Members of the Williamsburg Planning Commission reached a consensus Wednesday evening that a proposed four-person rule would not be included in their recommendation to the Williamsburg City Council.
At their next work session, the planning commission plans to apply elements of PCR 09-017 to the current ordinance, which prevents more than three unrelated people from sharing a housing unit.
The Flat Hat will be continuing its coverage of the planning commission’s meeting in Friday’s issue.
William and Mary (3-5) failed to snap a three-game slide Wednesday night, losing 3-1 at home to Richmond (4-5). Despite controlling most of the game, the Tribe was unable to turn offensive pressure into points.
“We certainly had our chances,” Head Coach Peel Hawthorne said. “We had ball possession and we had opportunities to score.”
Richmond jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first 20 minutes. Forward Katelin Peterson tipped in a shot from her teammate at the right goalpost to open the scoring. Forward Dani Pycroft scored eight minutes later off a penalty corner. The College went into the half having been out-shot 9 to 4.
“We were just not being as threatening as we can be,” senior captain Wesley Drew said. “We were not attacking good spaces. We were going to the corner when we should be attacking inside.”
The Tribe came out of the break re-energized, and had chances in the second half. Sophomore midfielder Leah Zamesnik found the back of the net twice, but had both scores called back for being a step outside the shooting-circle.
“Leah got pretty unlucky today,” Hawthorne said.
Richmond took a comfortable three-goal lead in the 54th minute of the match, when Peterson scored her second goal of the day — an unassisted blast past the reach of Tribe sophomore keeper Camilla Hill. Hill, coming off two strong games, finished the contest with seven saves in ten shots on goal.
The Tribe proved they had not given up 12 minutes later, when sophomore midfielder Kelsey Nawalinski took a fast break straight at the Richmond keeper. After a tangle, the Tribe was granted a penalty stroke. Drew was chosen for the honors and flicked the ball past the Spiders’ keeper to give the College their lone goal of the night.
Richmond ended the evening with 15 shots, compared to the College’s 11. Drew led the squad with four shots, followed by junior midfielder Jenna Cinalli and junior forward Rebecca Wagner who had three and two, respectively.
Although frustrated by the outcomes of the past several matches, the College knew what they must do to rejuvenate their offense in the coming matches.
“We have to play with emotion,” Hawthorne said. “We have to keep the pressure on and shoot with conviction. Right now we are too tentative.”
Drew agreed.
“It’s just about getting more confidence with every player,” she said.
The Tribe will be back in action this weekend when they take on Radford at 6 p.m. Friday and Northeastern at 11 a.m. Sunday. Both games will be at Busch field.
The Students for a Better Williamsburg political action committee and the College Republicans co-hosted a question-and-answer session with Virginia attorney general candidate Ken Cuccinelli (R-37th) at the Sadler Center Sunday.
A Virginia state senator from Fairfax and small-business owner, Cuccinelli is running against Democrat Steve Shannon.
After giving an introductory speech, Cuccinelli faced questions from students on varous topics from criminal
justice and economic policies to abortion and same-sex marriage.
Cuccinelli made it clear throughout the session that he was heavily involved with the criminal justice system as a state senator. He claimed to have helped pass stricter DUI restrictions, reform care for mental patients and cut down on gang violence.
He also discussed his opposition to government economic regulation of businesses.
During the question-and-answer session, one student asked Cuccinelli about alternatives to the federal cap-and-trade policy, which was recently adopted in an effort to control pollution.
“The planet has actually been cooling down over the past ten years,” Cuccinelli said, reaffirming his belief that global warming is not supported by conclusive scientific fact.
Cuccinelli also said he was pro-life and that he believed that marriage should be between a man and a
woman.
After the session had ended, the 75 or so audience members had mixed reactions about Cuccinelli’s talk.
“Cuccinelli seems like he genuinely cares about the people of Virginia and the issues they face,” Nabil Siddiqi ’12 said. “Even though he may hold some archaic religious views, I felt like he did a good job answering questions.”
