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A campus-wide effort to normalize consent is coming to the College of William and Mary this semester through the “Let’s Get Consensual” campaign. Every two weeks a theme on the topic of consent will be introduced and discussed through social media posts and organized activities. These organized campaigns are designed to foster unity and spur understanding on consent across campus. According to the College’s sexual violence prevention specialist Lindsey Mosvick, the campaign originated from College President Katherine Rowe’s desire to help the student body learn and grow, after a meeting last spring on the College’s sexual misconduct policy. “The Title IX coordinator, Pamela Mason, and I went and visited the President’s Aides just to talk generally about our sexual misconduct policy, our sexual violence prevention efforts,” Mosvick said. “President Rowe said, ‘We should really do something campus-wide. I really want there to be a big, collaborative effort around a culture of consent here at William and Mary.’” President of Someone You Know Erin O’Hara ’21 brought up another reason for the creation of the new campaign.
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We haven’t had a consistent, campus-wide campaign so far in my time here about positive consent. I think it’s very scary to some people and we wanted to make it accessible to everyone and something that was very easy to talk about.
— Mikhala Stafford ’20
“We had a little campaign at the end of last year called ‘Consent Is…’ and you talked about what consent meant to you, so we had a lot of success and interest in that,” O’Hara said. “We find that saying, ‘Let’s talk about sexual assault and domestic violence,’ can scare people and push them away, but consent is something that, my favorite term to use is ‘consent is cool.’” After their conversation with Rowe, Mosvick immersed herself in planning the new initiative. She soon found herself surrounded by a unique array of student groups, including SYK, from throughout the College’s community. “There has been a planning committee of folks from a host of different organizations: HOPE, Someone You Know, Amnesty International, The Haven, Student Assembly and VOX,” Mosvick said. “Those groups really came up with the overall tagline. Our vision for the campaign was that it would be a unified effort, but there would be leadership on different stages of the campaign.” O’Hara also discussed her group’s specific involvement within the campaign and detailed their roles in the project beyond helping to devise it. “The campaign is split up
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into several different areas of concentration within the broad term of consent,” O’Hara said. “Someone You Know has a twoweek period during the semester, when we’ll go over long-term relationships and consent.” She continued by specifying why awareness about consent within long-term relationships is an especially important topic to address in the campaign. “Long-term relationships still involve consent,” O’Hara said. “A lot of times when you’re involved in a relationship, it is assumed that sexual activity or even kissing can just happen, whenever you want. We want to enforce that consent is definitely not assumed. It’s recurring and renewable and revocable.” Echoing O’Hara’s earlier thoughts, another student involved in planning the Let’s Get Consensual campaign Mikhala Stafford ’20, hopes the campaign will address consent in a more accessible and positive light. “We haven’t had a consistent, campus-wide campaign so far in my time here about positive consent,” Stafford said. “I think it’s very scary to some people and we wanted to make it accessible to everyone and something that See CONSENT page 3
Dean of Arts and Science, Dean of School of Education step down
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Kate Conley and Spencer Niles will return to the classroom at the end of the 2019-2020 academic year EMMA FORD FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
Two deans at the College of William and Mary will be stepping down at the end of the 2019-2020 academic year to return to the classroom. Dean of Arts and Sciences Kate Conley plans to teach French and Francophone studies at the College, and Dean of the School of Education Spencer Niles will serve as a professor in the College’s counselor education program. Conley took the position as dean in 2012 after acting as the associate dean of the faculty for the arts and humanities at Dartmouth College. During her time as dean, Conley played a central role in establishing the COLL Curriculum on campus. “William & Mary is thankful for the extraordinary work Kate has undertaken and successfully accomplished at the university in her years as dean,” College Provost Peggy Agouris said in a press release. “Her list of accomplishments and devotion to faculty excellence sets a high benchmark for her successor. I’m glad that she will lead the Faculty of Arts & Sciences through this school year and that she will continue to offer her teaching and research among our talented faculty.” Conley played a role in establishing the Center for the Liberal Arts and worked closely with diversity and inclusion initiatives during her time as dean by forming the Arts and Sciences Council for Diversity and Inclusion. In addition, Conley has overseen the creation of new majors and minors at the College such as Japanese studies, geospatial analysis and computational and applied mathematics. “Kate led the William & Mary faculty of arts and sciences during a wonderfully generative period,” College President
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I came to William & Mary because I saw an opportunity to really support the mission of arts and sciences and the faculty here, to create a fantastic new curriculum and to bring research to the classroom, and I’ve done everything I could in order to make that possible. I am proud of that, and think it’s a good time for me to go back to my first love, which is research and teaching.” — Dean of Arts and Sciences Kate Conley
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Inside Variety
Lack of comprehensive injury prevention protocols on College football team raises safety concerns Sunny High 87, Low 70
Katherine Rowe said in a press release. “She has dedicated her service equally to care for faculty members and students. She championed innovative curricula, increased funding to improve student outcomes, advocated for balance between teaching and research and strengthened diversity and inclusion efforts.” In her tenure as dean, Conley was influential in raising more than $100 million in the College’s For the Bold campaign. She also instituted the William and Mary Promise, an operating model that seeks to enhance the quality of the College’s education while keeping the College affordable as a Public Ivy institution. Conley graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in English. She later earned two master’s degrees in French from the University of Colorado and the University of Pennsylvania. Dartmouth also granted Conley an honorary master’s degree in 2007. In 1992, Conley received her doctorate in French from the University of Pennsylvania. “I came to William & Mary because I saw an opportunity to really support the mission of arts and sciences and the faculty here, to create a fantastic new curriculum and to bring research to the classroom, and I’ve done everything I could in order to make that possible,” Conley said in the press release. “I am proud of that, and think it’s a good time for me to go back to my first love, which is research and teaching.” Niles joined the faculty of the School of Education in 2013, and presided over the graduate school as its dean for seven years. Niles took the position as dean three years after the opening of the new school of education building. Before coming to the College, Niles was a departmental head at Pennsylvania State University for programs including education
Anna Boustany ’21 thinks the College of William and Mary must implement crucial safety protocols for football and other sports. page 6
Bridging the gap
Aida Campos ’20 discusses her experience traveling to El Salvador for her honors thesis project, the power of poetry and creative expression, and goals for the upcoming semester as Director of UndocuTribe. page 9
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THE BUZZ
News Editor Heather Baier News Editor Leslie Davis News Editor Emma Ford | Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019 | Page 2
I am looking forward to working with colleagues across campus to see that student veterans thrive and our Tribe flourishes as a result. I already feel welcomed by members of the faculty and staff, so I am very pleased to be able to take on this role during such an exciting time for the College.
— Charlie Foster ’17, who was hired as the full-time director of the Office of Student Veteran Engagement
NEWS UPDATE In the early morning of Sunday, Sept, 1, several males were visiting students in Chandler Hall at the College of William and Mary. According to campus police, these visitors were not believed to be affiliated with the College. While in the dorm, one of the visitors revealed to the student a handgun when asked to leave the vicinity. The visitors then proceeded to leave the area voluntarily. Although the gun was not brandished, nor were any threats made, the William and Mary Police Department conducted a campus wide search to confirm that all of the males had left the campus. Chief of WMPD Deborah Cheesebro announced in a campus wide email Sept. 2 that the males were identified have been banned from the College’s property. Statewide regulation prohibits the possession or carrying of firearms in university buildings and facilities or while attending an official university event. This policy is applicable to visitors attending an official university event and anyone on campus property with the exception of police officers and those otherwise authorized by the university. The College’s weapons policy prohibits the possession, carrying or storing of a weapon on university property. According to Associate Director of University News Erin Zagursky, students must adhere to a slightly stricter policy which in addition to prohibiting the possession of weapons, firearms, fireworks and explosives also forbids toys “or other things which reasonably appear to be weapons.” Though this particular incident did not escalate to an active shooter situation, the College’s Emergency Management Team, consisting of various departments and the WMPD, receive training on how to best plan for and respond to such an occurrence. Additionally, all police personnel have received training in Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Deployment Training in order to respond to and manage active shooter situations. The College also has a Threat Assessment Team, intended to evaluate and handle potential threats to the College community. Anonymous tips can be submitted through the WMPD anonymous tip line or in person. For students, staff, and faculty, WMPD offers training to respond to active shooter situations, and the College possesses an online Emergency Response Guide for various threatening situations, including those involving active shooters. NEWS BRIEF BY KARINA VIZZONI AND SARAH GREENBURG / FLAT HAT NEWS ASSOC.
A THOUSAND WORDS
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CORRECTIONS The Flat Hat wishes to correct any fact printed incorrectly. Corrections may be submitted in email to the editor of the section in which the incorrect information was printed. Requests for corrections will be accepted at any time.
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Peggy Agouris received an engineering degree and degree in classical music and piano, which led her to focus on the combination of STEM and liberal arts.
