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Duke Endowment pours $24 Million into Davidson scholarships
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Volume 114, Issue 18
March 27, 2019
Cathy Xu ‘21 calls for student support of Asian-American Initative
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Students from Dr. Joseph Ewoodzie’s sociology class confront racism at Davidson
The Yowl reports Buzzfeed quizzes to replace Meyers-Briggs Personality Test
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“Poetry in Motion”: Associate Chapter of Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, Inc. Presents Founding Line
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SAVANNA VEST ‘22 STAFF WRITER
he Davidson College Associate Chapter of Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, Inc. presented its founding line of eight members at their probate in the Alvarez Union Atrium at 8:30 PM on Friday, March 15, 2019. The probate was the first new member presentation for the associate members of the first Latino Greek organization for men on Davidson’s campus. The associate members of Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, Inc., also known as “the Lambdas,” introduced themselves through saluting, a presentation tradition began by the organization’s national founders. Normally, upperclassmen members guide associate members at probates. However, since the Davidson College Associate Chapter of Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, Inc. was presenting its founding line, Edward Gonzalez, who works with the UNC Charlotte Chapter of Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, Inc., acted as Pledge Master at the probate. “We do something called ‘saluting.’ It best can be described as ‘poetry in motion,’” Gonzalez said to attendees. “What they’re showing you is the passion, dedication, and discipline that they have for themselves and for the community they’re about to serve here at Davidson.” The eight associate members wore the same attire: camouflage pants, black military boots, white long-sleeved shirts, bullet-proof vests, and ski masks. In the final moments, each founding line member individually introduced himself. Each concluded his speech by revealThe Brothers of Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, Inc. during their inaugural pro- ing the Lambda shirt under his uniform and bate in the Union. Top courtesy of Judson Womack ‘18, bottom courtesy of Richy Tovar ‘19. removing his ski mask to show his face to the
crowd. Unity is one of the Lambdas’ central values, and the associate members hoped to demonstrate unity through the probate, through both the performance and their physical appearances. Richy Tovar ‘19, the Davidson College Associate Chapter President, described the unity and individuality of saluting during the presentation. “After you unveil who you are towards the end, you give a little speech,” Tovar said. “I think that’s a moment where you actually get to be an individual. This is a brotherhood, and each line is a unit, so we want to work as one. But at that moment, when you’re giving your speech, you get to express yourself a little bit differently from your line brothers because not everyone is the same.” “One of the ideals of our fraternity is ‘in unity, there is strength,’ and the best way for us to demonstrate unity is to all look the same,” Daniel Alvarez-Orlachia ‘21, a founding line member of the Lambdas, said. “When we come forward and show the community what Lambda Theta Phi is about, many times it’s impossible to have similar haircuts because people have different hair textures and different hairstyles, and their hair grows at different growth rates. But shaving our heads and dressing all the same is the best way for us to demonstrate that unity.” When saluting, the line speaks information or dialogue that they have prepared and incorporates coordinated group motion. The Lambdas saluted to introduce the chapter’s first members, communicate the national history of Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, Inc. and
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State Officials Visit Campus to Discuss District 9 Fraud
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JONATHAN LEE ‘20 SENIOR STAFF WRITER
uthorities are still unpacking the details and implications of the recent bizarre election fraud scandal in North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District. The plot, designed to benefit Republican congressional candidate Mark Harris in the 2018 midterm election, has again illustrated the legal and moral boundaries political operatives are willing to cross to maintain power. For many North Carolinians, the scandal has tainted the electoral process, leaving them questioning the legitimacy of their vote. Political analysts see it as another instance of our country’s broken, polarized politics, where a ‘win at any cost’ mentality prevails. “The election fraud… is unlike anything I have seen or experienced in sixteen years of studying North Carolina politics,” wrote Visiting Professor of Political Science Michael Bitzer on his blog, The Old North State. In an interview with The Davidsonian, he added that “North Carolina is another first in the nation, having a congressional election overturned by election fraud.” Yesterday, North Carolina State Board of Elections Chair Bob Cordle ‘63, Executive Director Kim Strach, and General Counsel Josh Lawson visited Davidson to publicly comment on the election fraud investigation for the first time. Students, professors, members of the media, political operatives, and
other observers crowded into Tyler-Tallman Hall to witness and participate in the event. Dr. Bitzer and Dr. Susan Roberts moderated the discussion, which included a period of audience questions and answers. Bitzer was quick to cast doubt on the results from Bladen County on election night. Here, 61% of absentee ballots were cast for Republican congressional candidate Mark Harris even though only 19% of those ballots came from registered Republicans. As a result of these skewed numbers, state officials launched an investigation that resulted in the unraveling of an election fraud scheme designed to give Republicans an edge in the especially close district. After testimony from Harris and his staff in which the candidate admitted that “the public’s confidence in the… election has been undermined,” the Board of Elections, made up of three Democrats and two Republicans, voted unanimously in favor of holding a new special election. Harris, ostensibly due to health reasons, will not seek reelection. The Ninth Congressional District includes the southeastern edge of Mecklenburg County and extends to part of Bladen County, a mostly rural area between Fayetteville and Wilmington where the majority of the fraudulent ballots were found. Leslie McCrae Dowless, an “equal opportunity” political operative “that had worked for both Republicans and Democrats,” masterminded the scheme, Bitzer explained. According to Bitzer, Dowless likely ran similar operations before the 2018 midterms, “perhaps going back to the 2010
election[s] but certainly in 2016 and most evidently in the primary in 2018. It just happened that this time his hand got caught in the cookie jar.” At Tuesday’s event on campus, panel members detailed how the Harris campaign hired Red Dome Consulting to help with get-out-the-vote efforts. Red Dome hired Dowless and billed the Harris campaign for his services. Dowless and other staffers illegally collected absentee ballots and falsely witnessed the ballots by forging signatures. Dowless was indicted on three counts of felony obstruction of justice, two counts of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice, and two counts of possession of an absentee ballot related to his schemes in the 2016 election and 2018 primary. He faces up to two years in prison for his actions. Four others were also indicted on similar charges. Harris denied that he knew of Dowless’s scheme; staffers corroborated his testimony. If the results of the election had stood, Harris would have been favored above Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes, one of the smallest margins nationwide. Although there were not enough fraudulent absentee ballots to overturn the election, the Board of Elections deemed that the integrity of the race was sufficiently tainted enough to call a new election. “I really honestly think that it should strengthen people’s confidence because we caught it. That doesn’t mean it’s not happening everywhere else. North Carolina isn’t worse than
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News
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Probate Introduces Founding Members CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 demonstrate unity through their speech and actions. The crowd at the Lambdas’ probate cheered and encouraged the associate members as they saluted. “I was completely out of breath,” Alvarez-Orlachia said. “I run track and field, so I know what it’s like to be out of breath. I’ve never been out of breath by something that was just talking and presenting and performing like that. It’s a really amazing feeling: the rush, the crowd, just knowing that everyone is there for you.” The 2018-2019 school year is the first to see the founding of a Latino Greek organization for men on Davidson’s campus. Some students, like Tovar and Sebastian Flores ‘19, the Davidson Associate Chapter Vice President, joined a Latino interest group in their first year at Davidson in order to advocate for the establishment of a Latino Greek organization for men. Interest group members who are now senior members of the Lambdas explained it was a long process that they worked toward throughout the duration of their careers at Davidson. Tovar said the interest group had to petition the school for expansion and obtain approval from figures like President Quillen and all of PCC. “A lot of individuals pushed us back and said, ‘Oh, there’s OLAS [the Organization of Latino American Students], right?’ We felt that this organization brings new opportunities for male students to go further, beyond what the school organizations could do... This organization allows you to connect with a lot of Brothers across not just the country, but the entire world,”
Tovar said. Allen Clay, Jr. ‘19, the President of the Davidson College Tau Omicron Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., represented his organization in the PCC voting process to approve the foundation of the Davidson College Chapter of Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, Inc. on campus.
