Home Blog Page 278

Searching in vain for a place to call home, hang posters

-
0

In my dreams I live in an off-campus house. I have a kitchen, a bathroom and a bedroom with decorative wall art. Unfortunately, this dream will never materialize.

p. Like many students at the College, I spent the past month looking for an off-campus apartment. After hours of pleading, searching and weeping, I am still homeless.

p. Dormitories do not bother me, but I want some place to call my own. My parents pay for my dorm room, my meals and my education. This financial dependence makes everything about college feel false. My dorm is the physical manifestation of my parents’ overbearing love, and I want a house to demonstrate my independence.

p. “Look at me, Mom and Dad,” I would say. “Look at how capable I am of paying bills on time and washing dishes.”

p. Sure, I can do those things in a dorm, but there’s a certain peace of mind associated with living on your own house. Can you imagine watching “Garfield: The Movie”? Okay good, but can you imagine how much better it would be if you were watching “Garfield: The Movie” in your own house? Renting a house is an important step toward adulthood. In a house, every action is imbued with an extra degree of independence. Scrambling eggs becomes a joy — an affirmation of your freedom from dining halls. The city of Williamsburg, in making housing so difficult to get, has impeded my growth. Like a carefully pruned bonsai tree, I remain in a state of stasis.

p. Last week my roommates and I visited a realtor in our desperate effort for independence. We had spent the previous month bothering friends and acquaintances who currently live in houses, hoping that one of them would recommend us to their landlord. They did not, so I found myself entering the homes of strangers with our realtor. My friends and I wanted to see the potential houses as soon as possible, so we booked an early morning appointment.

p. “Hello, is anyone awake?” our realtor yelled before we entered every house. “I told them I was coming,” she explained.

p. I have always hated confrontation. In high school I used to stare at my feet when I walked, for fear that the sight of my face might incite animosity in others. I have not grown out of this disposition, and I felt slightly ill in every house we entered. Sometimes no one was home, which was nice. In these vacant houses I mostly noticed what sorts of posters the occupants displayed; posters are a great indicator of personality. I noticed a lot of tapestries hanging from walls, and several ironic college posters. My favorite house also featured my favorite poster: a mutant leprechaun drinking a mug of hickory-colored beer.

p. As I entered the rooms, I imagined what posters I would put in each. Perhaps one room would house ironic posters from foreign countries. In another chamber, I would affix Polaroid pictures of all of my friends. I would paint the walls of my bathroom white and invite friends to write whatever obscenities they wanted with sharpie markers. A year from now, when potential tenants would inquire about my house, my wall decorations would greatly impress them.

p. Unfortunately, some tenants were home. Sometimes the tenants looked hungover and ignored us. In one house, the only remaining tenant locked herself in the bathroom.

p. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to come out,” our realtor said. “I understand if you feel awkward.”

p. I understood, too. I would lock myself in the bathroom if I woke up with strangers in my house.

p. “Enjoy the ironic posters,” I would shout through the locked bathroom door, “but don’t touch anything.”

p. Once our tour ended, it become clear that my friends and I would not qualify for any of these houses. None of us have rented before, and no one has any credit. Regardless, my friends and I still filled out the application form and paid the necessary fee. I did not want to spend my senior year in a stifling Jamestown single without having tried to get a house.

p. In keeping with the current trend of campus thought, I should blame Gene Nichol for the lack of housing. I am sure that he has ticked off someone, somewhere, resulting in my inability to rent a house. Or perhaps he arranged for a family of sex performers to lease that quaint Cape Cod-style house I liked so much. And, surely, he purchased my coveted Indian Springs cottage with plans to open up a brothel. Whenever life sucks, I blame Gene.

p. So Gene, I have a proposition for you. You know that spacious Georgian mansion you live in? How about you let me live there next year? In exchange, I will forgive you for all the terrible things you have done to me. I will even let you and Glenn live in my cramped dorm room. It’s not much, but somehow we’ll make do.

p. James Damon is a Confusion Corner columnist. He yearns for decorative wall art.

