April 10, 2019: Community celebrates, commemorates 50 years of Africana studies

RECORD THE WILLIAMS

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2019 VOL. CXXXIII, NO. 20 Inside the legendary College steam tunnels

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Baseball wins 12 games in 12 days

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THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT WILLIAMS COLLEGE SINCE 1887

Community celebrates, commemorates 50 years of Africana studies

By HAEON YOON EXECUTIVE EDITOR From April 4–7, the Africana studies department celebrated and commemorated 50 years of Africana studies at the College, collectively remembering the individuals and movements that shaped and continue to shape the lives of Black students on campus today. Throughout the weekend, alums, community members and former faculty were invited back to campus to take part in a sequence of events that current students could attend as well.

In March 1969, the AfroAmerican Society (AAS), which is now the Black Student Union (BSU), published a list of 15 demands that included establishing an Afro-American studies program, hiring additional Black faculty and creating a Black cultural center in which Black students could live. A month later, dissatisfied with the administration’s response to their demands, 34 students from the Afro-American Society occupied Hopkins Hall at 4 a.m. on Friday, April 4. The students remained there until the following Tuesday, when opposing parties reached an accord that detailed the tangible steps to be taken by the administration to meet students’ demands.

The occupation was a culmination of many nationwide tensions and movements, compounded by frustrations felt by many Black students at the College due to the lack of administrative support for their demands. Not only did it follow the decades-long struggles of the civil rights movements and the assassination of Martin Luther

PHOTO COURTESY OF COLLEGE ARCHIVES.

Fifty years ago, students from the Afro-American Society occupied Hopkins Hall, prompting the creation of the Africana studies program.

King Jr., but the occupation took place during a wave of student activism at peer institutions. Just a year prior to the occupation, San Francisco State established the department of Black studies following the longest campuswide strike in U.S. history, which lasted for five months. Additionally, two months before the Hopkins occupation, Black students at Wesleyan took over Fisk Hall to prompt the establishment of African American studies as a department, not a program.

The importance and significance of celebrating 50 years of Africana studies was echoed by alums who returned to campus for the anniversary. “At my high school, this guy who I used to play

basketball with, comes and says to me that ‘the great grandson of Jay Gould, one of the robber barons of America, said that African American people, people of African descent are inferior because they have no culture, no history, no civilization.’ I asked, ‘What did the teacher say?’ My friend said, ‘The teacher fumbled.’ Since then, I started doing research, but I had nobody to guide me. This was in 1968 during the civil rights movement,” said Vernon Manley ’72, one of the 34 occupants of Hopkins Hall, on why an Africana studies program was not only important, but necessary.

“During the Hopkins takeover, people like this guy [Clifford Robinson ’70] and Preston Washing-

ton ’70 were negotiating with the College and organizing and looking to try to do something, bringing professors and other people of African descent to the community that could expand on knowledge of people of African descent was amazing, and I was looking forward to that. Participating in that takeover was not an option.

I didn’t care, I was willing to risk losing my financial aid,” Manley said. “So it’s a phenomenal thing to have what is now called Africana studies.”

The remembrance of 50 years of Africana studies is a dual mission. Associate Professor of Africana Studies Rhon ManigaultBryant, curator of the “For Such A Time As This” exhibition at

Special Collections and organizer of the weekend, explained how Africana 50 was both a celebration and a commemoration.

“It is not a small feat – it really isn’t. It is a tremendous thing to have been around for half a century,” Manigault-Bryant said.

“But there’s also a commemoration aspect because that road has not been easy. There are literally people who fought tooth and nail with this institution, to try and make sure that there’s room for me and my colleagues to do the work that we do.

“It is both thrilling and humbling, and it’s also an important reminder. We really feel like we have the onus to live up to those expectations, and that commem-

orative side is really important because that’s the part that reminds us [to] keep our feet to the fire, to hold ourselves accountable, hold our students accountable and hold Williams accountable.”

Manigault-Bryant also spoke of the high turnout among alumns at the events. With approximately 70 alums, as well as their guests, participating in the events that took place over the weekend, the discussions and the stories encompassed a variety of lived experiences.

