April 11, 2018: Reverend Valerie Bailey Fischer to assume role as new chaplain

ARTS P. 9 Author Junot Díaz holds reading and book signing

SPORTS P. 11 The Independent Student Newspaper at Williams College Since 1887 VOL. CXXXII, NO. 19

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 2018

Duncan Robinson competes in Div. I Championships

Reverend Valerie Bailey Fischer to assume role as new chaplain

By RB SMITH EXECUTIVE EDITOR This July, the College will welcome the Reverend Valerie Bailey Fischer as the new chaplain to the College. Bailey Fischer will be coming from Cavalry Episcopal Church in Summit, N.J. and is eager to help guide members of the College community, both from religious and non-religious backgrounds, toward reflection and inclusivity.

Bailey Fischer attended Pennsylvania State for her undergraduate degree and originally planned on majoring in biology. Her work in various labs left her uninspired, however, and she ultimately decided to change her major to journalism. After graduation, she wrote for a number of Pennsylvania newspapers, including The Milton Standard, The Lewisburg Daily Journal and The Sunbury Daily Item.

Her career as a journalist helped Bailey Fischer pay off her student loans, but she eventually decided to attend the Union Theological Seminary in New York and become an ordained minister because religion had always been an important part of her life. She had attended a religious preparatory school, participated in Bible study all through her time in college and took a number of theology classes in both high school and college.

“One adage says, ‘Whatever you are doing in college will shape what you do in the first 15 years after college,’” Bailey Fischer said. She considered her religious engagement to be just as valuable, if not more so, than her academic studies and knew that she wanted to be involved with

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF NEWARK.

Reverend Valerie Bailey Fischer will begin work as chaplain to the College in July. She has worked as a journalist and a campus minister at Framingham State. campus ministry from her time in college onwards.

After she graduated from seminary, Bailey Fischer received a grant to start a new campus ministry at Framingham State in Massachusetts.

She directed a number of different programs at the univer-

sity, one of her most influential being the Urban Pilgrimage program. She connected with the “first generation” of high school volunteers and began sending spring break trips to different U.S. cities with the aim of using service as a vehicle for teaching. “The people

JA Week opens campus dialogue

By SAMUEL WOLF NEWS EDITOR Last week, the Junior Advisor Advisory Board (JAAB) and the Gargoyle Society cohosted JA Week, a five-day program made up of a series of events focused on discussing the history and future of the Junior Advisor (JA) system. JA Week was first announced on March 6, the same day that JAAB publicized substantial changes to the structure of the JA system. JA Week consisted of

five events: a kickoff-event focused on the constitution on March 2, Frosh Stories on March 3, a JA Alumni Panel on March 4, a Doddceum Dinner on March 5 and a Week Wrap-Up on March 6.

These events were bolstered by a social media campaign throughout the week that encouraged people to post JArelated experiences on Facebook and Instagram with the hashtag #realJA. Tobias Muellers ’18, president of the Gargoyle Society, described the conception of

the event. “The Gargoyle Society originally came up with the idea for the event, but from early on, we worked closely with JAAB,” he said. “JAAB and our group met regularly to plan and divide responsibilities for individual events, frequently discussing our overall goals for the week. The final product was made possible by our cooperative effort.”

The first event, the Constitution Kick-Off, consisted of engagement with excerpts of SEE JA WEEK, PAGE 5

APRIL RUIZ BEGAN HER POSITION AS ASSOCIATE DEAN ON MONDAY AFTER PREVIOUSLY SERVING AS DEAN AT YALE

KATIE BRULE/PHOTO EDITOR

doing the work and receiving the services were the teachers,” she described.

Her ultimate goal in the program was to get students to reflect not only on what they could do, but why. “It wasn’t just Christian students – anybody could come. And

they did come,” she said. “The question was the same for everyone: Why are you doing this?” Activities were centered on learning about current events, such as the recession in New York City and immigration and gentrification in New Jersey. After the trip,

many of her students “made major course corrections in their lives,” she explained.

The College’s selection committee was inspired by Bailey Fischer’s experience in campus ministry and her focus on bringing together a diversity of traditions. “We were highly impressed with Valerie’s diverse professional background, particularly her engagement with studentdirected interfaith programming that included students from multiple faith traditions as well as those with a more secular focus,” Vice President for Campus Life Steve Klass said in an official statement. “The social justice component of her work, as exemplified in her experiential education programming, underscored the empathetic, bridge-building aspect of her approach to ministry.”

As chaplain to the College, Bailey Fischer hopes to continue her work guiding college students in thinking about why they do what they do. “I’m here to help the campus community – particularly the students – find a space where they practice reflection … in the faith tradition or in another tradition,” she said.

She has consulted with outgoing chaplain Rick Spalding about the strong religious traditions at the College and hopes to maintain those traditions while also helping to adapt religious life on campus for a “new and rapidly changing age.” While Bailey Fischer is eager to run both old and new religious programming, she emphasized that her primary purpose is to help provide spiritual guidance to students. “I’m here for Williams,” she said.

College Council makes more funding available for MinCo groups

By DANNY JIN EXECUTIVE EDITOR College Council (CC) passed a resolution and bylaw amendment on March 13 to open its general fund to requests from Minority Coalition (MinCo) groups. The bill gives MinCo groups access to CC’s largest fund while calling upon the College’s administration to increase its funding for the Davis Center and MinCo groups.

MinCo groups receive the majority of their funding through the Davis Center, which receives $57,000 in its budget to be shared by the 18 MinCo groups.

The only funding previously available through CC came from the co-sponsorship and benefits funds. As a result, financial interaction between the two bodies was limited. The lack of available funding through CC led to concerns that students involved with MinCo groups were not receiving proportionate benefit from the Student Activities Tax. “During our time in Council, we rarely saw any requests from MinCo groups,” CC Co-Presidents Lizzy Hibbard ’19 and Moisés Roman Mendoza ’19 explained. “The change allows us to fund a wider variety of needs.”

As the number of MinCo groups has risen sharply in recent years, MinCo has found it difficult to delegate the ideal level of funding to each of its organizations. This year alone has seen the addition of four new groups, with three more expecting to be added by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, MinCo’s share of the Davis Center’s budget has remained fixed. “When we see increasing membership, it is amazing because more people are coming into MinCo wanting to have their own identity groups,” MinCo co-chair Amina Awad ’18 said. “But MinCo groups shouldn’t find themselves competing over funding.”

The Davis Center has regularly asked the College for increased funding, but MinCo nevertheless continues to face financial constraints, which force groups

to make concessions in the planning of heritage month activities.

According to CC Vice President for Community and Diversity Tania Calle ’20, budget concerns impact groups’ abilities to bring speakers to campus and to travel to conferences.

While the increased funding available by application through CC provides necessary relief, both CC and MinCo leaders expressed a desire for the College to ultimately expand funding for the Davis Center. “The problem is how much money is originally available to the Davis Center,” Calle said. “The hope is that the Davis Center would receive more funding so that MinCo groups receive more funding.”

“Our top priority is making sure MinCo groups receive enough funding, and ideally that would be through the administration and Davis Center because those structures are already in place and tailored to MinCo groups,” Hibbard and Roman Mendoza said. “That being said, we don't see CC ever closing funding for MinCo groups.”

In writing the resolution, CC members worked closely with MinCo leaders and Davis Center staff. Awad said that the conversations were made easier by the increased overlap between the two bodies, as many members of this year’s Council have previously served on MinCo boards.

Consequently, several CC members have firsthand experience with the financial difficulties of planning MinCo activities.

According to Awad, communication between CC and MinCo has increased steadily in the past few years, with representatives following through on their campaign promises to better represent MinCo voices. “This past month has been the most we’ve collaborated in a while,” she said.

“There’s also an increased awareness of what that collaboration needs to look like.”

Hibbard and Roman Mendoza said that increasing partnership with other student groups remains a top CC priority. “We came in with the desire to ampli-

fy the voices of students already ‘doing the work,’” they said. “We have a history of working with groups outside of CC, and now that we are in office, we are excited to bring the voices of students to the table.”

“Many of our goals are driven around administrative accountability but also institutional change, particularly in favor of underrepresented groups on campus,” Calle added. “We come from very different walks of life and have had experience in different areas of campus. As a result, we have really solidified goals on what we think needs change and have brainstormed solutions on how to get there.”

WHAT’S INSIDE 3 OPINIONS Hispanic identity and the census 4 NEWS A closer look at the College's faculty search process 7 FEATURES An exploration of how Images selects its films 8 ARTS New film 'Love Simon' opens at Images Cinema 11 SPORTS Softball sweeps Wesleyan in three games USPS 684-6801 | 1ST CLASS MAIL U.S. POSTAGE PAID WILLIAMSTOWN, MA PERMIT NO. 25

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THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE SINCE 1887 WILLIAMSRECORD.COM

THE WILLIAMS RECORD BOARD Beginning with the class of 2015, the College has limited its need-blind admission process to domestic applicants, using a needaware process for prospective international students.

This policy change was prompted by a decline in the College’s endowment after the 2008 financial crisis. By 2014, however, the endowment had returned to prerecession levels, and it is currently the largest it has ever been. As a result, we at the Record strongly encourage the College to reinstate need-blind admission for international applicants.

As the College increasingly bills itself as a global institution that prides itself on its commitment to diversity, it seems contradictory that the College has yet to return to a need-blind policy.

The College’s alums, donors, investments and activities are all global in their scope; thus it follows that the College should also not bar any international students

Word on The Quad What's your favorite fabric?

By KATIE BRULE and SOPHIA SHIN PHOTO EDITORS

April 11, 2018

The necessity of need-blind

Encouraging the College to depart from its need-aware policy for international students from attending because of their inability to pay tuition.

If diversity, inclusion and global citizenship are truly at the forefront of the College’s agenda, then it is only reasonable that the College ensure that all international students – regardless of their financial standings – have an equal chance to receive a Williams education.

While we commend the Offices of Admission and Financial Aid for their continued dedication to making the College affordable for both international and domestic students, we cannot ignore the fact that the enactment of the need-aware policy in 2010 has led to an actual decrease in the proportion of international students receiving financial aid. In 2010-2011, 80 percent of international students were receiving aid, compared to this year’s 58 percent. Whether this is a reflection of a decrease in willingness to admit international students requiring aid or that interna-

tional students who need aid are being dissuaded from applying in the first place, this statistic is troubling.

Furthermore, while some have argued that increasing the financial aid budget could potentially lead to cuts elsewhere, we encourage the College to evaluate potential sources of budget surpluses.

With the endowment’s renewed health, the College should consider using its additional finances to offset increased financial aid costs.

We also recognize that such a policy would be ineffective if recruitment strategies are not inclusive. As such, we believe that a needblind process can neither involve other proxies for estimating financial need nor produce more limited recruiting strategies targeting wealthier students. This would not only skew the application pool, but also allows the College to create the illusion of student diversity without having to provide the financial aid that is need-

ed to truly construct a geographically, socio-economically and racially diverse student body.

It should be emphasized that simply highlighting the inequities of need-aware admission is not enough. While we praise the members of College Council and International Club for passing a resolution that asks the College to reinstate its need-blind admission process for international students, a similar resolution was passed in 2014, and no changes were made to the policy. We believe that it is now time for action.

Seeing that the College is in a state of transition, we hope that we can finally put this issue to rest. We call upon the Board of Trustees to take seriously and respond to the wide-ranging student demand for need-blind admission. We wish for the College’s incoming president, Maud Mandel, to address this issue upon her arrival and work diligently to extend need-blind admission to international students.

CONVENTIONAL WISDOM ICED COFFEE BAR AT MISSION

More caffeine options? Yes please!

MISSION CONVEYER BELT

We all shared a sigh of relief when the conveyer belt started working ... until it broke again.

LATHAM ST. CLOSED

Who knew driving around Williamstown could become this complicated?

YIWEN XU ’21

Chiffon.

MORI LADU ’20

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Cotton.

To the editor, Williams College's proposed – and likely – demolition of the Bubriski house at 42 Hoxsey St. as part of a reconfiguration of the Falk Science Quad is a small but ironic story emblematic of a much larger town/gown dynamic.

It is ironic in that Dagmar Bubriski, who died in 2011, was an ardent preservationist, championing Williamstown's history and architectural diversity, morphing into a gadfly whenever the College went into expansion mode. That the house she occupied for decades may be leveled for the kind of construction she sought to contain is a painful irony.

The loss of the Bubriski house is only a ripple, however, in the tsunami of campus and townscape changes the College has wrought upon Williamstown recently – with more to come.

In my 40 years as a resident, the scale of ongoing construction is unprecedented.

This is not a screed against change. Communities are organic entities that must evolve to survive. The ones that manage to do so while honoring their architectural and historic heritage are most likely to mature with a rich, layered character.

The renovation/preservation of Weston, Spencer and Goodrich

BENJAMIN BUI ’19

Cashmere.

NOAH WRIGHT ’18

Satin.

The opinions expressed in signed columns are not necessarily those of the Williams Record editorial board.

Op-Ed and Letter Submission The Record welcomes op-eds and letters from all members of the College community. The Opinions section is designed to reflect the varied views and ideas of the College community, and the publication of any letter or op-ed does not indicate an endorsement of the views contained therein.

Submissions should be sent to hy3@williams. edu by Sunday at 5 p.m. for inclusion in the next Wednesday issue. Op-eds range in length from 650-800 words, and letters are 500 words or fewer. The Record will not publish pieces that have appeared in other publications. Pieces submitted to the Record are not guaranteed a spot in the upcoming issue.

For Record policy information, please see our website, williamsrecord.com.

WRITE FOR THE RECORD.

Halls on Main St. rightly acknowledges that heritage. Elsewhere, however, the townscape is being overrun with brutish mega-structures, generic postmodernism and the creeping conversion of neighborhoods of family homes into College offices.

Part of that transformation might be attributed to the College's laudable goal of minimizing energy consumption in an era of global warming. Sadly, the yield is a generation of buildings driven more by engineering imperatives than civic, social or aesthetic concerns. We see it in Paresky, Schapiro and Hollander Halls and in the new College bookstore on Spring St. With their ubiquitous, deep roof overhangs, light wells, louvered window screens and deconstructed exteriors, they look like what they are – supersize HVAC units.

Far more banal and intrusive is the cliff-like South Building Science Center looming five stories on a hillside near the village center. A dour, grey, out-ofscale edifice, it has the aspect of a military storage bunker. Then there's the new Sawyer Library with its panoramic views over the townscape through a fivestory wall of windows. No one evidently considered that windows work both ways and would transmit unwelcome artificial illumination over blocks of nearby homes at night. Neighbors have rightly complained.

On South St., the dormitory nearing completion behind the Center for Development Economics is a lumbering backdrop to the richly textured but much

renovated St. Anthony Hall designed by McKim, Meade and White in 1885. Plans I've seen for the replacement of half-timbered Garfield House next door on South St. and the new Williams Inn at the foot of Spring St. bear the quasi-colonial, assembly-line look that's homogenizing the American landscape.

For an institution of higher learning, the College has let slip its own past standards for creative building design. Where today is the architectural distinction we saw in Charles Moore's reimagining of the Williams College Museum of Art in 1981; the sympathetic addition to Hopkins Hall in 1987-89 by Architectural Resources Cambridge; Carlos Jiminez's WLS Spencer Studio Art Building of 1997; and William Rawn Associates’ awardwinning ’62 Center for Theater and Dance of 2008?

