Sherman and Gloria H. Cohen Career Center. “These advancements will undoubtedly enhance William & Mary’s footprint in the New York region,” president of the William and Mary Alumni Association’s Board of Directors David Kelley ’81 said in a press release. “As a New Yorker and William & Mary alumnus, I am thrilled the university has extended its branches to [such a progressive city].” Davis said that above all, he hopes the New York chapter will foster the strong sense of community that he feels is synonymous with the College. “Navigating New York is always a challenge,” Davis said. “The more that our alumni interact, the more chances we have to never stop developing relationships with others who have at some point called the College home.”
Students of different religions deal with faith crises, lack of resources RELIGION from page 1
with an average of 60.3 percent at other campuses. But for just one religious group — Evangelical Christians — the College is actually less accepting than most campuses. The survey asked students to indicate, on a scale of 1 to 5, whether they agreed that “Evangelical or Born-Again Christians are accepted on this campus.” The average answer was 3.53 out of 5. Justin Schoonmaker ’09, an Evangelical Christian pastor for a campus ministry called uLife, said that there is no institutionalized discrimination against Evangelicals, but sometimes Evangelical students feel that their religion is at odds with academia. Their peers and professors don’t always have a nuanced understanding of their faith, he said. “To be part of academic circles or academic groups that seem to take for granted — without questioning and without being willing to engage in dialogue — the opposite view of what Evangelical Christians hold on certain issues, I think feels threatening to them,” Schoonmaker said. “It feels unwelcoming to them.” It can be easy, he said, for students and faculty to think of Evangelical students as having two contradictory mindsets: an “academic side,” and then an “irrational, spiritual side.” “I don’t think that such a dichotomy exists,” he said. “We try to encourage our students to pursue both — to pursue their faith, but also to embrace scientific inquiry, because both are coming at truth from a slightly different angle.”
A spiritual crisis But the notion that religion and rationality are at odds with each other is pervasive. When Evangelical Christians come to college, sometimes they start having doubts.
Every Wednesday night, Schoonmaker and his wife meet with students in their home. When students begin to question their faith, Schoonmaker encourages them to talk about their doubts during these meetings. “Students are scared of the doubting and the questioning process, and I actually think Evangelical Christianity as a whole is not good at allowing adherents of the faith to question aspects of it. … A lot of churches would be afraid to talk about what are perceived contradictions in the Bible,” he said. Schoonmaker said that doubting is healthy and important. He is planning to lead a meeting focused on perceived contradictions in the Bible in the spring. Jodi Fisler, Assistant to the Vice President of Student Affairs and Director of Student Affairs Planning and Assessment, said she knows that students of all faiths tend to question their religious beliefs when they enter college. Fisler helped bring the survey to the College last year and expressed hope that the results will help inform the school’s programming. “There’s a need on some students’ parts to have a place where they can go to explore spiritual questions, and we need to think about that, because spiritual identity and spiritual development is a key part of what it means to be human,” she said. “Helping students find avenues to explore that is something that is very important for us moving forward.” Fisler added that providing opportunities for spiritual development is especially important during college, when learning to think in different ways can “put some people into a spiritual crisis.” Jacob Robins ’16 is in the midst of such a crisis. Growing up, he went to synagogue with his family almost every week; now he goes to Temple Beth El, the Williamsburg synagogue, as often as he can. But when he enrolled in a religious studies class on modern Jewish and Christian thought, he was exposed to writings by theologians that “radically changed” how he views Judaism.
“It’s tough because I want to believe this new idea of God, but that would somewhat require a change in the liturgy,” Robins said. “I’m not willing to give up the traditional liturgy.” Instead, Robins is trying to find a balance between the ideas he grew up with and the new ideas he’s learning in class. It is, he said, a process that will be “a life-long aspiration.”
Religious life on campus Hannah Kohn ’15 is the SA’s secretary of diversity initiatives, but she first heard about the survey last year, when she was the SA’s undersecretary of religious affairs. Partnering with the Office of Student Affairs and the Center for Student Diversity, she led the initiative to bring the survey to campus. Now, she wants to get students talking. “The definition of dialogue that I’ve learned after going to some trainings over the summer is listening deeply enough to be changed by what you learn,” Kohn said. “And that’s something that I really hope for on our campus. I hope that we can start listening deeply enough.” According to the survey, students are already having a lot of conversations about religion and spirituality — at least compared with other campuses. 50.2 percent of students at the College reported a high level of “informal engagement with diverse peers,” compared with a national average of 33.9 percent. Students at the College scored lower than the national average, however, when it came to participating in organized religious activities — joining groups like uLife or Hillel, for instance, or going to religious services on campus. Vohra said she wishes there were more organized religious activities for Muslims on campus. She is trying to get as involved with the College’s Muslim community as she can; the problem is that there isn’t much of one.
“It’s kind of hard to engage in religious services on campus — on this campus especially — because we don’t have a campus minister to lead prayer,” she said. “We don’t generally have structured prayers because we don’t have anyone to lead them.” The MSA had a campus minister two years ago, but because of a miscommunication with the Center for Student Diversity, the group hasn’t had a leader since. They hope to find someone by this semester. While someone like Robins is able to participate in Williamsburg’s Jewish community instead of campus groups like Hillel, there is no strong Muslim community in Williamsburg. The closest mosque is five miles away, Vohra said. She thinks it’s in someone’s garage. And because the Muslim community is so small, the MSA is often asked to act as the Muslim voice in Williamsburg. A few times, for instance, they gave a lesson in Islam to the United Methodist Church’s Sunday school. But Vohra said she feels uncomfortable acting as an expert on her faith. “We don’t think we’re the best people to spread that knowledge because we’re just in college,” she said. “I still need someone who’s older than me to lead me. So if the school could help us find someone, like a campus minister, if the school could help us find a prayer or a study space — because there’s not a mosque here that can provide that for us — I think that would be really good.” As for prospective students who want to be part of a strong Muslim community, Vohra added, the lack of resources could be a deterrent. “Right now we’re just a club that meets in an academic building every week — but it’s all studentled, and we’re not as knowledgeable as we should be if we were to try to lead others in this faith,” she said. “I think we do need help from the school in order to establish ourselves better so that people can see us more as a legitimate resource.”
