ARTS P. 8 Jack Wadsworth '61 gifts artwork from WALLS
SPORTS P. 10 Football defeats Bodwoin to open season
The Independent Student Newspaper at Williams College Since 1887 VOL. CXXXIII, NO. 2
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2018
College awards Bicentennial Medals to four alums By SOFIA JONES CONTRIBUTING WRITER Last Saturday, the College marked the start of the 20182019 academic year with the annual convocation ceremony in Chapin Hall, which included the awarding of this year’s Bicentennial Medals. Four alums received the medals, given each year since 1993 for “significant achievement in any field of endeavor.” The 2018 recipients of the Bicentennial Medals were John Walcott ’71, Cheryl Robinson Joyner ’85, Michael Wynn ’93 and Shoshana Clark Stewart ’02. These alums come from a variety of fields of work and experiences, which Director of Alumni Relations Brooks Foehl ’88 explained was precisely the point. The awards are meant to be a “celebration of the breadth and depth of achievements within the alumni body,” he said. The first recipient, John Walcott, is a journalist with over 40 years of experience at The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Bloomberg and other publications. He is currently the editor-in-chief for national security and foreign affairs at Thomson Reuters Corporation, a mass media and information firm. He served as the Washington bureau chief of the media company Knight Ridder, where he published many stories investigating the verity of claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Additionally, Walcott co-authored the book Best Laid Plans: The Inside Story of America's War Against Terrorism. His experience was also the subject of Rob Reiner's 2017 movie, Shock and Awe. At a time when political leaders were waging war in the Middle East, Walcott sought to gain what College President
PHOTO COURTESY OF ROMAN IWASIWKA. President Maud Mandel awarded medals to alums Michael Wynn ’93, Shoshana Clark Stewart ’02, Cheryl Robinson Joyner ’85 and John Walcott ’71. Maud Mandel called “a grasp of the wider picture.” His doubts about the accuracy of political claims led him to go against the grain, investigating further to get to the truth. “History has since proven that you were right,” Mandel said to Walcott at Saturday’s ceremony. Joyner then received her award for her achievements in the entertainment industry, as an executive responsible for some of music’s most influential global marketing campaigns in recent decades. Joyner has worked at Sony, MCA, Warner Bros. Records and the Universal Music Group, and has crafted marketing campaigns for artists such as Prince, Fleetwood Mac, Madonna and Stevie Wonder. She was also the recipient of two professional Grammy Awards in 2005 and
2015 for her support of the Recording Academy’s education and advocacy work. Most recently, Joyner founded and now serves as chairman of PARA Music Group, which licenses music globally. Joyner also gave this year’s Convocation address. She urged the senior class to recognize the strength in the College community as they embark on their final year. She told the audience of how, at times, it was difficult for her to find her place at the College in the early 1980s, shortly after the school had started accepting women. “I felt like a fish out of water who had landed in the Purple Valley,” she said of arriving on campus as a 16-year-old first-year. Joyner said that this experience prepared her well for a career in a male-dominated in-
dustry, as she learned to stand for herself and value those who stood for her. She encouraged students to seek out others and bond over shared interests and ambitions. “Elevate, empower and inspire others,” she said. The third recipient of the medal was Wynn, the Pittsfield Police Department chief of police. Wynn served as acting chief of police for ten years, before being officially sworn in as chief last year. Over that time, he has worked to connect the police department to the broader Pittsfield community and to diversify the force. He is also the author of the 2008 book, Rising Through the Ranks: Leadership Tools and Techniques for Law Enforcement. Mandel praised the work of Wynn, who started as a Campus Safety and Security officer while a student at the College.
Honor committee revises code By DAVEY MORSE
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
On Sept. 10, Dean of the College Marlene Sandstrom emailed the student body about two significant changes to the College’s academic Code of Conduct. The first narrows the scope of “reportable” Honor Code violations. The second details the sanctions and requirements that the Honor and Discipline Committee might issue in response to a student’s violation. Most notable is the “mandatory educational tutorial,” which, according to the Code of Conduct, is a new option “designed to educate students about the importance of academic integrity” and to “serve as a guide for proper practices around collaboration, citation, quotation and more.” The eight student representatives of the Honor and Discipline Committee compiled these revisions last spring and first introduced them to the eight faculty members of the committee in May. Faculty chair and Professor of Sociology Olga Shevchenko noted that many violations have historically occurred due to lack of knowledge rather than malice. “Oftentimes, academic violations occur when students don't really know how to properly cite, how to use sources or how to take notes in a way that minimizes the danger of direct citations creeping into the text,” she said. Of the cases she saw last year, Shevchenko estimated that roughly a quarter resulted from misunderstanding and improper citation practices. In Shevchenko’s understanding, the members of the committee thought the previous version of the academic Code “was a bit of a blunt instrument that didn’t include any real tools for students to learn.” Reportable violations are included in a
student’s formal disciplinary record, and students are required to declare them when asked about their college disciplinary history by other parties, like graduate schools or employers. Previously, reportable violations constituted the vast majority of violations, according to Sandstrom. “All cases in which students were found to have violated the [original] Honor Code resulted in a sanction that was reportable,” she said, adding that this reality often frustrated the studentrun committee. Now, any violations that do not result in probation, suspension or expulsion are recorded tem-
than a strictly punitive one,” Sandstrom said. The Honor and Discipline Committee is currently determining the form that a mandatory educational tutorial would take. “The educational tutorial is new, so much so that now we have to discuss what types of tutorials should be put together. Do they exist [already]? Are they available at other institutions?” Shevchenko said. Sandstrom added that it would be likely take the form of an online tutorial. Additionally, she noted that “student members of the Honor Committee are currently working on the content.”
