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WEDNESDAY, September 11, 2019 VOL. CXXXIV, NO. 1 Adriiian ’ 20 discusses his music trajectory
Athletics return to season with new protocols
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College alum convicted of on-campus rape Yoonsang Bae ’ 17 was suspended from the College for two years, graduated and was convicted Friday after a bench trial By SAMUEL WOLF DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR This piece contains details regarding sexual assault. On Sept. 6, the Berkshire Superior Court convicted Yoonsang Bae ’17 on one count of rape. Judge Michael Callan found him guilty, after a bench trial, of sexually assaulting another student while he was attending the College in 2014. His ultimate conviction was the product of several years of investigation, including his twoyear suspension from the College between 2014 and 2016. Bae will be sentenced by Callan on Friday and he faces up to 20 years in prison. In July 2014, Bae provided large quantities of alcohol to a then-19year-old student while at a party. She became sick several times, and he ultimately led her back to his room, where she fell asleep. When she awoke, he was assaulting her, and he refused to stop despite her repeated insistence. Under Title IX, the federal statute barring sex discrimination at institutions receiving federal funding, the College has a responsibility to investigate cases of sexual assault separately from legal authorities. Whether a respondent has violated the College’s code of conduct is investigated by an outside investigator, whose findings are presented to a three-member panel of College staff — not faculty or students. Decisions are made by majority vote. In 2014, following an investigation, the College found Bae responsible for misconduct and imposed a twoyear suspension.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MASS.GOV.
Judge Michael Callan of Berkshire Superior Court found Bae guilty of raping another student at the College in 2014. The victim also chose to report her assault to law enforcement, resulting in Bae’s indictment by a Berkshire County grand jury on Aug. 9, 2017. Bae was offered a lenient plea deal by the former Berkshire County District Attorney Paul Caccaviello, where he would have pleaded guilty only to indecent assault and battery, a lesser charge. The case also would have been continued, allowing Bae to potentially avoid a criminal conviction. The current district attorney, Andrea Harrington, pledged not to make similar offers. “My office will not plea rape charges down to lesser offens-
es when we have victims who wish to go to trial,” she said in a public statement following the trial. Cacciavello’s and previous district attorneys’ perceived lenience in prosecuting cases of sexual violence involving the College was a key point of discussion in his failed reelection bid, which he lost to Harrington. Indeed, the district attorney’s office prosecuted only one of dozens of sexual assault cases at the College between 2014 and 2016. Cacciavello blamed the College for not reporting such incidents, which Director of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Meg Bossong ’05 called “patently and categorically
College resolves federal investigation of antisemitism in WIFI registration By NICHOLAS GOLDROSEN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF The College entered into a resolution agreement with the United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) on July 3 to resolve a complaint filed against the College alleging discrimination in the College Council (CC)’s refusal to grant registered student organization (RSO) status to the Williams Initiative for Israel (WIFI). The complaint had alleged that CC’s decision on WIFI constituted discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity against Jewish students, a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal statute preventing racial discrimination in programs receiving federal assistance. Per the resolution agreement, the College did not admit to violating Title VI, nor did OCR make any findings of fact about whether the College violated the law. Instead, the voluntary agreement binds the College to a series of measures to ensure compliance with Title VI’s mandates in the future. The agreement, signed by President Maud S. Mandel, states, “The College will ensure that: (i) the Williams Initiative for Israel (WIFI) is afforded the same rights and privileges as registered student organizations approved by the College Council; and, (ii) the College treats WIFI in a nondiscriminatory manner. This provision includes but is not limited to the requirement that College Council evaluate WIFI requests for and provide financial assistance and other benefits in a non-discriminatory manner.” In response to this requirement, Vice President for Campus Life Steve Klass expressed the College’s desire to ensure WIFI’s fair treatment. “We’ve had really productive conversations with CC leadership and the College’s general counsel about straightforward ways we can make sure we’re in compliance. Meanwhile, I believe CC leadership is working on clarifying approaches to the RSO authorization process along with other procedures,” Klass said. “We’re look-
ing forward to working closely with them this year. In the meantime, the procedure outlined under the header ‘Starting a New RSO’ is the process of record,” a reference to the Student Life website. The College will be required to provide data and other documents showing compliance with the agreement by Nov. 1, 2019, and will continue to provide a report on Feb. 1, June 1 and Nov. 1, 2020. OCR will then be able to enforce any breach of the agreement’s provisions. WIFI’s application for RSO status was rejected by a vote of 13-8 by CC
“The College will ensure that the Williams Initiative for Israel (WIFI) is afforded the same rights and privileges as registered student organizations approved by the College Council.” — OCR resolution agreement signed by the College on July 3
at their April 23 meeting. On May 14, a panel of College administrators and CC members approved WIFI’s application through an alternate procedure available in the student handbook. In response to the OCR resolution, CC Co-Presidents Ellie Sherman ’20 and Carlos CabreraLomelí ’20 expressed their desire to ensure WIFI’s equal treatment. “We look forward to working with the Williams Initiative for Israel this year in our full capacity as heads of College Council so to assure that
this student organization is treated both fairly and equally as any other club,” they said. “Our goal is for every single student to feel comfortable, safe and supported by College Council, regardless of background, identity or expression.” The original complaint against the College was filed on May 2 by David Bernstein, a professor of law at George Mason University, and alleged in part, “Refusal to recognize Williams Initiative for Israel as a recognized student organization on the same terms as the CC has recognized dozens of other student groups constituted discrimination against Jewish students at Williams on the basis of ethnicity or race.” OCR’s Boston regional office opened an investigation on May 31. With this resolution agreement, OCR’s investigation has officially ended. The investigation also raised the question of to what degree the College was legally responsible for the conduct of CC. The OCR investigation did not ultimately settle this point. In a letter sent to Mandel on July 25 by OCR Boston Acting Regional Director Michelle Kalka, Kalka writes, “However, OCR has not completed its investigation into what occurred at the meetings, the Council’s relationship to the College and the current status of WIFI.” WIFI’s leadership expressed its satisfaction with the resolution and its hopes for a productive year. “We support this resolution, and all other efforts by Williams College, to ensure that WIFI be given a voice on campus, and that students who support Israel be given the same right to organize as other groups on campus,” said Gavin Small ’22 on behalf of WIFI’s leadership.
false” in a letter to the editor to The Berkshire Eagle. Bossong wrote in the same statement that it is College policy to inform the police of all cases of sexual assault. “We did not necessarily change any formal office policies regarding sexual assault on college campuses [in the new administration],” said Andy McKeever, public information officer at the Berkshire District Attorney’s Office. “However, District Attorney Andrea Harrington has placed a priority on pursuing these cases aggressively. If a victim wants to go to trial we are going to fully support the victim and pursue justice.”
McKeever drew distinction between the work of the College and the district attorney’s prosecution. “The Berkshire District Attorney’s Office does not coordinate with the college directly on these cases. The criminal matter is investigated by local police,” he said. Dean of the College Marlene Sandstrom added, “People also have the option of making a report to the police. My colleagues and I encourage anyone who has been harmed to consider this pathway. We can aid them in making a report if they choose. Individuals have the choice to pursue college disciplinary processes and legal processes — jointly or individually — and we support students in whatever decisions they make.” News of Bae’s rape conviction has gained significant media circulation, including by the Daily Mail, a UK-based publication. The College has not released a statement on Bae’s conviction, nor is it College policy to comment on specific cases, but Sandstrom described the conviction as an opportunity to discuss the College’s current handling of such incidents. “Williams works hard to make this a safe community for all of our members,” she said. “This is a joint commitment of many staff and faculty and students and alumni. We are working hard to design and implement prevention efforts in order to reduce sexual misconduct down to a prevalence level of zero; that is our goal. When members of our community are harmed, however, it’s the College's duty to provide resources that address their need for accountability, healing, and support.”
Speech committee issues report By WILLIAM NEWTON MANAGING EDITOR In June, the Ad Hoc Committee on Inquiry and Inclusion formed by President Maud S. Mandel issued a series of recommendations for campus guidelines on speaker invitation. The committee endorsed the adaptation of both the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and PEN America frameworks for free speech, both of which give student groups the right to invite any speaker of their choosing without prior approval and allow the administration to disinvite speakers only in the “rarest of circumstances.” Mandel had charged the committee with developing guidelines that, “demonstrate our full commitment to both inquiry and inclusion” last November, following a self-accreditation study that identified issues surrounding free expression as a concern for the College in the fall of 2017. Faculty members are set to discus the committee’s draft during today’s faculty meeting. The steering committee, comprising College students, faculty, staff, alumni and administrators, recommended that the College actively support “vigorous campus dialogue,” hold workshops on best practices for event planning, and adopt a set of guiding principles for free speech beyond just speaker invitations, modeled off of the AAUP and PEN America frameworks. However, the report also acknowledged that certain speech that harms a community member’s dignitary safety — “the sense of being an equal member of the community” — is “inimical in all respects to the college’s educational mission” and therefore could warrant an institutional response. At the beginning of last semester, committee members met for dinner at Mandel’s house and held meetings every other week for an hour and a half throughout the remainder of the semester. According to members of the committee, the majority of meeting time was devoted to plan-
ning and enacting outreach, including a campus wide survey that received over 500 responses. To Eli Miller ’21, a student member of the group, the focus of the committee was at times frustrating, especially because the group never attempted to reach a consensus on whether or not the administration should have had the authority to disinvite John Derbyshire, a political commentator for the white supremacist site VDARE, who had previously been fired from National Review for his racist writings. Derbyshire was invited to the College by the student group Uncomfortable Learning and was subsequently disinvited by former President Adam Falk in February 2016. “It became clear that the goal of the committee was less to reconcile the differences that people have — on the most basic level — about whether John Derbyshire should’ve been allowed to speak on campus, and it was a lot more focused on taking the temperature of the campus and doing outreach to as many groups as possible,” Miller said. “It felt like the primary objective was just to calm people down.” Still, in a collaborative response to the Record that was drafted before the committee convened, members of the steering committee had emphasized that gathering input from different campus stakeholders was a primary objective of their work. “The Committee hopes to reach consensus on a set of recommendations that reflect our concerted efforts to find multiple and engaging ways to seek input from any member of the Williams community with ideas or opinions to share,” the joint statement read. Looking forward, the faculty decision to adopt either the committee’s draft or its own draft of a guiding set of principles for free speech on campus, and the subsequent response from students, alumni and administrators, will likely serve as the next steps toward the committee’s goal of a published statement on expression and inclusion.
WHAT’S INSIDE 3 OPINIONS Williams’ involvement in neo-colonialism
7 FEATURES Past President Adam Falk talks blocks
8 ARTS “Axis Mundo” displays queer Chicanx art
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September 11, 2019
LETTER FROMWant THE EDITOR Have a car? cash? We at the Record are thrilled to begin another semester in the Purple Valley, and I am personally grateful to have this opportunity to address our readership at the beginning of my time as editor-in-chief. My goal for this time is simple: to publish good, truthful and important stories. We owe these three duties to our readers — to write understandably, to portray only what is true and to give space to the issues that matter to this community and that we think deserve its attention. We are also excited to push forward with several new projects this semester and year. We are convening an investigations group that will be pursuing longerform pieces on issues such as accessibility at Williams, admission and financial aid and town-College relations, amongst others. We hope to continue our focus on issues that came to the fore last semester, including the role and place of support staff at
the College, student activism and the retention and support of a diverse faculty and staff. Developing our future editors and writers is also a crucial task. The Record will be operating a dedicated training program for writers over the course of the semester. Each Saturday at 4 p.m., we invite any interested students to come to our office (Paresky 209, right next to the chaplains' office) to learn about campus journalism, share ideas for how it can be improved, meet our staff and sign up to write for us. We hope that these sessions will feature opportunities for professional development with those currently working in the journalism field as well. We also welcome those who are interested in working on our photography, podcast, social media channels or crossword, each of which we will continue to strengthen this semester. We hope that this effort, along with other recruitment efforts, will improve our ability
to hire a diverse and welltrained editorial staff. The community journalism which the Record does thrives on the contributions and participation of its readers — as does the College community. We would love to receive op-eds and letters to the editor on the issues that matter to you. The contact form on our website is a great way to reach us; we cannot wait to hear from you. Let us know if there are issues we need to cover, stories we ought to tell or people we should meet. We are incredibly grateful for the role we get to play in informing and strengthening this community, and we strive to represent the voices of it as best we can. What goes on at the College also impacts Williamstown and the greater Berkshire community. As such, we particularly welcome feedback, op-eds, and letters from those not necessarily affiliated with the College but for whom the College's
actions matter. As with any organization — no less with any one run by people who are also full-time students — we will make errors, slip-ups and foibles. I welcome and thank you in advance for your open and honest feedback. If you have qualms with our coverage, corrections to submit or suggestions for new ways to improve the paper, we are all ears. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to any member of the editorial board, contact me at ncg1@williams.edu or submit a letter to the editor for publication. Student journalism plays a vital role in keeping our community informed, holding power to account and amplifying the voices that need to be heard. I am honored to continue that tradition and grateful for your feedback and input along the way.
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FIRST DAYS
I saw a bunch of frosh using a physical, literal map to find their way to Hoxsey.
FARMERS MARKET
Best grilled cheese I’ve ever had.