Connecting STEM and Liberal Arts Provost Peggy Agouris strives to improve adminstrative transparency, student engagement EMMA FORD // FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR As the College of William and Mary welcomed new students for the 20192020 academic year, the campus also welcomed a new provost to Williamsburg earlier this summer. Former George Mason University Dean of the College of Sciences Peggy Agouris replaced outgoing Provost Michael Halleran in July. Agouris brings to the College an expansive background in science with experience through grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. She also served as the director of GMU’s Center for Earth Observing and Space Research. Impressed by the College’s strong sense of community, Agouris said she decided to make Williamsburg her home as she feels her new workplace not only maintains a respectful reputation but also creates a welcoming space for all students. “One thing that everybody knows — at least with the people I interacted with — about William and Mary is its tremendous reputation as a very strong place of learning,” Agouris said. “… William and Mary was always an institution that everybody looked up to… I was very impressed by the people at William and Mary. I was very impressed by their warmth, by the way they interacted with me. Very welcoming and very open. I was impressed by what I saw in terms of their scientific work, the depth of their knowledge [and] their commitment to teaching.” Agouris also noted that she appreciated the loyalty of the students, faculty, parents and alumni of the College. She felt that such loyalty was evident of the community experiences that students receive both during and after their time at the College. Although her career history is primarily concentrated in STEM, Agouris believes that a liberal arts education and work in the sciences can be pursued simultaneously. She feels that the College successfully combines liberal arts practices with the sciences. “Actually, this was one huge appealing factor to me because I do believe very strongly that moving forward in a world where things cannot be separated into buckets anymore — understanding and navigating and being in a world like this — you need to prepare students and future professionals to operate in such an environment.” Agouris has demonstrated combining liberal arts education with STEM education through her own career. When Agouris received her engineering degree from the National Technical University of Athens for her bachelor’s, she also graduated with a
degree in classical music and piano from the Greek Conservatory. Through her own experience, Agouris has found that her work as a researcher in the STEM fields has always been at its best when she combined different perspectives. “I always felt that because everything is changing so fast, and you hear from future employers what they are looking for in future graduates, its not always the ‘today knowledge of a field,’” Agouris said. “It’s more of critical thinking, well-rounded education, perspective of how to invent and imagine things, and also how the skills that are going to be necessary in the future are not necessarily only quantitative skills, but they are qualitative perspectives that will make them more relevant.” In her new position as provost, Agouris oversees the Arts and Sciences at the College as well as all the other academic schools offered at the College: the Raymond A. Mason School of Business, the School of Education, the MarshallWythe School of Law and the School of Marine Science. In these capacities, Agouris watches over 8,000 students and around 650 faculty members. She will also co-chair the strategic planning process and is interested in receiving feedback from students as she works on different planning initiatives at the College. “This is how I envision my role to be here,” Agouris said. “To facilitate the integration of perspectives and enable the students to get their very well-rounded education that includes digital literacy, that includes the humanities, and understanding world thinking, history, and not be the typical, proverbial scientist that is not exposed to those things. That is not good for scientists and it is not good for humanities either.” According to Agouris, the strengths of the College’s institutions, as well as the College’s size and unique qualities, allow for a bridging of perspectives and the sparking of students’ imaginations. “As Einstein said — if he said that as this is disputed — that ‘imagination is more important than knowledge’ and I truly believe that,” Agouris said. “How do you imagine your future if you are only exposed to a slice of what is in front of you today?” As she spends her first couple weeks on campus, Agouris hopes to maximize her engagement with students and faculty. She also hopes to begin her first year as Provost with three main goals: improved transparency at the administrative level, increased engagement and wellness. With transparency, Agouris hopes to make faculty and students more aware of how administrative decisions are made, what goes in to administrative processes and how individuals can give feedback to
influence future decisions. Regarding transparency, Agouris wants students to feel that their engagement is valued and their role in something is critical. “People are not engaging when they think that their participation means nothing or they do not know how to engage,” Agouris said. Agouris wants to focus on wellness as she views wellness as an integral component of engagement. She wants to help students find their purpose on campus and strives to create a more interactive environment where students feel heard and valued. In addition to the initiatives she is working on, Agouris wants to participate in as many activities and College traditions as possible. She also wants to make the role of the provost clearer to the student body. “I intend to hold town halls, and discussions, but also have an open-door policy for students, hours that students can stop by and discuss anything that is on their mind,” Agouris said. “I will have regular meetings with student leadership to ensure that I hear everything that they are concerned about, that I share with them the things that I value and what I would like to work on. This is my personal initiative — to be very connected to the students.” In forging new connections in Williamsburg, Agouris recalls a plethora of people who have helped her reach where she is today, including a former provost at GMU, and a senior faculty member who told her that what she does scientifically is equally as important as how she presents it. Most of all, Agouris holds one piece of advice close to her heart as it came from her father. “The one piece of advice he gave me was this: ‘always do your work as seriously as you can. As comprehensively as you can. But never fall into the trap of taking yourself too seriously and thinking that you are a very special person.’” Agouris said. Agouris encourages students to take advantage of all that is offered at the College and stresses the importance of trying new things. She hopes as provost she can provide future opportunities for students to feel comfortable trying new things with no penalties attached. “I’m looking forward to a year of connections, a year of interactions, to a year of getting to know each other,” Agouris said. “I would like to encourage everybody to participate in every opportunity that exists to connect with us, because for me, operating in a vacuum is not helpful. I would like to really respond to the needs by offering whatever I can bring to the table for the bettering of the student experience.”
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The Flat Hat
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
CAMPUS
Construction rids the old, brings in the new New buildings bring changes across many areas of campus Alumni House
CHARLES COLEMAN FLAT HAT CHIEF STAFF WRITER
As the new academic year begins, various areas at the College of William and Mary have been blocked off due to construction. While many of these projects will not be completed until 2021 or 2022, there are several areas on campus with renovations that may pertain to the student body sooner. Reveley Garden
relocate the fire pump and update the sprinkler system. Construction on the building officially began in July 2019 and the project is set to be completed by August 2020 for $5,750,000.
The Alumni House is currently undergoing renovations that began in Nov. 2015. The house was officially closed last year and has been under construction with the new foundation and walls in place. The new renovation will include garden space, parking and a terrace. The new wings will both be three stories high, which is intended to create a higher capacity space for alumni use. The project is estimated to cost $21,428,000 and should be completed by April 2020.
Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall
Integrated Science Center Phase IV
In the empty lot located next to Earl Gregg Swem Library, a new wing of the Integrated Science Center is set to be completed in March 2022. The building, which will be built on the site Millington Hall formerly occupied, will house the College’s mathematics, kinesiology, computer science and design or engineering programs. The new center is estimated to cost $73,266,000 and will be contracted by the construction company Skanska AB. Not only will this wing be a vast new addition to the Integrated Science Center, but it will allow for new programs such as design and engineering to develop at the College. Sadler West Expansion JAMIE HOLT / THE FLAT HAT
The Reveley Garden will be located between Ewell Hall and Jefferson Hall.
Charles Gillette, a well-known southern landscape architect, designed a garden for the College’s campus in 1926. Now, in partnership with the Garden Club of Virginia, this design is being built and will be called the Reveley Garden to commemorate former College President Taylor Reveley. The garden will be located between Jefferson Hall and Ewell Hall and has been under construction for the past year. The garden’s design aims to enhance the space used as a circulation area for student transit, while still maintaining important campus staples such as the old mulberry tree. The garden’s cost is estimated to be around $1,627,783 and was initially set to be completed in August 2019. The completion of the garden is now on track for February 2020 and will be excavated by Henry S. Branscome LLC and landscaped by the Garden Club of Virginia.
In May 2022, the Sadler Center will have a new expansion that stretches across the strip facing the McLeod Tyler Wellness Center. This $37,742,000 renovation will create more space both for Sadler Center operations and student recreation. This project is still in the early stages of development. One Tribe Place
One Tribe Place is currently undergoing renovations aimed to improve its structural and fire safety. The renovations are being completed in three stages, each focusing on a different aspect of the residence hall. Stage One will address water damage repairs and structural updates. The second stage will renovate the building’s storm water systems. Lastly, Stage Three will upgrade the switchgears,
JAMIE HOLT / THE FLAT HAT
Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall will host the dance, theatre and speech programs.
Over this past summer, the official demolition of Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall took place to make room for the new performing arts and theater building. This new theater center will consist of 77,260 additional square feet and 31,897 renovated square feet and will continue to be named after the College’s honor society. The new building will host the College’s dance program, as well as theatre and speech programs. Upon completion, the building will consist of a 500-person main theater, four classrooms or seminar rooms, a 100seat student laboratory and a 250-seat black box studio. The project officially began in February 2017, and PBK Hall was closed during the 2018-2019 academic year. The renovation is the latter half a two-part project that is being done by the fine and performing arts programs and is set to be completed in June 2021. The second phase, which entails the construction of a new music building, is also estimated to be completed by summer 2021. The second phase, which is the renovation of PBK Hall, is estimated to cost $122,142,000 and will coincide with the opening of the music building. The renovations to PBK Hall are funded by the state of Virginia and contracted by Holder Construction.
CAMPUS
Office of Student Veteran Engagement fulfills need gaps New office will bring additional resources for student veterans to meet increased demand Beginning Sept. 1, the College of William and Mary will operate the Office of Student Veteran Engagement in the Sadler Center. The office will serve as a central location for student-veteran support and aims to fulfill gaps of assistance that were previously unmet by the College. Before the establishment of the office, undergraduate veterans at the College found support through Veterans Benefits Officer Carolyn Ward, who helped these students navigate their GI Bill benefits. According to Phillip Sheldon ’20, President of the Student Veterans of William and Mary, student veterans saw a need for additional resources for veterans on campus. These deficiencies were especially apparent during the veterans orientation when the support services available to these students were highlighted . “[Carolyn Ward] does an incredibly important role,” Sheldon said. “She knows an exhaustive amount about the GI bill and using your benefits, but the school still needed someone that was going to be specifically for helping with applications, resumes, working with organizations on the federal, state and local level, private or public sector, identifying like a job or internship pipeline, or opportunities, and then increasing the amount of veterans that are on campus.” Former College President Taylor Reveley established a Veterans and Military Affairs Working Group in 2015 to learn how the College could better meet the needs of student veterans and students deployed on active duty. According to Dr. James Golden, senior consultant for special projects in the Office of the President and member of the Working Group, every year the Group has requested the creation of a full-time position to organize assistance for student
veterans. This advocacy ultimately culminated in the creation of the Office of Student Veteran Engagement, and for the last year, Golden said that Corey York '19, former president of the Student Veterans spearheaded a strong case for the office’s establishment..
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It is my hope that this office will redress all the serendipity in the process and help maximize a veteran’s learning and professional earning potential, while simultaneously reducing the civil-military divide and enhancing student visibility and on-campus relations.
— Corey York ’19
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DAISY GARNER FLAT HAT STAFF WRITER
“It is my hope that this office will redress all the
serendipity in the process and help maximize a veteran’s learning and professional earning potential, while simultaneously reducing the civil-military divide and enhancing student visibility and on-campus relations,” York said. According to Golden, College President Katherine Rowe and Vice Presidents Ginger Ambler and Henry Broaddus supported the Office. In January, Rowe asked University Advancement to create the Office of Student Veteran Engagement. She then created a committee, ensuring the creation of the Office, and found the requisite financial support from donors. Luiza Newlin-Lukowicz, senior director of corporate and foundation relations at the College, found a grant from the Jessie duPont foundation to fund the office’s initial operations. “William & Mary has a long tradition of honoring and educating soldiers and veterans,” Rowe said in a written statement. “Our university is home to top ‘military friendly’ graduate programs and we are located amidst one of the largest military populations in the nation. The new Center for Student Veteran Engagement gathers together our existing programs for military-affiliated students across the whole institution. Better coordination among these programs will expand their impact, ensuring strong support for veterans as they transition to student life. We are very grateful to the Jessie Ball duPont Fund’s support for W&M to pilot this initiative this year and to the Office of Student Affairs for making this a long-term priority.” The office will offer a broad range of external and internal support for student veterans to help them both during their time on campus and after their graduation. In a partnership with the Cohen Career Center, the office will provide assistance in finding internships and job opportunities, including providing veterans with a pipeline into public service. Other specific services include resume building, connecting
students with external counseling services that are in network with the Department of Veterans Affairs and helping to build a campus environment that is beneficial to ROTC enrollment. The office will also work to increase veteran and active-duty military enrollment, especially in the undergraduate programs. According to the faculty advisor for the Student Veterans of William and Mary, professor Lawrence Wilkerson, the center will attract more military veterans, male and female alike, to the College as both transfers and freshmen. Within the past week, Charlie Foster ’17 was hired as the full-time director of the office. Foster recently served as the veteran liaison for the Troops to Teachers Virginia Center, while also serving as the co-chair of the Veterans Affairs Working Group. Foster enlisted in the Marine Corps after Sept. 11, 2001, to serve as a combat correspondent. In 2017, Foster earned a Master of Education in Higher Education Administration from the College while specializing in student-veterans’ transition from the military into higher education. Foster will also coordinate an Advisory Council to help develop ideas for helping student veterans at the College. This body will be responsible for outreach to military organizations, alumni and partners in the public and private sectors to identify support for activeduty and veteran students. Working with other college resources, Foster will work to obtain supplementary grants, contract funding and external funding for veterans and the office. According to Sheldon, once the office obtains $3 million in funding, it will be considered a permanent part of the College’s endowment. “I am looking forward to working with colleagues across campus to see that student veterans thrive and our Tribe flourishes as a result,” Foster said. “I already feel welcomed by members of the faculty and staff, so I am very pleased to be able to take on this role during such an exciting time for the College.”
