The Flat Hat February 14th, 2017

Vol. 107, Iss. 3 | Tuesday, February 14, 2016

The Flat Hat The Weekly Student Newspaper

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of The College of William and Mary

CHARTER DAY

CHARTER DAY

College awards faculty prizes at Charter Day Clemons, West receive honorary degrees NIA KITCHIN FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR

COURTESY PHOTO / WM.EDU

Michael Clemons ‘89 gave the Charter Day address on Feb. 10, following Feb. 9 conversations with College President Taylor Reveley and Chancellor Robert Gates ‘65.

‘Everyone take a deep breath’ Gates sits down with Reveley, discusses national politics SARAH SMITH FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR

Following the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, former U.S. Secretary of Defense and Chancellor of the College of William and Mary Robert Gates ’65 sat down with College President Taylor Reveley to discuss the state of the nation and give policy prescriptions for current foreign policy issues.

“We have one of the most experienced people in national affairs,” Reveley said.

“One of his most delightful characteristics is that he says something when you ask him a question.”

Reveley asked Gates to discuss his opinions, focusing on issues relating to November’s presidential election, Trump’s Cabinet appointments and issues of foreign policy. Afterwards, there was time allotted for audience members to ask him questions.

Relating to the election, Reveley asked Gates if he saw any useful lessons that the general public could learn from the election.

Gates said that this past election was a great reminder that not enough “moderate” voters show up at the polls during the primaries.

“I have a sense that a lot of Americans said ‘How did we end up with this choice?’ and it’s because none of you showed up in February and March,” Gates said. “The election is so polarized because moderates only show up in November … The founding

fathers were amazingly prescient of the failings of mankind, but they didn’t anticipate career politicians.”

Another topic of discussion was President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, his alleged involvement in the U.S. presidential election and the appointment of U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Gates said that he thought Putin was a “stone-cold killer” who acted the way he did because Russia’s borders have increasingly tightened to where they were at the time of Russian monarch Catherine the Great.

According to Gates, Putin’s goals are to reassert Russia’s role as a great power and to create a buffer of frozen conflicts or friendly states around Russia. He recommended that the United States consider arming Ukraine or showing force.

Gates also said that he thought Tillerson was the right choice for secretary of state and that he had personally recommended him for the position.

During his confirmation hearings, some questioned the former CEO of ExxonMobil’s ties to Putin.

“I know he was very controversial, I suggested him,” Gates said. “Rex is an American, a boy scout to his marrow. Once he was confirmed, it’s going to be all about America.”

Some students, like Vanessa Adkins ’19, disagreed with Gates’ support for Tillerson.

“I didn’t agree with him suggesting

POLITICS

Tillerson and how he basically implied that his patriotism was a reason enough to suggest him even though he wasn’t qualified,” Adkins said.

Moving farther into discussions of foreign policy, Reveley asked Gates about what the United States should choose as a productive response to China.

Gates said that he believes Trump has exaggerated the nature of the threat posed

by China, and that he still believes that the United States should pursue a more aggressive policy without offending NATO allies.

“We can’t be chickening out over rights,” Gates said. “To assert our rights, we must be prepared for conflict.”

When the audience began to ask questions, Gates gave answers regarding topics such as what lessons the United States should have learned from conflict in Afghanistan, how to deal with the ripple effects of conflict in Iran and what the nation should expect after the confirmation of U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy Devos.

“Everyone needs to take a deep breath,” Gates said. “Those people will be held accountable for their actions. [DeVos] will do her thing and she has very little power.”

After this response, Reveley decided that “taking a deep breath” would be a good note to end the conversation on, and said that Gates would be taking no more student questions.

The 324th annual Charter Day celebration commenced Friday, Feb. 10, at Kaplan Arena.

Students, professors and administrators gathered to commemorate the College of William and Mary’s birthday.

In her reflection on the royal charter, Caroline Golino ’17 emphasized the need for growth and perseverance in the face of challenges. She said that she would urge students to challenge what the College can be.

“For a place that is made out of brick, surprisingly little is set in stone,” Golino said.

After Golino’s remarks and readings from the charter by eight different undergraduate students, College President Taylor Reveley recognized Alumni Medallion Recipients.

This honor is the highest the College confers on graduates.

Four alumni, Ted Dintersmith ’74, Troy Keen ’96, Frederick Malvin ’55, M.S.T. ’58 and Jeffrey Trammell ’73 received this honor for their exemplary professional accomplishments.

Chancellor and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates ’65, L.H.D. ’98 reflected on the history of conflicting visions for the College. He related this to a need for diversity of opinion among the political gridlock and echo chambers of today.

“It is of course a great mistake to think one’s views are strengthened without being challenged,” Gates said.

Following the tradition that began in 1756 with the conferral of an honorary degree on Benjamin Franklin, the College awarded Mildred West and Michael Clemons ’89 honorary degrees.

Gates bestowed the honor on West. She was praised for her athletic abilities and guidance

off the court as well.

“Your leadership in intercollegiate athletics lay the foundation on which future generations of Tribe athletes can excel,” Gates said.

Gates also bestowed this honorary degree on Clemons.

He was acknowledged for his caliber in athletics and beyond.

“Your impassioned pursuit of excellence is having an impact that reaches beyond roaring stadiums to an entire nation and beyond,” Gates said. “You took a name, ‘Pinball,’ and made it legendary, not only in the gridiron but also in the communities you serve.”

Clemons delivered the keynote speech. He said that this honor was unexpected but appreciated. He said he came to the College because it was the most comprehensive combination of athletics and academics, and he has never regretted his choice since.

He also said that students at the College have to recognize the privilege that comes with attending the College.

Reveley reacted to Clemons’ expressive speech by remarking on his athletic speaking style.

“When you jumped off the stage I asked myself ‘is Pinball going to jump back on?’” Reveley said.

Daniel Delmonaco ’17 received the James Monroe Prize in Civic Leadership. Ben Zhang ’17 received the Thomas Jefferson Prize in Natural Philosophy. Kara Thompson received the Thomas Jefferson Teaching Award. Sharon Zuber Ph.D. ’04 received the Thomas Jefferson Award.

“Both the College and the country have made their way through terrible times as well as glorious times, but in my judgment both the College and the country has their best days yet to come,” Reveley said.

ECONOMY

WATA approves routes Colonial Williamsburg sees visitation decrease

Buses approved by WATA, HRT Living museum starts plan to let go employees during 2017 ZHAN started organizational changes which resulted of the City’s total employment and is also one to run to Lackey Free Clinic YUTONG FLAT HAT ASSOC. NEWS EDITOR in laying off several employees in early January. of its principal taxpayers. However, Colonial LEONOR GRAVE FLAT HAT CHIEF STAFF WRITER

With the support of a federal grant, Williamsburg Area Transit Authority and Hampton Roads Transit have teamed up to provide bus access to the Lackey Free Clinic. Lackey Free Clinic provides free medical services for those who meet eligibility requirements within York County, the City of Williamsburg, Poquoson, James City County and Newport News.

The Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Grant, which amounts to a total of $785,009, is funded by 80 percent federal and 20 percent state funds. These funds support all the operating costs associated with the route, which will operate on a Monday through Saturday pilot route on an hourly services

See LACKEY page 4

Today’s Weather

Index Profile News Opinions Variety

Sports

schedule for up to three years.

The proposed route would provide service to Lackey Free Clinic, the JCC Government Complex, Riverside Doctors’ Hospital, the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail and the Naval Weapons Station among other locations. It would also offer connection to Hampton Roads Transit via Lee Hall.

According to Virginia Senator Monty Mason ’89 (D-Williamsburg) and Virginia Delegate Mike Mullin (D-Newport News), access to the clinic is crucial for the upper peninsula community, as Lackey Free Clinic provides services for over 1,200 patients per year. However, the current bus stop closest to the

Due to financial difficulties caused by a decline in visitation, Colonial Williamsburg

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is the second-largest employer in the City of Williamsburg, which makes up 11.38 percent

KAYLA SHARPE / THE FLAT HAT

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is the second-largest overall employer in the City of Williamsburg.

Kyle Lopez ’17 discusses the College’s failure to truly embrace its minority students. page 5 Cloudy, High 55, Low 46

See WILLIAMSBURG page 4

Inside Sports

Inside Opinions

Embracing diversity, not just tolerating it

2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10

Williamsburg is now dealing with financial difficulties and has tried layoffs as a means for restoring financial health.

As a private, nonprofit institution, Colonial Williamsburg receives relatively stable donations and funding. In 2015, Colonial Williamsburg received 1,546 gifts and grants — restricted, unrestricted and matching — from corporations, foundations, government agencies and other organizations for a total of $11,840,584, according to the 2015 Corporate and Foundation Donors report.

While Colonial Williamsburg is still processing the 2016 report, Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations Sophia Hart said in an email that she could tell the giving for 2016 was very similar to the giving in 2015.

The City of Williamsburg’s local government also gives funds to support Colonial Williamsburg. The adopted budget for fiscal-year 2016 shows that the government

Men’s basketball is victorious in annual Gold Rush game

The men’s basketball game conquers the College of Charleston Cougars 89-79 in the annual Gold Rush game. page 10

newsinsight “ Fighting for English in a STEM world

News Editor Nia Kitchin News Editor Sarah Smith fhnews@gmail.com

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The Flat Hat

| Tuesday, February 14, 2017 | Page 2

THE BUZZ

When you jumped off the stage I asked myself ‘Is Pinball going to jump back on?’

— College President Taylor Reveley when reacting to Michael Clemons’ Charter Day speech

Now it’s easier than ever to stay upto-date on all on-campus news.

Melanie Dawson M.A. ’90 speaks on her passion for the English language Page 2 Spotlight

CARLEY SCHANCK // FLAT HAT ASSOC. NEWS EDITOR

The Flat Hat

@theflathat

@theflathat

theflatchat A THOUSAND WORDS

In an academic world increasingly dominated by STEM subjects, the College of William and Mary English professor Melanie Dawson M.A. ’90 advocates for the viability of English as an impactful area of study with an array of applicable career fields.

After completing her undergraduate

“

Our graduates have gone on to be not only journalists and news assistants at CNN, but also mobile producers, someone who works on a financial consultancy, we have medical students, we have people who are doing creative nonprofit work, we have a minister, a literary agent ... so you don’t have to be an English teacher, and you don’t have to be a writer to find really viable skills in our major — Melanie

Dawson M.A. ’90

BRENDAN DOYLE / THE FLAT HAT

CORRECTIONS The Flat Hat wishes to correct any fact printed incorrectly.

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work as a double major in English and music at the University of Richmond, Dawson entered the College’s one-year graduate program for English in 1989.

“After the first semester I was really hooked,” Dawson said. “You find doors just opening up to you in graduate work, and when you find that there are plenty of doors, and that you’re curious about what lies behind them, then I think it’s time to say yes … this is for me.”

Dawson only attended the College for one year.

However she said she was attracted to the passion for learning and drive embodied by her professors and classmates.

“What I liked was the intensity of the analysis, spending more time digging a little deeper … As a faculty member, I still see that,” Dawson said. “I think that’s a really valuable aspect of our department. Students are really engaged, faculty love what they

do.”

Dawson is currently in the 17th year of her teaching career at the College.

Following her desire to spark intellectual passion in students, Dawson began directing the honors thesis program for English majors this year.

She said that though she has done work with nine or 10 honors students over the years, this is largely a new enterprise for her.