PURPLE KEY FAIR
All of the frosh are getting good at letting us down gently.
TAG SALE
I didn’t find a bean bag, but I bought a weighted blanket on Amazon afterwards.
STORAGE BOXES
I wish they used a smaller sledgehammer when they decided to smash the top half of my boxes.
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What’s one thing you forgot to bring to college? By IRENE LOEWENSON, FEATURES EDITOR
HANNAH GRUENDEMANN ’20
A can-do attitude.
BEN KITCHEN ’21
I can't remember if it was a suit or the complete works of Shakespeare.
Nicholas Goldrosen Editor-in-Chief
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September 11, 2019
OPINIONS 3
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Silence is complicity The connection between Williams and Mauna Kea By FRANKLIN DE LA CRUZ In the brief time that I have been studying away at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, I have come into contact with Williams in each of my classes more often than I expected. While I wish to be writing to you to say it’s the pleasant memories of community that I have found here, like those I had at Williams, or that spending time outdoors in O’ahu has refreshed me as do the Berkshires in the early fall, I am unfortunately writing to say Williams has made itself present rather obtusely and in a less-than-positive way. In every class, I have been reminded of the devastation caused to the people of Hawai’i by missionaries who led the colonization of the islands and began a trend of
and it is an amalgamation of all the ways in which the US occupation of the Hawaiian Islands has led to genocide and land appropriation. Yet the protectors act only out of kindness and resistance by encouraging the sharing of their culture and sharing it in the open (which was once outlawed by the US) even when they are threatened by the national guard and see their elders being arrested. They do so with “protocols” — collective prayers that are rooted in the preservation of Hawaiian culture, history, language and tradition through chants and hula — that occur three times a day both here at UH Mānoa and on the Mauna. But this is where these stories further converge. The University of Hawai’i owns the lease to the land that
put nicely, an immense failure on behalf of the College and of all its stakeholders who have a mouthpiece. I am asking Williams to show that it has grappled with its history with the Kānaka Maoli on more than an intellectual, surface level and make the first of many necessary moves to repair its fraught and exploitative relationship to indigenous land and people. This should be in the form of a message in support of the students and community members of UH Mānoa, who are dedicating their time to protecting the Mauna by encouraging President Lassner to publicly reject the building of TMT. This message should articulate the College’s own belief that building TMT is directly at odds with the humanity and
We have a commitment to prevent this struggle from becoming another indigenous struggle – justified in its claim to land – that is erased because we are too afraid to confront history.
human and cultural genocide on the islands. These same missionaries are the ones whom the Haystack monument “honors” and who are the namesake of Mission Park back at Williams. In other classes, my readings have offhandedly referred to the genocide of the Pequot people that occurred near Mystic Seaport and to the New England intellectuals who justified their deaths for a more “civilized” settlement. And while these are events and movements that Williams had an immense stake in historically, we go about our days on campus largely not thinking about them — for some, they are largely unknown. While here, I have gotten to spend time supporting students and community members who are currently committed to protecting Mauna Kea by preventing the building of the ThirtyMeter Telescope (TMT) on the sacred mountain. For them, the struggle represents another layer of (neo) colonialism and of the invalidation and patronization of indigenous spirituality and genealogies. TMT ultimately is a breaking point,
is being contested for the building of TMT. Therefore, students have been occupying Bachman Hall, where the administrative offices for the campus are located, since our first day of classes on August 26th. This has received little to no press coverage and so the students rely on social media (their page on Instagram is @kiaikekahaukani) to organize and share updates. While things have been real on the Mauna for almost 60 days, we received an update this weekend that law enforcement will likely be dispatched to forcibly remove the protectors. They have been demonstrating peacefully under a code of conduct called Kapu Aloha, which is about acting with kindness and empathy even in trying situations. We have a commitment to prevent this struggle from becoming another indigenous struggle — justified in its claims to land — that is erased because we are too afraid to confront history. To allow police violence to occur to people whom have already experienced so much degradation at the hands of missionaries we have facilitated throughout history would be,
political autonomy of the Hawaiian people. Why is this necessary? Simply, Williams owes this debt. Furthermore, as a “premiere” institution in the realm of education and diversity, Williams has a significant onus to make a statement that is committed to these values. This message would encourage other institutions to do the same — to begin applying our critiques of racial capitalism that we speak so beautifully on in classes — and will empower UH and Lassner to side with the native Hawaiians and not with corporate interests under the guise of scientific advancement. As Williams students, we have a responsibility to the indigenous people whose lands we use for our own benefit and simply as people to encourage President Maud Mandel to make an urgent statement, before more people are arrested, before more students miss class again, before Mauna Kea is handed over to corporations and before this, too, is history. Franklin De La Cruz ’21 is an American Studies major from Cape Coral, Fla.
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A world of endless scrolling Reflecting on the effects of social media By VICTORIA MICHALSKA We are at a critical point in internet history: Governments are preparing to investigate web giants like Google and Facebook, and people seem to be reconsidering their relationships to the infinite space that they could access in seconds from their smartphones or smartwatches. I’d like to remind y’all of the potential beautiful and honest self-expression that our devices can provide. Viral videos may very easily be the epitome of the 15 minutes of world-fame that Andy Warhol mentioned in 1968, more than two decades before the invention of the World Wide Web. Nearly 60 percent of the global population is on the internet now, in comparison to 16 percent in 2005. With the accessibility to online broadcasting platforms, incentivized with the potential of our peers’ approval, marked by a like count, it only makes sense
that the mobile uprising did occur, bringing us so much closer to our devices. We’re stuck in a world of endless scrolling now. The feature has been described as “behavioral cocaine” by its inventor, Aza Raskin. He has even formally gone out of his way to apologize for the creation and the way it has affected users everywhere. Like a nicotine craving, as a social media user, we’re just looking for the next rush of pleasure and satisfaction, whether it’s hitting 100 likes on an Instagram photo, or seeing a potential love interest post a cute photo on their story. Anything longer than 280 characters or longer than seven seconds is overwhelming, boring and excessive. Haven’t you pressed “Read more…” on a Facebook post, and immediately decided to keep scrolling instead because it immediately stopped being worth the time and effort? I sure have. However, due to techni-
ley. It was also interesting considering that nobody actually knew anything about me because there was no real record of me that they could cyberstalk. Of course, I was still addicted to my phone, because how else would I avoid eye contact with people on the street? So I read the news. Now I’m back on Instagram, which admittedly, might be the worst culprit of the superficiality plaguing social media platforms. I try not to give into it too much, though, and I’d like to think I live my life happily and without restriction, actively using social media as a platform to broadcast myself using photography and written word. Rather than breaking down my identity to the surface-level perfection that I wished my life was, I chose to use it as a platform for self-expression and honesty, in the hopes to make others feel comfortable enough to do so as well. Endless scroll-
Rather than breaking down my identity to the surface-level perfection that I wished my life was, I chose to use it as a platform for self-expression and honesty, in the hopes to make others feel comfortable enough to do so as well.
that we’d all occasionally see whether or not we could make it big; or rather, could we make it bigger than our friends and family? Envy is undeniably part of the show that is social media. Initially, the web seemed mystical. The level of connection that we now experience is underappreciated and dismissed far too casually. When the internet first came out, it was a miracle to be able to maintain the dial-up connection, and the shock at being able to speak to somebody instantly across the world was definitely part of the reason why “ASL?” became such a commonplace acronym in the early years of the internet. It wasn’t until the launch of broadband in the early 2000s that accessing the internet began to feel nonchalant, and it wasn’t until the creation of grids, frameworks and responsive web design starting in 2007,
cal limitations, the first social media platforms actually consisted of exclusively long journal entries, written by regular people, and then shared with their friends. An example of this was LiVEJOURNAL, founded in 1999, and which, at its peak in 2005, had 2.5 million users. Clearly, something has changed, and I’m not sure if it’s for the better. What can you really say in 280 characters, anyway? I deleted all of my traditional social media platform accounts for the entirety of my first year at Williams. It felt uniquely lonesome, considering how people seem to be afraid to talk and be truly honest with one another in person; it’s ironic, considering how increased social media use has been proven to increase feelings of loneliness and depression. At least I got to be alone with the beauty of the Purple Val-
ing is addictive and it’s so easy to fall into the pitfalls of social media, from the fear of missing out to the temptation of unrealistic beauty standards. While I think we’re old enough to know these facts, a casual reminder is helpful and an attentive mind is essential. From the very beginning, the appeal of the internet lay in its infinite, quirky and lawless nature. Presently, tech giants have shaped the space to create certain expectations and to encourage certain behaviors, but that isn’t necessarily the only way it can be. Merely let this serve as a reminder that the internet doesn’t have to be the way it is, and that the translation between the WebSphere and reality doesn’t necessarily have to be so stark as it is now. Victoria Michalska ’22 is from Maspeth, N.Y.
4 NEWS
The Williams Record
September 11, 2019
Four alumni receive Bicentennial Medals President Mandel gives yearly award at Convocation
By JOEY FOX NEWS EDITOR Sept. 7 marked Convocation for this year’s senior class and candidates for advanced degrees, commemorating the beginning of a new academic school year in Chapin Hall. The celebratory event featured speeches from President Maud S. Mandel and Chaplain to the College Valerie Bailey Fischer, and music from Zambezi, the Williams Convocation Brass Ensemble and Ben Mygatt ’20 and Jeff Pearson ’20. The event was not only focused on current students, but also on four of the college’s most accomplished
alumni; Dr. Kiat Tan ’65, Dr. Martin Samuels ’67, Danielle Deane-Ryan ’97, and Carina Vance Mafla ’99 were awarded the Bicentennial Medal by Mandel and the Society of Alumni in recognition of their “distinguished achievement in any field of endeavor.” The medal has been given to between four and seven recipients annually since 1993, the 200th anniversary of the College’s founding. Tan, the first alum to be presented with the medal this year, is a prominent figure in the field of horticulture. Two decades after graduating from the College, Tan rejected a job offer from Walt Dis-
ney World and instead moved back to his home of Singapore to dedicate his talents to improving the city’s gardens. Over the course of his career, he restored Singapore’s Botanic Gardens and created the Gardens by the Bay, a nature park which has since become one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions. In Mandel’s words, Tan helped make his home “a place where wonder blooms.” After Tan's award, Mandel awarded the Bicentennial Medal to Samuels, a neurologist whose career has spanned three decades. Samuels, who is currently a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, was
the founding chair emeritus of the Department of Neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Mandel also touched upon the clinical research, textbooks, and electronic journals that Samuels has contributed to his field. Deane-Ryan, currently the director of the Inclusive Clean Energy Program at the Nathan Cummings Foundation, was the third to receive the Bicentennial medal. Deane-Ryan’s career has been devoted to the intersections of race and environmental policy and fighting for diversity in mainstream environmental organizations. In addition to her role at the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Deane-Ryan is the former the
senior advisor for external affairs at the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy, and was a founding director of the Green 2.0 initiative. Mandel applauded Deane-Ryan’s “unshakeable commitment to ensuring that communities of color take the lead” in pursuing environmental justice. Finally, Vance Mafla was awarded the medal for her work as Ecuador’s Minister for Public Health. During her tenure, Vance Mafla advocated for LGBTQ+ and women’s rights, shutting down anti-gay religious health clinics that engaged in physical violence while opening 52 new health
JOEY FOX/NEWS EDITOR
Martin Samuels ’67 gives an address to the senior class after he, along with three other alumni, received this year's Bicentennial Medals from President Maud S. Mandel in Chapin Hall.
Teach It Forward campaign concludes, raises $707 million for College priorities By LYDIA DUAN DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR On June 30, the College’s Teach It Forward (TIF) campaign ended, having raised $707 million and engaged more than 87 percent of current alumni. TIF, which began development in 2013, had the initial goal to engage 85 percent of alumni and fundraise $650 million towards capital building projects, financial aid, faculty support and co-curricular student experiences. The campaign developed over seven years and three College presidencies, and it launched its public phase in 2015. Alumni engagement varied widely but was categorized into four main types: gift donation, event attendance, volunteering opportunities and online involvement. Student mentorship, particularly with career development, was a popular mode of engagement. Many alums connected with students through EphLink and aided them through interviews and employment searches. Others wrote notes of appreciation for retiring faculty, voted in trustee elections and interacted with the College’s social media. Reunions, also a popular method of engagement, helped set the lifespan and schedule of the campaign. “Every class celebrates a reunion every five years, so [the campaign] allows for focus on each reunion cohort over a five-year period,” Vice President for College Relations Megan Morey said. Notable capital projects under TIF included renovations of the ’62 Center for Theater and Dance, the Class of 1966 Environmental Center, Horn Hall and Weston Hall. According to Morey, a capital project that especially generated alumni interest was the Pond House for Wellbeing, which now houses the offices for the College’s Integrative
Wellbeing Services. Overall, $143 million was directly allocated to capital building projects under the campaign. Of the $143 million, $106 million was channeled into building the South Science Building. Science education development was listed as a priority for TIF, with current students working in faculty laboratories, incoming students arriving for the intensive five-week Summer Science Program and 50 students coauthoring scientific papers with professors annually. During the campaign, $8.5 million in grants was awarded from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation in support of faculty-student research.
