ARTS P. 9 New WCFM program spotlights campus artists
SPORTS P. 12 The Independent Student Newspaper at Williams College Since 1887 VOL. CXXXII, NO. 21
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 2018
Softball extends win streak to five games
Students advocate for Asian American Studies Program at Jamboree By DANNY JIN EXECUTIVE EDITOR On Monday night, students protested the College’s lack of an Asian American Studies Program at Jamboree, a Previews event in Chapin Hall for accepted students to the class of 2022. Eight members of the student movement for Asian American Studies criticized the College’s failure to “prioritize the needs of all its students, specifically students of color,” urging prospective students of marginalized identities to “reconsider if this is the place for you.” Each student organization performing at Jamboree read a statement in support of the Asian American Studies Movement, and SpeakFree, a spoken word group, dedicated its allotted 10 minutes of performance time to allowing members of the movement to address the audience on stage. Tyler Tsay ’19, Kathy Bi ’18, Phuong Vo ’18, Jason Liu ’20, Grace Fan ’19, Amber Lee ’21, Anna Kim ’19 and Audrey Koh ’21 evoked the 27-year history of the student movement for Asian American Studies at the College and lamented the lack of action taken by the institution during that time. “We know you have worked incredibly hard to get to this point,” demonstrators said to the audience. “And because of that, you deserve to know this: Williams College has not earned the right to call itself the best liberal arts education because it still lags far behind our peer institutions who offer Asian American Studies. “If you are a prefrosh of a marginalized identity … know that here at Williams, you will have to fight for your visibility, well-being and access to resources. These institutions were not created for people like us, and we will always have to fight to be a part of them.”
Prospective students said that the majority of reactions to the demonstration were positive, although some were taken aback by its abruptness. “Pretty much everyone loved the solidarity between the students, but a bunch of people – especially the Early Decision kids – didn’t like the part that we should reconsider coming here,” Gigi Gamez ’22 said. “It probably wouldn’t get me to reconsider coming here, but it definitely caught me a little off guard,” Ava Otoadese, a prospective student, said. “On the other hand, it was really cool to see students engaged with the issue.” Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Liz Creighton ’01 said that the Office of Admission, which plans Jamboree, was unaware of planned changes to the program. “A handful of admitted students were curious to learn more about the issues discussed by current students,” Creighton said. “Those conversations have been productive.” Tsay, one of the principal organizers, said that the demonstration was motivated by the administration’s lack of meaningful action in response to a list of student demands delineated in an April 5 email sent to Interim President Tiku Majumder, Provost David Love and Interim Dean of the Faculty Lee Park. The email called for “a written and public commitment by the administration for the confirmation of at least two tenured Asian American professors within the next three years, the confirmation of an additional two/three Asian American professors within the next five years as well as the establishment of a major towards Asian American Studies at the end of this five-year period.” “We want a concrete declaration, a written commitment, a public announcement … something we can hold in our hands as proof that we matter to this school,” Tsay wrote in the email.
