ARTS P. 8 Review of ‘Loving Vincent’ at Images Cinema
SPORTS P. 12 The Independent Student Newspaper at Williams College Since 1887 VOL. CXXXII, NO. 8
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2017
Women’s soccer wins NESCACs for eighth time
Davis Center highlights College’s colonialist past By EMMY MALUF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF On Monday, members of the Davis Center placed signs along the path on the lawn outside of the Paresky Center and the Congregational Church. The signs contained facts and statements related to the College, Williamstown and Native American history. Shawna Patterson-Stephens, director of the Davis Center, was the primary organizer behind the project. Signs included statements such as: “Fort Mass. (North Adams) was built to offset the Schaghticoke Village, owners of Mt. Greylock. Ephraim Williams, Jr., led the fort”; “Prior to European colonization, there were several eastern woodland tribes in what would become New England” and “Two extensive trails used by Native peoples for centuries intersected in Williamstown; evidence of permanent sites haven't been found.” “Oftentimes, attempts to bring awareness can have a sense of irrelevance, a sense of ‘that happened to those people over there,’ but a project such as these signs brings the issue closer to home,” Angela Wu, assistant director of the Davis Center, said. “It makes it clear that the Williams community is built on indigenous land, and that however great the education that the College provides, there were people that paid the price for us to enjoy these benefits, and their histories should be recognized as much as Colonel Ephraim Williams’ is.” “In recognition of Indigenous People’s Month, the Davis Center wanted to provide recognition [of] native people’s culture and the legacy of injustice that has historically been committed against the indigenous commu-
nity via these signs,” Dominic Madera ’21, a community builder at the Davis Center, said. “For me, this is a reminder to be mindful of the indigenous experience in my workshops on identity.” The signs were one part of the Davis Center’s larger effort to recognize Native American and Indigenous People’s Month. On Monday, the Davis Center collaborated with the Departments of American Studies and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies to host “A Tale of Two-Spirits,” a talk by former Lambda Legal Director of Community Education and Advocacy Holiday Simmons, a “Black Cherokee transmasculine two-spirit activist.” Next Tuesday, the Davis Center will collaborate with the Student Athletic Advisory Committee to show More Than a Word. The documentary, according to its website, “analyzes the Washington football team and [its] use of the derogatory term R*dskins.” “[Our] goals are to raise awareness about Native American history as part of Native American Heritage Month [NAHM],” Wu said. “As with most heritage months, NAHM provided an opportunity to recognize the complexities of American history, including the histories of those who are often left out of American narrative.” “It’s incredibly wrong that we live on and claim land as our own that we acquired by killing, harming and moving American Indian bodies,” Katie Manning ’20, a community builder at the Davis Center, said. “But at the same time, I continue to live here, attend college here, and don’t think about the history of this land on a daily basis. The fact that I can not think about it reveals how much white privilege affects my opinions on the matter.”
NICHOLAS GOLDROSEN/NEWS EDITOR
The Davis Center placed several signs on Paresky lawn to draw attention to the College’s history of colonialism and violence toward Native Americans.
Berkshire Doula Project College removes lead, asbestos holds student training By SAMUEL WOLF STAFF WRITER
By CARLOS CABRERA-LOMELÍ STAFF WRITER This past weekend, students and community members gathered in Griffin for training to become abortion and IUD doulas. This is the first time the Berkshire Doula Project (BDP) has hosted an entirely student-run training. Doula training seeks to prepare students, faculty, staff and community members to be a support for individuals dealing with the physical, mental and emotional challenges of abortion and IUDs. After this training, students have the opportunity to participate in the greater doula support network at local clinics. Behind this whole project are this year’s BDP trainers: Claudia Forrester ’18, BDP site coordinator, Madeleine Elyze ’18, BDP meeting coordinator and Julia
Blike ’19, BDP historian. They all have their own reasons for becoming involved with BDP. It was friendship with BDP cofounder Elizabeth Curtis ’17 that introduced Elyze and Forrester to the Berkshire Doula project. For Blike, a quick and unplanned decision to join BDP became a life-changing opportunity: “BDP has been a savior for me in so many ways: I have met some of the most amazing people, whether that be likeminded Williams students or incredible medical professionals like Shannon [McLaughlin-Carvajal, certified midwife nurse] or Dr. [Joan] Lister, the nurse practitioner and since-retired provider who works with us at BMC [Berkshire Medical Center], or even staff at [the College] who are so willing to help and support students in any way
they can, like [Health Educator] Laini [Sporbert], our birth control queen who comes in to BDP with all her props to teach us about safe sex and contraception without compensation, just because she loves it,” Blike said. “There’s nothing like the feeling of finding a space where you feel completely supported and empowered not only to do amazing work and to build confidence, but also to feel vulnerable and to grow and learn.” The Berkshire doula community began with the efforts of Curtis and co-founder Roshny Vijayakar ’17, along with fellow alumnae Mary Congdon ’17 and Abby Robinson ’17. BDP came into existence during the spring of 2016, with the first doula training the following fall. SEE DOULA, PAGE 5
PHOTO COURTESY OF JULIA BLIKE
Over the weekend, the Berkshire Doula Project hosted a training for those wishing to become abortion/IUD doulas.
In recent months, the College has discovered lead in Sloan House, as well as asbestos in Bronfman Science Center. The removal process is ongoing, but the College's Office of Safety and Environmental Compliance believes that no imminent risk exists for students. Asbestos and lead paint frequently present a problem in older buildings and on-campus structures are no exception. For both buildings, the abatement of the hazardous material is only one goal of construction that is currently underway. In fact, the materials were only detected and removed as a result of other projects that were being undertaken in those locations. “It’s Williams College’s practice to conduct environmental testing before any project even begins, so that we can ensure that any and all hazardous materials are dealt with properly, and to the letter of state and federal law,” Frank Pekarski, manager of Safety and Environmental Compliance, said. Prior to construction, Facilities, Construction and Design Project managers filled out a form identifying the potential for environmental and health hazards, and the Office of Safety and Environmental Compliance coordinated all of the necessary testing. Ultimately, outside contractors were hired for both structures prior to construction in order to assess the presence of hazardous materials. With regards to Sloan House, Pekarski said that the College administration “has seized the opportunity provided by the recent vacancy of Sloan House to improve it even further.” Though Sloan House has been examined frequently over the years for lead-based paint and chippings, recent renovations were seen as an ideal time to engage in necessary exterior lead abatement. Lead hazard
is greatest for young children, who may ingest paint chips and experience problems with neurological development as a result. Lead has the potential to affect all ages, however, and is present in 87 percent of all homes built before 1940. In addition to lead removal, new windows, shutters and trims are being installed in Sloan House, and renovations may also be made to the east porch. Sloan House’s reopening date is still uncertain, as Design and Construction staff have yet to finalize the list of alterations that they wish to make. Bronfman Science Center, which the College will almost entirely tear down and replace over the next several years, faces a lengthier, three-stage construction process. The first phase, which involves the removal of the discovered asbestos, began on Oct. 16 and will be completed in midNovember. Phase two will begin in June 2018 and entails the abatement of all remaining hazardous materials in the building. The third phase constitutes the removal of the foundation of Bronfman and, according to Pekarski, “will begin once the building itself has been demolished.” Asbestos was widely used throughout Bronfman when it was built in the early 1960s because of its durability and its ability to resist heat and withstand corrosion. However, it also carries significant risks to human health. “The problem with asbestos comes about if it is inhaled,” Pekarski said. “In order to be inhaled, it has to be friable in a condition where it will be releasing, or be able to easily release, fibers.” This makes asbestos harmless when intact but also means that it needs to be carefully contained during construction. To this end, the College is bringing in highly trained state-licensed workers to aid in removal. Pekarski emphasized that these removals are routine and not a cause for alarm. “Whether a large project like
Bronfman, or a small floor tile replacement in an office, our office is involved from the conception of the project until its completion to ensure that asbestos or other hazards are discovered and handled appropriately before any work is begun,” he said. Facilities, he emphasized, is proactive in testing buildings across campus, and often has multiple asbestos surveys on file at a time. “Although many buildings around the country still contain asbestos and lead building materials, there are ways of containing these safely so that they’re not a threat,” Pekarski said. “This will be discovered again. It must be discovered if it’s present.”
WHAT’S INSIDE 3 OPINIONS Open letter to the next president of the College 5 NEWS Williams 101: The Board of Trustees 7 FEATURES The truth about Freemasonry 9 ARTS A review of the production of ‘J.B.’ 12 SPORTS Mike Monti to serve as interim men’s hockey coach this season
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Facilities’ Planning, Design & Construction Group’s mission states that it exists “to support the administration, faculty, staff and students in the successful planning and development of quality facilities projects that support the mission of [the] College.” While we see that this mission statement is being carried out in the form of the College’s current building boom, we urge the the administration to not forget about students in their plans. With Goodrich Hall out of commission this year, we understand that the school is hardpressed for student and administrative spaces. Nevertheless, we feel that the recent usurpation of College Council (CC) and the Minority Coalition’s Paresky Center office spaces, and the subsequent relegation of these groups to smaller spaces, is indicative of a bigger, disconcerting trend at the College. Despite upwards of $278 million being spent on capital projects in recent years, the College’s non-academic student spaces have seen mini-
Word on The Quad What was your go-to fun fact the first week of college? By ANASTASIA TISHENA STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Claiming our campus Supporting the need for student spaces beyond dorms and libraries mal growth, if any at all. The planned student café in the library has become a sad repository for vending machines; the new bookstore uses its space poorly with too few tables and the Log feels much more like a profitable enterprise than a community center. We see casual exchanges between students in this small community as an immutable benefit to a rural liberal arts education, and the lack of public student spaces hinders that exchange of ideas and passions. Thus, we urge the administration and the Planning, Design & Construction Group to think about the ways in which students can and will use the spaces being constructed in the new science center and Goodrich. The school, in its buildings, must foster student learning outside of the classrooms as much as it does within. This lack of student spaces, while potentially alleviated through the construction of new buildings, can and should also be fixed within existing physical and bureaucratic structures. Firstly, the Office of Student
KATIE MANNING ’20
I have four dogs. I love dogs.
JOSEPH WILSON ’19
Life should relinquish control over the room scheduler to students. Currently, CC allocates funding for student groups, and students successfully run an independent coffee bar – it seems logical for the College to also give students the responsibility to manage access to physical spaces on campus. Another way to increase student spaces would be to extend the hours that specific spaces are available to students. For example, the College does students a disservice by closing Hollander Hall and Schapiro Hall at 12:30 a.m. Many College students are awake late at night and have no public places to which to go, apart from the library. These academic buildings should be open as late as the libraries – 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday – in order to provide additional spaces for socializing, group projects and school work outside of dorms and libraries. This problem is not solely the fault of the administration.
There are environmental factors preventing students from using every space offered to them. Many open student spaces right now operate in specific cultural spheres of the College that often are not bridged. For example, there are potential spaces for student socializing and work in the basement of Thompson Chapel and the Jewish Religious Center that are open to all but that may feel reserved for faith communities on-campus. There are public lounges in the ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance that are used most frequently by the College’s theater and dance participants. The wider use of more multifunctional student spaces, both existing and new, both contributes to and benefits from the bridging of divides within the student body. Ultimately, we ask the administration to think about student experiences and input both when constructing new spaces and in allocating the use of existing ones. After all, this college belongs to all of us; we must all work to make it a stronger, shared community.
CONVENTIONAL WISDOM HOMECOMING
Get ready to be a part of Williamstown State for the day!
RUBIK'S CUBE MAGICIAN
Rubik's Cube tricks and free pizza?!
MATTHEW PEACOCK ’21
I’ve lived in four different countries.
November 8, 2017
MARI CONCERT
Another concert – here's hoping this alum rapper finally makes it big this year.
CO-OP LOTTERY
New housing! Stress!
NOT ENOUGH STUFFED COWS
Two years in a row? Learn from your mistakes, ACE.
ON THE RECORD
I’m from Georgia. Augusta, Georgia!
CHARLIE JERSEY ’18
I can snap different pitches. *snaps ‘Game of Thrones’ theme*
“This will be discovered again. It must be discovered if it’s present.” Frank Pekarski, manager of Safety and Environmental Compliance, regarding lead and asbestos, page 1. “Van Gogh’s brilliance is no fixed point of constancy – it travels at light-speed.” Wendy Hernandez ’20 on Loving Vincent, a movie at Images cinema, page 8.
“We are not a cult!” Nicholas Mantello, secretary of the Williamstown Freemason Lodge, on the Williamstown Freemasons, page 6. “Anytime you can win championships, it’s a lot of fun. This team believes in itself, and to have everything come together … feels really good.” Head coach Michelyne Pinard, on women’s soccer’s winning NESCACs, page 12.
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FROM THE ARCHIVES The opinions expressed in signed columns are not necessarily those of the Williams Record editorial board.
Op-Ed and Letter Submission The Record welcomes op-eds and letters from all members of the Williams community. The Opinions section is designed to reflect the varied views and ideas of the Williams community, and the publication of any letter or op-ed does not indicate an endorsement of the views contained therein. Submissions should be sent to tsd1@williams. edu by Sunday at 5 p.m. for inclusion in the next Wednesday issue. Op-eds range in length from 650-800 words and letters are 500 words or fewer. The Record will not publish pieces that have appeared in other publications. Pieces submitted to the Record are not guaranteed a spot in the upcoming issue. For Record policy information, please see our website williamsrecord.com.
JESS HOWARD ’06
In a ‘Sea of White’ Living as a QPOC on campus By LEONEL MARTINEZ From the first day of my freshman year, I realized quickly that I wasn’t the average Williams student. I arrived early to campus because of first gen orientation. I remember walking to Paresky on moving day and seeing all the white students and families moving into frosh quad and Mission. Because I didn’t know how to process it all, I sent a snap to my friends and captioned the photo, “Sea of White.” Then, some of my friends snapped back, acknowledging my fear with the crying emoji and a heart breaking into two pieces. I knew we weren’t in New York anymore. That day is burned onto my memory. It terrified me to see so many white people in one space. My high school had nine white students out of more than 500. I lived in Harlem, an area known for its blackness. Sure, gentrification is transforming my neighborhood for the worse, but it is still a neighborhood full of people of color (POC). That was the only world I knew for 18 years, until I came to the College. Coming to Williams was a huge culture shock. In response to lack of diversity, the College brings students like me to break the mold of the white, athletic, wealthy, legacy student that is the norm at elite institutions. I’ve now realized that, even though the institution is beginning to open its arms, the student population probably wasn’t ready. Sometimes I feel like I am a part of a strange social experiment that will never end. As a queer, fat, first-generation Dominican student from a lowincome background, most of my freshman year felt like I was on the outside looking in. I knew most spaces at the College weren’t meant for me. For example, in terms of the party culture here, Lord knows that I cannot go to Hoxsey and have a great time. I mean, those scenes are not my cup of tea. One of the common complaints that I have heard from the queer POC community is that it is hard to find romantic fulfillment. I suppose it was naïve of me to think that I would find my husband here
OPINIONS 3
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November 8, 2017
at the College. Since the queer community is so small, everyone knows everyone, and it can get awkward rather quickly if there is a one-night stand (I am speaking from personal experience). I’ve made my peace with the fact that I won’t find my future husband until I leave this campus for good. After surviving a year here, I realized that there are a couple of things I needed to do to keep my sanity in this unfamiliar world. Of course, there were a few students that could relate to my life experiences, and those students became my close friends, the people I can depend on to understand me. And those are the friends I still depend on when there are issues at home or when we want to listen and dance to bachata or reggaeton. I also realized that I won’t be going out every week, and I would have to wait until there was a party sponsored by the Black Student Union or Vista. There are simply flaws that I have to accept because it doesn’t seem like this community will change any time soon. Before I end, I need to clarify one thing that has been on my mind. I am writing this article for the non-white students. At first, I felt the necessity to explain my narrative repeatedly, so the majority of students on this campus could understand me and my struggles. But I run myself into this hole if I try to find validation from others. Sure, it is great if I can get someone from a privileged background to understand my point of view. It makes me feel better that I can have that effect on someone, but that is not my objective here. It is, just like when I write my fiction, to reach those people who feel like outsiders looking in on the purple bubble because their narrative is not what this school is used to. The feeling that comforts me most is when someone comes up to me and says that they can relate to my narrative. I don’t have to ask them to explain more about it. There’s an immediate mutual understanding because we both have to navigate the College similarly.
