T HE F LAT H AT
Vol. 113, Iss. 12 | Wednesday, November 8, 2023
The Weekly Student Newspaper
of The College of William and Mary
FINDING COMMUNITY AMIDST CONFLICT
GRAPHIC BY EMMA HENRY / THE FLAT HAT
flathatnews.com | @theflathat
RYAN GOODMAN AND JULIANA GOMIEN / THE FLAT HAT
Students, organizations participate in on-campus fundraising, walk-outs, vigils after heightened tensions arise between Israel, Palestine
MOLLY PARKS AND ANNA ARNSBERGER // THE FLAT HAT
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Flat Hat has decided to honor the requests of several sources and keep their identities anonymous out of protection for their safety and wellbeing. Since Oct. 7, students at the College of William and Mary have shown support for victims of the recent escalation of violence in Israel and Gaza. In the face of, yet inspired by, raw emotion, campus leaders have persisted to find ways to advocate for their communities at the College and abroad. During this period of tension and sensitivity, many Jewish students and those in support of Israel’s actions have felt acknowledged and uplifted by the College’s administration. However, many Palestinian and Muslim students have noticed an isolating absence of outspoken administrative support. Students, faculty, staff and administrators have organized various vigils, community gatherings, fundraisers and demonstrations to stand in solidarity with both Israel and Palestine. Over the past month, student organizations have been tabling to raise money for various relief funds, including Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, Palestinian Red Crescent Society and Magen David Adom. Oct. 10, the College’s Hillel, Chabad, Alpha Epsilon Pi and Tribe for Israel organizations co-sponsored a vigil uniting for Israel at the Sir Christopher Wren Building. Oct. 17, the College’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine held a community vigil at the Wren Building to commemorate and humanize Palestinian lives. SJP has also organized several campus demonstrations of Palestinian solidarity, including a campus-wide walkout as part of the Oct. 25 National Student Walkout to end the siege on Gaza. These movements on campus follow the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that killed at least 1,400 people and Israel’s continued retaliation that has killed over 10,000 people and intensified a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. This recent escalation of violence has sparked conversations and advocacy across colleges and universities regarding the decades-long Isreali-Palestinian conflict and the Israeli occupation of Gaza.
President of Tribe for Israel Aaron Weinmann ’26 recalled his initial reaction to the Oct. 7 attack. He called his sister and close friends who were in Israel to make sure they were safe. “Rattled would be a word that I would use, and it wasn’t just rattled, but it was more like a petrified feeling, like I was just stuck,” Weinmann said. “Of course, there have been spurs of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the past however many years I’ve been alive. But this time was like one of the first times where I was old enough to really process what was happening, to process the fact that my sister had to run to a bomb shelter, that people getting killed in the music festival were my age.” As students initially grappled with the shock of the Oct. 7 attack, many with personal ties to the region expressed how their perspectives have been shaped by the over 75-year context of the history between Israel and Palestine. One SJP student whose father is originally from Palestine shared her outlook on the violence as someone who has grown up surrounded by discourse on the topic. “I guess it’s just part of growing up as a Palestinian kid is just that hurt and that really sharp realization of what’s actively going on there, even though it’s not happening here. And it makes it kind of difficult to go about your day knowing that things are going on when people aren’t really acknowledging that, which is something that I’ve kind of been feeling in school lately, as well,” the SJP student said. Sam Rubin ’24, president of the College’s Hillel, noted that students’ personal connections and emotions led them to act immediately to find ways to help. “Today is a sad day, and there’s a reason to be sad, and there’s a reason to mourn. And there’s a reason for action. And that’s what we are acting in the moment to do. So it demands action, both from college campuses, both from the Israeli government, from any supporters of Israel or any supporters of Jewish life worldwide,” Rubin said. For several student organizations, this immediate action took the
form of tabling across campus to raise money for relief funds. Tribe for Israel, Hillel, Chabad, Alpha Epsilon Pi and Theta Delta Chi joined together to raise over $3,900 for Magen David Adom, the national medical emergency, disaster, ambulance and blood service of Israel. SJP tabled with emergency bake sales to raise over $4,000 for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund and Palestinian Red Crescent Society. Weinmann shared that although the tabling ran smoothly, there was a moment when people who opposed their actions accosted them. “It was great, we made maybe four times what we expected to make. But of course, there are bumps with tabling and we got accosted a few times, I guess that would be the right word. There was one person that came up and started screaming at us, calling us every name in the book: ‘rapists,’ ‘baby killer,’ ‘murder,’ ‘filthy Zionist.’ And I wasn’t offended by the Zionist part, but everything else definitely bugged me.” Weinmann said. Several members of SJP also recalled an incident at their demonstration on Family Weekend, in which a member of the College community yelled in the face of a student participating in the SJP rally. According to multiple witnesses, the community member pointed in the student’s face and cursed at him. “A member of the community approached one of the students that was demonstrating with us. He yelled expletives at the student, pointed at him, and then walked away,” an SJP student who was at the demonstration said. Oct. 31, Va. Governor Glenn Youngkin signed executive directive six titled, “Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Religious Bigotry and Protecting the Freedom to Worship in the Commonwealth of Virginia.” In the directive, Youngkin directly references the College, citing a WAVY article about the incident that Weinmann mentioned above. See CAMPUS page 3
POLITICS
Virginia State Senate candidates Mason, Diggs discuss policy, opponent strategy State elections to take place on Nov. 7, candidates each respond to recent claims regarding controversial past, extremist groups PEERAWUT RUANGSAWASDI FLAT HAT CHIEF STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, Nov. 7, voters in Virginia will head to the polls to cast their ballot for the House of Delegates, the State Senate and other local elections. The College of William and Mary’s main campus lies in the State Senate’s 24th district. State Sen. Monty Mason ’89, D-Williamsburg, currently represents the district, but faces a challenge from Republican nominee and former longtime York-Poquoson Sheriff Danny Diggs. College President Katherine Rowe encouraged students to participate in this election. “Democracy is a cornerstone of our Vision 2026 strategic plan. Students, alumni, faculty and staff serve as public officials, activists and community builders around the world. They volunteer at polling stations and get out the vote,” Rowe wrote in an email to the campus community Nov. 2. Rowe discussed the significance of the College in terms of voter engagement. “That is one reason W&M is recognized as one of the top voter-engaged campuses in the country. Thank you for casting your ballot,” Rowe wrote. This year, the State Senate race is highly contested and funded, with the candidates raising a nearly combined $9 million,
Inside Opinions
INDEX Profile News Opinions Variety Sports
including almost $5 million spent on political advertisements. The 24th State Senate district, which contains Williamsburg and is within Virginia U.S. House District One, was narrowly carried by Democrat Herb Jones at 50.2% in the 2022 congressional race. In the 2021 governor race, Va. Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, won the area by 3.4%. Mason, who was elected to fulfill the remainder of the late State Sen. John Miller’s term in 2018, is seeking re-election for a full second term. A graduate of the College, Mason received the Young Alumni Service award in 2022. His wife, Pamela Mason J.D. ’00 MBA ’00 currently serves at the College’s chief compliance officer. Mason expressed the reasons he believes College students should vote for him in the upcoming election. “It’s protecting a woman’s right to choose, in light of the Dobbs decision, the Supreme Court has thrown that to the state legislatures. Virginia’s law is very strong and solid as written, and it should not be changed in any way. Seventy-two percent of Virginians agree that the law should remain the same or be less restrictive,” Mason said, citing a poll by Christopher Newport University’s Wason Center. Mason further emphasized the importance of the election in terms of abortion rights. “Any student who cares about women’s
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We need more sidewalks, speed bumps, safety Roswell Miller ’24 argues in favor of increased safety measures in light of recent accident. page 5
reproductive rights should show up and vote in this election,” Mason said. Diggs, who served as sheriff for 23 years, is hoping to unseat Mason. “I’ve been involved in politics for over 30 years, and I’m trying to bring my experience as sheriff to the General Assembly, because my time as sheriff had taught me that we did really need to look for solutions to problems,” Diggs said. “We need to work together with people to make sure that we make their lives better.” At the Get Out the Vote rally at the College this past October, Mason criticized Diggs for using a “culture war” rhetoric and refusing to find a compromise on gun safety issues. Diggs responded by expressing his support for enforcing existing gun laws. He also offered alternatives to new legislation, such as educating kids on gun safety and calling for more aggressive prosecution in gun violence cases. “It’s unfortunate that he would give you such a one-sided position, an unfair position on what my position really is,” Diggs said. “I certainly support the gun laws that we have now and we need to enforce the gun laws we have now.” Diggs then cited Project Exile, a 1990s initiative led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Richmond, as an example of his stance on gun control. “They would go out and they would find people who had guns illegally, use guns illegally, and they arrested those people and prosecuted Inside Variety
A chilling concerto
College’s symphony orchestra holds its annual Halloween concert. page 7
those people to the extent of the law. And within just a few years, the murder rate in Richmond was cut in half just by enforcing our existing laws. So, I’m a big proponent. I was the sheriff for 23 years and a law enforcement officer for 45 years,” Diggs said. Mason and Diggs also differ on the issue of the gas tax. “A couple of years ago, Monty Mason voted to double the gas tax — you know, we could have raised the gas tax incrementally should there have been a need for additional funding of our roads and such,” Diggs said. “In fact, the proof is there that we did not need to double the gas tax and that we just came out with a $5 billion excess tax collection that the Governor gave back a lot of that money in the form of tax rebates and by increasing the standard deduction for folks.” Diggs also criticized the nature of the tax. “It is very difficult for people to make ends meet, and when they have the price of gasoline go up, then they have to choose between, ‘Are we going to eat food, or are we going to pay the electric bill, or would we put gas in our car?’” Diggs said. Mason responded to Diggs’ criticisms. “My opponent says that the widening of [US Route 64] and those two new tunnels, that’s a great project. Then he says, ‘But you know what? I’m going to cut the gas tax,’” Mason said. See POLITICS page 2
Inside Sports
Tribe secures second CAA title, beats Monmouth in 2OT Curran’s hat trick propels Green and Gold to come from behind win. page 9
newsinsight news insight
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News Editor Abigail Connelly News Editor Emma Henry News Editor Daniel Kalish fhnews@gmail.com
THE FLAT HAT | Wednesday, November 8, 2023 | Page 2
THE BUZZ
We have to be able to work together and see each othersʼ humanity and have empathy and compassion amidst our grief and pain.
̶ Wesley House campus minister Max Blalock FLAT HAT NEWS BRIEF
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation announces $600 million campaign, prioritizing preservation, modernization Monday, Oct. 30, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation announced the launch of the centennial campaign for Colonial Williamsburg, “The Power of Place.” The campaignʼs design prioritizes fundraising and increasing awareness for the work and priorities of the Foundation. “The campaign is designed to support numerous projects that inform and inspire people across the country and around the globe in the lead-up to 2026, the year of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the Foundationʼs own 100th anniversary,” the Foundation said in a press-release. Development of the campaign began in January 2020, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Foundation has a $600 million goal in place for the campaign and has already raised over $325 million, with four gifts of $10 million each given by individual donors. Through monetary donations and grants, the campaign prioritizes the fields of preservation, education and civic engagement through restoration and modernization. The foundation aims to raise $150 million in restoration and preservation initiatives that will restore historic sites such as the Colin G. and Nancy N. Campbell Archaeology Center, CW Archaeology, the Williamsburg Bray School and the Historic First Baptist Church. An additional $250 million is allocated for educational purposes through historical theater programming, onsite
programs and partnership with independent research organization Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
READ MORE AT FLATHATNEWS.COM ABIGAIL CONNELLY / FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
A THOUSAND WORDS
MAYER TAWFIK / THE FLAT HAT
CORRECTIONS The Flat Hat wishes to correct any fact printed incorrectly. Corrections may be submitted in email to the editor of the section in which the incorrect information was printed. Requests for corrections will be accepted at any time.
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COURTESY IMAGE / WILLIAM AND MARY HISTORY DEPARTMENT
COURTESY IMAGE / THE FLORIDA BOOKSHELF
Watkins completed his PhD at Kingʼs College, London with his mentor and Queer Studies scholar John Howard after attending a conference in London.
