The Weekly Ringer

Speaking and Writing Center employee payment policy frustrates some student consultants

ZOE HANRAHAN Staff Writer

A Speaking and Writing Center policy that requires students to clock out while not doing work but stay on-site in the case of walk-in appointments has caused controversy among student employees this semester.

As outlined in the policy, student employees in the center need to be either in an appointment or working on a downtime project to be paid for the time that they are there. If they are working on a project, they also have to record the list of duties they performed during their shift. They are asked to clock out to work on homework or personal projects but remain on the premises in case there is a walk-in appointment.

This policy is outside the norm for most student employment opportunities on campus. In many other campus jobs, students are allowed to do homework, even when they’re being paid for their jobs. It’s unclear whether the policy violates federal regulations dealing with waiting

time because, on one hand, the students argue they are required to stay in the center even if they don’t have center-related work to do, but on the other, the director, Leah Schweitzer, argues that there is always work to do and students are making the decision do homework instead of center projects.

“People who have had an issue with having to clock out argue that if we’re obligated to be at the center, then we should be paid for the entire time we’re there, even if we aren’t actively working on something,” said an employee who wished to remain anonymous.

Schweitzer says that while some students might lie about the number of hours they’ve worked, she has found that most Speaking and Writing Center employees are committed to their work.

She said that consultants in the Speaking and Writing Center are treated the same as others in academic services on campus, which include peer tutors and peer academic consultants.

“All of academic services as a unit asks that if you are not going to work, you clock

out,” Schweitzer said. “If you come into work and you do not have appointments, and you say you do not want to do work on behalf of the center, but you want to do your own homework, or you want to work on your own personal project, you are not going to be paid to refuse to do work.”

would be happy to pay them for all their time at the center.

A meeting agenda distributed at the beginning of the semester, however, suggests that there might be times when the amount of appointments is light, and students might have to clock out. The document says that the first week and post-midterm are “quiet times” and to “be mindful of punches,” which are used to clock in, and that finals week is also not very busy, so “get out of the mindset that there will be lots of work available.”

When consultants are not in a meeting with other students, they have a Google Doc that lists projects they can do. The process of choosing projects from the Google Doc has frustrated some consultants.

Eli Keith, a lead consultant at the center, said that sometimes the document can be difficult to read.

She also said if no center-related work is available for students to complete, she

“We have several Google Documents that are dozens of pages long,” said Keith, an English: creative writing major in the secondary education program. “We have a center Google

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UMW Department of Police and Public Safety to relocate headquarters to Eagle Village

Over the next year, UMW’s Department of Police and Public Safety will be relocating to Eagle Village next to Patriot Subs in the building that houses the parking deck. The building will undergo construction before the move, and the university is currently considering whether to purchase or lease the building.

Unless the move is fast-tracked, UMW Police Chief Michael Hall said, the move will happen in about six months. “Contractors and permits need to be considered and the actual construction needed for the expansion is what will take the six months,” he said. “When the

students come back, unless something drastic has changed in plans and with it being April now, it’s very likely that the move will occur during the latter of the fall semester or beginning of spring.”

UMW has been actively pursuing a permanent space to relocate the police headquarters, as the department moved from Brent Hall to South Hall on Nov. 17, 2022. In an email from Vice President for Student Affairs Juliette Landphair and former Vice President of Administration and Finance Paul Messplay last November, they cited water damage in the basement as well as further issues with Brent Hall’s structural integrity as reasons for the move. It called the temporary relocation a “first step as the University considers options for a long-term solution.”

According to University President Troy Paino, renovating Brent Hall is not an option.

“We don’t have an adequate facility on campus right now for our police as Brent Hall is unavailable due to its current condition,” he said. “It was never really adequate enough for the police and it wouldn’t make sense to go in and try to renovate it for them as it was inadequate before.”

Paino also said that the department’s current location, South Hall, is not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“It’s an external-facing building and students, faculty and staff need to have access to that building regardless

SEE HEADQUARTERS PAGE 2

CHARLIE LI Staff Writer

“Our boss always framed it as if you have a really deadline-heavy week, you need to do some of your own stuff, you have the flexibility if there is nothing you are doing for the center to clock out and work on some of your homework to get whatever you need done, done.”

-Layla Barnes

Thursday, April 13, 2023

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Speaking and Writer Center consultants operate under COVID-era pay policy

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account, so everyone is on the Drive and making notes. Sometimes it’s hard to know whose notes are whose and what’s exactly been done, and that’s something we’re still fleshing out.”

