SPORTS>> PAGE 10
PROFILES >> PAGE 2
Prewitt, Tarpey help College pick upannual a 78-62 winRush in front of a packed Kaplan Arena. Tribe tops Delaware in the second Gold game.
Ellen Stofan ‘83 talks NASA, geology, Pi Beta Phi and biking over squirrels.
Golden age
Vol. 105, Iss. 16 | Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Roots of a STEM career
The Flat Hat The Weekly Student Newspaper
STUDENT LIFE
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of The College of William and Mary
PROFILE
Delta Chi wins Twitter promo
Hashtag used 56,210 times SARAH SMITH FLAT HAT ASSOC. NEWS EDITOR
Delta Chi Fraternity took over Twitter with #DKGoldRush, using their Gold Rush hashtag a total of 56,210 times to win this year’s Twitter Takeover competition. Tribe Basketball ran the promotion that gave student organizations a chance to win VIP stage seating as well as free food and drinks for the Gold Rush basketball game on Feb. 6. To enter the competition, student organizations had to submit a hashtag by Jan. 27 and were supposed to tweet as frequently as possible using that hashtag until Feb. 4. Thousands of tweets with hashtags, like the Senior Class Gift’s #GoldRushSCG or Alpha Kappa Psi Fraternity’s #GoldRushAKPsi, took over Twitter. The winning organization was the Delta Chi Fraternity with the hashtag #DXGoldRush, which was used 56,210 times. In second place was Alpha Kappa Psi with 46,219 tweets, and in third place, the Pi Beta Phi Sorority with the hashtag #PiPhiGOLDRUSH and 34,447 tweets. Some people even made multiple Twitter accounts to promote their organizations. “My organization, Alpha Kappa Psi, began the competition on the first night with our hashtag,” Natalie Walter ’18 said. “We had a few very passionate team members make multiple accounts and tweet up to 1,000 or 2,000 tweets a night on their own.” Some students like Stephanie Lauterbach ’18, however, thought it was unfair that some students made multiple Twitter accounts. “I saw that several people made multiple accounts to win,” Lauterbach said in an email. “I definitely retweeted from those accounts, but I didn’t make a second account myself. It just seemed a little bit like cheating to me. The organizations should win because most of their members are tweeting, not because people are making multiple accounts and boosting numbers.” Lauterbach and others tweeted for multiple organizations. Lauterbach frequently used the hashtag for the Senior Class Gift and Gamma Phi Beta sorority with its hashtag #GPhiGoldRush. “I first heard about the competition from my sorority at chapter meeting where we discussed our hashtag and were encouraged to participate,” Lauterbach said. “It would be a great experience to be able to enjoy the game from the stage with all of my sisters, and I’m a pretty avid tweeter, so I was excited to do my part to help us win. However, once the first round of standings came out and it was clear that we were really behind the leaders, I decided to throw in for the See GOLD RUSH page 4
An interview with Chancellor Gates
TUCKER HIGGINS / THE FLAT HAT
According to Chancellor Robert Gates ‘65, he attended the College of William and Mary because he wanted to attend college on the East Coast, away from Kansas .