“I teach a lot of gay stuff”
Professor Jay Watkins III discusses career path, freedom to teach queer histories, uncommon topics
AKASH NAYAK // THE FLAT HAT The College of William and Mary’s Harrison Ruffin Tyler Department of History has a storied legacy of providing instruction since 1803. In that time, the department has expanded to teach and research topics ranging from the ancient to the contemporary world. The department’s faculty has been celebrated for its excellence in scholarship and teaching. Among those faculty is associate teaching professor of history Jay Watkins III, who has taught at the College since 2018. At the center of his approach to professorship is discussing engaging topics. “I made a decision really early on that if I can, I won’t teach anything that I don’t want to take,” Watkins said. “And I try to be very aware that if I’m bored, students are even more bored. And so those two things really kind of frame how I, how I construct classes, how I teach.” Having grown up in what he likes to refer to as “The Redneck Riviera,” Watkins’ hometown of Panama City, Florida was the start of his long connection to the South, evident from his 2018 book, “Queering the Redneck Riviera: Sexuality and the Ride of Florida Tourism.” But having that connection does not mean that Watkins’ path to where he is today was straightforward. “I was going to go to law school and then I got a job at a law firm and decided that’s not the thing I want to do,” Watkins said. “Some folks love it. It was not the thing for me. And so then I was faced with ‘What do I do?’ So I was working at the Gap at the time, and I was going to do marketing, and I did that for all of two weeks before I realized marketing was not the thing I wanted to do. If I’m going to do something for the next 50 years, it’s not going to be convincing people to buy things they don’t need.” Still unsure of his career path, Watkins turned his attention to first figuring out what major he wanted to pursue during his time as an undergraduate student at Georgia State University. “I was the kid who was reading history books in middle school and entering the state history contest, all of that. And so I said, well, I’ll take a couple of history classes. Why not?” Watkins said. One of the most influential courses Watkins took at Georgia State covered the history of sexuality in the United States. The course opened Watkins’ eyes beyond the very narrow instruction he was taught before. Watkins realized that he could expand his vision of history even more. “I can do really interesting things in history, and you could ask really interesting questions,” Watkins said. Eventually, while visiting London for a conference, Watkins had
the opportunity to meet one of the founding scholars in his field of research, historian and Emeritus professor of arts and humanities at King’s College John Howard. During this meeting, Watkins mentioned that his tiny hometown had a gay bar that was founded in 1965. Howard pointed out that Watkins should explore why the gay bar existed in a Southern town. Watkins decided to take this advice, and subsequently pursued a master’s thesis about the topic following his undergraduate degree. Later, he applied for a PhD program at King’s College, London and worked directly with Howard, examining the lives of queer southerners. After returning to the United States, Watkins spent time teaching at his alma mater, GSU. “It was great to kind of get my first practice teaching in that environment,” Watkins said. However, he again began searching for new teaching positions, which is how he ended up at the College. Starting in a visiting professorship position, Watkins worked his way up to the position of lecturer, then senior lecturer. Currently, Watkins’ research includes examining theater as a means of communicating queer history. “We don’t learn it in schools. We don’t learn it often in homes. We often don’t learn any of that history, especially up until recently when we didn’t have a lot of media.” Watkins said. Watkins seeks to shine a light on how lesser known LGBTQ+ theater productions, especially those that exist outside of major cities like New York City and Los Angeles, communicate the story of queer people. In the case of queer Southerners, Watkins hopes to examine the idea of why queer southerners might choose to stay in rural places. Now, having spent five years at the College, professor Watkins enjoys the freedom professors have to craft courses based around their interests and research. “I teach a lot of gay stuff,” Watkins said. His classes include “Southern Queer Theater,” “Sex in America” and more. His courses help introduce students to the rich history of queer individuals in America. Watkins is extremely appreciative of the engaged student body at the College. “I’ve been so very grateful and very lucky here, in this department in particular, that we have a student body that is interested in all kinds of stuff,” Watkins said. “You know, I get a very wide cross-section of students in these classes. And so part of that is because we have such an engaged student body that comes here.”
POLITICS
Tight Senate race highlights importance of student vote
Rowe emphasizes importance of College political participation in local, statewide elections POLITICS from page 1
Mason further emphasized what he sees as contradictory statements from Diggs, and discussed where money from the gas tax is allocated. “Ninety-two percent of the money going into these two tunnels, going to Norfolk, which is going to increase the ability of our tourist guests and us to get to and fro more conveniently, but more as importantly, increase the efficiency and the ability for us to attract commerce to the Port of Virginia as we grow the port,” Mason said. Mason also criticized Diggs’ characterization of his tax platform. “Once again, how easy is it to run for office telling people everything they want to hear?” Mason said. “It takes resources and money to do what Mr. Diggs is trying to campaign, that he is going to cut every tax he’s ever seen.” Mason said Diggs’ campaign is stuck in the past. “He likes to talk about the 1980s. His campaign
is out of the 1980s. ‘I’m tough on crime because I’ve been a police officer. He’s soft on crime. I’m going to cut all your taxes. He’s a tax-and-spend liberal.’ It’s a campaign out of when I was in your place at William and Mary,” Mason said. A former sheriff, Diggs was occasionally involved in the Williamsburg community. He counts former Williamsburg Council member and Williamsburg Truth and Reconciliation committee Member Benny Zhang ’16 J.D. ’20 as one of his endorsers. “I met Benny when he was on City Council, and I would see him at different public events,” Diggs said. “We formed a nice casual relationship as such. And he knew me through my activities as sheriff of York county.” Another group that endorsed Diggs is the Virginia Citizens Defense League, which organized a rally in support of gun rights in front of the Virginia State Capitol Jan. 20, 2020. The event was attended by some armed militia groups and far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Diggs told The Flat
Hat that he accepts the endorsement. A new campaign advertisement by Mason’s campaign depicts Diggs’ participation in the event as extreme. “I was there. I was asked to be a guest speaker and went to show my support for the Second Amendment and Constitution. That was my purpose, I was a minor speaker. Monty wants to say that’s extreme, for me to support the constitution is extreme,” Diggs said in an interview with 13NewsNow. Diggs responded to claims that he has ties to extremist groups and said that Mason is behind those efforts. “I can tell you right now, that is just a flat out lie. And if they’ve got proof of that, they need to bring forward, because there is no proof. I have never done any of that stuff. Monty Mason needs to also answer for this. He’s got caught in a lie about the slave auction. He’s been caught in a lie, and you can look this up on WAVY TV 10 Truth Trackers,” Diggs said. READ MORE AT FLATHATNEWS.COM
THE FLAT HAT
Wednesday, November 8, 2023
Page 3
STUDENT LIFE
Analyzing Rec Center usage: when to avoid ire while pumping iron
Data analysis finds Tuesday evenings, winter months have busiest traffic at the Rec Center LISA COLEMAN FLAT HAT DATA EDITOR
The Student Recreation Center, the College of William and Mary’s primary facility for recreation, served an average of 1,125 visitors per day during the 2022-2023 academic year. Students, faculty and community members have access to a variety of amenities at The Rec, including exercise equipment, a 25-yard eight-lane pool, a climbing wall, fitness and wellness classes and a sauna. With a limited amount of space and equipment available, crowds at The Rec can make for a lessthan-desirable workout. The Flat Hat visualized visit patterns to The Rec to assess the best times to visit the facility while avoiding a crowd. Use of The Rec varies dramatically from hour to hour. We extracted hourly data from the week of Sunday, Sept. 9, 2023. Weekday afternoons proved to be the busiest time during this period, with crowds picking up around 3 p.m. and staying busy until around 10 p.m. The most crowded hour of the week was Tuesday from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., with a total of 265 people swiping into the Rec. Sam Cooper ’25 frequently attends The Rec in the morning to avoid crowds. “I just feel like when it’s more quiet and there’s just less capacity downstairs, I find that I’m a little bit more in my zone, just a little bit more relaxed,” Cooper said. Adele Haake ’24 said she usually attends The Rec in the early afternoon. According to Haake, the weight room is especially crowded. “My least favorite part of The Rec would have to be the weight room downstairs because it is crowded and can be very difficult to get a bench,” Haake said. “I wish there was more equipment to accommodate the number of people who use the facility.” Greta Frederick Harteis ’25, who works as a Patron Service Attendant at the Rec, confirmed this trend. “I would say anytime after maybe five o’clock is really really busy. Maybe nine-ish, that’s when most people come in. The downstairs weight room is really full. The cardio room fills up, which is upstairs, and there’s always classes going on, so pilates or cycle classes,” Frederick Harteis said. FitWell Classes are group exercise and wellness classes offered throughout the week where attendees can exercise together with the guidance of an instructor. Many of these classes, which are free to students, take place on weekday afternoons, which account for some of the crowds.
As for selecting which day to workout to avoid overcrowding, lower usage on weekends remained consistent throughout the 2022-2023 academic year. Saturday proved to be the least busy day with an average of 672 people using The Rec. Usage was also highest in the beginning of the week, and tended to decline as the week progressed. Additionally, there was a noticeable decrease in traffic at The Rec as the 2023 spring semester progressed. The Rec saw the highest overall traffic in the winter, particularly in the first two weeks of the spring semester. The busiest single day was Jan. 30, 2023, when 2,122 people visited The Rec. Williamsburg’s cold and rainy winter weather may deter people from pursuing outdoor methods of exercise, and New Year’s resolutions may be an additional factor contributing to the high use at the beginning of the spring semester. Last year, 57% of visitors to the Rec Center were male, while men comprise only 42% of the College’s total student population. Physical activity is one of the College’s Eight Dimensions of Wellness. However, some students experience anxious feelings about visiting the Rec, particularly during busy times. “Back before I came here, I wasn’t really comfortable going to the gym,” Cooper said. “For the people who aren’t comfortable, I think it’s very important for people to know that there’s such a mix of people that go to The Rec.” Cooper also spoke about the mental health benefits of physical exercise at The Rec. “There’s this sign on the first floor where the machines are that says — it’s forever ingrained in my brain — ‘Exercise is the best medicine,’ and I find that I really like that sign on the first floor,” Cooper said. “I think it’s very special. It sums up my experience very well, that for me it’s very mental and that those endorphins being released, it’s a really good feeling. And it’s really helped me mentally, especially when, say, I had an exam or something’s going on, I just like to go to The Rec and kind of work, work, work that off through a workout.” Frederick Harteis recommended FitWell classes as an option for people who might face anxiety about going to the Rec. “Go with a friend, definitely,” Frederick Harteis said. “Someone who kind of knows the place a bit more than you do. I know I get anxious working out at the gym, so I have turned to the classes. I am a huge fan of signing up for the wellness classes.”
CAMPUS
Violence in Israel, Gaza sparks student-organized tabling, vigils, activism Many Jewish, Israeli students feel administrative support, while Palestinian students call for further admin recognition
CAMPUS from page 1
“Concurrently, Jewish students at William & Mary have faced verbal abuse for expressing their faith and grieving the loss of loved ones,” Youngkin wrote in the directive. Youngkin directed all public, residential higher education institutions in the state to submit updated comprehensive safety plans, including specific systems of reporting incidents. He also called for the Secretary of Education to work with public universities to promote the safety of and provide mental health resources for Muslim and Jewish students. When The Flat Hat asked College President Katherine Rowe how the College plans to comply with this directive, she did not comment. In terms of demonstrations on campus, SJP organized an Oct. 20 sit-in at the Brafferton Building, took part in the Oct. 25 National Student Walkout — for which they gathered on the Sadler Terrace — and organized an Oct. 27 demonstration on the Sunken Garden. At the Oct. 25 walkout, participating students demanded several action steps from the College. “William and Mary must divest from weapons manufacturers which arm Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” an SJP student speaker said at the walkout. “William and Mary leadership must call for an immediate end to Israel’s siege on Gaza and U.S. funding for Israel. William and Mary must end partnerships and programs which normalized Israel’s violence. And, personally, William and Mary needs to speak out for the safety of their Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, Brown students.” Ben Frogel ’25, president of the College’s Chabad chapter, noted that his organization is generally not hosting public demonstrations, but rather, gathering together to comfort one another. “I think we’ve been doing what we’ve always been doing, which is being a place on campus for Jews to be Jewish,” Frogel said. “We’ve been seeing an uptick in student interest in that because, you know, you have Jews who are sort of realizing that being Jewish involves being part of history, it
involves this very dynamic identity and it involves at this moment, responding to this terrible tragedy that happened on October 7th.” SJP student speakers at the Oct. 25 walkout also shared several egalitarian messages, advocating for universal human rights for all communities. “All children are children,” another SJP student speaker said at the walkout. “There is no discrimination between a child, a Jewish child, a Palestinian child, a Christian child, they’re all children. They all deserve human rights. We have to advocate for that. Human rights doesn’t stop at a border. Human rights doesn’t stop for anything. We should be advocating for human rights for all.” Many student organizations have coalesced to advocate for Israel and Palestine. Four Jewish or pro-Israel groups led the Vigil Uniting for Israel. The SJP vigil and demonstrations featured speakers representing a range of multicultural and advocacy-centered organizations, including the Asian American Student Initiative, the Black Student Organization, PLUMAS and the Committee for Contextualization of Campus Landmarks and Iconography. These groups, and many others, have also released statements on social media expressing solidarity with Palestine. Students have additionally organized fundraisers, such as a collaboration between the South Asian Interfaith Organization, CCL&I, PLUMAS, African Culture Society, AASI, Muslim Student Association and Filipino American Student Association, to sell bracelets and raise money for the Palestine Red Crescent Society. “SJP is part of the W&M community,” AASI’s statement reads. “Your Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, Brown and Black brothers and sisters are part of our community. Your professors are part of our community. If President Rowe wants us to ground our community in mutual care, we cannot follow her example in ignoring Islamophobia on campus, ignoring the ongoing slaughter.” To another SJP student, this crosscampus solidarity is core to SJP’s mission. “We as an organization always talk about all marginalized people: Jewish people, Muslim people, people of color,” he said. “Anywhere around the world,
whether that be in Niger, whether that be in the Congo, whether that be in Guatemala, whether that be wherever in the world where there’s oppressed people, the Palestinian cause is a cause that’s always on the side of the people, making sure that everyone is equal. And that’s what we always reiterate and that’s why there’s been such a huge coalition of groups on campus that are coming out and speaking against colonialism, speaking against Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian people.” SJP members affirm that they are a group that stands for oppressed people of all nationalities, races and religions. They reiterate that their goals are antiZionist, not antisemitic. “Being antisemitic is being against Jewish people and saying things that are hurtful about people because they are Jewish, and opposing a corrupt government and wanting people to have human rights is not antisemitic,” a Jewish-identifying member of SJP said. “Antisemitism is super duper serious, and it’s really bad in our country. I’ve experienced it a lot of times. But supporting Palestine is not that.” The student expressed that to them, showing solidarity with Palestine is clearly aligned with Jewish values. “Being a Jewish person inherently means trying to help repair issues in the world and just valuing human life,” the student said. “That is the most important thing. Value in Judaism is valuing the human life. And so for me, that feels so connected to trying to help support Palestinians and just helping them fight for the dignity and the rights that they have always deserved and have been deprived of.” These interfaith and inter-movement coalitions have played an important role in organizing and allowing underrepresented students to feel safe and acknowledged. This was seen in a Nov. 4 pro-Palestine march on Washington, D.C. calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, in which some students from the College participated. “To have so many people come together in solidarity and care for something from all walks of life, all religions — there were Christians there, there were Muslims there, there
were Jewish people there who came through and supported — it was a very comfortable feeling coming from a campus where you’re the minority and also from a campus with an administration that isn’t necessarily sensitive and/or caring to a particular side of a debate or an issue,” the first SJP member said. This student is one of many who feel as though the administration’s response to the recents events in Israel and Palestine have been lacking. Oct. 11, Rowe sent a message to the community condemning the Hamas attack and encouraging respect and mutual care on campus. Many community members voiced disappointment that her statement did not mention Palestine. “She hit one of the main points and that’s combating antisemitism, and that’s awesome that she did that,” the SJP student added. “But she failed to recognize that Palestinian civilians are also being killed, that Palestinians are going to suffer, Arab and Muslim students or anyone that has connection to the region is also going to be affected by what’s going on.” Many Jewish students felt supported by Rowe’s statement. “My personal view of that letter, I mean, it was powerful,” Rubin said. “And it took a stance that said we don’t believe that hate should prevail in this world and we’re calling out hate and we see it.” Rubin added that Rowe, First Gentlemen Bruce Jacobson and Dean of Students Stacey Harris have been strong advocates for the Jewish community on campus. Along with the vigil for Israel, the three have attended Shabbat dinners and recited prayers at Hillel. “I’ve heard really awful things from other schools, especially from administration and faculty, and to know that people like Kathy Rowe are going to show up to the vigil and not just keep her mouth shut is heartwarming,” Weinmann said. Oct. 12, SJP posted a statement in response to Rowe’s initial message. They wrote that Rowe’s oversights could reinforce hatred and intolerance directed at a historically underrepresented group within the student body.