The ‘West Point of Wall Street’ paradox e im or a ce o a e , academic a roac By HANK LEE
positions afford. At the very least, these jobs offer business experience and can Several months back I was visiting be gateways to other careers. the big banks along with other Williams These attractive features of employstudents on the Wall Street trek. Many ment in finance do not explain why of the bankers and traders we met were Williams grads have a uniquely high Williams alumni. They described their predilection for employment at financial careers, reminisced about the College firms. Beyond the relative lack of proand made clear just how large of a foot- grams or groups for financial education print the College has on Wall Street. At at the College, the paradox of Williams one firm, several of the bankers men- students’ predisposition to Wall Street tioned to me how, only a few years back, is that it coexists with a pervasive view the College was referred to as “the West among students in which Wall Street is Point of Wall Street” for the extent to subject to great derision. Among those at the College who have no intention of which it fed Wall Street recruiting. It’s easy to see why Wall Street firms considering a Wall Street career, Wall Street is not viewed with would be drawn to the mere indifference, but College with its smart, often scorn. well-rounded students. We should This antipathy toward What is not as immedithe financial industry is ately clear is why Wilapproach finance, misguided and unmealiams students have such like other sured. Criticisms from a keen vocational interthis school of belief often est in Wall Street. The subjects, with go as follows. Bankers College lacks much of the academic interest. are overpaid. We should infrastructure that often have let the banks fail. primes students at Ivy League schools and other elite universi- Banking isn’t a “real” job; it’s just sities for positions in the finance industry. phoning off value that other people have There is no major in finance. It has no generated. These critiques are all flawed, business school. And its extracurricular imprecise or completely wrong. It’s true that executive pay has run student groups, which deal with topics germane to finance, are fledgling in wild, but that’s not just true in banking, comparison with analogous groups at and the solutions ought not be tailored to banks alone. Arguing that analysts other elite academic institutions. Some students have decided on a are overpaid is odd. There’s no innocuWall Street career from the time they ous way to alter this market outcome. matriculate, drawn by stereotypical no- If people are dissatisfied with the insuftions of banking careers, the high pay ficient level of income redistribution in or a litany of other factors. In my ex- the United States (as I am), they should perience – and yours may differ – this take it out on the tax system, not bankgroup is small. The larger contingent of ers. And when it comes to letting the the Wall Street applicants are students banks fail, we all saw how smoothly the who are still identifying their long-term collapse of Lehman went. Imagine not career interests. These students are at- having bailed the others out – it would tracted to jobs at banks and funds by the have been cataclysmic. Banks are highly stability and stellar compensation such intertwined with the entire economy.
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The cost of allowing such entities to fail and attempting to rebuild them would be massive. The services provided by banks are important. Their most fundamental role is to match those who have capital with those in need of it. But their other activities, such as marketmaking, a form of liquidity provision, are also valuable, albeit increasingly subject to automation. So what’s the upshot of all this? We need a shift in approach when it comes to finance. Our relationship with Wall Street gives good cause for a group dedicated to financial education. That’s why I co-founded the Williams Investment Club. Members of the group develop a better understanding of finance and are able to make informed decisions about whether or not they’re genuinely passionate about the work that Wall Street careers entail. The club’s mission extends beyond career preparation, however. Personally, I am interested in a career in public policy, and don’t wish to pursue finance as a vocation. But I am very interested in finance, its role in the economy and the government’s role in shaping the financial industry. Rather than treating financial firms and careers with blanket contempt, we should approach finance, like other subjects, with academic interest. We should look critically for regulatory fixes to incentive problems, rather than spurn the financial discipline and its applications. Many great thinkers the likes of Markowitz, Fama and Shiller have made extraordinary academic contributions in the context of finance. Let’s make the Williams Investment Club a place for academic exploration. Hank Lee ’19 is an economics major from Wayzata, Minn. He is currently abroad at the Williams-Exeter Programme at Oxford.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
Leonel Martinez ’20 is from New York, N.Y. He lives in East College.
The many sides of Williams How the College breaks the law of contradiction By DAVID HOURIN
the quilt will always be ugly, no matter how many pretty patches are sewn on Law of contradiction: a principle in to cover them up. logic: a thing cannot at the same time The College has come a long way in both be and not be of a specified kind many aspects since its days of Greek (as a table and not a table) or in a speci- life and unbridled misogyny. There are fied manner (as red or not red) (Merri- female students. There are minority stuam-Webster). dents. There are open LGBTQ students. Aristotle said that, without the law These is progress that should be celof contradiction, we could not know ebrated. But sometimes you get the feelanything that we do know. The College ing that the College would rather make a seems to break his cherished law. Now video celebrating its diversity than work it seems awkward that his name is on to continue to expand and improve it. our library. Presenting yourself as an institution of The proof that the College is and diversity and inclusion is much easier is not of a specific kind or in a speci- than having the difficult conversations fied manner can be found in the at- about how you fail to be those things. titudes towards the school held by its The notion of difficult conversations students. Ask one student, “What is has caused controversy on campus in Williams?” They could answer, “An various forms. Backlash over disinvitinstitution that was designed by and ing “conservative” speakers brought for wealthy white men and continues up the lack of conservative thinking at to be to this day.” Ask someone else the College. It’s understandable that the same question. He or she could someone whose views shift to the right may find themselves answer, “A politicallyfeeling isolated in this correct, hyper-liberal The College is predominantly liberal safe space more foenvironment. Finding cused on giving miexperiencing an conservative speakers norities handouts than being excellent.” These identity crisis, just as who don’t support white supremacy could be a two viewpoints appear so many of its good start to solving this mutually exclusive. How can a place both students do during problem. Adding more professors whose constill be and no longer their time here. servative economic and be for white men? How social ideas challenge can it exalt and ignore liberal thought withthe marginalized? A simple answer to this question out offending personal characteristics may be that the College is a complex of individuals would add intellectual institution with many moving parts. diversity and value to the campus disCertain areas have developed over course. To some that may sound like a time and evolved to fit the demands tall order. It shouldn’t be. The College is experiencing an idenof a 21st century elite college, while others have been slower to progress. tity crisis, just as so many of its students It doesn’t mean that the College still do during their time here. How do you functions the way it did before women change your form to fit a new era withand minorities were admitted. Surely out erasing the traditions of which you the Davis Center couldn’t exist as an are still proud? We are a school that academic relic of the 1950s. Doesn’t prides itself on its history and tradithat show how well the College han- tions. However, certain parts of our history should be cherished while othdles diversity and inclusion? It’s easy to say that the College is ers are examined under a critical eye. a patchwork quilt. Some patches are Nostalgia is no excuse for stagnation. new and beautiful, while others are old It’s possible for the College to combine and ugly. They mesh and overlap and the old and new. It’s possible for the every part of the quilt looks a little dif- College to be for all people. In fact, that’s exactly what it’s supferent. The eye is drawn to the beautiful patches. Some believe they make posed to be. the quilt beautiful. But the ugly patchDavid Hourin ’18 is an English major es are still there. If not removed or improved with some corrective stitching, from Austin, Texas. He lives in Garfield.
JENNIFER OSWALD ’11
Supporting the Muslim community Calling on the next president of the College to connect with their neighbors By OMAR KAWAM and N If the next president of the College is reading this, on behalf of the Muslim community on campus and the Muslim Student Union (MSU), we welcome you to the College. We are members of a dynamic interfaith community in the basement of Thompson Memorial Chapel, and as such, your next-door neighbors. We write to share with you what we are grateful for. Moreover, we hope to encourage and inspire you going forward to remember your neighbors next door to your office in Hopkins Hall. You will enter the College in the best and worst of times for the Muslim community. We say best of times because you inherit the tireless legacy of the past 18 years of welcome and hospitality, service and sacrifice and gracious generosity from our Chaplain to the College, Rick Spalding. Spalding welcomed thousands through his EphVentures program, “Where Am I?!”. International students who were Buddhist, Hindus and Muslims and who knocked on his door to ask for help have all felt his hospitality. As a young and growing community, we have learned to work and serve with the chaplain’s office alongside various groups on campus, including the black, Latinx, queer, religious and secular communities, both locally and globally. Our interfaith community at the College is forever indebted to the accommoda-
tions and sanctuary made under the loving, caring leadership of Spalding and the entire chaplain’s office. It is also the best of times because the Muslim community on campus has seen impressive developments in just the past few years. In this time of renewal, we have been blessed with an energetic, intelligent and active MSU leadership team, charged by religious devotion and discovery, and with a newfound drive for service and engagement. Coupled with the spiritual guidance and insight of our Muslim chaplain, Sharif Rosen, and the experience and vitality of our advisor, Assistant Director of the Davis Center Bilal Ansari, Muslim students have gained a new sense of confidence and presence in the community here. From the dining hall’s Halal options to the campus reminders about Eid celebrations from the Davis Center, the Muslim community feels welcomed by those who make an effort to do so. It is the worst of times because of the undeniably toxic and belligerent atmosphere Muslims face in the United States at large. Whether it be the Supreme Court attempting to uphold laws that exclusively ban Muslims from this nation, or the almost constant attacks our community withstands from hate-driven media, the Muslim community on campus and at large feels the pains of alienation, vulnerability and demonization. The Muslim ban says to us, “You are not welcome here.” In the same vein as the anti-immigration fervor that
plagues members of other minority communities, Muslims are in a constant search for a place of security in our own homes and places of worship. Unfortunately, we occupy two rooms in an outdated chapel basement, and with a growing community, feel the need to renovate and expand in order to foster the new energy and vibrancy our community is gaining. Furthermore, the Muslim community does not want our spaces or campus to serve as a mere place of refuge, which holds a connotation of weakness and subordination, but wants spaces conducive to serving with and as members of this campus. On a practical note, we have no way for our disabled members to join us in safety during our worship services or join us in our cultural activities room, and see it fit for all interfaith spaces to have their spaces refurbished and modernized. Still, despite our difficulties, the Muslim community wishes to express its gratitude and hopefully encourage what is best for all. As a final note, we urge you to reach out to your religious and spiritual neighbors next door to create and imagine a more diverse, inclusive and equitable campus. Remember to exemplify locally and globally the golden rule, “To love your neighbor as you love yourselves.” These are some words of gratitude and love from your Muslim neighbors. Omar Kawam ’20 is from Wayne, N.J. He lives in Bryant. Summiya Najam ’20 is from Islamabad, Pakistan. She lives in Dodd.
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The Williams Record
November 8, 2017
WILLIAMS 101: The Board of Trustees By NICHOLAS GOLDROSEN NEWS EDITOR This piece is the fourth installment in our “Williams 101” series, a set of articles on the basic structure and operations of the College. Our aim in this series is to help the entire College community, and students in particular, better understand and be able to engage with their institution. This fourth piece will focus on the College’s trustees. While the day-to-day administration of the College falls to its faculty, staff and students, in their respective domains, the ultimate responsibility for the College as a corporate entity rests with the Board of Trustees. The College Laws, the governing document for the College, vests both the “government and direction” of the institution with the Board and president of the College. They bear fiduciary responsibility for the College, meaning that the trustees are expected to act in good faith on behalf of the best interests of the College as an institution. The Board of Trustees comprises 21 trustees, all of whom, at present, are alumni of the College. The president of the College serves as a trustee during their term of office. The president of the Society of Alumni, while not a trustee, attends meetings of the Board. The number of members on the Board is variable, but may be no lower than 11 nor higher than 25. Trustees (except the president) are not compensated for their service. Trustees can be elected to the Board in one of two ways. The first type of trustees are known as alumni trustees, of which there are five who each serve a five-year term. They are nominated to the Board via election by the Society of Alumni at its annual meeting every June. The alumni trustee terms are staggered so that one new trustee is elected each year. The remaining trustees are known as term trustees and are nominated by the Board itself. They also initially serve five-year terms. At the conclusion of their terms, both term and alumni trustees may be re-elected for one additional seven-year term. The Board’s chair, who is currently Michael Eisenson ’77, serves for a maximum of seven years in that role; Eisenson’s term ends in 2019. The Board as a whole meets four times a year, in October, January, April and June, and the Board’s executive committee bears the responsibility for its operations in between meetings. The work of the Board is divided amongst 10 standing committees: the Executive Committee; Committee on Nominations, Governance and Degrees; Evaluation and Compensation Committee; Committee on Faculty and Instruction; Investment Committee; Operations and Planning Committee; Budget and Financial Planning Committee; Committee on College Relations and Public Affairs; Committee on Student Experience and the Audit Committee. The work of each of these committees is often collaborative, involving both other committees of the Board as well as
The Board of Trustees: By the Numbers 21 Number of total trustees 4
Number of Board meetings per year
12
Maximum number of years a trustee can serve
50
Number of years for which Board meetings are sealed
10
Number of standing committees on the Board
the faculty, staff and students who share responsibility for the applicable areas of the College. For example, at the Board’s October 2017 meeting, the Committee on Faculty and Instruction met with Barb Casey, the College’s newly appointed Winter Study Coordinator, to discuss her work. At the Board’s June 2017 meeting, the Committee on College Relations and Public Affairs met with the College’s office of communications to hear a report on its work. The Executive Committee leads the work of the Board, assumes its responsibility between meetings and supervises the process of selecting and appointing new trustees and the College’s president. It is chaired by the Board’s chair. The Committee on Nominations, Governance and Degrees works with the Executive Committee on issues of internal governance for the Board. The Evaluation and Compensation Committee aids the Executive Committee on issues of presidential compensation and performance. While the Board bears the ultimate fiduciary responsibility for the College, the faculty exercises a considerable degree of governance over the College’s curriculum and academic mission. Per the College Laws, “[the faculty] shall have primary responsibility for the areas of curriculum, subject matters and methods of instruction, requirements for degrees in course, those aspects of student life which relate to the educational process, and matters relating to faculty status.” To this end, the Board’s Committee on Faculty and Instruction and the Board more broadly work collaboratively with the appropriate faculty members and committees on curricular issues. “The Faculty and Instruction Committee
reviews all appointments and grants of tenure; hears regular reports on the College’s curriculum and its efforts to recruit, retain and support the faculty; and informs the rest of the Board about these matters in ways that equip them to make decisions that will support the curriculum and instruction at Williams,” Elizabeth Andersen ’87, chair of the Committee on Faculty and Instruction, said. The Board’s investment committee oversees the College’s investment officer and chief investment officer in the management of the College’s endowment. The investment office also has three advisory committees, for marketable, non-marketable and real assets, each of which is composed of both trustees and other alumni of the College. Students, faculty, staff and alumni lend input to the nonfinancial performance of the endowment through the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility, which advises the Investment Committee on the social and environmental commitments made via the College’s investments. The Operations and Planning Committee bears responsibility for the capital projects of the College; the Audit Committee contracts an outside firm each year to audit the College’s finances, which are presented to the Board and published on the controller’s website. The Budget and Financial Planning Committee oversees the budgetary processes of the College. Their work is highly collaborative with the provost and vice president for finance and administration, the faculty and staff members, respectively, who take the lead responsibility for the allocation of resources. “By the laws of the college, the Board has fiduciary respon-
2018 Board Meetings
• • •
January 18-20 April 12-14 May 31-June 2
sibility for the College and its finances,” Clarence Otis, Jr., ’77, chair of the Budget and Financial Planning Committee, said. “On the Budget and Financial Planning Committee, we partner with the provost and vice president for finance, meeting with them at every single Board meeting to develop and approve annual budgets, conduct long-term planning and approve when
The Committee on Student Experience focuses on issues of undergraduate life at the College, encompassing areas such as residential life, admission and financial aid and equity and inclusion. “The Student Experience Committee works to understand student life in the broadest possible way,” Kate Queeney ’92, Chair of the Committee on Student Experience, said. “We hear presentations from and have discussions with staff and faculty involved in key areas of student life, and we also meet with a wide variety of students regularly, including our annual open forum, which we host every year in conjunction with the October Board meeting. Like many other committees, we then inform the rest of the Board about these issues to guide their thinking.” The Board now publishes, as a result of student calls for increased transparency in 2016, meeting reports from each of its quarterly meetings on its website. There is, though, a 50-year lock on minutes of meetings of the trustees, and minutes are not kept from committee meetings at all. The Board engages in both open forums and smaller events with students, faculty and staff during each of its meetings on campus. There have been calls for the Board to consider adding a student trustee; the Board has rejected this idea because, its members contend, the idea of fiduciary governance would make it a conflict of interest for any member of the institution (such as a student or faculty member) to serve on the governing Board of that same institution. The Board’s next meeting on campus will be Jan. 1820, 2018.
