ARTS P. 8 Cap and Bells puts on performance of 'Spelling Bee'
SPORTS P. 12 The Independent Student Newspaper at Williams College Since 1887 VOL. CXXXII, NO. 23
WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 2018
Softball wins third consecutive NESCAC championship
Images to open second theater in former Red Herring By REED JENKINS MANAGING EDITOR In a press release last Wednesday, Images Cinema announced the launch of Cinema Pop-up, a second theater that is scheduled to open to the public on Friday with a showing of The 19th Annual Animation Show of Shows. The new cinema, housed adjacent to Images’ current location in the Walden Building, will offer an intimate viewing space with seats for up to 26 people. The expansion will be located in the space previously occupied by The Red Herring, the restaurant and bar that closed this past year, although the entrance to Cinema Pop-up will be the same as that for Images’ main theater. In the press release, Images Board President and Associate Professor of Computer Science at the College Brent Heeringa wrote, “The possibility of adding a second screen has long been a topic of conversation for the organization... When the opportunity to explore the idea in a more meaningful way with a pop-up cinema presented itself, it was too good to pass up.” The second space will allow Images to expand its offerings to the community, giving the theater the ability to simultaneously screen two different works. For example, while Cinema Pop-up will screen The 19th Annual Animation Show of Shows, a collection of 16 animated shorts from around the world, starting on Friday, the main screen at Images will play Tully. The new pop-up theater will also be available as a rental space for special events, birthdays and private screenings.
SOPHIA SHIN/PHOTO EDITOR
Images' second theater, Cinema Pop-up, will be located at the prior location of the Red Herring, directly next to the current Images theater. The two theaters will share one entrance. “We can’t wait to introduce our audience to Cinema Pop-Up,” Executive Director of Images Doug Jones wrote as part of the press release. “The second screen will allow us to show more movies to more people.”
Established in 1916, Images has adapted over the years along with the film industry, and Cinema Pop-up represents the latest initiative by the theater to continue refining its viewing experience for the community. The first
opportunity for the public to visit the new space will be at an open house tomorrow from 5:30 to 7 p.m. “The early response to the idea of Cinema Pop-Up has been great,” Managing Director of Images Janet Curran said.
“Some people were so enthusiastic – they helped us clean and paint the space. This effort, like so much here at Images, would not be possible without the support of our community.” After more than a century of continuous operation,
Images’ latest endeavor will continue to expand the organization’s impact in Williamstown and the broader region while also revitalizing the space of the former Red Herring as a gathering place for the community.
Semiannual approval ratings: Majumder, faculty earn high marks By SAMUEL WOLF NEWS EDITOR Over the past week, the Record conducted its biannual survey measuring student opinion on a number of campus offices and institutions. Students had the option to answer “approve,” “disapprove” or “neutral.”
The survey was distributed to 500 randomly selected students. Of that number, 193 completed the survey, yielding a response rate of 38.6 percent. The 95 percent confidence interval for each approval rating ranged from five percentage points to seven percentage points. At 88 percent, the faculty had the highest approval
rating out of all groups measured. Integrative Wellbeing Services (IWS) had the lowest approval rating at 30 percent. Medical services had the highest disapproval rating at 25 percent. Interim President Protik Majumder had the lowest disapproval rating at 0.5 percent, along with an approval rating
of 66 percent. This is in sharp contrast with the ratings of former President Adam Falk, who in his final survey had both an approval rating and a disapproval rating of 28 percent. The approval rating of Dining Services fell from 75 percent to 63 percent since last semester, a statistically significant difference. Disapproval of
Dining Services rose from 10 percent to 13 percent. Meanwhile, the Record’s disapproval rating fell 11 percentage points from 22 percent to 11 percent, which sits on the border of statistical significance. The entry system’s approval rating did not greatly change, with approval rising from 60 percent to 62 percent and dis-
approval remaining steady at 19 percent. This lack of significant difference is relevant, given the changes announced to the Junior Advisor (JA) and entry systems in recent months. All other differences between these approval ratings and those from the December 2017 survey were not statistically significant.
WHAT’S INSIDE 3 OPINIONS SIPD discusses importance of dialogue on Israel/Palestine 5 NEWS College releases new data from sexual assault survey 7 FEATURES Neil Roberts to release book on Frederick Douglass 8 ARTS Former Poet Laureate Louise Glück visits College SPORTS 11 Women's tennis wins fourth straight NESCAC title
USPS 684-6801 | 1ST CLASS MAIL U.S. POSTAGE PAID WILLIAMSTOWN, MA PERMIT NO. 25
SAMUEL WOLF/NEWS EDITOR
2 OPINIONS
The Williams Record
Editor-in-Chief Rachel Scharf
Arts Editors Faris Gulamali and Kaira Mediratta
Managing Editors Reed Jenkins and Tesnim Zekeria
Sports Editors Cassie Deshong and Charles Xu
Communications Director Taran Dugal Executive Editors Shaheen Currimjee, Nicholas Goldrosen, Brooke Horowitch, Danny Jin, William Newton, Jane Petersen, RB Smith and Li Yu
Photo Editors Katie Brule and Sophia Shin Business Manager Isabella Wang Financial Manager Teo Pollini
News Editors Rebecca Tauber and Samuel Wolf
Financial Analyst Mark Sisco-Tolomeo
Opinions Editor Haeon Yoon
Head of Advertising Esther Baek
Features Editors Lydia Duan and Jeongyoon Han
Subscriptions Manager Chris Fleischer
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE SINCE 1887 WILLIAMSRECORD.COM
THE WILLIAMS RECORD BOARD Dear President-elect Mandel, We at the Record wish you a warm welcome as you begin your tenure as the 18th president of the College. During this period of transition, we are excited to see what you will accomplish. As students invested in bettering this institution, we want to direct your attention to three roles of the College we care deeply about: the College as an educational institution, its accessibility to and accommodation of students and its interaction with members of the greater community. As an educational institution, the College must ensure that it adequately meets students’ academic needs, in the sense of both curricular availability and representation.For 27 years, students have fought for the establishment of an Asian American Studies program. Similar programs exist at our peer institutions. While the development of such a program is complex, we would like to see the College prioritize this goal and maintain close communication with students regarding its advancement. Students deserve to be reassured that their voices are heard and that steps are being taken toward achieving their objectives.
Senior on The Quad
What's the weirdest place you’ve peed on campus?
May 9, 2018
To President-elect Mandel Issues to consider as the College moves forward and considers its priorities Furthermore, the College is expected to see an increase in faculty hiring as a large contingent of faculty members retire in the coming years. New faculty ought to be hired with an eye toward diversity and previous insufficiencies in academic disciplines. For example, a shortage of computer science faculty has resulted in the inability of computer science majors, as well as other students interested in the subject, to take the courses they desire. In 20152016, 7.3 percent of students were computer science majors, while less than three percent of faculty taught computer science. This discrepancy must be addressed. All the while, we must ensure that all students the College accepts can attend and thrive here. Policies adopted after the recession have reduced the College’s financial accessibility for some students. Following the reversion of international student admission from need-blind to needaware, the percentage of international students receiving financial aid has fallen from 80 percent in 2010-2011 to 58 percent this year. The College also revoked its no-loan policy in 2010, forcing some students to face the possibility of graduating with debt. Since the College’s endow-
ment has fully recovered after the recession, we believe that an effort must be made to dedicate resources to improving affordability. Similarly, continued attention is required toward student health and wellbeing. Issues regarding mental health are some of the primary obstacles to academic success at the College, and students currently face difficulties in receiving treatment and accessing their prescribed medication. In addition, the inconvenient location and limited hours of the Health Center make health consultations burdensome. As the leader of this campus, you will have an important role in setting the tone for the College’s broader culture; as such, we believe that conversations on how to redefine, reexamine and reevaluate traditional notions of what a “productive” student looks like play consequential roles in student wellbeing. Finally, we at the College are part of a community that extends beyond students and faculty. Support staff are vital members of the Williams community and deserve to be treated as such. The College must become receptive to the voices of all its employees, and the post-recession restructuring of custodial pay needs
to be revisited. Furthermore, the College does not exist in a “Purple Bubble.” Through increased outreach and engagement, we can cultivate a more robust relationship with the surrounding Berkshire community. For example, students and local organizers have engaged in efforts to have the College’s contractors improve diversity in construction hiring. Women and people of color remain underrepresented in construction both locally and nationally, and the College can help remedy the situation by reconsidering its own contractors’ hiring practices. We hope that you take our suggestions to heart and consider these relevant issues. We cannot stress enough the importance of listening to student voices –– particularly of those who have historically been marginalized –– and addressing their grievances. Only through a collective effort involving all members of the community can the College achieve its full potential as an institution. Nevertheless, we have faith that Williams will thrive under your leadership and blossom into a community that we can all be proud to call our own. Sincerely, The Record Editorial Board
CONVENTIONAL WISDOM
By KATIE BRULE and SOPHIA SHIN PHOTO EDITORS
ANDREW BLONIARZ ’18
The middle of Hoxsey Street (at night).
NORMA RODRIGUEZ ’18
The alleyway near the Spring Street liquor store.
ISABEL ANDRADAE ’18
Bernhard Music Center's second floor all-gender-bathroom (the windows were scratched). EMMA WADDELL ’18
I honestly don't remember because I was probably intoxicated at the time.
LICKETY SPLIT OPENING
Let's be real, Lickety is the only thing keeping us here.
BLUE SHEETS
It's that time of the semester again; will you expose your professors or thank them?
NEW GRAB-AND-GO WRAPPERS HOUSING
Saving the planet is great, but why are they so loud? Looking forward to making new friends in my double.
ON THE RECORD “I think one of the big issues facing student activism is the lack of institutional memory. Especially with Asian American Studies, this fact comes into a very bleak light… This push is particularly important because it rests on the haunches of this last remembered push. ” Suiyi Tang ’20 on the movement for Asian American Studies, page 4. “There are actions that we can take as a community to continue making the dining staff’s job easier
and to not take their work for granted.” Elisabeth Lualdi ’21 in her oped on compost facilities in dining halls, page 3. “It turned out a lot of male students, even though we work side-by-side with them every day, were not familiar with those sorts of experiences.” Weitao Zhu ’18, officer of Association for Women in Mathematics during a panel on gender minorities in STEM, page 6. “For all the arguments on whether artists’
private lives and personal opinions should influence our consumption of their art, Kanye’s standing in that debate was always clear. He was his art, and his art was him. There was no distinction, and there was never meant to be.” Mandela Namaste ’19 on Kanye West, page 9. “There were no outs. I knew we had a slew of great hitters coming up behind me, and once that sunk in, the pressure just fell off.” Tri- captain Lexi Curt ’18 on hitting the 36th home run of her Williams career, page 12.
The opinions expressed in signed columns are not necessarily those of the Williams Record editorial board.
Op-Ed and Letter Submission The Record welcomes op-eds and letters from all members of the College community. The Opinions section is designed to reflect the varied views and ideas of the College community, and the publication of any letter or op-ed does not indicate an endorsement of the views contained therein. Submissions should be sent to hy3@williams. edu by Sunday at 5 p.m. for inclusion in the next Wednesday issue. Op-eds range in length from 650-800 words, and letters are 500 words or fewer. The Record will not publish pieces that have appeared in other publications. Pieces submitted to the Record are not guaranteed a spot in the upcoming issue. For Record policy information, please see our website, williamsrecord.com.
JESSICA CHEN ’18.5
OPINIONS 3
The Williams Record
May 9, 2018
Cleaning up after ourselves
On Israeli-Palestinian discourse
Respecting the hard work of Dining Services
From the logistical committee of SIPD
By ELISABETH LUALDI It is all too easy to forget about the mechanics underlying our dining halls and composting set-up, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t critical to remember them. The Dining Services staff work constantly and tirelessly to prepare, serve and provide for more than 2000 students at the College. Not only do they have to cook and clean day in day out, but they also accommodate a vast range of dietary restrictions and try as best as they can to be sustainable. Awareness about the hidden, intangible work that visibly presents itself to us every day in the form of clean plates and fresh meals is difficult to internalize when we aren’t always witnessing the work behind the scenes. However, familiarizing ourselves with the circumstances that occur in the kitchens and the dish room and understanding how small choices make big differences are important in many ways. There are actions that we can take as a community to continue making the dining staff’s job easier and to not take their work for granted. In the meantime, we can also clear up some misperceptions that pertain to our composting system, which ultimately can make our campus even more renewable and environmentally friendly. When I started working as a dishwasher at Mission Dining Hall, I was astounded by the never-ending work that needs to be done. Some staff members have shifts from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m., always on their feet and, unfortunately, always expecting a bigger mess than there needs to be. We are adults, and yet we somehow neglect to notice the clearly labeled trash and compost bins. Plates of uneaten food and napkins would appear on the (now broken) conveyer belt in the dish room at Mission. One morning, when I was cleaning out the upstairs bins for dining hall returns, I fished out an empty pack of cigarettes amidst the mess of congealed food. Trash cans are a mere 10 steps away, but again, it appears that forgetfulness takes over. We forget that people are cleaning up after us. I’ll admit that I was a perpetrator of this mentality; I lacked consider-
ation or awareness of the people behind the conveyor belt that magically whisks our plates away. The miniscule amount of time and energy we save when leaving a mess only adds more time and energy to someone else’s already busy plate. I think we all could bear a smidgen more responsibility and exponentially make a huge difference. We are adults, after all, even if we are all guilty of chowing on chicken fingers and tater tots sometimes. As a dishwasher, I’ve also learned about the unspoken, concealed tradeoffs that must occur when efficiency and time must be maximized. Our campus prides itself on having compost facilities at every dining hall. However, what students don’t know and what is not explicitly revealed is that this “compost” is normally deemed trash regardless; it is almost always contaminated with non-compostable items like plastic wrappers and utensils. One time while working, I even witnessed someone put their ice bag, covered in tape, right into the “compost only” bin. I tried to speak to him about it, a little intimidated as a first-year (in my purple Williams Dining hat and one-size-fitsall apron), but he just shrugged his shoulders. After he left, I returned to the compost bin, trying (and failing) to remove the ice bag. I resigned myself to the fact that the company that picks up the compost from the College would refuse to take it. That one ice bag had turned compost into trash. The student made a deliberate choice with an easy fix but an irrevocable and harmful consequence. I hope cognizance of this issue will help Williams become a more appreciative and environmentally aware community. We are vibrant and dedicated, but we should intend to do our part alongside the many contributors to our campus, including the perpetually working and accommodating dining staff. Little actions will go a long way, whether that’s composting what is meant to be composted or clearing a plate completely, and forgetfulness can be forgotten.
