Vol. 108, Iss. 7 | Tuesday, April 10, 2017
The Flat Hat The Weekly Student Newspaper
Building a new COLL: Faculty Assembly votes to move forward with implementation of proposed social justice, equity curriculum requirement MADELINE MONROE // FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
T
he College of William and Mary’s Faculty Assembly voted in favor of introducing COLL 199 as a formal requirement of the College Curriculum Thursday, April 3, 2018. “If this proposal passes, it would just be a first step,” Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Kate Conley said before discussion began on whether or not to vote on the proposal. “I anticipate an intensive and possibly extensive period of implementation.” The proposed addition of the COLL 199 would be a three-credit course that has students engage with issues of justice and equity. In February, the Task Force on Race and Race Relations’ Implementation Team and the Educational Policy Committee hosted a student forum to discuss the addition. The Faculty Assembly convened March 13 to discuss COLL 199 but did not hold a vote at that time so that Student Assembly could discuss the requirement. SA released a statement March 16 that expressed support for the adoption of the COLL 199 attribute as a formal part of the COLL curriculum. Chemistry professor and Educational Policy Committee member Elizabeth Harbron said the original content of the motion was shared with faculty members last week. According to Harbron, a letter from gender, sexuality and women’s studies and government professor Claire McKinney was also circulated. The letter expressed concerns that the EPC’s focus on the form of the COLL 199 requirement would hinder focus on developing the actual implementation of COLL 199 and consequently negatively impact the end result of the new requirement and affect the experience faculty and students would have in the course. According to physics professor Marc Sher, six of the letter writers and signers and five of the task force members assembled to discuss McKinney’s concerns and reached a version of the proposal that addressed both form and implementation of the COLL 199 attribute. This version of the proposal was the version faculty voted to approve during the April 3 meeting. During the entirety of the amendment and discussion processes, some faculty members supported the attribute while others raised various concerns. Director of Latin American studies and professor
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of Hispanic studies John Riofrio said he supported the addition, believing that the COLL 199 attribute would complement the College’s existing academic processes. “I am asking us to strongly consider what it would mean to make William and Mary a place that commits to teaching COLL 199,” Riofrio said. “I think COLL 199 has essential, pedagogical values to what we do as an institution. So what I think we’re doing, and what I’m hoping we’re doing, is approving this idea that COLL 199, courses that focus our energies that require every student in our college to take a class on issues of marginalization and belonging, inclusion and exclusion, that every student on campus can’t find their way through our curriculum without dealing with those issues in a way that ferments real public discussion where there are stakes involved so that we can learn reasonable and respectful debate on these issues or discussion.” English professor and department chair Suzanne Raitt said that she believes the foundations of the COLL 199 course already exist within the courses taught at the College and supported instituting the requirement to build on that foundation. “It’s not that what we are asking ourselves to do is something that we’ve never done before, that we don’t know how to do, that we haven’t already impacted many students with,” Raitt said. “So I think we are in the fortunate position of having a number of faculty who are already teaching courses that explicitly deal with justice and equity, [and] explicitly embrace more interactive pedagogical styles.” Raitt also said that she felt the requirement allowed for faculty members to share the responsibility of engaging with material focused on justice and equity instead of a few individuals being burdened with that responsibility. “One of the benefits of a requirement like this is that without forcing anybody to do any kind of teaching that they don’t want to do, you set up an environment in which faculty are encouraged and supported and learning from one another so that instead of having the burden of this work rest on the shoulders of a few, all of those who would like to are given the opportunity to share that responsibility and share that burden and have that kind of impact on the lives of our students,” Raitt said. Biology professor Shanta Hinton said she worried that the addition of the COLL 199 attribute would impact the work she does as a scientist, particularly if the overall implementation of the course is handled ineffectively. Hinton said she was worried that as an African-American faculty member, she would have to do more labor than others to implement such a requirement, which would take away time from her research and teaching. “I think that if you really are going to do this as an institution, it cannot be myself and all the colleagues who look like me only [implementing this],” Hinton said. “… I have to do what I was trained to do — that’s what’s most important to me.” Despite these concerns, the Faculty Assembly voted to approve the proposal. The final proposal states that the vote on how the COLL 199 requirement will be implemented will occur no earlier than December 2018 but no later than February 2019, when the Faculty of Arts and Sciences meeting will take place.
