Tali Natter ’23 is an American studies major and environmental studies concentrator from New York, N.Y. She is a senior writer. She previously served as an executive editor for Race, Privilege, and Identity reporting, and before that, as a managing editor, an executive editor for the arts section, and a section editor for the arts and podcast sections.
The family-owned pizzeria Hot Tomatoes closed permanently on April 24 after nearly 30 years of service on Water Street. According to a Facebook post by the restaurant’s owner Angelina England, the former Hot Tomatoes building is currently for sale, and, if interested, the new owners of the building can continue the Hot Tomatoes brand.
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, Leo Marburg ’24 discussed music directing, shopping for college, and delayering in the winter. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Just three years after graduating from the College, Caroline Fairweather ’20 is poised to make her Broadway debut in Parade as a swing after working on the show’s sold out off-Broadway run.
At the Dec. 7 faculty meeting, faculty voted to approve the creation of an Asian American studies (AAS) program that establishes a concentration beginning fall 2023, with 81 voting in favor, five voting against, and three abstaining.
Beginning in 1991, Asian American Students in Action (AASiA) coordinated Asian American Awareness Month programming, which featured various speakers and cultural events. The Record spoke to Bowen Chung ’93 and Harry Yoon ’93, two of the main organizers for the event’s inaugural year.
At the Nov. 16 faculty meeting, faculty approved the creation of an Africana studies major that will go into effect in fall 2023, with 70 voting in favor, zero not in favor, and three abstaining. For students who have been eager to see the confirmation of the major, the vote was a momentous step in improving their academic and personal lives.
Faculty, staff, and students submitted a proposal for an Asian American studies (AAS) program on Nov. 3 to the Committee on Educational Affairs (CEA), the student-faculty committee that will deliberate on the proposal and decide whether it will be discussed at an upcoming faculty meeting.
Vista, the College’s Latinx and Allies student organization, hosted a panel on Friday where six alums who participated in the 1993 hunger strike protesting the College’s lack of a Latino/a studies department spoke about their experiences and reflected on the changes the College has made and what can still be done.
From Oct. 19 to Oct. 21, Williams College Libraries held a virtual symposium entitled “The Life and Lore of Sterling A. Brown: Celebrating Poetry, Prose, and Music,” in celebration of the centennial of Brown’s graduation from the College. The symposium coincided with the opening of a new archival collection in the library archives of Schow and Chapin Art Galleries.
Members of the Black Student Union (BSU); Vista, the College’s Latinx and Allies Student Organization; and Asian American Students in Action (AASiA) hosted an annual teach-in at Goodrich Hall on the history and future of ethnic studies at the College.
On Saturday mornings from May through October, the Spring Street parking lot bustles with chatter and music. The sweet smells of flowers, fresh vegetables, and baked goods surround attendees at the Williamstown Farmers Market.
Instructor Melissa Kate Adams-Silva, who is Deaf, is teaching the College's first introductory ASL course this fall. Her course seeks to not only teach students ASL, but also to raise awareness about Deaf experiences and societal contributions from the Deaf community.
The College has earned a gold rating — the second-highest possible rating — from The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS). Operated by The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), STARS is a self-reporting framework for colleges to measure the environmental sustainability of their campuses.
Over the weekend, Sankofa took to the mainstage of the ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance for its reunion show titled “Step Back In It” in celebration of the College dance group’s 25th anniversary. Sankofa’s numbers were interspersed alongside performances from selected student choreographers.
The College will eliminate all loans, required work study, and summer earnings contributions from all students’ financial aid packages effective fall 2022, becoming the first institution of higher education in the United States to do so, excluding military and work colleges.
A new craze has taken over the College and society at large — the new daily word game, Wordle. Students share their approaches to solving the puzzle and explain how the game creates community.
Despite being a self-proclaimed Stephen Sondheim ’50 aficionado, I must admit that with the exception of a few songs, I did not know anything about his 1971 musical Follies. That is, until Saturday,...
Following a contentious summer during which crew members went on strike and investigative reporting found that employees felt overworked, unsafe, and underappreciated, the leadership of the Williamstown Theatre Festival released a progress report on Feb. 3 introducing major changes to its operations, including reducing the number of shows and giving employees days off and free on-campus housing.
The College’s non-male ultimate frisbee team removed gendered language from its name. Five nonbinary athletes spoke to the Record about cultural shifts and student-led initiatives toward gender-expansiveness in athletics.
The Office of Residential Life and Housing approved four Theme/Affinity/Program/Special Interest (TAPSI) houses for the 2022-2023 academic year. Gail Peek House — an affinity house for Black students — will be located in Wood House, The International House will be located in Perry House, Williams Interfaith Dialogue will be located in Spencer House, and the Sustainable Living Community (SLC) will be on the second floor of Garfield House, Senior Associate Dean of Campus Life Doug Schiazza wrote in a Feb. 14 all-campus email.
