WPD Officer Craig Eichhammer admitted in 2011 to misconduct involving a civilian and to lying about it during an investigation, and he remained on the force with apparently minimal punishment, according to a document obtained by the Record this week through a public records request.

The Class of 2020 is set to have an in-person commencement in July 2022, with families and guests invited to attend.

The College will require faculty and staff to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination, President Maud S. Mandel announced in a June 1 email to faculty and staff. But College employees can request exemptions on medical or religious grounds or due to “strongly-held beliefs on the subject,” according to Mandel’s email.

The Record spoke with three Black players on women’s soccer who took significant time off from the team over the last two years, or, in one case, quit the team outright. They all emphasized that their experiences on the team were symptomatic of it being part of a majority-white college, of “having to navigate through white structures and white expectations,” as one player put it.

Jeff Johnson and Wade Hasty defeated Tony Boskovich ’74 and Albert Cummings IV after a hotly contested campaign in yesterday’s double-header Select Board election. Johnson and Hasty were informally aligned in a progressive-leaning slate that emphasized the need for racial justice in the Town.

After a turbulent year for Williamstown marked by reports of police misconduct, the continued hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resignation of several Town officials, Williamstown voters will go to the polls on May 11 to vote for two new members of the Williamstown Select Board alongside several other local races.

The Record sent a survey to every staff member at the College, and spoke with seven of them about their experiences since the pandemic began. The stories they told speak to the challenges staff have confronted in the past year, the ways staff feel they do and don’t fit in at Williams, and the hopes many staff have for a post-COVID future.

During spring 2020, despite widespread calls for support from term-limited faculty members, the College declined to offer a blanket extension of all term-limited faculty members’ contracts, citing financial uncertainty. Instead, it provided term-limited faculty members the option to take an unpaid research associate position to aid in the job search. While some term-limited professors were ultimately offered extensions on a case-by-case basis, others were left to face a beleaguered job market.

On March 17, Gov. Baker announced that all Massachusetts residents over the age of 16 will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine beginning on April 19. The College has not yet determined whether it will be able to serve as a vaccination site, but it is in discussion with local health services providers, President Mandel told the Record.

Two students have tested positive for COVID-19 after attending an indoor gathering at Gladden House on Saturday night, Dean Sandstrom confirmed to the Record today. The two COVID-positive students who attended the gathering — along with another student who did not attend the gathering, as well as a faculty or staff member — are part of a larger cluster of four cases reported in the last week.

The Class of 2021 will celebrate commencement with an in-person ceremony on May 31, according to the College’s commencement web page, and Senior Week will be shortened to a day and a half right after exams. Senior class officers, however, are pushing the administration for a full-length Senior Week and to allow limited guests.

Three Williamstown Police Department (WPD) officers illegally searched the names of vocal WPD critics in Registry of Motor Vehicle records as accessed through the Criminal Justice Information System, Acting Police Chief Michael Ziemba told the Record today. He said that 20 people were searched in the few months before former chief Kyle Johnson resigned in December and Ziemba stepped in as acting chief.