versations around Israel and Palestine, so they simply don’t. They see some As Williams students, an influx of students stand up with certainty and – new information and ideas hits us daily. worried about their own confusion, disHowever, there are few places (and even sonance or lack of education – leave the less time) to take a step back and pro- talking to others. Doubt and uncertainty cess everything we learn, considering are natural, especially in Israeli-Palestinour positionality and the perspectives of ian dialogue, where various histories and others. In that sense, campus is missing narratives seem impossible to reconcile. a space to patiently engage in hard con- But the best path to engaging those who versations – to openly think through, might steer clear of discussions of Israel/ ask about and work through issues im- Palestine is to acknowledge the ineviportant to us and the world. We real- table mistakes, confusion and questions ized that this issue is exemplified with that will arise in conversation. We’d like the Israeli-Palestinian to represent as many conflict and occupavoices and facilitate as tion. Williams needs a perspectives as SIPD is about finding many space for students to possible in order to let learn and share their members of the Wilcommon ground thoughts about Israel liams community learn among people who and Palestine and conmore and develop their verse with compassion. disagree...We are about own opinions. These We planned to launch issues have been at the inclusion and respect. root of vigorous dethis space – Students for Israeli-Palestinian bate for decades, so we Dialogue (SIPD) – this know we aren’t going upcoming fall. However, with the wall to develop a solution tomorrow. Instead, erected last week, we realized there was let’s recognize that just as important as a unique potential to begin furthering finding the answers is asking the quesconversations. With the momentum of tions that develop relationships – relawall-related programming, we hope to tionships that can foster empathy, unextend conversations beyond the wall derstanding and conversations to build itself, creating a variety of entry points community across divides and work with an emphasis on welcoming those towards a world where answers seem a of all backgrounds and perspectives to little more within reach. contribute to the conversation. We realize there are many nuances SIPD is not an advocacy group. We are to the conflict/occupation and that it is neither Anti-Palestine nor Anti-Israel. impossible to have a conversation withInstead, our goal is to foster a welcom- out bias. With that in mind, our goal is ing community space where different to be as open and understanding as posopinions can be shared on the basis of sible about these biases and how they patience and compassion, but also logic impact understanding, bringing in as and truth. SIPD is about finding common much empathy as possible. A challenge ground among people who disagree. We we are facing as a group is learning how aren’t about destruction and erasure; we to create this space, particularly because are about inclusion and respect. we are a team composed of individuals Many students feel as though they coming from different viewpoints and don’t know enough to engage in con- understandings. Along with important
By HANNAH
GOLDSTEIN
attention devoted to recognizing our own positionality when creating this space, it is also important to us that those participating in this conversation consider their own positionalities and biases with the intention to respect other opinions. We believe it is possible to disagree compassionately and respect those who may have differing – and very valid – opinions. Our work is just beginning; to increase membership and awareness, we’ve dropped a banner in Baxter Hall and hosted an initial organizational meeting. While we support all forms of dialogue, we want to clarify that the petition published in the Record last week is independent of SIPD. Looking to the future, we plan to invite scholars and advocates of all backgrounds to engage in panels and debates and spur conversation beyond our group. Additionally, we are hoping to bring in expert facilitators and learn from established organizations about what it means to host this kind of dialogue in the most productive way. We write to welcome any and all to come to future meetings – not just to contribute to conversations, but also to help to guide the structure and format of discussions and our group. We only ask that those participating in conversation respect not only where people are coming from and what they say, but also who they are as individuals. As we prepare to become a registered student organization, we’re beginning to work with our club advisors, Assistant Director of the Davis Center Bilal Ansari and Jewish Chaplain Rabbi Seth Wax. We’re all working to promote more information, education and empathy. For those who would like to join the conversation, please visit bit.ly/SIPDbanner. Hannah Goldstein ’20 is an environmental studies major from Brookline, Mass.
Elisabeth Lualdi ’21 is from Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Her major is currently undecided.
The price of inclusion A case for exclusivity
By NEVIN BERNET
regardless of the existence of exclusive organizations. Moreover, we should not Exclusive. The word often evokes cater to the temporarily wounded pride powerful emotions. It makes people of those would-be rejects that would so feel better than others. It makes minimally suffer. Furthermore, the benpeople resentful of others. It is a con- efit to be gained, in my opinion, greatly cept that has incited riot, revolution, outweighs these small deficits. People progress and stagnation. Moreover, prize their club memberships, they work exclusivity is a practice that has tran- hard for the missions of their respecscended time and culture, and its tive organizations and, while reputation prevalence today, on this very cam- should not necessarily be a motivating pus, is undeniably relevant to the lives factor, the names of Williams publicaof each and every one of us. tions, societies and activist groups come Williams, through its competitive to be given the respect owed to those oradmissions process and coveted inter- ganizations composed of such meritorinational collegiate standing, derives ous individuals. its prestige from a historical practice The bottom line is that people take of merit-based exclusion. I would ar- for granted those things they do not gue that the College’s aforementioned work for, and no one has to work for selectiveness facilitates a community an organization membership that of intelligent, talented and intellectual is given away for free. Conversely, members and that, in its absence, this there are few exclusive organizations institution would be far less of an edu- on this campus other than sports cational leader and corporate power- teams and performance groups house. That being said, there seems to for the student population to benbe a prevailing distaste efit from. There are a for exclusivity among number of factors at those who make up play here. First and Exclusivity fosters the College commuforemost, Williams effort, intrigue and has a rather dubious nity. This aversion takes on many forms, relationship with exintellectual ardor one of which is univerclusive, student-run sally inclusive student organizations that at the expense of organizations. Now, dates back to the dethe personal ego. while the benefit of plorable racism and such a trend is easily elitism of pre-1970 and readily admired fraternities. Addiby its supporters, there seems to me a tionally, modern funding convendownside that is more difficult to rec- tions encourage, with good reason, ognize and, possibly more important- the allotment of larger sums to orgaly, more controversial to discuss. nizations with more members. While Exclusivity fosters effort, intrigue these circumstances are certainly and intellectual ardor at the expense of founded on good reason and intenthe personal ego. At its very core, it is a tion, their effects could be detrimenmedium for competition, a quality that, tal to the good of the community. admittedly, the College as an institution I watched an NBC production this tends to shy away from. But competition past weekend and was blown away. catalyzes progress! In an effort to win, The group was well organized, talentthe individual is driven to be their best ed and passionate in its craft. Part of self, and at Williams, where the com- me believes that its success is solely a munity is, on the whole, honorable and result of strong leadership and compersonally motivated, the negative side mitted members, but would either of effects often cited as an unacceptable those warrant the same praise if the downside (sabotage of the competition group were made up of anything but or inflated ego, for instance) would be the best candidates? Would your dinegligible. Lamentably, this leaves us ploma from Williams College mean with the unpleasant situation where nearly as much if you had not striven some are not accepted: people who, de- for acceptance? The cost of inclusivity spite their best efforts, are not welcomed is often apathy, and that is a steep fine into their preferred organization. While to nurture the pride of so few. this situation is unfortunately inescapable, failure is a natural part of learnNevin Bernet ’20 is a computer sciing and life, and it will rear its ugly head ence major from Topanga, Calif.
DARIN LI ’21
Why majors should be abolished Embracing the fullness of our liberal arts mission y
R
R
R
Recently, members of the class of 2020, paperwork in tow, bounced among the offices of professors and departmental assistants before making a trip up the stairs of Hopkins Hall to the Office of the Registrar. There, they performed an annual academic ritual: major declaration. These students came out of this tradition with an “I’m declared” pin and perhaps a t-shirt or piece of chocolate. They should not have had to go through this process, and neither should any future class at the College. Williams is, first and foremost, a liberal arts college. Greeting prospective students as they arrive in Weston Hall, as well as current Ephs as they make their way into Sawyer, is a celebrated quote from our eminent former president Jack Sawyer ’39: “Civilization will not perish from lack of specialized knowledge or specialized institutions. Its greatest need may rather be the development of … larger understanding and of the qualities and judgment to assume its complex burdens. For this purpose, the first-class liberal arts college ... remains a notable and most promising institution.” We hold ourselves to a high standard – and a necessary one. The aim of a Williams education is not to endow our students with arrows that may fill a quiver for one battle, but with the capacities and competencies that shall allow them to thrive in any challenge that comes their way. It is our mandate and has become our ethos. Moreover, we back up these romantic aspirations with hard data. Based on the example of those who inhabited the Purple Valley before us, we are supposed to know that we can major in anything and, subsequently, do anything. The major/ career path visualization produced by former Professor of Mathematics Satyan Devadoss, Hayley Brooks ’12 and Kaison Tanabe ’13 has become a permanent fixture in Office of Admission literature, and some departments have taken on similar initiatives in recent years to
demonstrate to their students how one’s intended academic area need not dictate a particular career trajectory. The College prioritizes allowing its students to do what they want, both in the classroom and in the workplace, but believes that the latter is only possible if the former endows students with Sawyer’s “larger understanding” that makes them qualified for an expansive range of careers. Accordingly, the College does – and should – use general requirements (such as writing-intensive or difference, power and equity) to ensure that students are developing a more complete set of foundational skills than they would if we had an open curriculum. It does not, by any means, compose the “larger understanding” in its entirety, but it nevertheless provides students with tools and experiences that help them achieve it. Sawyer’s ambitions, though, feel inconsistent with requiring that all students at the College have a major. The legendary president asserted that the College should not prioritize the acquisition of “specialized knowledge” by its students, yet we order all Ephs to take (at least) nine courses in specific departments and impose additional instructions on the features of those courses: major requirements. Granted, some major requirements do help promote Sawyer’s larger understanding – having to write a 30-page research paper or take on an extended coding project do promote the ability of students to engage in long-term, in-depth work – but the College maintains no clear interest in, for example, all English majors taking three “literary histories.” Promoting specialized knowledge and making students dedicate roughly a third of their curriculum (at a minimum) to a specialty feel like contradictory practices for the institution. Nevertheless, there remains a practical case for majors. At many institutions, one’s major ends up functioning as a chief marketable skill. Yet we have committed to, and produced data buttress-
ing, the idea that a Williams education is in and of itself a strong enough asset for general success on the job market. In other words, there should be no need to worry about what your Williams degree says beyond, well, Williams College (and there is great privilege in that). Surely, students interested in a career at Google would find some computer science classes useful, but I do not believe that the extent to which post-Williams concerns demand that all students at the College must have a specialty (and the requirements that come with it) is strong enough to justify the requisite surrender of autonomy. What I propose, then, is removing major requirements and adding to the existing constellation of general requirements. In this way, some of the valuable components of the major system can be retained while doing away with the ones that contradict the ethos of a liberal arts education as valorized by Sawyer. Perhaps we declare that each student has to take one or two “research” courses, wherein all Ephs develop the capacity to engage in larger, longer-term projects. Maybe we can add in a seminar requirement that helps students become more effective discussion participants. In any event, we would need to think about what we want all Williams degrees to say and, having established that, proceed to get out of the way of student curriculum choices. I feel, on some level, fairly hypocritical in offering this argument; I had not one but two majors at the College, and my intended career is directly tied to one of them. Yet the plan I advance does not dismiss the value of any student striving for depth in a liberal arts education, if that is how they feel they can maximize their time at the College. It simply seeks to offer students more autonomy in how they go about such decisions – all the while keeping Williams tethered to its liberal arts ideals. Jack Brent Greenberg ’18 is a political science and history double major from West Haven, Conn.
May 9, 2018
NEWS 4
The Williams Record
Examining the history of the Asian American Studies movement By RB SMITH EXECUTIVE EDITOR The recent push for an Asian American Studies program at the College has been the latest incarnation of a student movement spanning at least 27 years. Asian American Studies as a concept has been present on campus as far back as the 1990s and early 2000s, and student activism calling for an Asian American Studies program has seen a variet of manifestions over the past three decades. In 2002, Suainia Maira, professor of Asian American Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, came to the College to speak as part of Asian American Awareness Month. Although this event denoted a clear recognition of and appreciation for Asian American Studies as an academic field, it ultimately did little to establish an official program. Instead, what followed was a series of short-lived campaigns with relatively small bases of support. “In the past … it was difficult to grow a bigger movement,” Professor of American Studies and Faculty Affiliate in English Dorothy Wang said. “These students were very passionate, but they had trouble getting a larger group of students interested.” Wang’s own hiring was the result of student activism, and in her 12 years as a professor at the College, she has seen at least three major organized movements.
Even outside of major organized movements, support for Asian American Studies at the College has been a constant presence. “It gets a little blurry in what is called a ‘movement’ and what is called a group of students trying to fight for Asian American Studies,” Wang said. “There certainly have been students over the years trying to fight for Asian American Studies, but only a
an Asian American Studies concentration, complete with a Facebook group and a website. College Council voted 18-0, with two abstentions, in support of this movement, but student support was still divided. An editorial from the Record board argued against the creation of the concentration, claiming that limited financial resources should be allocated toward hiring new faculty in other fields (“Working within our means: Evaluating the College's curricular priorities,” Feb. 29, 2012). Largely due to lack of student, faculty and administrative support, this campaign ultimately failed. In 201314, an Asian American Studies cluster was implemented in the course catalog, bringing together classes in American Studies, history and other departments pertaining to the field, but the move was purely symbolic; it did not result in new hiring or curricular organization, and the cluster was eventually removed in 20162017 when these courses stopped being offered. With the start-and-stop nature of previous student-led initiatives in mind, the most recent push has placed a special focus on institutional memory and keeping records of discussions and promises to prevent stagnation. Suiyi Tang ’20, was instrumental in compiling an archive of records, including photos, articles and administrative documents, recounting the history of the
INSIDE SCOOP: LICKETY SPLIT WILL REOPEN IN A NEW LOCATION TOMORROW AFTER BEING CLOSED FOR SEVEN MONTHS.
“One of the big issues facing student activisim is the lack of institutional memory... This push is particularly important because it rests on the haunches of this last remembered push.” Suiyi Tang Former student
few got more organized.” She emphasized that the major obstacles to forming a program were, and continue to be, misperceptions of Asian Americans and ignorance about Asian American history on the part of the campus community, including the administration, rather than a lack of efficacy on the part of organizing students. One of the most recent movements came in 2012, when students organized a poster campaign and introduced a petition calling for
REBECCA TAUBER/NEWS EDITOR
movement. “One of the big issues facing student activism is the lack of institutional memory,” she said. “Especially with Asian American Studies, this fact comes into a very bleak light… This push is particularly important because it rests on the haunches of this last remembered push.” The movement’s current organizers have taken this lesson to heart and are using the long history of protests for Asian American Studies to highlight the urgent need for tangible and immediate action. “This time, we are holding the administration accountable to [its] many cycles of delay tactics over the course of the past 27 years,”
Tyler Tsay ’19 wrote on behalf of the movement as a whole. “We will be releasing an online archive of all documents and materials from the past 27 years, which show that the administration has been using the same rhetoric to deny or ignore [Asian American Studies].” Existing programs in ethnic studies at the College came about through similar conflicts between students and the administration. Both Africana Studies and Latina/o Studies were the results of widespread and persistent student protests in the 1960s and 1990s, respectively. The ultimate direction of Asian American Studies at
the College will depend on decisions made regarding the hiring of new faculty. “The students are a huge catalyst,” Wang said. “They’re a huge force and a huge factor, but in the end, it’s going to come down to whether the administration wants to devote the money to hiring trained Asian Americanists.” Beyond just hiring professors of Asian American origin, the success of the movement rests on the administration’s willingness to hire new faculty who specialize in the academic field of Asian American Studies. By bringing attention to the movement’s long and laborious history, the current organizers hope to do just that.
Spring Street Bluest: a semester review By REBECCA TAUBER NEWS EDITOR
7:55 p.m. A student came into the Campus Safety and Security (CSS) office to report that his wallet was stolen from his room while he was asleep. The door was not locked at the time. A stolen article report was filled out and faxed to the Williamstown Police Department (WPD). 10:53 p.m. Currier Hall: The annunciator panel indicated an activated smoke detector. Officers smelled burnt marijuana and observed a very thick haze of smoke in the room. Inside the room, ashes were found on a plate on the desk, inside the open desk drawer and in the trashcan. After venting the room, officers reset the fire alarm. Photo evidence was taken. Tuesday 5-1-18 7:10 p.m. Schapiro Hall: An officer responded to a report of an injured student. The student fell off their bike while coasting and standing on the pedals. The student had some scrapes and reported hitting their head. The officer transported them to the emergency room at Berkshire Medical Center North. Wednesday 5-2-18 11:42 p.m. Morgan Hall: Officers responded to a noise complaint. They informed the resident, who was having a loud conversation on the phone. Thursday 5-3-18 10:12 a.m. East College: Safety and Environmental Compliance staff called CSS about an odor of marijuana. Officers determined that the smoking was coming from a particular room. The resident of this room did not answer.
