ARTS P. 9 A Boogie wit da Hoodie performs at Spring Fling
SPORTS P. 12 The Independent Student Newspaper at Williams College Since 1887 VOL. CXXXII, NO. 20
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 2018
Women's crew wins Donohue Cup in Worcester
Department of Justice requests that College preserve Early Decision records By NICHOLAS GOLDROSEN EXECUTIVE EDITOR Last week, the College received a letter from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) instructing it to preserve all information relating to communications between colleges and universities about students admitted via Early Decision (ED). This letter, which has been reported about in The Wall Street Journal and Inside Higher Ed, was also sent to other selective liberal arts colleges including Wesleyan, Middlebury, Amherst and Pomona. The letter appears to be in anticipation of a potential broader investigation into whether or not ED admissions and the sharing of information between institutions to enforce the terms of ED’s binding agreement is a violation of federal antitrust limitations on competition between colleges and universities. The DOJ declined to comment for the Record regarding this letter or any potential investigation. The College plans to follow the instructions of the letter and await further information or requests from the government. “All I can share right now is that on April 5, Williams and other schools around the country received a letter from the U.S. DOJ instructing us to preserve documents and information related to ‘a potential agreement between colleges relating to their ED practices,’” Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Liz Creighton ’01 said. “We are complying fully with the DOJ's discovery process, and we're eager to learn more about their thinking on the issue.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.
The Department of Justice has requested that the College and other small liberal arts instiutions preserve documents relating to the Early Decision process. Creighton noted that the College does not share applicants’ information with peer institutions. “Each institution develops its own admission methodology,” she said. “I can’t comment on other schools’ practices, but we take an applicant’s right to privacy very seriously and do not share information about applicants with other colleges and universities.” While the College does collaborate with other in-
stitutions in developing its approach to financial aid, it uses a unique methodology, and it does not share information about financial aid applications, according to Creighton. “Our approach is informed by our participation in the 568 Group, an affiliation of colleges and universities that works together in an effort to maintain a need-based financial aid system that is understandable and fair and will
bring greater clarity, simplicity and equity to the process of assessing each family's ability to pay for college,” Creighton said. “However, we never share information about specific students’ financial aid applications with other institutions.” Similarly to many other peer institutions’ programs, the College’s ED program allows applicants to apply by Nov. 15 and receive a decision by mid-December. If admit-
ted, ED applicants are expected to attend the College and withdraw any other applications. Importantly, this means that a student can only apply to one institution under binding ED programs. While ED agreements are not legal contracts – a college would not sue for tuition if a student broke one, for example – reneging on one can jeopardize other college acceptances. “Opting to maintain applications at other institutions
once admitted ED could put a student’s acceptance to Williams in jeopardy,” Creighton said. “The only exception to that rule is if the student is released from ED to pursue comparative financial aid offers, but that happens very, very rarely.” This investigation falls within a broader pattern of DOJ investigations into higher education admission practices. In January, the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) received a similar letter requesting information about its newly updated code of ethics. The request to NACAC, according to Inside Higher Ed, also focused on whether its rules for professional conduct in the admission process might violate antitrust laws. The exact legal basis for the DOJ’s interest in ED practices has not been made public, but previous cases lend insight into the current situation. In 1991, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled in United States v. Brown University that setting common financial aid offers between all eight Ivy League schools and MIT, so that no applicant would receive a greater aid award from any one school, was a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. This precedent could potentially be at issue, as an ED acceptance eliminates an applicant’s ability to compare financial aid offers before deciding which school to attend. However, most selective colleges meet 100 percent of an applicant’s demonstrated financial need, ostensibly obviating the need to compare such offers.
Casa Lina to open tonight in Maud Mandel visits College for first former Hops and Vines venue time since accepting presidency, By WILLIAM NEWTON EXECUTIVE EDITOR In January, the popular Water St. restaurant Hops and Vines closed permanently. Today, Casa Lina, a new restaurant under different ownership, will open in its space. Named after owner Melahat Karakaya’s daughter, Casa Lina will feature two entirely different menus: one side will serve upscale Italian cuisine with a bar and private dining room, and the other side will have a more casual atmosphere and serve tapas and drinks. The Italian side will stay open until 10 p.m., and Karakaya plans to keep the tapas bar open until midnight, likely extending the hours until 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays to accomodate students who want to stay out later. The restaurant will feature live music almost every night.
