Vol. 115, Iss. 3 | Wednesday, March 19, 2025
The Weekly Student Newspaper
of
The College of William and Mary
flathatnews.com | @theflathat
COURTESY IMAGE / JIM AGNEW
William and Mary women's basketball team gathers after its CAA Championship victory against No. 3 Campbell at CareFirst Arena. This win secured the team a spot in the March Madness tournament, the first time in program history.
Tribe claims first-ever CAA Championship victory, punches ticket to NCAA Tournament MADDIE MOHAMADI // OPERATIONS COORDINATOR
Saturday, March 16, No. 9 William and Mary women’s basketball (15-18, 8-10 CAA) defeated No. 3 Campbell (21-12, 12-6 CAA) 66-63 in the title game of the Coastal Athletic Association Women’s Basketball Championship, winning its first-ever conference title and securing the first NCAA Tournament bid in program history. “Everybody contributed, everybody deserved this, everybody learned this, and I’m so proud of this team,” head coach Erin Dickerson Davis said. Dickerson Davis highlighted the adversity the team faced during the regular season. “We are built for this, and that’s what we kept saying,” she said. “Nobody knows what we’ve gone through, and we stuck together through it all.” Senior guard Bella Nascimento echoed her coach’s sentiment. “Everybody’s proud of each other and just kept going and pushing forward,” Nascimento said. The Green and Gold played Thursday, March
13, through Sunday, March 16, at CareFirst Arena in Washington, D.C., taking down No. 8 Hofstra (14-16, 9-9 CAA), No. 1 North Carolina A&T (19-11, 15-3 CAA), No. 4 Drexel (17-13, 12-6 CAA) and Campbell. Despite losing to the Camels by over 20 points twice during the regular-season, the Tribe turned the tables on its opponent and clinched the victory on Sunday. The first quarter proved challenging for William and Mary, as Camels senior forward Courtney Dahlquist sank an early threepointer that sparked a 14-point scoring run that continued until Nascimento made a mid-range jump shot five minutes into the game. Although senior forward Anahi-Lee Cauley, freshman forward Natalie Fox and Nascimento each converted layups, the Green and Gold struggled to cut into the Camels’ lead as the period went on. Campbell junior guard Gianni Boone’s two-point tip shot gave her team a 20-9 advantage at the end of the first quarter.
William and Mary failed to find an offensive rhythm in the first 10 minutes, going 0-3 from behind the arc and shooting 22.2% from the field. The Tribe’s offense underwent little improvement in the second quarter, and the Camels’ sharp passes and speedy cuts kept the Green and Gold at bay. Sophomore guard Monet Dance started the scoring with a jumper, but Dahlquist quickly answered with a layup. With 2:05 left in the half, William and Mary sophomore guard Cassidy Geddes drained a three off a Cauley assist. A buzzer-beating triple from Nascimento narrowed the Camels’ lead to 34-26 as both teams headed to the locker room. The Green and Gold ramped up its intensity in the third quarter, chipping away at Campbell’s lead. While Campbell took control of the court early on, graduate forward Rebekah Frisby-Smith converted back-toback threes for the Tribe, reducing the deficit
to 43-35 with 4:21 on the clock. In the 27th minute, Frisby-Smith responded to a Boone jump shot with another threepointer, this time assisted by Cauley. Nascimento brought energy in the final minute of the quarter, driving to the hoop for a layup, drawing a foul and sinking a free throw. A buzzer-beater three from Frisby-Smith pulled the Tribe within four of the Camels at 53-49. With the momentum shifting in favor of the Green and Gold, both teams fought relentlessly to seize control and secure the victory. Nascimento set the tone early in the final period, converting a layup just 11 seconds into the fourth quarter. While Boone answered with a layup of her own, Geddes reacted with a quick layup in return. With 6:45 remaining, Geddes received a pass from Dance and buried a three, putting the Tribe on top at 56-55, their first lead of the afternoon. SEE SPORTS PAGE 9
FACULTY
College announces hiring slowdown, Jefferson Lab operation search pauses Amid federal funding uncertainty, faculty awaiting new contracts risk losing positions
SAM BELMAR AND SUSANNAH POTEET THE FLAT HAT
Tuesday, March 5, Provost Peggy Agouris and Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Mike Todd released a statement informing the campus community that the College of William and Mary is sustaining a temporary hiring slowdown through June 1, 2025. All hirings will be paused, with general exemptions including those that are in the final stages and with in-person interviews already completed. “These decisions are not made lightly, and William & Mary’s valuesbased mission of teaching, learning, and research serves as our bedrock,” Agouris and Todd wrote. “We know that uncertainty can create extra concern for our community. We commit to providing as much clarity as we can as new details become available, and this information will be added to the university’s federal guidelines resource hub.” The slowdown in hiring comes amidst an evolving federal funding landscape. In 2024, the College received 71.3 million dollars in grants and contracts, about 10% of all funding. Although some of these
