T HE F LAT H AT
Vol. 113, Iss. 14 | Wednesday, December 6, 2023
The Weekly Student Newspaper
of The College of William and Mary
flathatnews.com | @theflathat
PEERAWUT RUANGSAWASDI / THE FLAT HAT
COURTESY IMAGE / GOODY CLANCY
Board of Visitors votes to establish new school in Integrated Science Center IV Board approves school of computer science, applied science, data science and physics, administration cites student, faculty interest
PEERAWUT RUANGSAWASDI AND DANIEL KALISH // THE FLAT HAT Friday, Nov. 17, the board of visitors of the College of William and Mary voted to approve the establishment of a new school of computer science, applied science, data science and physics. Pending approval by the State Council for Higher Education of Virginia, the organizational restructuring will transition to give the four departments currently housed within the School of Arts and Sciences their own status as an independent school. The new school will have its own dean and will be located in the Integrated Science Center IV, officially launching in fall 2025. Overview of the New School In 2023, the departments comprising the new school conferred 184 degrees, making up 10.5% of Arts and Sciences graduating undergraduates. Its 48 graduate degrees comprised 39.3% of all graduate degrees and 80% of doctoral degrees conferred in Arts and Sciences this year. The admissions process to join the new school will take place during undergraduate students’ second year. Introductory courses will still be available to all interested students. History and Impetus Members of the board of visitors consulted a pre-read document providing background information on the new school compiled by the administration before the November board meeting. In the document, the administration cited student and employer demand, boosting the College’s national profile, strengthening research and faculty recruitment and promoting interdisciplinary collaborations as the primary reasons for creating the new school. According to the College’s website, formal discussions regarding establishing a new school for computing and data science began in spring 2022, when College Provost Peggy Agouris named an exploratory ad hoc design team.
She would later form a steering committee tasked with exploring and analyzing options to create a new school. The committee was composed of faculty members and members of the administration, including dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and chancellor professor of English Suzanne Raitt. According to the executive report by the committee, opponents of the initiative expressed concerns that a new data science-focused school might draw resources away from the rest of the School of Arts and Sciences and undermine the College’s traditional liberal arts strengths. Faculty Assembly liaison to the BOV committee chair and chancellor professor of physics David Armstrong echoed the concern before the board voted for the new school. “There is some concern amongst colleagues that perhaps this would siphon away resources in Arts and Sciences,” Armstrong said. “And there's also a concern perhaps that by placing people into a different academic structure would then cause some barriers for collaboration.” According to the BOV pre-read, the new school's departments have increased enrollment significantly more than other Arts and Sciences departments. The computer science and physics departments increased baccalaureate degree awards from 30 to 95 (216.7% increase) and 14 to 40 (185.7% increase), respectively, between 2013 and 2023. This compares to 5.4% growth in the same period for Arts and Sciences as a whole. “This school meets rocketing student interest and will prime graduates to think critically with data, at scale,” College President Katherine Rowe said in an email to students shortly after the board’s approval on Friday.
During the academic affairs committee meeting of the board of visitors on Thursday, Nov. 16, where the bill to approve the creation of the new school was introduced, Rowe cited a Student Assembly bill calling on the administration to mandate enrollment in data science classes as the first impetus for the creation of the new school. In an interview with The Flat Hat after the board voted to approve the plan for the new school, professor of computer science Andreas Stathopoulos also emphasized the need for coordinated graduate research programs for the rapidly developing fields of each of the four departments that make up the new school. “I want to double down on the fact that these four departments, the fact that they have Ph.D. programs — notice what their areas are,” Stathopoulos said. “Rapidly moving areas. if you don't have a Ph.D. program, you cannot catch up. You cannot be a computer scientist, physicist or data scientist and say, you know, I'm teaching what I was teaching in the 90's or the 00's. You have to move forward. And to do that, you have to catch up with research that is a little bit different from the structure of some other departments and the rest of Arts and Sciences.” In the same interview, chair of the physics department and professor of physics Jeff Nelson shed light on the physics department’s unanimous decision to consider joining in on the preliminary discussion of a new school of computing in the fall of 2022. Computation forms an integral part of physics research, with Nelson estimating that around twothirds of the department’s research is computationally based. READ MORE AT FLATHATNEWS.COM
CAMPUS
W&M Dissenters hosts Dr. Stephen Sheehi for campus teach-in, invites students, faculty College's Dissenters chapter partners with student organizations, hosts lecture on settler colonialism, its relation to Israeli-Palestinian conflict CLARE GIFFORD FLAT HAT NEWS ASSOC.
Friday, Dec. 1, the College of William and Mary’s W&M Dissenters hosted Sultan Qaboos bin Said Chair of Middle East Studies and professor of Arabic Studies Dr. Stephen Sheehi for a teach-in on settler colonialism. The teach-in focused on the social constraints set by settler colonialism, Sheehi’s perception of Zionism and the current events of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. Assistant professor of sociology and gender, sexuality and women’s studies Diya Bose briefly spoke as well. The W&M Dissenters are a chapter of the national Dissenters youth movement, “We are Dissenters.” Co-president of the College's chapter Saniya Han ’24 described the group’s purpose on campus. “We are a coalition, we are a collective of students,” Han said. “And all we are is that we’re against institutionalized oppression of all forms. And we’re also, most importantly, a safe space on this campus for communities that have been historically and presently are still being mistreated by institutional powers on this campus and beyond it.” A student organizer began the teach-in with the College’s Land Acknowledgement and its Statement on Slavery and its Legacies prior to presenting its speaker, Sheehi.
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Sheehi first shared that he intentionally did not plan anything formal. For a casual Friday afternoon discussion, Sheehi said he had not expected such a large turn-out of students and professors. While addressing the broader topic of settler colonialism, Sheehi was upfront that he was speaking about Palestine and Israel as a settlercolonial society. “When we talk about Israel as a settler-colonial society, we have to understand we are not exclusivizing it,” Sheehi said. “We’re historizing it. We’re contextualizing it. There are many other settler-colonial societies, and in many ways Israel mimics that.” Sheehi asserted that settler colonialism is not identified by an event but rather is an enforced infrastructure. “It’s the structure by which the settler state built its authority,” Sheehi said. “And the logic of all settler-colonial states is fundamentally to eliminate the Indigenous person.” Sheehi focused on Zionist ideology in Israel and its role in settler colonialism. He was clear about his use of the term, citing other possible interpretations. “I’m talking about Zionism as a political ideology that was founded at the end of the 19th century, largely by secular European Jews,” Sheehi said. As a non-Jewish person, Sheehi was unwilling to speak on what Zionism means or does not
mean to Jewish people. However, Sheehi argued that, as an expert in the field, it is a fact that people have lived in Palestine territory well before 1948. “When I talk about Palestine, I’m talking about all of Palestine,” Sheehi said. “What is meant when they say, ‘river to the sea’ is that there are Palestinian people. They have been there for centuries. It is a dynamic and diverse culture and society. And it’s that claim, the existence of those people, which is negated.” Bose then shared her connection to the IsraelPalestine conflict. In South Asia, where her family is from, colonial policy generated famines that directly impacted her grandparents. Bose quoted a powerful monologue by Alaa Hajjaj from the Gaza Mono-Logues collected in 2010. Following the talk, Sheehi and Bose answered several audience questions. Students expressed their safety concerns and asked for tips on how to educate family and friends. Sheehi felt that just action on the part of the College administration is crucial for student safety. “It’s tough,” Sheehi said. “We have to hold our, we have to push our administrators to be able to treat us fairly and to advocate for us.” Attendants reflected on the purpose of the event, noting the sense of solidarity between members of different organizations. “A lot of cultural organizations on campus have advertised this event because global struggles,
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struggles of oppression, struggles of colonialism affect people of color disproportionately, and we’re all affected by that,” attendee Carolyn Reid ’27 said. “And so that’s why I think you see a lot of people showing up for events like this because we understand what it is to be under siege or under colonial rule.” Several student organizations supported W&M Dissenters by sponsoring the event, including the College's Middle Eastern Student Association, the Asian American Student Initiative, Students for Justice in Palestine, Political Latinxs United for Movement and Action in Society, Black Student Organization and more. Audience members appreciated Sheehi’s lecture, noting the value of the information he shared. “I think it’s really powerful that Professor Sheehi was willing to speak about this issue, especially being like one of the only professors that I’ve heard actually take a vocal stance against genocide and against violence and Gaza and Palestine throughout the Middle East,” attendee Lena Bullard ’26 said. Reid attended the event, hoping to stay informed on the evolving conflict. “I think when we’re engaging in conversations around the clock, it’s very important to be educated and to come in with a holistic perspective,” Reid said.
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Stagant Tribe football looks to rewrite script in 2024 With large senior class, new chapter of College football may be just around the corner page 9
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THE FLAT HAT | Wednesday, December 6, 2023 | Page 2
THE BUZZ
College isnʼt for everyone, and thatʼs okay. But thereʼs so many students at my school where college was for them, and it wasnʼt an option. So I needed to take steps to ensure it was an option for them. ̶ Kaleea Korunka ʻ25 FLAT HAT NEWS BRIEF
Former College chancellor, Supreme Court justice Sandra Day OʼConnor dead at 93 Friday, Dec. 1, Sandra Day OʼConnor, the first woman to serve as a United States Supreme Court justice and former chancellor of the College of William and Mary, passed away at the age of 93. According to a statement from the Supreme Court, her cause of death was due to complications from advanced dementia and respiratory illness. Her death occurred two days after the passing of Henry Kissinger on Wednesday, Nov. 29. Kissinger was also a former chancellor of the College and U.S. Secretary of State under the Nixon and Ford administrations. Appointed by President Ronald Reagan, OʼConnor served as a Supreme Court justice from 1981 to 2006. OʼConnor served as the Collegeʼs 23rd chancellor from 2005 to 2012. Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. commented on the news in the courtʼs press release. “A daughter of the American Southwest, Sandra Day OʼConnor blazed a historic trail as our Nationʼs first female Justice,” Roberts said. “She met that challenge with undaunted determination, indisputable ability, and engaging candor. We at the Supreme Court mourn the loss of a beloved colleague, a fiercely independent defender of the rule of law and an eloquent advocate for civics education. And we celebrate her enduring legacy as a true public servant and patriot.” READ MORE AT FLATHATNEWS.COM EMMA HENRY / FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
A THOUSAND WORDS
MAYER TAWFIK / THE FLAT HAT
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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Korunka, who researched microplastics over the summer, is creating a standard procedure for reducing microplastic pollution at the College.