“It’s a way for English majors to try to experience some of that intellectual intensity that I’ve been talking about, to see where their excitement leads them,” Dawson said.

Dawson said that there is no one-sizefits-all model for writing an English thesis; the process looks different from student to student.

Students typically choose a topic and start writing a proposal during the spring semester of their junior year.

According to Dawson, there are 12 students in the process of writing proposals and approximately nine current seniors working on their English honors theses.

Dawson said that one of the most stressful parts of writing an honors thesis is the work the students put in up front.

“They’re really having to think very logically about not only what interests them, but taking that interest and thinking more strategically about how you accomplish something with that interest,” Dawson said.

The thesis process is much more than loving a book or an author.

Dawson said that a student must be very invested in what they are researching and writing about.

“It’s about a process, and it’s about a strategy, and it’s about understanding the world of the text in a richer way,” Dawson said.

In terms of topic selection, the sky is the limit according to Dawson. She cited the example of a student interested in medicine who is writing about William Carlos Williams, a Puerto Rican-American who was a poet and a doctor.

In another year, a student wrote about literature relating to Ireland’s Great Famine and branched out into trauma theory as it related to this historical event.

Often, students’ personal interests drive their selection of an honors thesis topic.

As a faculty member at the College since 2000, Dawson said she appreciates the passion students have for academics and their drive to learn.

“The students are incredibly hard workers and they’re able to find their own challenges and embrace them,” Dawson said. “I’ve taught at a number of other institutions, and I just see a level of engagement here that’s always exciting in the classroom. It’s not only that students want to do well, but they love ideas, and they’re ready to ask questions.

In many ways it’s just a wonderful working environment.”

Despite seeing an increasing allocation of funds and resources to the sciences at the College, such as the construction of the Integrated Science Center, Dawson said she passionately advocates for the value of English, especially in the world today.

“We are at an interesting juncture in American culture where self-representation, articulateness, the ability to analyze a situation are all important in ways that I hope everyone is beginning to realize,” Dawson said.

According to Dawson, there are many misconceptions about what it means to study English that she feels are not always understood by people from other areas of academia.

“English majors don’t just study compelling plots and interesting characters.

They learn how to make connections, they learn how to break down information, and they also learn how to work with facts,” Dawson said. “A fact is the history behind the text and how it’s written … It’s a tremendous skill to be able to marshal all of those levels of engagement with the real world and the interpreted world.”

In terms of career paths for English majors, Dawson said that the options are numerous and varied.

“Our graduates have gone on to be not only journalists and news assistants at CNN, but also mobile producers, someone who works on a financial consultancy, we have medical students, we have people who are doing creative nonprofit work, we have a minister, a literary agent … so you don’t have to be an English teacher, and you don’t have to be a writer to find really viable skills in our major,” Dawson said.

For Dawson, what matters most and what reinforces the viability of a degree in English is the success and happiness of alumni from the College.

“I, for one, was very pleased to see that our graduates even from the last decade are so prominently positioned in the world and they’ve found jobs that they love,” Dawson said.

COURTESY PHOTO / WM.EDU

Melanie Dawson M.A. ’90 is an English professor at the College where she directs the honors thesis program.

POLICE BEAT

Feb. 10 - Feb. 12 1

Friday, Feb. 10 — A robbery was reported at Page Street.

2

Sunday, Feb. 12 — Emmett Frazier was arrested on a charge of assault and battery at Watson Drive.

3

Sunday, Feb. 12 — A robbery was reported at the intersection of Second Street and Page Street.

4

Sunday, Feb. 12 — Cameron Oddo was arrested on a charge of abduction/kidnapping at Merrimac Trail.

The Flat Hat

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Page 3

BOARD OF VISITORS FEB. 8-11

Joint committee hears College to finish 10 Task Boyce reports 36 Title news on anniversaries Force recommendations IX incidents to BOV HEATHER BAIER FLAT HAT ASSOC. VARIETY ED.

The Board of Visitors of the College of William and Mary convened for its annual Joint Committee meeting last Thursday, Feb. 9. Much of this meeting focused on the College’s plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of AfricanAmericans and the 100th anniversary of women in residence at the College. The committee first discussed its plans for the 50th anniversary of the first African-American residential students to graduate from the College, which will occur during the 2017-18 academic year.

English and Africana studies professor Jacquelyn Mclendon discussed the particular roles of Lynn Briley ’71, Karen Ely ’71 and Janet Brown Strafer ’71, the first three African-American students in residence at the College.

“Our slogan is ‘Building on the Legacy,’ because we must understand the past in order to move forward and build a better future,” Mclendon said.

Among these events is a mural project which will involve an African-American artist leading a class of 10 students in creating a mural to hang in the President’s Collection of Art. The Marshall-Wythe School of Law will honor Edward Travis ’54, the first African-American alumnus of the College, with a new bronze plaque and a portrait.

There will be an exhibition at the Muscarelle Museum of Art commemorating work by African-Americans at

the College and Colonial Williamsburg will be reenacting the moment of the three women arriving at the College.

The Alumni Association also announced that Briley, Ely and Strafer will be the Grand Marshalls for the Fall 2017 homecoming parade. Additionally, these three women will be given a brick at the Alumni House to commemorate their accomplishments.

Valerie Cushman, Director of Alumni Initiatives for the William and Mary Alumni Association, discussed plans for the 100th anniversary of coeducation at the College during the 2018-19 academic year.

The anniversary of coeducation has been allocated a budget of $273,000 and will also be given money from preexisting budgets in numerous departments.

The Steering Committee is also in the process of getting a resolution passed by the Virginia General Assembly and a proclamation from the Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe commemorating the anniversary. It would like to offer new scholarships to African-American students and to create a physical memorial of the anniversary, possibly in the form of a garden or a waterfall.

“It is our hope that this feels like the year of the woman and no matter what building you walk into you will see a presence of accomplished William and Mary women in the building,” Cushman said.

Search “Anniversaries” on flathatnews.com for the full article.

SARAH SMITH FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR

Less than a year after members of the College of William and Mary’s Board of Visitors were presented with the prioritized recommendations from the President’s Task Force on Race and Race Relations, seven out of those 10 recommendations are in some stage of being completed.

“To me diversity, broadly defined, and inclusivity are core values at William and Mary,” Rector of the Board Todd Stottlemyer ’85 said. “And this must be an institutional commitment, in which all of us, students, faculty, staff, the Board, administrators play a critical role in modeling inclusivity and civility in our words and in our actions. …

This is a process of progress; this is a journey that’s never finished.”

Chief Diversity Officer Chon Glover M.Ed. ’99, Ed.D. ’06 updated the Board on the 10 prioritized recommendations and others that made up the 51 total recommendations from last April’s Task Force report.

Additionally, Glover said that she estimated that 250 people had attended the dedication of Lemon and Hardy Halls.

“It was probably one of the most significant days in history, I think,” Glover said.

Other updates to the Board include updates on the financial status of the diversity initiatives.

According to Glover, the College received a $1 million gift to the Mason School of Business from EY, formerly Ernst & Young.

Glover said that she is still unsure as to what they will do with this money and what “diversity initiatives” entail in this situation.

Following reports last spring that black staff reported unfavorable treatment and working conditions — something that was also addressed in the report — a Facilities Management focus group was created after the College hired an LLC to conduct the evaluation as an outside group.

Moving forward, the College will be doing additional training for managers and supervisors of facilities maintenance staff as while as reviewing current policies.

The College also hired inaugural Deputy Chief Diversity Officer Dania Matos, who will begin assisting Glover starting March 10.

Student Assembly delegates to the Board J.C. LaRiviere ’17 and Rachel Smith ’17 presented on the Greeks for Respect, Inclusion and Diversity (GRID) program and multicultural Greek organizations such as Hermandad de Sigma Iota Alpha and Delta Phi Omega.

Additionally, Smith and LaRiviere told members of the Board that Muslim students on campus were looking for a place to pray, or potentially a room for people of all faiths to pray.

Member of the Board Lisa Roday said while she is pleased with the progress the Board and the different Task Force subcommittees had made in the last few months, diversity is not a short-term issue.

“This is not the topic du jour,” Roday said. “This is something we’ll never be finished with, and we’ll never move quickly enough to please everyone.”

Search “Task Force” on flathatnews.com for the full article.

SARAH SMITH FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR

During Thursday morning’s Board of Visitors Audit and Compliance committee meeting, Chief Compliance Officer Kiersten Boyce updated members of the Board on Title IX data for the second quarter of the 2016-17 academic year.

According to Boyce, reported incidents have increased, but not in a way that surprised her. “[These incidents] have increased in the second quarter, but that’s because in July and August the activity here is a lot quieter,” Boyce said. “I wasn’t surprised to see an increase.”

Boyce said that in the second quarter, her office received 36 total reports of crimes listed in the Violence Against Women Act. These crimes broke down into 16 reports of sexual assault/ fondling, two reports of nonconsensual sexual contact, seven reports of stalking, four reports of dating violence and one report of sexual exploitation.

Additionally, while Boyce said she didn’t have data to compare year-over-year, she anticipated a slight increase in this academic year’s total reported incidents.

Last year, the compliance office received 80 reports.

Out of these 36 reports, 11 were investigated under the College of William and Mary’s investigative proceedings, including three athletics-related reports. 18 incidents were considered non-actionable, which means that they were either reported anonymously, had unknown respondents, lacked response from the

victim or did not fall under the College’s jurisdiction. The College took remedial action — such as developing a no-contact order or creating a safety plan — for the other seven reported incidents.

Out of the 11 incidents investigated, four were referred to the Commonwealth Attorney’s office and in one of those, an arrest has been made.

“One thing that we’ve considered is maybe making a new reporting interface through the current system,” Boyce said.

Vice Chair of the Audit and Compliance Committee and BOV member Christopher Little said that he was unsure if students who wanted action to be taken knew that reporting anonymously could make it hard for administrators to follow up.

In response, Boyce said that the reporting system includes options for students to report what action they wanted to be taken.

BOV member DeRonda Short asked what had happened to the four incidents that had been referred to the Commonwealth Attorney’s office.

Short also asked questions about the seven reported incidences of stalking, particularly about how none of the seven resulted in criminal investigations.

Boyce said that she would be able to discuss more details of these cases in closed session and that there were two other incidents that had criminal involvement.

Search “Title IX” on flathatnews.com for the full article.

BOV discusses new COLL curriculum College shifts to mega-region economics HENRY BLACKBURN FLAT HAT ASSOC. NEWS EDITOR

When the Board of Visitors met this week, they learned that a new COLL curriculum class may be in the early stages of development for future freshmen at the College of William and Mary.

Biology professor Margaret Saha said that she plans to expand the field of synthetic biology in the College’s academic environment. Synthetic biology, an interdisciplinary branch of biology and engineering, involves topics such as biotechnology, bioengineering and genetic engineering, among others.

Saha said she believes that the interdisciplinary nature of synthetic biology makes it a very interesting choice of study for incoming students at the College.

“I thought this topic would be perfect for that sort of course,” Saha said. “It’s reprogramming life, or even, if you take it to an extreme, making life.

One idea was looking at this throughout history and blending it with historical sources.”

Saha says that she envisions a COLL 100 class — a discussion-based class that all freshmen at the College are required to take — which intertwines synthetic biology with historical or literary elements to attract liberal arts students.