Editorial Cartoon (Feb. 12)

-
0

Staff Editorial: Student for city council

-
0

David Sievers ’07 announced his candidacy for Williamsburg city council Feb. 10, 2006. Now, two years later almost to the day, all’s quiet on the student front. We’d have thought the more than 700 new student voters would have been all the impetus necessary to draw the would-be legislators out of the woodwork.

p. Sadly, this has yet to happen, and by this point it will be difficult to assemble the resources needed to conduct an effective campaign. In 2006, Sievers set aside an entire semester, postponing his graduation, to make his bid. If someone has adopted a similar tactic this year, we have yet to hear about it.

p. Given the Student Assembly’s enthusiasm for registering voters, we had assumed its members would display an equal penchant for guiding a student into office. Few, if any, organizations on campus command the SA’s familiarity with and ties to city politics.

p. Unless someone emerges to advance the student agenda, however, the 700-plus students the SA helped register will have little incentive to vote come election day; students could well be silenced after that Tuesday in May.

p. If, for example, none of the candidates support changing the three-person-to-a-house rule, then it will no longer affect electability. On the other hand, if a student candidate runs with an intent to change that policy, others will be forced to moderate their views for fear of losing student votes.

p. Sievers offered that alternative viewpoint in 2006, losing by a relatively small margin. Now, students’ newfound suffrage in Williamsburg could usher in a new age of city politics, but only if someone is willing and able to lead the charge.

Staff Editorial: Nichol decision looms

-
0

__Editor’s Note: The following editorial was written prior to College President Gene Nichol’s resignation. It could not be changed before press time.__

More than five months ago, the College’s Board of Visitors pledged to have College President Gene Nichol’s fate determined this spring. Two days ago, the board members skipped town having said nothing.

p. At the risk of sounding impertinent, this failure to handle Nichol’s tenure with any expedience betrays a board that either cannot or will not make a difficult decision. The time has come for something — anything — regardless of how unpalatable the consequences may seem. Powell said he does not want to wait until the last minute. With the board’s next and last scheduled meeting coming in April, that last minute is approaching.

p. To be sure, whatever may come, the response will not be pretty. Any decision will alienate at least one group, but we trust no lasting damage will come of this; blog posts and protests are fleeting. Those affiliated with the College — students, alumni, faculty and staff alike — must understand that when the BOV decides, it will be a time to unite and dress the wounds.
One and a half years of strife cannot be allowed to tear apart a centuries-old institution.

p. If alumni stop donating in protest, if potential professors flee an internal struggle, if students refuse to accept the deal, our ability to provide a world-class education will suffer. For all the focus on the immediate, the future must inevitably involve cooperation among former factions. We are big enough for that.

p. The BOV members, too, must realize the role they will play in keeping the peace in the wake of their actions. A decision to remove Nichol should consider the possibility that doing so could jeopardize the strength of the applicants vying to fill the position. Potential college presidents are not smoke jumpers — we suspect they won’t be rallying to dive into a fire storm.

p. Hopefully when that decision does come (the sooner the better, for the College), everyone will exercise the the good sense to leave the incendiaries at home. We suggest bandages instead.

Warm weather brings false hopes

-
0

Last week was quite a week. After much anticipation from political pundits and activists alike, Super Tuesday exploded in a blaze of indecisive glory; the Patriots’ devastating loss to the Giants in the Super Bowl brought women and men across the country (or, me, at least) to tears; and word on the street, and in every media outlet that cares to report the thrilling goings-on in Williamsburg, is that some sort of performance art show came to campus.

p. So, like any conversation that has over-exhausted its key topics, I will default to a subject anxiously on people’s minds, on the tip of everyone’s tongue, longing to be set free in campus discourse — the weather. It’s hot. Also, it’s February. Excitement abounds!

p. Aside from all the obvious downsides to freak weather phenomena — fear of global warming, prophecies of the apocalypse, wardrobe confusion — it seems like warmer temperatures beget warmer dispositions. I feel like I’m on top of the world when I can walk out of my house in just a T-shirt. Everything is at peace and all I want to do is sit in the grass for hours, nonchalantly sipping a delicious Odwalla and daydreaming away the rest of the semester.