“Every class celebrates a reunion every five years, so [the campaign] allows for focus on each reunion cohort over a five-year period.” Megan Morey
Vice President for College Relations
An additional priority of TIF has been financial aid for students. Through its contributions under the Alumni Fund and Parents Fund, TIF donated to the book grant program that provides textbook and course material
coverage for students on financial aid. Morey noted that TIF’s support for financial aid also went toward allowing aided students to waive their earning contributions for one summer, as announced in Jan. 2019. $58 million from TIF went toward faculty support and resources, including faculty recruitments and the opening of new tenure-track lines. In addition, campaign money went into endowed professorships, with earnings accrued from endowed positions going directly to support the faculty member in those roles. Notably, in collaboration with TIF, the Williams Black Alumni Network (WBAN) launched an initiative to raise $500,000 in support of Bolin Fellowships, which are designed “to promote diversity on college faculties by encouraging students from underrepresented groups to complete a terminal graduate degree and to pursue careers in college teaching,” according to the College’s faculty site. This WBAN and TIF partnership ultimately raised $712,000 for Bolin fellows. The final portion of TIF fundraising was directed toward broadly defined “Beyond Williams” and “Beyond the Classroom” initiatives. A gift from the Class of 1968 at their fiftieth reunion saw a revamped Career Center that now hosts alumni-sponsored summer internships, recruiting opportunities, job fairs, information centers and career treks. The Center for Learning in Action, where over 1,200 students have been involved in community outreach in the greater Berkshire region, was also expanded. Ultimately, Morey described the campaign as “extraordinarily successful,” commending the loyalty of the Williams community and the eagerness of the alumni network to “support students and faculty of today.”
centers and 10 hospitals. Since her time in the Ecuadorian government, Vance Mafla has been the executive director of the South American Institute of Government in Health, a public health organization associated with the Union of South American Nations. Mandel credited Vance Mafla with “advancing public health throughout the continent.” The Bicentennial Medal recipients were not the only ones to be honored at Convocation. Ellie Sherman ’20 received the Grosvenor Cup for her “tireless and thoughtfully optimistic dedication to the College.” The award, presented by Vice President for Campus Life Stephen Klass, is given annually to one senior selected by the previous year’s College Council executive board. Dean of the College Marlene Sandstrom announced the 31 junior year inductees to Phi Beta Kappa from the class of 2020. Following the award presentations, Samuels returned to the podium to give the year’s Convocation address. “Williams is one of those places that can change and stay the same,” he began, reminiscing on his time at the college. Speaking from the perspective of neurology, his native field, Samuels encouraged the class to remain iconoclastic and make an effort to see through others’ perspectives. In his wide-ranging address, Samuels spoke at length on invaders from Mars, also touching on subjects including President James Garfield '56, Iraq War protesters, and the Scottish poet Robert Burns. It was with Burns’ quote that he concluded: “Oh would some power the gift give us / To see ourselves as others see us.”
New Garfield House opens By HAEON YOON DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR Garfield House, a residential house located on South St, has been rebuilt and reopened to students this semester. Constructed as a “passive house” and US Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified dorm, the new residence replaces the previous Tudor-style dorm built in 1850. Originally housing the Delta Upsilon fraternity until the 1970s, the old Garfield structure was demolished for reconstruction last year. After a year of construction at the cost of $9.8 million, Garfield House now houses 40 students. Its modern design has large push-out windows and tall ceilings, and contains study nooks to compensate for its lengthy walking distance from the rest of campus. With the 2020 Campus emissions goals soon coming due, the interim director of the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives, Mike Evans, said that the College chose to prioritize energy use and emissions during the designing process of the new dorm. Garfield House is the first Passive House at Williams. According to Evans, this means that its infrastructure prioritizes “a tight building envelope, insulation, eliminating thermal bridges (accidental heat transfer/loss) and passive solar heating.” Since the College does not allow residential buildings to have air conditioning, the airtight features of the Passive
House do have inherent risks for overheating in the summertime, as heat could get trapped in the buildings. In a spotlight report on Passive Houses on college campuses published by BuildingGreen, Inc, however, Michael Pulaski, the sustainability leader of the Garfield project and the vice president of engineering firm Thornton, explained that phase-change materials were used instead because of their ability to store heat in the ceilings and walls. “In the summertime, they’ll absorb heat during the day, slowly letting it out overtime as the building cools down in the evening hours,” Pulaski said. Garfield House is now one of eight buildings on campus with LEED certifications, joining Sawyer Library, Hollander Hall and Schapiro Hall, among others. The construction process also focused on sustainability by using low emitting materials and recycling 80 percent of construction waste. Although first-years and sophomores were never able to see Garfield in its original form, town residents voiced their opinions on the recent additions to the community’s urban landscape. Ralph Hammann, a town resident, expressed relief that Garfield House turned out better than he had expected in relation to other buildings. “It's a pleasant surprise after the recent architectural misfires (2/3 of the new Inn) and debacles (the bookstore and the science building on Walden Street). Certainly, it’s the best looking
building the college has built in a couple of decades,” he said. Though Hammann lamented the loss of the Tudor-styled facade of Garfield, he expressed optimism regarding how the new building had successfully assimilated the historic features of the previous building with more modern, sustainable efforts. For instance, despite the project required a complete rebuilding of Garfield House, the bricks that line the fireplace in the common room date all the way back to the 1850s, and the basement still has the wooden Founder’s plaque engraved on the wall. Evans also mentioned that the College aimed to focus on “creating healthy spaces where people enjoy spending time.” In fact, during the Planning Board meeting that took place in December 2017, College General Counsel Jamie Art ’93 said, “Our proposal is to reduce that to seven spaces … There's an ongoing effort to try to encourage more walking and biking. Having lots of parking immediately adjacent to dormitories is counter productive to the goal of getting people to walk or ride their bike to get to class, Spring Street or the library.” Though some residents are frustrated with their parking assignments behind Thompson, many students have expressed positive views regarding the new building. “Garfield is beautiful," Mahesh Saha ’22, a current resident at Garfield House, said. "I can’t believe we landed this with last pick during the Housing Coordinator lottery.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF PETER BARRY.
After being demolished last year, Garfield House has been rebuilt and is now open for students to live in.
September 11, 2019
Federal governemnt investigates College for alleged Title IX violation By NICHOLAS GOLDROSEN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF The United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) opened an investigation on June 19 into the College for alleged violations of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex by those institutions receiving federal funding. OCR opened the investigation in response to a complaint filed on Jan. 28, 2018, that alleges that the College discriminåated against a male respondent in a sexual misconduct discipline case by treating him more harshly than a female respondent against whom he had also cross-filed a complaint. The complaint, filed under the pseudonym John Doe and obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, describes several actions on the College’s part that allegedly constitute discrimination. Doe writes that he was, “continually and systematically denied his civil rights in a joint-sexual assault case that Williams brought forth under the auspices of a Title IX investigation.” General Counsel Jamie Art ’93 noted the College’s desire to fully work with OCR to ensure compliance with federal law. “While our concern for student privacy prevents the College from commenting on the substance of this complaint, we are responding to OCR's request for information,” he said. “The College works hard to ensure its sexual misconduct policies and procedures are fair and equitable for all involved and will work with OCR to ensure they fully comply with Title IX’s prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sex.” The document first alleges that the complainants who brought forward complaints of sexual misconduct against Doe were coerced or otherwise coached by College employees or agents to bring forth those accusations. The complaint continues, alleging that the College has exhibited a pattern of anti-male discrimination in sexual misconduct discipline, referencing the
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College being sued in federal court. The lawsuit in question is redacted in the complaint. However, the College is involved in active litigation, Doe v. Williams, in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, in which a male respondent in a sexual misconduct case who had cross-filed misconduct allegations against the female complainant is also alleging discriminatory treatment on the basis of gender. The complaint then alleges that the College enforced a joint no-contact order (NCO) between Doe and the female party in the misconduct case in a discriminatory manner. “When the female complaint (sic) violated the order in the exact same way [as Doe], [REDACTED] ‘justified’ her actions as inconsequential.” In an apparently unconnected OCR investigation, the College signed a resolution agreement on Jan. 16, 2018, regarding reforming its Title IX procedures to make them more equitable and fair prior to a disciplinary finding. In that agreement, signed by Interim President Protik Majumder, the College agrees that, “The College will develop an equitable procedure for handling No Contact Orders (NCOs) that are issued pursuant to an incident or situation implicating Title IX.” The complaint also goes on to allege that administrators in the College’s Title IX discipline process had conflicts of interest that unfairly prejudiced Doe, and that Doe was often not granted accommodations that he requested, such as extra time to prepare for a disciplinary hearing. Finally, the complaint alleges that the College’s Title IX hearing procedures are unfair. Many of these procedures may be affected by forthcoming Department of Education regulations on Title IX that Secretary Betsy Devos is expected to release soon. For example, Doe cites the lack of cross-examination and a live hearing as impediments to a fair process. OCR did not release any investigative documents in response to the Record’s request; at this point, the complaint remains solely an allegation and OCR has made no findings of fact regarding it.
SPRING STREET BLUES From the files of Campus Safety and Security Monday 9-2-19 12:30 a.m. North Science Construction project: Seven students went into the construction site and climbed to the top of the building. The students were identified from video footage and are facing fines and disciplinary action. 9:06 a.m. Fayerweather: Officers responded to a student having a seizure and activated 911. Northern Berkshire EMS evaluated and transported the student to BMC South. 1:03 p.m. Lynde Lane: An athletics staff member reported a tree down across the road by the tennis courts. There were no injuries or damage to College property. The on-call groundsperson was called and was able to use a tractor to move the tree off to the side of the road for the time being. 5:25 p.m. Paresky Mail Room: Officers responded to an intrusion alarm. Upon arrival they found the door to the mailroom unlocked with nobody inside. Nothing appeared askew. They secured the door and alarm system upon their departure. 11:42 p.m. Susan Hopkins: Officers responded to a tip line complaint of extreme noise. Officers found a gathering of approximately 50 students. They advised them of the noise complaint. After several minutes in which they demonstrated that they could not quiet down, CSS shut down the party and asked all non-residents of Susan Hopkins to leave. Tuesday 9-3-19 1:30 a.m. Williams Hall: Officers responded to an intoxicated student needing assistance and activated 911. The student was evaluated by an EMT and was not transported. 11:15 a.m. Facilities Hazmat shed: An officer was asked to meet the Safety and Environmental Compliance staff. A basket containing fire-
works had been found and seized from Rice House. The fireworks are illegal in Massachusetts and the Williamstown Police was called to take custody of the hazardous explosives. 2:30 p.m. Paresky Loading Dock: Williamstown Police was called to take an accident report on minor damage to a parked vehicle in the Vogt House parking lot by an Outing Club vehicle. 7:57 p.m. Thompson parking lot: The Williamstown Police responded to a report of a minor vehicle accident. Wednesday 9-4-19 7:52 a.m. Stetson Court: a white box truck at the end of the street with hazards on had struck the curb and had two flat tires. The driver of the truck advised he was exiting the circle at Field Park and was making a right hand turn onto Main Street when he struck the curb blowing both front tires. He went over the curb and ended up going down the sidewalk and grassy area and exited on Stetson Ct. There was turf damage. Photo documentation was taken and the grounds crew responded. 2:10 p.m. Health Center: 911 activated. Officers dispatched and responded to a student having a severe allergic attack. Northern Berkshire EMS arrived and transported the student. 9:10 p.m. Gladden House: Officers responded to a report of three strangers who did not appear to be college-aged asking to be swiped into the building. Officers spoke with a student, his father and a friend who were just arriving to campus and were in the process of moving items into the building. There were no further issues. Thursday 9-5-19 4:31 a.m. Mission Park: Officers responded to Pratt for a report of a student who was very sick. Student was having severe abdominal pain and
vomiting. Northern Berkshire EMS arrived on scene and transported the student to Berkshire Medical Center North. 11:35 a.m. Paresky Center: Officers responded to a student reported as having stumbled on the stairs. The student was asked if they wanted to go to the Health Center or to have Northern Berkshire EMS respond to Paresky to evaluate the ankle. An officer transported the student to Health Services, and a personal accident report was taken. 12:07 p.m. Stetson Sawyer: Officers responded to a report of a man laying at the bottom of the stairwell on the East side facing “the church.” They found an older man lying on the exterior steps who appeared to be highly intoxicated. Unable to gather any information from the man, 911 was activated for Northern Berkshire EMS and the Williamstown Police to respond to assist and help identify the man. There were no visible signs of injury. Northern Berkshire EMS transported the man to BMC North. 3:58 p.m. Facility Houing unit in Pine Cobble: Officer responded to a report that the doorbell was smoking. The caller had already called 911 for the Williamstown Fire Department (WFD) to respond. WFD The chief advised that it appeared the doorbell was constantly in a closed circuit due to weatherization that caused heat and eventually the smoke. The chief temporarily secured and taped off problem wiring. An oncampus electrician responded and advised that the tape on the wires would keep everything safe for the evening and a replacement doorbell would be ordered. 10:31 p.m. Hopkins Hall: A Stolen Article Report (SAR) was taken for a student who reported that they had left a bike with a flat tire outside of Jesup Hall back in August and noticed today that it was gone.
