Page 209 – Flat Hat News

Women’s soccer: College beats Rams, falls to Dukes

Latest News

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October 20, 2009

So now it gets interesting: after splitting a pair of weekend games against VCU and James Madison — beating the Rams and losing to the Dukes by 1-0 scores — the College of William and Mary (10-6, 4-4) sits
in fifth place in the conference.

Beginning this year, the CAA will only allow four teams into the conference tournament meaning, as of today, the Tribe would finish just outside of postseason eligibility.

“Right now it is tough because it is kind of out of our hands,” Head Coach John Daly said.

Sunday’s 1-0 loss at James Madison did not make matters any easier. The Tribe outshot the Dukes 5-1 in the first half, putting three shots on goal, without finding the back of the net.

The match remained scoreless until reigning CAA Player of the Year Corky Julian tallied in the 50th minute
from 12 yards out. Despite outshooting the Dukes 10-5 for the match, the College could not find the equalizer to Julian’s lone goal.

“It was a very even game throughout the first half,” Daly said. “I thought we had a couple of easy chances, but we didn’t put them away. Then we had three chances to clear and couldn’t clear, and they put one over
our goalkeeper’s head.”

The Tribe came out on the more favorable end of a 1-0 score Friday night, with freshman midfielder Mallory
Schaffer scoring off a rebound from the right side of the box in the 24th minute. Schaffer’s goal was her fourth of the season, and gave the Tribe a lead they would not relinquish.

“She got just outside the penalty area and shot and the shot was blocked,” Daly said. “I thought our chance had gone by, but she got the rebound ball, and shot it in the top left corner of the net.”

William and Mary now sits one point out of fourth place in the conference, and just outside a berth in the
CAA tournament. The Tribe will most likely need to win at least two of their final three matches to make the playoffs, while needing help from the teams directly in front of them: Northeastern and UNCW.

“With teams like UNCW, James Madison, Northeastern and Hofstra in front of us, we could win our last three matches and still not qualify,” Daly said.

The Tribe resumes its conference schedule against George Mason at home Friday.

Graduate students instruct and learn

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October 20, 2009

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The College of William and Mary prides itself as a liberal arts university where teachers teach. However, this is not always the case. In addition to teaching assistants, graduate students who complete a qualifying exam called the ABD, or All But Dissertation, are capable of becoming teaching fellows at the College, allowing them to teach courses.

Graduate students have long been able to serve as teaching assistants under individual professors. Physics graduate students are often in charge of a lab, and American Studies graduate students are paired with professors, assisting with classes in their field.

Some feel graduate students are able to offer rich learning environs for their students because of their enthusiasm for their subject.

“We’re very positive about the experience,” Cong Feng, a graduate student at the College in the department of mathematics, said. “We are students as well. In a way, we know what students want because we have our own classes to take.”

Feng is a teaching assistant for two mathematics labs.

“Most grads only teach or assist one class per semester,” Julia Kaziewicz, Vice President of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences said. “Thus, the 15 or 20 students a grad has get all that grad’s attention. Some professors teach up to three classes per semester, plus work on various committees and are concerned with their own research. The individual attention and nurturing that an undergraduate can receive from his or her graduate instructor is invaluable to the William and Mary experience.”

Kaziewicz will teach a class in the spring on film and early American Cold War Culture.

“Most teaching fellows in American Studies teach 470 courses — junior/senior seminars,” Kaziewics said. “Those classes are formed around the specific interest of strength of the grad students. Often, ABD 470s are based on a grad’s dissertation topic.”

Feng acknowledged the deficiencies of graduate student ‘professors’.

“The majority of us can teach students basic skill and ideas,” Feng said.

However, professors have a better grasp of what ideas are interesting and relevant to the greater academic community, Feng added.

Furthermore, the experience accumulated by professors is difficult to emulate, even with the best of intentions and efforts by graduate students.

According to the National Center for Education statistics, part-time faculty and graduate students do more than half of all teaching in American universities.

This increases competition with professors for jobs.

