April 24, 2019: Davis Center grapples with insufficient funding, staffing

RECORD THE WILLIAMS

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2019 VOL. CXXXIII, NO. 22 Plaque honors Spanish Civil War vet

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Gleeson ’07 coaches football at Okla. St.

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THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT WILLIAMS COLLEGE SINCE 1887

Davis Center grapples with insufficient funding, staffing CC votes to reject WIFI

By ARRINGTON LUCK NEWS EDITOR

On April 17, the Coalition Against Racist Education Now (CARE Now), published a list of demands to College President Maud Mandel. In this letter, CARE Now articulated, among other demands, that “the College increase funding to the Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity (OIDE), meant to be to be directed to the Davis Center, to reflect the growing number of minoritized students on campus and address the OIDE’s responsibility to the faculty.” The demands surrounding OIDE and the Davis Center come in light of a shifting funding relationship between OIDE, Minority Coalition (MinCo) and the Davis Center, as well as staffing levels in the Davis Center that some students deem inadequate.

Under the header of OIDE, the CARE Now letter demands that the College approve a $34,000 request for OIDE funding, in addition to a $15,000 increase in funding to finance incoming MinCo organizations. The funding requests outlined in the demands mirrors a similar request for funding from College Council earlier in the year. In late February, MinCo co-chairs Rodsy Modhurima ’19 and Tyler Tsay ’19 and former CC co-presidents Moisés Roman Mendoza ’19 and Elizabeth Hibbard ’19 gave a presentation surrounding MinCo’s funding issues.

MinCo groups’ funding is mainly derived from the Davis Center, which receives funds from OIDE. According to the presentation, MinCo received $66,100 in funding for the academic year to use on a discretion-

BROOKE HOROWITCH/EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Currently, the Davis Center is operating with two full-time staff members, with plans to onboard new members. ary basis, with the Davis Center allotting $1000 to 17 out of 22 MinCo groups for the purpose of funding heritage month events.

This funding model for heritage month events is a break from the previous policy in which the Davis Center would issue 25 percent of the total budget of heritage month events.

At the CC meeting, MinCo requested $34,000 to fund heritage month events, requesting a larger amount that the allotted sum by the Davis Center, stating that the funding request was not to become a recurring request, but rather to “allow MinCo-groups access to funding for Heritage Month events while improvements are made to FinCom & funding procedures” and “to allow MinCo to request a larger grant from the school for the following school year.”

The $34,00 request was broken

CARE Now sends open letter to President Mandel

By SAMUEL WOLF EXECUTIVE EDITOR Following its letter to the Board of Trustees on April 12, the Coalition Against Racist Education (CARE Now) released an expanded petition to President of the College Maud Mandel last Wednesday, stating its demands to make the College a more inclusive space for minoritized groups. CARE Now has called for Mandel to respond to the demands by Friday at 5 p.m.

The new list of demands expands upon the 12 objectives that were requested of the Board of Trustees that call for institutional progress, and in-

April 12 petition, CARE Now had demanded a thorough and public response to all demands

by April 17, which it feels was not met. “The board failed to provide a public response to any of our demands by claiming that these issues fall under the purview of campus governance,” the most recent letter stated. “This avoidance of responsibility is unacceptable, given that these demands are largely the same as what has been asked for over the past 10, 20, 50 years.”

Representatives of CARE Now previously met with two trustees, Liz Robinson ’90 and Kate Queeney ’92, on April 13

“The board failed to provide a public response to any of our demands by claiming that these issues fall under the purview of campus governance.”

CARE Now, Open Letter to President Mandel cludes sections recommending more hiring of faculty of color, enhanced Minority Studies programs, increased funding to the Office of Institutional Diversity, investigations of Campus Safety and Security (CSS), expansions of Title IX administration and increased pay for Dining and Facilities.

Mandel responded to this request in an email to CARE Now, and will meet and discuss the demands along with several other deans and administrators today. It remains unclear whether Mandel will offer “a clear plan of action,” as the open letter demands, by April 26.

The letter to Mandel, which was also distributed in an allcampus email and physically placed around campus, comes in the wake of the Trustees’ lack of a public response to CARE Now’s initial demands. In the

to discuss the demands. During this meeting, the trustees expressed a willingness to listen but no concrete support, according to CARE Now, and stated to CARE Now leaders that the Board of Trustees does not respond in writing to demands in this format, prompting the expanded message to Mandel.

In an all-campus email on April 17, Rodsy Modhurima ’19 informed students of their new course of action on behalf of CARE Now. “We welcome the entirety of the Williams community to join us to strengthen the Williams we love and compel President Mandel to support us in this mission by responding to our asks by April 26,” Modhurima wrote. The letter ends, “These demands exist because we love Williams.

All we are trying to do is make the Williams we love, love us.”

down as a $2000 allotment for each of the 17 MinCo groups and was set to be distributed through MinCo’s funding procedures. CC, after deliberation, voted in favor of the request.

The $34,000 request referenced within the CARE Now demands would seek to ameliorate the issues MinCo presented at the CC meeting and secure funding for heritage month events.

The additional $15,000 would serve to cover the increasing number of MinCo groups according to the open letter. The letter also calls for the College to “establish mechanisms that increase funding to OIDE biennially in direct proportion to the growing number of minoritized bodies on this campus,” referencing the expansion of MinCo affiliated groups on campus.

Additionally, the demands also describe the Davis Center

staffing situation as leaving staff “underpaid and overworked,” referencing the Davis Center’s two full-time staff and a high rate of campus turnover.

Acting Director of the Davis Center and Director of Campus Engagement Bilal Ansari characterized the staffing situation as one that arises from low morale. “The overworked feeling is in my observation a consequence more of low morale and people working here not wanting to be here,” Bilal told the Record, “This year has been particularly difficult and fraught emotionally with campus crises almost weekly for students, staff, and faculty. So when you are working in a department that is understaffed (due to leaves) with compromised morale across campus and on the frontlines of campus student affairs it can really

feel like you are overworked.

That is honestly the situation from my observation.”

Ansari also framed the staffing situation in the broader context of staff and faculty members at the College. “The Davis Center is not immune to that Williams College, ‘You are lucky to be working here' attitude that honestly – as a former union organizer in New Haven, Connecticut – is what most elite private institutions suffer from” Ansari said.

While Ansari reiterated that the role of providing funding to MinCo organizations is one that they seek to maintain, Ansari stated that, the Davis Center would “inadequately meet the needs” of the student body.

Ansari stressed the necessity of continued work within the Davis Center. “The greatest cause of my concern is that we not forfeit the fight by undermining the arduous relationship work of institution building for the convenient disruptive work of institution bashing,” he said.

Ultimately, Ansari expressed hope about the Davis Center’s future. “I believe the Davis Center has a bright future here at Williams College. We have an amazing Director, Shawna Patterson-Stephens and we look forward to her return and leadership,” said Ansari. “We have an exciting renovation being planned for new space and renovated accommodations. We have talented people on board and more onboarding shortly. And, Leticia Haynes, VP of OIDE has the full support of President Maud and senior management so I anticipate a complete integration in the near future of DEI work across the campus.”

By WILLIAM NEWTON PRODUCTIONS MANAGER Last night, College Council (CC) voted 13–8 with one abstention to reject a request from the Williams Initiative for Israel (WIFI) to become a registered student organization. The vote came a week after the club’s request was tabled at a previous CC meeting, and the meeting involved nearly two hours of protracted and heated debate among both CC members and a large number of guests attending.

Before the debate began, numerous members and guests expressed concerns that publicly revealing the names of those speaking, as CC has previously done to some extent through livestreams on its Facebook page and published minutes accessible to students at the College, would make students feel unsafe and prevent them from fully expressing their opinions. Several members and guests cited national news coverage of College events in recent weeks, including cases where specific students were mentioned by name, as justification for these concerns.

CC ultimately decided to publish anonymous minutes accessible only to students with College emails.

This is a developing story, occurring exceptionally close to our print deadline.

Poster disappearances spark discussion

By DANNY JIN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF The disappearance of posters last week, including materials for student activism and for an anti-gun violence event organized by Joy James, the Francis Christopher Oakley third century professor of humanities, sparked conversations about campus climate toward materials advocating for civil and human rights. In a campus-wide email, “Creating a healthier campus culture,” sent on Monday, President of the College Maud Mandel called for the campus community to “treat each other with respect when differences inevitably emerge.”

“Love and Justice,” which was financially supported by the political science and Africana studies departments, Converging Worlds and the Feminist Collective, featured Dorothy Holmes and Shapearl Wells, two Chicago-based Black activist mothers who had lost their children to gun violence.

On the morning of last Wednesday, the day of the event, students who helped put up posters for the event informed James, Holmes and Wells of the disappearance.

James then relayed the information to Director of Campus Safety and Security (CSS) Dave Boyer and Director of the Office for Student Life Douglas Schiazza. Schiazza and students put new posters back up that day. Boyer told James that CSS had not approved the posters’ removal. No student, faculty member or administrator that the Record contacted said that they knew how, why or by whom posters were removed.

James informed senior administrators of the posters’ disappearance in an email that

day, expressing concerns with campus climate and articulating a need for the College to affirm efforts that promote civil and human rights. She told the Record that she believes dissident voices need to be respected despite political disagreements.

“This event was very distinct because academic departments were supporting it and because of what the topic was,” James said. “I know we've had political debates, but I thought this was a no-brainer in terms of the need to abate violence and to listen to people who had personally had these losses, to see how they negotiate their pain but also to build community and social justice activism from that pain.”

Eli Cytrynbaum ’20, one of the students who helped James put up posters, said he believes that their removal was deliberate.