Unlike the Clark Art Institute's campus expansion initiated in 2001 and heralded by the wide public release of site plans and numerous community meetings, the College's process of self-reinvention is less visible, with little town participation beyond that required by law.

It's compliant, but far short of the neighborliness that sustains good town/gown relations.

Remarkably, there has been little visible public conversation about these momentous townscape changes. With Dagmar Bubriski no longer here to speak out, it's time someone else did.

Charles Bonenti Williamstown resident

FROM THE ARCHIVES

MEETINGS: PARESKY 209 | 8 PM WEDNESDAYS

JESS HOWARD '06

On the #GreatReturnMarch

The Hispanic identity The limi a io s o A

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A few weeks ago, the Trump administration made public its new additions to the U.S. Census. Except for the usual suspects, most media outlets’ responses were not positive. With one question – “Are you a U.S. citizen?”

– the Trump team has inspired journalists to denounce the president for a decision that’s clearly race-driven and could perhaps go as far as change the makeup of Congress (Check out Alicia Parlapiano’s article “Are you a U.S. citizen? How a 2020 U.S. census question could affect states,” The New York Times, April 3, 2018) and, in a shocking turn of events, has already driven several states to sue the federal government. Since the mainstream media has already said plenty on that issue, I would like to address another of the more conflicting labels within the Census: the Hispanic identity question.

People from Spanish-speaking countries have been summarily baked into one big multi-national and multi-ethnic casserole based on a shared native tongue, similar cuisines and music and a distantly shared historical background.

Let’s take Argentinians and Nicaraguans, for example. They were both colonized by the Spanish and/or are descended from them. Most of them speak Spanish.

They both eat empanadas. (That is if you consider Argentinian empanadas to be the same as Nicaraguans empanadas.

Hint: They are not.) Some might listen to regueton. But if you believe that Argentinians, Nicaraguans and other people of Spanish-speaking countries deserve to be grouped into an ethnic group according to these parameters, then why shouldn’t Canadians and Americans be segregated in the same way? They both speak English, listen to Drake and eat Taco Bell burritos. And if you hear of any country grouping all Americans and Canadians as “anglos,” you’d be surprised. After all, both of those countries have people from several different ethnic backgrounds and have different histories. Well, so do all Latin American countries. Some last names of friends of mine back home (Caracas, Venezuela) include

OPINIONS 3

The Williams Record

April 11, 2018

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“Di Stefano,” “Youssef,” “Brewer” and “Hoffman.” Many Venezuelan mestizos and mulatos probably don’t even have half Spanish ancestry. I wonder how many boxes they would have to check in their Census forms.

I will not deny there is use to collecting data on people of Latin American descent. Historical evidence of discrimination against those of these “undesirable” national origins is plentiful, and programs addressing this type of nationalistic discrimination need as much information as necessary to fight against it. Yet as well intentioned as these programs may be, when they use the label of “Hispanic” and “Latino” as catchall terms, or when they confusingly claim it is one ethnic group when each nation is composed of several different ethnic groups, they inevitably partake in the same discrimination they are trying to fight against. The fact is that the Hispanic peoples are culturally and socially distinct from one another, and misuse of these words has blurred their unique cultural identities in the eyes of the American public.

I remember the numerous occasions people have asked whether I listen to mariachi music because I’m Hispanic. I have to constantly clarify that I’m not Mexican, but that yes, I love me some mariachi. And I love my Central American, South American and Caribbean cousins, but we are not the same. We are part of a family with common roots, but each of us has flowered in our own, enchanting way.

I’m proud of belonging to this family.

I’m proud of being Hispanic. But that word within the U.S. seems to represent a brand of sameness. That’s why, until we manage to change American society’s simplistic view of the world, the U.S. government should revise the way it addresses us on the Census. For now, it will sadly have to state: “Mark this box if your family traces its origin from a Spanish-speaking North American, Central American, South American, Caribbean or European country.”

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Israeli state violence and bold Palestinian resistance. Next month marks 70 years since the Nakba (“catastroLast week, Israeli soldiers murdered phe” in Arabic), which refers to the vi30 Palestinians and injured thousands olent displacement and ethnic cleansmore as they protested peacefully in ing of 750,000 Palestinians that Gaza for justice, dignity and a return began with Israel’s establishment in to their homeland. Their protest was 1948. We will not stay quiet as artists, part of the #GreatReturnMarch, a six- activists, journalists and teenagers week mobilization along the Gaza/ are gunned down while standing up Israel border for the for equality and freedom. right to return to their As we mourn for Gaza, lands and an end to That Israeli soldiers we also reject Zionism. the open-air prison We honor the homes that are gunning down which currently charJews have made in the diacterizes life in Gaza. aspora and do not believe peaceful protesters Palestinians in Gaza that an ethno-nationalist striving for dignitity state will lead to freedom live under the abject conditions of military for Jewish people. While and freedom is siege. Israel controls many liberal Zionists the air, sea and land. will say that this wave of an outrage.

Palestinians face surIsraeli violence is new, veillance and restricwe view this current motion of movement, electricity and wa- ment with the understanding that it ter in addition to an ongoing blockade follows decades of ethnic cleansing of medical supplies, building materials and settler colonialism and that it and other goods. They cannot taste the serves as an urgent call to speak up olives from the trees of a fertile home against what is unjust. now denied to them with concrete Mainstream media has falsely walls, checkpoints and barbed wire. framed the Israeli military and PalesTheir resistance should be an in- tinian civilians as equal powers and is spiration to us all. And yet, at the portraying this latest wave of Zionist #GreatReturnMarch last week, pro- violence as a two-sided clash along the testers were met with tanks, tear gas border. But this is far from the truth. and snipers. Ironically, the massacre Videos have shown Israeli soldiers occurred over Passover, the Jewish shooting unarmed protesters as they festival of liberation celebrating free- sprinted away and as they prayed. dom from bondage and suffering. To For accurate coverage of the ongoing Israeli forces, the very existence of #GreatReturnMarch, you can follow Palestinians represents a threat to the the Institute for Middle East Underproject of establishing a Jewish ma- standing and the U.S. Campaign for jority on Palestinian land. Palestinian Palestinian Rights. protesters were picnicking, praying Congress continues to send $3.8 and singing, and still the Israeli state billion a year to Israel — its biggest recipient of military aid — but only a met them with live fire.

This massacre is not occurring in a few of its members have spoken out vacuum, but in the wake of decades of against the recent massacre in Gaza.

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On April 1, the U.S. blocked the United Nations Security Council’s resolution calling for an investigation of Israel’s use of violence against peaceful protesters. Where are Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand and Dianne Feinstein? Their silence is blood on their hands. U.S. support of Israel perpetuates this violence.

Although the story of Passover ends with the Jews crossing the sea of reeds into the land of freedom, what if this story were not so linear, so final? The ritual of the Passover seder proves that we must circuitously and generationally retell this tale. Our remembering is an iterative process, as we re-learn how to honor the stories of all oppressed peoples. There is no one sea of reeds, there is no one leap of faith. Instead, we each must cross the boundary waters within ourselves, between us and others, again and again, for our freedom cannot be complete until we all reach the land of liberation.

As we approach the 70th anniversary of the Nakba in May, and as we witness the violence in Gaza, we call on the Williams community to honor Palestinian lives and struggles and to break the silence around Israeli apartheid. The #GreatReturnMarch is something that should be honored and elevated by people everywhere, and especially by Jewish people on Passover. That Israeli soldiers are gunning down peaceful protesters striving for dignity and freedom is an outrage. Can you feel this fury and heartbreak? What will it move you to do?

Lili Bierer ’19 is a women’s, gender and sexuality studies major from Cambridge, Mass. Hattie Schapiro ’18.5 is an American studies major from Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Manuel Matos ’21 is from Caracas, Venezuela. His major is undecided.

The price of fiction Unpacking the effects of media on our lives R

adventure or experience the visual proof of its worth. Everyone has an I just want to live my life like I’m internet façade, and the stories they the protagonist of a movie: confident, tell are as indicative of our own lives handsome and effortlessly successful. as they are of the fantasies conceived Don’t we all though? Wouldn’t every- in Disney’s studios. And so, it is all too one like to live the glamorous, excit- easy to notice that everywhere in the ing, emotionally charged fantasies world seems filled with excitement that so many of us fiendishly consume and wonder except the very place that on Netflix, Amazon and Hulu? I know you are standing.

I would. But I think the modern ubiqIt isn’t a pleasant feeling to believe uity of media has greater ramifica- that your own life, the very nature of tions than an innocent desire for the your existence, is laughably less eximprobably emotionally substantive. citing than that of another. While we We all watch hundreds of hours of know that this perceived alternative media content in the regular course is a fabricated one, we (or at least I) of our lives. It’s unavoidable. The make the comparison nonetheless. It’s silver screen stares back at us in res- difficult to qualify the effect that media taurants, public streets, the privacy of consumption has on us, but, at least our own homes and, as is increasingly personally, I feel that when I immerse prevalent in today’s society, even out myself in the harrowing tales of a conof the palms of our hands. Much of trived reality, I find my own reality the time we spend meeting its glar- boring and at times depressing. I can ing gaze is devoted to productivity claim no causation, but, as I observe and social interaction, but every coin others of my generation falling into dehas two sides, and so as technology pression in disturbing numbers, I canbecomes more widespread, we also not help but wonder if this saddening spend more time exposed to the ide- phenomenon is not the result of our alized fictions of others. failure to live up to the This is not necessarily impossible standards a bad thing. I grew up in When I immerse my- imposed upon us by our a household where film very own consumption. self in the harrowing was (and is) regarded I hope that I am as an art form. I would wrong. I hope that my tales of a contrived paranoia and suspicion not dare to disparage the brilliant, creative are results of my own inreality, I find my minds so involved with to assimilate to a own reality boring ability the craft of visual and technologically-focused auditory storytelling society. But I worry and depressing. any more than I would nonetheless. I encourage an author or a painter. all my peers, and indeed However, the effect that all people, to consider media consumption has on us goes how media makes you feel. Notice the beyond the intellectual understand- next time you compare yourself to your ing of character, plot and humanity favorite Hollywood character or you garnered from watching an episode of feel secluded from the myriad of enGrey’s Anatomy. The characters and thralling things people are all talking situations illustrated in these stories and posting about on social media. Noare comparable to our reality: They tice this, and then do something about walk like us, talk like us and look like us it. Put down your phone – not in your (although they don’t seem to go to the pocket, but in your desk drawer – close bathroom as much as we do). Thus, it is your laptop, turn off the TV. The world only natural to juxtapose our own exis- outside the silver screen is complex, untences to those of our favorite fictitious predictable, frustrating, fascinating and characters. While unavoidable, this is, terrifying. It is vast and delicate and in my humble opinion, an unhealthy powerful and subtle. The lives we live comparison for anyone to make. are the only ones we have, and they are We add to this grand illusion with too short to spend counting the likes on our incessant posting of curated con- a picture or fantasizing about an imtent to the world wide web. Our lives probable existence. So sing a song, go are narrated to our peers by the pains- somewhere you’ve never been, fall in takingly selected, meticulously edited love, paint a picture, cry about a loss, do and fervently monitored pictures and some charity work or spend time with videos that we post on Instagram, your family, because nothing will ever Facebook or whatever other medium be as beautiful as it is when you live it. we might desire. Too often, I have watched a beautiful smile subside to Nevin Bernet ’20 is from Topanga, apathy once the photographer’s flash Calif. He intends to double major in faded. Too often is the purpose of an computer science and economics.

SABRINA WIRTH ’05

Making first semesters more bearable roposi A

a pass o record s s em or rs A

The College is an amazing opportunity for all students who come here from different parts of the U.S. and the world. It can open doors to amazing post-graduation opportunities in the form of prestigious fellowships, admission into high-ranked graduate programs and top jobs across different sectors. The College, however, is also a very stressful place. Being constantly ranked No. 1 on U.S. News & World Report as the best liberal arts college, along with a super low student to faculty ratio of seven to one, comes with professors having very high expectations from the students about their work. But students have to juggle more than just academics – they are involved in varsity sports, cultural and creative clubs and other pre-professional societies. Being able to maintain and implement the delicate balance of attending classes and giving their very best, engaging in different extracurriculars, socializing and getting time to wind down and sleep is an art and a skill that is acquired over time at the College.

First-years are especially prone to being overwhelmed and stressed out when they enter the College (or any other top academic institution, for that matter). There is so much they want to do – so many classes they want to explore, new friendships that they want to cultivate, new clubs they want to try out, and they want to find themselves settled into college, familiar with the neighboring city or town. Amidst all this rush, many students, coming from different types of schools with different academic curricula and modes of testing, find themselves struggling with academics in their first semester. Many stu-

dents realize that college isn’t going to be like high school and that they have to put a lot of effort into their classes and work harder to earn those grades, while for others, college can be somewhat of an easier academic transition.

One solution to ease the stress and anxiety for many first-years is to make the first semester at the College into a pass/no record – credit/no credit system. Under this system, first-years would be required to take the usual academic course load of four courses, and at the end of the semester, the professors would assign grades (the usual grading rubric, but with the bar for receiving a passing grade being comparatively higher) and provide feedback to students, but the students’ transcripts would only show the courses taken and passed (with courses failed omitted from the transcript). Many top schools such as MIT and Swarthmore have implemented this policy. It is now time for the College to follow their lead.

Here’s what justifies this system of grading and assessment. For starters, it makes the transition into college for first-years less stressful and more comfortable. This system would provide first-years with a slight break from the highly competitive and grade-oriented high school environments that they come from and encourage them to step outside their comfort zone, take intellectual risks, be a little more fearless in choosing courses that they may otherwise have not taken and focus on learning rather than academic achievement alone. Through constant feedback from professors about their performance in the courses during the se-

ears all semes ers mester, students can learn to adjust the amount of time and effort that they need put into their courses and acquire the skills and habits required to ace their classes and manage their time well starting next semester. The one common argument against this system is that it would lead to firstyears slacking off and not working hard enough. Well, at the College, where 95 percent of the students were in the top 20 percent of their graduating class, it can be said that a certain level of work ethic and commitment were required to gain admission, and students are expected to continue this work ethic and really take advantage of the system of pass/ fail to be better positioned their next semesters. On the other hand, under the current system, when a first-year fails a class in their first semester at the College, not only do they receive a failing grade on their transcript that becomes a permanent record to be explained to job recruiters and graduate school admissions, but they also have to work extra hard to make up for the significant drop in their GPA due to the failing grade. Due to the current system, such a first-year would be likely to always fall behind in their academic achievement (measured here by cumulative GPA) during their time at the College, affecting not only their mental wellbeing (with high possibility of stress and low self-esteem), but also their job and graduate school prospects. All these challenges would be significantly reduced if the first semester at the College were made into a pass/no record system.

Ashish Solanki ’19 is an economics, religion and psychology triple major from New Delhi, India.

April 11, 2018

NEWS 4

The Williams Record

Arvind Panagariya speaks on economic development in India

By SAMUEL WOLF NEWS EDITOR On Friday, Columbia Professor Arvind Panagariya visited the College to deliver the keynote address for this year’s Center for Development Economics (CDE) conference.