“As for graduate students, the opportunity to teach at the College is invaluable for young professors,” Kaziewicz said. “People often forget that William and Mary is a research university and that the graduate students are getting a degree, too. William and Mary students are smart and motivated, so teaching here at the beginning of our professional careers is amazing.”

_Assoc. News Editor Bertel King, Jr. also contributed to this article._

College in contract with wrong crowd

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October 20, 2009

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Do you own a College of William and Mary T-shirt or other article of clothing? Do you know where it was made or by whom? More importantly, do you know how much the company pays the workers in its factory? Probably not, but you should.

Many of the companies that produce apparel for the College and other universities outsource their labor to other countries, employ a variety of abusive labor practices and impose sweatshop conditions and wages on their workers. In 2006, the College adopted a code of conduct requiring companies producing apparel bearing the College’s name to adhere to certain fair labor conditions. An international body, the Worker Rights Consortium, attempts to enforce the codes of conduct adopted by Universities around the world. The WRC monitors the labor practices of businesses and reports infractions of the code of conduct to universities that use it. The College requires all of its licensees to adopt and follow this code or their contract with the College will be terminated. Recently, Russell Athletics, who produces apparel for the College, has violated not only this Code of Conduct, but also labor and human rights laws at their plants in Honduras. One hundred other universities, including Cornell University, Brown University, Duke University, Georgetown University and Harvard University have terminated their contracts with Russell over these violations.

Since 2007, Russell Athletics has committed a series of flagrant workers’ rights abuses, including shutting down its only two factories with organized unions in Honduras. On Jan. 30, 2009, Russell Athletics illegally fired 1,800 workers from a plant in Honduras, which produced apparel for the College and hundreds of other colleges and universities. The illegally fired workers demanded clean drinking water, fair wages and an end to verbal abuse. The fired workers were placed on a computerized blacklist, making it impossible to find work elsewhere. Because these workers stood up for their basic human rights and an end to sweatshop conditions, they were kicked to the streets. Workers explained that on over 100 occasions, managers directly told workers that if they continued to organize a union, they would close the factory. Instead of negotiating with these workers, and setting an example for the garment industry, Russell closed the factory in the middle of negotiations between the worker’s union and factory management.

Our university’s Code of Conduct boasts, “The College of William and Mary is dedicated to conducting its business affairs in a socially responsible and ethical manner.” If that is true, why hasn’t the College joined the 100 other universities that have acknowledged Russell Athletics’ worker’s rights abuses by cutting their contract? As a WCR affiliate, the College is not only dedicated but also legally obligated to recognize this situation and terminate their contract with Russell. Unfortunately, the committee that reviews and evaluates information about our university’s manufacturing arrangements no longer exists.

As recently as last year, this committee — composed of students, faculty and administrators — was in charge of making recommendations for appropriate action regarding companies that broke our code of conduct. However, the committee is currently defunct. Consequently, our administration has not acknowledged or responded to Russell Athletics’ violations of the code. Until it does, the College will continue to make illegal purchases, and you will continue to wear apparel produced in sweatshops.

E-mail KB Bower and Kim Green at kebower@wm.edu.

Sustainability marks pass

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October 20, 2009

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Let’s face it: This is a bookish campus on which bad grades are not welcome. That is just how the College of William and Mary is, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. In this spirit, we would like to congratulate the College on its successful efforts to improve the school’s College Sustainability Report Card grade, “a measurement of campus and endowment sustainability activities at American and Canadian universities.” In only a brief two years, the College has jumped quickly from an abysmal ‘D-’ to an acceptable ‘B,’ and we look forward to seeing where it goes from here.

Decisive action brought us to this point. The College created the effective Committee on Sustainability and instituted green fees, allocating hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to the Committee’s projects. Going forward, the College has also committed to building and buying green from here on out so buildings and appliances on campus will be energy efficient. Some such changes will even begin to pay for themselves over the long run.

