Max Billick ’26 is a prospective classics and history major and Jewish studies concentrator from San Francisco, Calif. He is the Town News editor and previously served as College News editor and a staff writer for the news section.
Goodrich Coffee Bar now receives $6 in revenue from the College for each meal swipe used there — an increase from the $5 it had collected per swipe since 2012. The increase in the value of each meal swipe will boost Goodrich’s total revenue by around 15 percent. Students will also enjoy greater purchasing power when using a swipe, with the ability to buy up to $6 worth of menu items.
The College raised salaries for incoming Dining Services employees this summer, filling almost all of the department’s vacancies and reaching the highest staffing levels since 2019. Nevertheless, longtime employees of Dining Services reported dissatisfaction in a Record survey, voicing frustration about overwhelming workloads and a lack of pay significantly higher than that of newer coworkers.
At its annual tax classification hearing on Sept. 11, the Williamstown Select Board voted unanimously not to adopt the residential tax exemption (RTE) proposed by recently elected Select Board member Stephanie Boyd. Select Board members left open the possibility of adopting the RTE at next year’s tax classification hearing.
The Supreme Court declared race-conscious admissions practices at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina unconstitutional last Thursday. The long-anticipated decision will significantly alter admissions processes at schools nationwide, including those at Williams.
The Upper Lasell Fitness Center will be renovated over the summer, the College announced on May 1. The renovations will begin June 5 and are anticipated to last until the beginning of the fall 2023 semester.
Incumbent Andy Hogeland ’76 will seek reelection for his seat, while Stephanie Boyd, a current member of the Town’s Planning Board, and Paul Harsch ’69, a real estate agent, are running to serve on the Board for the first time.
This weekend, Cap & Bells will present its seventh and final production of the year, an adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None.
At this year’s Town Meeting, voters will trial the use of electronic clickers to vote on warrant articles. They will also decide on an article that would allow the Town to use $27,000 to purchase clickers for use at future meetings.
The Towne Field House has been closed indefinitely for maintenance. A student first reported that a portion of the climbing wall in the Field House — a multi-purpose, indoor athletic facility that includes the College’s indoor track — had detached from the wall on March 16.
Two of the 2023-2024 TAPSI communities approved by the Office of Campus Life (OCL) have failed to recruit enough students to retain their assigned locations.
The faculty voted 41-1 on Feb. 15 to permanently allow students to resolve a course deficiency using a fifth course taken before the deficiency was incurred.
The Office of Campus Life (OCL) will award additional housing points to first-year students living with roommates in especially small doubles, which it will designate as flex rooms — rooms that can be used as either singles or doubles — for the next academic year. OCL will not proactively notify the newly-eligible first-year students that they are recipients of additional housing points until March 18, after the housing application is due on March 10.
The Williamstown Planning Board finalized four proposals for changes to the Town’s zoning bylaw at its Feb. 14 meeting, all of which aim to increase housing affordability. These changes are intended to increase housing supply by making it easier to subdivide lots, allowing more units to be built on each lot, and permitting cheaper kinds of structures.
Imani Perry, an author and professor of African American studies at Princeton University, presented the evening keynote address for Claiming Williams day on Feb. 2. In her talk, Perry discussed the role of the South in American history, arguing that it remains a vibrant and complex focal point of American culture.
Special Collections holds hundreds of thousands of items. It is composed of two main components: the College Archives, which contain materials pertaining to the College’s history, and Chapin Library, which holds rare books and other special materials outside the scope of the Sawyer and Schow library collections.
The Office of Accessible Education (OAE) will adopt a new software program in the fall of 2023 to streamline its workload amid a staff shortage. The program, which is called Accommodate, aims to simplify the process of renewing academic accommodations — the most common kind of disability accommodation handled by OAE.
Integrative Wellbeing Services (IWS) has experienced record demand for mental health services this semester. Amid this uptick in demand, IWS is working to ensure that no student who requests help from IWS will be denied mental health services.
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.
The College will upgrade crosswalk infrastructure on Park Street near Tyler House and Tyler Annex and has set the speed limit to 7 miles per hour on the driveway leading to Tyler in response to student concerns about speeding cars and poor visibility on Park Street and the driveway.
The College launched a pilot program aimed at first-years this year to provide students with free eco-friendly laundry detergent sheets. The sheets are available at a dispenser in the lobby of Mission Park, but many first-years said they are not using them because of their distance from other first-year dorms, widespread shortages, and confusion about the need to create an account in order to use the machine.