Williams Inn reopens at new Spring Street location after $35.6 million project By SAMUEL WOLF DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR With the opening of the new Williams Inn at the base of Spring Street on Aug. 15, the College completed a three-year, $35.6 million project in the making. The College owns the inn and was heavily involved in its construction, but has leased the inn’s daily management to the Waterford Hotel Group, a New England-based hospitality management company. The new inn is significantly smaller, with 64 rooms to the previous inn’s 114, but has a larger staff and improved energy efficiency technologies. The inn also contains The Barn, a restaurant which advertises “familiar New England classics.” “The new inn is more modern, with amenities not found in the old inn, while maintaining a real New England farmhouse feel,” said Rita Coppola-
Wallace, executive director of design and construction at the College. Coppola-Wallace also emphasized the important role of outdoor spaces in building a sense of community around the inn. In particular, a large lawn outside the inn will hold numerous community events, including outdoor movies starting next summer. For many, the change in the inn’s location — from Main Street to Spring Street — is its most distinguishing feature. “From my perspective, the location is really the most important difference,” said Matt Sheehy, who is associate vice president of finance and administration and also serves as a liaison between the College and the Waterford Hotel Group. “From what I have personally experienced, it has been a place where casual meetings, business meals, and larger events have occurred in greater number than the old property and many
more activities are planned now that the academic year has kicked off,” he said. “I believe this is because of the location at the base of Spring Street, the overall design and its natural place in the landscape.” Jim Kolesar ’72, assistant to the president for public affairs, also emphasized that the new inn sits on a previously underutilized space. “What was there before, storage barns, did nothing for the community,” he said. The College only publicly announced its plans to build the new inn in 2016, but began considering the possibility in 2013, after the old inn’s declining profitability led the College to purchase its debt. The previous inn, which has sat on Main Street at the western end of campus since the 1970s, was considered too large to be financially stable, partially explaining the decreased number of rooms in the new inn.
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Construction of the new inn wrapped up in August, a few months behind previous estimates of a late spring or early summer opening. According to Senior Project Manager Michael Wood, this delay allowed for the addition of Collegethemed artwork and decoration in the last weeks before opening. The construction team also focused on improved energy efficiency measures for the inn. “This includes the use of low flow fixtures, LED fixtures with advanced controls and daylight harvesting and any integrated building management system that interconnects with the reservation system to control room conditioning based on room occupancy,” Wood said. In sum, these changes will result in a 45 to 50 percent reduction in energy consumption per square foot from the old inn to the new inn.
Though the inn only opened four weeks ago, College administrators are already optimistic about its effect on campus life. “Many community members have said to me how great the inn looks both outside and inside,” Kolesar added. “It's clear that the new restaurant has been very full, while the one at the former site had become quite empty. And it sounds, from stories I've heard, that the restaurant is having to work through perhaps a predictable number, for a new operation, of service wrinkles.” “I believe it is a bit too early to determine its true impact on the student body and town culture,” Sheehy said. “Anecdotally, I was excited to stop into the inn on Aug. 30 and see students, faculty, staff, and towns people enjoying the various spaces surrounding the restaurant, The Barn, and the property.”
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JOEY FOX/NEWS EDITOR
The exterior of the new Williams Inn from the driveway off of Spring Street (left), the inn's sign above its main entrance (top right) and the inn's lobby and fireplace (bottom right). The inn has been open since August.
6 FEATURES
The Williams Record
September 11, 2019
One in Two Thousand By NIGEL JAFFE FEATURES EDITOR Each week, we randomly select a unix from a list of all current students at the College. So long as the owner of the selected unix is on campus, willing to be interviewed and not a member of the Record board, that person becomes the subject of that week’s One in Two Thousand. This week, the computer (using a very simple script in R) chose Regina Fink ’22. What were you up to over the summer? I was an intern at the Central Park Conservancy, where I mostly picked up trash. We killed a lot of native species, which is what they call “weeding” in the business. I felt terrible every time I pulled out the littlest plant, and then a bug would come looking for its home, and I’d be like, “I’m so sorry, man.” That’s pretty rough. I realized that the corporate model is not a good way to run a nonprofit, and I will hopefully not work at a similar organization again. I don’t think they’re very interested in sustainable grassroots organizing like I am. Funny that a park conservancy isn’t interested in grass roots. Ba-dum-tss. Nigel Jaffe, ladies and gentlemen.
You’re working this semester at Hopkins Memorial Forest, which seems like a similar line of work.
REGINA FINK ’20
that bad superhero movie that nobody saw. I saw it! Ryan Reynolds, right? No, Gosling? Seacrest? Probably Reynolds.
Oh, yes, I’m going to be a Hopkins Forest Educator, and I’m so f---ing — excuse me! I’m going to be working with children, and I’m so very excited. I’ve been a camp counselor for many years, and it’s my favorite thing in the world. That should be very fun.
Who now plays Deadpool. That must have been a step up. Larry mostly sells to militaries, a lot of camouflage. Not too much anymore, since he’s semi-retired. My parents are old as balls. They are the age of most people’s grandparents.
What else are you doing this semester?
Tell me about how you were conceived.
Aside from being a shift leader for WRAPS [Williams Recovery of All Perishable Surplus], I started a club called BFAIR Buddies, where we go to special needs adults’ houses in the area and do fun crafts and other activities. I’m also in the handbell choir, and this thing called P3 [Positive Pathways Partnership] where we go to the Berkshire House of Corrections every week and do a book club with inmates there. We mostly read poetry and talk about socialism and our feelings.
I was made in a petri dish because my parents were really f---ing old. That’s why I’m a twin — in the ’90s, they used to put three eggs in and try them out because the success rate was far lower than it is now. My parents didn’t want to pay for a do-over, so they were like, “Bada-bing, bada-boom.”
You’re also one of the religious directors for WCJA [Williams College Jewish Association], and you led your first service Friday night. I thought my bat mitzvah went poorly, but at least I had an excuse then for my bad Hebrew — I was 13. I’m 19 now, and there’s no justi-
homes. I’ll just adopt one, and not destroy my body giving birth. [Sneezes.] Sorry, I sneeze like my father.
NIGEL JAFFE/FEATURES EDITOR REGINA’S HOMETOWN CRESSKILL, N.J.
REGINA’S RESIDENCE CURRIER
FOOTWEAR OF CHOICE TEVAS
How do you feel about male pattern baldness? fication. Rabbi Seth [Wax] is a real hero. He swooped in almost every single time we messed up and saved us, even though we made fools of ourselves with our lack of Jewish knowledge. With his guidance, we are slowly learning.
the world selling fabric. He claims he’s the last wholesale fabric dealer in the United States, but I would definitely fact-check that.
You’ve told me that your father, Larry, belongs to the world’s oldest profession — the trade of fabric.
He sells a lot of cool fabrics, like —
It’s one of the worst things you can do to the environment.
Are there any cool fabrics?
Having a child? Or male pattern baldness?
He’s a wholesale textile dealer, but he’s technically retired. He’s been all over
Flame retardant ones. I think his fabrics were used for a scene in the Green Lantern,
What kinds does he sell?
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That’s one of the many reasons I don’t want to have children myself. I do not want to pass that on. Larry went bald at, like, 20. One of the many reasons?
Having a child. And there are so many children who need
Thoughts on the marble blocks on this campus? There are 151 of those guys. Are you plugging your own article? I’ve had a couple nice naps on them, but I do think the money could have been spent in other ways. Even if they’re relatively cheap for marble blocks, they’re still marble blocks. You could have gotten concrete slabs, and I would have been like, “Well, all right.” Would you ever get a tattoo? Yes. But I’m not allowed to because of my religious customs. It’s against the Jewish faith. But I like to rebel. If my parents are reading this, I do not plan to get a lizard on my left hip. Chacos or Birkenstocks? Neither! Tevas, baby. The cheaper version of both. But they don’t last as long, so maybe I should make a longer-term investment. Also, I think I’m having issues with my knees from wearing them, but that’s a problem for future Regina. Juvenile arthritis runs in my family… though I guess I’m not a juvenile. It could just be arthritis. Another reason not to have kids.
September 11, 2019
FEATURES 7
The Williams Record
Profiles of Presidents Past: Adam Falk By NIGEL JAFFE and IRENE LOEWENSON FEATURES EDITORS In 2010, Adam Falk, then dean of the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins, had his video interview with Williams’ presidential search committee. That same year, a swine flu pandemic broke out across the world. “I was actually recovering from this flu epidemic and [was] kind of amazed that I was coherent,” Falk said. Swine flu aside, the interview went well, and Falk became president later that year. Before then, Falk had spent almost his entire life in academia. He grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill as an undergraduate and received his doctorate in theoretical physics from Harvard. In 1994, he became a professor of physics at Johns Hopkins, where he later served as dean of the faculty and dean of the Krieger School. After the Williams search committee approached him, Falk learned more about the College. He found himself drawn to its commitment to undergraduates and its academic strength. “Plus, it’s in a beautiful place, and it has great people, and all of that,” he said. On his first visit to the College, Falk took a tour of campus alongside prospective students and their families. “I was a middle-aged man touring a campus with no high school student in tow,” he said. “It could have seemed a little weird. And so, I had to come up with some story about what I was doing.” During his visit, he was struck by the College’s emphasis on community. “Williams isn't the only school that has it,” he said. “But I think it has it in a very intentional way that people talk about, and I really sensed that on that tour when I was pretending to be the father of a prospective student who somehow, for some reason, wasn’t there.” Falk noted that under his predecessor, Morton Schapiro, the College worked to recruit a much more diverse student body, one “that just looks much more like the country
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SLOAN FOUNDATION.
Adam Falk, president of the College from 2010 to 2017, is now the president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a New York City-based charity. than it had in the past,” as Falk put it. “As is often the case, one of the things that happens when you change a student body in these very important and positive ways is that the institution has to change, too,” he said. “When I arrived, we were realizing that there were ways in which we needed to attend to the quality of our community that we needed to be more intentional about.” His administration worked to bring junior advisors into closer contact with deans and mental health services and to “create more of a culture of prevention and support, including practices such as bystander intervention” regarding sexual misconduct, he said. He made clear that he believed that this work was far from complete. “We still struggle with all of these issues of inclusion and safety,” he said. “But what I’m proud of is that we made them really central to the work that we were doing at the College.” During Falk’s presidential term, he oversaw the establishment of the Center for Learning in Action and campus facilities renovations. One of the most notable facilities projects under Falk’s leadership was the construction of the new Sawyer Library. The concurrent landscaping project, designed by
architectural firm STIMSON, brought dozens of marble blocks to Frosh Quad and the newly created Library Quad. In their 2018 architectural guidebook, Williams College: The Campus Guide (for which Falk wrote the foreword), Professor Emeritus of Art E.J. Johnson ’59 and Professor of Art Michael Lewis sum up the student body’s reaction to the installation: “The landscape, with its infestation of marble slabs, variously dubbed ‘Falkhenge’ or ‘Explosion in a Marble Quarry,’ has caused considerable consternation on campus, partly for its cost and partly for its looks.” The marble blocks are a hallmark of both the College’s architecture and student meme culture. The “Williams Memes for sun-dappled tweens” Facebook group, which has over 2,950 members, has featured two marble block–related memes in the last month, both of which bear captions that directly reference Falk. Although Falk said he was not aware of the blocks’ prominence in the meme group, he said he is well acquainted with the underlying sentiment. “People started assuming [the blocks] must have been expensive,” he said. “I think they became, in ways that were unfortunate, a symbol of excess.” In reality, he said, the blocks
are “scrap marble that wasn’t really of any value,” sourced from a quarry in Danby, Vermont. Senior Project Manager Bruce Decoteau said the total cost of the project — including material cost, fabrication, delivery and installation of the 151 pieces of marble — came to $676,480, which works out to $4480 per slab. “I think people don’t make the distinction between really nice Italian marble and scrap marble, and so the idea that there was marble everywhere got a kind of resonance with people, like this must be a very extravagant thing,” Falk said. “They actually weren’t a big part of that project … and that’s a subtlety that doesn’t show up in memes.” Executive Director of Design and Construction Rita Coppola-Wallace estimated that 3 to 5 percent of the total landscaping budget for the quad was spent on the slabs. The alternative to the blocks would have been benches, Falk said, which are less durable than marble and which would have to be continually replaced. A more serious controversy arose when Falk canceled a 2016 campus visit by conservative commentator John Derbyshire, who was fired from the National Review in 2012 after writing a racist column for online publication Taki’s Magazine that included such lines as, “Do not attend events likely
to draw a lot of blacks.” Derbyshire had been invited as part of a speaker series sponsored by the student group Uncomfortable Learning. Falk’s cancellation of the event received coverage in The Washington Post and Time Magazine. It also became a topic of discussion in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on “The Assault on the First Amendment on College Campuses,” in which U.S. Senator John Kennedy (R – LA) called for Falk’s resignation. Falk said he stands by his decision. “If [Derbyshire] said anything like that article [in Taki’s Magazine], he was going to tell our students of color that they were inferior, that they were not human beings of the same type as white people and that they didn’t belong on our campus or in our society,” he said. “And I was not prepared to have someone with the imprimatur of a Williams speaker come and deliver that message to our campus, and certainly not deliver that message to our students of color.” He emphasized that the College, as a private institution, was under no First Amendment obligation to allow Derbyshire to speak. “Somebody can go and say foully racist things in the middle of the town square,” he said. “But they don’t have to be in-
vited to Williams College to say those things to our students.” Falk said he disagrees with the framing of the cancellation as an issue of freedom of speech. “It sets up a profoundly wrong idea that, for example, those on the political left are opposed to free speech and those on the political right for it,” he said. “I don’t think that students are opposed to free speech, but I think what they’re hungry for is ... a form of speech that is trying to be productive, and speech that goes with listening, and speech that can bring people to understand each other’s point of view, not just to express how much they dislike each other’s point of view.” In 2017, a search committee from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation — a charitable foundation that funds research in science, technology and economics — contacted Falk about becoming president of the organization. Falk said he was drawn to the role in part because of the similarities it offered to what he liked best about the College. “When I started talking to the people here at the Sloan Foundation, I found that it shared many of the values that I brought with me to Williams and that I take with me from Williams,” he said. “It’s a very collaborative kind of environment, a very academic environment, [with] a deep commitment to funding not only research in science and economics but the communities that support that research, and diversity, equity and inclusion in those fields.” Despite its many similarities to the College, the Sloan Foundation offers one major change for Falk: His time there marks his first foray outside of the world of academia. “I joke that when I came to the Sloan Foundation, it was the first time in my entire life I had not been in school since entering kindergarten,” he said. Falk said he felt “extraordinarily fortunate” to have been the president of the College. “It’s not easy to be in college; it’s not easy to work at a college; it’s not easy to run a college,” he said. “But I hope that no one loses sight of really how extraordinary a place Williams is. I tell people without a hint of irony that there is no better place in this country to spend four years.”
