With a blanket of snow covering campus, the Record’s features editors put together a list of their favorite cozy places on campus to sit back and enjoy the winter from inside.
As future chief of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw, located in Louisiana, Devon Parfait ’22 regularly contemplates problems facing his tribal community such as coastal land...
Every December, the Williamstown Holiday Walk ushers in the holiday season with a wide variety of events, which last year ranged from a tag sale to a screening of Elf. The centerpiece of it all, and my...
Having written the book pre-pandemic, Professor of English Anjuli Raza Kolb said that it is suddenly about "the thing that's happening all around us." (Photo courtesy of Anjuli Raza Kolb.)
Even before...
To capture a strange farewell to campus, the Record asked students to submit photos of their rooms before and after boxing up their things and to share short reflections on packing up.
Over the summer, as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to rage, some students at the College found inspiration during this time of uncertainty and used their ambition and ingenuity to give back to Berkshire County.
This week in history, three guests visited the College: former President William Howard Taft in 1917, Pink Floyd in 1971 and an unwelcome outbreak of lice in 1997.
On Friday at 7:30 p.m., the I/O ensemble performed four works of classical contemporary music in a program titled Away for a small invited audience in Chapin Hall, while almost 40 viewers watched on a YouTube live-stream.
Antony Chen ’24, who has millions of TikTok followers, makes videos in his Mission single. (Taryn McLaughlin/The Williams Record.)
Millions of people around the world have seen TikTok content creator...
Tonight, the theatre department will present Radio Dramas, a series of short pre-recorded radio plays selected from Suzan-Lori Parks’ 365 Days / 365 Plays. The show was recorded, edited, and produced this fall by a cast and crew spread across the country and beyond, and the format represents “a way out of—or through—the pandemic,” according to Creative Producer Nicolle Mac Williams ’21.5.
Although the connection between the Stockbridge-Munsee and the town of Stockbridge is evident today, the community’s relationship to Williamstown is just beginning to be understood in a fuller manner.
With COVID-19 changing and formalizing so many aspects of campus life, Chief Communications Officer Jim Reische decided he wanted to make the administration’s all-campus emails sound a bit more human this year. His first step: making us laugh.
Brittany Andrade, a seven-year U.S. Army veteran, attended the Warrior-Scholar Project's virtual boot camp at Williams this summer before enrolling at Vassar College. (Photo courtesy of the Warrior-Scholar...
As we get accustomed to “Zooming” into virtual classes and being in front of a screen for far longer periods of time than usual, one factor contributing to the fatigue that many of us experience as a result is simply that we are holding our breath.
The WTP works with two immigrant centers: the Berkshire Immigrant Center in Pittsfield and the Center for New Americans (CNA) in Northampton. These centers send the WTP legal documents like birth certificates and marriage certificates to translate. The documents are from clients trying to become American citizens.
On a warm fall day on Spring Street, one might have been pleasantly surprised to find a bright red umbrella shading a cart offering juicy hot dogs made with a blend of beef and pork. A new addition to Spring Street this fall, Hazell’s Hot Dog Stand is run by soon-to-be-married couple CJ Hazell and Brittany Lillie, both dining services workers at the College.
Affinity groups have turned to game nights, Zoom discussions, social media and more to maintain community under campus restrictions. (Rachel Buccalo/The Williams Record)
Williams students have found...
On Monday, Oct. 26, the Record sent out an anonymous survey to the entire student body asking questions about the U.S. presidential election. The results indicate overwhelming disapproval of President Donald Trump coupled with widespread support for former Vice President Joe Biden.
Wellman’s dissertation, “Citizenship Beyond Borders: The Politics of Emigrant Enfranchisement in Africa,” looks at the provision of emigrant enfranchisement, with a regional focus in sub-Saharan Africa.
Photo courtesy of Francesca D’Arista.
Each week, we randomly select a unix from a list of all current students at the College for our One in Two Thousand feature. As long as the owner of a selected...
A staff member has been sent a hateful letter at their home targeting them based on their race and sexual orientation, President Maud S. Mandel announced tonight in an all-campus email.
The email...