Others have pointed out that they wished that the Google Doc’s task list was more specific. It is currently in an informal format. Some of the tasks on the list, such as vacuuming around the center, are difficult to accomplish when appointments are going on.

The Google Doc lists work such as creating handouts, making graphics for advertisements, working on social media and maintaining the center. While students say that this process has improved since Schweitzer created a list of handouts that need to be made, they wish there had been more options at the start of the semester.

Not everyone agreed that the Google Doc system is unwieldy, however.

“I quite frankly think that is a load of B.S.,” said Layla Barnes,

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another lead consultant and junior English: creative writing major in the secondary education program. “There are a million things to do, and there are a million people to ask.”

While it’s unclear how old the work policy at the center is, most students agree it was more strictly enforced when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Back then, student consultants were not working in the center, so they were expected only to work when they had appointments.

“From what I’ve heard, it started with COVID when people were literally working from their houses,” Barnes said. “It was something that, for a long time, we’ve kept around to offer people extra flexibility. Our boss always framed it as if you have a really deadline-heavy week, you need to do some of your own stuff, you have the flexibility if there is nothing you are doing for the center to clock out and work on some of your homework to get whatever you need done, done.”

A few student consultants have expressed concerns about

the legality of being asked to remain on-site for possible walkin appointments while they are clocked out and unpaid.

Concerns about this section of the Fair Labor Standards Act are often considered on a caseby-case basis, so the legality is hard to determine. However, according to J.H. Verkerke, professor of law and director of the program for employment and labor law studies at the University of Virginia School of Law, “an arrangement that requires workers to stay in an office area while on call almost certainly involves compensable time.”

Some students have left their positions at the center, student consultants acknowledged, but none said it was specifically because of this policy but rather an accumulation of factors. A few of the students in the center have started protesting by remaining clocked in even when, according to the policy, they should clock out.

In the meantime, Schweitzer is trying to get a pay raise for the consultants.

“Because the way the hike went and the way budgets

were, unfortunately, when it went $12 an hour, it was a pay increase for most of them, but it’s leaving them at minimum wage along with everyone else,” she said. “So, I’m trying to figure out how to work the budget for next year so that it starts a little higher than the minimum wage in recognition that it’s this more skilled, trained position, and they are asked to do more than some other positions on campus.”

UMW considers purchasing building in Eagle Village for police headquarters

FROM HEADQUARTERS PAGE 1

of their physical ability,” he said. The new location will be optimal, Paino said, because it will be adjacent to Eagle Landing, where 600 on-campus students live, and it will be right across from the main campus.

While Eagle Village is owned by the university, the parking garage complex and stores on the bottom floor are leased out on the market by the UMW Foundation, the private-asset manager for the university. The university is currently assessing the space, Hall said, and evaluating whether or not it would be more beneficial to buy the building instead of leasing the space in the long term. If the university were to purchase the location, the chances of it becoming the permanent police headquarters would become more concrete.

Carson Giocondo, a junior environmental science major, expressed his thoughts on the move.

“I know that some people might not like the police presence increasing on this side of Eagle Village but it’s much more comforting for me personally,” he said. “Longer nights at the HCC have become more common for me as papers and exams are coming near the end of the year. Knowing that there is going to be a higher sense of security around Eagle Landing is much more reassuring especially after the threatening messages on the bridge earlier last month.”

Photography Editor Abbey Magnet

UMW police cruiser sitting outside the new location at South Hall. Russell Carver / The Weekly Ringer

“We don’t have an adequate facility on campus right now for our police as Brent Hall is unavailable due to its current condition. It was never really adequate enough for the police and it wouldn’t make sense to go in and try to renovate it for them as it was inadequate before.”

-Troy Paino

The Speaking and Writing Center is located on the fourth floor of the Hurley Convergence Center. Nellie Bittenbender / The Weekly Ringer

Spring Formal ticket scarcity and high cost detract from true meaning of the event

Staff Writer

Spring Formal is supposed to be an inclusive event that brings the campus community together to celebrate the school year coming to an end. However, a low number of tickets and an increase in ticket prices have prevented that from happening this year.

Every year, Class Council plans the Spring Formal dance in secret with a mystery location. According to UMW’s webpage about campus traditions, it’s often referred to as “one of the grandest events of the year.”

However, the same cannot be said for this year’s formal, which is set to take place on April 15, having previously been postponed due to “venue contractual miscommunications,” according to a post on Class Council’s Instagram. To start, formal tickets have increased from $15 to $35 per person since last year when Spring Formal was located at University President Troy Paino’s house, Brompton.