All of this is great, but we still have a long way to go, as the score card shows the College still falters in several areas. Our endowment management needs to become more transparent so outsiders can lobby the College to move toward investments that are good for the globe. Currently, we have a ‘D’ in this area, which is below the national average — if only slightly. Also, while we have reduced our carbon footprint by a respectable 12 percent over the last year, we are still emitting many greenhouse gases. We can and should do better, so let’s keep our eye on next year.

SBW educates students

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October 20, 2009

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The College of William and Mary boasts a highly engaged student body, but its student involvement admittedly has a few blind spots. For instance, even as international service trips are overwhelmed with applicants, many at this school are not familiar with the names of Williamsburg City Council members. For over a year now, Students for a Better Williamsburg has been working to correct this discrepancy, and if you have not yet taken notice of their efforts, it is time to do so.

The problem they wish to help solve is significant. On the SBW website, the group asserts that students are Williamsburg’s “largest and most underrepresented voting bloc.” As a result, we live under such unfriendly legislation as the three-person housing rule and the current noise ordinance — which by its letter is about as strict as they come. The tensions created while arguing over these laws then spill out into other areas of life, polarizing the community and freezing town-gown relations.

But despite the stakes, student efforts at the polls have always lagged — and not simply because local elections tend to be scheduled at inconvenient times such as the end of exams, or because we only recently finished reeling from an intentional disenfranchisement campaign. More than anything else, students must care more.

SBW hopes that if students are better informed, they will care. To this end, SBW has begun hosting on-campus meet-and-greets with local and state officials and candidates. At these events students are well-positioned to make sure their perspective is heard, and very effective dialogue has already been achieved.

The ultimate SBW goal is to elect a student to the City Council. In the meantime, the organization will help identify and support pro-student candidates and pressure those on the other side of the aisle to come around.

This will be a long struggle, but we would like to see few things more than complete success in these areas. We wish them the best with these efforts.

Know your rights when speaking outdoors, before you need them

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October 20, 2009

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The students of the College of William and Mary received an e-mail Oct. 14 from Williamsburg Mayor Jeanne Zeidler welcoming them to the city. While pleasant enough in and of itself, students could be forgiven for finding this somewhat jarring. After all, it’s an odd gesture in a relationship that generally consists of the city repeatedly telling students to drop dead in no uncertain terms.

In this context, the message that students received Aug. 23 was much more in keeping with the city’s style. That message took the form of a lovely new noise ordinance. This visionary example of lawmaking establishes a general limit on noise to 65 decibels during the day and 55 decibels at night. The ordinance also gets more specific for particular situations, but considering that 50 to 60 decibels is the volume of normal conversation, one wonders why they bothered.

With a minimum fine of $300 and no requirement that there first be any sort of warning, this ordinance is right up there with the three-person rule when it comes to the city’s love letters to the student body. One can’t help but wonder if there has ever been a noise ordinance not motivated by a desire to screw over the unfortunate group of students not savvy enough to get someone with their own interests elected.
Or, one might wonder why that decibel limit could not have been just a bit higher considering the typical age, and thus auditory ability, of the average student-disparaging Williamsburg resident.

The obvious solution is the one that has been littering The Flat Hat editorial and opinions pages for years. As Zeidler herself pointed out in her e-mail, students make up about half of the population. Maybe we could elect someone who doesn’t find the very concept of youth inherently suspect. But, such pipe-dreams aside, what can the individual student do while they wait for their fellows to be filled with righteous indignation and civic duty?

For one thing, the absurdity of the ordinance in practice could be demonstrated. With such low limits, it has made punishable a wide range of activities. Students, particularly those who have been targeted by the ordinance, need to ensure that they aren’t the only ones feeling the sting of this law.

It is true that the famed neutrality and professionalism of the Williamsburg and William and Mary Police departments might impede such efforts. Still, the folks in town who do vote and whose concerns are heard are only going to appreciate what a bad law this is if they are being reported under it as well.