8:34 p.m. Mission Park: Officers responded to a report of a squirrel trying to get into the dorm. They found a young baby squirrel in the area (without an ID for entry). Using a utility net, an officer captured the squirrel and released it a few hundred feet from the entrance. Dispatch received a call from a student about a half hour later reporting that the squirrel was back. The squirrel was captured in the utility net and released behind Cole Field House. Friday 5-4-18 1:26 a.m. Mission Park: Officers responded to a medical emergency. A student reported a sudden nose bleed. Upon the officer’s arrival, the nose had stopped bleeding. The student explained that in the middle of cooking dinner, their nose had started bleeding out of nowhere. They did not want to go to the emergency room. 9:13 p.m. A brief power dip was experienced on campus due to a severe thunderstorm that came through the area. Both the oncampus electrical tradesmen and mechanical tradesmen were notified of the brief power dip and the need to check critical systems. The Office of Information Technology was notified of the Jesup trouble alarms that had been received after the power dip. Saturday 5-5-18 12:59 p.m. Prospect House: Officers responded to a report of a “beer party.” Officers found a group of six students
and alums. They were of age to drink. They were asked to take the party inside. The group departed the area. 2:50 p.m. Gladden House: Officers responded to two separate calls reporting a woman yelling. Officers found a room with two students arguing. 5:25 p.m. An officer was flagged down by a parent of a high school track and field participant and was advised that there were students inside the construction site at the Water Street dirt lot. The parent noticed a “frat party” on Meadow Street and several students climbing the fence to sit on the construction equipment. Officers found a party on Meadow Street but did not see anyone inside the construction site at this time.
The Record has compiled information from this semester’s Spring Street Blues articles, providing a closer look at the calls that Campus Safety and Security (CSS) received. Each week, Director of CSS David Boyer sends the date, time and description of every incident involving CSS to the Record. Information was
with eight calls, while Dodd House, Garfield House and Williams Hall tied for third with seven calls each. Of the types of calls throughout the semester, CSS responded most frequently to medical emergencies and injuries, with a total of 36. Of these, 22 students were transported to Berkshire Medical Center. The second most common type of incident involved loud noise and partying.
Types CSS calls Type ofofincident
40
35
30
25
Number of calls
7:34 p.m. Currier Hall: Several students dancing in the ballroom had opened the door, activating the alarm. The door was closed, and the alarm was reset.
Officers announced themselves and entered the room. In open view on top of the desk, there was an ash tray full of cigarette butts, a mason jar with marijuana residue in it and a marijuana grinder with residue in it. On the desk chair was a black tray with marijuana residue on it. Evidence was documented and the contraband confiscated.
20
11:21 p.m. Sage Hall: Officers were dispatched for a general noise complaint. The officer could hear loud music and people yelling from multiple areas of Sage. Most fled the building when they saw the officers. The officers heard multiple students saying that this was a “generations party.”
15
10
5
0 Alcohol related
Drug related
Noise/party Alarm related related
Breakage related
Medical related
Automobile related
Guest related
Wellbeing related
Other
Type of call
CSS calls per location Number ofNumber CSSofcalls per location
11:34 p.m. Hoxsey Street: Officers responded to a noise complaint. An officer noticed eight students on a balcony. Officers spoke with the students on the balcony and advised them of the noise complaint.
100
80
Sunday 5-6-18 12:30 a.m. Jesup Hall: Officers responded to an intrusion alarm. They found that a student had walked through the high-security and armed area to get to the bathroom. 1:13 p.m. Williams College Museum of Art: An officer responded to a report of a sinkhole. The officers found a hole in the tar on the backside of Fayerweather Hall. An officer placed a cone over the hole, and a work order was placed to repair the hole.
Number of calls
Monday 4-30-18
gathered from Jan. 29 to Feb. 25 and March 5 to May 6. The compilation found that Friday and Saturday are the days of the week with the most incidents involving CSS. Of locations on campus, CSS responded most frequently to events in dorm buildings. Among the residence halls, Sage Hall received the most calls, with nine incidents throughout the semester. Morgan Hall had the second most,
60
40
20
0 Dorm buildings
Academic buildings
Athletic facilities
Paresky
Location
Elsewhere in Williamstown
Other campus sites
REBECCA TAUBER/NEWS EDITOR
May 9, 2018
NEWS 5
The Williams Record
College releases second round of sexual assault survey data By REBECCA TAUBER NEWS EDITOR Two weeks ago, the Record published the first set of data from the Eph Community Attitudes on Sexual Assault (EPHCASA) Campus Climate Survey, conducted by the Department of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response. Last week, the department released the next set of data collected from the survey results. The survey was conducted last fall, three years after the first survey was conducted in the 20142015 academic year. Analyzing the data, Director of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Meg Bossong ’05 explained that the responses constituted an accurate sample of the College community. “By class year, gender identity and race, [the data] was representative,” she said. “Sexual orientation is tough because we don’t really collect that in any other place, so it’s hard to tell, but it appears to be representative. For the measures that we can see demographically, we have a good cross-section of the campus. There are not obvious over- or under-response biases that we see.” While the first group of data examined incidence rates and campus culture, the second set of data sheds light on relationships between victims and perpetrators, informal and formal reporting rates and sources that students reach out to. Bossong emphasized the extent to which the data shows that students often know their offenders. “A lot of people are falling into the current or former partner, former friend, friend group,” she said. “That’s a trend that holds all the way through.” However, these trends did vary based on the type of incident. Unwanted touching, for example, was more likely to be perpetrated by strangers. “So much of it is happening in campus event spaces, which
allows for a little bit more re- will be one of the focuses of Student representatives lational distance between peo- the Sexual Assault Preven- come from the JA system, the ple,” Bossong explained. At- tion and Awareness Working neighborhood system, College tempted or completed assault, Group (SAPA). SAPA is made Council, MASC [Masculinity, however, was far more likely up of students and staff, in- Accountability, Sexual assault, to be perpetrated by close rela- cluding Bossong and mem- Consent], RASAN [Rape and tions or acquaintances. bers from the Davis Center Sexual Assault Network], SAAC Bossong also emphasized the and Health Center. [Student Athletic Advisory data on levels of reporting. Attempted or completed assault saw a slight increase in telling and reporting from three years ago, which Bossong attributed to conversations surrounding the topic. “This doesn’t surprise No prior me because I think we talk so relationship, I much about this particular kind didn't know them, of violence that it’s a little more 8.9% de-stigmatized,” she said. “PeoOther, 1.6% ple are a little more accustomed to talking about it.” Beyond simply looking at whether or not students told or reported their experiences, the survey also examined which types of people students were most likely to confide in. This Acquaintance, data was consistent throughout peer, or colleague, the different types of incidents. 34.6% “Friend, classmate or peer is always the number-one answer,” Bossong said. “Family member and JAs [Junior Advisors] flipflop back and forth for second and third. People at the Health Center are the largest non-peer receivers of disclosures.” N=191 This data on who students tell their stories to will help determine how to use the survey data to create change on campus. “I think one of the big concerns is that people’s peers are carrying an incredible amount of secondary trauma from these experiences, an incredible amount of front-line support, worry and care,” Bossong explained. “I think there’s a way that we can think about how to better support people’s friends in making that next-step resource connection, so that people can feel some freedom around their friendships being able to just be friendships and not necessarily their primary support functions.” For Bossong, students will play a key role in making this change. She hopes this issue
Committee] and the student body at large. In the past, SAPA has worked on survey design and policy research change. Bossong views the group as a crucial link between research and students. “All of the groups that would poten-
tially be doing programs are in a room together and able be more collaborative and intersectional rather than duplicating efforts over and over,” she said. “Things don’t work around here if they’re not collaborative and grounded in everyday lived experiences.”
Attempted or completed assault Attempted orPriorCompleted Assault relationship Current dating or sexual partner, 13.1%
Former dating or sexual partner, 20.4%
Friend, 21.5%
Telling and Reporting
GRAPHICS COURTESY OF MEG BOSSONG.
Bread and Roses hosts panel to support labor unions Changes to room draw process cause frustration By DANNY JIN EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Local workers and labor organizers discussed issues surrounding organized labor at a panel last Wednesday in Griffin 6. Three nurses from Berkshire Medical Center (BMC), one Wild Oats employee and one staff organizer from United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) spoke on the panel, hosted by the club Bread and Roses and moderated by Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies Andrew Cornell. Formed earlier this semester, Bread and Roses is a student group seeking to expand student involvement with issues of organized labor in the local community. Through consultation with workers and organizers from UFCW, the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) and the New England Regional Council of Carpenters (NERCC), Bread and Roses has explored the ways in which students can support workers’ organizing efforts. “We formed Bread and Roses to have a student group that is committed to social justice and also to building connections and solidarity between students and local unions,” Alexandra Griffin, ’18.5, one of the group’s founders, said.
Last week’s panel was part of an effort to inform students of present labor issues and facilitate discussion about what kinds of support students can offer. Griffin said that it was planned in part as a celebration of May Day – International Worker's Day. “We wanted to create a space for students and faculty to learn more about organized labor directly from union members and organizers,” Ashwin Dasgupta ’20, another of Bread and Roses’ co-founders, said. “Our biggest goal was to learn more about how students and faculty could best support the efforts of workers in our community.” At the panel, workers shared their experiences in unions, described recent labor campaigns and negotiations and discussed how community members could support workers’ efforts. “Union activity has never been more important,” BMC nurse Mark Brodeur said. “Elevating the profession of nursing through union activity, as a collective unit, is crucial to countering the power that large hospital conglomerates and insurance companies have amassed. As union members, we are afforded rights and protection to fight for what we believe in. “It is great knowing that more and more young people are get-
ting involved in their future, whether it is through unionized activities or social movements for positive change. Unity in any effort to create positive change is essential… You are our future.” Bread and Roses previously supported nurses at BMC in their campaign for safer staffing and better healthcare plans by circulating a petition. Negotiations between BMC and the 800 union nurses have been contentious since the expiration of the MNA’s contract with BMC in September 2016. Nurses held a strike last fall and planned another this spring. However, the spring strike was canceled after negotiations progressed (“Berkshire Medical Center nurses cancel strike after progress in talks with hospital,” Feb. 28, 2017). A recent increase in patient volume has led to concerns over unsafe patient care. Between Oct. 1, 2015 and Oct. 18, 2017, nurses filed 462 unsafe staffing reports, which nurses use to record conditions they judge to be “inconsistent with safe patient care,” according to the MNA. Nurses have also expressed discontent with BMC’s provision of healthcare. The MNA said that BMC has proposed doubling nurses’ monthly healthcare premiums. UFCW represents the unionized workers at North Adams’
ON MONDAY, NO LOST GENERATION PUT UP SIGNS ON PARESKY LAWN WITH INFORMATION ON THE REFUGEE CRISIS.
SHAHEEN CURRIMJEE/EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Stop and Shop and Williamstown’s Wild Oats Market. The union is currently seeking to help Massachusetts co-op workers to unionize, and it collaborated with 40 workers at Wild Oats Market Co-Op to ratify their first union contract on Jan. 4. On Feb. 1, Griffin collaborated with Feminist Collective and Converging Worlds to organize a Claiming Williams Day panel on equitable construction hiring. Titled “Breaking Barriers for Women and POC [People of Color] in the White, Male World of Construction,” the panel addressed NERCC’s campaign for women and people of color to achieve greater representation in construction (“Students explore equity in construction at the College,” Feb. 14, 2018). NERCC has been making appeals to many institutions, including the College, to get contractors to combat underrepresentation in construction. Executive Director of Design and Construction Rita CoppolaWallace, Associate Vice President for Finance Matt Sheehy and Vice President for Finance and Administration and Treasurer Fred Puddester have said they will take students’ and NERCC’s concerns into account when considering how the College can achieve greater diversity in its construction hiring. Dasgupta and Griffin both expressed a desire for Bread and Roses to continue its attempts to promote education and discussion of labor justice issues on campus. “We would like to continue to establish and grow links between students and labor groups in our area,” Dasgupta said. “Trying our best to spread what we learn as an organization to the broader campus through events, campaigns, posters or otherwise will be a good start.” “Our group is interested in speaking to this particular moment where anti-union sentiments are being challenged,” co-founder Wylie Thornquist ’20 added. “People are beginning to understand that labor organizing is not a thing of the past or something that is separate from this campus and region.”
By RACHEL SCHARF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF From Saturday through Monday, the Office of Student Life (OSL) held its annual general room draw for upperclass students. The lottery underwent several changes this year, including a move to the new, fully online Williams Housing Portal, the removal of Garfield House from the lottery for planned renovation and a new provision allowing students to pick into one half of a double room before all singles had been filled. The online system itself worked smoothly, despite the release of pick numbers being delayed a day. Director of Student Life Douglas Schiazza was pleased with its functioning. “For 977 participants, we only had about 30 calls total, and most of those were simple questions, not due to problems with the system,” he said. “Overall, I do consider it a relatively successful first-time use of the system for the general room draw and housing lottery at this point, realizing we continue to learn a lot as we use the system and get feedback from students.” Despite the platform’s success, however, many students have expressed discontent with the outcome of the room draw, largely due to the change allowing students to pick into half of a double early in the process. In past years, students could not pick into doubles alone until all singles on campus had been filled. Specifically, some students were frustrated with the way in which some students appear to have manipulated the system by way of the gender cap to ensure that doubles picked into early on would remain solo rooms. In some houses, such as Agard House and East College, many groups of doubles were selected early on in the process by large single-gender groups. The house would then hit the gender cap, ensuring that only students
of a different gender could pick into it. Because consent is required from the first occupant for a person of another gender to pick into the second half of a double, some of the earlier occupants denied consent, thus keeping large doubles for themselves as singles. Schiazza explained that he had feared this would occur if OSL allowed students to pick into half of doubles but made the change anyway due to increased pressure from students. “For the 15 years that I've been at Williams, rising seniors and juniors have expressed frustration to me about not having the option to take half of a double to keep their pick groups together, and then seeing rising sophomores with less seniority have that option later in the lottery after all the singles have been taken,” he said. “I've explained each time that my understanding of the reason for the rule was that rising seniors and juniors in the past would take a halfdouble, then put pressure on other students who would select or try to select the other half of the room later in the lottery not to take the room or to move afterward. The last few years, students have expressed to me that they thought today's students wouldn't do something like that and urged that we give it a try. So, we tried it this year - and I'd really hoped to be proven wrong in this experiment. Sadly, I'm disappointed to have instead been proven correct.” As a result of discontent among both students and OSL over what occurred with these double rooms, OSL will likely be returning to its previous policy of not allowing half of a double to be picked into early on in the room draw. “We have been hearing of more situations than we'd want where students are putting pressure on each other about sharing rooms,” Schiazza said. “So it's very likely that we'll be returning to the ‘can't take a half-double until all singles are gone’ rule for next year.”
