davidsonian.com
Peter Beck ‘25 interviews NC Deputy Attorney General Sarah BoyceIndependent Student Journalism Since 1914
September 20, 2023
Volume I22,
Issue 01
Sports uncovers the reasoning behind Davidson’s new logo change
Toshaani Goel ‘24 gives a peek into the history and mechanics of ArtMate
The Yowl finds out 9 out of 10 Davidson students have their ex’s DNA in their system
2 4 6 8
Flaherty pointed out the shortcomings in the college’s approach from an equity lens.
When Davidson students arrived for the fall semester, they dove into the typical college activities; however, a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases accompanied their return to campus. The Core COVID Response Team, a group of administrators and a health professional that manages Davidson’s approach to COVID, reported that 60 students were in COVID isolation on September 7, 2023. That number may have increased since the time of publication. Furthermore, the team acknowledged that this number may be an undercount due to mild symptoms and unreported cases.
Davidson’s COVID outbreak echoes a national trend. According to ABC News, COVID cases and hospitalizations have been rising over the past few weeks. This pattern mirrors past data on illnesses — most diseases surge during the fall and winter.
While COVID still poses health risks, such as pneumonia and a loss of taste and smell, Davidson has altered its approach to the disease. The college discontinued pandemicera social restrictions, namely physical distancing, masking indoors and outdoors, and limiting guest policies. Similarly, faculty can no longer require students to wear masks in class.
Dr. Molly Flaherty, a psychology professor, expressed concern about this policy change. “I do think professors (and staff and students) should be able to require masking,” Flaherty said. “High-risk faculty, students, and staff exist at Davidson and have a right to a safer environment.”
Dr. Annie Merrill, an environmental studies and English professor, reflected that she has “definitely” noticed frustration from faculty about shift in policy.
Merrill explained that “faculty are permitted to request that students wear masks” and that she knows of “at least one
[anonymous] professor who has done so.” Flaherty commented that her students have been overwhelmingly willing to mask upon her request.
“A number of students have shared with me that they really appreciate my encouraging masking in class, they really do want to mask to protect themselves and others, but also find the social pressure not to mask (which is high on and off campus) to be too much to fight against,” Flaherty said.
Byron McCrae, the Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students, is a member of the Core COVID Response Team and spoke to the college’s changing mindset.
“Our guidelines and decisions throughout
the pandemic have been based on how we fulfill our mission within the context we are operating. Much of that context has changed since the pandemic began, including the development of vaccines and antivirals,” McCrae said.
Merrill offered more insight into the college’s changing mask policy.
“President Hicks and the COVID response team framed the decision as, in part, an equity issue: in the past, only [professors] have been able to require masks – but staff could not, nor could students,” Merrill said. “Another reason that was given for not requiring masks is to enhance the learning experience and community experience as much as possible.”
“I don’t think prohibiting faculty from being able to require masks helps with equity,” Flaherty said. “Equity would be supporting everyone (faculty yes, but also students and staff) to protect themselves and providing what they need to be able to do so.”
Dr. Robert Lutz, the college’s primary care sports physician and another member of the Core COVID Response Team, emphasized that the college continues to take precautions even after lifting most restrictions.
“Our buildings are equipped with the highest level air filtration possible. Hand sanitizer and masks remain easily available. Our medical staff is able to prescribe antivirals to students, if needed, and we provide information on the availability of vaccines as close as a block from campus,” Lutz said.
According to Student Health & Well-Being (SHWB), students who test positive must isolate for five days from their positive test date or symptom onset. Quarantined students with a meal plan can arrange to have meals picked up by a friend or roommate at Vail Commons. Similarly, SHWB explains that “medications and other necessities will need to be picked up by a friend or your roommate and delivered to your door.”
Students with COVID found SHWB support services lacking. Ella West ‘26 considered her quarantine experience “incredibly rough” and struggled to access the resources she needed.
“The day I went into quarantine was the day I was supposed to go to Harris Teeter and restock all my food, so I did not have any food in my room. And then when I wanted to eat I had to rely on friends or my roommate,” West said. She explained that her friends “were super accommodating,” but “it felt like such a large ask to ask other people who [...] have their own life and things to do.”
Quinn Benson ‘26 also had COVID and
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The Town of Davidson has begun issuing $30 tickets for jaywalking. On August 31, 2023, the Town of Davidson posted via their Instagram (@townofdavidson) and their website (www.townofdavidson.org) that the town will begin “issuing $30.00 civil citations for improper road crossings at the officer’s discretion and in accordance with Town Ordinance Sec. 70-46.” This new policy was implemented September 5, 2023 and currently has no date of cessation.
Those who do not use crosswalks to corss the street will be fined $30, so long as they are caught by the Davidson Police Department as the police are actively patrolling Main Street.
“Davidson really prides itself on being
a town that empowers its residents to bike and walk and get around town in multiple ways,” said Jesscia Eggiman, the town’s Communication Director. “We adopted a Vision Zero plan, which is a national program for safety making sure that we all work together and all take responsibility in the endgoal of reducing pedestrian deaths.”
There have been three pedestrain deaths within the past eight years in the Main Street area. Eggiman highlighted that the start of the academic year brings increased risk.
“There is no discretion for time of year, however the start-time of this was very intentional. Noting that there would be an increase in foot traffic, vehicular traffic, and a population increase with the beginning of the academic year, we started our 30-day warning period in early August. From August fourth to September fifth, educational materials,
verbal warnings, printing warnings with explanations of pedestrian safety zones and the town ordinance were handed out.”
Katherine Marshall ‘26 works at the Pickled Peach on Main Street. She intially found the citations uncalled for.
“The citations felt a little unnecessary to me because I have never actually seen anyone jaywalk,” Marshall said. “Maybe when people do it is not as noticeable, but even then it is not the kind of thing where—as a student who is on Main Street frequently—I have never seen someone almost get hit by a car or seen someone jaywalk in a way that seems dangerous. It felt a little random to me.”
However upon learning of the past deaths, Masrshall’s perspective broadened.
“It gives me the incentive to pay better attention and not jaywalk just because it becomes an idea of safety rather than revenue
for the town or the aesthetic—knowing that it really is for the safety of people and that this really is a true concern,” Marshall said.
