Vol. 107, Iss. 4 | Tuesday, February 21, 2017
The Flat Hat The Weekly Student Newspaper
of The College of William and Mary
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CRIME
POLITICS
Coal ash bill results in G.A. compromise Bill requires details before slurry disposal BEN MILBURN-TOWN THE FLAT HAT
A bill passed in the Virginia Senate Tuesday, Feb. 7, would require that more information be given to the director of the Department of Environmental Quality before disposal permits are granted to Dominion Virginia Power in order to drain and dispose of coal ash ponds. Sen. Scott Surovell (D-36) sponsored the bill, SB1398. It passed in full session with a vote of 29-11. Wednesday, Feb. 15, the bill passed through the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources with a vote of 22-0. The bill is now awaiting a vote on the House of Delegates’ floor. If passed in the House, SB1398 would require Dominion, or any owner or operator of a coal ash containment unit, to “identify water pollution and address corrective measures to resolve it.” The bill also requires the owner to “demonstrate the long-term safety” of the coal ash disposal method in order to “keep ash out of wetlands and other sensitive areas.” It also addresses alternative methods of disposal, such as recycling the coal ash for use in concrete or moving the ash to a landfill. Noting bipartisan support for the bill, Sen. Monty Mason ’89 (D-1) emphasized that this is not a fully comprehensive bill. It requires further assessment of coal ash ponds and the surrounding area in order to determine the full impact of coal ash disposal. “This was really a compromise,” Mason said. “Let’s do a full blown assessment and then see what happens. This is the first step.” Coal ash is the byproduct from coal burning power plants. It contains high levels of arsenic, chromium, lead, mercury and selenium along with other toxic chemicals. Co-facilitator of the See BILL page 4
KAYLA SHARPE / THE FLAT HAT
The College is investigating six reports of vandalism after Charter Day weekend. These reports included spray paint on the Thomas Jefferson statue and graffiti in front of Phi Beta Kappa Hall and Kaplan Arena.
Jefferson statue caught red-handed College investigates six reports of vandalism that occurred over Charter Day weekend HENRY BLACKBURN // FLAT HAT ASSOC. NEWS EDITOR On Feb. 11, the College of William and Mary police department reported an instance of vandalism on the Thomas Jefferson statue, and the incident has sparked a series of discussions both on and off the College’s campus. The vandalism — officially referred to as a “destruction of property” — was officially documented at 11:22 p.m. Both of the statue’s hands were painted red and the statue’s base was spray-painted with the words “slave owner.” The William and Mary Police Department differentiate this from previous instances of targeting the statue, such as covering it in post-it notes that reference Jefferson’s slave-owning history, because they must manually remove the paint. At this time, the WMPD has not identified a suspect. The first public acknowledgement of the defacement seems to have occurred on the Facebook page, “Overheard at William and Mary,” when Brendan Thomas ’18 posted about it at 12:37 p.m. Feb. 11, 11 hours before the WMPD documented it. His post contained a pair of pictures showcasing the described graffiti with the attached text, “Overseen: Thomas Jefferson with the blood of all the people he owned on his hands.” Thomas said he initially saw the graffiti on the statue while passing by and felt a sense of sympathy
with the individual who vandalized the statue. “I think that the interesting things about statues of like Jefferson and Monroe, they’re designed to lionize a historical figure,” Thomas said. “[The graffiti] brings the attention of the person looking at the statue away from this sort of mythical view of him. This guy is not made of stone, he’s a real person who had significant flaws and did some pretty terrible things.” Thomas’ post sparked a discussion on “Overheard at William and Mary,” with both current students and alumni of the College sharing their thoughts. Many people brought up points regarding white privilege, social protest, historical revisionism and the defacement of property. Reflecting on the subsequent discussion that began on his post, Thomas said that the graffiti has the potential to help people learn that historical figures might have flaws that are overlooked because of that figure’s significance. “When we look at historical figures like our founding fathers, who are prone to being mythologized and lionized, we have to take a careful stance to remember not just Thomas Jefferson but also the people he owned,” Thomas said. “We’re told we sort of have to worship them and that whenever any sort of challenge