Though this will be the first restaurant Karakaya owns, her restaurant and hospitality ties in the Berkshires run deep. Karakaya is the general manager of The Porches Inn, a boutique hotel overlooking MASS MoCA in North Adams. Her husband, Fahri Karakaya, is the owner of Pera Mediterranean Bistro on Spring St. Karakaya has spent a lot of time helping her husband at Pera, and he plans to do the same once Casa Lina opens. The Karakayas are hopeful that Casa Lina will fill a void in the Williamstown dining scene. "There is no Italian restaurant in Williamstown, and we have no tapas in this area with live music," Fahri Karakaya said. "This is a college town, but after 8 p.m., nothing is going on here. The town needs a space for the young generation to go out late at night and socialize and listen to music."
Hops and Vines contacted the Karakayas about buying the property, and they officially bought it a week later. In that time, Melahat Karakaya has worked on altering the decor and making small-scale renovations that, as she told The Berkshire Eagle, she hopes will make the restaurant "warmer and more welcoming." Fahri Karayaka emphasized that, like Pera, Casa Lina will always serve fresh, locally grown food. "Everything will be made from scratch, and [our food] will be sourced from three different farms." Casa Lina will officially open at 4 p.m., but Fahri Karakaya is only calling this a "soft opening." The grand opening, he said, will occur three or four weeks from now, so that the restaurant does not become over-crowded at first. This way, Casa Lina can always provide quality service.
PHOTO COURTESY OF ANNA BRUCE.
Casa Lina, an Italian restaurant and tapas bar, will open tonight, replacing Hops and Vines on Water St.
meets with students and faculty
By SAMUEL WOLF NEWS EDITOR On Friday and Saturday, incoming President Maud Mandel visited the College for the first time since accepting the offer to become the College’s 18th president. During her visit, she gave prepared remarks, attended a reception, participated in discussions with a number of students and participated in an exclusive interview with the Record. On Friday afternoon in Chapin Hall, Chair of the Board of Trustees Michael Eisenson ’77 and Interim President Tiku Majumder formally introduced Mandel to the College community. Eisenson emphasized the grueling application process, including 13 hours of interviews with Mandel and 14 consulted references. Majumder used his time on the podium to reflect on his interim presidency and praise Mandel for her work as dean of the college at Brown University. When Mandel took the stage, she immediately expressed enthusiasm for the chance to address the College community. “It’s hard to capture how thrilling it is for me to finally have the chance to say hello to Williams,” she said. She conveyed gratitude to the College community for its warm welcome and thanked Majumder for his service. “I’m intensely and immensely grateful to Tiku for steering this community through this uncertain period,” she said. Mandel then discussed the unusual circumstance of her acceptance. “Most of you may not know that I received the call while I was standing at a gas pump in Providence on a cold February day,” Mandel said. “I took this experience as a sign of the energy that will
propel this period forward for me and my family.” Mandel continued with a discussion of her fondness for liberal arts education, a sentiment she reasserted in her interview with the Record. When Mandel heard last year that the College was searching for a new president, it was its strong liberal arts curriculum that made her immediately interested. “[The College] is a famous institution with a profound educational impact in the space of the liberal arts, which is the arena in which I’ve spent my professional life,” she stated in the interview. “I went to a small liberal arts college myself, so part of the appeal was going back to those roots and connecting with a school that shares the same values as the school that I had studied in myself.” Mandel further emphasized the value of an explorative attitude toward education, which she helped foster as dean of the college at Brown. “Brown is really good at encouraging students to explore. It is built into its curricular model, but you don’t have to have that curricular model to really emphasize the power of exploration that comes with your stage in life,” she said. Mandel also referenced diversity of thought and background when discussing the lessons she has taken from her time at Brown. “We learn more when the people we learn with come from all walks of life,” she said. “It became very clear to me at Brown that, as the institution has changed and as that richness has come to the community, the whole community has benefitted from the broader range of communications that we can have.”
Mandel expressed similar sentiments during her speech, encouraging students to interact with those from different backgrounds and with different viewpoints and assumptions. In regards to the current political climate, she encouraged students to reach outside of their nearest political communities and engage in discourses with broad, diverse groups. SEE MANDEL, PAGE 5
WHAT’S INSIDE 3 OPINIONS A discussion on participation in JA discourse 4 NEWS Comedian Marc Maron visits College 6 FEATURES An inside look at Peace Valley Farm 8 ARTS Mass MoCA starts program for Puerto Rican artists 12 SPORTS Women's tennis extends 13-game winning streak
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