'Let's Get Consensual' campaign seeks culture of consent on campus Many student groups aross campus unite to promote positive conversations surrounding relationships CONSENT from page 1
was very easy to talk about. I’m hoping there will be more casual conversation about consent and communication during sexual interactions and that people will feel more comfortable discussing it in their daily lives.” Other elements for the campaign vary from reaching students with social media platforms to basic consent education with new students; all of these are intended
to have students engage in critical conversations. Director of the Haven Liz Cascone looks forward to The Haven’s role in the consent campaign and its facet of education. “The Haven is thrilled to partner with the Office of Health Promotion on the Let’s Get Consensual Campaign. Teaching skills for consent to young adults is one way we can strengthen healthy relationships across campus and lower risk of sexual assault. The Haven peer confidential
advocates will be engaged in campaign efforts all semester long and we are so pleased that the campus is responding so positively,” Cascone commented in an email. Mosvick concurred with Cascone’s thoughts as she explained why a consent campaign is vital to the College community. She pointed out the importance of learning about themes students may not have previously had awareness of. “I think William and Mary is not
alone in that we have issues of sexual violence that happen on our campus,” Mosvick said. “Consent is something that unfortunately not all of the new members of our community are educated on before they join us here.” Stafford also commented on the programing that students could expect to see around campus during the campaign. “We’re doing a lot of tabling events and there will be a lot of social media promotion,” Stafford said. “I’d recommend
that people repost things, share them, come by our tables, and pick up the merch. In general, it’s really important to spread the messaging and start conversations.” Through the program, Mosvick hopes all students at the College will learn more about consent and know they are a part of its culture on campus. “The one thing that I want people to take away from this is that, if you’re part of the William and Mary community, you are part of a culture of consent,” Mosvick said.
The Flat Hat
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Page 4
ACADEMICS
College advertises MPP despite suspension Deans hire external consultant to assess viability of the program EMMA FORD FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
Last February, the College of William and Mary announced the suspension of their Master of Public Policy and Accelerated Master of Public Policy programs with no final decision regarding the official termination of the programs. Despite the announced closure of the programs, six months later, the programs continue to be advertised on the College’s website as active programs offered on campus. In tandem with these advertising efforts, the College has hired external consultants to assess the programs’ long-term viability. The BA/MPP program provided an accelerated track where students can receive both their Bachelor of Arts and master’s degree in two years, with one year overlapping with their final undergraduate year. According to Dean of Arts and Sciences Kate Conley, discussions about the future of the MPP and BA/MPP programs are currently being held following the appointment of Provost Peggy Agouris in July. Agouris is filling the position after outgoing Provost Michael Halleran announced he would be returning to the classroom last spring. “Admission has been suspended, but the program has not been officially ended,” Conley said. “We still have students who are in the program, and we’re in conversation with the Provost, with the Vice Provost for International affairs for what we might do to reconfigure the Master in Public Policy. It’s not officially finished. That’s why it is still on the website.” Conley explained that decisions regarding the future of the programs were delayed as Halleran did not want to make any definitive decision that would be placed in the hands of a new provost. According to Conley, he wanted to give the new provost the option to make their own informed decisions regarding the program. When Agouris filled the position as Provost in July, Conley sent her data regarding admissions and enrollment for the program. She has also requested meetings with the Provost to discuss the program’s future. “What we should do in order to reboot the program, adapt it in some fashion — these are questions we are discussing right now,” Conley said. “And the ultimate decision to reconfigure the program or definitively close it, having suspended admissions for the moment, will be made by Provost Agouris. But as you know she has only been here a month, and she is listening to a lot of different perspectives and gathering data. I have sent her a lot of data about admissions and enrollment in the past three to five years.” In addition to meetings, Conley gave approval to hire an expert in the field to review the programs’ long-term viability. The expert will be studying the program and interviewing people involved to provide suggestions on the ways the program can be reconstructed to compete in the competitive marketplace. According to Conley, the expert has been involved in public policy programs at both the University of Maryland and University of Texas in Austin. They are also looking at the potential of housing the programs at the College’s Washington D.C. offices. Last fall, President of the MPP Alumni Association Devin Braun was informed by the College administration that discussions were being held on the sustainability of the program. At the time, Braun said the College felt that the program could survive for a couple more years as they were conducting a study looking into the program. However, as applications began to arrive for both the BA/MPP and MPP programs during late fall and early spring, the administration began to believe the program was not sustainable. Although Braun is not involved in the decision-making process, he hopes to continue contributing alumni perspectives as the College potentially begins redesigning the programs. “That is one role I really serve,” Braun said. “We like to kind of be a liaison almost between recent graduates and the board members. I think its good to get that perspective because not all of the board members are necessarily alumni of the programs.” As the College considers redesigning the program perhaps in a competitive setting like D.C., Braun plans to speak with the board members and administration and remind them that the program has many alumni who have found success at different levels of government outside of the federal systems housed in D.C. “In terms of my priorities for it, I think there’s an effort in getting a greater online presence…,” Braun said. “I think the program should recognize not
just the federal programs. There is a lot of marketing opportunities relative to D.C. and I get that. We certainly have a lot of alumni that have done very well in D.C. But we also have a broad range of alumni who are big local presence across the country. So I think the recognition that public policy takes place at all levels of government should be a focus of the program.” Braun stressed that these discussions are ongoing but that decisions are still in the early stages. Conley explained that the College has decided to keep the programs offered on the website as students who enrolled in the BA/ MPP and MPP programs before the suspension of applications are still completing their degrees. According to Conley, this makes the programs still active at the College. Director of the College’s Public Policy Program John Gilmour also explained that since students are still enrolled in the program and graduating in 2021, the program is considered active on the website. He also said the College wanted to keep the programs on the website to help any recent graduates searching for jobs and students Even though we completing the program. “Even though we are not at are not at this time this time admitting students admitting students it is important to keep the website active,” Gilmour said it is important to in a written statement. “The program is active in that it keep the website still has students and courses, but we are not recruiting new active. students. Current students are applying for jobs or — John Gilmour, internships, and it would hurt them if prospective employers Director of the could not find the W&M MPP degree program on the W&M College’s Public Policy website. We are not promoting the program in the sense Program that we are trying to recruit students. But we do want the program to have a continuing web presence to benefit our current students.” Although links to applications on the website are inactive, there is concern from students since there is no language on the College’s website that informs applying high school seniors that the programs are currently suspended. Olivia Yang ’20 applied to the BA/MPP program last spring and afterwards was informed that the program was not accepting applicants for this school year. Yang felt that it was important for the program to be kept on the website for current or past BA/MPP students who are applying for jobs, as the website provides background for anyone reviewing the student’s application. However, she feels that language should be included in some way to inform that the program is suspended. “I feel like high school seniors should be informed about the suspension,” Yang said in a written statement. “I don’t know if tour guides or other sources of information for prospective students are aware of the program’s suspension, and I would hate for any incoming freshman to be misinformed.” Conley did not feel that the College can provide information to high school seniors at this time regarding the program. “Right now it is on the website,
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College deans step down School aims to find replacements for 2020
DEANS DEPART from page 1
psychology, counseling and special education. During his time as dean, the school of education offered its first online academic programs. He also oversaw the Executive Ed.D. programs, which seeks to help master’s students receive a doctorate in three years as they continue working in education. “Skip’s arrival at the school brought a strong sense of energy and purpose,” Rick Gressard, Chancellor Professor of Counselor Education said in a press release. “We were challenged to become more innovative and entrepreneurial, which has resulted in many new and truly significant initiatives.” In 2018, the school of education launched its online M.Ed. in counseling, and this year, a new master’s in military and veterans counseling will be offered as well. The College will be the first school in Virginia to offer such a program. Niles started off his career as an elementary school teacher in Rochester, New York. He received his master’s degree in counselor education from Lehigh University and later went on to receive his doctorate in education at Penn State. “Dean Niles is an excellent example of the power of vision and leadership to move an institution forward,” Provost Peggy Agouris said in a press release. “In my brief time working with him, I have already found him to be an accomplished scholar, a distinguished leader in education innovation and a respected colleague. I want to thank Dean Niles for his hard work and dedication to the William &
Mary School of Education and the university as a whole.” Niles was also involved in the creation of the Center for Innovation in Learning Design, which is a program that seeks to bring researchers together and test new learning designs. He also supported at the College Troops to Teachers, a program that supports military veterans who are transitioning to K-12 careers. “Dean Niles has steered the School of Education with thoughtfulness and insight, advancing William & Mary’s commitment to educating teachers and educational leaders to serve the Commonwealth,” President Katherine Rowe said in a press release. “During his time, Dean Niles successfully expanded the school’s reach, growing the school’s online footprint substantially, and led the development of new and impactful partnerships. I am deeply grateful for his leadership.” In 2017, Niles led the school of education to offer a minor in educational studies and in 2018 he expanded the school’s ESL and bilingual education through a new master’s degree. “Like most educators, my passions are teaching, mentoring students and engaging in research,” Niles said in a press release. “I’m so proud of all that the School of Education has accomplished over the past seven years and I’m looking forward to having more time to focus on my students. Their energy and enthusiasm is what keeps all of us in this work.” The school is currently conducting a national search to fill in the two vacant positions after Niles and Conley step down at the end of this year.
