Gabe Miller ’25 is a prospective political economy and math major from Mamaroneck, N.Y. He is an executive editor for investigations. He previously served as a college news editor and a staff writer for the news section.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation
(MassDOT) is conducting
the Northern Tier Passenger Rail Study to explore
the feasibility of passenger train service between
North Adams and Boston,
as called for by the commonwealth’s 2020 budget.
Professor of Astronomy Jay Pasachoff died of complications from lung cancer in his Williamstown home on Nov. 20. He was 79. At the time of his death, Pasachoff was the longest-serving faculty member at the College, the chair of the astronomy department, and the director of the Hopkins Observatory. He had also witnessed 74 solar eclipses — more than any human in history. He is fondly remembered by faculty and students alike.
The Record editorial board has elected Ella Marx ’24, Lindsay Wang ’24, Kent Barbir ’24, Megan Lin ’24, and Kiara Royer ’24 to lead the newspaper in 2023. They will succeed current Editor-in-Chief Annie Lu ’23, and Managing Editors Cameron Pugh ’23 and Bellamy Richardson ’23.
Over the years, Professor and Chair of Economics Jon Bakija has played a lot of ultimate frisbee. Through the sport, he met his wife, fostered a love for athletics, and competed in world championships. This is his ultimate frisbee story.
President Maud S. Mandel and Vice President for Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leticia S.E. Haynes ’99 will form an anti-racist task force to address race-based bias at the College.
A window of the Williams Shop storefront was broken shortly after 11 p.m. on Nov. 12. Located at 15 Spring St., the Williams Shop — commonly known as “Goff’s” among students — opened as normal on Sunday, and owner Bruce Goff ’83 boarded up the damaged window with removable shed doors.
The College will require masking almost everywhere on campus from Nov. 27 to Dec. 6 and require students to test for COVID-19 once before they return to campus after Thanksgiving Break and twice after they arrive, according to an all-campus email sent on Nov. 14 by Chief Communications Officer Jim Reische.
The College will cut managers’ budgets by approximately 15 percent and the student employment budget by 33 percent for the 2024 fiscal year, following last year’s 15 percent increase in managers’ budgets. These cuts, representing approximately $8 million and $1 million, respectively, constitute less than 3 percent of the College’s 2022 fiscal year $252 million budget.
On Oct. 24, Director of the Writing Center Julia Munemo found an anti-Black racial slur scrawled in black marker on a chalkboard in Sawyer 429, the Writing Center’s meeting room. “The slur appeared below some writing in chalk — notes from a group study session — and seemed unrelated and in different handwriting,” Munemo wrote in an email to the Record.
By 2026, the College will no longer use PeopleSoft — the more-than-two-decades-old software underpinning its student records (Sarah), human resources (Ephr), and finance systems — though a replacement has not yet been determined. The replacement project is called Collaboratively Optimizing Williams.
Fior Cecchi-Rivas ’25, Clara Ramirez Trelles ’24, and members of the men’s track and field team held a field day fundraiser on Saturday to support charities that will help rebuild homes in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic after Hurricane Fiona struck in September.
Williamstown residents justin adkins, Drew Art, Christine DeLucia, Randal Fippinger, and Jim Reische, will be putting up 50 signs in Town commemorating Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Oct. 10.
More than 700 community members across all 11 NESCAC schools have signed a petition that calls for the schools to ban crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) from advertising — and otherwise operating — on their campuses. The NESCAC Coalition to Ban CPCs, an organization that Middlebury students started this past summer, wrote the petition and began distributing it on June 29.
Effective this semester, the Office of Accessible Education (OAE) has stopped paying student note-takers. The change, according to Assistant to the Director of Accessible Education Jean Grant, is the result of the department’s budgetary pressure and increased student demand for note-taking services.
On Sept. 7, a magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted the College’s motion for summary judgment in a Title IX-related lawsuit originally filed on Feb. 18, 2020. The decision dismissed the claims of a former student who brought the lawsuit under the pseudonym John Doe, whom the College previously found responsible for sexual misconduct.
Last week, the student body elected 12 members to the Williams Student Union (WSU) for the fall semester and six members to the Honor and Discipline Committee for the academic year. Two seats on the Honor and Discipline Committee remain unfilled.