“If President Rowe wishes to strike a balanced approach in order to promote harmony & campus-wide wellbeing, there must be an address to the pain felt by all students,” the statement said. “‘Palestine’ was absent from Dr. Rowe’s address. Palestinian students are here. Palestinian students seek to learn, feel safe, and more importantly feel seen within their campus community.’” Nov. 1, Rowe released another statement, this one asserting support for the entire campus community and acknowledging both Palestinian and Israeli victims. Rowe affirmed Youngkin’s executive directive and identified a commitment to the constitutional rights of freedom of religion and peaceful political expression. She directed readers to Vice President for Student Affairs Ginger Ambler’s Oct. 27 message about protected expression and speech on campus. “The escalating conflict in Gaza and Israel has spurred division, vulnerability, anger, and sadness — as well as compassion, calls for peace, and prayers for the Israeli and Palestinian civilians in harm’s way, together with those from other nations,” Rowe wrote. “I write to affirm unequivocally William & Mary’s continued support for all our students, faculty, and staff.” Not all students felt reassured by Rowe’s second statement. “The fact that it took our initial response to her statement for the word Palestine to even be mentioned, when there’s an entire division of Palestinian students that exist on this campus, that work on this campus, that eat and sleep and conduct their daily lives as students here,” the first SJP student said. “Our pain, our name and our identity was effectively just ignored in that statement.” The student added that the message lacked substance. “You’re telling me that you guys are protecting my right to free speech or my right to demonstrate,” she said. “I’m guaranteed those things. I’m saying it in a very harsh, not academic or professional way, but I don’t need William and Mary to tell me I have constitutional rights.” READ MORE AT FLATHATNEWS.COM
Page 4
THE FLAT HAT
Wednesday, November 8, 2023
AROUND THE ʻBURG
College hosts baseball symposium centered on U.S.-Japan relations Players, professors, journalists consider role of baseball in shaping diplomacy between nations AGAVNI MEHRABI AND ETHAN QIN THE FLAT HAT
Friday, Oct. 27, the College of William and Mary U.S.-Japan Baseball Diplomacy Project held its “150 Years of U.S.-Japan Baseball Diplomacy” symposium in the Sadler Center’s Commonwealth Auditorium. Professor of government and Co-Director of the Social Science Research Methods Center Marcus Holmes, associate professor of history Hiroshi Kitamura and Isabelle and Jerome E. Hyman Distinguished University Professor and Director of public policy Paul Manna hosted the symposium with the help of their team of undergraduate students. Sponsored by the United States Department of State, the conference celebrated the role of baseball in shaping relations between the United States and Japan. The symposium centered on diplomacy and emphasized cooperation, resulting from an inter-organizational collaboration between the Japan Retired Foreign Player Association, Major League Baseball Players Trust and North American Sake Brewery, professors from Rice University and Western Washington University, as well as the College’s departments of government, history and modern languages and literatures. The symposium also featured interdisciplinary collaboration with faculty from the department of kinesiology and between students studying international relations, government, history, economics, public policy, data science, psychology and sociology. The symposium began with opening remarks from Holmes, United States Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and William and Mary baseball head coach Mike McRae. After Holmes began the symposium with opening remarks, Senior Vice President of MLB International Jim Small delivered a keynote speech about his experience with baseball’s cultural significance. Small recalled an interaction with a young man who survived the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, in which the young man told Small, “If you get knocked down seven times, you get up eight times.” The same young man who offered Small this advice was the star pitcher of a Japanese youth baseball team who beat an American team 8-1 a few weeks later. “If you want to know what baseball means to Japan and what Japan means to baseball, it’s a 13-year-old kid trying to console me by saying, ‘It’s okay, I’ve got this,’” Small said. Professor of history at Rice University Sayuri Guthrie Shimizu shared a brief history of U.S.-Japan baseball diplomacy to lay the groundwork for the rest of the day’s programming. She explained how Horace Wilson introduced the sport to Japan in 1872 while he was teaching at Kaisei Gakko University. Later named Tokyo Imperial University and currently known as the University of Tokyo, this institution eventually came to be known as the site for the first formal baseball team in the country. Shimizu also shared how she came to be involved in the research surrounding the U.S.-Japanese baseball diplomacy. She recalled
RYAN GOODMAN / THE FLAT HAT
The College hosted a symposium titled “150 Years of U.S.-Japan Baseball Diplomacy” in the Sadler Centerʼs Commonwealth Auditorium on Friday, Oct. 27.
coming to the realization that there is an inseparable connection between the impact of baseball and the history of U.S.-Japanese diplomacy as a whole. “I was not a sports historian, but I’m a U.S.-Japanese diplomatic historian,” Shimizu said. “Once I delved into the U.S. Japanese relations, there were certain inflection points that were very, very important that constituted a great general arc of the U.S. Japanese history, and in each inflection point, baseball was there. So that’s why I was like, ‘Why is this so important?’ And then I began to research, and that’s how I got involved.” Looking forward, Shimizu emphasized that she looks forward to seeing a positive future impact imparted by U.S.-Japanese baseball diplomacy, defining success for this kind of sports diplomacy as the transformation of the experiences lived by future generations. “In my way of thinking, it’s just how many young boys and girls play baseball and then it becomes part of their daily life and their lived experience and they look at the other ones, Americans or the Japanese, as a sort of equal partner in this sporting community,” Shimizu said. “If they can really start to think of themselves that way, I would say that’s really the major successful cultural diplomacy.” Afterwards, professor of journalism at Western Washington University Derek Moscato further discussed these ideas of public diplomacy and soft power in the context of U.S.-Japan relations using the example of Ichiro Suzuki’s illustrious career in the MLB. As
Moscato described it, public diplomacy and soft power are concepts within international relations that refer to a country’s ability to persuade others without the use of force or coercion. In essence, soft power uses attraction to influence others, often through aspects of a country’s culture. Moscato expanded on this idea by referencing a 2002 article titled “Japan’s Gross National Cool,” written by Douglas McGray. In the article, McGray argued Japan was in the midst of a shift from an economic superpower to the potential of a cultural superpower, referencing the impact of Japanese cultural exports such as anime, food, fashion, architecture, design and in the context of this symposium, sport. This article was published less than a year after Suzuki’s MLB debut in 2001. Moscato elaborated that Suzuki’s popularity in both the United States and Japan was evidence of the shift that McGray foresaw and evidence of legitimacy of public diplomacy and soft power. “Japanese baseball star Ichiro Suzuki left Japan to bat lead-off for the Seattle Mariners,” Moscato said. “Japan sports shops were already filled with official Mariners jerseys and baseball caps in anticipation. Japanese television covered every Mariners game live despite a 12hour difference.” Moscato reiterated that although U.S-Japanese baseball diplomacy may seem contemporary with the success of this year’s World Baseball Classic and the monumental popularity of Japanese baseball star Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels, Suzuki’s influence two decades ago set the foundation for the legacy that Japanese players like Ohtani carry when playing in the United States today. “Ichiro was a cultural intermediary who has found the philosophy of bi-national success and the embodiment of what was possible through mutual exchange and cross-cultural learning,” Moscato said. “[Ichiro] was real proof that Japan could compete on a larger stage of culture and sport, serving as a metaphor for Japan’s influence in arenas like cinema, food, architecture and design.” Baseball journalist and specialist Brad Lefton shared a few examples of some of the many ways Japan has influenced baseball America throughout the years he has covered the sport. Lefton began his discourse by discussing the innovative nature of Japanese training and condition practices in the late 1990s. A significant amount of Japanese training and conditioning actions centered around the concept of pre-habilitation, which involves preventing injuries and lessening the number of players who require rehabilitation. While this practice may seem commonplace in professional sports today, nearly three decades ago, such training methods were revolutionary. Effectiveness of the impact of pre-habilitation is still observed today, with about half of MLB teams having a Japanese member of their training staff. READ MORE AT FLATHATNEWS.COM
CAMPUS
Professors reflect on critical legacy of New Deal, implications for Virginia
Panel serves as keynote address in three-day joint academic conference between College, CNU CLARE GIFFORD FLAT HAT NEWS ASSOC.
Friday, Oct. 27, the New Deal and its Legacies, three-day joint academic conference between the College of William and Mary and Christopher Newport University, held its keynote address in the Tucker Hall theater. The 90-minute panel featured University of Pennsylvania professor emeritus of political science Adolph Reed Jr., University of Illinois-Chicago professor emeritus of English Walter Benn Michaels and University of Chicago Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor of English and Literature Ken Warren. Christopher Newport University assistant political science professor Katie Radar moderated the panel. Radar, associate history professor of history and Director of Undergraduate Studies Adrienne Petty, and art history professor Charles Palermo organized the conference. “Dr. Palermo brought the three of us together, and we realized that we had common interests in this
historical period, and so the conferences grew out of our shared interest in the New Deal and desire to bring scholars here who think about these issues,” Petty said. “Also, it’s the 90th anniversary of the New Deal. So we thought it was a perfect opportunity to engage in these conversations about the legacy of the New Deal, especially given our current political moment.” The New Deal refers to a series of public works projects and financial reforms implemented by the federal government in the 1930s under President Franklin D. Roosevelt in response to the Great Depression. Its long-term impact remains a source of conflict among scholars. Radar began by asking all three panelists about the most significant legacies of the New Deal and how the period has shaped both their political and intellectual work. “One is the origins of the modern Civil Rights movement and the origins of the modern Women’s movement are legacies of the New Deal,” Reed Jr. said. “The idea that the government has public power. The authority of the federal government has a role to play
in stabilizing the society. Making peoples’ lives better.” Warren underscored the forgotten significance of this era for its social reform. “Part of what has driven this conference as well is the extent to which many of these who we, who one might think of as supporting of what we have been able to taken for granted, have now been able to turn around and make the New Deal, in some sense, the source of all contemporary ills rather than that which has given many of us the sound basis for kind of the lives we have been able to construct,” Warren said. Panelists emphasized that the New Deal brought novel implications on representation for underrepresented groups in Virginia. “It was becoming possible for rank and file Black Americans to think that they could hold accountable the state in a variety of forms to their own interests that did not necessarily in the first instance have to go through elite blacks as spokespersons for them,” Warren said. In the latter half of the talk, the panelists shifted towards assessing right and left wing viewpoints of
the New Deal. They particularly honed in on its role in shaping the right-wing neoliberalism movement. “It makes sense for us to look at the Kennedy administration as where the zygote of what later would be known as neoliberalism took shape,” Reed said. The scholars agreed that since the 1930s, the equality promised within the New Deal has not been fully instituted. Michaels put some of the blame for this failure on left wing movements. “The new left manifesto sort-of talks about as if the problem of scarcity, problems of poverty have been fundamentally solved,” Michaels said. “So that turned out to be bullshit. That’s not true. Those problems have not been solved. Let’s go beyond equality which goes behind the idea that ‘Yeah, if you earned it, you’re cool’ and if you didn’t succeed, it’s your fault it’s on you.” For more on Michaels and Reed’s work, their co-authored book, “No Politics But Class Politics”, was released in February and dedicated to Warren. Lambda Alliance meets every Thursday at 6 p.m. in Integrated Science Center Room 1280.