“I’ve always had a weird obsession with plastics”
Kaleea Korunka ʼ25 researches plastics, evictions as part of passion for helping others
CHLOE COHEN // THE FLAT HAT Just three years into her degree at the College of William and Mary, Kaleea Korunka ’25 is already changing the world. While researching eviction, Korunka co-founded the Virginia Eviction Expungement Resource to support people who have been evicted and aid researchers like herself. Her research on microplastic pollution in Lake Matoaka, meanwhile, will position the College as a leading university in microplastic data collection. Driven by her desire to help others, Korunka also supports the community by working as a substitute teacher at her high school and organizing outreach events on chemistry and higher education with the College’s National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers. Korunka, a self-described “military kid,” was born and raised in Hawaii, but has also lived in Virginia, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky and Tennessee. She attended high school in Virginia Beach, Va., where she currently lives when she is not at college. Korunka has long been what she describes as a “very artsy kid.” She received weekly lessons in sewing, soldering and woodworking from her elementary school’s art teacher while her mother, who taught at the school, had conferences after classes ended for the day. In college, Korunka continues to pursue crafts. She also enjoys running, baking and spending time with her sister and friends. At the same time, she is several years into two impactful research projects in science and sociology. “I don’t know where it came from, but I’ve always had a weird obsession with plastics,” Korunka said. Though she finds plastics magical, she is concerned by their overuse. Korunka was inspired to pursue a career researching plastics after taking a plastics class during her second semester at the College. She was later asked to present a group project she and two friends completed for that course at a conference on marine debris. The following spring, Korunka returned to the plastics class as a teaching assistant. During her time as a TA, Korunka began to consider selfdesigning a major on plastics. Korunka received a Community Engagement Grant from the College to research microplastics this past summer. Korunka’s solo mission soon became a team of two after Director of the Environment program and professor of geology James “Jim” Kaste connected her with Seneca RiceWoolf ’25, who was conducting similar research. Korunka hopes this past summer’s efforts, which she has since presented at multiple conferences, will be renewed long-term having now prepared a standardized procedure and an initial outlook on the College’s microplastic pollution. As the mission grows, Korunka hopes to train students to carry on her work. Korunka attributes her long-held interest in eviction to her mother, who taught her about African-American history and inequality in American society. “My grandmother was able to pass, right?” Korunka said, noting her grandmother’s ability to pass as white while having African
American heritage. “My mother always felt very disconnected from a very integral part of her culture. So when she went to school, she specialized in African American history, slavery, reconstruction and civil rights. And growing up as a result, I was very, very fortunate for that to be the history I learned.” After Korunka and her mother listened to a podcast episode that discussed redlining, zoning and racist actions taken by the federal government, Korunka was inspired to take a class at the College on eviction taught by associate professor Caroline Hanley. Korunka is a Sharpe Community Scholar, which funds grants for students’ summer research. When deciding her research focus, Korunka joined forces with Ye Xiao ’25, a fellow Sharpe Community Scholar, after the two spent winter break at Korunka’s home studying evictions and became close friends. Korunka and Xiao were able to streamline their data collection process thanks to a web scraping software Xiao developed for their project. The software allowed the pair to more efficiently locate the publicly available court data they needed. “Collecting court data in Virginia is insanely difficult,” Korunka said. “It’s public data, but it’s not really public, if that makes sense, because it’s so difficult to access. So in the past, William and Mary students, it would take teams of ten of them, like, an entire school year to collect maybe a year of data. And that’s just a few fields of data like addresses, and maybe, like, a name or maybe a couple of other fields of data.” Xiao and Korunka made many in-person court trips to collect relevant data such as addresses for their research. “Initially, you’re not allowed to bring technology to court in Virginia, sowe would go in with our pieces of paper, and we would handwrite out every address to bring back to write up into the computer, and nd that’s what other William and Mary students had done in the past,” Korunka said. “And me and Ye were like, there has to be some way to improve this system, right? So hence [Ye] created the web scraper and we got to know those security guards really well because we were showing up every day, and at some point we were like, ‘Can we just please bring our computers? You know, we’re not going into the courtrooms.’ And they fully supported our mission. And they’re like, ‘Of course we know you, you’re awesome. You’re not going to do anything crazy.’ So they allowed us to bring in computers, so it made our process way quicker.” Korunka was pleased with her and Xiao’s results. “By the end of our first summer of doing this research, we collected two years of data, all 36 fields of data. And that was, like, in barely two months. And we had enough time to double check everything,” Korunka said. In comparison, she said, previous teams five times Xiao and Korunka’s size may have collected around five fields of data over the course of a full academic year. READ MORE AT FLATHATNEWS.COM
Former College chancellor Henry Kissinger dead at 100 Former Secretary of State visited College several times during tenure as chancellor from 2000-2005 DANIEL KALISH FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
Wednesday, Nov. 29, Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State and chancellor at the College of William and Mary, passed away at the age of 100 at his home in Connecticut. Kissinger served as the College’s 22nd chancellor from 2000 to 2005. “HenryKissingerispartofalongtraditionofglobal leaders who served admirably as William & Mary chancellor,” College President Katherine Rowe said in a statement to W&M News. Born in Germany in 1923, Kissinger and his family fled to the United States in 1938 to escape Nazi Germany’s campaign to exterminate European Jews. After serving in World War II, Kissinger received a doctorate from and served on the faculty of Harvard University. President Richard Nixon selected Kissinger as a
national security advisor and his secretary of state. Kissinger continued serving in those positions under President Gerald Ford. Kissinger was instrumental in opening U.S.-China relations and designing U.S. foreign policy during much of the later 20th century, though his service did not come without controversy. In an email to The Flat Hat, Chancellor professor of government Clayton Clemens discussed Kissinger’s “realpolitik” view of the world, which centered on great power conflict. “Kissinger saw himself as schooling the U.S. in 19th-century European-style power politics,” Clemens said. “That put him at odds with any version of America First—isolationism, unilateralism, antiCommunistcrusades—butalsomadehimimpatient with too much focus on international institutions, globalist ideals, peace as an end in itself, human rights or democratization. For him, prioritizing any of those aims would only get in the way of establishing and
then maintaining an equilibrium among the world’s big powers, the key to stability.” Clemens characterized Kissinger’s policies as havingsometimesescalatedtoofartofitintohisbroader diplomaticdesigns,leadingtounnecessarybloodshed. “Kissinger also saw flaunting military power and waging war as a continuation of power politics,” Clemens said. “Even while recognizing that Vietnam was a misbegotten enterprise, he pressed to continue and even at times escalate America’s role as part of his broaderdiplomaticdesign,atacostinlivesonallsides. Moreover, to him, the sovereignty and internal politics of smaller, less powerful countries did not matter, and if they got in the way of his larger aims, he could be cutthroat: there are those who will never forgive the policies he pursued in Chile, Southern Africa, Indonesia, South Asia, Cambodia and elsewhere.” READ MORE AT FLATHATNEWS.COM
THE FLAT HAT
Wednesday, December 6, 2023
Page 3
STUDENT LIFE
Asking the Tribe: How do Williamsburg pancake houses stack up?
Undergraduate, graduate students comment on local breakfast spots, Colonial Pancake House takes the cake LISA COLEMAN, YANA GLEIMAN AND ABHAYPRAD JHA THE FLAT HAT
The City of Williamsburg is home to 11 independent pancake houses and a handful of additional breakfast locales serving up fresh stacks. The Flat Hat asked 112 students at the College of William and Mary for their opinions of these restaurants to answer one question: What is the best pancake house in Williamsburg? The Flat Hat identified 17 sit-down breakfast restaurants, including pancake houses, brunch restaurants and diners, which all serve pancakes on its regular menu. Of these 17 restaurants, 13 are local businesses, with only four belonging to a larger chain. Using a survey, students rated the breakfast restaurants they visited on a five point scale, ranging from very poor to excellent. Psychology and kinesiology major Morgan Carr ’24 gave insight into her rating criteria. “The most important things for a pancake house to be good include a good vibe, great customer service and a solid menu.” Carr said. “The most important one for me is for sure the food – they gotta have a good mix of sweet and savory breakfasts to really be good.” Among survey respondents, Colonial Pancake House proved to be the most popular restaurant, with 73 out of 112 respondents having visited the location. Colonial Pancake House not only had the highest number of reviews, but also the most favorable reviews, at an average rating of 4.3 on a scale of one through five. Colonial Pancake House has been serving breakfast in Williamsburg since 1997. Rita Prassas and her husband George own and operate the restaurant. “We love our William and Mary students!!!!” Prassas wrote in an email to the Flat Hat, responding to the results of the recent survey. “It is the place that my parents and I love to go to – it’s our go-to spot,” Rachel Sawyer ’26 said. “We’ve brought my roommate there, and at the end of my freshman year we all went to celebrate moving out. The pancakes there, especially to me, are the best that I’ve had in the area. My dad always raves about the blueberry pancakes there. He still says to this day that Colonial Pancake has the best blueberry pancakes he’s ever had in his life.” Popular brunch chains First Watch and Another Broken Egg Cafe followed Colonial Pancake House in popularity, with 57 and 44 ratings, respectively. “First Watch has really good avocado toast and this really good morning superfoods bowl,” Giorgianna Heiko ’25 said. “It’s just really high-quality food — like you can tell the fruit they use in the morning superfoods bowl is fresh and the bread is light and fluffy because they have almond butter on the side of it. The chia pudding is also very fresh.” “I was surprised – Another Broken Egg is fantastic,” current M.B.A. candidate Christian Chisolm ’18 said. “Before I came back for grad school, I had one beside my house in Savannah, Georgia, which I would go to all the time.” Student’s favorable ratings of Colonial Pancake house were consistent with ratings from the general public found on Yelp. Yelp reviewers rated the Tipsy Beans Cafe the highest out of the 17 breakfast restaurants included in the Flat Hat’s student survey, at an average of 4.4 stars. International House of Pancakes received far more positive reviews from students, who gave IHOP a score of 3.14, compared to Yelp reviewers’ 2.12 stars. “The old Williamsburg IHOP is unfortunately no longer with us — bless, rest in peace,” Mazie Doss ’22 M.Ed. ’24 said. “It always took about an hour and 10 minutes to get our food. I also went there with my ex and the whole 2019 Rocky Horror Picture Show cast, and that was an experience. I still miss that butter pecan syrup.” The average survey respondent had visited 4.76 pancake houses, with the three graduate students surveyed having visited more than 12 locations on average. Only one respondent claimed to have visited all 17 pancake restaurants.
Carr ’24 has been to 12 out of the 17 restaurants included in our survey. “All of the pancake houses are good – I haven’t been to a bad one per se, but I’ve gone to ones that I wouldn’t go to again,” Carr said. “I think it kind of suits Williamsburg very well because there is like the older population and then there’s the college kids, and everyone loves breakfast – so it’s great.” Bake Shop, Culture Cafe and Aromas, who do not serve pancakes on their regular menus, proved to be popular choices in a write-in option for best overall breakfast. “For social meetups, I would probably go somewhere pretty close to campus, like Culture Cafe – love Culture Cafe,” Heiko said. “I would say social meetup number one is Bake Shop for their avocado toast and amazing lattes.” Freshmen and sophomores visited pancake houses less frequently than upperclassmen. The seniors visited pancake houses more often than other classes, with 44% responding that they visited pancake houses at least once a month. Of underclassmen respondents, 86% of the Class of 2027 and 79% of the Class of 2026 said they visited pancake houses one time at most during a semester. Freshmen and sophomores visited pancake houses less frequently than upperclassmen. The seniors visited pancake houses more often than other classes, with 44% responding that they visited pancake houses at least once a month. Of underclassmen respondents, 86% of the Class of 2027 and 79% of the Class of 2026 said they visited pancake houses one time at most during a semester. “My favorite breakfast option throughout my two years of living on campus was Marketplace breakfast, because it was just a lot fresher.” Carr said. “You could get breakfast sandwiches and everything, and their biscuits and gravy was always so good.” Coffee shops were the favorite option of upperclassmen, with 26% of the seniors and 28.1% of the juniors visiting them regularly. Each cohort visited fast food restaurants at about the same rate between 18.6% for the sophomores to 21.4% for the seniors. 81 out of 112 respondents chose pancakes over waffles.Carr voted in favor of waffles. “I love waffles because when you put sauces or toppings on them, it actually soaks in and you get more of that per bite,” Carr said. “They’re also heftier, so you can make waffle breakfast sandwiches or you can make chicken and waffles. I just feel like pancakes don’t have enough structural integrity, which is my biggest problem with them.” Chisholm voted in favor of pancakes, noting their ease of preparation. “I think pancakes are more filling than waffles and are harder to mess up,” Chisholm said. “Pancakes are very easy and simple, and you can do a lot of things with them. I have found that I’m a great chef, but a lot of people aren’t, so waffles tend to get burnt — they’re either overcooked or undercooked. Pancakes aren’t extremely difficult because they cook so fast; you can kind of go ‘flip, flip, done.’ It’s more consistent.” Chisholm has been to 16 out of 17 of the restaurants included in our survey. “The best thing is just the options,” Chisholm said. “You can go to literally any street within a five mile radius of campus and you have five options on each street. The Williamsburg food scene is surprisingly diverse and great and a lot of people, especially on this campus, don’t get out far enough to explore the different restaurants, I would recommend doing so.” “My mom has this recipe that’s been passed down in the family for years,” Sawyer said. “She has these little packets of yeast that she’ll use to make up the batter the night before. She’ll put the active yeast into it, let it rise overnight, and then she’ll get up early in the morning to bake it. They’re typically made around holidays or birthdays so there are good memories associated with them. Colonial may make good waffles, but nothing compares to my mom’s waffles.”