SBW Communications Director Kirstie Brenson ’12 said the PAC helped organize this to further educate students on Virginia’s political process.
“[Students for a Better Williamsburg] wanted someone to come who would potentially have an influence on students’ lives,” she said.
Outside, some female students were not as thrilled with Cuccinelli’s views.
“[We are] informing people how Cuccinelli denies a woman’s right to choose,” Annie Brown ’10, one of those students, said. They were not affiliated with any group on campus.
Originally intended to be a debate between the two Attorney General candidates, the event became a question-and-answer session after Shannon declined the invitation.
According to the College Republicans Chairman Thomas Chappell, Cuccinelli immediately accepted the invitation. Chappell has worked with Cuccinelli in the past by campaigning and working for the senator in the Virginia General Assembly.
According to Chappell, his and the College Republicans’ attempts to book Steve Shannon were not successful. After forming a Facebook group and sending over 300 e-mails to Shannon, they succeeded in flooding his inbox and crashing his server, but not much else.
“He finally called back, and said he would not like to participate in the debate,” Chappell said.
Both Students for a Better Williamsburg and the College Republicans believed the event to be a success.
“There were good, tough questions that really allowed Cuccinelli to show where he stands on major issues,” Chappell said.
Almost two months after a fire destroyed local pizzeria Sal’s by Victor, owner Victor Minichiello continues to rebuild his italian restaurant.
Minichiello, who has owned Sal’s for 25 years, is coping with the loss of his restaurant after it caught fire overnight on July 28 in the Williamsburg Shopping Center on Richmond Rd.
“I’m doing terrible. I feel like I lost more than a restaurant,” Minichiello said. “I spent almost every day of my life there, almost 25 years. Terrible thing.”
According to Minichiello, the investigation is still underway to determine the cause of the fire.
“They almost finished the investigation and something started in the kitchen on the stove somewhere at some point. But we don’t know exactly. It was an accidental thing,” he said.
Approximately 50 Sal’s employees were left unemployed after the blaze.
The city has been granting emergency assistance to these employees and giving them food stamps.
While many employees have found jobs elsewhere, some are still searching.
“When I’m out of town I still call to see if everybody is okay from the restaurant,” Minichiello said.
Minichiello hopes to reopen the restaurant at the same location sometime this winter.
“I want to open by Christmas,” he said. “I’m going to get everything ready to go as soon as everybody gets back. I can’t spend one more day — you gotta understand I never closed except for Christmas and Thanksgiving.”
Donations and support from the government and local residents are helping Minichiello with his rebuilding efforts.
“People have been very generous in the Williamsburg area,” Minichiello said. “I have great support from the people in Williamsburg.”
From a young age, Rector of the College of William and Mary’s Board of Visitor’s Henry C. Wolf ’64, J.D. ’66 knew what he wanted to do for a living.
“I actually knew I wanted to be a tax lawyer since I was about 13 or 14 years old,” Rector of the College of William and Mary’s Board of Visitors Henry C. Wolf ’64, J.D. ’66 said. “For some crazy reason. For the silly reasons of a 13 year-old.”
This unusual life-long dream steered Wolf to the College, since it was one of the only institutions in the state that offered a program in tax law at the time.
His childhood dream didn’t come easy, Wolf had to work his way through school.
Originally from Norfolk, he lived in Williamsburg year-round, working as a waiter in Colonial Williamsburg’s King’s Arms Tavern, a driver for the CW bus and a night auditor for two area hotels.
On top of juggling four jobs, he took summer classes, finishing his bachelor’s economics degree and law degree in six years.
Wolf took his law school classes in the basement of Bryan Hall and persevered through the late fall heat at a time when there was no air-conditioning in dorms on campus. Girls occupied dorms on one side of the Sunken Garden, while boys lived on the other.
Though much has changed since then, Wolf says there are fundamental similarities between his time as a student and present day.
“I’ll tell you something about William and Mary,” Wolf said. “Especially when you walk around the old parts of campus, [the College] doesn’t change. There is a continuitythere, and that continuity transcends the generations … We had a faculty that was here and was every bit as dedicated as the faculty is today.
