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A dog day in Williamsburg
Prewitt, Tarpey helptheir College pickcompanions up a 78-62 win in front a packed Kaplan Arena. Pet owners parade canine down DoG of Street.
Vol. 105, Iss. 5 | Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Tech this out
Eric Brown ‘92 remembers the College triathalon, finding a thesis mentor.
The Flat Hat The Weekly Student Newspaper
of The College of William and Mary
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WILLIAMSBURG
MADELINE BIELSKI / THE FLAT HAT
On a street with(out) white houses
SEXUAL ASSAULT REPORTED ON COLLEGE CAMPUS The College of William and Mary Community was notified Sept. 18 of a reported sexual assault that occurred on campus. The campus-wide alert went out at 10:14 p.m. Sept. 18. informing students of the incident and that the alleged perpetrator had been identified. The William and Mary Police Department is investigating the report and a criminal investigation has been started. A follow-up email alert sent at 10:54 a.m. Sept. 19 stated that the alleged perpetrator is no longer on campus and, until the matter is resolved, is banned from all campus property. The investigation is still underway. “The university generally will not wait for the conclusion of any criminal investigation or proceedings to commence its own investigation and take interim measures to protect the reporting party and the university community, although the university will consider law enforcement requests to delay temporarily (generally no more than seven days),” said Title IX Chief Compliance Officer Kiersten Boyce in an email. — Flat Hat News Editor Amanda Williams
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College-owned houses have already been demolished. The College’s Master Plan would replace nine houses in Pollard Park with new, sustainable office buildings. The plan also calls for the construction of a multi-deck parking garage near Pollard Park. The three houses in Chandler Court would be demolished to make way for a road to connect the garage with Jamestown Road. These changes would be made in order to improve access to the Admissions Office and provide campus with more parking options. Chandler Court and Pollard Park homeowners’ organizations have protested the proposed changes, citing disruption to their neighborhoods and destruction of important historical resources. Chandler Court resident Roy Geiger ’72, M.Ed. ’77, Ed.D ’94 lives in
MADELINE BIELSKI / THE FLAT HAT
the house next to the home that his grandfather, philosophy professor J.R. Geiger, built in the 1920s. This house is where his father, Bill Geiger ’48 grew up. Geiger attended the College, serving as sports editor of The Flat Hat. He went on to work for Colonial Williamsburg, becoming director of craft shops. As a child, Geiger would frequently visit Chandler Court to see his grandmother Dorothy, a teacher at the Matthew Whaley School. Geiger said that many of the residents of Chandler Court were the widows of old faculty back then. “This is a quiet, peaceful beautiful enclave to come and visit,” Geiger said. “We go way back and have a deep affection, not only for the See HOUSES page 3
STUDENT LIFE
Students, administration tackle survey data Campus climate subcommittee assesses data from misconduct, NCHA surveys AMANDA WILLIAMS FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
The campus climate subcommittee recently released its findings and recommendations in the Prevention of Sexual Assault and Harassment Task Force Report. The report includes data from the campus-wide sexual misconduct climate survey and a campus health survey. The subcommittee activities focused on administering two separate campus surveys, focus groups and an open forum held February 2015. The recommendations were grouped under eight topics including climate assessment, culture, leadership, communication, student subpopulations, prevention and education resources, reporting and adjudication resources and faculty/staff training. The last three topics pertain to other task force subcommittees, and the
leadership and communication recommendations were incorporated into those recommendations set forth by the entire task force. The subcommittee spearheaded the distribution of the campus sexual assault climate survey to the College of William and Mary last fall. A key recommendation was the assessment of the campus climate with respect to genderbased discrimination and violence through a campus-wide survey every other year. Although this recent survey gave the task force adequate information, according to Assistant to the Vice President of Student Affairs and Director of Student Affairs Planning and Assessment Jodi Fisler, the subcommittee is looking into better options, including a recent survey piloted at Rutgers University at the request of the White House’s Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. “I think the idea of surveying the
Inside the Task Force Report
campus every other year is definitely worth it, because if things change we won’t have any way of knowing that they’re changed unless we continue to monitor that,” Fisler said. The Rutgers survey is comprehensive, but also much longer, according to Fisler. She said it is difficult to get comprehensive information without overwhelming the students. The recent campus climate survey by the College had a 27 percent response rate and Fisler said it took most people about 10 minutes to complete. Ultimately, Fisler said the survey was successful, but could be improved going forward. “We know a lot more about the people who are affected by it in the sense that they’ve survived some kind of assault or misconduct, but we really don’t know anything about who’s doing it, and that’s a big gap in our understanding,” Fisler said. “So that’s something that, [with] future surveys, I think we would need to be keeping tabs on.” Colleen Reynolds ’17 served on the
subcommittee alongside three other students, one faculty member, and four members of the administration. Reynolds said she disagreed with the format of the survey that went out to the College community. “I think the survey is not the one that should have been administered to students, it wasn’t as comprehensive as I think it needed to be, and at times there was language that I disagreed with in the survey,” Reynolds said. Both Reynolds and Rachael Kaufman ’15, who also served on the subcommittee, said they had negative views of the administration’s handling of sexual assault prior to working with the task force. Reynolds said that working with the task force was both inspiring and comforting because she saw the extent to which the administration cares for student safety. “I really had to self-reflect about my reasons for thinking the administration was an entirely malicious entity trying to avoid providing survivors the help See SURVEY page 4
Inside Sports
Inside Opinions
The importance of a multicultural education
Cloudy, High 80, Low 66
AINE CAIN // FLAT HAT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
CAROLINE NUTTER / THE FLAT HAT
COURTESY PHOTO/ WM.EDU
Preservation Virginia announced May 18 that the houses the College of William and Mary owns along Jamestown Road are amongst Virginia’s most endangered historic sites. These houses are slated for demolition in the College’s Master Plan, approved by the Board of Visitors February 2015. The Stetson House, Hoke House, Holmes House, Lambert House, Rowe House, Painter House, Matthews House, Faison House and Nelson House are all listed among the endangered houses. These houses are located in the Chandler Court and Pollard Park neighborhoods, which are listed in the National Registry of Historic Places. As a state university, the College is not beholden to the zoning or architectural review regulations that would otherwise protect the properties. Two of the 12
MADELINE BIELSKI / THE FLAT HAT
COURTESY PHOTO/ WM.EDU
Francesca Maestas reflects upon the significance of cultural diversity in her life and its essential role in collegiate education. page 5
Tribe comeback falls short
In its matchup against FBS foe Virginia, the College put forth a strong effort but ultimately fell 35-29. page 9