In a campus-wide email sent on Wednesday, Jan. 12, Dean of the College Marlene Sandstrom announced a “recover-in-place” strategy for students who test positive for COVID-19. The College will permit students who test positive to isolate in their rooms, as long as they live in a single dorm.
Jan. 4 | 9:45 p.m. As of 9:45 p.m. today, the College’s COVID-19 dashboard has not been updated to include test results from students who took COVID tests on Monday. In an email to the Record, Associate Director of Institutional Research James Cart ’05, who manages the dashboard, wrote that the College’s typical cycle of testing and reporting results on the dashboard happens over the course of three days.
The first week of classes and events during Winter Study will be held remotely, and students will quarantine in their dorm rooms upon arrival to campus until they receive one negative COVID-19 test result, President Maud S. Mandel announced in an all-campus email this morning.
Winter Study will be held on campus with tighter COVID-19 restrictions, Dean of the College Marlene Sandstrom announced in an all-campus email this afternoon.
Stephen Sondheim ’50, widely revered as musical theatre’s most visionary composer and lyricist, died on Friday in his home in Roxbury, Conn. He was 91.
This week, the computer (using a script in R) chose Amanda Wager ’23.5, who talked about crystals, her experience on the College’s swimming and diving team, and being co-Junior Advisors (JAs) with the interviewer in Armstrong-Pratt 4.
Accessing reproductive health care while at the College can be difficult given limited local treatment options and hours of operation at the Thompson Health Center. And three students who spoke to the Record said these difficulties can be exacerbated by unsatisfactory information and negative interactions they had while seeking reproductive health care at the Health Center.
Associate Professor of American Studies Jan Padios and Chair of American Studies Dorothy Wang submitted a prospectus to create an Asian American studies (AAS) program last Sunday. The prospectus details the steps the College should take to establish a viable AAS program and is the latest push for AAS after nearly three decades of activism.
During a rehearsal for one of this year’s mainstage productions, the sound crew walked out to protest what they said were unsafe working conditions. In the wake of the walkout, many festival workers from past years shared on social media that they had felt overworked and unsafe, suggesting that the walkout reflects deeper issues within the labor structure of the Williamstown Theatre Festival.
After a year of livestreamed and canceled events, some performance groups have been performing outside, filling sunny campus spots like Chapin steps and Cole Field with vibrant song and dance for the last weeks of the semester.
On March 31, Amherst College formalized its commitment to divest its endowment from fossil fuels, joining several other NESCAC institutions, including Middlebury and Wesleyan, in plans to divest.
Black Lives Matter–related songs took the stage at the 63rd annual Grammy Awards on March 14, with performances like Lil Baby’s autobiographical protest rap “The Bigger Picture” and Mickey Guyton’s country tune “Black Like Me.” This was somewhat of a break from the event’s history, which many view as one of slighting Black artists, particularly Black women.
With our unusually long winter break and upcoming in-room quarantine, the Record compiled art recommendations from students at the College via Instagram. For those students studying remotely this semester or taking time off, we hope that these recommendations help you stay connected to the College community, no matter where you are. From cartoons to crafts and everything in between, we hope you enjoy!
The College has updated its visual identity, expanding the official standards governing all aspects of its brand.
The announcement sparked a swift and largely critical response from students and alumni, who flooded Williams-related Facebook pages with memes and other posts.
The child of College employees was the target of a racist, anti-Black Zoom-bombing attack during a Mount Greylock Regional High School (MGRHS) class on Jan. 21. A student from another school district subsequently took responsibility for the attack following an investigation by MGRHS.
In light of the recent email from Dean of the College Marlene Sandstrom to students, faculty, and staff, the Record compiled a list of answers to reader-submitted questions regarding plans for the spring semester.
Kevin Yang ’22, Irene Loewenson ’22, Joey Fox ’21 and Sofie Jones ’22 have been elected by the Record 2020 Editorial Board to lead Williams College’s student newspaper in 2021. Yang will be the editor-in-chief for the Spring 2021 semester, with Fox and Loewenson as managing editors. Jones and Yang will serve as managing editors for the fall 2021 semester, and Loewenson will take the position of editor-in-chief. They will replace current Editor-in-Chief Jeongyoon Han ’21, Managing Editor Samuel Wolf ’21 and Managing Editor Rebecca Tauber ’21.
Kusika, the College’s African Dance group, performing at the 2014 Inside/Outside series at Jacob’s Pillow. (Photo courtesy of Jamie Kraus/Jacob’s Pillow Dance.)
On Nov. 17, the Doris Duke Theatre...
Although they won’t be singing on Mountain Day, dancing during Homecoming halftime, or performing before a packed crowd in Currier ballroom, a cappella, dance, and improv groups at the College have navigated the remote setting to hold auditions for new members.
