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College competes with No. 1 North Carolina in 2-0 loss.
Behind the scenes with the improv groups of the College.
Tribe falls to top-ranked squad Laughing it up
Vol. 104, Iss. 8 | Friday, September 19, 2014
The Flat Hat The Twice-Weekly Student Newspaper
ALUMNI
of The College of William and Mary
Investing in College Dining Dining
College’s TFA trend continues 18 alumni in 2014 teaching corps sarah caspari Flat HaT chief staff writer
Teach For America recently released data on the universities with the most alumni in its volunteer teaching corps, listing the College of William and Mary among the top medium-sized schools. The College has 18 alumni in the 2014 corps, putting it in 17th place for schools with between 3,000 and 9,999 undergraduate students. The only other Virginia public school to make the list was the University of Virginia, which came in 14th on the list of large schools, with 41 alumni. “Our selection process is very competitive — 15 percent of applicants were admitted to the corps this year,” Teach For America communications manager Elora Tocci said in an email. “Schools that consistently make the list produce very competitive applicants whose skills and experiences align with the traits we’ve found are most predictive of a teacher’s success with students.” This year, Teach For America has put together the most diverse teaching corps in the organization’s history. Half of the new teachers identify as people of color, and nearly half received federal Pell Grants. These proportions also reflect the 2014 applicant pool, indicating that the program is attracting more alumni from diverse backgrounds. For an organization that aims to provide quality teachers in low-income school systems, this diversity is crucial. Tocci said that while teachers who share a background with their students often have the greatest impact, there is a significant diversity gap between students and teachers nationwide. Tom Milteer ’09, TFA Director of Recruitment for Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia, stressed this point as well, saying that for a student, sharing a background with a teacher is like holding a mirror up to him or herself. “It’s reinforcing that all students should have every option in life, and seeing someone who can serve as that mirror just reinforces that, ‘Yeah, I can do what I set my mind to,’ in spite of an educational system that is set up for students to fail in certain zip codes,” Milteer said. Chantalle Ashford ’14 is a member of this year’s teaching corps who testifies to the effect of students identifying with their teachers. She returned to her home state of Delaware, where she just began teaching fourth grade English/Language Arts and Social Studies. “I have black kids in my class, but I’m one of the few black teachers at this school and I’m one of the few younger teachers,” Ashford said. “And I think it’s really important and See TFA page 3
Administration plans to spend $11 million over next 10 years JACK POWERS Flat Hat ASSOC. sports EDITOR
The College of William and Mary’s decision to award the dining services management contract to Sodexo USA this spring represented not just a turnover in daily operations, but the first phase of a long-term initiative to reshape the dining experience on campus. The Statement of Needs section of the College’s Request for Proposal, dated Aug. 5, 2013, states, “The Charter of the Campus Dining Program is to grow, operate, and sustain a high quality responsible dining service that is recognized by students, alumni, guests, faculty, and staff as a worldclass leader in higher education dining.” A recent increase in revenue has strengthened the College’s dining ambitions. The increase in revenue is the result of three factors: all students living on campus are now required to purchase a meal plan, campus housing increased by 212 beds over the past fiscal year, and fewer meal plan options are offered with an increase in Dining Dollars for each plan. Sodexo’s introduction as the school’s contractor came as dining revenue moved from $13,047,620 for the 2011 fiscal year to $14,654,841 for the 2013 fiscal year through May. According to the Food Service Capital Projects spreadsheet obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the College projects
spending $11 million in capital projects related to dining services over the next 10 years, with at least $5 million of that total coming from a direct investment by Sodexo. As part of its RFP, the College outlined a required $5 million investment to be included in each candidate’s proposal. The investment section of the RFP read, in part, “Contractor will provide an investment in the College’s Campus Dining Program to fund capital improvements to the College’s premises of $5,000,000.” During the evaluation process, candidates’ proposals were judged partially on their vision for how best to utilize the capital infusion into different dining projects. Sodexo’s proposal contained the “general narrative that all proposed changes will include ‘completely demolishing’ each space and adding all new everything.” “We would like to sit down with members of the dining committee to implement a renovation schedule that both complements the summer conference schedule and creates a WOW for students returning in the fall,” a Jan. 8 email from Sodexo representatives to the Dining Services Committee read. Months of discussions between College administrators and company officials resulted in the development plan. There are some clear distinctions between Sodexo’s original proposal and the new options students have
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$11
million projected spending in dining-related capital projects over 10 years
$5
million required investment included in each dining vendor’s proposal
$5.3
million projected capital funds to be expended by fiscal year 2015
$1.55
million allotted to renovation of Sadler Center retail dining options for fiscal year 2015
$1.2
million allotted to ‘dining enhancement’ of Marketplace for fiscal year 2015
$950,000
allotted to Commons Dining Hall for fiscal year 2015 carol penG / THE FLAT HAT
See DINING page 3
All figures taken from Food Service Capital Projects spreadsheet.