SOPHIA SHIN/PHOTO EDITOR
Students read a statement in support of an Asian American Studies Program during Jamboree on Monday while prospective students looked on. “Unless we receive a firm answer from the administration by the time of Previews (April 23 and 24) on these demands, we will act swiftly, drastically and publicly to demonstrate our dedication to this cause.” While administors met with students after Tsay’s email, members of the movement said that they did not receive the commitment they sought. They said that they demonstrated out of a need to ensure that their voices were heard. “We felt that we gave [the] administration adequate warning, and when it did not comply with our request for a written commitment, we needed to take radical action,” Tsay said. “We’re tired of hearing the rhetoric of ‘support’ from [the] administration without concrete evidence that it is going to move forward.” “We wanted to demonstrate at Previews to hold [the] administration accountable,” Vo added. “For many years, Asian Ameri-
can students have been politely asking the administration for this program. However, that polite action has gotten us nowhere.” At the College, student demonstrations have preceded the establishment of programs in Africana Studies and Latina/o Studies. Student activists occupied Hopkins Hall to demand an Africana Studies Program, and the program was created that year. In 1991 and 1993, students conducted hunger strikes in support of a Latina/o Studies department, which began in 2004. The student movement for Asian American Studies has been active for much of the past three decades and has seen a resurgence in recent months. In January, the creation of the I Am Asian American (IAmAsAm) committee, which aims to amplify Asian American students’ voices, stimulated a revival of activism for Asian American Studies. Throughout last week, students
from the movement distributed fliers outlining the movement’s history and current goals, and a photo campaign entitled “Williams Doesn't Teach Me,” led by Fan, was launched on Friday. A petition for an Asian American Studies concentration that began circling in 2016 has collected over 650 signatures from students and allies at other institutions. Movements at several other schools have also recently intensified. According to the College Board, at least 26 colleges and universities in the U.S. offer formal programs in Asian American Studies. This year has also seen the first instance of a staffing request submitted by faculty for an Asian Americanist professor. On March 1, a group of 26 faculty members across 16 departments signed a memorandum with the subject line “Proposal to found an Asian American Studies Program,” addressed to the Committee on
Curricular Planning (CPC) and the Committee on Appointment and Promotion (CAP). The proposal requested that “the College hire one new faculty member who specializes in Asian American Studies to start in 2019-20.” “I hope [what] we have done so far is pushing the student movement one step forward,” Professor and Chair of Asian Studies Li Yu, one of the memorandum’s main writers, said. “At the College, you have to follow certain bureaucratic procedures. To create a new position, it needs to see a staffing request.” “Asian American Studies is an area around which there has been strong student interest over the years, but until more recently, we haven't had a group of faculty who were able to come together to shape a curriculum to bring the program into being,” Park said. “Now we have faculty who SEE PROTEST, PAGE 4
College partners with other schools College releases survey results to construct solar power facility assessing campus culture By CRYSTAL MA STAFF WRITER The College has partnered with Amherst, Bowdoin, Hampshire and Smith to construct a solar power facility in Farmington, Maine that will create 46,000 megawatt hours per year of electricity. By signing this 20-year commitment to financially supporting a solar farm, the College is working to meet the emissions goal set by the Board of Trustees in the fall of 2015. Construction of this solar power plant is projected to end in 2019. The College will be receiving 18,000 megawatt hours of the electricity annually from this project, which will meet around 80 to 90 percent of its electricity needs. The rest will come from the National Grid. According to the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), fossil fuels, specifically natural gas, account for over two thirds of electricity generation in Massachusetts. Renewable resources, including wind and solar power, fuel under one 10th of utility-scale net electricity generation. Electric energy accounts for around 30 percent of the total emissions of the College. This collaborative project targets this sector
of emissions and will hopefully reduce total emissions by 30 percent by 2019. Amy Johns, director of the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives, wrote in the "Director’s Corner" of the Zilkha Center newsletter, “One question I’ve already received multiple times is ‘Why Maine? Why not here?’ and the answer is almost entirely based on the grid infrastructure. We looked hard at local options and options further afield but still in Massachusetts. All renewable electricity projects – large and small – require permission from the electrical utility to connect to the grid, and, for a multitude of reasons, it’s been really hard to get that permission in Massachusetts, which led us to a project in a different regulatory environment.” About a year ago, the College sent in an application for an interconnect agreement, a contract between an entity trying to install solar panels and the local utility that owns and operates electricity infrastructure. In this case, the goal was to try to install solar panels in Hollander Hall, Shapiro Hall, the Bookstore, the Science Center and Horn Hall. However, the College has yet to receive approval for the connection or get a timeline for that ap-
proval. This may be because the National Grid seeks to maintain its position as the primary energy provider rather than invest resources in alternative energy and self-sufficient projects. The National Grid may also be struggling to match the exponential growth witnessed in alternative energy industries. Johns emphasized the importance of reform to the system. “One of the things that we’ve all learned through this process is that, for our society to shift in a major way to renewable sources of electricity, there will need to be significant regulatory reform that provides more oversight of utilities and more incentives for participation in the renewable energy revolution,” she said. This new partnership contributes to an ongoing effort to decentralize energy systems, strengthen local energy ownership and increase the use of renewable energies. A transfer of resources, capital and infrastructure to democratically controlled communities will need to occur in order to work towards a truly sustainable energy system. This collaboration also allows the College, which has previous experience with power purchase agreements, to help its peers navigate the legal and financial complications of such a project.