One of the events that took place over the weekend was a symposium of three consecutive panels with former and current students, faculty and community members who reflected on their time at the College and beyond.

Panelists included Bobette Reed Kahn ’73, who was the first Black woman to graduate from the College, Khalil Abdullah ’72 and Professor of English D.L. Smith.

Todd Hall ’16, former co-chair of the BSU, emphasized the value of listening to the diverse Black experiences at the College. “I felt awestruck listening to the Eileen Julien, Assistant Dean at Williams from 1975 to 1978,” he said.

“She discussed how flatly her peers dismissed issuing an antidiscrimination statement — they said they could not even discuss it. I marveled at how she continued to advocate for students and taught for three years, despite attempts in hiring discrimination only blocked by intervention from then-President Oakley.”

Robin Powell Mandjes ’82, one of the panelists at the symposium, also shared similar sentiments about the weekend. continued on Page 5

Students, faculty College reverts to disposable to-go spar over free speech, containers following loss of reusable shells speaker invitations

By ROSE HOUGLET NEWS EDITOR

By ARRINGTON LUCK NEWS EDITOR The Society for Conservative Thought hosted a panel and discussion last Wednesday surrounding issues of campus free speech and expression, titled “Considering the Case for Campus Free Expression.” Sponsored by the political science department and the Class of 1971 Public Affairs Forum, the panel consisted of Associate Professor of Biology Luana Maroja, Professor of Philosophy Steven Gerrard and Communications Director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) Nico Perino. When the panel fielded questions from the audience, some students provided strong pushback to the panelists’ commentary.

The College's administration has recently been grappling with how to adjudicate issues of free speech and expression.

Following a faculty petition on the Chicago Principles and a counter-petition by students and other faculty, President of the College Maud Mandel announced the formation of the ad hoc committee on inquiry and inclusion, tasked with recommending guidelines for speaker invitation. The committee is expected to release its recommendations in May. In mid-February, issues of free speech on campus resurfaced following Associate Professor of Philosophy Keith McPartland’s deconstruction of a student memorial for Kimberly Love, assistant professor of English, and Kai Green ’07, assistant professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies, who are currently on leave from the College. While McPartland cited fire code violations as the impetus for the removal, some students said that they felt that his actions were incongruent with his defense of the Chicago Principles.

In the days immediately leading up to the event, John DiGravio ’21, the president of the Society for Conservative Thought, sent an email to invite signatories of the studentled counter-petition to the event. “I would like to inform you about an upcoming campus opportunity to listen, learn and voice your perspectives on this important subject,” the email read.

DiGravio introduced the panelists and described the goal of the event. “Recently there has been a surge of discourse concerning the values and the limits of the Chicago Statement, free expression, intellectual inquiry and protest, both at Williams and beyond,” DiGravio told the audience. “This venue was deliberately chosen to accommodate interactive exchanges between the speakers and audience.”

Maroja framed her support for free speech as one rooted in her identity. “I might be more aware than the average person of the horrors of censorship because I was born during a horrible dictatorship in Brazil,” she said. “I recently became an American and I can say with pride that the U.S. First Amendment law should set the example to the whole world.”

Maroja also came out strongly against hate speech regulation and censorship, on the grounds that such regulations are “a slippery slope.”

Maroja said that she sees the current climate on campus as one that stifles intellectual growth. “I have noticed that discussion of certain biological topics are now triggering too many students,” Maroja said, citing the heritability of traits in humans. “We should behave like adults... We don’t need government and administrators to continued on Page 4

The College has reverted to using disposable to-go shells after losing practically all of its reusable plastic containers over the past several months.

“This most recent pilot program with the plastic shells was an attempt to revive a former program that used a similar product in recent years,” Vice President for Campus Life Stephen Klass said. “We put that program on hiatus because of significant loss of shells.”

This year’s iteration of the program included more communication about locations for returning the shells, with return receptacles across campus and a student video highlighting “the importance and ease of returning them,” according to Klass.

Nonetheless, the inventory of shells was almost exhausted, with a total loss of 3400 units, a value of more than $11,000.