Saha, who holds a doctoral degree in history in addition to one in biology, said that she always tries to think of her research topics with a historical perspective. She said “Frankenstein” could work as a cross-study between literature and synthetic biology.

Saha also serves as the faculty administrator for the College’s International Genetically Engineered Machine, or iGEM, team, of which student Caroline Golino ’17 is the captain.

In a presentation to the Board of Visitors Feb. 9, Golino discussed the importance of synthetic

biology to many different research projects in science. She discussed the iGEM team’s 2015 awardwinning project on biological noise and its role in genetic circuits.

This research could potentially help scientists and doctors create better-integrated medical apparatuses such as prosthetics, bionic limbs and synthetic organs.

Another member of the College’s iGEM team, John Marken ’17, spoke about the team’s 2016 project which researched biological circuits, specifically genetic circuits.

“We really wanted to see how far we could push these circuits without changing their base structure,” Marken said. “Instead of just taking one input and responding a single way afterwards, the engineer would like to allow this cell to take in one input and respond in a variety of ways. The important aspect is that the original circuit remains unchanged, allowing it to more effectively work with native circuits.”

Like the work that Golino described, this work in synthetic biology could allow for more sophisticated bionics and synthetic organs to be created and paired with people who need them.

Saha says this work from the iGEM team could make a difference in the lives of many people, but she realizes that the science behind these developments can seem overwhelming.

“People need to know about this technology,” Saha said. “What it could be used for, what it shouldn’t be used for, what are the limits, how it could be used to improve life and that this has been a goal for a long time. [Life is] something we’ve been curious about since humanity started.”

No solid plan is in place for the introduction of such a course, but Saha said that she is hopeful that this idea will catch on with others at the College.

Search “COLL” on flathatnews.com for the full article.

SARAH SMITH FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR

Following reports that the economy of the United States would be shifting along megaregional lines, members of the Board of Visitors of the College of William and Mary focused on economic opportunities related to re-drawn regions and involvement in the Virginia General Assembly during this past week’s meetings.

According to BOV member Thomas Frantz ’70, J.D. ’73, M.L.T. ’83, after College administrators read an editorial in the New York Times about how the map of the United States could be rethought as mega-regions, or metropolitan clusters that ignore state and national borders, they began to think about how the College’s geographical location could play a role in its economic wellbeing.

Frantz said that the College is well-situated for a mega-regional economy because of Virginia’s competitive geographical location.

The College and the City of Williamsburg fall into the Richmond-Tidewater region.

“William and Mary is right in the middle of that, and that suggests lots of opportunities for William and Mary,” Frantz said.

Frantz said that he was surprised the cities such as Raleigh, Greensboro and Winston are included in the mega-region going up the I-81 corridor instead of north to Richmond. Frantz believes that this is why North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper wants an interstate going up to Virginia.

“The map of America is being erased from an economic standpoint and a social standpoint,” Frantz said.

According to Frantz, this economic development creates three questions that the College should answer: how should the College

position itself to lead from the center of an emerging mega-region, how might the university facilitate greater connectivity across the region and whether there would be an increased demand for expertise from the College on public policy related to mega-regions.

“William and Mary should be the center of public policy for the world and how the world is changing,” Frantz said.

Frantz said that representatives from the College, the Mason School of Business and other policy institutions had been meeting regularly to discuss metrics of success and goals for the future.

He identified the widening of I-64 from the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel to route 199, the approval for the two-lane expansion of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, a 40-year lease with the Port of Virginia and Port of Richmond, investments in port infrastructure totaling $900 million in improvements that included widening and deepening the channel at two ports operated by the Port of Virginia and funding for the creation of a governing body for GO Virginia.

Building on this, Frantz said he would like to see increased port-related economic development, increased availability of business-ready sites, an extension to the Virginia Capital Trail bike path, further improvements to I-64, an improved high speed rail and increased marketing for Virginia’s Global Gateway.

Beyond this, Vice President for Strategic Initiatives Henry Broaddus said that the College should increase its involvement in Richmond.

“We recently christened a government relations office in Richmond, which is well-suited for [College President Taylor] Reveley as the Chair of Council of Presidents,” Broaddus said.

Search “Mega-regions” on flathatnews.com for the full article.

College’s Board of Visitors votes to approve 12 resolutions, confirm honorary degrees during Feb. meetings EMILY CHAUMONT FLAT HAT MANAGING EDITOR

The College of William and Mary’s Board of Visitors met Feb. 8-11 to discuss topics including compliance, academics and faculty changes. These discussions resulted in the presentation and approval of 12 resolutions.

Resolution 1: The Richard Bland College Committee dealt with this resolution to fill a vacancy in the professional faculty at the Richard Bland College of William and Mary in closed session.

Resolution 2: The Audit and Compliance Committee discussed and approved amendments to the Compliance Program Charter.

This was to extend the definition of compliance over the College’s various components, such as the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. This update is in accordance with a law that expects an update to the program every few years.

Resolution 3: The Board voted to adopt a red-flags policy on identity theft in accordance with Federal Trade Commission regulations. This policy

would codify the College’s efforts to identify and mitigate identity theft for members of the College community.

Resolution 4: The Academic Affairs Committee dealt with this resolution to fill vacancies in the instructional faculty in closed session.

Resolution 5: The AAC discussed faculty promotions in closed session.

Resolution 6: The AAC talked in closed session about awarding academic tenure.

Resolution 7: This resolution to grant a faculty-member-designated professorship was handled by the AAC

in closed session.

Resolution 8: Sociology professor David Aday, who researched and wrote on the structure and function of juvenile courts in the United States and who prioritized an interdisciplinary approach to his field, will be retiring from his role at the College.

Resolution 9: Economics professor Robert Archibald, who has been part of the College’s economics department since 1976, will be retiring after 41 years.

Resolution 10: Law professor Susan Grover, whose work has focused

on employment discrimination and workplace harassment, will be retiring from her role at the Marshall-Wythe School of Law. Resolution 11: Psychology professor John Nezlek, who has published over 120 peer-reviewed manuscripts and two books, will be retiring after 40 years at the College.

Resolution 12: Marine science professor James Perry, whose expertise lies in wetland ecology and field biology, will be retiring from his role at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

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The Flat Hat

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

STUDENT LIFE

Religious freedom bill passes in House Lambda Alliance organizes members to signal their disapproval of HB2025 HEATHER BAIER FLAT HAT ASSOC. NEWS EDITOR

Following Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe’s executive order last year banning the allocation of state contracts to businesses that participated in discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, the House of Delegates passed HB2025 giving religious organizations what many Democrats have said is legal protection to discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community.

The Republican-sponsored Religious Freedom and Solemnization of Marriage bill states that no person should be required to perform a ceremony of marriage which violates their religious beliefs. It also states that organizations should not be subject to penalty on account of their belief that marriage should be between man and woman. The bill passed with a 57 to 37 vote margin.

“While vaguely written on purpose, the intent of so-called Religious Freedom bills that target the LGBTQ community like these have always been about delegitimizing queer people and their relationships, rescinding any legal protections, and encouraging state-subsidized discrimination of queer people through the guise of religious freedom,” Lambda Alliance Co-President Trace Hernandez ’18 said in an email.

Under the Virginia Statute for Religious

Freedom, some, like Virginia Senator Monty Mason ’89 (D-Williamsburg), have said that this bill is redundant.

“I think it’s unnecessary,” Mason said. “I think it’s an attempt to try to say that the new rulings are forcing particular issues and actions upon people of faith who do not believe the same, and I just simply think that’s not true. I mean we’ve taken big steps recently to prove that all people are created equal.

That in fact does mean all races, that does mean all sexes and that does mean all sexual orientations.”

While McAuliffe has already announced his intentions to veto the bill, many believe that its notions bring about dangerous ideas regarding the LGBTQ community.

“I think that on an emotional level if you’re aware that this is happening it definitely will make you feel isolated in your own state,” William and Larry Co-President Erica West ’17 said. “I think if the law is supposed to reflect to some degree the will of the populace, clearly this law does not do that.”

Mason said he saw the bill for the first time last year, but he has had a lot of constituents contact him recently expressing their disapproval of the bill.

McAuliffe said that this act of legislation not only directly affects members of the LGBTQ community, it also affects his goal for a diverse Virginia economy. He said that businesses unwilling to be

a part of the discriminatory practices the bill would allow will leave Virginia.

“The new Virginia economy is built with peoples of all stripes and again without regard for race, creed, color, sexual orientation or gender,” Mason said. “We want the best and the brightest to come to Virginia, to work in Virginia and to help us grow the Virginia economy. We want to find the best scientists the best doctors, the best entrepreneurs, the best students, the best faculty and staff.”

Hernandez said that the Lambda Alliance has recently changed its organization and has created a new committee focused on government policies that intends to fight back against the bill.

“The Lambda Alliance recently established various policy committees that will supplement the club and allow avenues for more member-led participation in activism — one of these committees is the Government Committee, which has just been founded,” Hernandez said in an email. “They are looking into whipping into gear an organized and easy way to signal our disapproval of this bill.”

West said many members of the community find the bill to be hypocritical in nature. She said that it is hypocritical for religious groups, which are supposed to love and accept all people no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity, to support a bill that is inherently discriminatory.

“If your faith tradition allows for love for all people regardless of your sexual orientation,

gender identity, premarital status … then why are you falling under this category of people who are going to discriminate against the population,” West said. “It sets up a really dangerous precedent where a certain type of faith, which is pretty narrow, is privileged over all other kinds of faith which I think is just a straight up violation of the separation between church and state.”

In the current Republican-majority government, this bill falls in line with many other recent legislative proposals. The Human Rights Campaign has reported that they are currently tracking 72 anti-LGBTQ proposals in 22 states.

A similar bill just passed in the Virginia Senate that provides protection for taxpayer-funded organizations and services that deny service to members of the LGBTQ community under their religious beliefs.

Some members of the Williamsburg LGBTQ community have said that they are fearful that legislation of this nature will grow in number, especially as McAuliffe prepares to leave office.

“I think if passed, this bill could have potentially lethal consequences for the William & Mary community and in Williamsburg more broadly,” Hernandez said in an email. “It would have a chilling effect on the openness and confidence that LGBTQ people want to exhibit knowing that their government sanctions discrimination by any organization that has even a remote religious affiliation.”

Jewusiak gives $2 million to sports medicine dept.

Endowment will sponsor sports medicine advancements for students at College

BRENDAN DOYLE FLAT HAT ASSOC. SPORTS EDITOR

The family of Edward Jewusiak, a former Tribe Athletics team physician, has donated over $2 million to the College of William and Mary’s Division of Sports Medicine. This occurred since the Dr. Edward M. Jewusiak Memorial Fund was founded after his death in 1986. The endowment will continue to be used by the department to further the education of student athletic trainers at the College.

The latest contribution comes from the estate of Edward Jewusiak’s sister, Joan Jewusiak, who passed away in 2012.

“The contributions to the endowment will enable continued advancement of sports medicine initiatives for students, the Department of Athletics, and the Division of Sports Medicine,” University Advancement staff said in a press release Jan. 27. “The Division of Sports Medicine is responsible for the health care of more than 500 varsity athletes participating in 23 Division I intercollegiate sports. The athletic training program focuses on the prevention, evaluation, treatment and rehabilitation of injuries.”

Assistant Athletic Director for Health Services Renee Cork oversees the Division of Sports Medicine. She expressed her gratitude for the gift, citing the legacy that Edward Jewusiak left at the College.