Though this year’s location will not be revealed until the night of, in order to justify the price more than doubling, the venue should be significantly nicer than Brompton.

“If you have a large increase in prices, students are going to expect a larger venue and an event that they will actually be able to attend with their friends,” said freshman political science and philosophy: pre-law double major Tonia Attie.

This makes Spring Formal less of an all-inclusive celebration and more akin to an exclusive gala only accessible to those who can afford to spend $35 and wait in long lines to attend.

Class Council also limited the number of tickets they sold to 47 per day over a span of four days to reach a grand total of approximately 180 to 190 tickets, according to Class of 2023 SGA Senator Joe Johnson. The total number of tickets accounts for less than 5% of the student population at UMW. The scarcity of tickets led to students waiting in extremely long lines in the Cedric Rucker University Center to get their formal tickets, some even missing class to do so. There were students lining up almost two hours prior to sales, Johnson said.

“It isn’t right because it divides the student body between those who can afford it vs those who can’t afford it,” said sophomore psychology major Olivia Mallory.

Attie said, “To improve the formal process, UMW needs to ensure that we have a venue large enough to hold a larger amount of our student body. We are not a large campus, it should not be difficult to find an appropriate venue.”

Traditionally, Formal is meant to be an inclusive event between students, however, that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Mallory said, “I would prefer to have a smaller budget and more people be able to attend.”

If Spring Formal is meant to be a way to unite students and embrace the fun traditions campus has to offer, ticket scarcity and price have proven to be obstacles to that. This begs the question, why are tickets more expensive this year, and why are there so few available? With a secret location that is still unknown, as well as the question of whether dinner will be provided at the event or not, it’s hard to justify spending $35 on an unknown, mere promise of a good time.

Judging by students’ opinions on Spring Formal and the hike in ticket prices, there seems to be a disconnect between traditions that the school claims to hold important and the actual commitment to maintaining them as important for the entire student body.

“A very specific demographic of campus attends these events, which does not represent all of the demographics on campus,” said senior business administration major Molly Walsh.

Some students weren’t even aware that Spring Formal was happening. Class Council hardly posted on social media in anticipation of the event, and there were few flyers put up. “It was never properly advertised, similar to other campus events,” Walsh said.

There are several initiatives UMW could take to improve Spring Formal for years to come. Ensuring that a larger portion of the student body can attend by offering a greater number of tickets and making them more affordable would greatly improve the student experience of attending Spring Formal.

MARGARET JACKSON

Class Council posted an announcment encouraging students to show up early for tickets. @umwclasscouncil / Instagram

UMW students wait for Spring Formal sales to begin. Joe Johnson / The Weekly RInger

Class Council posted announcing the postponement of Spring Formal ticket sales. @umwclasscouncil / Instagram

“It isn’t right because it divides the student body between those who can afford it vs those who can’t afford it.”

-Olivia Mallory

“A very specific demographic of campus attends these events, which does not represent all of the demographics on campus.”

-Molly Walsh

“To improve the formal process, UMW needs to ensure that we have a venue large enough to hold a larger amount of our student body. We are not a large campus, it should not be difficult to find an appropriate venue.”

-Tonia Attie

UMW students wait in excessively long lines in the CRUC in anticipation for Spring Formal tickets. Joe Johnson / The Weekly Ringer

Book review: “Black Cake”

KATY ROSE PRICE Staff Writer

“Black Cake” by Charmaine Wilkerson is a complicated read that requires you to follow multiple threads and paths as the narrative travels between the 1960s and 2018. At the same time, Wilkerson employs strategic pacing with short, enticing chapters that make this novel a fast, vibrant read. The chapters shift between characters’ perspectives, giving readers a glimpse into the minds of each character as they cope with loss and a new reality. The novel is a multigenerational family saga that follows the lives of three generations of women. Published in 2022, this is Wilkerson’s debut novel, marking her place as one of the up-and-coming authors of the near future.

Somewhere on an unidentified Caribbean island in 1965, a bride throws herself into the ocean after the mysterious death of her new husband, a gangster who is significantly older than her, and is never seen again in her village. In the year 2018, estranged siblings Byron and Benny are forced to reconcile when they learn of their mother Eleanor’s death and the eight-hour audio recording she has left them. The siblings are also given a note that reads, “B and B, there’s a small black cake in the freezer for you. I want you to sit down and share the cake when the time is right. You’ll know when.”

The novel is a deft exploration of the complex and nuanced relationship between parent and child. Wilkerson explores how our relationship with our parents changes as we grow older as she also examines the impact of race, class, culture and trauma on the parent-child relationship. Eleanor reveals secrets, stories and parts of her life that she had never shared with her children, changing what they thought they knew about themselves, their lineage and their parents. Both stories ask whether it’s possible to truly know another person and contemplate the risk we take when we show others our true selves.