CAMPUS
Getting Bi: Bisexuality 101 and Beyond Talk with bi activist, Robyn Ochs Ochs discusses history of bisexuality in United States, details personal journey of bi+ identity
CLARE GIFFORD FLAT HAT NEWS ASSOC.
Thursday, Nov. 2, the College of William and Mary’s Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies Department and Lambda Alliance co-hosted bisexual activist Robyn Ochs for an interactive lecture. Ochs, who uses she/ they pronouns, spoke about what it means to identify as bisexual and how to challenge misconceptions tied to the identity. For the past four decades, Ochs has made a name for herself as a public speaker and grassroots activist for bisexual awareness and advocacy. She has served as editor of the third-oldest bisexual publication in the world, “Bi Women Quarterly”, for 15 years, and has co-edited two bisexual anthologies. “I’ve spoken out at over 500 colleges and universities in 49 U.S. states,” Ochs said. “And you know, if I have to work until I’m 100, I’m not retiring until I get to speak in Alaska. I’ve also spoken in 19 other countries. So that’s my perspective.” Within the College, Ochs has garnered a mini fan base of her own. The Lambda Alliance, a queer organization on campus, has been a longtime subscriber to “Bi
Women Quarterly” before deciding to reach out. The Alliance’s president, Kell Hoofnagle ’24, described the process of asking Ochs to pay a visit to the College. “I reached out to Robyn Oaks myself,” said Hoofnagle. “We have an email account, right, and it gets her newsletter and I thought she sounds like a really cool person. And I was like, ‘Well, how much does having her on campus cost?’” Outside of Lambda, others in attendance were interested in Ochs’ expansion on their gender studies classes. Charlotte Spicer ’27 and Maya Roy ’27 attended the event together. “We both have Principles of Sociology together and our professor talked about this event and I thought it was interesting. Also, because we’re friends, I figured I’d tag along and learn some new things,” Spicer said. Ochs began her talk with a clarification of its title, “Getting Bi: Bisexuality 101 and Beyond.” “This program is called ‘Getting Bi,’ but it’s actually not just about people who identify with that one word,” Ochs said. “This program is really about a range of identity spaces, about people who identify
between, or also, beyond the gay-straight binary, and there are a lot of different words that encompass that space.” Ochs advocated for using the term “bi+”, rather than “bi,” as an umbrella term to encompass the various other identity titles that fall under the label. Furthermore, 25 years ago, Ochs devised the most well-known and inclusive definition of “bisexual’’ within the LGBT+ community, taking account of a few revisions over time. “I call myself bisexual because I acknowledge that I have in myself the potential to be attracted — romantically and/or sexually — to people of more than one gender and/or sex, not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way, and not necessarily to the same degree,” Ochs said. Ochs then presented data displaying a rise of U.S. residents who identify as bi+, especially among Generation Z, the generation of people born in between the mid-1990s and 2012. She accredited this change to a greater representation in media, a broader knowledge of different sexual identities, and access to the internet. However, Ochs stated that increasing
societal acceptance of bisexual identities has not dissolved all of the issues faced by this community. “Minority stress is the experience of being part of a group that is discriminated against or that has social stigma,” Ochs said. “I want to make it really clear that minority stress is actually not caused by who you are. It’s caused by where you are. It’s an environmental issue.” For her, legal scholar Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw’s 1989 concept of intersectionality is very important when thinking about links between identity and oppression. According to Crenshaw, an individual’s identity is shaped by interconnected factors like race, religion and sexual orientation that can also collectively contribute to the layers of societal oppression they may face. “Her thing was that intersectionality is really focused on systems of oppression, people who are affected by multiple systems of oppression,” Ochs said. “But underneath that, I believe, is the understanding that everyone of us has multiple identities. I am not just my sexual orientation, I am not just my gender. I also have lots of other identities.”
Ochs’ point of intersectionality was to stress that there is no one universal bisexual experience. Ochs strives to provide more relatable experiences for bi-curious individuals with her various anthologies: “RE*COG*NIZE: The Voices of Bisexual Men- An Anthology and Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World, Second Edition”. This past September, Ochs celebrated her 47th anniversary of identifying as bisexual and has not looked back. “For some of us, identifying as bi is an act of integrity. It’s a way of claiming our whole selves,” Ochs said. Following the talk, items from Ochs’ Etsy shop, “Bi-Products,” were for sale and profits went towards the nonprofit organization “Bi Women Quarterly”. Members of the Lamba Alliance and other attendees appreciated Ochs’ confidence in her bi+ identity. “I really enjoyed it, I really enjoyed it,” Hoofnagle said. “I’ve always been bi, I’ve known that for a while, but I feel currently quite proud of it.” Lambda Alliance meets every Thursday at 6 p.m. in Integrated Science Center Room 1280.
opinions
Opinions Editor Mollie Shiflett Opinions Editor Avi Joshi fhopinions@gmail.com // @theflathat THE FL FLAT HAT | Wednesday, November 8, 2023 | Page 5
GUEST COLUMN
The College’s AI policy needs more clarity, not comprehensive ban Chloe Cohen THE FLAT HAT
GRAPHIC BY EMNET ABRAHAM / THE FLAT HAT
With few established societal norms, the parameters of ethical artificial intelligence usage must often be set by individuals and institutions. The College of William and Mary notably does not have a campus-wide AI use policy independent of its honor code; rather, such policies are left to the jurisdiction of each professor and may look different for any given course. While it is natural for our AI policies to reflect the complexity of this issue, our academic communities would benefit from greater clarity about our expectations and priorities as technology like AI continues to advance. According to Professor of English and American Studies Elizabeth Losh, who served as chair of the AI Writing Tools Working Group at the College and is currently the co-chair of the national Modern Language Association and the Conference on College Composition and Communication Joint Task Force on Writing and AI, the College has three different types of syllabus language that faculty are encouraged to use. AI usage may be banned outright, permitted with acknowledgement or permitted without restriction, according to Losh. Losh noted that these policies do not adhere to the MLA-CCCC Joint Task Force on Writing and AI’s recommendation in its first working paper published this past July. She
also clarified that any personal beliefs she sets forth are separate from her former role as the committee’s chair. “Now, I would point out that [in] our working paper from the MLA, we tell people not to do that because it’s very confusing to students to have different policies for different classrooms. But that’s what our group here at William and Mary decided. And even though, you know, I was chairing the group, I was not the majority opinion,” Losh said. Losh is correct : having various AI policies may feel destabilizing. It is important, however, that professors are able to tailor AI use policies to individual courses. An appropriate form of AI usage in an introductory sociology class may not be appropriate in a higher-level sociology course intended for upperclassmen and departmental majors. College students are always adapting to new environments and circumstances. We have already acclimated to technologies that, this time last year, very few knew existed. In my ideal world, academia would be a haven free of generative AI. There are many reasons why students might refrain from using generative AI in their academic work. Whereas Google locates and displays human-generated work in its original form, generative AI services such as ChatGPT consume human-generated work and regurgitate a conglomeration of its findings. It’s no wonder OpenAI faces copyright infringement accusations from many authors. I also fear that students who rely on ChatGPT may forgo essential communication skills. If this were to happen, human scholarship may suffer immensely. And STEM fields are not exempt from these fears, as noted by Associate Teaching Professor of Organic Chemistry Dana Lashley. “I think in the sciences we probably have a little bit less to worry about as far as our core classes go,” Lashley said. “But then later, what I am worried about is students using ChatGPT to write whole papers, and those things getting published, and ChatGPT did the whole thing, and nobody did any research. That’s where it becomes problematic in the sciences.” If academics are no longer expected to conduct, record and present their own research, where will scholarship and progress originate in the future? Lashley has not yet needed to create an AI policy for her organic chemistry courses; however, she said she is unsure how she will design a paper students will write this winter for her study abroad class in Geneva, Switzerland. Lashley, who does not want to entirely ban students from using ChatGPT, may instead follow the example of professors at other academic
institutions by having her students fact-check ChatGPT’s response to a topically relevant prompt that they enter into it. While I agree students must be proficient in information verification, especially today, I worry that such assignments do not advance students’ research and writing skills. If we begin to replace our writing assignments with fact-checking assignments, we risk educating a generation on evaluation rather than expression. Students should be well-versed in both. Despite these concerns, I understand why AI usage ought to be permitted in some instances. After all, I know that popular study tools such as Quizlet incorporate the technology. Additionally, as Losh noted, Google and Microsoft have already begun work on integrating large language models into Google Docs and Microsoft Word, respectively. “It’s not realistic to ban Microsoft Word from being used in writing for William and Mary,” Losh said. Professors, too, can benefit from AI tools. In 2019, for example, Lashley introduced the College to Gradescope, which she and many other professors use to grade work more quickly and, in Lashley’s experience, much more feedback for students. As a first-semester freshman, my experience with course-specific AI-use policies is limited. Of those I have encountered thus far, however, one strikes me as a particularly effective and realistic adoption of the College’s second policy “type” regsrding AI. Associate Teaching Professor of Public Policy Alexandra Joosse’s Intro to Public Public Policy course allows students to use ChatGPT and similar technologies in specific ways and under specific circumstances. On each course assignment, all students must state whether they did or did not employ AI in their work. Students who affirm the latter must include the prompts given and responses obtained. Those students must also independently verify and cite all AI-generated information. Permissible AI-generated information is limited to brainstorming and source consideration; moreover, failure to appropriately report or confirm AI-generated information constitutes plagiarism. Losh employs a similar policy. While her students may use AI in their coursework, she noted that she asks students to provide documentation explaining how they’ve used AI. There is much to appreciate about these professors’ guidelines. Professor Joose’s “AI Tool Guidance” acknowledges the pros and cons of AI usage, including AI’s ability to assist with preliminary research as well as its struggles with adhering to information ethics and
averting biases. Students are permitted to consult AI, but they are not given free rein of its capabilities. Joosse’s guidelines should also be praised for regulating the amount of work that students can delegate to AI, which should not be used to complete large chunks (and certainly not the entirety) of a project. AI ought to be a tool, not a ghost writer. Most importantly, students are held accountable for outsourcing their work to an amassment of ones and zeroes. By requiring students who utilize ChatGPT to visit and verify ChatGPT’s sources, Joosse promotes healthy skepticism of AI-generated responses and encourages students to do their due diligence. Students cannot simply type in a prompt, paste in a reworded summary of the response generated and submit. Though I presently have little intention of using generative AI tools in academic work even with permission, I cannot justifiably claim that others should not. The nonacademic world will not shy away from AI. Though scholars are held in some regards to a higher standard than the general public, we would be foolish to slam the door on a resource that is being hailed by the very world we aim to better understand. Instead, I propose something of a middle ground: acceptance, but with boundaries. The College should continue to allow professors to create AI policies specific to their courses. A blanket statement would not make this issue any less complex. The College should, however, publish a formal summary of its approach. Faculty should remain able to permit specific uses of AI while prohibiting others. Ideally, accepted AI usage would not discourage or disincentivize students from learning about the world or how to express thought. Professors may also want to account for AI use when grading students’ assignments by adapting their grading rubrics to reflect the different types of work required from students who chose to use AI tools. Finally, students, families, faculty and administrators should be encouraged to discuss the role of AI in their work and be given the resources to have that discussion. Chloe Cohen ’27 is a prospective philosophy and public policy major. She is a tour guide and a member of several writing-based clubs on campus. Contact her at cdcohen@wm.edu.