“I have no idea who took down these posters, but I do think that it is significant that I’ve never heard of this happening for any other things and that this was a highly political event,” Cytrynbaum said. “So it seemed to me that all of the posters were pretty intentionally removed.”

Mandel, in an all-campus email sent on Monday, addressed “breakdowns in campus relations,” describing “evidence of prejudice, insensitivity and disrespect,” including that, according to Mandel, “someone tore down posters” for last Wednesday’s event. She told the Record she did not know who was responsible for the posters’ disappearance.

“There’s no conceivable justification for trying to undermine such an event,” Mandel wrote in her all-campus email. “I’ve now learned that other posters

and banners with political and social messages were also torn down or damaged this weekend. During a turbulent year especially, these acts seem symptomatic of bigger problems.”

Cytrynbaum said that he believes some posters calling for CSS accountability that were placed in campus buildings were removed. He said that he was not involved in putting the posters up and did not say how he knew they were removed.

“I’m pretty sure some were removed in Sawyer, Hopkins, Chapin and Schapiro,” he said.

The Record was unable to verify whether all posters that were put up remained. Some posters were in Hopkins, Sawyer and Schapiro on Tuesday night, but none were found in Chapin. The Record was unable to determine whether any were replaced or in which buildings they had initially been put up.

In addition, wind caused a large poster that read, “Where’s my safety?” to rip and flip over Paresky balcony, where it had been recently hung, on Thursday around 6:30 p.m. Boyer said that he was told that wind had caused the poster to become loose, and two Record board members who were present confirmed that the wind blew the poster over the balcony.

According to CSS’ files, at 2:14 p.m. on Friday, a student reported “vandalism to a 15x3 sign that was hanging off of Paresky balcony, previously reported as wind damage.” In an email to the Record on Monday, Boyer wrote, “Because of the previous information regarding the wind, CSS has not taken any action to investigate the damage.”

Mandel told the Record she students told her that “certain social justice-oriented posters have been removed from various spots on campus” but that she did not have any additional details.

Mandel’s email called for mutual respect across differences in opinion. “Our goal shouldn’t be to avoid disagreement or dissent, but to develop ways of engaging in it without losing respect for each other as people… The way each of us acts affects the community as a whole,” she wrote. “If we’re intolerant and harsh, it sets a norm for how we’ll be treated in return. To make Williams instead a place where everyone is valued, we’ll need to treat each other with respect when differences inevitably emerge.”

James expressed hope for the College to work toward establishing a common commitment to promoting human rights discourse on campus and that the College “can reaffirm that civil rights and human rights are the template and the foundation of education.”

“I think the email that the president sent out was a first step,” James said. “I think it would be great if people could actually walk together on some common journey in which social justice wasn't seen as a distraction – and I'm not saying this is the view of the administration – but I think in the culture at large that people who organize for social justice are sometimes seen as irritants rather than contributors to community… You have to understand the value of those voices that may annoy you or destabilize your norms, but that's because they want a better world.”

WHAT’S INSIDE 3 OPINIONS

5 ARTS

7 FEATURES

8 SPORTS

Yasmina Cabrera ’22 reflects on Black Previews

QSU reflects on last weekend’s Drag Show

Sartorial observer: Benny Weng ’22

First-years make hype videos

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2 OPINIONS

The Williams Record

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April 24, 2019

Sports Editors Sofie Jones Jack McGovern

The Record is hiring a deliveryperson to pick up and distribute the paper every Wednesday morning.

Photo Editor Sabrine Brismeur Business Staff Rishad Karim, Mehr Sawant and Nelson Walsh

Paid at the standard student payroll rate.

Contact dbj1@williams.edu if interested.

DARIN LI ’21

CONVENTIONAL WISDOM

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

Pre-frosh on the Quad What’s the most surprising thing about your Previews experience?

SALMON FESTIVAL

So, you’re telling me that poke bowls and Pokeballs are not related?

GOSPEL CHOIR

Sing it for the people in the back! Amen!

PREVIEWS

Do you think my pre-frosh hates me or is that just me?

,

By SABRINE BRISMEUR, PHOTO EDITOR

MADELINE OML

The creepy red exit signs in the common room.

Thanks for asking: Sleeping on the floor was really rough, if you were wondering.

MY WEEKEND

DOUBLES LOTTERY

Did you know that allegedly the best double at Williams is the one in the middle of Spencer. No? Okay.

LYDIA VON SCHWANENFLUEGEL

I didn’t expect the entry to have funds to play around with.

WORK FOR THE RECORD

RYAN ROWE

The tradition of having prefrosh sleep [in the common room].

The Record is seeking applicants for the following positions for the Fall 2019 semester!

News Assistant Sports Editor Photo Editor

You can find full position descriptions in Daily Messages. To apply, please submit a one-page cover letter detailing your interest and experience by Saturday, April 27, at 5 p.m. To apply, or if you have questions, contact Managing Editor Nicholas Goldrosen at ncg1@williams.edu

SAM MILO

Even though I had just arrived, the students treated me as if I had known them for years.

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 kc17@williams. edu and kzy1@williams.edu by Sunday at 5 p.m. for inclusion in the next Wednesday issue. Opeds 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.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR To the editor: The Record's editorial of April 17, 2019 (“On the need for affinity housing”) argues that Williams students should have more control over whom they live with.

I agree. I have discovered a truly remarkable plan which this letter is too small to contain. See http://bit.ly/ eph_housing for the details.

Summary: The best housing policy would involve three major structures. First, a

Student Housing Committee – modeled on the Junior Advisor Selection Committee – should run most aspects of the housing process.

The more that students have responsibility for managing their own lives, the more they will learn from the process and the better the outcomes will be.

Second, students should, as much as possible, live in houses with other members of their Williams class: sophomores in the Berkshire Quad; juniors in Greylock; seniors in row houses and co-ops.

Third, non-senior rooming groups should be as large as possible and of fixed size, but subject to diversity constraints. For example, sophomore rooming groups would be any number less than five or exactly equal

to 15, with restrictions on both gender balance and organization membership.

Allowing students to group themselves has two main advantages: It creates genuine house community and it provides major incentives for large groups to “pick up” less popular students.

The more that students sort themselves into houses and the more incentives they have for being both diverse and inclusive, the better the housing experience for everyone. The best first step would be to change the coop process so that groups have to be large enough to fill a house. This would allow experiments with “affinity housing” in all but name.

David Kane ’88 Harvard University

WRITE FOR THE RECORD. MEETINGS: PARESKY 209 | 8 PM WEDNESDAYS OR EMAIL DBJ1@ WILLIAMS.EDU

April 24, 2019

OPINIONS 3

The Williams Record

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT By the Coalition Against Racist Education Now (CARE Now) This piece includes summaries of the demands CARE Now has published in the full, 12page version of this open letter with the history, context, means, and ends of what we want. Read the full letter at bit.ly/dearmaud We are the Coalition Against Racist Education Now (CARE Now), an active and growing collective of student activists born out of resistance to the 2018 faculty petition on the Chicago Statement.

We follow in the footsteps of our predecessors: the original 1988 CARE was a Black and PoC-led movement that sought justice for minoritized peoples in response to lacking institutional support for queer and PoC students and faculty. Over 30 years later, we are fighting these same fights. We garnered almost 400 student and alumni signatures in protest of predatory and hate speech in the fall of 2018. We organized a 200-strong March for the Damned on February 25th after the departures of Professors Kai Green and Kimberly Love due to the violent practices of the College.

On April 12th, we presented the Board of Trustees with a

similar list of demands tailored to their fiduciary role, and met with two trustees the following morning. The board failed to provide a public response to any of our demands by claiming that these issues fall under the purview of campus governance.

This avoidance of responsibility is unacceptable, given that these demands are largely the same as what has been asked for over the past ten, twenty, fifty years.

Thus, we now turn inward to hold ourselves accountable as a campus and ask that you join us in working towards making Williams a place we all can love.

This document is more specific than the one presented to the trustees because as an administrator, these details are your responsibility. Additionally, as Williams is a faculty-governed institution, we urge you to spearhead conversation about demands specific to the Williams faculty and staff, rather than wait for others do it first (bystander apathy). Part of what has impeded the progress of similar movements in the past has been the co-option and dilution of their messages, and we hope the longer version of this

document clarifies our position and clears the way for progress.

In the spirit of attempting to overcome institutional inertia, we ask that you respond to these demands with a clear plan of action by Friday, April 26th at 5pm EST. A plan to form committees is not a plan of action, unless those committees are directed for the purpose of implementation only.

0. We demand a complete process of reconciliation to Indigenous peoples including the increased hiring and admittance of Indigenous faculty, staff, and students as well as the repatriation of life and land back to Nations impacted by the College’s ongoing settler occupation. The College must take concrete steps towards reconciliation, such as funding a multi-year fellowship for an outside researcher to investigate Williams’ history and relationship with slavery and the dispossession of Indigenous peoples.

1. We demand Williams College improve accessibility on campus, expand the Office of Accessible Education, create

funds for urgent health needs, and streamline support for medical leave.

2. We demand increased admission and hiring of students, staff, and faculty with diverse abilities.

3. We demand the College increase funding to the Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity (OIDE), meant to be directed to the Davis Center, to reflect the growing number of minoritized students on campus and address the OIDE’s responsibility to the faculty.

4. We demand a thorough, external, and independent investigation into the practices and conduct of CSS, focusing on officer interactions with minoritized students. This must be accompanied by mechanisms for prevention and response to abusive and/or racist instances.

5. We demand the preservation and expansion of campus affinity spaces and their resources.

6. We demand a structure of sexual violence accountability which centers survivors rather than institutional stability.

7. We demand the necessary supports such that survivors can function and heal on our campus.

8. We demand the college implement measures of accountability for perpetrators of physical or sexual violence.

9. We demand the College increase pay to a living wage and eliminate pay inequity for staff in Dining Services and Facilities.