Byron and Benny had a sense of identity before Eleanor’s death. They were Southern Californian and the children of Caribbean immigrants who had lost their own parents. While they each had their own trials and obstacles, they were relatively well-situated and understood their places in society. However, upon hearing the story of their mother’s convoluted journey for the very first time, their prior-established identities begin to unravel and transform; their parents were not the people they thought they were, but it’s too late to ask questions. All Byron and Benny have now is each other… or so they think.

The thread that weaves through the novel is the black cake. Black cake is a dense, rum-soaked, fruit-packed dessert that is a Caribbean tradition, served at Christmas, Easter and weddings. As Byron notes, “it was essentially a plum pudding handed down to the Caribbeans by colonizers from a cold country.” In learning this traditional recipe, Eleanor was taught how to soak fruits for months beforehand, letting the flavors develop and deepen, then incorporated into the batter of the cake.

The cake is a timeless tradition Eleanor passed down to her children, for they would help her make one every year for her and her husband’s wedding anniversary, and they even buried her husband with a piece. After her death, the cake she’s left for her children serves as a symbol of their family’s history, even though it’s entirely different than what they thought it was.

As Byron and Benny reconcile what their mother’s revelations mean for their lives going forward, the black cake provides some comfort, reminding them of their mother’s love and affection for them. Just as it did for Byron and Benny, the cake provided Eleanor with solace as an uprooted, orphaned young woman, reminding her of her own mother and the special time they spent together years ago. Byron and Benny have the task of understanding their mother’s past, and the cake is pivotal in aiding the siblings with unearthing their family story, reassessing their own sense of self and bringing together family members.

“Black Cake” is a powerful exploration of the complexities of the parentchild relationship, for Wilkerson expertly reflects on how your identity can change in a split-second. Her novel shows how our relationships with our parents can shape our lives, identities and the lives of future generations, and how we can learn to navigate the challenges and joys of these relationships.

Album review: Unknown Mortal Orchestra

ELI KEITH Staff Writer

Unknown Mortal Orchestra released their fifth studio album, aptly titled “V,” on March 17. The New Zealand band amends for making fans wait five years between albums by making this one a double, featuring a full hour of flaring synths, electric guitars and Ruban Nielson’s characteristic, electronically fuzzy voice.

“V” is dominated by songs about connections to one’s surroundings, though it’s easy to miss messages in the lyrics for two reasons. The first reason is the listener’s attention, which is likely to be drawn to the guitar’s shreds or swimming pulses of the band’s instrumentals. The band clearly wants your attention on the music; their last album was entirely instrumental, and they are, after all, an orchestra. The second reason is the band’s resistance to cliché metaphors and gimme rhymes. Given the choppier delivery and the production filters over Nielson’s voice, listening to the instrumentals and taking in the lyrics almost have to be separate processes until listeners know the lyrics.

There is a purposeful energy to “V,” widespread as it is, which they described on their Instagram post six weeks before the release on Feb. 2. “I wanted to construct the solid jams to accompany you through your drive to work, your train ride, your chemical experiments, your panic attacks, hook-ups, break-ups, tailgate parties. ‘v’, y’know, like the romans wrote 5. ‘v’ for victory,” the post read. Given this myriad of offered listening environments, I’ve decided to tell you which songs fit where.

Drive to Work

These are the tracks that get you ready for the day, whether that means ready to conquer or ready to take grumpy comfort. “That Life” has been out as a single since last August and its chorus especially has proven suitable for justifying the troubles of life by naming them as things “you’re always gonna be about.” It’s one that comes to mind when you have to keep on keeping on.

“Weekend Run,” alternatively, exudes joy at the idea of those two days off for every five days of work. After “working every day of your life / Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, / watching all the days passing by / Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,” there’s nothing like a great weekend, which is sometimes what we have to remind ourselves of when we’re driving to work on a Tuesday morning.

Train Ride

Train rides are long, right? Well, so are “The Garden” and “Drag.” In fact, they’re both six minutes and serve as the first and final tracks of the album, respectively. Their lyrics are minimal, and I think of them as songs that would play while the credits roll before and after the main course of the album. While “The Garden” is a bit of a hard jam, “Drag” is more meditative to finish off the project.

