Skip to Main Content
The Student-Run Newspaper of Williams College Since 1887

The Williams Record

The Student-Run Newspaper of Williams College Since 1887

The Williams Record

The Student-Run Newspaper of Williams College Since 1887

The Williams Record

David Wignall/The Williams Record
College admits 8.5 percent of applicants to Class of 2029
David Wignall March 21, 2025
The College offered admission to 1,038 applicants on March 21 through the regular decision process. The total acceptance rate for the 2024-2025 admission cycle, including both early and regular decision, was 8.5 percent — a slight increase from last year’s record-low 7.5 percent acceptance rate.
Valerie Jarrett, Esther Duflo to deliver commencement, baccalaureate addresses
Hugh Kane March 19, 2025
Valerie Jarrett, a former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, will deliver the 2025 commencement address on June 8. The day before, Esther Duflo, a Nobel laureate and MIT professor of economics will deliver the College’s baccalaureate address.
College launches CARE Team
Aiden Clarke March 19, 2025
The College launched the CARE Team, a committee that directs students identified through referrals as needing additional support to available campus resources, this academic year.
How Osama bin Laden’s personal cassette collection ended up in a Williams basement
Hugh Kane and Hannah Marx March 19, 2025
Deep in the College's archives, thousands of hours of footage and other artifacts immortalize the sermons and declarations of Osama bin Laden, as well as records of Afghanistan in the 1980s and '90s. Professor of Anthropology David Edwards, along with four Afghan journalists from Pakistan, worked tirelessly to archive these vestiges of the past.
EphVentures contend with declining interest from student leaders, funding cuts
EphVentures contend with declining interest from student leaders, funding cuts
Arleny Flores and Henry Hilton March 19, 2025
The College’s EphVentures programs have seen a decrease in applications for orientation leader positions, according to their student directors. The programs faced a 15 percent budget cut and were shortened by a day in 2023, which leaders said diminished their ability to run the programs effectively. 
Verkleeren crushed the competition at NESCACs this year, despite swimming in non-dominant events.
Swimming legend Sophia Verkleeren ’25 prepares for one last lap
Ben Niewoehner March 19, 2025
Sophia Verkleeren ’25, with 20 NESCAC titles and four NCAA wins, is set to conclude her college swimming career at the NCAA Championships.
Photo courtesy of The Williams Record.
This Week in Williams History: The great flood, a red scare, and pets to-go
Dalia Levanon March 19, 2025
This week in history, the Record covered an 11-hour power outage, Senator Joseph McCarthy accused a professor at the College of communism, and Dining Services had a giveaway for goldfish.
Follow Us on Twitter
Cuts to federal science funding are a problem for all of us
Cuts to federal science funding are a problem for all of us
Rohit Bhattacharya and Phoebe Cohen March 19, 2025
In an op-ed, professors Rohit Bhattacharya and Phoebe Cohen explain how cuts to federal research funding will have devastating consequences beyond academic circles.
Berchem’s etching, The Cows at the Watering Place (The Cow Drinking). (Photo courtesy of the Clark.)
‘Pastoral on Paper’: Cowherds of old featured in the Purple Valley
Tahlia Gerger March 19, 2025
'Pastoral on Paper,' which opened last week at the Clark Art Institute, was curated by William Satloff Grad Art '25.