appropriate the taking on of debt necessary to fund our capital projects.” The Committee on College Relations and Public Affairs works broadly on issues of outside support for the College, both with regards to development and communications. As an example of its work, at the June 2017 Board meeting, the committee heard The next piece in the series updates on and discussed the Col- will focus on faculty goverlege’s crisis communications plan. nance and committees.
Stand With Us Now What are You Doing to Take a Stand?
Jonathan X. Meng ’18 wins prestigious Goldwater Scholar2/01/18 ship for chemistry, math
From last Sunday to today, a team from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) is visiting the College to evaluate its performance under the association’s nine standards of accreditation. This peer review session, which takes place every 10 years, involves both a self-study, which the College recently completed, and a visit from a team of educators from other institutions. Robert J. Zimmer, president of the University of Chicago, chairs this year’s visiting team. Although not required by the U.S. government, accreditation is an almostuniversally adopted practice that assures the public that a college is an effective educator of its students and is meeting its responsibilities to all its stakeholders. It also allows the institution to offer more financial assistance, such as the Department of Education’s Pell Grant, to its students. When accrediting an institution, NEASC specifically studies standards ranging from the college’s “mission and purpose” to its “institutional resources” to its “integrity, transparency and public disclosure.” To prepare for NEASC’s visit, a 28-member steering committee consisting of faculty, staff and students of the College wrote a 110page self-study describing what commitment to each standard looks like in the College community. The writing process began about a year before the visiting team arrived on campus.
Proposals due November 13 claiming.williams.edu
On February 1, 2018 Claiming Williams Day will invite the college community to Stand with Us Now -- to come together to consider ways to support each other across the differences -- racial, religious, national origin, gender, political, socioeconomic, etc. -- that strengthen the community.
November 8, 2017
NEWS 5
The Williams Record
Berkshire Project trains students as abortion and IUD doulas CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 BDP relied on support from doula chapters throughout the Northeast. According to Elyze, “The first training was led by the New York Doula Project and the training last spring was led by the Wesleyan Doula Project.” BDP maintains a close relationship with these fellow organizations. Although spread throughout different campuses, the doula movement is a product, as Forrester explains, of several questions: “Knowing that pregnancy is an incredibly trying time, why are we only rewarding one outcome of pregnancy?” Forrester said. “What about miscarriage, abortion, stillbirth and birth for adoption? Why are birth doulas only available to those who know about them and can afford them?” These questions have pushed BDP towards a new definition of a doula, one that can provide support for individuals beyond situations of childbirth. For Blike, being a doula represents being able to provide a similar type of emotional support and knowledge about medical procedures that she received growing up from two physician parents. “When I think of the word ‘doula,’ more than support, I think of advocacy. For me, my job as a doula is to advocate for my patient, all the while reminding myself of how incredibly difficult and terrifying it can be to try to advocate for yourself in the hierarchical and stressful environment of a hospital,” Blike said. “To be a doula is to always be in someone’s corner, and to voluntarily fight their battles (to be heard, to be seen, to be taken care of) for them when they do not
have the strength, knowledge or energy to do so for themselves.” Recognizing the challenges of creating a doula training space that includes comfort for trainees, but also takes into account disparities in privilege, experiences and knowledge, the organizers targeted five training objectives: reproductive justice, acknowledging previous and initial trainee experiences and perspectives, collaboration with providers and medical professional, understanding what it means to be a resource by and for the Berkshire County community and self care for doulas. BDP organizers Forrester, Elyze and Blike define these goals through their method in conducting doula training. “The most important part of training in my mind is rooting BDP in the framework of reproductive justice. As an organization we aim to trust, center and validate the experiences of those who have been historically marginalized by the medical industrial complex (by this term we mean the system of medicine that has become corporate and focused on profit and efficiency as opposed to centering patient-care),” Forrester said. “Being ‘full-spectrum doulas,’ we recognize the bodily autonomy of all people and understand that the medical profession in the U.S. has not always been for everyone. Not everyone getting an abortion is a woman, which makes it difficult considering the language around the ob/ gyn field as ‘women’s health’ and so we always try to use the language of ‘pregnant people.’” Including “Berkshire” in the name, rather than “Williams,” has quite a significance as well, reflecting the importance of
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making the trainings open to not just students. “We have never had a training that was purely students. Especially since the patients we support are rarely Williams students, we wanted to make sure our organization isn’t another way ‘Williams students can give back to the community’ but rather an organization that simply allows people to support and care for other people,” Forrester said. “By that I mean that we are trying to depart from the mindset that Williams students are saviors for this estranged outside ‘community’ but rather just actively being involved with the medical center where we all live.” The training itself included several icebreakers and exercises meant to allow attendees to recognize both their own limitations and unique perspectives brought to the table. The activities included exercises such as walking to distinct areas of the room in response to prompts and questions in respect to attendees’ views on abortion, sexual health and reproductive justice. McLaughlin-Carvajal and Lister, both part of the Berkshire Health Systems clinic network, spoke on their experiences and the importance of doulas in clinics. Sporbert, who is also a current doula, spoke on birth control and how to communicate this information to those receiving support. After the two days of training, BDP made sure that attendees understood the significance of self-care in being a doula. “A day of any kind of training is tough, let alone a day of doula training. So we end training by reading a poem and talking about self-care – we provide a list of things that help us and a zine which provides
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space to think about how you as an individual take care of yourself,” Forrester said. “Self-care is a huge part of being a doula – we never send a doula to BMC alone. The 30 minute drive back from BMC serves as a sacred time and space for the two doulas to debrief the day: what went well and what went poorly. As Julia [Blike] puts it, it’s a chance to doula the doulas!” According to all three organizers, the training was a success. Participants brought plenty of enthusiasm and desire to learn with them. After this training, BDP will continue its
mission in offering doula support for the Berkshire community, simultaneously expanding its partnerships with other clinics. Current challenges for student doulas at the College include the timing of surgical procedures (Fridays at 7:30 a.m.) and managing the commitment of being a doula while being a student. “It really ends up being a very small population of people who commit their entire selves to advancing ideas of reproductive justice and creating better care for people with uteruses throughout their reproductive lives,” Blike said.
Elyze argues that the current challenges in reproductive justice are what makes the cause of the doula worth it. “I want people to know that healthcare policies and legal access to abortion care are not enough,” Elyze said. “There are other barriers to access and it is easy for the clinical setting to feel very isolating or lonely. That is part of why our work is so important. We provide empowering and compassionate care because patients deserve support and, especially in a busy hospital setting, a personal advocate can make a huge difference.”
In Other Ivory Towers News around academia
By FRANCESCA PARIS COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR Tufts law students call for removal of “The Mooch” Nearly 250 graduate students, alumni and professors at Tufts have called for Anthony Scaramucci’s removal from the law school’s board of advisors. The former White House communications director has served on the board of advisors for the university’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Carter Banker, a 26-year-old graduate at the Fletcher School, started the petition. She wrote on the Google Doc: “His lack of judgment displayed in his White House role was frankly enough in my opinion to have him removed from the board.” Banker cited several tweets published by Scaramucci’s news outlet, The Scaramucci Post, which he called “inappropriate Holocaust trivialization.” Christopher Ellison, an alum of the graduate school who
signed the petition, wrote that he would not support removing a member of the board on the grounds of partisan affiliation. “However, Mr. Scaramucci's wanton vulgarity — so obscene that the newspapers could not reprint his interview verbatim, and so over the top that even the president felt obliged to let him go after barely a week on the job — is incommensurate with the decorum and dignity that our school must stand for.” On Twitter, “The Mooch” wrote directly to Carter, asking her to invite him to campus to “have an honest exchange of ideas and info.” According to Boston Magazine, Scaramucci’s tenure on the board of advisors has lasted about 50 times longer than his stint as communications director for President Donald Trump. Princeton, Microsoft sue to stop end of DACA In conjunction with Microsoft, Princeton has sued the Trump
administration in a bid to save the “Dreamer” program. The university filed its lawsuit last Friday at a U.S. court in Washington to oppose the sudden end of the program, claiming that its termination hurts both Princeton and Microsoft Corp, according to Bloomberg. Former President Barack Obama created Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in 2012 to allow residents who entered the United States illegally as children to obtain renewable periods of deferred action from deportation, as well as work legally, if they met certain criteria. As of 2017, about 800,000 individuals, known as “Dreamers,” were enrolled in the program. In September, Trump announced that the program would end in March absent a long-term solution from Congress. Princeton and Microsoft’s suit claims that DACA’s sudden end is “unlawful and unconstitutional,” according to Bloomberg. They will seek an order to prevent the program’s termination.
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SPRING STREET BLUES FROM THE FILES OF CAMPUS SAFETY AND SECURITY
Monday 10-30-17
Saturday 11-4-17
3:27 p.m. Chandler Gym: An officer took a report from an athletics administrator regarding two missing tables that had been taken from the north and south walkways. The tables are used to film sporting events. Campus Safety and Security (CSS) shared this report, including images of the tables, to the Williamstown Police Department (WPD).
3:21 a.m. Chandler Gym: Officers responded to a fire alarm and found steam coming out of the pipes in the west tunnel. Officers reset the fire panel.
11:24 p.m. Gladden: Officers responded to a report of a fight in progress and spoke with several students. The WPD also responded.
9:42 p.m. Paresky: Officers responded to a report concerning three locations of graffiti on the walls at the First Chance event. Officers took pictures and documented the graffiti before cleaning it.
Tuesday 10-31-17 6:09 p.m. Adams Memorial Theatre: A theater department staff member working on a loading dock called to report that a spark lit a plastic cup and pipe insulation on fire. She used a fire extinguisher to put the fire out. Officers responded and the Williamstown Fire Department chief responded to check the scene and document the incident.
4:11 a.m. Bronfman Science Center: Officers responded to a fire alarm and immediately called the WPD to respond per protocol established while this building is under construction.
11:18 p.m. Paresky: Officers responded to a request to assist an intoxicated student. The student was intoxicated and belligerent. The WPD responded. 12:15 a.m. Carter: Officers responded to a request for a well-being check on a student. The on-call Integrative Wellbeing Services Counselor was contacted and connected with the student.
Wednesday 11-1-17 Sunday 11-05-17 12:40 a.m. Hopkins Hall: CSS received a report of a stolen backpack with two laptops in it. 10:46 a.m. Driscoll: Officers noticed what appeared to be food grade oil on the ground near the loading zone area. Safety and Environmental Compliance staff members were called to check and clean up. The source was the truck that picks up food oil waste from the College dining halls for a local farm. Officers contacted the truck to check for leaking and to ensure that the truck stays off campus until it is repaired. 4:58 p.m. Center for Development Economics: Officers responded to a report that a student had fallen down the stairs, twisting her foot. The student was unable to put any weight on the foot to walk. North Adams Ambulance responded to the scene and transported the student to Berkshire Medical Center (BMC) in Pittsfield. 7:00 p.m. Mission Park Drive: A student reported that she was with a blind dog that she had found wandering around the area and became concerned it was going to get hit by a car. Officers contacted the WPD, who responded; the WPD took the dog with them. The owner was identified, contacted and advised to go to the WPD station to pick up their dog.
12:45 a.m. Paresky: Officers responded to a disturbance at First Chance concerning an intoxicated, disruptive student refusing to leave the building. Officers asked the WPD to respond and assist. 12:46 a.m. Williams Hall: Officers responded to an intoxicated student in need of assistance. After arrival, officers activated 911. North Adams Ambulance transported the student to Berkshire Health North. 1:12 a.m. Mission Park: An intoxicated student was vomiting in the restroom and 911 was activated. North Adams Ambulance arrived and transported the student to Berkshire Health North. 2:02 a.m. 18-20 Meadow St.: Officers responded to an emergency medical call concerning a student who was having a panic attack. North Adams Ambulance arrived and made an assessment. The student signed a refusal for transport. 4:38 a.m. Sawyer: Officers responded to multiple motion alarms on the first and second floors. A student had remained in Sawyer saying he did not hear the closing warnings. When he began to move around the motion sensors activated alarms. Officers found him at the gate to let him out.
FEATURES 6
The Williams Record
November 8, 2017
One in Two Thousand By MADDY MCFARLAND EXECUTIVE EDITOR In the time I have known Joyce Wang '18, she has transformed from a starry-eyed first-year into a sophisticated computer science and fashion icon. I sat down with her this week to learn more about her views on life, study abroad and the College. What was high school like for you? I went to school [in Holmdel, N.J.] until eighth grade and then went to St. Paul’s for high school, which is in Concord, N.H. It’s kind of a similar vibe to here, but now I’m realizing Concord was a poppin’ city. It’s the state capital, so there’s a ton of political events and such good restaurants there because of it – it’s so nice. You’re a computer science major. Are there a lot of women in that department? No, there aren’t – actually, there’s a huge board of everyone’s faces, and I’m pretty sure there are nine girl senior computer science (CS) majors and 36 guys, so it’s like one to four. I know that you went to the Grace Hopper conference in Florida for women in computer science – what was that like? It was so cool. It was actually super motivational too – there were keynote speakers every morning and they were talking about how important it is for women to get into the field. And it was cool because [a lot of people] in tech are men and there is this distinct feeling that men are genetically better at programming, which doesn’t necessarily happen in other fields, especially with the Google memo over the summer. So sometimes a lot of people view diversity as a scam – “why are we not hiring the best programmers
and hiring women just because we need to” – but it’s actually really important because when you create technology, it is really important to have different voices. If women don’t put in their voices while technology is being built, then it’s just not going to be tailored to all people.