10. We demand the College create permanent and unmitigated networks of support for junior faculty of color.

11. We demand the expansion of Ethnic Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies by hiring new faculty and establishing new fellowships.

12. We demand the establishment of enrollment options and teaching fellowships in Native Studies, Trans Studies, Disability Studies, and Fat Studies.

These demands exist because we love Williams. They exist because the parts of Williams that we love exist in contradiction with the practices of the institution. Our love for the communities we have curated for ourselves is violated when the campus chooses to deprioritize accessibility, our spaces and bodies are over-policed by CSS, and we exist in constant

fear of no contact orders being violated. Our love for Rice House and Black spaces on this campus is overshadowed by the absence of affinity housing as an option and the lack of affinity spaces for other minoritized people on campus. Our love for Black faculty is circumscribed when there are too few to love: when requests for an Africanist are neglected and existing professors are inadequately supported. Our love for the idea of liberal arts is undermined when there are gaping holes in the curriculum caused by the departures of faculty of color, and non-hegemonic systems of knowledge are constantly delegitimized. Our love for the staff who work so hard to keep this institution running is agitated by the pay inequities they face, as well as their lack of job security, inability to advocate for themselves, inability to speak out against the administration about their problems, and unjust working conditions. The list of paradoxes goes on.

We love Williams. All we are trying to do is make the Williams we love, love us.

Are you uncomfortable yet?

How a call for equity becomes twisted

By HAMZA MANKOR

DARIN LI ’21

Reflecting on Black Previews On creating space and receiving students with love

By YASMINA CABRERA Ubuntu: I am because we are. On Tuesday, as prospective students began to arrive for Previews, they witnessed the beginning of something that they probably hadn’t seen on any other college campus; Black Previews promised them a new way to experience an institution like Williams for the first time. It was an opportunity for current students to reach out to Black prefrosh specifically and give them the welcoming and advice we felt the Office of Admission has continuously failed to give.

What began as a conversation on how we could get Black pre-frosh to feel more comfortable on campus, while helping them understand the realities of being Black at a predominantly white institution, turned into a community-wide effort to receive these students with the love, honesty and respect that they deserve. Each event on the Black Previews programming was set with intention and helped us showcase the real and complex experiences that come with being a Black student at Williams; they were created to supplement the limited perspective offered by the regular Previews program.

My own Previews experience was overshadowed by a gnawing feeling of isolation which fueled my imposter syndrome.

There were students walking around with their parents, and others who had been out touring schools for the past year and knew what to expect. I’d met pre-frosh that I got along with, but I’d also hide out in my host’s dorm in fear that if I sat in class everyone else would be able to point me out as the one person who didn’t deserve to be there.

What made it worse was that I barely saw any students like me.

I didn’t know that there were others out there who felt anxious about the same things, or that there were upperclassmen who could guide me in dealing with feelings of inadequacy. I didn’t interact with many of them be-

cause I couldn’t find them. We were not given the space to see, feel and recognize each other.

Black Previews began with a welcoming dinner in which Black students got to greet each other and their hosts, as well as to meet other upperclassmen.

The cookout provided a muchneeded sense of community, where we listened to our peers talk about dealing with overpolicing by CSS, the school’s failure to protect survivors under Title IX and the resilient ways in which people on campus look after one another. The academic panel was a chance to understand what one might have to deal with as a Black student in the classroom, while the extracurricular discussion gave insight on feeling disconnected from one’s team and how to care for oneself while balancing other activities with classwork. The kickback at Rice House, our way of saying goodbye, was an introduction to our space on campus and a promise that despite the challenges we face here, we still continue to carve out our own place and care for each other.

The issues that we aimed to address during Black Previews are in no way unique to Williams, and every predominantly white institution should be looking to adopt similar programs for prospective students. We made sure that pre-frosh knew no matter what schools they were choosing from, the advice they were being offered could very well apply to an Amherst, Wesleyan or any similar “elite” institution of higher education.

Pre-frosh of marginalized identities are coming from schools and communities that look drastically different from places like Williams. To ignore those differences and expect incoming students to learn how to navigate on their own a space that can be as traumatizing as it can be rewarding is equal parts careless and naive. Admitted students should not be treated as mere statistics or be lured into an institution through a dishonest sense of security. If

someone is going to commit to Williams College for four years of their life, then Williams College should let that be through the sincere merit that the student finds in the institution.

Incoming students deserve better, and current students tried our best to provide for them where the institution failed us.

The Office of Admission did not understand the need for Black Previews, and not once were we asked why we felt so strongly about the insufficiencies of the current Previews program that we needed to create and carry out our own. Instead, we were labeled as exclusive, and they decided to actively fight against us. On Tuesday morning as we tried to prepare for welcoming we were denied our request for arrival times for buses from New York and Boston, and they worked to restrict our funding while stealing ideas from our programming, like the last minute kickback offered at Goodrich as a substitute to the moonlight hike.

What the Office of Admission didn’t count on was the persistence with which we waited outside for whatever buses arrived throughout the entire day, our resolve in making sure every single Black-identifying student knew what was being planned for them by handing out fliers, the student organizations that came to us in solidarity with funds and the 110 T-shirts we made for volunteers by hand. There were literally blood, sweat, tears, classes, deadlines and sleep schedules sacrificed in making sure that Black Previews succeeded.

Black Previews wasn’t just an introduction to Williams for future Black students. It also served as a reminder to current students of the many institutional obstacles set up against us. Most importantly, it was a reminder of what we are capable of and the lengths at which we are willing to go to protect each other. They can’t harm us.

We’re surrounded.

Yasmina Cabrera ’22 is from the Bronx, N.Y.

I believe in free speech.

I have to clarify this from the start because a dichotomy has been set up on this campus where to oppose the Chicago Statement being used to bring hateful speakers is to support censorship and stand in the way of education. It is a misframing of the debate that avoids grounding the Chicago Statement platform in realities of power, complicity and oppression to instead rest upon claims that are well-intended but naive and damaging. It remains convincing by veiling disparity with principle and philosophy.

And it’s effective, because the misleading frame employs completely truthful fundamentals. Free speech is a tool of the oppressed to challenge the status quo. It defends access to education

socially spurned from public speaking. If pedophilia cannot withstand the pretense of an academic guise, then why does Black inferiority?

And so the points continue to fall: Free speech defends natural truths, but what truth is there in bigotry?

Another — if it empowers the oppressed, why are the minoritized speaking out against the Statement? And why promote uncomfortable learning if only the oppressed minority of students are made “uncomfortable” by the “controversial” — both forgiving terms that downplay being forced again to reaffirm their identity and merits in an environment that constantly eats away at it — while the privileged learn at their expense? At a panel regarding the debate, no panelist could supply a clear answer to that last one.

There is a clear contradiction

means recognizing that a large and unspoken attraction of inviting discriminatory speakers is the shock value of flouting social convention and saying what no one dares to, and that there is privilege in finding the bigoted performance — for there is a perverse component of entertainment involved — outrageous but not painful. It also means taking advantage of avenues that forego the shock value of mutilating communities and build minoritized identities up instead of tearing them down, because it is strange how the focus is on streamlining the handing of institutional money to racists and not on improving Claiming Williams Day, where once a year Williams encourages schoolwide confrontations with socioeconomic inequality and white fragility. Are all of the students and faculty advocating for the unfettering of hateful speakers exercising

I do not doubt that there is a sincerity in wanting to consider the flaws of hate speech, and yet I am concerned by the insistence for ways that avoid dispensing of privileged comfort.

about natural truths, such as climate change or heredity, from those wishing to limit it due to personal belief and then allows the opportunity to engage non-believers. It prevents the advancement of an agenda by excluding no voice, as institutions are not meant to take stances on individual matters of inquiry.

But the crux of the proposal is that it protects “uncomfortable learning” — that to truly expand knowledge, one must put their beliefs into question and make what they think they know vulnerable to dismantling by accepting discomfort. Their argument posits that controversial speakers are necessary because they hold supremacist views that pose a necessary challenge to the beliefs of students. The logic is that to learn about anti-semitism for class, you read Mein Kampf. And to clinch this, disinviting speakers grants them a notoriety that only proves influential in communicating their views.

But envisioning these principles in action raises questions. Disinvitation is tactically flawed, but look at the case of Milo Yiannopoulos — a cultural libertarian who profited off of racist and bigoted statements while touting free speech, until he finally crossed the line at endorsing pedophilia and was

being sidestepped in the argumentative rhetoric, where humanitarian principles are supplied to find academic virtue in hate speech.

This contradiction is rooted in those with privilege looking to understand prejudice but being unfamiliar with true discomfort.

Jeopardizing comfort is an undeniable component of learning, and the challenge of facing controversial belief does negotiate that understanding, but underrepresented communities already understand prejudice. We make it to Williams in spite of it, and the challenge now forced upon us is pushing the boundaries of an educational system that rests on historical bedrock condemning our existence. Privilege can only exist with the deprivation of others, and being unable to claim deprivation but not actively attempting to forsake that power dynamic means maintaining an intellectual state of comfort, whether or not it is intent or complicity that defines one’s role in preservation. The Statement in practice allows students to examine a system that protects a possessive investment in whiteness without endangering their investment.

The real issue then is defining the fairest mode for education of the privileged. This

their right to free speech and their commitment to discomfort by attending? I do not doubt that there is a sincerity in wanting to consider the flaws of hate speech, and yet I am concerned by the insistence for ways that avoid dispensing of privileged comfort.

Dismissing opposers of the Statement with straw man fallacies is an attempt to resolve the dissonance between (hopefully) not being overtly racist and seeing academic benefit in platforming views that stand antithetical to the progress that education should usher.