Students launch Williams Mobile app This week in Williams By SHAHEEN CURRIMJEE DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR The academic year has only just started, and it seems as if there are a million things to keep track of: deadlines, drop/ add period, campus events, whether your laundry is done and what the alternatives are to Taco Tuesday. Lucky for you, two computer science majors, Dysron Marshall ’20 and Kelvin Tejeda ’20 have created the Williams Mobile app, which should make being a student at Williams just a little bit easier. The app — available on both the Apple Store and the Google Play Store — combines such frequently used resources as Daily Messages, Williams students online (WSO) and dining hall menus. The main purpose of this app is to engage the student body directly with what is going on around campus. “That’s why the
calendar is front and center, so that you know what is going on,” Tejeda said. “Design has to have a purpose.” During his first year, Marshall enrolled in a Winter Study course in which he learned basic coding and created the first version of the app. Unfortunately, that project remained dormant for year, and while it was eventually published on the Google Play store, there were quite a few bugs, and user engagement was low. Later on, Tejeda worked on a new design layout, which would be incorporated into the current version of the app. This summer, Marshall, working in San Francisco, and Tejeda, working in Boston, decided to finally turn the project into a fully functioning app. Because of the often-frustrating nature of coding, they relied on each other for motivation. “What tends to happen in a situation like this is that you get into a dry spell for weeks,
and then you never revisit the app,” Tejeda said. Apart from requesting the office for information technology and the office of communications for information about on-campus events and dining halls, Marshall and Tejeda built everything from scratch, coding in JavaScript and using the framework React Native. The app boasts clear fonts, clean lines and a user-friendly layout. “I am interested in design that is useful, [as] clean as possible and accessible to people with low vision,” Tejeda said. “The first design was awful, but that is the process: You implement your first design and you keep working on it till it works for everyone involved.” Deeply interested in product management and design, Marshall and Tejeda listened to what students said they wanted to see in the app. Be-
PHOTO COURTESY OF WILLIAMS MOBILE.
The Williams Mobile app provides easy access to resources such as WSO and dining hall menus.
ing students themselves also helped them create a design tailored to the student experience. “People didn’t know what there was for meals, so [we asked ourselves], ‘What would we do to solve this?’” Tejeda said. The most rewarding part of this project for the pair was when Williams Mobile launched on both Apple Store and the Google Play. “We woke up the next day and saw 500 people were using it. Seeing numbers rising and positive feedback was super cool,” Marshall said. Both seniors said they hoped that other students would want to contribute to the app so that it reflects the needs of future generations of students. “We are not keyholders for this app — anyone can come up with ideas,” Tejada said. “We have spoken with the office of communications, and we were hoping we could set up [an] agreement [in which] they would pay students to work on the app, ensuring constant development of the app and a mentorship program for students.” Going forward, Marshall and Tejeda would like to change the current WSO into a more social feature on the mobile app, allowing students to post discussion threads or comments. Tejeda and Marshall are also interested in adding a tracking feature to the app so that they can understand what users benefit most from and then improve those areas. Students interested in learning about Williams Mobile and the website can join WSO or participate in a winter study independent project Marshall and Tejeda may organize on coding and adding new features to the app.
history: Sept. 6, 1981
Are you desperate to “munch out” on a helping of “deadly medly” but just can’t find the words to express it? If so, look no further than this guide to Williams slang from 1981.
8 ARTS
The Williams Record
September 11, 2019
“Axis Mundo” at WCMA displays queer Chicanx art and activism By MAE BURRIS-WELLS STAFF WRITER There is a photograph in “Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A.,” a new exhibit at the Williams College Museum of Art, of Pauline Oliveros and her performance group ♀ Ensemble. It is 1970, and they are playing their instruments, including a bassoon, cello and accordion, on a grassy field while people meditate in a small circle in front of them. Eventually, ♀ Ensemble would begin practicing a collection of text-based scores Oliveros would publish in 1971 called “Sonic Meditations.” The scores guide mental and physical activity towards intense awareness, as in “Meditation” No. 5: “Take a walk at night. Walk so silently that the bottoms of your feet become ears.” The goal of these pieces, according to the exhibit label, is “to expand consciousness and to provide healing.” In general, I would argue, this is the ideal outcome of any interaction with art: If a piece encounters a viewer who is ready to interact and forge meaning with it, there is an opportunity for expanded consciousness and even healing. And the same ideal goes for education; as soon as students escape the fetters of reluctant duty and disembodied notions of success, formalized learning is a playground for consciousness. There is expansiveness and healing in knowledge of moss and of Russian literature. It broadens the mind; it reorganizes the worldview. Learning literally raises awareness. But, of course, art and learning, even at a place like Williams, are fundamentally influenced by the dominant power
PHOTO COURTESY OF WCMA/WOMAN’S BUILDING RECORDS AT GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE.
Performance artist Judith F. Baca, whose performance Vanity Table is documented above, is one of the artists featured in “Axis Mundo.” structure. Its clamp reaches every facet of life and limits, particularly in mainstream institutions, the number and types of channels through which conscious-ness may stretch. That is a large part of why “Axis Mundo,” which opened at WCMA on Sept. 6 and will run there until Dec. 9, is such a crucial contribution to this campus. “Axis Mundo” traces the productions and collaborations of a network of queer Chicano artists between the late 1960s and early 1990s. It is the result of nearly five years of research on the part of curators C. Ondine Chavoya, a professor of Art and Latina/o Studies at Williams, and David Evans Frantz, an Associate Curator at the Palm Springs Art Museum. The exhibit is part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, a Los Angeles-based initiative spon-
sored by the Getty Museum that organized a series of exhibits in 2017 for the purpose of exploring Latinx and Latin American art histories. It features works across a range of media, including painting, video, fashion and photography. Axis Mundo is the first mainstream art exhibit to honor the queer Chicanx artist community in Los Angeles — not only highlighting its artistic production but also centering lives that glittered and shone even through systemic subjugation, neglect and violence. Indeed, political activism sits right up against deep personal emotion in the exhibit through artworks that wrestle visually and conceptually with the artists’ own trauma and the systems that perpetrated it. Activist movements of the second half of the twentieth century
flow through the exhibit, from the women’s liberation and gay rights movements to the Chicano civil rights movement to HIV/AIDS activism. But while oppression was always present in these artists’ lives, it did by no means dictate their creative output. Even the overtly political art seemed more an effort to push life up to the sun, like a strong green sprout, than to wail from under the soil at concrete that tries to block its growth. Across the works, there is joy and desire, rage and sorrow, love and beauty playing to the tune of human life, singing the complexity of the individual and the power of the community. It’s stunning to experience, it’s rich and magnificent and it could easily have been lost to us. Supported by the Getty, Chavoya and Frantz mined fif-
teen archives across the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom and Spain in pursuit of the histories “Axis Mundo” now displays in all of their sound and fury. They also spent a lot of time working in people’s homes, as they described at the exhibit’s opening on Friday. Many of the works in the show had been sitting, unknown to the public, in the storage units, attics, basements and living rooms of the artists and their friends and relatives before the curators found them. Most of the works on display are being shown in a museum for the first time. In 1976, Joey Terrill’s beautiful, profane t-shirts made their debut at the Christopher Street West Parade in Los Angeles. On the front of each shirt he had hand lettered either the word “malflora” or “maricón,” two
homophobic slurs. Visitors approaching WCMA’s entrance will see one of these tees on the wall being sported by a young man with a relaxed frankness about him that belies the seeming insult on his shirt. While the young man outside the museum reclaims a slur, doing a kind of sociolinguistic aikido with heterosexual power, the exhibit seems more about claiming for the first time. As Terrill mentioned at the opening on Friday, dominant art institutions have been negligent and indifferent to Chicano artists from the beginning, as exemplified in the Chicano art collective Asco’s rejection by a curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1972. Asco made sure to document the abomination in a graffiti tag and a now-famous photograph of it called “Spray Paint LACMA,” but even so, without the photograph the graffiti would have been forgotten immediately, painted over, shut down. “Axis Mundo” opens it back up. It allows all of this smothered history to finally receive the endorsement of the dominant establishment on its bed of money and fame. This new relationship between Chicanx artists and the mainstream art world of course benefits the artists and their legacy. But it does something perhaps more important to the art world and the people who use it to broaden their horizons: It provides a previously hidden trove of opportunities to learn, grow and feel – that is, to raise consciousness and to heal. Every time a voice is silenced, the rest of us miss out. Terrill’s message at the opening on Friday is that of the artists in “Axis Mundo,” and one that every student of the world must continually heed. “Hey,” he said. “We’re here, too.”
Adriiian (Adrian Oxley ’20) discusses music, creative process By PHILLIP PYLE ARTS EDITOR
PHOTO COURTESY OF STEPHENWINTER.ME.
Visiting Lecturer in Art Stephen Winter will bring experiences from the art world into the classroom.
Stephen Winter discusses his upcoming courses, success in film and podcasting By PHILLIP PYLE ARTS EDITOR Visiting Lecturer in Art Stephen Winter landed in New York City at a time when social, political and artistic movements were in full bloom. Through years of navigating the worlds of theater, film and podcasting, Winter has successfully produced a myriad of creative projects including his 2015 feature film Jason and Shirley, documentaries and short films. Through these endeavors, among many others, Winter has remained flexible and authentic in his approach to creating. “It is imperative for people to be who they are,” Winter explained to me over the phone. “I always stayed available and I always learned new ways to form my craft. It was the art that was always the most important thing to me, not what people said about it.” Winter’s malleable approach to art-making recently led to him co-writing, directing and producing the new podcast Adventures in New America, produced by the team behind the well known fictional futuristic podcast Welcome to Night Vale. “Night Vale was producing other shows at the time and The Orbiting Human Circus (Of The Air) was made by my friend Julian Koster [past member of indie band Neutral Milk Hotel]. He approached me about writing a podcast and they [Night Vale Presents] went for it.” Adventures in New America is described on Night Vale Present’s website as “the first sci-fi,
political satire, Afrofuturistic buddy comedy, serialized for New Americans in a new and desperate time. The thirteenepisode first season received rave reviews including a New York Times review that called it “The Best New Social Thriller.” Adventures in New America successfully tackles contemporary sociopolitical issues of race, class and sexuality through critiques of systemic racism and the corrupt nature of the American economic system. The show has found astounding success, being placed on numerous “Best Podcasts of 2018” lists. When talking to Winter on the phone about the explosion of publicity for the podcast, he spoke about his plans for a second season and the different approaches he takes to writing for the screen and writing for a podcast. “You can tell more with visual media in film. The dialogue is secondary because it’s the visual storytelling that makes a screenplay happen,” Winter said, “but in radio, you have to evoke emotions. You have to figure out other ways to the make claims about certain emotions.” One technique that many podcast creators use to make such “claims” is music; however, Winter sees music as conflicting with his vision for Adventures in New America. “There’s no score in our show,” Winter explained. “It’s a cheap trick to use a sad violin under a sad theme. One thing I really don’t like in podcasts is too much music.” For the second season, Winter is considering ways to turn the podcast into visual media,
perhaps a midnight movie or an animated show. More immediate than his second seasons, however, Winter will be teaching at the College this fall for the third time as a Visiting Lecturer in Art. Still living in New York, Winter will spend his Tuesdays and Wednesdays in Williamstown. This fall he will be teaching two Studio Art courses, ARTS 101 Revolutionary Film History and Short Film Screenwriting and ARTS 118 Video Introduction and Theory. While he’s taught at the College before, he says his curriculum will shift from the past two semesters he’s spent here due to the election. Through first-hand accounts of a rapidly changing 21st-century America, especially in the Trump era, Winter has seen New York City, an established haven for artists, become less habitable for creatives due to gentrification, diminishing privacy and dwindling affordability. The socioeconomic ramifications of the current political situation have also, undoubtedly, affected college campuses, and they call for new pedagogical approaches. In the Trump era, Winter believes students are living in a world completely different than they were three years ago, especially for those who can only recall life during the Obama administration. “There was more of a casual vibe before because they had Obama for most of their lives, so I tried to spend time with Bushera films,” Winter said. “Now we’re going to address all that and more in my classes.”