which is an indication that it is still there, but admission is suspended because we don’t know what the future of the program is,” Conley said. “And right now until the Provost is able to take the time she needs and have the conversation that she needs in order to make a fully informed decision about what next steps should be, we can’t put more information on the website. I think that high school students who are interested in public policy would do well to come here for our undergraduate program because it is a terrific program.” Gilmour explained that the lack of language regarding the suspension was due to the College not wanting to make a conclusive statement on programs that a final decision has not been made. However, Gilmour did acknowledge that potential students enrolling to the College could be misinformed about the programs’ future. “I suppose that, given that no final decision has been made, we don’t want to send an overly definitive message about the future of the program,” Gilmour said. “It might come back, after all. I understand the confusion the current website. I just met with freshmen during advising, and at least one was interested in the BA/MPP. We should make clear on the website that we are not recruiting for the 5-year program.” Venu Katta ’17, MPP said that he understood why the College would keep the information up on the website and felt it is important that students reach out when making decisions about attending a College. “It still is a program at the College even though admissions have been suspended,” Katta said. “I remember that when I was a freshman and the first time I heard about the program, my first step was to contact people in the public policy department for more information. I don’t really think that they are misleading people … I think if you are trying to base your decision on that, I think you most likely would reach out first for more information about that topic.” For Yang, the College offering an accelerated track for their MPP program played a major role in her decision to attend the school. “When I was comparing UVA and William & Mary back in 2016, both had BA/MPP programs,” Yang said in a written statement. “My decision would have been a lot harder if only UVA offered a BA/MPP, I might not have decided that William & Mary was the best choice for the academic plan I had when I was a high school senior.” Conley said that in the time decisions are being made about the MPP and BA/MPP programs, the College has been given an opportunity to focus on undergraduate Public Policy initiatives and opportunities. “Also, what we’ve been doing and want to do more is paying more attention to the undergraduate program, which is thriving,” Conley said. “We have a lot of students, who are very good students. There is a board for the public policy program, and we are working with the board to try to create new opportunities for internships for undergraduate students in order to be able to have as many opportunities for the undergraduates as we have had in the past for graduates.” More decisions regarding the MPP program plan to be made in the spring, according to Conley. However, the College has not currently set a timeline for any final decisions regarding the future of the BA/ MPP and MPP programs.
Presbyterian Church
Come visit!
We’d like to invite you to visit Grace Covenant (PCA) and find a church home for your years here at William and Mary. Our worship services are Sundays at 8:30 AM and 11:00 AM, with a 10:00 Sunday School class in between. We are located at: 1677 Jamestown Road, about four miles from campus.
Need a ride?
We provide rides for our second service. Look for the white van with the GRACE COVENANT name on the side: 10:25 in the parking lot by YATES 10:30 in front of BLOW 10:35 in front of BARRETT
Questions? Call Kathy at the church office, 220-0147 or visit our web page:
www.gracecovpca.org
opinions
Opinions Editor Anna Boustany Opinions Editor Chloe Folmar fhopinions@gmail.com // @theflathat
The Flat Hat
| Tuesday, September 3, 2019 | Page 5
GUEST COLUMN
STAFF COLUMN
Convocation highlights community values, fosters sense of belonging
Orientation undermines new student adjustment
and speakers offering guidance that we should have paid more attention to. In the typical fashion of school ceremonies FLAT HAT GUEST WRITER like these, I can’t remember any of the surely valuable advice that the College’s administrators and guest speakers offered. One of the College of William and Mary’s most iconic What I distinctly remember about my Convocation is the traditions, Opening Convocation marks the first day of classes immediate need to wash my hands after just high fiving every each school year and symbolizes the newest group of freshmen upperclassman from the Sir Christopher Wren Building to the officially becoming students of the College. This year was my middle of the Sunken Garden. first time experiencing Convocation as an upperclassman, For all these uncomfortable details about Convocation, I and unsurprisingly, it was more underwhelming the second recognize and appreciate it for the campus tradition it is and time around. We ate mediocre Sodexo food on the grass, and the purpose it serves. Physically, you take those steps from the waited around in the swampy August humidity for the first Wren yard and Colonial Williamsburg onto the rest of campus, sight of freshmen. Despite the discomfort, we did our duty by signifying the official moment that you join the College’s squishing shoulder to shoulder community. On a late August down the sidewalks and afternoon, the sun is situated holding our hands just high enough that the first out, welcoming moment through the doors is our newest blinding; then students as your eyes home. adjust, you When see students I talk to lined up all the potential way into the students and Sunken Garden. their families This moment of on tours about being greeted the College’s by hundreds of traditions, I cheering peers always gush is overwhelming about how in the most welcoming welcoming way. and special I’m certain Convocation that even the is. I tell them least spirited the story of of freshmen immediately can’t help but bawling my feel a twinge eyes out of excitement as I walked and pride in the through place they now GRAPHIC AND HEADSHOTS BY KAYLA PAYNE / THE FLAT HAT Wren, get to call home. suddenly feeling like a part of this campus and knowing I Though we grumbled about the heat and cramming in made the right decision. All of this is true, though on tours I next to strangers, fellow upperclassmen actually do care leave out the less glamorous minutiae. about welcoming new freshmen, in the same way that they My freshman Convocation last year in 2018 was the were welcomed. Convocation is a tradition that our whole hottest on record, peaking at what felt like about 300 degrees community genuinely gets excited about, because as much as Fahrenheit, if my memory serves correctly. My hall was not we grumble and complain about Sodexo and long nights in one of the lucky ones who arrived early enough to snag seats Earl Gregg Swem Library, we chose to be here, and we chose in the minimal shade of the President’s House or the gigantic to stay. white ash trees, so we fanned ourselves with programs as we Email Hannah Garfinkel at baked in the sun, listening to the choir croon the alma mater hjgarfinkel@email.wm.edu.
Hannah Garfinkel
Registration changes benefit new students RIEL WHITTLE // FLAT HAT GRAPHIC ARTIST
Email Riel Whittle at rmwhittle@email.wm.edu.
Ethan Brown
FLAT HAT MANAGING EDITOR
Orientation: while some people recall it fondly as their first introduction to the College of William and Mary, I recount five days filled with awkward mingling, inescapable exhaustion and a plethora of dead cockroaches in my closet. I cringe looking back at the feeble attempts at friendship I tried to make over my first meals at Sadler and the Caf; I couldn’t eat Cocoa Puffs for months without remembering the lonely, emo breakfasts I had during syllabus week. Although things improved drastically with a little time, I blame orientation for fostering many of my negative initial experiences in Williamsburg. I would have been mortified to let people know my discomfort while orientation was ongoing, but now that I’m two years removed from the endeavor, I am unabashed in declaring my contempt for the process. Orientation was very difficult for me, just as it was — and is — for many students. Those fateful five days left me feeling antagonistic and resentful towards the College, despite having applied early decision and having been infatuated with the campus since I was 13. Before moving on, let me clarify a few things; first, while it took me a few weeks, I grew to genuinely adore attending the College. By the end of September freshman year, I’d found engaging communities, made wonderful friends, and developed adept roach-killing skills. I fell back in love with my school, and the isolation I first felt gave way to inclusion.
The College is a caring and empathetic community. Let’s change orientation to reflect those values. Second, my disparagement of orientation is in no way, shape or form a condemnation of Orientation Aides. The OAs I know are confident, intelligent, warm and passionate; I couldn’t be more grateful for their commitment to cultivating a supportive campus community. Additionally, doing any job without pay — especially such an emotionally and physically demanding one — is worth praising. But these caveats aside, I cannot help but loathe orientation. My primary critique revolves around the arbitrary usage of residence halls as a means of friendship building. Freshmen are placed into orientation groups based almost exclusively on what dorm they live in, and I don’t see anything inherently wrong with that — until you consider that many students and staff members hype up freshman residence halls as the ideal place to form friend groups. This is incredibly toxic. What does this message tell students who don’t vibe particularly well with the 25 other students randomly assigned to live in the same residence hall? For a school that preaches to new students that if they come here they belong here, orientation puts way too much pressure on students to force friendship — and force belonging — with the students that just so happen to live near them. The goal of orientation is for new students to acclimate to their new environment and meet fellow students; it would be much more effective for freshmen and transfers to find communities relevant to their own passions during those five days instead of being herded around like cattle. That would limit the likelihood of students feeling ostracized just because they share little in common with their dorm mates. Even in the best case scenario, when students do forge bonds with their freshman hallmates, orientation is still deeply flawed. For five days, freshmen and transfers are essentially mandated to spend almost all their time hanging out with hallmates, chatting with OAs, and churning through boring icebreakers. I’m a fairly extroverted person, and even I struggled to stay cheery and engaged in endless social interaction. By the first day of classes, I felt like I never wanted to talk to anyone again — I felt so depleted, and so emotionally exhausted, that I couldn’t imagine how I’d handle four years of being constantly “on.” It’s extremely disrespectful to expect introverts to sacrifice their well-being in order to be paraded around campus chanting, screaming and flag waving. If we can agree that the College is supposed to be a place that cherishes individuality, then it becomes hard to justify making students — regardless of their comfort level — participate in a mind-numbing array of potentially stressful activities. I acknowledge that orientation has its merits. Informative lectures about vital issues like sexual assault and consent should absolutely be required for new students, and I’m happy those are a prominent fixture of the program. Meeting new students without immediately facing academic responsibilities is a welcome opportunity. At the very least, orientation can serve as a helpful “buffer” period, offering students time to transition from living at home to living at school. Unfortunately, until we can address orientation’s shortcomings, we risk alienating hundreds of new students every August by mandating their participation in such an exhausting, daunting experience. The College is a caring and empathetic community. Let’s change orientation to reflect those values. Email Ethan Brown at ewbrown@email.wm.edu.
The Flat Hat
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
STAFF COLUMN
Page 6
STAFF COLUMN
New registration procedures create confusion, fail to provide sufficient in-person guidance
Lack of injury prevention on College football team raises safety concerns
Alyssa Slovin
Anna Boustany
FLAT HAT OPINIONS ASSOC. EDITOR
I think we can all agree that registration days are some of the most stressful days of every semester. There is the stress of wondering if you will get into any of the classes that you want, especially when they are requirements for your major or important prerequisites that could determine if and when you take future classes. There is the stress of waking up on time to make sure you do not miss your designated registration window, or a spot in all the desirable classes. There is so much counting on what probably amounts to less than a minute of actual time — not factoring in time for when Banner crashes and has to reload multiple times — and there must be some sort of solution. This year, the College of William and Mary changed the structure of freshman registration in an attempt to alleviate some of this stress. However, I’m not so sure that the new plan really solves any of these proposed problems. In past years, freshmen registered for their classes at the end of orientation after completing a short summer course about different requirements and academic plans, as well as learning about scheduling through information sessions and recommendations during orientation. This year, however, freshmen were allowed to register for up to eight credits over the summer, before arriving on campus, leaving about half of their schedule to complete during orientation. It does not seem that there was any restriction about which courses were available to them this summer, although they were encouraged to choose a COLL 100 or COLL 150 and something to fulfill proficiencies, such as mathematics, foreign language or arts courses. Although this appears to eliminate half the stress, I am not sure that it actually accomplishes this goal. Incoming freshmen are not familiar with the typical anxieties and inconveniences that come along with registration: they should not have to deal with them alone. For example, if my computer refused to load Banner for a whole minute when the registration portal opened over the summer, I would wonder what I did wrong, question my every action, and worry that I was the only one experiencing that issue. If I was not sitting in the hallway of my dorm with the twenty other girls on my hall, as well as my Orientation Aides and Peer Advisor, how would I know what to expect? Without a voice of reason by my side, what would I do? I would still feel very anxious and overstressed without any guidance.