Page 4
The Flat Hat
Friday, January 23, 2015
Administration
Reveley’s President’s Report summarizes 2014 Focuses on sexual assault task force, COLL requirements, diminishing support from state KJ Moran FLAT HAT ASSOC. NEWS editor
The College of William and Mary President Taylor Reveley released his report Jan. 5. The 2014 President’s Report is comprised of a message from Reveley summarizing the past year at the College, a financial update from Vice President for Finance Samuel Jones ’75, MBA ’80, and a series of highlights from the year. The report also featured two stories — one about a student, the other about a professor. In the President’s Message, titled “Another Great Year at the Alma Mater of the Nation,” Reveley praised the College’s new general education curriculum, COLL, which will take effect for the entering class in fall 2015. The changes will affect about 25 percent of the undergraduate curriculum, he wrote. “[COLL] will extend over four years of the undergraduate experience and provide more interdisciplinary and international work than has ever been the case before, as well as renewed emphasis on written and oral communication,” the message reads. “There will be a significant research component for all undergraduates from their freshman to their senior years.” The College also received a $900,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to be put toward the curriculum’s implementation. In addition to discussing COLL, Reveley listed various statistics regarding admissions, academics and athletics. In terms of admissions, this was the 10th consecutive year that the College saw an increasing number of undergraduate applications, with 14,500 applicants. The university also took the sixth spot among public schools on U.S. News and World Report’s annual rankings. The College tied for second among universities with a “strong commitment to undergraduate teaching.” 2014 also saw high numbers of students receiving Fulbright Awards, as well as a nearly 50 percent undergraduate participation rate in study abroad or institutionally-supported research. Additionally, nearly 100 varsity athletes graduated in the C lass of 2014, giving the College the best varsity athlete graduation rate in the CAA and in the state. While commending students, faculty, staff and alumni on their achievements, Reveley also discussed other issues, including sexual violence. He mentioned the creation of a task force headed by
Vice President for Students Affair Ginger Ambler ’88 Ph.D. ’06, which is currently examining the campus’s climate with the goal of making recommendations as to how to both educate students about and prevent instances of sexual violence. Beyond combatting sexual assault on campus, Reveley noted that the College also faces other issues. He addressed the university’s financial future near the conclusion of his report, emphasizing the importance of donations, tuition and fees, as well as the state’s “continued if diminishing” support. “In W&M’s first 319 years, the university had just one year in which it raised $100 million,” he wrote. “We just reached that mark in back-to-back years, fiscal years 2013 and 2014, and we are moving toward even greater heights in philanthropy to ensure a future for William & Mary worthy of its past.” Jones analyzed the College’s financial progress in the President’s Report. Jones emphasized the success of the William and Mary Promise, a new operating model that aims to preserve affordability for Virginia students as tuition increases and state support does not. As the economy rebounds this year, the College saw state support decrease only by 0.2 percent this fiscal year. The percentage of state funds has steadily decreased since 1980, when 42.8 percent of the College’s budget depended on federal funds. In the President’s Message, Reveley emphasized four components for the College’s economic success: efficiency and cost reduction on campus, tuition from in-state and out-of-state students paired with significant financial aid to ensure education despite circumstance, alumni engagement, and support from the Commonwealth. Together, Reveley wrote that he believes these will provide support for the College’s continued success. In addition, Standard and Poor’s gave the College an “AA” credit rating in July, and although it has no debt of its own, the College is working to pay off $238.6 million issued by the state for the construction and renovation of various auxiliary buildings. In regard to fundraising success, this is the second consecutive year that the College has been able to raise $100 million. This year’s “One Tribe One Day” event marked the most money raised in a single day, during which 1,700 people donated over $150,000. Although the financial report analyzes students’ financial support, it does not emphasize faculty and staff’s finances. “Despite a pervasive lack of salary increases for
Administrators condemn online racism RACE from page 1
color and calling on the administration to take action toward “promoting a safe and welcoming environment for all members of our community.” “When I arrived at W&M thirty years ago, problems in race relations were not really acknowledged,” Dessler said in an email. “They existed, but people did not talk about them. Over the years, both the student body and the faculty have become more diverse, and a conversation on race relations has taken root. I think we are still very much at the beginning of that conversation, but we have made discernible progress over the years.” Reveley sent out a campus message Dec. 17 addressing the issue and echoing Ambler’s condemnation of what Reveley called “unsigned comments on social media in terms meant to wound, not persuade.” President of the College’s chapter of the NAACP Alexis Foxworth ’15 said she saw the hateful comments as an unfortunate but inevitable consequence of social agitation. “In times of hostility you do see people’s true colors, and it’s very unfortunate,” she said. “And you can’t say you lose faith in the Tribe as a whole, but it just shows there’s more work to be done at the micro level — educating the individual person and maybe counseling that individual person and talking to them one on one. And fortunately enough they don’t account for the entire Tribe, but I do know there were a lot of hostilities that were awakened in that moment, and it brought out the best in some folks and it brought out the worst in some people as well.” In spite of this, Foxworth said she has never personally felt racially antagonized in her time at the College. While she has not experienced outright discrimination, she did say that the fact that the College is a predominantly white institution means
that when a minority student is the only non-white person in a classroom, it can feel uncomfortable or isolating. With efforts to increase student diversity at the College continually on the rise, though, Reveley said he expects conversations and movements like those of last semester to increase accordingly. “As our student body has become more diverse, conversations at the College about race have become richer because of the different views, life experiences, and perspectives of our students,” he said in an email. For Foxworth, these conversations are significant because they are more than a reflection of the numbers — they mark the beginning of this generation’s involvement in the fight for racial equality. Battles for integration and legal equality took place long enough ago that this generation has no memory of them, making this the first time students at the College have had a cause of their own to defend. “So now we are fighting a different fight,” she said. “We have integration, we have what appears to be equality … but now it is fighting the injustices that aren’t as apparent. I think for our generation, for our age group, this definitely has been a totem moment because the fights that have come before us have been before our time.” Looking long-term, Foxworth called this stage of protests and die-ins the “agitation phase,” meant to grab the attention of people around the country and pave the way for more concrete changes to take hold in the near future. “What some of these protests and these die-ins are really trying to do, what folks across the country are trying to do, is awaken the national consciousness,” she said. “And clearly Ferguson isn’t going away. All of the die-ins — we’re going to be hearing about these things for years to come.”