ACADEMICS
national
D.C. office to offer second January term
OCR holds campus focus groups
Past participants, program leaders discuss support for continued Winter Seminar katie kellenberger THE FLAT HAT
While winter break can seem to stretch on endlessly, students will once again have the opportunity to earn college credit for courses taken through the College of William and Mary’s Washington, D.C. Winter Seminar. The Washington, D.C. Office’s D.C. Director Adam Anthony said that much like the classwork involved in the D.C. Summer Institutes, the D.C. Winter Seminar gives students the opportunity to earn three credit hours by attending lectures and going on visits to sites like the Environmental Protection Agency, Politico and the British Embassy. The Winter Seminar is not its own
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semester but is an attachment to the fall semester, or a “trailing class.” This January marks the start of the second seminar. Anthony said he is optimistic that the program will continue
also have close ties to the D.C. area, Anthony said. One of the two classes offered this year will be focused on education. Drew Stelljes, See WASHINGTON page 3
MEREDITH RAMEY Flat HaT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
The Office for Civil Rights held 12 focus groups Monday, Sept.15 and Tuesday, Sept. 16 in relation to the ongoing Title IX investigation of the College of William and Mary. The focus groups divided students based on certain qualifiers per a request made by the OCR to the College. The College emailed students about the opportunity to be involved in the focus groups. The group categories as outlined in an email reminder from Student Affairs were as follows: varsity athletes (women), women (non-Greek), survivors and advocates, varsity athletes (men), men (non-Greek), fraternity men, Resident Assistants, racially/culturally diverse, LGBTQ, sorority women and two general “catch-all” sessions. The OCR requested the types of students identified above and asked the College to organize the focus groups. Vice President for Student Affairs Ginger Ambler ’88 Ph.D. ’06 coordinated the focus groups and, as confirmed by Kiersten Boyce, Title IX Coordinator at the College, asked relevant staff members for lists of students who fell into the OCR’s categories. “For reasons of confidentiality, in some instances the staff member forwarded the invitation to students in their areas as they deemed appropriate — that is, the invitations were not issued directly by the [Vice President for Student Affairs],” Boyce said in an email. “This approach was designed to help meet OCR request for mixed groups, meaning, for example, that the focus group of women would
courtesy photo / WM.EDU
See INVESTIGATION page 3
College of William and Mary students will again have the opportunity to take January classes in Washington, D.C.
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for years to come. “We’ve been very lucky,” Anthony said. The William and Mary D.C. Office has been able to find professors who are not only experts in their fields but who
College’s Title IX investigation ongoing
Inside opinions
Inside VARIETY
Unfair participation grades
Participation should require more than speaking in class. page 4 Partly cloudy High 78, Low 62
Parachuting to pathos
An exhibit featuring artist Elisa Schweitzer is currently on view at Andrews Gallery. page 6