They were totally committed to providing the students with the very best education that they could, and preparing students to be the leaders of the future.”
Similarly, times were hard at the end of Wolf’s collegiate years just as they are now. There was a war and an uncertain economy. Wolf served in the army for four years during the Vietnam War, earning the rank of captain in the Judge Advocate General Corps.
“I was lucky that I was enrolled in the JAG program and did not go to Vietnam,” said Wolf. “But I had classmates lost in that war, and it was a troubled time then as it is now.”
After his time in the army, he worked for the Internal Revenue Service briefly.
“In the legal world, [working for the IRS] is almost regarded as an act of perversion.” Wolf said.
Wolf then clerked for the first woman judge in the tax corps and later joined the Norfolk Southern
Corporation, a shipping and transportation company. Despite planning on staying with the company for only a short time, Wolf retired in June of 2007 as vice chairman and chief financial officer after a 35-year career with the company.
Former Gov. Mark Warner appointed Wolf to the BOV in 2003, and Gov. Tim Kaine reappointed him in 2007.
Wolf has also served as vice rector of the board since 2006. During its April meeting, the BOV unanimously
elected Wolf as rector, after Michael Powell stepped down when his second term expired. In 2006, the
William and Mary Law School renamed its renovated library in Wolf’s honor as the Wolf Law Library.
Wolf currently serves on the boards of AGL Resources, Inc. and Hertz Global Holdings, and he is a trustee of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
The BOV’s newest rector says that when he graduated from the College, he could not have imagined returning to his alma mater as the rector of the BOV.
“That world was so far away from where I lived that that thought never entered my mind,” Wolf said.
However, he believes the College shaped him for what was to come.
“In many ways William and Mary very much prepared me to be the rector of the College. I just wasn’t aware of it.”
Solutions to the College of William and Mary’s Greek housing situation could come in the form of a new fraternity village.
“We are looking at that as a possibility,” Vice President for Student Affairs Ginger Ambler ’88 Ph.D. ’06 said.
“I’ve heard from several students that that’s appealing.”
Last week’s meeting of the Board of Visitors established the expansion of on-campus housing as one of the priorities of the College.
“Part of the strategic plan is increasing bed space by 200 to 250 beds on campus,” Ambler said.
According to the Council for Fraternity Affairs President David Cooper ’10, members of the College’s administration and the Greek community have shown support for a “Greek village” community of fraternity housing as an answer.
“I know that ResLife had expressed interest in building new dorms in the next four to six years and I know … that Ginger Ambler and everyone else was pushing for a Greek Village type scenario,” Cooper said.
The recent struggles of fraternities at the College have compounded an already difficult housing situation.
“If I could wave my magic wand and change one thing, it would be that we have new housing,” Associate
Director of Student Activities Anne Arseneau said.
Ambler would not confirm that the College is currently committed to building a village for College fraternities.
“The administration recognizes problems with fraternity housing,” Ambler said. “We’re working with students to come up with several options … Could it be a Greek village? Yes, it could be a Greek village. In the future, that could happen … [but] we are not even at that point yet.”
Cooper said that the administration’s discussions of a Greek village show that the College is serious about addressing the dilemma faced by fraternities.
“That just reinforces the fact that it’s on all of their radars — Greek Life, Student Activities, ResLife — as something that needs to be addressed,” Cooper said.
Ambler said the College is looking into different arrangements for fraternity housing based on the College’s needs and abilities.
“There are multiple models to work with,” she said. “Our current model is that the facilities are on-campus facilities run through ResLife.
“Other colleges have models where the land is leased to and operated by the national fraternity organization. We want what works best for us.”
While some administrators, including Ambler, have said finding solutions to the fraternity housing problems are priorities, no schedule has been set to remedy the situation.
The location of any future housing construction is also uncertain. Any new construction would have to be
preceded by a land survey to find suitable building sites.
