WPD Chief Kyle Johnson and officers under his command face allegations of racial harassment, anti-Semitism and sexual assault in a federal lawsuit against the department.
Opinions
The land American democracy wronged and then forgot
My relationship with the U.S. is complicated, to say the least. I am a U.S. citizen, but as a resident of Puerto Rico, I am ineligible to vote in the general presidential elections.
Opinions
Thank you for opening
This is a thank you note to Maud and all of the people at Williams who worked so hard to bring students back to campus. The faculty and staff who deserve credit won’t brag about it, so we will.
If it had been up to me (Nate), Williams would have gone remote — which is one of many reasons why we’re lucky I’m not president and never will be.
Opinions
An Open Letter to Williamstown Town Manager Jason Hoch: It is time for new leadership at the WPD
For 16 years, Kyle Johnson has had the opportunity to demonstrate his leadership as the Williamstown Chief of Police. Thanks to the facts outlined in a federal lawsuit filed against you, the Williamstown Police Department (WPD) and the town itself, we now know that Johnson’s leadership has resulted in an outrageous pattern of racist acts, sexual harm and — most recently — a literal photograph of Adolf Hitler being hung in an officer’s work locker in our precinct for three years until 2019 according to the lawsuit.
Opinions
Chaplains’ Corner
Several weeks ago, I played the song, “The Kingdom of God is Justice and Peace” to a photo montage of the news of the week during a virtual Night Prayer service attended by an assortment of people, mostly outside of Williams College. That week’s news included pictures from the announcement of the Biden/Harris ticket and numerous pictures from the Trump campaign.
Uncategorized
Make Election Day a College holiday
As the 2020 presidential election approaches, many College students, faculty and staff who are eligible to vote are preparing to cast their ballots in person. In future years, the College should make this process easier by making Election Day a College holiday.
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Intimacy in the Purple Bubble: When COVID meets College
One of the things we hear people grieving the most about the “before” times is the ease, the seamlessness of our interactions with one another: a hug in greeting, the electric excitement of kissing someone, hours passed in study nooks and common rooms conspiring — etymologically, breathing together — to bring about our futures.
Now, though, all we can see are the seams and edges of our connections to other people in this community. To say “the pandemic has profoundly shifted how we interact with others” is obvious, but it also elides both the preparation our community had for this moment and the possibility that lies ahead of us.
For the last few years, we have talked extensively with many of you about how essential it is that we move beyond consent conversations as something that happen only moments before sexual intimacy.
Opinions
Distance learning is not so bad: A remote first-year’s take
I haven’t been in a classroom since January.
When my new classmates hear this, most of them offer their sympathies. “That must suck.” “It must be so difficult.”
Of course, there are many obstacles that come with distance learning.
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No one is okay
I spent all summer dreading the fall. There were nights when I would lay in my bed restlessly as the question mark of what the future held chipped away at me.
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The continuous model can work – if the faculty respects health days
We applaud the decision that was ultimately made, and we appreciate that student preferences — which were strongly in favor of the continuous model — were in the end taken into account. But the adoption of the continuous model also presents new challenges which we hope faculty and administration will consider as they look toward the spring.