Returning to his alma mater, once again AINE CAIN FLAT HAT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Chancellor Robert Gates ’65 wanted to attend the College of William and Mary for all the wrong reasons. “I escaped Wichita because I was a dumb teenager and I thought that I had to come back east to get a good education,” Gates said. “I would later find when I was president of Texas A&M that that was not the case. But I’d argued with my dad for two years about the fact that I wanted to come back east for school.” He said his father Melville Gates didn’t understand why he couldn’t attend Kansas State University like his brother. Eventually, they struck a deal. Gates would receive the same amount of money as his brother and would be responsible for making up the difference. Gates said he funded his education through scholarships from the College and a part-time job as a James City County school bus driver. Once he arrived at the College, Gates kept busy. He worked as an assistant scoutmaster for the Boy Scout troop at the Williamsburg United Methodist Church, became active in Alpha Phi Omega,
served as a dormitory manager and joined the campus chapter of the Young Republicans. Gates said he also found time to date. If his strong work ethic went on to serve him as the twentysecond Secretary of Defense, Gates also had tastes in college that are less apparent in his older self. Reminded about his tenure as Business Manager of the William and Mary Review, a literary and arts magazine, Gates said he did not remember how he first got involved in the magazine, as he does not consider himself a particularly literary person. He recalled reading an old article of his years later. “I read it and I got to the end of it and thought, ‘What were you trying to say? I have no idea what you’re talking about,’” Gates said. “I’m sure it was considered highly intellectual and thoughtful at the time. Let’s just say I think my writing style has improved since I wrote for the Review.” Like many students at the College, Gates encountered his fair share of academic stress. The first snag came freshman year, when a D in a calculus class See GATES page 4
CAMPUS EVENTS
College celebrates 323rd Charter Day Stofan discusses College’s influence, current NASA research EMILY MARTELL FLAT HAT ASSOC. NEWS EDITOR
At the annual Charter Day ceremony on Friday, Feb. 5, students, faculty,
administration and alumni gathered in William and Mary Hall to celebrate the 323rd anniversary of the signing of the College’s Royal Charter. College President Taylor Reveley
GABBIE PACHON / THE FLAT HAT
Speakers at the ceremony included Ellen Stofan ‘83, Bob Gates ‘65 and College President Taylor Reveley.
Today’s Weather
Index Profile News Opinions Variety Sports
reminded those in attendance of the tradition of the Charter Day ceremony. “King William and [Queen] Mary granted a Royal Charter to the College in a drafty London palace on February the 8th, 1693,” Reveley said. “As is our annual habit, we now revisit the College’s seminal document.” After eight students read excerpts from the charter, Emily Nye ’16, a marketing and English double major, reflected on the importance of the document and her time at the College. Nye is The Flat Hat’s Chief Features Writer. “For William and Mary, ‘once upon a time’ began 323 years ago, with a king and a queen with a vision for excellence,” Nye said. “With their signing of one simple piece of paper, they set into motion the events that were the one institution through 323 years of incredible stories.” Reveley recognized four alumni for receiving the Alumni Medallion, the highest award the Alumni Association gives to graduates. The College awarded See CHARTER DAY page 4
Partly cloudy, High 48, Low 30
On Friday, Feb. 5 the College of William and Mary’s Board of Visitors approved a resolution to extend College President Taylor Reveley’s contract through June 2018. The Board reached this decision through a unanimous vote. Rector Todd Stottlemyer announced this news through an email sent to the College community on Friday afternoon. “Taylor’s leadership in so many areas has been crucial to the university’s sustained excellence,” Stottlemyer said in an email. “We’re excited about the future, and the Board looks forward to our continued partnership and success.” Stottlemyer’s announcement came as the College prepared for its annual Charter Day Celebration taking place this past weekend. The ceremony celebrates the
FH
school’s 323rd birthday. Reveley was named president of the College in September 2008. His previous contract was set to expire in 2017. Now, he will be staying with the College for another year. The university also released a press announcement revealing the Board’s decision to extend his contract. “I look forward to continuing to work with the university community — students, faculty, staff, board members, alumni and friends — to make our university a place of increasingly powerful teaching, research and learning as well as place of abiding association and meaning for our alumni and friends,” Reveley said in the release. — Flat Hat Associate News Editor Eleanor Lamb
For more coverage of the February Board of Visitors meetings, turn to page 3 or go to flathatnews.com.
Inside Variety
Inside Opinions
Lamenting the loss of Marketplace’s Qdoba
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BOV EXTENDS PRESIDENT REVELEY’S CONTRACT
Qdoba’s absence from Marketplace has not gone unnoticed. Read Opinions Editor Julia Stumbaugh’s take on the switch to Wholly Habaneros. page 5
Swem turns 50
Earl Gregg Swem Library celebrates half a century of operation. page 7