“Joining this organization for me was partly a way to reconnect with my Latin heritage, but on a greater level, it was to become a part of a community and a group of men who are driven, service-minded and happy to support their community.” Dan Rafla ‘20 “Why would we be against them when, just 15 years ago, we were doing the same thing?” Clay said. “Looking past the fact that we love all those guys, and the fact that we want them to have an equal space, it would have been extremely hypocritical of any NPHC to be against [their establishment on campus].” Flores said that the formation of the Lambdas provided a unique sense of unity that could not be found anywhere else
on campus. “My family is Cuban, and I don’t really know what a person whose family is Mexican is going through, and yet we’re both Hispanic and Latino in the eyes of everybody else. So [Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, Inc.] gives us a space to find our common ground and uplift each other,” Flores said. Members of the Lambdas agreed that one of their priorities for future years is to continue recruiting new members. For long-term goals, members hope to tighten their relations with the rest of PCC and establish themselves as a known entity on campus. The Davidson College Associate Chapter of Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, Inc. is part of the national organization founded in 1975 by a group at Kean College. The Lambdas’ ideals are “Academic Excellence; Brotherhood; Leadership; Latino Unity; [and] Service.” “Joining this organization for me was partly a way to reconnect with my Latin heritage, but on a greater level, it was to become part of a community and a group of men who are driven, service-minded and happy to support their community,” Dan Rafla ’20, the Davidson Associate Chapter Social Chair, said. Tovar said that the Lambdas are looking forward to establishing service partnerships in and around Charlotte to work with high school students who come from different countries. “By no means is the organization limited to men of Hispanic descent, and we welcome men of the college who share our values and our passions,” Rafla said. “Being a member gives me and my brothers an opportunity to create change on campus and in the surrounding community.”
Board of Elections Visits, Details District 9 Fraud CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 other states. We are the only elections agency nationally that has in-house investigators. Folks with a lot of elections expertise are looking closely at the results. This is not like in a vast majority of states, where only regular law enforcement is doing it. North Carolinians can be especially confident that their votes count, that the process is preserving the integrity of the election,” said General Counsel Lawson. The primary for the special election will be held on May 14th. In the September 10th election, Democratic candidate Dan McCready will face off against the victor in a large pool of lesser-known Republican candidates. The primary could go to a run-off, which would be held on September 10th and would push back the election until November 5th, a full year after the original election.
Drew Kromer ‘19, Chair of the Precinct 206 Democrats, foresees abundant national media coverage, a large flow of outside money, much of it directed towards ads, and the arrival of people from both parties into the district as the election ramps up. “This is about to be the race,” he remarked. The special election is removed from other big elections, and it is likely to be seen as a referendum on President Trump’s popularity in the last year of his term. Kromer said that the race’s level of nation attention and influx of resources will be at a similar level to the 2017 special election in Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District, in which Democrat Jon Ossoff faced off against Republican Karen Handel. In the end, Chairman Cordle concluded that the election fraud “was not a Democratic problem, not a Republican problem, but a
money problem. What the people there were looking for was money, and they did what they needed to do in order to make some money.” Executive Director Strach stated: “Public trust in an election is the most important thing
we can have, because if you don’t have faith and confidence in the results, then we have a real problem with our democracy.”
Illustration by Richard Farrell ‘22
Duke Endowment’s $24 Million Donation Creates Scholarships
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EMMA BRENTJENS ‘21 STAFF WRITER
n March 14th, President Carol Quillen and Dean Byron McCrae emailed the student body to reveal the Duke Endowment had pledged a $24 million grant to Davidson to further expand the James B. Duke Scholars Program. Later that day, the college posted an official announcement on the website to inform the public about the fourth largest donation ever made to the college. The James B. Duke Scholarship Program currently awards $15,000 a year to four students. The Endowment’s pledge to the school will now allow the program to provide full tuition to five students a class, beginning with the class of 2025. The first recipients of the expanded James B. Duke Scholarship Program will enter as freshmen in 2021. The website lauds the recent gift for placing the scholarship “among Davidson's premier academic scholarships and further equips the college to recruit students of the highest intellectual caliber from across the country and around the globe,” according to Davidson’s official announcement. The gift also helped push Davidson’s fundraising campaign, Game Changers, above and beyond the original goal of $425 million.
The recent gift positioned the current amount raised at $501.3 million, with 50% of the money going directly towards scholarships, 40% to Community of Excellence, 5% to preparing Davidson students to lead, and the final 5% is unrestricted. The Community of Excellence includes financially supporting professor and student research, arts, and athletics. While the grant has been pledged, “The specific dynamics of the program have not yet been established,” said Gardner Roller Ligo, Director of the Merit Program. As a result, the qualifications for the expanded scholarship program may be different than the current program. Current Duke Scholar, HD Mellin ‘20, hopes to see the grant money awarded based on need of the incoming students. “I hope the money from the Duke pledge can be used for needbased aid for middle-class and low-income students exclusively, as well as non-legacy applicants [... ] As several student initiatives at Davidson have shown, many of our admissions policies (including the legacy consideration and the 50/50 gender ratio) actually work to discriminate against qualified applicants.” Mellin’s hopes for the future expanded scholarship align closely with the stated goals of the scholarship office. Ligo explained the objectives of the scholarship office are two-
fold: “first, it is meant to nurture and nourish those elements that are at the heart of this community—academics, the arts, athletics, leadership, and service. Second, it is meant to help accomplish Davidson’s [...] goals of access and affordability.” The James B. Duke Endowment is one of Davidson’s biggest donors since the Endowment’s founding in 1924. The Endowment gave the lead gift for the E. Craig Wall, Jr. Academic Center with a donation of $45 million, the largest the college has ever received. They also contribute annually to The Fund for Davidson and support You@Davidson Student Resiliency Research Project, Davidson Impact Fellows, College Advising Corps, the Environmental Studies department, and the Farm at Davidson. Patricia Massey Hoke, Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations, manages institutional philanthropy at Davidson and works closely with the Endowment. “I work closely with President Quillen and various departments throughout campus to determine what the highest priority needs are of the college over a given period of time—we then collaborate with The Duke Endowment to understand their interest in supporting such pursuits,” Hoke expanded on her specific work with the Endowment. “Davidson would be a different
place without their partnership [...] The Duke Endowment has given more than $285 million to Davidson.” Davidson is one of four higher education institutions named in the James B. Duke Endowment indenture. The other three are Johnson C. Smith University, Furman University, and Duke University. As a result, Davidson, as well as the other institutions, receives a portion of the Endowment’s annual earnings. While the Duke Endowment has undoubtedly supported and furthered Davidson in sustainability, research, and most notably financial accessibility, Mellin believes it is important to remember from where the funds originate. “James B. Duke’s father was a slave owner and fought as a Confederate soldier in the Civil War [...] The accumulation of the family’s wealth and their business enterprises (first tobacco, then the Duke Power Company) are thus inseparable from this legacy.” Every student who uses the resources in Wall, applies for a research grant, works on the Farm at Davidson, and more benefits from the Duke Endowment. As Hoke expressed, “no other donor or funder has transformed Davidson in as many ways or as deeply as The Duke Endowment.”