I’m sure that plenty of people were probably fine with the situation this year, but it also probably increased their levels of stress instead of alleviating them. I’m sure that plenty of people were probably fine with the situation this year, but it also probably increased their levels of stress instead of alleviating them. There was something very comforting about the first registration because the OAs were there to answer any questions as soon as they arose. I liked knowing that I was not alone. This, of course, does not even take into consideration how difficult it can be to understand all of the different requirements that every student must fulfill. There are a lot of different categories, and it can be confusing to try to navigate all of the rules and fine print with only your computer to help you. When I made my prospective schedule during the online summer course, I spent hours making sure to choose courses that were offered during the correct semester, would fit into a weekly schedule, and fulfilled at least one requirement. By the end of the process, I was overwhelmed and doubted that I even completed my schedule properly. I needed someone to talk me through it. Of course, I would have ultimately been OK if I was left to fend for myself — just like all of the freshmen this year — but I do not think that this method is the best option. There is nothing better than in-person question-answer sessions designed to settle incoming freshmen and make sure that students are on the correct path. For example, what is the difference between the COLL 200 NQR and the regular NQR requirement? In writing, it can seem as if they are the same thing, but in person, OAs and peer advisors can break it down. Also, these mentors can recommend for students to take or avoid certain courses that they are considering, and new freshmen can compare schedules and help each other decide. Another small difference this year is that their on-campus registration was at 5:00 p.m. instead of the trying time of 7:00 a.m. I actually like this change because it eliminates any worry that students may have about accidentally sleeping in, and it also gives students a chance to sleep more during such a busy week. As I have said throughout this article, I do not think these changes are the worst changes that the College could have made to freshman registration, but I also do not think that these changes accomplished their goals of reducing stress for new students. It makes sense to think that breaking down the process would make each registration seem less “all-or-nothing.” However, the College also must consider that new freshmen are not experts on making their own schedules and they do not have the best grasp on all of their requirements. Freshmen should be supported through the registration process, not thrown out to sea without a life jacket. Email Alyssa Slovin at amslovin@email.wm.edu.
FLAT HAT OPINIONS EDITOR
Going to a school with a Division I football team, albeit a less well-known one, is certainly an experience. On game day, parking options on campus disappear, and seemingly everyone on campus is wearing green and gold and rushing from tailgates to darties, or maybe to and from the game if they’re invested in the College of William and Mary’s football team that day. However fun the community surrounding watching football may be, there are a lot of important concerns that are often swept under the rug to the detriment of some players’ safety. First and foremost, football is an injury-prone contact sport. According to the NCAA, football players are injured “8.1 times per 1,000 athlete exposure,” which is considered to be either a game or practice, with over 47,000 reported injuries annually. Comparatively, swimming and diving have only “1.7 injuries per athlete exposure.” I recently had the opportunity to speak to Erik Korem, the senior associate athletic director for studentathlete high performance, regarding what the College is doing to help reduce injuries. The College is admirably making an effort to make football a safer sport, ranging from hiring a doctor staffed specifically for helping student athletes and working to reduce injuries through how tackles are made. These changes deserve applause. However, something that worries me is an issue both at the College and in the greater field of college football, and in most sports in general. Attempting to reduce injuries incurred on the football field during the years played in college is admirable, but athletes at the College do not receive any support or any follow-up after they graduate, which seems to be consistent with most college athletic programs. With the high possibility of long-term injuries like tendinitis, arthritis or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, at the very least, efforts to prevent injuries should extend beyond the four or five years of a collegiate athletic career. In a 2018 study on deceased football players’ brains done by researchers from the VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank, 86 percent of college football players were posthumously
diagnosed with CTE, including at least one football player at the College. While the study is not perfect and its authors mention potential issues arising from self-selection bias, its results are troubling. While research has not yet conclusively identified all the symptoms of CTE, the Mayo Clinic identifies it as “brain degeneration likely caused by repeated head traumas,” with symptoms such as cognitive impairment, substance abuse and suicidal thoughts or behavior. The Mayo Clinic also has conducted research that did not find CTE in control brains that were not exposed to brain trauma from contact sports. The research is still growing regarding the potential linkage between CTE and high-contact sports such as football, but it seems that with the high likelihood of lifelong injuries being incurred in football, schools ought to take more of a responsibility in following up with their players after their time at the school. I would hope that they could provide resources to those players struggling with injuries from their collegiate careers, but at the very least it is an important step to aid a college in making their sports the safest they can be. Korem made a good analogy about the risks of playing sports when he spoke to me, which is that when doing anything, even something as common as driving a car, you accept certain risks to gain a reward. When playing football, a player chooses to accept the risk of injury for the reward of whatever playing means to them. There is nothing wrong with that. However, when the College does not make any attempts to track athletes’ injuries after college, there is no way to fairly tell potential incoming players what the risks are. The research is beginning to point to high rates of CTE in college football players, but it is not yet definite. If the College wants to do right by its players, and any of its athletes, it needs to maintain contact with athletes after graduation. They are still members of our community, and just because an injury does not manifest in college does not mean it was not incurred in college. I have never played football, so I don’t think it’s too fair of me to tell football players what to do. If playing football sparks joy for you, you do you, and I wish you the best. However, those of us who consume football, in going to games, watching them on ESPN, or buying merchandise, need to seriously reconsider our choices. Football is an injury-prone sport, both during the game and with other injuries appearing years later tied to the high-contact nature of football. Why does such a large part of our community have to be around such a dangerous game? Why do we have to fuel an industry that makes billions of dollars off of unpaid athletes? If no one watched football, it would be a much smaller and less relevant phenomenon. We, the consumers of football both in Williamsburg and throughout the United States, have the power to support teams that are making strides towards safety and supporting athletes after their playing careers end, and we can’t pretend differently. Email Anna Boustany at aeboustany@email.wm.edu.
Why do we have to fuel an industry that makes billions of dollars off of unpaid athletes?
GUEST COLUMN
Aging College vans pose serious security hazard to student drivers and pedestrians Jerry Hu
before 2009, none of these vans have head restraints for passengers in their last three rows. Without head restraints, FLAT HAT GUEST WRITER passengers in the vans can be fatally injured in a minor rearend collision. This is not acceptable if the College cares about The College of William and Mary has used vans student safety. and minivans to transport students to athletic events, Head restraint is not the only safety feature missing in volunteering opportunities and field courses for many years. these vans. Newer vans like the Ford Transit owned by the Like most universities, the College provides a basic van Office of Community Engagement have side airbags for front certification course at seat passengers and side no cost to students, and curtain airbags for all most student drivers passengers. Side curtain think this training airbags are especially has prepared them important in vans, as to drive vans safely. vans are prone In fact, the College to rollovers due has comprehensive to high centers regulations regarding of gravity. the use of vans According to by students and the National employees to make Highway van travels as Transportation safe as possible. Safety Unfortunately, Administration, the College has side curtain overlooked one of the airbags are most important factors capable of GRAPHIC BY DAVID SOLINSKY AND HEADSHOTS BY protecting the when it comes to vehicle safety — KAYLA PAYNE / THE FLAT HAT safety features in the vehicles. occupants of As an automobile enthusiast, I recognize the importance vehicles in dangerous side impact crashes and rollovers. of certain safety features in vehicles. For example, head According to the Institute of Highway Safety’s estimate, side restraints limit the rearward movement of the occupants’ curtain airbags can reduce fatality risk of drivers in passenger heads in a collision. Since their introduction in the late vehicles by 45 percent. 1960s, head restraints have prevented thousands of severe It is imperative that the College replace all the aging GMC injuries and death in accidents, and head restraints for front and Ford vans built before 2009 immediately with newer vans seat passengers have been mandated by federal laws since that have advanced safety features. The College has spent 1969. Unfortunately, head restraints were not mandated for a tremendous amount of money on renovating facilities to rear seats, and some automobile makers had skipped this benefit students. Purchasing new vans for all department critical safety feature for decades to cut production costs needs to be a priority for the college. Vehicle safety is no joke. until federal laws mandated head restraints in 2009. Since Email Jerry Hu at most 12-passenger vans owned by the College were built jhu01@email.wm.edu.