6 FEATURES
The Williams Record
May 9, 2018
Two in Two Thousand By BROOKE HOROWITCH EXECUTIVE EDITOR Emmy and Jack served as editors-in-chief of the 2017 Record Board. I sat down with them to discuss their time on the Record, their favorite professors and their future plans. I thanked them for their graceful leadership and wished them the best as they prepare to graduate. Why did you decide to join the Record? JG: I went to the first meeting of the Record and found out that there is a pretty consistent commitment that you have. You see a tangible product each week that the community ends up depending on because it has the circulation that it does, and people are excited to get the paper each week. There was something exciting about being part of something continuous where there would be consistent expectations set for me. EM: For me, I was on the paper in high school, and I really liked it. I was also looking for different activities to do in college, and my JA [Junior Advisor], Jace [Forbes-Cockell ’16], was on the Record. He had great things to say about it, so that’s why I applied, and I haven’t regretted it since! What is the best section of the paper and why? EM: Opinions – my completely unbiased answer. I was opinions editor, but setting that aside, I think the opinions section is really important because it’s the only place where you really get to hear directly from people in the community. Thinking about how I’ll read the paper as an alum, I think it will be really interesting to see students’ viewpoints about various things.
JG: Arts because it’s the only section never defiled by my writing. But sports really is the best! Were there any particular highs or lows during your tenures? JG: A lot of highs and a lot of lows. In terms of the challenges, I had a good sense of the work that would be involved – having to edit every single article and being the public face and liaison for the paper. The one thing I didn’t anticipate so much, and the one thing I ended up getting the most from, was the leadership dimension of it. Definitely keeping everyone on the same page, keeping everyone motivated and being able to work with all of the different interests on the board was more of a challenge than I anticipated. But at the end of the day, it taught me so much about teamwork, leadership and myself that will really be valuable in the years to come. EM: It was a lot harder than I expected. For me, what was hardest about it was that even when you weren’t actually doing work for it, there was always something you were worrying about or that was going on. It taught me a lot about leadership and how to manage everything because nothing you decide is ever going to make everybody happy. Coming to terms with that was a good lesson. What are your favorite things about the College in general? EM: Top two are definitely the community and the faculty here. Generally, everybody is so approachable here and so willing to interact and engage with people around them. Everyone cares so much about one another here. As a pre-frosh on a tour, that was what I was hoping Williams would be like, and it has
EMMY MALUF ’18 AND JACK BRENT GREENBERG ’18
Emmy, I know you completed a creative writing thesis, and Jack, you are finishing up a political science thesis. What were those experiences like?
BROOKE HOROWITCH/EXECUTIVE EDITOR EMMY'S HOMETOWN NEW YORK, N.Y.
JACK'S HOMETOWN WEST HAVEN, CONN.
definitely proven to be true. And the professors do really want to get to know you and engage with you. That’s been so meaningful to me. Also, tomato basil bisque! JG: Chinese donuts at Chopsticks. But seriously, similar to Emmy, you’re at a place where you have people who wake up every morning and think about how they can make your life better and make your community stronger, and that’s a really rare thing. What were your favorite classes, and who are your favorite professors? JG: I was signed up for a tutorial my sophomore spring, but I wanted to take a break, so I emailed and said, “I don’t think I can take this tutorial.” I got
Student groups host panel on gender equality in STEM By LYDIA DUAN FEATURES EDITOR Two summers ago, Weitao Zhu ’18, Sumun Iyer ’18 and Eliza Matt ’18 stayed on campus for SMALL, a nationally acclaimed undergraduate intensive research program in mathematics. One day, during a female speaker’s presentation about her work, the three noticed that the speaker was continually interrupted, far more so than her male counterparts. Consciously or unconsciously, her audience, particularly male students, had made assumptions about her gender identity and its relation to her mathematical proficiency, going so far as to disrupt a moment that displayed how knowledgeable she actually was. “That motivated a lot of people to come together and have a discussion about women in math as a panel, and it turned out a lot of male students, even though we work side-by-side with them every day, were not familiar with those sorts of experiences,” Zhu said. “We were thinking of having a similar discussion where more students could benefit from hearing these perspectives.” Two years later, Zhu and other students’ desires to discuss such experiences came to life this past Wednesday, when the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) partnered with the College’s Rape and Sexual Assault Network (RASAN) to host a panel centered around the experiences of gender minorities in science, math, engineering and technology (STEM). The panel began with a conversation about gendered expectations within STEM, with students describing the “culture of masculinity.” Students in the room who were not male-identifying shared personal experiences during which they had been treated in condescending manners for asking questions. Furthermore, some shared experiences receiving explanations that they did not even ask for about content they already understood. These instances, colloquially termed as “mansplaining,” were shared across STEM
with closely is Jim Shepard. I have taken two fiction workshops and done a thesis with him, and I’m currently in an independent study with him. Those classes were some of my favorites here. I’ve always loved to write fiction, and I didn’t realize that it was something you could do as an academic pursuit, so it was exciting to come to College and get to do that. I’ve also gotten to take a few tutorials here, and I love those. They’ve really helped me grow as a writer and taught me to defend my points in a classroom setting.
departments, and they became ulty, students found a mixed particularly salient the farther bag of responses, ranging from the student progressed within reservations to interest in suptheir field of study. porting students’ efforts. Additionally, they found that Physics students found a the higher the STEM course's particularly high degree of level, the greater faculty attention. the numerical “It was heartendisparity in stuto hear that “Sometimes I’d get ing dent gender ra[WaGMiPhaAst] tios. The panel the sense that people has had such dediscussed ascent success in sumptions about thought I was on changing the bestudent demohavior of physics graphics in STEM the wrong side of professors,” Wilthat reinforce liam Chen ’19, a Route 2.” cis-normativity junior economics and gender bimajor attending narism. One stuthe panel, said. Sam Alterman ’18 dent brought up “My experience the fact that it is is that usually much more comgetting issues mon for humanities classes to like this to change, especially ensure proper usage of an indi- in STEM and other male-domvidual’s gender pronouns, while inated professions and majors, in STEM classes, pronouns are is really difficult.” rarely asked for or considered. Students discussed how these Sam Alterman ’18 discussed problems are exacerbated by the their gender identity as a student “myth of effortless perfection.” in physics classes. “Sometimes The consensus was that gender I’d get the sense that people minorities within STEM have thought I was on the wrong side more to prove. Panelists providof Route 2,” they said. ed an example: If a student who Assumptions about students’ is not male-identifying receives genders in STEM classes have a poorer letter grade, they are led to feelings of exclusion and far more likely to think that they discomfort, prompting efforts are not up to par for the major or to make STEM more inclusive even the profession, while this and accessible. might not be the case for a stuSuch efforts have taken on dent who is male-identifying in a variety of approaches. Some the same situation. students found communities Moving forward, the panelthrough building affinity groups ists acknowledged that a difcentered around marginalized ficulty of hosting such events identities in STEM. Examples of is that the people who stand to such groups include AWM and benefit the most from hearing Women and Gender Minori- such stories are usually not in ties in Physics and Astronomy attendance. Despite this, feed(WaGMiPhaAst). These groups back on the panel was positive, are geared toward creating spac- and the student coordinators es for open dialogue and solidar- remain firm in their belief that ity, focusing on how these unique increased inclusion and supexperiences have shaped stu- port is possible. dents’ times at the College. “A lot of people were enthusiOther students have spear- astic about participating, [and] headed efforts to directly en- I also really appreciated heargage departmental faculty with ing different perspectives that I issues surrounding being a gen- wasn’t familiar with,” Zhu said. der minority in STEM. Some Ultimately, she believes in the panelists described their expe- generative power of dialogue, riences encouraging professors whether that starts in a panel, to be allies to such underrep- an AWM meeting, class or resented students. In tackling elsewhere. “[It is] an agent for these conversations with fac- change,” she said.
SENIOR YEAR HIGHLIGHT WRITING THESES
a response saying, “Jack, your responsibility at Williams is to make the most of the opportunities that you have here and that will allow you the most personal and professional development, and accordingly, I don’t think I can let you drop out of this tutorial.” That was the start of my relationship with [Associate Professor of Political Science] Justin Crowe ’03. That intense faith that he had in me in that moment set up a host of opportunities down the road for me. I took that tutorial sophomore spring, I was a TA [teaching assistant] for him twice, he was my thesis advisor and he wrote my recommendations for graduate school. In so many ways, he has carved out the trajectory of my life. EM: One of the professors whom I have gotten to work
EM: I’m so glad I did it. The creative writing thesis was one of my favorite things I’ve done here, if not my favorite thing. I loved being able to dedicate a big chunk of my time to working on a project that really interested me and getting to write all the time. JG: Similar vibes as Emmy. The one thing that I found at times a little bit lacking at Williams, which definitely isn’t true to this place alone, is that we don’t necessarily create a lot of outlets for what I would term “obsession.” If there is something you are singularly dedicated to, we don’t necessarily afford you the outlet to throw yourself into it because you have a lot of competing priorities. But there were moments with my thesis where I got a sense of depth and fulfillment from being able to solely focus on the topic that I was writing about. For me, that was a really exciting and liberating thing.
What are your favorite snack bar orders? EM: Nachos with barbecue sauce, smoked mozzarella and caramelized onions. JG: Honeybun pancakes at Lee. What are your plans for next year and beyond? JG: I’m getting my Ph.D. in political science at Yale, which is a long dream come true for me. I’m from just outside of New Haven, so it’s really exciting to be close to home for the next five years. Political science is something that I have gotten so much fulfillment out of at Williams. Politics, specifically politics in the United States, are what I wake up to every morning and go to bed every night thinking about. I really relish the opportunity to focus on [politics] for the next five years and ultimately have a career teaching politics. EM: I will be in Boston next year. I know it’s shocking. I’ll be back in two years, New York! I’ll be working as a paralegal in a small law firm in Boston. Hopefully after, I’ll go to law school – we’ll see. I am really excited about working as a paralegal because I hope it will confirm that I want to go to law school before I spend a lot of money on it. Do you have any parting words to give? JG: Thank you for creating a space where I could be myself and become a better version of myself. EM: That was really well said. I don’t even know what to say. I’m so sad to leave this place. Thank you does not begin to cover it, but thank you to Williams and everyone here for four wonderful years.
Sawyer names reflect literary tradition By ANANTH SHASTRI CONTRIBUTING WRITER “Aristotle, Virgil, Aquinas, Dante, Shakespeare.” These five names are carved on the side of the former Stetson Hall front of Sawyer Library facing Paresky; another five adorn the Hopkins Hall face. Though most of us pass under the Sawyer names without giving them much thought, the placement of these names in a prominent position on our main library sends two messages. First, the names are a claim to academic legitimacy on the part of the College, and second, they implicitly form an intellectual standard towards which the College asks us to strive. But who chose these names and why? Laurel Rhame, project archivist for the Special Collections in Sawyer Library, said there are a series of letters from 1920 between the College’s President Harry Garfield and Cram and Ferguson, the Boston-based firm contracted to build Stetson Hall, which the current Sawyer Library was built onto in 2014. Surprisingly, it was the architects who first proposed the idea of inscribing names on the face of the building. The architects’ preferred sequence was “Aristotle, Virgilius, Aquinas, Shakespeare, Emerson,” their two main reasons being, first, “historical and local comprehensiveness” and, second, the approximate “right number of letters.” The first principle dictated that the chosen names should represent “Hellenistic, Roman, medieval, Renaissance and modern” time
periods spanning the western canon. The second dictated that “Virgil” become “Virgilius,” that “Thomas Aquinas” become “Th. Aquinas” and that “Shakespeare” — by then the conventional spelling, used by the architects in their correspondence with Garfield — become “Shakespere.” Both principles reflected the architects’ fixation with symmetry, be that the canonical symmetry conferred by names spanning history or the visual symmetry dictated by names of similar length. Though Garfield evidently accepted four of the architects’ five proposed names, he ruined the symmetry they had desired. When he adapted their sequence to what we see today, the architects rebelled. “Dante” had too few letters and disrupted the time period distribution — Dante was an Italian medieval writer, like Aquinas. “I very much wish you could adhere to our original scheme,” an affiliate of Cram and Ferguson wrote to Garfield, “for it seems to me much more comprehensive and significant. If you still feel that your choice is better, then we will put Dante in the middle, so that the short name will not try to balance a long one.” Unfortunately for the architects, Garfield didn’t let them put Dante in the middle and quashed their other objections by simply ignoring them. What was Garfield’s rationale? The correspondence does not answer this question for us, but Assistant Professor of English Emily Vasiliauskas has a theory. “Aristotle is to Aquinas as Virgil is to Dante, a figure through
which to redeem pagan antiquity … but also to demonstrate that Christianity is truth,” Vasiliauskas said. Readers of Dante’s Divine Comedy will know exactly what she means. Dante derives much of the Comedy from Virgil’s Aeneid, recasting its preChristian plots and metaphors as Christian, “demonstrating that Christianity is truth,” according to Vasiliauskas. Then what about Shakespeare? With Aquinas and Dante having salvaged the works of Aristotle and Virgil, Shakespeare is “liberated to do anything he wants to do,” Vasiliauskas said. This included merging pagan and Christian traditions and, in doing so, “exceed[ing] the logic of tradition.” Garfield’s ordering and spelling of names, according to Vasiliauskas, represent a synthesis of pagan and Christian art all leading up to the mastery of Shakespeare. Thus, the names on Sawyer’s face emerged from both the contracted architects’ desire for canonical and visual symmetry and Garfield’s desire to visually synthesize pagan and Christian art. Yet neither concern has stood the test of time. For most of this community, the reconciliation of pagan and Christian art is far from a hot topic; a survey of the posters around campus suggests we have different problems to address. The Sawyer names — though belonging to authors still loved and studied by many here — do not fully represent Williams anymore, both in their dead white maleness and in the outdated reasons for their choosing.
JEONGYOON HAN/FEATURES EDITOR
The five names on the front of Sawyer were chosen for their literary significance and visual symmetry.
May 9, 2018
FEATURES 7
The Williams Record
Spotlight on research: Neil Roberts examines politics of freedom By SHAHEEN CURRIMJEE EXECUTIVE EDITOR How does one define “freedom” in the United States and the Americas? Over the past several years, Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Faculty Affiliate in Political Science Neil Roberts has been trying to answer this complicated question, drawing expertise from both Caribbean and African American thought along with 20th and 21st century French and German philosophy. Roberts believes that we should decide whether “freedom should be thought of only as a specific society or specific time, or whether freedom is a universal ideal that might be manifested in different societies in its own way.” In his 2015 book, Freedom as Marronage (marronage is French for “flight”), Roberts refutes the argument that all humans are born free; rather, he claims, “we are born enslaved, and freedom is the actual process of flight, of actually trying to extricate ourselves from the different notions of enslavement.” Roberts’ newest book, A Political Companion to Frederick Douglass, focuses on abolitionist Frederick Douglass’ influence on Afro-modern and American political thought. Slated for release in July, the book looks into the notion of freedom through Douglass’ emphasis on thinking about liberation and the free individual in the context of slavery. The book, written along with 14 collaborators – including Angela Y. Davis, Paul Guillory, Robert Gooding Williams and Jack Turner – is the first volume of a collection of classic and new essays on Frederick Douglass. “This research is not just about Douglass as an American thinker,” Roberts said. “It is a book that is trying to not only understand Douglass’ observa-
PHOTO COURTESY OF NEIL ROBERTS.