March 27, 2019
Watson Fellowship Paves Way for Travel, Research
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JACK DOWELL ‘21 STAFF WRITER
hen the 2019 school year comes to an end in a few short months, two Davidson graduates, Ky Roland ‘19 and Natalie Connell ‘19, will be traveling abroad thanks to the Watson Fellowship. The Watson Fellowship celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year. The $30,000 stipend, plus loan payments and health insurance, is given out to roughly forty students nationwide from all disciplines, who then spend a year abroad pursuing a project they designed. Roland, a Biology major, chose a project investigating how the gender gap in STEM manifests in different countries, specifically Trinidad, Norway, and Jordan. She explains: “What inspired me to do the project is growing up loving STEM my entire life and realizing that there’s a disproportionate number of women and men … just hearing anecdotes about [my parents’] professions, my personal experiences in the classroom, all that made me think about why that is.” In refining this idea, she learned that “there’s this paradox where the more socioeconomic and political freedom a country has, the less likely women are to go into a STEM profession or pursue a STEM education, but in countries where it’s the exact opposite, there are much higher percentages of women entering the workforce.” To investigate this, she plans to travel to three countries. In Trinidad and Jordan, she will be volunteering at a high school and summer camps and investigating the attitudes of female students there and how their social and cultural circumstances affect them. In Norway, she will volunteer at the Arctic University “where there’s an ongoing project called the Prestige Project, where the Gender and Sex-
uality Studies department is partnering with the STEM faculty to investigate why women are not represented well in leadership research roles.” Connell, also a Biology major with a Hispanic Studies minor, will be investigating endof-life care in disparate countries and cultures. She was inspired by her familial history, saying, “the project was first inspired by watching my aunt’s battle with brain cancer … watching that was very difficult, made me feel like there had to be a better way to die that doesn’t involve as much suffering.” At Davidson she further explored this interest through a class on aging, an independent study revolving around dementia, and opportunities at Serenity House, a hospice, and the Mayo Clinic. She also found support during the application process, saying “I talked with five different professors in the fall when I was preparing my project. Religion professors, different people who have better perspectives on what it’s like to live in the Middle East, or India, just bouncing ideas off of people who I’d never had [a class with] before.” Her project will take her to Ecuador, the Netherlands, Jordan, India, and Vietnam, spanning three continents. There she will “learn from experienced doctors, professors, nurses, and non-profit organizations with unique ventures into end-of-life care.” While her project is “not super religiously driven, each country that I picked sort of has a different religious background. I have a feeling I might frame the way end-of-life care and death is general is seen through it.” Winning one of these grants is a competitive process, starting with an application to Davidson’s Graduate Fellowships and Scholarships Committee in early fall during a student’s senior year. Roland explains that “each school develops its own Watson selection panel. Each
school is allowed to put forward four candidates that they think are the strongest out of the total pool of applicants. And then the board chooses 40 nationally.“ Connell explained the Davidson application process, which entails submitting a detailed proposal explaining the applicant’s plan and general travel itinerary, as well as a personal statement outlining the student’s connection to the project. She continued, “they select fifteen people to interview, those interviews are super intense, they’re only fifteen minutes but they ask you basically the hardest questions you can imagine about your project. ” While Davidson has had students receive the Watson grant all but two years since its inception, in the past four years, all Davidson recipients have been student athletes. Connell was a fourth year member of the women’s soccer team, and Roland just finished her fourth
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basketball season. Roland notes that nowadays, “people joke that the Watson is a student athlete fellowship.” She speculates that one cause of this is that athletes often don’t have the same opportunity to study abroad that most Davidson students do, saying “I think Davidson looks for the best of the best, but also looks for people who haven’t necessarily had those experiences abroad.” She also attributes part of her success in the application process to skills gained during her time as an athlete, especially “being able to present myself in a confident manner even when I am nervous. I think in athletics you put on a different persona when you step on the field or the court … Being on teams your entire life you learn how to develop relations in a short amount of time and that’s something that’s very useful for an interview.”
Nathalie Connell ‘19 and Ky Roland ‘19, recipients of the 2019 Watson Fellowship. Photo by Hannah Dugan ‘21
Crime Log Time Reported
MARCH 21
Attendance
Takeaways
Agenda
LIZZIE KANE ‘22 SGA CORRESPONDENT
1.Housing 2.Charters 3.Activities Tax Council 4.PB&Js at Armfield The majority of the meeting was spent discussing the charter levels of clubs on campus. There are three different charter levels, all varying in regulations. SGA is sending an application to Common Ground for members to apply to be the chair of the club. Common Ground will then appoint SGA senators. SGA will be paying for the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at Armfield over the weekends. The group is looking to involve Patterson Court Council organizations in the passing out of the sandwiches. SGA is implementing a new attendance policy: each senator gets up to a total of 3 points, receiving 0.5 points for being late or having an excused absence and 1 point for having an unexcused absence. 3 points results in impeachment. One senator was unengaged—sending emails—during the meeting.
89%
or
25 28
Excused Absence: Heidi Meyer ‘22. Caroline Black ‘21 Unexcused Absence: Jules Franco ‘20 Tardee: Oguzhan Colkesen ‘22 (unexcused)
Description/Location
3/18/19 at 2030 hrs
Underage Consumption x2
3/19/19 at 2015 hrs
Poss. of Alcohol Underage
3/21/19 at 1052 hrs
Larceny Felony
3/22/19 at 1337 hrs
Hit and Run
Sentelle, Dean Referral
Chidsey, Dean Referral
Baker, Further Investigation
Main Street, Inactive
3/22/19 at 1341 hrs
Assault on Female
3/23/19 at 1640 hrs
Poss. Drug Paraphernalia
3/24/19 at 2207 hrs
Injury to Real Property
Chambers, Dean Referral
Ryburn/Armfield, Dean Referral
Fiji, Inactive
3/24/19 at 2259 hrs
Larceny Felony Attempted Jamieson, Inactive
Perspectives
4 Cathy Xu ’21
Call to the Community: Support the Asian-American Initiative
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hile Davidson College has a 5.2 percent Asian student population—congruent with America’s 5.8 percent Asian population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau—and offers East Asian, South Asian, and even Chinese Studies, an important distinction between Asian and Asian-American needs to be made. The Asian-American experience is one that is, by nature, bound to diaspora and citizenship. Its specificities include the reception of Asian-Americans as perpetual foreigners— the idea that they are not American no matter how many generations removed—and/or as the model minority: quiet, hard-working, and apolitical. The Asian-American identity is one that has been allowed to “pass” by assimilating into American society and by fitting American notions of “good citizenship.” However, assimilation entails losing one’s own culture and identity to the dominant culture and reinforces the idea of hierarchical cultures, with that of America as more superior to others. Even being allowed to pass as the model minority or not is contingent upon how it benefits oppressors. Asian-Americans are considered the model minority when said status can be manipulated to pit them against other marginalized identities; at the same time, they remain a minority and are discriminated against, systematically oppressed, and excluded from the American narrative. Asian-American is also a pan-ethnic identity and diverse in its range of experiences. It admittedly has its own inter-ethnic differences, like wealth disparities and colorism. Asian-American Studies addresses these specificities, out of the many others, and their day-to-day manifestations. It illuminates the often-neglected collective past
of Asians in America, such as Chinese indentured servitude, Japanese-American internment, the Vietnam War, and post-1965 South Asian immigration. By historicizing Asian-American injustices, it opens up new understandings of the contemporary Asian-American experience and equips Asian-Americans with the tools to comprehend and vocalize their own personal politics, as well as those of other Asian ethnicities.