ACADEMICS
Recreation classes to return as pass/fail options in fall Current instructors ineligible to teach next semester’s courses SARAH SMITH FLAT HAT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
In 2016, the College of William and Mary announced that the Activity Program, a part of the kinesiology department, would no longer be offered after the spring 2018 semester. Since then, current students and alumni have written letters and drafted petitions to prevent this phase out from happening. The initial decision came from the desire to modernize the department and a concern that campus construction plans would one day mean that there was no space for courses like yoga and ballroom dance. This meant that the three, nontenure eligible faculty members who teach these classes would find themselves without a job come June 2018. Dean of Undergraduate Studies Janice Zeman sent a campus-wide email April 9 announcing a partial change of plan: these courses will still be offered in the fall as a set of one-credit, pass/fail Wellness Applications. In her email, she wrote that a set of these classes had already been added for next semester, but will come with a $100 fee per course. Current options for fall 2018 include Bicycling for Wellness, Humans and Nature, Yoga, Finding the way of Flow, Taijiquan and Qigong Tai Ji, Mindfulness and lastly, Flourishing. As of now, instructors have not been set for this course, but Zeman said they would be decided upon in the near future. “We are excited to offer an even larger array of classes for the Spring semester,” Zeman said in the campus-wide email. “In addition, we are in the process of setting up sections of Ballroom Dance.” The original Activity Program, part of the kinesiology department, was a set of classes designed to provide instruction on outdoor and physical activities. They were based on the techniques of health and wellness as specified in the Surgeon General’s report on physical activity and health. Kinesiology Department Chair Michael Deschenes said at the time of the 2016 announcement that the department was shifting away from courses based on physical activity toward ones focusing on nutrition and clinical backgrounds to meet the standards set by other universities. Additionally, the Campus Master Plan calls for the eventual demolition of Adair Hall. The kinesiology department would then move to the last addition to the Integrated Science Center, of which construction has not yet begun. When this move happens, there will no longer be facilities for several of the activity-based courses. In an effort to preserve the Activity Program, students such as Carolina May ’18 worked to draft a petition to keep the
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See RECREATION page 4
FACULTY
College faculty, administrators mourn loss of English professor Monica Potkay Co-worker Kim Wheatley says Potkay will be remembered for friendship she provided, excellence as an advisor
Monica Potkay, an English professor at the College of William and Mary who also served as the assistant dean of academic advising and undergraduate education, died Friday, April 6, in hospice care. She was 60 years old. Potkay had worked at the College since 1989. Her death was confirmed by English department chair Suzanne Raitt in an email sent to English majors and minors April 7. The cause of Potkay’s death was bile duct cancer. She began teaching at the College as Monica Brzezinski. She specialized in Old English, medieval literature, Arthurian literature, medievalism and the Bible. A year later, in 1990, she met Adam Potkay, a newly hired English professor who would become her husband 16 months later. On campus, Potkay is remembered by her students and colleagues for her love of European travel, ancient and modern languages, PolishAmerican traditions, crossword puzzles and mystery novels. Provost Michael Halleran sent a faculty-wide email April 9 sharing news of her death and details about her funeral arrangements. “She greatly loved and was loved greatly by her family, friends, colleagues and neighbors, many of whom offered invaluable support during her
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difficult final months,” Halleran said in the email. Potkay was born in Chicago, Illinois, May 22, 1957. She received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Loyola University and later received her Ph.D. in medieval literature from the University of Virginia. In 1997, her book “Minding the Body: Women and Literature in the Middle Ages, 800-1500” was published. After that, she cowrote a series of recorded lectures on the Bible and literature with her husband.
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Monica had a profound commitment to helping students improve their writing, and would spend long hours meeting one-on-one with students to discuss their papers. She inspired countless students with a love of medieval literature, and was a masterful avisor.
KIM WHEATLEY
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SARAH SMITH FLAT HAT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
During her time at the College, she was an active member of several arts and sciences committees, such as the Committee on Academic Status and the Committee on Degrees. She wrote several articles,
including a study of Marie de France’s “Lais,” which was published in the journal Christianity and Literature. In 1996, she was also the recipient of the Alumni Fellowship Award for Excellence in Teaching. According to Potkay’s colleague, English professor Kim Wheatley, she will be remembered for her integrity as a professor and for the friendship she provided. “Monica had a profound commitment to helping students improve their writing, and would spend long hours meeting one-on-one with students to discuss their papers,” Wheatley said in an email. “She inspired countless students with a love of medieval literature, and was a masterful advisor. I greatly respected her integrity and professionalism, and will miss her sorely both as a brilliant colleague and as a dear friend.” Visiting hours will be held April 11 from 5-7 p.m. at the Bucktrout Funeral Home of Williamsburg. Services will be held April 12 at noon at St. Olaf’s Catholic Church, which Potkay was a devout member of. In lieu of flowers, her family is requesting that donations be made to the Hospice House and Support Care of Williamsburg, the Massey Cancer Center or the Saint Olaf Food Pantry. Potkay is survived by her husband Adam, their son Aaron, her mother-in-law and other relatives and friends.
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COURTESY PHOTO / TESS THOMPSON
English professor Monica Potkay met her husband, Adam Potkay, while attending a luncheon at the College in 1990.
Ethan Brown ’21 says that the College’s recent blood drive was a reminder of what remains to be accomplished for LGBTQ Americans. page 5
Waldman talks rookie season
Katie Waldman ’21 not only transitioned into college life but contributed to one of Tribe gymnastics’ best freshman seasons ever. page 10