In A Political Companion to Frederick Douglass, Neil Roberts studies Douglass’ influence on politics and the legacy of slavery in America. tions on the U.S., but also trying to frame him as a hemispheric thinker. Someone who … was talking about questions of race and racism in America, which was at the very fabric of the American republic at its founding, but also was abreast of dynamics that were occurring in the hemisphere.” Douglass is best known for two works, a speech and his autobiography. On July 5, 1852, he delivered the speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” addressing a day on which the “nation tends to reflect upon what freedom and liberty mean.” Roberts explained that Douglass addressed a predominately white, liberal population in Rochester, N.Y. when the nation was moving toward what
would “ultimately culminate in the Civil War and the struggle for the future of slavery and democracy in America.” Though Douglass was African American, the audience thought he would speak on common ideals. However, “when he delivered the speech, he used pronouns such as ‘your Fourth of July’ and ‘our black America,’” Roberts said. “He used these pronouns to push against those who thought that, at the experiential level, we experienced the world in the same way.” The second most important work by Douglass was his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. “The first autobiography and the speech
are usually what analysts talk about,” Roberts said. “My book is looking at a broader set of texts in addition to those first autobiographies.” For example, Roberts explores Douglass’ time the Caribbean and Latin America, when Douglass was the U.S. ambassador to postrevolutionary Haiti. A Political Companion to Frederick Douglass also considers the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and asks, “To what degree can we look at the afterlives of Frederick Douglass?” Roberts emphasized that this book does not deify Douglass but rather explores Douglass’ thoughts – whether he was profoundly incorrect about an ideal or whether he had problematic responses to questions.
Whitmans’ explores plant-based meals By KSOOSHA RAMRAS STAFF WRITER Last Thursday, the College teamed up with Forward Food to present students with three plant-based meals at Whitmans’ Dining Hall. Forward Food is an organization endorsed by the Humane Society of the United States that travels to hundreds of colleges, universities, hospitals and military bases nationwide to train chefs and introduce exciting plant-based menu items free of charge. According to Astrid DuBois ’20, a student intern with the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives, staff at the Zilkha Center were introduced to Forward Food in December at a conference in California. DuBois approached Dining Services with the idea of inviting the organization to campus, and, soon enough, Dining Services was on board. DuBois, along with Executive Chef Mark Thompson, Assistant Director of Student Dining Gayle Donohue, Whitmans’ Manager Joey McClain and the Whitmans’ staff, worked closely with Forward Food to generate new menu items. For breakfast, Whitmans’ served a variety of dishes, including homestyle hash bowls, fiesta totcho breakfast bowls, oat and cinnamon waffles, apple cinnamon muffins and creamy quinoa porridge. DuBois said that some people came to the dining hall disappointed to not see bacon and eggs; the majority of students, however, came specifically to Whitmans’ to en-
joy a plant-based breakfast and were delighted. I attended lunch at Whitmans’, and everything was delicious. Some of my favorite dishes included the quinoa lentil salad, jackfruit pulled pork tacos, cauliflower fried rice, Italian sausage bolognese, sun dried caesar salad, carrot cake cupcakes and, especially, the chocolate avocado mousse. For the most part, students who came to Whitmans’ seemed to be receptive to and excited about the new menu items. One student, Natalie Newton ’20, said she enjoyed the new eating experience that Forward Food provided. “I think the breakfast was super interesting,” she said. “Where I’m from, vegan food is not a thing, so it was a new experience for me. And I never had anything like the breakfast bowl.” Newton also noted that the atmosphere felt especially fresh. “I would have [the meals] again,” she said. “The whole dynamic – everyone was so cheerful, especially for lunch and dinner. Everyone was super into it.” The dinner menu was also very popular, with items including Israeli couscous salad, avocado black bean salad, ciabatta bread, mac and cheese, southwest wraps, garbanzo bean sliders and vegan quinoa pudding. All the items were meat-free and dairy-free, and several were also gluten-free. According to DuBois, all of the new menu items will be added to the Dining Services recipe books and will be used in the future.
Before the event, staff from Dining Services were trained by Forward Food chefs to incorporate plant-based meat alternatives and create dairy-free options. Vegan protein options include quinoa, beans, tofu, whole grains and nuts. Dairyfree alternatives include soy, rice, almonds, oats, tempeh and cashews, all of which can be used to make fortified dairy-free milk and yogurt products. Dorrie Nang, the New England coordinator for Forward Food, said that the “idea is not to take away everyone’s meat,” but rather to introduce new protein options. From a Dining Services perspective, McClain was fascinated by the creative recipes. He enthusiastically explained some new culinary methods he learned from Forward Food. These included tips like using the liquid from canned chickpeas to make whipped cream, meringue and mayonnaise. One particularly innovative recipe McClain hopes to try in the future is aquafaba meringue. “Aquafaba” is a fancy name for chickpea brine; by whipping together aquafaba, sugar and vanilla and baking it in the oven, anyone can create a healthy, dairy-free meringue! Coming out of this event, McClain and DuBois both said that Dining Services plans on expanding the vegan options in the dining halls, especially for Grab and Go. And of course, Dining Services is also looking to add more delicious vegan dessert options, so stay tuned!
-
Having just completed A Political Companion to Frederick Douglass, Roberts is currently working on a monograph and a collaborative piece. The monograph, provisionally titled Radicalizing Black Radical Tradition, took inspiration from Freedom as Marronage and seeks to explore what black radical tradition means. “Is ‘radical’ progressive? Left of center? Can’t there be radicals who are right of center or who have centrist politics?” Roberts questioned. “The book is looking at specifically Afromodern actors in the modern period who have tried to explore what black politics actually means and how we think about black politics, [both] nationally and transnationally.”
Professors’ corner: Retiring professors After celebrated careers here at the College, 14 professors will be retiring at the end of this academic year. To honor their dedication and commitment to fostering students’ academic and personal growth, we asked them to impart some last words of wisdom.
HANK ART Biology and environmental studies “The most important part of your education probably does not happen inside classrooms; take advantage of the learning environment ‘outside.’”
DAVID DETHIER Geosciences “Make time to talk with your professors – we love to do it, and it helps everyone involved.”
ELIZABETH KIEFFER German “Study a foreign language! Not infrequently did students declare themselves incapable of learning a foreign language as they entered my German reading course, required of the art history [masters] students, only to be surprised at the tremendous progress they had made by the end.”
LAWRENCE RAAB English “To my poetry writing students, I would say to keep finding ways to give yourself the time to write, and then keep writing as long as it gives you pleasure.” PHOTO COURTESY OF ASTRID DUBOIS.
Whitmans’ partnered with Forward Food to introduce more sustainable, plant-based food selections.
The collaborative work, currently entitled Creolizing Arendt, discusses the meanings of freedom, revolutions and race thinking. In the book, Roberts is interested in applying political theorist Hannah Arendt’s approach to analyzing politics and society. Arendt, who is known for works such as The Origins of Totalitarianism, was similar to the figures Roberts writes about in many regards. “From Douglass to Afro-Caribbean political thought, Arendt is someone who could be considered as a heretical thinker,” he said. Roberts hopes to use this method to think about creolization, which, according to him, means “putting two things together without losing them in the mixture.” Thus, Creolizing Arendt will also explore how creolizing thinking can influence everyday politics. Roberts said that Douglass and Arendt – two sources of inspiration for him – both believed that ways of thinking could change. “Unless we [adopt this perspective], then a lot of fraught issues about the status of race [will not be solved],” he said. “We need to break the perpetual cycle of issues. It is not that people are not addressing them, but we are not asking the right questions, which will then mean … we are not going to make the right policies.” Roberts’ teaching and research are mutually reinforcing, and if students are interested in his work, he is offering two courses in the fall: “Contemporary Africana Social and Political Philosophy” and “The Political Thought of Frantz Fanon.” His courses in the upcoming academic year will include discussions about Douglass, tying in many of the issues explored in A Political Companion to Frederick Douglass.
8 ARTS
The Williams Record
May 9, 2018
Buzzworthy ‘Spelling Bee’ performance prompts laughs, tears By HANNAH TAGER STAFF WRITER When the Cap and Bells production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, directed by Evelyn Mahon ’18, began on Saturday night, Amanda Madsen ’21, playing Rona Lisa Peretti, real estate broker and the host of the bee, started singing before the house light had come down. While the delay of the lights may have been a technical error, the effect nevertheless worked to rope the audience into the play. The play sets the stage such that the audience became the audience of the bee, with the actors on stage speaking into a microphone placed on stage like spellers in a real bee. With the lights on, the auditorium of the Manton Center at the Clark Art Institute quickly morphed into the fluorescently lit school gym of Putnam County. Beyond the set, the show itself was a wildly immersive play. The script, written by William Finn ’74, heavily features audience participation. Three audience members were chosen “at random” to participate in the bee: Scott Lipman ’18, Peter Matsumoto ’20.5 and Yeshe Rai, a fourth grader at Williamstown Elementary School, whose performance was both impressive and extremely adorable. In addition to featuring students, the Cap and Bells production offered personalized introductions and fun facts written into the script for these volunteers. Poking fun at
PHOTO COURTESY OF CAP & BELLS.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, written by Bill Finn ’74, features a motley crew of characters united by their love for spelling. Lipman’s blonde hair and blue eyes, Madsen said, “Mr. Lipman’s favorite color is khaki.” Matsumato wowed the audience and “surprised” the bee’s hosts and participants by correctly spelling “Catterjunes,” an archaic whaling word with only one known citation. While the audience participants made a valiant effort to integrate the show-goers into the play, the casted actors of Cap and Bells worked tirelessly to convey the atmosphere and emotions present at a middle school spelling bee. Natalie Turner-Wyatt ‘19, playing Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre, maintained a convincing
lisp throughout the show. Her character, an asthmatic who faces overwhelming parental pressure, also exhibited irregular breathing and a physical tick where she flapped her arms like a penguin for her role. Ben Weber ’21 also exhibited immense physicality in his role as William Barfée (Bar-Fay), a precocious and irritating speller with a “magic foot” that helped him trace the words on stage. Michael Rubel ’19 worked the stage as Leah Coneybear, the second runner-up at his regional championship with a long shot at winning the bee. He claimed, “I’m not that smart,” but he had the audience
CAPPING IT OFF By TESNIM ZEKERIA, MANAGING EDITOR
Everyone knows that students at the College wear many hats. But with summer approaching, we’re looking for a special something to crown the end of the semester. So hats off to these head-turning sartorial choices!
“I’m French.” Devin Helle ’19
“I got this hat six years ago in Japan with my mom, and I absolutely love it!’’ Ayami Hatanaka ’18
cheering him on as he correctly spelled “capybara” and “acouchi.” Perhaps most receiving of sympathy, however, was Hallie Della-Volpe ’21 playing Olive Ostrovsky, a middle-schooler who has absentee parents and a knack for rhyming and anagrams. Della-Volpe had a strong and honeyed voice that captivated the audience as she belted “The I Love You Song” with her conjured-up mother. As the play progressed, each speller revealed the respective adversities they faced. Whether it was over-bearing parents, impressive older siblings or unreasonable expectations, insecurity is written in the script
that could resonate with anybody who was once a child. By all means, the show’s relatability was magnified for any College student in the audience. Perhaps it can be accredited to the fact that Finn attended the College, but the show presents students with tendencies found in most nerdy Williams students. The crowd giggled excitedly along with Olive as she rhymed “Christina Ricci” with “Nietzsche” and was delighted as William made anagrams of “Chromataphore.” Finn’s text is also alluring in its malleability, and Cap and Bells supplemented his script with modern lines that would
appeal to its audience. In defining “Mexico,” Madsen offered the sentence, “Let’s go somewhere unconventional for spring break, let’s go to Mexico”—the audience erupted in laughter. The crowd applauded at the end of the play as each actor presented their character’s life trajectory. “She went on to become secretary of education under President Oprah Winfrey,” Turner-Wyatt said of Lorraine before breaking from her lisp and concluding, “Her speech therapy was completely successful.” Beyond the script, however, the entire performance of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee was captivating. Turner-Wyatt sang clearly through her lisp, and Madsen’s voice was sweet but not saccharine as she hosted the participants through the bee. Jack Whitney ’21’s fullbodied voice also impressed during “Prayer of the Comfort Counselor,” while Christopher Thomas ’21 cracked up the audience during “My Unfortunate Erection.” Playing the co-host, ’19 Elías Ramos offered perfect delivery of his lines as a dejected vice principal, while Emily Zheng ’21’s deadpan as Marcy Park, the hyper-achiever who knows six languages, brought shivers to the audience. “Life is pandemonium,” the cast sings, but The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee seemed to map out all of adolescence’s nuances completely in its characters.
Poet and former College professor Louise Glück delivers emotive poetry reading By LI YU ARTS EDITOR Last Tuesday, Louise Glück gave a poetry reading in the Adams Memorial Theatre in the ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance. Glück is a former Poet Laureate of the United States whose 2014 poetry collection, Faithful and Virtuous Night, won the National Book Award for Poetry. Some of her other works include Pulitzer Prize-winning The Wild Iris and the 2006 National Book Awardnominated poetry collection Averno. A highly celebrated American poet, Glück is also a well-known and beloved member of the College community, having taught at the College for 20 years. Before beginning her reading, Glück explained that she would be reading from a repertoire of poems spanning from the beginning of her career to her later works. She began with “October,” reading out in a steady voice that smoothed over the enjambments, “Didn’t the night end,/ didn’t the melting ice/ flood the narrow gutters/ wasn’t my body/ rescued, wasn’t it safe.” Glück’s early poetry, though spare, is prophetic in the confidence of its assertions, a voice that she described as that of “delphic prophecy.” Glück then turned to confessional poetry, reading three love poems from two different periods of her writing. The first two, sections of a
nine-part poem entitled “Marathon,” documented a love affair. “The Encounter” spoke to embodied desire: “You must have known, then, how I wanted you. We will always know that, you and I. The proof will be my body.” In comparison, “Night Song” – a poem which comes later in the sequence – takes on a much darker tone, as the end of the affair simultaneously seems to be a vision of death: “The calm of darkness/ is the horror of Heaven.” “You’ll get what you want,” the narrator both promises and warns in the last line. “You’ll get your oblivion.” Despite the heavy subject matter of her poems, Glück acknowledged this and met darkness with humor. In between poems, she stopped to ask if the audience could properly hear her and described her reading voice as “my cheerleader voice, which I never got to use, owing to the fact of my depression in high school.” She then moved on to a few prose poems that she wrote in the process of compiling a book. Glück recounted for us their story: a friend and prose writer Kathryn Davis suggested that she reread some of Kafka’s short stories, “paying me the compliment of assuming I had read them – I actually had, by some happy miracle ... and I did this, though I thought it was a foolish exercise, wanton.” The exercise proved
fruitful; “In almost no time, I wrote five or six prose poems, a form that had never had the slightest allure or interest for me, banal,” she said. “But these little prose poems I fell in love with, much better than Kafka, in my opinion. And, when I was done with them, the book was complete.” Glück attributed the final poem she read to her time at the College and her friendship with Professor of Classics Emerita Meredith Hoppin and Professor of English David Langston. “[Hoppin] had a dream in which... either three of us or two of us were on the roof of a building, and I suggested that we all leap, and the dream said that we entered, or it was known that we were part of, nirvana,” Glück recounted. “And I thought this was just the most thrilling dream, and I was so happy to have participated in this dream. I wrote a poem using the dream and then add[ed] something that transformed it enough that I felt I could sign my name to it instead of Meredith’s, but I cannot express my debt to this place.” The poem, “Fable,” reads: “Then I looked down and saw/ the world I was entering, that would be my home./ And I turned to my companion, and I said Where are we?/ And he replied, Nirvana./ And I said again But the light will give us no peace.”