Owen Williamson ‘24 wonders about the true influence of the fines.
“I think that the town is trying to prioritize safety of both drivers and pedestrians, and this one more way they are attempting to address the problem,” Williamson said. “It’s evident that they are trying to find a fix to this problem, but it will be interesting to see whether these fines will be effective.”
Eggiman emphasized that pedestrian safety remains the top priority.
“At the end of the day, the message from the town is that we want everybody to be safe, use the crosswalks—they are there for a reason,” Eggman said.
PETER BECK ‘25 (HE/HIM) STAFF WRITER
Sarah Boyce ‘07 is the Deputy Attorney General and General Counsel for the North Carolina Department of Justice. Previously, Boyce served as North Carolina’s Deputy Solicitor General and clerked for US Supreme Court Justices O’Connor and Breyer. She sat down with the Davidsonian to discuss her career and several cases involving NC before the Supreme Court.
PB: Can you walk me through your journey after Davidson?
SB: My first job after college was as a middle school teacher. That was probably my hardest job, but also the most fun. Teaching gave me a broader sense of the systemic problems contributing to the achievement gap in education. I went to law school with a starry-eyed idea that it might be the best way to fix those systemic problems. In 2009, I went to Duke Law School. From there, I clerked on the Federal Court of Appeals for a judge in Ohio. After that clerkship, I did a fellowship at the US Department of Justice in their Solicitor General’s Office, which is the office that represents the US before the US Supreme Court. After I finished the fellowship, I went into private practice before another clerkship at the US Supreme Court, where I clerked for Justices Breyer and O’Connor.
I did a brief stint in North Carolina, working for Clinton and other 2016 Democratic candidates. I went back into private practice for about three and a half years at Munger Tolles, practicing appellate law and trial work. Then I came to North Carolina as the Deputy Solicitor General and represented North Carolina in appeals in state or federal courts. At the start of 2023, I transitioned into my new role as the Deputy Attorney General and General Counsel for the North Carolina Department of Justice.
PB: And what does that job look like? I read in an overview that your position focuses on legal strategy and advice.
SB: Yeah, that’s a good description. I describe it as part offensive and part defensive. The offense is to work for my boss, the Attorney General, and ensure the Department pursues his policy and legal priorities. On the other side, I monitor litigation involving the Department of Justice and make sure the problems arising in that litigation are handled effectively. Also, as the Department of Justice, we counsel the state’s agencies. It’s a fun job because it allows me to touch a diverse range of matters with an eye toward what’s best for North Carolinians.
PB: North Carolina is home to several of the most impactful cases of this past
Supreme Court term, such as Moore v. Harper and the UNC affirmative action case. Could you explain Moore v. Harper and the recent developments in the case?
SB: Moore v. Harper arose out of recent redistricting in North Carolina. Every decade, legislatures redraw state legislative and federal congressional maps. The North Carolina legislature’s Republican majority gerrymandered those maps with an egregious Republican advantage. North Carolina is roughly 50-50 Democrats versus Republicans, and the maps caused an 11 to 3 breakdown, Republicans to Democrats. Plaintiff groups challenged the maps as unconstitutional gerrymanders. That litigation led to fights over the elections clause, a little-known provision in the US Consitution that says state legislatures decide election rules. That initiated the question of whether a legislature is strictly the General Assembly and if they have usual constitutional limits, like checks and balances. Our position in Moore v. Harper, as North Carolina’s executive branch, is that legislature is defined more broadly than just the General Assembly. But even if that was wrong, the General Assembly could be bound by ordinary substantive constitutional limits and subject to checks by state courts.
The case was argued in December, and
there’s been some chaos since. In North Carolina, we felt the argument went relatively well. But since then, the underlying state litigation went through several twists and turns when our North Carolina Supreme Court flipped from majority Democrats to majority Republicans, setting in motion for rehearing the underlying litigation and whether these maps were gerrymanders. This led to complicated jurisdictional questions with the US Supreme Court, which asked us for additional briefings on whether they had jurisdiction. There has been no action since, so we still expect an opinion in June.
PB: You talked about representing the state in your position, but in a state like North Carolina, where, as you note, it’s 50-50 with a Democratic governor and a Republican state legislature. Can you talk about representing the state but reconciling that with the interests of the executive branch?
SB: Your question actually implicates another case I was lucky to argue before the US Supreme Court. That case arose from litigation in North Carolina over our voter ID law passed under a constitutional amendment. A group of plaintiffs challenged that law, and the Attorney General announced he would defend it, despite personally disagreeing with
the law. Our legislature moved to intervene in the case and took the position that because Attorney General Stein disagreed with the law, he would not adequately represent the state in litigation. That led to the question of what should happen when one arm of the state is in a lawsuit and another arm of the state seeks to come in and represent the state.
So it was exactly the question you asked about who represents the state and how that plays out in states like North Carolina with divided government.
As the executive branch, we did not oppose intervention by the legislature but took two strong positions. First was that we represented the state of North Carolina and that insofar as the legislature was going to be involved in the case, they would represent the legislature, specifically and narrowly. Second, if they were permitted to intervene, the basis for their intervention could not be that we did an inadequate job. We went 500 with the Supreme Court agreeing on adequate representation but ruling both legislative and executive branches represent North Carolina.
PB: What’s one class you didn’t take in college but wished you had?
SB: History. It’s hard to understand why things are today without understanding history.
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was worried about quarantined students’ access to food.
“It was hard because I am on the lowest meal plan [and have limited swipes at Vail Commons],” Benson explained. “If I had not gone to the grocery store, I do not know what I would have done for food.”
Students have also expressed frustration about a lack of support for quarantined individuals’ roommates. The college does not provide accommodation for students with a COVIDpositive roommate, raising concerns about both parties’ health.
“I felt bad that my roommate was expected to sleep in the same room with me while she did not have COVID and I did,” West said. “I am not resting to get better and she can not rest to stay healthy if we are both wearing masks, so she actually ended up staying in a friend’s room.”