Only 12 containers remain in inventory. According to Klass, the College will not be replenishing the inventory.

Allie Campbell ’21, a member of the Williams Environmental Council and a zero waste intern at the Zilkha Center, worked with Dining Services to pilot the reusable green clamshell program. Campbell said that the environmental footprint of a single reusable clamshell is significantly higher than that of a single disposable clamshell. “It is only by reusing the plastic clamshells over and

over again that they become a more sustainable option,” she said. “In other words, using a plastic clamshell once and throwing it away has a much bigger negative impact on the environment than doing the same with a disposable clamshell. Because the loss rate for the reusable clamshells has been so high, it would actually be much more wasteful and less sustainable for the school to continue using them mov-

were intended to be,” he said.

“To continue with this program would be poor financial and environmental stewardship, especially in light of the fact that our current takeout containers are composed of fully compostable vegware, a sustainable product that is well-matched to our composting program.”

Campbell emphasized her disappointment in the extremely low amount of containers returned. “I expected

SABRINE BRISMEUR/PHOTO EDITOR

The College reverted to disposable shells after losing nearly all reusable ones. ing forward. However, ideally loss rates would not be so high and the school would be able to continue using them.”

Klass agreed that the loss for the College was not only a monetary one. “Not only are we losing substantial dollars that could be put to significantly better programmatic use, these thick plastic shells have become the opposite of the sustainable product they

more from the Williams community,” she said. “I was also confused. I expected that some of the clamshells would be lost, but not all of them. Nearly 100 percent of the 3400 clamshells purchased in the fall have been lost.” Campbell is currently preparing a survey for students to help explain this loss.

Students were not the only ones at fault, according to Campbell. She questioned,

for example, the “administrative agendas” of the College in comparison to peer institutions who have successfully implemented reusable to-go container programs. “I don’t think Williams students are inherently different from students at these other schools in any way that might make them especially less disposed to return their clamshells,” she said. “Rather, I see the Williams administration failing to place environmental concerns at the top of their list of priorities. I think the administration is establishing a norm of complacency with regard to climate change related issues that not only has structural repercussions … but also filters through students and staff to perpetuate a campus culture in which the environment is simply not a top concern.” Campbell also noted that inadequate infrastructure, such as an insufficient number of return bins, may have contributed to the loss.

Campbell expressed hope, however, that students will ask more from the administration in the future. “As we approach 2020, I see an opportunity to establish a new set of campus sustainability goals,” she said.

“These goals should be ambitious and radical. They should account for the broad scope of environmental problems currently facing society … and should be designed with an understanding of sustainability as a means to ensure not only a healthy planet but also a safe and equitable society.”

WHAT’S INSIDE 3 OPINIONS

6 FEATURES

8 ARTS

11 SPORTS

Professor Li Yu describes "cold violence"

Nude models bare all for studio art classes

Raveena kicks off AAPI heritage month

Teams reflect on spring break trips

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2 OPINIONS

The Williams Record

April 10, 2019

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Opinions Editors Kenia Cruz Guardado Kevin Zhang Yang

Editor-in-Chief Danny Jin Managing Editors Nicholas Goldrosen Jane Petersen

Features Editors Nigel Jaffe Irene Loewenson

Productions Manager William Newton

Arts Editors Lily Goldberg Phillip Pyle

Director of Communications RB Smith

Sports Editors Sofie Jones Jack McGovern

Technology Manager Aki Takigawa Executive Editors Cassie Deshong, Lydia Duan, Jeongyoon Han, Brooke Horowitch, Kaira Mediratta, Rebecca Tauber, Samuel Wolf, Charles Xu and Haeon Yoon News Editors Rose Houglet Arrington Luck

Photo Editors Sabrine Brismeur Aniah Price Business Staff Rishad Karim, Ali Ladha, Mehr Sawant and Nelson Walsh

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Word on The Quad If you were a Pokemon, what Williams student would you choose to be your trainer?

AAPI HERITAGE MONTH

Nifty events, a cool concert and representation!

SPRING FLING

Can’t wait to make a fool of myself in front of CSS at the field house again. At least no more asbestos!