“I got this hat as a birthday gift from a friend over a year ago, and I’ve been wearing it ever since.” Paul Hwang ’19
“It stands for Franklin Delano Roosevelt – the “T” is silent.” Shane Beard ’20
PHOTO COURTESY OF PW.ORG.
In a memorable reading, former College professor Louise Glück shared her career-spanning poems.
ARTS 9
The Williams Record
May 9, 2018
Reconciling Kanye West’s recent behavior with his iconic music By MANDELA NAMASTE STAFF WRITER Kanye West and braggadocio are a more compatible duo than anything (outside of peanut butter and jelly). They are inseparable. One could describe Kanye as having a rebellious streak, but that implies that rebellion is just one part of his character. Rebellion is Kanye’s ethos. He even said as much in the recent, instantly viral TMZ interview, where he explains his decision to wear one of the infamous, Donald Trump-endorsed “Make America Great Again” hats as “feeling a freedom in doing something that everybody tells you not to do.” That boundary-transgressing, instinctively contrarian personality is who Kanye has been for as long as we have known him. His first album, the wildly successful College Dropout, was filled with sociopolitical criticism and other themes we now associate with rappers like Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole. Then came the famous moment at a 2005 benefit concert for victims of Hurricane Katrina when he proclaimed that President George W. Bush did not care about black people, a statement that shocked a large segment of the white American population that had not come to grips with racism in a post-Civil Rights era. That declaration, however, made perfect sense when consider-
PHOTO COURTESY OF NME.COM.
Kanye's recent politically-charged tweets have polarized his fanbase; many people are embarrassed by his behavior, while others remain loyal. ing Kanye’s personality. For all the arguments on whether artists’ private lives and personal opinions should influence our consumption of their art, Kanye’s standing in that debate was always clear. He was his art, and his art was him. There was no distinction, and there was never meant to be. Ostensibly, Kanye has never changed in terms of his self-aggrandizing, boisterous and narcissistic claims, but it is undeniable that 2018 Yeezy is vastly different from the 2005, 2010
or even the pre-Trump 2016 version. He may have slightly changed the reasoning behind his outlandish public statements, however. Where his previous anti-government, racism-exposing statements in his music and public appearances had grounding in life experiences, his musings now resemble those of a white philosophy major several hours into an acid trip. Saying that 400 years of slavery “seems like a choice” is not the type of anti-establishment rhetoric that made Kanye
famous and successful. It is, however, something a headstrong person would say if they felt they were being explicitly told not to say it. Of course, Kanye’s recent flurry of tweeting and public appearances is not random — he claims to be releasing two new albums soon, and this is why his recent tirades are particularly important. Yeezy’s fans have split into two camps following his recent behavior – those refusing to listen to this album under any circum-
stances, and those now professing even more excitement for new Kanye music. To the former faction: If you have a problem with Kanye and his recent forays into racism (or disapprove of any number of Kanye’s other questionable recent decisions and statements), don’t support him. That is your prerogative, and it is understandable. You will not be alone. If you are part of the latter group, however, and are now more excited than ever for new Yeezy
tunes, it is important to remember several things. First, as previously mentioned, Kanye West and his art are one and the same. If he refuses to separate his art from his politics, shouldn’t we do the same? To be clear, I am a fan of Kanye's work, especially his earlier albums – Dropout, Late Registration and his magnum opus, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. But is there really something so unique about his music that you would choose to overlook racist and ignorant comments when there are myriad other rappers who are just as talented and significantly less problematic? The answer to that question is probably obvious – yes, Kanye is incredibly unique. His music is beautiful, his lyrics powerful and, of course, there is a deep emotional connection – songs like “Heartless” and “Good Life” defined many a Kanye fan’s childhood. Those songs, frozen in the time they were made and the time we first heard them, can stay that way and keep us forever young. But at a certain point, we stop buying new stuffed animals and dolls for ourselves because attempting to recapture the glory of how life used to be is often a futile pursuit. Is Kanye a Beanie Baby, destined to fall by the wayside as time goes by, or is he an ornate piece of jewelry, received and cherished at an early age and held on to through good times and bad? The choice is yours, mine and ours.
Netflix’s ‘Candy Jar’ offers sweet take on high school drama By JANE PETERSEN EXECUTIVE EDITOR On April 27, Netflix released its latest original film: director Ben Shelton’s high school rom-com Candy Jar. Jacob Latimore and Sami Gayle star as Bennett and Lona, two high school seniors and rival debaters who are desperate to get into their Ivy League schools of choice. Bennett, the son of a state senator, wants to go to his mother’s alma mater, Yale, while Lona, who comes from a humbler background, strives to go to Harvard. Both are reliant on a debate state championship to embellish their applications, but when a public spat between their mothers prevents them from qualifying, the pair is forced to either forgo becoming debate champions or learn to work together and re-enter as a team. For students studying at an elite college, it is hard not to relate to Candy Jar. The film encapsulates that struggle for perfection that many of us face and the sometimes isolating repercussions that come along with it. We watch as Lona and Bennett tiptoe the lines between bitter and hopeful, anxious and collected. Their fast-talking debate scenes epitomize this energy, as the pair rattle off arguments and counterarguments on various topics, such as whether the price of a college education is worth it. The plot unfurls predictably, with the former adversaries eventually realizing
that they have more in common than not (see: Blades of Glory). Lona and Bennett’s relationship evolves from platonic to romantic as the two begin working in partnership to prepare for their debates. Latimore and Gayle have enough chemistry to propel the plot forward believably, while Lona’s perfectionism mixed with Bennett’s smugness prevents any moment from becoming too sanguine. The film’s ending is predictable as well, with a team of cross-town rivals from a school without the privileges of Lona and Bennett’s private academy defeating them in the finals using a unique, sloweddown debate strategy based on their personal experiences rather than statistics. Lona scoffs at this strategy initially but eventually finds herself agreeing with her rivals at the film’s climax. This moment sends a mixed message about school inequality that the film fails to embrace wholeheartedly; Bennett and Lona acknowledge the shallowness of their attempts to get into top colleges, yet they continue to perpetuate this system. The teenagers may be Candy Jar’s main plot focus, but it’s the adults who steal the show. The film’s best comedic moments come from the interactions between Uzo Aduba of Orange is the New Black fame as Bennett’s mother and Christina Hendricks, best known for her role on Mad Men, as Lona’s mother. The two seem to
have more in common than not, as both are single moms strapped with the pressure of raising their high-achieving kids, but an old high school conflict manages to get in the way. If anything, their acting outperforms the writing. Their passive-aggressive banter is fun to watch, but the backstory of how their mutual loathing came to be, stemming from a class president election, could have used more development. Nevertheless, watching these two square off is nothing short of delightful. Tom Bergeron (host of Dancing with the Stars) also merits an honorable mention for his portrayal of the perfectly avuncular school principal in one of his few acting credits. One of the film’s pitfalls is its giving into characteristic high school movie tropes, complete with an earnest, trying-to-be-relatable teacher played by Paul Tigue as well as the wise, tells-itlike-it-is guidance counselor played by Helen Hunt who, admittedly, carries the role well. For fans of the genre, these elements may be comforting in their familiarity. Candy Jar is a fun and watchable movie that’s as sugary as its title. While not particularly adventurous, Shelton’s film does not take itself too seriously and features admirable acting performances from newcomers and familiar faces alike, making it a great option for some light viewing this finals period.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DECIDER.COM.
This Netflix rom-com follows two high schoolers as they struggle through the stress of getting into college.
PHOTO COURTESY OF WCMA.
Students in the course "The Seeds of Divinity" had the opportunity to try their hands at curating an exhibit.
Course combines history and curation By WILSON LAM CONTRIBUTING WRITER If art itself as a concept did not come into existence until around 200 years ago, wouldn’t it be a bit unreasonable to think of objects produced before then as art? Only two weeks into my College career, I had already begun asking myself conceptual questions such as the above, prompted by Chair and Professor of Anthropology Antonia Foias’ course “The Seeds of Divinity: Exploring Pre-Columbian Art and Civilization in a Museum Exhibit.” In this class, students were given the opportunity to curate an exhibit for the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA). As someone who is greatly enchanted by the treasure troves of the British Museum and the Louvre, an opportunity to go behind the scenes of a museum was a dream come true. Moreover, I would be able to survey Central American religion and mythology. The process of actually figuring out where to start and what I had to do, however, was something else altogether. Why would these artifacts belong in an art museum and not a history museum? Why are there even separate museums for art and history? As we contemplated these questions, our class had to confront notions about what ‘art’ is really about, especially in dealing with artifacts. While there was no denying that the 33 artifacts that had been allocated to our class were all objects with histories and some degrees of artistic value, I still could not envision them in an art museum. To this day, the question of what
objects are “art” still baffles me, but I came to the conclusion that truly any object can hold cultural value. Something I found crucial to keep in mind throughout this process was taking care not to exoticize or other these objects even more than they already were. Coming from a culture – China, namely Hong Kong – that has had countless treasures blatantly taken and shamelessly displayed around the globe by invaders and colonizers, I believe it is the least we can do to study and present these pieces with nothing but respect and appreciation. As the weeks wore on, however, it became increasingly complicated to think about museums as places of learning while taking into consideration all the plundering and pillaging that came with the collection of such artifacts. I had to come to terms with the fact that there was little the museum administration could do with the sometimes dubious provenance of artifacts; it wasn’t as if the museum was asking for places to be looted. All I could do was try my best with the objects I had chosen. Fast forward some months, and we’d already journeyed through five societies in the safety of the archaeology lab; our attention was once again directed towards crafting an exhibition that would best showcase the artifacts. We knew that there would be no way to meet everybody’s expectations on how to present our work to the public. No one would have anticipated, however, that an entire class would be side-tracked as 12 students became locked in a
classroom battle royale over where their artifacts would be placed. Not only was conceiving the layout difficult, but we also had the enormous task of condensing two to three months’ worth of information into bite-sized packets for visitors to read. There was simply so much I could say about each of my objects; they’d never be done justice by a simple 80-word plaque. And yet, we did our best to tell stories of great nations and their gods in the mere 20 seconds or fewer the average visitor took to read each label. Imagine our collective devastation when these carefully curated labels were ultimately eliminated from the visitor experience! We knew, however, that the museum’s hands were as tied as ours were in terms of budget, time and manpower. All we could do at that point was simply cross our fingers and hope that people would still learn something, anything, from our work. As it turned out, “The Seeds of Divinity” did not really turn out to be much about art, but everything about a museum. As I recently led my friend around the exhibition, I could not help but proudly look at my three Zapotec urns. Though the show could never encompass all that we’d learned, I knew we had crafted an experience that would take visitors on at least some parts of our journey. For all the sleepless nights and pleas for extensions, I knew everyone had given their best effort to make “The Seeds of Divinity” the class of a lifetime. The Seeds of Divinity will be displayed at WCMA until Aug. 31.
10 SPORTS
The Williams Record
May 9, 2018
Baseball splits series with Skidmore to close out regular season
PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.
Last Sunday, Jack Roberts ’18 hit a grand slam to bring his RBI total to 21 as baseball defeated Skidmore 21-0 in its last game of the spring. By ALEX OKINAKA STAFF WRITER Baseball (9–21, 4–8 in the NESCAC) split a Saturday doubleheader against Skidmore to close out the regular season. In the first game, Skidmore got on the stat sheet first with a three-run second inning. The Thoroughbreds continued to extend their lead throughout the game, and a few late runs for the Ephs were not enough to even the score as Skidmore won 6-3. In the second game, Williams returned with 15 runs in the first two innings. The men managed to keep Skidmore scoreless and only continued to extend their lead. The final score was 21-0, an emphatic win for the Ephs’ last game of the spring. In the second inning of the first game, Skidmore got the ball rolling with its first runs of the day. Catcher Patrick Geiger began with a double down the infield line. Two batters later, senior Hayden Smith followed suit with a double to left center, which brought Geiger across home plate. Two fly outs put the pressure on Skidmore, but left fielder Nate Scheinman kept the inning going for the Thoroughbreds when he reached first on a throwing error. Smith advanced to third, and both runners were quickly
batted in by a third double, this time from senior Nate Fronte. The Ephs came back up to bat facing a 3-0 deficit. The Ephs reached base in the subsequent innings but were unable to capitalize on opportunities. In the top of the fifth inning, Skidmore extended its lead further. Mike Fogarty managed a single to third base. Shawn Klier came up big when he tripled deep to right center to drive Fogarty home. On the following batter, Geiger sacrifice ground out to the short stop, which gave Klier the opportunity to score. The game moved into the bottom of the fifth with Skidmore up 5-0. In the bottom of the fifth, the Ephs managed their first run of the game. Tom Benz ’19 reached on a fielder's choice. He advanced to second soon after on a throwing error. Mike Stamas ’20 made contact for the second time two batters later with a single, which batted in Benz. A strike out and reach on a fielder's choice ended the inning, but the men cut the deficit to four. In the sixth, Skidmore and Williams kept each other scoreless again. For a moment, Skidmore had the bases loaded after a fielding error, single and walk put runners
on first, second and third. A well-executed double play, however, pushed Williams out of a dangerous position. In the seventh, Skidmore began with two quick outs. What looked like a quick out developed when Jake Hardy was walked as the third batter. Smith singled to right center on the following play and pushed Hardy to second. A final single by sophomore Justin LaRose brought Hardy home and posted Skidmore's final run of the first game to make it 6-1. In the bottom of the seventh, the Ephs mounted a comeback attempt that closed the deficit, but it was not enough to tie the game. Adam Regensburg ’18 was walked as the first batter for Williams. Benz pushed him to third with a single up the middle. With men on first and third, Erik Mini ’21 reached on a fielder's choice that got him to first, brought Regensburg home and put Benz out at second. Two batters later, Doug Schaffer ’19 managed a double to right field, which brought Mini across home plate. The inning ended shortly after, with the first game's final score 6-3. Following the loss, the Ephs bounced back with a blowout 21-0 win in the second game of the doubleheader. In the first
inning, the Ephs came out firing after keeping Skidmore scoreless in the top of the inning. Stamas doubled to center field, and Kellen Hatheway ’19 followed his lead with another double to left field, which drove Stamas home. Adam Dulsky ’18 was walked, and Mini singled with a bunt to load the bases for the Ephs. Schaffer delivered once again with a single through the right side, which brought Hatheway and Dulsky home. Later, Benz knocked a ball deep into right center, which allowed Schaffer and Mini to score. The inning ended shortly after with a 5-0 lead for Williams. The second inning followed a similar trajectory to the first. In a strong pitching showing, left-hander Jack Bohen ’19 struck out all three batters he faced. Looking to keep the momentum going, Stamas once again stepped up as the first batter of the inning for the Ephs. In a tremendous solo effort, he knocked a single to center field, stole second and advanced to third on a failed pickoff attempt. Jack Roberts ’18 delivered with his first contact of the day to bring Stamas home and reach first base. Two plays later, Roberts advanced to second on a passed ball, and Hatheway was hit by a pitch to reach first. Dulsky
knocked a ball into the outfield to reach second base, pushing Hatheway to third and allowing Roberts to reach home for the Ephs’ second run of the inning. Mini stepped to the plate with two men on and no outs and knocked another single to right field. He advanced to second when the right fielder's throw went awry. The error gave Hatheway and Dulsky the chance to score the Ephs' eighth and ninth runs of the game. Mini advanced to third quickly after on a wild pitch, and Schaffer reached first on another walk. Ed Manzella ’21 singled as the next batter to load the bases for the Ephs. Benz and Regensburg recorded consecutive singles to advance the lead to 11, with Mini and Schaffer scoring. With three men on and still only one out recorded, Roberts stepped back up to bat. He knocked a deep homer to right field, which batted in three of his teammates and extended Williams' lead to 15-0. Another Hatheway double on the next batter was followed by the final two outs of the inning. The second inning marked the most runs scored by the Ephs or any team they have played throughout the season. The Ephs delivered the game's next period of action in their following at-bat. Schaffer tripled to right center as the first batter. A strike out on Manzella was followed by Benz's sacrifice fly out to center field, which brought Schaffer across home plate. The inning ended shortly after with a final ground out to the pitcher. The fourth inning repeated the third's results exactly. With Skidmore kept scoreless, the Ephs came back up to bat again. This time, two quick strike outs put the pressure on Williams. Hatheway answered the call with a double to left center. Dulsky followed suit with a single up the middle, which gave Hatheway the opportunity to reach home plate. The inning ended a very successful period of scoring for the Ephs, with the score now at 17-0. In the fifth inning, Skidmore and Williams kept each other from reaching base. The defensive effort moved the game into the sixth, where Fogarty made contact with a triple that ultimately amounted to nothing, with another strong Eph fielding and pitching showing. The bottom of the sixth saw another increase in the lead. Roberts maintained his control over the game with a double to left center. He advanced to third soon after when a wild
pitch and walk put Hatheway on first. Likewise, Hatheway advanced a base on a wild pitch to put men on second and third for Dulsky's next atbat. Dulsky delivered another double to left field to bring both his teammates home. Moving into the seventh, the Ephs had taken a 19-run lead. Skidmore found its legs in the seventh and looked to get on the scoresheet when firstyear Andrew Knight hit a single to center field. Fronte was walked as the second batter to put two men on. Two strike outs put the pressure on for Andrew Aikins' at bat. He managed to reach on a fielder's choice, but Fronte's out at second ended the brief opportunity for the Thoroughbreds. The bottom of the seventh saw an uncharacteristically short inning for the Ephs, with a ground out, fly out and reach on a fielder's choice. In the top of the eighth, Will O'Brien ’19 stepped in to replace Bohen on the mound. He walked his first batter but then quickly forced a ground into a double play and a strike out to make it a quick Skidmore at-bat. In the bottom of the eighth, the Ephs finished out their victory with two final runs. Roberts was walked as the first batter. Hatheway reached on a fielder's choice by the pitcher, which allowed Roberts to advance to second. Dulsky was walked for his final at-bat as an Eph to put three Williams runners on base. John DiGravio ’21 stepped up with a single to right field, which pushed all his teammates forward a base and scored the Ephs’ 20th run. Schaffer followed suit as the next batter when he grounded into a double play, which gave Hatheway the opportunity to score Williams' final run of the game. One more strong defensive effort ended the Ephs' season on a high note. Dulsky commented on the season as a whole. "The win in the final game [against] Skidmore was a great way to cap off myself and the rest of the seniors' careers," he said. "While the win-loss record was not where we would have liked it to be, I'm proud of the way that everyone battled through the adversity day in and day out. While every team loses players to graduation, I think the 2019 Ephs will be set up in a great position to contend for the NESCAC title, with only four seniors being on the 2018 team." The Ephs graduate four seniors this year: Roberts, Michael Cassidy ’18, Regensburg and Dulsky.