Adrian Oxley ’20 recalls Mano Sundaresan ’19 once saying, “Adrian is the rap scene at Williams.” “When I got here, there was only one other person on campus rapping besides me,” Oxley explained. “I’ve seen it bloom so rapidly during my time here.” While you may know Oxley from Homebrew, the rap/jazz/ funk/groove group which he joined his sophomore year, it’s likely that you know his name from his rapper pseudonym Adriiian. In fact, rap is how he got his foot into the music world. He wrote his first rap at eight years old — a rap about Darfur, as part of an assignment on his teacher’s lessons about the Sudanese Civil War. “The whole problem then was that everyone was like ‘Darfur?’” and that was then, and it’s still the same way,” Oxley said. “No one gave a fuck about media unless it came from America or Europe. And for some reason my teacher was adamant about teaching us about the struggles of Sudan which later turned into Sudan and South Sudan. I felt grateful for being taught about that at such a young age.” Oxley’s next major music stage occurred in middle school, where he explored darker lyricism and themes. Much of his raps were inspired by the legendary rap group “Odd Future,” which included Tyler, The Creator and Earl Sweatshirt. As Oxley (and the
Odd Future listener) knows, the rappers in the collective were not what they are today; their music contained themes of violence, homophobia and death. Tyler, the Creator in particular has shifted from those narratives, focusing on themes of peace and love in his recent albums Flower Boy and Igor. When he does discuss dismal themes like loneliness, they’re now accompanied by softer instrumentals and quieter vocals. This phase of emulation of his favorite rappers ended abruptly for Oxley. “My mom actually found some of the raps that I stuffed in my bag and was like ‘are you kidding me? You got to stop doing this,’” he said. “Then I started keeping all the music to myself and I didn’t tell anyone that I liked music or even wrote because I was too afraid because they’re all going to tell me the same thing. At the same time though, I was secretly getting way better at it.” In high school he began writing poetry and raps more seriously, which he attributes partially to smoking with friends. “Once I truly started to become a stoner at 16 or 17, me and my friends would sit together and spit bars,” Oxley said. “I was like ‘oh, y’all rap? I rap too.’ I was scared of the same crazy reaction my mom gave me.” At 18 he began recording himself — his brother, a student at the Berklee College of Music, helped him improve his production. Two years later, Oxley has founded a Brooklynbased rap collective ILL KATA
— he describes ILL KATA as lying somewhere between WuTang and BROCKHAMPTON — and is “just trying to figure out how to be me 100 percent of the time.” Now in his final year at the College, Oxley has opened for multiple music acts at the school, including New York underground rapper Wiki, whom you may know from his feature on Princess Nokia’s “Saggy Denim.” After he established his musical genius to the community, he’s been approached by WCFM 91.9 and ACE to perform at multiple shows, whether that be as the opener or headliner. This Saturday at Goodrich Hall, Adriiian will open for LA-based artist Kari Faux for an ACE-sponsored concert at 8 p.m. During our interview, his excitement to meet her and open for her was obvious. Faux, who has collaborated with Childish Gambino, Isaiah Rashad, Matt Martian, Saba and Syd, has exploded in fame. Her conversational internet rap-style has garnered wide critical acclaim. One of her songs was even used as the opening sequence track for the Issa Rae HBO show Insecure. “I absolutely cannot wait to meet Kari Faux. I love her,” Oxley told me. “Half of my set list has to be unreleased shit, that’s a rule I have for every show.” If you haven’t had the pleasure of talking with Oxley or listening to his music, you can find his 2019 EP Nomadic and 2018 album Sum’n Lyte 2 on Spotify or see him live this Saturday night.
PHOTO COURTESY OF EDDY VARELA.
Adrian Oxley ’20 performs with Homebrew in 2017. Oxley opens for Kari Faux this Saturday.
ARTS 9
The Williams Record
September 11, 2019
‘Summer’s Soldier’ puts Berkshire stories onstage at WTF By LILY GOLDBERG ARTS EDITOR Standing in the exact spot where Uma Thurman had performed the night before, two preteen girls teased a melody out of twin violins. The sound wafted through the audience of the ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance, where pockets of off-duty actors reclined munching home-made chocolate chip cookies. “Well, that just sounds wonderful!” an elderly man marveled. “They’re sisters,” replied a middle-aged woman, “and they wrote that piece themselves.” In a few days’ time, both the man and woman would be backstage, awaiting curtain alongside the 73 other cast members of Summer’s Soldier, a worldpremiere musical presented through the William-stown Theatre Festival’s Community Works program. Community Works, founded in the summer of 2015, is a program that facilitates creative collaboration between artists affiliated with the Williamstown Theatre Festival (WTF) and residents of Berkshire County. Pooling the talents of visiting theatre-makers alongside local creatives, Community Works participants collectively generate a world-premiere play performed in, and featuring actors from, Berkshire County. “We’re the only program in the country doing communityengaged theatre that produces a new play,” explained Hayley Sherwood, who has produced Community Works for the past three summers. “Most community-engaged theatres typically do Shakespeare, or myth, or a tale that has been told for centuries. We’re definitely referencing that — our stories are always epic, to accommodate such a large cast – but all of them have been world-premiere plays and musicals.” Community Works has a large cast indeed — about 73 Berkshire
PHOTO COURTESY OF JOSEPH J. O'MALLEY/ WILLIAMSTOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL.
The cast of Summer’s Soldier gathers for an early rehearsal. Summer’s Soldier featured more than 70 cast members, mainly Berkshire County residents. area residents, ranging from ages 6 to 94, and festival-affiliated actors made up the cast of this year’s musical. (The oldest cast member was beloved Williamstown resident and longtime festival usher Doris McNabb). Summer’s Soldier (written by playwright Boo Killebrew, with music by Heather Christian and lyrics by Lucy Thurber with additional music and lyrics by Christine Bile) follows a seventh grader named Sam (12-year-old Lee resident Carter Marks) processing the loss of her father who has recently died in combat overseas. During a storytelling session around a campfire in the woods, Sam discovers a ghost story, “The Man in the Mountains,” which helps her move past her grief. In the story, a soldier from the Revolutionary War arrives home to find that his family, presuming him dead, has moved on without him. Instead of disturbing their peace, he travels up to the mountains to watch over them from on high.
“The Man in the Mountains” is in fact a Berkshire folk legend — Killebrew discovered it during the off season brainstorming sessions, or “story-circles,” that the creative team behind Community Works conducts with local participants. In addition to collecting stories from Berkshire residents, Community Works also partners with 11 organizations, including Soldier On, a housing agency for previously homeless veterans, and BCArc, a center for adults with developmental disabilities, traumatic brain injuries and autism (members of the BCArc cast portrayed delightfully spooky mountain spirits). Although Community Works brings cast members of radically different backgrounds together in the room, the program does not seek to solve the complexities of PTSD or class inequality. “We aren’t social workers. We aren’t activists,” Sherwood explained. “Some of us may also be those things, but
what we’re doing here is making a play.” But even though Community Works is not designed as a therapeutic program, it sometimes functions as one. “We had a veteran in the show last year, and he was able to tell us that having participated in the show did serious work on his fear of being in large groups of people – he had every reason to be afraid of that, but since this was such a positive group of people, he was feeling so much more confident going out into the world. He wasn’t really talking about how it may have reminded him of past experiences, he was just able to navigate this one safely.” Community Works’ journey to the MainStage reflects WTF’s evolving relationship to community-engaged work. “The first year Community Works existed, it was held at Greylock Works [the event space on Route 2 entering North Adams],” said Sherwood. “That was exciting … but was liter-
ally away from the center of the festival. Its positionality was signifying, ‘this is additional.’” Community Works’ focus on the Berkshires also sets it apart from other shows in the festival, which tend to focus on dramas relevant to the lives of WTF’s audiences — often, summer visitors to the Berkshires who can afford $60 tickets to the Mainstage and Nikos shows. One particular example was this season’s Tell Me I’m Not Crazy, a tepid sitcom-esque dramedy about, to name a few plot-lines, an older man who is a liberal but buys a gun to prevent “illegals” from breaking into his home, a mother-inlaw who wants to control her grandchild’s preschool education, and a dad who feels like he’s not fulfilling his role as a breadwinner since he’s a struggling photographer – in the words of Berkshire Edge critic Dan Dwyer, “a kitchen sink of familiar, predictable White People Problems.”
“Arts organizations in the United States primarily rely upon transactional relationships, which are contributing to the homogenous audience demographic we see in the American theatre,” said Sherwood. “I do a lot of making friends with people and talking with them about why they may not go to the Williamstown Theatre Festival and the barriers associated with that. We’re trying to create long term mutually beneficial relationships.” Community Works, which is always free of charge, has worked hard to bring new audiences to the Festival — 34 percent of Community Works audiences had never been to a show at the ’62 Center MainStage before. Community Works also recruits local talent for its creative team — Lucy Thurber, who wrote lyrics for Summer’s Soldier, grew up in rural Massachusetts; Becky Ahamad and Michael Obasohan, the choreographers for the show, are part of dysFUNK crew, a dance group composed of MCLA alums. “We’re trying to chip away at the pipeline for access to world class theatre by saying that we will employ people who have not gotten here by network, but by merit,” Sherwood stressed. “To participate in Community Works, you have to be your most generous self.” As I sat in the back row taking notes, watching middle schoolers talk to octogenarians, hearing the lighting designers cheer for wheelchair-bound cast members, I found myself moved to tears — not by the story, or the costumes, or the music (the twin girls had ceased their strings anyhow), but by the simple kindness with which the members of the room treated each other. Perhaps it’s high time to liberate the phrase “generous gift” from the realm of “gold circle donors” and “season partners.” The most generous gift is, of course, one’s self.
New style Instagram features underrepresented student fashions By BROOKE HOROWITCH DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR As digital and social media become increasingly popular forums for sharing and expressing fashion, three students at the College have founded an Instagram account, @styleatwilliams, to feature unique outfits and pieces they observe on campus. Cris Young ’22, who spearheaded the project, proposed the concept on her personal finsta. Young had initially applied to work for Humans of Williams (an account modeled after Brandon Stanton’s popular Humans of New York page) but was not accepted. Young then decided to create an alternative account dedicated to style and inspired by @fashionatbrown from Brown University. Alexa Walkovitz ’21, who had roomed with Young during ROOT, messaged her and asked to be involved. “I remember seeing that and being like, ‘Oh my God,’” Walkovitz said. “I had been looking for an outlet.” Young then invited Kohen Rahman ’22 to join the team. She had always admired his style and recalled, “He was the first person I’ve seen go to Hoxsey [Street] in nice loafers. He does not stop for anybody.”
Rahman, who is from New York and attended The Baccalaureate School for Global Education in Astoria, Queens, mentioned that his daily commute fostered his formal style. “The clothes you wear say something about you, and I didn’t want to give off a false impression, even to strangers on the train,” he said. Though he and Walkovitz had not met before this year, Young has united the trio. They plan to scout for style at Paresky and various events to “see people in their elements,” according to Young. Their posts will include photographs of both complete outfits and individual pieces. “I don’t think my clothes are super defining for me,” Young said. “The thing I am most interested in is vintage jewelry pieces. I love accessories because I think they can make an outfit more than pants or tops.” Additionally, they plan on potentially including some quotes from subjects in their captions. “There’s a lot of people on campus who stand out to me, who I’m looking forward to interviewing,” Young said. They will also accept direct messages of outfits that their followers believe should be featured.
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Last week, Young, Walkovitz and Rahman posted individual introductions on the page to share their goals for the account and summarize each of their own style philosophies. Young emphasized that she hopes @styleatwilliams can be “a platform for underrepresented voices on campus.” “I don’t think that there are a lot of accounts that are as ambiguous as fashion, that can have more of an intersectional view,” she elaborated. “Fashion is so global, but in big cities, it can be so dominated by the stereotypical white female model who is like 5-foot-10 with a 24inch waist. Growing up, we never saw people in fashion magazines who looked remotely like us. College is a time when people are finding out who they are, so to have an account centered around people who look like you, who are as ambitious about wearing crazy outfits as you, and who have a relatable story is comforting.” In her introduction, Walkovitz mentioned that “e-girl” social media accounts, which are often run by the queer community, inspire her style. “Half of the definition is fashion, and half is about online
BROOKE HOROWITCH/DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR.
