Vol. 109, Iss. 2 | Tuesday, February 26, 2019
The Flat Hat The Weekly Student Newspaper
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of The College of William and Mary
WILLIAMSBURG
Triangle to close down
MPP shuts doors
Local bar closing due to owner’s poor health HEATHER BAIER FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
Feb. 20, the Triangle bar on Scotland street announced it would be permanently closing its doors Saturday, March 2 so that the staff can focus on owner Anna Krouse’s ’98, M.A. ’10 health. The bar was visited frequently by student groups at the College of William and Mary including Salsa Club and Lambda Alliance. “A lot of it has to do with our owner’s health – our owner Anna,” General Manager Matthew Black said. “... Her health has not been great and it’s reached a point where it just makes sense to say goodbye and then concentrate on her health.”
“
Closed
For years the bar
has been a pillar of the William & Mary queer community
and I can’t believe that the Triangle is shutting its doors. – Holden Mershon ’20 Plans to open the Triangle began in 2013, and the bar officially opened two years later in June 2015. Throughout the bar’s operation over the past four years, Black has been surprised by both the diversity of music performed on the Triangle’s stage and the unexpected demographics of Williamsburg residents that frequent the hotspot. “We found we appealed to a different demographic then necessarily we were looking for,” Black said. “We didn’t think we would be as embraced by the College community, which was very exciting, and we also didn’t expect to See TRIANGLE page 3
GRAPHIC BY HEATHER BAIER / THE FLAT HAT
College suspends admission for accelerated Masters of Public Policy program EMMA FORD // FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR In the morning of Feb. 21, applicants to the College of William and Mary’s Accelerated Master of Public Policy program received an email informing them that the College had decided to suspend admission to the program for the 2019-2020 academic year. Admission to the regular track MPP program was suspended as well. Applications for the 2019 BA/MPP program had already been submitted prior to the Feb. 1 deadline when the email was sent. The BA/MPP program allows for a small group of undergraduates to receive both a Bachelor of Arts and a master’s degree in public policy during a five-year frame, which allows students to recieve their graduate degree one year earlier. Students apply to the program during their junior year. The email was sent by the director of the College’s public policy program John Gilmour, who informed applicants that the decision was made by Provost Michael Halleran and Dean of Arts and Sciences Kate Conley.
“We deeply appreciate your applying to the program,” Gilmour said in an email. “We received more applications for the BA/MPP this year than ever before, and had we been able to offer admission we would have had a robust, talented group of W&M undergrads in the MPP program.” Gilmour explained that the decision to suspend admission to the program was because the applicant pool had been consistently smaller than expectations. Gilmour said that the decision to suspend admission for next year did not mean that the program was disbanded and that the new Provost taking over in July could decide to open applications for a 2020 BA/MPP program. “Several years ago, the decision was made to try to expand the MPP by adding a second track, an international development track in addition to a domestic policy track, and the hope in doing this was that we would be able
to substantially expand the class,” Gilmour said. “We were hoping to get 40 students a year, and it didn’t work. It’s plain as that.” Gilmour went on to explain that a primary issue with the program is its struggle to successfully compete against similar programs at other colleges, making it more difficult to increase application numbers. He also stated that one of the disadvantages is that the College is not near big cities like Washington D.C. According to Gilmour, the College is completely dedicated to assisting all students currently enrolled in the program to receive their degrees, and special arrangements will be made for all students unable to complete their degree beyond 2020. Conley also confirmed that the final decision to suspend applications for a 2019 BA/MPP program was due to the lower See MPP page 3
CAMPUS
College community responds to recent discriminatory posters
Police, students react to antisemitic and anti-LGBTQIA+ posters found in academic buildings on campus GAVIN AQUIN FLAT HAT SPORTS EDITOR
Friday Feb. 22, letters were posted in academic buildings on the Sunken Garden and the Sadler Center at the College of William and Mary expressing homophobic, anti-Semitic and white-nationalist language. The identity of the individual who created the letters has not been revealed. An illustration of a skull and crossbones was depicted on the letter, entitled a “Generation of Revenge.” The letter started by asking God to forgive men for their hedonist and sinful nature while simultaneously asking for revenge against Jewish and LGBTQIA+ communities. Mary Grier ’22 first noticed the poster in
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Tyler Hall while waiting for her first class of the day to start. “It took me a couple of seconds to figure out what it was because honestly it looked a lot like any other normal flyer,” Grier said in a written statement. “...(sic) Just a bunch of text and an illustration.” Upon reading the text and the illustration it became clear to Grier that the message was not a normal academic letter. “I didn’t quite understand what the references were at first, but the rest of the language was so aggressive that it spooked me regardless,” Grier said. “I picked up on the homophobic bits pretty fast because I’ve heard [“Sodomites”] before, and the rest of it read very similar to other white supremacist beliefs and doctrine I’ve heard about in the news [or] on tv, so it wasn’t very far to jump to get to that
conclusion.” Grier ripped the poster down in response and took it to the William and Mary Police Department. According to College Spokesperson Suzanne Clavet, WMPD responded to reports that the letter was posted in three places on campus: Earl Gregg Swem Library, Sadler Center and Tucker Hall. Clavet said that WMPD officers removed the letters as they violated campus policy. Personnel from Student Affairs assisted in their decision to take down the flyers. “Campus policy requires that any poster or flyer carry the name of the sponsoring organization and the date (week) of posting,” Clavet said in a written statement. “At this point, we don’t know who is responsible for
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the flyers or the specific intent of the message on them. WMPD is aware of the flyers and at this time has found no criminal activity.” In an official response to the poster, Vice President for Student Affairs Ginger Ambler affirmed the administration’s commitment to responding to student complaints regarding the posters. “Late last week, members of the student affairs staff and the W&M Police Department (WMPD) responded to reports from several members of our community about concerning flyers posted on campus,” Ambler said in a written statement. “We take such reports from members of our community seriously. I am grateful to the WMPD who reached out immediately to staff in the affected buildings and met with them on site. The flyers in
question violated the university’s posting policies and they were promptly removed. We are committed to responding right away to reports – formal or informal – regarding the safety of the W&M community.” Rabbi Gershon Litt, director of the College’s Hillel program, denounced the letters as both hateful propaganda and a heinously incorrect usage of religion in an attempt to spread fear throughout the College community. “Hate, judgment, and revenge are not characteristics of good, spiritual people,” Litt said in a written statement. “Likewise, organizations that cloak themselves as ‘religious’ or ‘for the good of society’ only See ANTISEMITISM page 4
Inside Variety
PIKA’s legacy leaves negative influence Olivia Koenig ’22 thinks PIKA’s problematic behavior exemplifies the worse aspects of Greek life, and thinks that William and Mary’s Greek life should strive to be better. page 5
Behind the Scenes
Our Lady of 121st Street brings diversity alongside an engaging storyline about a late nun whose past students return for her funeral, bringing up their past sins and flaws. page 7