CAPTAINS’ CORNER: JAMES MCFARLAND ’18 late. I started in sixth grade, and part of that is a product of being from the Midwest. People start a little bit later out there. I really liked it, mostly the speed of it, so I just kept playing. Why did you choose to come to the College?
PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.
By CASSIE DESHONG SPORTS EDITOR
Team: Men's lacrosse Hometown:
Northbrook, Ill. Residence: Meadow
It is the best blend of athletics, academics and social scene. It had all three of those things that I was looking for in a college. What is the lacrosse team's culture like? Everyone on the team is really close, inside and outside of lacrosse, which is pretty unique. I think in some sports, kids are just friends at practice. The lacrosse team is friends outside of lacrosse. So, it’s like hanging out with four of your best friends while you’re playing a sport, which is fun.
Major: Economicsandhistory
As captain, how do you go about creating a good team dynamic?
Snack bar order: Breakfast burrito What is your background in sports?
We all have a common goal. We all understand what we want to accomplish. I try to lead by example, reminding everyone what our goals [are] and how to achieve [them].
I grew up playing hockey, lacrosse and football. I started playing lacrosse relatively
What is it like working with your co-captains, Nicholas Fils-Aime ’18,
Benjamin Fox ’18, Henry Hobbs ’18 and Greg Plumb ’18? It is great. We have five captains this year, which has made things a lot easier on each of us. No one feels the burden or the pressure of having the answers for everything. There is a diffusion of responsibility. It makes it easier for each of us to do our job and try to lead, since we don’t feel like we are in the spotlight the entire time. It’s a relief. What’s your relationship with head coach George McCormack like? It’s good. He’s a good coach. He’s a good guy. He cares about us and wants us to do well outside of lacrosse as well. He is always checking in with us to make sure everything on campus is going well. What’s your mindset like before going into a game or a tournament? In my four years, we have made the transition to being comfortable with our opponents. We don’t go into any games being afraid to lose. We know that we are capable of playing with anyone in the country when we play well. Now, we have an expectation to win, [and it] is exciting to know that you can compete with anyone. There are
some teams in our conference where, no matter how well they play on that day, they just aren’t physically good enough athletes or aren’t going to beat some teams. I don’t think that is the case for us. Even the top teams in the NESCAC or the country, we can compete with. Having that mental aspect gives us an advantage. What makes you continue playing lacrosse? I do love the game. I am a competitive person, so I like to play in a competitive sports environment. More importantly is the social aspect of it. Having a common interest with a lot of people and being able to create friendships that will last longer than lacrosse season is probably the most important thing. What are the best and worst things about the sport? The best thing is that it is super fast. It is back and forth all the time. It is super up-tempo. The worst thing about lacrosse is the face-off component. It really slows down the game. Maybe if they took off the face-off and put in the shot clock, it would make the game even faster. Implementing a shot clock of some sort, like in basketball, could be interesting. Unfortunately, the team lost in the NESCAC semifi-
nals. Overall, how was the season? What were some personal and team goals? Our goal was obviously to win NESCAC championships, which didn’t happen, but this is the first time in I don’t know how long that we’ve hosted a playoff game. We were the No. 4 seed, and that hasn’t happened in my fours years here. So, that was a good step forward, to break into the ranks of the top four and become one of those teams that hosted a playoff game. That is one of our team achievements. Personally, the thing that I myself am most proud of this year was being a leader and a senior captain on a team that has gotten progressively better since I have been here. Our class has definitely left the place better than we found it. We are taking it one step in the right direction every year, and hopefully the younger kids can build on that when we leave. So 10 years from now when we come back and are winning NESCAC championships, I can say that I was a part of changing the trajectory of the program. What is your most memorable experience of your career? We lost to Union 9-8 this year. While we did lose, it was a really, really close
thriller. The few minutes in the fourth quarter were all I could have asked for. It was a nice night. You are with four of your best friends, and you are playing a tight, competitive game. That is what it is all about. It is not about whether you win or lose, but more about being in those high-pressure situations with all your best friends. What are your plans for after graduation? I will be in New York City, and out of the nine graduating seniors in my class, seven of them will be in New York City. So I am excited to go with a lot of my teammates and see them on a regular basis. Do you have anything on your bucket list? I would like to go on a hike on one of the mountains around here. I probably should do that before I graduate. I haven’t been able to do as much hiking as I would like to. Describe lacrosse three words.
in
Lacrosse is fast, physical and unpredictable. Describe your teammates in three words. Loyal, hardworking good-hearted.
and
May 9, 2018
SPORTS 11
The Williams Record
No. 4 men’s tennis falls to No. 1 Middlebury in NESCAC semifinals The Panthers won the No. 1, No. 3 and No. 4 matches, giving them the victory and therefore stopping the rest of the matches in their tracks. In each of the stopped matches, the momentum was swung towards Williams. Austin Barr ’21 and Deepak Indrakanti ’19 looked like they would grab a game back after losing their first sets, while Arturo Kam ’21 was only one game away from winning his match. Kam also won in doubles with Jordan Sadowsky ’18. “[It] was tough,” head coach Dan Greenberg ’08 said. “Doubles could have gone either way, and unfortunately, we weren't mentally ready to bounce back in singles.”
By KEVIN COAKLEY STAFF WRITER Men’s tennis (13–4, 6–1 in the NESCAC) lost to Middlebury on Saturday in the conference semifinals. The first signs that the match would not go the Ephs' way came in the No. 1 doubles match. Although tri-captain Brian Grodecki ’18 and Ananth Raghavan ’20 played admirably in their first match together this season and forced a tiebreak, they could not wrap the match up, losing 7-3. The teams then split the next two, giving the top-ranked team in the nation a 2-1 lead. The men could not get it going in singles, giving Middlebury a lopsided victory.
Despite the loss, the men were selected for an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament. They will host the NCAA Regional rounds this weekend. Play will begin at the Torrence M. Hunt ’44 Tournament Courts on Friday. The regional champion will be decided by Sunday. “We are thrilled for such an awesome opportunity,” Greenberg said. “We know how tough it is to qualify for NCAAs, especially from this conference, so we're preparing to make the most of it.” The Ephs will graduate Grodecki, Sadowsky, Rehaan Vij ’18 and tri-captain Sachin Raghavan ’18 at the season’s end.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.
Brian Grodecki ’18 forced a tiebreak but lost in his No. 1 doubles match as the Ephs fell to the Panthers.
Men’s crew competes at New England Rowing Championships By CHARLIE IDE TEAM CORRESPONDENT
barely sneaking into the grand final with a time of 5:15.4, just 0.7 seconds over the seventhplace Tufts novice boat that beat the men last week. With their spot in the grand final secure, the Ephs looked to make the most of their earned opportunity in the afternoon. The Ephs were sluggish off the line and lagged toward the back of the field as Boston College’s A-boat charged to a half-length lead through the 500-meter mark. Used to rowing from behind, the Ephs kept their composure and began to move back on the field in the second 500. With a strong rhythm, the Ephs set themselves up for a powerful surge halfway through the race, where they moved through Boston College’s B-boat and the Wesleyan boat that defeated them two weeks ago at Little Threes. With a clean sprint, the Ephs secured bronze in 6:28, eight seconds back from Boston College and three back from Tufts. Matt Bock '20 was proud of how his boat built speed through the piece. "We did well to execute our race plan, stay with our pace and commit to building speed from the beginning to
On Saturday, men's crew charged into championship season with a solid showing at the New England Rowing Championships, with both the 1V and the 3V bringing home medals. Time trials and heats for seeding in the afternoon's finals were held in the morning. The novices in the 4+ were first up in the 3V4+ event. In their time trial, the novices struggled to adapt to a tricky cross tailwind and missed out on qualifying for the grand final by seven seconds. Undeterred, the 4+ attacked its petite final with ferocity. The Ephs and University of Connecticut dropped the rest of the field and battled down the course for the win. The Huskies pulled away through the middle 1000 meters, but the Ephs showed their grit by making a strong push to try and reel the competition back in during the final 500. Alas, their sprint fell short, and the men had to settle for second in the petite final. Williams finished in 7:16, four seconds off of winner University of Connecticut. The 3V also began the day with a time trial,
the end of the race,” Bock said. “It felt good to finally respond after a tough loss to Wesleyan at Little Threes.” The 2V put together two extremely tight races. In the morning, the men faced a tough heat that included Boston College and a Tufts crew that beat the men by 18 seconds last week. The Ephs jumped out to a half-length lead on the entire field through the first 500. Undaunted, Boston College slowly walked back through both Tufts and then Williams to take the lead through the midway point in the race. Williams held its half-length lead on Tufts through the 1200-meter mark, but cracks began to show in the final third. The Jumbos began to claw their way back into contention for second place and the final slot in the afternoon's grand final. The Ephs came into the final 500 with a razor-thin lead on the Jumbos, as both crews furiously sprinted to the finish from 500 out. Trading bow balls through the red buoys, the Jumbos had a bit more left in their legs for the sprint, edging the Ephs by a seat at the line in a heartbreaker. Williams finished third with
a time of 6:09.6, behind Tufts in 6:09.0 and Boston College in 6:07.0. The Ephs finished fourth of all crews in morning heats, with the second, third and fourth fastest times of the morning coming in their heat. In the petite final, the Ephs were joined by the Bantams, who held the morning's sixth fastest time in 6:10.0 and lost by only 0.05 to WPI in their morning heat. With both crews looking to avenge their morning defeats, the final was particularly competitive. The men launched off the line with another ferocious start. Trinity answered with its own strong start, falling back only a seat off the start as the rest of the field fell back. The men had a strong shift and continued to pull up on Trinity, building to a half-length lead by the midpoint of the race and a six-seat lead with 650 to go. Coming into the final 500, Trinity began to move back, and the morning looked like it could repeat itself. Both crews ferociously sprinted as the Bantams continued to chip away at the Ephs’ lead. Scorching through the final stretch, Trinity ran out of water as the men held off Trinity’s sprint, winning by 0.5 seconds in 6:12.1.
Adam Bocker '20 was proud of his crew for finally putting together two races that represented its ability, but he still feels that there is work to be done. "It's about time, but it wasn't perfect,” he said. “We have room to improve for next week." The 1V enjoyed a relatively drama-free heat, placing second in a time of 6:02, six seconds behind Bates and four seconds ahead of Colby. In the grand final, Williams lined up against many familiar foes including Bates, WPI and Tufts, all of whom had defeated Williams earlier in the season. Looking to avenge their early-season defeats, the Ephs launched off the line in a start that saw year-high, blazingly-fast splits off the high strokes. Bates showed its speed by pushing its bow ball out to an early lead through the first 500 as the Ephs fell into the middle of the pack, duking it out with new foes University of Massachusetts and Boston College and ahead of old rivals WPI and Tufts. The pack was incredibly tight through the base of the piece, with silver up for anyone to take as Bates pushed further into the lead. Coming through the final 500, Boston College
began to push open a lead on Williams and University of Massachusetts. The Ephs struck first during the sprint, pushing their bow ball out ahead of the Minutemen with just 100 meters to go. In a final desperate push for hardware, the Minutemen surged back and appeared to pull even as they crossed the finish line. From shore, it was anyone's guess who had taken the bronze. Minutes later, cheers erupted from the Ephs’ section on the beach as the announcers read off the results, with Williams edging University of Massachusetts by just 0.2 seconds in 6:06.3. The men finished behind Bates in 5:58.9 and Boston College in 6:03.6. Head coach Marc Mandel commented, "I'm really proud of the resilience our athletes have shown all year. Today's performances are simply a reflection of the entire team's effort from September to now." The men will close out their season at the National Invitational Rowing Championship in Worcester, Mass. this weekend. At the season's end, the Ephs will graduate Karl Bocker ’18, Sam Elison ’18, Devin Flynn ’18 and Wyatt Millstone ’18.