Chemical Experiments

I’m no chemist, but “Keaukaha” comes to mind because it seems to offer so little that perhaps some sort of chemical change in the brain is what it would take to unlock any hidden secrets the song has. “Shin Ramyun” may be best for the true experimenting scientists out there, for it provides something nice to listen to in the background without any lyrics or complex developments in the music to distract from a primary activity.

Panic Attacks

“I Killed Captain Cook” is the go-to in this category because of its intriguing guitar picking; it’s both pleasant and unnerving, and it trails and flicks around in constant movement. It’s also a dark story, involving the literal killing of Captain Cook in a tale that’s both confusing and other-worldly, most of the definite emotion coming through in the sharp, chopping guitar picks. The song is raw and jumpy, but it tempers full chaos as it circles back to the start of each verse.

Hook-Ups

“Guilty Pleasures” is all about restriction and allowance in one’s lifestyle. It begins with a booming synth and is backed by pretty rapid snares, but it’s driven by perhaps the most compelling lyrics of the album. “Now I know that the nights are getting colder; guilty pleasures are holding us together,” sings Nielson, talking about how we all cope with the stresses of passing time. “Meshuggah,” “Layla” and “Widow” are all sweeter and smoother, filled with longing in their own ways, and are good backdrops for this kind of action, though definitely different. Maybe give these a listen before the big moment so you know what you’re getting into.

Break-Ups

It feels clear that someone in the band has lost a partner named Nadja and was inspired to write a song about the crumbling of their relationship, given how vivid and direct the lyrics are. This is also unmistakably identifiable as a breakup song by the fact that it is the slowest song on the album; a sad croon coming from Nielson as every line of the chorus is intoned as though it’s a painful question. “In the Rear View” is just as doubtlessly about a goner relationship, but it’s distinctly more moved-on; the chorus asks the ex in question, “Do you ever look back at me / In the rearview?” but is drawn out as though both people are coasting down the highway towards better times.

Tailgate Parties

“The Beach” is suggestive enough in its lyrics to create a strong case that this song is not just about going to the beach, but it doesn’t take that subliminal messaging far enough for us to take it as something beyond beach-bliss longing. And that “take me back to the beach” chorus is anthemically catchy, just in time for the warm weather!

Kate Hamill’s modern rendition of “Pride and Prejudice” comes to UMW’s Klein Theatre

JOSEPHINE GOOD Life Editor

UMW Theatre is back with its final Klein show of the semester, “Pride and Prejudice” by Kate Hamill. The show takes the classic Jane Austen story and puts it in a more modern light. This version of the classic tale is definitely not the same “Pride and Prejudice” that your grandma read to you, since there are characters smacking butts and making sexual innuendos throughout the show.

Consistent with the original story, the play follows the unlikely love story of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. The two battle back and forth for the entirety of the show, both with each other and with their feelings. Lizzy’s sisters are also incredibly involved in the story, finding their own love and misfortune as the show progresses.

A long-time fan of “Pride and Prejudice,” I was very excited to see this show. As I entered the theatre on Friday night, the anticipation kept building. Although I knew the Austen novel well, I hadn’t experienced this version of the tale.

One of the first things I noticed about the stage set-up was the deconstructed set pieces. I liked the abstract set design that showed parts of backstage to the entire audience. Seth Drenning, a junior theatre major who plays Mr. Darcy, described the set and how it affected the performance for the actors.

“There is no backstage to this set so even when we aren’t in a scene, we are sitting just ‘offstage’ still in view of the audience,” said Drenning. “It can be stressful knowing that I always might have eyes on me, but it has mostly been a lot of fun working with such a unique set. I feel like I’m watching the show with the audience and sharing this experience with them.”

A staging element that I didn’t notice was that the actors were performing on a raked stage, which means that there is a slight tilt put on the stage to lift the background and bring down the foreground. This makes it so that everyone in the audience is able to see everything that happens on stage.

“We moved the show from the rehearsal hall into Klein Theatre a few days early just to help us get used to the raked stage, which was also a first for me,” said Drenning. “When the stage is on an incline you don’t realize how tiring and jarring it is until you step off of it.”

The word that Drenning used to describe the abstract performance was “metatheatrical.” This form of theatre is used to portray the trivial aspects of the characters’ lives and how their lives all feel performative.

This type of performance is pleasing to watch because it exaggerates all of the clever or emotional nuances of the show, and boy, were there some of those. The youngest Bennet daughter, Lydia, played by Megan Dineen, was full of sassy and raunchy comments, including, “Perhaps she will die—that would be romantic!”