Panagariya is the former vicechair of the National Institution for Transforming India, where he worked to improve India’s economy and bring the country into the technological, modern world. His speech on Friday, titled “Financial Technology, Inclusion and Development: The Case of India,” focused on examining the recent improvements and developments in the Indian economy through the lens of financial technology (FinTech).

Panagariya began his talk by marveling at the speed of India’s economic improvements. “As late as the 1980s, I didn’t believe that we would be where we are today,” he said. He described India’s old economy as “clunky” and inefficient, filled with arcane regulations and bureaucracy. Though he acknowledged that this problem persists somewhat, the recent systemic change was remarkable to him. “If that can change, anything is possible,” he said.

Panagariya then transitioned into the specifics of India’s development through FinTech. FinTech encompasses all technology that allows for financial transactions, including payments and transfers via mobile apps, loan and insurance websites, crowdsourcing sites and robo-advice in stocks and assets. Although India’s FinTech services lag behind those of many developed countries, Panagariya contended that their spread was notable for a nation in the developing world. “For a country with a per capita income of less than $2000 per year,

SOPHIA SHIN/PHOTO EDITOR

Panagariya, the former vice-chair of the National Institution for Transforming India, spoke on the growth of FinTech in India over the last decade.

India is spreading its financial technology remarkably quickly,” he said.

Many barriers exist for the spread of digital transactions in a developing country like India. “The infrastructure in India is being built up to bring households into [FinTech],” Panagariya said.

“This requires building extensive platforms through which these transactions can be engaged.” For many noncash transactions, a proof of identity is needed. In India, ID cards have not always been easy to come by. “Even in the past decade, there was no system to give every person a proof of identity,” Panagariya said. Most people in India simply had no way to

Admission moves up announcement day using new reading method

By GEORGIA DEL SIGNOR CONTRIBUTING WRITER On Friday, March 16, the College announced that it had offered admission to 1163 students for the Class of 2022, the most selective class yet. The admission rate fell yet again to 12.2 percent. This year, the admission decisions were moved up to March 15, one week earlier than the decision day of March 22 for the Class of 2021.

Most universities have a standard decision release date of April 1, but Director of Admission Richard Nesbitt ’74 hoped that an earlier release date would allow accepted students more time to ponder their choices of where to spend the next four years. In addition, the change gives admitted students an extra two weeks to finalize travel plans to visit the College during Previews.

In the past, the College admitted a select pool of students under Early Write, notifying them slightly earlier than the majority of the class. But as time went on, Nesbitt noted, the gap between Early Write and Regular Decision got smaller, blurring the lines between the two. Overall, Nesbitt explained, the “quality wasn’t any different between Early Write and Regular [Decision],” which led the Office of Admission to do away with Early Write entirely.

Instead, the release date for the Regular Decision was moved up this year. According to Nesbitt, this was made possible by a new, more efficient system that the Office of Admission adopted during the long period of sifting through thousands of applications. The system, CommitteeBased Evaluation (CBE), is an efficient method for reading the many components of a college application. CBE was pioneered by the University of Pennsylvania, which was receiving such a mass of applications that technology needed to be brought in to help make up for a lack

of human capital. What really captured the College’s attention was Swarthmore’s adoption of the CBE method. As a small, liberal arts college, the fact that the Swarthmore’s admission team enlisted the help of technology to narrow down potential applicants spoke volumes.

The method acts as a reader card to help weed out redundant information and distinguish the unique aspects of an application, allowing for faster reading.

Nesbitt broke down the process: Two readers are assigned to a team. Each reader has a screen that shows, at the swipe of a finger, high school transcripts, extracurriculars, essays, awards, accolades and recommendation letters. The two readers on each team view the same application on separate screens, going through and highlighting interesting aspects about the candidates that distinguish them from others. If the team feels strongly about an applicant, the file is moved on to the final admission round, which is brought before the entire admission team.

Nesbitt said that this process matches up a more seasoned admission officer with a newer team member, providing different perspectives when viewing and analyzing the same application. Slate software, which powers the CBE, has really “streamlined the process,” explained Nesbitt, who no longer has to read applications day and night during the selection process.

Now, in one day, the admission team can read three times as many applications as they could before the implementation of the CBE method.

This process is not only more efficient, but it also gives the admission committee more time to examine each and every strong application so that no one applicant is sacrificed in the name of efficiency. The process eases the burden on admission officers while helping the College select the best applicants from an ever-increasing pool.

verify who they were, making non-cash transactions exponentially more difficult. This changed in 2010, when the first Aadhaar Card was issued as a government-based ID card available to all Indians.

The Aadhaar Card incorporates 10 fingerprints and an iris scan, and it has reached nearly full saturation in the past eight years. “To open a bank account, you need a proof of identity. These cards provide it,” Panagariya said.

Of course, a bank account is also necessary to engage in these transactions. In this, too, the Indian economy has made significant progress.

Five years ago, Panagariya explained, only 47 percent of Indians had bank accounts.

However, when the government began the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana program, which focused on increasing the accessibility of bank accounts, 18 million new accounts were created in a single day. Nevertheless, problems remain for those living in rural areas. “Most rural people are still 10 or five miles away from a bank,” Panagariya said. “The government wants to make sure that these accounts are being used. But they can’t be used if they aren’t accessible.”

Strides have also been made in connecting accounts to one another through FinTech. One of the main drivers of this increased connection has been the spread of cell-

phones. “As late as 1999, the total number of telephones in India was 40 million,” Panagariya said. However, there are now 1.2 billion phones in India, half of which are in rural areas. Because of the Aadhaar Cards, however, phones are no longer entirely necessary to complete these transactions. “Because you have government identities, you don’t need a phone,” Panagariya said. “If you’ve got a bank account, and if you’ve got a thumb [for fingerprints], you can do these transactions.” He believes that this technology could radically restructure the foundations of the Indian economy. “In a few years, many believe that credit

cards will become history in India,” Panagariya said.

Panagariya also discussed a variety of other developments in FinTech, like the Government e-Marketplace.

“It’s basically like Amazon, but by the Indian government,” he said. In addition, he discussed WhatsApp pay, a new feature of the communication application WhatsApp that he described as “the big disruptor that’s about to happen.” He also mentioned the Indian government’s debate over the spread of Bitcoin, which it has thus far tolerated. “The government is a bit ambivalent about Bitcoin,” he said. “[I took part in] some of those discussions, and many people wanted to shut the whole thing down.”

Panagariya concluded by giving a few parting lessons from his work in the National Institution for Transforming India. He shared his philosophy that no technology can substitute for growth and that incentives matter when determining policy. “Giving people the means to transact digitally will not cause them to do it,” he said. “You need to have the right policy.” Additionally, he vouched for removal when a policy is not working.

“Sometimes, you don’t need effective implementation of poor policies – you need them removed,” he explained.

At one point in the talk, Panagariya offered a more philosophical note. “As academics, it is very difficult for us to gauge what influence we are having… You cannot truly know whether you’re having any influence or not,” he said. To him, a strong conviction is more important than clear evidence of change.

“Having the belief that ‘yes, this is good’ is crucial when you want to effect change,” he said. This conviction is Panagariya’s guiding philosophy throughout his work on economic reform.

Trends show high levels of faculty retirement, increased faculty searches

By REBECCA TAUBER NEWS EDITOR Every year, the College welcomes a variety of new faculty to campus. Over the next few years, however, the College will see an increase in the number of new faculty members on campus.

This change is not the result of any plans to increase the amount of faculty at the College or due to an abnormal number of faculty leaving for other institutions or opportunities. Rather, this shift is largely due to current age distributions and a resulting increase in the number of faculty members who will soon be retiring.

Dean of the Faculty Lee Park explained the current trend. “Williams (like many institutions nationwide) is in the midst of a generational turnover of faculty,” she said.

“This isn't unexpected given the age distribution of our faculty, and we've been preparing for it for a number of years. With large numbers of faculty retiring, it follows that we’re doing a lot of hiring these days as well.”

This year, more than 15 different academic departments were hiring, and 19 tenure track searches were conducted. Park added that the figures last year were similar and that, while the numbers will vary, she expects hiring to continue to be up in the foreseeable future.

“We anticipate hiring in this way for at least a few more years,” she said.

Conducting a faculty search is no small task. While different departments run searches in varying ways, each department follows certain main steps. After writing and posting a job advertisement, the department’s search committee members review the applications received.

Next, they shorten the list of potential hires and conduct a

first round of interviews. After that, they narrow the candidate pool to three to four people who come to campus to meet with the department faculty and majors and present a job talk.

Many department members take leadership roles throughout the searches, working closely with the College's administrative offices.

“All units work with and are supported by the Office of the Dean of Faculty as

faculty members. “[The students] write down their comments and send them to me, and I share them with my colleagues. Personally, I really value their input,” he said.

Chair of the Department of Anthropology Antonia Foias also noted the value of student input. “Their preferences are fully taken into account when we select to whom we make the offer,” she said.

Park outlined the College’s main priorities in hiring.

“On the one hand, it's certainly sobering to see so many long-time, much-beloved members of our faculty retire. But on the other hand, it's also exciting to see how a new generation of faculty will develop and the new ideas in both teaching and scholarship they bring with them” Lee Park Dean of the Faculty

well as the Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity throughout the search process,” Park explained.

Search committees also make efforts to include students in their work. Often, students attend talks, get meals with candidates, help conduct interviews and submit their thoughts to the departments.

Chair of the Department of Economics Kenneth Kuttner emphasized student involvement in his department, which recently hired two new

“We're concerned with finding the best faculty we can who can support the curricular needs of individual units, who demonstrate a clear commitment to working closely with all our students, who are engaged in rigorous scholarship and who are interested in being part of the community of a small, residential college,” she said.

Often, a department seeks to hire someone with a particular focus within the field.

For example, Director of

Arabic Studies Katarzyna Pieprzak noted, “We have hired a remarkable scholar and teacher who works on North Africa, a region that is missing from our curriculum in Arabic Studies.”

Similarly, Chair of the Department of American Studies Mark Reinhardt explained how the department recently sought someone who would be able to strengthen the Native American studies aspect of the curriculum.

“Our goal was to find someone who did creative, exciting and interdisciplinary work,” he said. “It was very affirming to see the dynamism of the field right now, and we feel very fortunate that we can help bring it to Williams' curriculum.”

Beyond specific work in a given field, departments and administrators also seek more broad qualifications in future faculty members.

Chair of the Department of Astronomy Karen Kwitter explained some of the department’s priorities in its search to replace two retiring faculty members.

“We were looking for people passionate about astronomy and about teaching, who can communicate at all levels and who will involve students in meaningful and exciting research projects,” she said.

While examining a few positions within a single department may seem small, the larger scope of these changes in faculty and the College’s priorities in hiring will grow over time.

“On the one hand, it's certainly sobering to see so many long-time, much-beloved members of our faculty retire,” Park said. “But on the other hand, it's also exciting to see how a new generation of faculty will develop and the new ideas in both teaching and scholarship they bring with them.”

April 11, 2018

NEWS 5

The Williams Record

JA Week continues campus discussion of entry changes CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

a newly-drafted JA constitution. For Jad Hamdan ’19, coPresident of JAAB, this event was one of the most crucial in protecting the future of the JA system. “That event was really important because we’re in the process of formalizing the limits and boundaries of the JA role,” he said. “We now have a preliminary constitution speaking to those responsibilities and expectations. We hope that writing those down will clearly explain the limits of what a JA system should do to the rising JA class as well as the administration.”

For Hamdan, a thorough constitution has the potential to clarify the JA system both to those on the inside and the outside of the system. “This will hopefully make it really clear to outsiders looking in that this is why Williams has such a system, and this is why this system is different from being an RA [Resident Assistant] or a House Coordinator,” he said. This is the first time in the history of the JA system that the formation of such an in-depth constitution has been attempted.

“The kickoff event provided an initial frame for discussion,” Muellers added. “We intended [it] to provide students with an opportunity to engage with the JA constitution, share any feedback that they had and generate momentum for events later on in the week.” Hamdan emphasized that suggestions were carefully collected and will be incorporated into later revisions of the document. “People would write down suggestions and give them to us, and we collected those and are going to work in a couple weeks to distill those and see how they fit into the constitution, which we hope to finish officially by the end of the year,” he said.

Hamdan characterized the feedback as very positive on the whole, but he cited the intersec-

BROOKE HOROWITCH/EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Last Thursday, as part of JA Week, a Doddceum Dinner brought together students and administrators in dialogue regarding the JA system. tion between the work of the Davis Center and the work of the JA system as an area where people wanted to see expansion. Overall, Hamdan estimated that over 200 people attended the event, and 80 to 100 pieces of feedback were received.

In the second event, Frosh Stories, five students discussed the influences that their JAs had on them in their freshman years: Anna Neufeld ’18, Dorothy Gaby ’18, Neena Patel ’19, Tom Robertshaw ’19 and Morgan Whaley ’20. “JAs can have such a large impact on frosh,” Patel said. “I feel really lucky to have had two fantastic JAs that made my Williams experience what it is as well as inspired me to become a JA. It was fantastic to hear stories from

several people about how their JAs have helped them, whether it was through a difficult time or through the little things that they did with and for their frosh.”

Neufeld also tried to communicate the value of the JA system. “One thing I wanted to get across in my story time was that even if I hadn't happened to become friends with my JAs, I still would have thought they were so important,” she said. “I was just so nervous at the beginning of college about so many small and trivial things, like who to eat dinner with, how to navigate the Paresky line and how to fill up a swipe at Snack Bar and Eco. The fact that I could learn these things from my JAs and that my JAs organized entry dinners so I

didn't have to worry about who to eat with during the first few weeks was so important to me and really eased my transition to college.”

In the third event, the JA Alumni Panel, Jamie Art ’93, Dusty Lopez ’01, Laurel Bifano ’02, Ashley Cart ’05 and Alejandra Moran ’17 shared their experiences being JAs. “That [event] was meant to be a bit more of a distanced perspective of the JA system, helping us to illuminate the distinctions in the JA system over time,” Hamdan said. Discussing his takeaways from the event, he said, “Being a JA has always been hard. That’s the narrative that has continued to be true about the system and that was really true back into the 1990s.

The culture of the system may change slightly and the composition of the system has fortunately changed dramatically, but the role itself is still challenging.”

Muellers also found the continuity of the JA system to be a big takeaway. “This event was particularly interesting, at least for me, as our alums shared experiences that directly paralleled JA experiences today, indicating that the system has not changed as much as our rhetoric today suggests,” he said. One difference that did arise out of the conversation, however, was that less focus is spent nowadays on planning events, especially parties, as opposed to in the past.

The fourth and fifth events were meant to wrap up the week

with productive dialogue. The Doddceum Dinner in particular was organized to generate conversation between students and administrators. “We had a lot of different campus administrators and perspectives who were really reaffirming the administration’s commitment and desire to support the JA system,” Hamdan said. “There’s this conventional narrative on campus that the administration just wants to take this system away, and that has been revealed pretty consistently as not true… The administration has, especially for JAAB, been extremely at our backs and supportive of us. That became a little bit clearer to the entire campus.”

Hamdan and Muellers both reported very high turnout for the Dinner, with the space almost completely filled throughout the duration of the event.

The social media campaign that occurred alongside JA week was also a notable feature of the program. “Beyond the events themselves, the social media presence of the week was much larger than anticipated,” Muellers said. “The prevalence of nuanced, carefully composed and balanced responses with the #realJA hashtag was wonderful to see.” The #realJA hashtag was also used in posters around Paresky, which included quotes from JAs responding to various questions about the system.