Our own government could choose to get involved as well. The Student Assembly may not be able to say much of anything the city will listen to, but it still has its trusty consolidated reserve. If the city is going to try to nickel and dime students for running their air conditioners or talking on their porches, the SA does not need to sit idly by. A defense fund set up to review noise ordinance violations, on an individual basis, could look at the facts and help students pay for fines and legal costs. This would send a strong message to the city that the students disagree with this ordinance and would help students not feel like they’ve been hung out to dry when they’re targeted and fined for grilling outside.

Finally, students can assert their rights and know their options. This means knowing what the ordinance actually says, and knowing their rights under it. This is true both in regards to the city and to the College when the administration comes calling because a student was charged with breaking the law. A good first stop for this is Student Legal Services at the Campus Center.

Staffed by volunteers from the William and Mary Law School, SLS can explain the ordinance to students, let them know how the process works, and go over what can be done. SLS is staffed Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and can also be contacted by phone at 757-221-3304 or e-mail at legalservices@wm.edu.

E-mail Chris Bettis at cmbettis@wm.edu.

A better Williamsburg?

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October 20, 2009

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_Click image to enlarge._

Behind Closed Doors: Lights, camera, get busy

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October 20, 2009

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I love porn, and I’m going to hazard a guess that you do, too. Come on, admit it. You like to tickle your pickle to the sights and sounds of other people getting down.

What’s not to love? No matter what you’re into, the internet will have porn that excites you. And it’s most likely free and easy to download. There are the more common fetishes — anal adventures, big-boobed babes, cunnilingus — and there are the not-so-common, but still present, fetishes — senior citizen sex, shemale shenanigans and S&M. But why settle for another man’s fantasy? Why should you have to scour the internet just to find the freaky things that make you want to fondle your fiddle?

The solution, my fellow deviants, is simple: Make your own.

The idea of this may turn some of you off, but bear with me. There are many excellent reasons to make your own porn and only a few arguments against it.

With the ease and availability of video cameras, them there are very few obstacles in your way. There has never been a better time to make your own naughty movie. It’s a sexy time in your life, so take advantage of your youth and beauty and make your next home video one to remember.

You get to be the director. You choose the angles. You choose the positions. You choose whatever you want that gets your juices flowing. For instance, if it creeps you out when a man looks into the camera, you can tell your actor not to do that. And if you’re turned on by her moaning your name, you can put the words — and whatever else you want — in her mouth.

You also get to be the star. When I watch regular porn I always envision myself as the woman. With homemade porn there is no need to project yourself into the pleasure position — you’re already there.
You get to have a more vivid recollection of the encounter. Some sex is just too good to be lost to a bad short-term memory. So when it’s raining outside, and there’s no one around to keep you warm, you can always remember the good times and masturbate to them.

So, what’s the downside? There are a few serious, but not fatal, problems with homemade porn.

The first is that it might get out. As so many celebrities have shown us, it’s dangerous to have a video of you doing it doggie style. But good news, you’re not a celebrity, and there isn’t as much excitement if your video is released. The only people who can get you in trouble are the other participants in the film. This is why you must trust completely whoever is in your video. That shouldn’t be too big of a deal since you should trust all of your sexual partners. Problem solved.

What if you find out that your face isn’t nearly as sexy as you’d always imagined? What if your thighs look fat in the missionary position? The truth is that this will probably happen to anyone in any porn they make. But the point of is not to look perfect, because no one does. It’s ok not to be as sexy as Jenna Jameson (and hey, you’ll always be sexier than Ron Jeremy).

Lastly, what if you get creeped out by watching yourself? This is again an issue of self-esteem. There’s no reason your porn video shouldn’t do more than turn you on. It can be used as an exercise in self-confidence. Watching it can remind you just how sexy you are. Look at how you pleasured your partner. Give yourself a hand each time you watch it (pun intended), and I guarantee your self-image will improve. Not to mention the fact that having confidence in your body could help you find a new pornography partner in the long run.

Maya Horowitz is The Flat Hat sex columnist. She can’t decide between majoring in film studies or production — she has a passion for both.