This show double-casted the players, so everyone except for Emma Magner, a junior theatre major who plays Elizabeth Bennet, and Drenning as Mr. Darcy played two roles. This double-casting of characters made the show a million times more hilarious and added a silly undertone to the whole piece, helping break up the tension throughout the show. For example, when Mary and Mr. Bingley—both played by Mason Clark—were in the same scene, Jane was left dancing around with only a coat while Clark was in a dress playing the brooding middle Bennet sister.

When discussing the difficulties of putting together the show, Magner described the challenges of accent work.

“It was my first time doing accent work for a show, so it was a bit difficult at first since I didn’t know how to go about it,” she said. “Guidance from our director and starting accent work early in the process helped tremendously and the more times I used the accent in rehearsal the more comfortable I became in it.”

Personally, I loved the accents. I wasn’t sure if they were going to play it as a period piece or as a modern interpretation, and I was happy to see that they did a mix of both.

Something that remains the same in the Jane Austen book and this telling of the story is the undeniable connection between Mr. Darcy and Lizzy. I’m often a pessimist when it comes to love stories and don’t usually care for them. However, despite the fact that this is just a play, the way that Mr. Darcy looked at Lizzy gave me chills more than any other experience I’ve had in a theatre. There was unmatched chemistry between the characters that led to a believable attraction emanating from the duo.

This production of “Pride and Prejudice” is easily digestible for people who aren’t familiar with the novel, and for those who know the story well, it is a humorous retelling of a doomed-yet-passionate love story.

The play will be showing April 12–15 at 7:30 p.m. and April 16 at 2 p.m. in Klein Theatre. Tickets are $5 for UMW students and $25 for standard admission.

Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy doing a poor job of avoiding each other at a party.

Photo courtesy of Geoff Greene

Jane Bennet is one of Elizabeth’s younger sisters.

Photo courtesy of Geoff Greene

Mason Clark played the youngest, brooding sister, Mary Bennet. The actors screamed whenever Mary entered the room. Photo courtesty of Geoff Greene

Double Wammie: Hanoi Ragmen wins fan-voted awards for best rock album and song of 2023

NORAH WALSH Associate Editor

At the 35th annual Wammie Awards on Saturday, April 1, the UMW-linked band Hanoi Ragmen received two awards. The band, whose drummer is Mary Washington’s own Nathan Argust, took home 2023 Best Rock Song for their song “Foolhearted” and 2023 Best Rock Album for “The Oldlight.”

“For me, these awards exemplify the hard work, energy and creativity that every member of the band provides, and I can’t overstate how proud I am of everyone,” said Hanoi Ragmen keyboardist Shaan Shuster, a senior economics major at Lafayette College in Easton, Penn. “What’s being recognized is something I’ve always known—that my bandmates are special and exemplary musicians. I’m so grateful to be able to play alongside them, and I’m excited to see what the future may bring.”

The Wammie Awards recognize artists and musicians in the D.C., Maryland and Virginia area, according to the award’s website. Fans were able to vote for their favorite eligible bands and artists, all of which were submitted on the Wammie Awards Awardforce platform, and they were able to vote for as many nominees as they pleased.

Hanoi Ragmen, at the time of publication, has 406 monthly listeners on Spotify and 5,472 streams on their award-winning song, “Foolhearted,” which is on their newest, also award-winning album, “The Oldlight.” Because the Wammie Awards are decided through fan voting, the band’s two awards showcase their impact in the D.C., Maryland and Virginia area.

The acclaim around the award-winning song and album demonstrates the band’s growth and personal progress throughout their years together. Hanoi Ragmen officially formed around 2018, according to vocalist and guitarist Gabriel Harr-Siebenlist, but the members knew each other long before that.

“We took part in a music school in Alexandria called Rock of Ages Music, and though many of us knew each other and were friends from school, all coming from the Alexandria City Public School system, that familiarity in playing music together helped us to sort of seamlessly form the Ragmen,” said Harr-Siebenlist, a senior Arabic language and Middle Eastern studies major at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga.

Currently, the band is composed of seven members: Harr-Siebenlist on vocals and rhythm guitar, Argust on drums, Beck Moniz on vocals and bass, Max Powell on vocals and lead guitar, Shuster on keyboard, saxophonist Kostia Howard and guitarist Dillon Miranda.

Although the band is just breaking out, their collaboration firmly roots them in the D.C. music scene. Because they’re surrounded by so many talented musicians in the area, Argust said, it means even more to be recognized by local fans through the Wammies.

For the band, “It is very reassuring to us that we have a special chemistry and that we have the capacity to create award-winning music,” said Argust. “Especially when there is so much great music coming from the D.C. area, it is really awesome to be recognized after all the physical, emotional, and financial hardships we’ve gone through to produce the record. That being said, these awards don’t define us and they’re not the reason why we make music.”