The discourse around all of this is complicated because it asks how to have discourse and that clouds the nature of the debate, but the flaw with uncomfortable learning as of right now is that some students generally feel more comfortable than others here. No one is discounting that the nature of learning is to push the boundaries of belief. Those critical of the Chicago Statement are just calling out the hypocrisy of those not first being made uncomfortable of their privilege before they ask the minoritized to question their value to the campus.

Are you uncomfortable yet?

Hamza Mankor ’22 is from Jersey City, N.J.

4 NEWS

The Williams Record

April 24, 2019

RASAN shapes first portion of Take Back the Night into protest

SABRINE BRISMEUR/PHOTO EDITOR

RASAN has changed the initial segment of its Take Back the Night event into a protest that supports sexual assault survivors and confronts rape culture, followed by an open mic session.

By NICHOLAS GOLDROSEN MANAGING EDITOR Last Thursday, the Rape and Sexual Assault Network (RASAN) held its annual Take Back the Night event, “an international evening of solidarity and support for survivors of sexual assault and their supporters/allies,” according to RASAN’s email publicizing the event. For the past two years, RASAN has aimed to shape the first portion of the event into more of a protest than in past years.

Take Back the Night is comprised of two parts: a public

march across the College’s campus followed by an open mic session centering the personal stories and experiences of survivors. Traditionally, the first portion has consisted of speakers sharing stories along the walk’s route. Last year, though, RASAN eliminated the story-sharing during the march and made the march a protest. “No personal stories or experiences will be shared during the march,” RASAN Chair Liv Segal ’19 wrote in an all-campus email.

The protest and chants accompanied the march around campus, lasting roughly half

an hour and attended by approximately 50 people.

Chants included, “Break the silence, end the violence,” “Fuck institutional violence” and “This is your campus, you deserve to feel safe.”

This change in atmosphere had been intentional on RASAN’s part. “The atmosphere is now more similar to a rally in support of survivors and their support networks, along with being a protest against the influences to the prevalence of sexual assault,” said RASAN Secretary Laura Westphal ’21, who added that RASAN continu-

Stop & Shop workers reach tentative agreement, end strike

By REBECCA TAUBER NEWS EDITOR Stop & Shop workers across New England returned to work on Monday for the first time in 11 days, ending the strike that began on April 11.

According to Skyhook, a location technology company, visits to Stop & Shop locations across the area declined by between 50–70 percent during the strike.

Stop & Shop hailed its status as the only fully-unionized super market in the area and insisted that they presented a fair deal with wage increases and benefits.

On Sunday, the UFCW unions circulated information on their websites and Facebook pages declaring the strike over. “We have finally reached a tentative agreement,” said Tyrone Housey, the president of UFCW Local

them with the service they deserve,” the release explained.

“Be proud of what you have accomplished on the line,” a notification released

by UFCW 1459 to its members said. “The message you sent by collectively standing up for yourselves, your families, and for good jobs, has resonated not only with the company, but all of America.”

The release also thanked all of the community members

“We have finally reached a tentative agreement. This is a great victory for our union members.”

Tyrone Housey President of UFCW Local 1459

The strike was organized by five United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) local unions that represent over 31,000 workers, including members of UFCW Local 1459, which includes the Berkshires. The protests came as a result of months of tense contract negotiations.

On one side of the bargaining table, the union members protested a variety of reductions, including pay and benefits for part-time staff, who make up a large part of the workforce. On the other side,

1459. “This is a great victory for our union members.”

Stop & Shop posted a negotiation update on Sunday explaining that they reached a tentative three-year agreement. Although the agreement has not yet been released, the corporation highlighted elements of the contract including increased pay, health care and benefits.

“Our associates’ top priority will be restocking our stores so we can return to taking care of our customers and communities and providing

who supported the workers by expressing solidarity, refusing to cross the picket line, signing petitions and more.

At the College, groups of students came together to help the workers by raising money for the strike fund and organizing rides to the picket line.

A ratification vote will take place this week to announce the details and confirm the contract. In the meantime, workers have returned to the Stop & Shop stores, which are now operating at full capacity.

Name of white supremacist group found in Thompson House

By NICHOLAS GOLDROSEN MANAGING EDITOR On late Friday, the name of a prominent white supremacist organization was found written on the whiteboard in Thompson House. The name of the same group had been written in the same place earlier this year.

Administrators and Campus Safety and Security (CSS) notified residents of the house im-

mediately, but did not send an all-campus notification. “Both Dean [of the College Marlene] Sandstrom and CSS [Supervisor David] Bartels sent messages to the house, offering personal support as well as asking for any information about what might have been witnessed,” Vice President for Campus Life Steve Klass said.

Klass said that the administration did not have any further information on the inci-

dent as of press time. “That’s all we have at the moment,” he said.

Editor’s Note: The group in question has previously participated in violent attacks such as the August 2017 Charlottesville, Va., rally that resulted in the death of one counter-protester. The group commonly recruits on college campuses; as such, we have chosen not to publish the name of the group.

ally works with the Dean’s Office to respond to campus needs and to communicate desires for change in a manner intended to be helpful and progressive. “It can take on a feeling of protest by confronting rape culture, the problematic reporting and legal systems and other roadblocks to achieving justice for survivors.”

The tone change of the event comes from both an aim of supporting survivors and calling for additional support to survivors. “The event as a whole was fueled by the constant desire to

show support and love for survivors of sexual assault,” Westphal said. “RASAN as an organization believes that getting involved in a group like that is a step toward showing that there is a whole community willing to listen and support those going through emotionally difficult situations, and that campus involvement is a significant part of that. In particular, I think the expression of frustration with administration comes from very specific and personal experiences. Every interaction with administration is different, and it

happens that some students have had severely negative impressions of the administration. That’s certainly not everyone’s experience, but recently the sharing of unsatisfactory interactions with administration has become more prevalent.”

Along with Westphal, who coordinated logistics, Veronica Wolff ’20 organized musical performances and recruited speakers for the open mic, Rollie Grinder ’21 dealt with food and refreshments and Lauren Fossel ’22 led publicity efforts to inform students about the event and its importance.

Westphal also described what she believes to be the value of the open mic portion of Take Back the Night.

“The value of the open mic is to build solidarity between survivors and remind the community how prevalent this issue is,” Westphal said. “I think there’s a lot of value as a survivor in knowing that there are other people who can relate to the emotions that you've felt and have lived through them – it’s why we prefer the term survivor. On a related note, it also shows that no experiences are the same and that every survivor deals with their situation in a different way. It can be helpful to hear how others have found comfort or justice through their own methods.

“I believe it’s also helpful for those who haven’t experienced an assault to realize how strongly it can affect someone’s life. Because it’s not a comfortable topic to speak about, it’s often forgotten, one, how many survivors there are, and two, how much a single event can disrupt their lives.”

SPRING STREET BLUES From the files of Campus Safety and Security Monday 4-15-19 11:52 a.m. Williams Hall: College staff member asked that an officer meet him on the fourth floor of Williams Hall concerning damage. A ceiling EXIT sign was ripped from the ceiling (exposing the wires) and is now missing. When the sign was ripped down it also caused damage to the ceiling. The bathroom in this hallway also had large amounts of dried vomit on the floor as well as in the sink and toilet.

Tuesday 4-16-19 10:57 p.m. Paresky Center: An officer was dispatched to Paresky for an Emergency Phone activation located on the southwest corner crosswalk. There was no one within 100 yards of the phone and dispatch reset the phone.

Wednesday 4-17-19 12:49 a.m. Paresky Lawn: On the way to secure Shapiro Hall, an officer observed a small group of students (approximately 6-8) congregated in a circle. Upon checking this out, the group broke up and left the area. A circular hole approximately 12 to 15 feet in diameter cut into the lawn with pieces of sod removed.

9:42 a.m. Sawyer Library: An officer was dispatched to Sawyer Library third floor to meet a staff member reporting new stickers on the stair leading to the fifth floor mezzanine. They also found stickers on the third floor book stacks and on the concrete support.

statement were taken. The report was shared with the Williamstown Police Department.

11:00 p.m. Thompson Chapel: An intrusion alarm from the bell tower door sounded. The officer found the door locked, and the alarm panel was not sounding. The officer submitted a work order.

Friday 4-19-19 12:01 a.m. West: Officers responded to West due to a report of a female screaming from somewhere outside between West and Clark Hall. Upon arrival, they were able to track the screaming to a room in West College. Officers requested 911 be activated.

3:56 a.m. WCMA: Officers responded to WCMA for an AC alarm. They found that a communications room was quite hot. Officers called the mechanical trades person.

10:33 a.m. Cole Field: Dispatch received a call from a grounds crew member regarding a vehicle parked at Lower Cole Field with the engine on for a long time with what appeared to be someone in the vehicle either sleeping or passed out.

10:54 a.m. Paresky Center: Officers responded to the Paresky penthouse for a burglar alarm.

2:14 p.m. Paresky Center: Student reported vandalism to a sign that was hanging off of Paresky balcony. This was previously reported as wind damage.

Saturday 4-20-19

Thursday 4-18-19 8:15 p.m.: An officer met with a student regarding a phone scam from someone claiming to be with the Social Security Administration in which his private information may be compromised. A report and

2:59 a.m. Sage Hall: Officers responded to Sage concerning a student who may have been in crisis. The student was asking to go to the hospital. Northern Berkshire Emergency Medical Services arrived and transported the student.

10:31 a.m. Cole Field: Officers responded to Cole Field for the report of an injured rugby player. Northern Berkshire EMS was also called and transported the player the Berkshire Medical Center.