“Honor Committee members are increasingly committed to approaching their work from an educational perspective rather than a strictly punitive one.” Marlene Sandstrom Dean of the College porarily in the dean’s office until they expire upon the student’s graduation. Thus, students who are not given probation or more serious punishments do not have to report having received any College discipline. It is this class of violation that the revisions to the Code of Conduct attempt to address. “Honor Committee members are increasingly committed to approaching their work from an educational perspective rather
These changes now bring the College’s approach to violations of the Honor Code in line with its approach to non-academic violations. “[Many] low-level violations typically result in non-reportable responses such as a letter of warning, a meeting with a dean, a self-reflective exercise or some other educational assignments,” Sandstrom noted. While the Code of Conduct updates do not substantially change non-academic (i.e., social or sexual)
misconduct, “[the] newly created range of responses brings honor code violations more closely in line with the way other code violations are handled,” she said. Specifically, the updated Code of Conduct now stipulates that violations of the Honor Code resulting in a warning, a mandatory educational tutorial, failure in the assignment or failure in the course still do not “automatically become part of the student's permanent record unless it is accompanied by disciplinary probation or suspension.” Talks of these changes were also motivated in part by a recent increase in the number of cases that have been brought before the Honor and Discipline Committee, as Shevchenko oberserved. “We're still trying to wrap our heads around why,” she said. “Just to give you a comparison, ten years ago I think the committee heard 15 cases. If you go 20 years back, I think it would be single digits – last year it was 34.” According to the Honor and Discipline Committee reports from the past 15 years, there has been an average annual increase of just under two cases per year. According to Shevchenko, the source of this trend is currently not clear. “Is there more cheating? Are we just better at figuring it out now that we have digital search tools?... It’s a tricky case,” she said. “On the cusp of this, we felt that [because] more and more students are being affected by these sanctions and we have to make sure that they're not affected unfairly punitively.” These new policies will apply retroactively to students who have already received violations but have not yet had to report them. However, students who have already reported violations cannot have their reports withdrawn by the College.
“Respect has been a hallmark of your career,” she said. The fourth medalist was Shoshana Clark Stewart, CEO of the Turquoise Mountain Foundation. The foundation was created in 2006 by HRH Prince Charles of Wales to help revitalize and preserve historic regions in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Myanmar. Under Stewart’s leadership, the foundation has become a new type of non-governmental organization: one that sponsors economic growth by supporting local artists and by training over 6,000 people to create economically lucrative and traditional goods. Stewart has also overseen the building of community health clinics and a school for 200 students. In her address, Mandel noted that this was a particularly astonishing feat in an area not
used to seeing women in positions of power. The selection process for medalists is meant to solicit a diversity of careers. Foehl explained that each year, the alumni relations committee works with the executive committee of the Society of Alumni to compile a list of alumni doing groundbreaking work in their field. Recommendations come through the office itself, but also from outside nominations. The president of the College, or in this year’s case, former Interim President Tiku Majumder, then selects anywhere between four and seven recipients. This year’s convocation ceremony also included a procession of the Class of 2019, clad in their graduation caps and gowns, and an address from Mandel. Mandel spoke about the work of understanding historical legacy and how, as the senior class begins to plan for life after Williams, they will have a role in creating a new legacy. The ceremony also included a musical performance by Angela Chan ’19 and a recognition of the 28 members of the Class of 2019 inducted into Phi Beta Kappa by Dean of the College Marlene Sandstrom. The Grosvenor Cup Award for integrity, dedication and service to the Williams community was awarded to Alia Richardson ’19. College Council Co-Presidents, Lizzy Hibbard ’19 and Moisés Roman Mendoza ’19 spoke on behalf of the senior class, acknowledging the college’s own legacy. “Williams has a complicated history, and its paradoxes and contradictions exist to this day,” Hibbard said. “The irony of a Williams education, though, is that instead of making us blind to those problems, it allows us to begin to understand them.”
Two employees sue College for unpaid overtime By NICHOLAS GOLDROSEN EXECUTIVE EDITOR This spring, one former and one current teacher at the College’s Children’s Center filed a lawsuit against the College alleging damages of $75,000 for unpaid overtime, according to documents filed in the Berkshire County Superior Court. In addition, the documents alleged retaliation against the employees, Shana Shippee and Kristen Tool, for raising that concern to the College. The College claims that the employees were properly compensated at all times and denies the allegations. The case began in March of this year, when Shippee, who no longer works at the College, and Tool, who is still employed at the Children’s Center, filed complaints with the Fair Labor Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office. Following these complaints, they then filed a suit on May 2 in Berkshire County Superior Court, which was subsequently moved by the College to the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts on Aug. 16. Both the complaints and the lawsuit hinge upon whether or not teachers at the College's Children’s Center, which provides early childhood education and preschool for families in the College community, are entitled to overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Teachers at the College’s Children’s Center were, until December 2016, classified as exempt from federal overtime laws according to the suit. Hence, they received a salary, rather than hourly wages, and were not paid overtime for working more than 40 hours in a given week. According to Danielle Gonzalez, the College’s direc-
tor of human resources, the College uses several criteria under the law to determine what positions are exempt. “The federal government defines criteria for positions that are exempt from the obligation to pay overtime under federal law,” Gonzalez said. “Under the current regulations, a position generally is exempt from overtime SEE OVERTIME, PAGE 5
WHAT’S INSIDE 3
OPINIONS A case against summer earnings
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NEWS IWS moves to Hewat House
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FEATURES Phoebe Donnelly looks into women's roles in rebellion
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ARTS Tutorial explores intersection of Shakespeare and music
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SPORTS Khari Stephenson '04 recounts professional soccer career
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