variety
Variety Editor Zoe Beardsley Variety Editor Adithi Ramakrishnan flathat.variety@gmail.com
The Flat Hat | Tuesday, September 3, 2019 | Page 7
RIDGING the
GAP
Aida Campos '20 reflects on trip to El Salvador for honors thesis, goals as Director of UndocuTribe ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN // FLAT HAT VARIETY EDITOR ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN / THE FLAT HAT
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hen Aida Campos ’20 looks back on her August trip to El Salvador, a memory from the department — county — of Morazán stands out the clearest. Campos sat in on a ceremony and talk hosted by the Lenca tribe, an indigenous group native to El Salvador. “It was really interesting and special, and intimate,” Campos said. “At one point, they were invoking all of the gods that they believe in and they were burning some type of wood in this sacred fire pit. It was an overcast day the entire day, but as the ceremony leader started invoking the goddess of storms and rain … it starts pouring.” Campos describes the experience at the Lenca ceremony as mind blowing. She felt honored to be able to attend the Lenca ritual, especially since the tribe does not get much public recognition. “Most of the time, people assume if you’re not Aztec, if you’re not Incan, you’re Mayan, but they don’t know that there’s a lot of smaller tribes that live throughout Latin America, and particularly Central America, like the Lenca people,” Campos said. “There’s not a lot of scholarship done on them, and not a lot of speakers left, so I’m very blessed to have gotten the chance to sit there for one of their ceremonies, given that they’re such a small population.” Campos traveled to El Salvador as part of her creative honors thesis project, in collaboration with her advisor Jon Pineda. Campos’ thesis was initially inspired by her own family’s immigration story. “I was getting ready to go on the Latin American studies department border studies trip, and on the itinerary it said that we were going to be going to the city where my mother crossed into America,” Campos said. “That was when it started. Then, as I kept asking myself questions, I realized that I needed to understand why my parents felt the need to immigrate for me to understand my immigration story.” From her parents, Campos knew that her family immigrated to America from El Salvador due to a civil war within the country. However, she didn’t know much beyond the immigration event itself, and her curiosity towards her family’s origins grew with age. “As I grew older, and as I started reading my own stuff on the war and … building my own ideas and feelings about the war, I wanted to know more about it,” Campos said. “With this honors project originally, I was trying to cope with my lack of knowledge about my parents and my family history, and what role the war played into that hole between my family’s history and how I understand my family.” Initially, Campos worked with Pineda on the idea of a fictional memoir — a memoir composed of recollections that may not necessarily be true — with the goal of connecting the gaps in her family’s history using reimaginations of the past. Her vision of her project ended up shifting slightly after she traveled to El Salvador, visiting national archives sites, and speaking to members of her family community. “After the trip, I came back and realized that while my questions are still relevant about the civil war and about how people remember the war, I’m really fascinated by how memory works,” Campos said. “I feel like the country’s government has one way of remembering the war, one side of the story, the U.S. media has
one way they pictured the war, and the people who actually lived through the war, people like my parents’ age, have one way of remembering the war.” When speaking to friends and family members that lived through the war, Campos found a common thread she wasn’t expecting: a link in memory between the Salvadoran civil war and the gang violence that is occurring in the country today. “A lot of my conversations with people … would always end on the note that while people remember how violent and hard the times were during the war, they continuously kept comparing it to the violence that they’ve been facing for the past 10 to 15 years with gang violence,” Campos said. “For the most part they would always say, ‘yeah, the war was crazy and it was hard, but it doesn’t even compare to how violent the gangs are.’” Campos began to consider the original subject of her project in the context of contemporary problems that El Salvador is facing, centering her narrative on the lived experiences of its people. “I’m looking more at how the government and the oligarchy has not allowed El Salvador to be a stable country where the people … are able to feel protected by their state, by their nation, throughout time,” Campos said. “It’s never really had a chance to prosper … the people haven’t had a chance to feel stable enough to succeed in their movements and in their requests from the government, from their communities.” Campos plans to consolidate her archival research and conversations in the form of a poetry book, interspersing different forms of poetry with prose to tell El Salvador’s story. She began to deeply appreciate poetry as a communication medium both during a community college class her freshman year and during a Spanish poetry class taught by Silvia Tandeciarz at the College. “Poetry is such a strong medium because it’s so raw, it’s so authentic, there’s no padding, there’s no plot,” Campos said. “You just have words and you do what you can with words and lines of words. There’s no standard for what a poem has to be.” In Tandeciarz’s Spanish poetry class, Campos wrote a poem about a close cousin who passed away because of gang violence. Expressing her emotions and revisiting that event in her life via verse was a transformative experience for Campos. “She died when I was around 15, and I hadn’t really processed that until I wrote that poem sophomore year of college,” Campos said. “I think poetry allows you to have closure to grieve and that was a really powerful moment for me as a person, as a writer and as a student, to be so vulnerable in a class full of people that I didn’t necessarily know.” On campus, Campos is a member of Inside Out Theater and Underground. She is also director of UndocuTribe, the campus organization centered on immigrant and migrant rights. Campos is passionate about supporting undocumented individuals both on and off campus. “I’ve seen the misconceptions that people throw at undocumented people, and I feel like it’s our duty to make sure that information that is flying through our communities is accurate and it’s not misconstrued to villainize a group of people,” Campos said. “I think people tend to forget that undocumented people have been and
continue to be the backbone of this country.” This semester, UndocuTribe’s goals include planning a visit for citizens detained at the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail in James City County and fostering a mentoring program for undocumented and English as a Second Language high school students in the Williamsburg area. They also plan to be active around October and November, when the federal government will officially release a statement as to whether or not the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy will be rescinded. Campos also hopes to facilitate a communicative relationship between the organization and the rest of the campus, so that undocumented students on campus have access to resources that support them. “While we’re not necessarily the spokesperson for undocumented people on campus, we are a good resource for people who want to feel safe and who want a family on campus,” Campos said. “We also want to be there in any way to help facilitate, especially in the next coming months.” Campos recommends that students who want to get involved attend UndocuTribe’s meetings, as well as the meetings of other activism-related organizations such as the American Indian Student Association and Amnesty International. She encourages students to attend events, learn about the clubs’ missions, and donate to organizations that assist detained people, such as United We Dream and the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services. Campos has two siblings but is the only one of the three that was born in America. Growing up, she faced varying degrees of comfort with her Salvadoran and American heritage, often
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feeling uncomfortable bringing up her culture in school settings. “Middle school was around the time that gang violence was really bad in El Salvador, and I specifically remember almost being embarrassed to say that my family was Salvadoran,” Campos said. “Halfway through high school and the first couple years of college, I was like, ‘God, that’s so sad.’ Particularly now, it’s so important to hold onto your culture.” Campos often felt a lack of Salvadoran representation in the media in her childhood and found it hard to seek role models outside of her family. “We see Mexican culture all over the media — people celebrate Cinco de Mayo, and there’s Coco, and other movies and TV shows where there’s Mexican characters or Mexican-American characters, but I feel like we never really see Salvadoran representation in the media,” Campos said. “I feel like just about anything that people know about El Salvador is that we have pupusas. Growing up, it was difficult for me to find role models, people that had my parents’ background or my background.” Today, Campos feels a sense of pride for her background and for her culture. She reflects on her journey to get to this point and embrace her Salvadoran and American identities. “I’ve wasted so much time being embarrassed about something that’s so rich in culture and traditions and history, and now I’m really proud,” Campos said. “I’ve grown into someone that’s proud of where they come from … and who is so intrigued and interested in finding out more information. And once you get to that point, it’s easier to navigate both sides of your culture.”
articularly now, it's so important to hold onto your culture." –Aida Campos '20
ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN / THE FLAT HAT
The Flat Hat
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Page 8
lf the jeans fit
Improv group Dad Jeans performs first show of the semester OLIVIA HENNESSEY // VARIETY ASSOC. EDITOR
“Give us a phrase.” “Give us a type of relationship.” So begins a typical performance by campus improvisational comedy group, Dad Jeans Improv. Aug. 31 at 8:30 p.m., Dad Jeans Improv held its first performance of the school year in the Ewell Recital Hall. Dad Jeans is an improv comedy group that specifically performs narrative-based, longform improv, meaning that they improvise entire scenes and sketches in their shows. The relatively young comedy group began performing in April 2017. Kendall Branham ’20 and Calvin Kolbe ’20, co-presidents of the troupe, were founding members as freshmen at the College. “We all tried out for other comedy groups, and that’s how we found each other,” Branham said. “Someone who graduated last year first approached me and asked if I wanted to create a comedy group.” The group was originally an entirely informal gathering of friends, who would practice privately on their own. “We would just wander around campus and see if any classrooms were empty so that we could practice in them,” Hunter Hall ’20 said. Eventually, the group became a registered organization on campus. The troupe’s distinctive name has its own origin story. “We went back and forth for a really long time, and we had all these ridiculous, really dumb names, and we couldn’t think of anything,” Branham said. “This happened for months and months, and we finally got to the point where we had to sign up to be an organization, and someone was like, ‘what name are we going to use?’ so someone just wrote down ‘Dad Jeans.’” At first, the group name was unpopular, but over time, it’s grown on members of the troupe. “We all hated it, it’s so bad, but we never changed it and now I like it a lot,” Branham said. “And it’s attention grabbing. Like at the activities fair, everybody’s like ‘what is that?’” For troupe member Steve Vacnin ’21, Dad Jeans was an opportunity to express a passion for theater in a casual and creative setting. “I came from a high school that was super theater-heavy, and William and Mary, although it has a big theater program, it is a huge commitment,” Vacnin said. “I found that I still wanted a creative outlet in my life, so improv gets to serve as
COURTESY PHOTOS / OLIVIA HENNESSEY THE FLAT HAT
OLIVIA HENNESSEY/ THE FLAT HAT
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
that creative outlet, where it not only gives me skills for the stage and performing, but also allows me to delve into more professional skills.” According to Vacnin, the closeness of the troupe’s group members makes their practices and performances much more entertaining and exciting. “Dad Jeans is such a creative bunch, and we all have a lot of fun together,” Vacnin said. “We’re like a second family. I think having that second family element to improv is so important, because you have to be comfortable with each other, we spend a lot of time with each other because of long practices every week. It doesn’t feel like work; it feels like something we enjoy, and that’s why you do improv.” For Branham, Dad Jeans also serves as a way to de-stress by spending time with troupe members doing something that they are all passionate about. “It’s just a really nice way when you’re stressed out… and like when you’re all stressed out with school you just have practice a few times a week, and it’s like hanging out with your friends and laughing. It’s fun,” Branham said. Lyons Lascara ’20 attended Dad Jeans’ show to support his friends in the troupe. “It was a quick show, but it had really good dialogue, and showed a culmination of a lot of people that have been working together for a really long time,” Lascara said. “They’ve got a unique brand of comedy, and I know a lot of people in the group and enjoy watching them.” Emmanuel Murphy ’22 saw the group perform for the first time at the show after hearing about the troupe from a friend. “They had really good synergy and harmony as a team, like the ability to pause someone else’s storyline and then start your own, and have seamless transitions between it,” Murphy said. “You can just tell they’re really close and they work really well together.” Most current members of Dad Jeans are juniors and seniors; the troupe is now looking for new additions from other classses. “We have auditions next week, so anybody can try out, no matter what kind of experience they have,” Branham said. “It may seem really difficult, but it’s actually pretty easy to do and is a lot of fun.” Dad Jeans will have more performances throughout the school year. You can find more information about the group and their next shows on their Facebook and Instagram pages.
Monogamy:who is she?
Breaking down the stigma around exclusive relationships Ethan B.
THE FLAT HAT
Y’all, it’s a new semester here at the College of William and Mary. For most of us, that means we’re in store for long nights pouring over overdue essays, furious caffeine consumption, hectic Wawa runs, and getting angsty on “Swampy Memes for Twampy Teens.” These are all valuable components of campus life, but this autumn, I’m questioning the absence of a muchneeded presence at the College: people interested in casual, non-exclusive dating. The gray area between hooking up and dating may sound a lot like friends with benefits, but there are fundamental differences. In my experiences, friends with benefits have been exactly that — just friends, with little incentive to do anything romantic or emotionally intimate outside of the bedroom. There’s obviously nothing wrong with that set up or with having a friend with benefits in general, but sometimes it’s a refreshing change of pace to do cutesy things in Colonial Williamsburg after doing less cutesy things earlier in your partner’s dorm room. That being said, occasionally wanting cutesy things from a friend with benefits often gets misinterpreted as craving an exclusive romantic relationship. There is much more to the
spectrum of commitment than initially meets the eye. Despite people often thinking otherwise, hooking up and monogamous dating are not the only options in approaching relationships with our partners.
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I’m questioning the absence of a much-needed presence at the College: people interested in casual, non-exclusive dating.