WILLIAMS SUMMIT

What a cool event – now I just need to remember to do laundry so I have networking clothes!

APRIL

Cool month, kind of wet.

,

By SABRINE BRISMEUR and ANIAH PRICE PHOTO EDITORS

CAROLINE CASE ’22

Kevin Zhou ’20.

They’re gonna get us!

'Us' WITH ACE NEHEMIAH WILSON ’21

Mohammed Memfis ’21.

SEAN FONTELLIO ’20

Myself.

The gelato machine is still down, and now the weather’s warm out. Thank God for Lickety!

GELATO MACHINE

LETTER TO THE EDITOR April 2, 2019

SEHWHEAT MANNA ’19

Cecilia Pou Jove ’19.

From what I have read in The Record, it is clear that two participants in Williams’ Performative Ethics lecture series, Shadi Ghaheri and Catherine Rodriguez, are in need of a lecturing in ethics, themselves.

Gharheri directed and Rodriguez served as dramatist for Williams’ recent production of Stephen Adly Guirgis’

“The Last Days of Judas Iscariot” in which they and the student cast made significant changes to the text. This was done without the author’s participation or permission.

Not only was it unethical to revise Guirgis’ words to suit the multiple needs, desires, aesthetics and politics of the cast, but it was also a violation of copyright law. Moreover, they are doing a disservice to the education of students by granting them an entitlement, which raises them to a level authorship equal to the actual author.

Given Professor Omar Sangare’s 2013 evisceration of and amendation to (he scripted an epilogue) Arthur Miller’s text of “The Crucible” and Professor David Eppel’s 2018

hashing of Richard Wilbur’s meticulous verse translation of Tartuffe, this latest disrespect for the author is as unsurprising as it is unsettling.

Oversight is needed in any theater department when directors’ egos and inappropriate leadership don’t prepare students for the real world of theater or the rights, legal or ethical, of authors to have their original visions faithfully represented.

Full disclosure, I once cut an expletive from a high school production of a play by Christopher Durang. It was a very minor change to which Durang, grateful to be asked, gave his permission.

Ralph Hammann Williamstown, Mass.

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 College community. The Opinions section is designed to reflect the varied views and ideas of the College 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 kc17@williams.edu and kzy1@williams. edu by Sunday at 5 p.m. for inclusion in the next Wednesday issue. Opeds 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.

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April 10, 2019

OPINIONS 3

The Williams Record

A plea for more “conversation”

Addressing a culture of “cold violence”

On being open to reasonable dialogue

On the shortcomings of the College in welcoming faculty of color

By JANA SAWICKI At a time when there is understandably considerable skepticism about the power of reason to adjudicate between competing cultural and social perspectives and values, the philosopher Anthony Laden’s portrait of social reasoning is quite promising. According to Laden, we need a new picture of reasoning if we are to appreciate the role reasoning plays in living together. In this picture, reasoning emerges as a form of conversation which is ongoing. It is not defined by or determined by its aim or end, namely some form of agreement, consensus, persuasive effect, result or even entertainment.

Consider the differences between the norms that govern us in the context of judicial reasoning or public debate, and the norms that govern a casual conversation. Or consider the rhetorical virtues required when I am writing an op-ed as opposed to the skills required for genuine conversations. Conversation involves speaking with others, not to them. It is not a form of one-way communication. In a conversation, the participants must be attuned to one another, listening without the need for premature closure or judgment. When I lecture as some sort of expert to an academic audience of peers, I am hoping to speak with a voice of authority; I am expecting that the audience will take what I say as if it contains some measure of truth or validity — perhaps even making it difficult for them to actually disagree, assuming I have represented my subject as truthfully as I can. I think about my audience, yes, but the goal may not be to hear what they say as much as to communicate in a persuasive, clear and informative way a position about which I have confidence. Yes, I must respond to the questions that are raised, but more often the point of my response is to clarify or qualify or reassert what I am trying to convey — to shore up my talk for the next one.

