This past Tuesday, an email was sent out to all current and former students from the Davidson College president’s email address. The content mysteriously read “girl- what the chile-.” It is unknown whether this was simply a mistake or a comment on campus affairs. 

Right now, The Yowl’s leading theory is that President Hicks, when opening with “girl-,” is addressing historically high pollen levels. He comments that there are far too many dioecious trees on campus that are holding only stamens. President Hicks is clearly taking an eco-conservationist standpoint, urging the campus to experience—quite literally—the fruits of labor. All just by relating the societal concept of gender to plant life!

As for “what the chile-,” we believe President Hicks is drawing the reader’s attention to the environmental disaster of the Chilean blackouts. While temperatures soar in Chile to a piping 86ºF (or 30ºC), power outages shut down the most vital forms of communication and accommodation. With the context of President Hicks’s previous “girl-,” the reader is led to the connection that, in his “what the chile-,” President Hicks is forming a bridge between these blackouts and climate change, even while the National Electrical Coordinator refuses to disclose the cause of the blackouts.

It’s no wonder T&I wiped this email from all Davidson Outlook accounts. Lately, we’ve seen a lot more political action on campus, and President Hicks could possibly risk the trust of our Chilean, Industriphile, climate change-denier students, a surprisingly large campus organization. 

Mistake, message or mystery? We’ll let you decide.