COURTESY PHOTO / WM.EDU
College students participate in the “die in” in Earl Gregg Swem Library to protest systemic police violence against blacks.
state employees since the Great Recession hit in 2008, we have been able to make progress on compensation for our faculty and staff,” Reveley wrote in the report. “For the second year in a row, we were able to provide meaningful merit-based increases.” The report contains a series of highlights at the College, including academic, financial and state developments. In addition to further analysis of the COLL requirements and the sexual task force, the highlights include the discovery of a 300-year-old brewery, the Board of Visitors’ master plan update, the 25th anniversary of the Wendy and Emery Reves Center for International Studies and the celebration of marriage equality in Virginia. Among the highlights was the First Young African Leaders Initiative. Leaders spent a month and a half at the College, working closely with AidData Center for Development Policy, the Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations and the Reves Center for International Studies. The students concluded the Initiative with a ceremony in the Wren Chapel, where Botswana’s ambassador to the U.S., Her Excellency Dr. Tebelelo Mazile Seretse, delivered the keynote address.
The first story follows Jackie Iannucci ’16 in her decision to come to the College after visiting for only an hour. “I loved how beautiful and historical everything was, and the sense of community,” Iannucci said. “It was a gut decision that worked out perfectly.” A native of Rhode Island, Iannucci said she finds that the College allows her to unite her many passions in one community. She is able to be both a lab manager in Associate Professor of Psychology Robert Barnet’s behavioral neuroscience research laboratory and a soccer coach while pursuing her studies. The second featured story highlights the Frances L. and Edwin L. Cummings Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies Robert Vinson, who studies the continent of Africa and the African Diaspora at the College. According to the report, Vinson feels supported in his research at the College. “I feel like the powers that be at the university understand the importance of the research,” Vison said. “They go beyond the lip service by helping to provide some of the resources that are needed to do that work.”
JOANNA WANG / THE FLAT HAT
College of William and Mary President Taylor Reveley’s President’s Report included stories from a professor and a student.
Undergraduate Honor Council Elections Wednesday January 28 Voting from 8AM10PM This is your opportunity to elect the members of the 2015 Undergraduate Honor Council. Help continue the tradition of honor at William & Mary.
opinions
Opinions Editor Isabel Larroca Assoc. Opinions Editor Annie Sadler fhopinions@gmail.com // @theflathat
The Flat Hat | Friday,
EDITORIAL CARTOON
January 23, 2015 | Page 5
STAFF EDITORIAL
Our choice
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Complexity in controversy Sumner Higginbotham FLAT HAT OPINIONS COLUMNIST
College of William and Mary President Taylor Reveley sent a school-wide email Dec. 12 addressing the major events of the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner by police, as well as indirect references to the Rolling Stone article about sexual assault at U.Va. Within his message, Reveley encouraged the Tribe community to be introspective about these happenings while reaffirming the College’s commitment to free speech and peaceful demonstrations. To conclude, he wrote: “We need to grapple with the issues raised by Ferguson and Staten Island, just as we need to grapple with the issues raised by sexual assault and harassment. The conversations will not be simple or easy.” While Reveley’s words on these topics were certainly constructive, there was virtually no emphasis on the complexity of these issues, particularly in light of how these events have played out since Dec. 12. Consider the death of Michael Brown. Both The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post have reported that forensic evidence decisively supported Officer Darren Wilson’s testimony that Brown assaulted the officer. That evidence included a gunshot wound inflicted from approximately six inches away and no gunshot wounds to the back. Naturally, this type of information requires time for analysis before it is released for publication. However, protestors jumped to the conclusion that the incident was the result of racist police action, often disregarding facts from the case in support of the cause. Why? The answer is simple: We carry these pre-conceived narratives, without regard for case-specific reality, and readily act upon this prejudice. This narrative: Police discriminate
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against minorities. Certainly, there is some substance to this generalization. Reveley alluded to the statistic that a black person is roughly four times as likely to be killed by police as a non-black person. However, this is only half the picture. A Jan. 5 article in The Wall Street Journal, while confirming the above statistic, found that an average of 800 people are killed by police annually, a third (270) of which are black. On average, 51 police officers die per year, with an average of 24 killed by African-Americans. That’s 11 AfricanAmericans killed for each officer killed by African-Americans. Each side uses statistics to justify its position. Neverthless, there are signs in Tucker Hall that read, “Darren Wilson: Wanted for Racist Murder.” For collegeeducated students, this rhetoric is appallingly ignorant. Each case should be taken on its individual merits. According to a USA Today poll, 57 percent of Americans believe the officer involved in the Eric Garner case acted imprudently. I agree. That case merits protest. But the Michael Brown protests, with the willful separation from reality and occasional violence, overshadowed the Garner case and distracted the American people from a serious incident of police misconduct. The Rolling Stone article has the same issue. The ongoing campaign against sexual assault on college campuses was severely hurt by an article that had little to no fact-checking whatsoever. The Columbia Journalism Review awarded Rolling Stone “Worst Journalism of 2014.” Some of the students cited in the article are speaking out against the magazine, which has since apologized. But we blindly accepted the article at face value because it confirmed our preconceived notions. This leaves people hurt by false accusations, critics with more justification for their disbelief and good causes overshadowed by blind adherence to prejudiced perceptions. Reveley is right. We should be introspective and look at what we can do personally to solve these kinds of problems. But when we use our free speech, we need to do so responsibly, and that means sticking to the facts. Email Sumner Higginbotham at sshigginbotham@email. wm.edu.
While Reveley’s words on these topics were certainly constructive, there was virtually no emphasis on the complexity of these issues.
The staff editorial represents the opinion of The Flat Hat. The editorial board, which is elected by The Flat Hat’s section editors and executive staff, consists of Abby Boyle, Matt Camarda, Zachary Frank, Meredith Ramey and Ellen Wexler. The Flat Hat welcomes submissions to the Opinions section. Limit letters to 250 words and columns to 650 words. Letters, columns, graphics and cartoons reflect the view of the author only. Email submissions to fhopinions@gmail.com.