For Muellers, the social media campaign was reflective of the overall impact of JA week.

“There had been so much existing talk about how to improve the system, and JA Week sought to unify and channel those discussions in a constructive way,” he said. Hamdan also saw the week as a success. “We had an overwhelmingly positive response,” he said. “Yeah, being a JA is really hard, and there are a lot of times where you feel challenged by a lot of different people, but overwhelmingly, the experience has been a very positive one.”

CC calls for the reinstitution of need-blind policy for international applicants

By DANNY JIN EXECUTIVE EDITOR College Council (CC) passed a resolution during its April 3 meeting calling for an end to the College’s need-aware policy for international applicants.

Co-authored by CC and International Club (IC) members, the resolution “implores the College to reinstate need-blind admissions to international students as soon as possible,” emphasizing that the policy would bring the College “closer and truer to its mission and purpose.” CC representatives approved the resolution by a 20-0-3 vote.

The campaign to readopt need-blind admission, which is currently used only for domestic applicants, gained renewed traction when IC hung posters around campus protesting the College’s need-aware policy for international applicants. Admission was need-blind for all applicants between 2001 and 2010, and several peer institutions, including Amherst and Harvard, remain need-blind.

However, the College became need-aware for its international

applicants beginning with the class of 2015, citing the impact of the 2008 financial crisis on its endowment. While domestic applications are considered without regard for financial need, the Office of Admission can view international applicants’ demonstrated need before making admission decisions.

According to data provided

by Director of Institutional Research Courtney Wade, the level of financial aid for international students fell following the return to need-aware admission. While 80 percent of international students received aid in the 20102011 academic year, the last year during which all students were admitted need-blind, just 60 percent did in 2014-15. This year, 58 percent of international students are receiving aid, with $6,114,078 being awarded in total. By comparison, Amherst provides $9,117,196 in aid to international students, 87 percent of whom receive assistance, according to the Amherst Common Data Set. The 2014 Investment Report declared that, adjusted for inflation, the endowment

had returned to pre-recession levels, and in November 2014, CC, IC and the Minority Coalition (MinCo) passed a resolution recommending that the College readopt its need-blind policy. While the resolution was shown to trustees, admission remained need-aware for international applicants.

According to former IC cochair and current MinCo co-chair Amina Awad ’18, the need-blind label has a profound effect on both prospective applicants and current students. “A lot of times, international students who need financial aid will just look up the list of who’s need blind and just apply there,” she said. “But probably the worst outcome of all is people lying and saying they don’t need financial aid when they actually do and then going into debt.

“As the head of IC, I had to deal with students who would say, ‘I might have to drop out of Williams because they won’t let me register for financial aid, and my family’s struggling financially.’”

Before drafting this year’s resolution, writers discussed the issue in meetings with admin-

istrators and spoke with Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Liz Creighton ’01 and Associate Director for International Recruitment Tanya Aydelott to learn more about the admission process. CC’s Vice President for Communications Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí ’20, Assistant Treasurer Haoyu Sheng ’20, Parliamentarian Ellie Sherman ’20 and Class of 2021 Representative Papa Freduah Anderson ’21 collaborated with IC co-chairs Isabel Andrade ’18 and Gabrielle Ilagan ’18 and Awad over spring break to pen the resolution. This collective effort allowed the writers to consider input from several sources in formulating the resolution.

CC Co-Presidents Lizzy Hibbard ’19 and Moisés Roman Mendoza ’19 said that administrators showed interest in the issue but raised concerns about tradeoffs. “That’s why we incorporated language that the College ‘not frame this proposed change as one that pits domestic students against international students, and that a need-blind admission process for international students does not, and

SAMUEL WOLF/NEWS EDITOR

should not, disadvantage domestic students,’” they said.

In the past week, the resolution has been brought forth to the Committee on Priorities and Resources, among other groups. Hibbard and Roman Mendoza expressed a desire to continue CC’s advocacy for the policy. “This resolution was an articulation that this is an important issue to students,” they said. “We’ve brought it up with various administrators and will continue to push for updates in meetings.”

Cabrera-Lomelí reiterated the the desire to use CC as a platform to bring attention to the issue and remind the College to review its priorities. “If we call ourselves a global institution, we have to act like it,” he said. “Our endowment is based upon a lot of international investment. We take a lot from the world financially, but we’re not willing to offer students from the world the same opportunity.”

Creighton said that several parties would have to be involved if any change in admission policy were to take effect. “Any significant change to admission and financial aid policy is considered by the president and provost, trustees and Committee on Admission and Financial Aid and also takes into account input from students, faculty and staff across the College,” she said.

The resolution’s potential impact is magnified by the fact that new administrators are currently entering the College. Hiring for new directors of Admission and Financial Aid is currently taking place, and incoming President Maud Mandel will transition into her role on July 1. “This is something we want President-elect Mandel to also see and that we will be bringing up when we meet with her,” Cabrera-Lomelí said.

“The Office of Admission and Financial Aid agrees that the need-aware policy for international applicants is an issue we want to consider with President Mandel when she gets here and with the Board of Trustees,” Creighton added.

Cabrera-Lomelí said that the authors attempted to conceive the resolution in such a way that would withstand arguments given against need-blind admission

in the past. He said that past counterarguments centered on claims that the change would not be financially feasible and that it would harm admission and financial aid prospects for domestic applicants.

“The financial reason we’re told we can’t do it is the size of our endowment,” Cabrera-Lomelí said. According to the 2017 Investment Report, the College’s endowment closed last year at a high-water mark of $2.5 billion.

“When it comes to our financial aid budget, feasibility is determined by priorities,” Hibbard and Roman Mendoza said. “If we set being need-blind for international students as a priority, we believe [the College] would be able to make that work.”

Creighton said that the endowment’s recovery has allowed for increased spending on academic support, mental health services, building and renovations and financial aid.

“If we now want to think about need-blind admissions for international students – and I think that’s a very important topic for us to consider – we would also have to identify new sources of funds or areas of the budget that could absorb offsetting reductions,” she said. “Williams faces incredibly difficult choices among equally worthy causes.”

The other primary concern is that if the College were to readopt a need-blind policy, domestic applicants would lose access to admission spots or would receive less financial aid. While there is no strict cap on the number of international students admitted per year, they typically comprise between six and eight percent of the student body.

Creighton also reaffirmed that the College meets 100 percent of demonstrated need for all students and that its commitment to that principle is unwavering.

Awad emphasized the importance of institutional memory in advancing the campaign. “We can keep passing resolutions and so on, but we need to have more active response and communication with the Board of Trustees,” Awad said. “This isn’t the first CC resolution, this isn’t the first campaign and this is clearly something students have cared about, care about now and will continue to care about.”

FEATURES 6

The Williams Record

April 11, 2018

One in Two Thousand

By REBECCA TAUBER NEWS EDITOR I met Katrina one of the first few nights of First Days, when we spent hours walking and talking around campus. This week, I sat down with Katrina to hear more about her adventures during her gap year and her history of unconventional medical injuries.

So, how many fingers do you have?

I actually have nine fingers.

When I was about 3 years old I got in a car accident.

Our whole family was driving on the highway, and our car was a defective model, [so] we went over a patch of black ice and rolled over.

Somehow in that whole mess my thumb came off. A couple months later I had an operation to move my index finger to the place of my thumb. I effectively have an opposable thumb, but I can’t bend it because some of the joints were injured.

What is it like to have nine fingers?

When I was younger, I tried to learn how to play the piano, but I had to stop that, both because I have no musical talent and because I was limited by the number of fingers. I guess you could say that’s been the biggest impact on my life. That, and I had to switch to being lefthanded because I lost my thumb on my right hand.

That being said, I wasn’t doing much writing at age 3, so it wasn’t a difficult shift.

I can also only row starboard because I can’t feather without a thumb on my right hand. Whenever I wear gloves, there’s an awkward empty socket that freaks

people out sometimes. Also, when I tried to get my Indian visa, there was a fingerprint scanning thing, and it had to have five points of contact.

There was no way to run the program without having five fingers, so I spent 30 minutes in the Indian embassy in Myanmar trying to get my Indian visa, and it wouldn’t go through. Eventually the guy was like, “Whatever,” and I got my visa.

KATRINA WHEELAN ’21

Do people notice that you only have nine fingers?

Most people usually notice the scar but don’t notice that I have nine fingers. Then I’m like, “I have nine fingers.”

[First] they don’t believe me, and then most people count them. And indeed, I do have nine fingers.

Do you have other scars?

I also have a scar on my leg and my foot. I took a gap year last year and traveled in South America, and while I was in the Amazon, I was bitten by a sand-fly, which is a vector for a flesh-eating parasite called Leishmaniasis. I only realized I had it a couple of months later, after I had traveled from South America to Southeast Asia, and I had this weird, perfectly round hole in my leg. I eventually figured out what it was when I sent my grandma’s dermatologist a picture. I was in Vietnam at the time, where they couldn’t treat it, so I ended up going to Germany.

My friend and I found a student room in Munich and stayed there for six weeks while I was getting treated at the Tropical Medicine Institute. At the time, the treatment wasn’t FDA-approved in the United States. It is now, luckily.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JULIA CASSELL. KATRINA'S HOMETOWN HANOVER, N.H.

KATRINA'S RESIDENCE DENNETT

What did you do on your gap year?

I traveled for nine months, partially with my family, partially alone and partially with different friends, mostly in South America and Southeast Asia, with a six-week stint in Munich.

Do you have any other wild stories from your gap year?

My friend who I lived with in Germany for six weeks ended up traveling with me for another three months afterwards in Nepal, India and Sri Lanka. Neither of us are very

MOST BIZARRE DISEASE CONTRACTED LEISHMANIASIS

good at planning, so there was one moment when we decided to travel over land from southern Nepal to New Delhi, India without really realizing how far that is and how long that actually takes on somewhat tenuous transportation links. We found a series of buses, several of which broke down. We eventually found our way into a city just over the Indian border called Gorakhpur. We thought we could take a train from Gorakhpur to New Delhi, [not knowing] that Indian trains book up two or three weeks in advance. We also hadn’t thought to exchange any of our currency into Indian currency, so we had no

money. We were stuck in this city for what looked to be at least two-and-a-half weeks before the next open train bed. And then the power went out in the entire city, so all the ATMs didn’t work.

We ended up spending the night in the train station. We eventually found our way to an ATM in a mall that had a generator and got into a third-class train compartment on a 17-hour train to New Delhi the next morning.

There were cockroaches the size of rats and rats the size of small dogs. I’m pretty sure most of them were rabid. It was an interesting experience. My friend was pretty sure she had tuberculosis when we came back, and she had a series of tests, all of which came back positive.

Then she had to get a bunch of bloodwork, which came back inconclusive. After her 10th blood sample, they realized that she was negative. But I was freaking out because if she had tuberculosis, [then] I had tuberculosis. [That would’ve been] just what I needed, another tropical disease.

How do you think taking a gap year has affected your first-year experience at Williams?

One of the most rewarding parts of my gap year, but not necessarily one of the most pleasant parts of my gap year, was traveling alone for some sections. I think that helped me become more comfortable being alone.

[I’m] more confident relying exclusively on myself, but [I’m] also more willing to ask for help. The other piece was having an entire year where there was really no structure, at least in the way that I organized my gap year.

I ended up just naturally being drawn to certain things, so it helped me figure out what I’m interested in in life and academics. I was drawn to specific types of books and developed this interest in history, which I never had in high school. I think I am getting more out of college for having taken a step back and spent an entire structure-less year reflecting on myself, my life and what I want out of my college experience.

How did you arrive at Williams for First Days?

I actually biked to school. I live in Hanover, N.H., which is about 150 miles away by biking. I biked to school in two days. I spent the night in Manchester, Vt. and then biked the rest [during] the morning of move-in day. My parents drove all my stuff in the car, so I wasn’t entirely independent. It was interesting to show up to sign-in in Paresky dripping in sweat in my bike shoes and tight biking shorts. I was like, “Oh God, everyone I’m gonna live with is seeing me right now, thinking, ‘Why is this person wearing spandex?’” The first thing I did was take a shower, which was definitely needed.

Tell me about your experiences hiking in the New England area.

I live in New Hampshire, and there are 48 4000-foot mountains there. I actually hiked all of them my junior summer of high school. A friend and I decided to hike every single mountain that qualifies as a 4000-footer. You get a little certificate, and you get admitted to the 4000-foot club, which entails a pizza dinner and a little awards ceremony, so I’d say it was worth it.

Images movie selections reflect thoughtful approach

By LYDIA DUAN FEATURES EDITOR As the sole movie theater in town, Images Cinema has a longstanding history with the residents of Williamstown. Be it the go-to destination for a family outing on a Thursday afternoon or the rendezvous site for College students kicking off their Friday nights, Images is a staple in the community that attracts a diverse group of movie-goers.

But how does the movie selection process at Images work? Who decides what to screen? With those questions in mind, I sat down with Doug Jones, executive director of Images, and Janet Curran, the theater’s managing director, to get a behind-thescenes glimpse into the process of how exhibitors choose which films to show.

It starts with the fact that Images is a single-screen theater in a small town. To show a film, the movie distributor sets terms that Images must agree to. Such terms include percentages to pay back to the distributor and how long the film has to be shown. The closer to the national opening date of a film, the higher the price.

“We’re also up against shrinking release windows [because] films are in theaters for a shorter amount of time than they used to be,” Curran said. Knowing the slew of commercial factors, both Jones and Curran agreed that it’s difficult. “We don’t benefit from economies of scale,” Curran said, laughing.

A specific instance of this would be the recent blockbuster and newest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Panther. As a film lauded for its social value and groundbreaking representation, it was something Images would have loved to feature. “We wanted to get Black Panther, but in order to show Black Panther, we would have had to

have it for more weeks than a small-town, single-theater [venue] could possibly show the movie for,” Curran said, expressing regret in how the logistics made screening the film simply not feasible.

The ultimate challenge has been preserving balance: showing films for their artistry, intellectual vitality and social significance while knowing that a theater is a business, and tickets still need to be sold. “That’s the constant back and forth.”

Jones said. “Sometimes everything falls into place – this is a good film, people are interested in it, let’s do it. Other times, this is a really good film, but we’ll have to work a little harder to get people in the theater… Every now and then, we show a movie that we know not that many people will come to see, but those people who will come will really love it.”

The mechanics of the selection process begin with conversations between Jones and Curran about their plans for the upcoming month. Then, they’ll discuss their vision with a booking agent and hear out their input. This combining of perspectives is critical.

“We’re looking more at the artistic and how the film is representing different communities, and he’s looking more nationally at the bottom line… Then he’ll go to the distributors, and they will either accept what he is offering or not,” Curran said. Only then, Curran explained, can a movie physically make its way to Spring St. At the same time, a certain amount of flexibility is required to keep the theater’s programming alive.

The timeline with booking movies greatly varies. Some screenings, such as the yearlong Social Justice Film series in partnership with the Davis Center, are set far in advance. Other movies are spur-of-the-moment decisions that suddenly work

with national timing. An example of this was with Love, Simon, a film that Images decided to screen within a day. “[With] Love, Simon, a lot of people were talking about it [as] the first major film from a major studio that was a high school romantic comedy with a gay character right up front,” Jones said.