“The need for Asian-American Studies on on our campus has driven students to demand it, just as any waves of students before have.” Additionally, it counteracts the deep internalization, and therefore trivialization, of Asian-American discrimination, and reminds us all that Asian-American issues are issues. Of course, Asian-American Studies does not serve Asian-Americans alone. It is naturally interdisciplinary and involves the Anthropology, Arts, Dance, English, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Political Science, Sociology, and Theatre departments, as well as Diasporic, Queer, and Transnational Studies, to name a few. It informs the deepened understanding of not only Asian-Americans but also of other marginalized and/or fluid identities. As Edlie L. Wong demonstrated in last month’s “Slavery and Violence in the Archive” panel, Asian-American
Studies invites the examination of Afro-Asian relations—for example, between Chinese indentured servants and transatlantic slaves. As spectacular of a job as East Asian, South Asian, and Chinese Studies do with their disciplines, their focus is on continental Asia. These departments are not equipped enough to address so much of the Asian-American experience and are also too regionally specific to encompass the pan-ethnic identities and inter-ethnic relations included in Asian-American Studies. Granted, while we do have some Asian-American faculty members, we must question how many are tenured and permanently available to students. More importantly, as much as they can offer through their personal experiences, being of the identity does not make one a specialist in the studies of it. The need for Asian-American Studies on our campus has driven students to demand it, just as many waves of students before have. The efforts of the most recent wave, including students from the classes of ’16 to ’18, took the form of administrative demands and an independent study that culminated in the website “ExpectAsian.” Now, demands have manifested once again in the newly established Asian-American Initiative (AAI), whose goals are twofold. First, AAI seeks to introduce Asian-American Studies to all students and to demonstrate student interest and a model for an Asian-American course through our Dialogue Series with reading discussions, film screenings, and visiting lecturers. The last discussion hosted thirty-three students, making up more than a full class at Davidson. The Dialogue Series speaks to AAI’s second and ultimate goal of establishing
Asian-American Studies through hiring tenure-track Asian-American Studies specialists, including the college’s only Asian-American Studies specialist and two-year contracted visiting professor of Davidson’s only Asian-American Studies course, Dr. Yurika Tamura. Especially prior to AAI, Asian-American students have expressed sentiments of not knowing other Asian-American students, of only being able to feel the strongest sense of belonging and affinity within other communities of people of color, of the lack of education about themselves, and/or of political passivity on their parts. Thus, the introduction of AAI is not only about Asian-American social justice but also the strengthening of the Asian-American identity and community at Davidson. Yet, regardless of the formation of AAI and student commitment to Asian-American Studies, it is not the responsibility of students to take on the time commitment and emotional labor of educating ourselves and others outside of our regular coursework and full-time role as students. Our institution needs to begin compensating for its lack of a unified Asian-American community, knowledgeable Asian-American role models, and support in academic and personal resources that are catered to Asian-American needs. Cathy Xu ’21 is undeclared from Shanghai, China. Contact her at caxu@davidson. edu.
Jalin Jackson ’19 (Response to Lizzie Kane ’22)
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hould free speech or Davidson whiteness be our focus? Is free speech an issue at Davidson? Some white people often respond to this with predictable perspectives. One person may agree that free speech at Davidson College is indeed under attack, citing student unwillingness to tolerate a guest speaker with discriminatory beliefs as evidence. Another might advocate for allowing a speaker to come regardless of their beliefs: as long as someone from the College invited them, then the Davidson community should yield. Yet another person might initially take a vague middle stance, pointing out the flaws of the former two perspectives, only to conjure up a supposedly objective notion of respectability. This third person concedes that perspectives like pro-Nazism do not deserve respect, but also denounces those who protest such malicious rhetoric in a manner that does not meet his definition of respectful disagreement. These three perspectives I mention have arisen many times in The Davidsonian, and elsewhere, over the past few years alone. And in short, these common responses are a contemporary symptom of the ignorance, privilege, and comfortability that plague our campus. It is an illusion that the Davidson community thinks homogeneously. Davidson students claim otherwise when some people express offense at the idea of inviting to campus a speaker whose views discriminate against aspects of their identity. It is ludicrous, though, to believe that turning away a guest speaker or being more selective in choosing speakers fosters homogenous thinking on campus. If the college doesn’t already promote a plurality of ideas and productive conversation, it’s because we’re a predominantly white institution from tip to toe. Even if I would like white Davidson students to think like me in some regards, I cannot even say I know what white people here think about topics of oppression, given how many are silent in learning spaces, absent from dialogues about discrimination, MIA from guest speaker events not required for class or about marginalized identities, and yet ever-present for random political conversations at on-campus parties most nights of the week. In her recent op-ed “Buckle Up, It’s College,” President
Should Free Speech or Davidson Whiteness Be Our Focus? Quillen promoted asking tough questions about the world and oneself throughout the college learning experience. She beautifully concludes the piece: “When our well-intentioned efforts to create safe classrooms preclude the risk-taking that free inquiry requires, we shackle our children in a world of shadows.” But what constitutes academic “safety” and what role does one’s identity play in defining it? At Davidson, a safe classroom is one where students have the privilege to remain comfortable via engagement with or disengagement from course materials because of their identity. For example, a biology class that mentions Charles Darwin without discussing eugenics would constitute a safe learning space for everyone. I, as a black male, am familiar with the vestiges of scientific racism, as white faculty directly questioned my intelligence and behavior throughout grade school. A white student would not have experienced racial discrimination in the U.S., and thus could remain comfortable avoiding a discussion about racist science. At a place like Davidson, safe classrooms are both readily available and always full of comfortable white students. While all faculty have a responsibility to teach about identity discrimination in some form, we students need to also hold ourselves accountable for letting professors get away with coddling us in classrooms. In the past, when Davidson community members invited speakers with distasteful viewpoints related to marginalized identities, handfuls of students have protested or caused disruption during or near the event. After these protests is when student discomfort rears its head. Comments like “The students could have just ignored the speaker instead,” or “They should have done it in a more respectable manner” are some common signs of said discomfort. Nevertheless, those who want to discuss the idea of respectability should not forget the power dynamics behind it. Respectability has long been a tool for the afraid—those afraid of losing a privilege, those afraid of too radical change, those afraid of challenge. There was a time when the FBI classified Black Lives Matter as a “black identity extremist” organization. Colin Kaepernick gives NFL fans aneurysms at the sight of him taking a knee
during the national anthem. Before criticizing the protestor, one should at least fully educate himself on where the protestor’s grievances originate. No matter how nonviolent the protests are here, there will always be those members of the community who are afraid that things have gone too far. I, for one, don’t think the community has gone far enough.
“Davidson does not have a free speech problem. Davidson has an identity problem.” College campuses are places where young adults learn to think, argue, and act more efficiently as social beings in a diverse world. Still, I am perpetually disappointed with how homogenous (i.e. white) Davidson is in every way possible. I am exhausted asking myself why I don’t see white Davidson men in my classes about black women, or black Davidson men at talks about feminism. I am disinterested in course content that seems oblivious to my existence. Davidson does not have a free speech problem. Davidson has an identity problem. Not only are we failing here to learn about each other’s identities and how others’ experiences might change our worldviews, but so too are we failing by remaining content with Davidson at times when members of our community feel excluded from it because of who they are. If we are all not educating ourselves on race, gender, sexuality, class, religion, ability, health, and so on, then how much damage to our community can a middle finger toward a largely unwelcome presence really do? When free speech at Davidson is the hottest issue on any of our minds regarding problems on campus, the damage is clearly done. Jalin Jackson ’19 is an Africana Studies and Latin American Studies double major from Camden, New Jersey. Contact him at jnjackson@davidson.edu.
