RECORD THE WILLIAMS
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2019 VOL. CXXXIV, NO. 2 Dylan Barbour ’ 16 finds McGovern '21 reports love on reality TV from the campaign trail
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THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT WILLIAMS COLLEGE SINCE 1887
College helps fund new Williamstown police station After two years of planning and negotiations, Williamstown PD moves to new location on Simonds Road By NICHOLAS GOLDROSEN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Williamstown’s new police station on Simonds Road opened for operation in July, made possible in part by a $400,000 donation and an easement of land from the College. The College’s donation was a crucial part of allowing the town to construct the station with no net tax impact. Begun in 2017 and approved at the Williamstown town meeting in May 2018, the new station contains vast improvements from the old station, including areas for the public, crime victims, officers and those in custody to be out of sight and sound of one another. The old station also had a steep staircase leading down to the holding cells, posing a safety risk. The new station was built on the site of a former home for veterans, Turner House. The College often plays an active role in specific public capital projects for the town, such as the police station or high school, with funding and in-kind donations. However, the College does not have a regular arrangement to provide funds to the town in lieu of property taxes save for a yearly payment to the fire district, which is a separate government entity from the town. Rather, it provides direct support to individual projects and initiatives. “This was a clear capital need for a long time,” said Assistant to the President for Community and Government Affairs Jim Kolesar ’72. “There were other projects lined up before it, such as the high school, but then it clearly became time.” Kolesar noted that the College was not formally approached by the town, but rather is continually look-
WILLIAM NEWTON/MANAGING EDITOR
Williamstown’s new police station on Simonds Road was funded in part by a $400,000 donation from the College. ing out for such opportunities to contribute. “We’re in constant conversation about this sort of thing,” he said. Indeed, the College’s involvement in the new police station continued through the planning of the project. The most central form of the College’s support was financial. Kolesar informed Town Manager Jason Hoch ’95 on Jan. 20, 2018, following the January meeting of the College’s Board of Trustees, that the board had pledged $400,000 to support the project. Hoch replied, “That’s wonderful news. Thank you! That’s a critical piece of being able to put together a program that has no net tax impact. I should have a better
sense next month of my timetable so we can coordinate an announcement for our best mutual benefit.” Concern over the new location did delay the College’s financial support for the project, though, which it did not actually approve at the January meeting. On Jan. 22, 2018, following the board’s January meeting, Kolesar emailed Hoch to clarify his earlier email. “The board endorsed the idea but didn’t take a vote for a reason I can explain. At least one member wanted us to make sure this was the best possible solution for the town,” he wrote. “In other words, one closer to town that might cost more for which money could be raised. Don’t
be alarmed. I think a small amount of due diligence will get us to the right place.” At the time, the town had already approved the purchase of Turner House at a special November 2017 town meeting and purchased the deed on Feb. 5, 2018, according to deed records. The payment for the station and land also included a state grant for $250,000 in recognition of the town’s affordable housing efforts, both of which reduced the amount the town needed to borrow. “In short, we are using free cash on hand and reallocating utility cost savings (based on the electricity generation credits from the solar array at the old landfill, also facilitated by Williams),
to cover annual debt costs to keep our total town debt payments flat,” Hoch said to the Record. “In 2025, we finish paying off a bond from the Elementary School, so those funds will then be reallocated to pay the Police Station debt.” Kolesar stated to the Record that the College’s board did not have any input as to the location of the station or construction details, such as the resources that were to be provided in the new station. Nonetheless, at one point, a member of the board made an unannounced visit to the station to assess what officers thought of the potential new location at Turner House. On Feb. 6, 2018, Kolesar wrote to Hoch, “[A] Williams board member who owns a residence in town arranged last weekend to be shown around the current station and while he was there asked the officer (I don’t know who it was but I think not [Chief of Police] Kyle [Johnson]) what he thought about the move. That person’s reported to have said that mainly he’s extremely happy to finally be moving into a modern facility, that he’s wistful (probably not the word he used) about being out of the center of town but apparently didn’t think it was a huge deal.” The other location that had been considered for the project was where Mountain One Bank is currently located on Main Street, near Currier Hall and Spencer Art Studio. This site, however, was brought up only after discussions had already started on the Turner House site. “The Town was only considering sites that were on the market or known to us to be available. The suggescontinued on Page 5
Ethan Zuckerman ’93 steps College steps up science Bae '17 gets three years center site security down from MIT Media Lab Four incidents of trespassing into North Science Center in prison cause $7500 in damages, prompt new guards on site over Epstein concerns By DAVID SHAKIROV STAFF WRITER Ethan Zuckerman ’93, a prominent internet media scholar and entrepreneur, announced Aug. 20 that he is resigning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, stating that the lab contradicted its own values in working with Jeffrey Epstein,