“Before we did anything, we would conduct a feasibility study to see what kind of housing model works best for our campus,” Ambler said. “There was an extensive feasibility study done several years ago when they built the Jamestown dorms on Barkesdale field. We would use that as a starting point.”
Cooper said fraternity housing could be built at locations where new on-campus housing had been discussed in the past.
“A lot of the places that I had initially heard of were the woods behind Dupont, behind Botetourt, behind the Rec Center where the College actually has space to build,” Cooper said.
While the future of fraternity housing remains unclear, should new Greek housing be constructed, the function of the units as housing would not change.
“We need all the residential space [we can get] on campus,” Ambler said. “[The units] would all be used by students on campus in some capacity … There’s no plan for to tear them down. They would remain part of the ongoing maintenance plan.”
Cooper said that the fraternity units should become freshman dorms.
“I personally think they make a great location for freshman housing,” Cooper said. “They’re similar in style and type to Botetourt, and it can create a stronger freshman community up there with Yates, Botetourt, Dupont and then the units.”
According to electronic residence surveys conducted by ResLife, the continued use of the units might not be welcomed by all residential students.
“The data set from the pool of members [surveyed] showed that, in general, fraternity members and residents were less satisfied [with their housing] in many areas,” Arseneau said.
Arseneau said that negative opinions about the units are not new, and that the unsatisfactory surveys could stem from fraternity members dissatisfied with the Greek housing situation.
“I think the critical issue is the continued frustration,” Arseneau said. “[This] data has not been significantly different in 2008 as in 2006 and 2007. More of the huge negative response comes from anger over the removal of the buyout policy.”
As discussions continue, Cooper said that he hopes the Greek community is involved in the planning of any future housing construction that could end a problem that has long afflicted fraternity members.
“I and the rest of the people involved with the Council for Fraternity Affairs will have, I hope, a lot of input into the final say,” Cooper said.
Although the solution may not come in the form of a Greek village, Ambler said that the College supports fraternities on campus.
“Whatever we do will support Greek life on campus,” Ambler said. “The whole reason we’re looking at all is the current housing situation doesn’t support fraternities.”
Fellow sexaholics, I come to you to address a problem that is pervasive on our campus. The campus is replete with cases of this terrible disease. It’s more persistent than herpes, more frequent than the common cold, and more threatening than swine flu. It’s not being able to find enough time for sex in your busy schedule.
Now don’t worry, delicate readers, I won’t go into all the varied symptoms and horrible side effects of this grievous disease. Rather, I’d like to set up a few candles, get some massage oils out, and give it to you nice and slow.
Typical students at the College of William and Mary — twamps, if you will — are prone to taking on more activities than they actually have time for. With five classes, a club rugby officer position and volunteering duty with READ/Adopt-a-Grandparent, it’s hard to find time for food, let alone sex. But your body needs that loving nourishment.
Some find themselves sprawled out on the floor naked, masturbating ceaselessly and without fulfillment because they can’t stop thinking about that organic chemistry exam in the morning. Others shiver in bed, late at night, wishing for a good romp as they close their eyes and fall into troubled sleep.
For people in relationships, this problem leads to another that I like to call the no-one-wins-and-everyone-is-unhappy conundrum. Because there is so little wiggle room in your schedule to spend time wiggling, your interactions with your significant other either become all sex or all talk. You end up having to decide whether you want to further the meaningful side of the relationship or get out your sexual tensions doggie-style.
For singles, not being able to find time in your busy schedule for sex often means you spend your weekends trolling for hotties who you never intend to talk to again because who has the time to arrange all of that? This can be a fun opportunity, but in the end, it’s not sustainable as a way of life. At least not outside the comfy white picket fences of the College.
At this point you may be saying to yourself, “Why isn’t Maya helping us? She’s just exacerbating the problem by elaborating on its various manifestations.” To this I say, “Get ready for the solution, bitches.”
The cure is so simple — make time for sex. That’s it. Love, lust and flirting are just as important as eating, defecating and sleeping.Recognize that getting down should be put down on your schedule. Not penciled in, but sprawled in big letters with a permanent marker.