GUEST COLUMN
College pedestrians need more sidewalks, speed bumps, safety Roswell Miller THE FLAT HAT
RYAN GOODMAN / THE FLAT HAT
Four years ago, I arrived at the College of William and Mary. During orientation, I was told that despite Williamsburg being a college town, cars do not look out for students on the road. A year ago, I wrote an op-ed for a class — on which much of the rest of this essay is based — asking why our campus was limiting its investment in infrastructure to buildings only. Then, a few months ago, I moved into a house on Jamestown Road, where the first
thing my neighbor shared with me was a half dozen horror stories of students being hit by cars in front of their home. And over the summer, I joked with friends about committing “tactical urbanism” and adding sidewalks myself because no one else seemed to be doing it. All of this is to say, the students know it, the neighbors know it and I suspect the administration knows it too: our town is not safe for pedestrians. Richmond Road and Jamestown Road are unsafe streets. They are wide with
nothing to encourage drivers to slow down beyond a few painted strips and lights often obscured by trees. Our campus is almost as bad. The only piece of traffic-calming infrastructure is a speed hump whose purpose seems more to be to allow event organizers to back up to the Raymond A. Mason Business School than to let students cross the road. Stop signs are blown through, and most of campus is pitch black at night. In the United States, police are often pointed to as the solution. They should be pulling people over if they are speeding, which ideally will decrease speeding. However, beyond the fact that this answer has numerous problems like disproportionately affecting the poor, it is no panacea. It does not solve the problem. People speed on purpose, and they speed on accident. Their phone pings. They get distracted. This is human nature. Our roads make it too easy to make mistakes at high speeds. Narrower roads make people drive slower. Speed bumps make people drive slower. Extra sidewalks make people pay a little more attention — and drive slower. It is not complicated. We know how to fix the problem. The school simply has not made the investment. Over my three and a half years at the College, I have seen hundreds of millions of dollars of new investment either announced or built on campus. It has been needed. However, that investment should not come at the expense of everyday student safety. A lamppost is less than a thousand dollars. A speed bump is a few thousand. Protected bike lanes cost slightly more than that. A million dollars invested into pedestrian and bike safety would go a long way. It is possible the investment is not strictly monetary. The precise jurisdiction of the roads adjacent to campus is unclear to me. Neither conversations with the College or Williamsburg police nor searching on the
Internet has given me a clear answer. However, this lack of clarity does not excuse the problem. Being president of a public university is an inherently political job. College President Katherine Rowe has relationships with state legislatures, the governor and many others. If she decided pedestrian and bike safety was worth pursuing, I am certain she could have connected with the Virginia Department of Transportation. But she has not, and now a student has been put into life-threatening condition on her doorstep. Both Jamestown Road and Richmond Road should have protected bike lanes from where campus begins to Confusion Corner. There should be many more sidewalks (preferably raised) that visitors point and laugh at their sheer quantity. Campus should be riddled with speed bumps like a bad road rash. There should be so many lamps the genies get jealous. I can guarantee that if my visions came true, the net cost would be far less than a few hundred million dollars. This problem is so simple and affordable to solve. The administration has the ability. Whether the solution requires political or monetary investment, the College can do it. It is a shame that it might take a student’s critical injury to act, but it would be far better than continuing the status quo. Our brand-new Arts Quarter is a wonderful investment in student life, but it will never save a student’s life. Investment in pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, though? That might. Roswell Miller is a senior majoring in History and Economics. He is a member of Club Water Polo and a Research Assistant for the Economics Department. Contact him at rtmiller@ wm.edu.
THE FLAT HAT
Wedneday, November 8, 2023
Page 6
STAFF COLUMN
Priscilla: Y’all have never seen Jacob Elordi look this tall Elizabeth Brady FLAT HAT OPINIONS ASSOC.
The legacy of Elvis Presley is an oft-trodden path, most recently tracing to Bhaz Luhrmann’s frenetic and controversial 2022 biopic with Austin Butler’s painful method acting. Every memoir, biography, eulogy and career retrospective has built and fortified a story so entrenched, so emblematic, so American that to dismantle it would be a Herculean task. Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla” does not attempt to throw stones at this ironclad legacy; instead, Coppola chooses to construct something of her own. “Priscilla,” released on Nov. 3 and now available at the viewing pleasure of all interested College of William and Mary students, is about Priscilla Presley, through and through. It is quiet, feminine, honest and engaging, and it looks really good doing it. If Sofia Coppola can do one thing, it’s cast a movie. Both “Virgin Suicides” and “Marie Antoinette” are absolutely stacked. “Priscilla” is no different, casting Cailee Spaeny as the perfect Priscilla. She is absolutely gorgeous, but with her command of her micro-expressions, her consistency and her complete embodiment of Priscilla, it would be impossible to mistake her for just a pretty face. Her supporting actor Jacob Elordi matches her line-for-line, a strong testament to the superfluity of method acting. The question of what defines good biopic casting has been a frequent one as of late. Elordi and Spaeny bear a passing resemblance to their real-life counterparts, but their chemistry and the feeling of truth in their interactions is what takes them to a higher caliber than a special effects makeup team or a cabal of accent coaches ever could. Elordi is a visually and physically overwhelming presence on the screen; he takes up the entire vertical of some shots, and the framing of shots is done to place him as the deciding factor of the viewer’s eye. He defines the space, in much the same way the real-life Elvis capitalized on attention, conversation and gaze. The visual power differential between Spaeny and Elordi never leaves you; it defines and frames their interactions. He holds her in a way that is halfway between an embrace and a bear trap—his hands dwarf hers as he gives her expensive gifts. Spaeny’s performance perfectly captures
the heady, girlish and divine feeling of being desired by someone older, taller, better-known and bigger than you. There are so many moments that I am so excited to watch other people react to and pick up on: the casino, the chair-throwing and the makeover, just to name a few. I know for a fact that every cool X mutual I have will be dissecting and praising these little moments, and I cannot wait. Coppola’s ability to capture the finer, dirtier and rawer points of girlhood defines and sets apart her filmography. We are in the era of ‘The Girl.’ We are putting ribbons in our hair and buying ourselves little treats. We are developing little crushes and eating dinner sitting crosslegged on the living room floor. “Priscilla” is this story. Priscilla was 14 when she met Elvis, and neither Coppola nor Spaeny shy away from this fact; we are left to squirm with it as the dirty details of chaperones and transfers of guardianship are not left off-screen. The dinnertime tug-of-war between a girl and her dad about what she’s allowed to do that night is one of the most fundamental pillars of girlhood, and it is captured so well I felt like I was the one getting grounded. This movie is about Priscilla, a girl, and then later about a young woman, and we spend a lot of quiet moments with her. She puts on her fake eyelashes as men yell and run around downstairs and out of frame, we walk with her through the pristine and empty rooms of Graceland and we see her (in a classic Coppola moment) slide down in a clawfoot tub. It is not, like stories of classic celebrities usually are, flashy or luxurious or neon-graded. It is not like Luhrmann’s “Elvis” because (and I cannot emphasize this enough) it is not about Elvis. It is a quiet and intimate movie, patient and poignant and painfully honest. Despite the lack of hard-and-fast glam, “Priscilla” is still visually gorgeous. Graceland’s 60’s nouveau-richness serves as a surreally tacky backdrop to all of the costumes that move inside it. Priscilla’s aesthetic arc is a masterclass in visual storytelling. Her evolution from tartan schoolgirl skirts and button-up blouses to brightly colored mod dresses, as her hair turns brown to black to brown again, illustrates her journey from outside to inside to back outside of Elvis’ influence. In a movie about aesthetics and power, the aesthetics have so much power.
GUEST COLUMN
Here’s the shake down: A review of the College’s dairy delights
I could go on about how great this movie is, but suffice it to say that my round-trip drive to the theater was almost as long as the runtime, and I’m already thinking of refilling my gas tank and seeing it again.
Elizabeth Brady ’25 is a public policy major and an English minor, and she is a member of Alpha Chi Omega. She loves art, music and movies. Email her at eabrady@wm.edu.
GRAPHIC BY ISABEL LI / THE FLAT HAT
STAFF COLUMN
In defense of British food
AJ Bucy
Damian Kanner-Bitetti
THE FLAT HAT
FLAT HAT OPINIONS ASSOC.
JAMIE HOLT / THE FLAT HAT
The Commons, colloquially known as Caf, has brought in new milkshakes this semester that bring all the boys to the yard (and of course everyone else too). As a freshman, I cannot speak on the quality of the dining services in years past. However, I can say that what I’ve experienced thus far, the food has more variety and flavor than I originally thought it would. Caf ’s addition of milkshakes, on top of smoothies earlier this semester, has made it my favorite dining hall. During Parent’s Weekend, Caf introduced five unique milkshake flavors: strawberry, vanilla, Oreos and cream, chocolate and mint chocolate chip. As an avid ice cream consumer, I feel that I can properly testify for each flavor. Here is a review of the best to worst milkshakes at Caf in order so that you can make your own informed shake selection decisions. Oreos and cream: No flavor can beat this. It is the perfect blend of my two favorite things: Oreos and vanilla ice cream! Vanilla is a classic flavor and tastes even better in a shake compared to regular ice cream. The smoothness of the shake paired with the crunch of the Oreos makes it satisfying to taste — not to mention it adds actual flavor to the sometimes bland and basic vanilla. Caf also leaves in more chunky Oreos than other shake places, which makes it better compared to restaurants that barely put any Oreos at all in the drink. If you like the Oreo Blasts from Cook Out, you’ll definitely like the Oreos and cream milkshake at Caf. Strawberry: This flavor tastes very sweet and presents the idea of being healthy while definitely being … not so nutritious (but a good treat nevertheless). The strawberry shakes taste like summer and spring, and sometimes the shake has mini bits of cherry mixed in with it. Some would say this extra bit of cherry makes it the cherry on top! I love the cherry addition, but sometimes it can definitely be too overpowering and take away from the strawberry flavor. Though it’s not my favorite, it fulfills my summer-
loving heart during these colder days. The color pink is also a slay for those who enjoy “Barbie” or “Mean Girls.” On Wednesdays, we drink pink! Vanilla: It’s a good flavor if you want to play it safe as Caf doesn’t add any additional toppings or mix anything extra in it. This is the type of shake I mainly get when I want to dip my fries in, so a big sweet-and-salty fan should get this shake. Pair it with a burger, and it’s practically a “Grease” dinner. Get creative and decorate it with sprinkles or other toppings by the waffle area! Chocolate: This is for sure controversial, but I am just not a chocolate stan. The chocolate shakes are always just a little too sweet, but I can see the appeal for chocolate lovers. It is rich and probably the creamiest flavor out of all of them. It tastes like cold hot chocolate, and I can definitely get behind the idea of that as a hot cocoa enthusiast. Seriously, this is the perfect shake for all you sweet tooths out there.
Cafʼs addition of milkshakes,
on top of smoothies earlier
this semester, has made it my favorite dining hall
Mint chocolate chip: People who prefer mint chocolate chip are definitely a different breed. It’s like slurping up toothpaste straight out of the tube. I have never been a mint chocolate chip person, and that will never ever change. The small mint chunks disturb me, and the green color is so unappealing. It combines two of the worst flavors: chocolate and mint. Someone who is a fanatic of both will definitely eat this stuff up, though — I mean someone’s got to. Overall, I am so ecstatic to have milkshakes on campus available around lunch time. It is one of the desserts I would’ve never thought to add myself but can’t live without now that it’s here. I’m unsure if the shakes are going to stay forever, but I’ll be sure to get one every so often (even if it’s 20 degrees outside). I’d have to say that Caf makes the milkshakes taste high-quality, and the lines are never too long. Sometimes the milkshakes are even available as grab-and-go. The next time you’re at Caf, be sure to try a flavor of your choice or venture out and get something new.
AJ Bucy ‘27 is a prospective English and History double major. She is a member of Orchesis Modern Dance Company, Botany and The Women’s Network Club. Contact her at ajbucy@wm.edu.
COURTESY PHOTO / PEXELS
When you think of British food, what comes to mind? For many American students at the College of William and Mary, that cuisine has a distinctly negative connotation, evoking mental images of yellow-brown sludge, overcooked meat and flavorless potatoes. Pictures of underwhelming British food get meme’d into oblivion on social media, and British cuisine is viewed with extreme skepticism by tourists. These popularly held beliefs are based on the perception that British cuisine is uniquely bad. In my experience studying abroad in England, however, I’ve found that this reputation, while not entirely unfounded, is undeserved: British food has a lot to offer in terms of variety as well as quantity. First off, let’s address “traditional” British cooking (a label that is problematic and hard to pin down but one that I’m running with anyway). This is the type of food that is most likely to be perceived as inedible, that gets the most hate online and that is often seen as lacking versatility and variety. My experience, however, has been the opposite: College students who plan to study abroad in the United Kingdom should seek to try as many of these foods as possible. Traditional fare such as fish and chips, meat pies and the full English breakfast all offer a range of customizable options, flavors, fillings and sauces. Even basic mainstays, such as Cornish pasties and sausage rolls bring much more to the table than bread, meat and cheese. Furthermore, British food is far from uniform: every U.K. town, county and country I’ve visited has had its own specialty and fiercely defended it. From Welsh Glamorgan sausages (made from cheese), to Scottish black pudding, to fresh Cornish seafood soup, there are as many regional delicacies for students studying abroad to try as there are hills in the U.K.. Another frequent criticism of British food culture is that traditional dishes are often the only option and that international cuisines are either unavailable outside of London or of lesser quality in the U.K.. While this may have been true at one time, in my experience, this is a firmly dated assumption. Exeter, the medium-size city I’m studying in, has dozens of establishments serving food from around the world. From Thai noodles to Ghanaian rice to Jamaican jerk chicken, these restaurants serve food that is on par with, if not better than, their American counterparts. The country also offers plenty of British-origin fusion dishes, including chicken tikka masala, Chinese salt-and-pepper chips and Bangladeshi phall. Gone are the days when international cuisine in Britain meant a “Chinese takeaway” or other similarly
fast-food options. Now, there are plenty of highquality eateries that use fresh ingredients and plenty of flavor. Though this piece is intended to defend British food, I am an honest man and will admit that there are a few caveats. First of all, yes, the Brits generally use less spice than most other countries. While you can easily mitigate this practice by knowing which restaurants and brands have spicier food than others, I will be the first to admit that British cuisine comes up short here. The so-called spicy options often leave a lot to be desired, and my bottle of Nando’s PERi-PERi sauce has at times been my closest friend. Additionally, you may have noticed that many of the traditional British foods I mentioned contain meat, and you would be correct to assume that vegetarian and vegan options can sometimes be hard to come by. There are several excellent vegetarian restaurants near my university (I would recommend Herbie’s), but these are unfortunately few and far between, not to mention unaffordable on a student budget. Ultimately, however, I would argue that neither the lack of spice nor the inadequacy of vegetarian options is a uniquely British problem, and that Americans’ ridicule of British food can be seen as a way of avoiding the shortcomings of our own cuisine. In conclusion, I am not saying that British cuisine is the best in the world or that it’s my favorite; I am just saying that it has been unfairly maligned. British food is more than a stereotype: it has regional diversity and historic origins, and it enjoys more variety, flavor and quality than it gets credit for. It may not be the best in the world, but it’s no longer noticeably worse than in most places, especially when compared to some common American recipes. From quick and easy takeaways, to unique fusion dishes or to traditional cooking, British food has a lot more to offer than its reputation might lead you to believe. Don’t believe me? Visit the College’s Reves Center for International Studies, and go find out for yourself.