GRAPHIC BY LISA COLEMAN
GRAPHIC BY LISA COLEMAN
GRAPHIC BY ABHAYPRAD JHA
CAMPUS
Alexander Hamilton Society invites Daniel Markey for discussion on South Asia Senior advisor for U.S. Institute of Peace comments on global relations, political climates in region
MONA GARIMELLA THE FLAT HAT
Thursday, Nov. 30, the Alexander Hamilton Society at the College of William and Mary hosted Daniel Markey, a senior advisor on South Asia for the U.S. Institute of Peace who specializes in South Asian politics, in Washington Hall for a moderated discussion about the current tensions in South Asia. During the event, Markey shared his predictions on the future of U.S.-India and U.S.-Pakistan relations. Starting in academia at Johns Hopkins University, Markey moved to working in the state department at the Office of Policy Planning. There, he reported to the Secretary of State. Markey commented on the unusual job trajectory he has had throughout his lifetime and his philosophy on success. “Life works in mysterious ways,” Markey said. “I judged success by how much I was learning, not really what I was doing.” Once his time at the state department ended, Markey received a key piece of advice from one of his bosses that would continue to stick with him as he progressed in his research on South Asia. “You’re not going to be good at South Asia
unless I send you to spend some time in India and Pakistan and travel around,” Markey said, repeating his old boss’ statement. Andy Shufer ’25 moderated the event. In his first question to Markey, Shufer asked about facets of U.S. cooperation with India and about which connections the United States should localize to create a better relationship with the country. Much of Markey’s research focuses on the necessity of localized engagement with American involvement in India. Markey mentioned that while the American government believes there are shared democratic values between the United States and India, India has very different national interests. This divergence in national interests causes the United States to take a more nuanced approach when cooperating with Asian countries. “It’s got a growing economy, and it is a very generous guardian of its own sovereignty. That is, it doesn’t want the United States or outsiders to be all that much engaged inside of India,” Markey said. Thus, a prominent opportunity for improving U.S. relations with India is having
the United States supply Indian arms instead of the current deal, in which India receives arms from Russia at a cheaper price. Additionally, India currently purchases oil from Russia at a cheaper price. For Markey, this a prime opportunity for the United States to engage with India without infringing upon its sovereignty. Markey also discussed the notable international concern over the Indian government’s crackdown on basic democratic values. “I think it’s been troubling to me to see India stepping back in terms of history,” Markey said. “And all of that has really accelerated over the past ten years under the current Indian government, the BJP.” Markey noted that the BJP, or Bharatiya Janata Party, has been accused of censoring the media and promoting Hindu nationalist views. For Markey, this only increases the issue of political turmoil in South Asia, particularly increasing the divide between India and the majorly-Muslim Pakistan. Shufer then asked Markey about how people can get past negative history in order to improve U.S.-India-Pakistan relationships.
“Now, my expectation and my hope at the height is that maybe we can have a narrow partnership with Pakistan,” Markey said. He discussed how the United States can work to address problems of counterterrorism and help ensure Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is secure to avoid the worst possible outcome in the South Asian region, which could potentially include another India-Pakistan conflict. Markey also mentioned the possibility of a destabilized Pakistan, partially on the basis of what is happening in the neighboring Afghanistan as well as a currently unstable domestic political climate with a recently ousted Prime Minister, Imran Khan. Additionally, Markey took time to reflect on recent headlines regarding the Indian government’s involvement in the United States. Specifically, he focused on the news that an Indian government employee initiated a plot to murder a Sikh American citizen in New York City. “We’re at a disturbing point with India because of a story with a plot from the Indian government to assassinate a U.S. citizen in New York City,” Markey said. “This
raises alarm bells for the future of U.S-India relations.” Atendee Yoora Park ’25 commented on the talk. “I am from South Korea, so I am more familiar with East Asia than South Asia, but [the talk] was really helpful, and I learned a lot about South Asia,” Park said. When asked about what resonated with her the most, Park mentioned how she did not realize India was apprehensive about forming an allyship with America. “I knew that America and India were partners, but I didn’t know that India was reluctant about being an ally with the U.S. and that the dynamics can be almost negative in some sense,” Park said. “I thought America was wanted by most countries — that’s how it goes with South Korea and Japan.” AHS executive member Jack Keating ’26 discussed why Markey was chosen to speak. “We chose Dr. Markey as a speaker, because we wanted to choose something outside of the normal China and Russia debates, which tend to be most foreign policy events,” Keating said.
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THE FLAT HAT
Wednesday, December 6, 2023
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Dr. Janise Parker speaks at School of Education in Brown Bag lecture Presents key findings from Bray School Lab, suggests action for contemporary K-12 issues ABIGAIL CONNELLY FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
Friday, Nov. 17, the Office of Research and Faculty Development at the College of William and Mary School of Education hosted associate professor of school psychology Dr. Janise Parker to present a Zoom lecture. Parker’s lecture, “Learning from the Past, Reflecting on the Present and Planning for a Just Future,” was part of the Faculty Research Brown Bag series. Associate dean of the School of Education and director of Diversity and Inclusion Leandra Parris introduced Parker. “Dr. Parker takes a healing approach to understanding the intersection of history and current practices to inform services that help communities, particularly those experiencing marginalization, to thrive and grow,” Parris said. Parker has previously earned awards for her work in the field of school psychology, particularly for her efforts to create support systems for marginalized school psychologists to navigate their careers. “Parker continues to flourish at W&M developing programs and building opportunities for others,” Stephanie McGuire ’12, M.A.Ed. ’13, Ph.D. ’23 wrote in a press-release. “Both the Presidential Award for Exceptional Service to Children in School Psychology and the NASP Faculty Champion Award reflects Parker’s courage and commitment to serve her students, school psychologists, faculty and her community.” Parker’s most recent project, known as Project HEAL, stands for “History Evoking Action and Liberation.” The project presents Parker’s work completed in collaboration with the Bray School Lab, consisting of six modules centered on a theme found while analyzing the use of instructional materials for children in the Bray School. Parker labeled two components of these instructional materials. “One, literacy development, reading and spelling, but then there was also this sense of installing a sense of morality, piety, obedience emphasizing God’s providential and social order. And so they approached that through religious indoctrination,” Parker said. According to Parker, the purpose of the course relates to the historical nature of oppression and racism. Participants in the course are encouraged to engage critical reflection by understanding the root causes of social oppression and be inspired to move forward as a collective towards a brighter future. “We know when we think about this whole premise of the good, the bad and the ugly religious indoctrination, especially around this idea of obedience and, kind of, developing social order, we know that in many ways, it is rooted in racism,” Parker said. “Historical racism in the way we view certain goods, in this case, Black individuals, Black children and Black families in the country.”
Parker defines racism as a form of prejudice that assumes members of a racial category have similar, distinctive characteristics for which they are treated as inferior to others, as well as negative reactions to members of that group. On a broader scale, Parker views racism as a public health crisis responsible for impacts on physical, mental, behavioral, emotional and spiritual health. To work as a collective society against racism, Parker identifies three core tenets of healing-centered practices: enlighten, educate and empower. “We can choose as a collective, as a society to heal and find a path for moving forward,” Parker said. “So how do we do that? One, it is about enlightening others, meaning we have to acknowledge and be willing to acknowledge the historical nature of oppression and racism. But we also acknowledge the wisdom of people of color, of our ancestors’ messages, lessons that they taught to help us identify how we can build upon that and find a path forward.” The project gives public access to educational materials that they may not have previously had access to. Through empowering the community with access to these materials, the project aims to target oppression with tools and strategies. Parker noted that education is often influenced by the broader political and ideological systems, linking this observation to the information collected through research that had been used to instruct children at the Bray School. “Overall, when it came to those that were enslaved, including children, there was language in their instructional material that really kind of viewed enslaved people as being poor people, having a low station in life, viewing them as being brought from the land of darkness and ignorance that is their motherland,” Parker said. “There was also language where enslaved individuals, including the way enslaved children, were viewed as barbarians, stubborn, wicked, heathens and ignorant.” The derogatory names Parker found in educational materials exhibited the information enslaved people were taught as a result of oppression and discrimination. Parker mentioned efforts by enslaved peoples to resist efforts by enslavers who promoted division between groups. She specifically mentioned the importance of enslaved peoples creation of communal spaces, such as brush arbors, in helping them come together for collective support. “And so when I think about that piece and the fact that it didn’t matter the differences because, in that moment, it was about, ‘How do we come together as a collective to try to heal, to try to experience what we could, to maintain our humanity?’ They found the way to move past prejudicial bullying. I say to myself again, if our ancestors found a way to come together because they knew that togetherness was just that
important, can’t we do it too?” Parker said. In the 21st century, Parker identified a persistence of prejudice, assumptions and discriminatory treatment towards Black youth. According to Parker, the use of derogatory language, just as it had been used during periods of enslavement, has continued into the 21st century. Parker views this continuation as a result of similar justifications to the use of such language and discriminatory treatment used during slavery. “If we take ourselves back to the justification that was used during slavery: language differences, immigration status, intellectual capacity, or presumed intellectual capacity and morality,” Parker said. “In so many ways, we have not changed as a collective. And we also know, because religion was deeply embedded in all of this, that those youth, even today in the 21st century who do not identify as Christian, are also subjected to harsh treatment in the school setting. This idea of this ideology, this justification of who is worthy of humanity and who is not continues to enter into our schools in the 21st century.” For those attending the Bray School, Parker recognized deliberate attempts to impart euro-centric narratives to children through content in educational materials. “There was a deliberate attempt to strip parents, particularly those who understood who they were as African people, descendants of African people, their heritage and so forth,” Parker said. “There was a deliberate attempt to minimize, to discredit and erase their rights, to pass that on to their children due to the institution of slavery. And so the idea was that through these formal educational structures that were white-dominated and white-led books were consulted extensively. They controlled what Black children, what enslaved children would be exposed to.” Based on educational material found from the Bray School, the goal of education in this period was rooted in attempts to expose children to Christianity. “The ultimate goal of education in that particular time period was, one, to Christianize them slightly, particularly for those who opposed it from a religious indoctrination standpoint,” Parker said. “But the goal was also to perpetuate compliance to an oppressive system, because if you erase one’s knowledge, one’s pride of who they are, then they are more likely to teach children, to raise children who will not question the systems of oppression of which they are abetted, who will be more likely to comply and kind of come into this ‘common way of thinking.’” Parker identified a continuation in the 21st century of similar attempts to control information through the inclusion of primarily European knowledge and concepts in educational settings. READ MORE AT FLATHATNEWS.COM
CAMPUS
Wellness Center partners with Swem Library to introduce new energy pods
Commuting, hygiene, wellness cited as motives for new rest areas, greater accessibility for students ISEN LEE THE FLAT HAT
Thursday, Nov. 30th, Earl Gregg Swem Library unveiled two new energy pods for students, one located on each of the first two floors of the building. Student Assembly Senator Sean Nguyen ’24 originally proposed a bill for the energy pods in September 2022. After much deliberation, the bill was passed in April 2022. Over a year later, just in time for finals, Nguyen is elated to see his project come to life. Nguyen identified the need for the energy pods while studying in the Swem Library and Sadler Center. He noticed many students using desks, tables, couches and other library furniture as improvised beds, a glaring sanitary issue as the furniture is not cleaned after each use. “I think when you walk around Swem Library, you see a lot of students using tables, desks and reclining chairs as makeshift beds. That’s just not too sanitary as you can imagine. One student who’s putting their feet up on a sofa is another student putting their head down as a place to rest for 20, 30 minutes,” Nguyen said. Nguyen also emphasized the need for energy pods
due to the recent expansion of the commuting student driver radius. From 2022-23 to 2023-24, the radius expanded from 30 miles to 60 miles, meaning students would not be required to live on campus if they lived within that radius, according to Nguyen. “Envision a student who lives 45 miles away. They have no place to sleep, especially if they need to rest in between their classes or their studying throughout the entire duration of the day. There’s no appropriate place for them to take a quick nap if they need to. That’s why they’re opting to use sofas that are unsanitary or chairs, et cetera. So that’s why we’re trying to give them an accommodating space to take a quick power nap and re-energize before moving forward,” Nguyen said. In making his vision come to life, Nguyen worked closely with Associate Dean of Research and Public Services for William and Mary Libraries Lisa Nickel. Using data on commuter students at the College and students looking to rest outside of their dorms, Nguyen convinced Nickel and Swem Library to come on board for the project. Nickel felt the energy pods were a great option after Nguyen’s pitch and interviewing other libraries about their experiences with the energy pods. In the past, Student Assembly has worked with
Swem Library to provide student improvements such as the massage chairs and treadmill desks. Nickel and Swem’s staff felt the energy pods would be a valuable addition to the existing options in the library. “These [energy pods are] a great place for students to refresh, reset and take a break – and it sounded like a great use to me.” Nickel said. “We’re excited to have them.” Though the energy pods were only installed recently, students are already enjoying them, especially with finals right around the corner. Ella Pan ’26, who normally takes breaks by sleeping on a table or cubicle and taking walks, feels the pods are an effective way to re-energize. She especially likes the cover on the energy pods, making it less awkward for her to rest. “I really like it. I think it’s really relaxing. I really like the music and how it has a cover, so it’s not awkward to use in the library, because you know, it’s a library and I’m literally sleeping in there. I feel like that’s definitely a very nice place to rest and get your energy back when you’re studying, especially during finals season,” Pan said. In addition to the library’s existing offerings including
the energy pods, massage chairs and treadmill desks, Swem Library partners with the McLeod Tyler Wellness Center during finals season to promote healthy study habits through a Stress Relief Program. Integrative Wellness Manager Lindsay Heck feels the introduction of the energy pods is an exciting and important addition for student wellness. Heck and the Wellness Center work to provide students with the best resources for wellness, especially during finals. “Sleep is one of those foundational pieces [of wellness] where you need it,” Heck said. “Especially as we’re coming into the exam period and they hear everyone talking about the late nights that they’re standing there and ‘we’re open 24 hours’ and I know everyone’s on their own schedule, but it’s just so fantastic that they’re there providing that to you because it’s so important that you all are able to get your sleep and preferably in your own bed. But when not, it’s fantastic that you have that opportunity to step into that space.” Heck mentioned that the Wellness Center also plans to bring art therapy, meditation, yoga and other activities to Swem Library towards the end of the semester.
