Luke Chinman ’25 is a prospective American studies major from Pittsburgh, Pa. He is an executive editor for the features section. He previously served as a section editor and staff writer for the features section.
Professor of Russian Julie Cassiday delivered a lecture last Thursday that connected shifting cultural trends of Russian gender and sexuality to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Cassiday presented research from her book Russian Style: Performing Gender in Putin’s Russia, which is slated to come out this November.
For seven years, former Town Clerk Mary Kennedy has looked after 10 feral cats living behind Jesup Hall. When the College asked her to relocate the felines, Kennedy sprang into action, campaigning for the cats to stay.
For the majority of the year, a herd of roughly 20 cows grazes the fields behind the Clark Art Institute at Stone Hill. These cows, who spend the warmer months roaming the meadow, are well known throughout the Williamstown community.
The Record surveyed the on-campus water bottle fillers that display the number of bottles filled and ranked the most and least used by their counts as of Feb. 21.
Marc Tessier-Lavigne, the president of Stanford University, is facing intense scrutiny following allegations of scientific misconduct. According to a series of reports by The Stanford Daily, the university’s student newspaper, multiple scientific journals are investigating Tessier-Lavigne for altering images in his research and members of a biotechnology company have accused him of covering up previous allegations of fraud.
Students at Connecticut College are calling for President Katherine Bergeron’s resignation following a week of
contention over the college’s plans to hold a fundraiser at a controversial private country club. Rodmon King, the Dean of Institutional Equity and Inclusion, resigned on Feb. 7, the day before the fundraiser was scheduled.
While some students today pay full price for their textbooks, many others receive a book grant from the College that covers the full cost of all necessary course materials. The Record reports on the history of the book grant — from the 1914 Memorial Library, to a book voucher system, and then a final shift to the grant system as it exists today.
Arshay Cooper, a rower, author, and motivational speaker, as well as the subject of the documentary A Most Beautiful Thing, presented the morning keynote for Claiming Williams on Feb. 3. This year, the event's theme was “Justice & Institutional Power,” and the morning keynote was co-sponsored by the College’s Athletic Department, Student Athlete Advisory Committee, and the Allyship in Athletics (AIA) committee.
For the 2022-2023 academic year, the College approved four Theme/Affinity/Program/Special Interest (TAPSI) housing proposals. After a semester, the Record spoke to students living in the Williams Interfaith Dialogue House, the International House, the Sustainable Living Community, the Eban House — which is for Black affinity housing — about their experiences.
Last weekend Cap & Bells presented Next to Normal. The rock-musical follows a mother with a worsening case of bipolar disorder and details the effects of her mental illness on her immediate family.
As a result of conversations with Queer Student Union last year, the College has changed the designation of some bathrooms on campus from gendered to gender-neutral.
The Record spoke to four students who transferred last year about their experiences before Williams, their transitions to life at the College, and how they’ve found community despite their nontraditional college paths.
Windows on Williams is a three-day fly-in program for low-income students to shadow current students by sleeping in their dorms, attending classes, and engaging with the College community. The Record spoke with WOW students, hosts, and administration about their experiences.
Various student organizations, including EphVotes, a nonpartisan voter-outreach organization, have mobilized ahead of the upcoming midterm election to promote student participation in local and state government.
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, Grace Reynolds ’22.5 discussed her neuroscience thesis, her plans after graduation, and how she likes to spend her time outside in Williamstown. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The College implemented the Air Travel Greenhouse Gas Emissions Information & Reduction Program, an initiative directed at reducing carbon emissions from College-related air travel, on Oct. 1. Travelers who have booked air travel using College funds will now receive monthly emails from the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives with information about the greenhouse gas emissions from their flights, estimated climate damages as a result of the emissions, and strategies to reduce future emissions due to air travel.
Williams alum Billy Green ’03 was recently named the 2023 New York State Teacher of the Year. He spoke to the Record about his experience at the College and the teachers who guided him throughout his education.
Campus was already abuzz with discussion and anticipation before the lights dimmed for the 7:30 p.m. showing of Don’t Worry Darling at Images Cinema on Friday night. Plagued by controversy ahead of its release, Olivia Wilde’s latest psychological thriller starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles drew more laughs than gasps from an audience of College students entrenched in the film’s pre-release drama.
Williams Outdoor Orientation for Living as First-Years, known more commonly as WOOLF, is the College’s oldest and most popular EphVenture program, typically a backpacking and overnight camping trip through the Berkshires wilderness. Last year, however, the Williams Outing Club (WOC) added a new option to the EphVenture: BASE CAMPus, where students sleep in their dorms and hike with their fellow first-years over four days.
A small cohort of first-years arrived to campus this year with no EphVenture assignment, and a makeshift program — which would lovingly be named “What Am I Doing?” by its leaders and participants — was born.
This week in Williams history: The Trustees of the College decided to make daily chapel services voluntary rather than mandatory. Male students reacted to the onset of coeducation. And the newly arrived Class of 1981 returned from trips in the Berkshire, Taconic, and Green Mountains on the first-ever WOOLF trips.
While the College's COVID-19 restrictions on in-person gatherings caused many clubs to stop meeting all together, these clubs were able to make a comeback this year.
On Thursday, students and professors gathered on the steps of the Class of ’66 Environmental Center to discuss the future of climate change and fill a time capsule with students’ personal statements, quotations from the event, and other climate-related materials. Organized by Sabrine Brismeur ’22.5 and Isabel Kelly ’23 for their environmental studies course, “Communicating Climate Change,” the event brought together faculty from the environmental studies, theatre, and classics departments for an interdisciplinary conversation.
Professors and administrators provide an inside look at the inception, development, and approval of the new courses that populate the Williams course catalog.
As a Williamstown winter melts into spring, some students have found a creative way to enjoy the warm weather. One such group is Ephskate, the College’s new roller-skating group.
The College plans to end all indirect investments tied to the fossil fuel industry by 2033, President Maud S. Mandel announced in an all-campus email on Friday, prompting celebration from divestment organizers and confusion from some other students.
Throughout their first year at the College, Molly Arts ’24 and Sarah Lindeman ’24 discussed starting a new a cappella group on campus. “We always loved singing and would go down to the Mission...
Maplefest, which has been open to the Berkshire community nearly every March since its conception, was canceled in 2020 and restricted to only students in 2021 because of the ongoing pandemic. This year, Maplefest made its full return on Sunday, March 13.
The annual Winter Carnival was first held in 1915 and has since then hosted a slew of Williams traditions, ranging from ice sculpture competitions to residential house banquets.
This week, the computer (using a script in R) chose Rika Yahashiri ’25, who discussed her role as social calendar writer, the swim and dive team, and her semester abroad in Japan.
In the early morning of Dec. 4, 2021, Chair and Professor of Astronomy Jay Pasachoff, along with students Peter Knowlton ’21.5 and Anna Tosolini ’23, flew over Antarctica in a chartered Boeing 787. For just under two tense minutes, they took photos out of the plane windows with borrowed Nikon cameras from the College library, capturing a total solar eclipse.
Anne Peale works as the Special Collections librarian in Sawyer. As Special Collections librarian — a role she has held for nearly five years — her responsibilities include cataloguing new sources acquired by the College, helping classes access documents, answering reference questions related to the collection, and reshelving books.
Now attending competitions on Discord, the Williams College Debate Union is having its best season in decades. The Record spoke with students on the team about what this recent success has meant to them.