In marked contrast, when I am in a conversation, I may be trying to get to know someone, to understand where they are coming from, to hear what they are saying. I need to care about how they take in what I am saying, what impact it has on them, whether my words and gestures move them to respond one way or another. I must also be open to – even vulnerable to – being moved by what they say to me. To be not only moved to figure out a more effective way of saying what I have tried to say, to be more

clear or persuasive, but also moved to alter my position, to be open to the possibility that the foundations of my point of view may be shaken and that I may be transformed in some way.

If I am primarily concerned with my rhetorical strategies, or my evidence, I might feel I have failed if I change my mind in response to my audience.

Yet, in a genuine conversation it would be virtuous to be open to such a change. I may be clear about my deeply held principles and convictions, and yet in a true conversation, I would understand those principles as commitments rather than certainties. In being attuned in this way, in regarding my deeply-held principles as commitments rather than certainties, I am more likely to be able to understand the positions of my interlocutors as equally reasonable even when they are different from my own. I may not alter my commitments, but I will remain open to more conversation.

There is much more to be said about the norms that differentiate social reasoning from other forms, but the point of my sharing these ideas is the following. I am wondering whether we in the Williams community might pour more energy, and even more of our speaker money, into genuine conversations rather than high profile lectures. We spend at least $1 million a year on speakers, perhaps more.

Many of them are valuable, and we can and should continue to have them, but I urge us to think creatively about myriad venues in which we can learn from and converse with outside guests and one another outside of the classroom, or even outside the op-ed page.

Claiming Williams is certainly one tradition in which we attempt to do this.

But I still want to ask: When was the last time you actually changed your mind in conversation with another?

When was the last time you came to see someone who disagreed with you as equally reasonable even when you did not change your mind? I am not suggesting here that we must be relativists, or that there are convictions that one might never want to alter, but rather that we might be more in touch with the fact that there may be strong commitments underlying our convictions, and that our reasoning is often built upon those. Our convictions are not, for all that, unreasonable, but neither would it necessarily be irrational for them to change.

Jana Sawicki, chair of philosophy and Morris professor of rhetoric, has been at the College since 1991.

By LI YU Due to the recent events revolving around Kai Green ’07, assistant professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies, and Kimberly Love, assistant professor of English, some faculty members have been wondering what the two professors meant by the “violent practices” of the College. I asked myself the same question and tried to seek the answer in their published piece in The Feminist Wire. Since I do not know Professor Green or Professor Love personally, I could only guess what their experiences might have been based on my own experience at the College. I am not speaking on their behalf. I am not their spokesperson. I am not defining what they mean. I am not erasing what they want to say. Everybody’s experiences could be drastically different on this campus.

The way I understand the phrase they used is that it is not the type of visible violence we usually associate with the word “violent,” but something that could be equally harmful.

Maybe we could call it “cold violence.” One example of such “cold violence” was the cold shoulders I received during my first few years working at Williams. Some faculty

experiences. One young colleague of color was even presumed to be a waiter at a faculty reception. Such microaggressions usually happen in small, private situations. But being “micro” or “unintentional” does not make them less violent in terms of the psychological harm that these behaviors cause to the victim.

A few months ago, I wrote an op-ed describing my daughter’s experiences in the local elementary school. Many students, faculty and staff members have reached out to me and offered moral support. I am eternally grateful to them for the outpouring of their kindness and understanding. Nobody believed that what happened to my daughter could have happened in such a liberal place as our beautiful college town. Some of them asked me whether or not these children exhibited such behaviors because of their upbringing. Sadly, I had to reveal that the child who called my daughter “small eyes” and formed a “club” to exclude my daughter was a child of a Williams professor. The worse part was, when I reached out to the parents about the issue, the encounter was not as friendly and productive as I would have liked it to be.

It is not my intention to blame anybody for what has happened to

about. The College, as a whole, has yet to find constructive ways to discuss such sensitive topics and make it easier for all of the students, faculty and staff coming from different cultural, ethnic and economic backgrounds to discuss these difficult topics and find ways to “survive and thrive” on this campus.

Being a practical and optimistic person, I would like to offer some constructive suggestions to my fellow senior colleagues: 1. Let us not rush to blame the victims. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Listen to them, hear them out.

2. Reach out to junior faculty, initiate a dialogue and have a heart-to-heart conversation. Get to know them well, and let them know you. Make them feel at home; make them feel they are welcomed and belong in this community.