POLITICS
Kaine introduces SUCCESS Act to support education for assualt surviors Proposed bill would fund grants for institutes of higher education, resources to assist educational careers
AGGIE RIGO SAITTA THE FLAT HAT
Content Warning: This article contains mentions of sexual assault. Wednesday, Nov. 15, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) introduced the Support for Universities and Colleges to Champion the Educational Success of Survivors Act. This bill would provide institutions of higher education with additional resources to support student survivors of sexual assault and other violence in their academic and career goals. According to a report from the Association of American Universities, 13% of the graduate and undergraduate students surveyed reported having experienced sexual assault or violence. For survivors of sexual trauma, research has shown that in many cases, these instances of trauma can severely impact students’ grades and continuation of their studies. “Colleges and universities have an obligation to do everything they can to prevent sexual assault on their campuses and provide resources to support student survivors,” Kaine said
in a press release. “This bill is critical to helping ensure survivors of sexual assault can access the support they need to pursue their academic and career goals.” The bill would award five-year grants to institutions of higher education through a competitive application process. The funding would offer student survivors specialized resources to achieve academic outcomes and complete their degrees. The application process would prioritize community colleges, historically Black or Tribal colleges and schools with a history of violations of Title IX. As a member of the U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Kaine has focused on actively addressing issues of sexual assault on college campuses through prevention, handling claims made on campuses and ensuring long-term treatment and resources for survivors. He discussed this threefold approach in an online press conference, specifying how the SUCCESS bill targets the third step. “The research shows very strongly
that when somebody has been victimized by sexual assault, it really affects their educational career,” said Kaine in the online press conference. “They’re more likely to drop out. They’re more likely to find the campus environment, even if they change campuses, a hostile place that causes them to have post-traumatic stress. And so what we want to do is make sure that those who’ve b e e n through this experience end up with the services that they need to successfully complete their education and be able to move on in their lives in a way that they can be successful.” The bill is endorsed by the American Psychological Association, the End Rape on Campus Initiative, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network and the Survivor Fund Hub. For survivors of domestic and sexual violence in the greater Williamsburg area, the Avalon Center aims to increase prevention and education and provide patient-centered support measures. In an email to The Flat Hat, the Center expressed how student survivors can benefit from the implementation of the SUCCESS Act.
“One particular aspect that could be advantageous to student survivors, beyond the resources for counseling, is the increase in training for faculty and administrators on patient-centered care and recognizing trauma,” the Avalon Center representative wrote. “When the people that survivors consistently have to interact with are more traumainformed, it will make for a healthier environment and survivors will feel more supported, which goes a long way in aiding the healing process.” The Avalon Center also suggested that institutions receiving grants should be required to collaborate with local existing sexual assault centers. Additionally, the Center suggests that a more pronounced statement regarding the expectation and importance of confidentiality should be issued within the legislation. In an email to The Flat Hat, director of The Haven Liz Cascone emphasized the importance of recognizing the impact of sexual violence and abuse on the academics of student survivors. According to Cascone, it is university practice not to comment on p e n d i n g
legislation. However, Cascone noted that The Haven partners with the Dean of Students’ Office and the Office of Compliance and Equity to assist each student survivor in reaching their individual academic goals. The Haven also provides emergency funding for survivors to pay for wrap-around needs, which is one of the intended uses of funds outlined in Sec. 124, clause (e)(6) of the bill. Sarah Wesley ’25, a confidential advocate at The Haven, noted her personal perspective on the importance of offering specific resources based on each survivor’s wishes. She listens to survivors’ stories, affirms what happened to them is not their fault and asks them to choose which steps they would prefer to take next, utilizing the available resources. “What do you want from this? How can I help you take the next steps forward? Just based on their answer, whatever they want to do with it.” Wesley said. READ MORE AT FLATHATNEWS.COM
opinions
Opinions Editor Mollie Shiflett Opinions Editor Avi Joshi fhopinions@gmail.com // @theflathat
THE FL FLAT HAT | Wednesday, December 6, 2023 | Page 5
GUEST COLUMN
To the drivers of Williamsburg: You are handling a deadly weapon, so please start acting like it Caden Sanko THE FLAT HAT
JULIANA GOMIEN / THE FLAT HAT
Halloween, in addition to being one of America’s favorite holidays, is also the deadliest night of the year for pedestrians. And no, this is not because of fentanyl in the Skittles as some deeply paranoid news outlets may have your parents believing — it is because of careless drivers. At a Halloween party, where I and some friends coincidentally happened to be dressed as cars from the movie “Cars,” I listened in horror as an acquaintance, who I was under the impression was a well-adjusted person, told me, “I hate it when pedestrians don’t thank me for stopping at crosswalks, like, I could just run you down.” Not even a week later a junior at the College of William and Mary was hit and seriously injured by a driver on Richmond Road, which has a marked speed limit of 25 miles per hour. Luckily, the aforementioned student survived and is currently recovering from her injuries in her home state. Although the College community has, supposedly, offered droves of sympathy for the injured student and their family, the reporting on the incident has been mired in
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the strangely passive language we have become accustomed to hearing when pedestrians are hurt or killed by drivers. For instance, WAVY reported on the incident under the headline “William and Mary Student Struck by Car Driven by Colonial Williamsburg President,” which was bizarre. The unnamed College student is the subject of the sentence — the only one with agency. The driver, on the other hand, is conspicuously stripped of any agency they may have had, relegated to a characteristic of their vehicle — as if their car was the one running over the pedestrian and the driver was merely a passenger. And it isn’t just this incident either; even national news outlet CBS has published stories under similar headlines such as “Woman, 61, hit and killed by pickup truck.” Headlines like these are an everyday absurdity that I am positively sick of seeing on my newsfeed. For one, the accidents that these articles describe are entirely avoidable with the addition of trafficcalming measures, as other guest writers at The Flat Hat have noted. Additionally, these articles
often use wishy-washy language when referring to these fatal incidents or near-deaths. The way that pedestrian injuries and deaths in traffic accidents are reported infuriates me, and it should infuriate you too. Imagine if we spoke and wrote about the victims of America’s pervasive problem of gun violence in this way: “Several killed in high-speed collision with bullets.” This passive word choice would rightly upset many because it is insulting to those who lost their lives to gun violence, and it is misleading. Such language implies we live in a world in which people are struck and killed by fastmoving projectiles which, like some sort of wild animal, exist as a fact of life and are controlled by nobody in particular. Why, then, do we permit this sort of language when we talk about death and injury that resulted from careless drivers? I confess, I do not know all of the facts of the College’s most recent incident and cannot say for certain whether the driver was
distracted, intoxicated or otherwise behaving in a careless manner. But let’s be real, accidents like these happen all the time in Williamsburg, and it’s because drivers frequently shirk their obligations to protect the safety of others. Part of the issue is because Williamsburg is a college town, and most of its residents haven't fully developed their brains yet. I am constantly reminded of this fact when I see beat up Toyota Camrys, with mufflers so loud that you could hear them from Richmond, narrowly miss a gaggle of freshmen crossing the street from Green and Gold Village. The female driver who hit me while crossing the street last year, on the other hand, was a fully grown adult who was simply too preoccupied with her phone to check if anybody was crossing before she made a right turn on red. She has no excuse, but I hope whatever TikTok she was watching was really good. Luckily she was driving a Ford Fusion, which weighs merely two tons — I, of course, easily took that one on the chin like a champion. Jokes aside, I got lucky because my injuries were very minor, but if she was driving an SUV like in the aforementioned incident, I could have easily been run over and sustained life-threatening injuries. So for my final message, I’ll say this: drivers of Williamsburg and indeed everywhere, you are handling a deadly weapon, so start acting like it. In a just world, we would have adequate traffic-calming measures like speed bumps and street narrowing (maybe even sidewalks if we’re really lucky) to remind you to not accidentally maim college freshmen. If it were legal for me to enact such changes unilaterally, guerilla-urbanism style, I would — for my sake and yours. Until then, you need to assume a level of responsibility consistent with the danger of piloting several tons of machinery down city streets. Turn your phone off or silence it, and when you see that someone is trying to cross at a marked crosswalk remember that you are legally obligated to stop, not speed up to try and make it through before they get the chance to start crossing. I see you, all of you — you’re not slick. Caden Sanko ‘25 is Mathematical Biology and Public Policy Major, from Miami, FL. He is a member of the Tabletop Games Club and frequently lies about his height — he says he is several inches shorter than he really is to confuse and upset other men. Email Caden at cmsanko@wm.edu
Don’t dwell on your bad grades Sheoli Lele THE FLAT HAT
I earned two C’s in my first semester of college. After deleting and retyping that sentence many times, I realized that the lessons I learned from earning these grades are valuable enough to share, at the price of my own embarrassment. This article offers not only reassurance for a potential source of insecurity if it applies, but also new perspectives on the true implications of academic grades. Earning subpar grades is not always a bad thing and, in many ways, will actually be of benefit. Here is why you, as a student, should avoid beating yourself up for past semesters’ grades and instead work to internalize its upsides. Upon earning a less-than-ideal grade, people tend to jump to the conclusion that they are “just bad” at a given subject or that their “brain doesn’t work that way.” I have heard it from friends and even have had the thought myself. Step zero of making any improvement is to acknowledge that change is possible and that we sometimes can impede our own success by making hasty, unproductive and illogical judgments about our abilities. Aside from academic content, each course has a unique set of characteristics, the simplest of which are instructor, time of day, the rest of the student’s
course load and extracurriculars. These, along with their more complex counterparts — like mental health and ability to respond to stress — are characteristics that not even a different section of the same course can share. With so many factors affecting your final letter grade, how can you put all the causal weight on your “natural ability” to do something? While your natural inclinations may be one factor in academic outcomes, you will only waste time by focusing so heavily on this self-defeating thought. A better use of your time would be to consider what changes you could make to boost your future performance, regardless of ‘inherent’ ability. This advice especially applies if you retake the class; instead of dreading being tasked with something that “doesn’t come naturally” to you, look forward to learning content you are at least familiar with. Underclassmen often retake classes they took in high school (e.g. Advanced Placement and dual enrollment courses) and perform better in college than they did in high school. Why not think of redoing a college course like this? I see no major difference in the two yet notice that there is more shame
associated with retaking classes taken for the first time in college. For these future classes, the best thing to do is to put extra work into the first assignments of the semester and begin studying early. After all, one of psychology’s most effective study tips is to make multiple passes over content so you retain it better. Another reason not to dwell over bad past grades is that grades are not the best indicators of proficiency with course material. A friend at another college told me that despite her exam average of 87% in introductory physics, she earned a D overall in the course because she missed the deadlines of many problem sets that had heavier weight distribution in grading. In this case, it was her time management skills rather than her understanding of the content that is reflected in the final letter grade. Others may have more complex or multifaceted reasons for earning grades they dislike — I definitely did. The reality is that we operate in a system in which earning good grades is prioritized over true learning. Even for students who earn As in a class, there is a probability but not a guarantee that they have a truly strong grasp of the material. I also find that people who initially struggled in a course but eventual-
ly mastered its content are far better teachers than those who had always found the material easy. The former understands not only the beginner’s gaps in knowledge and how to close them, but also how it feels to have obstacles to learning. They seem to be far more empathetic and thorough when helping others. For this reason, I prefer doing work for my computer science class with fellow beginners over someone who picked up coding in early high school and is majoring in computer science. For the same reason, I prefer learning from classmates rather than going to office hours of professors who, while deeply knowledgeable and passionate, understand my difficulties less. Additionally, if you earn a grade that you are not proud of, universities have protocols meant to help you respond semesters later. For example, students at the College of William and Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business can retroactively change a grade to pass/fail starting the fall semester of their third year in college up until they apply for graduation. In fact, they can do this for two classes per semester, unless the classes are either in their major or part of the COLL curriculum. Clearly, so many students have earned grades that were lower than
they would have liked or else such protocols would not have been implemented. You are not alone, and part of moving forward is realizing that you have many avenues of support here at the College. Sheoli Lele ‘26 is a prospective math and philosophy double major. She uses her free time to paint, take photos around campus and debate. Contact her at smlele@wm.edu.