“We’ve always been big believers of recording everything: every idea, no matter how small, record it on the phone, send it to the band chat and save it for later,” said Powell, who now is a full-time instructor at their musical alma mater, Rock of Ages Music School. “It’s crazy how many times we’ve been stuck on writing certain parts of some song or another, which we’ll then solve by scrolling through our hundreds of individual iPhone recordings, and we’ll find a perfect fix.”

But the ever-changing nature of their music can be taxing as well. “Our music is constantly evolving and being reworked,” said Argust, a senior philosophy and music double major. “In a lot of ways it can be arduous but overall, since we are really close friends outside of the band, we are able to work well with each other and overcome the challenges that face us.”

Powell also has a similar philosophy regarding the process of collaboration. “Seeing as so many of us bring in song ideas these days, I think this is one of the more challenging yet most interesting and endearing parts of working in this band,” he said. “I’d describe it as a good mix of both letting whoever brings in a song idea steer the ship so to speak, but also letting individual members create their own ideas.”

But not every song is completely composed before it’s brought to the full band, Argust said. “‘Hollowfoot,’ was a song that I introduced to the band with this idea of a drum pattern and song structure,” he said. “We then grew the song into what it is now, together, which was cool to see it come to fruition.”

Petit Larceny/Destruction of Property

Argust explained that the band is a democracy, but they allow the person who proposes an idea to have creative control since they often have a vision for it. Nevertheless, he said, “each member has the right to provide advice and change their parts because they are regarded as the expert with regards to their instrument.”

Because of Hanoi Ragmen’s collaboration on each song, these awards don’t just give notoriety to the band, they also reward them for their work as a team.

Hanoi Ragmen is mainly composed of the musicians themselves, but their label Baffin Records has also been a pinnacle of support since the band signed their record deal for the album “The Oldlight” in June of 2022.

CALLIE HARKINS News Editor

On April 8 at 8 a.m., there was a petit larceny/destruction of property at Randolph Hall. This case is pending.

“It was a very exciting moment, probably the first legal contract I’ve ever signed, and the beginning of a really powerful partnership,” said Howard, a junior computer science major at Princeton University. “Quite simply, our now Wammie-winning album would not have sounded the way it does without Baffin’s mixing.”

The connection with Baffin came through John Patrick, the owner of Rock of Ages Music School, Harr-Siebenlist said. Patrick knew Dave Klein, the co-founder and manager at Baffin Records who was looking to sign more artists. “He was looking for clients, and Hanoi had a local following and most importantly was taking our music career pretty seriously,” said Harr-Siebenlist.

Before this, however, they found other ways to record, including at Bias Studios in Springfield, Va., where UMW’s guitar instructor Bruce Middle has recorded. The band also recorded some demos at home and in UMW’s music studio, Argust said. “I think a lot of people don’t realize that UMW has a recording studio, so it was awesome to be able to get some demos there,” he said.

To Klein, it means a lot for Hanoi Ragmen to win two Wammies because the band truly earned this recognition, he said, and he has high hopes for the band’s future.

“My hope is that Hanoi Ragmen’s fanbase continues to grow, not just in the DC area, but beyond,” he said. “We’d love to see them touring the east coast or around the country, but to get there we need to keep the momentum going. The 2023 Wammie awards brought more attention to the band, and we hope to build on that excitement this summer.”

Hanoi Ragmen will play their biggest show ever at the Black Cat in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 12.

Destruction of Property

On April 9 at noon, there was a destruction of property at Dupont Hall #321. This case is pending.

From left to right, Nathan Argust, Max Powell, Beck Moniz, Gabe Harr. @hanoiragmen / Instagram

“For me, these awards exemplify the hard work, energy and creativity that every member of the band provides, and I can’t overstate how proud I am of everyone.”

-Shaan Shuster

Performing Arts Company PACs the house

NORAH

On April 7 and 8, UMW’s Performing Arts Company performed this semester’s Big Show. The show was both physically and creatively demanding on the performers, with long hours and extensive choreography requiring weeks of work and rehearsal to prepare.

Auditions occur the first weekend of every semester, and they determine who will be part of the company and therefore perform in Small Show and Big Show as a member.

Membership in the company varies from novice to expert, with some dancers just entering the dance world and others very familiar with it.

“I only recently joined PAC the spring semester of my junior year, and it has been absolutely amazing just getting an opportunity to re-enter myself into the dance world but in a really inclusive space,” said Ellianna Bowman, a senior studio art major who is a dancer and choreographer for the company. “And also with a really great group of people and friends who have the same love and passion for moving their bodies and creating and dancing but who just want to do it in more of a low-key, friendlier setting.”