Kohen Rahman ’22, Cris Young ’22 and Alexa Walkovitz ’21 aim to showcase students' fashion choices through new Instagram account. be-havior,” she explained. Walkovitz also appreciates the Y2K and ’90s elements that these pages incorporate and the concept of “trashion,” which Internet Girl has popularized. “I see things in the thrift store, and I’m like, ‘This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen. And I’m going to buy it!’” she said. By contrast, Rahman loves couture brands and hopes to work in luxury fashion finance. His favorite designer is Alessandro Michele, creative director for Gucci, which he researched for his IB Visual Arts class. “[Michele’s] sketches and the way he puts together clothes has a very unique vibe… it’s baroque with lots of different prints and crazy colors,” he said. Rahman, Young and Walkovitz also discussed the looks shown above that they wore while being interviewed on Saturday. Rah-
man revealed his grooming routine; he uses Old Spice pomade to shape his hair, which retains a perfect lopsided coiffure. He had his eyebrows styled several weeks ago and mentioned, “My beard-to-hair ratio, there’s a science to it.” He also described using Vaseline as highlighter, like the South Asian model Shareef Ali. “We need more makeup on men!” Walkovitz and Young exclaimed in reply. Rahman wore a pale blue shirt with a Mandarin collar and navy pants with a subtle green plaid pattern. He purchased the top in Bangladesh, which “has one of the biggest garment indus-tries,” he said, “But the workers are really exploited … so I bought this to support the workers there.” Walkovitz then explained her outfit: “I’m in this zebra-print tank top and really high-waisted, big, bulky
jeans, and I painted flowers on the side,” she said. “I love this belt because it’s a little phallic, and for some reason, it makes me feel powerful.” “Today’s a Euphoria makeup day,” she added, referring to the HBO series that has become well known for its dramatic, sparkling beauty looks. “Glitter, blush, drawnon freckles, gotta have some hoops on.” Young focused on her accessories when reviewing her convocation ensemble. She proudly shared that she purchased her cream-colored fringe earrings for only $1. She also never removes her gold heart-shaped locket and baby charm bracelet, both gifts from her grandmothers. Her appreciation for these heirlooms is reflected in her opinions about trends. “I’m not really looking for trends because I don’t like to change my own style,” Young explained. “If there’s one person I like, I’ll follow them, but I don’t think I’ll change throughout the years.” She has noticed that bike shorts are becoming increasingly popular, however, though she does not believe that they will take off at the College. Rahman has a similar attitude about fads. “I don’t really like changing my style drastically, but if I see someone do something, I’ll try it,” he said. “ASAP Rocky did the babushka look, and I did it once at Hoxsey … the Russian grandma look.” Walkovitz, however, prefers to experiment more, particularly with hair and make-up. “I change my hair color, and I’m a different person,” she said. She also emphasized, “Something that I think is really awesome is that we all have such different styles, and that is really important to me … There is going to be such a wide range of stuff [featured on @styleatwilliams].” “This is a place for people of color to come together and feel comfortable,” Young added.
10 SPORTS
The Williams Record
September 11, 2019
Joey Lye ’09 qualifies for 2020 Olympics with Team Canada
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.
Joey Lye ’09, a former softball shortstop and women's hockey captain at the College, will make her first Olympic appearance next summer, after 10 years of professional play. By SOFIE JONES SPORTS EDITOR On September 1, Joey Lye ’09 and her teammates on the Canadian National softball team defeated Brazil 7-0 in an Olympic qualifier, becoming the fifth team to earn a bid to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. For Lye, who has been on the team for almost 10 years, it was a moment of intense gratification. “That’s been our goal and focus,” she said. “The whole purpose of this
summer was leading up to that moment.” In the 2008 Beijing Games, the last time softball was included in the Olympics, Team Canada took fourth place. Lye joined the team two years later and is prepared to fight hard for a medal this time around. “Our team works really hard,” she said. “The idea of having to get to a whole other level [for the Olympics], that really excites me.” An Ontario native, Lye, who earned a gold medal at
the Pan American Games in 2015 and helped her team secure three bronze medals at the WBSC World Championships, is no stranger to the international spotlight. This summer marked the first year of professional play for the Canadian Wild of Southern Illinois, a team composed of players from Canada’s national team who are also part of the National Pro Fastpitch league. The team competed against teams from across the United States, ending the sum-
mer with an overall record of 21–19–1. During her time at the College, Lye was a standout athlete on both the softball and women’s hockey teams. Her .457 career batting average is the highest in program history, and she holds the record for the most career hits with 211. Her performance on the field earned her two All-American honors. “The experience I had as a player was challenging and enjoyable,” she said. “I run towards those two things.”
While Lye excelled on the field, she also found deep importance in her academics and in the campus community as a whole. These things, she says, have shaped her career. As a psychology major, Lye spent much of her time on campus learning about “dealing with and understanding people, [which] are the basics of psychology.” She continued, “Relating to and understanding people are what coaching is. I feel like it works perfectly into each other.”
Throughout her career, Lye has recognized the impact of every aspect of her time at the College. “People often ask me if I would go back and play Div. I sports,” she said. “My answer is no. Williams was exactly what I needed and wanted. I don’t think I’d give up any aspect of Williams to play Div. I.” After graduating in 2009, Lye returned to the College as an assistant softball and hockey coach. This experience opened her eyes to a new side of collegiate athletics. “I got hooked on coaching,” Lye said. She has coached at several colleges in the decade since. Currently, Lye is at Bucknell, where she became the head coach of the softball team in 2018. The balancing act of both playing professionally and coaching a Div. I team keeps Lye busy, she admits, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. “I feel so fortunate to be able to coach and play at the same time,” Lye said. “Coaching allows me to see the game through a different lens.” Lye is now back at Bucknell in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, but will fly to meet up with her teammates throughout the fall to practice. In the spring of 2020, the team will gather in Canada in order to practice together vigorously in the months leading up to the Tokyo Games. While Lye is trying to remain focused on the present, her excitement for next summer is building quickly, especially because of how popular softball is in Japan. “Japan has an unreal softball culture,” she said. “It’s going to be unreal.”
College adopts new NCAA Sports captains train for their roles back-to-season protocols By SOFIE JONES SPORTS EDITOR
PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.
Fall teams, such as men's soccer, complete preseason training in accordance with NCAA guidelines. By REBECCA TAUBER DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR For fall athletes, returning to school also means returning to being in-season, and the start of a season often means back-toseason protocols. Protocols look different for each sport but often include a variety of physical fitness tests that measure entrylevel strength and sometimes create thresholds athletes must pass before starting the season. This fall, however, in response to concerns over potential serious athlete injuries put forth in a new NCAA report, some teams’ protocols for acclimization and conditioning have changed to better protect athletes following long off-seasons. The report, “Preventing Catastrophic Injury and Death in Collegiate Athletics,” released on May 2, outlines six key areas of prevention: sportsmanship, protective equipment, acclimatization and conditioning, emergency action plan, responsibilities of athletics personnel, and education and training. Director of Sports Medicine Rodd Lanoue explained that he met with the NESCAC Medical Aspects Safety Committee, Director of Athletics Lisa Melendy and Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Rob Livingstone in order to choose which aspects of the report’s recommendations to adopt. Because they felt the College was already on track with many of the report’s sections, they chose to focus on acclimatization and condition-
ing and education and training. The acclimatization and conditioning section of the report recognizes “transition periods” in training as a higher risk times for athletes. The report defines these periods as a return to in-season activity after school breaks and out-of-season months, and as a start to inseason activity for new athletes or athletes who have recovered from an injury or illness. “Collegiate athletes are especially vulnerable to exertional injuries during the first four days of transition periods, and the data support that modifications in these periods can greatly decrease the risk of catastrophic events,” the report states. “During this time, training and conditioning sessions should be appropriately calibrated and include limitations on total volume and intensity of activity.” Lanoue noted that in his 13 years at the College, no catastrophic injury or death has occurred from athletics. “Many of the most recent and highly publicized episodes of sudden catastrophic injury and death that prompted these recommendations have occurred in the Div. I setting and were the results of unrealistic training sessions that placed student-athletes at risk.” Despite the prompting from Div. I, Lanoue explained that the College still views such recommendations as the “standard of care,” necessitating the adoption of elements of the report. In response to the section on acclimatization, coaches worked
with the athletic department to ensure the safety of backto-season protocols. “Coaches have been asked to send their pre-season practice plans for training and condition to the Williams Strength Conditioning and Sports Performance department for review of their intensity, mode, and duration,” Lanoue explained. While this has not changed every team’s protocols, some sports have reformatted their back-to-season testing. The women’s crew team, for example, switched from an erg and run test as a threshold on the first day back to a few different tests over the course of multiple weeks. The athletics department also responded to the education and training aspect of the report by including programing at the end of the summer. “We implemented more education … regarding the major causes of catastrophic injury and sudden death,” Lanoue said. “Formal education sessions were held for coaches in the fall and an abbreviated version of that education was discussed during the studentathlete ‘Opening Day’ remarks from Sports Medicine.” While the post-summer acclimation period for fall sports will soon end, Lanoue noted that this is not the end of the conversation on acclimatization and conditioning for returning athletes. “Implementation of these recommendations is an ongoing process and we will continue to evaluate our current plan to see
Before Eph athletics kicked into full gear this fall, 85 student leaders from the College’s 30 varsity teams completed annual captain’s training. The three-day program, run by Director of Student-Athlete Services Carolyn Miles, prepares team captains to fulfill their multi-faceted roles. The program centers around an understanding of captains as both role models and crucial parts of their teammates’ support systems. “It’s an honor to be named captain, and it’s a wonderful thing,” Miles said. “But it’s also a tremendous amount of responsibility. I think it’s important for folks to remember how much they are giving of themselves.” The yearly training was formalized by Miles when she came to the College eight years ago. It is part of a bigger push in the Athletics Department to equip student athletes to be successful leaders on their teams, through programs like the Student Athletic Advisory Council and the Emerging Leaders discussions for sophomore athletes during Winter Study. This year, the training began with a keynote speech by Timothy Alexander, the first paraplegic player in Div. I history. Alexander, who is now the character coach for the University of Alabama football team, spoke to the student-athletes about “magnetic leadership,” or authen-
tic leadership that motivates others in an inspiring and personable way. “The talk by Timothy Alexander definitely changed my approach to being a captain,” volleyball co-captain Daiana Takashima ’20 said. “One of the quotes that I really took away was ‘Be a quarterback and not the referee.’ A captain is someone who motivates and inspires their teammates, instead of being someone who calls people out constantly on what they can do and cannot do. It really helped me change my mindset on how I want to proceed this season.” Over the next three days, captains attended sessions on different aspects of captainship, ranging from a session focused on Integrative Wellbeing Services to a discussion about sexual assault prevention. Captains were also given tools to help teammates who are struggling academically or with a health issue. “It’s really about knowing what you can manage and who you can reach out to [for help],” Miles said. Erin Denham ’20, Takashima’s co-captain, found these resources particularly helpful, as she strives to “play whatever role I need to so [that] our whole team can find success.” Captains also completed reflection sheets, detailing what they wanted their team cultures to look like and how they wanted to approach the season. For women’s basketball co-captain Mikaela Topper ’21, this prompted honest
conversation with her co-captain, Katie Brule ’20, about how to create a “winning culture” on the team in which all players feel confident in their performance and connected to each other. “I think we have all the pieces,” she said. “It’s just right there.” On the last day of training, captains participated in a joint training with this year’s Junior Advisors (JAs) about how to best support firstyear student-athletes as they transition to college life. College President Maud Mandel offered her thoughts on how the groups can lead in tandem in a talk that morning. This was the most impactful aspect of the training for Topper, as it prompted the two groups to reflect on their common goal. “Meeting with the JAs was especially helpful because I have heard in the past that there has been some tension between captains and JAs,” she said. “In reality, we all just want what’s best for our frosh.” While the organized sessions are a crucial part of what Miles hopes captains take away from the training, it is also an opportunity for captains from different sports to create a network of others who are taking on the same leadership role. “One of the largest impacts that captains’ training has on the individual is the ability to have met folks across sports and to realize that, with the human side of being a captain, it doesn’t matter what sport you’re playing,” she explained. “We’re all dealing with the same stuff.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.
Varsity captains welcomed keynote speaker Timothy Alexander during their annual training.