GRAPHIC BY YELENA FLEMING / THE FLAT HAT
THE FLAT HAT
Wedneday, December 6, 2023
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Ho-ho-hold on: My case against Santa Claus John Powers FLAT HAT OPINIONS ASSOC.
GRAPHIC BY EMNET ABRAHAM / THE FLAT HAT
It’s that time of year again. The sun is setting earlier, and the temperature is getting colder. Stacks of red and green holiday cups sit on Starbucks counters. As shoppers weave through crowded aisles buying Christmas presents, Mariah Carey’s whistle tones fill the air. And, like always, masses of children are being indoctrinated into believing in Santa Claus. It is time we take a second look at this tradition. A viral YouTube video may tell us why. In 2016, Cut uploaded a video of parents telling their children Santa Claus is not real, garnering 5.8 million views. Most of the childrens’ reactions were innocuous at first glance. Some frowned. Others looked shocked. “I told you. I told you,” exclaimed a young girl upon learning the truth. From the many reactions shared in the video, that of one boy stood out to me. As he denied what his parents had told him, his parents asked him questions to convince him of the truth. “Have you ever wondered how Santa could be at every mall in all these different places?” his father asked. His son retorted, “the more people that believe in Santa Claus, the more power he has to fly.” Similarly, the boy’s mother recounted how her son had once asked how Santa could not get burned coming down a hot chimney, to which the boy replied with another illogical response. A common theme among the childrens’ reactions is that they had already begun questioning the existence of Santa Claus, but their parents
prevented them from coming to the obvious conclusion. Why else would a child say, “I told you so?” Instead of honoring their children’s logical doubt by admitting Santa Claus is not real, many parents refuse to tell the truth until children are the “right age.” I’ve heard some parents talk about their desire to “let kids be kids.” They would rather tell their doubtful five-year-old to believe in Santa than affirm their skepticism so as to keep the “magic” alive and preserve innocence. This desire to extend the tradition longer than it needs to is selfish. Isn’t it more magical to treat their child’s intellectual maturity as a milestone? If a child is able to deduce that Santa Claus is implausible, parents should celebrate their child’s growing intellect and capacity for critical thinking by confirming their child’s intuition. While it may be a tough pill to swallow at first, this practice is ultimately more fulfilling than parents abruptly telling the truth after coercing a belief in Santa for years. In two jointly published 2016 studies, researchers found that parents endorsed a belief in Santa regardless of age. In other words, even at the age children naturally begin to question the existence of Santa Claus, parents treat the situation the same. According to the researchers, the more parents promoted the reality of Santa Claus, the less likely children were to doubt his existence. Counterintuitively, the study found that higher exposure to people dressed as Santa Claus resulted in more of a belief that those people are the actual Santa. All of this research suggests that the perpetuation of this Christmas tradition often hinges on parental reluctance to let go, arguably fueled by a desire to shield their children from the perceived loss of innocence. The tradition is also fraught with adverse consequences. By now, the most obvious problem with the tradition should be its disregard for critical thinking. By enabling their children to believe in a character fantastical beyond reason, parents may foster a predisposition for children to accept information without questioning its validity. If Santa Claus is real, then why isn’t the monster under the bed real, too? We see this reflected in the video with the young boy who gave logically inconsistent responses to his parents’ questions. Kids believe in imaginary concepts, but Santa Claus is unique in that adults not only confirm the existence of, but also instill a belief in this imaginary concept. It doesn’t end there, though. Our Santa Claus tradition creates societal stigma within families and schools. We all know that one kid in fifth grade who still believed in Santa Claus and was the subject of gossip by everyone in the class. Educators often find themselves navigating a delicate balancing act, sometimes having
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to contend with parents adamant about preserving the illusion. Children who find out later feel a sense of embarrassment since they were the last of their peers to find out. This stigma does not go away; peers may make fun of that child even after the truth is revealed, eroding their self esteem. In the end, Santa Claus is a tradition of lying. We cannot blame broader society for perpetuating the tradition when we make active decisions to perpetuate it ourselves. No one is forcing a parent to write “from Santa” on a Christmas present. No one is forcing a grandmother to show her grandchildren an app that pretends to track Santa’s movements around the world. No one is forcing a father to say Santa will enjoy the cookies and milk his child made, knowing full well that he will be devouring them as soon as the child is asleep. There is a breathtaking level of deception involved in this tradition, and it’s time to admit it. Ordinary morality tells us that lying is wrong unless we can find some sufficient justification. Some may say that Santa Claus is a white lie. White lies are defined by Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries as “a harmless or small lie, especially one that you tell to avoid hurting someone.” Everything discussed in this article contradicts the notion that the lie of Santa Claus is harmless or trivial. Others may contend the lie is justified to advance the Christmas spirit. Really? Christmas should be about gratitude, yet the thankfulness for gifts is given to an imaginary person rather than parents who in many cases, had to save money and work hard to buy those gifts and make their children happy. Instead of lining up for church or Christmas caroling for the elderly, parents line up their kids at the local mall so that they could tell a man playing dress up all their consumeristic desires. So, what now? As you may have noticed, I’ve oscillated between criticizing aspects of how this tradition is practiced and the tradition itself at large. The truth is that it is hard to provide a solution to since it’s such an ingrained tradition. Perhaps we ought to give some deference to past generations who have found this tradition suitable, but on the other hand, isn’t that just doing something for the sake of doing it? “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, comes to mind. Finally, I will say this: parents should tell their children the truth or help them discover it as soon as some doubt creeps in (or by the age of seven). Even in childhood, we should not be fearful of ruining some perceived magic.
John Powers ’26 is a Public Policy major hailing from Brooklyn, NY. He is a Resident Assistant in Hardy Hall, a member of the Undergraduate Moot Court competition team and a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. John is a huge Adele fan. Email him at jdpowers@wm.edu.
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It’s time to destigmatize banned books
Get your life together, invest in OG planner
Griffin Amos
Sadie Downing
THE FLAT HAT
THE FLAT HAT
GRAPHIC BY YELENA FLEMING / THE FLAT HAT
The holidays are coming up, and you know what that means: uncomfortable politically charged conversations with your distant relatives. From the email we all received from Student Affairs about the topic to the widespread discussion and activism surrounding polarizing topics like the crisis between Israel and Palestine, it is clear that the question of how to effectively engage in civic discourse is currently a pressing topic. The recommendations in the email from Student Affairs after a brick was allegedly thrown through a window on campus are quite productive. In that email, Ginger Ambler writes that the “best way to combat speech is with speech,” and you should counter “bad facts with better ones, meet silence with sound, meet ignorance with education, meet positionality with dialogue.” These principles were perfectly put into practice earlier this semester at the College of William and Mary’s Banned Books Jam, in which individuals gathered at the Martha Wren Briggs Amphitheatre at Lake Matoaka to take turns reading and appreciating some of the beautiful prose from a laundry list of books banned around the nation. I’m interested in bettering the conversation surrounding the drastic uptick in book bans across public schools in our nation, which is a repetitive, and frustrating, conversation because it is so heavily dominated by a vocal, vitriolic minority. Just in the first eight months of 2023, 356 different books have been challenged for bans across Virginia. Only 182 unique titles were challenged across all of last year, and that number was just a small fraction of that in years past. Across the entire country, challenging and banning books has been a rising trend, and last May Williamsburg-James City County schools chose to remove a book from the shelves of their high school libraries for the first time. The book in question is “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” and it was removed because of a parent’s complaint over “f-bombs” and “phone sex.” With access to an unlimited supply of f-bombs and much more explicit content than verbal descriptions of phone sex via the internet, why are we targeting books such as this one that are also packed full of valuable lessons?
To summarize briefly, “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” is a story about a high school senior that is forced to come to terms with the death of his friend and must decide between his dream of going to film school or applying to a typical college. These are two problems that virtually every high schooler will experience in their time before graduating. Regardless of whether it is a friend or family member, students have likely experienced some death that impacted them by that point in their lives, and this book teaches young readers to grow from tough experiences like these just like the main character does. The best way to get involved is to join the conversation, which can look extremely different based upon your interest in the topic, but the best first step is to start reading some of the most banned books. According to the American Library Association, the top five most frequently challenged books in 2022 were: 1. “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe with 151 challenges across the country. 2. “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson with 86 challenges. 3. “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison with 73 challenges. 4. “Flamer” by Mike Curato with 62 challenges. 5. “Looking for Alaska” by John Green and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky with 55 challenges. Unfortunately, the uptick in book bans across the nation appears to be motivated by similar philosophies that underpin the widespread resistance to public school curriculum that frames lessons through the lens of race or many school districts’ bans on stickers that proclaim a classroom is a ‘safe space’ for LGBTQ+ students. In 2022, 45.5% of the books challenged for bans were written about or by individuals in the LGBTQ+ community. Additionally, 41% of the books that are currently banned across the country prominently feature BIPOC characters. Many pressing issues in education today are only issues because the dialogue surrounding them is so heavily dominated by groups like Moms for Liberty that want to ensure their children never encounter people that challenge their limited worldview. Depending on your enjoyment of the books and care for the topic, getting involved can look as small as speaking up when that problematic uncle brings up how he feels about it, or as large as showing up to your local school board meeting to stand up for students’ right to read about controversial topics. If the College participates in Banned Books Week again next year, consider attending the Banned Books Jam, where you can appreciate some of the incredible writing that parents all around the country don’t want you hearing about.
Griffin Amos ’24 is an English and Philosophy major that is pursuing his Master’s in Secondary Education with a concentration in English Education this upcoming summer. He is the Vice President of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. Contact him at gmamos@wm.edu.
When I started preparing to come to the College of William and Mary, I was inundated with suggestions from family and friends about what was absolutely necessary for me to bring, buy or to subscribe to. To start my first semester at the College, I arrived to a much smaller dorm room than I had anticipated, absolutely filled with things I ended up never using. Because of this I stayed in an overly crowded room, boxed in and miserable. College freshmen like me who don’t have older siblings to help their parents with narrowing down the essential packing list might not be sure exactly what they should bring. There are of course the essentials — clothing, sheets, blankets, pillows and other necessities — but there’s still plenty of other items to fill the rest of your suitcases with. Some of it, no matter how much people insist you’ll need it, ends up being useless. Take pots and pans, for instance. If you’re living in a dorm, you probably don’t need any. However, there is one thing that does not appear on most packing lists despite being absolutely necessary to a successful college career: a planner. Now, most college students are content to use online planners and calendars to organize their work. Some daring people might even keep track of what they have to do in their head, though I do not recommend this, as around midterm season even a person with a photographic memory would have trouble keeping track of all their assignments. Some people might argue that an online list is more convenient because it is highly portable and can be pulled up any time on your computer or your phone. But if your list of assignments is on your phone, what’s to stop you from moving past it to check Instagram or open TikTok? Though the portability of a cellular assignment tracker can’t be denied, most of us don’t think of our phones as devices we use to keep track of our schoolwork. It’s a pocket serotonin generator, not a tool for your classes. The draw of taking a social media or gaming break is too strong for most people to ignore. Likewise, the computer can be a distraction. Though there’s less allure with the computer — many of us use it for most of our classes anyway — it’s still got access to the internet, which allows you to look up any burning questions about the next season of “Stranger Things” instead of writing the paper that’s sitting on another tab, neglected. Only one version of keeping track of your assignments is truly productive: the good ol’ pen-and-paper planner. In the course of the three semesters I’ve been at the College, my planner has been the most essential product I’ve bought specifically for college. Writing my work down makes it easier for me to remember, and of course there’s the gratification that comes with drawing a thick black check mark next to a finally finished assignment. It’s like a fresh hit of dopamine each time, and crossing off one assignment often gives you the push to start the
GRAPHIC BY CATHERINE STORKE / THE FLAT HAT
next one, so you can feel that satisfaction again. Beyond the physical act of writing things down, a planner is essential because it helps you divide up what you’re working on. When you can see how many days you have before your assignment is due, you’re able to figure out how much work is absolutely essential each day. A planner makes the time feel more realistic and manageable, unlike a to-do list on a computer or a phone that only makes you more likely to procrastinate until the very last minute. So, what kind of planner should you use? There’s not really a certain one I recommend above all others; a $10 planner will most likely do the job just as well as a fancy $25 one. What’s most important with buying a planner is that it’s one you’ll actually want to use. Personally, I recommend any of the planners that Barnes & Noble sells because they work well for keeping track of everything, and they look good, too. Additionally, when purchasing a new planner, be sure to assess the amount of writing space allotted. Some people prefer a planner that’s structured more like a calendar, but I think the best type of planner has a week spread out across two pages, with an equal amount of writing space for each day. This format gives you plenty of room to write down each of your upcoming assignments and appointments. My personal planner has both a calendar and individual pages for the weeks, and it’s perfect for keeping me on track. I suggest popping down to Barnes & Noble or Target this weekend and picking out a new one for yourself; you’ll be surprised how much it comes in handy.