“We had the opportunity, and it actually wasn’t showing anywhere nearby.”

For Jones and Curran, another priority for selecting movies is variety. To meet this objective, the two directors said they try to zoom out to get a fuller idea of what a month, a season or quarter at Images looks like with genres and topics of films. They never show two similar films backto-back. “When you look at the overall nature of the films, we show … American indies, some documentaries, some foreign language films and collaborations,” Jones said.

Movie selection changes by season as well. Through winter to early spring, Images’ programming included Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Shape of Water, Lady Bird and Call Me by Your Name. All of these films had picked up significant buzz and critical acclaim throughout awards season. The timing of these selections for Images was unsurprisingly deliberate.

“Awards season at the end of the year is one of the busiest times of the year for us. Those films are getting so much more attention that we’re able to ride the wave of these films being more in people’s minds,” Jones said. Such films check off two of the theater’s important criteria – quality and growing attention.

Beyond awards season, however, Curran and Jones strive to adapt to other national and social currents. Curran provided some examples. Despite the popularity of movie director Woody Allen, Images recently made the decision to

not show his movies anymore due to sexual assault allegations against the director.

Sometimes, Images receives ideas from outside groups reflective of what they’d like to see on screen, especially regarding pressing social concerns. In one such instance, Images screened a local filmmaker’s documentary, entitled Voices for Recovery: Building a Recovery Community, about the opioid crisis in the Berkshires.

Local interests are another element that Images tries to prioritize. Every November, the anniversary of Images, the theater will showcase a silent film and bring in live music in celebration of the yearly milestone. This annual event

is particularly popular with the local crowd. “It’s not just showing a movie; it’s showing a movie here at Images and directly tapping into the history that the theater has,” Jones said.

Curran and Jones have developed a good sense of when a movie will be a hit, but ultimately, it is still a variable process. “Every movie is different.

Even if it checks off certain boxes … it’s still its own thing. This might have worked in the past, but will it work in the same way? It’s really hard to predict sometimes,” Curran said.

Jones concurred. “The status quo is always changing a little bit,” he said.

From the cinephile looking for the next film of elevated

aesthetic and intellectual value to the casual student seeking to broaden their cinematic horizons, audiences at Images are comprised of a variety of people with different interests, tastes and histories. So, above all else, Curran and Jones try to create programming that captures the varied experiences of individual lives.

“I think cinema is such a powerful tool for generating empathy,” Curran said. “I think it is really important to step outside your comfort zone with what movies you see… To be able to kind of get a window inside someone else’s perspective and get to try on someone else’s life for 90 minutes or so – that’s so powerful.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF JANET CURRAN.

Images Cinema, established in 1916, has served as Williamstown's venue for a wide variety of film selections.

April 11, 2018

7 FEATURES

The Williams Record

Behind the Uniform: Mark LaPine forges friendships with students

By JEONGYOON HAN FEATURES EDITOR Mark LaPine still remembers the first time a student introduced herself to him. It was during his first month on the job – March of 2014 – as a night custodian for the College. The student, then a junior, simply thanked LaPine for cleaning and maintaining facilities at the Bernhard Music Center, but the brief exchange took LaPine by surprise. At Steinerfilm Inc., the electronic supply company where LaPine worked for 27 years before being laid off, he rarely interacted with other workers.

Though he is now surrounded by many people in his day-to-day work responsibilities, he did not initially know what to expect of the dynamic between College staff and students. As a North Adams native now living in Clarksburg, LaPine had previously worked in the electronics industry that dominated the Berkshires, so starting up custodial work was unfamiliar to him.

“Coming from [Steinerfilm], it was really interesting for me to be working with all of these people instead of running a machine,” he said.

For a student to reach out to him, then, was refreshing and fulfilling. “I thought, ‘Wow, that was pretty cool.’ I wasn’t sure if students even cared what their custodians’ names [were].”

But contrary to his initial expectations for the job, LaPine has found that working at the College has become a core part of his life because of the care he puts into interacting with members of the campus community.

Indeed, working the 6 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. shift five nights a week at Bernhard, Paresky

JEONGYOON HAN/FEATURES EDITOR

Besides his work at the College as a night custodian, Mark LaPine enjoys spending time with his family, hiking and hunting. and Chapin Hall has allowed LaPine to form meaningful relationships with members of the College.

“It’s my favorite part of the job, for sure, to just meet the talented, interesting students, faculty and staff,” LaPine, who has become friends with over 50 students throughout his time here, said. “You don’t get that in the [electronics] industry. You just run a machine.

But here, every night, every year, really, you get to meet a whole new group of people.”

Students who know LaPine, particularly those involved in the music department who cross paths with him while he is on his shift, value LaPine’s kindness, care and friendliness.

“It’s so nice to have him [working at Bernhard],” Kurt Pfrommer ’18 said. Pfrommer is a music major who has been friends with LaPine for the past three years. “It’s really clear that he cares about us and that he’s always interested in how we are doing and what we are up to,” Pfrommer added. “He truly is a part of the music community.”

For LaPine’s wife of 34 years, Deb, that students think highly of him is not surprising.

“People in my life love and appreciate him,” she said. “He has a great ability to ease the most stressful situations with his sense of humor.” As the operations manager in the Alumni Relations Office, Deb LaPine said that both of them have had great experiences

with the College. “I do enjoy having him on campus and hearing his stories of positive interactions with the student body,” Deb, who has spent the last 32 years working at the College, said. “I am happy to see Mark have similar experiences engaging with many of the students in the music department. The relationships he builds with the students make his work worthwhile.”

LaPine does not limit his work at the College to just his custodial responsibilities.

From following up on developments in students’ lives to sometimes treating them with a LaPine favorite, Devil Dogs – a crème-filled chocolate food cake – he is a supporting and caring figure within the music department. When

he is not working or listening to hard rock, heavy metal or alternative rock (Parliament and Funkadelic are two of his favorite bands), LaPine will even go to student musicians’ concerts and recitals. To him, it’s a treat to not only listen to great classical music, but to also know the performers.

“The students are so dedicated, especially the musicians,” he said. “I’ve always appreciated all types of music, and it’s cool to know the musicians who are making the music. I know all of the hard work they put into [music],” LaPine, who often hears students rehearsing at night, said.

On the other end, students are equally devoted to caring for LaPine. Once, Pfrom-

mer said, a group of music students lured him away from his snow shoveling duties, claiming a student was in need, so that they could surprise him with a song on his birthday. On regular occasions, one might find a student chatting with LaPine about hiking or hunting turkeys – one of his favorite pastimes – or gushing about how intelligent, sweet and loving his daughter Michelle and granddaughter Ava are.

Though they live in Ringgold, Ga., LaPine will make the trek down south to see them next week to celebrate Ava’s fourth birthday.

Both LaPines said that it can be difficult to balance work with family, since Deb and Mark have different work schedules and Ava and Michelle live so far away.

“We have worked opposite shifts for most of our almost 34 years of marriage,” Deb said. She maintained, however, that the time they do share together becomes that much more meaningful. “We try to hike or enjoy the outdoors together almost every weekend, and that gives us time to reconnect and chat about our weeks. Quality time over quantity time, you would say. We make it work and enjoy the time we do have together all the more.”

With this in mind, LaPine’s dedication to this campus becomes all the more significant to the people around him. Staff and students alike appreciate LaPine for the work he does and the inspiration he is to those who have had the fortune to experience even a sliver of his characteristic kindness. As someone who radiates compassion, it’s no surprise that LaPine is a widely beloved figure in this community.

Best Views on Campus -

There’s something inspiring about seeing a breathtaking sunset or a stunning vista. Here at the College, there’s no lack of sights that can light up your day. We at the Record went scavenging around campus, trying to spot the best study spaces that come bundled with the greatest views.

Schapiro Hall Third floor Opened: 2008 For your everyday Division II major, head on up on to the top floor of Schapiro to gaze longingly into the distance, watch the birds and avoid your 30-page political science paper.

PHOTO COURTESY OF KAI CASH.

Waeve, a business pitched by Tiso McGinty ’19, Kiki Laino ’18, Susana Hawken ’18 and Mary Imevbore ’18, won first place.

Students knock out pitch competition

By KAI CASH CONTRIBUTING WRITER On March 4, the College hosted its seventh annual Venture Pitch Competition, which was organized by Tonio Palmer, the Career Center’s new Entrepreneur in Residence. This was my first year as an observer of the event rather than a participant.

There were five teams, comprised of a total of 17 participants, and three judges. The teams competed for a first-place prize of $15,000 and a secondplace prize of $5000 to be used to further develop winning ideas during the summer. Teams were given eight minutes to present their ideas to an audience of students, alumni, faculty and staff.

Additionally, they were given 10 minutes to defend their ideas during a question and answer session with the judges.

Waeve, a customer servicecentric and branded hair product business serving African-American women pioneered by Mary Imevbore ’18, Tiso McGinty ’19, Kiki Laino ’18 and Susana Hawken ’18 came in first place.

Second place went to MediForm, a personal app to store one’s medical information. The team members were Negasi Haskins ’20, Tiffany Tien ’20, R.J. Shamberger ’20 and Julius Dodson ’21. Skylar Chaney ’19.5 and Ellyn Pier ’19 landed in third place, returning for a second year with an idea to help post-concussion sufferers find the best treatment.

Other teams included Momenta Fitness, a sports fitness tracking app pitched by Eddy Varela ’20, Tafara Makaza ’20

and Arslay Joseph ’20 and Hitch, a ride sharing service for the Williams community. The Hitch team consisted of Ben Morton ’19, Brendon Seyfried ’19, Clayton Mizgerd ’21 and Sebastian Dziadkiewicz ’19.

Each team was paired with an alumni mentor and met with Palmer several times to refine its pitch. This event has a long history at the College of producing successful entrepreneurs with innovative ideas. In years prior, it was called the Williams Business Challenge. The format of the Williams Business Challenge was not fundamentally different from this year’s Venture Pitch Competition; it was similarly an opportunity for students to pitch ideas as teams to a panel of alumni for a chance to win cash prizes to start their businesses. In the months leading up to the competition, students were mentored

by College alumni and other professionals working in the industry most pertinent to the idea of the respective team. In addition, students had to write and submit business plans to be considered for the prize.

The event changed under Palmer’s leadership. Utilizing the “lean start-up” and “design thinking” methods, he wanted to give students the chance to learn how to develop ideas into viable concepts that could potentially become businesses or impact ventures further down the road.

As such, Palmer focused on the ideation and the grounding of businesses in addressing pertinent issues. Emphasizing the importance of crafting human-centered solutions, he had students

go out and conduct the research necessary to execute their ideas.

Palmer wanted students to learn effective teamwork, improve presentation skills and have fun.

Student response to the competition has been positive. “I had an incredible time working with my team, [Palmer] and alumni mentors,” Dodson, a member of the MediForm team, said.

“It was hard work, and at times we hit roadblocks, but I think through mentorship and really putting in the time, we were able to see the value of grounding our designs in what people need. I think we learned to be interested rather than interesting.”

This competition was a flagship event for the nascent entrepreneurial programming initiative at the College. Past entrepreneurial events have included a Career Trek to visit Boston start-ups and workshops with alumni entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship at the College has always existed, but now there is a community and a leader in Palmer to help support the effort and allow it to grow even more.

Entrepreneurship is difficult, but there is no greater satisfaction than in creating something that is entirely your own or solving issues about which you are passionate.

Entrepreneurship at the College is open to all majors and interests. Students who value creative thinking, want to find a team, would like to connect with alumni or are just genuinely curious about entrepreneurship are encouraged to contact Palmer. The world needs more problem solvers, and the College is a great place to get started.

Thompson Biology Labs Third floor bridge Opened: 1893 If Schow gets too Panopticonesque with the windows of every lab looking out over your carrel, go a couple of flights up TBL and find a study nook with a view that makes up for its dim lighting.

Paresky Center Balcony Opened: 2007 It’s the hub of student life, the heart of, “hey, do you want to get a meal?” and the home of the beloved snar. It also has a pretty stellar balcony overlooking Sawyer Quad in all its glory.

Sawyer Library Mezzanine Opened: 2014 Whether you casually dip into Sawyer once a week or you bring a sleeping bag and a toothbrush to live in one of the study rooms, the views in the library will certainly brighten your midday studying.

8 ARTS

The Williams Record

April 11, 2018

The artist otherwise known as … Josh Greenzeig ’20

By HANNAH TAGER STAFF WRITER “If I’m a musician when I’m older, I’m going to look back at this and be like, ‘Wow I’m naïve,’ but I pulled an all-nighter, drove home Thursday from school, left for the airport at 3 a.m., flew to Austin at 6 a.m., got off the plane, changed, rehearsed and was on stage within like two hours—and it’s like, ‘I’m doing this; this is so cool.’”

Josh Greenzeig ’20 recounted the beginning of his spring break, during which he furiously packed up all his things in Williamstown before heading to the South by Southwest (SXSW) cultural festival in Austin this March. There, he played drums with his band Melt, whose new single “Oh Brother” was released last Thursday.

Melt is a young band that has already found tremendous success—its first single, “Sour Candy,” was posted last spring to the music subreddit “listen to this” and quickly accumulated hundreds of up-votes. The song has since reached more than a million streams on Spotify, its music video has more than 200,000 views on YouTube and it has charted at number five on Billboard’s Viral 50 chart and number six on Spotify Canada’s Top 50 Chart.

The band was born after Eric Dickstein and Marlo Shankweiler, Melt’s keyboardist and guitarist, respectively, created “Sour Candy” as a senior project while attending The Dalton School in New York City.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOSH GREENZEIG.

Greenzeig’s NYC-based band, Melt, hit number five on Billboard’s Viral 50 chart and number six on Canada’s Spotify List.

Having met and collaborated with Shankweiler at a Stanford jazz camp, Greenzeig joined the band soon after.

However, Greenzeig is not on the recorded version of “Sour Candy”— “On the heels of a wonderful spring break in Miami, it became financially unfeasible for me to get a zip car to help contribute to studio time,” he explained, but he is now the committed drummer of the group, even contributing some vocals to its newest song. In addition to Greenzeig, Dickstein and Shankweiler, the band is currently com-

prised of guitarist Jack Florio, Saxophonist Nick Sare, trumpeter Aaron Alcouloumre and bassist Lucas Saur.

Greenzeig is personally averse to labeling music under genres, but if the band’s vibe had to be categorized, it would probably fall under pop or funk, with the members’ jazz backgrounds seeping into their sound. “If we are pop music, we’re not pop music as you’d expect it,” Greenzeig said, clarifying that he by no means intended to demean the genre. “We all just share this love of a good

-ass pop song.” A perfect pop song, he explained, should have the same effect as a pithy SparkNotes page “that distills everything down in five minutes, and you just get everything you need right there.”

Melt’s own music is a distillation of all the members’ musical interests. Greenzeig’s background is in jazz, but he’s also a jam band aficionado. He and the other members draw inspiration from D’Angelo, Vulfpeck, Stevie Wonder and Beach House-esque synth pop bands; “‘What if D’Angelo had a baby with The Grateful

Dead? What would that sound like?’ — that’s how our rehearsals start,” he said. From these jam sessions, the band will record riffs and bits that ultimately become singles.