West and Benson found their professors to be accommodating throughout their quarantine. West commented that her professors have been “as understanding as they can be.” Likewise, Benson said that he “felt adequately supported by [his] professors and [...] [his] peers in classes, who got the notes for some teachers who did not do Zoom classes.”
COVID-19 Track in the US as of Sept. 18. 2023. Data and figures courtesy of The New York Times
Even with this support, it can be challenging to catch up after quarantine.
“I missed the entire second week of school. And then I had to add drop a class so I got a new class on top of that,” West said. “So now I am behind in all my classes and I have midterms next week.”
The scramble to recover often forces students to choose
between their well-being and their academics.
“I am feeling symptoms heavily [even after leaving quarantine]. And I feel like there is no support system in place because I feel exhausted constantly,” West said. “What do I do for myself — do I sleep and take care of my health? Or do I do my work so that I am not even further behind in my classes?
[...] it is an impossible balance.”
Staffing shortages have led to changes in on-campus dining this year, from the temporary removal of the Herbs and Spices station to the earlier closing time of Commons Market.
Pinky Varghese, head of Dining Services, expressed frustration at the difficulty of hiring Dining Services workers.
“We spoke to at least 25 restaurants before we even opened [Commons] because I was getting very nervous because we do not have enough staff to open the place,” Varghese said. “I was very nervous because these guys were not coming back and so we called everybody in Charlotte, everybody in my network, my other colleagues who work with me– their network, everything. Nobody has got people.”
The lack of staff meant the Herbs and Spices station, which served Indian cuisine, was unable to open at the start of the school year. The station provided another option to students with dietary restrictions, it included vegetarian and halal options. Varghese is in the process of securing a new vendor so the station can reopen.
“The bottom line is that yes, we are working on it. That is what people should know,” he stated.
The lack of employees has also impacted a campus favorite spot, Commons Market. Commons Market has a variety of snacks and microwavable dinners, often enjoyed by students who study late at night. Though the
market closed at 11 PM in previous years, it now closes at 9 PM. Varghese recognized this, and noted that Davis Cafe at the Student Union remains open until midnight wiht similar food options.
“The staffing was an issue. And we are serving the same product– same food is available at the [Union] cafe too and it’s open until 12. And before we only opened the hot food until 9:30. Now it is open till 10 PM and you have all the products available in the Commons Market in the cafe too,” Varghese explained. “This made it a little bit comfortable for the folks [employees] and made their life better rather than waiting until 11:00 PM when we have the two locations open and one is not getting any business at all and there are the same products that are available on both sides.”
Jack Srinivasan ‘26 is a student employee at Commons. He thought the hours cut could also have to do with worker’s wellbeing.
“It’s probably closing early because people want to go home and do not want to be working till 11. After every shift we have to stay an hour after Commons closes to help clean everything up. So students are probably just like I do not want to work until midnight on a weeknight.”
Sirnivasan also theorized that staffing shortages on the student side might be due to low wages.
“While it is a positive experience working there and I really like it, I do have to knock it for the pay, although that is largely a Davidson issue.”
The starting pay for on campus jobs ranges from $10.50-$12 an hour, and some students
opt to work off campus, like Maggie Woodard ‘26.
“Some of the off campus jobs locally pay more, and hours are more flexible,” said Woodward, who works at Kindred on Main Street. “Since I work at a restaurant, we make hourly wages and tips, and I know you don’t make tips on campus. I can split that up and help with student loans and save money for what I want to save for in the long run.”
These struggles to find employees reflect an overall trend in the country. Many restaurants nationwide are struggling to hire, according to the Washington Post.
Varghese is struggling to simply find candidates.
“I cannot do anything because we post a job for candidates, they apply for the job, but nobody shows up for the interview,” Varghese said.
MILLS JORDAN ‘25 (HE/HIM)
On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court radically reshaped college admissions with the release of its decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. vs. President and Fellows of Harvard College. For the first time in decades, colleges can no longer explicitly consider race as a factor in a student’s admission.
For many Americans, this decision represented a step backwards, yet another barrier to addressing the racial inequities that place obstacles in the educational path of many students of color. However, for others, the end of race-based affirmative action meant a more fair, supposedly objective approach to college admissions.
While these two visions for college admissions disagree over much, the priorities of both viewpoints should converge on questioning one particular characteristic of college applications: legacy status.
I myself am a legacy student. My dad graduated from Davidson in 1990. I vividly remember my first Davidson basketball game at just four years old. I even spent many childhood beach weeks with my dad’s best Davidson friends and their children, who feel like uncles and cousins to this day.
When I reached high school, my dad’s praise of the Honor Code and the liberal arts began to resonate with me. So naturally, when I applied to colleges, Davidson emerged as one of my most fitting choices. I already loved the culture, the people, and the campus. Sure enough, by late March
of 2021, I received my acceptance, and a few weeks later, I decided to become a Davidson Wildcat.
Stories like mine are commonplace across campus. In fact, some of my closest friends at Davidson are the children of my dad’s college friends. For families like
Well, according to a new study led by economist Raj Chetty, legacy students like me enjoy quite a large advantage. Chetty and his co-researchers found that Ivy-Plus colleges (Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, Duke, UChicago) are four times more likely to admit legacy students than non-legacy
country’s racial and socioeconomic diversity. At the same time, for those who argue in favor of race-neutral and solely merit-based admissions, this legacy advantage rewards applicants like me not for our achievements, but for the home we happened to be born into. What’s meritocratic about that?
mine, Parents’ Weekend doubles as a family reunion and an alumni reunion, due to the sheer number of generational Davidson families. All this to say, legacy ties remain thick here.
In one sense, this prevalence of legacy students speaks to the lifelong community, values, and memories that many have found at Davidson. Personally, the opportunity to pave my own path here, while growing closer to my dad through our shared love of this community, has been an experience I am grateful for each day. Yet, as our school seeks to develop a more fair and equitable admissions process, an obvious question emerges: how much of an advantage do legacy applicants receive at schools like Davidson?
Walking around Davidson for the first time, I was amazed by the beauty of the campus and the surrounding natural world. It’s no surprise Davidson was recently ranked the most beautiful college campus in the United States, according to College Rover. The attractiveness of nature serves as a reminder that we have a responsibility to protect the environment, and Davidson’s plan to lower carbon emissions 50% by 2026 in its Climate Action Plan is a laudable goal.