Sadie Downing ‘26 is a part of Wordshop and the Board Games Club. She is also a frequent and earnest defender of many movies that people might consider to be bad. Contact Sadie at sedowning@ wm.edu.
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Variety Editor Miles Mortimer Variety Editor Agavni Mehrabi flathat.variety@gmail.com // @theflathat
THE FLAT HAT | Wednesday, December 6, 2023 | Page 7
Bright night for Kwanzaa at the College CSD, multicultural organizations collaborate together, celebrate African-American holiday CATALINA CAMPOS // THE FLAT HAT Friday, Dec. 1, the Sadler Center’s Chesapeake B came alive with chatter and music as students gathered for an early celebration of a cherished winter holiday. The College of William and Mary’s Center for Student Diversity, along with several student organizations, hosted Pre-Kwanzaa in recognition of Kwanzaa, an annual African American holiday traditionally celebrated from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1. For the event, the room was arranged with round tables for attendees, a buffet with a variety of food and a table that held the Kinara, a candle holder, with its seven unlit candles, which are some of the primary symbols of this cultural celebration. “Kwanzaa is a celebration that has been going on since the late 60s, early 70s, and we don’t talk about that often. That’s not on a lot of our calendars, our holiday calendar,” Assistant Director of the Center for Student Diversity Dyamond Howell said. “The objective is to learn a little more about African American history, and about the history of this cultural tradition.” This cultural holiday further aims to bring families and communities together by focusing on seven main principles: Umoja (Unity), Kujichagulia (Self-Determination), Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility), Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics), Nia (Purpose), Kuumba (Creativity) and Imani (Faith). Janeé Thomas ’24, one of the speakers at the event, referenced these seven core ideas in her opening speech. “The seven-day observation of Kwanzaa focuses on timeless universal truths, principles that are pillars of faith rooted in our traditions and give us purpose, identity and direction,” Thomas said. The Candlelight Ceremony is one of the major rituals of Kwanzaa, in which the community gathers on each day of the holiday to commemorate one of the seven principles by lighting one of the candles in the Kinara, beginning
with Umoja and ending with Imani. On the final day of the celebration, all seven candles stand lit together. The College’s Pre-Kwanzaa highlighted the significance of these values in African American culture through a shorter version of the Candlelight Ceremony and a variety of speeches and performances from student-run organizations like the African Cultural Society and the Black Student Organization in collaboration with the CSD. “Imani encourages individuals to maintain faith in the face of challenges, to believe in the potential for positive change, and to trust in our collective efforts to bring about a better future,” event speaker Temiloluwa Abiodun ’25 said. “It is a reminder that even in difficult times, having faith in oneself, in the community, can be a source of strength and resilience in addition to, of course, religion.” In connection with this principle, the Ebony Expressions Gospel Choir performed their interpretation of the hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” often considered by many to be the Black National Anthem. “I think that there’s a connection with singing in every culture and every celebration, really. It just shifts from place to place,” member of the Ebony Choir Marco Gil Harris ’27 said. “And this is a specific celebration of not only African culture, but African American culture, which is why we sing ‘Lift Every Voice.’ It means a lot historically, and it means a lot culturally.” Harris also expressed his gratitude for being able to participate in this cultural holiday and its celebration at the College. “I think that learning about what each candle means and what principle each day is celebrating is very worthwhile,” Harris said. “I think it’s very clearly a moment of reflection for the end of a very long year, which is pretty interesting. It’s just always interesting to learn about new cultures, but I definitely thought it was a very
beautiful way of looking at it.” Kaya Lee ’24, a member of the College’s National PanHellenic Council who delivered a speech at the event, also shared her personal takeaways from the event. “It was definitely an interesting experience, my first Pre-Kwanzaa being one where I had to speak,” Lee said. “So it was definitely a fun celebration, and I had a good time learning about Kwanzaa because I didn’t know all that much beforehand.” An annually recurring tradition at the College, this year’s Pre-Kwanzaa has been in the works for the last three months as student organizations collaborated with the CSD to bring the event into fruition, according to Howell. “It’s a large group effort. It’s a lot of our student organizations as we saw tonight doing the heavy lifting. But essentially we have a student emcee, our presiding griot, and we work with the student organizations to have them really make this their own and talk about what Kwanzaa means to them. We delve a little into the history of Kwanzaa. We do a little background research, but obviously, because this has been going on for years, a lot of that’s already been done for us,” Howell said. Howell also reflected on the event’s inclusivity as it provided a space for attendees of all different backgrounds to partake in the cultural holiday and its various associated traditions. “Not everybody in this room is African American. I think that just shows that a lot of people want to learn, and whether they have time to sit in the Center, come on every day, or whether or not they are African American, they are putting in the time to learn about cultural traditions that they might not be familiar with,” Howell said. “I think this just shows that William and Mary’s students want to build community, and they’ll find that whether that’s learning or if it’s just coming together.”
A f r e sh sta r t f or t his martial art Collegeʼs Judo Club prepares to amp up operations next semester after recent return CHARLOTTE CASTLE // THE FLAT HAT The Judo Club has had a storied history at the College of William and Mary for decades now – it has experienced waves of inactivity throughout the years when senior members graduate and leave behind vacancies in leadership. However, despite the organization’s dormancy, two students, Ellie Baranowski ’26 and Alek Danielyan ’26 have worked to restart Judo Club this year. Judo, which translates to “gentle way,” is a Japanese martial art that emphasizes the philosophy of being a good, well-rounded person and is one of the only martial arts in the Olympics. And for many members of the club, the highlight of the martial art form is its reliance on technique rather than physical strength, which allows anyone to succeed in disarming their opponent, regardless of size or stature. “One of the really helpful things is if you’re small like me, it’s really easy for me to take down a six-foot tall, 200 pound [person] because I know how to use the techniques to my advantage,” Baranowski, the club’s current president, said. “So it’s very customizable to your body type, which is really fun, especially for girls and self-defense.” During the club’s three meetings a week, members are split into groups based on attendance and what they want to learn that day. As a techniquefocused martial art, a crucial aspect of judo is strategizing, understanding human reactions and body positioning. “If we have a large group of beginners or people who just started, then we want to get them really solid on basics,” coach Fiona Gordon ’25 said.
“A lot of the foundations in judo are the more important part of what we learn, so if you have a solid foundation, you can build upon that.” This semester, the club has primarily been run as a beginners’ class but welcomes members of all skill levels. Earlier this semester, the club promoted many of its members who had become more advanced, which means that when the club resumes next semester, there will be greater diversity in the skills taught to members. The club also recently elected its first official executive board since its re-launch, setting up for a more streamlined semester in the spring with more competitions and socials. The club will additionally welcome a new coach next semester: Michael Harrington ’12. Harrington previously coached judo in Japan, an incredibly prestigious accolade within the sport. With an official coach, the organization will transition away from student-teaching in hopes that a professional coach will enable the club to have a more permanent presence on campus. In line with ramping up their training, the club is also looking to host more in-club tournaments each semester. They recently had their first tournament of the year Saturday, Dec. 2, in which Baranowski was the referee for all of the matches. The event had different weight categories and even featured a table running with the times and scores. Baranowski also hopes to improve the standardization of members’ gear as the club aims to enter more collegiate competitions. “I really want to get patches so that if we ever
show up to a collegiate tournament, we have William and Mary patches,” Baranowski said. “Judo is very specific about where you can customize your gear. They’ve gotten more lenient with it in the last twoish years, so you can have them above the belt, on shoulders, up on your elbow, and you can do it over your heart if it’s your club.” Baranowski predicts the club will join the National College Judo Association and will be subsequently invited to compete at large collegiate tournaments, and currently her goal is to get on the list for a tournament hosted by Texas A&M University every April. The organization also hopes to improve the quality of their equipment. Currently, they are practicing on wrestling mats. Since wrestling mats are about three inches thinner than typical judo mats, members are more prone to soreness during the hands-on practices. Despite these limitations, the club hopes to continue to attract new members and launch self-defense programs for the greater College community. “I really would like to run self-defense clinics with sororities, police departments because there’s a lot of really good principles with self defense, so I’m hoping to do that next semester, maybe in the fall,” Baranowski said. Though they do plan to help the broader College community, Judo Club also works to build a strong inner-club community and has provided and created a space in which members can grow both in the sport and as people. Members support each other in
and outside of the sport while also getting a workout in through frequent practices and competitions. “Judo is a really healthy environment in general to be in as a club and is a group of people who are very aware and constructive in what we’re doing,” member Sara Oversteyns ’26 said. “We are supposed to all take care of each other and if you accidentally hurt someone you make sure that they’re okay. You check up on people if they don’t show up. Besides judo being a really good workout, it’s also a really healthy mindset to be in.” Oversteyns, a member of the St Andrews Joint Degree Programme, participated in judo while in Scotland. Despite the smaller size of the club at the College, she says that she has found both programs to be great forms of exercise and supportive, healthy and constructive places. “The judo club here is so new,” Oversteyns said. “At St Andrews, it has existed for more than ten years, I think, and so they had people who had competed in judo competitions, really experienced people in their 30s, 40s, 50s, who would come and teach. Here, we have students teaching, which is great but just very different. Also the club there is way bigger.” Overall, the club’s goals for the future are to increase its membership, raise awareness about its existence and stress its inclusivity, regardless of experience or knowledge level. Members do not have to be competitive if they do not want to be, and they are allowed to customize their judo experience, regardless of if they want to compete nationally, have fun or simply just meet new people.
