This decision follows an announcement in April that the College was considering closing the program at the end of June 2025 due to decades of low enrollment numbers and high expenses, prompting fervent outcry from the program’s faculty, students, and alums.
The Board of Trustees followed the ACSR’s recommendations against divesting from weapons manufacturers and adopting exclusionary environmental, social, and governance standards for investments.
The ACSR offered responses to requests by J4J and Professor of Philosophy Steven Gerrard and issued a final recommendation to the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees.
On Monday afternoon, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jews for Justice (J4J) closed their encampment on Sawyer Quad after President of the College Maud S. Mandel and leaders of the Board of Trustees agreed to a meeting between members of SJP and J4J and at least 19 members of the Board of Trustees.
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jews for Justice (J4J) have continued their encampment on Sawyer Quad into its second week. The encampment, which began at 4 a.m. last Wednesday, joined a wave of campus protests across the nation in which students have set up encampments.
Toby Woods ’27 died on Feb. 21 at the age of 18. He is remembered by those who knew him as a kind friend, a dedicated musician, and an impressive intellectual who cared deeply about his passions and relationships. Fourteen of his family members, friends, and instructors shared memories of Woods with the Record.
Tonio Palmer, former director of entrepreneurship at the ’68 Center for Career Exploration, died on April 28, President of the College Maud S. Mandel announced in a statement. He was 65 years old and battled with a rare cancer, ocular melanoma. Palmer worked at the College from 2017 until his retirement earlier this year.
Members of the College’s Ad Hoc Anti-Racist Campus Task Force, established last November, shared updates on its progress since its creation in interviews with the Record.
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jews for Justice (J4J) continued their encampment on Sawyer Quad, termed the “Popular University for Gaza,” for a second day. About 100 people were at the encampment at its peak attendance in the afternoon and 39 tents were present at the encampment at 7:19 p.m. on Thursday, according to an SJP spokesperson. On Thursday morning, an unknown student removed posters of Israelis held hostage by Hamas that had been hung up by students the previous evening. The same group of students rehung the posters on Thursday afternoon.
Students at the College began an encampment on Sawyer Quad at 4 a.m. on Wednesday and released a statement demanding that the College improve its fiscal transparency and divest from weapons manufacturers supplying Israel. This story is breaking and will be updated as additional information becomes available.
Last Thursday, the third and final installment of the on-campus speaker roundtable “The War in Gaza and the International Context” was interrupted by student protestors affiliated with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), some of whom may face disciplinary action from the College.
Decades of consistently low enrollment by students at the College in the Williams-Mystic study away program — the College’s coastal and ocean studies program in Mystic, Conn. — have prompted senior staff to consider not renewing its partnership agreement with the Mystic Seaport Museum. The decision, if implemented, would end the College’s financial support for the Williams-Mystic Program and effectively close it to future participants.