p. What’s more, I feel like everyone is so much friendlier. Instead of continuing the default mode of most College students, awkwardly shuffling through campus and avoiding eye contact at all costs, people have been saying “hello.” It’s as if the unnatural warmth has melted everyone’s uncomfortable, socially awkward exteriors and united us in a bond of summer love.

p. Despite all the usual complaints students have about living in Williamsburg, we all came here for good reason. Yes, the College is a fine academic institution, alluring to anyone desiring a solid liberal arts education, but let’s be honest — many of us just took a tour of campus on a gorgeous spring day and fell in love. The flowers, the trees, the perfectly aligned colonial brick patterns, all of the cutesy characteristics that make my mother beam with aesthetic glee. On warm days, we all love Williamsburg. We get transported into a reverie of Sunken Garden ultimate frisbee, of spontaneous acoustic guitar performances on the UC Terrace, of sunbathing in Sorority Court — all the fun activities that unrealistic brochures represent as “college life.”

p. The only flaw in this attractive fantasy is that, as we have already determined, it is, in fact, February. In about a week we’ll all be bundled up in hoodies and scarves again, dying of the bubonic plague and sullenly awaiting Williamsburg’s signature swampy spring season. The sneaky batch of warm weather that snuck upon us this week brought with it illusions of summer and, unfortunately, the illusion that I don’t have any more papers to write.

p. But, alas, we are only four weeks into the semester — I haven’t even taken my first midterm (hell, I haven’t even started reading the books for some of my classes), and here I am, already daydreaming of a carefree post-grad summer celebration.
Curse you, warm February days, for giving me a false sense of hope, for veiling my all-too-real responsibilities under a guise of carefree relaxation and for tempting me with your long, glorious afternoons of napping in the grass. In a few short months, I will finally have my true day in the sun.

p. __Devan Barber is a senior at the College.__

Fraternities should not be judged by the actions of a few

-
0

On behalf of the College’s fraternity system, I would like to take some time to respond to the ridiculous and insulting presuppositions that were presented in Max Fisher’s Jan. 29 column “Fraternity reputations stained by stereotypes.”

p. While I (and I’m sure the rest of the fraternity system) appreciated Fisher’s acknowledgement of our benefits to him personally — “my freshman year would have been much duller without it” — I should point out that the goal of fraternities is not to entertain freshmen. In fact, speaking as a fraternity man, I’d prefer not to have social events in our houses because of the negative effects these parties bring about: an absurd amount of trash and the possibility of theft from our rooms, to name a few. But the fact is that the structure of fraternities at this school inherently and necessarily leads to the kinds of problems that Fisher pointed to in his column.

p. As we are all aware, the social scene at the College leaves something to be desired; if you are not convinced of this, take a look at a College guide or two (most equate our “nightlife” with Wawa). For those newcomers to the College who want to actively meet new people and be social, Fraternity Row is probably the most logical place to go. And, of course, for fraternities to keep our places in the Units, we need new members to join our respective houses, so the relationship is symbiotic. However, this leads to a slew of potential problems.

p. With certain quotas that must be met for fraternities to stay on campus, there is a huge incentive to gain many additional members. And since the rush period lasts for only two weeks at the beginning of the semester, gaining a full assessment of a potential member is nearly impossible.

p. For this reason, I find it extremely unfair for Fisher’s article to place any blame on Beta Theta Pi as an organization for the actions of one of its members. Except for members of Beta, no one knows about their selection process (or those of any Greek organization for that matter) and the speculations Fisher puts forth about which character traits fraternities look for in potential members are unfounded. To suggest that a true understanding of a person’s character can be assessed by his actions during his first weeks at the College is ludicrous.

p. Unfortunately, fraternities must make big decisions based on very limited information when it comes to recruitment. But this is not to say that fraternities select potential members haphazardly — quite the contrary, actually. I am confident that during Will McClain’s rush period he did not exhibit any behaviors that would suggest embezzlement in his future. Perhaps we should be more concerned with the College’s admission of a student who would steal from a non-profit organization rather than question his admittance into a Greek organization after he matriculated.