COURTESY IMAGE / EMMANUEL SAMPSON
COURTESY IMAGE / CHARLOTTE CASTLE
THE FLAT HAT
Wednesday, December 6, 2023
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Bu l l s ey e Bu d die s Archery Club shoots for welcoming environment, competition experience MEGAN RUDACILLE // THE FLAT HAT
While focused archers send fastflying arrows whizzing toward the bullseye at the College of William and Mary’s Archery Club’s weekly practices, this student group has other targets off the range. Archery Club is a studentrun organization which competitively practices the sport of archery while aiming to foster an inviting and engaging club environment. “I’m so thankful that we’ve gotten the opportunity to create that kind of community where, no matter who you are, that you’re welcome,” Archery Club President Angelica Wood ’24 said. Archery Club holds general body meetings on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. in Chancellors Hall 134. These meetings include brief lessons on archery technique but largely focus on team bonding. Members play games such as Pictionary, Jeopardy and the Mafiainspired deduction game Werewolf, which executive members note as a club favorite. Executive board meetings for planning and organizing club happenings are likewise open to any members who wish to attend. When it comes to honing the sport, Archery Club also hosts practices on Fridays from 2:30-5:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 1:30-4:00 p.m. at the Newport News Park Archery Range, which is a 20 minute drive from campus. Archery Club includes five USA Archery certified coaches, with a captain for each of the three types of bows. Archery Club Social Chair Alexis Knicker ’24 described how coaches help archers at all levels enhance their shooting skills for practice and beyond. “When I started, we were very small, so now that we’re getting bigger, we are putting a little bit more of a focus on competitions,” Knicker said. Archery Club is currently preparing for USA Archery’s Virginia Indoor Nationals in February. Eight club members, including Archery Club Vice President Julia Tucker ’25, will travel to James Madison University to compete. Tucker outlined the club’s aims for the competition, explaining the emphasis on enjoying the opportunity over perfecting athletic achievement. “We aren’t really looking to win everything,” Tucker said. “Of course, winning is great, but
COURTESY IMAGES / ANGELICA WOOD
we’re really looking for bonding experiences, and being able to offer those opportunities for competition for the people who want them, to really be able to give people the experience of going to the competition.” Wood attended last year’s Nationals, which hosted over 200 competitors. She reminisced on the benefits of interacting with a larger community of archers. “You really get to meet a good amount of people, as well as, along with the experience, also getting a better understanding — or a deeper understanding — from the people who are there,” Wood said. While preparing for the competition, club executives have also planned social events, such as a formal held last semester. With such get-togethers, interactive games at meetings and the athletic practices, Archery Club strikes a unique balance between being a sports team and a social community. “We have some people who are really just social members,” Tucker said. “They don’t come to a whole lot of practices, but you see
them every Tuesday; and we have some people who are just really into the sport, who maybe don’t come to as many Tuesday meetings, but come to competitions with us and always show up to practice. So, it’s really what you want it to be.” Socially-oriented events seem to have hit the mark for creating club camaraderie, as members like Knicker consistently attested to the bonds they had built with fellow archers. “I think almost every single friend group chat that I have on this campus has someone from archery,” Knicker said. “Archery has just kind of been my family away from home.” Along with building a strong social network, Archery Club emphasizes accessibility for all skill levels. Coaches aid beginners in learning the sport, and the club provides any equipment needed. Wood entered the club at a relatively low skill level, with her only prior archery experience coming from a childhood camp. “It doesn’t matter if you haven’t shot a bow before, or if you’ve dabbled a little bit, or if you’ve gone to competitions, and you’re
looking to get back,” Wood said. Of course, because the club encompasses a wide range of skill levels, some members are highly trained in archery and frame their club experience through an emphasis on the sport itself. Club member Meredith Endres ’26 detailed how her family history of highlevel competitive archery inspired her to begin shooting at a young age. Endres joined Archery Club to continue practicing her lifelong sport, and she is gearing up for her second year of competition in Nationals by attending the weekly practices. The sport of archery also comes with unlikely benefits in terms of mental health. Endres described the calming effect inherent in the quiet focus required for precise shooting. “There are so many other things your brain is thinking about, about the shot and every aspect of it, that it’s very, very helpful for your brain to be able to process and not have to deal with everything else that’s always going through it,” Endres said. Even athletically-focused members recognize the strong bond and welcoming nature of Archery Club. Endres explained how the kindness of club members enhances her experience with an already beloved sport. “Sometimes I’ll shoot only ten arrows the entire practice because I keep getting distracted talking to people,” Endres said. “It’s a very social sport because in between, when you’re waiting for someone else to finish their shot, you sit, and you chat, and you meet really amazing people.” Those interested in joining Archery Club can attend its weekly meetings or practices. The club has no formal attendance requirements and is open to all at any time in the semester. Their Instagram @wmarchery provides information on upcoming events and meetings. Tucker encourages prospective archers not to let impressions of the sport being intimidating scare them away from this truly friendly troupe. “When I tell people I do archery, they imagine it to be so much more intense than it is,” Tucker said. “We’re not like Katniss Everdeen; this isn’t ‘The Hunger Games’. We’re a very chill group of people who miss the target half the time, and that’s okay. We have fun looking for arrows together just as much as we have fun shooting together.”
Playing To Win
Ambitious students design, launch College-themed luxury card decks ISABELLA MCNUTT // THE FLAT HAT
COURTESY IMAGES / BRUNO IANNOTTI
Found in the Campus Shop in Colonial Williamsburg’s Merchant Square, the King’s Guard Company’s meticulously designed luxury playing cards incorporate the College of William and Mary’s storied history. Faces of notable figures like Sir Christopher Wren, Thomas Jefferson and the distinguished King William and Queen Mary feature prominently on the cards. The masterminds behind this company and its playing cards are none other than students here at the College: Bruno Iannotti ’26 and Teddy Cohen ’26. The two, who have been close friends since elementary school, created this physical representation of the College’s history in their senior year of high school even before getting admitted to the College. “I think at the time it was a spur of the moment idea, and part of me thinks even if we decided to go elsewhere the project may have happened either way,” Iannotti said. “It just felt like a good place with a supportive and passionate community where a product like this would be well received. Although, looking back on it now, I’m happy to have started the project and process here at this school.” Cohen originally came up with the idea to make unique playing cards for the College when his mother showed him a deck of cards from her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. Beginning with the design of the cards themselves, Iannotti and Cohen intentionally chose some of the most significant figures in the College’s history, such as James Blair as the Jack, to compliment the classic deck of cards. Even with the basic design of the cards, using the College logo on them required additional, long and tedious processes and months of waiting until
King’s Guard was founded Oct. 10, 2022. “There’s all these little technicalities you never expect to run into, and everything just takes longer than you really wanted it to,” Iannotti said. The company’s founding, in turn, depended on having a company name. Iannotti recalled that although the King’s Guard was not the first name he and Cohen came up with, it was the one that stuck. “For the name of the company, we wanted something playing-card-themed, and we had a few different ideas when we got started,” Ianotti said. “At first, we were thinking something like ‘Pocket Kings,’ in reference to having two kings in a poker hand, but eventually that evolved into the King’s Guard Company, which we decided sounded pretty good.” However, after overcoming their initial difficulties, the pair say that their playing cards have only been increasing in popularity, especially among parents and alumni. Though also sold online for $14.95, many parents, students and alumni have discovered the cards through the Campus Shop, which is the primary storefront where the cards can be found. “It was interesting because we approached [the Campus Shop] before we got the license and [the manager] was like, ‘Wait, what do you want me to do? You need to be licensed,’” Cohen said. “He was giving us a pretty low price, so we weren’t optimistic going back once we were licensed, but it was actually a pretty positive experience. He seemed enthusiastic about the cards.” Amelia Dunning ’26, an employee at the Campus Shop, even expressed that she bought the playing cards out of sheer excitement for the interesting and unique designs that hadn’t previously been sold
at the Campus Shop. “[The Campus Shop] had cards last year that were just playing cards that said ‘William and Mary’ basically on the box, and that was it, and there was nothing super special about them,” Dunning said. “And people would always ask whether or not there was anything unique or anything like that, and there weren’t.” Dunning explained that another reason she was so drawn to Iannotti’s and Cohen’s unique cards was because they were made by students of the College, which has been a major reason for their popularity among customers as well. “Most of the people that are drawn to the cards, I think, are alumni, so we have two left,” Dunning said. “Everything that we had sold out over Homecoming Weekend and Parents’ Weekend — the last of what we had was gone.” Dunning said Iannotti’s and Cohen’s playing cards have already been successful in adding to the charm of the College’s merchandise and encourages all members of the College community to come see them for themselves. “I think at the very least, you should check [the playing cards] out, and you should check out the King’s Guard Company that actually made them because I know that they like to do other kinds of designs for the school and stuff,” Dunning said. For Iannotti and Cohen, the future ahead looks bright as they enjoy growing closer to one another through continued collaboration on their joint entrepreneurial endeavor that has grown into a fully fledged passion. “I would say as we moved into college this company has only made the two of us closer as we continue to spend time and work on this passion project together day to day,” Iannotti said.
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THE FLAT HAT | Wednesday, December 6, 2023 | Page 9
FOOTBALL
RYAN GOODMAN / THE FLAT HAT
After a historic season in 2022, William and Maryʼs 2023 campaign proved the team still has areas to improve in. With a large senior class leaving Williamsburg, a potentially new-looking Tribe team will be looking to right the ship next year.
Stagnant Tribe football looks to rewrite script in 2024 With large senior class, new chapter of William and Mary football may be just around corner MAX GRILL FLAT HAT SPORTS EDITOR As the lights on Zable Stadium turn off for the final time in 2023, another season of William and Mary football comes to an end. The team’s up and down performances resulted in quite the ride for Tribe fans this season. Despite being plagued by injuries early in the year, the Green and Gold once again embodied its never-say-die mentality until its final game in late November. The Tribe finished the 2023 season with a 6-5 record, going 4-4 in Coastal Athletic Association play. Following its CAA Championship in 2022, the Tribe entered this season ranked no. 4 in the Football Championship Subdivision, the highest preseason rating in team history. Through the team’s first four games, the Tribe looked more than capable of repeating its dominance from the season before. However, its undefeated record quickly disappeared towards the middle of the Tribe’s 11 game season, starting with the team’s 14-6 loss to Elon on Sept. 30. In the five week span from late September to early November, the Tribe dropped four of its five games. Despite the skid, William and Mary still had some memorable performances in 2023. Sept. 23, the Tribe blew out CAA opponent Maine 28-3, the team’s largest margin of victory this season. It also delivered Tribe fans an ending to remember during its 31-28 win against Monmouth on Oct. 28, after a clutch blocked field goal by freshman defensive lineman Gent Veizi secured a much-needed Tribe win at home. The Tribe also recorded historic attendance during its
homecoming matchup against Towson, selling out Zable Stadium with a whopping 13,713 fans cheering from the stands. Despite the highs, mid-season losses to CAA opponents proved to be the Tribe’s kryptonite in 2023. Losses to Elon, Towson and Albany caused the Tribe’s rankings to slowly and continuously drop, leading to an unranked finish to the season after a nail-biting loss to Richmond on Nov. 18. Regardless of the team’s record, numerous players on the Tribe team had seasons fans should never forget. Junior running back Malachi Imoh put a substantial piece of the Tribe’s offense on his back after senior running back Bronson Yoder suffered a season-ending injury early in the year. Imoh, who’s previous high in carries was 85 in 2022, ran the ball 126 times for 855 yards in 2023. On top of that, Imoh also finished the season with 19 receptions out of the backfield, going for 183 yards in those catches. Sophomore running back Martin Lucas also helped the Tribe’s ground game continue to be the backbone of its offense. In 69 carries, which doubled his 2022 total, Lucas ran for 261 yards and four touchdowns, blowing through defenders when the Tribe needed him the most. Like Imoh, the sophomore back was a pass option and finished 2023 with nine receptions and one receiving touchdown. On special teams, senior kicker Caden Bonoffski had one of the most successful seasons in recent Tribe history. After transferring from Davidson last season, Bonoffski quickly filled the hole left by previous Tribe kicker Ethan Chang, who transferred from William and Mary following the team’s championship season in 2022. In 18 attempts, Bonoffski made 16 field goals, going 16-17 on kicks less than 50 yards. From the 40 to 49 yard range, Bonoffski was perfect, going 8-8 while knocking down a season-long 48-yarder during the team’s matchup
against Virginia on Oct. 7. Senior defensive back Malcolm Spencer wreaked havoc on opposing offenses in 2023, making 39 tackles in addition to three interceptions for the Tribe. On top of that, surprising no one, junior John Pius had another impressive showing this season. After being named to the All-American First Team in 2022, Pius continued his dominance in 2023, finishing with 53 tackles while forcing and recovering one fumble along the way. He recently announced that he will be transferring out of William and Mary for his final year of college eligibility. However, as this season comes to an end, the Tribe most likely will be without a large part of its on and off-season leadership in 2024. This season’s senior class, which includes players like Spencer, corner Ryan Poole, safety Marcus Barnes, Yoder, linebacker Kevin Jarrell, offensive tackles Rian Haigler and Marcus Crowell and defensive lineman Nate Lynn, leaves behind a huge hole in the Tribe’s core as a team. To fill that void, returning players must step up and lead the team on their own in 2024. Amongst returners, junior quarterback Darius Wilson, Imoh and junior receiver JT Mayo are most likely to lead the charge, but just like every year, only time will tell. Although 2023 was a disappointing season compared to the Tribe’s historic run in 2022, this year’s team proved that William and Mary still has the potential to be a powerhouse in the CAA. Despite new leadership and new personnel that will take shape next year, the Tribe will return to Zable in 2024 with the same goal it has each year: bring another CAA title back to Williamsburg. Tribe fans — get excited. A new era of Tribe football may be coming soon.