Damien Kanner-Bitetti ’25 is a prospective English major and American Studies minor from Arlington, Va. In addition to The Flat Hat, he is a member of Club B Soccer, a DJ for WCWM 90.9 and an executive member of Students of Hip Hop Legacy. Email him at dskannerbitett@ wm.edu.
variety
Variety Editor Miles Mortimer Variety Editor Agavni Mehrabi flathat.variety@gmail.com // @theflathat
THE FLAT HAT | Wednesday, November 8, 2023 | Page 7
A chilling concerto
The Collegeʼs Symphony Orchestra holds annual Halloween concert LORENZO SHORT // THE FLAT HAT
NATE BOYLE / THE FLAT HAT
Saturday, Oct. 28, the Concert Hall in the new Music Building came alive as the College of William and Mary’s Symphony Orchestra kicked off the spooky season with its annual Halloween Concert. The concert was a significant undertaking for the WMSO as it required the orchestra to adapt to an entirely new space and perform two pieces from the late-Romantic composer Max d’Ollone for the first time since the early 1900s as well as two others for the first time in American history. Additionally, the entire program was recorded prior to the concert, making WMSO one of only a few outfits that have recorded works by the composer and the only orchestra to have recorded “Le temple abandonné” and “Les funérailles du poéte.” Associate Professor of Music and Director of Orchestras David Grandis expressed how lifting the veil on the new Music Building has been especially anticipated by members of the music department faculty. “I must say that for ten years, it has been logistically difficult because we had to beg the theater department to use PBK at the end of the semester before, and for the concert in the middle of the semester we had no other way than Sadler and Commonwealth Auditorium, which is pretty bad,” Grandis said. In addition to the issue of finding spaces suitable for orchestral performances on campus, Grandis explained that the logistics and acoustics of rehearsing prior to the completion of the Music Building were less than optimal. “The rehearsing conditions are so much better than before in Ewell 207,” Grandis said. “It was horrid, and right now it’s very, very good, so the orchestra is making progress, too, because people can hear each other, and that’s a huge difference.” Violist Ben Neifeld ’25 also valued the improvements that the new rehearsal space brought. “The acoustics are fantastic,” Neifeld said. “When I’m close to everyone, it’s magical, you know? It’s nothing like Ewell.” The transition into the new space has not been without its challenges, however. Grandis recalled the delays in the completion of its construction. “It was difficult because it was supposed to be ready early spring 2023, and then it was supposed to be ready after graduation, and then it ended up being ready two weeks before the beginning of classes in August,” Grandis said. “That was insane because we had to do pretty much everything at the last minute.” The rush to get ready was further burdened by the complexity of the new facility and the absence of a technical manager. Although a technical manager will arrive in the spring, it was up to the orchestra itself to take charge of the rigging, lighting and curtains this time around. Grandis originally conceived the program, which featured the works of Max d’Ollone, several years ago. He has spent ample time researching the composer after initially becoming aware of him when writing a book on French opera for his PhD thesis. “I discovered some operas by Max d’Ollone, a contemporary of Ravel that I didn’t know, and listened to his operas. I felt that the language was really beautiful. And then later on I discovered a recording of his symphonic music,” Grandis said. “I made some research and I found more symphonic music but
never recorded outside the ‘Lamento,’ ‘Les villes maudites’ and ‘Fantasy.’” This prompted Grandis to get in touch with Max d’Ollone’s grandson, Patrice d’Ollone, who is a composer in his own right and the former head of the Orchestre National de France. As a result, Grandis decided to lead a concert featuring Patrice d’Ollone at the piano, scheduled for April 2020. Unfortunately, the concert was curtailed by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic and Patrice d’Ollone’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, which meant he could no longer perform the concert. Even so, the pieces “Nostalgie” and “Lamento” on the program were both composed by Patrice d’Ollone. More recently, Grandis has been in contact with Serge de Sampigny, who is a French documentary film director, nephew to Patrice d’Ollone and great-grandson to Max d’Ollone. De Sampigny made the trip from Paris to see the concert and visit historical sights in the area to which the d’Ollone family has an unlikely connection. “I’ve never been to Virginia before, nor in Williamsburg,” de Sampigny said. “And for me, it’s very interesting because of this concert, of course, because I like the music from my grandfather, but also because my grandfather’s father’s father, the great grandfather of Max d’Ollone, he was fighting with Lafayette in the Yorktown battle and so was his brother. So this is a kind of double entry for us to be in here, music and story.” Through his travels over the preceding ten days, de Sampigny said he felt both welcomed by and impressed with the area. “I think everything that’s going on here is very elegant, and I’m not surprised but impressed by the elegance of the people we meet and the kindness of the people we meet,” de Sampigny said. “Walking here in Williamsburg is so, so nice to do. You never get bored, of course, because of the history, the landscape, the houses, everything. But I would say mainly the people. This is something that we don’t know, we do not know about [in France], and this is an argument to come and visit.” Although Patrice d’Ollone could not be present due to his health complications, de Sampigny emphasized that the concert was still a great comfort to his uncle, who was able to watch videos taken of the rehearsal and concert. “He has Alzheimer’s, so it’s very difficult for him,” de Sampigny said. “But he could see the videos that I sent him from the rehearsal that they did two days ago. And his wife told me that he was very happy, and he felt a lot about what’s going on here.” The concert was also the first time that de Sampigny heard “Les funerailles du poète,” which was being played using copies of handwritten manuscripts. Grandis shared that this format led to some unique challenges for the orchestra. “For two of them, it’s handwritten, and no new publishing company in France has printed it properly,” Grandis said. “So my score, sometimes I had to magnify and to read it with a magnifying glass because sometimes I don’t see the lines. I had to play on the piano and try to decipher what it is supposed to be.” The program provided unique opportunities for both the soloist, Instructor of Piano Daniel Inamorato, and the conductor to make the pieces their own while also striving to interpret them with as much justice to Max
d’Ollone’s vision as possible. Inamorato, an adjunct lecturer of applied music and a piano instructor at the College, shared his enthusiasm about the possibilities offered by the program. “The opportunity is not always here for you to learn a new piece that nobody plays, for you to learn a piece from zero where there is one recording on YouTube but not many references out of that, so you can make it your own,” Inamorato said. “...Then, to perform with the students, and to partner with David, who is an excellent conductor — I think it’s not every day that those opportunities come to you, so it’s very gratifying.” Additionally, the concert fits well with Inamorato’s interest in performing underrepresented works. Having grown up in Sao Paolo, Brazil, Inamorato has been exposed to different works from different parts of the world that he wishes to share with others in moments like these. “I think that I think it’s nice to make it clear that we are always looking for not only opportunities to perform in town, but to bring these pieces that are rare to the community,” Inamorato said. ”The amount of Brazilian music that I try to perform here [is] to kind of bring awareness and to just bridge the gap culturally speaking, since so little [is played] from Latin America or from places like Paris, [and] it’s not always that you hear the amount of good stuff we have.” This concert ultimately comes as the culmination of WMSO’s many rehearsals and practices that have been ongoing since at the start of the semester. Daisy Au-Yeung, a violinist and senior at Cardiff University who is attending the College for the year through an exchange program, shared her excitement about the preparation process. “I’m quite happy because this program is quite challenging, and I’m happy that my skills are able to achieve nearly all of them,” Au-Yeung said. Being a Halloween-themed concert, however, the gravity of the American premieres and efforts of the orchestra were balanced by a yearly lighthearted costume contest. The winner of the contest, who was selected by a panel of faculty and staff, conducted John Phillips Souza’s “Stars and Stripes Forever” to close out the concert. “I do love that it’s celebration and serious,” Dean of Students Stacy Harris, who judged the contest for the second time, said. The commitment to maintaining this healthy duality was underscored by how WMSO members performed the entire concert program in their dress clothes for the recording and then again in Halloween costumes for the audience later in the evening. The Halloween Concert this year served not only as a way to inaugurate the new Music Building and to continue an annual tradition, but it also marked a capstone in years of research and coordination regarding the performance of Max d’Ollone’s music. “It is exciting to bring back to life something that has been so unfairly neglected,” Grandis said. “I’m looking forward also for some kind of closure. The students have worked a long time on this. They are doing a good job. And I hope we can showcase their work in the best conditions for the grand finale for the whole project.”
stomping, strolling at BSO's Stompfest Divine Nine groups at the College come together for celebration, showcase of Black community AGAVNI MEHRABI // FLAT HAT VARIETY EDITOR
Saturday, Oct. 21, Matoaka Amphitheater boomed and bustled with the shaking and shuffling of four different student groups performing at the Black Student Organization’s annual Stompfest. Part of a larger tradition of step shows across the nation, this event showcased the dancing traditions held by the Black fraternities and sororities at the College of William and Mary and surrounding schools. “There’s legacy there, and there’s a lot of pride around these chapters, as these are historically Black, and there’s a lot of history there in itself,” BSO President Breyonna Rock ’24 said. “Once we expand that to the Black community and then people who want to support the Black community, it just calls for a very phenomenal, high-energy event.” Given that COVID-19 was running amok when she first arrived at the College, Rock has been an active member of BSO since her sophomore year. She explained that Stompfest, which has been around at the College much longer than she has, fulfills BSO’s mission to provide a welcoming community for Black students on campus.
“At William and Mary, we go to a predominately white institution, so it’s very important that People of Color and in our case, Black students, have a community where they can come together, become friends and have fellowship opportunities because without it, I honestly wouldn’t see as many Black students as I do,” Rock said. “It’s when we come into a space together when I see the most faces. It’s just very important that we have this establishment to offer that.” Ronaldo Lopez-Mendez ’25 has been going to Stompfest ever since he first found out about it during his freshman year at the College. He echoed Rock by emphasizing the importance of self-expression for empowering historically underrepresented identities. “I think this event shows that even though this is a PWI, people of color like me and like everyone else here, we are here to make a stand, and we’re here to be loud, and we’re here to make sure that we’re known,” Lopez-Mendez said. “It may be a PWI, but we’re here to make sure that everyone knows about us and about our organizations here on campus.” Just like previous years, the
2023 Stompfest was held during Homecoming weekend, allowing alumni like Kellsey Carter ’23 to flock back to friends and festivities alike. “My favorite part about Stompfest is just seeing everyone so happy and just feeling so safe and being able to connect with one another,” Carter said. “I think that that’s an important part of the Black community — that we’re really here for each other.” This year’s Stompfest opened with a delivery of what Rock called the “Negro National Anthem” by the Ebony Expressions Gospel Choir and was followed by performances from Emerald Elite Stomp n’ Shake and three groups representing Black Fraternity and Sorority Life, respectively. While Emerald Elite, which Rock identified as the first Black stomp and shake cheer team at the College, showcased the art of “stepping,” the dancing genre referred to as “strolling” was demonstrated by the Fraternity and Sorority Life groups. According to Rock, strolling is a powerful mode of synchronized dancing specific to Divine Nine – the name given to the nine fraternities and sororities created by historically Black colleges – culture.