To choreograph for Big Show, members need three semesters of being a member and prior experience choreographing for Small Show. This final event of the semester signals the end of their rehearsals, but “PAC still offers workshops and community outreach opportunities but show specific rehearsals are done,” said Madeline Brunt, a junior biology major on the pre-vet track.

When it comes to brainstorming dances for the shows, the choreography begins before the semester starts, Brunt said. “Members who are eligible to choreograph submit proposals to the current officer board to review.”

The officers use their discretion to select the dances, though. “Acceptance is based on priority, style, length, number of dancers,

University of Mary Washington Spring Sports Schedule

available concert time, attendance and engagement in the club,” said Brunt.

Each choreographer has their own process for creating a dance.

“As a choreographer, I start with usually finding a song, and it’s usually a song that I like or listen to that my body responds to and I want to start dancing to,” said Bowman. “I usually end up spending a lot of time trying different sequences and seeing if they feel right with the music and with the weight distribution of my body and just truck through it.”

Like other forms of art that require constant practice, dance is no different. “There’s a lot of workshopping; it’s a lot like any sort of creative art form, like writing a paper or building a sculpture or something,” said Bowman. “There’s a lot of sketching and redoing in the process.”

This process of workshopping is like practicing for a game that’s coming up or a regional competition, for Big Show and Small Show serve as events during which the dancers’ hard work has a platform to be performed.

Brunt. “6 of those hours were set rehearsal times for dances and 2 hrs were collaborating with my co-choreographer, Keona May, for our Big Show dance.”

Even those coming in with less experience, Wilhemina Solley, a junior theatre and psychology major, said, will find an accepting and welcoming environment in the company.

Outdoor Track and Field April 22 vs John Hopkins @ Baltimore, Md.

Women’s Lacrosse (9-6)

April 11 W vs. Southern Virginia (17-4)

April 15 vs. Saliabury

April 22 vs. Chris. Newport

Men’s Lacrosse (6-7)

April 8 L vs. Stockton (4-19)

April 15 @ Kean

Women’s Tennis (6-8)

April 6 W @ Christopher Newport (6-3)

April 8 L vs. Swarthmore (4-5)

April 12 @ Salisbury

April 15 @ Johns Hopkins

Men’s Tennis (6-6)

April 5 L @ Christopher Newport (3-6)

April 12 vs. Salisbury

April 15 @ Swathmore

Softball (18-4)

April 8 L vs. Randolph-Macon (0-4, 3-4)

April 12 W @ Marymount(4-1,2,1)

April 19 @ Southern Virginia

Baseball (23-9)

“Before UMW, my dance experience was limited to the ‘Just Dance’ games on the Wii, but I was on the now non-existent UMW Dance team my freshman year,” she said. “One of the great things about PAC is they really are ready to work with all skill levels and help build you up, even if you don’t have dance experience.”

April 1-2 W @ Susquehanna (9-5, 13-2, 12-4)

April 8 L vs. Guilford (4-6,4-6)

April 13 @ Eastern Mennonite

Men’s Rugby (4-7)

April 1 vs. 7s Tournament (17-12, 7-7, 0-38, 25-12, 18-12)

April 15 @ Kutztown

The hours a dancer has to rehearse depends on how many dances they are in, with one hour per dance a week becoming a strenuous process if selected for a number of dances.

“During my busiest time this semester, I was rehearsing around 8 hrs a week,” said

Other dancers have a lifetime of experience.

“I have pretty much danced my entire life. I started dancing when I was 2 years old and danced all throughout elementary and middle school,” said Bowman. “In high school, I started to focus more on other things and stopped dancing quite as much, but I still always had a huge passion for dance.”

Games are available to watch via livestream on the UMW Athletics webpage.

Full schedule not listed above. Most recent games included. Bold indicates home game.

EMILY HEMPHILL Sports Editor

“There’s a lot of workshopping; It’s a lot like any sort of creative art form, like writing a paper or building a sculpture or something.”

-Ellianna Bowman

WALSH

Associate Editor

Sophomore political science major Gabby Lyon dances with junior theatre major Emma Lehman.

Photo courtesy of Kacie Waters Heflin

Senior Talia Tanner, an environmental science and geography major, in the senior dance titled “Vogue.”

Photo courtesy of Kacie Waters Heflin

Freshman Madi Butler pirouettes onstage during Big Show. Photo courtesy of Kacie Waters Heflin