10:54 a.m. Perry House: Dispatch received a call from Perry concerning water running down the egress door near the bathroom on the first floor. The water was running down the inside of the door and onto the rug.

The officer called the architectural tradesperson for the clogged catcher pipe.

Dispatch also contacted the on campus custodian to clean up the water.

Sunday 4-21-19 12:21 a.m. Dodd House: An anonymous report of a noise complaint was received.

Upon arrival, there were no loud noises coming from the room. Officers spoke to the students in the room and advised them to be mindful of their noise levels.

2:06 a.m. Paresky Center: Officers were dispatched to the south side of Paresky for a report of an intoxicated student. After arrival and speaking to the student and attending friends, the officers requested an ambulance to respond. Northern Berkshire EMS transported the student to the BMC North Emergency Room.

11:44 a.m. The Log: An intrusion alarm from The Log was triggered. Officers went through the building and no one was inside and none of the Ramunto’s staff were on-duty. Officer reset the intrusion system.

8:45 p.m. WCMA: Dispatch received an environmental alarm from the Williams College Museum of Art and contacted the on call mechanical tradesman to respond.

5 ARTS

The Williams Record

April 24, 2019

At the QSU Drag Show, protest is not performative

By ALEXA WALKOVITZ Alexa Walkovitz ’21 is the Co-chair of Williams Queer Student Union (QSU) Students and allies alike flooded Paresky Auditorium on Friday to see a unique and talented group of drag artists, some seasoned, some making their drag debut. The room was immediately engaged by the fantastic hosts, Ryan Buggy ’19, in drag as Mother!, and Jonathan Deng ’21. They interrogated and entertained the audience with jokes and references specific to Queer and LGBTQIA+ culture – and the whole room would laugh and react. Among the jokes told was the fact that the score cards were not actual numbers but math equations. A host yelled for the help of allies to solve the equations, interrogating, yet humorously affirm-

ing the common misconception that “Gays can’t do math.”

The drag show was an invitation to the QSU community to perform and have fun. A few student performers volunteered and received stipends to purchase materials to create their drag personas without worrying about finances, attended group rehearsals and practices and came to the show fully prepared to blow the minds of audience members with dramatic lip syncs of iconic songs. They were decked out, coming in with fully formed and well thought out personas and drag names. The show was exactly what we all came to see: full of dark humor, incredibly choreographed and flashy in the best way.

This room was full of lightning and excitement, especially when the performers were introduced and asked questions.

As they went down the line, ev-

ery performer got to answer the same question: “What do you hate about Williams?” With eloquence and poise, each one had something both snarky and astute to say, but in hearing their answers, we were reminded of the reason we were there in the first place: to hear someone, and something get, well, “dragged.”

Especially the College.

Drag is, and has been historically an act of resistance, survival and visibility. Much of the culture of “shade” and dramatic performances originate from the protest of white-dominated Queer spaces. On Friday, Paresky Auditorium was dominated by people of color and Black folk. The references were for them, as was the space. The College QSU has historically been a white-dominated space, and has been continuously reckoning with this imbalance of power. This year, with the

implementation of the QTIPOC student group (Queer, Trans and Intersex People of Color) and the majority Black and Brown QSU board, QSU underwent a huge effort to change the legacy of whiteness and increase cross-coalition amongst affinity groups. So many Queer students struggle to exist along these lines of Queer and POC culture. The Student Drag Show was not only an act of radical visibility but the perfect moment to call on the administration to create safety and take care of its marginalized students.

The Drag Show was not just a display of art and performance, but an act of Queer resistance by the performers, almost entirely Black and Brown folks. The finale of the show, unfortunately left out due to a rushed ending, was set to include a statement about current race relations on

campus – one that specifically called out President of the College Maud Mandel for her responses to the Coalition Against Racist Education Now (CARE Now) demands as well as her responses the recent displays of white supremacy and racism at the College. In the words of one organizer, “Mandel’s emails and grand speeches mean nothing when real people are experiencing harm.” The intention behind the planned statement was to publicly reinforce and support the CARE Now student demands, and show Mandel that Brown and Black Queer students are waiting, and watching her actions. Unfortunately, due to a moment of carelessness and rushed choices, this ending act of shade was left out of the show’s program.

However, the message stands, and the drag was still an act of radical protest.

Thotiana

Bad Bunny & El Alfa

Mother!

Laissez-Faire

“I’m a spicy mamí with a bangin’ body from Miami.”

El Alfa: “Once I was arrested by the Dominican Republic for slandering the government and I was sentenced to 15 days of community service.”

Bad Bunny: “I was a SoundCloud rapper, and a bunny was my profile picture, which is how I got my name.”

“Mother! is a timeless, spooky MILF with delusions of grandeur.”

“Anti-capitalist Dominican mamí. I came up with the name when I was self-hating and thought I had to be white and French to love myself, but now I’m a Communist so it’s ironic.”

The intention was to throw as much shade as possible because, for a moment in time, Black Queer students held the microphone on the stage, not only physically, but in a figurative sense. With all eyes on them, students used their platform to voice concerns with the way President Mandel and the administration provide – or, as they believe, fail to provide – the care and resources that the community of marginalized peoples, especially Black students and Black Queer students, need to make the College a home.

Black Queerness has always found itself creating family for survival and kinship when the world failed them, and this drag show was exactly that.

A drag family – and a family with the intention of creating space for their kin to exist without fear.

Drezellee J Moon “It’s always been my dream to become a big star!”

SABRINE BRISMEUR/PHOTO EDITOR

Box Office Hours: ‘Woman at War’ with Magnús Bernhardsson

By PHILLIP PYLE ARTS EDITOR Playing at Images through tomorrow, Woman at War, directed by Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir, chronicles the story of Halla, an Icelandic woman, and her fight against the industrialization of Iceland. Halla directs a choir and leads an outwardly normal life; in her alternative life, however, she is an “ecoterrorist,” an individual who advocates for the environment with dramatic and sometimes violent measures.

Claiming the name “Mountain Woman,” Halla uses a bow and arrow to take down electrical lines connected to local aluminum factories. Despite her diligent planning, the Icelandic government and foreign corporate lobby groups effectively suppress her efforts. Just as Halla is planning her most dramatic strike on industrialization yet, her adoption papers from four years prior are finally processed, and a little girl named “Nika” in Ukraine is looking for a mother.

With its timely and poignant message, it is no surprise that Woman at War has captivated audiences in Iceland and abroad. It provides explicit commentary on environmental justice, climate change, surveillance, the influx of foreign nationals and tourists in Iceland and xenophobic sentiment in Iceland and Europe more broadly, and it shows the importance of fostering connections between Iceland and the outside world. Magnús Bernhardsson, professor of history at the College, has many personal connections to the film – his father has a cameo in the film, and he grew up knowing many of the actors.

Bernhardsson, who saw the film last year in Iceland, immediately contacted Images when the film made its U.S. debut on March 1. When, in early April, the film came to

Williamstown, Bernhardsson took the students of his class HIST 309: “Fire and Ice: The History of Modern Iceland” to see it.

I had the opportunity to talk with Bernhardsson about Woman at War on Monday for this week’s “Box Office Hours.” At the beginning of our conversation, I asked him to contextualize the current socioeconomic and political environment in Iceland.

“In our political context, this film is hard hitting,” said Bernhardsson. “Starting around WWI, we were one of the poorest countries in the world, and over the course of decades, we became one of the wealthiest. The way we survived back then was to utilize the very few resources we had in our country. But after WWII, there was consensus among the left and right that we should use geothermal and hydro power in addition to our other natural resources. We invited multinational companies who needed large industrial spaces and a lot of energy.”

“Everyone was very happy with it at first because it created jobs. In the ’90s, though, people started questioning it, partly because of the green movement and environment consciousness. People were saying ‘Why should we sacrifice the beauty of our country to line the pockets of corporations?’ I see this film as an intervention into this deeper political debate asking how much we should develop our pristine nation for these bigger entities?”

Bernhardsson sees Woman at War as a monumental step in Icelandic film, especially from a technical perspective.

The film is shot with lush cinematography that beautifully highlights the green foliage and glacial Icelandic landscape. The score alludes to Iceland’s rich musical culture, as evident in Halla’s role as a choir teacher and the subversive placement of the bands playing the songs

in the background of many frames. Critics largely concurred with Berhardsson’s high assessment of the film, as it took home 10 Edda Awards, Iceland’s version of the Academy Awards.

For those not well-versed in Iceland’s political climate, Woman at War may be viewed purely through the lens of environmental justice. But, to those more familiar or those who are from Iceland, like Bernhardsson, the film addresses much more than the central motif. He saw the scenes of DNA-testing and blood sampling at the airport as a reference to deCODE genetics, an Iceland-based company that collected many citizens’ DNA to track ancestry, and the ways in which this information could lead to widespread surveillance.

One key subtheme in the film is the treatment of foreign nationals. A character in the story, an immigrant to Iceland, repeatedly receives blame for the crimes Halla commits due to his foreign status. Bernhardsson has seen this xenophobia and nativism play out in Icelandic media recently.

“They’ve started to say ‘someone of foreign origin’ has done this crime. This film is criticizing some people’s tendencies to immediately blame the foreigners when something bad happens,” Bernhardsson said. “It’s a critique of xenophobia, trying to figure out who we are, our identities. It makes us aware of how we think and talk about foreigners.”

Woman at War is at once a story about the environmental consequences of industrialization and an ode to Icelandic culture, in its positive and negative manifestations.

It centers environmental justice on an atypical, seemingly unsuspected character, and, in doing so, calls upon us all to act with vigor and equity in our push for environmental protection.