That Guy: Lamar Shambley

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October 20, 2009

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__An interview at the Daily Grind with Lamar Shambley is inevitably peppered with friendly waves, greetings of “Hey beautiful” and energetic “Hellos” directed to his friends passing through for coffee. Perpetually sporting an infectiously large smile, Lamar is dressed in a gray sweatshirt with cartoon-like pictures of cheeseburgers, hotdogs and monkeys, exuding a carefree and almost goofy vibe. Underneath his contagious extroversion is an intellect gifted in the study of language, a cultural sensitivity far beyond his age and a meticulous attitude toward his iTunes maintenance. A dedicated fan of old-school hip-hop music, Lamar graces the Syndicate dance group with his moves and tells me about the upcoming, much-awaited step show with his fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha.__

*Tell me a bit about your relationship with Spanish as a language.*

I’m a Hispanic studies major, so of course all of my classes are in Spanish, and for the past three years I’ve been working in Miami teaching middle school math at a summer program, and Miami has a large Cuban population. A lot of my students are of Cuban or Haitian descent. I try to teach them math in Spanish, or have them teach me a few Cuban phrases. When I have parent-teacher conferences and meet with the parents, some of them don’t speak English at all, so I have to conduct the conferences in Spanish.

*What do you like most about travelling?*

I love travelling because I like to meet people from different backgrounds. One of my backgrounds for studying abroad was to learn what it’s like to be an American, because I had no idea. Before I studied abroad you could call me a dirty, stinking American and I would have no concept of what that means. So traveling abroad I had the chance to ask people good questions: What’s your idea of being an American? What are some preconceived notions Europeans have about Americans? I think by travelling, whether in or out of America, you can create definitions for yourself and understand where you stand in society as a whole.

*What word do people use to describe you?*

I have been described as an extrovert, which I think is perfectly fine. The thing is, before I came to William and Mary, in high school, I didn’t have a group of friends. I was mainly by myself and worked every weekend. You know [how] in high school people have that group of friends that they do everything with? I never had that strong group of friends, so when I came to college I was like, I need to put myself out there and get to know different people. In that way I’m so much more comfortable stepping outside my comfort zone. I will embarrass myself; I don’t care.

*Can you think of any standout embarrassing moment?*

Freshman year during orientation they brought in a hypnotist, and I was hypnotized on stage. Keep in mind this was the first week of college, I’m a brand-new student and he needs volunteers, so I jump up and down and he chooses me. In the show, he makes me fall in love with an apple, so I’m like happy as can be; I name the apple and I make the apple my best friend. Then he makes me hungry so I ate the apple, and sort of cried on stage over my best friend, the apple. Actually, I remember they would put apples on my tray in the Caf — I was the apple guy. I think some people would be really embarrassed by that, but I think it’s hilarious.

*So if you were caught in an elevator with only the stuff in the big pocket of your sweatshirt now, could you be alright?*

I have AT&T, so I’d probably never make it out [laughs]. But I have my wallet, which is important, [and] my iPod. I’m a huge fan of music. I’ve been listening to a lot of flamenco music because I’m on this like, “I miss Spain so much” thing and also because its 50 degrees and drizzly.

*What’s your staple music?*

Hip-hop, definitely. I grew up on Notorious B.I.G. and [the] Wu-Tang Clan — that’s the stuff my mom played in the house — Nas, Mary J. Blige, so I grew up with this type of music. People always talk about hip hop and its disgusting lyrics but I grew up [with] that; and I’m not normal, but it doesn’t make me want to go out and shoot someone. Also, I’m a huge fan of M.I.A., Santagold, the Roots. Also, on my iPod the artist has to be named correctly, the song has to be named correctly, the album has to be in order, and then I go to Allmusic.com to see what influence the artist had in making the song.

__After his experiences in Spain and Miami, Lamar is thinking about going back to Seville at some point after graduation to teach English. Take time to say hello to Lamar and check out his step show Saturday at 8 p.m. before this celebrated member of the College’s community says adios in May.__

Adventure courses create stress outlet

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October 20, 2009

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Professor Kim Whitley stood only two feet above the ground, balancing on a tightrope, and he had the undivided attention of every student in his adventure games class. He demonstrated the multiline traverse, one of the elements in the low ropes course students must attempt for the class. “How hard can it be?” he said and the students shruged in agreement. Then he took out a blindfold, and the class groaned.