What it comes down to is that life is too short to wrap yourself in activities and never emerge from your cocoon. College is about experiencing life, not just about improving your grade point average or beefing up your resume. It’s ok to do those things, too. Lord knows we all do it; we’re twamps. Your schedule should always include an open slot for loving, as well as other outlets such as taking walks and playing video games. CSO will survive without you, but your genitals are attached and are not letting go. Feed them, Seymour.
This column has been brought to you by the prestigious Center for Disease Control and Containment, which is run out of my garage. Stop by for a free consultation and condoms, or just go to the Fish Bowl, which is a little more legit.
It’s time to take precautions to control this threatening disease before it takes over campus. The first step — heading to the Fish Bowl for free condoms.
__Maya Horowitz is The Flat Hat sex columnist. You should see her calendar; she has an Orgo exam Wednesday.__
__Without her faint but detectable New England accent, Alyssa Wallace’s Boston, Mass. roots would barely be recognizable, considering her quirky soft spots for country music, rodeos and cowboy boots. This uprooted northerner studies government and history at the College and serves as the senior class president and president of Phi Sigma Pi, as well as in various posts in a number of student organizations. This busy bee takes a stand on human rights, enlightens me on South African culture and tells me what “sassy and fantastic” political figure she idolizes.__
*If you had to describe your experience at the College in a word, what would it be?*
I think I would go with “diverse,” but not in the traditional sense as much. All of my friends from home have very different college experiences. I think a lot of them go to schools where they are sort of the stereotypical student for that school. In spite of what people will say terminology-wise, there really is no typical William and Mary student. There are so many different kinds of people here, and really the only unifying factor I find among all the students here is that they are intelligent and passionate. That, to me, is so powerful, and I think it has an effect on every one of our daily lives. I think my friends from home that go to different schools don’t have quite as powerful an experience as I’ve been having.
*You are studying history and focusing on African studies. How did your interest in Africa come about?*
I kind of accidentally stumbled upon it. I got here and really wanted to study American government and American history, and then my freshman year I took History of Modern South Africa and it absolutely changed my life. The professor is amazing: I’ve had him four times since, been his research assistant, and he’s my advisor for everything. I just completely fell in love with the subject matter and became really passionate about African history and African studies in general, so I also ended up studying abroad two summers ago in South Africa on the College’s first-ever service study abroad.
*Does your interest in Africa play into what you want to do in the future?*
I want to go into human rights law, and I think my interest in Africa is what really drove me to want to be a human rights lawyer. I just think that people tend to think of most human rights violations as things of the past, and they’re not — there are plenty still going on. Most of my study has been on South Africa, so that’s my best point of reference, but I really want to expand that in life. In the case of South Africa, everybody assumes, “Apartheid happened, but now it’s over and things are great,” but that’s not the case. There’s still tons of racial inequality and disparity that’s not going to be made up for anytime soon, and there’s still plenty of violence and racial violence and resource-competition violence and things like that, and tons of xenophobia in Africa.
*What aspect of African culture are you most interested in?*
I’m more interested in the history than the culture, but I’m actually doing an independent study on the music of the anti-apartheid movement, and it’s really cool and a lot of fun. What I’m trying to look at is the extent to which history shaped the music, but also to what extent the music shaped the history, because in the South African — and I think a lot of African — cultures music is such a big cultural component of life, and I think how that shapes what goes on in a society is really interesting.
*What’s an embarrassing experience you’ve had at the College?*
I’ve fallen down just about every set of stairs on this campus. I’m kind of famous for it everywhere.
*If you could go back and visit an era, which one would you choose?*
I would definitely go back to the 1960s: I would really want to be there for especially 1963 and 1968, just because I find both of those years so noteworthy in general and I think it was kind of the last time in history that people our age as a generation together cared about a cause and cared about something. I just think it’s absolutely inspiring looking back at what people our age were doing at that time — granted I’m sure they were doing all kinds of illegal things as well, but at the same time they cared, they protested, they spoke up, they didn’t take “no” for an answer. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?*
I’ve always and still want to be a Supreme Court justice when I grow up. That’s my pipe dream goal for sure, but I also really wanted to be a writer, too.