Unfortunately, being comprised of college students that all attend different universities means that Melt faces the unique challenge of balancing musical commitments with contrasting time zones and school breaks. Greenzeig has a midterm the morning that Melt will be playing at Bucknell’s spring concert, and he had planned on studying for

said midterm this weekend, when Melt is playing at Skidmore, “so that’s not going to happen,” he noted. There have been countless nights, Greenzeig recalled, “when I’ve been out on the weekend this year and gotten an email or a phone call, and I’ve just turned around and left wherever I was and went back to my room and had to just work on some stuff with people.”

Such discipline has undoubtedly paid off; the band’s plan is to have a whole EP done by June. After winning a battle of the bands last year in the spring, the group could finally afford to record at The Bunker Studio in Williamsburg, where Tune-Yards, Esperanza Spalding and many other notable artists have recorded. This summer, Melt plans on playing as many live shows as possible around the New York City area and hopefully touring — “Let’s get in a van, and let’s just go,” he said.

Greenzeig finds just as much pleasure in the smaller thrills of playing professionally. At SXSW, one father on a business trip to Austin went to Melt’s show and facetimed his son who was a huge Melt fan but studying abroad.

More commonly, he said, “random people will [direct message] you on Instagram or comment on videos about something that you did, and it’s so cool that this stranger that you’ve never met before can just enjoy something that you made.”

OFF THE RECORD. Tired of listening to the same song over and over again? Looking for some new music? Check out what our editors are listening to around the office!

“NICE FOR WHAT” DRAKE

PHOTO COURTESY OF DESTINATION WILLIAMSTOWN.

‘Love, Simon’ carries heart in an emotional story depicting love, friendship and familial bonds.

‘Love, Simon’ breaks ground in mainstream representation of queer romance

By CECELIA MESSBAUER STAFF WRITER The magic of Love, Simon, which played at Images last week, is that it is groundbreaking and entirely ordinary at the same time. The first major studio romantic comedy to feature a gay protagonist is, in many ways, a quintessential teenage rom-com that inhabits its genre unapologetically. The story, meanwhile, focuses on a young gay man struggling to come out — hardly outside the box for LGBTQ-focused media. What elevates it as a film and a cultural moment, however, is how its two familiar ingredients combine to form an emotional core that makes it worthy, flaws and all, of its unprecedented reach.

Based on Becky Albertalli’s 2015 young adult novel, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, the Greg Berlanti-directed film follows Simon Spear (Nick Robinson), a high school senior in suburban Atlanta. Simon’s otherwise happy life, with an off-beat but loving family and tight-knit circle of friends, is weighed down by his struggle to come to terms with his sexuality in an environment where being openly gay is rare and rife with uncertainty. When a popular school message board receives an anonymous post from another student expressing the same dilemma and providing an email contact, Simon strikes up a secret correspondence with “Blue” and, in the process of growing close with someone in a way he never has before, begins to fall in love.

The crux of the story - Simon trying to find out who Blue is is given a dangerous twist when his correspondence is discovered by Martin (Logan Miller),

a character with a toxic combination of cloying dweebishness and violent entitlement. Martin threatens to leak Simon’s emails and out him to the entire school unless Simon helps him make romantic advances with Abby (Alexandra Shipp), one of Simon’s best friends. Also complicating matters is the tangle of secret attractions within Simon’s group of friends; newcomer Abby, long time best friend Leah (Katherine Langford) and Cristiano Ronaldoobsessed soccer player Nick (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) all have to navigate through their own teenage problems without being aware of how Simon’s secret and Martin’s manipulations are affecting them all.

What makes Love, Simon’s set-up more than just a genre cliché and its representation more than a novelty item is how much heart it carries from start to finish; it goes for tears as much as laughs and easily elicits both. Robinson’s performance as both protagonist and point-of-view character masterfully captures the beat-by-beat intensity of high school drama, where the smallest moments are magnified and the biggest moments made earthshaking by the messiness of the feelings involved. Sequences in which new pieces of evidence lead Simon to imagine several different students as potentially being Blue keep the audience on its toes, knowing that the camera speaks for Simon and isn’t necessarily going to interpret any particular scene unbiasedly. The montages in which Simon engages with Blue as the truest version of himself make the pain of having to hide in public all the more palpable.

The emotional payoffs are consistently powerful, helped along by Shipp’s standout performance as a deeply supportive friend who won’t settle for anything less in return. Moreover, Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel star as Simon’s imperfect but loving parents who face the challenge of making Simon’s home life safe for his true self in a way it has never quite been.

When the film comes up short, it does so because it runs out of time. The conclusions to the character arcs for Simon’s friends could have used more room to breathe, and the transition from Simon’s lowest point to the triumphant climax is similarly rushed. Martin’s portrayal is also worryingly close to that of a pitiable but well-intentioned loser who gets carried away instead of the insidious abuser that he is; his dimensionality ultimately serves the story well, but the film never finds the space to truly reckon with how toxic and violent his actions are, nor how woefully inadequate his attempts at self-improvement are in comparison.

Fortunately, Love, Simon makes sure those shortcomings aren’t the last impression it makes; its climax is both a masterstroke of emotion-driven storytelling and a true watershed moment that has the potential to be a life-changing moment for so many who have never seen themselves on screen before.

When everything falls away and the credits roll on a high school love story between two young men, it leaves a distinct sense of satisfaction at having witnessed something that is completely normal and utterly magical.

“DRUNK DRIVERS/ KILLER WHALES” CAR SEAT HEADREST

“SHOTGUN” GEORGE EZRA

“WALMART YODELING KID” MASON RAMSEY

9 ARTS

The Williams Record

April 11, 2018

Junot Díaz graces College audience with insight, eloquence

By FARIS GULAMALI ARTS EDITOR From the moment Junot Díaz began speaking during his reading on Monday, he did not hold back. Gripped by the very sentiments he used to propel his career, Díaz inspired the '62 Center audience to speak up by speaking up himself. After a flattering introduction from Visiting Professor in Democratic Studies Nelly Rosario, Díaz took off.

A Dominican-American writer, professor at MIT and winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the MacArthur Fellowship Award and the Hispanic Heritage Award, Díaz conveyed a series of fundamental truths by holding his identity close to his talk and his reading. Toward the beginning, he asked a lot of tough questions: What does it mean to be in a white settler colony tainted by a larger narrative of genocide? What is privilege? How should we think about race? He left these questions open for the audience to grapple with while he read passages from his books This is How You Lose Her and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. After a brief reading, he moved on to a question and answer session where audience members, after confronting his tough questions, returned to him a few tough questions of their own.

The first question posed to Díaz was related to how people of color should hold their history, particularly on an international scale, where we see different ways in which people

KATIE BRULE/PHOTO EDITOR

Pulitzer Prize winner and Dominican-American writer Junot Díaz gave a resonant reading and talk at the '62 Center on Monday. of color hold to their traditions and cultures. The asker used the particular example of Cuba.

Díaz’s response first acknowledged the complexity of the issue and remained modest in his response. “My knowledge on the Caribbean is very limited,” he said. “We are in a dialogue, but dialogues can be useful.”

Díaz mentioned living in a poor neighborhood in New Jersey as a reference point for visiting the Caribbean. He asked a question - why would any poor person be happy to see you? – and then answered it himself. Impoverished people don’t know who you are. In fact, they often see their neighbors as having predatory tendencies. “You

can’t just walk in because you’re a cutie. It took me a long time before people were like, ‘Cool.’

They test you.”

Díaz described the relationship in question as one of privilege, especially between study abroad students and places like the Caribbean. “When we come from places of vast privilege to places that have less vast privilege, the interaction is privilege,” he said. While he acknowledged the possibility for this relationship narrative to change, he also acknowledged the difficulties in doing so. “One has to prove one’s relationship. If you go back to Cuba 20 times, something will begin to change,” Díaz said.

‘Coco’ reanimates Pixar with a charming and whimsical tale

By KAIRA MEDIRATTA ARTS EDITOR Although Disney Pixar’s latest animated classic Coco was originally released in November of 2017, it was given a welldeserved second screening at Images Cinema on March 17 over spring break, generously sponsored by the Williamstown Community Chest. For those who missed Coco when it was in theaters a few months ago, this was a special opportunity to experience a movie which, despite the potential pitfalls of the Mexican “Day of the Dead” trope, handles the subject in a masterfully engaging and poignant way.

Directed by Pixar veteran Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 3), Coco tells the story of Miguel Rivera (voiced

by Anthony Gonzalez), a 12-yearold boy in Mexico. Miguel’s greatest aspiration in life is to be a musician like his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt) – a character perhaps based off of Mexican legends Pedro Infante and Jorge Negrete, superstars of the first half of the 20th century.

Unfortunately for Miguel, his family has declared music dead to them ever since his greatgreat-grandmother Imelda (Alanna Ubach) was abandoned by her musician husband for his career. “Music had torn her family apart, but shoes held them all together,” Miguel says in the opening narration. “You see, that woman was my greatgreat-grandmother, Mamá Imelda. She died way before I was born.” After her husband left the picture, Imelda was forced take control as the matriarch of the now-thriving Rivera shoemaking company.

Naturally, Miguel is expected to continue the family trade. But

unbeknownst to his family’s tireless shoemaking enterprise are Miguel’s secret musical ambitions, growing stronger by the day – he even hides an elaborate shrine to de la Cruz in the attic of his house. What is this “de la Cruzito” to do?

Things seem to finally begin to fall into place for Miguel when he unfolds an old photograph of his Mamá Imelda and her daughter, his great-grandmother Mamá Coco (Ana Ofelia Murguía), to reveal a third figure – a man holding the same guitar as Ernesto de la Cruz. Could this silk-tongued crooner be Miguel’s mysterious great-great-grandfather? It is hard to tell due to the figure’s missing head, snipped out of every family photograph after that fateful day, but it certainly seems that way to Miguel.

Thus, in order to participate in a talent show on Día de los Muertos, Miguel “borrows” de la Cruz’s famous guitar, his own having been smashed to bits earlier in the day by his Abuelita (Renée Victor). But strangely, upon the first strum, Miguel is transported to a parallel universe that turns out to be the Land of the Dead. There, he meets departed members of his own family and ultimately, with the help of a classically quirky and unreliable helpmeet named Héctor (Gael García Bernal), de la Cruz himself.

We soon learn that the Land of the Dead is not synonymous with an eternal afterlife; these sentient skeletons exist there only as long as someone back on Earth remembers them, which is why the photos on Día de los Muertos shrines are so important. Without that vital image, an ofrenda cannot be made for the Day of the Dead when the departed come back for a visit.

This leaves characters such as

Héctor, whose image has never been put up, doomed to a perpetuity of failed attempts to cross back over for a visit.

The final stretch of the film reveals not only a few plot twists, but a substantial amount of wit and tenderness as well, with an ending that is almost as much of a tearjerker as 2009’s Up. But perhaps the best manifestation of this is de la Cruz’s most famous song “Remember Me,” which was written by none other than College alum Kristen Anderson-Lopez ’94 and her husband Robert Lopez. The duo was most recently honored with an Academy Award for their work in the film, which won both Best Original Song and Best Animated Feature.

“It started with the idea that a song can be played twice in the movie, and the audience hears something different each time,” Robert Lopez told Vanity Fair of “Remember Me.” “The first time you hear it, it is a very flashy song, and the second time you hear it, it is the way it was meant to be played, and you realize it means something else, and it is a plot revelation. That’s something we’d never seen before in a movie.”

Ultimately, Coco is a triumph for Pixar – far surpassing its more lackluster recent releases, such as Finding Dory and Cars 3. It is more on par with films such as Inside Out; some may even see parallels with the mystical bathhouse bridge in the 2001 Studio Ghibli classic Spirited Away. But most of all, Coco handles an objectively morbid subject in a way that renders it anything but dead; viewers cannot help but lose themselves in the vibrant, fantastical skeleton-party that is Coco’s Día de los Muertos-inspired world.

After noting this disconnect between visitor and location, he explained its source: Places like Cuba were the sites of racialized dictatorships. While an individual in America may celebrate blackness, he said, being anti-black in a place like Cuba was a matter of survival. He provided the example of Haiti; when individuals sought to create relationships around blackness, white people sabotaged their attempts to create a unified state. “Society brings hell down upon people that are black," he said. "Black pride means one thing when your kids are going to be chopped down with a machete."

The next question asked about divides among the Afro-Latinx community and the resentment between people of lighter and darker skin colors.

First, Díaz acknowledged the problem of privilege. “Certainly, there is a remarkable corpus of privilege. I know many of people who are dark-skinned but have European features.

There are people who are of visibly African descent but have hair that gives them bonuses, bodies that give them bonuses."

Díaz recognized the fact that everyone is privileged; “all of us are eating someone else’s lunch,” he said.

He finally suggested an interdisciplinary approach to the is-

sue. “None of us are a pure victim,” he said. “We have all hurt people. If we think we have not availed ourselves of privilege, we begin to answer for some of the stuff we did in the past...

Are we talking about orientalism? Are we talking about what it means to be a part of a white settler colony?”

He wrapped up the discussion by talking about Imposter Syndrome. “Imposter Syndrome is hilarious because, when you think about it, you’re at, like, the top 0.1 percent,” he said of students at the College. He recognized the root of this problem as the cult of inauthenticity most destructive for women, women of color and people of color. He then suggested a solution: “Do you have an active map of when this negative self-talk [occurs]?”

He proceeded to suggest a series of ways to record negative selftalk. By counting it, he explained, one can bring down the number of self-provoked insults. He also talked about the ways that we all “whip” ourselves. The default response to difficulty, he said, is to attach more barbed wire and whip harder.

He suggested compassion as the answer, reminding the audience of the importance of friendship. “You cannot survive this place with people who are not friends,” he said.

Díaz’s final piece of advice was to focus on the present. He referenced sports as a perfect example of this. “At the ends of today’s fight, we’ll talk about what this season looks like,” he said. “Focus on your life, your living.”

WRITE FOR THE RECORD! Come to weekly writers' meetings on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. in Paresky 209 OR Email ras3@williams.edu

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10 SPORTS

The Williams Record

April 11, 2018

Baseball takes one out of three games in Amherst series

By ALEX OKINAKA STAFF WRITER Baseball won one of its three games in a road trip to Amherst this weekend.

The Ephs fell 11-9 in the first game, won 5-4 in the second and closed the series with a 16-4 loss.

In the first game, Amherst took a lead with nine runs in the bottom of the first inning. Nick Nardone put the Mammoths' first runs on the board with a two-run double out to left field. The Mammoths extended the score to 4-0 with another left-field double by Robert Casey III. Casey scored Amherst's fifth run after a single up the middle brought him home. The Mammoths continued to extend their lead when a single to right field brought in another run. A couple more singles to the left side brought the game to a 9-0 early rout.

The Ephs brought in a fresh pitcher during the first inning to replace Kyle Dean ’20. Jack Bohen ’19 entered the game and pitched the remaining six innings for Williams. The change brought some calm to the contest, and the second inning passed with no score on either side.

Amherst extended its lead in the bottom of the third inning as Ariel Kenny batted in another two runs with a double down the line to bring the score to 11-0.

In the top of the fourth inning, Kellen Hatheway ’19 put the Ephs on the scoreboard with an RBI double to left field that brought Erik Mini ’21 home.

Adam Dulsky ’18 further closed the deficit with a single to third base that scored Hatheway.

