Vol. 115, Iss. 11 | Wednesday, October 22, 2025
The Flat Hat The Weekly Student Newspaper
of The College of William and Mary
flathatnews.com | @theflathat
Students and faculty gather to witness the inaugural walk across the new pedestrian skybridge; opening Tuesday, the bridge cuts straight through the woods that separate new and old campus, heightening students' access.
KYLIE TOTTEN / THE FLAT HAT
Student Affairs opens new pedestrian bridge, increasing accessibility efforts on campus LIAM GLAVIN // FLAT HAT NEWS ASSOC.
Tuesday, Oct. 14, students and community members from the College of William and Mary gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony hosted by Student Affairs to commemorate the opening of a new pedestrian bridge connecting the Student Life Neighborhood to the new West Woods housing complex. The event began with brief remarks from the Senior Vice President for Student Affairs and Public Safety Ginger Ambler ’88, Ph.D. ’06. Ambler explained how this pedestrian bridge came from the university’s comprehensive facilities plan for housing and dining. The comprehensive plan, unveiled in 2022, is a long-term proposal for modernizing and revitalizing campus residential and dining facilities. “That [plan] envisioned moving students to both sides of campus through this beautiful walkway, envisioned as the Student Life Walk,” she said. “And so, today, we are celebrating the completion of the Student Life Walk.” Ambler was appreciative of everyone who contributed to the project. “I’m just so grateful to everyone over these last 10 years that has dreamed, visioned and, especially in the most recent months, labored hard to bring this to place,” she said. Amber specifically thanked Kelly Crace, former associate
vice president for Health and Wellness; Maggie Evans, associate vice president for Campus Living; Ambler Hall, project manager; Dan Pisaniello, university architect ; Tim Dean, director of Design and Construction; Ron Russell, construction manger; Sean Hughes, chief business officer and Marra Austin, deputy chief business officer, for helping bring the pedestrian bridge together. After Amber’s remarks, Student Body President Zoe Wang ’25 MPP ’26, class of 2027 Sen. Mayer Tawfik ’27, Stamps and 1693 Scholar Cedrick Dimaranan ’27 and Thomas Riley ’27, representing the Residence Hall Association, had the honor of cutting the ribbon. Once they cut the ribbon, everyone at the ceremony participated in the first official walk over the bridge to the West Woods complex. After the event, Dimaranan explained how his environmental proposal helped with the construction of the bridge. He recalled a conversation he had with professor Randolph Chambers, who teaches biology at the College and serves as the director of the Keck Environmental Field Lab, where Chambers asked Dimaranan if he had any ideas for a sustainable policy proposal that could be funded by the College’s Green Fee Fund. Dimaranran initially proposed paving over unfinished walkways around campus with permeable pavement, which
would improve sustainability by reducing water runoff and erosion in these areas. He took this idea to Tony Orband, associate director of Grounds and Gardens. “I presented this idea to Tony Orband, and what he told me was that because these [unfinished pathways] are part of active construction zones, it probably wouldn’t be the best idea to do something permanent like that because of the fact that they’re going to get paved over,” Dimaranran said. Obrand instead suggested to Dimaranran about incorporating his permeable pavement idea into the pedestrian bridge project and have it be funded by the Green Fee Fund. Dimaranran went with the idea. “Essentially, what transpired afterwards was me typing up the [new] Green Free proposal and collaborating with Amber Hall, who was the project manager, and then also Dan Pisinello, the university architect,” Dimaranran said. Dimaranan’s new proposal called for placing permeable pavement on the pathway, near the McLeod Tyler Wellness Center and Sadler Center, that led toward the bridge. His proposal won a $60,000 grant, paid by the Green Fee Fund, which covered the cost of upgrading the impermeable asphalt that was originally going to be on that pathway to See CAMPUS page 3 permeable pavement.
POLITICS
Journalist Asma Khalid visits College, speaks on U.S. political media landscape
Outlines intersection between current domestic, international politics, cites key topics SAM BELMAR FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
Tuesday, Oct. 14, BBC News journalist Asma Khalid delivered a talk at the College of William and Mary on the news media’s role in shaping United States foreign policy. Alma Mater Productions hosted the event, which took place at 7 p.m. in the Sadler Center’s Commonwealth Auditorium, for both student and faculty audiences. Khalid drew upon anecdotes from both her current role as co-host of the BBC’s daily international news podcast, “The Global Story Podcast,” which launched in September, and her experiences as a former White House correspondent and co-host of “The NPR Politics Podcast.” Khalid also regularly contributes to ABC and PBS’s television news programming as an expert on American politics, among other domestic outlets. Khalid opened the lecture by sharing her recent decision to transition into an international media career after previously covering American politics exclusively for American networks. She described
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the fundamental difference between how domestic and international outlets cover American news that inspired her to expand her horizons. “I think a lot of folks who know me are confused: ‘Why would you have left American politics at this particular moment [when] there’s so much going on?’” Khalid said. “And the truth of the matter is that I felt a lot of times like we were covering domestic politics as if it was something that was distinct and not connected with the rest of the world.” Khalid cited a stor y she covered that morning on the Argentinian president’s meeting with President Donald Trump on tariff policy as an example of domestic and international news’ interconnection, arguing that U.S. networks give such stories short shrift. “That’s a story that I think would have just been a blip as a traditional White House correspondent,” she said. “But it gave us a chance to really connect the dots.” Khalid then proceeded to the main portion of her lecture, where she outlined what she considers to be the “attention
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wars” playing out in the contemporary media environment. She described the rising polarization in America that stems from both social media users and government officials consuming fragments of a full story, drawing hasty conclusions on complex geopolitical conflicts such as the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. “ The stories that people see and the stories that people don’t see shape how we understand the world,” Khalid said. “G overnment people, foreign leaders, our own world leaders, all react to it. They are reacting and responding to the media environment.” Khalid compared the “frenetic ” feedback loop between contemporar y media and foreign polic y with news coverage norms of the 1960s and 1970s. She highlighted the Vietnam War as the first time Americans could view the reality of an international conflict directly, bringing attention to global issues previously overlooked at the domestic level. “Over the years since then, I’ve often heard my colleagues in the industry refer Inside Variety
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to something called the ‘CNN effect,’” she said. “It’s the idea that when images are televised into people’s homes, say particularly as CNN does on a 24-hour news basis, that it could possibly change perspectives.” Khalid mentioned the Sudanese humanitarian crisis of the early 1990s as an example of when the “CNN effect” led millions of Americans to pressure foreign policy officials to take more direct action. This contributed to the government’s decision to increase humanitarian assistance to the Sudanese people. “ To b e abundantly clear, I do not b elie ve for a s e cond that j ournalists actually le d the g overnment ’s resp ons e,” Khalid said. “ But what it did was help curate attention. I think that ’s really imp or tant b e caus e it forces and elicits a resp ons e from ele cte d officials.” Khalid explained how the relationship between news and government has only intensified in the 21st century, emphasizing the role of contemporary media in boosting the plurality of perspectives, while also becoming more fragmented and polarizing.
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