Q&A With Michael Lewis

By NIGEL JAFFE FEATURES EDITOR Minutes after news of the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France started to gain international attention, Professor of Art Michael Lewis sat down to write. Still relatively new to his role as architecture critic for The Wall Street Journal, Lewis had simply visited and reviewed various newly opened buildings and arts spaces for his previous pieces. This piece, however, was different – the deadline was just a few hours away.

But as a leading architectural historian, and with the knowledge that art and architecture are deeply interrelated developments within a culture, Lewis was well prepared. We sat down to discuss his writing process, his time teaching criticism and the challenges of criticism in the digital age.

Nigel Jaffe: What does your reviewing process look like, on a day-to-day level?

Michael Lewis: The process really begins when you go to the thing that you’re reviewing. I think it’s good to go in with a preconceived notion and find yourself wrong – your best ideas come when you’re fighting with an earlier prejudice and you’re overturning it. Right away, you may have six, eight or 10 different ideas, but a review has to seize you by the lapels in the first paragraph and say, “This is surprising,” or “This is important,” or “This is disastrous.”

The nature of architectural criticism has changed, in that you used to have a more leisurely pace. Because of bloggers, whose pieces come out the day the building opens, there’s a pressure to have your review appear online the night before, and then in the paper that day.

NJ: I guess that makes you almost a blogger yourself. What makes criticism different?

ML: I consider blogging to have no literary merit. I think the quality that elevates something into the realm of criticism is a certain thoughtful detachment, expressed in essay form, while blogging is generally talking. What goes into criticism is that there is no one formula for it. You could judge a building on a whole variety of criteria. For example, is it novel? Does it sizzle? Does it stagger you when you see it? Is it beautifully composed like a gorgeous piece of sculpture? Is it intelligently planned so the paths of circulation are gracious and clearly marked? Does it solve the peculiar problems of site, location, budget and materials? Does it introduce an innovative form of construction?

Does it express the personality of the architect? Your first job in answering these questions is to find out where the action is. You could judge any building by how good its ventilation is, by its lighting system, how durable it is, but that doesn’t make for a pleasing essay. In any building, there is some pivotal issue where the action is: the urgent thing that deserves comment. And sometimes there’s two. Sometimes it’s a trade-off, where two considerations might be in conflict; your principal task in writing a review is to identify what the salient issue is for that building and to get people interested in it, because some of the issues aren’t that interesting. Unlike any other work of art, a building is always a social act. Composing a piece of music, or doing a painting or writing a book can be a purely personal act. But because a building begins with a client, and takes real estate from the limited pool of real estate in our world, it’s social.

NJ: How has your work been influenced by what you’ve learned in your class on criticism?

ML: One thing I’ve realized is that we forget the things that

affected us about architecture when we were young. That is, the tactile experience of crawling around on your belly, the smell of closets and carpets, the things you touch with your grubby fingers. I’ve learned from my students to look back at your emotional, physical, kinetic response to buildings.

One of the reasons our buildings have gotten progressively more sterile and less physically rewarding is we’ve lost touch with the primal tactile experience of architecture, and that is what I got from those student papers.

NJ: What are your plans for the future?

ML: I suggested to my editor that, in the months ahead, I want to deal with the problem of celebrity architecture and also deal with the transformation of architecture by computers – that is, digital architecture. A friend of mine said that all critics come in one of three categories: topographers, cheerleaders and goalies. The topographer, with detachment, is a neutral describer of the scene.

They’ll say, ‘Here’s the lay of the land.’ The cheerleader endorses a movement, or a style or group of architects, and pushes on. They’ll say, ‘This is the future.’ The goalie is the person with the highest aesthetic standards, who doesn’t want to let anything get by.

NJ: Which one are you?

ML: I don’t know yet. I think I’ve got all of them in me. The question is more about what we need to do now. I think we need better cheerleaders.

I want to be a cheerleader, but I’m afraid I’m a goalie: not good enough. I don’t yet have a reputation of being a nasty reviewer. I haven’t had a chance yet to truly lambaste a building. The fact is, for everything I write, I realize a week later what I should have said.

We just need something to cheer for. That’s the question.

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The Williams Record

April 24, 2019

One in Two Thousand

By BROOKE HOROWITCH EXECUTIVE EDITOR Kene and I met in physiology last spring and have since taken several classes together. She is a wonderful listener, scholar and baker. While sitting outside of Paresky on Sunday morning, we discussed her many homes, her favorite recipes and more.

Could you tell me a bit about your different homes and what they mean to you?

I’m technically from Nigeria – my citizenship is Nigerian, and both of my parents are from there, but I was born and raised in Uganda. I lived there for 10 years, then moved to Israel for about a year, then moved to New York for two-ish years, and I went back to Uganda for that summer, and then New York for high school, and now I’m here.

Why did you move so many times?

My mother works at the U.N. The reason that we were in Uganda in used to work for the U.N as well.

When we moved to Uganda, he became an engineer instead.

Then my mother started working for the United Nations in Afghanistan and a couple of places that weren’t family duty stations. But Israel is a family duty station, so she went there at the same time that my dad got a project in Liberia. My brother was in boarding school at that point, but my sister and I were pretty young, so we went with my mother to Israel.

Then she got a temporary post in New York, so that’s why we were there for two years. When it ended, we went back to Israel. Then she got a post in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, but before we could go, she got a per-

KENE ODENIGBO ’19

took that.

What was special about each of those places?

things, so I made jam. And then I thought, “What am I going to do with this jam? I don’t have bread.” So I thought of those cookies that have jam centers and found a recipe, so that is also one that I love.

Uganda is where I grew up, I’m most familiar with. I went to international schools there in Kampala, which is the capital city. As you got older, you could start going on international trips, so we went to Egypt, Greece, Mauritius and places like that, which was really fun, and taught you a lot about being a person in the world. Because it was an international school, you had every type of person there, so Uganda was a special place. I was very comfortable there.

Israel was interesting because most things were in Hebrew, so you go to the store and are like, “Okay, I hope this is what I think it is.” My sister and I went to an international school again, so it was in English, and I started learning Arabic before switching back to French, which I had learned before. So Israel was a fun interlude. It was pretty, and I really liked our landlords, who lived right above us. The bakeries were also amazing. I was a big fan of the baked goods there.

But then we moved to New snow. I was super excited, but then I touched it and realized it was cold, and I was over it very I saw squirrels – everywhere. I had never seen them before. That was an interesting middle school experience because I came in during the middle of the year, and everyone was in cliques. I was like, “I thought this was just in movies.” So I was in a weird middle-ground area, but when everyone got kicked out of their groups, they would come to me,

This past summer, when I was here, we went strawberry picking as a lab. I actually don’t like strawberries that much,

In addition to your biology major, I know that you are on the pre-med track to become an OB-GYN. What interests you about that field?

SABRINE BRISMEUR/PHOTO EDITOR KENE’S RESIDENCE CURRIER

KENE’S SPORT TEAM TRACK

When I went back to Israel, I I made some really, really good I was there.

Back to New York for high school, I went to an all-girls I wasn’t in a co-ed school. It was an all-girls Catholic high school, the Ursuline School in New Rochelle.

You mentioned that you liked the Israeli baked goods, and I know that you enjoy baking. Could you tell me about how you started and your favorite recipes?

In high school, it was tradition to bake for your friends on their birthdays, so I needed to learn how to bake. My mother had baked a lot before she got super busy with work. She used to make a Christmas cake and

KENE’S GO-TO RECIPE COFFEE CAKE

this chocolate cake that my brother absolutely loved. She was an amazing baker, and I really missed it when she stopped baking, so in high school I wanted to learn to bake like that. brownies and chocolate chip cookies, and I was like, “This is kind of hard.” But then I got into cakes, and there is this one turned out great, so it is one of of my favorites to make.

I could never get cookies down.

I put them in a ball, but they just never spread. When I came to Williams, there was a shortbread cookie recipe that I found, and I really like it. Also, I really like this peach cake. It is so simple and moist and soft. My mother always says, “For any recipe that you’re doing, cut out half the sugar,” and it always still tastes good.

I really like babies; I think they’re so cute. But also, I was set on being a neurosurgeon for a long time, but when I found out the residency was seven years, I was like, “OK, that’s a little much. Maybe just general surgery,” because I really wanted to be a surgeon. And then I shadowed a general surgeon for two days, saw three colonoscopies in a row and almost fell asleep. That’s when I knew it was not for me.

It was the SPEC 19 program when I shadowed these doctors, and I got matched with OBwould I watch this?” But I loved it. The OB-GYNs were wonderful and so kind and so willing to teach and answer questions.

The reason that I don’t want to go into research is that I really like the human aspect of medicine, talking to people and having a direct impact on their lives. With OB-GYN, you can make connections with people because you see them every year, or more often if they are an expecting mother. So you really get to form bonds with them and help them through tough periods in their lives. I just think that’s amazing.

That’s awesome! You are going to be such a wonderful doctor. This is a nonsequitur, but how did you get involved with the track team, and what do you like about it?

I got into track freshman spring of high school because I decided that I really like to eat, so I need to do some sort of exercise. Since I have no self-motivation, I need someone yelling at me to go run. and I was pretty fast, so I thought hated it in high school. I liked jumping, though, and I liked winning, but there wasn’t much of a team atmosphere there.

But at Williams, my teammates are incredible. I just love my team and my coaches and actually enjoy coming to practice.

The workouts make sense, and the jump squad is such a great group with so many mentors. ward attitude on the team, and the coaches are so kind and actually care about you as people.

I’m glad that you’ve had such a great experience here! I have one final question. I think that you have the most reassuring presence, and since you’re graduating soon, I was wondering if you have any advice for Record readers.

I think in general, and this is such an easy thing to do: Just be kind. In being a Junior Advisor and captain – people come their lives, and you never know because they are so good at putting up a face. People are having a tough time as it is, so be kind and don’t judge. Or at the very least, don’t be a dick. And believe in yourself. Everyone is here for a reason.