PHOTO COURTESY OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE.
The College will partner with Amherst, Bowdoin, Hampshire and Smith to expand its use of solar energy.
surrounding sexual assault
By REBECCA TAUBER NEWS EDITOR Last fall, the College’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response department conducted a survey, titled the EPH Community Attitudes on Sexual Assault (EPHCASA) Campus Climate Survey, to assess the experiences and culture regarding sexual assault on campus. Director of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Meg Bossong ’05 explained the purpose of gathering this information. “The reason that we survey is that there are lots of different ways of knowing what’s going on on campus,” she said. “Anonymous surveying about not just prevalence, but about people’s experiences with culture on campus or their attitudes or beliefs about things are important snapshots.” This year’s survey built upon previously collected data. In 2011, the College completed the National College Health Assessment and subsequently decided that it needed to add to that information through its own survey. The College conducted the EPHCASA survey for the first time in 2014-2015 and for the second time this academic year. The College plans to continue running the study every three years, leaving enough time between surveys to evaluate change and keep response rates high. “We right now have very, very high participation rates, unheard of nationally: 62 to 64 percent,” Bossong said. “Most other schools are hovering in the 20 to 35 percent range, so the quality of our data is quite high.” In analyzing the information, Bossong emphasized the
importance of showing the entire picture. “Williams has made a commitment to being really transparent about our data,” she said. “It is what it is. Pretending that it’s not or pretending that it’s better than what it says doesn’t serve us in any way.” The results have shown both positive change and room for improvement. On one hand, the survey points to a healthier campus culture. “You can see that in the general climate measures about the kind of comments people hear, you can see that in people’s beliefs about consent, you can see it in people’s perceptions of their friends’ support of various bystander behaviors,” Bossong explained. “That indicates that we’re making some modest improvements in our campus climate, and that’s really important.” On the other hand, the campus incident rates point to the necessary work still to be done regarding sexual assault. “Obviously, what I would like to see is our incidents dropping to zero, and we don’t see that,” Bossong said. While there has been an increase in students responding that they have not experienced sexual assault, the College still has a prevalence rate of around 12 percent. The average prevalence rate for female students ranges between 20 and 25 percent, putting the College below the national trend. However, Bossong explained that this is still far from ideal. “On one hand, for the people who would be between the 12 and 25 percent, that makes a big difference – between people who might have had this experience but didn’t,” she said. “It doesn’t make any
difference for the people that are in the zero to 12 percent because they still did.” Bossong acknowledged her disappointment in these rates and the challenge of decreasing the percentage. “Obviously, I would like to see that improving dramatically, but at the same time, this is a complex and nuanced social problem, and it’s going to take us more than two and a SEE SURVEY, PAGE 5
WHAT’S INSIDE 3 OPINIONS Students advocate for Asian American Studies Program 4 NEWS Howard Dean to join College faculty 7 FEATURES A psychology professor's look into emotion and action 8 ARTS Alum directs documentary on Andre the Giant 11 SPORTS Peter Clements '08 continues vibrant rowing career USPS 684-6801 | 1ST CLASS MAIL U.S. POSTAGE PAID WILLIAMSTOWN, MA PERMIT NO. 25