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Whenever one of my friends starts casually dating a new person, my friend group becomes enraptured with the relationship’s progress. We desire every detail and eagerly wait for updates about where things seem to be going. Discussing dating almost always turns into a conversation about the expected end result, or queries about if things are on track to develop into an exclusive relationship. We should all work to rid ourselves of the nonsensical notion that relationships must strive towards some arbitrary end goal, because it’s that very perception that is most responsible for
creating the ridiculous binary trap of either hooking up or pursuing an exclusive relationship. Both of those choices are entirely valid, but where’s the middle ground? After all, a new semester presents a unique opportunity for students to meander through the spectrum of romantic interaction and find relationships that work for their needs more effectively. Next time you find yourself on a date with someone whom you’re interested in seeing but not pursuing exclusively, vocalize it. Be upfront in expressing your affection for your date, but don’t be ashamed to indicate your preference of avoiding explicit commitment. Conveying your interest and communicating your desire to keep things casual can be done simultaneously; you gain nothing by leading your date astray and repressing your own perspectives. To paraphrase Lizzo — who, with any luck in this world, will become our first female president next year — partners are supposed to hold you down, not hold you back. The same logic applies to dating; it’s supposed to be a fun, uplifting way to meet new people and explore your own tastes. Fighting the pressure to pursue a certain type of relationship may be uncomfortable, but it’s well worth your time. Ethan B. is a Behind Closed Doors columnist who wants you to throw away the binary choice between hooking up and dating this semester.
sportsinside
The Flat Hat | Tuesday, September 3, 2019 | Page 9
Tribe trounces Bobcats in season opener VOLLEYBALL
Big contributions from sophomore, junior hitters hint at promising season for offense AVERY LACKNER FLAT HAT SPORTS EDITOR
William and Mary began its season with a .500 record Fri. Aug. 30, winning the first match of a doubleheader against Quinnipiac (1-2), before dropping the second match to Morgan State (2-1).
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To face a similar
situation as last year’s first match and pull through this time is a testament to our growth and belief in the team. -Head coach Tim Doyle
JAMIE HOLT / THE FLAT HAT
Sophomore outside hitter Anne Louise Seekford notched 92 kills and 105 digs for the Tribe during her freshman season.
“To face a similar situation as last year’s first match of the season and pull through this time in five sets is a testament to our growth and belief in the team,” head coach Tim Doyle said. The morning’s win marks the first time since 2016 that the College (1-1) has come away from the season-opener victorious. A strong start for the Tribe led to a nail biter, as the College scooped the first set and then proceeded to trade sets with the Bobcats until the fifth and final set. Sophomore outside hitter Lauren Merrill played a critical role early in the day, with a stat
line that boasted four kills and five crucial digs in the first set alone. Despite coasting to a 25-15 first set win on the strength of Merrill and the rest of the offense, the College dropped the second set after many frantically-paced points. The second frame saw 10 ties and five lead changes, during which both the Tribe and the Bobcats earned several hard-fought points. In the end, the Bobcats prevailed, scraping a 25-23 win, the smallest possible margin. After such an exhausting game, the College was forced to dig
deep, managing a 25-21 victory in the third frame. Merrill and junior opposite hitter Kate Dedrick put down six and four kills respectively, giving the Tribe’s offense a much-needed energy boost in the third set. Dedrick’s stat line alone boasted double digit kills, as did that of Merrill, sophomore middle blocker Madeleine Bertz, and junior middle blocker Julia Brown. “Kate Dedrick was solid throughout, killing almost half of her attempts,” Doyle said. “We
made a lot of scrappy hustle plays, and I love seeing that energy on the court.” However, the College proved unable to put away consecutive sets, dropping the fourth frame to the Bobcats by a slightly larger 25-17 margin. The Bobcats’ victory pushed the match to a fifth and decisive 15-point set. The Tribe jumped out early with the lead, winning the first four points of the fifth set, before cruising to a comfortable 15-10 victory. The College’s stamina was on display throughout the grueling match but especially in the final frame, during which the Tribe hit .400 as a team, despite hitting just .242 for the match as a whole. Additionally, Brown and Bertz put down four kills apiece, supplying the team with eight of the 15 points the Tribe earned in the fifth set. Senior setter Autumn Brenner garnered 54 assists, making the match against the Bobcats her fifth career match with more than 50 assists. Brenner has now earned 1,790 career assists, putting her in eighth place for all-time assists in the College’s history. Doyle spoke to the importance of ballhandling and precision on the Tribe side of the net, emphasizing the contributions of Brenner and the defense. “I thought our ball control led to a lot of offensive opportunities today, and our attackers capitalized, especially JB and Bertz in the middle,” Doyle said. Previously 2-0 in meetings with the Bears, the College faced them again for the first time since 2000 in the second game of the day. Despite putting up a tenacious fight, the Tribe came up short in the end, losing the match by a single set margin, 3-2. The Bears took the first frame, but the Tribe battled back to pick up the second set. However, trading sets back and forth yet again depleted the College’s bench as well as its starting lineup, and the Bears took set three. Although a late push from the Tribe won game four and sent the match to a fifth set, it wasn’t enough, and the Bears ultimately prevailed. Next, the College will head to Cincinnati for a three-game road swing, taking on Akron and Wright State Sept. 6, as well as host-team Xavier Sept. 7.
WOMEN’S SOCCER
FIELD HOCKEY
College falls to Northwestern Late comeback bid falls short, Tribe takes 2-1 loss COLLIN ANDERSON FLAT HAT SPORTS ASSOC. EDITOR
JAMIE HOLT / THE FLAT HAT
The Blue Devils greatly outmatched the Tribe’s offense, taking 17 shots on goal compared to just five attempts from the Tribe.
Blue Devils skewer a scoreless Tribe College outshot, outrun, outmaneuvered in home opener BELLA SMALL FLAT HAT STAFF WRITER
Saturday, Sept. 1, 25th-ranked William and Mary faced off against No. 3 Duke at Busch Field in Williamsburg. The game marked the home opener for the Tribe, which was coming off a 1-0 loss in a scrimmage against Virginia. The Blue Devils (2-0) outmatched the Tribe (0-1) in a 4-0 win. The first quarter of the game featured equally strong play on both sides. Both the Blue Devils and the Tribe had strong plays and substantial possession of the ball. However, despite a few good opportunities for both teams, the quarter ended with no shots on goal, fouls or corners, and the score remained 0-0. Going into the second quarter, the College came out with a new physicality and drive. This ultimately led to a foul within the circle by the Tribe two minutes into the second quarter. The Blue Devils were subsequently awarded a corner on which forward Libby Thompson scored, leaving the Tribe trailing by one. The Blue Devils scored once again on another corner just a few minutes later, this time by way of a decisive shot from midfielder Lily Posternak. The Tribe battled back however, fighting off another corner from Duke later in the quarter, keeping the score at 2-0. After a shot out of bounds from the circle by the Tribe, the Blue Devils earned their fifth corner of the game. On this
attempt, Duke came away successful after midfielder Haley Schleicher scored its third unanswered goal. On yet another corner moments later, the Blue Devils’ shot on goal resulted in an impressive save from Tribe sophomore goalkeeper Kimi Jones. Going into halftime, the Blue Devils led the Tribe 3-0. The third quarter of the game had more aggression and fast-paced play than both of the preceding quarters. However, the frequent shifts in possession and movement up and down the field led to very few viable scoring opportunities for both teams until the end of the quarter. With one second left, Schleicher put away her second goal of the season on a penalty stroke that was nearly stopped by Tribe senior goalkeeper Morgan Connor. The fourth quarter started with the College trailing Duke 4-0. With 10 minutes left in the game, the Blue Devils were awarded another corner that was ultimately deflected. Though there were some good shots on goal, the final quarter went scoreless, and the game ended with a Tribe loss. Overall, the Blue Devils’ outing was stronger than the Tribe’s, as they continuously had more shots on goal than the College. Throughout the match, the Blue Devils attempted 17 shots, greatly outmatching the Tribe’s five. The College begins the season with a loss and will travel to next play Old Dominion Friday, Sept. 6 at 5 p.m.
Sunday afternoon in Evanston, Illinois, William and Mary (1-3) fell to Northwestern (12-1) by a score of 2-1 despite a late comeback attempt in the final minute of regulation. The loss marked the third in a row for the Tribe. Sunday marked the first time these two schools had ever played, and it proved to be a hard-fought game from start to finish. Coming off two straight losses on the road to South Carolina and Liberty, the Tribe looked to regain some confidence with a Sunday afternoon matchup against the Wildcats. Before Sunday, both teams had struggled thus far in the 2019 season. The College came into the match at 1-2 and the Wildcats at 0-2-1. Both teams looked to use Sunday in order to gain some momentum for the long season ahead. Junior defender Alex Kuhnle entered the game as the Tribe’s leading scorer with two goals on the season, but she was shut down by the stout Wildcats defense throughout the entire game. The first half started out very slowly, with neither team able to score a goal. The Wildcats’ defensive effort was what won them the match, with them outshooting the Tribe 12-7 and limiting the College to just three corner kicks in the game. However, a sixminute stretch in the early stages of the second half proved to be pivotal for the Wildcats, with two goals in that span. First, Mikayla Hampton scored in the 48th minute off an assist from Julietta Thron and Danika Austin. Then, just six minutes later, Aurea Martin put in another goal to crush the Tribe’s spirits for good. The goal came off a Madi Kennel assist. However, the Tribe was not done yet. They played stout defense for the next 35-plus minutes before finally breaking through the Wildcats’ defense with a clutch goal from junior Courtney Miles with 36 seconds to play. The effort was not enough in the end, and the Wildcats came away with their first victory of the season. Miles’ goal came off her only shot of the afternoon, with an assist from junior Page Frantz. If the Tribe continue to play like they did in the final 30 minutes on Sunday, they could find themselves on the winning side of a lot of matches. Overall, only two Tribe players had more than one shot, with junior Erin Dailey and sophomore Renee Kohler leading the way with two shots apiece. Up next, the College will return home to host a pair of games at the end of this week. Thursday evening will see a 7 p.m. showdown between the Tribe and High Point. Subsequently, the College is set to host Fairleigh Dickinson Sunday at 1 p.m. The Tribe looks to set itself up for a stellar season this week with these two key matchups.
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The Flat Hat | Tuesday, September 3, 2019 | Page 10
FOOTBALL
JAMIE HOLT / THE FLAT HAT
Three forced fumbles on succeeding Leopard drives in the second half sparked a 30-17 victory in its home season opener for the first time since 2017. Safety Isaiah Laster, linebacker Jarrett Heckert, and cornerback Latrelle Smith forced the takeaways.
