Today, students spend the first weekends of March enjoying the last ski days of the year or fighting through an ever-growing stack of midterms. From 1901 to 1914, however, students at the College spent one weekend at the beginning of March consumed by deceit, theft, and violence. This week, the Record looks back on the Cane Contest, a tradition that would never fly today. Read on to hear about a game of class rivalry, in which students communicated by fireworks and telegraphs, hired private detectives, and often took out their animosity through physical altercation.
Ever wished your professor could come with you to Snar? This week, the Record spoke to professors about Baxter Hall's Snack Bar, where students and professors could mingle in a shared space.
If you’ve ever heard Celtic tunes reverberating through Wachenheim’s second floor, you’re not going crazy — it’s just the faculty and student band, Knotwork, rehearsing. The band, started by Academic Technology Consultant Trevor Murphy this past summer, meets weekly in Professor of Geology and Mineralogy Rónadh Cox’s lab.
The College’s French program, with its dozens of diverse course offerings and strong faculty, shows no signs of its tumultuous history. However, over the course of 50 years after the College’s founding, French knowledge at the College went from criteria for admission to a lost art — completely disappearing from course catalogs — before returning stronger than ever in 1840. In particular, the early French curriculum was largely impacted by the French Revolution and an influx of immigrants from Québec to the Berkshires.
Who is that in my seminar? It could be an auditor — one of the community members or high school students who take classes at the College. The Record reports on their perspective on the faculty, students, and the auditing tradition.
Dance at a high level is physically demanding and can cause serious injury — but without a varsity lapel, dancers at the College are forced to reckon with their injuries separately from athletic resources.
Each week, the Record (using a script in R) randomly selects a student at the College for our One in Two Thousand feature, excluding current Record board members. This week, Onyeraluobu Chibuogwu ’26 discussed his academic journey, basketball, and his advice for first-years.