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April 24, 2019

FEATURES 7

The Williams Record

Memorial pays tribute to Spanish Civil War volunteer Barton Carter ’37

By NIGEL JAFFE FEATURES EDITOR The walls of Thompson Memorial Chapel are lined with the names of soldiers who lost their lives in American wars, with each entry accompanied by the corresponding date and place of death. Under the list of those who died in World War II, one name – Barton Carter, ex-class of 1937 – stands out for a subtle discrepancy: His year of death is 1938, too early for World War II. As a member of the College choir in the 1950s, Nicholas Wright ’57 was one of many alums over the years to spot the outlier and wonder about the story behind the name. Wright has made it his mission during the last decade and beyond to give Carter’s legacy wider attention, culminating in a recent push to establish a more visible memorial at the College.

Carter left his studies for war-torn Spain in 1936, working without much success as a freelance journalist while relying on a trust fund for financial support. He soon took a job driving trucks from Valencia to Madrid as part of Loyalist efforts to help the capital hold out against the ongoing Francoist siege.

Around that time, Carter submitted a letter to the editor to the Record, published on May 18, 1937. Writing in response to a resolution adopted by the College’s Model League of Nations, he argues fervently against the evacuation of foreign troops from Spain. Making clear his firm Loyalist ties, he ends his letter with the declaration, “the people of Spain will never go back to the bonds that bound them in serfdom for so many centuries.”

NIGEL JAFFE/FEATURES EDITOR

A plaque commemorates the service of Barton Carter ex-’37, who volunteered for anti-fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War. As he notes in the letter, he had recently started working for Foster Parents Plan, a British organization dedicated to providing support for refugee children from Madrid, a group with which he would become deeply involved.

His dedication to the antifascist cause soon led him to enlist in the International Brigade.

After narrowly escaping an Italian ambush on the front lines, Carter was killed in the countryside west of Barcelona in early April of 1938. His life and service are documented in an article by Wright published in The Volunteer, the journal of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, along with a narrative biography by Carter’s niece, Nancy Barton Carter Clough, titled Searching

For Barton Carter: The Story of a Young American Hero.

In 1941, the four-by-three-foot bronze plaque (pictured) was dedicated in tribute to Carter’s actions during the Spanish Civil War. Eventually, the plaque fell into the possession of Wright, in whose garage it remains today.

He recently attempted – unsuccessfully – to donate the plaque to the College in an effort to give it a more permanent home.

Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature Soledad Fox emphasized the importance of such a memorial plaque in bringing attention to Carter’s life. “What has been important to me for a long time has been Barton Carter’s story, which was brought back from oblivion by another Williams alum, Dr.

Nick Wright,” she said. “It’s a fascinating story, and now this plaque, which I believe was made to honor his memory personally, is kind of homeless.”

Fox expressed her support for Wright’s efforts to give the plaque to the College. “I think it’s important to discuss possibilities for where a plaque like this could best be preserved,” she said. “We need to think about whether it is worth preserving – and I think it is – and where it could be preserved or displayed, or at the very least, kept safe somewhere.”

Wright initially presented the plaque to Associate Vice President for Development Lew Fisher ’89, who supported the cause on principle but rejected the idea on the grounds of low

Sartorial Observer: Benny Weng ’22

By REGINA FINK CONTRIBUTING WRITER The presence of Benny Weng ’22 is like a calm and gentle breeze. He relishes in the moment, lingering in spaces with grace and poise.

He nevertheless swears gorgeously – as when telling me about his experience biking to Amherst at night in the rain – and critiques students’ sense of style. Yet every time I see Weng on campus, I have been greeted with unwavering kindness, exemplified by his bright smile.

I interviewed him right outside the dance studio, where Weng spends a significant amount of his time rehearsing for Kusika. This semester, in addition to his participation in the dance ensemble, he is taking five and a half classes (the half being violin lessons). When we sat down, he immediately took off his shoes – comfortable-looking Crocs slippers – and crossed his legs.

“Tell me about your fashion,” I said.

“What kind of question is this?” he replied, laughing.

“He’s always put together, not exactly sharp, but definitely well dressed,” Mackenzie Grace ’22, who was sitting next to us, interjected.

“Hmm,” he said, cocking his head.

“You don’t shy away from bold color or color choices,” Grace added.

Weng nodded.

To Weng, an outfit means “a combination of a set of things that, when put together, will make me feel happy and confident.” He noted that “color composition is definitely something super important,” as was texture, which he argued could never be too “complicated or redundant.”

Weng mentioned that he thinks everyone has been told certain fashion advice – “set experiences by other people” – dictating what clothing is to be avoided or to be worn.

“I feel like those rules are [meant] to be broken – not dogmatically – but there isn’t any reason to stick to those if you don’t feel like it,” Weng said. He never wants his outfits to be boring; rather, they should be representative of his artistic expression.

Art has a large influence on his fashion choices. “When I paint, I have a palette that I normally use: cerulean, purple, orange, lemon-yellow, cobalt blue, viridian hue,” he said. These colors inspire his outfits for each day. Other artists serve as a guide for him, in terms of “color combinations and colors.” When asked if his clothes themselves were an art piece, Weng laughed, saying, “No, that’s too much!”

He said he generally does not care what people perceive from his style; he needs only himself to feel confident in his outfit.

His favorite piece of clothing is overalls. “They sort of break this boundary between the top and bottom, this preestablished duality between shirts and trousers that’s super boring,” he said.

Weng is less than positive about the style at the College.

“Since I came to campus, I’ve seen so many things I’d never wear,” he said.

“Like what?” I asked.

“Sports caps,” he said. “They look stupid. And I wear sweatpants only when absolutely necessary. And tank tops.

They’re vulgarly casual.” He paused to think before continuing, “I associate them with overflowing masculinity. I don’t appreciate a lot of the expressions of masculinity.”

“So, is your style feminine?”

I asked.

“No, my style is … more aloofness, nonchalance?” he said.

Weng is at once humble and bold, thoughtful and casual (although he probably would not like all these dualisms).

And to top it off, he has interesting summer plans: He will be working on identifying exoplanets, planets outside the solar system. This is perhaps a fitting topic of study for Weng.

After all, his style, like the exoplanets, exists a little bit outside of our world.

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storage space. “Thousands of alums have gone on to do amazing things and it’s just not possible to erect a plaque on campus for every one of them,” he said. “I am very sympathetic to this, but there’s only so much that the College can do.”

“I think the challenge is that, regardless of who supports it, there [are] only a few people who have the power to approve it,” said Chaplain to the College and Protestant Chaplain Reverend Valerie Bailey Fischer, who has done graduate work in history. “The story of Barton Carter is worth hearing, and it’s also a reminder that we should learn more about the names of those Williams alums who are on the wall. We should get the word out about Carter.”

Attempts to do so often begin with the list on the wall in Thompson. Former Managing Editor of the Record Reed Jenkins ’19, who is working on a history thesis about medical aid in the Spanish Civil War, pointed out that the erroneous placement of the name may be related to a general sense of shame surrounding American participation in the war. “The questions over Barton Carter’s memorialization speak to the complicated legacy of the Spanish Civil War in American memory,” he said. “Both Carter’s position among World War II fallen in Thompson and the fate of his memorial plaque speak to the elision of the memory of America’s involvement in the conflict and a testament to the political persecution of its veterans.”

Professor of History Karen Merrill, who teaches “Sites of Memory and American Wars” with Associate Director for Public Humanities and Lecturer in History Annie Valk, provided a similar perspective. “Certainly, Barton Carter’s name – and date and location of death – is striking amid the list of World War II deaths in Thompson Chapel,” she said.

“It doesn’t surprise me that we know so little about him, given the lack of knowledge generally in the United States about the Spanish Civil War and the number of Americans who left to aid the Republican cause.”

Clough said that she decided to write the book about her uncle’s life by a desire to fill that gap. “I really wanted to tell his story because I was amazed at what he did in just two years,” she said. “I felt that I just had to tell the story of this true, true hero.”

JA date or real date?

Now that next year’s Junior Advisors (JAs) have been chosen, the rising JAs are getting to know each other through “dates.” We approached pairs in Paresky to ask whether they were on a JA date – or a real date.

1. PETRA BALDWIN ’21 AND JAMIE NICHOLS ’21

SABRINE BRISMEUR/PHOTO EDITOR

2. ANNA MAY FITCH ’19 AND ANAND BUTLER ’19

SABRINE BRISMEUR/PHOTO EDITOR

3. PAPA FREDUAH ANDERSON ’21 AND JESSICA THOMPSON ’21

LYDIA DUAN/EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Answers: 1) Both: two upcoming JAs on a real date; 2) Neither: not JAs and not a date; 3) JA date

SABRINE BRISMEUR/PHOTO EDITOR

Benny Weng ’22 derives his eccentric fashion sense in part from his extensive experience with studio art.

8 SPORTS

The Williams Record

April 24, 2019

From purple cow to cowboy: Sean Gleeson ’07 starts job at Okla. State Former Eph quarterback reflects on time at the College, rise through coaching ranks

By JACK McGOVERN SPORTS EDITOR In January, Sean Gleeson ’07 was named the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Oklahoma State, one of the top programs in the country. The New Jersey native, known for his uptempo offenses and multi-quarterback sets, has since moved to Stillwater, Okla., and started his new job under head coach Mike Gundy.

Gleeson, a former quarterback for the Ephs who also played first base at the College, is a rising star in the college football coaching world.

In his most recent position, the 34-year-old led the Princeton offense to a record-setting season in 2018, when the Tigers went undefeated and won the Ivy League.