“It’s been a wonderful thing to have, and we’ve gotten it little by little,” Cork said. “You know, he was big into education and staying at the forefront of medicine, and so we were trying to keep that going.”

Associate Athletic Director for Internal Affairs Steve Cole is the only person still on staff in the Division that worked with Edward Jewusiak.

Cole said that Edward Jewusiak was one of the early pioneers of the field of sports medicine.

“I trained with some of the best, and I came to Williamsburg and was very impressed,” Cole said. “You know, Ed, great surgical technique.”

One of the things Edward Jewusiak loved was educating students on sports medicine. The endowment will be used, as it has been in the past, for guest speakers and scholarships for students in the Division of Sports Medicine and to benefit Tribe Athletics.

“We had to increase our staff, but with that we also wanted to keep in the forefront to make the student-athlete experience, keep with the cutting edge with what the student-athlete experience is, educating the staff members, sending them to conferences, and trying to make sure that we’re staying abreast of the new techniques, ways to do things and what’s beneficial,” Cork said. “We’re doing a lot with concussions and we’re doing a lot with mental health, besides a lot of orthopedic stuff.”

Another of Edward Jewusiak’s passions unexpectedly contributed to the creation of the endowment — racquetball. Friends of Edward

Jewusiak started the Dr. Edward M. Jewusiak Memorial Racquetball Tournament, putting the proceeds to create a fund in his name.

The endowment gradually grew, with Edward Jewusiak’s family donating significant sums of money to the fund. With the most recent donation, the total amount of money given by the Jewusiak family has surpassed $2 million.

“For well over a century, Tribe Athletics has produced top-notch athletes and coaches with exceptional character and remarkable determination on and off the field,” Vice President for University Advancement Matthew Lambert ’99 said in an email. “This is a tradition we are proud of and will carry forward for generations to come. It truly takes a team to advance competitive excellence and Dr. Jewusiak was a beloved and essential member of the Tribe team during his time at William & Mary. So many students at the university will benefit greatly from the Jewusiak family’s investment in sports medicine and for that we are forever grateful.”

Years after he worked at the College, Edward Jewusiak’s effect is still felt within the Division of Sports Medicine.

“Ed was a great person that just put you at ease when he was talking with all of his patients, including our student athletes,” Cole said. “Having funding available to help our staff continue to advance educationally … it helps support [students] financially.”

DoG Street visitation declines Access to Lackey free clinic As local tourism declines, workers leave

New bus route provides way to healthcare

WILLIAMSBURG from page 1

LACKEY from page 1

giving $1.3 million for advertising to Colonial Williamsburg for at least three years.

According to the 2003-2015 Tourism Economic Expenditures Report, the tourism expenditures of Williamsburg also show increasing trends. Consequently, Colonial Williamsburg representatives do not believe donations were the primary factor leading to financial difficulties.

Instead, representatives said that the primary factor in the financial difficulties is a decline in visitation. As stated in a press statement, Colonial Williamsburg’s living history museum and hospitality operations department have experienced declined visitation in recent decades, placing the foundation on an “unsustainable financial course.”

In recent years, Executive Director of Marketing for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Andrea Sardone acknowledged this declining trend.

“Like historic sites around the country, Colonial Williamsburg has experienced an overall decline in visitation over the past several decades (though in recent years the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg have seen a consistent uptick),” Sardone said in an email. “The primary area of admission declines over decades is general ticketed admission — sales of Colonial Williamsburg passes that provide

guests admission to Historic Area sites, the Art Museums, and most of our scheduled dramatic programs and tours.”

Ticket sales in Colonial Williamsburg have experienced fluctuations over the last several years. As shown in the adopted budget for fiscal-year 2016, ticket sales have experienced an average 0.3 percent annual decrease since fiscal-year 2009.

With fluctuations in ticket sales, Sardone said that Colonial Williamsburg struggled to cover operating expenses. In 2015, total operating expenses exceeded the total revenue by $38 million according to Colonial Williamsburg’s annual report.

Vice Mayor of the City of Williamsburg Scott Foster ’10 J.D. ’14 said that tourism in the neighboring areas has affected the visitation rates in Colonial Williamsburg.

“Historic Tourism isn’t as popular as it once was,” Foster said in an email. “There has also been a significant increase in competition for tourists. Areas like Asheville, Charlottesville, Nashville, even Charleston were not significant tourist destinations in years past. Today, those towns have a vibrant tourist economy and as a result, are competing with Williamsburg and other traditional tourist destinations.”

Sardone interpreted the decrease in visitation from a cultural and economic perspective.

“The era of the two-week car vacation is over, and we’re

vying for guests’ scarce time in a more competitive recreational marketplace,” Sardone said.

“There is also far less emphasis in our schools on history, civics and the nation’s founding era that we interpret.”

Sardone said the fact that guests can visit the Historic Area itself without buying a ticket also undermines ticket sales.

Frequent visitors of Williamsburg, Ellie Sanford and Dave Sanford, who traveled to Williamsburg from Baltimore, shared their plan for their trip and said that they no longer stay as long as they used to or spend as much money when they visit.

Foster said that the City of Williamsburg was considering additional funding for different initiatives in support of Colonial Williamsburg.

“The City is considering a new funding model that is focused on tourism infrastructure in addition to tourism promotion,” Foster said. “It is our hope that this will lead to an increase to overall visitation to the destination in addition to paid visitation to Colonial Williamsburg.”

The Colonial Williamsburg foundation has been trying a number of new initiatives in an attempt to appeal to different audiences, including a new musket range, an ice skating rink in Merchants Square during the winter months and a new multi-day Halloween experience in the Historic Area.

clinic is 3.9 miles away, which Mullin said makes clinic access difficult for many patients who rely on it for key health services.

“Walking down a high-speed, one-lane road when you are in need of medical care is not safe,” Mullin said. “Great medical care isn’t useful if you can’t get to it.”

According to Mason, this project is a result of years of advocacy for increased bus access to Lackey Free Clinic and a continuation of the work that the late Virginia Senator John Miller (D-Williamsburg) did in his time as senator.

“We missed an early opportunity for a grant, but we just kept telling everybody that we were not going to go away, that this was something that we wanted to see, we needed to make happen, and we just kept pushing and pushing,” Mason said.

Mason said this project is something he has been committed to for a long time and that he is thrilled that WATA took this initiative. However, he stressed that there is still a lot of work to be done on the project and that the focus of the next three years will be on proving how important this route is.

“I don’t care how old I am and in what position I am — I’m going to keep advocating for bus service to Lackey as long as I’m on the planet,” Mason said.

Mason said that while many of the constituents affected by this lack of accessibility aren’t

able to advocate for themselves, people who work at Lackey Free Clinic and community leaders have told him they saw this as a top priority. Mason also said that increased transportation would create more volunteer opportunities for students at the College of William and Mary or other community members, whom Lackey relies on to sustain operations.

According to Mason, the biggest challenge in creating this route was coordinating between the three different governmental organizations that operate in Newport News, James City County and York County, but that receiving this grant is a success story.

“It’s a great example of how multiple different organizations and public policy initiatives all intersect, which made it difficult, but even all the more important,” Mason said.

According to Barbara Creel, the budget and grants administrator for WATA, a condition of the original grant awarded for this route is that it must provide service to the JCC Government Complex on Mounts Bay Road. However, significant interest in extending WATA service to the Lackey Free Clinic, the Yorktown area and Riverside Doctors’ Hospital helped WATA develop the plan for the new proposed route.

Creel said that another important consideration they took into account was how this route would be integrated into WATA’s current system.

“The proposed route would connect to our Gray Line at two stops, Riverside Doctors’ Hospital and Lee Hall, and to our Orange Line at Colonial Behavioral Health,” Creel said in an email. “At Lee Hall, riders would also be able to transfer to and from Hampton Roads Transit, providing a key regional connection.”

WATA will be holding five public hearings over the course of February and March to receive community input on the proposed new route. The WATA Board of Directors will also have a meeting, open to the public, Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 10 a.m. at the Stryker Center on North Boundary Street in Williamsburg.

“We anticipate presenting the feedback to our Board in March, making revisions to the route as needed and then finalizing and approving the route during the April meeting,” Creel said.

While the grant funds the pilot route for three years after operations begin, what happens to the route after that time is still uncertain.

Mullin said that he hopes this route will become a permanent fixture of regular transportation services.

“I think that what we’re going to see is that there has been a pent up need for service along this line and that, very quickly once it’s up and running, we’re going to see this be integrated not just to the pilot program, but as part of regular service for both WATA and HRT,” Mullin said.

opinions

Opinions Editor Jennifer Cosgrove Opinions Editor Julia Stumbaugh fhopinions@gmail.com // @theflathat

The Flat Hat | Tuesday, February 14, 2017 | Page 5

GUEST COLUMN

The science behind a change in mindset

Emily Hauge

FLAT HAT GUEST COLUMNIST

JAE CHO / THE FLAT HAT

GUEST COLUMN

Embracing diversity, not just tolerating it

Kyle Lopez

FLAT HAT GUEST COLUMNIST

“A picture’s worth a thousand words,” as the idiom goes. And it’s so true; if you look at an average image used in official College of William and Mary advertising, some of the words and phrases that might come to mind would be “eclectic,” “school pride,” “multicultural,” “intellectual” and of course, “diverse.” Diverse is the ultimate buzzword when it comes to college admissions, and boy, did the College have me fooled as a prospective student. I’ll admit: there are lots of positives when it comes to diversity at the College. Organizations like the Asian American Student Initiative, Black Student Organization and South Asian Student Association have put on incredible programs throughout my time at the College that have greatly expanded my understanding of cultures and experiences both different than and affirming of my own. I will always be grateful to have gotten the chance to learn about Chuseok, Eid and so many other culturally significant observances from friends who know them intimately.

However — and to clarify, I do not speak for all people of color at the College — experiencing this school as a minority student has at times been extremely unsatisfying and draining.

On my first day of freshman orientation three years ago, a student told me that it must have been easy to get into the College due to my race, completely ignorant toward what I had accomplished in high school. I (and many of my friends and acquaintances) have had racial epithets slung my way on and around campus, and when I have chosen to share stories of such encounters, I have found myself justifying my story to people who would rather see the College as a bastion of tolerance and progressivism. I even started a Facebook page for a junior year project with Rachel Merriman-Goldring ’17 meant to document instances of microaggressions at the College which, once again, several students treated as a joke.

In reality, many students of the College have little exposure to cultures and experiences unlike their own, including within their educational tracks. As Adom Whitaker ‘17 pointed out in a recent episode of The Real W&M, the College’s COLL curriculum only requires one course focused on non-Western cultures, effectively allowing students to graduate having hardly engaged with the vast world outside of the West. This lends itself

to an imperialist and frankly white supremacist mindset that makes it crystal clear why instances of white students at the College laughing at students with non-white accents or wearing non-white garb have continually occurred. Students of color at the College deserve to feel like we belong here, and instances of racial intolerance and othering based on what we look like should have no place at any institution of higher learning.

Outside of unfortunate person-to-person interactions, the College also fails to accommodate a multicultural student populace due to its lack of diverse faculty and its barely-funded Center for Student Diversity (CSD). The dearth of professors of color on campus places an undue burden on those who are here, many of whom are tasked with acting as both diversity consultants to their cohorts and as mentors to their students of color. These professors are not paid more for this extra work that they put in, and as more and more of the College’s faculty of color opt to leave and pursue opportunities elsewhere, the strain on both minority students and professors only increases.

