William and Mary narrowly escaped a loss to New Haven Saturday night, making just enough key plays to pull out a 13-10 victory over the Division II Chargers. The Tribe improved to 2-1 on the season.

Senior running back Jonathan Grimes — who caught a touchdown pass in the third quarter — carried a career-high 32 times for 129 yards in the win, but the headline from Saturday is the quarterback controversy brewing.

Starting senior quarterback Mike Paulus was benched after a first half in which he went just two of six for 7 yards and an interception. The teams went into the locker room knotted at three, but on the Tribe’s first possession in the second half, head coach Jimmye Laycock made the switch to sophomore Michael Graham, who led the College on a lead-taking touchdown drive to start the third quarter. After starting the season as third on the depth chart behind Paulus and sophomore Brent Caprio, Graham finished the game at six of eleven for 112 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions.

Laycock said he didn’t know who would start when James Madison comes to take on the College in Williamsburg next Saturday.

Interceptions from junior corner back B.W. Webb, senior corner back Terrell Wells, and junior linebacker Jabrel Mines highlighted an outstanding defensive performance from the Tribe.

After the College took the lead to start the second half, New Haven answered in the fourth with an eight play, 80 yard drive that culminated in a 17-yard touchdown throw by quarterback Ryan Oseicki to receiver Demetrius Ellis-Washington to tie the game at 10.

Later in the fourth, Graham hit senior wide receiver D.J. Mangas up the seam for a gain of 56, setting the Tribe up for a 28 yard field goal from sophomore kicker Drake Kuhn to give the College a 13-10 lead with five minutes, 28 seconds left in the game.

But New Haven looked like it was ready to at least tie the game up on its next possession. Chargers quarterback Ryan Oseicki threw complete to receiver Jason Thompson, who darted down to the Tribe’s 18 yard line for a gain of 39. On the ensuing third down, though, Mines picked off Oseicki’s throw at the goal line and ran it back to the College’s 35 yard line.

The College will stay at home to open its conference schedule next Saturday against JMU. Check back for a complete breakdown of the game.

Every year, high school seniors venture to the depths of the College of William and Mary’s Admissions Office basement for what can be 30 nerve-wracking minutes. This short meeting has the potential to help determine whether or not they will gain admission into the College.

Approximately 1,700 potential Tribe members brave the heat of the Williamsburg summer to interview for a spot in the College’s freshman class. This year, due to record interest in the College, these senior interviews will continue through the fall.

“The interviews have filled up every single year, but this year the demand was far exceeding supply,” Senior Assistant Dean of Admissions Wendy Livingston ’03, M.Ed. ’09 said.

Because the interviews are conducted by College seniors, they are unique to the College among peer institutions in Virginia.

According to the College, the student-to-student format is designed to be evaluative.

“Offering personal interviews as part of our admission process accurately reflects the degree of personal attention students who enroll at William & Mary can expect to receive here,” Associate Provost for Enrollment and Dean of Admissions Henry Broaddus said in a press release.

Briana Sewell ’12, rushed from her afternoon Adventure Games class to the Admissions Office to conduct an interview. As one of the 12 College seniors who spent the summer conducting interviews at the College, she agreed to continue conducting interviews through the fall.

“Even though I’m not going to be here next year, it’s so exciting to see the excitement and potential of these upcoming students,” Sewell said. “They are so excited to get involved in everything I cherish so much about the College.”

By offering high school students the opportunity to talk to a student one on one, the students may get a better feel for the College, while simultaneously allowing current College students to evaluate whether or not the applicant will positively add to campus. Statistics indicate that applicants who interview at the College have a two to five percent greater chance of being accepted. Only about 20 percent of applicants actually have an on-campus interview.

“The more opportunities we have to showcase that personalized side of William and Mary, the more we can show them what William and Mary is all about,” Livingston said.

Because so many high school seniors interviewed at the College this summer, the admissions office had to create an interviews waiting list, made up of more than 600 applications, for the first time in its history.

With a larger-than-usual freshman class joining the Tribe this year, the College of William and Mary seems to be doing something right as an institution, yet the school fell from number 31 to number 33 on the 2011 U.S. News and World Report College Rankings of National Universities, released Tuesday.