Sports
5
Op-Ed: Harmful Fan Behavoir Must Be Addressed MICHI LACORTE ‘22 GUEST SPORTS WRITER
A
few weeks ago, I was at the men’s home basketball game versus Rhode Island. I was sitting in the student section and a group of students - some of whom were members of the football team - and alumni in front of me exhibited deep disrespect to both Rhode Island’s players and to women. They were using social media to look up the opposing team members’ sister’s, girlfriend’s, and mom’s names, then shouting comments about these women with the intention of insulting the opposing team’s. These actions were wildly inappropriate, offensive, and creepy. Trash talk may seem harmless to many, maybe even just a ritual of the sports fan, but these students were being blatantly sexist. These students specifically targeted women. These actions contribute to the larger narrative that insulting the women in a man’s life is insulting to the man, based on the idea that women are not their own people, but instead the property of men. It’s objectifying and dehumanizing. Additionally, these comments targeted women as sexual objects making the situation even worse. The students’ actions play into the harmful narrative that glorifies women’s purity, pushing the idea that women are most
valuable as untouched “virgins.” Furthermore, most of the players on Rhode Island’s team were black, while most of the students making these comments were white. Black women disproportionately experience violence against them. This includes sexual violence, physical violence, and psychological violence like the kind of verbal harassment that these Davidson students were participating in. I felt compelled to do something, so I wrote a letter to President Carol Quillen and Athletic Director Chris Clunie ‘06 describing the event and discussing how Davidson seems to lack any kind of response to microaggressions. Davidson only responds to major incidents such as neo-Nazis or incidents of sexual assault, and the way that Davidson does address sexual assault on campus is clearly rooted in concern for the school’s reputation and not concern for student welfare. In response to the letter, one of the deans and a member of the athletics department met with me. They were very respectful, but the meeting revolved around them explaining to me all of the programs Davidson provides to combat incidents like this. These programs are purley reactionary and not preventative. They also have a focus on sexual assault and for the most part lack any kind of response to
microaggressions which contribute to larger injustices. There are groups in the Davidson community that are working hard to address injustices on campus; however, since their events are not mandatory, they rarely reach the people who need to hear them the most. An example of this lack of outreach is how the college addressed the students who were involved in the event. I spoke to a member of the football team and he told me that when their coach did talk to them about the incident, he didn’t address it in the magnitude that was required, which speaks to the lack of knowledge members of the Davidson community has about the weight of microaggressions. The response to my inquiries about the nature of this incident were unsatisfactory at best, problematic at worst--they alluded to the college’s commitment to a high standard for its athletes and an assurance that verbal warning would be enough of a punitive measure. They are another example that shows how the efforts Davidson is making to improve the community are motivated by making a good reputation for the school and not actually addressing the systems of injustice that harm students. Why should athletes be held to a higher standard when it comes to committing hate crimes? Doesn’t any hate crime—regardless
of who it is committed by—harm students? There is a solution for this. I don’t have a complete answer, but the solution is based in ensuring that all students are educated around what actions and language is problematic and harmful. Davidson needs to address both how it educates students, and its motivation for creating a safe and conscious community. Ensuring the comfort and safety of all students should the primary goal of an academic institution, and reputation should follow, but at Davidson reputation trumps student comfort and safety. Davidson’s lack of educating its students on how microaggressions impact larger issues of injustice leads to the environment that I witnessed in the student section at the basketball game on February 6th. I write this not to reprimand students and staff at Davidson College, but to call the community to action. I know that my perspectives alone cannot see all that needs to change on campus. No single perspective can fix this issue in our community. If anyone, and by anyone, I mean everyone (may I remind you that we all have a part in the narrative) has input on how these changes can be made, I encourage you to speak up. Michi is a First-Year student at Davidson. Contact her at milacorte@davidson.edu.
Talented Freshmen, Stellar Play For Golf Team
S
HARRISON TURNER‘22 SPORTS WRITER
Weekly Sports Update
pring sports have arrived, signaling the beginning of the second half of the season for our golfers. With the addition of some key freshmen, including Viraj Garewal ‘22 and Clayton Tribus ‘22, and the continued success coming from the upperclassmen, the ‘Cats have been very successful so far this spring. The biggest takeaways from the season thus far have been the gradual improvement from the freshman and the team’s overall performance. The team took the first two tournaments of the season (Wexford Invitational and Fort Lauderdale Intercollegiate) to get back in the groove of tournament play. Tribus said, “We didn’t play great at either tournament, but a lot of the guys felt like their game was close to being really good.” The team finished fifth of nineteen and sixth of twelve in each tournament respectively; however, the scores from each player improved from the week before, and improved once again a week later in Pinehurst. Two weekends ago, the Cats competed at the Pinehurst Intercollegiate, where both as a member of the team and as an individual Tribus took home first place. With fourteen teams competing in the tournament, the Cats finished +7 with the next best team putting up a score of +36. Although there were many key
contributions from sophomore Alex Ross ‘21 and seniors Hoke Carlton ‘19 and Jack Lang ‘19, the star of the weekend was undoubtedly Tribus, who won his first ever college tournament. Tribus (67, 72, 71) finished with a combined score of 210 (-3), outdueling a plethora of older and more experienced players on Pinehurst no. 8, one of the hardest courses the team will play all season. Tribus focused on how important to him the team’s success was: “I was just trying to help my team as best as I could, we are trying to earn an at-large bid to the NCAAs so we need some strong finishes as a team to make that possible.” Tribus commented, “Winning was very gratifying and definitely wasn’t something I predicted happening as a freshman, but it’s something to build off of for the rest of the season.” Tribus has shown a tremendous start and is now looking to be a staple for the men’s team for years to come. When asked about the process of the season and how being a freshman has affected his patience and growth as a college golfer, Tribus said: “In Fort Lauderdale, I got a bit better every day. I could tell my game was starting to get really sharp, and it all came together the week after at Pinehurst.” Just this past weekend, the team finished second at the Furman Invitational, which hosted over twenty teams from different conferences across the country. The team finished -3
Sand Save: Senior Mike Blasey ‘19 cleanly strikes the ball on his sand shot during the golf team’s tournament at Pinehurst. Photo Courtesy of Tim Cowie at DavidsonPhotos.com overall, posting a total combined score of 849. Carlton (71, 69, 68) and Lang (71, 71, 69) finished 3rd and 5th respectfully on the individual side of things. Ross (69, 71, 79) and the two aforementioned freshmen also posted solid scores throughout the weekend, contributing to the ‘Cats’ success over the weekend. This was the biggest tournament the team has been apart of thus far in the spring, so post-
Match of the Week Tennis (W) On Sunday March 31st. the Davidson Women’s team will compete in a match against Richmond at the Covington Tennis facility. The team currenlty boasts an 8-7 record, and Richmond, the ‘Cats opponent, holds a 7-6 record. It should be a tight battle between evenly matched teams. The match begins at 1:00 pm. The Wildcats are led by freshman phenom Elizabeth Truluck ‘12 whose stellar play has already been rewarded with two A-10 Women’s tennis player of the week awards. Come on out Sunday and support the ‘Cats!
ing a second place finish is big accomplishment for the ‘Cats, proving they can compete with teams outside of the conference. After winning the A-10 a year ago, the ‘Cats look primed to repeat and take first once again. If the freshmen remain consistent, and the upperclassmen continue to stay focused, the team may compete in regionals once again after taking home the A-10 conference crown.