JOYCE WANG ’18
Do you want to work in the tech world after graduation? Yeah, I really want to. I’ve been interning at start-ups the last two summers, which was really cool. And it sounds really ambitious, but I’d be kind of down to start a start-up. But I don’t think it’s as risky as it seems, because the idea is once you have a job and have some kind of professional network, it’s hard to fail so hard that you never have a job after that. It is really hard, but I think when you have constraints like that, that’s when you’re pushed to do really cool things. You got a lot from the conference. What is your favorite thing you brought back? I think probably this IBM t-shirt. It’s really cool. Everyone’s like, “Whoa that’s so sick.” And I really like my Audible backpack with all the pins. The companies will have happy hour events; all of them rent out restaurants for a night, with an open bar and free food – I went to a Snapchat happy hour called “Snappy hour.” The main gifts they gave away were bags with your Bitmoji printed on them – but the line was so long, I was heading out and it was raining and someone gave me a gift bag and an umbrella. It was a nice umbrella with a wooden handle and ghosts on the outside, and when you open it up and look up, there’s a ghost on the inside. I looked kinda crazy bringing it through security, but I was like “I need this.” Can you talk about the style known as “tech trash”?
PHOTO COURTESY OF JOYCE WANG JOYCE'S HOMETOWN HOLMDEL, N.J.
JOYCE'S RESIDENCE MEADOW STREET
I feel like the aesthetic is classic Mark Zuckerberg: hoodies, sensible footwear and then like tech t-shirts or whatever your company gives out. But I’m not sure – I heard this when I studied abroad; they were shitting on people for being “tech trash.” But I think it mostly refers to guys who are entering it, like tech bros, guys who are really ostentatious and arrogant about it. How was your study away? It was really fun! I studied abroad in a computer science program in Budapest, which sounds really lame but it was so fun. And I really liked the classes – I got to take classes related to tech, 'cause the classes here are more theoretical, computer science-based. And everyone there was studying CS, so it was kind of cool to be surrounded by that. My friends were nerds, but they were so nice, and everyone kind of went to liberal arts schools similar to Williams or [the] Ivies and generally everyone was of the same academic
Inside the Williamstown Masonic Lodge: The myths and facts of Freemasonry By JEONGYOON HAN STAFF WRITER It is the oldest fraternity organization in the world, an enigma to those who do not know the traditions and mysteries that its members have access to. With the group’s apparent secrecy, many speculate: Is it a cult? Did the organization really hide treasure during the Revolutionary War (like in the movie National Treasure)? What does the group even do? What exactly is it all about? Do its members have secrets that unlock questions about, say, the meaning of life? This is the world of Freemasonry, with famous members including many of the Founding Fathers, such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, among others. And there is a Masonic Lodge just a brisk minute-long walk from Currier Hall: Williamstown Lodge No. 16. The Lodge has 67 members who are 50 to 55 years old on average; there have been as many as six employees of the College who have been a part of the local lodge within the past 30 years, and as many as three students. To get a better picture of the organization, I sat down with Williamstown Masonic Lodge Secretary Nicholas Mantello to better understand what leads men join the brotherhood, what it takes to be a Freemason and what’s fact or myth about Freemasonry. Here are my main takeaways. Nicholas Mantello became a Freemason in 1989 after 10 years of consideration: According to Mantello, it was “the mystique, the brotherhood” that drew him in. As a member of the North Adams branch as well, Mantello has spent the past 28 years serving both lodges. Freemasonry desires to bring out the best in men over the age of 18. “The core and what’s usually the first thing that comes up when discussing what we’re about is making good men better,” Mantello said. “It’s trying to improve yourself daily, so every day you’re better than you were yesterday. It’s just improving a
man’s character and meeting with like-minded brothers and gentlemen.” This, Mantello said, takes place by being active in the community. The local lodge organizes pancake breakfasts, blood drives, highway clean-ups and other charitable services. You don’t need to be Christian to be a member. There is, however, a requirement that candidates believe in a higher deity of some sort. While approximately 80 percent of Williamstown Lodge members are Christian, there are also other religious groups represented, including Judaism, Islam and now Buddhism – the newest member of the brotherhood, who just joined several weeks ago, is Buddhist. The organization requires that its members believe in a higher power in order to emphasize the gravity of joining the brotherhood. “Believing in God is binding. Similarly, joining a Masonic Lodge represents a binding contract,” Mantello said. According to its members, freemasonry is not the same thing as a cult. “We are not a cult!” Mantello said, marking the absence of a religious component as the biggest difference between Freemasonry and a cult. Additionally, Freemasonry will not force its members to break the law in order to protect each other or the Masonic message. The idea that Freemasons will commit perjury on the stand to protect a brother is a myth, Mantello said. Freemasons are generally open to speaking with those who want to learn about the life of a Freemason. “My comparison has always been … if you want the teachings that we have, it would be so much better gained if you were to join and go through the ritual yourself rather than get it online,” Mantello said. “It’s like going to an amusement park and watching the roller coaster rather than riding the roller coaster. If you really want it, get the experience of it. It’s awesome. It’s very deep. It doesn’t infringe on your friends, family, job or religion.” Most of the Freemasons’ knowledge draws upon under-
standing the significance of various symbols that are critical to the Masonic ideology and improving men, such as the “center of a center,” the hourglass, rough ashler and perfect ashler (rough stone and perfect stone). Freemasonry emphasizes memorization of symbols and their meanings because, as Mantello said, “symbols gives [Freemasons] a moral code to try to live by, by applying lessons learned from symbolism to daily situations.” Additionally, Mantello said that besides the meanings of symbols, most of Freemasons’ secrets involve modes of recognizing other Freemasons: Handshakes and bumper stickers are just two of several modes of recognition. (Hint: If you want to join a Lodge and see a bumper sticker with “2B1Ask1” – “to be one, ask one” – just approach the driver!). While Mantello noted that a Freemason won’t explicitly explain the meanings behind symbols, he also said that most information that is thought to be secret is accessible to the public. “There is very little that we don’t share to the public,” he said. “I can honestly say we have no secrets. All of our ‘secrets’ can be found online. I’m not going to show you where to find it, but if you were to really search for it, you can find whatever you’re looking for.” The Williamstown Masonic Lodge requires candidates to submit a background check and to be interviewed by a member of the chapter; afterwards, an investigation committee will evaluate the applicant and give a recommendation to the entire lodge as to whether the candidate is “favorable” or “unfavorable.” Nothing is set in stone, however, until the whole group votes; a unanimous vote is necessary for a candidate to be let into the lodge. While this may seem daunting to some, Mantello said that those who are good men and want to improve their lives will have no trouble being accepted by Freemasons. “Any man of good standing can join,” Mantello said.
FAVORITE HOBBY NBC
achievement sort of, and that was really awesome. What’s it like to be in Nothin’ But Cuties [NBC]? It’s really fun. I actually had never danced hip-hop before; [I auditioned] for fun … but I had so much fun and I got so nervous, and then I wanted to be in it so badly and I got in! I love it so much. I got to meet so many cool and awesome people. And every time I go to practice, I think about how I would never have guessed that there are 10 people dancing in a crowded studio and not studying in the library. And what we do during tech week is so crazy – it’s so fun but we dance from 4 p.m. to 12 a.m. and it’s technically all student-run so we’re just all doing it to do it, instead of being forced to. But it’s so fun and I love it so much. Tell me about how you went abroad to Shanghai two summers ago and you worked at a start-up.
My grandparents live there, and my parents grew up there and emigrated here. We saw my grandparents maybe once every four years or so, but we haven’t really recently because everyone’s doing different things – so I hadn’t gone back in so long and it was my first time going alone, which was an eye-opening experience in a lot of ways. The internship was just coding things on my own and getting occasionally checked by my supervisor. I had really taken for granted coding in English – everyone else has to kind of learn English as they learn how to code, because all of the software is developed by Americans. For their variable names, they’ll sometimes use pinyin – the phonetic spelling of Chinese characters. I lived with my cousin, who is 40 years old and has a family, and I got to meet his kids who I had never seen before, and that was really fun. I remember you did this Instagram series of incoherent English t-shirts. What are the types of things you saw? One of my favorite ones was “Alcohol you later." ... I saw hats that said “Chris Brown” and “She wouldn’t love me when I’m angry.” Another one was this hat – this middle-aged man was wearing this black Von Dutchesque hat that said “worldwide deluxe impact” and I was like “what does that even mean.” [Laughs.] One time there was [a] perfectly normal mom who wore a shirt that said “naughty and nice.” After that my friend and I wanted to make our own t-shirts that said “just China party.” I actually do want to design clothes low key – because you know how the new Supreme, hype beast style is very plain clothing with a word or slogan on it? We were going to do witty computer science ones for girls mostly – like, “I love it when you call me big data” and
another one “cash me outside” but like cashing as in when you … [Laughs.] Why did you decide to major in CS? My sister started working out in San Francisco in the tech bubble and told me to take one class to learn how to code. … I took one and really liked it a lot – and I’ve always really liked math a lot, and computer science is just kind of applied math. It’s also just really nice to build things all of the sudden, sort of. Also, the professors here are so amazing; you call everyone in the department by their first name, and everyone is so nice. I think a lot of times you get people who study computer science so much that it seems like an insider-outside thing, but they’re super accommodating. In high school, we were so close to our teachers, but when I got here I didn’t have that as much, but I noticed that the professors in computer science classes actually really cared about my development and learning. Also, Jeannie [Albrecht] and Andrea [Danyluk] are awesome, so they’re the two female [computer science] profs, and they’re amazing. What’s your favorite noncomputer science class you’ve taken? I really like drawing a lot right now. I actually took it because if I did want to go into user experience, a lot of people have a formal design background. I’ve really liked it a lot so far because it’s a shift from normal classwork and I never really thought that I’d be doing it, but it’s interesting because you go from narrowing down one kind of thinking and doing a lot of papers and reading. It’s a completely different way of thinking – instead of narrowing down your possibilities, you’re trying to open them up as wide as possible.
Professors’ Corner: History Department This week, we asked four members of the history department to tell us which moment in history they most wished to have been present for. These are their responses.
Sara Dubow '91: “Off the top of my head, it is probably a tie between October 27, 2004, Busch Memorial Stadium (Red Sox win World Series for the first time since 1918) [and] November 4, 2008, Grant Park, Chicago, for Obama’s election victory speech.”
Peter Pihos: “I would have liked to have been at the post-Civil War South Carolina Constitutional Convention in 1868 to witness the creation of a new experiment in inter-racial democracy. In the home of secession, 73 of the 124 delegates who wrote the new constitution were black.”
Mangus Bernhardsson: “I would want to have attended the coronation of King Faysal of Iraq on August 23 in 1921 and sit next to Gertrude Bell, who I have had an crush on since I read all her letters while researching my doctoral disseration.”
Roger Kittleson:
“Probably the conclusion of the Haitian Revolution. It did several amazing things at the same time, including turning what had been the most profitable sugar colony in the world into the first independent black republic in the hemisphere!”
November 8, 2017
The Williams Record
FEATURES 7
A Week Away: Exploring religious freedom and identity abroad By RACHEL SCHARF STAFF WRITER I was running about my room in New York City in the lastminute throes of packing for my semester in Copenhagen when I came across, among a knot of tangled necklaces and earrings, my bracelet with the words of the Sh’mah etched out in Hebrew. Although I am not religious, I love this bracelet; Judaism is a large part of my cultural identity, and I see this piece of jewelry as a subtle reminder of the traditions and heritage that I’ve grown up with. But in that moment, as I sat on my floor staring at the distinctly Hebrew letters, I decided to leave it behind. I didn’t know much about Danish anti-Semitism other than the fact that it existed. I’d heard that there had been an attack on a synagogue a few years back, but I hadn’t really looked into the details of it. I felt, however, suddenly aware that I didn’t necessarily want to walk around Copenhagen identifying myself as Jewish by the sight of my wrist. Three weeks later, I entered the Chabad of Denmark – but only after proving to the armed guards outside that I was Jewish and came with good intentions. I was there with some friends for a Shabbat dinner, which I spent laughing and enjoying the Jewish foods and traditions that were part of my childhood. However, the fact that I had to prove my intentions to police officers carrying machine guns stuck with me more than the delicious dinner I ate or the wonderful people I met that night. This Chabad is part of a chain of Jewish community centers throughout the world, in all of which a rabbi and their family reside. This Chabad houses Rabbi Yitzi Loewenthal. I was about to thank him for hosting the event and depart for the evening, but I realized that I needed to know more about the intense protection surrounding the evening. I asked the rabbi if I could come back another day to talk to
PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Mourners left flowers and flags outside of Copenhagen’s Great Synagogue following a shooting that claimed the life of security guard Dan Uzan. him about it, and he enthusiastically agreed to host me at his home again. The next week I walked into the Chabad’s brightly lit sitting room and noticed, among the Hebrew tapestries and scenic photographs of Israel, security camera footage mounted on the wall – a constant eye to the outside world and its threats pervading this warm, communal space. Loewenthal greeted me with a chipper wave, although not a handshake, since orthodox Jewish men are forbidden from touching women. He’s a bearded man with kind eyes, darkrimmed glasses, the traditional Jewish kippah cap on his head and tzitzit strings hanging from his pants. We sat down on the Chabad’s beige sofa. I started by asking him about the 2015 terror attack, where a
gunman had opened fire outside the Great Synagogue. Many felt the attack to be a culmination of mounting anti-Semitic tensions in Copenhagen, with recent incidents including hateful graffiti found painted on the Jewish school Carolineskolen. The gunman, Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, is thought to have had motivations rooted in Islamic extremism, which in Denmark often takes on an anti-Semitic tone as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These anti-Semitic trends in Copenhagen’s Muslim community have most publicly been recorded in an imam’s recent call to violence against Jews in his sermon at Nørrebro’s Masjid alFaruq mosque. The night of the terror attack, Hussein took as a victim a Jewish security guard named Dan Uzan,
This week in Williams History, Articles from the Archives: 1999 As the days shorten and the temperature drops, people and animals alike begin to compete for valuable indoor space in what turns out to be an age-old contest.
who had been keeping watch outside the bat mitzvah party of a local teenager at the Great Synagogue. The bat mitzvah girl was a good friend of Loewenthal’s family, and he had been at the synagogue that night participating in her celebration. He’d left the event early to get home to his kids, saying goodnight to Uzan on his way out. Later that night, when the Chabad was on lockdown, he was the first one asked to inform the Uzan family of Dan’s death. The loss, then, was a deeply personal one for the rabbi. “For the Jewish community, it was obviously a traumatic event,” Loewenthal said, sighing and adjusting his kippah. “It was felt that it was a community tragedy, so there was a strong sense of it bringing people together.” He’s grateful that rather than leaving Denmark after the incident,
many Danish Jews instead took it as a cue to become more involved in spiritual and cultural life. After the attack, he went on, the Danish government instituted armed guards at all Jewish institutions – hence the machine gun-wielding officers that had greeted me outside the Chabad. More than two years later, Loewenthal and his family have gotten used to the security presence in the Chabad they call home; the guards share their challah and soup, and they often get to know the children that attend each Shabbat dinner. “They’ve become part of day-today life,” the rabbi said, smiling with twinkling eyes as he recounted one guard that his family grew especially close to when his youngest child was a baby. When I asked about Danish responses to the tragedy,
Loewenthal had nothing but the best to say about local support. “I’d walk down the streets, and people would come over to me, shake my hand and say how they support [me] and send their condolences,” he said. “There was a very strong feeling – an outpouring, almost – of affection.” Anti-Semitism, despite its apparent recent flare-up in Islamic extremist and anti-Zionist circles, Loewenthal explained, is not something found among mainstream Danish culture; it is relegated, it seems, to the fringe, subcultural factions of extremism from which the attack arose. As for his job as the Chabad’s leader, the rabbi feels honored to fill an essential role in contemporary Denmark. “After the attack, people were very much in need of community and being together, and Chabad served that role. Part of its role is not just about praying or studying or even eating but about giving that sense of community, and that’s something that Chabad has been able to give to people,” he said, glancing around the room, which was in the midst of being set for a traditional Jewish group meal. “And that sense of community has been needed all the more once the attack happened.” Careful not to take up too much of Loewenthal’s afternoon – his daughter, he had told me, needed help with homework upstairs – I thanked him for his time and exited through the Chabad’s heavy wooden doors. I decided that I would come back for Shabbat dinner soon, and that I’d ask my parents to bring my Sh’mah bracelet from home when they visited – I wanted, I now knew, to wear my Jewish identity close to my heart and for all of Copenhagen to see. Suddenly, I was not so afraid to be visibly proud of my culture. I, like so many of the Danish Jews Loewenthal cited, felt compelled by the now two-year-old tragedy that had rocked this place to be part of the community that seeks spiritual and cultural refuge inside the Chabad’s doors.