While action by individuals and organizations such as Davidson to combat climate change is noteworthy, it will have little impact compared to the steps countries must take worldwide to lower emissions. The United States needs to do more to reduce domestic emissions while putting pressure on other countries to lower theirs. Yet, calls for more action on climate change come when the U.S. national debt is at unprecedented levels, which will induce negative economic consequences. A 20thcentury English economist might offer a bipartisan policy to slow climate change and reduce the national debt.
If you have taken an economics course, you are probably familiar with the terms “negative and positive externalities.” These terms refer to actions one party makes that make another party worse or better off, but the first party doesn’t bear the costs nor
receive any benefit. For example, playing loud music in my dorm room at 2 a.m. while studying might benefit me, but it imposes costs, or a negative externality, on others trying to sleep. Or, by obtaining an education at a fine institution like Davidson, I might impose positive externalities on others by becoming a better citizen.
Arthur Cecil Pigou, an English economist who taught at Cambridge University, developed a solution to address negative externalities. He believed governments could tax negative externalities to lower them to a socially optimal level. Pigou
students, even when both have the same academic credentials. Let me re-emphasize this. When considering applicants with the same GPA and test scores, the world’s most influential colleges will admit four legacy students for every one non-legacy student. This data only includes the IvyPlus colleges, so I cannot generalize these numbers to Davidson. Regardless, as our school thinks about our future decisions, these findings should ring fire alarms for people on both sides of the affirmative action debate!
For those most concerned with equitable admissions, the practice of privileging legacy students, who are disproportionately white and wealthy, directly counteracts the creation of a campus that reflects our
In light of this, NPR reported that Wesleyan University, another private liberal arts college, recently ended its legacy admissions policy in direct response to the Supreme Court’s decision. Explaining the decision, Wesleyan President Michael Roth commented, “it became clear to me that any advantage you give to incumbents, to people who already have advantages, is a glaring sign of unfairness.”
At Davidson, we enjoy an abundance of resources, including our world-class professors, generous grants, and especially our fellow students. Recognizing what we have to offer, we need to reflect on how to ensure that qualified applicants of all racial and socioeconomic backgrounds receive their fair shot at admission. Unfortunately, legacy admissions stand in direct opposition to that goal. As a community, we must seriously consider following in Wesleyan’s footsteps and ending preferential treatment for legacy applicants.
positive benefits for us and our employer by transporting ourselves to work. However, the vehicle produces carbon emissions, which will cause the planet to warm over time, thereby imposing costs on others by increasing global warming, severe weather, and other consequences associated with a warming world. We should also be concerned about the costs of a rising national debt, which is at a level not seen since World War II. U.S. federal debt is currently $32 trillion or 120% of GDP. A large national debt means we will have to increase taxes in the future,
Excessive borrowing by the federal government also leaves less room to spend when we enter a recession or a public emergency such as the COVID-19 pandemic. With the Federal Reserve raising interest rates to combat inflation, servicing the national debt has become more costly to taxpayers. By placing a gradually increasing tax on carbon emissions, the U.S. government could bring in additional revenue to lower deficits while incentivizing consumers and businesses to use more environmentally friendly options. A carbon tax would appeal to Republicans and Democrats. The national debt will be reduced through increased revenue without raising more harmful taxes like income and corporate taxes while the environment gets cleaner. If concerns about progressivity arise, a carbon tax could be used to offset lower taxes for poor and middle-class families or fund an increase in transfers to low-income households.
argued that increasing the costs of imposing externalities would incentivize people to change their behavior in a way that reduces the externality. Carbon emissions are an example of a negative externality. For instance, when we drive to work, our car has
which will slow economic growth. When governments compete with private actors for a limited amount of savings, deficits could crowd out private savings, resulting in less private investment in capital that helps drive improved living standards.
“Recognizing what we have to offer, we need to reflect on how to ensure that qualified applicants of all racial and socioeconomic backgrounds receive their fair shot at admission.”GABRIEL RUSS-NAMACHIE ‘27 (HE/HIM)
“By placing a gradually increasing tax on carbon emissions, the U.S. government could bring in additional revenue to lower deficits while incentivizing consumers and businesses to use more environmentally friendly options.”Mills Jordan ‘25 is the new perspectives editor for the Fall 2023 semester. If you want to write a perspectives piece or have any questions, please reach out to him via email: mijordan@davidson.edu
In the move to redefine its identity, Davidson College recently unveiled a new logo that encapsulates its vision for the future. As Davidson continues to rank amongst its peers as a highly selective liberal arts college, there has been a recent shift in the school’s goals to become more recognizable. The key part of Davidson’s plan was to condense the seven previous logos and consolidate them into a stronger representation of the school, this time with two logos. Gone are the bar-and-diamond and the red and white wildcat that represented Davidson for four decades. Replacing them are the intertwined letters “DC” and an entirely new snarling gray wildcat. The team in charge of the new initiative started on the project in late fall of 2022. The five month project included a marketing firm that Davidson hired, as well as a focus group from members of Davidson’s administration. President Hicks, Director of Athletics Chris Clunie, VP Chris Gruber and members from Davidson’s college relations, board of trustee members and students were also part of the team.
Mark Johnson, the Chief of Marketing and Communications at Davidson College and a leader of the initiative, expressed the importance of the logo change, stating, “If we are better known, it helps us recruit amazing students who are going to lead lives of leadership and service.” These words underscore the crucial role the new logo plays in shaping the institution’s perception, both within athletics and beyond its 665 acres. Mark Johnson outlined that being better known happens by being “strategic and thoughtful about where are we going to go? And how are we going to reach folks? And what will be the message within that, and your starting point for any of that is how you are identifying yourself? And that’s back to being consistent, truly reflecting who we are, and it being across the institution.”
Mark Johnson continued: “We are a discovered brand. So what that means is, once folks get to know us, it looks right. I mean, we have some of the highest alumni engagement in the country. And by engagement, I mean, not just money, but involvement with the college [...] people that once they come and they take their tour, they fall in love [...] If you’re thinking about high quality liberal arts college, or high quality, higher education, you kind of want to be in the mix, you want to be among those that are thought of.”
