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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

Christopher Hughes/The Williams Record

Approval ratings survey finds increased approval for WSU, sustained approval for faculty

Christopher Hughes May 14, 2025
The Record sent its biannual approval ratings survey of 500 students last week, with 125 randomly selected from each class year. Respondents indicated their approval, disapproval, or neutrality towards 24 campus institutions, including dining services, the faculty, and the Record.
David Wignall/The Williams Record

Dixon unseats Patton in Select Board election

David Wignall and Sonia Zinkin-Meyers May 14, 2025
Shana Dixon defeated Jane Patton for a one-year seat on the Select Board in yesterday’s Town election, according to unofficial election results. Matt Neely and Peter Beck were both elected unopposed to three-year terms.
Akkshansh Bagga/The Williams Record

Major declaration data shows decline in English, increase in comparative literature

Akkshansh Bagga May 14, 2025
This semester, 23 sophomores declared an English major, a sharp drop from last year’s 35 declarations. In 2023, the department had 42 graduating seniors, a near-40 year low, according to data from the Registrar’s office. 
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Williamstown Theatre Festival, Clark, and Mass MoCA face federal grant cancelations

Rosario Carranza May 14, 2025
The National Endowment for the Arts has canceled grants to several organizations in the Northern Berkshires, including the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Clark Art Institute, and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.
Iris Li/The Williams Record

Faculty votes to approve Native American and Indigenous Studies coordinate program

Sonia Zinkin-Meyers May 14, 2025
The faculty voted to approve a Native American and Indigenous Studies coordinate program for the 2025-26 academic year. The program will be made up of courses across departments including American studies, anthropology, Arabic studies, biology, and history.
Iris Li/TheWilliams Record

Mandel reflects on ‘destabilizing’ start to Trump administration

Sonia Zinkin-Meyers May 7, 2025
President Maud S. Mandel discussed the College’s ongoing response to President Donald Trump’s second administration, which has increased attacks on higher education, including funding cuts and immigration crackdowns,
Iris Li/The Williams Record

CSS to discontinue unannounced room checks during fire drills

Rebecca Bao May 7, 2025
Room inspections will no longer occur during fire drills, according to Director of Campus Safety Services Jeff Palmer. The College’s Environmental Health and Safety division, which operates under CSS, will conduct future inspections only during winter and spring breaks and will no longer check student’s dorms for room condition and prohibited items during fire drills, Palmer wrote in an email to the Record.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

In Other Ivory Towers: Protesters arrested at Swarthmore following four-day encampment

Maya Inaltong May 7, 2025
A pro-Palestine encampment at Swarthmore ended after nine protesters — including one student and one former student of the college — were arrested on Saturday morning.
Photos courtesy  of Shana Dixon, Jane Patton, Peter Beck, and Matt Neely.

Patton opposed by Dixon in race for open Select Board seat as Beck, Neely run uncontested

Aiden Clarke May 7, 2025
Shana Dixon and Jane Patton will vie for a spot on the Williamstown Select Board in the annual Town election on May 13. Either Dixon, who chairs the Town’s Diversity, Inclusion, and Racial Equity Committee (DIRE), or Patton, who has served on the Board for the last 12 years, will serve one year of a three-year term, filling the seat that was vacated by Andy Hogeland ’76 after his resignation last year. 
Hugh Kane/The Williams Record

Student charged with secretly recording people in Upper Lasell bathroom

Ellie Davis April 30, 2025
Maxwell Hall ’26 has been charged with 18 counts of photographing an unsuspecting nude person, according to court documents obtained by the Record. The Record acquired court documents at the Northern Berkshire District Court on Thursday that named Hall and matched the description of the incident mentioned in a campus-wide email Director of CSS Jeff Palmer sent on April 14 informing the community that a hidden camera had been placed in a single-stall bathroom in the Upper Lasell Fitness Center on January 16.
Akkshansh Bagga/The Williams Record.

Reports show substantial growth in College administrative staff

Ellie Davis and Hannah Marx April 30, 2025
The number of full-time equivalent (FTE) exempt staff positions had increased from 290 to 443 since 2009, outpacing growth in faculty positions by 40 percentage points. A Record investigation found student support, increased resources for faculty, and government requirements as primary drivers of the trend.
Theo Duarte-Baird/The Williams Record

JA Working Group releases final report

Aiden Clarke April 30, 2025
The Junior Advisor (JA) Program Working Group publicly released its final report last Friday, outlining a series of recommendations for the JA program, including a target JA to first-year ratio, expanding eligibility for the JA position, and creating opportunities for former and current JAs to give recommendations that will inform future changes to the JA program.
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