CSS officers should not be in student dorms unprompted, the Record board writes. Monitoring students in their living spaces violates the only real sphere of privacy they have on a small, residential campus.
Pointing to the low risk of outdoor COVID transmission and the increasing safety of campus, the editorial board calls on the College to let students gather outdoors in groups of up to 25 for the remainder of the semester.
On Tuesday, May 11, Williamstown voters will determine the Town's approach to racial justice for years to come, the Record board writes. With two Select Board seats being contested, the Town election offers an opportunity to make the Select Board more progressive.
By requiring students to get vaccinated, the Record board writes, the College would send a clear message: We care about the health of our community. We care about the pursuit of knowledge. And we care about acting on that knowledge to do what is right.
Students are not being given the transparency we need to feel comfortable in the environment in which we live and work. The administration’s lack of clear communication has forced students to hunt for information needed to make appropriate decisions for our health, to understand how the College conducts investigations into public health guideline violations, and to navigate the increased presence of CSS in our living spaces.
We need action now. While hiring two professors is a commendable start, the editorial board calls on the College to commit to establishing a concentration in Asian American studies.
The party at Wood House was a grave and potentially harmful mistake that has had massive implications for student life and College policy. For the sake of the College community, the Record asks students to hold both themselves and each other accountable; the administration to send a strong, consistent message about the consequences of COVID-19 guideline infractions; and CSS and the deans to provide greater transparency in their investigations and disciplinary actions.
The Record is taking the unusual step of publishing an editorial now, rather than with our weekly issue on Wednesday, in recognition of the extraordinary risks that our community is facing after Friday night’s party at Wood House. We call on the College to act now by suspending athletic practices, recognizing the transmission risk they pose. We ask professors to make their classes temporarily remote. And we urge the students who attended the party to do the right thing.
As we reflect on all of the ways that the semester was successful and express gratitude to those who made it so, we also want to point to one area in which the College can do better.
Editor’s note: This editorial mentions instances of sexual assault, sexual harassment, racism and anti-Semitism.
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