Dulsky and Hatheway's success in the fourth inning began an impressive comeback for the Ephs. Jack Roberts ’18 got on the board at the beginning of the fifth as he batted in Tom Benz ’19 with a double down the leftfield line. Hatheway's return to bat marked further success for the Ephs. While he grounded out to the second basemen, his effort moved Mike Stamas ’20 to second base and brought Roberts home to make the score 114. Doug Schaffer ’18 rounded out the inning with a fly ball that was dropped by Amherst's center fielder, giving Stamas time to score a final run for the Ephs.

Moving into the sixth inning, the Ephs still trailed 115. The bottom and top of the sixth passed quickly, with two ground outs and a shot to the second baseman for the Ephs and two strike outs and a ground out for the Mammoths.

The seventh and final inning marked an exciting finish for the Ephs. Stamas' return to bat resulted in a double to left field that was off of an error. The error cost the Mammoths another run, as Roberts brought the score to 11-6.

Schaffer returned to the plate with two outs left in the inning and Hatheway and Stamas on base. His homer to right field batted both his teammates in and brought the score to a close 11-9. Unfortunately for the Ephs, the home run was followed by a walk and a double play to end the game with Amherst on top.

Head coach Bill Barrale spoke highly of Bohen's efforts. "Jack gave up some runs at the beginning of the

first but then fought back well to clean up for the rest of the game," he said. After Bohen initially conceded three runs at the end of the first inning, he and the Eph defense held the Mammoths to only two more runs for the remainder of the contest.

In the second game of the weekend, George Carroll ’21 and Bryan Wooley ’21 teamed up to earn the Ephs a 5-4 victory.

Once again, the Mammoths were the first to get on the board after a triple to right field batted in a prior walk and a double to left field in the bottom of the first.

Moving into the second, the Mammoths were up 2-0.

Two quick outs for the Ephs set the stage for Dulsky's solo homer to left center. His effort cut the deficit to 2-1. Two walks and a hit-by-pitch loaded the bases for the Ephs, but a foul out ended their second inning. Solid field work by Williams handed the Mammoths three consecutive outs and ended the inning.

The top of the third ended disappointingly for the Ephs with an attempt to steal home that was denied at the plate.

The Mammoths extended their lead in the bottom of the third, with Nardone's double down the line making the score 3-1.

Williams entered the fourth and quickly notched two outs before Dulsky recorded the Ephs' second run of the game off a balk. Stamas kept the momentum going with a single up the right side that brought Mini home. A fly out on the next batter ended the fourth inning for the Ephs with the score now tied at 3-3. Amherst's three ground

PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.

Jack Roberts ’18 roped two double down the left-field line in the Ephs' game against the Mammoths. outs maintained the tie moving into the fifth inning.

The following two innings passed without much action. Together, the Ephs and the Mammoths recorded five ground outs, three fly outs and a strike out over the course of the fifth and sixth innings.

Stamas continued a strong performance for the day with a double to start the seventh inning. He advanced to third base off a bunt by Benz. Roberts sacrificed a fly out to left field for Stamas to cross home and put the Ephs into their first lead of the day. Un-

willing to concede for long, Amherst evened the score at 4-4 to end the inning.

Coming into the top of the eighth with the score tied, the Ephs had only two more at bats to pull out a victory. Schaffer got the ball rolling with a single up the middle. Dulsky got on base next via a fielder’s choice that put Schaffer out at second. Frank Stola ’21 stepped in as Dulsky's pinch runner.

He advanced to second on a ground out. Alex Panstares ’19 stepped up to the plate with two outs and Stola on

second. His double to left brought in Stola and clinched the 5-4 victory for the Ephs.

Barrale was proud of his team's efforts. "The second game was a must-win for us,” he said. “The team scratched and clawed [its] way back to a 1-1 record on the day."

The men played Amherst for a third game and closed the series with a loss of 164. Yesterday, the Ephs faced Trinity at home, but results came in too late to report.

Today, the Ephs host Vassar at 4 p.m on the Booby Coombs Field.

CAPTAINS’ CORNER: CLARA BEERY ’18 AND BERTIE MILLER ’18 And my high school had a team, so I rowed with them in sweep boats. My dad rowed, but he never pressured us to do it. It was something I was aware of from a really young age, which most people aren’t. I had early access to it. Through high school, it became my favorite athletic endeavor that I ever tried.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.

Clara's team: Women's crew

Bertie's team: Women's crew

Hometown: Berkeley, Calif.

Hometown: New York, N.Y.

Residence: The Rectory

Residence: The Rectory

Major: History and comparative literature

Major: Geosciences and studio art

Snack bar order: Buffalo fries

Snack bar order: Rise and shine

By CASSIE DESHONG SPORTS EDITOR Why did you two decide to come to Williams?

CB: I definitely knew that I wanted to come to a small school. That was a big thing for me. And I wanted to go somewhere I [could] row, be an academic person and figure out what I was doing, which is something that is unavailable at the Div. I level. This is the real reason I chose it. One year before [applying to colleges], two girls from my high school program came here for officials, and they came back extremely excited about it. They said it was so cool, and they really liked the girls they met.

I [had] never heard of Williams before, but I was like, “They have really good judgment, and they know what’s going on.” So when I was going through my college process, it was always in the

back of my head that these girls said Williams has a really good program and that they would be really excited to go there. They definitely influenced my decision a lot.

BM: Similarly, I was looking for a place where I could be doing more than one thing.

Based on the places I was having official visits at, when I came here, it was just by far the best place. The people were amazing and very downto-earth and totally my vibe.

I saw the opportunity to have a life here that I would find very happy and fulfilling and that I might be more pressed to find at other places. It felt like the right match.

When and why did you start rowing?

BM: I started pretty young.

I started when I was 12. I started at a learn-to-scull camp in a single scull. It was very casual, not competitive.

CB: Similarly, crew is a sport you have to know about to enter into. My aunt had a single scull, and we had a family friend who was a rower. A family friend taught me how to row when I was 13. So in the back of my head, I was like, “Rowing is a thing.” And then I showed up to practice one day and never stopped showing up. I remember getting to a point and thinking, “Wait, how did I make this choice?”

It was already so much a part of me that there was no going back. It is very much a sport you just walk into.

What is it like working with your head coach Kate Maloney and your assistant coach Meg Conan?

CB: They definitely have very distinct personalities, which is very fun to work with. It has been really interesting this year to have a very close working relationship with them. Especially just having Meg over the fall and Kate coming back from maternity leave, it’s been really fun to be a real part in shaping the program. The biggest part for me this year is feeling like I really have a voice and to some extent can change the course of things. They give us the chance to be assertive and say what we want to do.

BM: They balance each other out. They have very different leadership styles, but all four of us together form a nice balance of decision-making and leadership. Especially from the transition from fall to spring, there has been a lot of trust put in our opinions and our leadership. We serve as a bridge between the team and the coaches. It has been a really cohesive, thorough and honest year for us in a really good way.

What is it like working with each other?

CB: We probably have too much fun.

BM: Clara is very good at organizing things, which I am very thankful for.

CB: We work really great together. I am very thankful for the team for selecting us together because I can’t imagine working with anyone else.

I love all the other girls very much, but I think our working relationship is very ideal and has been extremely fun.

We are very much on the same page on things. We are one sometimes. We worked together in boats very closely for the last three years, so that is definitely one of the reasons why we work well together.

We have been through difficult situations together. We also share a wall.

BM: It is very interesting.

Even with us being on and off the water and being a pair partner last year, we have the same kind of communication and trust.

How do you create a good team dynamic?

CB: That has been a big focus for us this year – how that has to be an active process as opposed to, “Oh, it will happen because everyone is so cool.”

We have put a lot of work into creating a team dynamic and putting real trust in each other.

We definitely had a lot of hard conversations that were necessary to have. Because there are so many girls and such different levels of experience and background, being able to create a community where everyone feels heard is really important to us. We had pods of people where groups of girls from different years and involvement all got together and talked about their experiences.

And we are having a movie night tonight, where everyone can come and hang out. Little things where everyone can feel like their voices are heard and that they’re shaping this. At the end of the day, everyone needs to be an active participant for the project to work.

BM: We had a lot of meetings, workshops and conversations about what kind of team we want to be and how we want our presence to be. But I think ultimately it is about fostering a community. A lot of people mistake spending a lot of time together for togetherness. The team dynamic we are hoping for is one that is inclusive but gives people the freedom to be at Williams the way they want to be. I think we do a good job as a team about giving people the space for friendship and community as well as all the other things a team provides.

Being a 40-person team, having everyone connected and buying in is really necessary.

to medal at NIRC [National Invitational Rowing Championship]. And beyond that, we want to get all of our boats to go to Nationals and do as well as they can there. There has been a big focus on bringing the whole team up, as opposed to just the upper levels. Depth has been a big thing for us this year. And because we have a lot of depth, ability and drive this year, we want to make sure we are rewarding that and creating a culture where we can get the best out of every single boat and not just the top boat.

What do you think are the best and worst things about the sport?

Is there anything on your bucket lists?

CB: For me, the worst thing is the lack of control you have over outcomes. You can do everything that you can think of correctly, and you can put your whole heart into it and still fail at the end of the day. That is so hard to come to terms with.

But on the flip side, that is the greatest thing about the sport. You have this opportunity to put your whole self into something and to throw yourself with a bunch of other girls who are throwing themselves completely at a project. The best thing is seeing people working together at something and being able to create something together.

BM: I agree. You are really trusting that you all will be committed and on the same page. Every minute hand motion, rotation and direct, you are throwing your whole self into it with eight other people all at the same time. The hardest part is doing it, and the best part is doing it. It is an all-encompassing experience. Giving your all is a very vulnerable moment but also a very powerful moment because we go fast, and it is fun.

What are some of your team and personal goals?

CB: A big team goal for us is that we want all of our boats

BM: Yeah, exactly. It is about harnessing that depth that we do have. We have a whole squad of really hardworking people.

CB: Ooh, I don’t know. I never make bucket lists. I am not that kind of person. I am also afraid of everything, so there’s that. I am very excited for the end of the year and hanging out with other seniors and having that moment I have seen other seniors go through.

That is very exciting for me, and it is definitely a once-ina-lifetime thing. You get to be with your class and watch everyone move on, which is really cool and exciting.

BM: I think the only thing that I have on my bucket list is to enjoy my time.

In three words, describe each other.

CB: Bertie is brilliant. She is so smart and amazing. She is so kind. I have never met someone who radiates such love for the people around her. It is amazing to see. My last word is original. There is no one like Bertie. There is no one cooler than that.

BM: You are brave. You are one of the bravest people I have ever met. You are also empathetic. You are a very empathetic person, and it comes through in how you communicate with people. It is a big part of who you are. You are also really fun.

The team and my friendship with you wouldn’t be the same without those three things.

April 11, 2018

SPORTS 11

The Williams Record

Former Eph Duncan Robinson competes in NCAA Div. I title game

By CHARLES XU SPORTS EDITOR

come an Eph. “Maker always instilled a lot of confidence in me,” he said. “He made me a priority early on and taught me that he prioritized the relationship with not only myself but my family.”

Looking back, Robinson emphasized that he valued his passion for basketball above the noise of recruitment. “I just wanted to play college basketball,” he said. “It wasn’t as important to me the level as much as it was finding the right relationship for me.”

Once an Eph, Robinson made a name for himself early in the NESCAC, starting as a first-year and, with the help of All-American center Michael Mayer ’14, took the Ephs to the NCAA Div. III national championship game, losing on a last second layup to University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Just as the 2014 D3Hoops. com Rookie of the Year and Fourth Team All-American was looking forward to another three years of dominance in Chandler Gymnasium, Maker left to coach at Div. I Marist.

With that, Robinson explored his options. “I wasn’t set on leaving, but I had overwhelming feedback that I wasn’t necessary expecting from places I never could have imagined,” he said.

Maker helped put Robinson’s name out to Michigan, sending game film to head coach John Beilein — who worked with Maker during his head coaching stint at West Virginia from 2005 to 2007. From there, Robinson went from walk-on status to a member of the Wolverines on full athletic scholarship.

At Michigan, Duncan faced a completely new environment. “It was a little bit of a culture shock,” he recalled.

“Obviously, basketball had a lot of differences in terms of the resources at this level and

Duncan Robinson has seen it all. The scattered purple shirts on the sidelines of cozy Chandler Gymnasium in rural New England. The endless sea of yellow at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, Mich.

And recently, the biggest stage of all: the NCAA Div. I national championship game, with 70,000 fans packed in San Antonio’s Alamodome and millions of other viewers tuned into their televisions and phones across the nation.

Robinson’s journey from Williams, a small Div. III liberal arts college, to the University of Michigan, a perennial Div. I powerhouse in the Big Ten Conference, has been everything but traditional — he is believed to be the first player to ever transfer from a Div. III school to a Div. I school with a full scholarship. Not to mention, he’s the only college player to ever play in both Div. III and Div. I national title games, once as an Eph in 2014 and now as a graduating Wolverine.

A late bloomer, Robinson started his path as a 5’7” point guard for The Governor’s Academy in 2008. The New Castle, N.H. native received limited minutes against high school competition until he matured into his 6’8” frame in his junior and senior seasons. However, his late success brought the possibility of scholarship offers. After graduating, Robinson played on an AAU team under Williams alum Michael Crotty Jr. ’04 and also came into contact with Williams’ head coach at the time, Mike Maker. From there, the College would receive what Maker called “the best player he’s ever coached or recruited.” Thanks to Maker’s recruitment efforts, Robinson decided to be-

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION (LEFT) AND FREEP.COM (RIGHT).

A Div. III All-American, Duncan Robinson took his talents to Michigan, recently playing in the NCAA Div. I national title game. how much of a business it is.

And on top of that, the competition level is significantly increased. The school aspect was very different as well — from 2000 people in western Massachusetts to Ann Arbor with 40,000 students.”

Redshirting his first year as a Wolverine, Robinson took the time to acclimate himself to his new environment. “It took some time to adjust, but I think a big part of what made the transition work was my teammates, my coaches and the love I had for basketball — I knew I could at least have that,” he said. Robinson expressed that pursuing basketball at the highest level had always been his dream, explaining, “I knew it was something I couldn’t walk away from and leave on the table. At the end of the day, I

knew that I had to trust I made the right decision for me, and I think that year [redshirting] really helped me transition [to Div. I competition].”

During the 2015-16 season, Robinson established his reputation as an efficient scorer, putting up 19 points in his second game as a Wolverine and shooting a perfect 6-for-6, including five 3-pointers. His marksmanship would lead to 95 made 3s and a 45 percent 3-point percentage, second in the Big Ten that season. After starting 27 games as a sophomore, Robinson came off the bench in his junior season, providing the same offensive spark and helping the Wolverines win the Big Ten Conference in the 2016-2017 season.

This year, Robinson flourished at Michigan, earning

the honor of Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year, an accolade voted on by coaches.

He would go on to average 11 points in the Wolverine’s four-game title run in the Big Ten tournament. He made 17 3s during the NCAA tournament, which culminated in an eventual 79-62 loss to Villanova in the national championship game. The forward ends his career at Michigan as the 53rd player in school history to score 1000 points.