Spotlight on Research: Professor Topaz discusses pattern formation in nature By LYDIA DUAN STAFF WRITER Students sitting cross-legged on the floor or perched on sofas, drinking tea and laughing about mathematical topics that were far, far beyond the scope of my brain. Conversation zipping from physics to memes to calculus to computer science in one breath. A door plastered in fist-pump-worthy slogans and stickers for various social justice movements. There was an active energy permeating the atmosphere of Professor of Mathematics Chad Topaz’s office the day I came to visit. Having recently arrived from Macalester, Topaz is the most recent addition to the mathematics department at the College. This fall, Topaz has been teaching the higher-level math courses “Computational Linear Algebra” and “Partial Differential Equations,” and he is slated to teach “Discrete Mathematics” in the spring. When he’s not teaching in Bronfman Science Center or helping the line of students spilling out of his doorway in Bascom, he also conducts his own research utilizing differential equations, mathematical modeling and topological data analysis. In short, he’s a busy man. Suffice it to say, I was pretty lost. But when asked to explain the math-speak to a complete novice like myself, he and the circle of math-wizard students around him all perked up. They explained that topological data analysis is “squishy geometry,” where shapes are fluid dependent on the number of holes or “genii” in them, and “so a cube can be a sphere but never a doughnut.” They described differential equations to me as equations that convey how quantities change. In contrast to “functions that tell you outputs based on inputs or information given directly,” Topaz explained, the nature of differential equations is “about inference.” They’re particularly useful in Topaz’s line of
work, because “things are constantly changing in nature, and [he models] it.” As for what he specifically applies this math to, Topaz’s field of expertise lies in collective behavior, where organisms self-organize into groups or patterns. Topics of interest concerning collective behavior include biological swarms, bird flocks, fish schools, vegetation, fluid physics – anything where there can be a pattern in natural distribution. “Pattern formation is everywhere in nature,” Topaz said. “I find it amazing that, while we’re told nature tends toward chaos, there are still so Professor of many ways in which specific systems self-organize.” As a graduate student, Topaz had an advisor who studied such patterns, and they sparked a curiosity in his own research. Topaz is currently working on analysis of vegetation patterns, which in turn requires extensive topological data analysis and numerical simulation. “I think we have this view that research is Einsteinian leaps of knowledge, when in reality, it is mostly very modest, incremental, but still important steps forward,” Topaz said. From here, we switched gears to another recent project of Topaz’s, one involving research into gender disparities across editorial boards. Editorial boards hold significant weight in the world of academia because they determine publication content in journals. “They’re the gatekeepers of knowledge,” Topaz said. Throughout his postgraduate mathematical studies, Topaz’s advisors were all women, but in talking to his colleagues about this, Topaz knew how uncommon his case was. After
a Facebook conversation one day about this very issue, Topaz decided to investigate the degree to which women were underrepresented in higher academia and subsequent editorial boards. The project was more “data-science-like” in nature, he explained, where he would use various human sources to find out the gender ratios of different boards. His findings? There was a disproportionately low representation of women across editorial boards, to an even greater degree than he had first feared. “It gets worse the higher up you go,” Topaz said. He described the increasing disparMathematics ity between the male-tofemale ratio in undergraduate professors and graduate, graduate and doctoral and so on. Topaz passionately believes in the importance of increasing diversity across these fields and has shared this project’s finding in a colloquium at the College, as well as at several other academic institutions. “There are never enough hours in a day,” Topaz said, citing packed scheduling as one of the challenges he faces as a teacher. “I don’t want people to be underserved.” In between my questions, he was whirling from one student to the next, answering questions and generating discourse amongst them all. His passion for math was positively infectious. Ultimately, Topaz has a philosophy that he extends through both his teaching and his research. “Mathematics is a powerful way to examine the universe,” he said. “Unfortunately, we live in a society that has not embraced it in the way it should. I want to show people the power of a mathematical viewpoint.”
“Mathematics is a powerful way to examine the universe.” Chad Topaz
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The Williams Record
November 8, 2017
‘Loving Vincent’ extends cinematography with paint By WENDY HERNANDEZ STAFF WRITER In Loving Vincent, the first fully painted animated feature film, directors Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman mesmerize with endless series of frames of oil paintings turned into animation. Loving Vincent centers around the life of painter Vincent van Gogh. The film opens as van Gogh’s close friend, postmaster Joseph Roulin, enlists his son Armand to deliver a letter happened upon by a former landlord, meant for van Gogh’s brother, Theo. It has been a year since van Gogh’s suicide. The film is suffused with artistic allusions to van Gogh – at one point an evening sky transports us to The Starry Night; at another, characters use props such as van Gogh’s Chair. The once familiar lurid interplay of van Gogh’s characteristic slapdash yet meticulous brushstrokes and primary colors competing for dominance becomes distorted. The resulting surreal backdrop guides the audience from one warped scene to the next in van Gogh paintings that are no longer van Gogh paintings. This lends the film a dreamlike quality that mirrors the uncertainty shrouding van Gogh’s death. Armand is initially insensitive. He dismisses van Gogh as a madman because of rumors he has heard, as well as his impression of van Gogh due to his infamous ear-mutilation. Like Armand, we are at the mercy of the interpretations and accuracy of secondhand accounts.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ATHENA CINEMA
‘Loving Vincent,’ the first fully hand-painted animated film, was illustrated by 115 artists and will be at Images Cinema until Thursday. His first stop is Père Tanguy, van Gogh’s former paint supplier. His revelation that Theo is dead forces Armand to rethink his plan, since he has no forwarding address. However, Tanguy’s mention of Dr. Gachet as a possible link to Theo’s surviving widow and child leads to a domino effect of Armand tracking down leads and attempting to arrive at an understanding of van Gogh’s death. We soon learn that Gachet treated van Gogh, bonded with him over a shared appreciation for art and regarded him as family. Despite being visibly shaken at the funeral, he
showed no hesitation in taking some of van Gogh’s paintings as payment for an outstanding balance. Upon arriving at Auvers-sur-Oise to find the doctor, Armand receives a cold greeting from the housekeeper, Louise, who is quick to badmouth van Gogh. Told that he will have to wait two days to see Gachet, Armand tracks down the inn where van Gogh used to stay. Once there, he meets Adeline Ravoux, assuming a managerial role until her father returns. Instead of condemning van Gogh, however, she confesses her belief – shared by Armand’s father – that the facts of his suicide do not add up. Six
weeks prior to his death, van Gogh was deemed “cured” by Gachet, was discharged from an asylum and appeared cheerful. The day before he died, he had even ordered more paint and told Adeline he had plans for thousands of paintings. Adeline suggests asking a nearby boatman for more information. According to the boatman, van Gogh seldom came to the river to paint. Instead, he would pass the time with Gachet’s daughter, Marguerite. Later, Armand confronts Marguerite, who denies anything beyond formal acquaintance with van Gogh. She denies Armand’s theory that a heated ar-
gument with Gachet, in which he forbade van Gogh from seeing Marguerite, triggered van Gogh’s death. Besides the lack of apparent motive or suicide note, the mysterious death grows more bizarre when some residents claim it happened in the fields while others insist it happened in a barn. The weapon is also never found and van Gogh’s art equipment has disappeared. These details compound Adeline’s suspicion of Gachet, who, having been a military doctor, could have removed the bullet from a moribund van Gogh. Meanwhile, skeptics like Dr. Mazery, Joseph Roulin and Adeline stress
the incongruity behind van Gogh’s settling for just a botched suicide attempt if he had really wanted to kill himself. Loving Vincent triumphs not because it paints a sympathetic portrait of van Gogh, but because it suggests that leaning into one’s discomfort will not suffice. Derail discomforts, erect new ones and call them postimpressionism. Within the film, the recycled artistic allusions that border on iconography call to mind the familiar captions of these paintings. They are usually safe explanations that sensationalize the tragedy of van Gogh’s life or equate artistic ability with insanity. In the letter that finally makes it to Johanna, Theo’s widow, van Gogh writes, “Looking at the stars always makes me dream. ... Why, I ask myself, shouldn’t the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France? Just as we take a train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star. We cannot get to a star while we are alive any more than we can take the train when we are dead … just as steamboats, buses and railways are the terrestrial means. To die quietly of old age would be to go there on foot.” The goal of the film, then, is not to point us to the reason behind van Gogh’s death. Instead, Loving Vincent urges the audience members to arrive at their own truth instead of scripting a definitive one for them. Van Gogh’s brilliance is no fixed point of constancy – it travels at light-speed.
Virtual reality transcends technology, creations By HANNAH TAGER STAFF WRITER
PHOTO COURTESY OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY
Christopher Heuer explains how objects inform us about narratives of Renaissance globalization.
Exploring Indigeneity in the Arctic By WYLIE THORNQUIST STAFF WRITER On Oct. 31, the Clark Art Institute hosted a talk in its lecture series in the Michael Conforti Pavilion. This recent talk, entitled “Arctic Ink,” was presented by Christopher Heuer. Heuer is currently working as a professor for the graduate art students at the Clark, and is the author of The City Rehearsed: Object, Architecture and Print in the Worlds of Hans Vredeman de Vries, as well as co-editor of Vision and Communism. His next book, Into the White, an expansion on his lecture’s focus on Renaissance conceptions of the Arctic, will be published in 2018. Heuer’s introduction for the talk was a particular broadsheet illustration of a mother and child, abducted from the waters off of Greenland and toured as ethnographic specimens in several cities in Flanders around 1566. The duo was presented to the public of Antwerp, Belgium, in late 1566 in a printed publication that portrayed the two as “a wild woman with her daughter,” and claimed that the mother was known to be a cannibal. The woman and her child were incorporated into mounting narratives of exoticism and fear of savagery for the European consumers of this media. This encounter, seen in conjunction with the rise of stricter forms of Protestantism, negotiated the conception of native and non-native and the role of spectacle in the reception of these peoples in Belgium, Germany and other countries. Narratives of dehumanization were mobilized against peasants and “cannibalistic” na-
tive peoples alike, and Heuer spoke on how these subordinated groups had their status torn between that of “animals, objects or property.” The encroaching specter of capitalism beginning to develop in this early era of colonialism colored the ways in which Western peoples regarded themselves as globalized subjects. Emerging from the Renaissance, and impacted by new understandings of “cultural exchange,” these illustrations have a great deal to reveal regarding the framing and depiction of racialized othered subjects. In his lecture, Heuer sought to complicate the common narrative of “cultural exchange” as a site for change and differentiation, and instead to look to instances of colonialism’s stasis and mundanity. He brings in the written recorded experiences of explorers of the Arctic, marked by long periods of frigid and sometimes lifethreatening immobilization among fickle ice flows, in contrast with the colonialist projects of Spain and Portugal, in tropical lands that seemed to teem with an abundance that was quickly exploited. Where they encountered and brought about the destruction of complex civilizations, English, Dutch and German explorers of the far North encountered no major civilizations, but rather scattered groups of peoples that lived among the ice nomadically. In this space, the perpetually freezing and abating terrain was threatening and foreign in an entirely different way, as dangerous icebergs lay hidden below the surface and even one mis-
take could lead to the loss of an entire expedition. Towards the end of the lecture, Heuer spoke about a crew of 17 people that set out from Amsterdam in 1596 that mistimed its journey and ended up marooned on the island of Nova Zembla, on the northern coast of Canada, for nine months. Though the crew managed to return after these long months with only two casualties, the harshness of the landscape and the fear it fostered were not lost on the men. The narratives that the men captured were given shape by disorientation, darkness and immobilization. At this point, before the later sensationalized race to the North Pole in the early 20th century, an early account of the terrain was recorded by one of the crewmen on Nova Zembla, and in 1598 these writings circulated as an adventure story, popular among children and adults alike. In this talk, Heuer continually expanded on the power of texts and images to construct European imagining of the northern extremities of the Earth. During this period in the 16th century, while colonialism was changing the ways Europeans understood their relationship to the rest of the world, the Arctic and its Indigenous populations were phenomena to be marveled at, feared and captured. He concluded his lecture at the point when narratives of conquest gave way to life-threatening stasis, and brought out new ways of thinking about the globalized subject. The next lecture the Clark will be hosting is on Tuesday, and is entitled “Baak: The Qualities and Craft of Ancient Maya Bone.”
“Well, that was enough sensory overload for today,” an elderly woman said to her husband as the couple exited The Chalkroom, a virtual reality experience that is part of Laurie Anderson’s exhibition at MASS MoCA. The piece is quite sensational; guided by Anderson’s voice, one flies through The Chalkroom by moving controllers that are connected to graphics displayed on a virtual reality headset. Anderson provides a physically immersive experience – I got a brief bout of vertigo after flying high up in The Chalkroom – yet also engages the viewer’s mind. Letters and words fill the piece, sometimes legible (“Some say our empire is over” is graffitied in multiple spots), but often obstructed. In “The Tree,” one of the rooms that comprises The Chalkroom, a white scraggly tree fills the room. Upon further inspection, the tree is made up of floating and disconnected letters, inciting a kind of 3D word-search for the viewer. The exhibition’s fixation on words and language is to be expected from Anderson, a skilled composer and musician. Her works at MASS MoCA play with communicability through different mediums. Right outside of The Chalkroom is The Headphone Table, a wooden table connected to an electric pulse. If you position your elbows on the table and your
head in your hands, you can hear a subtle song, since bones are conductible. The action feels childlike, and the sound’s effect is reminiscent of the warped voices a child might hear while pressing their ear up against a wooden door, scheming to hear parents’ private conversations. Anderson seems to cater to the child’s mind; along with her alphabet tree, her works also include child’s games and stories. Her charcoal installation, a series of wall-covering pieces titled Lolabelle in the Bardo, features dogs and spinning tops. The installation is playful but mildly apocalyptic; animals are ungrounded and at times upside down, seemingly whipped up by some Ozesque tornado. The pieces’ black and white coloring and flying livestock remind one of Picasso’s Guernica. Anderson still manages to incorporate sound into this silent work, including spinning keyboards and violins in her tornado. Lolabelle in the Bardo, a relatively simple charcoal composition compared to the other electronic works, nevertheless touches on technology, a central theme in Anderson’s exhibition. A keyboard, this time from a computer, and a flip phone are also whipped up in the charcoal tornado. Anderson seems critical in her depiction of the technology, suggesting its ultimate weakness as it is easily unplugged and drawn into the black and white whirlwind.
