the davidsonian
September 7, 2016 Vol. 109 ISSue 1
The Independent Student Newspaper of Davidson College since 1914
Inside NEWS New science building strengthens Davidson academics 2 2016-17 Artist Series brings fresh talent to campus 2 LIVING DAVIDSON Deanna Grayson explores Existentialism at the VAC 4 Check out the recipe for apple cheddar grilled cheese 4 PERSPECTIVES Davidson alum shares his advice to the Class of 2020 5 The Class of 2020 boasts 522 students, making it the largest class in the college's history. Photo by Bill Giduz.
Class of 2020 begin their Davidson experience LAURA DUNNAGAN Staff Writer
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he Davidson community welcomes 522 new first-year students as the Class of 2020 begins its first year. This class has nine more members than the Class of 2019, making it the largest class ever admitted to the college. This increase in admitted students follows an initiative by school administration to augment the overall student population at Davidson. Over the past few years, to accommodate the growing population, the college constructed a new residence building, Chidsey Hall, and the newlyopened Wall Academic Center. The Admissions Office reports that they received 5,620 applications for this academic year, 200 more than they received the previous year. Despite the increase in enrollment, the college’s acceptance rate decreased by more than two percent.
The increase in overall applications received could be a sign of Davidson’s growing national presence as one of the nation’s leading institutions of higher education. In July, Forbes announced that Davidson ranked twenty-fifth on their list of America’s Best Colleges, and Davidson attained the first spot on the Top Colleges in the South list. Davidson has also partnered with nonprofit organizations, such as QuestBridge and the Posse Foundation, to provide higher education opportunities for more diverse students. Davidson has been a QuestBridge partner school since enrolling the Class of 2017. QuestBridge is a nonprofit organization that matches high-achieving, low-income students with institutions of higher education. Ten students in the Class of 2020 matched with Davidson through the program. The Posse Foundation identifies high-achieving students from diverse backgrounds who may be overlooked by the traditional college selection
process. Each year, the Posse Foundation sends groups of ten students to several of its partner schools. Davidson began partnering with the Posse Foundation last year with the Class of 2019. President Carol Quillen comments that this new class joins Davidson at an important moment in the college’s history. “Building on Davidson’s longstanding tradition of innovation, collaboration and original student work, our faculty and staff are working every day to lead in re-imagining the liberal arts for the 21st century, so that our graduates are prepared for the interconnected, rapidly evolving world they will enter,” says Quillen. “The class of 2020 arrives at Davidson at a particularly crucial time.” Maribel Hernandez, a member of the Class of 2020, says she chose Davidson after attending July Experience. “I liked the rigor. I was stressed for most of the program, but the professors were
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Davidson for Climate Justice continues push for divestment in Davidson's stock portfolio 5 YOWL Forbes releases list praising Davidson's shoe choices 6 No student brave enough to point out mouse in the middle of movie screen 6 SPORTS Women's soccer off to a strong start with young squad 7 Football hopes high again at the start of the fall semester 7
Renowned filmmaker Tom Gilroy focuses his lens on Davidson ANDREW KENNESON Staff Writer
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om Gilroy stands at the board and draws what looks like an upside-down check mark. There’s a long slope running up from left to right that ends with a smaller line running down in the opposite direction. “This,” he says, “is what every story looks like.” A problem is presented, tensions rise, we escalate to an inevitable climax, the situation is resolved, and there is a conclusion. Every story, with exactly zero exceptions, follows this pattern. At some level, we all know this. Somewhere in our elementary or middle school education, we were taught that this is what a story looks like. But Tom thinks it goes deeper than that. He turns to the class and says, “Okay now we’re all adults here. What does this look like? Why are humans drawn to this type of pattern?” It doesn’t take long for someone to say the correct answer. It looks like sex. It’s an unconventional explanation, but Tom, who’s come to Davidson to teach screenwriting and filmmaking this fall, is an unconventional professor. He insists on being called Tom. He wears V-neck tshirts and jeans to class. Gold bracelets cling to
his wrists. He signs off some of his emails with the words “Heaven is Now.” He teaches with the energy of a nine-year old who just drank three cans of Mountain Dew. He dashes across the front of the classroom, scrawling diagrams and pictures, dishing out breathless explanations and anecdotes of how to make a story work. It’s no wonder he says he’s exhausted after each of his three hour classes end. He’s different than most professors, but that might be because he isn’t really a professor. Although he taught part-time at Columbia University for five years, Tom is a filmmaker who admits to having little interest in becoming an academic. He says, however, that when you work in the arts, “the shadow of academia is always around somewhere.” Right now he’s in between films, and he has accepted the McGee Professorship of Writing this fall, becoming a member of the English Department. The former McGee professor, filmmaker Ali Selim, recommended Tom as his replacement. Tom knew very little about Davidson, but he accepted the position anyway. Tom has been writing, directing, and acting in films since he was twenty-two, but he comes from a family of businesspeople. His father wanted him to be an accountant, but Tom wanted to
Tom Gilroy excites Davidson students with a fresh, unorthodox take. Photo provided by Tom
See GILROY on page 2