Navigating time zones has been one of the many challenges that remote international students have to face as they adapt to physically being in one part of the world and intellectually being part of another, even as they socially belong to both.
As the fall semester approached, Nathan Thimothe ’22 and Gavin Li ’22 saw an inefficiency in the College’s “COVID-19 dashboard” — and with it, an opportunity. The statistics on...
Varsity teams will not compete this winter, President Maud S. Mandel and Athletic Director Lisa Melendy announced in an all-campus email this afternoon, half an hour after the presidents of the 11 NESCAC institutions released a unanimous decision to cancel competitions within the conference.
Every October, students start hypothesizing about which of the first three Fridays of the month will be Mountain Day, but this year, many were unsure if Mountain Day would even happen due to COVID-19. However, after months of planning for a pandemic-safe day of hiking and getting outdoors, many Mountain Day traditions live on, with a few key changes.
Daisy, Professor of Biology Steven Swoap’s beautiful Goldendoodle, is 34 inches tall. That is one of the fun facts I have learned about Swoap, the new director of the Williams-Exeter Programme at Oxford (WEPO), during our U.K.-mandated 14-day quarantine.
During the lockdowns and stay-at-home orders of COVID-19’s first wave in the spring of 2020, a distinct trend spread among college students quarantined at home: building virtual campuses on Minecraft servers.
No group of students at the College has stepped up to meet the challenge — until now.
Students will be able to leave campus for limited reasons beginning next Monday, Oct. 5, Dean of the College Marlene Sandstrom announced in an all-campus email yesterday.
Brian Hirshman ’06 revealed the true story behind the 'B+' on Amherst College's football field. (Photo courtesy of Brian Hirshman.)
In the digital nooks and crannies of Willipedia, one name keeps...
New this year, Frosh Quad entries are organized by floor. These five entries are now called Sage 1-2, Sage 3-4, Williams 0-1, Williams 2 and Williams 3-4.
A meme in the “Williams memes for sun-dappled tweens” Facebook group discusses the College’s sudden profusion of finance clubs. (Meme courtesy of Onder Kilinc ’23.)
A post in the “Williams...
Each week, we randomly select a unix from a list of all current students at the College for our One in Two Thousand feature. As long as the owner of a selected unix is willing to be interviewed and is...
In a normal year, only one or two Junior Advisors (JAs) choose to step down from their role after accepting it. But due to campus restrictions and the option to study remotely or take time off, eight students decided to step down in July, days after the deadline to enroll on campus.
On Sept. 8 and 9 – days chosen for their proximity to Labor Day to acknowledge the American labor movement and the contribution of laborers – more than 5,000 scholars in higher education, among them professors and administration from the College, will pause classes and administrative services to host virtual teach-ins.
As the College prepares for an in-person fall semester, a large majority of Junior Advisors (JAs) is pressing the College administration to implement changes to the entry system for the 2020-21 academic...
With the College’s decision to welcome students back for an in-person but socially distanced fall semester will inevitably come changes to first-year student traditions, including EphVentures, the entry...
Though students have been invited back to Williamstown for the fall semester, the campus that awaits them will be dramatically different from the one they have known. Whether students will actually abide by the College’s guidelines for campus life is another matter.
After more than two weeks of pressure from students, alums and other members of the College community, President Maud S. Mandel released on Friday an outline of actionable steps the College will take to fight racial and social injustice.
Given the heartbreak and anger that many in the College community are feeling in light of recent police brutality that is rooted in centuries of anti-Black racism in the U.S., the Record reached out to faculty and staff members for recommended educational resources on racism, inequality and other forms of injustice.
As I share into this space, I do so with trepidation. My hesitancy is not from the fear of saying the wrong thing, but from the feeling that I am unsure of my right to say much of anything at all right now. The pain people are experiencing in light of the ceaseless miasma of hatred and violence against black lives in this nation must be named – loudly and vigorously – but perhaps best by those living the reality of dehumanization firsthand.
Giebien Na ’20 did not expect to graduate as the first-ever quadruple major at the College. But he has earned the title after adding a fifth course to his schedule for many consecutive semesters and building passions across the three academic divisions.