COMMENTS @THEFLATHAT
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Now, I have no problem with you saying that people should learn dining etiquette if they want to be part of the upper class–social advancement and what-not. But that’s not really the argument you make. You say that dining etiquette equates to being a good person. But I guess those things are pretty much synonymous anyway. We know rich people are good because they’re rich and know how to be good.
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GRAPHIC BY BRIAN KAO / THE FLAT HAT
ollowing the well-trodden path of Wiz Khalifa and Gavin DeGraw, rapper Ludacris will perform for the College of William and Mary’s Charter Day Concert. While a big name artist, Ludacris was by no means the Charter Day Concert Committee’s first choice of performer. The committee, led by members of AMP and the Student Assembly, searched for a hip-hop or rock artist to break the College’s recent rapper streak, but found it almost impossible to book an artist for Charter Day. This is due in part to the fact that the Grammy Awards are the following day. Given the circumstances, the committee did well, but in the future it should reconsider the worth of having a Charter Day concert when few artists are available. The Charter Day Concert began only five years ago and is by no means a College tradition. However, students have enjoyed the concerts in the past, regardless of the performer. The real question, then, is what do students want more: Would they prefer a Charter Day concert with a lesser-known artist or would they want to book someone more popular for a later date? If the annual concert tradition continues, it may very well come to imbue Charter Day with even more significance. Students would simply have to settle for smaller pools of potential artists in years with major award conflicts. If the Charter Day concert tradition ends, AMP and the SA will have greater flexibility both in whom they can book and when concerts can be held. Hosting more influential artists might, in turn, help the College attract bigger names. A potential downside of this decision would be the loss of the advantage that Charter Day provides as a celebratory event. Either way, AMP and the SA should leave the decision to students, who ultimately fund the event. This would require informing students about their choices and providing forums for making suggestions. The SA could release a survey to the entire student body asking for student preferences on genre or timing and allowing it to comment further. Alternatively, the question could be included on the SA election ballot. It would encourage students to give their opinions, and possibly convince more people to vote in SA elections. The decision would not please everyone, but it would better represent what students want. Whether AMP and the SA move the Charter Day concert in the future, many students will likely attend and enjoy themselves. Nevertheless, they ought to include the student body in that decision. Until then, we leave students in Luda’s capable hands.
— Saint Nicholas on “Etiquette never goes out of style”
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Does freedom of expression give you freedom to offend?
Kaitlan Shaub
FLAT HAT ASSOC. OPINIONS EDITOR
I refuse to see “The Interview.” The part of me that fantasizes over my wedding with James Franco was rather upset by this decision, but even more upset that Franco would fall into the same troubling trap as so many Americans today: bastardizing free expression. Let me be clear: Kim Jong Un is detestable, on an enormous scale no less. I am not contesting that. I am contesting the decision to make a movie in which we, the American people, openly plan to assassinate the North Korean leader. When the
U.S. government confirmed that North Korea both hacked Sony and threatened violence against any theater that released the film, diplomatic tensions rose dramatically, as did the cry of nationalists whose freedom of expression would not be silenced by a country halfway around the world. If we wanted to make a movie about killing Kim Jong Un, we would do it, and no one could tell us otherwise. The essential problem with this is the lack of actual thought put into these aggressively offensive displays of free expression. We as a country feel that we can do whatever we want, and hide from the consequences behind a thin veil of all-American freedom of expression. If anyone told me that the producers of “The Interview” didn’t expect North Korea to take enormous, out-of-proportion offense to this movie, it would be a bold-faced lie. In the haze of free expression we refuse to see the predictable and unwanted consequences of our actions. I don’t condone the threat or use of violence in retaliation to political humor, but I also refuse to condone unnecessary and tactless political humor that is designed to elicit often-
violent responses, whether the creators are ready to accept that or not. What’s worse, movies like “The Interview” are tailored to our generation, 20-somethings known for what others repeatedly refer to as our disrespectful attitudes. In reality, we are the driving force behind offensive productivity. The issue is not one of whether we have the right to say and do offensive things in the name of free expression; the issue is our inability to do so critically. We don’t evaluate the meaningfulness, or lack thereof, of certain forms of free expression. There is a line between meaningful and unnecessary political humor. These forms of free expression offer no political tact, no constructive political message. Yet we defend them, because this is America and we can do whatever we want. It’s not our fault that someone else can’t take a joke. The reality is that it is our fault. Freedom of expression is a tool, but it’s one we seem to have forgotten how to use. We have forgotten how to evaluate our actions, and instead choose to act horrendously and hide behind our freedom to do
so. There are better ways to express our disdain for the Korean government than vulgar films, and I can only hope that College of William and Mary students can be a part of that kind of dialogue. Email Kaitlan Shaub at kcshaub@email.wm.edu.
GRAPHIC BY VIRGINIA STROBACH / THE FLAT HAT
variety
Variety Editor Tucker Higgins Variety Editor Devon Ivie flathat.variety@gmail.com // @theflathat
The Flat Hat
| Friday, January 23, 2015 | Page 6
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COURTESY PHOTO / MELISSA BOYD
Don’t let yourself sink into a post-December slump — beat the January drag by taking advantage of all the season has to offer. Our favorites this season include Aromas Smores, hot chocolate at Blue Talon, and new exhibits at the DeWitt Decorative Art Museum.
EMILY NYE FLAT HAT ASSOC. VARIETY EDITOR
I
t’s time to face the sad truth: Winter break is officially over. However, though the festivities of 2014 have wound to a close, the winter season is far from finished. For many, this means two or three more months of being trapped inside with seemingly nothing to do. But don’t let yourself sink into a post-December slump — beat the January drag by taking advantage of all the season has to offer. Here are our favorites this winter.
FOOD
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hen you’re inevitably stuck inside, nothing warms you up quite like something good to eat. The colder it gets, the more possibilities there are for fun winter snacks. If you’re looking for a sweet and delicious way to warm yourself up against the winter cold, look no further than Williamsburg’s own Aromas. Aromas’ famous s’mores dish comes with all the ingredients for the classic dessert, as well as a pot with a small flame for cooking. Served in quantities for two or four people, s’mores are the perfect way to warm up with friends while simultaneously getting your sweet fix for the day. If you’re looking to warm up with something more substantial, try the Melting Pot, an allfondue restaurant located in nearby Newport News. Diners sit at a table surrounding a hot stove (perfect for staying warm) and are served three courses of fondue: an appetizer of bread and vegetables with melted cheese, an entree cooked in boiling oil, and a selection of dessert items served with gooey melted chocolate. Although on the expensive side, the Melting Pot is a fun place to go this winter for a special occasion. Athough your winter break may be filled with many fun and exciting seasonal meals, take the time to remember that may not be the case for all Williamsburg residents. FISH, Inc. is an all-volunteer agency providing help to
residents of the greater Williamsburg area. FISH provided more than 158, 220 meals to hungry Williamsburg residents in 2013; it aims to provide more meals every year. FISH takes donations of non-perishable foods and is headquartered at 312 Waller Mill Road.
