ARTS P. 8 "Cavernous" opens at KidSpace
SPORTS P. 12
VOL. CXXXII, NO. 1
Men's golf wins invitational
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2017
Majumder appointed interim president By NICHOLAS GOLDROSEN NEWS EDITOR Chair of the Board of Trustees Michael Eisenson ’77 announced on Aug. 29 that, effective Jan. 1, Protik (Tiku) Majumder, professor of physics and director of the Science Center, would serve as interim president of the College. His announcement follows the news in July that current President Adam Falk will leave the College at the end of the year to become president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. In his announcement, Eisenson noted that the search committee was looking for an interim president who could provide stable and effective leadership at a critical point for the institution. “Our objective was to find an interim president with a keen understanding of our institution; a love of Williams, of its students and of its faculty; enormous patience, tact and insight; and an ability to respond with intelligence, compassion and calm to the inevitable challenges that will arise from time to time,” Eisenson wrote. Majumder currently holds the positions of Barclay Jermain Professor of Natural Philosophy and director of the Science Center, where he occupies a key leadership role in the ongoing Science Center renewal project. Majumder, who has been at the College for 23 years, holds a doctorate in physics from Harvard and completed his undergraduate education at Yale. His current research focuses on atomic structure.
Majumder’s term as president will run until the beginning of the new president’s term, which will most likely not begin until the end of the 20172018 academic year. His job will involve the careful balancing of the needs for both continuity and adaptability. “I am honored to have been asked, and I look forward to doing the job of the president as any new president would, understanding that it’s a temporary job, that there’s a certain amount of continuity that’s important, but it is also important to think about moving the College forward,” Majumder said. “Six months can be a long time, and a lot can happen. We should feel lucky that Williams is in a good place in many ways, but there are ongoing challenges as we all know.” Majumder noted that despite whatever challenges may arise, his mission as president will remain constant. “The business of the College is the business of educating its many students in the best ways that we can,” Majumder said. “That’s been my job as a teacher, it’s been my job as a research mentor and it is what I will focus on as interim president.” Above all, he emphasized the dual importance of both stability and dynamism. “Williams has been around for a long time, yet it is constantly changing. There’s no such thing as being static in these situations,” Majumder said. “My tenure as president will hopefully reflect a sense of stability, and will provide a
PHOTO COURTESY OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE
Tiku Majumder, currently a physics professor and director of the Science Center, will become president of the College on Jan. 1, 2018. strong link between the 17th and 18th presidents of the College. Also, as I look forward to this new role, having been here at Williams for 23 years, I have a very strong sense of how important this responsibility is.” In preparation for his new role, Majumder has been familiarizing himself with the
Falk reflects on his tenure, contemplates bright future By JACK BRENT GREENBERG and MICHAEL GREEN RECORD STAFF This time of year marks many new beginnings: a fresh slate of classes, the arrival of the Class of 2021, several new faculty and staff hires and the opening of the new bookstore. However, for President Adam Falk, September marks the beginning of the end of his term, as well as a new beginning for him as president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Come the start of January, Falk will have cleared out the office in Hopkins Hall he occupied for almost eight years and made the transition from the Purple Valley to New York City. Falk took over the College’s presidency in 2010 from interim President William Wagner, who took on the role following Morty Schapiro’s departure for Northwestern. Upon arriving in Williamstown, Falk sought to prioritize the College becoming a national leader in innovative and effective teach-
ing, an increasingly international institution and a more diverse, multicultural community, as he described in his inaugural remarks. Though Falk has seen progress in all of those objectives, he conceded that his time in office has continuously reframed his goals for the College. “I think that over a decade, your sense of what is important evolves. There are both new things that have come up and ways in which I would think about those goals framed at that time which would be different now,” Falk said. “The simplest one to talk about is international. Global is no longer one single thing that can be put in one part of the curriculum or one part of the College. We have evolved to the point where we think about what kind of opportunities we can give to every student for international experiences and give the College a more international flavor. We continue to have a strong presence of international students, we have
revamped the Study Away office [and] … we have been trying to find more opportunities for students to go abroad during the summer and Winter Study. I am very pleased with the international aspects of the College, but that doesn’t look like what I thought it might look like eight years ago.” As for functioning as an exemplar of undergraduate education, Falk saw no significant departure during his presidency from the practices of the College in preceding years. “You continue to hire superb faculty and support them,” Falk said. “That’s not a thing that lives in a particular part of the College. I think there was a moment when it was thought that somehow technology was going to turn upside-down everything we did. … Technology is giving us new ways of teaching, but it’s not replacing the human interaction that is the center of good teaching at a liberal arts college.”