Wildcat Statistics: Lacrosse 2019 Scoring
Player
Braeden Dial ‘22 Gianna New ‘22 Sam Rippley ‘21 Emily Weld ‘22 Sophia Sgroi ‘19 Sarah Kopp ‘19 Olivia Carey ‘21
G
A
PTS
19 16 15 14 14 11 8
9 3 7 4 2 0 14
29 19 22 18 16 11 22
Arts and Culture
6
Homecoming: VAC Celebrates 25 Years CAROLINA ADAMS ‘19 ART CORRESPONDENT Asking directions to the Davidson College Art Galleries over twenty-five years ago would have sent you to Chambers, where the College’s “exhibition space” consisted of a dark, cramped hallway located in the basement of the building. My own art history professors love to recount stories of the old days, when the entire art department consisted of two tiny, inadequate rooms located in the antiquated music building. Much has changed over the years, but echoes of the past reverberate in present-day celebrations and landmarks for the college’s art program. In fact, this academic year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Katherine and Tom Belk Visual Arts Center. In honor of this significant milestone, Homecoming: Art by Alumni showcases the work of eight alumni artists who graduated between 1993 and 2018. Homecoming is the first curated group exhibition of its kind since the Visual Arts Center opened its doors in 1993, and it does not disappoint. For Lia Newman, the director of the Van Every/Smith Galleries, the idea for the exhibition came from a desire to illustrate the impact the Visual Arts Center has had on both the college and the students that the building has had the privilege to intersect with during the past twenty-five years. Also, it was essential to Newman that the chosen works reflect the same caliber of art that is typically on view in the galleries. The works in Homecoming encompass a variety of media, from sculptural installations and photography to wallpaper and excerpts from a graphic novel. What appeared to me to be traditional artistic conversations within this variety of media, are in reality elevated by disciplined processes inherent in the works and a connection to the human body.
Each work successfully conveys the notion that the human body is central to how we understand facets of identity. I admit that at first glance this motif may not be apparent to the common visitor. After all, few of the artworks on view actually depict a human figure. However, as Homecoming unfolds, it is evident that each artist alludes to the human body in their own unique way, and that this common motif transforms into a powerful way of understanding various facets of identity. For example, the exhibition opens with Russ White’s work titled Police Lines, a jarring wallpaper patterned with angry orange eyeballs. White, who graduated in 2004, pulls for this work from Neighborhood Watch signs he saw in his own Min-
Homecoming displayed in Davidson’s Van Every/Smith Galleries. Photo by Olivia Forrester ‘22. neapolis neighborhood and satirizes the complicated theme of surveillance and policed bodies, as well as the somber national mood when it comes to our relationship with law enforcement. Lending a touch of levity to the theme of surveillance that appears again in the interactive works of Chris Rackley ‘00, Rackley’s two pieces on view revel in the weird and unexpected qualities created when art meets science-fiction. Rackley began as a figure painter during his studio practice at Davidson, but was drawn to incorporating his interest in physics and love of tinkering with found objects into his art. Rackley’s Walk in Crater incorporates live video feeds that encourage viewers to observe themselves playing in uninhabited, dystopian “spacescapes.” Other pieces in the show revisit themes of surveillance, discarded and found objects, and the accessibility of social spaces. The artists’ hands are visible in varying degrees throughout the exhibition, but each work successfully conveys the notion that the human body is central to how we understand facets of identity such as gender, disability, and class. Despite the sometimes-vague references to the human body, Homecoming comes together as an eclectic yet polished exhibition of artworks by Davidson alumni. All of this to say, I cannot help but reflect on the timeliness of this triumphant homecoming. Twenty-five years of the Belk
Visual Arts Center and its celebratory exhibition of alumni artists is an important milestone for the college. However, current students will have the chance to leave their own mark on the arts program at Davidson with the annual student showcases that will close out the 2018-19 exhibition season. At present, the Smith Gallery directly across the hall from Homecoming is host to senior studio art majors’ exhibitions through April 19. These solo exhibitions reflect hundreds of hours spent in the studio, a rite of passage for our current studio art majors and Homecoming participants alike. The Van Every/ Smith Art Galleries, under the auspices of the Department of Art and Art History, have been a vital aspect of the cultural landscape of Davidson since their inception a quarter of a century ago. The galleries provide a space for critical engagement with art and pedagogy, bringing together historical scholarship and contemporary artistic practices. Student artists are a part of the history of this building, and I am sure that our Visual Arts Center will cultivate generations of artists and art historians to come.
Carolina Adams ‘19 is an Art History Major from Atlanta, GA. She can be reached for comment at caadams@davidson.edu
Cartoonist Richard Farrell ‘22 Explores “Visual Storytelling“
Workshop: Ali Fitzgerald ‘04 RICHARD FARRELL ‘22 ART CORRESPONDENT The Visual Storytelling Workshop, led by writer, artist, and Davidson alumna Ali Fitzgerald ‘04, was an interactive exploration of the phenomenon of visual narrative. From the Homecoming currently in the VAC, to the Zine Fest being held in early April, this workshop is one of many events highlighting the importance of graphic arts at Davidson.
Drawings, though powerful in a visual narrative, are malleable and delicate. Fitzgerald expanded on the importance of line, shape, abstraction, form, and lighting to create a visually cohesive and engaging story. Through a series of prompts, the participants practiced the strategies she shared in an effort to more intentionally communicate themes and characters in a story. Dramatic changes can be accomplished through small artistic decisions. Visual indica-
tors such as lines around a face, a raised eyebrow, or the posture of a figure suggest character, storyline, and motivation. Ali Fitzgerald drew one image, and as we suggested themes, she tweaked her drawing. This exercise resulted in one character taking on drastically different themes, emotions, and activities. Fitzgerald’s demonstration showcased that drawings, though extremely powerful in a visual narrative, are malleable and delicate. Another creative exercise involved writing our responses to five simple questions, such as “What was the last compliment you received?” or “What is one conversation you’ve recently overheard?” The responses were set aside, and several artistic prompts were introduced, asking us to draw subjects such as the last thing we dreamed about or something we had witnessed that day. Then, in groups, we shared our written and artistic responses. The goal was to arrange them into one story, with the use of the written responses as captions for the drawings. This was not only an entertaining activity, but it also allowed us to work backward from the drawings, establishing a story from the imagery rather than creating imagery from a story.
Graphic narrative produced in workshop. Illustration by Richard Farrell ‘22. The result was not a disjointed collection of different pieces, but a collaborative synthesis of work. Having a story stemming from imagery was a really exciting and refreshing prospect. I love narrative art, but I notice that I often get caught up in the overarching story that I am attempting to communicate, rather than allowing myself the freedom to start with the imagery and form the story around it. Ali Fitzgerald’s activity provided an opportunity to do just that. Finally, we were encouraged to create a story between two panels, emphasizing the theme
of love. Other than these simple parameters, Fitzgerald allowed us significant freedom to draw whatever we wanted and use one of the transitions to communicate a story about love. I chose an action-to-action transition and created a drawing of a garden gnome’s unrequited love for a toad.