The DC is representative of Davidson’s identity as a college and not a university, reducing confusion and building brand recognition. Mark Johnson stated clearly that the school “want(s) to be better known as a college.” And the way
Davidson views themselves is as a brand, as well as a school. Mark Johnson explained what it means to be a “brand” by drawing upon an analogy: “If you think about it, if there are like six different pictures of you that you use for identification, people are gonna have trouble remembering who is who.”
Johnson’s remarks illustrate how President Hicks, along with the administration, wanted a new logo to embody a clearer, more memorable representation. The new logo is not just a graphic change, it is a symbol of Davidson’s commitment to excellence. It also has historical ties to the college that the bar and diamond does not. Johnson says, “the interconnected DC goes back in our history, it’s on [chambers], it’s on the union, it’s on basketball shorts from the 1960s.”
As is the case with any change, no matter how big or small, the new logos were received with mixed reactions among the student body and alumni, with many detractors wondering if the rebrand was truly necessary.
One student, Riana Doctor ‘26 said, “I did not really feel there needed to be change but it doesn’t bother me to really care that much about it.”
While another student, Morgan Davis ‘26 felt a little bit let down over the new ‘Cat. “I think, they have a good reason to change the logo” said Davis, “but at the same time, our old logo [...] is what I’ve been so used to [...] the change is just, I don’t really like the new logo. It’s just we had a sick Wildcat. And now we don’t.”
Alum Ethan George ‘23 shared a similar sentiment, stating that “a logo becomes more powerful with time, you know, because you start to associate that logo with the school, that identity becomes linked [and that] it’s gonna be a while before I think people accept it.”
and enhance our brand nationally and even internationally was the big impetus to push for a brand identity refresh,” explained Director of Athletics Chris Clunie ’06, who was part of the group leading the charge.
Printing the logos on brand new merchandise and displaying them digitally around campus is one matter. Updating them throughout the immense number of physical spaces currently marked by the old logo, though, is a considerably more difficult process. While Belk Arena and other athletic facilities are certainly toward the top of the priority list, the phase-out will include every corner of Davidson. “This is not a, ‘snap your fingers and by graduation everything is flipped over.’ You have got to prioritize, and that’s what we’ll do in athletics. We’ll prioritize certain spaces, venues, areas, parts of the facilities that we have, and work with the College to swap those in and out on a transition-type basis,” said Clunie.
Timing-wise, he noted, “We get lucky with the new stadium, field house, and field, because that’s brand new and we can just put the logo on there” without having to remove the previous one.
Bridging the gap between academics and athletics was a factor, according to Clunie: “We had the bar and diamond, we had the scratched “D” and we had the wildcat, and they were separate entities, right? This simplifies it; it brings everything back together.”
Reincorporating the “College” aspect of Davidson College into the visual identity was another of the mission’s primary goals. Why? “I’ll give you an example. I’m doing an ad panel in Charlotte, and they sent me a draft of the promo flier and it said, ‘Chris Clunie, Athletic Director, Davidson University.’ Like, come on, right?”
This misconception of Davidson being a university is a common one, in large part due to the unlikely combination of a small liberal arts institution with Division I sports. The remodeled wildcat was always a part of the plan. While it’s caught flak from students and community members, Clunie called it a “carbon copy” of the statue outside of the Baker Athletic Complex. The new visual identity effort was spearheaded by the institutional side of Davidson, but “you’re not going to redo the logo and just keep the same mascot.” Davidson’s leaders deemed it time for a rebrand across the board.
Although it has been depicted outside the main entrance of Chambers and near the top of the Alvarez Union, the “College” in Davidson College will be represented in the school’s primary logo for the first time since the 1970s. To those who oversaw the process of developing the logo along with Mark Johnson and President Hicks, it made perfect sense.
“If you think about where we are as an institution, with a president in his second term, feeling the need to really expand
While the new logos will not appear all over campus overnight, Clunie expects the process to be complete “within the next couple years, for sure. The digital stuff is easy, as far as the scoreboard for basketball and for volleyball [in Belk Arena]. Then you’ll start to see more gear in circulation, etc., and the brick and mortar stuff will start to phase out.” Johnson agrees, stating that the college is prioritizing updating the most visible logos on campus, but “it’ll take a little time.”
“Feeling the need to really expand and enhance our brand nationally and even internationally was the big impetus to push for a brand identity refresh.”
Althetic Director, Chris Clunie ‘06
There is a singular street that divides the Katherine and Tom Belk Visual Arts Centre, fondly called the VAC, from the mainland campus. Yet, year after year I come across numerable peers who look at me quizzically as I start to talk about the VAC, the classes, or the exhibits at the galleries, unaware of its existence.
ArtMate, an art loaning program is the perfect way to center the VAC as a place of constant creative collaboration for all the students who discover it every year. ArtMate gives students the opportunity to select an artwork out of over a hundred pieces handpicked by the gallery staff and interns and have it installed in their room for the year. The program is running in Chidsey, Duke, Tomlinson, Davis, Flowe, Hart, Jamieson, and Daley this year, (we promise you the gallery does not hate the rest, it has to do with the building and wall structures).
The art collection is immense, and the process of creating the ArtMate collection required gallery staff and interns to comb through over 4,000 pieces. Despite this magnitude, ArtMAte’s its history is much more recent than one would have imagined. The visual arts themselves, as we know them today, are quite new to the college. The
permanent art collection consists of sculptures, paintings, prints, and photographs that are now an integral component of the daily fabric of campus life, and knowing its legacy only enhances its magnificence.
As the book Davidson Collects: 100 Writers Respond to Art puts it, “It was a quintessentially Davidson beginning. There was no popular referendum, no executive decree, and no wealthy benefactor to envision the future of the visual arts at the College. There was a student.”
In 1938, a first-year student, Gordon Horton, organized and opened the first annual student exhibition. The exhibition comprising 10 students the first year grew to 37 students and over 1,000 visitors by 1941.