p. To bash the fraternity system at the College based on a few isolated incidents is not only ridiculous, it is a prime example of uninformed and misleading journalism. McClain is many things besides a member of Beta. He is in the business school and he is involved in other organizations.

p. If we are going to hold Beta responsible for seeking the wrong character traits in its members, then shouldn’t we naturally assume that the Mason School of Business also seeks the wrong qualifications in its applicants?

p. Could we not accuse the Mason School of Business of being more to blame than any other group because of its faculty failing to teach McClain proper business ethics?

p. Or maybe we should point our fingers at McClain’s parents for not instilling good morals in him. In fact, let’s hold everyone with whom McClain has ever interacted partially responsible for this incident.

p. My point is that McClain’s unlawful (and frankly, despicable) actions are his own and no one else’s. And he will deal with the repercussions of those actions, which I am sure he is prepared to do. But it is fallacious to make generalizations about any organization based on isolated incidents involving its members.

p. Greek organizations have enormous positive impacts on our campus through long-lasting philanthropies and community service. For example, Phi Kappa Tau runs a very successful tutoring program in which many sorority members also participate. Beta’s College Charity Bowl and Pi Kappa Alpha’s annual wiffle ball tournament are additional examples of the positive impact that fraternities have on campus.

p. While, of course, actions like those of McClain and others cited in Fisher’s column tarnish the fraternity image, they in no way cast shadows over the positive social and philanthropic actions of the system as a whole.

p. __Dan Kirschen, a brother of Phi Kappa Tau, is a junior at the College.__

Mayor talks town and gown

-
0

__Zeidler discusses 3-person rule, rental inspection and student voting__

The Flat Hat talked with Williasmburg Mayor Jeanne Zeidler Wednesday, Feb. 6, at the Jamestown 2007 building on Francis Street about the relationship between students and the city.
Flat Hat: You’re the mayor of a tourist town, a college town and a retirement town all in one. What do you think of this dynamic?
Mayor Jeanne Zeidler: I think it’s great. I love the diversity that’s here — I think people come here and people live here who value that. They either work at the College, they work in the tourism industry, they may work at businesses that support that industry or the College, and I think the fact that we have so much variety is great. It’s a very special place.

p. **FH: How do you balance the conflicting interests of the three distinct groups?**

p. **Z:** As carefully as possible, trying to listen to everybody and hear their needs and figure out what is fairest to all and the greatest good for the long-term future of the city. When you try to take into consideration the long-term future of the city, you have to take into consideration the health and the vitality of William and Mary, of Colonial Williamsburg and of our neighborhoods and other businesses here. For long-term goals, our interests are all the same — sometimes it’s tactics and how you get there.

p. **FH: How would you describe the relationship between students and Williamsburg’s permanent residents?**

p. **Z:** I think it’s actually pretty good — different than some people’s perceptions. But I think it’s pretty good, and I think it’s growing and improving all the time. We had a wonderful — actually really great — Williamsburg Neighborhood City Council meeting at the College of William and Mary last Saturday morning, and there was a wonderful panel of students representing not just student government, but other organizations — APO and the organization that is working on international service projects and also the environmental group. And I think it was a terrific dialogue. It was great information and a very warm feeling there. I think in a lot of different ways, people focus on the negatives. I think there’s a lot of positive going on. Last week also, the new Student Chamber of Commerce held their first public meeting. There was I think a very, very healthy showing of local business people and again great feeling of warmness and welcoming on both sides.

p. **FH: Why do you think it is that people perceive animosity between students and the city?**

p. **Z:** I think there are points of disagreement — not the city itself but some neighbors and neighborhoods, and I think there certainly is in some ways misunderstanding and in some ways not misunderstandings about certain of the city’s ordinances and the goals that they’re trying to achieve, and all of that leads to suspicion and mistrust. Until people start talking to each other honestly, frankly and frequently I think that kind of perception of “we’re at odds” is there, so we just have to keep working on it.