London calls in decisive 30-17 victory Tribe pounces Leopards to win first home opener in nine years, auspicious season ahead
NATHAN SEIDEL FLAT HAT SPORTS ASSOC. EDITOR The Mike London era in Williamsburg began on a triumphant note Saturday, with three forced fumbles sparking a 24-0 scoring run that paved the way to a 30-17 opening night victory for William and Mary (1-0) over Lafayette (0-1). The Tribe started the season on defense, and after an opening first down, the Leopards drive was stalled by a sack from sophomore defensive end Carl Fowler and a second shared sack between Fowler and senior nose tackle Bill Murray. After a punt, the Tribe offense snatched the momentum with a 49-yard pass off a lateral flipped from junior quarterback Ted Hefter to graduate transfer Kilton Anderson, who lofted a rainbow to junior wide receiver Zach Burdick. All four listed quarterbacks were on the field for the Tribe and succeeded in catching the Leopards off guard. The offense was stifled in the red zone, but sophomore kicker Jake Johnston split the uprights to put the College up 3-0 with 8:54 left in the first quarter. On the Leopards’ next possession, the unorthodox football continued with a tipped ball dropping into the arms of wide receiver Julius Young for a 35-yard gain. The running game then kept the drive alive, culminating in a 13-yard scramble into the end zone for quarterback Cole Northrup to take a 7-3 lead for the Leopards. The following kickoff dealt a gut punch to the Tribe, with a fumble on the return setting the Leopards up at the College’s 27-yard line. A sack by junior defensive end Will Kiely forced a 42-yard field goal, which the Leopard kicker pushed to the right to give the Tribe the football back at the 26-yard line. Freshman quarterback Hollis Mathis and Anderson then co-piloted a drive that reached the Lafayette four-yard line but resulted in a second Johnston field goal to cut the Leopard lead to one. The Leopards began the second quarter with a mix of runs and passes that advanced into the red zone and resulted in a 31-yard field goal, making it 10-6 Leopards with 10:49 remaining in the half. A 24-yard rush up the middle by sophomore running back Owen Wright and 27-yard catch-andrun from fellow back Albert Funderburke sparked the next drive for the College, but despite advancing to the Leopard’s one-yard line, the Tribe failed to score, missing a 22-yard field goal to remain four points behind. A chase-down tackle by sophomore linebacker Trey Watkins stopped the Leopard possession and a near punt block resulted in the College receiving the ball at its own 45 with 4:50 left in the half. After three short runs, a punt from Mathis pinned the Leopards at their own eight-yard line,
and after the drive advanced to the Tribe 27-yard line, Murray recorded his seventh career blocked field goal to carry some momentum into halftime, despite the 10-6 deficit. The Tribe opened the second half with a series of runs from Mathis, followed up by a 19-yard catch by freshman wide receiver Kane Everson to reach the Leopard 12-yard line. Wright then took a pitch from Mathis and won the footrace to the front right corner of the end zone for the first Tribe touchdown of the year. London then opted to go for two and a Burdick rush gave the College its largest lead of the night, 14-10, with 10:24 left in the third quarter. The Tribe retained the momentum in the following sequence, with cornerback freshman Latrelle Smith forcing a Leopard fumble recovered by Kiely at the Leopard 34-yard line. Mathis guided the offense into the red zone, and a Wright catch-and-run moved down to the two-yard line. However, once again the offense failed to find the end zone, and Johnston’s third field goal of the day made it 17-10 with 6:03 remaining in the third. A second defensive game changer then ensued, with sophomore linebacker Jarrett Heckert forcing another Leopard fumble, which Fowler secured at the Lafayette 25-yard line. Wright then dashed into the end zone for an 11-yard score, extending the lead to 24-10 courtesy of 18 unanswered points. Now in full control, the Tribe defense forced a third fumble, with senior safety Isaiah Laster poking the ball free and senior cornerback Corey Parker recovering it at the Leopard 20-yard line. Mathis directed the offense deep into Lafayette territory, and earned the third Tribe touchdown with a threeyard touchdown run, giving him 88 rushing yards on the day. Lafayette finally broke the deja-vu-like sequence on their next possession, motoring past midfield. They advanced to the Tribe 28yard line but turned it over on downs with 11 seconds remaining in the third. The Tribe offense continued to fire on all cylinders, with Mathis showcasing elusiveness and speed to eclipse 100 rushing yards for the game. After a punt, the defense continued its domination, forcing a threeand-out. After a Tribe turnover on downs, linebacker Kevin Jarrell nabbed an interception for the defense’s fourth turnover forced on the day. The College tried to capitalize once again, but a 47-yard field goal attempt from senior place kicker Kris Hooper caught the right upright. The Leopards marched down the field on their next series, entering the Tribe red zone with under six minutes to play. A holding penalty negated what would have been a 16-yard touchdown, but Leopard running back John Gay hauled in a 26-yard touchdown catch-and-run on the following
play for the first Leopard points in the second half to make it 30-17 Tribe with 4:42 remaining. The College burned clock on the following drive on several rushes from junior running back Jaret Anderson but turned it over on downs on the Leopards’ 27 with 1:47 to play. The Tribe defense then forced one final turnover on downs to secure the 13-point victory. Mathis finished with 66 passing yards and a game-high 127 rushing yards with a touchdown. After the game, he credited the support around him for the successes. “Exhilarating,” Mathis said of the experience. “It was really fun, especially because I have such a great group of guys all around me. The front line held up great for me all game; the defense had our backs. It was fun, stress free because I knew we were so prepared. The coaches did a great job getting us ready for the game, everybody did their part and I just had to do mine.” London was complimentary of his freshman signal caller, even if his ball security occasionally caused his heart rate to rise. “This guy to my right, he can make it happen,” London said of Mathis. “I’m a little nervous sometimes, when he carries the ball like a muffin, but at the same time, he made some plays and extended drives for us.” Fowler echoed his coach’s view, reflecting on the difficulty of chasing Mathis in training camp and practices. “It’s nice knowing in practice that you’re chasing the fastest guy you’re going to play all year, and that’s just a testament to what kind of player he is,” Fowler said. “It definitely gets us ready for any running quarterback we might have because it adds another aspect to the game.” Momentum-generating plays on both sides of the ball proved a theme of the night and London stressed focus throughout as a key cause. “First of all, very happy for the win,” London said. “I thought our guys played well, particularly the second half. Seven sacks, four turnovers, an interception, big plays, both defensively and offensively.” After the back-and-forth first half, the Tribe scored 24 straight points and shut the Leopards out for over 35 minutes, taking control of the game. London credited halftime adjustment and attention to detail for the effort. “The quarterback was their leading rusher coming out of the half; we had to dedicate ourselves and make sure we were handling our responsibilities,” London said. “They were amped up to play, and just focusing on the task at hand, play by play; the second half was a testament to guys not cracking, they played the game plan, and we’re very happy for them.” The Tribe will travel to Charlottesville, Virginia to face off against Virginia Sept. 6, in a cross-state rivalry.
THE EXTRA POINT
New coach, quarterback breathe new life into program Mathis’ 127 rushing yards sets school record in London’s promising inaugural season
Brendan Doyle
FLAT HAT EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Since its last National Collegiate Athletic Association playoff bid in 2015, William and Mary football has been anything but exciting, but if Saturday’s performance was anything to judge by, that may be changing. The most striking feature of the season-opening 30-17 victory wasn’t the defense’s stellar second half, nor sophomore running back Owen Wright’s tough running. Instead, it was the energy that new head coach Mike London and the Tribe brought. The game was — dare I say — fun? Suffice it to say that football has not been fun in Williamsburg for the past three seasons. In the dog days of legendary head coach Jimmye
Laycock’s ’70 tenure, the Tribe was mediocre at best (finishing 5-6 in 2016) and absolutely putrid at worst (going winless in the Colonial Athletic Association in 2017). But, even more than that, the grinding, slow, pro-style offense Laycock preferred was a snooze fest. A throwback to the days when the forward pass was a novelty, the Laycock offense resembled a 2003 Chrysler Voyager: it was never sexy, but it might have gotten the job done — ten years ago. Compounding the College’s issues, the Tribe couldn’t find a competent answer for quarterback. Steve Cluley, who led the Tribe to the playoffs in 2015 as a junior with a stacked cast of characters on defense including DeAndre Houston-Carson ’16 and Luke Rhodes ’16, threw as many interceptions as touchdowns his senior season. The following year, the Tribe split starts between Tommy McKee ’17, who spent a spell as the team’s starting punter as well, and Shon Mitchell, who was a true freshman at the time. In total, the College only completed 51 percent of its passes in 2016, which is, well, not good. Last season, Mitchell started six games while thensophomore Ted Hefter started three and Dean Rotger — who isn’t even a quarterback anymore but rather a junior wide receiver – picked up a single start. While the numbers improved on the disastrous previous season,
the Tribe only threw for 186.2 yards per game and put just 13.6 points up on the board per contest. This year, with a new coaching staff as well as a new mentality, the Tribe is attempting to make its football more appealing. This push for a faster-paced, higherscoring offense is led by offensive coordinator Brennan Marion whose “Go-Go” offense is pushing boundaries. Already, this tricked-out Corvette of an offense scored more points against Lafayette than it did in any single game last season. No matter what, the College will be more entertaining to watch this season. But, will they be better? It all depends on who they have in the driver’s seat. Based on Saturday, they might have the right person to put the pedal to the metal in freshman quarterback Hollis Mathis. Mathis was one of three quarterbacks to see extended time on Saturday (the others being Hefter and graduate student Kilton Anderson) but was the most impressive of the bunch. Finishing with 127 yards rushing and a touchdown, as well as 66 yards through the air on 6-of-13 passing, Mathis showed off both his arm and his legs. While his accuracy was inconsistent at times, Mathis was electrifying outside of the pocket, making something happen on almost every play. Mathis is a true freshman, which means he almost certainly has a ways to go in terms of learning how to
be aggressive without playing reckless and making silly mistakes. At this point though, it makes the Tribe extremely fun to watch – something is going to happen on every offensive play, but nobody knows what. The most exciting play on Saturday was a prime example of who Mathis is and why he needs to be the College’s primary guy at quarterback. On a third down and five in the fourth quarter, Mathis mishandled a high snap. He turned around, picked it up, and immediately found a running lane, turning what looked like a sure loss of yardage into a first down and more. Mathis is obviously still learning, and he will continue to learn each play he’s on the field, but, right now, he’s the most exciting player the Tribe has had in years. He shows the potential to be a special player for the College, certainly down the line, but also this season. Obviously, how good the Tribe actually is this season will depend on a number of factors. Can the defense continue to force turnovers? Will the kicking game rebound from a catastrophic 2018? How will the Tribe fare through a brutal schedule? Arguably, though, the College has the most important question, the player behind center, figured out for the foreseeable future. And, regardless of how well the team does this season, it will no doubt be fun to watch. Email Brendan Doyle at bpdoyle@email.wm.edu