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The College’s football season just short ofwith a playoff Laycock looks to7-5 lead the Tribe intoended the postseason a winberth. over Richmond.
Land Ho! screened at the Kimball Theatre with stars in attendance.
College hosts Spiders Not quite enough
Vol. 104, Iss. 23 | Tuesday. December 2, 2014
Global Film Festival kicks off
The Flat Hat The Twice-Weekly Student Newspaper
RANKINGS
College tops in study abroad
Students hold Black LIves Matter protest
Amanda Williams Flat Hat Staff Writer
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Student Life
School ranks first for public schools
For the second year in a row, the College of William and Mary has the highest participation in study abroad of all public universities, according to the Institute of International Education’s annual Open Doors report. The College ranked 20th overall with 45.8 percent participation for the graduates of the 2012-13 school year, a total of 674 students. That is an increase from last year’s 653 graduating students who went abroad while attending the College. Assistant Director for Study AbroadOperations Molly DeStafney said she DeStafney thinks that the various trips students at the College take are valuable. “I think our students are just curious for those opportunities and experiences,” DeStafney said. “I think that [the students] are all very strong, academically speaking, and have interests in a lot of different places that extend beyond the reaches of campus.” Any program abroad for credit counts toward this total, including research programs. Not all of the College’s opportunities for study or experience abroad are taken into account in this ranking because many students and organizations also go on trips that do not provide academic credit. William Plews-Ogan ’15 took advantage of an opportunity to study in Brazil during the spring of his junior year. Although he was living in a Portuguese-speaking country, Plews-Ogan ventured in with only a few years of Spanish. “Day one, I think I knew three words, and one of them was not what I thought it was,” Plews-Ogan said. “I wanted a unique, not Spanish, academic experience and language immersion, so Portuguese was close enough that it would work.” Plews-Ogan is one of many American students across the country who have participated in study abroad programs. Earlier this year, the College pledged to join IIE’s Generation Study Abroad initiative. As of the 2011-12 academic year, 295,000 American college students studied abroad. The initiative’s goal is to increase this number to 600,000 by 2019 by partnering with universities and other organizations. The College has committed to increasing student participation to
of The College of William and Mary
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Students gathered for a Black Lives Matter protest Nov. 25, which began with 4 minutes and 30 seconds of silence to commemorate murdered teenager Michael Brown.
Black Lives Matter protests in front of College bookstore Amanda Williams Flat Hat Staff Writer
A group in Williamsburg took part in a nationwide event Nov. 25, hosting a Black Lives Matter Protest. After several speakers addressed those gathered, the march began in front of the William and Mary bookstore, circled down to Richmond Road, and ended at the Sir Christopher Wren Building. Travis Harris, a first year American Studies Ph. D student, opened the protest with 4 minutes and 30 seconds of silence, just as the protests around the country did, to commemorate the 4 hours and
30 minutes that Michael Brown, fatally shot by an officer earlier this year, lay in the street. Harris organized the entire event with a future event in mind, tentatively planned for the spring. “My goal is to have a candid conversation on race here in Williamsburg,” Harris said. “My hope is that by having this conversation, each side is going to understand each other better. My end goal is racial reconciliation and peace.” The countrywide protest movement was sparked by the Nov. 24 St. Louis Grand Jury decision not to indict Darren Wilson, the white police officer who shot Brown, an unarmed, 18-year-old black male. The shooting occurred Aug. 9 in Ferguson, Mo., a suburb outside St.
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Louis. The Williamsburg protest was just one of hundreds from New York to Los Angeles, and stayed peaceful, unlike some others. In his remarks, Harris added that the prevalence of white privilege perpetuates the inequalities and barriers protested against. “I was devastated,” Harris said of the decision in an email. “But I found hope in the diversity of the crowd. The protest was a protest in and of itself that went against all of the barriers that are up in American society. Sadly, this country has a 400 year history of violence towards Blacks. From the brutality of slavery to lynching during Jim See PROTEST page 3
National
Students push for Portman in 2016 election Two-year grant Parkes, Longley receive national attention after forming Draft Rob Portman Committee Meilan Solly FLAT HAT ASSOC. NEWS EDITOR
Politicians such as Hillary Clinton and Chris Christie are often mentioned in discussions about potential candidates in the 2016 presidential election. Thanks to the efforts of two seniors at the College of William and Mary, Ohio Senator Rob Portman may soon enter the conversation. Earlier this year, government majors Trevor Parkes ’15 and Henry Longley ’15 filed papers with the Federal Election Commission to form the Draft Rob Parkes Portman Committee. Their efforts were recently covered by Bloomberg news. The committee, which is a nonconnected PAC that allows Parkes and Longley to build support and gather funds for Portman, is part of the pair’s efforts to encourage the Republican senator to run for office in the
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next presidential election. “We hope we can build up a following for Senator Portman on social media and have a grassroots movement ready for the senator in Virginia,” Parkes said in an email. “If the senator does decide to run for president, he will already have a following in a very competitive state and a leg up on his competition.” Thus far, Parkes and Longley have worked Portman to raise awareness for their campaign via social media, particularly through Facebook and Twitter. They have also gathered donations that they will hold in a secure bank account until, or if, Portman announces his intentions to run. The Draft Rob Portman Committee is not run by or connected with Portman or his staff and Parkes and Longley have not officially informed Portman of their campaign. Following the publication the Bloomberg article, however, a member of Portman’s
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staff reached out to the pair. “[They] offered to keep us in the loop with events the senator will be doing so we can help publicize them,” Parkes said. Parkes and Longley both have a background in politics — Parkes served as the College’s campus coordinator for the Ed Gillespie for Senate campaign, and he currently interns at the Virginia Senate Republican Caucus. Longley took a semester off to work as a field office director in Chesapeake, Va. for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. In addition to sharing political views and experience, Parkes and Longley share a fraternal bond — both are Delta Phi brothers. They live on the same floor of the Delta Phi Longley house. It was here that they began to discuss their mutual admiration for Portman.
$250,000 goes toward domestic violence Quentin Paleo FLAT HAT Staff Writer
The Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women gave the Marshall Wythe School of Law’s Domestic Violence Clinic a $250,000 two-year grant to expand its reach. The clinic offers legal services to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault throughout southeast Virginia, a region home to more than 500,000 people. The grant will give third-year law students who work in the clinic experience handling sexual assault cases. Patricia Roberts, the director of the law school’s clinical programs, elaborated on how the Domestic Violence Clinic will use the grant money from OVW. “We will be hiring a full-time attorney who will work as a fellow with Darryl Cunningham,” Roberts said. Darryl Cunningham, the instructor of the Domestic Violence Clinic, detailed many of the additional problems that victims of domestic violence and sexual assault face. The grant will enable the clinic to help victims solve these problems.
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Thanksgiving in Ferguson
Chance of showers High 50, Low 39
given to law clinic
Spending a holiday in a hub of national controversy sheds new light on the conflict. page 4
A touch of the East
Toshi Yoshida’s woodblock prints come to the Muscarelle. page 6