A flip phone appears again in Aloft, a second virtual reality experience from Anderson. The piece was described as “choose your own adventure,” and viewers can clutch floating objects in the virtual reality space to hear their stories or to move around. Touching the flip phone transports you to a serene lake with a floating Buddha statue. Then, “give up attachment,” Anderson whispers to you in a prophetic voice. This Buddhist philosophy from the flip phone is at odds with another story that can be heard from a floating lotus flower. When clutched, the flower whispers, “You always feel like you never have enough time to write to people, but you have so many people to thank – just do it.” Hooked into a virtual reality headset and self-excluded from the real word, Anderson’s words come as a curt wakeup call to a viewer in the Information Age, encouraging them to set aside the flip phone and pick up a pen. Promoting Buddhist detachment and also interpersonal communication, Anderson’s works encourage sincere thought about communicability and technology in the modern world. Spanning the alphabet to virtual reality, the exhibition ultimately runs the gamut of ways to communicate, offering seriously innovative approaches and adaptations to the historical human dilemma of communication.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MASS MOCA
Laurie Anderson’s ‘The Chalkroom’ immerses museum-goers in a chalk-illustrated virtual reality.
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The Williams Record
November 8, 2017
Book of Job retold as ‘J.B.’ with circus sideshow performance By RACHEL LEVIN EXECUTIVE EDITOR Last weekend, Cap & Bells performed Archibald MacLeish’s J.B. in the Adams Memorial Theatre. Based on the biblical Book of Job, J.B. follows its general storyline, while placing itself in the setting of a circus. All of the main players are present: Job, (played by Scott Lipman '18 and alternately referred to as J.B. and Job), his family, God, Satan, messengers of death and messengers of comfort. J.B. is not a man who curses God. When everything that could go wrong does, he maintains his faith, even though he loses almost everything else. As God and Satan rain down tests of faith, J.B. falters, but never stumbles. J.B. opens with a conversation between two characters who are vendors in the circus. With quick dialogue and careful wordplay, they establish themselves as aspiring actors, discussing who can play what part in the play-withina-play. Mr. Zuss (Terah Ehigiator '18) declares himself fit for the role of God, and situates Nickles (Nadiya L. Atkinson '21) in a role equal and opposite: Satan. Initially using masks, Mr. Zuss and Nickles begin to assume their identities. Nickles bets Mr. Zuss that J.B., a man who attributes his prosperity and luck to his faithfulness to God, will curse God if it is all taken away.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SHANTI HOSSAIN
Cap & Bells showcased ‘J.B.,’ a tale of a successful American man who endures many disasters and ends up confronting God and Satan. The focus then shifts from Nickles and Mr. Zuss to J.B. and his family at the dinner table, at what appears to be Thanksgiving. J.B. attributes his good fortune to his faith, while his wife Sarah (Molly K. Murphy '19) seems to be more hesitant. The five children also attest to J.B.’s fortune and faith, and the scene appears wholesome overall – a picture of a man who has everything. Mr. Zuss and Nickles, who are slowly becoming more and more like the characters they are playing, watch it unfold from the
background. Nickles/Satan mocks J.B.’s faith, while Mr. Zuss/God urges him to wait. Each of J.B.’s tests in the first act come in the form of two messengers sent by Satan. Quickly handing them their various outerwear, Satan brushes off God’s concerns, instead sending the messengers to J.B. and Sarah with a different purpose each time. At first, they appear in military outerwear, and tell of the death of David (Sean J. Pasquali '19), the oldest son. Then, they appear in trench coats, holding a camera and a notepad, to tell of
a car accident which killed two of their children. They come as detectives, to tell of the rape and murder of their fourth child. Finally, they appear with a shell-shocked Sarah, who was found under a building which had collapsed after a bomb had gone off. Sarah had been with their last child – now, they were all dead. While each death is different, the roles of the messengers stay the same. One messenger is much louder, brasher and has an air of confidence, while the other is more torn up and is often shouting,
for he has been there and witnessed each death. J.B.’s reactions become more intense with each death, ranging from simple disbelief to physical pain and boils. His physical deterioration mirrors how he increasingly struggles to thank God for what has happened. This is a true test of faith, for when a person loses five children, how do they continue to believe? Satan asks this question over and over, as he realizes that J.B. is not giving in, and will not curse God. Nickles/Satan's clothes and hair
become increasingly disheveled as the fight continues, seeming to take as much of a toll on them as it does on Job. The second act finds J.B. speaking with messengers who are supposed to be comforting, while Satan and God continue to look on. Satan comes closer and closer to admitting defeat, while God continues to watch intensely as the messengers bring different theories of comfort to the scene. Satan questions the actual ability of these messengers to comfort – indeed, the dialogue is not assuaging or validating, but rather continues to push J.B., who wonders where his boundaries are. When the messengers have done as much as they can, Satan and God enter the ring to talk to J.B., and their Satan/ Nickles and God/Mr. Zuss identities begin to come apart. J.B. still refuses to curse God, instead continually asking that God explain what has happened. When all havoc has been wreaked, Nickles and Mr. Zuss return to their identities as vendors in the circus, while J.B. and Sarah wonder what it would look like to begin a new life. Carefully staged by director Rob Hefferon ’18 and well-acted by a cast spanning all class years, J.B. was thought-provoking and emotional. Despite being originally written by MacLeish in 1958, questions raised in the play remain relevant to a modern audience.
‘The Impressionist Line’ draws unexpected connections By JESSICA ROSENTHAL CONTRIBUTING WRITER What comes to mind when you hear “Impressionist”? If your answer has to do with vibrant oil paintings covered in thick brushstrokes – works like Monet’s The Water Lilies – then you are in good company. You probably do not think of prints and drawings and it is also very unlikely that you thinks of dance, or of sculpture. The Clark Art Institute’s newest exhibition, the Impressionist Line, challenges assumptions about what defines Impressionism. The exhibition, which opened on Sunday, showcases approximately 50 Impressionist prints and drawings from the Clark’s works-on-paper collection. These are organized into three general groups. First are the precursors to Impressionism, artists who began the rebellious streak for which the Impressionists are known by exhibiting outside of the rigidly censored Paris Salon, at the 1863 Salon de Refusés or “Exhibition of Rejects.” The Impressionists, whose varied work focused on genre scenes or depictions of everyday life in Paris, come next, contradicting the longprivileged position of paintings showing important moments in grandiose fashion. Last are the post-Impressionists, in whose works one sees early signs of the imminent shift towards abstract art. Thus the Clark’s exhibition presents a largely unacknowledged – but arguably critical – aspect of the Impressionist
movement. Prints and drawings made up over half of the artworks displayed in the eight Impressionist exhibitions held in Paris between 1874 and 1886, around which the Impressionists organized themselves. It was largely through works on paper that these artists developed and carried out their experiments in realism, challenging and subverting the tenants of French academic art. With the Clark exhibition’s prints and drawings, one may wonder: Where do dance and sculpture come in? The Clark not only pushes boundaries of media by emphasizing the drawn and printed line, but it also brings other modes of expression into the discussion, prompting broader considerations of the intersections between media. Take, for example, two highlights of the exhibition, Edgar Degas’ images of dancers: a pastel, The Entrance of the Masked Dancers, and a monotype, Three Ballet Dancers. The first, full of color, approximates the effects of many of the Clark’s Impressionist paintings. The second uses only black ink and its absence to depict ballerinas lit from above; light reflects off of the twirling figurines, the world seeming to move around them in a blur of lines. Another Degas work, The Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, enhances the pleasure of seeing these images at the Clark. The bronze sculpture was cast from the original 1881 wax figurine after the artist’s death. The original’s realistic portrayal garnered
harsh criticism and disdain from many of Degas’ contemporaries for not showing the ideal graceful ballerina, but rather an awkwardly proportioned young girl, in a stance that appears simultaneously defiant and painful. This story sheds some light on the climate in which the Impressionist Line works were created and the conventions they pushed against. This sample of Degas' works suggests an affinity between dance and Impressionism in the late 19th century, a connection brought to the fore through a breathtaking performance during the exhibition’s opening. As explained in the lecture preceding her dances, Jodi Sperling of Time Lapse Dance Company drew inspiration from Loïe Fuller, who rose to fame through her combination of dance, colored lights and expansive fabric costumes. Enveloped in folds of white silk, Sperling rippled across the Clark’s stage, her fluid movements recalling at times the serenity of waves, and at other moments the energetic fluttering of wings. Given their shared interests in mimicking natural effects, it is little wonder that Fuller was a favorite subject of the Impressionists. In fact, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, a postImpressionist artist with several works in the exhibition, created a lithograph of Fuller that the Clark owns, available for viewing upon appointment in the Manton Study Room for Works on Paper. Impressionist Line will be on view until Jan. 7, 2018.
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Williams Theatre Department The Wolves Written by Sarah DeLappe Directed by Artist-in-Residence Shayok Misha Chowdhury NOV 9-11, 16-18, 7:30 PM CENTERSTAGE $3 Williams Dance Department
Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall Free Williams Gospel Choir Nov 11 - 4 PM Chapin Hall Free Chamber Orchestra at Williams Nov 11 - 8 PM
CoDa, Kusika, Sankofa, The Zambezi Marimba Band
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‘Impressionist Line’ features Edgar Degas’ pastel drawing, ‘The Entrance of the Masked Dancers.’
Nov 9 - 8 PM
Pachedu All Ensembles Performance
NOV 17, 18 - 8 PM
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Patricia Shands, clarinet Sally Pinkas, piano
413.597.2425 62center.williams.edu
Chapin Hall
Classical Indian Vocalist
Art + Systems Thursday, Nov 9, 6:30 pm Explore concentric systems at play in our collection with sophomore Art History major CJ Salapare.
Reads & Records Thursday, Nov 9, 7-8 pm Coffee, tea, and vinyl recordings set the mood for socializing and study.
Art + Enantiomers Thursday, Nov 16, 6:30 pm Look closely at minute details in works of art with sophomore Chemistry major Erica Gibble.
Nov 13 - 8 PM Chapin Hall Free
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10 SPORTS
The Williams Record
A HOMECOMING FOR THE AGES: FROM THE ARCHIVES (NOV. 11, 1997)
November 8, 2017
XC runners compete at USATF New Englands By LIAM ALBRITTAIN, ZEKE COHEN and JULIA GUNTHER TEAM CORRESPONDENTS On Sunday, 11 women’s and 16 men’s cross country runners took to the historic Franklin Park course in Boston for the USA Track & Field (USATF) New England Championships. As the top group rested for NCAA Regionals, the athletes who competed on Sunday were finishing off their season. The Ephs were led by Eliza Matt ’18, who capped off her final cross country season. With much hard work, Matt improved substantially and finished in 37th with a time of 23:19. Tyra Wynn ’19 was close behind in 38th place with a time of 23:26. The next three Ephs raced in a close pack. In her second-ever 6k race, Brianna Bourne ’21 took 45th in 23:54. Janelle Gowgiel ’20 ran 23:54 for 48th. Jaylan Fraser-Mines ’21 ran 23:58 for 49th in her debut 6k. Sarah Tully ’21 and Katie Flaharty ’18 rounded out the Ephs’ top seven. Tully, battling through bronchitis, ran 23:52 for 56th place. Flaharty ran 25:37 for 65th. Hannah Lebowitz ’20 and Adrienne Banks ’20 ran together through the second half of the race, pushing each other to times of 25:52 and 25:53, respectively. Julia Gunther ’20 and Wyndom Chace ’21 finished close behind. Gunther finished in 26:01 while Chace ran 26:09 in her first 6k.
By KEVIN COAKLEY STAFF WRITER
“It was a super culmination of their season for most of the group, and spirits were high,” head coach Pete Farwell ’73 said. The men competed against several formidable club teams from the New England area. While the Ephs were not counted in the team standings, Battle Road Track Club, featuring alumni Greg Ferland ’16 and Cole Townsend ’15, came in second. Several Ephs set personal bests. William McGovern ’20 led in 33rd overall with a time of 32:54, a 15-second improvement over his 2016 performance on the course. Kenneth Marshall ’20 raced the 10k for the first time and placed 44th in 33:19. Jacob Kahrs ’19, Sam Gilman ’21 and Chris Avila ’21 finished in 33:43, 33:52 and 34:04, respectively. Zack Schreier ’20 ran a wellpaced 34:09, followed by Matthew Peacock ’21 (34:40), Jenks Hehmeyer ’20 (34:49), Walker Knauss ’19 (35:19), Liam Albrittain ’19 (35:35), Alex Kilman ’18 (35:47), Felix Biwott ’21 (35:50), George Arrowsmith ’21 (36:45), David Azzara ’19 (36:51), Christian Maloney ’21 (37:34) and Evan Wright ’21 (38:19). This Saturday, both the men and women will travel to Southern Maine University to compete at Regionals and secure qualifying spots for Nationals. The men’s race begins at 11 a.m., and the women’s race begins at noon.
Volleyball drops NESCAC quarterfinal match to Wesleyan 3-0 By ELIZABETH SULLIVAN and NICA KOVALCIK STAFF WRITERS Volleyball (11–12, 5–5 in the NESCAC) fell 3-0 to eventual champion Wesleyan in the first round of the NESCAC tournament on Friday. The No. 7 seed Ephs and No. 2 seed Cardinals traveled to Medford, Mass., for the tournament, which was hosted by top seed Tufts. Wesleyan took an early lead in the first set. Kills by Ally Ostrow ’19 and Erin Denham ’20 then narrowed the deficit to 4-3, but the Cardinals continued to push ahead with strong hitting and serving. With the Ephs down 19-8, Natalie Al-
bright ’20 recorded a kill off of an Alex Newton ’20 set, but Wesleyan prevailed 25-11. At the start of the second set, the Cardinals jumped out to a 6-1 lead with strong hitting. After taking a timeout at 13-6, the women won four straight points, with kills from Denham and Albright. However, Wesleyan pushed the lead to 23-12. Roxy Corbeil ’21 got a kill for the Ephs, but the Cardinals won the second set 25-14. In the third set, Corbeil notched an early kill to put the women up 2-1. After a few more points, Newton set up Ostrow for a kill to bring the score to 6-5 in Williams’ favor. The teams remained neckand-neck for most of the set, but
Wesleyan took a 15-13 lead. The Ephs could not stop the Cardinals’ run, and the gap grew to 21-14. Wesleyan won the final set 25-17, clinching the match. “I think Friday was a rough [match] as we struggled a bit from the start and tried to battle our way back,” head coach Christi Kelsey said. “We could never really [string together] enough points at the right times.” Kelsey also reflected on the season as a whole. “We are incredibly proud of our group and just how far we have come this year,” she said. “The last month of the season, we really played some of our best volleyball right up until tonight. We are incredibly upbeat about the potential of this group and our future.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION
Opposite hitter Morgan Richman ’19 had 50 kills, 65.0 points and 115 digs for volleyball this season.
