To the Editor:

As an alum of the College and a student of Sam Kashner's for four years, I feel I should address the condemnation that The Flat Hat has handed down in the Sept. 29 editorial. By taking a few quotes from the GQ piece, you allege that Kashner is attempting to portray the campus as some sort of sexual playground where libidinal exploration is the only assignment and all exams are given orally.

Well, who cares? Kashner's piece is well written. English Department Chairman Terry Meyers seems comfortable with it, and Nancy Schoenberger doesn't mind. So how is it The Flat Hat's job to chastise the man for a freelance article that he has written?

Your answer, I assume, will be that the College's name was used. That he has "dragged the College's name through the mud," as you state in your editorial. Did Sam Kashner need to ask permission to use the College's name? Is the phrase "The College of William and Mary" a holy sacrament only to be spoken by people who believe in its limitless powers?

In no way did Kashner exploit that name. It was a setting. If someone not affiliated with the College had written this piece, no one would care. It would be funny, a joke. But since it was Kashner, you feel outraged. "How dare he speak about my school in such a blasphemous way," you seem to be saying.

The piece is not blasphemous, however. It is the story of a professor, a singular man, seduced by the college atmosphere and young nymph-like beauty. How is it that he "generalizes his own outrageous experiences as the defining examples of what life is like here"? Did you read the same piece that I did? It's the story of a professor, not an institution. How important was the William and Mary name to the piece? Other than a few descriptions, not at all. If he had used a fictional name, I imagine you would search out similarities between the imagined college and William and Mary to attack him for the same crimes that you do now.

Your accusation that Kashner has pigeonholed all women at the College is ridiculous. Because of one piece, all Tribe women are seen as whores and coming from central Virginia? Give me a break. If he wanted to be accurate it would have been sorority sisters and northern Virginia. I am kidding, of course, but the idea of a magazine article like Kashner's creating a stereotype for the College is ridiculous. Does the film "Kicking and Screaming" make all Vassar graduates look like aimless intellectuals?

It was a dangerous piece for Kashner to write, a piece that straddles the line between journalistic exploration and scandal. But that is what makes him such a strong writer. If you read his work, you would realize that he is more than willing to take chances and to put his neck on the line.

He and Nancy Schoenberger did that with success in "Hollywood Kryptonite." His acclaimed Vanity Fair pieces took on untouchable subjects like Walter Winchell and the death of Natalie Wood. The writers for The Flat Hat could learn quite a bit from such an experienced pen.

Kashner is too good of a writer and too strong an individual to come forward and defend his work, but I feel I should. I imagine his time teaching for the College has ended, and it is a shame. He is insightful, funny and one of the smartest people I have ever met. I am glad to hear that Professor Meyers has not been overwhelmed by the scandal at the College, but this may end up out of his capable and responsible hands.

Most students at the College will probably never meet Sam Kashner, and their knowledge of him will only be through this piece and the mystery of whether or not the story is true. All I can say is read the piece, and it should become obvious very quickly whether or not this is a work of fiction. Just be sure to remember that the first-person voice does not always signify a personal experience. But at this point it probably doesn't matter anymore. Kashner's "confession" has taken on a meaning larger than what he intended or could have hoped for. In a way that The Flat Hat never could have imagined, it has helped Sam Kashner. I imagine GQ sales in Williamsburg are at an all-time high.

Rather than attack an article written by a member of the College community, The Flat Hat should spend more time exploring real problems at the College. However unlikely, perhaps "Professor of Desire" will attract a different breed of individuals to the College, those looking for a college experience and not just a brief layover before graduate school. Perhaps then problems of diversity and the extreme dullness of the College could be overcome so that the idea of something sensational happening in Williamsburg would not be so extraordinary.

-- Yancey Strickler,
Class of '00