DRINK
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ow that the holidays are over and Starbucks has stopped serving its holiday menu, how can you get your winter drink fix? Whether you like coffee, hot chocolate or hot apple cider, Williamsburg has it all. Perhaps the most interesting drink comes from Colonial Williamsburg’s own Blue Talon Bistro. For those of you who do not know this little secret, the Blue Talon serves free cups of its legendary hot chocolate whenever it snows. However, hopeful hot chocolate recipients need to act fast. The Blue Talon only provides hot chocolate to the first 100 customers who enter the restaurant
as flakes fall. Speaking of hot chocolate, Williamsburg has some of the best cups around. Similar to last fall’s “Quest for the Best Pumpkin Spiced Latte,” we now tempt you with the “Hot Chocolate Challenge.” Grab a couple of friends and take the time during the coming cold months to find your favorite cup of this classic winter drink. The Blue Talon Bistro, Aromas, Joe Mugg’s Coffee, the Meridian, Starbucks, the Coffeehouse and the Daily Grind are all great places to start. Finally, for those of you with an adult drink palette, try taking part in Fine Wine Tasting at the Williamsburg Winery. For $6 per person, patrons can taste a wide variety of wines and keep an etched wine glass as a memento of the tasting. Tastings are open from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on weekends throughout the months of January and February.
HEALTH
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etween winter’s delicious food and drink options and attempts to the cold, it can be all too easy to pack on a few extra pounds. In order to avoid the seasonal slump and help keep those New Year’s fitness resolutions strong, check out some of our tips for staying fit this winter. The Student Recreation Center is offering free group fitness classes during the first full week of classes (Jan. 26-Feb. 1). Round up a bunch of your friends and take part in free sessions of yoga, pilates and much more. Use this free opportunity to find a new fitness practice you love. Getting in shape during the winter will make bathing suit season much less stressful come spring and summer. For runners — and those who want to become runners — winter is a great time to start getting in cardiovascular shape. Spring comes packed with lots of fun road races such as Color Me Rad (Newport News, Virginia Beach), the Swamp Run 5K (Jamestown High School), the Shamrock Sportsfest (Virginia Beach) and Williamsburg’s own Run the D.O.G. Grab a friend, sign up now for your race of choice, and spend the next few months getting in shape for your race.
FRIENDS GRAPHIC BY SARAH THORESON / THE FLAT HAT
W
hat would winter in Williamsburg be if you didn’t have a little fun with your friends? No matter what your idea
of a good time is, Williamsburg has something fun for you. Weather permitting, winter can promote all sorts of fun outdoor activities. Join a snowball fight on the Sunken Garden or build a snowman or snow fort. If you’re looking for something a little more daring, try Massanutten Resort. At Massanutten, visitors can ski, snowboard, sled and go tubing for a fair price. If you’re looking to get away for the weekend with your friends and enjoy some outdoor snow sports, Massanutten is the place for you. If staying inside is more your speed, check out Rebounderz, located in nearby Newport News. Rebounderz is an indoor trampoline complex complete with an Open Jump Arena, Foam Pit Jumper, In the Air Dodgeball and Basketball Slam. For just $10 an hour, Rebounderz is the perfect place to blow off some steam while simultaneously staying out of the winter cold. Additionally, Valentine’s Day lurks right around the corner. Whether you have a special someone, or you’re just looking to take a page out of Leslie Knope’s book with your own “Galentine’s Day,” Williamsburg has tons of great places in which to celebrate love in its many forms. If you’re looking for a nice place to go for a romantic or friendly dinner, try Opus 9, Ichiban, the Williamsburg Winery, the Blue Talon Bistro or the Trellis
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ENTERTAINMENT
ow that you’ve been fed, filled with delicious drinks, and had fun with friends, it’s time to look at some great entertainment options in Williamsburg this winter. It’s no secret that Williamsburg is teeming with history, and its many museums are a testament to that fact. If you’re looking for an educational and interesting way to get out of the cold, check out the DeWitt Decorative Art Museum located on West Francis Street near Colonial Williamsburg. The DeWitt Museum hosts several events throughout January and February, including Music in the Museums, Portraits with a Past, Introduction to Folk Art and The Artful Animal. Music fiends can look forward to the College’s upcoming Charter Day Concert featuring none other than Ludacris and special guest Andy Grammer. The concert will be held on Saturday, Feb. 7, at 8 p.m. in Kaplan Arena. Tickets are $15 for students with a valid student ID, $25 for faculty and staff with a discount code and $30 for the general public. While Williamsburg is booming with fun and exciting ways to spend your winter, sometimes the best things are those tested, tried and true. Whether it means settling in for a movie marathon with your friends during a blizzard, baking fresh cookies in your dorm room kitchen, or just spending time with those you care about (while perhaps jumping the Governor’s Wall), there are plenty of fun ways to spend your time in Williamsburg this winter.
