The College prides itself on providing students a rigorous and exemplary liberal arts education. That is part of why all of us — students and faculty alike — choose to come here. But a narrow emphasis on so-called rigor often has adverse effects on students’ mental health and, subsequently, academic experience.
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 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.
In the days and weeks following the gatherings at Wood and Gladden Houses, students have too often been left scrambling to understand the current public health situation on campus. 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 Campus Safety and Security (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.
Somewhere between 80 and 100 students demonstrated their disregard for the health of our community on Friday night. As President Maud S. Mandel noted in an email to students the following day, these students converged on Wood House for a party with little masking and less distancing. “This report is deeply disappointing to me,” Mandel wrote.
To us too.
We can’t change the past, but we as a College community must work over the next few days to make sure this event does not become a catastrophe.
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.
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.
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...