The CSD does its best with what it is given, but there is only so much that one classroom-sized space, a couple of offices and a handful of employees can do to serve the needs of the roughly 2,000 non-white students that make up the undergraduate population.

Many similar universities house LGBTQ centers, black students’ centers and other more focused diversity efforts that give marginalized students invaluable resources as we navigate where we fit. The College’s fundraising needs to target so much more money toward advancing professor and student diversity, because without it, the College reverts right back to the old boys’ club image it had for a long, long time.

So, how should frustrated students of color move forward? If greater efforts are not being made to improve our experiences at this predominantly white institution, why should we be expected to continue allowing ourselves to be exploited for the sake of making the College look diverse? Imagine a campuswide protest in which all students of color suddenly refused to appear in any media related to the College.

Imagine the disappearance of non-white faces from everything having to do with the College.

While that image is meant more to provoke thought than constitute a legitimate suggestion, I do believe that an effective form of action to start with might be for cultural organizations to refuse to perform at the annual Day for Admitted Students. Show the administration how much this school suffers without the presence, actions and performances of students of color on one of the most high-profile days of the academic year. Maybe then diversity funding will increase in a serious way. Our most powerful weapons are the non-white faces that the College loves to prop up whenever it can.

Email Kyle Lopez at kjlopez@email.wm.edu.

“

Diverse is the ultimate buzzword when it comes to college admissions, and boy, did William and Mary have me fooled as a prospective student.

I’ll be the first to admit — sometimes the study of neuroscience does more to drain my brain than to enlighten me about its inner workings. Take “priming” for instance — the phenomenon by which our environment shapes our behavior, sometimes unbeknownst to us. For example, if you ask people on the street one week before Halloween to list things in the category of “candy,” they will list more orange things than they will a week later. Why? With all the orange around during Halloween, orange things are at the forefront of our minds, or, in science-speak, those circuits in the brain are “primed.” It’s kind of like a soccer team: even though one player has the ball, the rest of his team is watching his every move, gauging his plan of action and placing themselves to receive a pass. While we are thinking, our brain is gauging every possible direction, integrating our environment and activating any related information we might need, ready to “receive the pass” of our next thought.

So maybe we see October through orange-colored glasses

“

Stress and comparison may be the mindset our brains have on speed-dial, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

— no big deal. But what If I told you that I could influence your shopping preferences in a certain direction by asking you to unscramble a few sentences that happened to contain either the word “frugal” or “prestige” before shopping? Or what if I told you that I could flash fast-food logos on a screen faster than your conscious mind can recognize, and influence the speed at which you rush through a reading task? Or that simply seeing fastfood logos before taking a questionnaire would make you more likely to favor instant gratification over saving? As I fancy myself autonomous, it is rather alarming to realize what I read, what I hear, what I see, even unconsciously, impacts my actions.

Why am I telling you this? I could go on about the fascinating neural circuitry here, but the point is this: we are primed, but we are also the primers. How many times a day do I hear the words, “I’m tired. I’m stressed. I have so much to do. I don’t care anymore. I’m so worried.” Whether they’re my own words or the background chatter of Swem Aromas, what color are the glasses we wear here? At the beginning of the semester, Carley Schank ’19 and Emily Gardner ’17 appealed to us in their articles in The Flat Hat to change our dialogue as twamps, to combat the stereotypes of stress entrenched in twamp culture with a shift in semantics. Stress and comparison may be the mindset our brains have on speed-dial, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Priming isn’t evolution backfiring on us; it’s a mechanism by which the commonness and associations we perceive become our sense of collective normalcy — it is a mechanism by which culture is created.

I know that when it comes to changing culture, the conversation can feel abstract. As TWAMPs we love the true and the tangible; we want proof and then we problem solve. Well, here’s the science and the steps. I’m not a neuroscientist yet, but I can tell you that every time we refuse to answer “How are you?” with our workload levels and corresponding stress-meter readings, we are refusing to strengthen the connection in our brains attaching our productivity to our identity. As they tell us at the career center — it’s all about the network. What if we pursued valuable connections in our brains with the same gusto with which we carefully construct our network on LinkedIn? I can promise you, it’ll pay off better than any job we could get. Let’s take Carley and Emily up on their challenge and start changing the semantics. The synapses will follow.

Email Emily Hauge at eohauge@email.wm.edu.

The Flat Hat

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Page 6

GUEST COLUMN

Poor campus Wi-Fi a detriment to school

Sae Takagi FLAT HAT GUEST COLUMNIST

This semester, I started taking courses in the Mason School of Business. I spend a lot of time in the business school, including in between and after classes. I really enjoy classes in the clean and solemn building.

Nonetheless, one thing I don’t like about the business school is its poor Wi-Fi. When I use my computer, sometimes the Wi-Fi gets disconnected, and every time it happens, I have to stop working on my projects and reconnect again. It happens at least once every time I am in the business school. It usually lasts for more than one hour, and it cannot get more annoying. Whenever it happens, I lose my homework on Blackboard. This is really problematic.

Sometimes it happens in important meetings when I am working on projects with clients or Skyping with people from outside the school. The disconnection of Wi-Fi then disrupts the meeting, which is

“

Especially in the business school, people are likely to be using Wi-Fi for a professional purpose, so I think the College of William and Mary needs to improve the quality of the Wi-Fi there. counterproductive. Especially in the business school, people are likely to be using Wi-Fi for a professional purpose, so I think the College of William and Mary needs to improve the quality of the Wi-Fi there.

Wi-Fi quality also affects the image that visitors to the business school have of the College. Even though there is a Wi-Fi service, it means nothing if it does not work well. Sometimes people may feel betrayed and fooled by the quality of the Wi-Fi. At least, that is what I feel when Wi-Fi does not work well.

Furthermore, Wi-Fi is quite important, especially for an exchange student like me. Many exchange students do not have phone service here in the United States. If the College really cares about the notion of One Tribe, One Family, they need to also care about those of us who only stay here temporarily and do not have cell phone service. If there is no Wi-Fi, I can’t get in touch with anyone. For exchange students, Wi-Fi means way more than people usually think.

It is so annoying that Wi-Fi on campus, and especially in the business school, is not stable. In the business school especially, a lot of people use computers in a formal business setting, which requires good-quality Wi-Fi. There must be room for improving Wi-Fi at the College. If they improve it, people can concentrate more fully on their work, which ends up making the College a better place.

Email Sae Takagi at stakagi@email.wm.edu.

JAE CHO / THE FLAT HAT

STAFF COLUMN

How to handle summer in February

Nick Phair FLAT HAT ASSOC. OPINIONS EDITOR

of spending time on the Sunken Gardens, sports on the grass. These things have an infectious way of elevating mood, especially after spending most time indoors during winter’s cold.

If you’re anything like I am and find long walks soothing, there’s never a better time to walk than in the warm, unencumbered by heavy clothing and coats. Take a stroll through beautiful Colonial Williamsburg for the 100th time and breathe in the wonderful smell of horse. Visit The Cheese Shop, where for the small price of an arm and a leg you can buy a sandwich that’s hardly tastier than one from Wawa. Watch the ice skating rink begin to melt. To tell you the truth, I think I might just prefer our gorgeous campus to Colonial Williamsburg.

As I sat out on the Sunken Gardens writing this story, I began to think that maybe global warming isn’t so bad after all. Maybe I should start looking for ways to increase my ecological footprint, and not just because I think that bottled water tastes better than tap. Life is all about give and take, and if the price we have to pay for more beautiful days like that one is a catastrophic demographic disaster, then so be it. Sounds like a big league deal to me, and I say that as someone from Long Island. My home will be one of the first places underwater when Earth’s oceanic wrath takes vengeance on our species.

Sarcasm aside, warm weather, like life, is a precious thing that should be cherished while we have the opportunity. So next time it’s 70 degrees in February, do yourself a favor: spend the day outside while you can and enjoy the beautiful weather. You deserve it.

Email Nick Phair at nwphair@email.wm.edu.

“

What happens when warm weather strikes early in the year ­ like it did last Wednesday, — February 8, in Williamsburg?

How can we make the most of this silver lining of climate change? Do seasons even exist in our strange little bubble? Stick with me while I try to answer these difficult questions.

Warm weather means that you need to spend time outside, even while you might have class.

Weather in Williamsburg is fickle, and nothing short of snow just hours after the nicest weather of the entire year should come as a shock to anyone. This means that you should beg each of your professors to move their lecture outside, especially for large intro level courses. If your request is not honored, leave. That type of monster is not someone you want to learn anything from.

Once you’re outside on a warm day, you are already on the pursuit of happiness. Look around and take stock of what you see. Happy people. Dogs. If you make the wise decision

As I sat out on the Sunken Gardens writing this story, I began to think that maybe global warming isn’t so bad after all.

COMMENTS @THEFLATHAT

“

Reminder to the author and anyone else who wants to weigh in on the “right” way to protest: This country was founded on protest and it was NOT “peaceful and proper.”

This opinion piece is a praise of civility, not protest — something tells me if students on the Sunken Gardens had been met with opposition and things hadn’t gone as smoothly, this student may have cast judgment on them too, even though he approves of their cause (and FYI: We wouldn’t have The Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation or a memorial to the enslaved people who built W&M in the works if it wasn’t for students “protesting” the status quo in whatever way they deem fit — in fact we’d have little to no progress at all in the country or on this campus).

— Erica N. West on “College chooses the right way to protest”

variety

Variety Editor Katie Koontz Variety Editor Akemi Tamanaha flathat.variety@gmail.com // @theflathat

The Flat Hat | Tuesday, February 14, 2017 | Page 7

Coming Back for a Second Helping COURTESY GRAPHIC / WKIMEDIA COMMONS

Online publication Spoon University returns to campus to expand culinary community HAYLEY SNOWDEN FLAT HAT ASSOC. VARIETY EDITOR

Whether it’s a freshman’s first day exploring eating options on campus or a senior’s last semester enjoying the Williamsburg culinary scene, every student at the College of William and Mary has been faced with the same food dilemma: “Should I shove my pockets full of Caf apples or Sadler bagels?”

Now, thanks to a new organization coming to the College called Spoon University, students will gain some resources on recipes, foodie tips and where to eat around campus — all while learning how to improve journalism, event planning and marketing skills. The days of Sadler apple-hoarding may be over.

Spoon University is an online food resource with chapters at over 150 college campuses nationwide. Its mission is to empower students who are navigating their campuses and kitchens for the first time and give them practical advice on how to rack up the most views for the food photos and articles they post.

“

Spoon is a food resource for our generation, and we want to help young people eat more intelligently, whether that means how to eat well, where to eat or how to even cook in the first place.

— Julia McDermott ’19

“Spoon is an online food publication run by college students for college students,” Spoon University writer Abbey Hillerich ’19 said in an email. “It’s sort of like Buzzfeed but strictly for food … This club is really big at a lot of other schools and we’re hoping it could add to the sense of community around food here at William & Mary.”

This is not the first time Spoon University has operated at the College. The members of this new chapter said they were optimistic about bringing back the organization.

“Interestingly, W&M previously had a chapter of Spoon University but was shut down by corporate due to inactivity,” Klaire Gubler ’19, a founding contributor, said in an email.

“That’s why we often jokingly refer to ourselves as Spoon 2.0.”