Forty-three percent of rising first-years surveyed by the Record said they would likely take a gap year if classes remained online in the fall, and 68 percent of surveyed current non-senior students would “seriously consider” taking the fall semester off if it were held remotely. Despite the challenges that a greatly decreased enrollment would pose, administrators said the College will not prevent students from taking gap years or leaves of absence.
When Brian Wecht ’97 lost his high school class ring while living in Gladden his junior year, he didn’t think much of it. The ring was bulky and ornately carved, with a hefty green gemstone embedded in the center — “definitely not my vibe,” Wecht said — and he was content to forget about it.
“I didn’t want to just listen to the music and be amazed by it. I wanted to create it for myself,” said Emily Ham ’22, a mezzo-soprano who takes voice lessons, attends the opera workshop...
Professor of Economics Sara LaLumia has a tradition of traveling to races with her mother: The professor usually runs a half-marathon, while her mother, who lives in Pennsylvania, runs a 5K. The pair continued that tradition recently — though this time with no travel involved — through a virtual fun run and day of physical fitness organized by Williams for Williamstown, a student-led initiative to buy food and other supplies from Berkshire businesses for medical workers in the area, and Williams Student Athlete Advisory Committee.
Through all of her 28 years at the College, Professor of Political Science Cathy Johnson knows the ins and outs of the sabbatical. She, like many seasoned professors, has gone on more than she can count. But Johnson’s current sabbatical has proven to be different from the rest.
President Maud S. Mandel and several of her senior staff held an open phone call for Williams families on Monday to provide information about the College’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are five main takeaways from the call.
Since the campus closure, many student couples have had to trade dates at Images and Blue Mango for virtual Netflix parties and FaceTime baking. From first-years who have just begun dating, to seniors who are planning their post-college lives together, all Williams couples — even those in quarantine together — are adapting their relationships to find the best ways to be together while apart.
At this point in the school year, Junior Advisors (JAs) to the next year’s freshman class would typically be in the midst of JA excursions, or “dates,” with the goal of determining who they want to work with in a co-group next year. JA dates usually entail meeting up with a group of three to six JAs and doing an activity on campus together. However, due to most students being off campus as a result of COVID-19, these excursions look very different this year.
This week, the Record asked faculty to send us pictures of their home working environments, including feline, canine and small human coworkers when applicable. Though face-to-face office hours are becoming a distant memory, professors have adapted well to the world of remote teaching, substituting kitchen islands for desks and keeping close to natural light.
With less than a month until classes end, students may be wondering how they’ll pass the time without lectures to fast-forward through and Zoom seminars to attend. If you’re one of them, you’re...
We randomly select unixes from a list of all current students at the College for our weekly One in Two Thousand. So long as the owner of a selected unix is willing to be interviewed and not a member of the Record board, that person becomes the subject of our interview. For this week, the computer (using a script in R) chose Will McCormick ’23, who is at home in Brookline, Mass.
Mapes has decided to withdraw from the remainder of her classes and re-enroll next spring, allowing her to play a full senior season in the Purple Valley.
The psychology department will change its curricular affiliation from Division II to Division III beginning in the fall of the 2021-22 academic year, at which point most psychology courses will be reclassified accordingly. The motion to make the switch was approved at the virtual faculty meeting on April 15 following discussion of the proposal at the March 11 faculty meeting.
The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) and the Clark Art Institute have not been spared the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, with both museums announcing temporary closures last month. MASS MoCA has laid off 120 of its 165 employees, but there have been no layoffs at the Clark.
In the weeks since the College transitioned to online learning, members of the College community scattered across the globe have continued to attend weekly meditation, services and Passover seders —...
A series of emails sent out by the College over the past week has detailed further plans for how the College will adjust to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The first email, sent on April 9 by Provost...
“It’s like Christmas, but I’m stuck in my house and my degree got cut short,” Caroline Fairweather ’20 said in a video on her Instagram story, referring to the boxes of art supplies that she and her classmates received in the mail to complete coursework for THEA/ARTS 201: Worldbuilding for Theatre.