SEE FALK, p. 5
COLLEGE BOOKSTORE OPENS AT BASE OF SPRING STREET; STUDENTS LOSE OPPORTUNITY TO COMPLAIN ABOUT WALK TO WATER STREET
JUNE HAN / PHOTO EDITOR
many constituencies at the College and broadening his experience with the administrative work of the College. “There are lots of constituencies, between students, faculty, staff, trustees and alumni, who have important ideas, roles and opinions about how things should go forward. It’s an ongoing challenge to
listen and bring people together and move the College forward; new ideas emerge and we need to be ready to embrace them,” he said. “My professional life at Williams has been centered in the science world, and I know a subset of students very well, but only a subset. I am very much looking forward to the op-
portunity to learn more and become more engaged in the [broader happenings on campus], and I am already starting that work this fall.” Majumder, however, will not get the opportunity to live in Sloan House — the house is currently out-of-use for the next year to facilitate the removal of lead paint.
College, students respond to DACA repeal
ALEXANDRA MEDEIROS/OPINIONS EDITOR
The Williamstown community protested the DACA repeal. By JEONGYOON HAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER In response to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ Sept. 5 announcement of a gradual “wind-down” of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), President of the College Adam Falk reaffirmed the College’s commitment to supporting those affected by the program’s impending cancellation in an email to the College community. Through addressing concerns among members of the community about the recent news, Falk promised protection and security for undocumented students. “Anyone admitted to or employed by Williams is a welcome member of this community,” Falk wrote. “We will not tolerate bias or prejudice toward our people on the basis of DACA status or other identity attributes.” DACA, which President Barack Obama enacted in 2012, allowed some undocumented immigrants who entered the United States when they were younger than 16 to be eligible for a work permit and renewable deferral from deportation every two years. With the cancellation, over 800,000 people’s statuses as residents in the United States remain unclear. With an unsure future facing students and their families and friends affected by DACA, the College has promised to launch a multi-faceted approach to support community members to the greatest capacity possible. Associate Dean of the College Rosanna Ferro said that it is essential for institutions of higher learning to accept and fully wel-
come people from all walks of life, including immigrants. “It’s part of a goal of an institution of higher education to provide opportunities to those that are admitted [into the College,]” Ferro said. “I believe that people should have the choice and the option and, surrounding this specific topic, I’m passionate about it, because these students had no choice in the matter: They were brought here when they were children,” she said. “This is their life. This is where they grew up. So I think it’s only fair for them to pursue a degree of higher education at a place like Williams.” Through such a statement of support, the College administration has emphasized that it will uphold its financial obligations to students – since their status prevents them from gaining financial aid from the federal government – and will protect community members in legal situations to its greatest ability. Falk stated that College staff will not aid in the enforcement of immigration law in any way and that, should government agencies or officers appear on campus, the College “will not provide student or employee information to government agencies or their officers unless presented with a legitimate court order” as required by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. The College also prohibits government officers from conducting warrantless questioning, searches or detention on campus. Furthermore, the circle of support spans not only within the College, but Williamstown as well: Collaborations between faculty, students and the Williamstown Police Department during the past year gave rise
to two new forms of legislation protecting the rights of immigrants from unlawful seizures. On Sept. 6 approximately 40 people appeared at a “Stand Up for DACA” rally at the intersection of Routes 2 and 7. The College’s support for the undocumented students has shown itself in other forms, ranging from special consultation from the chaplain’s office, legal experts in upcoming workshops, Counseling Services and the Speak Up! online reporting feature, which receives tips on cases of bias or prejudice happening on campus. Student organizations have also stepped up to act as mediators between the administration and students so that the administration can better understand undocumented students’ needs. Last year, the Coalition for Immigrant Student Advancement (CISA) found the need for a student group to advocate for documented and undocumented immigrants’ rights.
SEE DACA, p. 5
WHAT’S INSIDE 3 OPINIONS
One student's heartfelt response to DACA repeal
4 NEWS
Science Center construction progresses
7 FEATURES
Alpaca farms bring local charms
9 ARTS
IMAGES screens "An Inconvenient Sequel"
11 SPORTS
First-year athletes explain why they chose Williams USPS 684-6801 | 1ST CLASS MAIL U.S. POSTAGE PAID WILLIAMSTOWN, MA PERMIT NO. 25