p. **FH: What is the purpose of the three-person rule and do you think it targets student renters?**

p. **Z:** The three-person rule was put into place in 1991, and I cannot tell you exactly what the motivation for that at the time was because I don’t know. I can tell you what I believe the goal is of that rule and what people in the neighborhoods would say. The idea is to continue to sustain a quality character in what were built as single-family neighborhoods, and that number three — I can’t tell you that that’s the best number or the only number. It happens to be the number we have at this point. But that number three is a number that people, at least in 1991 and for the years since then, have felt comfortable with as a good number that would prevent many, many people living in a neighborhood with too many cars in neighborhoods that weren’t built for cars. It’s a neighborhood protection issue that maybe could be addressed some other ways, but we haven’t found what that is yet.

p. **FH: How do you justify the three number when it comes to houses that have four bedrooms?**

p.**Z:** The three number is justified only by the fact, I think, that we haven’t figured out how you would enforce differential numbers. The City Council has been on record as being willing to work and talk about other alternatives. There have been some discussions in the past years with committees of students, but they haven’t really produced results. This year our city manager and some representatives of the Student Assembly and from our city attorney’s office and our code’s compliance and our neighborhood council are all working to sit down again to look at what is permissible by state law — what will protect the neighborhoods but perhaps provide some other options. We’re very willing to look at this, but it’s not an easy problem to solve unless you just say, “no three person rule,” but like I said if you just sort of abolished it all then we would open the door to the ability of a whole lot of people in one house, which is not only not healthy but probably not good for neighborhoods.

p. **FH: What is the purpose for the rental inspection program that allows the city to inspect rental homes every time tenants change?**

p. **Z:** That program was put in several years ago because we saw in some neighborhoods with older homes that, particularly rental units, were not consistently being taken care of, and we heard over a period of times reports, stories and complaints from students and others — and students’ parents — about conditions in some of these rental units that were unsafe and unhealthy. The City Council decided to take an active approach to trying to maintain the housing stock in the city so that these units don’t deteriorate, but also to take an active approach to trying to fix up those units and houses so that we do not have the kinds of tragedies that we’ve heard about on other campuses or near college campuses like Maryland when there was a really horrible fire a few years ago where some students died and the carbon monoxide problem that was at Virginia Tech earlier this year. We do not want to hit national newspapers by having places where students and other renters are not safe and in unhealthy conditions. We’ve had the stories of an undergraduate who spent her year with no hot water in her house because she was afraid to complain. One of the most egregious cases that our rental inspection people found was a house that a student lived in that had a gas leak that was undetectable by smell — so these are potentially deadly. That’s the goal of the program — to try to keep these programs safe and good places to live.

p. **FH: Is it used as way to enforce the three person rule?**

p. **Z:** It is not. People have said that since the beginning of this program, and we’ve said repeatedly and our city attorney has said repeatedly that the goal of this is safe housing. It is illegal for us to use this as a way to enforce the three-person rule — we don’t do it. You can’t do it anyway. If somebody goes in to inspect a house when people are changing occupancy, how do you know how many people are moving in and how many people moved out? And if they’re moving out it doesn’t matter anyway. So it is just not used that way, and it can’t be used that way.

p. **FH: The state allows these rental inspection programs in districts that are considered blighted. Would you consider the area around the College blighted?**

p.**Z:** Well that’s a pretty harsh term, but what we know is that there are some properties there that were not being maintained well and maybe some others that still are [not being maintained well]. That’s a term that is a legal term that’s imposed upon us, so I guess we have to say there’s some blight in those neighborhoods.

p. **FH: The Flat Hat recently ran a report about the city’s policy of buying rental houses and asserting clauses in the deed that requires the new owners to live in them. Why has the city decided to convert rental houses into owner-occupied houses?**

p. **Z:** First off I wouldn’t say this is exactly a city policy. It is an experiment that the city is trying and has tried in a few neighborhoods. The idea of imposing owner-occupied clauses in some houses in some neighborhoods is to try to keep a balance of rental and owner-occupied in neighborhoods because we think — and I think — having a balance creates a healthy neighborhood and good housing opportunities for a range of people. I’m sure you’re aware and have seen the reports recently of the shortage we have in this city of affordable housing not only students who want to live off campus but for people who work in our businesses and industries around here – lower-income people and to create some of these units with owner-occupied clauses can help keep some section of the housing stock available to lower-income people….