“A lot of chapters have their go-to song that, when it comes on, everyone knows they’re about to stroll,” Rock said. “Like, ‘The AKA’s are about to stroll. The Alphas are about to stroll.’ I think it’s so cool because there’s something in their brain that clicks when they hear the rhythm of the song. They all get into formation.” First to take the stage following an opening by Emerald Elite was the Kappa Pi Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, known colloquially as the Alphas. Their performance was highlighted by the eerily lit smoke and dark, masked attire that invoked its theme surrounding “The Purge.” There were also coordinated dance routines sprinkled with the use of a whistle as well as the following chant: “Brr, it’s cold in here, must be some alphas in the atmosphere.” Next was the Sigma Lambda chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated. Nicknamed “the SG-rohs” or “the poodles,” this group stuck to a blue-and-yellow football theme. At one point in the performance, members whipped out their trademark canes to hoist one person into the air by the legs. There
was also chanting, reminding the audience that it was the latest and greatest Black sorority to be created in the Divine Nine. Afterwards, the Xi Theta chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated closed out the show with a “Suicide Squad”-themed narrative. This performance featured seven different characters dressed in a variety of outfit types, including a doctor, a military officer and a cupid figure. Also called the Nupes, the performers had canes at their disposal as well, with a few of the canes even snapping in half from the force of being struck against the concrete. Kenneth Jaylen Ferguson ’25 is a member of the Nupes, who performed as a group at Stompfest for the first time in approximately a decade. The Nupes have a total of four members at the College, so the other three members on stage were from the other half of their combined chapter with Christopher Newport University. While Ferguson danced alone last year, the group decided to band together when they started practicing in August. READ MORE AT FLATHATNEWS.COM
MAYER TAWFIK / THE FLAT HAT
THE FLAT HAT
Wednesday, November 8, 2023
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Every-bunny loves Ella Ella Novogratz ʼ23 recounts her journey in illustrative storytelling, fine arts VIVIAN HOANG // FLAT HAT EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Enveloped in the cloak of midnight, a darkhaired heroine stands triumphantly over a slain monster, her sharp metal sword hanging victoriously from her side. She’s done it — she’s saved the town from a terrifying beast. What the heroine doesn’t know, however, is that she’s made a fatal error: the so-called ‘beast’ that now lays lifeless before her was a crucial predator in the local ecosystem. Without it, the population of invasive unicorn bunny fairies — bunnycorns, as Ella Novogratz ’23 affectionately terms them — explodes and overruns the town, and the heroine must quickly find a solution to remedy the unforeseen outbreak. Of course, this tale isn’t a retelling of reality but instead the fictional narrative told in Novogratz’s original comic, ‘Keystone.’ Engaging with environmental justice themes through illustrative storytelling, the comic warns against the loss of keystone species and the destructive, snowballing consequences it can have on surrounding environments. Keystone represents one half of Novogratz’s twopronged art style. The first is digital illustration that often takes a more cartoony look inspired by Dungeons and Dragons. Her illustrations also center on environmental fantasy, and most importantly, leaves viewers with a critical message to take away with them. “I really like story,” Novogratz said. “I feel like I’m a storyteller, and part of the reason I’m an artist is to tell stories, so I’m really connected to the illustration side.” The second prong of Novogratz’s artistic approach is based in the fine arts, which she picked up at the College of William and Mary as a studio art major. In terms of fine arts, she mainly works with relief printmaking, which she describes as the art of carving big stamps out of wood or linoleum before printing them. Her relief printmaking tends to spotlight topics related to mental health and draw from realism; together, these two halves of her art style come together to paint a full picture of Novogratz’s intertwining passions. “I’m a really emotional person, and I think things that people can relate to on an emotional level or something important to me [are what inspire me],” Novogratz said. “Mental health and the environment are two topics I often touch upon because those are the things I’m very emotional about and care about deeply.” At the core of Novogratz’s motivation to create art is its ability to tell important stories. She says the use of images allows people of all backgrounds and ages to engage with more complex or heavier topics in a more accessible way. “I think people don’t want to be preached at about these topics, but I think a lot of people are more willing to enter that interest in a lower-key way,” Novogratz said. “So I think that’s where I find interest in talking about those things but not as explicitly — so people who aren’t as passionate about them can still get into it and be introduced to it in a more welcoming way.” Adopting a fantasy style with her illustrations further allows Novogratz to distill often grisly environmental themes into a more easily digestible tale that uses reality
as a reference rather than a direct mirror. “For [Keystone], I felt like her killing a monster was very different than someone just killing an animal, so I wanted to play off this heroic trope, like she’s the hero until she realized, ‘Oh, she actually wasn’t the hero. She screwed up,’” Novogratz said. “And I thought that kind of twist was something that wouldn’t have worked outside of a fantasy story because animals, I’m at least very emotionally connected to, so if I saw someone killing a bear, I definitely wouldn’t be like, ‘Oh, that’s so heroic.’ I’d be like, ‘Oh, poor bear.’” Novogratz has curated her passion and talent for art since she was a young child - it even runs through her bloodline. Her mother was also an art major and now works in interior design. All four of her younger siblings are similarly engaged in the creative arts in some form or fashion, with one training to work in Special FX makeup for films and another being a singer-songwriter, she says. “I come from a very creative family, and that’s really helped,” Novogratz said. “But I was also very self-driven from a young age. I think most kids draw, and they just draw and draw and draw. But I just never stopped. I didn’t stop when it stopped being what kids did, I drew all throughout middle school, and that’s all I wanted to do. I drew all throughout high school, and I made characters, and I made stories.” It’s fitting, then, that Novogratz returned to her home state of New York this past summer to attend a residency she had earned through the College’s Louis E. Catron grant for artistic development. For a month, Novogratz immersed herself in the School of Visual Arts’ summer illustration residency program, where she both learned from and worked alongside many industry professionals. “That experience was really incredible because it was very focused on illustration, not just the art of it, but also the career side of it,” Novogratz said. “So there were four instructors, and all of them are professional illustrators as a career while also being teachers, and they had guest speakers come in … And they talked about how to make it as a career, how to network, how to find an agent, how to do all these things that I didn’t even know about.” Recalling the program’s intensive nature, she explained
that she spent many late nights in the studio finishing a multitude of individual projects that were meant to simulate commissions from clients, such as a book cover, an ex-libris, a mental-health-themed poster and a comic that ultimately became Keystone. In addition to course instruction and work time for assignments, Novogratz said a significant portion of the program was dedicated to critiques, in which instructors had Novogratz and her peers constantly workshop, refine and even redo the same ideas and works over and over again. Though Novogratz labeled the experience of constantly restarting and having ideas shut down as “frustrating,” she still found it helpful in developing her craft and pushing her outside of her comfort zone to pursue projects COURTESY IMAGES / ELLA NOVOGRATZ and ideas she had never considered before. “That’s how it goes sometimes, you know, if you’re doing a commission for a client, sometimes they’re not going to like anything you show them, and sometimes you’ve got to start over,” Novogratz said. “So that was very frustrating, but I felt like it was good training for the real world to learn how to handle that and learn how to just drop everything on the fly and start over. Because sometimes the project just isn’t going to work out, but sometimes you just need to think, sometimes there’s something else you can think of real quick that they’ll love, and you’ll love, and you’ll feel good about.” Though not without its challenges, Novogratz’s relentless dedication paid off; by the end of the program, she had a wealth of completed illustrations that she, alongside other program participants, displayed in a professional art exhibition hosted by SVA that was open to the public. “It was really amazing to stand in front of all this stuff I’d just been pouring every waking hour into for a month and just present myself and my artwork to strangers,” Novogratz said. “It was really amazing because it felt like a very good accumulation of what I’d been working on and what we’d all been working on.” She fondly recounts standing proudly alongside her peers, many of whom were already college-graduated working professionals, and deeply appreciating the wide range of art styles and strong community that come with illustrative artistry.
“Honestly, [the exhibit] was probably one of my favorite moments,” Novogratz said. “We’re all standing together, but none of us are making anything that looks even remotely similar, and we’re all right. And that was cool, seeing all of our approaches to the same project and really learning who they were and who I was, too.” One unlikely takeaway that Novogratz derived from the program was a newfound motif that happened to appear throughout a majority of the works she created and will continue to feature in her art when she says it makes sense: bunnies. For Novogratz, bunnies have always been a central figure in her life even prior to completing the program. Not only does she have her own pet bunny named Smokey who can be described as resembling a small, dark gray puff of a storm cloud, but she also has held the small mammal close as a symbol of perseverance in spite of anxiety. “For me, bunnies are a prey animal, and anxiety keeps them alive, and for me, it’s a reminder that anxiety is a survival instinct, it’s meant to keep you alive,” Novogratz said. “Like it’s not meant to hold you back, and for me, sometimes fear does hold me back, but that is a reminder that [anxiety] is there as a survival instinct, so to kind of take the same away from it — like fear and anxiety — and remind that it’s there to be protective. It might be a little misplaced sometimes, but that’s what it’s there for.” Wherever life happens to take her, one thing Novogratz is certain of is that bunnies will always hop alongside her. For now, Novogratz is focused on completing a heavy course load that includes two senior capstones in order to ensure an early winter graduation while also interning for the Muscarelle Museum of Art as a community engagement intern. She is also working on another fantasy comic that focuses on animal rights and will similarly incorporate a narrative twist like Keystone. “She’s a necromancer type character, but she’s bringing back animals, and the conversation is like, is she evil for bringing them back? Or is what happened to them — that they died — evil?” Novogratz said when describing the upcoming comic. While Novogratz intentionally keeps her vision for the future limitless and flexible, she says she hopes to work in either illustration, animation or video game storyboarding, and she may even publish a book of her own short stories. “All three — illustration, animation, video games — all of them use pictures to tell stories, and that’s kind of my thing,” Novogratz said. “People are going to see them and enjoy them. So that could be a book, that could be a game, that could be a movie. I’m pretty flexible in medium because I love all three of those mediums, so long-term, I think I want to see where it goes, but storytelling is my goal.” To support Novogratz’s goal of storytelling through visual art, check out her Redbubble storefront or her Instagram at the handle @ellanovoart. And if you’re lucky, you might see Novogratz taking Smokey out for a leisurely stroll (yes, on a leash!) on the Sunken Garden when she isn’t too busy creating art.
The Acupuncture Juncture Licensed acupuncturist Dr. Huanani Chong Drake joins the Collegeʼs Wellness Center team MEGAN RUDACILLE // THE FLAT HAT Since Oct. 16, Dr. Haunani Chong Drake, the newest addition to the College of William and Mary’s McLeod Tyler Wellness Center staff and the College’s first and only licensed acupuncturist, has quickly made her mark at the facility. The College’s Acupuncture Lounge provides a group setting for accessible, generalized treatment that uses needles in the ear for a calming mental and physical reset. Meanwhile, Drake also offers private sessions attuned to a patient’s specific health needs with a detailed intake and treatment plan. Students can register for either type of appointment through either the College’s wellness app or website. For Drake, however, regardless of the type of session booked, or what the student is coming in for, she hopes to treat everyone that walks through her door. “I’m totally in service to all of you who are interested in finding holistic ways of being in relationship with yourself,” Drake said during her introductory acupuncture talk and demo held at the College on Oct. 4. “That’s how I see my job here. So whether you’re coming to me for more mental, emotional balance or physical stuff, to me, I’m always going to be seeing you as full and complete, and all we need to do is try to find out why we’re getting in our own way.” She also emphasized the importance of college students utilizing these wellness resources like acupuncture during the peak of their youths. “What I anticipate seeing is a lot of mental health, anxiety, depression, sleep stuff, but also just your general aches and pains that may have been there for a year, or two, or three, and you’re just not really worrying about it,” Drake told The Flat Hat. “You’re young, you’re healthy, the body recovers really quickly.” Before coming to the College, Drake traces her roots to Hawaii, where she was born before moving to Washington state. There, she grew up deeply involved with a local Native Hawaiian community; along with learning to dance hula
from a young age, Drake adopted values from the culture, which she acknowledges have informed her present spirituality. “There is a lot of talk about your connection with the earth,” Drake said. “That’s the most important connection, really, for understanding who we are as humans. So I grew up around that, but I don’t think I actually knew what I was hearing, because when you grow up with it, you don’t know what you don’t know. You think everyone’s hearing the same message.” Eventually, Drake earned her B.A. in sociology on the pre-med track at Whitman College, which she recalls as having been a lifelong goal. However, when re-evaluating her post-grad plans after deciding not to attend medical school, Drake remembers struggling to find direction. Instead of following the route she had planned to embark on, she found herself working in the food service industry while also dealing with chronic pain. “I’ve always had this very strong interest in other forms of medicine outside of allopathic, but never formally,” Drake said. “I just didn’t know it was even a possibility. But then, sometimes when life gets really dark, you start asking yourself questions, and I have no other way to describe it, but it’s like the universe just started putting things in front of me.” At this time, Drake started studying Ayurveda, a traditional South Asian medicine system that includes herbal medicine, diet practices and yoga. This study, along with her daily practices of yoga, helped Drake consciously connect with spirituality and find her true path. Finally, Drake experienced a revelation about her future while meditating at Green Lake in Seattle, Wa. “I just said, ‘I’m not moving until I find clarity,’ and all of a sudden there was a moment, a millisecond of my mind not chattering, and I heard the term ‘Chinese medicine,’ and something inside me just lit up,” Drake said. Drake then went on to earn her M.S. in traditional Oriental medicine as well as her doctorate in acupuncture and Chinese medicine at Pacific
College of Health and Science. The field of Chinese medicine extends beyond acupuncture, using a wide range of traditional practices like herbal medicine, massage and movement exercises. Chinese medicine emphasizes a holistic approach that maintains both physical and spiritual balance and the flow of energy. “It comes from a paradigm of recognizing, first and foremost, that we are nature, we’re not separate from nature, and that because we are nature, the way a tree is part of nature, the way a river’s part of nature, a human is part of nature, that our physiology, our makeup operates under those same principles and those same patterns that are in all of nature,” Drake said. Currently, Drake lives with her husband, her two kids and their two English bulldogs. After learning her husband’s job as a Marine officer would relocate her family to Williamsburg, Drake happened upon a job posting for an integrated wellness professional when browsing the College’s website — an opening that she found fortuitous. Drake expressed her longheld affection for small college towns like Williamsburg, along with her enjoyment of nature, which Williamsburg has in spades. “Because we just moved from Massachusetts, I’ve discovered how amazing it is to just walk around and look at all the different mushrooms that are growing,” Drake said. “Virginia is one of those places, too, that’s blowing my mind, because just walking out into my yard here, there’s, like, 30 varietals, and they’re all just so beautiful.” To those interested in practicing acupuncture, Drake recommends researching East Asian medicine and shadowing a professional to gauge your interest. She also emphasizes the importance of self-advocacy in one’s career of choice. “You have to also be willing to be advocating for not only yourself, but the medicine, and also your patients, and I was not aware of that coming out of college,” Drake said. “There’s just so much advocacy work that has to go into keeping our patients safe
COURTESY IMAGE / HUANANI DRAKE
and getting them the services that they really want because there’s a lot of forces at play trying to push us off to the side.” Despite the challenge of maintaining this type of constant advocacy, Drake affirms that her profession is more than rewarding. With her passions for spirituality, service and holistic wellness, Drake says she is here to stay at the College. “I plan on doing this forever,” Drake said. “I don’t know if you ever retire from this. That’s how much fun I have, that’s just how much I love it. I breathe, drink it. It’s everywhere. You begin looking at the world differently. Everything just fits.”