CAPTAINS’ CORNER: CHRIS HATTAR ’18 American, so it was really special for him to be playing. He got to play in college as well, so I wanted to be like my dad, and I wear his number [65] now. You went to boarding school, Trinity-Pawling. What was that experience like?
PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION
By BROOKE HOROWITCH SPORTS EDITOR
Team: Football Hometown: Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Residence: Hoxsey Street Major: English Snack bar order: Bagel supreme and Egg McWilliams When and why did you start playing football? I started playing football when I was four years old. It’s a funny story; my dad actually slipped the coach 20 bucks to let me play. I’m from a football family, and that’s how we do things. I’ve played for my whole life. How did your father influence you? He played football, and he was a first-generation Jordanian
Not to bash on Williams, but I think [Trinity-Pawling was] the best education I have received and will receive. Just in terms of learning time management, you rarely had a free moment. You run from classes to practice to sit-down meals, and I loved it there. It was one of the best times of my life. Did you participate in any additional extracurricular activities? I was the editor of my school paper and a three-sport varsity athlete. I was captain of the football and wrestling teams and did shot put and discus in track and field. I was a proctor, so I ran the dorm; I was a prefect, which is like a head of school. I did Model U.N. and helped run Relay for Life. I think that’s it. Why did you decide to attend the College? Basically, it came down to Williams and West Point. West Point is a big commitment, but I really wanted to experience college and have some fun while I was doing it, and Williams had the best combination of athletics and academics. It wasn’t a guarantee that I would play football at West Point – I would have had to walk on. I had a great opportunity here, and the coaching staff wanted me, so I thought, “Why not go to the best school in the country and play football for an incredibly historic and legendary program?”
What are your favorite things about the team? The guys. That’s why I play. It’s an incredible group of young men. Their leadership skills, focus, desire and willingness to work through challenges is unparalleled. Obviously with the history of the program, I came here to turn this program around, and we’ve done just that. What is it like to play for head coach Mark Raymond? It’s the best. He’s the best coach I’ve ever had. He’s so disciplined and so focused, but he knows how to have fun. It’s always great to go out to practice, and football is fun again. At times in my career, it wasn’t that fun, but under him, it’s been a great time. What were some times when football wasn’t fun for you, and why did you stick with it? I’ve had coaches in the past who were really hard on me and some of my friends. That’s part of the game, and you can’t be sensitive, but at times, it just felt like there was no direction to it. I’m someone who takes as much criticism as you can give me as long as it’s directed. Other times, teammates of mine weren’t as selfless as they could be. I love to play football because we’re trying to achieve one goal as a unit, and it takes both the coaches and the players working together in a positive direction. It’s fun now because we’re doing just that, and I’m really enjoying it. Why did you decide to be a defensive lineman, and what do you like about the position? I don’t know if I chose the position as much as the position
chose me. You get blessed with a certain set of skills and abilities and kind of just run with it, but it’s a tough job. If you ask anyone, there’s not a ton of glory in it. You pretty much eat double teams, and let your guys get open to go make plays, but again, whatever the team needs me to do, I do it. How have you developed as a player over the past four years? Starting out as a first-year, I was kind of all over the place. I wasn’t as controlled and refined as I am now. I broke my leg that year and was out for most of that season. I got to really focus on rehab and some of my skills and what exactly I needed to fix in my game. Over time, it’s just become a lot more technical with a lot more refinement in eye movements. Just being focused and disciplined is a big thing. How did you cope with the broken leg during your first season? I missed two weeks of school, and every other Friday I had to take a three-hour drive – six hours round trip – to go to the doctor and get things checked, so it was a major event in my life. I think the best thing that came out of it is that I realized that what I love to do is play football, and that’s who I am. Academically, I struggled because this is a hard school. But the beauty of it is that I got to find my passion in English, so it worked out. It made me cherish and appreciate football and made me realize what my true academic ambitions were. What is your opinion about the recent controversy regarding concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)?
Obviously, player safety is a very important part of the game, and some people recognize the risks and proceed while other people don’t really have an option other than to play the game for their well-being and livelihood. In my opinion, we need to do everything in our power to research and figure out how we can better protect players and diagnose these things faster and find some workable solutions. I think football is an incredible game, and I think issues with the head and CTE are some of the ways that it could go away, so I would like to see us put more time and research into finding a solution. I know you used to wrestle at the College but left the team after your freshman season. Why did you stop?
to come together, have an incredible offseason and figure out who’s in it and just get better. We did, and we are, but there’s a lot more to do, which is really exciting. How does it feel to have secured your first winning season since 2011? It’s great, and that was one of my team goals going into the season. It’s an honor to be with this group of guys and these coaches. I’ve never been part of a team like this – not even win-wise, just the group of people because everyone is so passionate about what they do on a daily basis. It’s an incredible feeling. You recovered a fumble for a touchdown against Colby on Sept. 23. How did that feel?
The wrestling team here is an incredible program – one of the best in the country. I wish I could have kept wrestling, but I felt like I needed to focus on my injury and rehabbing and that, more importantly, [I needed to] focus on the football team and try to get everything in the right direction there. I think we’ve done that, and we’ve come together as a collective and made that our focus. It’s worked out really well, so leaving wrestling was a decision I made for the football team.
I’ve been playing football for 17 years, and I’ve never scored a touchdown, so that was one of the cooler moments I’ve had personally, but it just speaks for our team. It was in the fourth quarter, and we were grinding on that team the whole game, and I got a lucky bounce after my teammate forced it out. I had guys laying down in front to block, and it really speaks more to how our team has been and how our team functions now.
Football has struggled in recent years and was winless last season. How did you and the team deal with that?
What is your favorite NFL team, and who is your favorite professional football player?
We took it hard. There was a lot of criticism and a lot of talk from a lot of places, and we kept that in the back of our minds but then pushed it aside. We said that what mattered was the people on the team, and we were going
My favorite NFL team is the New York Giants. It’s been a tough season, but I’m a Giants fan for life. My favorite professional football player is Aaron Donald. He plays for the Rams, so he doesn’t get much recognition, but he’s a great player.
November 8, 2017
SPORTS 11
The Williams Record
‘Record’ Editors Green, Greenberg take to the greens By MICHAEL GREEN and JACK BRENT GREENBERG RECORD STAFF
you always have to swing. Once Raffel was “satisfied” with the performance of his recruits on the artificial turf, he led them to the driving nets. “The key is to avoid thinking too much,” the sage told his students. “I like to play by feel, to not get too technical.” Greenberg immediately took this advice to heart; his form could have used some work, but he managed not only to make contact but also to execute some impressive shots. Green was not good – in fact, he was quite bad. “Keep your eyes on the ball,” Raffel reminded him. As Greenberg was practicing in the adjacent net, he heard a constant refrain of “Damn … I missed again!” The next step in training was for Greenberg and Green to take their newfound “skills” onto the course. However, the aspiring golf legends would have to make their way to the links the following weekend without the supervision, and automobile driving, of their coach, as Raffel left town for the weekend. In place of the AllAmerican superstar, Greenberg and Green brought along onetime beginner P.E. golf student Sean Pasquali ’19. Pasquali came in with great confidence, having recently fared well on the fairways against two of the College’s chaplains in a friendly game. The fledgling golfers and their newlydesignated coach decided to play a round at Waubeeka Golf Links. Upon arrival, the trio discovered that a frost delay would push tee time back. While they waited to get onto the first hole, the golfers decided to take ad-
With the impending turnover of the Record editorial board, Executive Editor Michael Green ’18 and Managing Editor Jack Brent Greenberg ’18 were in search of a new way to occupy their time. Green initially suggested Mahjong, but Greenberg noted the lack of a lively tile-based gaming community on campus. In response, Greenberg proposed starting a book club, but Green shrieked at the notion of reading nothing but Ayn Rand for an entire semester. Finally, the duo settled on a goal: joining the golf team in the spring. But there was one problem – neither knew how to golf. To bring their golf skills up to par, Greenberg and Green enlisted men’s golf team co-captain Grant Raffel ’17.5. If anyone was qualified to teach Greenberg and Green the skills necessary to emerge as the newest stalwarts of men’s golf, Raffel had the right club for the shot. On a rainy Sunday afternoon, Raffel led the two to a corner of Lasell Gym to impart the fundamentals of the game. Green quickly emerged as a formidable putter, sinking balls into the hole from five, maybe even six feet out, as he astutely noted the slight southward incline of the green. Greenberg, by comparison, seemed focused on grappling with how golf serves as a metaphor for life itself; even though sometimes the ball does not fly in the right direction,
vantage of Waubeeka’s driving range to see if Greenberg and Green learned anything from Raffel’s instruction. Although Pasquali had claimed that he could train the nascent golfers, the trio discovered that one quarter of beginner P.E. golf does not make a master, as he struggled to get the ball flying. Fortunately for our intrepid golfers, a benevolent soul arrived to help. Andy, a middle-aged frequent visitor to Waubeeka who appeared to be a distant cousin of Vito Corleone, approached Greenberg, Green and Pasquali to provide unsolicited advice. Per Andy, Greenberg had to “be mindful of his left thigh.” Pasquali was asked, “What are you, an old man?” before proceeding to take a more youthful stance while Green was informed that he had to try to hit the ball. With these insights, the trio headed to the first tee. Greenberg, having had the best performance on the range and the most pleasant interaction with Andy, approached the tee box with great confidence. Nevertheless, his first drive barely made its way to the start of the fairway. He quickly called for a mulligan and proceeded to make an even worse shot. Pasquali, redeeming himself after a lackluster performance on the range, executed a distant drive, albeit one that made its way straight into the rough. Green, though, was so enamored by the tree line that ran alongside the right side of the fairway that he sent his ball straight into it, hopping into his
JACK BRENT GREENBERG/MANAGING EDITOR
Sean Pasquali ’19, who took a beginner P.E. golf course, ‘helped’ the editors perfect their strokes. golf cart to retrieve the errant Titleist Pro V1. The trio proceeded to attempt to get on the green from the area where Pasquali’s ball had landed. The first hole became Greenberg’s highlight of the day. He secured a nice approach shot that found its way just to the left of the green and, three putts later, placed the ball into the hole for a bogey. Pasquali and Green were mesmerized; would Greenberg take Raffel’s place as the fulcrum of the men’s golf program at the College? Was he, in fact, the prince who was promised? The answer, the trio soon realized, was “yeah … no.” The second hole did Greenberg in as he proceeded to lose several balls in the rough. Green, by comparison, was beginning to show improvement as he made his way on to the fairway with his first
shot. However, it was all downhill from there, as each subsequent shot rolled away from its target. Pasquali, fortunately, held his own. A nice drive allowed him to move on to the third hole with a bit of confidence restored. Pasquali continued improving, easily driving the furthest and the straightest of the trio. Certainly, he was still awful, but he was the least awful of the bunch. Greenberg, his confidence shaken after the second hole, never found the promise he possessed on the range. Green, for his part, kept on swinging and, usually, kept on missing. Even when the biology major attempted to make a ball go “blub blub” on the fifth hole by sinking it in the water hazard, he instead managed to drive the aforementioned Titleist Pro V1 onto the fairway of
another hole. Increasingly fearing the prospect of getting hit by a ball from the trailing group and needing to return to campus sufficiently ahead of Raffel’s arrival to cook him a thank-you quiche, Greenberg and Green accepted defeat. While looking into each other’s eyes, they came to the mutual realization that they, in fact, would not be joining men’s golf in the spring and should instead consider running for College Council, which requires neither athletic ability nor coordination, once they retire from the College’s independent newspaper. After the fifth hole, the golfers hopped in their carts, blazing past local retirees clogging up the path, and drove into the Purple Valley sunset, beginning an indefinite hiatus from their fledgling golf careers.
Monti prepares to lead Ephs as interim head coach Wesleyan shuts out By MATT KARPOWICZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER
hockey programs. Kangas said he was excited about the opportunities, citing the valuable 24/7 access to witness top coaching up close. In addition, by following teams throughout the entire season and watching what kind of adjustments they make as the year progresses and different challenges emerge, Kangas seeks to apply that knowledge to the College’s program. However, his decision was also largely motivated by the fact that his son Ryan is playing his senior hockey season at SUNY Brockport, about five hours from Williamstown. Kangas estimated
For the first time since the 1988-89 season, this season someone other than Bill Kangas will lead the College’s men’s ice hockey team. With Kangas taking a sabbatical for the 2017-18 academic year, Mike Monti, who has served as the assistant coach since 2015-16, has taken over as the Ephs’ interim head coach. The purpose of Kangas’ sabbatical is twofold. His time away from the team has allowed him to travel around the country and observe other top collegiate
PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION
With Bill Kangas on sabbatical, Mike Monti will lead men’s ice hockey.
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that he has gotten to see about three of Ryan’s games per season during his collegiate career, mostly before Williams’ season starts and when the late-season NESCAC schedule allows him to watch. While Kangas plans to be “hands-off” during his year away, he will have to make a decision as to where to sit on Jan. 9, when the Ephs visit Ryan’s Golden Eagles for a non-conference game. An additional and critical piece of the process was deciding who would fill in for Kangas’ year away from the team, but he said Monti was an easy choice for the job. Having just completed the third year of his second turn as an assistant coach – he spent time at the University of Vermont between stints in Williamstown – Monti’s experience and relationships with the team made the decision simple. “Coach Monti has a great grasp on the balance that goes into being a hockey player at the College,” Kangas said. “While we take hockey very seriously here, our relationships with our players are something that is bigger than the game.” In addition to his “tireless work ethic,” Kangas cited Monti’s “love for being around the guys in the locker room every day, and the genuine care he has for them as people” as two of the things that he believes make him a great coach. While Kangas will have plenty of opportunities to learn and grow as a coach during his year away, this season presents a unique opportunity for Monti, who has been given the opportunity to take the reins of an
Eph team that has a chance to make a splash in the NESCAC this year. Having returned thei three leading goal scorers from last season, the men will look to improve upon their fourthplace finish in the conference. Monti has attempted to make the transition to interim head coach as smooth as possible. “What I really wanted to make clear to the guys from early on is that I’m still Coach Monti,” he said. “Our relationships won’t change; I’m still [going to] be the same guy that’s always around, always here for you.” Despite the change in personnel, both Kangas and Monti cited Monti’s experience with the program, as well as the strength of the senior class, as reasons why this year has felt like “business as usual.” “Our six seniors have been great,” Monti said. “I’ve really relied on them to be the voice of this team, to tell me what’s working and what isn’t working as we lead up to the season.” “I just love being with the boys” is something he constantly reiterates, and that fondness shows in the emphasis he puts on spending time with his players, taking their feedback and turning it into something positive for the team. With Kangas traveling the country in a quest to improve his coaching knowledge and returning to the team for the 2018-19 season, and Monti taking charge in his absence, there are a lot of changes at the rink. Nevertheless, the team remains united in its goal to win the first NESCAC championship in school history.
football 35-0
By KEVIN COAKLEY STAFF WRITER Football (5–3) was shut out by Wesleyan on Saturday in Middletown, Conn. The Cardinals got on the scoreboard with their first offensive possession and never looked back, downing the Ephs 35-0. The Cardinals, who have both the NESCAC’s leading passer, quarterback Mark Piccirillo, and leading receiver, Mike Breuler, displayed their offensive skills on the first drive. Wesleyan marched 73 yards on 14 plays in a drive that lasted 8:28 and ended with Piccirillo running two yards for a score. Throughout the first half, the Williams offense struggled. After allowing the initial touchdown, though, the Williams defense played strong for the rest of the half considering how much the men were on the field. The second Wesleyan touchdown came as the Cardinals capitalized on a Williams fumble. Wesleyan drove 57 yards on nine plays, and Piccirillo scored his second two-yard rushing touchdown to give the home side a 14-0 lead. Wesleyan’s third touchdown of the first half also came after a Williams turnover. Ben Thaw intercepted a pass from Bobby Maimaron ’21 at the Ephs’ 46-yard line and the Cardinals’ offense took over with just 39 seconds remaining in the half.