*Who is your favorite public figure?*
Sandra Day O’Connor, actually. She’s my idol because she was the woman who opened the door for women being on the Supreme Court. She was the first one, and that is a very powerful precedent. If you’ve seen her come speak here, she is old and sassy and fantastic. She also, of course, has had some really powerful decisions on the court and opinions. She was supposed to be a conservative, but she surprised some people by doing things that agree with my liberal values.
*What music do you listen to?*
I have really diverse taste in music. Billy Joel is one of my all-time favorite human beings. I just think he is one of the best songwriters of all time. I mean, you can’t take that away from [Bob] Dylan and so forth, but I also love Jason Mraz, and I’ve been a Matchbox Twenty fan even during the years when it wasn’t acceptable anymore, I absolutely adore Rob Thomas, I think he’s a fantastic musician. That’s the thing, I really like people who I think can be classified as good musicians — people who play and sing and write. And also, my guilty pleasure — which plenty of people know so I have no shame in admitting it — is that I love country music in spite of being from the north.
*Any other southern obsessions?*
I’ve been a cowgirl for Halloween like a thousand times when I was younger, and I was a cowgirl last Halloween, too. Any excuse to wear cowboy boots is great; I mean I wear them all the time anyway. I also actually went to a rodeo for spring break last year. It was the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in Texas and it was incredible. I am allergic to horses, that wasn’t awesome, but it was totally worth it. The whole cowgirl thing and being allergic to horses doesn’t add up, but it was still amazing and such a bizarre experience and so foreign to my personal culture and where I come from.
*What’s something you spend too much time doing?*
Working for things and not for my classes. Working on Senior Class Gift, working on student government, working on Phi Sigma Pi, working on anything I can. I definitely spend way too much time bonding with my e-mail account and sending e-mails for things, and I don’t spend nearly enough time relaxing — I don’t know what the word “relax” means.
*What’s something you wish you did more of?*
See, I don’t even wish I relaxed. People always tell me that — my family always tells me that — but I don’t really know what that means and really, I’m not content being stationary. I much prefer being around, doing things, being up, being with people. I’m almost never by myself, and I love that.
*What’s your most frequent late-night Wawa purchase?*
Well, probably string cheese. Always, actually. I started a trend last year among my friends because I bought a string cheese every time I went there, and then one of us would be going to Wawa and have to come back with like six of them because we were all studying together and stuff. I’m also a caffeine addict, but only tea, the ginger peach kind. I really like flavored black teas, but I also love chai — I’m an absolute chai addict.
*What’s something you spend too much money on?*
Caffeine. I absolutely spend way too much money on tea and chai and things that I can make myself at home.
__At the end of the interview Alyssa picks up the phone that’s been beeping periodically throughout the interview and proceeds to shoot several texts at lightning speed. She tells me that she gets made fun of for being a mad texter and explains that she texts with “abnormal fingers,” or a thumb and an index instead of both thumbs. Just watch out for her on stairs around campus, and look her direction if the cheese stick box at Wawa is empty.__
During his sophomore year at the College of William and Mary, Nishant Kishore ’10 lost a bet and had to wake up at 5 a.m. for his first crew practice. Instead of being intimidated and exhausted by the two-hour workout, Kishore says it was exactly what he was looking for in a sport.
“Controlled fury,” Kishore said about the experience. “You put everything you have into the drive and then release on the recovery. It’s relaxing and invigorating at the same time.”
This is the passion the team has been working hard to inspire in new recruits in order to continue to grow in size and reputation. With a new coach and many new rowers, the crew team spent the past few weeks building their team relationship.
Not everyone is thrilled by the idea of blister-building and muscle-straining at dawn five days a week, so the crew team has to work hard to sell itself to potential new members. In addition to the ubiquitous flyers with the simple message “WMRC WMRC WMRC,” new attractions such as a recently built dock have helped increase interest.