The collection’s modest start became a vision for the arts on campus and has been evolving ever since. The first-ever art course was offered in 1948, by the then recently hired Joseph Hutchinson as a temporary professor. Fast forward to the first full-time art professor, Doug Houchens, who was hired 5 years later. This is the beginning of the permeant collection. Houchens would scrimp and save from the art budget and take about $200 to art auctions. Ten years after his initial funding request, he was finally awarded a $200 annual budget for art acquisitions. After all the savings, in 1963, with this total of $500 in his pocket, he made his way to the auction
houses in New York City, where he decided to purchase Lovis Corinth’s 1917 graphite drawing Portrait of Admiral Von Tirpitz.
The collection would flourish under the next Professor Herb Jackson, by the end of whose tenure the gallery was on its way to an impressive selection. Some of the greatest benefactors of the collection were Matin Ackerman Foundation, who donated works by Larry Rives, Beverly Pepper, Dieter Roth, Berenice Abbott, and Josef Albers; and the Lakeside Studio in Michigan, contributing more than 250 works between 1970 and 1980.
The collection now encompasses over 4,000 works of art spanning over 5 centuries.
Over the 80 years, the gallery’s collection has made its way from the limits of Eumenean hall and the Cunningham to the entirety of the campus for exhibitions and the coat closet in Chambers to the depths of the VAC for storage and now it goes to find temporary homes in different student rooms.
Artmate has now become an annual process of selecting artworks, comparative research, collaborations with RLO, writing the loan agreement, creating the repository of works, framing and more. Signups for ArtMate closed on Tuesday, September 19, but the gallery is hosting an ArtMate selection party on Wednesday, September 20 from 6 pm onwards at the VAC. Even if you’re not selecting an artwork, come over for some art
gazing and Carrburritos. In the meantime, to all these 100 lucky participants, take a look a little closer into your work, it has probably come a long way to see you.
Toshaani/2024 (she/her) is majoring in Global Literary Theory, can be reached for comment at togoel@davidson.edu
many times it has been said. Oh, and do not forget that Google turns pink now by searching for ‘B–’ … I cannot even type it anymore.
Looking for pink? You won’t find it here! On July 21, Barbie entered theaters bringing the nation’s supply of pink sets, clothing, and paint with it. Aside from debuting as the first live action Barbie film the world’s ever seen, this movie made the news for executing one of the most extravagant, successful, and expensive marketing campaigns of all time.
But this film begs the question, why wait till now, 2023, to make a movie that stars such an iconic doll? Especially since, according to NPR, “just five years ago, Barbie was a brand in crisis. Sales were in a freefall: between 2011 and 2015, Barbie sales dropped by a third.”
The short answer is that Greta Gerwig is the only director who was brave enough to address Barbie’s baggage. No, not the Barbie Pink Luggage Set launched by Béis Travel, but rather the issues Barbie has given to young women.
Since December 2022, when the teaser dropped, the movie has generated global buzz. However, with its vague clips of the film, plastic sets, and slapstick humor, the plot of the movie remained shrouded in mystery. What was not, however, was the popularity of the Mattel doll. Gerwig’s film recognized that the Barbie doll symbolized a woman’s power to be more than a mother. Prior to Barbie, the primary toys for little girls were baby dolls– fuelling the idea that a woman’s raison d’etre is motherhood. Barbie changed everything. Women could be lawyers, pilots, musicians, and most importantly, they could look good while doing it.
Now, the latter part of the statement is what led to the downfall of Barbie in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Barbie represented a only certain type of woman: white, tall, slender, and conventionally beautiful. She normalized unrealistic beauty standards with her comically large eyes, perfect nose, and narrow waist. This outraged a range of audiences who fought for greater diversity in the toy industry, and people boycotted Barbie. Why can’t Barbie look like all of us, can we not all be Barbie?
In the late 2000s, Mattel complied and began a line of Barbies of color, Barbies with disabilities, body positive Barbies. But that did not solve the problems in Barbie Land or the real world, and that’s what Gerwig’s film seeks to address.
The plot of the film is both clever and unique, but the marketing is what really stole the show. Before the film hit theaters, Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) decided to leave nothing to chance.
Barbie Xbox, Barbie cruises, Barbie Crocs, Barbie Burger King, and a real Malibu Barbie Dreamhouse on AirBnb? Why is Barbie in the Progressive Insurance ad? Barbie rugs, Barbie soaps, Barbie hair products! WBD has turned the world into a place where the word “Barbie” sounds strange because of how
Not to forget that casting stars like Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling is a sure fire recipe for success.
Then Robbie and Gosling did their world tour, wearing only the most glamorous fits that paid homage to original Barbie doll looks! They even had Gosling do an interview while holding and looking after puppies, I mean come on. If this movie fails now, Gerwig messed up big time.
Temple University wrote that the campaign has “covered every angle. They are reaching consumers at every point in their journey: building awareness, buying the product, following up afterwards.” And of course, the brand lends itself so easily to numerous companies. Use pink and slap the name ‘Barbie’ on, and you have yourself a branded partnership. Barbie’s mission is to evoke happiness, and seeing the world slathered in glitter and pink does bring a smile to even the grumpiest of faces.
Unless you have been clicking away at a plastic phone in Barbie World, it is nearly impossible to miss the strike that has halted and changed Hollywood as we know it (Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA)). As these companies have adopted streaming platforms, writers are struggling to get their residuals.
This strike, which began on May 2, has stalled hundreds of projects that were in production or looking to be picked up. This has increased the pressure on the big five, Universal, Disney, Paramount, WBD, and Sony to find other ways to make ends meet.
With all those revenue generators gone, these companies have two hopes: consumer products and movies that are ready for release. The latter tends to contribute to David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Brothers’, $498 million salary a little more though.
The marketing behind Barbie’s film was expensive, but the opening weekend was a blockbuster making $165 million..
This is sure to sustain WBD for some time.
Giving Barbie a run for its money, Christopher Nolan’s new film, Oppenheimer, exploded in theaters this past weekend as well. Nolan’s films are legendary and once brought Warner Brother’s their highest grossing film of all time– The Dark Knight.
The movies also came to the big screen together, adopting the fan-generated name, Barbenheimer. Although lagging behind Barbie’s first weekend box office sales, Oppenheimer still performed remarkably well, generating $80.5 million.