sports
THE FLAT HAT | Wednesday, November 8, 2023 | Page 9
FIELD HOCKEY
Tribe secures second CAA title, beats Monmouth in 2OT Curranʼs hat trick propels Green and Gold to come from behind win MADDIE MOHAMADI THE FLAT HAT
Sunday, Nov. 5, William and Mary field hockey (11-8, 4-2 CAA) won the CAA tournament, defeating Monmouth (12-6, 5-1 CAA) at Delaware’s Fred P. Rullo Stadium in Newark, Del. Tribe field hockey’s victory marked the first time since 2018 the team has won the tournament. “I went into the weekend thinking that this team had the same quality as the 2018 team,” head coach Tess Ellis said. “We had the capability and the confidence in ourselves as a team and as individuals that we could beat anybody in conference.” With 15 shots on goal and 13 penalty corners, the Tribe played well offensively. This year’s championship game went into double overtime with a 2-2 tie. Fifth-year forward Lauren Curran scored all three of the Tribe’s goals, including the game-winner in the 75th minute on an offensive penalty corner. Assisted by junior midfielder Pyper Friedman, who inserted the ball, Curran scored with a straight shot from the top of the circle. Curran scored the Tribe’s first goal in the 33rd minute, receiving a reverse pass from junior forward Kellen Richbourg and shooting from the left side of the circle. In the 56th minute, Curran scored her second goal off a rebound during an offensive penalty corner. Receiving the ball at the center of the circle, Curran scored on a lifted shot, equalizing the game. Defensively, senior goalkeeper Maddie George saved six of Monmouth’s eight shots on goal. George also blocked a penalty stroke from Monmouth senior midfielder Nora Goddard-Despot in the 54th minute. Monmouth did not score any goals on its three offensive penalty corners. Monmouth junior forward Sofia Fouces
and graduate student forward Aylin Aufenacker scored the Hawks’ two goals in the 10th and 42nd minutes, respectively. Before playing Monmouth, William and Mary field hockey defeated Drexel (14-6, 4-2 CAA) on Nov. 3 in the CAA tournament semifinals. The Tribe’s 2-0 shutout in Newark followed a 7-1 loss against Drexel earlier in the season. Ellis highlighted various changes Tribe field hockey made since the loss. “We were very aware that it just wasn’t about beating one player on the field, that we had to play the whole team,” Ellis said. “This time, we did a better job of not opening up holes for them to play through.” Though Drexel earned nine offensive corners during the semifinal game, the Tribe dominated with a strong defensive performance. George had a season-high 10 saves, marking the third time in her Tribe field hockey career she recorded doubledigit saves. In the 22nd minute, George made back-to-back saves, blocking shots from Drexel freshman defender Pien Elsen and sophomore forward Natali Foster. After Drexel pulled graduate student goalkeeper Megan Hadfield in the 53rd minute, the Tribe’s defense remained strong. George made another set of back-to-back saves during two penalty corners in the 54th minute, securing the Tribe’s two-goal lead. Offensively, William and Mary earned five penalty corners. Friedman scored both of the team’s goals in the 15th and 27th minutes, respectively. During the Tribe’s second offensive penalty corner, Hadfield blocked senior midfielder Allison Goodwin’s sweep from the top of the circle, but Friedman scored the first goal of the game off the rebound. Goodwin assisted Friedman’s second goal, which she
ANNA MCCLELLAN/ THE FLAT HAT
This seasonʼs title marks the Tribeʼs second championship in program history. The team now faces Sacred Heart in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
also scored on an offensive penalty corner. After Friedman inserted the ball, Goodwin passed back to Friedman at the post. Friedman chipped the ball over Hadfield, securing the Tribe’s lead. According to Ellis, the team’s persistence enabled them to win the tournament. “Like anything in life, you’ve got to fail once or twice before you figure it out correctly, and I think that was part of our season,” Ellis said Tribe field hockey will face Sacred Heart (9-10, 4-3 NEC) on Wednesday, Nov. 8 in the first round of the NCAA Division I Field Hockey Championship. The game will be played at 2 p.m. at Karen Shelton Stadium in Chapel Hill, N.C.
WOMENʼS BASKETBALL
William and Mary drops season opener in heartbreaking fashion Despite 20-point lead, Norfolk Stateʼs second half run proves too much to overcome
JAKE FORBES FLAT HAT MANAGING EDITOR
Monday, Nov. 6, William and Mary women’s basketball (0-1, 0-0 CAA) lost 66-64 to Norfolk State (1-0, 0-0 MEAC) in its nail-biting season opener at Kaplan Arena in WIlliamsburg, Va. “I’m just super proud of my team,” head coach Erin Dickerson Davis said. “We are figuring things out. We have a lot of young players playing a lot of minutes. We also have some newcomers that we’re trying to figure out how to gel at this point.” Ahead of the game, the Tribe held a brief pregame ceremony commemorating recent renovations to Kaplan Arena, most notably unveiling a new scoreboard above the center of the court. The defining element of the first quarter was the Tribe defense, which held Norfolk State to 3-16 from the field, amounting to just seven points. William and Mary jumped ahead quickly, thanks to graduate student forward Nylah Young scoring the first six points of the game. Young then drained a jumper with six minutes, 14 seconds remaining in the first quarter to build up the Tribe lead.
COURTESY PHOTO / THE FLAT HAT
Sophomore guard Alexa Mikeska looks to expand her role on this yearʼs Tribe team after an impressive freshman season.
In her first career game with the Tribe, Young finished the night with 29 points. She previously played four years at Hampton University, including last season, when she was named Third Team All-CAA. Three minutes later, junior guard Bella Nascimento converted from downtown to
extend the Tribe lead to eight points. Each team converted one more field goal in the remainder of the quarter, leading to a 15-7 Tribe lead as the first came to an end. The Tribe carried its momentum into the second quarter, quickly going on a 13-0 run to extend its lead to 24-7. The home team’s offensive burst began with a layup from junior forward Anahi-Lee Cauley. Young then made two three throws to extend William and Mary’s lead to double digits. Another layup from Young and a shoulder three from sophomore forward Kayla Rolph sent Kaplan Arena into a cheerfilled frenzy. Young continued her offensive attack with another trip to the line, followed by a drive into the paint which resulted in a layup off the glass. With four minutes, 57 seconds remaining in the second, Norfolk State called a timeout hoping to slow down momentum. At this point in the game, the Tribe recorded seven assists, compared to the Spartans’ zero. Later in the quarter, the Spartans came alive on both ends of the ball, playing lockdown defense and converting on points off turnovers. A series of points in the paint and several trips to the foul stripe amounted to a 12-0 Spartan
run, bringing the Tribe lead down to five points in the final minute of the half. Hoping to score in the final seconds of the half, Rolph was called for a travel, leaving William and Mary scoreless with three minutes, 59 seconds left of the second quarter. A sloppy performance in the back half of the quarter resulted in nine team turnovers. Though Norfolk State shot 5-16 from the field, the team registered an impressive 9-11 from the stripe to tighten the contest. The visiting team also recorded three steals in the quarter. Both teams traded layups in the opening minute of the second half. After a missed three-pointer from Norfolk State’s junior guard Da’naijah Williams, senior forward Rebekah Frisby-Smith grabbed the rebound. Right under the basket, Norfolk State’s junior guard Niya Fields ripped the ball away from Frisby-Smith and passed to Williams, who converted a layup to pull the visiting team within one score. Fueled by the momentum of her own steal, Fields drained a deep ball on the next possession to tie the game up at 33 all, marking the first tie since the start of the contest. READ MORE AT FLATHATNEWS.COM
FOOTBALL
Struggles continue as Green and Gold lose on the road to Albany Tribe drops fourth contest in last five games, playoff chances quickly slipping away MAX GRILL FLAT HAT SPORTS Saturday, Nov. 4, no. 24 William and Mary (5-4, 3-3 CAA) fell on the road to no. 23 Albany (7-3, 4-1 CAA) 24-8 at Casey Stadium in Albany, N.Y. The Tribe falls deeper into its recent skid, with Saturday’s loss marking the team’s fourth in the last five games. After escaping with an exciting home win against Monmouth the week before, the Green and Gold looked to right the ship in Albany heading into the final three weeks of the regular season. William and Mary, who entered Saturday’s game ranked 24th in the FCS, will most likely be pushed out of the playoff picture following its untimely loss against the Great Danes. Saturday’s game immediately began on the wrong foot. The Great Danes scored within 90 seconds of starting its initial drive after backto-back 37-yard completions from Albany sophomore quarterback
Reese Poffenbarger. Finishing the game with 205 passing yards, Poffenbarger torched the Tribe defense all game, and his punchin-the-mouth first drive forced the Tribe onto its heels before the offense even took the field. The Green and Gold’s offense was stagnant all game. On 32 attempts, the Tribe only managed to rush for 45 net yards. On the passing side, junior quarterback Darius Wilson finished 14-21 with 171 passing yards, racking up two interceptions along the way. The rest of the first quarter was quiet, as both teams punted following empty offensive drives. After an early William and Mary punt in the second, the Great Danes marched downfield once again. Highlighted by three more Poffenbarger completions and a 19yard run by freshman running back Griffin Woodell, Albany concluded its drive with a 42-yard field goal, extending its lead to 10-0 with just over eight minutes left in the half.
The Tribe failed to respond, but after a solid defensive possession resulting in an Albany punt, the Green and Gold had another chance to finally put some points on the board. However, Albany’s secondary had other ideas. After a promising 10-yard completion to junior wide receiver JT Mayo, Wilson was picked off by junior defensive back Aamir Hall, who returned it 45-yards for a touchdown. Despite getting the ball right back, the Green and Gold came up empty yet again, and went into the locker room down 17-0 with 30 minutes left to fight back. The third quarter saw no scoring. After a timely interception in the endzone by senior defensive back Malcolm Spencer, the Tribe barreled down the field, getting to the Albany one before being stopped on a fourth-and-one rush attempt. The beginning of the fourth began with similar luck, as the Tribe continued punting until the Great
Danes gained possession with just over 10 minutes left in the game. After a 14-yard completion and a 22-yard rush from Poffenbarger,
JULIANA GOMIEN / THE FLAT HAT
Senior running back Malachi Imoh has stepped into a larger role this injury-plagued 2023 season.
Woodell took over, rushing for 23 yards over three carries resulting in yet another Albany touchdown. Now down 24-0, the Green and Gold realized time was running out. With the offense back on the field, Wilson wasted no time making up big yards, connecting with junior quarterback Hollis Mathis for a 34-yard completion. After another completion, Wilson took matters into his own hands, rushing 20-yards on a Tribe fourth-and-13 for the Tribe’s first touchdown of the game. Wilson found the endzone again on the two-point conversion, but it was far too little too late. Albany let the clock rundown, and as the fourth quarter came to an end, William and Mary suffered its third conference loss of the season. With just two regular season games left to play, the pressure on the Tribe has never been higher as it looks to secure a much-needed win in next week’s matchup against Hampton on Nov. 11 in Hampton, Va.