The Williams Record

Max Billick, College News Editor

Max Billick ’26 is a prospective classics and history major and Jewish studies concentrator from San Francisco, Calif. He is the College News editor and previously served as a staff writer for the news section.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @MaxBillick

 

All content by Max Billick
The Towne Field House is indefinitely closed following the discovery of a structural issue (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Towne Field House closed indefinitely due to compromised beam

Max Billick March 29, 2023
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
Williams Interfaith Dialogue was slated to be located in Sewell House (Max Billick/Williams Record)

Two TAPSI houses downsized, discontinued after too few applications

Max Billick March 15, 2023
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.
Faculty votes to allow students to use prior fifth courses to fill deficiencies

Faculty votes to allow students to use prior fifth courses to fill deficiencies

Max Billick March 15, 2023
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.
OCL to grant more students housing points, adjust flex rooms, reintroduce doubles lottery

OCL to grant more students housing points, adjust flex rooms, reintroduce doubles lottery

Max Billick March 8, 2023
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 Planning Board met in the Williamstown Town Hall (Noor Naseer/The Williams Record).

Town Planning Board finalizes bylaw proposals to increase affordable housing supply

Max Billick February 22, 2023
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.
Photo courtesy of Sidra Mahmood

Sidra Mahmood joins College as first full-time Muslim chaplain

Max Billick February 15, 2023
Sidra Mahmood has joined the College as the first-ever full time Muslim chaplain. 
Perry delivered the evening keynote for Claiming Williams Day 2023, which was organized under the theme “Justice and Institutional Power.”

Author Imani Perry delivers evening Claiming Williams keynote

Max Billick February 8, 2023
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.
What’s so special about Special Collections? Inside the College Archives and Chapin Library

What’s so special about Special Collections? Inside the College Archives and Chapin Library

Max Billick and Inés Garcia February 8, 2023
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 will use new software to process disability accommodations in fall 2023. Photo credit: Ashley Shan/Williams Record

Office of Accessible Education will use new software to alleviate staff shortage

Max Billick January 25, 2023
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.
IWS responds to record student demand for services at Pond House. (Photo courtesy of Shirley Lin)

IWS responds to record student demand

Max Billick November 30, 2022
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.
(Angela Gui/The Williams Record)

Inflation spurs College to cut managers’ budgets by 15 percent and student employment spending by 33 percent

Max Billick and Gabe Miller November 9, 2022
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 set the speed limit on the driveway to Tyler to 7 miles per hour. (Josh Kirshner/The Williams Record)

College sets speed limit, improves crosswalk near Tyler in response to student concerns

Max Billick November 2, 2022
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.
Free detergent sheets see high usage but face shortages, barriers to access

Free detergent sheets see high usage but face shortages, barriers to access

Max Billick October 19, 2022
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.
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