is brought up it has to be immediately shut down and condemned.” Not all students agree with the vandalism, however. Catie Burgess ’20 said she believes that while Jefferson was not a perfect individual, she thinks that vandalizing a statue of him does not create a meaningful point of discussion. “I think [the graffiti] shows a lack of patience because a lot of us are really willing to discuss any controversy over the statue,” Burgess said. “I don’t think we should be taking any of these historical figures at face value. If you want to admire Jefferson for his intellectual contributions then that’s great, but you should also acknowledge that he wasn’t the greatest person.” Burgess also said that without a controlled, constructive environment to hold discussions like these in, the original reason for discussing the point can become lost. “I don’t entirely know what [the graffitist] is standing for here,” Burgess said. “I’ve heard so many things in opposition to Jefferson, from racism to sexism to him being a slave owner to him being a plutocrat. I guess I would want to talk to them first in person and know See VANDALISM page 3
HONOR COUNCIL
College allocates $7,500 to create, install Honor Council signs on campus Signs bearing undergraduate honor pledge placed in every academic building, classroom SARAH SMITH FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
The walls of academic building at the College of William and Mary got a face-lift over the past two weeks as signs bearing the Honor Pledge found homes on the walls of every classroom. After $7,500 was allocated to the project from the College’s Parents Fund, the Honor Council worked to hang up these “reminders” of the Pledge. According to undergraduate Honor Council members Jacob Nelson ’18 and Ashley Witmer ’18, hanging these signs in every classroom has two purposes: acting as a reminder and a deterrent for students. “It’s mainly meant as a reminder to enforce that we are in a community of trust, the honor code is an important part of the school’s history,” Nelson said. “We are the school with the first academic honor code, it has a place in our school’s buildings. Most professors include it on their syllabi, but there were no physical reminders of it in most buildings. A lot of schools that have honor codes, like the University of Virginia, have signs up in their classrooms. I think it’s a pretty common thing.” The $7,500 allocated to hang up these signs came from the Parents
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Fund, which is a fund with a specific designation that donors can select. The majority of donors who select this fund are parents of current students, but parents, grandparents and relatives of graduates also have contributed money. According to Senior Director for Family and Parent Giving Stacey Summerfield ’04, this fund is most often used for scholarships and student life initiatives at the College. “Roughly half of the fund supports the student life initiatives … the remainder is used for student scholarships, the highest priority of William & Mary’s For the Bold Campaign,” Summerfield said in an email. During the 2016-2017 academic year, the Parents Fund has also been used to purchase a golf cart for the College’s audio/visual technicians, to fund a harm reduction programming for fraternities and sororities, to purchase a card reader for the Meridian Coffee House and to fund a midyear student activities fair. According to Summerfield, the Parents Fund has regularly been used to support Student Affairs initiatives, the Student Conduct Council and the Honor Council, because of their role in Student Affairs. When a request for funding from the Parents Fund is made, Vice
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Statue defacement opens up vital dialogue
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President of Student Affairs Ginger Ambler ’88 Ph.D. ’06 and her staff have decision-making power. While the signs were hung up in the last two to three weeks, Nelson said that there had been discussion prior to this semester. Some of these discussions caused a disagreement within Honor Council, which Nelson said he believes was caused by a miscommunication over when the signs were going to be hung up. According to Nelson and Witmer, the Parents Fund financially supported the creation of the signs before the funding was allocated to install them in every classroom. When new buildings on campus, such as the Marshall-Wythe School of Law and Miller Hall in the Mason School of Business, were opened, Nelson said the College tried to install the signs then. “There was confusion about whether or not, or when the signs were going to go up, we weren’t sure that the money from the Parents Fund was going to be allocated,” Nelson said. “My understanding of this was that the signs were purchased some ways before they were put up. They were both funded by the Parents Fund, but the installation was funded separately and some people were wondering about when the signs would go up.”
Venu Katta ’16, MPP ’17 discusses why the spraypaint on the College’s Jefferson statue serves a purpose more than vandalism. page 5
The Flat Hat Picks the Oscars The Flat Hat staff predicts the big winners for Sunday night’s Academy Awards. page 7