This annual report ranks schools based on a variety of factors, from the freshman retention rate to the reputation of undergraduate academics, which are entered into a weighted mathematical formula to determine a school’s overall score. The College has held firmly to its coveted position in the top 50 schools over the past few years, and this year tied with New York University at its position as number 33 on the list.

Though it dropped two spots in the rankings, its overall score actually increased, from 67 to 69 (out of 100).
This year’s top 50 includes numerous prestigious schools, including the eight members of the Ivy League, whose rankings range from Harvard and Princeton, tied for number 1, to Cornell at number 15. Among the College’s regional competitors, Wake Forest University and the University of Virginia tied for number 25, while the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill came in at number 29.

“I have a very jaded view of the rankings,” College President Taylor Reveley said. “It’s always nice to do well in them, but truly, it doesn’t mean squat in terms of substance.”

Associate Provost for Enrollment and Dean of Admissions Henry Broaddus shared the president’s sentiment and elaborated.

“It’s called the ‘beauty pageant’ by a lot of folks,” Broaddus said. “I think good rankings are a lot like honorary degrees — they’re not really substantive, but you’re always glad to get them.”

Generally, the rankings are important to College administrators only in that many people do take these results very seriously.

“They’re important only because people pay attention to them,” Reveley said. “Whatever the ranking, we tend to do well.”

Although the U.S. News and World Report results generally hold the highest prestige in the minds of interested individuals, many other measures exist.

“This is one data point among many others,” Provost Michael Halleran said. “It doesn’t drive our decisions.”

The fact remains that the College generally does extremely well on these types of surveys.

“Consistency — we look for consistency,” Director of University Relations Brian Whitson explained. “The College consistently does well.”

But one significant impediment preventing the College from rising further in the rankings may be the biggest problem it currently faces: a lack of financial resources. Though it ranked well on the list of national universities, the College actually holds the worst spot in terms of financial resources out of all of the schools in the top 50.

“We talk about doing more with less,” Whitson continued. “And when you look at an overall ranking of 33 and a financial resources ranking of 97, it really shows that the College is indeed doing more with less.”

Despite their uncertainty about the accuracy of such ranking systems, administrators expressed pride in the College’s position.

“If you’re doing well in all of them, that means something,” Reveley said.

To kick off Constitution Day celebrations, the Marshall-Wythe School of Law and Williamsburg community held a Constitutional Conversation Wednesday night at the Williamsburg Regional Library Theater. Constitution Day commemorates American citizenship and the anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787.

A panel of four speakers participated in the Constitutional Conversation, which was moderated by Coordinator for History and Social Sciences in the Virginia Department of Education Beverly Thurston. Wednesday’s event marked the start of an eight-month Constitutional Conversation program.

“It is a great community-based project,” Director of the Constitutional Conversations program Julie Silverbrook J.D. ’12 said. “It is a way for law students to reach out to the community and teach them about the Constitution and Constitutional law, and it is meant to get people involved with politics at the local, state and national level.”

The panel consisted of Bill White of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Director of Instruction at the Youth Leadership initiative of the University of Virginia Center for Politics Meg Heubeck and Director of Civic Education at the Center for the Constitution Kelly Carmichael Booz.

“We are going to be talking about what is civic engagement, the difference between civic and civics education,” Heubeck said. “I do that here at my job because I direct the youth leadership initiative which is an online teacher resource for 50,000 teachers across the country. We provide really excellent teaching resources on civics and government.”

Heuback works to provide teachers and the general public with more information about civic engagement. She provides free public programming throughout the year both online and in other ways.

Similarly, Booz works to increase civic engagement through programs with middle and high schools as well as a new online initiative.

“I have been working on the launch of an online course where you can, at self-pace, learn about the Constitution,” Booz said. “For me, civic education is about how our government works, what our Constitution is, and how it functions for us every day.”

Booz, Heuback, White and Silverbrook joined to discuss why civic education is essential to a healthy democracy.