While the weeks between quarantine and classes brought many out of their dorms to enjoy the outdoors, the first-year residents of Mills-Dennett 4 (MD4) found themselves inside, doing quite the opposite. Working in dorm rooms, common areas and hallways for two weeks, they collectively folded 1,000 origami cranes, creating an art installation and meaningful bonds.
On Sept. 8 and 9 – days chosen for their proximity to Labor Day to acknowledge the American labor movement and the contribution of laborers – more than 5,000 scholars in higher education, among them professors and administration from the College, will pause classes and administrative services to host virtual teach-ins.
Rep. Richard Neal (D-Springfield) and Mayor of Holyoke Alex Morse are competing in the Democratic primary for Massachusetts' 1st congressional district this Tuesday.
In Other Ivory Towers, or IOIT, is a Record column covering events and news in institutions of higher education.
On July 14, Dartmouth College computer science graduate student Maha Hasan Alshawi...
At the top of the screen reads a simple prompt: “Hi, how are you really feeling today?” Posts, arrayed on a nature-themed user interface that practically screams calm, seem to take the question seriously,...
While life after college typically invites adulthood, independence and rapid growth, the post-grad plans of Jack Romans ’20 do quite the opposite. In fact, the project he will undertake through the Watson Fellowship — a prestigious one-year grant for independent international research — is titled “Never Growing Up.”
When Brian Wecht ’97 lost his high school class ring while living in Gladden his junior year, he didn’t think much of it. The ring was bulky and ornately carved, with a hefty green gemstone embedded in the center — “definitely not my vibe,” Wecht said — and he was content to forget about it.
“I just have to hope that somewhere out there, in some part of the world, one of the others is failing more than I,” said Hallie Della-Volpe ’21 in a dramatic aside to the camera. The camera in question was her iPhone, and the failure referred to the collapse of the small rubber bands she had spent twenty minutes diligently stacking in attempts to “create the tallest thing out of the smallest things.”
Rep. Ed Case (D-HI) returned to Washington on a red-eye flight in the middle of the congressional recess to vote for a $484 billion coronavirus relief package. Photo courtesy of @RepEdCase.
Congress...
Each week, we randomly select a unix from a list of all current students at the College. So long as the owner of the selected unix is willing to be interviewed and not a member of the Record board, that person becomes the subject of that week’s One in Two Thousand. This week, the computer (using a very simple script in R) chose Melia Hagino ’22.
Since the campus closure, many student couples have had to trade dates at Images and Blue Mango for virtual Netflix parties and FaceTime baking. From first-years who have just begun dating, to seniors who are planning their post-college lives together, all Williams couples — even those in quarantine together — are adapting their relationships to find the best ways to be together while apart.
With less than a month until classes end, students may be wondering how they’ll pass the time without lectures to fast-forward through and Zoom seminars to attend. If you’re one of them, you’re...
Students admitted to the Class of 2024 participated in Virtual Previews on Monday, following the cancellation of on-campus revisit programming due to COVID-19. The event, hosted by the Office of Admission, featured virtual versions of several sessions typically offered on-campus each spring.
“It’s like Christmas, but I’m stuck in my house and my degree got cut short,” Caroline Fairweather ’20 said in a video on her Instagram story, referring to the boxes of art supplies that she and her classmates received in the mail to complete coursework for THEA/ARTS 201: Worldbuilding for Theatre.
While hundreds of students stood on the Paresky steps and
screamed to express their intense emotions after the College announced its
switch to online learning due to COVID-19, many students were preoccupied...
We’ve all heard the famous statistic: since the College became coed in 1972, more than one in five married or partnered alums are in an all-Eph couple, according to Williams Magazine. But less well-known is a rival figure, supplied by the Provost’s Office: 11 percent of the College’s employees are married to another Williams employee, a group that spans both sides of the faculty and staff divide, from high school sweethearts to undergraduate cycling companions to the lucky few who met here on the job.
Last Wednesday, Visiting Professor in Democratic Studies Rowan Ricardo Phillips hosted an event entitled “Silent Poems, Talking Pictures, and the Infinite Playlist.” Also speaking were fellow award-winning artists Teju Cole — novelist, photographer, critic, curator, and author of five books — and Ishion Hutchinson — Cornell professor, journal editor, and author of two poetry collections. The three read their pieces and discussed poetry as a tool for better understanding race and democracy.
Podcast Editor Tali Natter sat down with Brandon Hilfer ’20 to learn more about his music thesis, an original opera titled “Actaeon, or the Hunter,” adapted from a story in Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” The piece will be performed May 9 at 7:30 pm in The Directing Studio.
![The Clark Art Museum Reflecting Pool, where the WTF production of [ITAL] Row took place this summer. (Taryn McLaughlin/The Williams Record)](https://williamsrecord.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/wtf-article-visual-part-3-900x377.jpeg)
![Excited moviegoers queue up for tickets and popcorn. (Photo courtesy of Juan Baena [Osito Mountain Photos]).](https://williamsrecord.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-18-at-10.34.24 PM-1200x733.png)