The performance, in only his second season as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Princeton, caught the attention of Gundy, who has coached Oklahoma State to 13 consecutive winning seasons.

“What attracted me about the job, and it’s obviously very clear, is [that] Coach Gundy is one-in-a-million, so to speak, in the coaching world,” Gleeson said.

Most famous nationally for wearing a mullet and defending one of his players from media criticism in a 2007 viral video, Gundy is also one of the game’s most respected offensive minds. The Cowboys have finished in the top 10 in total offense in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) in seven of Gundy’s 14 seasons with the team.

Gleeson said he was excited to a be a part of such a prolific offense and was looking forward to putting his stamp on the unit. “They’ve got a legacy of scoring a ton of points, racking up a ton of yardage,” Gleeson said. “That was another thing, besides Coach Gundy, that was enticing about the job: just the prowess of their offense.”

After falling just short of the College Football Playoff in recent years and watching archrival Oklahoma lead the nation in total offense in 2018, Gundy looked outside the Power Five conferences to the Ivy League for a somewhat unconventional hire.

“Anything that I succeed with here is going to be in large part due to his willingness to go out on a limb and hire a guy from the Ivy League,” Gleeson said.

It did not matter to Gundy that Gleeson had no connection to Oklahoma State.

Gleeson had led the highest scoring offense in the lowertier Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and set an Ivy League record with 470 points in his second season at Princeton.

Gleeson credits the scoring records to his commitment to an up-tempo offense. Gleeson said his offenses started playing fast during his first job at the Delbarton School, a New Jersey prep school where he also taught English and algebra and coached baseball and bowling. He likened his no-huddle offense to the full-court press in basketball and described how his system challenged players with “an unspoken battle about how fast you can process information.”

“If there’s a non-negotiable about me, it’s going to be the no-huddle, and the reason is, I always want to be on the attack as an offense,” Gleeson said. “I’ve played a lot of years of football, and the feeling that the defense somehow is teeing off on you because you’re not dictating the pace of the game, that’s not a fun feeling.”

During his two seasons at the helm of the offense for Princeton, Gleeson received plaudits from fans for using multiple quarterbacks on the field at the same time. Gleeson called the strategy “the brainchild of [former Eph coach] James Perry.” Perry, who recently accepted the head coaching position at Brown, helped in his role as quarterbacks coach for the Ephs from 2002–04 to recruit Gleeson to the College and later worked alongside him on the coaching staff at Princeton.

Gleeson indicated that he was looking to take some of his multi-quarterback plays to Oklahoma State and explained that he always wants to get his best athletes on the field, regardless of position. “It could be three or four wide receivers. It could be two tight ends. It could be three quarterbacks. Whatever,” he said.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PRINCETON SPORTS INFORMATION.

In 2018, Sean Gleeson ’07 coached the Princeton offense to a FCS-best 470 points en route to an undefeated season and an Ivy League title.

While Gleeson hopes his outside-the-box thinking guides the Oklahoma State offense back to first place in the Big 12 Conference this season, he has also learned how to deal with setbacks.

Gleeson said his playing career at the College “wasn’t an ideal thing.” He started at quarterback during his sophomore year, but split time under center for the remainder of his career with Pat Lucey ’08. During his final season, the Ephs went 8–0 and won the NESCAC, but Gleeson saw his number of snaps continue to decline.

“We had success, but me personally, I kind of had a topsy-turvy experience,” he said. “My senior year is a great example of what I try to preach to the kids now as a coach: just embracing your role and being part of a team.”

Gleeson received the inaugural Farley Award for his “superior qualities of dedication, loyalty and sacrifice for the betterment of the team” as a senior at the College. The honor, named for legendary Eph football head coach Dick Farley, was especially meaningful for Gleeson because he

was a member of Farley’s last recruiting class before Farley retired in 2003.

“I feel honored a little bit to be one of the last recruiting classes of Coach Dick Farley,” Gleeson said. “A couple of the guys that I’m really close with from my time at Williams – we all are somewhat disciples of him and feel honored to have passed his character test in recruiting and found a spot on his last team.”

Despite playing only one season for Farley, Gleeson said he still associates the College “first and foremost” with the former head coach. He said that Farley has kept close tabs on his meteoric rise through the ranks of college coaching.

“You don’t get hard mail that much any more, but Coach Farley’s one guy that, a few weeks after a big win, [will] very beautifully cut out a newspaper article and send it to you and write a note at the bottom,” Gleeson said.

When he was not posting a passer efficiency of 163.6 on the gridiron and batting over .300 on the diamond for the Ephs, Gleeson took advantage of the College’s liberal

arts education. Gleeson still has his course packet from his favorite class at the College: a 200-level Gateway course in the English Department on Irish literature taught by Senior Lecturer in English and Theater James Pethica. “It was an awesome course,” he said. “It was in Hopkins. It was on the top floor, where there’s a room with a million windows.”

Gleeson went on to take another class in modern drama with Pethica and eventually majored in English, something that was not part of the plan for the self-described “tough, hard-nosed kid from New Jersey.”

Gleeson had expected to take lots of economics. “I had aspired to go into one of these professions that helps you make a lot of money,” he said.

Yet in the two English classes he took with Pethica, Gleeson realized that he preferred to read books and discuss poetry. He liked writing papers and logging journal responses more than submitting problem sets. In the Irish literature course, he said he got in touch with his Irish-American roots through a Norton Critical Edi-

tion — edited by Pethica — of the works of William Butler Yeats. But he also learned more generally in the department about how humans tell stories and respond to the world around them.

Always an active participant in discussions and a key ingredient for the chemistry of the class, Gleeson stood out in the classroom. “He’s very memorable,” Pethica said.

“As engaged, enthusiastic and open-minded a student as one could want to have in a class. [He was] never daunted by what he didn't know, and always hard-working.”

Reflecting upon his time on the football field with Farley, his sessions watching game footage with Perry and his English courses with Pethica, Gleeson emphasized his gratitude to the campus community.

“Williams is like the greatest trampoline for your personal and professional life that you could ever think of,” he said. “There’s not a job that I’ve gotten or a connection that I’ve had in the ten plus years since I’ve left there that hadn’t probably been very much influenced by my time at Williams.”

Take two: First-year student duo creates team hype videos

PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.

Rebecca Kuo ’22 and Aiden Feurer ’22 founded Williams College Cinematics, a videography club.

By RB SMITH COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR When Rebecca Kuo ’22 and Aiden Feurer ’22 ended up as the last two students in their ARTS 128: “Introductory Video” course without a partner for their final project, they teamed up out of necessity.

But after that project proved a resounding success, the duo got together again, this time to film hype videos for Eph sports teams.

Together, Kuo and Feurer have made recruiting videos for men’s and women’s lacrosse, as well as wrestling, earning praise from players, coaches and prospective Ephs alike. Through the organization that they have since formed, Williams College Cinematics, they hope to ride their momentum into future projects.

The two shared a passion for sports, with Feurer playing football at the College and Kuo working as a writer for Sports Information. The idea for hype films began as a long-shot proposition over Winter Study.

“I had this crazy idea to restructure the way Sports Information was marketing itself online because I felt there was a space there that could be filled,” Kuo said.

“Because I work in Sports Info that was an in we had.”

Kuo reached out to her friends on the wrestling team and Feurer knew wrestling head coach Scott Honecker.

Through those contacts, the two were able to set up their first shoot.

Although neither of them had much video editing expertise, Feurer had some experience from high school.

Initially, he would do the editing and Kuo, the “audio wizard,” would put together the music, but now the two work in tandem for most of the process. “Now we split pretty much everything 50-50,” said Kuo. “We co-direct and coedit everything,” said Feurer.

To make a video, Feurer and Kuo attend practices and competitions, sometimes with the help of other camera people, including Cameron Carver ’21, and shoot as much as possible. “I would say we amalgamate approximately three or four hours of clips,” Kuo said. “But especially with the equipment we have now, without stabilizers, it’s just point and shoot as much as you can and hope you get a good five-second clip.”

After shooting, they sit down for three or four hours of film review and ultimate-

ly pare down their footage to the best minute or two.

Then, they layer over heavily edited copyright-free music, mix in ambient audio from practices and competitions and post the video to YouTube. Although they sometimes use a checklist to make sure they incorporate certain elements, they described the process as mostly organic and said that for the most part, they just try things together until it feels like it fits.

Although they have released only four videos so far, the duo has received high praise from the teams. Honecker, the wrestling coach, was unsure of how their first video would turn out, but decided to give it a shot anyway.

“Now, having seen the quality and creativity of the video, I am really glad we got in on the ground floor,” he said. “I am pretty sure our Twitter post of the video is our most liked tweet of all time.”

Members of men’s and women’s lacrosse paid out of pocket through Venmo to get their video made, and the two have even received comments from high school students that their videos were “the sickest ever,” and have influenced their decisions to come to the College over other schools. Parents of athletes have also expressed their support, offering to pay for more videos in the future.

Looking forward, though, Kuo and Feurer are looking to branch out beyond just sports. They recently shot some film at an entrepreneurial summit put on by the Career Center, and are

hoping to get involved with shooting at theater events as well. They are also looking to promote filmmaking more generally at the College.

“Williams doesn’t have a great technical filmmaking program, which is really a shame,” Feurer said. Kuo mentioned that they have reached out to alums who work in the field, and many of them have bemoaned the lack of support for aspiring filmmakers, both in terms of equipment and in terms of

course offerings and faculty expertise. The two currently use their own personal cameras, since the College has no film cameras that meet the industry standard for frames per second.

By creating Williams College Cinematics, Kuo and Feurer hope to expand awareness and interest at the College for all kinds of filmmaking. Eph sports teams may be their biggest clients for now, but the duo are excited to keep stepping up their game.

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