“I think it is really important to talk about it,” Booz said. “The topic is right up my alley. The education today is so focused on testing, testing, testing and No Child Left Behind continues to focus on reading and math at the expense of subjects like social studies. It is very important to understand how our government works, how it functions, and how we can be active participants in our society.”

Other festivities include a concert in Merchant Square on Saturday night and the launching of a new webpage and an online field trip for the public.

“The web-based programs are new this year,” White said. “We are expanding so that we are not just celebrating this year on site but that we are celebrating with some of our visitors that will be off site too.”

The online field trip is free to any school that registers. There were already 3,000 sign ups in the previous week. Along with the field trip, the foundation has just started a new webpage to provide more information about the Constitution.

“We just launched a new web page on our site called Connect, so next week there will be a live interview with George Washington and James Madison on the Constitution,” White said.

Both the Constitutional Conversation and the upcoming Williamsburg events continue to celebrate a tradition in the first Capitol of the United States.

“In May of 1776 the Virginia convention met in the Capitol Building here in Williamsburg. They declared independence and the first thing they did was to fashion a Declaration of Rights,” White said. “When you read the Declaration and then read the Constitution you can see where these ideas came from. That process started here in Williamsburg. There is no better place to celebrate it.”

Another Constitution Day event was held at the library Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
A third event will be held on Sunday, September 7 at 7 p.m.

This story was updated on Sept. 16 at 12:15 p.m.

Some College of William and Mary students may take the buses that circle campus and the greater Williamsburg area for granted — with a quick flash of their ID cards they are able to climb on, sit back and travel across town.

The story is different for Williamsburg residents.

The Williamsburg Area Transit Authority presented several proposals at a forum Sept. 13 which would use fare increases, starting in Jan. 2012, to compensate for rising gas prices and the expiration of federal grants.

“We want to provide flexible, reliable and affordable options for community members,” WATA Communications Specialist Lindsay LeGrand ’09 said. “However, 22 percent of our budget is made up of expiring grant funds … we must supplement the loss of these grants in some form.”

The lack of community feedback, the close proximity of the voting date and the obstacles involving the amendment process make it likely that these measures will pass.

If the current proposal is passed at the Sept. 21 meeting of the WATA Board of Directors, the fare for a daily pass will be raised from $1.50 to $2. Trolley fares will increase from 50 cents to $1 and middle and high school students will have to pay 50 cents per ride. The fare for a single-ride will remain $1.25.

“WATA passes really save you a lot of money, especially if you’re a frequent rider,” LeGrand said. “For those who don’t want to or can’t pay for the fare increases, there is another option.”

In order to offset these rising costs and create more affordable options for the community, WATA plans to begin offering a seven-day pass, a book of six daily passes and a 30-day pass.

Although they do not have to bear the brunt of the price increases, College students too are paying more for bus services this year. While College students are not charged per ride, each student pays a flat price per semester under the General Auxiliary Services fee charged by the College. This year, the fee was increased by $1 to $27 per semester.

“I use public transportation daily,” Malcolm Keeton ’13 said. “But this will only affect me indirectly — the bulk of the price hikes will not be on students but on the community.”

Higher education has incorporated many new technological innovations, but professors’ adoption of classroom clickers may create more opportunities for students to cheat the system.

Larger classes have increased the need for clickers, devices resembling television remote controls, which are registered to students and used by instructors for a variety of purposes in class, including taking attendance and answering questions.

“Clickers, although not perfect, can really help to accomplish several things in the class,” sociology professor Thomas Linneman said. “In sociology, you’re talking about controversial issues, and if you want to take a poll on how a class feels about something, a show of hands can be very uncomfortable sometimes, but a clicker allows for that in-class anonymity.”

According to technical support engineer Joseph Cunningham in the IT office, there are at least three professors currently using clickers, primarily for larger classes in which it can be difficult for professors to keep tabs on student behavior.

A drawback of the clickers is the potential for truant students to give clickers to friends who attend the class, creating the illusion that they are present and answering questions. This could be a problem for faculty who use clicker participation to calculate students’ grades.

“With something like clickers, there definitely is the potential [for cheating],” Cunningham said. “But the benefits for professors and students would outweigh that, and students who choose to do that are only hurting themselves.”