The Flat Hat
Hooah! Friday, January 23, 2015
Page 7
AINE CAIN // FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
harles Clouse ’15 says that the early morning wake-ups are one of the hardest parts of the ROTC program at the College of William and Mary. On the days they visit the firing range at Fort Eustis, cadets must gather in Sorority Court as early as 5 a.m. Clouse decided to join the ROTC program as a “walk on” after meeting several retired officers the summer before starting his freshman year at the College. He says that contrary to the “Full Metal Jacket-esque” stereotype ascribed to military training, ROTC provides a very supportive environment. “Getting to go to the range is always pretty cool; machine guns are especially fun to shoot, hanging out with other cadets is fun. We’ve [had] a few alumni come in to talk to us, including Robert Gates, and a few of the occasional extra things we’ve done, like rappelling, have been interesting,” Clouse said. Iain Axworthy ’15 knew coming into college that he wanted to join ROTC and commission as an officer. He says that his fellow program participants have become like a second family. “As far as my motivation, it was actually kind of selfish,” Axworthy said in an email. “First off, I wanted to help my parents. They have two kids going to [William and Mary] out of state, it’s a huge drain on them. They’ve always been hugely supportive of [me] and I saw a scholarship through ROTC as my first real chance to help them financially as they prepare for retirement. Secondly, every great leader that I interacted with at that point in my life had served in the military. Whatever that experience imparted on them, I wanted it myself.” Axworthy’s favorite experience happened last summer at the Leadership Development and Assessment Course. The cadets had been training the field for several days when a thunderstorm cropped up, forcing everyone to assume “lightning position.” “We were exhausted and soaking wet when we got to curl up under our ponchos in the early morning,” Axworthy said. “Me and four of my best friends were curled under two ponchos laying in a puddle. We were shivering so much that … none of us could sleep because of the other folks’ shivering. At that point my buddy whispered, ‘I hate you all so [expletive] much.’ We died laughing. The next day sucked, but my buddies and I had running jokes the rest of the time at camp.” ROTC cadets participate in physical training sessions that begin as early as 6 a.m. several times throughout the week. They also practice skills with simulations like Situational Training Exercises, which are designed after a light infantry mission. Cadets in their junior year serve as team leaders, while others act as fictional enemy troops. These training sessions often take place in the Matoaka woods and are punctuated by joggers passing through battle lines.
Meant to prepare cadets for leadership roles, these simulations can be grueling. In spring semester of his freshman year, Dylan Farley ’16 volunteered for a training exercise in the swampy, hilly backwoods of Matoaka. “We were just covered in mud,” he said. “It was raining on us. It snowed. It hailed. We were all just sitting there, freezing. You pull through it and you rely on each other. You laugh about it afterwards. It might suck then, but it’s good training in the end.” Hunter Gill ’15 says that he knows of few ROTC programs that can hope to match the camaraderie and effectiveness of the College’s program, and says he was inspired to join the program because both of his parents were officers in the Army. “I was always proud to be picked up from school by my parents wearing their uniforms,” Gill said in an email. “As a senior in high school, it was a natural step to consider and then apply for an Army ROTC scholarship.” Gill says that one of the lowest moments in his
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said in an email. “A high moment for me in ROTC was learning to rappel off of the 60 foot tower at Fort Knox, where we trained in wall rappel and free rappel, using only a simple SWISS seat. I enjoyed it because it made my fear of heights seem trivial.” Robert O’Gara ’18 applied for a four-year ROTC scholarship. He says that his fellow cadets were the first people to make him feel like he belonged on campus. Despite participating in physically draining challenges that require cadets to train in freezing weather with little sleep, he says that ROTC participants are not much different from other College students. “We do wake up three days a week for exercise at 6 a.m. and have ROTC labs Wednesday afternoons along with other various training exercises,” O’Gara said. “But ROTC cadets are diverse, just like the students at William and Mary.” Unlike O’Gara, Gwyneth McKenna ’16 did not always know that she wanted to participate in ROTC. She happened across a flyer for the program
It snowed. It hailed. We were all just sitting there, freezing.
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On the front lines of the College’s intensive ROTC program
— Dylan Farley ’16
KAYLA SHARPE / THE FLAT HAT
ROTC cadets participate in physical training sessions that begin as early as 6 a.m. several times throughout the week.
ROTC experience was hearing about the death of Lt. Todd Weaver ’08, an alumnus of the College ROTC program who graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2012. “At that moment, reality set in more clearly,” Gill
freshman year and decided to join up. “I had no idea what was in store for me,” McKenna said. “I didn’t know anybody; everyone kind of looked the same. It was a completely new experience. Thankfully, everyone was super
supportive and eager to help. And if the entirely new environment wasn’t enough, the physical training alone was enough to make most people start running. I remember throwing up in front of everybody on my first morning of [physical training].” McKenna says that her experience with ROTC has allowed her to constantly surprise herself. “One of my favorite memories was getting to fire an M16 for the first time,” McKenna said. “I remember thinking, ‘Holy crap — I might actually be kind of good at this.’” Christian Nott ’16 intended to join Coast Guard Academy but was medically discharged for a slight case of color blindness a few weeks into boot camp. He enrolled at the College instead and joined ROTC. “One characteristic that sets us apart is our emphasis on balancing academics and ROTC,” Nott said. “Everyone is expected to attend all ROTC events, work hard and succeed despite the often large workload cadets receive at William and Mary. This drives everyone to work hard and push themselves to succeed extremely hard, and in the process [it] creates strong leaders and imparts the importance of hard work and discipline onto all cadets.” Nott says that his experience as a “military brat” inspired him to pursue a career as an officer, but not all cadets hail from military backgrounds. When she was first looking at colleges, Morgan Bayer ’16 says she was shocked when her mother suggested that she look into the military. “Probably the one thing I’ve struggled with the most throughout ROTC has been the background material — information on weapons and famous battles and tactics that many kids grow up knowing, but that somehow I totally missed out on while growing up in a non-military family of all sisters that didn’t play video games or really watch movies,” Bayer said. “I constantly feel like I’m playing catchup on the information that many of the guys take for granted.” Despite this, Bayer says that participating in ROTC is like being part of a family with siblings that just happen to live all over campus. Harrison Tamke ’18 says that the close-knit nature of the program is one of its greatest assets. “The people in ROTC are extraordinary,” Tamke said. “The instructors are both experienced soldiers — several have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan — and able teachers. For their part, the cadets are highly motivated and eager to learn. Taken together, they create a very demanding environment, but one which ultimately produces superb leaders. That is what sets us apart.”
FH
ONLINE For a video of operation Rolling Thunder, check Flathatnews.com
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
Start the new year off with a bang Like sexual partners, sexual resolutions can take any shape — what will your sex life look like in 2015?
