the davidsonian
JANUARY 27, 2016 VOL. 108 ISSUE 12
The Independent Student Newspaper of Davidson College since 1914
Armfield and Belk lounges converted to residences for returning students STEFFANEY WOOD Senior Staff Writer
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n order to accommodate all students who wanted to live on-campus this semester, the Residence Life Office (RLO) converted community lounge spaces in the Armfield apartment building and Belk Hall into private rooms. The College has about 1,740 beds available on campus and 1,950 enrolled students, but is able to house all students who request housing when others study abroad during the semester. Since many more students studied abroad in the fall than in the spring this year, RLO needed to maximize on-campus housing this semester. RLO chose to convert the lounges at Armfield and Belk to living spaces because of the availability of bathroom facilities near the lounge in Belk and availability of both bathroom and kitchen facilities in the lounge at Armfield. While on-campus housing is not guaranteed all four years, the “Guide to Campus Living”, published by RLO, states, “As a residential college, Davidson College provides on-campus housing for approximately 95 percent of the student body. We believe students are more likely to be invested in the life of the college and grow emotionally, spiritually, socially and intellectually in residence hall settings. Most students (including all firstyear students) are required to live on campus all four years, although some upper-class students may live off campus with permission from the Residence Life Office (RLO).” Associate Dean of Students and Director of Residence life Jason Shaffer explained that students are not offered off-campus permission in the fall due to the number of available beds on campus during that period. However, due to the number of students returning from abroad this spring, all juniors and seniors this semester were offered the option to live off campus. “It’s supposed to be that only people who are given off-campus permission can live off-campus,” Shaffer said. “If they are given off-campus permission it is because we do not have enough beds on campus.” Students who went abroad this fall were offered off-campus housing permission around May of last year. In November, RLO reached out to these students again because about 20 more students requested on-campus housing than RLO anticipated having space for. By the middle
of December every student either had an assignment or had chosen to live off-campus. An anonymous student who studied abroad this past fall and was placed in a lounge, but opted to live off campus, said, “While I understand that Residence Life did all they could to accommodate for so many students, I wish I had been notified sooner of my placement. The lack of certainty in living situations on campus seemed to cause more students to seek out off-campus options.” According to Student Government Association President Pablo Zevallos `16, there are students who live as far away as Cornelius and on Lake Norman. Zevallos believes that RLO is doing its best with a no off-campus housing policy. “I think students are rightfully dissatisfied with how the housing process went this year,” he said. “There has to be a better way than to create a
system that so disrupts people’s ability to find decent housing when they come back from abroad.” On the other hand, there are some students who enjoy the off-campus housing option. “Living off campus has been really great so far. I volunteered to do so along with a couple buddies who were in my cluster because we were made aware that we wouldn’t be able to live together on campus,” Thomas Rocca ‘17 said. “Finding short term housing was a bit of a pain [...], but, considering what we got - three bedrooms with a bathroom each - and for what price - about the rate of a Davidson double, it was definitely worth it. An unexpected benefit has been the feeling that when I come to campus I’m here to work, so I become more productive in an effort to come home and enjoy it.”
Inside NEWS Anecdotes from students returning from abroad 2 SGA revises bylaws and restructures committees 3 LIVING DAVIDSON VAC presents exhibitions by past and present professors 4 PERSPECTIVES Bridget Lavender commends Cats Excursions for canceling trip to circus 5 Ryan Kozlowski on being a Christian physicist 5 YOWL an inter-library loan 6 Pigeons threaten to withdraw Union funding 6 SPORTS Belford retires from basketball after 5th concussion 7 Lankiewiecz continues to rewrite women’s swimming record books 7
Photo by Holly Querin.
Performance artist reflects on a life of gay rights activism AJ NADDAFF Staff Writer
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nternationally-acclaimed performance artist Tim Miller has spent his lifetime fighting for a just and equitable society for the gay community. Miller performed snippets of his life’s journey in the Lilly Family Gallery late Monday afternoon for an audience of mainly Gender and Sexuality Studies students. English professor Dr. Ann Fox, a long-time friend of Miller, introduced him by highlighting his enduring and essential role in shaping queer activism in the face of nearly three decades of censorship and adversity. Miller spent his initial 13 to 14 years of activism responding to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, while he spent the latter portion of his work on a personal cause: tackling same-sex marriage. Not long ago, immigration laws prohibited foreign gay and lesbian couples from securing a green card, forcing his then-boyfriend Alistair to return to his home in Australia. The six months Miller spent separated from Alistair marked a watershed in his career. He set out to change same-sex marriage laws, a goal his personal happiness depended on. The longsought victory for same-sex marriage this past June is the culmination of the decades of activism by Miller and the countless others involved in the gay rights movement. Miller opened his solo performance with
his first memory of social justice. Revealing his famous sense of humor, Miller told of the time in fifth grade when he and his best friend, Scott, bickered back and forth over what he later understood was the right for same-sex marriage. Switching voices between himself and Scott, Miller created an image of the two marveling over a house surrounded by ceramic garden gnomes. When Scott says he wanted to live in the house with his girl crush, Katy, Miller interjected, “I thought we were going to live together?” To Miller’s chagrin, Scott vehemently opposed such an idea, responding, “Are you crazy Tim? Boys can’t marry boys.” Scott pushed Miller to the ground and shoved a Twinkie down his throat. But, Miller continued, “I have to admit, some part of me had been longing for his physical closeness for so long that being tortured was simply going to have to do.” Miller played out solemn matters, such as the countless bomb and death threats from KKK members and neo-Nazi storm troops, with a sarcastic tone. Noting that ad nauseam “f ” epithets are nothing new to him, Miller recounted a time when a Colt 45 bottle was thrown at him, a hit that stung like nothing before. During a gay pride parade in Montana, a group of angry white men launched a “family-sized screw top jug of Colt 45” at him, cutting his hands. Miller presented the image of his bloody hands as a symbol: the queer communities’ hands have been slapped a lot in their lives, he explained.
In 1990, Miller and four other performance artists received National Endowment for the Arts grants, but the decision was vetoed because of the homosexual themes in the works. “President Bush in 1990 decided to throw the performance artists to the Christian wolves and to make them like him more--it didn’t work, but that’s why he did it,” Miller said.
After a nearly ten year legal battle, Miller won back the grants in a United States Supreme Court decision. In Miller’s last performance of the afternoon, rehearsed only a few times prior, he contemplated
See ARTIST on page 3
Photo by Holly Querin.