p. **FH: Do you think it’s the city’s responsibility to take part in the market and manipulate it?**

p. **Z:** It was really the Redevelopment and Housing Authority that did this, and that certainly is part of their mandate — to create home ownership and opportunities and also opportunities for low to moderate income people. That’s the job they were set up to do.…

p. **FH: The Harrison House that the Housing Authority purchased will likely lose thousands of dollars when it is sold. Would you consider the experiment a success?**

p.**Z:** That would be a conversation I’d like to have with the Housing Authority and with my colleagues and see what ultimately happens to that house. It was really taking something that was in not very good condition and then rehabbing it. The city lent the money, $270-some thousand to the Housing Authority, to make the project go, but then the Housing Authority put in another over $100 thousand in rehabbing it. So, you know, what’s the measure of success? One measure might be that that house is now in far better condition than it was before. But then another measure might be selling it and not losing any of the money you put into it. That’s really a Housing Authority decision….

p. **FH: One of the biggest complaints among students is that there aren’t enough student-oriented businesses around campus. Why do you think this is and do you think it will change in the future?**

p. **Z:** I think it’s a function of a couple of things. One is the land costs around here, that it takes a lot to invest in it, and you have to have either people who are very interested in the College and wanting to do something that’s good for the health of the College and the community and invest in a business that would be attractive to students and others. I came here in 1971 to go to graduate school at William and Mary, and there were many more student-oriented businesses around the campus at that point in time, but that was really before a lot of things were built on campus. It has to make business sense for businesses to invest, and so some of the student money is being spent on campus — how big a factor that is I can’t tell you. What I know for a fact is that for several years the city has been working diligently with the economic development office on campus to identify locations that would be good for student-oriented businesses…. Last year when we did some rezoning, we removed the parking requirements for new businesses downtown and around the campus area, and in doing that, we provided a lot more opportunities for more commercial enterprises and businesses to come in because they don’t have to come in and buy the lot next store and tear down whatever businesses there and put parking in. The idea is that there is such a large population of people on campus within walking distance of businesses around here that we don’t need those parking requirements, and this would ease some of those restrictions for businesses…. Chipotle, for example, is very interested in coming now because of that work and has committed to opening a place here actually in 2008, so it’s really been a long-term effort first trying to identify where they could go…. So I think that from my perspective, yes we have a long way to go — we’re not there yet — but we’re doing everything we can think of to make it attractive and to encourage those businesses to come including using our economic manager’s time and contacts and expertise to try to attract them….

p. **FH: What caused the sudden reversal in students ability to vote and do you think that can change again?**

p. **Z:** I cannot tell you exactly what caused it because that is a function of the voter registrar, but clearly the new voter registrar interprets the law in a different way than the last voter registrar did. I seriously doubt that there would be a going backward of that. I think there’s a precedence set in this office, and that’s the situation we have now and will have going forward.

p. **FH: More than 700 students have now registered to vote in Williamsburg. How will this impact local politics and do you think local politicians will now be more responsive to student issues?**

**Z:** First off, I think local politicians have been responsive to student issues. What this potentially does is engage more students in the issues and in the process, and therefore their voice will be louder and hopefully the result of that will be that people will understand their positions and their wants and needs and desires better, and in that sense, yeah, I think it will make the city government more responsive. We have to understand what people need and want.

p. **FH: Do you think there is more student activism than there has been in previous years?**
**Z:** I actually do think there’s more student activism and I think that’s good.

p. **FH: What do you think has caused that?**
**Z:** Probably a number of things, but I think it’s a general tone in our country. The people are turning again back to being more interested in non-profit organizations and the environment and what they can do as citizens to make a difference and make a change, and I think that’s reflected through this, and I applaud that.

p. **FH: You were at WM in the 1970s. What issues were students protesting back then, and were you involved?**
**Z:**When I came to William and Mary, it was the Vietnam War, and yes I was…. I was pretty active in the student anti-war movement and in the women’s movement and in other social movements of the late 60s and early 70s.

p. **FH: What think of city government back then?**

**Z:** Well, I thought that the city government was run by a few elite people back then.… [One of the reasons I ran for] City Council in Williamsburg was to try to be a voice for fairness and for everybody and for positive change.