Universal announced their project, Oppenheimer, in September of 2021, and the film’s early excitement was sparked by Christopher Nolan’s scandalous departure from WBD– yet another victim of streaming. Soon after, the studio began namedropping for the potential cast, keeping fans on their toes.
Next was the poster drop. Oppenheimer stands centered, looking at his audience with the Kubrick stare, the atomic bomb behind him; flames, sparks, and well, radiation poisoning, cloud the rest of the screen. A simple, but very captivating poster. Then came a few more posters, angling Oppenheimer around the bomb, engaging the audience with the Manhattan project.
Using a similar strategy to their posters, the marketing team dropped cryptic teasers that gave away bits and pieces of the story, and finally, there was the press tour. Nothing sells a movie like Matt Damon.
The real marketing genius, however, was releasing the movie on the same day as Barbie. While some thought the competition was going to leave one movie victorious, Oppenheimer is getting ticket sales just because it’s the antithesis of Barbie! People want Barbenheimer! They enter the movie theater dawned in pink glasses and boots, and leave in grungier outfits with darker shades… It has become a social media phenomenon.
In today’s media and entertainment world, it seems as though marketing is everything. When marketing a new story, of course, marketers can adopt some of Barbie’s strategies: emphasize female independence, build a comprehensive merchandising strategy, leverage cross-platform promotion. But of course, none of this would be necessary if the story could stand alone.
It’s hard for the story to stand on its own however, if it’s simply a recreation of what has already been done, and sadly, this is the category that makes up much of Hollywood’s future lineup. The world may be short on pink, but it also seems to be short on creativity. Barbenheimer is hopefully the last of these safe movies because we want something new! And to do so, you might need to pay your writers…
TOSHAAANI GOEL’24 (SHE/HERS) Portrait of Admiral Von Tirpitz by Lovis Corinth. Photo credit: Davidson Collects Margot Robbie as Barbie and Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer. Photo credit: NBC News ANONYMOUS This story wasAcross
1 1/6 oz.
4 Former Israeli prime minister Ehud
9 Basic point
13 Friends of Tarzan
15 Dig deeply
16 Dr. Seuss’s “Horton Hears ___”
17 Oppressively impoverished, a la Charles
19 English conservative
20 Adhere closely
21 Cynically defiant, a la George Gordon
23 “___ and Soul”
24 Fictional character Heep
26 ___ lab
27 Depose, as a dictator
28 Guinness or McCowen
29 Abu Dhabi leader (var.)
31 Docs who don’t specialize
32 Apple product
33 Despots
34 Like 17-, 21-, 49-, and 53-Across
36 Beery and Wyle
38 Moo ____ (cattle, to tots)
39 Furniture item to sleep on
42 “___ it” (“Start working”)
43 English professor ___ Michael Parker
44 Stays behind
45 Had breakfast
46 Group of nine
48 22-card deck
49 Hellishly bizarre, a la Alighieri
51 Spanish kisses
52 “Duchess of ___” (Goya work)
53 Nightmarishly illogical, a la Franz
57 Drive onward
58 Burstyn of acting
59 “Yours, Mine, and ___”
60 Another, in Aragon
61 “Bye Bye Bye” band
62 Creepy crawler
Crosswords by Victor Fleming ‘73
Down
1 Only a ___ behind
2 Enliven
3 Non-credit “course” required for graduation
4 Door-slamming sound
5 “Classified” listings
6 “Vive le ___ !”
7 Ali Baba’s language
8 “Out of Africa” setting
9 A perro might chase one
10 “Hmmm...”
11 Hallowed places
12 Item in a make-believe drag race
14 Blouse accompanier
18 Strep diagnoser, for short
22 Lab monkey type
23 Greedy sort
24 ___ Bator
25 Environmental buzzword
28 Famous ___ (cookie brand)
30 More, to Manuel
32 Apple product
33 Atlas dot
34 Gobble up
35 A drawbridge might go over it
36 Few
HTo all our queers, congrats on being here! We’re back with your biweekly dose of gayness. (I will be using the royal we in Anaya’s absence.) It’s tough out here, so the Queer Corner tries to find and share the love—or at least keeps a positive outlook on the bad stuff. This summer was a crapshoot, to say the least, in a lot of ways. But remember!, bad news is good for business; and since we don’t get paid for this, here’s some good news.
Over the past couple months, Asia has seen some encouraging steps taken toward tolerance. Trans Indian student Mugil Anbu Vasantha fought and won for their admission to university after suing the school for violating the Indian reservation system (similar to our affirmative action). A Hong Kong court ruled to recognize same-sex couples married abroad, and other high-level courts in the region have urged broadening pathways to legal legitimacy for same-sex couples. While not yet fully recognizing gay
marriage, Hong Kong is a place to watch in the coming months for progress against institutional homophobia.
In the UK, activists have not eased pressure on Parliament, demanding that it make good on its promise to ban conversion therapy. The prime minister and leader of the House of Commons—both Conservatives—have been evasive regarding the issue, and gay Britons are not having it. Go them!
Here in the US, it’s easy to feel crushed by the relentless anti-gayness coming from many state capitols. But even in Texas and Florida, activists are just as relentless; and judges have won ‘small’ (big!) victories by blocking some bans on gender affirming care and drag shows. There is, of course, a ton of legal tug-of-warring on these issues, but take heart even in that fact—the fight goes on!
If any of you still reading have anything you want to make an appearance in the Queer Corner, email dasowinski@davidson.edu.
