T HE F LAT H AT
Vol. 114, Iss. 2 | Wednesday, March 6, 2024
The Weekly Student Newspaper
of The College of William and Mary
flathatnews.com | @theflathat
Campus prepares for new PATH registration system replacing Banner 9
Registrar describes next steps, students express fears CHLOE COHEN AND PEERAWUT RUANGSAWASDI FLAT HAT NEWS
Wednesday, Feb. 14, College of William and Mary Associate Provost and University Registrar Alana Davis sent out a campus-wide email announcing a new registration system, CourseLeaf’s PATH, which will replace the previous Banner 9 software. More than a week later, Tuesday, Feb. 27, Davis sent out another email with more comprehensive information on the new system. “Beginning in spring 2024, all students will register for fall 2024 courses via PATH,”Davis wrote. “This registration system is not part of Banner and allows you to build a registration cart and prioritize your course selections outside of a timed environment. An introduction to the PATH registration system and resources about building a registration cart can be found on the University Registrar PATH webpage. PATH is available to use now to search for courses. Summer and fall classes are now viewable.” With the new system, PATH will allow students to build their registration cart ahead of time, without having to be present for a designated time slot. According to the College’s guide to PATH, the system will retain existing registration priorities, including social classes. Davis said in an interview with The Flat Hat that the College’s switch to PATH was in part caused by concerns with Banner’s capabilities and student wellness. When a major system crash during course registration temporarily impeded course registration, Davis said the College divided students into “Green” and “Gold” groups with designated 15-minute registration windows. The College intended for the halving system to ease the strain course registration imposed on the Banner system. However, the College also recognized that tight registration windows could be potentially anxiety-inducing for students. “It is very stressful. You have 15 minutes and it feels like basically 15 seconds to go through and get the courses that you want. We hear the phrase ‘Hunger Games’ on a regular basis. And that’s not an environment that we want for students. That’s not student-friendly. That’s not conducive to a healthy learning environment. And so we want that process to be a little more comfortable, a little less stressful for students,” Davis said. Davis hopes that PATH will achieve that ease by replacing Banner’s tight registration windows with a week-long cartbuilding period, during which students may add or remove classes from their cart at any point. The PATH system brings additional changes to the registration process, including an algorithmic component. In addition to drafting their ideal schedule, students are able to assign up to two alternatives for each of their first-choice classes. With Banner, students had to receive instructor permission prior to enrolling into select courses. SEE PATH REGISTRATION ON PAGE 4
STUDENTS CONTINUE SUPPORT FOR PALESTINE GRAPHIC BY MONA GARIMELLA / THE FLAT HAT
RYAN GOODMAN / THE FLAT HAT
Professors, students protest, speak at SJPʼs second walkout of semester CLARE GIFFORD // CHIEF STAFF WRITER
Editor's Note: The Flat Hat has decided to honor the requests of several sources and keep their identities anonymous out of protection for their safety and wellbeing. Friday, March 1, the College of William and Mary’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine held its second “Walkout for Palestine” of the semester. Approximately fifty students convened on the Sadler Center Terrace for two opening speeches followed by a march around campus with three designated spots for professor and student speakers. An SJP-affiliated leader commenced the walkout with a reflection on the recent violence in Gaza. “When I first used my voice here, I spoke of war crimes in Gaza that were without precedent,” the SJPaffiliated leader said. “Yet, since then, what was once unimaginable has now become a harrowing reality.” Another SJP leader remarked in their speech that the College is complicit in the conflict through its continued economic practices. “Our school is involved in a global genocide, and I don’t say this without evidence,” the SJP-affiliated speaker said. “I do not say this without backing. We have financial complicitness in what’s happening, but that also means we have the potential to end that financial complicitness to contribute to a global movement for change.” After sharing updates on the conflict and reiterating the SJP’s goal for Palestinian liberation,
SJP members rehearsed chants with the crowd before beginning their march out of the Sadler Center. “We want justice, you say ‘how?’ End the siege on Gaza now!” one of the various chants went. Along the march route, associate professor of anthropology and Director of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Andrea Wright delivered a speech in support of the walkout. In her reasoning for her participation, she underscored the importance of solidarity for continued activism. “I came today largely because I think it’s important for us all to come together, when we see injustices, to speak out,” Wright said. Wright commented on the scale of the conflict. “It seems to me as though, like the current crisis in Gaza, regardless of political orientated positions, or what we think about the past or the future, what’s happening right now is horrifying. So many children died and so many civilians have been killed. And then the specter of famine — that people are beginning to die of famine,” Wright said. Other participants expressed a similar reason for attending the walkout. One participant felt there was a lack of solidarity between the SJP’s mission and the greater College community’s attitudes. The group, which the Community Values and Restorative Practices office put on probation in December 2023, hosted this event after an earlier demonstration Thursday, Feb. 8.