Whitley has been teaching kinesiology courses such as adventure games for over 20 years at the College of William and Mary. Adventure games is one of the many one-credit kinesiology courses at the College. Many students choose these attention-grabbing courses because they look like a fun way to get credits.

“I signed up because it looked like it would be a lot of fun, and it is something that I have always wanted to try,” Lizzy Terrell ’11, a student currently enrolled in rock climbing, said.

Elizabeth Daugherty ’11 enrolled in scuba because she, too, was looking for something challenging that she had never tried before.

Other students like the kinesiology classes like yoga or tai chi for the relaxation period they provide.
“I’m finally taking those fun classes that you can only really take as a senior because they’re so hard to get into,” Emily Wilson ’10, who is taking yoga this semester, said. “I go into class stressed out from midterms or whatever, and I come out feeling like Jell-o — totally loose and ready for whatever comes my way. Yoga just makes everything better.”

The low level of studying and out-of-class work, which differs from most classes at the College, makes these classes appealing to almost every student.

“Clearing my head a few times a week in these classes has really helped me manage all of my commitments,” Max Meadows ’12, who has taken whitewater kayaking and is now enrolled in ballroom dance and self-defense, said.

Although the classes count for academic credit — up to four credits — they provide an escape from the typical classroom setting.

“Getting to go outside and do physical activities, like climbing this giant ropes course filled with obstacles like tire swings and ladders, working with people in a really fun way — it really gets your mind off schoolwork,” Paul Moore ’10 said. “It’s about conquering your own fears and trying new things, which, in general, is a good thing to practice.”

While some students enjoy the courses because they find them relaxing, others enjoy the new and difficult challenges the courses provide. Whitley enjoys helping people find their own level of challenge in the courses he teaches.

“Challenge comes in a lot of different flavors … the idea is to find your challenges and step out of your comfort zone,” he said. “Here’s an opportunity [for students] to try things they’ve never tried before and find some things about themselves. You find out a lot about yourself when you’re backing over the edge when rappelling and just have a rope holding you.”

All kinesiology classes are held on-campus at locations such as the ropes course in the woods near Lake Mataoka or Adair Gymnasium. Several courses have the additional mandatory off-campus field trips that have always been popular with the students.

“My favorite part [of rock climbing] was the class trip to Shenandoah National Park to climb some of the cliffs out there,” Terrell said.

Most of the classes that teach skills to enjoy or explore natural settings host these field trips, most of which are in-state.

“We went on a weekend trip to a lake in central Virginia,” Daugherty said. “The lake is specifically set up for scuba diving and has cool stuff underwater, like an airplane and a basketball court.”

Most kinesiology courses do fill up quickly because of their limited time commitment and fun activities, so instructors advise students to plan ahead if they wish to sign up for the course.

Even though these classes are a fun change from typical classes at the College, students do have some complaints.

“My least favorite part is the attendance policy,” Wilson said. “I think we’re only allowed to miss two classes because our grade is primarily based upon attendance. So you pretty much have to show up to class or else you fail.”

But Whitley believes that the attendance policy is more than fair.

“We want [students] to have a good time … but we make [them] earn [their] college credit,” he said. “There’s more to it then you imagine — there’s interaction with outdoors, other students and the elements that physically and mentally challenge you.”

Others are disappointed by the enrollment fee, which varies depending on the course and is based on location, traveling and equipment and safety requirements.

“The additional course fee, I think, is about $200,” Daugherty said about her scuba class. “The weekend trip costs another $20 to $50.”

Kaley Horton ’10, who is currently taking self-defense, encourages other students at the College to enroll in kinesiology classes because she feels they are a great stress outlet in a safe environment.

“[These classes] allow you to pursue different interests and skills safely, and as an added bonus you get college credit,” she said. “They also generally require little time commitment, which makes fitting them in your schedule very feasible.”

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