The minds behind Spoon 2.0 at the College have been preparing for the new and improved publication to begin running. Julia McDermott ’19, chapter founder and marketing director for the College’s division of Spoon University, is passionate about the impact of food on a student’s daily life and how it can serve as a means to bring people together.

“Spoon is a food resource for our generation, and we want to help young people eat more intelligently, whether that means how to eat well, where to eat or how to even cook in the first place,” McDermott said. “At William and Mary, we are going to be just a small group within this national organization, creating a local community for students to unite and bond over their love for food.”

Some of the more popular titles on Spoon’s website include content about starting the semester off right with dorm grocery lists, making pizza in a mug in less than two minutes and “What Dessert to Smash Based on Who Your Favorite Bachelor Contestant Is.” In the future, Spoon and the College hope to partner with local businesses and restaurants to host food-related events open to all students.

“Our website will be launching February 15, and we will be posting original content comprising of articles, photos and videos created by the Spoon WM team, with topics including Williamsburg-specific foods and businesses, health and wellness articles, recipes and more!” McDermott said.

According to Gubler, at the heart of this chapter of Spoon University is the belief that this generation is one of foodies. To Gubler, today’s college students care about the quality, source

and production of their food.

“I think that Spoon fills a niche that our generation has demanded,” Gubler said.

Spoon University is now accepting applications for students interested in joining writing, photography, videography and marketing teams. The College’s chapter has also recently launched social media pages on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

COURTESY PHOTO / SPOON UNIVERSITY

Spoon University is an online food resource with campus chapters nationwide.

CONFUSION CORNER

All the single ladies: the true meaning of dating yourself

The unneccessary commercial pressures of having a “valentine” on February 14th

Emily Gardner

CONFUSION CORNER COLUMNIST

Every time I walk into a grocery store in the month of February, I am overwhelmed with the primal urge to heave my arms across the shelves and purge them of their cheap, pink, parasitic overgrowths. It’s even worse when Google starts sending targeted chocolate ads with a saccharinesweet message about how “It’s okay to just date you. Treat yourself!” How did Google guess I was single? Was it the repeated searches for vegan frozen-dinners? I dread the time when the final optimistic days of January slip into a bitter-cold month that is so uninspired it couldn’t even command the proper amount of days. Inevitably, some Sadler tabler with Valentine’s Day cards will reassure me that I can always just send one to myself after I awkwardly explain that I do “more of a solo thing.” I have never had a valentine (my dog doesn’t count even if she gives me tongue kisses),

and this strange Hallmark holiday brings up an internal debate for me that extends beyond the gaudy clutches of Valentine’s Day into a broader discussion about being single in a society obsessed with love. I have to ask: is dating yourself lame?

Is it something that demonstrates emotional immaturity and personal failings, or is it a perfectly acceptable, even enlightened, relationship stance?

For that matter, what does dating yourself even mean?

It is not uncommon to hear a friend say, “Oh I’m just dating me,” in response to an inquiry about their love life. The subtler response, for those who prefer not to be associated with cliched sitcom quotes, is to excuse their suspicious lack of romantic attachment by claiming a lack of interest in being “tied down” or “distracted.” This is often a satisfying enough excuse to end the probing, at least momentarily. The need to excuse one’s appalling singleness stems from an expectation in our culture that people should be, and should want to be, in a narrowly defined relationship.

After all, the American dream is a two-car garage and 2.5 kids that you made with a loving and committed partner, not a mid-range townhouse for you and your birds. Being alone is perceived as symptomatic of underlying pathology, and for a single individual, especially an older person, the burden of proof that they are healthy is solely placed on that individual. If you aren’t dating someone, you are dysfunctional until proven otherwise. To be fair, love and romance are the pinnacles of the human experience and can propel your individual sense of fulfillment to new levels. It

is something most people really long for and with good reason.

But dating also sucks. When you are single, you get to do whatever you want. There is no fighting over Netflix, going to your partner’s boring games and rehearsals or having to pretend that you care about jazz as much as they do. I get more time with friends, who love me without the sex, and every day is an adventure of self-discovery. And it’s not lonely, at least not until I am in a situation where society rudely implies that I am defective for not tying myself to another terrified, lost soul in the hope that we can bootstrap ourselves into meaning. So I guess I am dating myself, but something about that still seems perverse. I don’t even know how I can date myself. Do I take myself out to movies, fight over how I’ve been too tired to masturbate (it’s 2017, girls do it too), and tell my friends about how great I am? What do I buy myself to make up for when I have been selfish? It seems strange to me that we have created a term for a state of existing, being “single,” that still has to be expressed in the vocabulary of romantic attachment. Just being me is never enough.

There is still some part of me that feels genuinely alone at times. I question if I am just deluding myself with a story of self-selected empowered singleness, which is where the issue gets complicated. Sometimes being single is great, and other times it creates a yawning pit of despair in your core that feels like it will consume your entire being. Yikes.

So in the end, when someone says that they are dating themselves, how should you take it? I

GRAPHIC BY / EMILY GARDNER

don’t think there is an easy answer. It could well be a muted call for help. But it could also be a bold statement of empowerment and a rebuking of mindlessly enforced social norms. Maybe, just maybe, when someone says, “I’m dating me right now,” they are really just trying to dodge your intrusive expectation of romance with a socially acceptable answer. They may not give a flying buttress about love. I don’t know. There are a lot of unanswered questions, but there is a very important one I would like to leave you with: Will you be mine?

Emily Gardener is a Confusion Corner columnist who will be taking “treat yo’ self” to new levels this Valentine’s Day.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Page 8

The Caged Bird, Fr eed

The Flat Hat

COURTESY GRAPHICS / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The documentary “Maya Angelou and Still I Rise” sheds light on Angelou’s lasting legacy KATHERINE WEBER FLAT HAT ASSOC. VARIETY EDITOR

Words can change lives — if you shape them the right way.

Maya Angelou’s words have the deeply set, tectonic power to shift, quake and mold the emotions and mindset of her listeners.

She was not just a poet, but also a singer, dancer, performer, screenwriter, activist, author, lecturer. On Feb. 10, a documentary about the life of Dr. Maya Angelou premiered at the Kimball Theater before its national broadcast on PBS. In less than two hours, with hardly any prior knowledge of the life of Dr. Angelou, I was extremely moved by what I had heard and seen in just a brief glimpse into her character and influence on American society. I sat on the back row, but regardless of where you sit, what your beliefs are, what color your skin is tinted, where you come from or how many years you have lived, Maya Angelou and her liquid words, unparalleled style, dazzling charisma and diverse talents travel far to reach out to you in the moving film.

A documentary — yes. As tempting as it is to feel drawn towards a classic laugh-out-loud comedy, sci-fi thriller, fast-paced action movie or juicy rom-com when one is looking for a night of entertainment, a documentary, even if it is not the first form we may feel inclined to reach toward, is chock-full of the real-life throes of the lived human experience. Dr. Angelou’s story does not sit still — it moves and shakes its viewers in a way that is raw with the force of its truth. It seemed that to bear witness to even a moment of Dr. Angelou’s life had the power to change a person. In this documentary, we are fortunate to be immersed in so many of

her life’s moments, to listen to a few measures of her song and to follow a few strokes her pencil on the page.

The documentary is a well-designed interplay between a few fragments of poetry and excerpts from Dr. Angelou’s book, photos and film clips of her life and work, and interview excerpts with Dr. Angelou, her friends, family and other well-known figures. We are not limited to just one surface of Dr. Angelou, but instead are engaged in a multi-dimensional journey through her eyes, her mind and the viewpoints of others. The documentary does not have a third-person narrator to notate background and timeline information. At times, I was thrown off balance temporarily given that my prior knowledge of the history of Dr. Maya Angelou was limited, and I felt myself grasping for the context that such an outside narrator might provide. But the interviews and stories seem to organically fill in those small gaps of historical knowledge, replacing the dryness of direct facts and timeline intervals with anecdotal instances that shed a more personal light on what it was like to be an African-American in the 20th century amid a changing world. Dr. Angelou tells her own story retroactively. The testimonies of her friends and family branch off from that central story, coloring her accounts with the views of outside observers.

One of the strongest elements of the film was its ability to not only capture the viewer’s attention with the drama of Dr. Angelou’s childhood and the excitement of her performing career, but also her writing experiences. The idea of a poet or author sitting alone scrawling words onto a piece of paper or being inspired by reading a book strays far from one’s conception of a cinematic thrill. Yet somehow, as I heard from Dr. Angelou about the experiences

that shaped what she wrote of, how she wrote, what others could say about her identity as a writer, topped off by her reading of a few powerful lines, I was drawn to the edge of my seat. These moments were some of the most compelling in the entire film.

The smoothness of transition between visuals, harmonized with Dr. Angelou’s deep-throated overlay narration, makes her explanation of the concept of a caged bird in regards to her book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” transcendent in nature. Even if words are something that we can only hear or read, our minds have the uncanny capacity to imagine our own visual images in response to those words. Our imagination coupled with the images we see and the words we hear results in a strong pathos.

The film’s actions to infuse more energy into the act of reading someone’s work, however, does not prevent them from actually placing her own words on the screen in brief moments. These images of her words, line by line, are spliced throughout the film, complementing the moods of certain scenes by harking back to a parallel mood in the primary source of her work. It adds further intellectual, biographical and emotional depth to each scene the text accompanies.

Dr. Angelou’s words changed lives, and they continue to do so today. She harked back to her African roots, loved deeply, treasured culture and made her own mark on it. Dr. Maya Angelou is just one example of how African-Americans, women and writers left a lasting imprint on America and the world. So, yes, words most certainly can change lives. But learning about the woman behind the words, the one who rose up and sang past an urge to be silent — that, too, can change lives.

Chuckles on Charter Day Learning to Swipe Safely Damon Wayans, Jr. performs at the College BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

How to avoid the dangers of online dating

BRONWYNN TERRELL THE FLAT HAT

Having only known Damon Wayans Jr. as Coach from “New Girl,” I had no idea what to expect going into his performance. I was surprised, but not disappointed. Wayans is a master storyteller and, to be quite honest, hilarious. But is that really a surprise considering he is a standup comedian? Having been exposed to standup in the past, I knew what to expect from the format: some personal anecdotes, political commentary and jokes sometimes bordering on the category of vulgarity. However,

“

Are you guys a party school? Or a nerd school?

-Damon Wayans Jr.

Wayans had a way with his comedy that made it uniquely his own.

To start the evening, Thomas Dale warmed up the crowd with a taste of one of his sets.

Dale’s self-deprecating humor and banter with the audience made for constant laughter throughout the crowd. He used his body language and voice to tell stories of his life with a relevance to our current social and political climates. One of his running jokes involved how much he loved straight boys and that it was a shame that they never loved him back. He asked the audience questions about this dilemma, pausing occasionally to engage with specific members of the audience, telling them how adorable they were, or that it was okay to laugh at his jokes. He was personable, and his stories were relatable. He spoke about his tendency to be a hypochondriac, and how Google is his worst enemy in that regard, something that we can all relate to at times. Overall, the best thing about his performance was his ability to connect to the audience and the organic nature of his set.

He was the perfect warm up for Wayans.

Wayans began his set with questions for the audience, seeming to take a real interest in the atmosphere of the College. My personal favorite question was, “Are you guys a party school? Or a nerd school?” The audience rang out with a resounding, “NERD!” He took our answers and laughed with us, creating a back and forth environment, before he segued into his main set, which included stories about his family, his career, racism and his sex life.