Mallory Walker
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS COLUMNIST
Although I know that by now we are well into the month of January, 2015 still manages to have that amazing “new year, new start” feeling. I’m sure by now a majority of us have already given up on our resolutions to be fit, more organized or financially responsible. Despite our widespread lack of commitment to New Year’s resolutions, I feel that there are some resolutions that are too fun not to keep. What am I talking about? I am here to suggest you embrace a new type of resolution this year: a sexual resolution. While your friends are spending their days in overcrowded gyms and intensely focused nights in the library, do yourself a favor and start a sexual resolution
revolution in the bedroom. Granted, sex takes on different meanings for different people. Some of us find sexy time to be something fun and flirty, while others consider it relating to a deeper emotional connection. Therefore, this new resolution can be literally anything you want it to be. Just as people make resolutions to improve their physical health and happiness, make a resolution to improve your sexual health and happiness.
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Don’t be afraid to speak with your lover about getting weird.”
A wise man once told me, “Life’s too short not to try out the things that turn you on because you think they’re weird.” Interested in whipping out the Kama Sutra, or maybe even a little butt stuff here and there, but nervous about what
your partner might think? People of William and Mary, can I have your attention please? 2015 is the year to express your wants and interests. Don’t be afraid to speak with your lover about getting weird. Be honest about what gets your engine going and be open to discussing what turns your partner on. Who knows? Maybe you both enjoy role play but are too afraid to say it. Maybe he’s more into a school girl/teacher scenario rather than a plumber/hopeless homeowner one. Look into finding a compromise between classroom and toolbox. Not currently in a relationship or looking to hook up? No problem. Make a sexual resolution to keep yourself sexually satisfied without the help of a partner. Yes, that’s right guys. Get your masturbation on. Masturbation often gets stereotyped as a disgusting and unnatural act reserved for lonely men living in their parents’ basement. I beg to differ. Masturbation is a great way to get in touch with your own sexual needs. Want to amp it up a notch? Treat yourself to some new toys of the sexual variety. Whether you like to set the mood with candles and some Marvin
Gaye or you prefer the classic tissues, lotion and porn, masturbation is a way to relieve sexual frustration or even stress. This year, ladies and gents, get your sexy on with you and your hand. Not trying to get freaky solo or with a partner? Maybe 2015 is your time to embrace a year sans sex. Sex can be a fun and satisfying act for many but not all. If doing it isn’t really doing it for you, it may be time to take a break from all things sexual in order to take a deeper look at yourself. Many people find abstinence to be a great way to feel more focused and under control. Not only that, but abstinence somehow manages to be great for birth control and STI prevention. So do as the monks do, and free yourself from the temptations of sexual encounters. Though these are only a few examples, new sexual resolutions can be anything your heart desires. Make 2015 a year to find confidence and comfort inside and outside of the bedroom. Even if you don’t keep every single goal you make this year, evaluating the changes you want to make is still a step to becoming a bigger and better you. Mallory Walker is a Behind Closed Doors columnist whose resolution is to have sex in every elevator on campus.
sports
Sports Editor Mick Sloan Sports Editor Chris Weber flathatsports@gmail.com @FlatHatSports
The Flat Hat | Friday, January 23, 2015 | Page 8
Balancing Act ALUMNI
Paralympian Josh Sundquist ’06 excels athletically, manages bona fide celebrity status ABBY BOYLE // FLAT HAT MANAGING EDITOR
Team USA Shortly after losing his leg, Sundquist took up skiing and began racing in high school. As a senior, he moved to Colorado to train full-time before returning to Virginia, his home state, to attend the College of William and Mary. Balancing his training with schoolwork proved difficult but manageable. Sundquist spent summers training at Mt. Hood, Ore. and was named to the United States Paralympic Ski Team in 2006 before competing in the IX Paralympic Games in Italy. He graduated from the College the following December. Even while training in Colorado in the spring of 2006, Sundquist remained a full-time student at the College. He had a meal plan and a space in the lodge
he shared with six friends. Sundquist also enrolled in four courses, all independent study, which he planned nearly a year in advance by coordinating with his professors and Sam Sadler ’64, the former Vice President of Student Affairs. “Josh was, to say the least, unforgettable, in part for obvious reasons, but also because of his incredible perseverance, energy, character and sense of humor,” Chancellor Professor of Government Clay Clemens ’80, who worked with Sundquist, said in an email. “It was great having him in class and inspiring to follow his skiing exploits.” Creative writing professor Emily Pease, who also taught Sundquist, remembers him as a funny, energetic student and gifted writer. “At the time, my office was in the North Outhouse,” Pease said. “Sometimes I’d get to my office, and Josh would be waiting for me on the wall. He would’ve jumped up on that
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COURTESY PHOTO / CAL-ENTERTAINMENT.COM
Since graduating from the College in 2006, Josh Sundquist competed in the Paralympic games, played international soccer and wrote two books.
the sport was relatively disorganized in the U.S. Retiring from skiing after the Paralympics, Sundquist earned a spot on the U.S. National Amputee Soccer Team in 2014 and competed in the 2014 Amputee World Cup in Mexico. The team entered the tournament unranked but ultimately placed 12th.
Over time, I realized I actually did have an interesting life story that people wanted to hear about.
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When Josh Sundquist ’06 began giving motivational speeches at age 16, he didn’t consider his own story particularly interesting. Diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma as a child, Sundquist lost his left leg to the disease when he was nine years old. Yet his early speeches didn’t focus on his battle with cancer or his experience as an amputee. “Early on, it was just me lecturing people about how they should live, and the speeches were really awful, really didactic, arrogant and boring,” Sundquist said. “It was a horrible combination of factors. Gradually, I realized that the only time people were paying attention was when I was talking about how I lost my leg to cancer or answering questions about that. Over time, I realized I actually did have an interesting life story that people wanted to hear about.” Sundquist’s story has become increasingly compelling since he began speaking at local schools as a teenager. A Paralympian, a member of the United States National Amputee Soccer Team, a bestselling author and a YouTube personality, Sundquist continues to speak to audiences nationwide.