WOMENʼS BASKETBALL
Tribe keeps momentum rolling in Annapolis, beats Navy 81-53
Green and Gold dominates in Florida, wins Thanksgiving Classic hosted by FIU
SYDNEY WITWER FLAT HAT SPORTS Sunday, Dec. 3, William and Mary women’s basketball (3-5) defeated Navy (3-5,) 8153 at Alumni Hall at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. This win continues a recent surge by the Tribe, which had won three of its last four games. When looking at the two teams prior to Sunday’s matchup, William and Mary and Navy seemed evenly matched. Navy started the season 3-2, but entered Sunday coming off back-to-back losses against Wagner College and Abilene Christian University. Despite these losses, the Midshipmen have a talented roster led by freshman guard Zanai Barnett-Gay, who has had a more than impressive start to her rookie season, recording 161 points over her seven starts in 2023. The Tribe entered Sunday with a misleading 2-5 record. To date, William and Mary’s schedule has included significant non-conference play against top teams with a combined record of 30-5.
Notably, the Tribe had an impressive performance in the FIU Thanksgiving Classic at the Ocean Bank Convocation Center in Miami, Fl. The team recorded a semifinal victory against Tennessee State (2-6), and a tournament-securing win in the final against hosts Florida International University. Junior guard Bella Nascimento was named MVP of the tournament, and graduate forward Nylah Young was named to the all-tournament team. With momentum still rolling from the tournament win, the Tribe came out firing against the Midshipmen. In the past 10 matchups against Navy, the Tribe has been victorious in six of the 10 meetings, giving them a small edge heading into the game. Nascimento continued to be a dominant force for the Tribe, leading the team with 14 points and five assists in the win. The Tribe dominated the entire contest and outscored its opponents each quarter. This victory is the second time the Tribe has won against Navy under coach Erin Dickerson Davis, who joined the team last season.
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RYAN GOODMAN / THE FLAT HAT
Freshman guard Monet Dance has helped fill the hole left by ʼ23 Sydney Wagner and ʻ23 Riley Casey for the Tribe.
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THE FLAT HAT | Wednesday, December 6, 2023 | Page 10
WOMENʼS BASKETBALL
Women’s basketball drops close game to Old Dominion, 72-66
Transfer standouts Nascimento, Young lead team in points, combine for 39 ETHAN QIN FLAT HAT SPORTS EDITOR
Thursday, Nov. 30, William and Mary women’s basketball (3-5) lost to Old Dominion (7-0) 72-66 at Kaplan Arena in Williamsburg, Va. The tightly-contested bout saw the Tribe and the Monarchs go back and forth for all four quarters. Despite keeping the score tied until less than a minute left in the game, William and Mary was unable to close out Old Dominion due to its inability to score on a few decisive final possessions. Old Dominion entered Thursday night’s game with the nation’s best defense statistics-wise, proving it by forcing three turnovers in the first minutes of the game. Unable to score, head coach Erin Dickerson Davis called a timeout at the eight minute, 24 second mark in response to the 7-0 Monarch run to start the contest. The timeout seemed to right the ship for the team, as the Tribe responded with an 8-0 run of its own following the huddle, giving William and Mary an 8-7 lead with six minutes, 47 seconds left in the first quarter. This flurry of points was courtesy of two threepointers from junior guard Bella Nascimento and a layup from graduate student forward Nylah Young. Nascimento, who transferred to William and Mary from Manhattan College this offseason, has been one of the Tribe’s go-to scoring options this year, averaging a team second-best 13.8 points per game. An ODU three-pointer from senior guard En’Dya Buford and a Tribe layup from sophomore forward Kayla Rolph settled the contest at a score of 10-10. A period of unsuccessful possessions by both sides was interrupted by a layup from Young. ODU responded with its own layup from graduate student guard Kaye Clark, settling the score at 12-12 with 3:58 left in the first quarter. Buford committed a shooting foul on Nascimento, sending her to the charity stripe. She knocked down both of her free throws, extending the Tribe lead to 14-12. Nascimento recorded eight of William and Mary’s 18 first quarter points. Following scores from senior center Kayla Beckwith and junior forward Anahi-Lee Cauley, the Tribe ended the first quarter leading ODU 18-15. Rolph opened scoring in the second quarter with a layup assisted by freshman guard Cassidy Geddes, pushing the Tribe lead to 20-15. This layup was the only scoring from both teams until the six minute, six second mark in the second quarter when ODU sophomore center Mikayla Brown made a layup assisted by junior forward Brenda Fontana. Fontana followed up Brown’s layup with one of her own before Nascimento responded with a jumper assisted by Geddes. This back-and-forth scoring continued through the second quarter. The Tribe found success on the offensive end through being sent to the free throw line, with Rolph and Geddes converting five and one free throw, respectively. Cauley and Young also contributed to second quarter scoring, making layups and jump shots of their own. Despite such scoring, ODU still remained in lockstep, down just 33-32 to William and Mary. Coming out of the locker room at half time, ODU started off hot with two back-to-back scores from senior guard Jordan McLaughlin. Young responded with four consecutive points, courtesy of a layup and a pair of free throws. Senior forward Rebekah Frisby-Smith
RYAN GOODMAN / THE FLAT HAT
Junior guard Bella Nascimento continues to make an impact on the court for William and Mary. Transferring in from Manhattan College this offseason, Nascimento leads the team in three-point percentage (.348), three-pointers made (16) and assists per game (3.4). Despite the Thursday night loss to ODU, Nascimento recorded 19 points.
continued the Tribe scoring with her own pair of free throws. ODU answered with its own barrage of scoring from senior forward Nnenna Orji and Clark, before Nascimento connected on another jumpshot assisted by Frisby-Smith. Beckwith then converted two free throws after being fouled by Orji on a shot attempt, putting the Tribe up 43-41 with five minutes, 24 seconds left in the third quarter. ODU graduate student forward Lanetta Williams then got the hot hand making her next three consecutive field goal attempts. Despite this, William and Mary continued to fight and remained close with scoring from Geddes,Cauley and Nascimento. Old Dominion led 51-49 at the end of the third period. As the game entered the fourth quarter, the same theme of back-and-forth scoring continued with Young and McLaughlin exchanging buckets. Geddes was sent to the free throw line following a shooting foul on Mimi McCollister, in which she converted both. Buford replied with a layup assisted by McLaughlin, before Clark was sent to the free throw line caused by a Geddes foul, where she went one for two. ODU extended its lead to 57-53 over the Tribe. Rolph responded for William and Mary, converting a layup assisted by Nacimento before Nacimento converted a jump shot of her own set up by sophomore guard Alexa Mikeska, tying the game at 57. Both teams traded free throw attempts with ODU’s Williams being sent to the line first, followed by the Tribe’s Young, both players making both shots. McLaughlin made a jumpshot to put the Monarchs ahead by two, only to be equalized again by two free throws from Nascimento courtesy of a foul from Orji, once again tying the game at 61 with fourminutes, 40 seconds left in the game. Buford was sent to the charity stripe again after a foul by
Nascimento, only making one of two free throws. Buford was sent to the line once more after a Young turnover causing Nascimento to foul Buford again, extending the ODU lead to 64-61. Young answered by scoring an and-one layup, assisted by Geddes. Young converted the and-one by making the free throw, tying the game with two minutes, 58 seconds left. ODU then converted its own and-one layup with McLaughlin making the layup and the following free throw, putting the Monarchs up by three points, once again. On the next Tribe possession, Nascimento was unable to hit her three point attempt, forcing William and Mary to intentionally foul the ODU players. With Buford making her free throws putting the Monarchs up by five, the deficit was too much to overcome in the final 16 seconds of the game. ODU held on to the lead, outlasting the Tribe 72-66. Nascimento and Young, the two transfer stars, lead the team in scoring with 20 and 19 points, respectively. Both players lead the team in total points and points per game on the season so far. Nascimento went two for six from behind the arc, as well as being the only player on the Tribe to convert a three-point attempt, continuing her impressive shooting season performance. The rest of the team however went 0-15 from three on the day, despite shooting 41% from the field. Rolph and Cauley were also standout performers for the Tribe recording 10 and seven points, respectively. William and Mary bounced back in its next contest, defeating Navy (3-5) 81-53 at Alumni Hall in Annapolis, Md. in its largest win since November 2021. The Tribe will look to continue its momentum against James Madison (6-3) Thursday, Dec. 7 at Atlantic Union Bank Center in
SWIMMING
William and Mary competes in Toyota U.S. Open, sends five swimmers
Rempe records personal best 1:09.94 in 100m breaststroke, finishes second in heat ETHAN QIN FLAT HAT SPORTS EDITOR Wednesday, Nov. 29 - Saturday, Dec. 2, five swimmers from the William and Mary men’s and women’s swim teams competed at the 2023 Toyota U.S. Open Championships at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, N.C. Graduate student Conor Sokolowsky and sophomores Brock Rempe and Alex Valliere represented the men’s team, while sophomores Sophia Heilen and Lauren Klinefelter competed for the women’s squad.
William and Mary’s five swimmers at the U.S. Open set a new record for the school, which had previously sent just three competitors in 2021. Heilen and Valliere started William and Mary’s showing at the event on Thursday, qualifying for the women’s 200m individual medley and men’s 50 free. Heilen, who was named 2022-23 Coastal Athletic Association Rookie of the Year during her freshman season, holds the William and Mary school record for the 200m IM. She finished just 0.7 seconds short of her record time, marking a 2:20.79
time that placed her third in the heat. Valliere made his U.S. Open debut on Thursday in the 50m free event, recording a 24.07 second time, enough for secondplace in the event. On the third day of the meet, Heilen, Klinefelter and Rempe competed for the Tribe in the 100m fly and 100m breaststroke events. In the 100m breaststroke, Rempe recorded a personal best time of 1:04.94, finishing just 0.02 of a second behind first-place. In the 100m fly event, Heilen and Sokkolwsky posted times of 1:02.25 and
1:03.94, respectively. On the final day of the event, Heilen and Sokolowsky concluded the Tribe’s events at the national meet with the 200m back and 200m fly events, respectively. Sokolowsky finished with a 2:14.03 time in the 200m back, while Heilen recorded a 2:24.34 time in the 200m fly event. As the team returns from the U.S. Open, the Tribe will resume competition in 2024 with the start of its spring season. William and Mary will face Old Dominion and East Carolina on Jan. 13 at J.C. Scrap Chandler Pool in Norfolk, Va.
MENʼS BASKETBALL
Tribe falls to Richmond 88-69, hindered by insufficient shooting Second-half deficit proves too much despite Dorsey, Lowe both recording double-doubles LACI MILLER FLAT HAT SPORTS ASSOC. Saturday, Dec. 2, William and Mary men’s basketball (3-6) fell to Richmond (5-3) 88-69 at the Robins Center in Richmond, Va. William and Mary has just seven players on scholarship, leading to most of the roster playing major minutes for the team. Junior forward Caleb Dorsey played 38 minutes in Friday’s game, with sophomore guards Chase Lowe and Trey Moss each playing 35
minutes. Sophomore forward Charlie Williams played well for the Tribe, scoring a careerhigh 21 points. Still the Tribe struggled on the stat sheet in the matchup against the home side, as Dorsey, the Tribe’s leading scorer, left halfway through the first half after being poked in the eye. Sophomore guard/forward Jack Karasinski also left the game injured in the second half. William and Mary started off hot, making a solid 8-0 run to start and giving them an early lead. But the
Tribe momentum came to a halt, as Richmond responded with eight straight made shots. Richmond graduate student guard Jordan King scored nine consecutive points, pushing Richmond to a 28-13 lead midway through the half. With six minutes left in the first half, the Tribe found themselves down by 20, thanks to solid Richmond long range shooting. In the first half, William and Mary shot just over 35% in field goals and three pointers, whereas Richmond shot over 60% in both. The first half ended with the
Tribe down 48-32. William and Mary came back after halftime with a 7-2 run, drawing the team within 11 to the home Spiders. But Richmond hit back with a nine point swing. The Spiders extended its lead back to 20 points, putting a Tribe victory out of reach. Though Dorsey and Lowe both recorded double-doubles for the Tribe, and Williams went 5-9 from beyond the arc to contribute to his 21 points on the night, the deficit was too great. King led Richmond with 5-8 shooting from
beyond the arc to contribute to his 29 points. Richmond secured the victory in a decisive win, the second half concluding with a final score of 88-69. On the night, William and Mary went 24-62 on field goal attempts, where Richmond went 34-62. The Tribe out-rebounded Richmond, recording 36 rebounds on the night, whereas the Spiders grabbed 35. William and Mary will host Old Dominion on Wednesday, Dec. 6 at Kaplan Arena in Williamsburg, Va.