T.J. Wallin ’10 credits recent membership growth to ideas from the executive board and the team’s new coach, Nathan Walker. One idea, a summer crew camp for high school students aiming to attract potential new rowers, paid off. 60 potential newcomers showed up for the first practices this year.
Building a good team requires attracting initial interest, and also being able to keep it. This year, the team had a freshman bonding week from Sept. 7 to 13. From Monday night capture-the-flag to Thursday night s’mores, the new members had a chance to bond with their fellow freshmen as well as the upperclassmen. The activities were meant to kick-start the familial relationship the team develops over time.
“It helps the freshmen get to know the varsity members as more than just the scary varsity team. They get to know them as friends,” Kishore said.
Freshman bonding is just the start. They have a photo scavenger hunt around campus and Colonial Williamsburg — taking pictures in trees, with reenacters and the like — in their spandex unis. The relationship the team builds on the water carries into the rest of their lives.
“We spend too much time together,” Lorelei Thomson ’12 said. “But it never stops being fun.”
The team has its own parties and socials, and members can be seen grabbing dinner together in the Commons or catching a movie together in someone’s room.
“In most sports, if you’re a man down, you still compete,” he said. “If we’re a man down, we won’t race. Our dependence on each other fosters our bond.”
He and Kishore have developed such a good relationship through crew that they decided to room together this year.
The team builds a relationship based on mutual respect and trust. Every teammate works just as hard as everyone else and has earned his or her place on the team. The rowers have to prove their skills to earn a slot in the varsity-level boats.
“No one is guaranteed a slot [in the experienced boats],” Kathleen Murphy ’12 said. “It’s about what works best for the team, and not the individual.”
Some new recruits who have rowed before, called experienced novices, may be turned off initially by the team’s policy that new members must row as novices for the first month; they can begin to move up into the more experienced boats if they have the talent. Murphy explains that this is so that everyone can get used to the boats and rowing at the collegiate level.
It isn’t just the rowers who have to prove themselves to the team — the coaches have to as well. Walker started as head coach last spring, coming in with years of experience rowing at Purdue University and respect from the rowing community at large. But it’s his hands-on approach that helped him bond with the team.
“[He’s] awesome,” Jamie Hall ’13 said. “He recently rowed, so he has the rower’s perspective. And he even does some of the exercises with us.”
Walker explains that it is sometimes a challenge for him to be able to provide the rowers with the best resources and tools to live up to their potential.
“It’s like an iceberg. You can’t always see all of what goes into [rowing]. The equipment has to be sufficient and up to date. You have to choose between regattas – one will give you more competition, but it’s farther away and more expensive. You’re constantly adding up the pluses and minuses of every choice.”
Walker believes that it is the hard work of the athletes that makes the club so successful.
“Students at William and Mary are the most completely dedicated, both inside and outside of rowing. Their passion rubs off on me.”
With a new coach, lots of new members and a positive mentality, the College’s rowing team is going to be making great strokes this year.
Few things unanimously strike fear in every college student: arriving at class and realizing today is the midterm; forgetting to get your major declaration form in by the deadline; and, regardless of what you’re doing, seeing a police officer pass by.
The police at the College of William and Mary want to change the stereotype that they are here to get students in trouble. Leading this movement is William and Mary Police Department Captain Ed Schardein, who joined the College’s community last June after a 22-year career with the Portsmouth Virginia Police Department.
“I come from the city of Portsmouth where policing was well-integrated into the community,” Schardein said. “I want to bring that here and increase our relations with the students. I heard there were relations that weren’t spectacular.”
Schardein wants to improve the relationship between police and students by getting police officers involved with student life in any way possible.
“We need to get officers out there to do community projects with students,” he said. “Walking through the campus, riding bicycles, doing programs in the dorms or the fraternities. We are trying to get out there.”