“Why I decided to come to this afternoon is that I feel like this school, the administration — there’s a culture around just not caring and being complicit to what is going on in Palestine as well as militarism and stuff like that,” one participant said. “And I want to help change that narrative and make people aware of what’s going on. They can’t ignore it.” Associate professor of anthropology William Fisher echoed this sentiment, noting the general reluctance to discuss the Middle Eastern conflict in the classroom. “The sort-of sine qua non of relevant education is to be able to bring the issues of the day into the classroom,” Fisher said. “And the fact that so many faculty are apparently afraid to talk about what’s going on, even in a broader sense, shows the degree of intimidation from whatever quarter that people are feeling. I would like more people to talk about what’s going on and to make that part of what we do.” Fisher also cited his previous experience at the College and expressed his desire for increased awareness of the conflict. “I would like more people to talk about what’s going on and to make that work [part] of what we do. And I’ll say one thing, I was here during the economic crisis of 2008, and it was as if nothing was happening outside the university. And I was maybe so aware of how we could build the bubble that I tried to avoid in all my classes,” Fisher said.
ORGANIZATIONS
TEDxWilliamandMary returns with ‘Echoes of Impact’ after two years
Organization hosts seven student speakers for presentation lineup with diverse stories, topics CLARE GIFFORD CHIEF STAFF WRITER
Thursday,Feb.29,TEDxWilliamandMary hosted its first event since 2022 in the Sadler Center’s Commonwealth Auditorium. Following the “Echoes of Impact” theme, the showcase highlighted a series of seven 10-minute talks that covered an array of topics from fostering inclusivity in the film industry to proposing an alternate calendar system. TED, a nonprofit media organization, made the event possible by granting TEDxWilliamandMary’s student-run team a free license to independently plan in line with the “Ideas Worth Sharing” ethos. The 2024 committee, composed of Jack Hayes ’24, Dean Waters ’25, Alisa Yang ’25, Sowmya Bendapudi MBA ’24, and visiting assistant teaching professor of Theatre, Speech and Dance Michele
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King, among others, began planning the event last spring. Reflecting on the selection process, club co-President Waters underscored the stiff competition each speaker faced for a spot and the resulting quality of the final lineup. “We had 60 applications originally, and we narrowed that down all the way to seven,” Waters said. “So, the seven speakers who spoke tonight are the best out of all 60.” The lineup featured various members of the College’s community, including Adeline Steel ’26, Icarus Landaker ’27, Jason Zheng ’26, Jazzy Lorenz ’27, Josh Farris M.Ed. ’25, Tatiana Coleman ’25 and Tom Sherman ’11. Host Shehryar Waheed ’24, a member of the marketing team, began with an explanation of the theme. “In a world that is constantly changing, where our decisions resonate through time and space, we
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Adam Jutt '25 gives advice on living with problematic roommates-among other things. page 6
find ourselves surrounded by echoes of impact, the lasting effects of our choices,” Waheed said. “Tonight, our speakers will delve into a part of this theme and shed light on the profound implications of the choices we make, and how they create echoes.” Landaker gave the first talk of the night: “Making our Mark — Student Advocacy.” In their talk, Landaker highlighted their work as a prominent queer rights activist in the face of the Virginia Department of Education’s model policies for the treatment of transgender students. “Privacy, dignity and respect,” Landaker said. “That is what they promise students. Yet that is exactly what they have proposed to take away.” Landaker concluded with a message of hope for their continued queer rights activism and for their peers. Zheng then took the stage to share his insights on
the responsibility of individuals that hold titles in his talk, “Good Leadership is a Service.” Coleman, whose talk titled “Make it About Them” paid tribute to her parents’ unwavering support throughout her life. She shared her journey of discovering her passion for film. “I find it beautiful when everyone has an opportunity to have a voice,” Coleman said. “It took me some time to realize it growing up, but then I found creative writing. But then, I found film.” After a difficult freshman year, Coleman recalled the instant community she felt after joining the film club at the University of St Andrews in her second year of the Joint Degree Programme. Despite leaving the program, this community inspired Coleman to create the WeMake Filmmakers’ club at the College, which now has its own screening at the Ampersand Film Festival.
Following Coleman, Farris emphasized the impact of faculty support in times of personal struggles in “Love Today, Liberate Tomorrow.” Farris is currently a Master of Education candidate at the College with numerous publications and serves as an educational public speaker for various school districts and state agencies. In the evening’s fifth talk, College alumnus Sherman, now a founder, inventor and community builder, proposed an update to the Gregorian calendar rooted in science, “Timing is Everything: How Small Moments Last a Lifetime.” While he pondered the concept of time while at the College, Sherman cited that he began taking his research on time more seriously once graduated. He then argued against the flawed logic of our current calendar. SEE TEDXWILLIAMANDMARY ON PAGE 4
Inside Variety
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