Richard Farrell is an undecided major from Princeton, NJ. He can be reached at rifarrell@davidson.edu
Et Cetera
7
Sociology Class Analyzes Racism at Davidson
The Performance of Wokeness. That’s what I have been calling the act of expressing concern for social problems without making any effort to ameliorate or solve social problems. When the Neo-Nazi commentary surfaced, the outpouring of concern and, for some, shock, was admirable. But, beyond the immediate
weeks, how would we respond? Beyond simply demonstrating against what transpired, would we make systematic efforts towards a better racial climate? Some of us still live with the horror of knowing that there is a slice of Davidson College, in its past and present, that harbors and nurtures white supremacy, the
same kind of white supremacy that underpins what happened in Christchurch, New Zealand. In our Contemporary Race Theory course, we wanted to find a way to remind ourselves of how we felt the day the Neo-Nazi comments were brought to light. With these excerpts from our class writings, we hope we can re-
engage the campus in thinking about how to create a community in which we all belong. -Dr. Joseph Ewoodzie (Below are excerpts from student op-eds written in Dr. Ewoodzie’s Contemporary Race Theory course last fall. To view the full versions, visit www.thedavidsonian.com).
RANDI GEFFREY ‘20
SERENA SEWELL ‘19
CHLOE DEBEUS ‘21
I have had ties to four mass shootings in my lifetime. The first incident occurred in October of 2011, when I was 12. In my hometown of Seal Beach, California, eight people were killed, making it the deadliest mass killing in Orange County history. My best friends lost their mothers, one of whom I revered as my second mother. I will never forget this day and the weeks that followed. The second incident occurred last October in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Route 91 Harvest Music Festival was the deadliest mass shooting in the United States committed by an individual. Nearly all of my friends who remained in southern California attended this festival, including my parents. They all survived, but my next-door neighbors, parents of a two-month-old newborn, did not. I will never forget this day and the weeks that followed. The fourth massacre occurred less than two weeks after the third one on November 7th of this year. On this night, Thousand Oaks, California mourned the loss of thirteen loved ones. Parents, forced to bury their children, begged for gun control rather than condolences. I lost my friends and high school classmates. I will never forget this day and the weeks that have followed. I have carried each of these mass shootings around with me every day, but none of them weigh me down as much as the third one.
Dear President Carol Quillen, I am writing to you in hopes that you will acknowledge your unconscious complacency and understand my marginalization just as I understand your positionality. Do you remember what you said in your initial email to campus? Well, let me remind you. You said, “I want you to know that our campus is safe. There are no threats to campus, and our staff are addressing this situation. We have no greater priority than the safety and wellbeing of our community” But I ask you, whose safety? Because our safety has never been
I believe white students were there [at the rally] to reassure themselves and to prove to others they stand against white supremacy and bigotry. But showing up to the rally and remaining complacent afterwards still perpetuates white supremacy. Your presence at that rally is barely a sign of defiance—it is being a decent human being. To deconstruct white supremacy, we have to be active in our dissonance. But I know my white peers do not care to go out of our comfort zone. Why should we choose to understand an oppression that our presence perpetuates? Our whiteness exists because of the exploitation of black and brown bodies. Davidson itself still profits from that exploitation. To defy that structural exploitation embedded within Davidson’s existence, we need to stand with our peers. Our whiteness will continue to exist if we defend non-white students on campus. Additionally, our privilege and safety will continue to exist. However, our empathy and human decency ceases to exist the moment we turn our backs on our peers, and some of us have already turned. We only showed up to the rally to perform our duty of the white ally we love to claim. The best part about being an ally is you can forget. The privilege of safety allows us to forget about the event without personal repercussions. We only responded on such a large scale to this event because the neo-Nazi questioned our privilege of safety. How unsafe were we, really? We feared a general threat of violence on campus, but our identity remained unthreatened. White students’ fear faded quickly because it was not connected to our identity and our personhoo
I have carried each of these mass shootings around with me every day. The third incident occurred on October27th in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the Tree of Life synagogue. It was a Saturday, meaning the Shabbat morning service would commence at 9:45am. My cousin, Daniel, was volunteering for this service. At 9:45am, the service began, and by 9:50am the gunman had already entered the synagogue and begun firing. Nine minutes later, the police arrived. But it was already too late for eleven victims, including Daniel who was hiding in the kitchen with his friend Richard Gottfried. I knew none of this information until later that night.
Safety is reserved almost exclusively for those Davidson College was designed to benefit. the greatest priority of this institution. Safety is reserved almost exclusively for those Davidson College was designed to benefit. We don’t feel safe because this campus has never been safe for us. Your initial statement, and several others, made those of us who are systematically marginalized concerned for our well-being, but also our right to be recognized as autonomous beings worthy of existence, security, and advocacy by this institution. Whether it was a Jewish, Black, Latino, Asian, Muslim, or Queer person reading your email, we felt somewhat excluded from the safety that you as a representation of the historical legacy of this institution falsely ensure. So, I went on a quest to contextualize our fear, the fear of the marginalized. After hours of digging through Davidson’s archives, I found several instances that represent how marginalized individuals are not privy to the safety that Davidson claims. Here are just a few. A Davidsonian headline stating, “Spike Lee Promotes New Film on Campus: Bomb Threat Forces Event to be Moved to Johnston Gym Minutes Prior to Speech” (Koonce, 1992). The initiative to bring Spike Lee, a prominent African-American filmmaker, was met with the physical threat to himself and all marginalized individuals as a whole. So, I ask you again President Quillen, when has Davidson ever been safe for us?
Day 1
To deconstruct white supremacy, we have to be active in our dissonance.
To protect and support minority students on campus, we as white people need to stand against our ignorance. It will make this campus safer for the people who need it. If you want to be a good ally, first you must stop thinking how you can live up to the title of ally.
Day 3
Day 5
Victor Ouko ‘20 I did not really think through these outfits. The formal outfit was because I had an interview that morning. I shop for all my clothes once a year and most of the thinking is done then. I try to imagine what the year would look like and try get outfits that I think would go with it. It takes me weeks to get this done. Plus, I buy all of it online and only go to actual stores to try them out and figure out which one fits best. Honestly, I doubt if anyone has time to think through their daily outfit. We all tend to just grab what’s clean on that day. Anyways, we are all slightly damaged on the inside, try hide that under a good outfit.
The
Davidsonian Staff Editors in Chief News Editors Perspectives Editors Arts and Culture Editors Sports Editors Photography Editor Yowl Editors Design Editor Web Editor Art Editor Features Editor Copy Editors
Ethan Ehrenhaft ‘20, Katie Walsh ‘20 Hope Anderson ‘22, Emma Pettit ‘20 Raven Hudson ‘21, Lizzie Kane ‘22 Alyssa Tirrell ‘22 Drew Eastland ‘21, Max Pearson ‘22 Olivia Forrester ‘22 Malorie Hudson ‘22, EJ Kelley ‘20 Sebastian Sola-Sole ‘21 Jake Carver ‘21 Richard Farrell ‘22 Caroline Roy ‘20 Sarah Austin ‘21, Lindy Bustabad ‘21, Susannah Cate ‘20, Adam Ferraz ‘20, Yashi Gunawardena ‘19
Day 2
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Belk Scholar Candidate Reportedly Unable To Work Union Gym Elliptical Page 2400
March 27, 2019
First Years Now Required to Pay Fee to Admissions if They Want a Cool Prospie Page 4
Carrigan Farms to Begin Yearly Crusade to Show Just Little They Care about Liability Page 13
The Prospective Issue
Cynical Senior Who Told Prospective Student “Don’t Come to this Hell-Hole” Must be Fun at Parties Page 46
Belk Scholarship Candidates Somehow Able to Figure Out Chambers Room Numbering Logic in Just One Day Page Inconsistency
Can You Match These Seniors To the Corresponding Cohort Needed To Complete Their Theses?