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grants are not at risk, the reduction of federal grant funding creates financial uncertainty for colleges that receive them. Agouris and Todd encouraged faculty to reach out with further questions as they arise, recognizing the quickly evolving higher education landscape. “We understand that slowing hiring and deferring new hires may require adjustments in staffing and may bring up follow-on questions about workload management and more,” Agouris and Todd wrote. “We will be working closely with Cabinet leaders to provide guidance over the coming weeks – so that those who are impacted by this slowdown have appropriate support.” Professor of history and department chair Tuska Benes offered clarification on the situation and how it will directly affect both professors and students. “We have folks who are tenure eligible, and then we have folks who are teaching faculty but are continuing as teaching faculty with contracts who come up for renewal periodically,” Benes said. “Those faculty are not affected by this pause.”
However, professors and faculty whose contracts are new or extended, and not renewed, may be at risk under this hiring slowdown. “Anybody who had to have a new contract, rather than a contract that was being renewed, was subject to evaluation for whether or not that position would be affected by the pause,” she said. Adjunct faculty teach on a courseby-course contract basis, meaning that their contracts are for a set period. Currently, the university is evaluating multiple adjunct faculty contracts to examine if they are mission-critical. “So we have not had word about adjunct contracts that had been anticipated but not yet signed,” Benes said. “Those may go through, they may not go through. We don't know that yet.” Benes emphasized that this hiring slowdown will not affect any summer courses. Speaking on the status of the history department, she explained that the courses offered in the fall will reflect an increase in the diversity of their course offerings due to recent hires. “My concern is less for our curriculum, which I think is on solid footing, than it is for the impact on
the livelihood of the individuals who had hoped to be teaching those courses and may still be teaching them, but we just don't know yet,” Benes said. Benes said that her understanding of this policy is that it is anticipatory and an assessment to ensure that the school can continue missioncritical operations under any financial constraints. “I appreciate the efforts of the administration to do this,” Benes said. “But I am worried that there are individuals who will feel a heavier impact from any restrictions or limitations in the budget that we experience. That's where my largest concern is, is with any individual, whether it's a faculty member, a graduate student, staff member, any individuals on campus who may be affected,” she said. This new policy in the hiring process may affect visiting professor of history Nathanial Berndt, as his two-year contract was up for extension this semester. “Just at the time when I was kind of expecting to hear about this, there was this, you know, kind of blanket slow down announced,” Berndt said. “And so, you know,
for now, that's off the table. It's affecting me at William and Mary, but of course, this is part of a larger phenomenon.” Colleges across the country have also enacted temporary hiring slowdowns, creating a chilling effect on the national job market. “I'm on the job market,” Berndt said. “Who knows how many other universities that I've applied to, the jobs don't actually even exist anymore.” The College has been navigating other policy shake-ups in recent weeks, including the Feb. 28 cancellation of the search for a new operator at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, also known as the Jefferson Lab. The U.S. Department of Energy oversees the lab, which is one of the College’s long-time partners. The lab has provided research opportunities in physics for faculty and students at the College since 1984. Once reopened, the lab is slated to expand into computer and data science research, housing a new hub valued at $300 to $500 million. SEE FACULTY PAGE 3
Inside Opinions
Inside Variety
Inside Sports
Nora Yoon '27 challenges liberal condescension toward Trump supporters. page 6
Muscarelle Museum of Art presents Michelangelo's sketches for Sistine Chapel frescoes. page 7
Green and Gold enters CAA play having lost 12 of its last 13 contests. page 10
You're not better than Trump supporters
Michelangelo Unveiled
Tribe baseball team loses seven of eight games over spring break