ATHLETES OF THE SPRING
19
Tri-captain Lexi Curt ’18 has made her mark on the softball program, leading the team to three consecutive NESCAC titles. In the championship game on Sunday, she hit the go-ahead three-run homer in the final inning. The All-American holds career records for home runs (36), RBIs (156), total bases (360) and doubles (52). Curt is the reigning NESCAC Player of the Year and has earned All-NESCAC honors each season. Head coach Kris Herman spoke of Lexi's four years. "Lexi's year has been a career year for anyone, likely the best season anyone has ever had at Williams," she said. "She is our leader on the field from behind the plate and the best hitter in the conference. Her clutch home run in the conference championship was the stuff legends are made of. Lexi is also a great teammate and fun to coach. She cares so much about the game, her teammates and her team."
LEXI CURT ’18 SOFTBALL
TOBIAS MUELLERS ’18 MEN'S TRACK AND FIELD
A Second Team All-NESCAC goaltender, George Peele ’20 has started in net for the Ephs since his rookie season. This season, Peele has started all 16 games for the 9–7 Ephs and has logged just under 941 minutes in goal. Over his time at the College, Peele has played for 1820:28 minutes and stopped 372 for a 50.3 save percentage. His career record is 16–16. "George Peele has started every game as goalie since arriving at Williams," head coach George McCormack said. "His size and athleticism have allowed him to be a very good stopper of the ball, and his vision down the field has enabled us to get our transition offense going on a regular basis. George has a knack for making big saves in the biggest games."
GEORGE PEELE ’20 MEN'S LACROSSE
JULI RAVENTOS ’18 WOMEN'S TENNIS
The Office of Communications recommends ...
Senior Studio Exhibition Reception Senior studio art students design and produce an
Co-captain Juli Raventos ’18 is a three-time All-American in singles and doubles. In her first year, she set the all-time Williams record for most doubles matches won in a single year. This season, Raventos has played in the No. 1 position and remains undefeated in doubles 16–0 and has a singles record of 14–3. “Juli is an absolute rock for us on this team,” head coach Anik Cepeda said. “Playing at the top of the doubles and singles lineup, Juli is one of the coolest, calmest and most collected No. 1s I've seen in my time with college tennis. The bigger the moment, the more Juli seems to enjoy playing for her team. Her steady on-court mindset and willingness to try new things during important matches inspire her teammates to believe in themselves and their abilities to play green light (un-inhibited) tennis.” Raventos’ overall doubles record is 107–12, and her singles record is 88–12.
ATHLETES OF THE WEEK has consistently worked hard all season long. It’s been great to see her compete this year, and we are all excited for the opportunities she has ahead of her.”
“Rebecca had a great week-
– Head coach Nate Hoey
– Head coach Kris Herman
“Kate
exhibition of their work in the final semester of their college careers
Friday, May 11
Tobias Muellers ’18, a co-captain of both men's track and field and men's soccer, has been a model of versatility not only this season, but throughout his Williams career. An All-American in the heptathlon and decathlon, he broke his school record in the heptathlon this season with 5068 points. On top of all that, Muellers is a decorated student-athlete, winning the 2017 NCAA Elite 90 award for highest GPA among the competition and earning Academic All-NESCAC honors each season. “Tobias' versatility is difficult to capture in a mere quote,” head coach Ethan Barron said. “For an individual to excel in every realm of track and field is rare. Tobias has made himself one of the best in jumpers, sprinters and throwers in NESCAC, New England and nationally. He is a triple threat that other teams simply can't respond to.”
end. Rebecca held Trinity to just one run and and gave up just three hits in the championship game in wet and challenging conditions for a pitcher. She continues to grow as a leader on the field and is having a strong season at the plate.”
7p.m. Williams College Museum of Art
KATE KENNEDY ’18
REBECCA DUNCAN ’20
In the Div. III Championship, Kennedy captured third place in the 400m hurdles with a time of 1:01.72, helping her team place second overall in the meet.
In the NESCAC championship game against Bowdoin, Duncan went all seven frames and allowed only three hits while walking two and striking out six.
WOMEN'S TRACK AND FIELD LONDON, ENGLAND
SOFTBALL sIMI VALLEY, CALIF.
12 SPORTS
The Williams Record
May 9, 2018
PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.
Last weekend, softball competed in the semifinals and finals of the NESCAC championships and won its third consecutive title after defeating Tufts, Trinity and Bowdoin in Amherst, Mass.
Softball brings home third consecutive NESCAC championship title By KRIS DUFOUR SPORTS INFORMATION Softball (35-6, 9-3 in the NESCAC) took home its third consecutive NESCAC championship at Amherst this weekend, beating Trinity 7-1, Tufts 5-1 and Bowdoin 5-3. On Saturday, the Ephs rode a five-run outburst to move past Trinity 7-1 in the quarterfinals. The streak came in the bottom of the second, when they scored five times on three hits. Kirstin Mapes ’20 led off with a well-placed bloop single to center and took second on a wild pitch. Rebecca Duncan ’20 then hit a comebacker that resulted in a throwing error, allowing Mapes to score and Duncan to take second. Tri-captain Margo Beck ’18 drew a walk, and tri-captain Brenna Martinez ’18 grounded a single through the left side to load the bases. Casey Pelz ’19 and Riley Salvo ’20 were then hit by backto-back pitches to force home two runs and give Williams a
3-0 lead. Jessica Kim ’19 and tri-captain Lexi Curt ’18 then drove home runs with back-toback sacrifice flies, Curt's a long drive to straightaway center that was snared at the fence. After Trinity scored its only run of the game in the top of the fourth, when Cassidy Schiff led off with a double and came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Katie Haghdan, the Ephs answered with a run of their own, with Pelz blasting a solo home run to left center in the bottom of the frame. The Ephs’ final run came in the fifth, when Duncan doubled with two outs and came around to score on an error to make the final score 7-1. Later that day, in the second round, Martinez ignited a five-run rally for the Ephs with a three-run home run, and Duncan twirled a complete-game four-hitter as the women eliminated Tufts 5-1 in the semifinals. The Ephs trailed 1-0 after a solo home run in the top of
the fourth by Jumbo Emma Della Volpe. But the Ephs were able to get to the conference leader in ERA, Tufts freshman Kristi Van Meter, in their half by producing a little two-out magic. Mackenzie Murphy ’19 led off with a single but was erased on a grounder by Duncan. With two outs, Beck ripped a single to left to put runners on first and second and bring up Martinez. She worked the count to 3-2 before hammering a pitch to deep left that easily cleared the fence for a three-run homer and a tworun Eph lead. Pelz kept things going by ripping a double into the gap in left center field. Salvo followed with a line drive RBI single to right center to make it 4-1. Kim lined a single to deep right that chased Salvo to third and took second on the throw. Curt then hit a soft blooper to short and reached on a misplay as Kim scored for a 5-1 advantage. Tufts put runners on first and second with two outs in
the top of the seventh, but Duncan fanned Raven Fournier to end the contest. The Ephs' right-hander allowed four hits and three walks over seven innings while striking out three. The Ephs had eight hits in the victory. In the championship round against the Polar Bears, the Ephs authored their 14th come-from-behind victory this season, and their dramatic seventh-inning rally — the sixth time they've posted a win in their final at-bat — helped them secure the gold and an automatic berth into the 2018 Div. III NCAA Tournament. As always, it took nearly the entire roster to pull it off, but the big blow came from Curt, who launched a moonshot of a home run to left field with no outs in the top of the seventh to turn a 3-2 Eph deficit into a 5-3 lead. Duncan shut the door in the Bowdoin half of the seventh to give the Ephs their sixth overall title in program history. The 5-3 win over the
Women’s tennis secures fourth straight NESCAC title By JOHN TOOMEY STAFF WRITER Last weekend, women’s tennis defeated Tufts 5-0 and Middlebury 5-3, earning the title of NESCAC champions. On Saturday, the women got off to a hot start with a 5-0 win over Tufts in the conference semifinals. It was the second meeting of the two teams in a week, with the Ephs overcoming the Jumbos on April 28. Saturday’s win against the Jumbos continued the Ephs' undefeated season as they advanced to a 17-0 record. Chloe Henderson ’20 paired up with Mia Gancayco ’18 to notch the first win of the day for the Ephs, over-
coming Kat Wiley and Julia Keller by a score of 8-1. Juli Raventos ’18 and Julia Cancio ’18 followed with an 8-3 win before Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio ’18 and Korina Neveux ’19 completed the doubles sweep with an 8-3 win of their own. "We played disciplined green light doubles, took the 3-0 lead and carried that energy into singles," head coach Anik Cepeda said. Cancio earned her second win of the day to lead things off in singles play, bringing the Ephs within one win of clinching. Cancio took the victory in a 6-3, 6-2 match over Tomo Iwasaki. Raventos followed with a 6-0, 6-4 win, her second victory
of the day, to secure the 5-0 victory. Leah Bush ’19 dropped her first set 3-6 and was down 4-5 in the second in an unfinished match against Mina Karamercan, while Henderson's match was halted at 6-6 (2-1). Neveux won her first set 6-4, dropped the second 2-6 and was up 1-0 when Raventos clinched the fifth win. Emily Zheng ’20 won her first set 7-5 before play came to a close. "JC and Juli stepped up their games, while Emily and Kori added scoreboard pressure with a couple key first-set wins," Cepeda said. "Shout-out to Emily for jumping in and playing a composed and gritty first set. More shout-outs to Leah for saving match points and to Chloe for staying so tough in a first set."
PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.
Korina Neveux ’19 secured the championship title for her team in a win against a Middlebury opponent.
The 5-0 victory was the fifth sweep of the year for the Ephs. "It's a joy coaching a team that fights so hard for one another," Cepeda concluded. "We're looking forward to the finals!" On Sunday, the women rode their undefeated season to a NESCAC championship title with a 5-3 victory over Middlebury. The two teams met once during the regular season when the Ephs battled to a 5-4 win on April 7. Raventos and Cancio led things off for the Ephs, securing the 8-3 victory over Panthers Katherine Hughes and Skylar Schossberger. Henderson and Gancayco followed with another 8-3 victory before Neveux and McDonnell Nieto del Rio followed with an 8-5 win to complete the sweep. Singles proved to be more of a battle, with Middlebury earning wins in No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 singles. Raventos led off with a win after Christina Puccinelli forced a third set with a 7-6 (7-5) secondset victory. Then, Hughes defeated Bush, while Heather Boehm overcame Henderson 7-5, 6-0. Catherine Blazye earned the third and final win of the day for Middlebury with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Gancayco. Neveux battled through three sets, however, to secure the championship for the Ephs. In an unfinished match, Cancio was trailing Schossberger 3-0 before the conclusion of play. The win against Middlebury brings the Ephs up to four NESCAC titles in a row and an all-time lead in NESCAC championships, with 10 victories and one cochampionship. The women graduate Cancio, Gancayo, McDonnell Nieto del Rio and Raventos.
Polar Bears was the Ephs' 14th straight victory. “60 feet. Next batter up. That's what we've been about all year," head coach Kris Herman said of the win. "We showed that's who we are again today.” The Ephs trailed the Polar Bears 3-1 entering the top of the seventh. Pelz ignited the rally by lining the first pitch she saw into the gap in right center field for a lead-off double. Salvo was next up and lined a 1-1 pitch into left to put runners on the corners. Kim got ahead 3-1 before grounding a ball back up the middle for an RBI single that made it 3-2. Up stepped Curt, the alltime leader in homers and RBIs at Williams. She took ball one, looked at strike one and then swung and missed to fall behind 1-2. On the next pitch, she drove a ball straight over the left-field fence for a 5-3 lead and the 36th home run of her Williams career, setting a single-season RBI record in the process.
"There were no outs," Curt said. "I knew we had a slew of great hitters coming up behind me, and once that sunk in, the pressure just fell off." Duncan induced the first Polar Bear batter of the bottom of the seventh to ground out to Martinez. Bowdoin's Maddie Rouhana – who had lined a two-run, oppositefield home run to right in the bottom of the fourth to give the Polar Bears a 3-0 lead – worked a walk after a 14-pitch at-bat. Kim caught a shallow pop-up for the second out, and an Ali Miller pop-up to Martinez was the final out that secured the NESCAC championship. Duncan earned the win, going all seven frames and allowing just three hits while giving up two walks and striking out six. She moved to 15-3 on the season. The women look forward to a playoff matchup against Husson at home on Friday. The Ephs will graduate Beck, Curt, and Martinez.
Men’s lacrosse falls in NESCAC semifinals By WILL GENTILELLO STAFF WRITER Men’s lacrosse (9-8) lost to Wesleyan 13-5 in the NESCAC semifinals. Wesleyan broke open a 1-1 tie in the first quarter with a five-goal streak that stretched into the second quarter. Wesleyan opened the scoring when Ronan Jacoby scored an unassisted goal at 10:21 in the first quarter. Cory Lund ’21 tied the game at one when he converted off the rebound of a shot by John Hincks ’20. Lund scooped up the ball in front of Wesleyan goalie Otto Bohan and flipped the ball over the left shoulder of Bohan for the score. After the Lund tally, Wesleyan ran off four unanswered goals to take a 5-1 lead at the end of the first quarter. Jacoby netted two more goals, with Harry Stanton and Cole Turpin also scoring for the Cardinals. Turpin's goal at 13:38 in the second quarter elevated the Wesleyan lead to 6-1, resulting in the Ephs calling a timeout to re-group. A Brendan Hoffman ’20 low laser from 17 yards out to the right of Bohan narrowed the Wesleyan lead to 6-2 with 5:15 left in the half. Kevin Stump ’20 was credited with the assist on the Hoffman score. Taylor Ghesquiere scored with 59 seconds left in the first half and restored the Cardinals' five-goal lead at 7-2. Lund answered Ghesquiere’s goal 37 seconds later when he was set up on a pass from Matthew Seligson ’20, scoring from in front with a quick shot to cut the lead to 7-3. With two seconds remaining in the half, Eph defender William Sperry ’20 scored his first goal of the season, an unassisted shot that brought the score to 7-4 at the end of the first half.
Wesleyan scored the only two goals of the third period, giving the Cardinals a 9-4 lead with one quarter left. Ghesquiere scored unassisted, while Ryan Lynch assisted on a Carter Hawthorne goal. Ghesquiere's third goal of the game made the score 10-4 in favor of the Cardinals with 9:44 left in the final quarter. With 4:53 left in the game, Jacoby scored unassisted for his fourth goal of the contest, giving Wesleyan an 11-4 lead. With 3:52 remaining, Hincks and co-captain James McFarland ’18 teamed up for an Eph goal. Hincks found McFarland free about 15 yards out to Bohan's left. McFarland unleashed a screamer inside the near post, resulting in the only score of the second half for Williams. Jacoby answered the McFarland goal with his fifth goal on the day, with Stanton assisting. Tom Martello scored the final goal of the game when Colin Uyeki set him up for a score with 1:01 remaining, bringing the final score to 13-5 in Wesleyan’s favor. "It was a competitive game early on, but our inability to take advantage of the early scoring opportunities came back to haunt us," Eph head coach George McCormack said. Lund led the Ephs with two goals. George Peele ’20 made 13 saves and allowed 13 goals. The Cardinals collected 29 ground balls to the Ephs’ 23. Wesleyan turned the ball over 15 times, and the Ephs committed 12 miscues. Wesleyan outshot the Ephs 41-34. The Ephs graduate co-captains Henry Hobbs ’18, Nicholas Fils-Aime ’18, McFarland, Benjamin Fox ’18 and Greg Plumb ’18 as well as Chris McLaughlin ’18, Brian Bissell ’18, John Lee ’18 and Matthew O’Conner ’18.