Hello Davidsonites!, and welcome to the Fall ‘23 season of the Davidsonian food review corner. I’m starting this year with a restaurant that I ignored for too long. Walking by Masala Mastee on my way to the usual establishments: the farmers market, the barber, mandolinos… I don’t really know why it took me so long. But alas, we’ve arrived: a bowl of vibrant orange-red butter chicken, a steaming mound of jasmine rice, a small cup of dal (lentil) soup, and of course: a mango lassi. Let’s go dish by dish. To start, my mango lassi was perfectly sweet and silky but sadly not chilled to perfection. The beverage was served in a flimsy disposable stemless wine class and had about 3 ice cubes in it. Simple mistakes that dampened a classic “dinner out” beverage for me. The dal soup was flavorful and aromatic with strong notes of turmeric and cumin, but sadly lacking in texture. A certain degree of separation
and dissolution is expected with any lentil-based soup but this was a little out of hand. The mouthfeel of each spoonful was flat-out enjoyable. Onto the better half of the meal. My butter chicken (a timeless classic) was terrific. The chicken (which is often lacking in this dish) was wonderfully tender and presented in perfectly proportioned chunks covered in that robust, buttery, sauce. Each spoonful combined with a small pile of the subtly sweet, pillow-soft long friend jasmine rice constituted a total mood shift. Now onto the non-food aspects. The restaurant was only about half full at 7 p.m. on a Saturday, which I thought was odd. The setting and decor could use some work. The lone tuk-tuk cut out in the corner combined with the flashing rainbow-LED string lights left something to be desired on the porch. The service was decent, attentive, and energetic. Overall: it’s a good place, and more importantly- I think it’s kind of needed, especially now that Dining Ser-
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In an effort to re-emphasize the interconnectivity between the college and the townsfolk, President Doug Hicks has amended the historic cake race. What began as a way for a track coach to discover hidden running talent amongst the scrawniest, nerdiest freshman class ever soon led to an unfair cake production empire where townies would be forced to slave away to create the most magnificent cakes for runners who could be easily outpaced by a current day athlete on a low-battery scooter or perhaps a member of the middle school biker gang with a broken foot. For decades, the townsfolk have been slaving away at making cakes, only to not have any cake in return. But for this year, instead of the normal 1.7 mile lap around, all members of the freshmen class will line-up face down, ass up outside of Baker.
“The people of Davidson have done so much for
the students here, much of it unreciprocated,” Hicks announced before the race. “It’s time to see the students give their fair share [of ass].”
Several townsfolk have weighed in for their support on the new change. Debby Watkins, a lonely housewife and mother of 11 (4 of which who applied and were rejected from Davidson), whose cakes have always been picked last every year had this to say: “After the race, usually all I get is some sweaty teenage boy struggling to make small talk with me. They always ask how’s the cake, but never ‘Did momma get any cake?’” Other townspeople nearby nodded their heads in agreement, but could not comment due to needing to sprint to their post-pilates brunch.
All in all, the redefining of the cake race has proven a success for the renewed interconnectedness between Davidson and the town.
1. I think Joe burrow is going to be worse now that he’s engaged bc he doesn’t have to impress anyone.
2. Davidson football players are actually just like real NFL players: neither of them play for scholarships anymore.
3. If you think about it it doesn’t really make sense for the Lions and the Dolphins to compete. Those are wildly different environments how are they meant to be on the same playing field? What are the Dolphins doing on land?
4. I personally think that fantasy should only be played in the dynasty format with individual defensive players. I think your decision to use a redraft formula shields yourself from long term consequences for bad picks and removes any of the strategy of choosing players that take time to develop. To me your refusal to accept a different league structure is indicative of a failure to be able to truly commit long term to anything.
5. Why don’t the teams just agree to share the ball for a quarter each instead of fighting over it every time?
6. Deflategate.
Here at Davidson, we’re all connected. That’s why rebranding ourselves with a new logo that looks like someone made it on Microsoft Paint 2003 really symbolizes the unescapable connections among our Davidson community. Whether its the similarities in wrong homework answers between you and your classmate who copied each other, the Turner Eating House incest, the unspoken connection between you and your boyfriend’s three exes who are all in your cultural diversity requirement class, the closeness you feel to ChatGPT as it writes your philosophy essay, the similar life trajectory change all the ex pre med students experience, or the uncanny similarities between Davidson football game attendance and average class size, the logo truly encapsulates the interrelatedness of all of us.
The nightlife in Berlin is fine but it’s nothing compared to standing in a single mostly empty room in Ryburn with a semi warm beer
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“ The students have won,” said the Davidson Administration as they stared at the dirt line through the bright green grass that gets cut every 2 days in front of Wall.
Over the past years, students developed minds of their own and began taking the path of least resistance to reach Wall instead of staying on the brick path. Unfortunately, the students have been walking through the giant circle of grass inconveniently located right in front of E. Craig Wall Jr. Academic Center, tearing up the beautiful landscaping.
This past summer, Davidson decided to improve the dirt path that really had no issues by placing the most horrifically spaced stepping stones I’ve ever seen in my life over it. What was aimed to be an improvement has turned out to significantly hinder the movement of students on campus.
“I can’t decide if I should take a step on each stone or skip every other one,” Johnny Skinnylegs ‘27 told us.
“I look awkward either way.”
“I’ve broken my mom’s back at least 30 times by now. And it’s only the second week of school,” said Ava Notgoingtobepremedformuchlonger ‘26. Fortunately she’s not superstitious, only a little stitious.
Out of fear of looking awkward and having to focus too much on where they’re stepping so they can’t swipe left on your Tinder profile while they walk to class, students have started walking next to the stepping stones instead of on them. This has brought out a major concern among the landscaping team, as even more grass is being trampled by students. The col-
lege fears another dirt line might harm their ranking as “#1 Most Beautiful College Campus” by CollegeRover.
The new path has actually turned out to be a step backwards in Davidson’s movement toward a more accessible campus. Many students believe that the stepping stones may actually serve to decrease the number of students going across the grass, a sneaky move by the college to keep their students on those bricks. Stacy Treelover ‘25 informed us that she believes Davidson may have underlying motives for keeping students on these brick paths instead of letting them reconnect with nature.
“If we don’t let students think individually and make their own paths, literally, they will all become one of the herd, a collective group of mindless students,” she told us. Stacy believes that the college fears that students taking their own path instead of the walkways laid out for them is just the first step in a larger movement of students straying away from the Davidson mindset, which could ultimately lead to consciousness, and breaking out of the Davidson simulation.
But, using the logic of philosophy professor, Dr. Nietzsche Humes, if we were really in a simulation would have the problem of awkward step stones and terribly winding paths? Dr. Humes thinks not, proving Davidson might truly be the hell you think it is.
Note: The Yowl is a satirical supplement to The Davidsonian Hence, nothing in it should be taken as truth.