In 1945, a call for equality silenced

-
0

__Flat Hat chief fired after writing for racial integration__

Sometimes all it takes is a single voice to incite an uproar.
Marilyn Kaemmerle ’45 did just that when she was fired as editor-in-chief of The Flat Hat after writing a 1945 editorial that called for the College — and the country — to change the way it looks at race.

p. In “Lincoln’s Job Half-Done,” Kaemmerle encouraged racial equality while denouncing notions of white supremacy.

p. “The Negroes should be recognized as equals in our minds and hearts,” she wrote. “For us, William and Mary; this means that Negroes should attend William and Mary; they should go to our classes, participate in College functions, join the same clubs, be our roommates … and marry among us.”

p. Kaemmerle also placed the College’s race relations in the context of World War II.

p. “The most important work, however, must be done in educating ourselves away from the idea of White supremacy, for this belief is as groundless as Hitler’s Nordic Supremacy nonsense.”

p. While this article may seem quite radical for Kaemmerle’s days, it was rather conservative. She tempered her assertions by declaring that racial integration at the College “cannot and should not be done today, or tomorrow, — but perhaps the next day. Neither they nor we are ready for it yet.”

p. Yet these mild words caused an uproar at the College. The day after the editorial was published, then-President of the College John Promfet informed Kaemmerle that the Board of Visitors wanted her either expelled from the College or removed from her position as editor-in-chief of The Flat Hat. In a Feb. 21, 1995 article of the Virginian Pilot entitled “Ex-W&M Editor Recalls Equal-Rights Column Furor,” Kaemmerle recounted the experience.

p. She said, “He asked that I sign a statement saying I thought a censored paper was in the best interest of all concerned. And I said, ‘Well, I can’t do that. I’m not the editor.”

p. According to the article, the issue was settled when Kaemmerle was removed from the newspaper, and the remaining Flat Hat editors agreed to “consult a faculty member on controversial issues.” Interestingly enough, Kaemmerle had “no idea what a ruckus her editorial would cause.”

p. But the article would cause even more ruckus 41 years later. According to the Dec. 5, 1986 Flat Hat editorial “The Kaemmerle Affair,” the Student Association Council approved a resolution that called for the BOV to “make amends” for the 1945 decision to remove Kaemmerle as editor.

p. This was not the first time that the BOV was encouraged to make amends for the decision. Another article of the same issue, “BOV records raise questions,” reports that, in 1980, Kaemmerle sent a letter to the BOV asking them to “disavow the action it took in 1945.” Then Rector Edward Brickwell responded by saying that the current board could not be “the conscience of previous boards.” Nonetheless, submitting under the pressure of the student body, the BOV did make amends, sending Kaemmerle a letter that stated that she “was a credit to the College family and the Board.”

p. After writing the controversial article, Kaemmerle was invited to meet with Eleanor Roosevelt. She also received numerous job offers after graduation from the College, including one from NBC television. Kaemmerle continued her involvement in civil rights as a wife and a mother. David Quinto, Kaemmerle’s son, recalls that “My parents helped circulate a petition to proclaim that our neighborhood was open to persons of any race. That earned them the enmity of neighbors who were concerned that property values might decline, and my sister and I were subject to snowball attacks launched by the children of some of those neighbors.”

p. Kaemmerle also supported her husband, Henry Quinto, in founding the Tuscon chapter of the National Urban League.
David Quinto remembers his parents fondly, saying that “My sister and I were deeply influenced by the examples of both my parents set. Knowing that they had both stood up for morality has certainly influenced my outlook on life and has led me to attempt to lead a life they would be proud of.”