By SAMUEL WOLF DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR
which last year recognized #MeToo activists – expressed concern that Ito was “underestimating the public reaction to Epstein.” Ito resigned on Sept. 7. Epstein donated close to $800,000 to MIT alone and $525,000 to the lab, although the conditions of these donations included portraying Epstein’s involvement as anonymous. Soon after, however, this line began
“It’s hard to do that work with a straight face in a place that violated its own values so clearly in working with Epstein.” –Ethan Zuckerman ’ 93, Director of MIT Center for Civic Media a wealthy financier and the leader of a pedophilia ring who recently committed suicide while awaiting trial. In May 2020, Zuckerman will leave his post as director of the MIT’s Center for Civic Media. “My logic was simple: The work my group does focuses on social justice and on the inclusion of marginalized individuals and points of view,” he wrote in the blog post announcing his resignation. “It’s hard to do that work with a straight face in a place that violated its own values so clearly in working with Epstein and in disguising that relationship.” On Aug. 15, Joi Ito, then-head of the MIT Media Lab, issued an apology for accepting of over $500,000 in donations to the lab and $1.2 million to his personal venture fund since 2013 from Epstein. In his apology, Ito promised to donate equivalent sums to groups that advocate for sexual assault survivors and to return all donations and investments. Zuckerman’s department is one of 26 different subsidiaries within the lab. Zuckerman told the Record he learned of the Epstein connection roughly a week before Ito’s public apology and “was quite worried it would turn into a major issue for Joi [Ito] and the lab.” Zuckerman – who helped organize the lab’s annual disobedience award,
to blur. Epstein met with Joi Ito in 2015, The New Yorker reported, after the two tried to override Epstein’s “disqualified” status in the donor and development office at MIT. Ito admits he “invited [Epstein] to the lab and visited several of his residences.” Zuckerman claims these gifts “were not anonymous” as intended and that they “[bought Epstein] contact with the thinkers he craved.” Zuckerman expressed hope that the lab be “open and honest with their colleagues about their decisions.” He went on to characterize the lab as a place where faculty have significantly more control over research decisions than students or staff, and hopes the lab leadership can use this moment as an opportunity to correct the inequity. Going forward, Zuckerman seeks other institutions where he can “teach PhD students [with a] Williams BA.” Overall, he characterizes the Media Lab controversy as a lesson to major institutions and individuals alike about being effective against injustices in the workplace. Zuckerman says it starts out small — first by calling out the predator in “the corner office,” or refusing a six figure donation from one “to launder [their own] reputation.”
WILLIAM NEWTON/MANAGING EDITOR
A private security team and video cameras will monitor the North Science center site. By WILLIAM NEWTON MANAGING EDITOR In response to four separate documented incidents of students and others trespassing into the North Science Building construction site, one of which resulted in significant damage, Dean of the College Marlene Sandstrom announced in an all-campus email that the College has hired a private security team, which will not be armed, to monitor the zone at night. The College has also installed a number of high-resolution security cameras that can identify individuals entering the site. Additionally, per Sandstrom's email, the College plans to treat any intrusion during non-construction hours as criminal
trespassing, to be handled by the Williamstown Police Department. The most recent of the documented intrusions occurred last Thursday night — those students were identified from camera footage. According to Director of Campus Safety and Security Dave Boyer, initial estimates pegged total damages at $7,500. For Boyer, these string of incidents are entirely unprecedented and represent a serious risk to student safety. “In my 31 years, the College has never had to resort to protecting a construction site,” Boyer wrote in a message to the Record. “The risk students were taking was shocking, and establishing on site [private security] was necessary to prevent a severe injury or death.
On Monday, Judge Michael Callan of the Berkshire Superior Court sentenced Yoonsang Bae ’17 to not less than three years and no more than three years and a day in prison. Callan had previously convicted Bae of rape on Sept. 6, closing a five-year investigation that began when Bae assaulted another student on campus in summer 2014. The College had suspended Bae for two years, which he spent serving in the South Korean military, before he graduated in 2017. Assistant Berkshire District Attorney Stephanie Ilberg prosecuted Bae’s case under the direction of District Attorney Andrea Harrington, who was elected to office in 2018 partially on the platform of rigorously prosecuting rape cases at the College. The previous District Attorney’s office, led by Paul Caccaviello, had extended Bae a plea deal in 2018 that would have required he admit only to indecent assault and battery, a lesser offense. Bae did not accept the deal. Harrington’s office rescinded that offer, and instead offered three to four years in prison in exchange for a guilty plea for rape. When Bae rejected that offer and the case proceeded to trial, Ilberg asked for a sentence of five to seven years in prison. Callan has recommended that Bae serve his sentence in the Berkshire Jail and House of Correction. Following his sentence, Bae will have to register as a sex offender. He will be deported to South Korea, where he is a citizen, and will be barred reentry to the United States.
WHAT’S INSIDE 3 OPINIONS Abby Lloyd '20: Ensuring accountability for rapists
4 NEWS Student car vandalized by potatoes
10 SPORTS Softball assistant coach receives WSF grant
USPS 684-6801 1st CLASS MAIL U.S. POSTAGE PAID WILLIAMSTOWN, MA PERMIT NO. 25