Having played the game on both sides of the spectrum of attendance and recognition, Robinson maintained that his love for basketball has been independent from the limelight and fame. “The truth is, all that stuff – like sold-out arenas and national media attention – is cool, but the game

is still the same, and it means just as much,” he said. “Playing in sold-out gyms doesn’t make you care any more. I love my teammates the same. I love the game the same. I think one of the things I’m really taking away is that the basketball experience isn’t as drastically different as a lot of people think.

On the day-to-day level, there [are] for sure differences, but the stuff that really matters is relationships and how much you care and what you put into the game.”

Whether in the NBA, GLeague or overseas, Robinson is looking forward to playing more basketball after his unique collegiate career.

No matter where he ends up playing, we know one thing’s for certain: He doesn’t mind a small crowd.

Men’s lacrosse loses to rival Amherst, drops to 3-3 in NESCAC play

PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION

By WILL GENTILELLO STAFF WRITER

Leading 6-3 with 7:19 to go in the second quarter, Amherst launched a streak of eight unanswered goals to pull away. A goal from Maxwell Stukalin ’20 eventually broke the streak, but Amherst then notched another four unanswered goals.

Men’s lacrosse (4–6, 3–3 in the NESCAC) lost to Amherst last Saturday on the road. The Ephs were defeated by the Mammoths (9–2, 5-1 in the NESCAC) 19-9.

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The Ephs came out with a bang to start the rivalry game with a score from co-captain James McFarland ’18 assisted by Cory Lund ’21.

The Ephs’ goal was matched at 12:03 with the Mammoths’ first goal of the game, scored

by Evan Wolf and assisted by

Colin Minicus. Kevin Stump ’20 brought the advantage in favor of the Ephs, making the score 2-1, but the Mammoths then notched four straight goals. John Coffey scored twice, and goals from Ethan Kazmierski and Matt Solberg extended the Amherst lead

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Ephs, which was quickly followed by three consecutive scores from McFarland, Stump and John Lee ’18. Amherst emerged victorious at the end of the final quarter with a score of 19-9.

The Ephs were led by Stump with three goals, followed by McFarland with two scores. The Mammoths were led by Minicus with four goals and five assists and Coffey with five goals and one assist, followed by Solberg and Wolf.

The Ephs used two goalies: George Peele ’20 had 12 saves in 45 minutes of play, and Harry Gahagan ’21 registered one save in 15 minutes of play.

Eph head coach George McCormack commented on the game. “[Saturday] was a tough loss against a good team, but we're positive and looking to bounce back next game at home,” he said.

The Ephs hosted Hamilton last night, but the results came in too late to report.

The men return to action on Saturday, when they host Colby in a NESCAC matchup at 1 p.m.

ATHLETES OF THE WEEK “Against Middlebury, Brian saved two match points to defeat the defending national singles champion after being down 5-2 in the third set. It was one of the best matches I’ve ever seen played at Williams. It’s awesome to see all of BG’s hard work coming together his senior year as he becomes one of the best players in the country.”

“After having to sit out for almost a week during our spring trip with an injury, Mackenzie has been a consistent performer all year.

Unnoticed is her strong fielding on the mound and at first base and the confidence she gives her team when she's pitching. We look forward to the rest of our important NESCAC season.”

- Head coach Dan Greenberg ’08

- Head coach Kris Herman

Thursday, April 12 7 p.m.

to 5-2 at the end of the first quarter.

At the start of the second quarter, Amherst took control with a score from Coffey, assisted by Minicus. Lund then scored an impressive goal, but Amherst countered with two more scores by Coffey and Wolf. The score at the end of the first half was 8-3 in favor of Amherst.

The Mammoths took control of the third quarter by scoring six unanswered goals, with one goal each from Trenton Shore, Wolf and Max Keeley and three scores from Minicus. In the final minute of the quarter, Stukalin found the back of the net, bringing the score to 14-3 in Amherst’s favor going into the final quarter.

After winning the opening face-off, Drew Kelleher ran down the field in just seven seconds and ripped a shot bottom-left to give the Mammoths an 11-goal lead. Kelleher’s goal led to a four-goal streak for Amherst. Brendan Hoffman ’20 then netted a goal for Williams.

At 10:41, Stump earned a hard-fought goal for the

BRIAN GRODECKI ’18

MACKENZIE MURPHY ’19

MEN'S TENNIS WAYNE, PA.

SOFTBALL DIABLO, CALIF.

Grodecki went 2-0 at No. 1 singles and 2-0 at No. 1 doubles in his matches, helping the men defeat Middlebury and Wesleyan.

Murphy won two games over the weekend to improve her record to 7-0. She also contributed offensively with seven hits in nine at-bats.

12 SPORTS

The Williams Record

April 11, 2018

Softball sweeps Little Three, NESCAC rival Wesleyan

By KRIS DUFOUR STAFF WRITER Softball (18-4, 5-1 in the NESCAC) completed a threegame sweep of Little Three and NESCAC rival Wesleyan last week.

On Sunday, co-captain Lexi Curt ’18, Rebecca Duncan ’20 and Kirstin Mapes ’20 smacked first-inning home runs at Cole Field, and Mackenzie Murphy ’19 went 3-for-4 while pitching five solid innings.

Curt opened the game by driving the first pitch she saw over the fence in right-center field with one out in the bottom of the first. The home run was her conference-leading seventh of the season and the 30th of her Williams career, making her the first Eph to reach the 30-home run mark.

With two outs, Duncan sent a towering fly ball down the leftfield line and gave the Ephs a 2-0 lead. Mapes followed with a shot to straight-away center that was still rising as it passed the media booth just beyond the fence.

Wesleyan countered with a run of its own in the top of the second to make the score 3-1.

Rielly Wieners got the rally started when she reached on an error. Marina Williams lined a single to left, and a ground out put runners on second and third with one out. The battle of the Brennas then ensued as Cardinal batter Brenna Monroe hit a sharp one hopper toward right field. Eph secondman Brenna Martinez ’18 made a beautiful diving stop, however, and threw Monroe out at first as Wieners scored.

The Ephs put the game out of reach with a seven-run explosion in the second inning.

Casey Pelz ’19 and Riley Salvo

’20 grounded singles to left and, after an out, Curt was hit with a pitch to load the bases.

Murphy followed with a tworun single to left for a 5-1 lead.

With two outs and the bases loaded, Margo Beck ’18 drilled an RBI-single into right field.

Martinez then dropped a ball into shallow left center that found grass for a two-run single and an 8-1 lead. Pelz drew a walk to load the bases, and Salvo and Jessica Kim ’19 followed with back-to-back RBIsingles to extend the Eph lead to 10-1.

Wesleyan's Danielle Rinaldi momentarily extended the game when, with two outs in the top of the fifth, she roped a two-run homer to left to make it 10-3. But the Ephs tacked on another run when Mapes hit a sacrifice fly ball to win with a final score of 11-3.

Murphy improved to 7-0 on the season by going five frames and allowing four hits and three runs, two earned, while walking one and striking out two. Lauren GaffneyGomez took the loss for Wesleyan. Salvo finished 2-for-2 with an RBI and run scored for the Ephs, who finished with 12 hits.

On Saturday, the women beat Wesleyan twice in a doubleheader. Murphy and Duncan did not allow an earned run in the 5-1, 12-0 sweep.

Wesleyan scored its lone run of the day in the top of the first inning of the opener when Wieners singled home Rinaldi with two outs. The Cardinals would be limited to only four hits and no runs over the next 11 innings.

Williams answered immediately with two runs. Kim led off with a double to left that one-hopped the fence.

Curt singled and Murphy

PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.

Lexi Curt ’18 hit her conference-leading seventh home run of the season and the 30th of her Williams career in the game against Wesleyan. grounded a double past the third-base bag to score Kim. Curt scored the go-ahead run on Beck's groundout to short.

The Ephs tacked on a run in the fourth when the first three batters singled. Duncan led off with an infield hit, Martinez followed with a grounder back up the middle and Salvo snuck a grounder through the left side to drive in Duncan for a 3-1 lead.

After unearned runs in the fifth and sixth innings, the Ephs took home the 5-1 victory.

The second contest was a different story, as the Ephs smacked four home runs, and the game ended after five in-

Women's lacrosse falls to Amherst, Tufts

By JOELLE TROIANO STAFF WRITER Women’s lacrosse (4-6, 1-5 in the NESCAC) lost to Amherst 14-8 on Saturday at home and fell to Tufts 14-11 in a Wednesday road game.

Saturday’s rival game started out aggressively. Four minutes into play, Claire Fitzpatrick ’21 received the first of four yellow cards in the game for slashing.

Shortly after this penalty, Amherst scored the first goal of the game, an unassisted shot down the middle by Claire Dunbar.

After several more minutes of play punctuated by unsuccessful free position attempts, the Ephs put their own score on the board. A free position attempt for Emma Tenbarge ’19 led to a goal with her low, high-speed shot sneaking between the goalie's legs. Eight minutes into play, the score was tied at 1-1.

This tie score did not last, however, and this first goal from the Ephs was followed by six consecutive goals from the Mammoths. Julia Crerend scored three goals and Dunbar assisted on three.

Williams got in one more goal before halftime, a shot from the left side by Meghan Halloran ’21 with Fitzpatrick on the assist. Amherst then scored twice more.

At the end of the half, the Mammoths were up 9-2.

In the second half of the game, Amherst netted five

goals. Of these, Crerend scored two. The Ephs netted six goals, with Fitzpatrick and Olivia Gomez ’21 each scoring twice. Fitzpatrick also posted two assists.

Head coach Alice Lee commented on the loss. “We were a little slow to get started,” she said. “We came in hot in the second half, and we just needed to find that sooner.

We went out with a lot of fire, caused so many turnovers in the second half and just went at them hard. Offensively, we went straight for the cage, and it was hard for them to stop us once we got started.”

On Wednesday, after a close first 20 minutes, Tufts pulled ahead at the end of the first half and held the lead to the end for a final score of 14-11.

The women started out strong offensively, taking advantage of a turnover from the Jumbos early on to open the match with two shots in the first two minutes—one a free position shot from Fitzpatrick and the other a shot on goal from Tenbarge, both saved by Tufts goalie Audrey Evers.

Williams put the game's first points on the board fourand-a-half minutes into play with an unassisted goal by Fitzpatrick. She drove the ball in from the top of the 8 for what Lee called a “great take.”

The Jumbos retaliated quickly, and within 40 seconds, they had their own score, shot

by Annie Sullivan and assisted

by Catherine Lawliss.

The two teams exchanged points, with neither side gaining more than a single point lead until the final 10 minutes of the half. Tufts’ Caroline Nowak took a pass from teammate Maria Dattolo and netted the ball with the clock at 9:56, giving the Jumbos a lead they would hold through the remainder of the game.

Following the Nowak goal, the Jumbos scored four more unanswered goals.

Though the Ephs matched the Jumbos for points in the second half, they were unable to regain the ground they had lost at the end of the first half.

The closest the score came afterwards was within a twopoint margin (10-8 at 15:30 and 12-10 at 9:47).

Tufts led 32 to 24 in shots and 26 to 18 in shots on goal.

In scoring, the Jumbos' Nowak was at the head of the pack, posting five goals and two assists. She was followed by Kara Wollmers ’20, who scored four times. Defensively, the Ephs shone in several areas. Lee was proud to see the team "shut [Tufts] out on their free positions" in addition to maintaining an overall strong showing in goal. Eph goalkeeper Kami Cisneros ’20 led with 12 saves to her opponent's seven.

The women faced Hamilton on the road last night, but results came in too late to report. On Saturday, they will travel to take on Colby at 12 p.m. in Waterville, Maine.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.

Olivia Gomez ’21 scored two goals in the women's game against rival Amherst last Saturday.

nings due to the eight-run mercy rule. Duncan carried a perfect game into the top of the fifth, but Wieners broke that bid up with a single up the middle. Duncan (8-2) settled for a one-hit shutout while going 3-for-3 at the plate with two home runs and seven RBIs. The Ephs had offensive success from the very start. Kim drew a lead-off walk from Cardinal starter Rinaldi and, after an out, Murphy singled to left.

Duncan followed with a frozen rope to left center that cleared the fence for a three-run home run, her first of the season.

Beck then reached base on

catcher's interference, and Mapes doubled to right field.

With two outs, Pelz crushed a shot to left center for another three-run homer that put Williams up 6-0.

The Ephs added a run in the second on Murphy's solo blast to right-center field off a change-up. They added five more in the third, all with two outs. Jennifer Hickey ’21 started the rally with a slap hit to center. Kim grounded a single to left, and Curt lined a single to right that scored Hickey for an 8-0 lead. After a walk to Murphy, Duncan hit a towering drive down the left-

field line that cleared the wall for a grand-slam home run and an eventual 12-0 Williams win.

Curt gave her thoughts on the series. “Our team came out ready to play, and we made sure we played our game and didn't let external factors influence or lessen our intensity,” she said. “We drove the pace of the game and did the little things right.

Our pitchers held us in the game nicely, and we let our bats do what they do best!”

The women return to action on Wednesday with a home doubleheader against Renn at 3:30 p.m.

Men's tennis clinches victories against No. 3 Middlebury, No. 11 Wesleyan

PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.

Ananth Raghavan ’20 won his singles matches against his Wesleyan and tough Middlebury opponents.

By KEVIN COAKLEY STAFF WRITER This weekend, men’s tennis won games against Middlebury and Wesleyan.

On Sunday, the No. 5 Ephs (9-2) registered an 8-1 victory over the No. 11 Cardinals (2-5).

Doubles was strong, with the three Williams pairs winning their matches. Head coach Dan Greenberg '08 elected to use the same pairings as he had in the match against Middlebury the day before. The decision proved to be a good one, as they took all three possible points.

This set up a low-pressure singles portion of the match, in which the Ephs took five of six matches. Each Eph win was completed in two sets.

"This caps off a great weekend for us," Greenberg said of the day. "We beat two tough teams and saw a few things we can definitely improve this week."

On Saturday, the Ephs played their spring home opener against the No. 3 Panthers (10-2). Last year, the Panthers were one of the Ephs' toughest opponents in both team play and in individual tournaments. Overall, the Panthers got the better of the Ephs; Middlebury advanced further in the NCAA tournament, won both the regional singles and doubles individual titles and beat Williams 5-4 in their only match. This time, however, the Ephs flipped the script, besting the visitors 5-4 in a hard-fought match.

The Ephs relied on their doubles play to gain a huge early advantage. The men took all three matches, which needed to go beyond eight games. Deepak Indrakanti '19 and Brian Grodecki '18 won 9-7, but the other two groups needed to go into tiebreaks before they could close out their matches. The three-point lead proved crucial for the rest of

the match, as Middlebury was tough in singles, winning four of the six matches.

Needing only two wins to clinch the match for the Ephs, Grodecki and Ananth Raghavan '20 stepped up. They both dug deep and won long matches to finish it off. Grodecki's win was especially significant for the Ephs, as he beat junior Lubomir Cuba, the defending NCAA singles champion. Raghavan, meanwhile, has been playing phenomenally lately, winning his fifth match in a row. "[It was a] very tough win for us," Greenberg commented.

"We were fortunate that the three doubles matches went our way because it was tight at every spot. Grodecki dug in for a huge comeback against the defending NCAA singles champion, which set the stage for Ananth to clinch. He was rock solid in the last two sets.”

This Saturday, the men will travel to Hartford, Conn. to face Trinity at 1 p.m.