His jokes, though some were done in a way

Mallory Walker BEHIND CLOSED DOORS COLUMNIST

COURTESY PHOTO / WM.EDU

that seemed tactless, provided a conversation starter for the rest of his performance. He incorporated many facets of his life, giving multiple relatable topics, and some that were completely off the wall. He spoke subtly about the racial and gender equality-related tensions that are rampant in our country, saying, “If you like me, I’ll like you back. I don’t care what you look like.” Most memorable, however, were the stories about his family.

Wayans talked about his father a lot: how they share the same name, the same face, and that they partied together frequently. He did a bit about how he wasn’t allowed to call his father “Dad” at the clubs because it ruined his dad’s chances with the ladies and about how he smelled like Icy-Hot all the time, so they would know he was old anyway. Along with the stories about his dad, Wayans spoke of his son.

He told stories about about kids and how weird they are, not understanding why babies cry when they’re first born, and wanting to create a truthful line of baby clothing. He then did a bit about how his two-year-old son only speaks Spanish from spending most of his time with his nanny and the language barrier that has formed between himself and his son. This piece was full of political innuendos about the current state of the country which made it all the funnier.

Overall, Wayans was a crowd pleaser, never leaving an awkward silence in between his jokes. His use of diction, changing his voice for different characters and his gestures painted a picture with each story that he told; sometimes it was a story that you wanted to picture and sometimes not. Regardless, his set was enjoyable, though sometimes venturing into the offensive, and left me with a smile on my face and in a better mood than when I arrived.

Over the past year I have become obsessed with true crime podcasts. It all started with listening to the very creepy and less violent “Lore” and has spiraled into a love of “Casefile: True Crime,” “Last Podcast on the Left,” and “Hollywood and Crime.” My favorite podcast of them all has to be a comedy true crime crossover titled “My Favorite Murder.”

Hosted by two hilarious women, the podcast covers true crime with little research and a whole lot of enthusiasm. And while these podcasts have certainly instilled within me a very morbid sense of humor, they have also taught me a lot about how to take care of myself in today’s world.

A few weeks ago, the duo covered a 2014 murder that hits close to home for a lot of young, single internet users. A couple had met on Tinder and met up for what was supposed to be a night of fun, which resulted in the death of the young woman. The details of the case aren’t important for us (though if you’re interested all you have to do is google “Tinder murders”).

What is vital to remember, whether you’re a fan of true crime or not, is that instances like these remind us that it is incredibly important to stay safe in this modern, extremely interconnected world.

Just because someone is willing to show their face to thousands of singles in their area, it doesn’t mean that they’re incapable of violence. In the words of the women of “My Favorite Murder,” Karen and Georgia, cases like these remind us to “stay sexy and don’t get murdered.”

I know all of that sounds a little paranoid and horribly macabre, but hear me out. Being on a college campus, we all interact with people we don’t necessarily know, but for one reason or another, we extend some level of trust. There’s that cute gal you gave your number to at a party last weekend or that guy who sits next to you in your philosophy class. No, I’m not saying that these people are definitely out to kill you. Most likely that guy who sits next to you in psych enjoys Super Smash Bros, the Colts and not

killing people. But if that girl you’ve been texting lately is giving you a weird vibe, follow your instincts.

This doesn’t just apply to yourself, but it also applies to your friends. Again, it might just be the paranoia spurred on by my newfound interest, but my maternal nature kicks into hyperdrive when I’m out on the town with my friends. If a guy chatting up your bestie is giving you the creeps or your pal is looking a little too tipsy, don’t be afraid to stand guard or intervene. One time, my favorite podcast host, Georgia, recounted a wild night out. She was at a bar with her friends when a rando attempted to talk her up and take her home. She tried to turn him down, but he grabbed her and pulled her toward the exit. Luckily for her, a friend was standing by to intervene and get the creepo kicked out. Never be afraid to be that friend.

Check in with your pals during a night out. They might be drunkenly annoyed in the moment, but better safe than dead, right?

As humans, we’ve conditioned ourselves to be as polite as possible. We say “thank you” and “you’re welcome” as much as possible and usually stay in awkward conversations for far too long for fear of being rude. But here’s the deal: if someone makes you uncomfortable, you’re more than welcome to be rude. Don’t ignore the warning signs your mind and body offer you. Remove yourself from that creepy conversation and say “no” whenever you really don’t want to do something. This applies to the classroom, the bedroom — literally anywhere.

When it comes to dating apps like Tinder, it’s important to prioritize your safety. Again, it’s easy to give people, especially those worth talking to on dating apps, the benefit of the doubt. And while I 100 percent support you going on that coffee date, I also think there’s nothing wrong with sharing the details of your date with a few pals. My roommates and I follow each other on the iPhone app Find My Friends, so if we haven’t heard from each other in a while, we can see what we’re all up to. Add a few pals on the app before your candlelit dinner with your newest Tinder crush.

Okay, this Behind Closed Doors article might have just been a way for me to fangirl over two women who record themselves talking about murder, but hopefully you understand where I’m coming from. It’s incredibly important to trust your instincts and be aware of your surroundings. And, in the words of Karen and Georgia, stay sexy and don’t get murdered guys.

Mallory Walker is a Behind Closed Doors columnist who wants to remind readers that safety can be sexy too.

sportsinside

The Flat Hat

| Tuesday, February 14, 2017 | Page 9

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Tribe torched by Dragons, rebound to tame Tigers

College recovers from tough loss to lead Towson wire to wire in big win as Tremba drops 17 BRENDAN DOYLE FLAT HAT ASSOC. SPORTS EDITOR Friday night, William and Mary traveled to Philadelphia to take on Drexel. The Tribe was unable to overcome a slow start, falling 65-48. A 16-4 run to end the first quarter gave the Dragons (18-6, 9-4 CAA) a comfortable lead that they did not relinquish. Junior center Abby Rendle and sophomore guard Bianca Boggs each had 11 points for the Tribe, while senior guard Marlena Tremba had seven points and senior forward Alexandra Masaquel added six points.

After the road setback, the Tribe returned home to Kaplan Arena to take on Towson Sunday afternoon. The College grabbed the lead quickly and never looked back, leading wire to wire in a 68-55 victory. The Tribe (16-8, 6-7 CAA) used timely baskets and balanced scoring to tame the Tigers (11-13, 4-9 CAA) and keep control of what was a single-digit points margin for most of the game.

“That was a struggle; it was a hard-fought

game,” head coach Ed Swanson said. “I thought our kids showed a lot of character a lot of times during the game, especially in the first half.”

The Tribe featured a balanced scoring attack, with three players finishing in double digits.

Tremba led the team in scoring with 17 points, while Rendle and junior guard Jenna Green pitched in with 13 and 11, respectively.

Boggs had nine points and nine rebounds, and Masaquel had eight points and 10 boards.

Tremba “We really spread the ball and share the ball a great deal,” Swanson said. “We had 18 assists, which is kind of low for us, but I thought we executed terrifically in that fourth quarter.”

The Tribe started fast, with Green scoring the first five points of the game. Late in the first quarter, the College took a seven-point lead.

Towson kept it tight, closing to within one on

multiple occasions, including the end of the first quarter. The Tribe would extend the lead back out to six on several occasions, but Towson responded every time.

At the half, the Tribe led 31-30 despite shooting just 34.6 percent from the field. However, the College forced 12 Tiger turnovers in the half, helping to offset limited offensive production.

Coming out of the break, the Tribe took another six-point lead with Boggs and Rendle leading the charge. However, by the end of the period, Towson had closed to within one yet again.

In the fourth quarter, the Tribe would pull away.

Masaquel and Tremba each had seven points in the period to fuel a 15-4 run. That spurt would put the game away for the Tribe, who cruised to the finish line for the comfortable victory.

“I think we stayed within ourselves, and Alex [Masaquel] stayed within herself,” Swanson said.

“It’s about staying within ourselves and staying focused. When her number was called, she delivered like everyone else.”

The game was slow-paced, with a total of 53

fouls called and 62 free throws. Three Towson players fouled out, and multiple Tribe players were in foul trouble throughout the game.

“We were not in a great offensive rhythm, but the second half, I really thought our conditioning took hold,” Swanson said.

The Tribe were missing two players due to illness.

Tremba played all 40 minutes in the game and Masaquel Green played 37.

“I think we definitely rose to the challenge,” Green said. “We need more people to do that in more games coming up. I think, definitely, one through 15 stepped up today.”

Friday, the Tribe takes on Charleston in Williamsburg with a chance to pull back to .500 in Colonial Athletic Association play. In the last meeting between the two teams, the Cougars beat the Tribe 60-50. The game will be at 7 p.m. in Kaplan Arena.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Tribe falls to 2-11 on the road with big loss

Early deficit and poor outside shooting leads to College dropping key game CHRIS TRAVIS FLAT HAT SPORTS EDITOR William and Mary fell flat in yet another road contest Thursday, getting blown out 79-61 to perennial Colonial Athletic Association bottom-feeder Drexel. The Dragons (9-17, 3-10 CAA) stormed out of the gate, blitzing to an 11-0 lead in under three minutes while the Tribe (13-11, 7-6 CAA) did virtually nothing but watch.

Guard Kari Jonsson led the early charge for Drexel, scoring eight of the first 11 and 16 in the first half.

Throughout the first half, the lead grew tremendously for the Dragons.

A 12-point lead with 15 minutes left in the half grew to a whopping 30-8 advantage with 10 minutes until the break.

A quick 7-0 Tribe run put the game back into contention, beginning with a layup from senior guard Daniel Dixon.

Senior forward Omar Prewitt, who was the College’s most consistent player of the night, keyed the run with a steal, a three and a fast break jam. After COURTESY PHOTO / TRIBE ATHLETICS the teams traded baskets for several Senior guard Daniel Dixon and senior forward Omar Prewitt both must step up and lead the team on the road Thursday against James Madison. minutes, the margin remained at a 15-point deficit, 41-26, with just under make a comeback in the final minutes straight, followed by a big three from just 45-35 entering the break. three minutes remaining in the first of the first half. Junior center Jack Dixon and a crafty basket from junior In the second half, the Tribe was Whitman, who came off the bench for guard David Cohn in the final seconds again faced with a quick Drexel start. half.

The Tribe put itself in position to the first time this season, scored four of the half. This cut the Dragons’ lead to The Dragons rattled off a 15-6 run

GYMNASTICS

Men win at Peachtree

Tribe women fourth at N.C. State meet

EMILY CHAUMONT FLAT HAT MANAGING EDITOR The William and Mary men’s team took their second consecutive victory at the Peachtree Invitational Saturday, defeating Illinois-Chicago 394.7-376.95.

Floor was the only event not led by the Tribe, although freshman Tim O’Neill took second with a career-best 13.8 points and helped the Tribe to a season-high 67.1 points in the event. O’Neill also took first on vault with 14.3 points.

Sophomore Jacopo Gliozzi took first on pommel horse with 14.1 points, while senior Neal Courter won high bar with 13.35 points. Senior Rob Meyer took first on both rings and parallel bars with 13.8 and 13.9 points, respectively.

The Tribe swept the podium in the vault and pommel horse to key the victory.

O’Neill’s win on vault was followed by junior Juan Palma in second with 14.2 points and senior Nick Van Dyke in third with 14.0, helping the Tribe to a seasonhigh of 69.8 points in the event.