—Josh Sundquist ’06
brick wall, and he’d just be perched there. And then he’d leap down on his one leg, grab his walking stick, and we’d go to the outhouse together. He left class after a few weeks to fly to Italy to compete in the [Paralympics], but he was able to keep up. … When he came back, he gave me a little souvenir pin from the Turin Olympics. I still wear it on one of my jackets.” While a student at the College, Sundquist heard about amputee soccer. He was intrigued despite the fact that
“We scored some goals, won some matches, got out of the group stage and finished 12th, so I think a lot of people, including some of us on the team, were pleasantly surprised at how well we did,” Sundquist said. “Hopefully we can keep that momentum moving forward to future World Cups and international play.” In celebrating his inclusion on the team, Sundquist took to social media last Halloween, posting a picture of himself in his costume: a foosball
player. Sundquist, whom Business Insider describes as the “champion of all Halloween costumes,” has dressed in amputee-themed costumes for the past several years, appearing as the leg lamp from “A Christmas Story” and the onelegged Gingerbread Man from “Shrek.” As the costumes suggest, Sundquist maintains a sense of humor regarding his disability. He went viral with his YouTube video “The Amputee Rap,” a glass-half-full anthem about life with one leg. Sundquist’s videos have been viewed more than 23 million times. At press time, he had 83,947 “likes” on Facebook, 31,000 followers on Twitter, and 17,800 followers on Instagram. “We Should Hang Out Sometime” Sundquist applies the same sense of humor in his writing. In his recent memoir, titled “We Should Hang Out Sometime,” Sundquist doesn’t focus on his athletic career but on various failed relationships, one of which took place at the College. After weeks of Lodge 1 coffee dates with a girl he was interested in, Sundquist’s friends urged him to “define the relationship.” He asked her to go canoeing on Lake Matoaka, hoping to tell her how he felt, but ended up telling her before they arrived at the boathouse. She liked someone else. She
asked Sundquist if he still wanted to go canoeing, although her friend had unexpectedly decided to join them. Sundquist went anyway and paddled around in a separate canoe by himself, humiliated. “It was so bad,” he said. “What was I thinking? Why did I still go on that boat ride?” Despite the romantic setback, Sundquist looks back on his time at the College positively, especially his experience living in a lodge with some of his best friends. He remains appreciative of the administrators and professors with whom he built relationships while training for the Paralympics. His time at the College also coincided with a turning point of sorts: Sundquist increasingly began using his crutches instead of walking with a prosthesis, for both practical and personal reasons. “In high school, I was really nervous that people would find out I had one leg, while at William and Mary, I was much more interested in people knowing I had one leg,” he said. “So once they meet me, what they see is what they get. There’s no secret. … I’ve never thought about whether it was something about the people or environment there that helped me reach that point, but certainly you can’t separate the environment from the experience and the changes that I had there.”
MEN’S BASKETBALL
College falls at Delaware despite Prewitt’s career night Blue Hens overcome 16-point deficit in win as Prewitt scores 30, Thornton becomes all-time three-point leader MICK SLOAN FLAT HAT SPORTS EDITOR William and Mary led 56-40 with just over 15 minutes remaining in its game against Delaware Wednesday night. The College appeared certain to win its sixth Colonial Athletic Association game out of its first seven. But Delaware generated a huge rally in the final minutes, leaving the Tribe with an 84-80 loss in Newark, Del. The Tribe (11-6, 5-2 CAA) entered the game on top of the CAA standings and seeking revenge against the Blue Hens (414, 3-4 CAA), who knocked the College out of last year’s CAA Tournament final. But after trailing for most of the contest, Delaware seized the lead with just over four minutes remaining and hung on until the final buzzer. Sophomore forward Omar Prewitt led the Tribe with a career-high 30 points on eight of 13 shooting and chipped in seven rebounds. Junior guard Terry Tarpey added 12 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in a well-rounded performance, and senior guard Marcus Thornton notched 15 points. Thornton also became the Tribe’s alltime leader in three-pointers with his 279th triple. Thornton passed David Schneider ’10 and is currently 184 points away from passing Chet Giermak ’50 as the College’s all-time leading scorer. The Tribe offense started at a roar as the
College hit six three pointers in the game’s first seven minutes to jumpstart a 44-point first half. The Tribe hit nine of 14 threes in the first half and held Delaware to 43 percent shooting to take control of the game with a 44-32 lead at halftime. The Tribe carried its potent offense into the second half and Prewitt nailed a three pointer to give the College a 56-40 lead with 15:36 left in the contest. That advantage wound up being the Tribe’s peak, and the Blue Hens gradually chipped at the 16-point lead over the next several minutes. The College missed its next seven shots as Delaware made a 15-2 scoring run to cut the Tribe’s lead to 58-55 with 11:39 remaining. Though the Tribe’s offense recovered, Delaware’s shooting spree proved damaging. After the teams traded points for the ensuing seven minutes, Delaware’s Devonne Pinkard hit a layup to give Delaware its first lead of the second half, putting the Tribe in a 70-69 hole with 4:28 remaining. Though the College hit consecutive shots to regain a 7370 lead, Delaware answered with five quick points to pull ahead for good. Prewitt’s sixth three pointer of the night cut the Blue Hens’ lead to 82-80 with six seconds remaining, but Delaware’s Kory Holden drained two final free throws to seal an 84-80 loss for the Tribe. The loss dropped the College to second place in the CAA, and the Tribe now
trails Northeastern (13-6, 5-1 CAA) in the conference race. The College will have a chance to regain first place, however, when it hosts Northeastern Saturday in Williamsburg, Va. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. at Kaplan Arena.
ONLINE Women’s basketball: The College fell to James Madison Thursday night, 92-50. Find Flat Hat Sports Editor Chris Weber’s recap online. Winter break: Don’t miss a beat From junior guard Terry Tarpey’s program-first tripledouble to junior Will Manion’s Olympic Trials-qualifying meet, The Flat Hat sports desk has the best from break. Catch up on the latest from the basketball, swimming and tennis programs. Feature: Ringing in 2015 with the best of 2014 The Flat Hat sports desk rang in 2015 with the best commentaries and features of 2014. Find the top stories of last year online. Men’s basketball: Gold Rush, promotions set stage Two of the top Colonial Athletic Association teams square off Saturday, as William and Mary looks to advance in conference standings with a win over Northeastern. If that isn’t enough of a draw, Tribe Athletic’s inaugural Gold Rush Game promises perks for attendees. Full details online.
COURTESY PHOTO / TRIBE ATHLETICS
Senior guard Marcus Thornton averages 19.8 points.
COURTESY PHOTO / TRIBE ATHLETICS
Junior forward Terry Tarpey.