Megan Hermida ’11, a freshmen resident assistant in Yates Hall, is one of many who have noticed a change in how police are interacting with students.
“[The police] are really trying to reach out to the student population and get rid of all those scary images of them,” she said. “They are trying to be more visible — new programs, particularly through RAs, who can act as a liaison between them and the students.”
Through these programs, Campus Police aims to establish a higher level of trust between officers and students. According to Schardein, establishing this trust is fundamental for a safe campus.
“There’s no way that we can solve all the problems on campus and know what’s going on,” he said. “Students hear and see things we don’t see. With their knowledge and hopefully support and trust, something we want more than anything else, if you trust us to do the right thing, then you’ll call us when something’s wrong. Just give us a call, that’s what we’re here for, and we’ll work our damnedest to solve a problem. ”
WMPD Chief of Police Don Challis agrees.
“We understand it’s important to make relationships with students and they won’t see us as a resource unless they’ve already made a connection with us,” he said.
Challis stressed that students should not be afraid to establish positive relationships with police.
“The more relationships there are between us and the students, city and students, neighborhoods and students, that diffuses a lot of the anxiety and issues,” he said. “Once you know someone, you’re much more willing to work with them.”
Schardein stressed that it is important for students to know that Campus Police officers are not out to get students.
“Most of the time, when we arrest people for [being] drunk in public, we have to care for their safety,” Schardein said. “We have to make sure they make it to the next day.”
Rosemary Willis ’12, who is new to the College, has noticed the constant and visible presence of the police around campus.
“Whenever I’m walking around campus I see the Campus Police,” she said. “I haven’t seen them going after someone yet, but I feel like they’re watching and ready to help if someone needs it.”
However, some students see the increased presence of police on campus as a threat instead of as a reassurance.
“The visibility on campus has worked, but maybe not as the police liked it to be,” Hermida said. “Because students think increased visibility means they are trying to catch students.”
This negative view of police has been heightened recently due to regulations enforced by the Williamsburg Police Department. Relationships between students and police are unquestionably strained, but there is a strong difference between the Campus Police and the city police.
Schardein believes the Campus Police do not deserve the negative image. He said he wants students to differentiate between the campus police and the city police.
“When you have a student or two that might not get along well with other people, that word gets out and starts growing,” he said.
Campus Police officer Israel Palencia agrees. “In general, I believe that most students don’t have a negative view of us. I think what happened was that those that did have a negative encounter with the William and Mary Police Department were a vocal minority.”
Eric Rydin ’10, a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity and former resident assistant in Yates, has mixed feelings about Campus Police.
“I can’t tell you a specific, personal experience of mine where they were really helpful,” Rydin said. “In general, like when the frats have parties, they are really helpful in trying to help students not get in trouble; but when it comes to police-related things, not so much.”
Mary Judge ’11 agrees that when police focus on controlling frat parties, other aspects of students’ safety become neglected.
“I’ve been to a lot of parties busted by police, and they always say the girls should get home safely but I’ve never seen them follow through with that,” Judge said. “I feel like they are not actually concerned about our safety, just with busting up parties.”
Sarah Cosgrove ’10 thinks that police can keep students safe by having a greater presence on campus outside of Ludwell.
“When I lived in Ludwell, the campus cops would always bust up parties, but never once did I see a cop car sitting on Rolfe Road keeping campus students safe who walked home at night,” Cosgrove said. “The police station is only two blocks away, it would be a pretty simple way to help students walking home to feel safe to have a car sitting there, but they just don’t bother.”
With increased visibility on campus and more involvement in the community, Campus Police hopes to strengthen its relationship with students.
“[Officers] are approachable,” Schardein said. “I walk through campus a lot, and it’s amazing how many students won’t look at me or immediately look away. We can talk to each other. Yes, police are the ‘other guys,’ and we understand that, but we want to be on the same team. We’re all a part of the same campus.”
The Flat Hat has been the College of William and Mary's student newspaper since 1911. It covers the College and the surrounding area of Williamsburg, VA, printing on Tuesdays of the academic year.
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