Established 1879
A Voice for the Students FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2018
VOLUME CXXXX-I
HOBART AND WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES
Title IX
Photo Credit: Office of Communications
By Olivia Rowland ’21 Copy Editor
Beginning Again: The Presidential Search By Abbey Frederick ‘20 Managing Editor When an individual is appointed to the presidency of an institution of higher education, he or she takes on the responsibility to guide the institution into the future. This year, Hobart and William Smith Colleges face the challenge of selecting the person who will not only represent the alumni, faculty, staff, and students of the Colleges, but also represent the long-term aspirations and priorities of the institution as a whole. As the Colleges’ second
presidential search in three years gets underway, feelings of hope, skepticism, anxiety, and excitement proliferate throughout the HWS community. The process of selecting a president is time- and resource-intensive. Professor Justin Rose, one of four faculty members serving on the Search Committee, stresses the implications of this year’s search: “we have to get this one right.” The appointment of the new president is scheduled for a start date of June 2019. In anticipation of this deadline, the Search
Committee has begun to compile information that will be used to create an official position profile. The position profile is meant to draw candidates with the traits and skills the institution prioritizes to apply for the presidency. To gauge these priorities, forums were held in July and September for the participation of faculty, students, staff, and Geneva community members. The Search Committee has held one meeting so far, where they discussed the process of the search and began a
By Ryan Skinner ’19 Herald Staff
contacted William Smith Congress to request information to make our report comprehensive for both colleges, but it declined to release any election data. The winners of the class president elections are as follows: Marcel Johnson (Hobart ‘19), Ifuanaya Okeke (William Smith ‘19), Tanner Arnold (Hobart ‘20), Thomas Carroll (Hobart ‘21), Mahdia Ahmed (William Smith ‘21), Michael Bamah (Hobart ‘22), and Nuzhat Wahid (William Smith ‘22). During the class president elections, which took place on September 14, the Classes of 2019, 2020, and 2021 all failed to produce elections with more than one candidate. In the case of the William Smith Class of 2020, not a single candidate could be recruited to run for the position. The upshot is that the Class of 2022 has successfully completed extremely competitive elections. In this election, a 2 percent difference between candidates was literally
one vote. Moreover, the existence of this fierce competition drove up the total number of votes to 60 for the Hobart Class of 2022, which was by far the highest turnout of any Hobart class. However, this still represented a decline in voter participation among Hobart firstyear students compared to 2017, when 63 students of the Hobart Class of 2021 voted for four candidates, the same number of candidates first-year students could select from during this year’s vote. Likewise, in 2016 a whopping 101 first-year students voted in class president elections, and in 2015 as many as 112 first-year students voted. Both of these Hobart elections featured five candidates. This disturbing trend of increased student apathy over time is not limited to the firstyear classes, but extends to older students as well. This lack of concern for campus politics appears to grow Elections… continued page 6
Search… continued page 4
Elections Reveal Apathy
This year’s class president elections were defined by a continuing trend of uncompetitive elections, voter disengagement and revealing defects in the electronic ballot. As the vice president of Hobart Student Government, I have made the unusual decision to publicize some limited data from the elections. I believe this is a necessary course of action because only through a shared understanding of how political apathy has become worse over time can we hope to reverse this pernicious trend. The Herald has access only to data on the Hobart class president elections. (Full Disclosure: Ryan Skinner is currently Hobart Student Government Vice President. The Herald did reach out to William Smith Congress, who responsed, but were unable to obtain the participation numbers in time for our print deadline.) The Herald
Last April, the Herald published six articles about Title IX and sexual assault on campus. The series investigated how reports of sexual assault are handled on campus in addition to the campus culture around the issue. The Herald found that there seemed to be less openness to discussion about sexual assault on campus than there was in 2014. In part, the articles published last semester hoped to begin to change that. The Herald is still committed to making sure that the conversation about campus culture that started in 2014 does not stop, and through updates like these we hope to change campus culture as a community. The new semester brings with it some important staffing changes for the Title IX Office. Following the resignation of Deputy Title IX Coordinator Tremayne Robertson, Katie Stiffler, former Education and Prevention Coordinator, has taken over his position. The office has also welcomed a Title IX Fellow, Regina Gesicki, as a third staff member. Robertson left the Colleges in late July, leaving the Title IX Office with one less staff member and only a few weeks to find a replacement before Orientation. A national search was ruled out, says Title IX Coordinator Susan Lee, because the office did not feel there was enough time to run one. The consensus was that there would also not be enough input from the community, with most students and faculty members off campus for the summer. An effort to find a member of the community able to serve in the position did not pan out. Regina Gesicki was then identified as someone who “has significant Title IX background and was able to start work immediately,” according to Lee. Gesicki comes to the Colleges from the University of Notre Dame, where she worked in bystander prevention and as an advisor for students going through the Title IX process. She is still getting to know the campus but is excited and “looking forward to the year.” Gesicki will work alongside Lee and Stiffler to run the office and help with training and programming. Lee says that she has been “fully participating from day one.” As of right now, her position is only for the year. In the meantime, Stiffler has taken over the role of Deputy Title IX Coordinator. She has not lost any of her duties working in education and prevention but has gained responsibility in the office. “It’s a promotion, not a removal of duties from her position,” says Lee. Despite these changes, Lee says that not much has changed in Update… continued page x
News
A&E
Impressions p. 3
D a vi s Galle ry p. 2
Orientation p. 3
The Sm ith p. 5
Profile p. 7
Art s Cale nd ar p. 5
Convocation p. 8
HW S The atre p. 6