SPORTS 11
The Williams Record
September 11, 2019
Fall teams get back in the swing of competition as seasons start By ALICE QU SPORTS EDITOR As the excitement of movein and First Days begins to settle, fall season athletics are heating up, with teams taking on their first competitions of the season. Men’s soccer (0–1–1, 0–1–0 in the NESCAC) started off its season with a 1-1 tie against Springfield last Wednesday and a narrow 3-2 conference loss against Tufts on Saturday. The men will play their next game at RPI today and their next conference game at Wesleyan on Saturday. Field hockey (0–1, 0–1 in the NESCAC) kicked off its season on Saturday in a conference game against Tufts, falling 2-1 to the Jumbos — the same team that beat the Ephs in last year’s NESCAC semifinals. Their next conference game will be against Wesleyan on Saturday. Football has yet to play this fall, but will get its first shot at a win in a conference game against Middlebury on Saturday. The men will take on several NESCAC rivals in September. Volleyball (3–1) started strong at the Hawk Invitational last weekend, winning three straight matches. In their season-opening game against Kean last Friday, the women secured a 3-0 set victory. Later in the day, the team played a close game against SUNY Oneonta that went to a full five sets, pushing through to clinch the victory in the final set with a score of 15-11. The next day,
the women defeated Mount St. Mary in straight sets, before falling to SUNY New Paltz 3-1 in their last game of the weekend. With nine returning players and seven incoming players for the fall season, volleyball has a solid core of experienced players, along with a refreshing and exciting group of first years. “We are really excited about the possibilities of this group,” head coach Christi Kelsey said. “It’s cool for us coaches to think about the depth and talent we have on our entire roster and have fun trying to figure out all the pieces and combinations that might work best together.” While those first two games have been out of conference, the contests helped pinpoint areas to work on before the team’s first conference game on Sept. 20, when it takes on Trinity. “All of our matches will really provide us with an opportunity to measure where we are at currently and what we can do to keep growing and improving each day,” Kelsey said. Men’s and women’s cross country started their season at the Monmouth Invitational last Saturday. The teams’ main goals this fall are the three season-ending championships, along with the Little Three next week, the inter-regional meet at Connecticut College in October and the USATF meet in November. Another much-anticipated event of the cross country season is the NESCAC Cham-
pionships, which will also be held in Williamstown. Both teams are eyeing first place this year, after finishing second last season. Head coach Pete Farwell ’73 credits the team’s senior runners with much of the team’s energy. “[They] have been motivating the squads to build their training over the summer… everyone on the roster has ‘bought in’ to being the best teammate and runner they can be,” he said. The women’s team is captained by Hannah Lebowitz ’20 and last year’s All-NESCAC first team honoree Emma Herrmann ’20, who have been working to bring first-year runners “into the fold.” The men’s team also has the “most returning ‘starters’ ever,” and looks forward to a strong showing this fall, especially at the Purple Valley Classic on September 28. Hosted by the College, the meet will bring together 20 teams from all over New England and New York. After finishing runner-up at the NCAA National Championship last spring, women’s golf is excited to not only continue to improve and grow as a team, but also to welcome two new players. The women will kick off their fall season at the Ann Batchelder Golf Invitational on Sept. 14. “We are looking forward to building on to what we have created in the past years,” head coach Tomas Adalsteinsson, who was named the National Women’s NCAA Div. III Golf Coach of the Year last spring, said. “The next six weekends [of competition] will give us an opportunity to test our
PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.
The field hockey team welcomed 14 first-year players this fall, including Emily Batchelor ’23 (right). skills, and compete with the top teams in the Northeast.” The women will compete at Taconic in October at the Williams Fall Invitational, which is also the NESCAC Championship Qualifier. The team seeks to obtain their fifth consecutive NESCAC title. Men’s golf co-captain Sam Goldenring ’20 concluded the team’s season last spring with a third place finish at the NCAA Div. III Championship, after earning the Little Threes title with Amherst and playing in the NESCAC Championship. “It is a fantastic group of young men and they like to work hard and make each other better,” head coach Josh Hill-
man said. “Personally, I am really looking forward to watching them grow.” Similar to golf, men’s and women’s crew also compete in both the fall and spring seasons. While the main invitationals, such as the New England, NESCAC, and Div. III championships, occur in the spring, the teams’ race in several important fall races, including the Head of the Charles. Last year, the men’s and women’s teams were runners-up in the Head of the Snake and the Head of the Charles, respectively. “The fall season provides a great opportunity to make significant strides on the water, improving our boat feel, efficiency,
trying different combinations and simply taking as many strokes as possible,” head coach of the men’s team Marc Mandel said. His main goal is for team members to “create a solid foundation of mechanics and fitness to lead them into the winter offseason with the fundamentals that will serve them well while they train on their own.” With brand new team members to get to know and old team dynamics to revisit after summer break, women’s head coach Kate Wachala said that the fall is all about, “a focus on training, boat skills and team dynamics… [it] is a time to assess our starting point and work to get better every day, every practice and every stroke.”
Women’s soccer starts Pinard’s last season undefeated
PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.
Georgia Lord ’21 scored the tie-breaking goal for the Ephs in Saturday’s 2-1 win over the Jumbos. By DANNY JIN MANAGING EDITOR Women’s soccer has taken home an NCAA championship trophy each of the past two seasons, but the team has more than just the national title on its mind this fall. “We are trying, first and foremost to create the very
best team experience possible: We call it the team experience championship,” head coach Michelyne Pinard said. “That is the foundation off of which we work to go after other championships throughout the season, including the Little Three, NESCAC regular season, NESCAC tournament, NCAA
regionals and NCAA championship. We call it ‘winning all six.’” That team-centric philosophy has been the key to 259 wins, eight NESCAC championships and three national titles for Pinard, who announced on July 29 that this will be her 18th and final season leading the program. Pinard will be-
come athletic director at the Thacher School, a boarding school in Ojai, California, at the season’s end. The College’s Athletic Director Lisa Melendy, who coached women’s soccer from 1985 to 2001, praised Pinard’s accomplishments and legacy in a July interview with Sports Information. “She has set a high standard of excellence and created a fellowship of women soccer players at Williams who will remember their time here fondly,” she said. “She proved it is possible in college athletics to reach the highest levels of achievement on the field while still maintaining the highest level of commitment to intellectual and academic pursuits… I am hopeful others can learn from the example she set about what is possible in intercollegiate athletics when the students are put at the center of the enterprise and they are committed to pursuing excellence in all areas of their lives. That is the promise of college athletics, and Michelyne delivered on that promise.” But while players say the season has taken on added significance, the team’s focus is no different than in any other soccer season. “Knowing this is Michelyne’s last season at Williams of course makes this year extra special,” said tri-captain mid-
fielder Erika Jung ’20, “but we still have the same goal that we do every year – which is to win all six championships.” Both returning stars and new talent shined last week as No. 1 Williams (2–0–0, 2–0–0 in the NESCAC) kicked off its season with two conference victories, riding to a four-goal second half to a 4-2 comeback win over Hamilton last Wednesday and outlasting No. 22 Tufts 2-1 on Saturday. Sarah Kelly ’20, a Third Team All-American selection last year, is back to anchor the Ephs’ back line. Forward Alison Lu ’20, who led the Ephs with 12 goals in 2017, returns after spending last season injured. Midfielder Victoria Laino ’21, named NESCAC Player of the Week on Monday, notched two goals in the team’s 4-2 win over the Continentals and assisted on the game-winning goal in the 2-1 victory over the Jumbos. Eight first-years saw the field in their first week of collegiate soccer, and Claire Tolliver ’23 scored her first collegiate goal late in Wednesday’s game. Tolliver, Avery Mohan ’23 and Jaquelin Nordhoff ’23 have started both the team’s games so far. “Hamilton and Tufts are both good teams, and I'm really proud of the way my team fought to [win both games],” Jung said. “And the first-
years are a big reason why we were able to do so. They add so much talent, skill, and positive energy to this already deep team and we're very lucky to have each and every one of them this year.” “It's a lot of young players contributing, so the firepower is exciting,” Pinard told Sports Information last Wednesday. “Now we need to start firing on all cylinders and really moving the ball a little more effectively through the middle third, and I think we'll be able to pull teams apart.” Howard Herman, a longtime sportswriter for The Berkshire Eagle, opines that Pinard will one day be elected to the United Soccer Coaches Hall of Fame. For now, though, Pinard is focusing on what she does best: helping a team fulfill its potential. “I’m sure when it’s over, I’ll experience the gravity of my Williams career being over,” she said. “But for now, I’m giving this team and every single member on this team everything I have in me. I feel the same thing coming back at me, and it is exciting to think of what this team is capable of creating.” The women travel to Middletown, Connecticut, on Saturday to take on Wesleyan at noon. Sports Information writer Alli Norris ’22 contributed to this story.
ATHLETES OF THE WEEK “In [Saturday's] meet, [Aidan] stayed patient near the front of the pack, moved with one competitor in a breakaway, and then used his great kick to win by a second. He has the strength, endurance, stride and speed to contend with any runner in Div. III this year.”
“Victoria has such a great presence on the field that, now as a junior, we depend upon [her]. She is a terrific competitor and student of the game. It was great for her to get on the board, but what is even more exciting is that, as well as she played this past week, she and the team have another level.”
-Head coach Pete Farwell ’73
-Head coach Michelyne Pinard
AIDAN RYAN ’21
VICTORIA LAINO ’21
MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY NEW YORK, N.Y.
WOMEN'S SOCCER CHARLOTTE, VT.
Ryan finished first in the junior-senior race at this weekend's Monmouth Invitational, with a time of 18:29.6.
Victoria was named NESCAC Player of the Week, after scoring two goals against Hamilton this past weekend.
12 COLUMNS
The Williams Record
THE RECORD CROSSWORD | Sept. 11, 2019 By Noah Cohen-Greenberg ’22
Dear Ephelia When I hold the door for someone and get a “thank you” in response, what do I say? If I remain silent, I feel like I’m being rude. If I say, “You’re welcome,” it’s awkward. — Good Samaritan A simple “sure” acknowledges the gesture while smoothly ending the interaction. It's even more effective if you don’t make eye contact. *** I’ve gotten dinner at Mission twice with my crush. Is dinner at ’82 the next step? Are we dating? — Cautiously Optimistic It all depends, Cautiously Optimistic. Where did you sit? If you’ve been getting din-
ner at Mission at those long tables, I have some bad news for you: you and your crush are platonic. There is nothing that screams “just friends” like eating cauliflower-crust pizza next to the entire WUFO team during its sweaty post-practice meal. Your crush just wants to be friends. Sorry. If, however, you sat at one of those two-person tables, congratulations! You’re probably already in a committed relationship. The next step is not ’82; it is marriage. *** I’m a Non-Athlete Regular Person, I’m legally allowed to drink, and I like to go out, but 70 just isn’t doing it for me. How can I make myself look and seem like an athlete and
DOWN
1: Converse 5: Classic diner sandwich (abr) 8: The Lion King antagonist 12: Hindu queen 13: Roadside assistance org. 14: Skin 15: “Don't quote me ___” 16: Handy speech? 17: The A of UAE 18: Famous 20th-century novelist 20: Fight ender, for short 22: Farrow or Hamm 23: San Francisco team, familiarly 25: Like the third little pig 27: Texas: USD, Germany: ___ 29: Kim's half-sister 30. Frosh move-in week, when they meet their 46-Across and 18-Across group 34: Word with whale or bank 35: Madame's husband 36: Goes after 38: It may be graphic or intelligent 43: It goes from a to zyzzyva (abr) 44: Bolt go-with 46: Point of ___ 47: You can do one forwards or backwards 49: Piece of fishing equipment 51: “Gotcha” 52: What you might get for parking in Thompson without a sticker 53: President after HCH 54: Physics homework, colloquially 55: Wise 56: Word with bean or Yo 57: Years and years and years
1: Choose as king 2: Capital of Vietnam 3: Chlorine with 18 electrons, e.g. 4: Twelfth Night or A Midsummer Night's Dream, e.g. 5: Sheepish retort? 6: Hold out 7: Some of the events in Chapin Hall or Wege Auditorium 8: Where you go to put cucumbers on your eyes 9: Infamous Knicks burnout 10: “Does it dry up like ___ in the sun?” - Langston Hughes 11: Money back 19: People who aren't slaves or serfs 21: Full-grown acorn 24: Space heater? 26: Just so you know (abr) 28: Twitter affirmations, for short 30: Hamlet casualty 31: English homework, probably 32: Tax dept. 33: Word with hearing or Rite 34: Audibly scorns 37: Catches gnarly waves 39: Shoot from far away 40: You’re right 41: Where you want to be on the golf course 42: Sergei's negatives 45: List header 48: What you might do halfway through a Hoxsey party 50: One way to have your scotch
Chaplains’ Corner
Answering students’ questions on all things Williams
By EPHELIA
ACROSS
go to 66 this weekend without giving away my true identity? — NARP At the 66 party, if anyone asks what sports team you’re on, just say “the men’s team” or “the women’s team,” and expect that they know what you’re talking about. *** I matched with my TA on Tinder. Did she swipe right just because she knows me, or does she want this to go anywhere? — Div. III Eph It depends: How’s your chemistry during TA sessions? Is she older than you, or are you on equal footing? Have you had any one-on-one interactions outside of sessions? Try DMing her a question about the mate-
rial through Tinder, and then move the conversation to other, more amorous topics. *** I love my roommate — we’ve been best friends since our first year — but his phone alarm is Nickelback’s “Far Away.” What should I do? How can I address this with him without causing offense? — Tired and Conflicted The next Housing Mini-Lottery begins Oct. 8. *** Need some advice? Wondering, “What would Ephelia do?” This week, we asked our board to come up with questions. But email dearephelia@gmail.com, and we’ll help you with your most pressing concerns!
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Welcome to the Chaplains’ Office column! We will be writing twice a month, offering reflections on spiritual themes that are inspired through our respective faith journeys and our engagement with thoughts and ideas encounter as people of faith and chaplains at Williams College. We are hoping this will also be an opportunity to engage topics that are also important to you! If you have ideas of what topics you would like
to see us offer reflections on, please email us with your ideas. We look forward to communicating with you and hearing feedback on our thoughts. The Rev. Valerie Bailey Fischer, Chaplain to the College and Protestant Chaplain Imam Sharif Rosen, Muslim Chaplain Rabbi Seth Wax, Jewish Chaplain
Have an idea for a column theme? Want to write one? Email ncg1 — we’re all ears!