City Police Beat (Feb. 1 to Feb. 11)

-
0

**Friday, Feb. 1 –** A black male was arrested on the 900 block of Capitol Landing Road for driving under the influence as a habitual offender. **(1)**

p. **Saturday, Feb. 2 —** A white male was arrested on the 700 block of South Henry Street for being drunk in public. **(2)**

p. — Two males were arrested on the 3000 block of Richmond Road. One male was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. That suspect was also later assaulted by a group of unidentified individuals, resulting in rib and jaw fractures. The other male was charged with underage possession of alcohol. **(3)**

p. **Sunday, Feb. 3 –** A black male was arrested on the 600 block of Richmond Road for being drunk in public and underage possession of alcohol. **(4)**

p. **Monday, Feb. 4 –** A vehicle on the 200 block of York Street was reported vandalized. Two of the vehicle’s windows were broken and a GPS system, watch and electronic compass were stolen. **(5)**

p. — A vehicle on the 100 block of Merrimac Trail was reported vandalized. Three of the vehicle’s windows were broken and a Bible was stolen. **(6)**

p. — A white female was arrested on the 9000 block of Richmond Road for a third DUI offense and reckless driving. **(7)**

p. **Wednesday, Feb. 6 —** A white male was arrested on the 1200 block of Jamestown Road for driving without a license and not obeying highway signs. **(8)**

p. **Friday, Feb. 8 —** A black female was arrested on the 100 block of Bailey Drive for assault. **(9)**

p. **Saturday, Feb. 9 —** A black male was arrested on the 2000 block of Richmond Road for driving while intoxicated. **(7)**

p. — A black female was arrested on the 900 block of Capitol Landing Road for a third DUI offense, refusal to submit to a field sobriety test, hit and run and illegal possession of alcohol. **(1)**

p. — A white male was arrested on the 1200 block of Jamestown Road for possession of marijuana. **(8)**

p. **Sunday, Feb. 10 —** A black male was arrested on the 100 block of Merrimac Trail for domestic assault. **(6)**

p. **Monday, Feb. 11 —** A white female was arrested on Lafayette Street for DUI and refusal of a field sobriety test. **(10)**

Student-teacher romance redefined in Vermont

-
0

__Affairs arise from examination of sexual harassment policies__

Faculty and administration at Middlebury College in Vermont are putting together a policy that seeks to better define the rules governing student-teacher relationships sometime this month.

p. Currently, Middlebury possesses no official rules concerning romantic relationships between students and faculty, stating only that student-teacher relationships are “discouraged” but that “such involvements need not constitute a form of sexual harassment.”
However, the topic of creating policy on the subject has come into question with the recent examination of the college’s treatment of sexual harassment cases.

p. Faculty Council member Miguel Fernandez, associate professor at Middlebury, asserts that the school’s current definition of student-teacher relationships is vague and confusing. This idea has prompted the convening of several focus groups, the creation of a blog and a full faculty meeting to further discuss the issue.

p. However, Middlebury is not alone in its struggle to better define and regulate student-teacher relationships. Many colleges and universities across the United States have sought to deal with this issue in much the same manner. One of the main issues in creating policy is the nature of the social relationship that the student and teacher have. If the faculty member has the student in class or is in some position of authority over the student, the situation is widely regarded as more troublesome. Other colleges have entirely banned any type of relationship between faculty and students, classifying such acts as a form of unprofessional conduct that is grounds for dismissal.

p. Officially, the University of Vermont and the Vermont state college system ban relationships in which the faculty member has authority over the student. The ban extends to all situations in which the faculty member “is in a position of power with respect to that student, including but not limited to” the roles of instructor, coach, adviser, work-study supervisor and counselor.

p. Ultimately, the issue boils down to its legal ramifications. Frank Vinik, a lawyer and risk manager for United Educators, an education insurance company covering 800 colleges and universities, cites a case from the University of California — Berkeley, in which a law school dean resigned in 2002 after conducting an affair that he deemed consensual but the student considered harassment. His resignation prompted the creation of policies concerning such relationships at the university.

p. “We think having no policy is a mistake,” says Vinik.

p. The College’s policy, passed in 1991, insists that faculty report any romantic student relationship where the faculty member has a position of power.

1...277278279...455Page 278 of 455

ABOUT US

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.

FOLLOW US

© 1911-Present. The Flat Hat. All Rights Reserved.