Trendy, relatable twitter formats like those above are known to attract students.
Report: Admissions Office Received Late Surge in Applicants After College’s Twitter Account “Popped Off” with Memes OFFICE OF ADMISSIONS –– “Stunned” was the word Dean of Admissions Christopher Gruber used when asked about the last-minute flurry of emails his office received from current high school seniors in the week after decisions were sent out across the country for Davidson College’s Class of 2023. Current estimates suggest that over 200 students contacted the Admissions Office in hopes of having a late application considered by the college. The catalyst that prompted this bizarre surge in post-deadline pleas from desperate prospective students was none other than the recent rebranding campaign undertaken by Davidson College’s official twitter account. The account, which has over 11,000 followers, has been revolutionized in the past few weeks. Employing memes, popular twitter joke formats, and a distinct colloquial voice in its social media communications, the account has attracted the attention of not only the Davidson community, but student around the nation. High school senior and Charlotte, NC native, Jake Evans, who up until last week was planning on attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told The Yowl that he became enamored with Davidson and its Twitter savvy when a tweet (pictured above) about two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry came across his timeline.
Said Evans, “I saw the tweet, which capitalized on the popular ‘literally no one:’ format, and instantly thought ‘Wow, now this is a school that’s seriously in touch with the younger generation, a school that just gets us.’ 50 retweets and 250 likes? You only see those type of numbers at a place that likes to have a good time, man. I knew the deadline to apply was way past, but I just had to email them and see if there was any way I could get in late off a waitlist or something.” Evans’ sentiments were echoed by like-minded students across the nation, all captivated by the relatable, jocular Twitter image carefully curated by the social media-savvy operators of @DavidsonCollege. One such student described the account’s #ManCrushMonday tweet (pictured above) about the school’s new mascot, Lux, as “exactly how schools should be connecting with their undergrads,” commending the college for its “embrace of mascot-positivity and willingness to celebrate perfectly-chiseled physique in all forms.” At press time, the Admissions Office was still struggling with how exactly to deal with the masses of students begging for a place in the Class of 2023. One considered proposal included having each of the 200 latecomers tweet out a gif that best describes their enthusiasm for Davidson, with those five students receiving the most likes being offered admission.
Time for Yowl puzzle of the week. As graduation draws near, seniors turn to Facebook to plea for participates in their concluding acedmic endevours. See if you can match the following seniors to the correct demographic they searched for on the Davidson College 2018-2019 Facebook group page. If you do not match all seven correctly, every senior listed fails. Answers will be revealed never and winners will be given VIP access to Webtree Cheat Codes. 1. Brad Jennings: Music Theory major from Long Island with a special interest in fire safety. 2. Sarah Habash: created her own major (Female Health Studies in 19th Century Germany) with this specific survey in mind. 3. Nicholas Spare: a Sociology major that spends a specious amount of time in Nummit without ever purchasing coffee. 4.George Bob: Political Science major and Woah! His Facebook profile picture is him with the govenor of North Carolina. How Legit! 5.Emily Vole: History major who is need of a glass of wine, some pizza, a nap and for you to complete this qucik 5 minute survey! 6.Micheal Selva: Yikes! This Anthropology major posted his survey request at 3 in the morning and will close the survey at 8 P.M. of the same day. 7. Summer Crawford: Psychology major who transferred here her sophomore year. Participants in this survey win a $25 giftcard to her dad’s restaurant in New York. A. Participants in this study must be ages 25-40, have a masters in Education, love the Beatles and held their wedding in the American West. B. This senior is looking for all the guys who use to work in your dad’s office. C. Survey participants should be Sophomores that go to public unversities with student populations that range from 2,000 to 3,000 , 5,050 to 7,000 and 31,000 to 32,000. Participants must also pass an online drug test. D.Calling all basketball fans who enjoy listening to Fleetwood Mac while eating peanut butter on Sundays. YOUR VOICE IS NEEDED! E. Interesting, this survey just seems like a desperate facade by a rising junior to find a cluster to fill their Tommy Pod. (srsly, plz respond soon). F. In search of male college students who are the youngest child in their family, did theatre in high school and have volunteered for a political campaign in the past six months. E. Literally anyone who has ever breathed just click this link.
RLO to Consider Using Buzzfeed Quizzes To Pair Roommates CHAMBERS 3068 –– At last Thursday’s sparsely attended SGA meeting, Davidson’s Residence Life Office announced that it is considering a partnership with Buzzfeed aimed at developing a more effective system for pairing incoming first years with their roommates. Citing problems with the ever-controversial Myers-Briggs test, Area Coordinator Heather Harris explained the reasoning behind the proposition. “Placing people together based on four arbitrary criteria just isn’t working out anymore,” stated Harris, referencing the measurements of extraversion/introversion, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling, and judgement/perception. “That’s why I’m all for launching this innovative new initiative, which will pair people based on results from
The
Yowl
a plethora of Buzzfeed personality quizzes.” The new assessment would take into account results from quizzes such as ‘How Well Do You Really Know Season 6 of Friends?’, ‘What Type of Pizza Are You Based on The Color of The Shirt You’re Wearing?’ And ‘Which Iconic ‘00s Teen Movie Do You Actually Belong In?’ Responses to the new assessment have been generally positive. Sophomore Jim Hurley commented, “My roommate and I don’t get along at all, even though we’re both ENTJ’s. If only we had taken the ‘Which Font Are You’ quiz, then RLO would have known better than to place Louis––who is clearly a comic sans––with a century gothic like myself.” Research indicates that the questions posed
WRITERS Whomst Whom Who Whaaaaaaaaa (Help)
QUOTE OF THE WEEK “I am assuming that someone here has a source of adderall...that is legal.” -Someone Who Doesn’t Read The Yowl
in Buzzfeed quizzes are actually much bettersuited to the task of roommate assignment than those associated with Myers-Briggs.
“My roommate and I don’t get along at all, even though we’re both ENTJ’s. If only we had taken the ‘Which Font Are You’ quiz, then RLO would have known better than to place Louis––who is clearly a comic sans––with a century gothic like myself.” “MB asks things like how punctual you are, where you stand at parties, and whether or not you obey laws,” explained Psychology major Karissa Katz ‘20. “With Buzzfeed, there’s a lot more variety. Some quizzes ask
you to choose your favorite picture of Kanye West. Others question what matters most to you: family, adventure, memes, et cetera. One guessed my favorite color based off of my astrological sign, and it was right! When it comes down to something as important as who you’re living with for an entire year, it’s important to ask the questions that matter.” Sources say that if this initiative goes well, the college may integrate Buzzfeed-type programs into other aspects of Davidson culture. Rumored projects include restructuring the Phi-Eu debates to be conducted online solely through the use of gifs from The Office, requiring professors to lecture students solely through relatable videos, and replacing the 4-point GPA system with a rank-order emoji model.
Weekly Horoscope Regardless of Astrological Sign
With Mars and Aries both in retrograde, I never thought that it’d be so simple but I found a way, I found a way. I always thought that it’d be too crazy but I found a way, I found a way. If you open up your mind. See what’s inside. It’s gonna take some time to realize. But if you look inside, I’m sure you’ll find. Over your shoulder you know that I told you I’ll always be pickin’ you up when you’re down. So just turn around. Now that I know that anything’s possible, I found a way, I found a way. No one can break what’s so unbreakable I found a way, I found a way. If you open up your mind. See what’s inside. It’s gonna take some time to realize.
Note: The Yowl is a satirical supplement to The Davidsonian. Hence, nothing in it should be taken as truth.