In light of the disruptions to academic life posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, untenured faculty now have the option to defer their reappointment or tenure review process by one year. The choice has been...
Whether we realize it or not, we are all currently living through a potentially transformational historical event. While it is difficult to gauge the future significance of the COVID-19 pandemic, a few history professors at the College are already thinking about how it will change the course of history.
Dr. Richard Besser ’81 said he met his wife during his “first outbreak,” a befitting idiosyncrasy for the CEO ofthe largest philanthropic health organization in the United States, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Besser’s career spans almost four decades, including as former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under President Barack Obama and later as ABC’s chief medical correspondent.
Classes resumed remotely on Monday, plunging students and faculty into the unfamiliar world of online learning. While students resettled into new environments in the wake of the closure of much of campus, professors used the extended spring break to make significant changes to their syllabi and arrange new platforms for bringing their classes together, either asynchronously or in real time.
Students and alumni of Amherst have demanded that the college take action to address racism on campus in the weeks after members of the men’s lacrosse team chanted the N-word outside their black teammate’s suite. In response to the incident, Amherst President Biddy Martin announced sanctions for the team, including placing it on probation for over a year and firing the head coach.
John M. Gibson ’42, a retired central Pennsylvania farmer who served as a national board member for the American Heart Association and the Boy Scouts of America and led numerous civic and nonprofit organizations in his longtime home of Lancaster County, died on Saturday in Greenwich, Connecticut. He was 99.
Adam Schlesinger ’89, an award-winning songwriter who co-founded the power pop band Fountains of Wayne with Williams classmate Chris Collingwood ’89, died on Wednesday in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He was 52. The cause of death was complications from COVID-19, according to The New York Times.
Just hours had passed since the deadline for most students to pack up their belongings and leave campus when Nate Orluk ’22 took to the student group chat titled “the greatest food in the world,” which then comprised more than 300 avowed salmon fans, and put forward a bold message.
“This might be controversial, but I don’t even really like salmon,” he wrote. “However, I do like clash of clans, and you should all join our clan, mauds marauders.”
The College paused construction on the North Science Building and Fort Bradshaw projects on Friday, at the same time that iBerkshires.com was writing a story in which an anonymous worker voiced concerns about the projects’ potential for the spread of COVID-19. Representatives for the College said that the decision was made to protect the safety of workers and to comply with directives from the government.
Beginning April 6, Integrative Wellbeing Services (IWS) will provide remote transition planning sessions in which students can work with therapists to assess their current or anticipated need for mental health care moving forward and develop a plan for accessing support, through either providers in their home community or teletherapy platforms offered by the College.
Sawyer and Schow Libraries have greatly reduced on-site activity in the days after Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker ordered nonessential businesses and operations to cease in-person work by noon on Tuesday, March 24.
The Office of Admission sent letters of admission through regular decision to the Class of 2024 yesterday, bringing the total number of acceptances to roughly 1,250 — slightly more than usual. The small increase in acceptances is one of several adjustments the Office has made as it confronts the disruption and uncertainty of the COVID-19 outbreak.
While hundreds of students stood on the Paresky steps and
screamed to express their intense emotions after the College announced its
switch to online learning due to COVID-19, many students were preoccupied...
We’ve all heard the famous statistic: since the College became coed in 1972, more than one in five married or partnered alums are in an all-Eph couple, according to Williams Magazine. But less well-known is a rival figure, supplied by the Provost’s Office: 11 percent of the College’s employees are married to another Williams employee, a group that spans both sides of the faculty and staff divide, from high school sweethearts to undergraduate cycling companions to the lucky few who met here on the job.
“I feel like a lot of people think that the only places that exist in real life are New York, Massachusetts and California,” said Maximillian Peters ’23, one of the two current Ephs from South Dakota. “And when it comes to places like South Dakota, on the rare occasions they contemplate their existence, it’s always in the abstract. But actually, people live there!”
We randomly select unixes from a list of all current students at the College for our weekly One in Two Thousand. So long as the owner of a selected unix is on campus, willing to be interviewed and not a member of the Record board, that person becomes the subject of our weekly interview. For this week, the computer (using a very simple script in R) chose Scott Fineberg ’22.