Gliozzi’s pommel horse win, along with Meyer’s second-place finish of 13.25 points and junior Griffin Antle’s thirdplace finish with 12.4 points, helped the

Tribe to an impressive 62.2 point showing.

In addition to Meyer’s win on rings, junior Jeremiah McReynolds and sophomore Peter Makey tied for third with matching 13.5 scores. The men continue their season with a tri-meet against Springfield and Army at Army Feb. 25.

The Tribe women finished in fourth place at a quad-meet hosted by N.C. State with a season-high score of 193.025.

Freshman Caroline Caponi stood out in this meet, taking second in the all-around with 38.925 points, as well as posting a career-best 9.850 points, which tied for third place. Freshmen Erika Marr and Taylor White also helped the Tribe to this season-high with matching careerbests of 9.725 points.

The Tribe also scored a season-high 48.550 points on floor with the help of Caponi, who scored a career-best 9.775 and tied for 10th, along with sophomore Aaliyah Kerr and senior Olivia O’Connor, who both scored 9.750 points. O’Connor additionally took fourth in the all-around, scoring 38.400 points.

The women compete again Friday at a five-team meet hosted by George Washington.

to take a massive 60-41 advantage midway through the second half. The run was aided in large part by three Tribe turnovers.

Seemingly deflated, the Tribe never again got within 16, allowing the Drexel lead to balloon as large as 24 with four minutes remaining.

In its defeat, the Tribe was led by Prewitt, who finished with 17 points on seven of 13 shooting from the field.

Whitman added 14 off the bench, and Dixon and freshman center Nathan Knight rounded out the Tribe quartet in double figures with 10 apiece.

The College had, by all accounts, a dismal shooting night, finishing just four of 20 from beyond the arc and 13 of 23 at the foul line. The Tribe also turned the ball over 13 times, compared to just seven for Drexel. The Dragons also won the rebounding battle 39-32 and the points off turnover battle at 23-8. All five starters scored in double figures in a romp that featured a Drexel advantage in nearly every statistical category.

The Tribe returned home to top the College of Charleston 89-79 Saturday.

The final road trip of the season kicks off Thursday when the College travels to face James Madison at 7 p.m. The road trip continues with a Saturday night matchup against Delaware at 7 p.m.

sports Gold standard

Sports Editor Alyssa Grzesiak Sports Editor Chris Travis flathatsports@gmail.com @FlatHatSports

The Flat Hat | Tuesday, February 14, 2017 | Page 10

MEN’S BASKETBALL

KAYLA SHARPE / THE FLAT HAT

Junior forward Jack Whitman finishes off a series of four Tribe dunks in a row and leads the Tribe defense with three blocks against the No. 2 in the CAA College of Charleston at home in the annual Gold Rush game on Saturday afternoon

Tribe leads entire game, dominates Charleston 89-79 in annual Gold Rush match ALYSSA GRZESIAK FLAT HAT SPORTS EDITOR

Saturday afternoon, William and Mary took on the College of Charleston in the annual Gold Rush game in Kaplan Arena. The Tribe, roused by an electric crowd, started quick and held on to defeat the Cougars 89-79. This upset of the No. 2 team in the Colonial Athletic Association marked an important conference win for the Tribe.

The College (14-11, 8-6 CAA) started out strong with a good layup by junior center Jack Whitman in the opening minute. The Cougars (19-8, 10-4 CAA) followed up with their own two-pointer before the Tribe took the lead and kept it for the remainder of the game.

Four players for the College ended in the double digits. By the end of the half, two players were already in double figures. Junior guard Greg Malinowski led Tribe scoring at the end of the half with 16 points, trailed by senior forward Omar Prewitt with 14. Prewitt went on to lead in overall

scoring, finishing the game with a season high of 30 points. Malinowski followed with 16, while freshman forward Nathan Knight tied his career high with 15. Senior guard Daniel Dixon added 14.

“It’s an old coaching cliche, but we defended, and our offense was a positive result of that,” Head Coach Tony Shaver said. “When we do that, everything flows for us.”

Prewitt, in addition to 30 points, added seven rebounds, three assists and two steals. Knight contributed six rebounds and was successful on all five of his free throw attempts, an impressive feat for the freshman. Whitman led with three blocks, followed by sophomore forward Paul Rowley with two. There were only 14 turnovers in the game, seven on each side.

“I’m just taking it one day at a time,” Knight said.

“Focusing on what’s happening today, whether it’s a game or practice, not thinking about what’s going to happen next year, just focusing on how I play today and how I want to impact my team and how I want to make my team better today.”

The Tribe ignited the crowd in the second half with a series of four dunks in two minutes. Knight hammered home two of his own, followed by one apiece from Prewitt and Whitman.

The Tribe’s largest lead was 17 in the second half after two Dixon free throws made it 54-37 just moments into the second half. Impressively, the Tribe lead never dipped below seven points.

“I don’t really know what it is that makes us play so well at home,” Prewitt said. “Whatever it is, we really need to figure out what it is, because we have to take that on the road with us.”

Charleston closed the gap to 54-45 in the second half with an eight-point run by Nick Harris, soon followed by a five-point run by Grant Riller. The Tribe responded with seven straight points courtesy of Knight, Dixon and junior guard David Cohn.

Junior guard Connor Burchfield offered solid minutes off the bench in the second half, knocking down a three that pushed the College’s lead to 15 with just under six minutes remaining.

The Tribe scored nine points off timeouts,

13 fast break points and 18 points off the bench for the game, all of which contributed to an impressive 89 points scored against one of the top defenses in the CAA. This win continues the Tribe’s undefeated streak at home, upping the record to 12-0. While the College may be undefeated on the road, its away record is 2-11.

Shaver expressed his feelings about the team’s phenomenal home record versus its lacking success on the road.

“Have you ever gone to a full day of classes at William and Mary?” Shaver said. “A five, six or seven-hour bus ride to your location, practiced that night, got in a hotel room about 10:30 at night and played the next day in a gym you’ve never really been in? It’s just different on the road.”

The Tribe will hit the road for the final time this weekend in the final attempt to better its away record in the regular season. It will take on James Madison Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. and Delaware Feb. 18 at 7 p.m.

PROFILE

Michael ‘Pinball’ Clemons ’89 hops on Charter Day

Former William and Mary running back takes Charter Day stage to promote appreciation for the College SARAH SMITH FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR

While football All-American Michael Clemons ’89 started his career at William and Mary in a small room in Hunt Hall, his journey took him to Zable Stadium and eventually to the Canadian Football League’s Grey Cup as a player for the Toronto Argonauts. Feb. 10, his journey brought him back to the College to speak on the Charter Day stage.

“Some of my very favorite memories begin at the very beginning,” Clemons said. “There’s a little hall, Hunt Hall, that was an all-boys dorm at the time and that was my dorm. I had a roommate, Jack, who couldn’t have been more different from me, a warm, nice guy. We couldn’t have been more different. That very first time walking across the campus, coming to the campus … was like ‘Wow’ it was expansive, if you will.”

Clemons was a member of the football team 1985-89 as a running back and return specialist, and in 1998 he was inducted into the College’s Athletic Hall of Fame. Clemons was also a member of the men’s soccer team for a year, but he was never able to play in a fall game.

Coming from Dunedin, Fla., Clemons said he turned down offers from Ivy League schools such as Columbia to go to the College because he believed it was the most comprehensive option for him.

“William and Mary was the best, or the most comprehensive, option I had,” Clemson said.

“William and Mary had the best combination of academia and athletics.”

During his four-year Tribe football career, he gained 4,778 all-purpose yards — in 1985 and 1986 he set the third- and fourth-best season totals in

team history. He was also named a Division I-AA All-American. Additionally, in recognition of his academic achievements, he made the Eastern College Athletic Conference Honor Roll as a senior.

Clemons said that while he was growing up in a challenging neighborhood, playing football gave him confidence. For him, coming to what he thought of as one of the best universities solidified football as a large part of his identity.

He also said that growing up, his mother told him that he couldn’t play sports if he got Cs. For him, this meant he learned to work hard so he could continue playing football. He later went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in economics from the College.

“I could always run; I was always a coward,” Clemons said. “I could always get away. But football gave me ambition. Ultimately, it gave me authority over my ability to take care of my family.”

His career in professional football started in 1987 when he was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs. During that same year’s National Football League season, he played in eight games, mostly as a punt returner. This ended his game action in the NFL, although in 1988 he had a brief stint playing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the offseason.

Then, in 1989 he joined the Toronto Argonauts.

Just a year later, he was voted the CFL’s most outstanding player.

“The CFL stayed closer to the rugby rules [than the NFL did],” Clemons said. “The American game sort of began to evolve into something that was a little more different. The field is 110 yards with 20yard end zones, so it’s wider and longer. The midfield is the 55-yard line. Also, we don’t have any fair catches and there are three downs instead of four.

The game is in motion a little bit more.”

When he first joined the Argonauts, the guest running back coach Tom Cudney gave him the nickname “Pinball” because of his running style.

Cudney thought that his size and balance allowed him to bounce between defensive players, like a pinball in a pinball machine. While Clemons said he never anticipated that becoming his nickname, he said he always enjoyed the game growing up and would still enjoy it today if he had a machine.

“So when I was a little guy, we had a game called Captain Fantastic,” Clemons said. “Elton John was sort of Captain Fantastic, so every time I got a quarter I would go to the store and play Captain Fantastic. I did enjoy it, never thought it would be my nickname, but I did enjoy pinball.”

To affirm this nickname, the Argonauts would play the song “Pinball Wizard” during home games whenever he was involved in a great play.

During his second year on the team, Clemons won his first football championship when the Argonauts defeated the Calgary Stampeders to win the Grey Cup. This would be the first of three Grey Cups in his playing career and five total when including his coaching stint.

His 11 years on the team set the CFL record for career combined yards, when he earned 25,438 combined yards. Then, in 2008, Clemons was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

His time with the Argonauts didn’t end when he retired from playing — he began coaching right after he retired. In 2001, he became president of the Argonauts, but he returned to coaching in 2002. In 2004, he set another record when he became the first black head coach to earn a Grey Cup title. He was nominated for coach of the year every year

until he retired from coaching in 2007.

Off the field, Clemons founded the Michael “Pinball” Clemons Foundation to aid youth internationally, and he has volunteered with the Free the Children initiative to build schools in Africa. He was also given the honor of the Order of Ontario, which is considered the most prestigious official honor in Ontario and is administered by the Lieutenant Governor.

When he journeyed back to Williamsburg for Charter Day, Clemons said that he had especially noticed the renovations to Zable Stadium.

“When you go home and so much has changed but so much looks the same, it’s heartwarming, it’s like coming home,” Clemons said. “The size of the stadium has changed, I noticed that right away, but it still has of course that traditional feel, but it feels a little fresher if that makes sense. The campus still has our traditional overlook, but the buildings …

I don’t want to discount the traditional value, but they feel fresher.”

When Clemons isn’t volunteering with one of his organizations or working as a motivational speaker, he’s rooting for underdog sports teams like the Atlanta Falcons or dreaming about the College Delly’s Holly — one of their signature subs. In 2015 he also became a naturalized Canadian citizen, but he said he can’t convert to liking poutine.

At the end of the day, Clemons said he feels privileged to have had his education and athletic experiences at the College.

“We are heirs to access, we have things privileged to us because of our membership [as alumni],” Clemons said. “We have this freedom of intellectual emancipation … make sure that you give more than you take.”