Piccirillo went to the air, and his fourth completion of the drive resulted in a five-yard touchdown catch by Hallvard Lundevall, which put the Cardinals up 21-0 at the break. Wesleyan tacked on two fourth quarter touchdowns, one through the air and one on the ground to make the final 35-0. Piccirillo tossed a 20-yard scoring strike to AJ Girard for the fourth touchdown in the game, and then the Cardinals’ Glenn Smith ran six yards with just under 11 minutes remaining for the final tally. The Ephs generated just 127 yards in total offense on the day with 51 yards coming through the air while Wesleyan gained 455 on the day, including 272 passing yards. Linebacker Jarrett Wesner ’21 was the Ephs’ top tackler on the day with 13 stops. Brandon Morris led the Wesleyan defense with eight tackles. “We are a team that likes playing at home,” co-captain Chris Hattar ’18 said. “The way we rebound is just that we do what we do every week. We come out to practice and work. We haven’t had a bad practice this whole year, and one game doesn’t change our outlook on how we define ourselves.” On Saturday, the men will host archrival Amherst in “The Biggest Little Game in America.” The Homecoming game is the season finale for both teams, and it will start at noon on FarleyLamb Field.
ATHLETES OF THE WEEK “Alison is a dynamic finisher. She’s a natural in front of the goal because she is so good with the ball at her feet. Once the goalkeeper commits, she makes her decision and finishes. She is one of the fiercest competitors I’ve had the pleasure to coach. ”
“Will is a dedicated trainer and a fine endurance athlete. The 10k is his favorite distance. He went out at an excellent pace, pushed through the middle miles and finished with a flourish to lead our team [at USATF New Englands].”
–Head coach Michelyne Pinard
–Head coach Pete Farwell ’73
to go into space when she flew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor in 1992
Thursday, November 9 7 p.m. MainStage, '62 Center Tickets are free but required. Call 597-‐2425 Tues.-‐Fri. from 1-‐5 p.m.
ALISON LU ’20
WILLIAM MCGOVERN ’20
WOMEN’S SOCCER PALO ALTO, CALIF.
MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY STOWE, VT.
Lu produced the championship-clinching goal five minutes into overtime in Sunday’s 2-1 win over Tufts. The forward also scored in Saturday’s 4-2 victory over Amherst, and she leads the team in goals (nine) and points (22).
McGovern was the first Eph finisher on Sunday at the USA Track & Field (USATF) New England Championships. In the 10k, he placed 33rd overall in 32:54, taking 15 seconds off his time from the previous year.
12 SPORTS
The Williams Record
November 8, 2017
PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION
Women’s soccer came from behind twice last weekend, beating Amherst 4-2 in the semifinals and Tufts 2-1 in the championship game. Alison Lu ’20 scored the gamewinner in overtime against the Jumbos.
No. 4 women’s soccer defeats Amherst, Tufts to claim NESCAC title By DANNY JIN SPORTS EDITOR It took two second-half comebacks and a suddendeath overtime in the championship game, but No. 4 women’s soccer (16–1–1, 8–1–1 in the NESCAC) captured its eighth NESCAC championship last weekend. On Cole Field, the women defeated Amherst 4-2 on Saturday and Tufts 2-1 on Sunday. When the Ephs and Mammoths met on Sept. 23, the Ephs came away with a 3-2 victory. No. 1 Williams defeated No. 8 seed Bowdoin on Oct. 28 in the first round of the tournament while No. 7 seed Amherst upset No. 2 seed Connecticut College to advance to the semifinal. On Saturday, the Ephs had an early chance in the seventh minute. On the counterattack, midfielder Natalie Turner-Wyatt ’19 played a ball to forward Alison Lu ’20, who was making a run into the penalty area. From inside the box, Lu rattled a shot off the right goal post. In the 23rd minute, Lu snuck a shot past the keeper, but Amherst defender Caleigh Plout cleared the ball before the goal line. After the ball was sent back in, Natasha Albaneze ’18 put a shot on goal, but Mammoth goalkeeper Chelsea Cutler made the save. Forward Sydney Jones ’21 created a scoring opportunity in the 32nd minute. Jones beat several defenders on a run down the right side, and she sent a ball across the box. Kristina Alvarado ’19 got a foot on the ball and nearly put the Ephs ahead, but her shot was wide of the post. In the latter part of the half, tight pressing from Amherst limited Williams’ attacking chances. The Mammoths began to push forward, and midfielder Sasha Savitsky gave the visitors a 1-0 lead
before halftime. In the 36th minute, Savitsky intercepted a pass in the midfield and dribbled toward the right edge of the box, evading several defenders. She drilled a shot into the bottom-left corner, just out of the reach of a diving Olivia Barnhill ’19. Williams had a 10-3 lead in shots at halftime, but Cutler made three saves to keep the Ephs off the board. The home side returned from the break with renewed vigor and began to take control of the possession game. The Ephs earned three corner kicks in the first two minutes, and they equalized just 1:52 into the half. After a corner kick from Albaneze led to a scrum in the box, Sarah Scire ’20 broke through the pack and poked the ball into the net. In the 52nd minute, Lu put the Ephs ahead 2-1. Albaneze sent a pass forward, and Lu beat a defender to the ball at the right edge of the box. After a touch, she slotted a shot past Cutler and inside the far post. Savitsky, however, scored for the Mammoths three minutes later to tie the contest once again. After receiving a pass 15 yards outside of the box, she dribbled in and curled a gorgeous shot into the top-left corner of the net. The game moved out of the midfield and into the attacking thirds as each side began to play longer passes, looking to run onto the ball in the opposing team’s territory. Midfielder Meredith Manley had a chance for Amherst in the 70th minute. Manley teed up a shot from distance but sent the ball narrowly over the crossbar. The Ephs earned a 3-2 lead in the 71st minute. Ilana Albert ’21 sent a cross into the box, which found its way to Jones. She played a spectacular back-heel pass to Alvarado, who finished to the
near post from the left side of the box. Jones added a goal of her own 10 minutes later, putting Williams up 4-2. After a pass from Turner-Wyatt, an Amherst defender slipped and Jones converted in the bottom-left corner. The score remained 4-2 in the Ephs’ favor until the final whistle. Williams finished with an 18-7 shot advantage. Cutler had five saves in the game for the Mammoths while Barnhill had two for the Ephs. “We had an incredible second half as the result of us just playing,” head coach Michelyne Pinard said. “We made some adjustments over the week, and through those adjustments, we started to think a little bit. Any time you think too much, the game slows down, which is what happened in the first half. … We’re at our best when we limit the thinking and just play.” She added that better use of flank space led to the secondhalf attacking success. “[Amherst was] giving us some space on the flanks, and we needed to find that a little more quickly,” she said. “When we did, we were able to get in behind. [The Mammoths] are a really athletic and hardworking team, so when they’re pressing, it’s hard to feel like you have any options. As soon as we found that flank space, we started to break them down a little bit in the second half.” On Sunday, the women defeated Tufts 2-1 in overtime to secure the NESCAC championship and an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament. No. 4 seed Tufts was down 2-1 at halftime versus No. 6 seed Hamilton the day before, but the Jumbos rebounded to win 3-2 to reach the finals. The first half saw relatively few chances as play was concentrated in the midfield. An
athletic Tufts side pressed tightly and limited Williams’ attacking progress. The Jumbos played long passes to forwards Sophie Lloyd and Liz Reed, seeking to have attackers run onto the ball in Eph territory. The Williams back line made several key tackles, however, and tracked back to prevent chips from leading to chances inside the 18-yard box. Albaneze had the best opportunity of the period in the 13th minute, when she found space to shoot just beyond the left edge of the penalty area. Her curling effort bounced high off the left goal post and over the end line. In the 21st minute, Reed put a hard shot on goal for Tufts, but Barnhill made the save. Lloyd made a long run into the box in the 27th minute and set up midfielder Sarah Grubman with a chance. Grubman’s shot sailed over the crossbar, however. Williams pushed forward toward the end of the period, and midfielder Victoria Laino ’21 found herself with two shooting opportunities at the edge of the box, but both of her attempts were narrowly off-target. The game remained scoreless at halftime, and the Ephs held a 4-3 edge in shots. In the 56th minute, a longdistance effort from tri-captain Jacqueline Simeone ’18 nearly snuck inside the near post, but Tufts goalkeeper Emily Bowers got a hand on the shot. The Jumbos found a breakthrough in the 59th minute. Lloyd received the ball in space on a counterattack, and she played a pass forward for junior Alessandra Sadler. Sadler took a touch and chipped a shot past the keeper into the net, putting Tufts up 1-0. Minutes later, forward Jones created a promising opportunity for Williams.
Jones ran down the right side and picked out midfielder Aspen Pierson ’21, who was unmarked near the penalty spot. Tufts defender Taylor Koscho slid across to block Pierson’s shot. Williams equalized in the 81st minute. A crowd of players fought for the ball in the Jumbos’ penalty area, and the ball fell to Eph midfielder Turner-Wyatt. Bowers saved her shot, but the ball bounced out to Laino, who quickly sent it back in. Turner-Wyatt broke free on the left side of the box, and she slipped the second attempt inside the near post to tie the score at one. Having gained momentum from the equalizer, the Ephs pushed forward in the final minutes of regulation. In the 82nd minute, Bowers was forced off her line to make a clearance. The ball fell to Albaneze, who had an open look, but Bowers came lunging across the box to keep the shot out. Despite the increased intensity at the end of the half, the score remained 1-1 after 90 minutes. Williams had an 11-4 edge in shots in the second half. The game went into sudden-death overtime, meaning the first team to score would win the game and lift the trophy. Tufts had an opportunity less than three minutes into extra time, when Grubman found space to shoot near the edge of the box. Her attempt, however, carried over the bar. Lu notched the deciding goal for the Ephs 4:30 into extra time. Albaneze made a run into the box and played a through ball to Lu, who calmly put her shot past the keeper and into the net as Williams prevailed 2-1, claiming its seventh conference championship in the last 11 years.
The Ephs finished with a 17-8 advantage in shots. Bowers made eight saves for Tufts while Barnhill recorded two for Williams. “Any time you can win championships, it’s a lot of fun,” Pinard said. “This team believes in itself, and to have everything come together … feels really good.” For the second consecutive game, Williams produced a second-half comeback victory, an accomplishment that Pinard attributed to the team’s determination. “The toughness and resilience of this team complements everything we’re doing,” she said. “I think [the players] believe so much in what they’re doing and each other, and that shows in games like these.” Pinard added that Tufts’ discipline and organization limited Williams’ attacking success early on and that winning the battle in the midfield was key to finding an offensive breakthrough. “Tufts is one of the most organized teams out there,” Pinard said. “[The Jumbos] had numbers behind the ball and put pressure on the ball, which is not easy to do. We didn’t get behind them too much, so the efficiency we had when we did get in behind was important. “As soon as we broke their midfield pressure, I thought we could create something,” she said in regards to Lu’s goal. “Lu is just a finisher. She’s a goal scorer, and once she saw the goalkeeper make a decision, she put it away.” As conference champions, the Ephs secured an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament. They will host the first and second rounds of competition this weekend and will face Lesley, the New England Collegiate Conference champion, on Saturday at 11 a.m.
No. 7 field hockey falls to No. 17 Trinity 3-2 in NESCAC semifinals By CAMERON BROWN and KIRSTIN MAPES STAFF WRITERS
PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION
Libby Dolan ’19 led the team with 17 goals this season. She also recorded five assists for 39 total points.
No. 7 field hockey (12–5, 6–4 in the NESCAC) fell 3-2 to No. 17 Trinity in the NESCAC tournament semifinals last Saturday in Middlebury, Vt. The third-seeded Ephs and the fifth-seeded Bantams were vying for a spot in the NESCAC championship game. Down 2-0 at halftime, the women came back to send the game to overtime, but Kelcie Finn notched the winning tally for the Bantams 1:08 into the extra period. The game began with a quick Bantam goal, scored by Finn at 3:34, with an assist from Ellie Tate. Co-captain forward Alex Bennett ’18 fired a hard shot on goal at 5:59, but Trinity goalie Lori Berger came in for the save. Defensively, the Ephs kept the Bantam offense away from the circle until a penalty corner at 17:49. Finn scored her second goal at 18:06 on a pass from Chandler Solomine, following Nicole Quinlan’s delivery. Goalie Abby Lloyd ’20 defended a shot from Katherine Devaney at 21:56 after forward Libby Dolan ’19 was shown a green card.
The women pushed forward at the end of the half, with two quick shots from Bennett and Emma Ticknor ’20 at 32:26 and 32:33, respectively, but both were blocked. Ticknor managed a final shot on goal at 34:13, but the ball hit Berger’s pad. Trinity finished the half up 2-0, and the Bantams had a 6-4 advantage in shots. The Eph offense came out strong in the second half, earning a penalty corner at 38:27. Co-captain forward Hannah Goodrick ’18 played the ball to Bennett from the corner, and Bennett powered a shot into the goal from the top of the circle for her 16th goal of the season. The Ephs and the Bantams fought for dominance throughout the second half. The women produced two hard shots, one from Dolan at 54:45 and another from Julia Cochran ’19 at 60:48, both of which were saved by Berger. A penalty corner followed Cochran’s shot, and Bennett found the back of the net again at 60:57, tying the game at two. Goodrick recorded her second assist of the game on the penalty corner. The Ephs kept the pressure up, with another penalty corner at 65:18 and two tough shots by
Bennett at 65:59 and Meredith Wright ’19 at 67:13, but the score remained 2-2. A vital defensive save by Priya Sivalingam ’18 at 63:05 kept the Ephs in the game when Finn threatened again for the Bantams. With neither side able to break the deadlock, the game went to sudden-death overtime. The Ephs held possession of the ball in their half at the beginning of the period, but the Bantams struck just 1:08 into the period. Finn took a pass from Kendall Brown, dribbled down the field on a breakaway and put a shot past Lloyd and into the net. The goal was Finn’s leagueleading 26th of the season. Trinity finished with a 13-12 shot advantage in the game. Berger made six saves for the Bantams, while Lloyd had two for the Ephs. Trinity advanced to play topseeded host Middlebury on Sunday in the final. The Panthers prevailed 5-0 to claim the conference title. Despite their top-10 national ranking, the women did not receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. They graduate Bennett, Goodrick, Sivalingam and Julianna Kostas ’18.