Linneman said he has not had problems with the clickers and cited the Honor Code.

“I’ve never encountered a problem like that,” Linneman said. “I state in my syllabus that coming to class with your clicker and your friend’s or roommate’s clicker would be considered an Honor Code violation. It is a possibility, but I really hope that would be an anomaly, for a student to come with an armful of clickers.”

Though the likelihood of such an event as cheating is possible, the College’s emphasis on integrity counteracts it.

“I just feel like kids here are really responsible, and I just feel like people who bring in their friend’s clicker and stuff, if they have to do that continuously that’s just going to be a massive burden on them,” Aditya Yellajosyula ’13 said. “I feel like most students wouldn’t agree … kids that go here have a good sense of what do to in a situation.”

A study performed earlier this year by psychology professor Danielle Dallaire focused on the effectiveness of clickers in classes at the College. The results indicated students benefitted academically from clicker use, but only when the devices were used in a limited and relevant manner.

“It’s not a causal study, it’s all correlational, but the association is there and if students think they’re wasting their time doing these other types of activities and it’s not necessarily connected to the academic content of the class, then you might see some students not doing as well,” Dallaire said.

Having utilized clickers for classes before, Dallaire focused on educational opportunities.

“Develop a question where students think they know the right answer to it, and it may be a fairly straightforward question, but in the end … 50 percent answer in one way and 50 percent answer in another way, and then you use that as a point of discussion,” Dallaire said. “And you have students talk to each other about it as well as with the professor.”

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli gave a lecture on the state of federalism at the College of William and Mary’s Marshall-Wythe School of Law Thursday, touching upon and justifying his controversial decisions to attempt to rein in the federal government.

The attorney general, who has proven to be a lightning-rod conservative figure in Virginia politics since the start of his term in January 2010, was hosted by the Law and Public Policy class.

Cuccinelli has had many prominent decisions to date as attorney general. In March 2010, he advised Virginia state universities that sexual orientation could not be included under anti-discrimination policies. He has investigated the emails of climate-change scientists at the University of Virginia, claiming that their research violated the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act. Backed by Liberty University, he recently became the nation’s first attorney general to file a lawsuit challenging the healthcare reform law. The suit was dismissed by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.

“When I ran for office in 2009, I promised people that if the federal government crossed certain lines — as they were threatening to do at that time — we would push back. I just didn’t expect so many opportunities to keep my promise,” Cuccinelli said. “We don’t have enough folks who are principled restrainers of the federal government in Washington, and when that’s the case, state attorneys general become the last line of defense.”

A former state senator who represented a Northern Virginia district from 2002 until the start of his term as attorney general, Virginia’s top lawyer argued that government is best when limited. He noted in the beginning of his lecture that the federal government’s size has grown due to public demand for the government to respond to social problems, which has led to what he views as a state of inefficient bureaucracy and limited individual liberties.

“As we have moved through our country’s history, the American people, urged on frequently by the political class, have demanded that government take care of more and more problems, and government has been more than willing to accommodate that trend,” Cuccinelli said. “And all government asks is that we give up a little more of our liberty.”

Law professor James Heller, who organized the event, said that he invites “conservative” and “liberal” speakers each year. Previous speakers have included chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice and radio show host Jay Sekulow and capital defender David Baugh.

“Having people like Ken, Jay and David speak to the law school community and have a conversation with our class gives students a better sense of how public policy and law intersect, and how real people deal with difficult issues every day,” Heller said in an email. “Needless to say, I like having people with strong opinions.”

Cuccinelli, whose last public visit to the College was in September 2009 during his campaign for attorney general, is expected by many to run for Virginia governor.

“You hear a lot of discussion, especially as we approach 2012, about the exceptionalism of America. And it is an exceptional nation,” Cuccinelli said. “What makes us exceptional, historically in my view, is our commitment to individual liberty. When government gets out of the way of this greatest people in the history of the world, we do amazing things. We do amazing things. There’s a lot of hope and opportunity there if government would get out of the way and, frankly, obey the law.”