A blaring voice closes the library at 2:30 a.m. every weeknight and at 10 p.m. every Friday and Saturday. The ‘nerd bell’ first says, “The library closes in 30 minutes.” Then, it rings out, “The library closes in 15 minutes.” Finally, the nerd bell proclaims, “The library is now closed.”
Locked in a cabinet on the top floor of Thompson Biology sit two taxidermized birds, perched beneath protective glass. They’re passenger pigeons, relics of a species gone extinct over a century ago. And they’re not alone.
Each week, we randomly select a unix from a list of all current students at the College. So long as the owner of the selected unix is on campus, willing to be interviewed and not a member of the Record board, that person becomes the subject of that week’s One in Two Thousand. This week, the computer (using a very simple script in R) chose Natalie Jean-Michel ’23.
For decades, St. Patrick’s High School has graduated students who have broken world records and won Olympic gold models in running. This powerhouse high school, located in Iten, Kenya, has also sent students to universities across the United States with scholarships to run in NCAA teams.
A good friend of Ana Sofia Roldan ’23 called her without warning one night during fall semester. “‘Hi, I have an extra ticket to see Hiatus Kaiyote’ — our mutually favorite band — ‘in New York. It's tonight. We leave in an hour,’” Roldan recalled her friend saying.
Andrew Quinn ’13 did not plan on becoming a speechwriter to one of the country’s most powerful and controversial politicians when he graduated from the College seven years ago with a degree in political science. But today, he works for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as chief speechwriter and strategic communications director.
RUSSELL BLAKEY/THE WILLIAMS RECORD Podcasters Onder Kilinc ’23 and Harun Curak ’23 pose in their entry.
Three weeks ago, Harun Curak ’23 and Onder Kilinc ’23 launched Cultures of Williams,...
ALICE QU/THE WILLIAMS RECORD
Each week, we randomly select a unix from a list of all current students at the College. So long as the owner of the selected unix is on campus, willing to be interviewed...
DAVID SHAKIROV/THE WILLIAMS RECORDAt Renee’s, the corned beef hash was too much for a football player.
Nestled among North Adams’ backroads behind Route 2, Renee’s Diner offers unpretentious...
BELLAMY RICHARDSON/THE WILLIAMS RECORDNoah Savage ’21, founder of the Cult, draws a rune using charcoal from the club’s first meeting.
A new club at the College that calls itself “the Cult”...
STEPHANIE TENG/THE WILLIAMS RECORDStudents who call themselves Chapel Dwellers unwind in the warmth of Thompson Chapel’s basement.
Warmth greets anyone who enters the basement in Thompson Memorial...
PHOTO COURTESY OF EARTH CAPS.Justin Adams ’22 models a rhino hat by Earth Caps, a student-run business.
Peter Frelinghuysen ’22 and Michael “Misha” Medvedev ’22 have been friends since they...
TAI HENRICHS/The Williams RecordGrant Gattuso, Will Titus and Jackson Anderson have attended firefighting trainings since January.
Jackson Anderson ’23, Grant Gattuso ’23 and Will Titus ’23 lie...
PHOTO COURTESY OF LAUREN HEUER.At a dinner held by new club Williams Appreciates Staff, Ryan Young ’22 addressed staff members.
Lauren Heuer ’20 and Katherine Mahoney ’20 founded Williams Appreciates...
ZOE BANK/THE WILLIAMS RECORDCohen received a $79,585 grant last April for her research in geosciences.
How did life begin on Earth? Geoscientists have long used the theory of evolution to gain greater...
Last October, the Executive Board of College Council (CC) published an opinion piece in the Record calling for a restructuring of student government at Williams. Since that article has been published,...
I have been thinking a lot about Kobe Bryant’s passing on Sunday and the responses it has garnered on social media and in the news. I think it is important that we remember Bryant’s impressive accomplishments...
Late last week, Judge Roy Moore, current and former US Senate candidate and former Alabama state Supreme Court justice, announced that his “Ten Commandments Monument” would be placed on the first...