The steam tunnels of the College have been the subject of lore for generations of students. Beyond the campus myths about a secret network of passages under the campus, these tunnels have a much more practical function: heating the water to our showers, warming the radiators in our dorms, and even charging our devices.
Effective for the next academic year, the College will raise the limit on the number of hours students can work on campus to 20 hours per week from the previous 10 hour limit, convert teaching assistant (TA) jobs to hourly positions, and allow paid residential leadership position holders, including Junior Advisors (JAs), House Coordinators (HCs), and Residential Directors (RDs) to hold other paid on-campus positions.
On Wednesday, the College reported 20 new student cases and six new faculty and staff positive cases. 1140 new tests were added to the COVID dashboard on Wednesday, bringing the number of positive tests in the past seven days to 56. These cases bring the College’s weekly positivity rate to 1.91%.
On Wednesday, the College reported 21 new student cases and five new faculty and staff positive cases. 1104 new tests were added to the COVID dashboard on Wednesday, bringing the number of positive tests since the start of last week to 92. Today’s cases bring the College’s weekly positivity rate to 2.7%.
The College admitted 1048 prospective students to the Class of 2026 through the regular decision process on March 18, according to Dean of Admission and Student Financial Services Liz Creighton ’01.
This week, the computer (using a script in R) chose Henry Wieman ’25, who discussed their nicknames, Newark, Del., and their involvement in campus groups.
For the first time since 2019, students admitted to the College will be invited to campus for Williams Previews programming. The College will host in-person programming on April 11 and virtual programming on April 14 and 15 for admitted students who are not able to visit campus, Dean of Admission and Student Financial Services Liz Creighton ’01 wrote in an email to the Record.
The 2022-2023 comprehensive fee will be $77,300, a three-and-a-half percent increase from 2021-2022. This figure includes tuition, housing, meals, and mandatory student fees.
For the first time in its five-semester-long history, the Williams Student Union (WSU) has filled all 12 — three of each class year — of its seats following the elections for the Spring 2022 term. The elected representatives for the upcoming term are Argenis Herrera ’22, Aidan Lloyd-Tucker ’22, Kevin Yang ’22, Manny Copeland ’23, Caitlin Han ’23, Yunjin Park ’23, Samir Ahmed ’24, Gwyn Chilcoat ’24, Jay Kim ’24, Quinn Casey ’25, Shoshie Hemley ’25, and Bobby Verhey ’25.
Effective immediately, fully vaccinated and boosted students, faculty, and staff are allowed to unmask in indoor athletics facilities, academic and administrative buildings, and at events that are open only to members of the campus community, Chief Communications Director Jim Reische announced in an all-campus email today.
Professors of History Gretchen Long and Eiko Maruko Siniawer ’97 spoke with the Record about their eagerness to serve as the next Dean of the College and Provost, respectively, the selection process, and their priorities.
The Board of Trustees approved the promotion of eight assistant professors to associate professorships with tenure at its Jan. 21 meeting: Matthew Chao, economics; José Constantine, geosciences; Christophe Koné, German; Joel Lee, anthropology; Ralph Morrison ’10, mathematics; Justin Shaddock, philosophy; Daniel Turek, statistics; and Aaron Williams, computer science. These appointments will take effect on July 1.
The College accepted 255 students — 31.3 percent of applicants — to the Class of 2026 through this year’s early decision admissions process on Dec. 10. This year’s acceptance rate is down from the 33 percent acceptance rate for last year’s early decision and 37 percent the year before.
A spill of aluminum sulfate — a water treatment chemical that can be toxic when ingested by humans or animals — along Routes 2, 7, and 8 closed Route 7 from Sand Springs Road in Williamstown to Pownal, Vt., on Saturday morning. The closure lasted from 6:29 a.m. to 11 a.m.
The ’68 Center for Career Exploration on Dec. 6 ended a months-long pause on the Career Access Fund (CAF), which provides financial support for expenses arising from career preparation, internship and job interviews, and graduate studies preparation.
Beginning this summer, the College will eliminate the summer earnings requirement from financial aid calculations. This policy change will lower the average family contribution by $6,000 over a student’s four years on campus and will apply to all financial aid recipients.
Amherst announced on Oct. 20 that it will end legacy preference in admissions and expand its financial aid programs. As Williams' fiercest rival makes moves that it says will increase institutional equity, eyes turn to whether Williams should follow in its peer’s footsteps.