3. At department, committee and faculty meetings, encourage junior colleagues to speak, and listen carefully to what they have to say. Respect and value their opinions even if you might disagree with them. We often disagree on various issues, but let us disagree in a calm and constructive way.

4. Let us all be friendly, courteous and professional to each other.

“Some faculty from outside of my home unit would see through me as if I were transparent or did not exist when I greeted them at faculty events or on campus. from outside of my home unit would see through me as if I were transparent or did not exist when I greeted them at faculty events or on campus.

When I spoke to some colleagues, they acted as if I were a babbling clown or an ignorant alien. These experiences made me understand why Ralph Ellison named his novel Invisible Man. I felt as if I were invisible during the first few years I worked at the College. To be sure, over the years, I have made more and more friends among the faculty and staff. However, such precious friendships did not easily cancel out the ignoring or unfriendliness I encountered as a junior faculty member. Recently I discovered from my conversations with some junior faculty that they have had similar

my daughter or me. After all, we are all human beings. We have different life-worlds. Cognitive scientists have informed us human beings are hardwired to be biased. The environment in which we grow up can oftentimes further solidify our explicit or implicit biases. But education and interactions with people who are different from us can make us become aware of these biases. If we try, we might be able to recognize our own blind spots, change ourselves and make our surrounding world a little better for everybody.

In intercultural communication studies, racism and ethnic tensions are taboo topics in everyday life or, in professional jargon, part of the “suppressed culture.” People tend to find such topics uncomfortable to talk

Many a time, I was told that Williams College is located in New England, and people from this region tend to be cold. I would assume that the majority of the faculty members who work at Williams are not originally from this region. If the faculty data speaks otherwise, then the College should probably look into this matter. The New England winter is long and cold. But the working environment at this small college does not have to be like the New England winter. We cannot change the winter here, but through our collaborative efforts we can definitely change the climate of the College.

Li Yu, professor of Chinese language and culture, has been at the College since 2005.

Standing against the right of return Analyzing the logical inconsistencies in BDS’ arguments

Social media and relationships Valuing the relationships that matter most

By RUTH KRAMER The last time I saw all my friends from high school, we promised each other we’d stay in contact: FaceTime every other week, keep each other updated with all the funny memes we saw and – of course – text. Every. Single.

Day. Maybe I knew some of this wasn’t true, but I ultimately didn’t hold my friends accountable to keeping in touch, and we’ve now become so distant that we’ve stopped talking altogether.

Now, this isn’t to say that I’ve lost contact with all of my friends; there are two that I speak with quite frequently and one that I Snapchat almost every day. But many of the relationships I thought I held so dear have evaporated in front of my eyes. Maybe that’s on me, and maybe it’s also on them, but that doesn’t change the fact that some of my friendships have vanished. But my question is: Why? Why do we make these promises to keep in contact if, in some ways, we have no intention of continuing these relationships? And is it really just our relationships with our friends that suffer?

I know that there were friends I had in high school whom I had no intention of keeping when I left for college.

And that may sound heartless, but there were pieces of my life in Ohio that I wanted to leave in Ohio. I came to college to grow as a person and find my forever friends, my chosen family. I didn’t want to take some relationships to college if I didn’t envision them in my future; I think a lot of people feel the same. Sure, I may keep a streak or two on Snapchat, but I haven’t said a word to those people in months. The visible “proof” of a relationship may be there, but the real meaning of those friendships is long gone.

What about the people we actually wanted to take with us, though? Our forever friends whom we were lucky enough to meet early on in life? That’s where it gets a little trickier and a little more painful. The truth is, we get involved in things. We want to make friends in our new environment, we

want to find “our people” in our new homes and we want to find our calling – whether it be in clubs, classes, or anything else. And when we return to our dorm rooms at 8 p.m. to finally start our homework, a phone call or FaceTime call is oftentimes the last thing we really want to do. So, as we get busier and happier in our new lives, we distance ourselves from our old ones.

The other people we lose contact with, in a weird and unexpected way, are in fact our families. I don’t know about anyone else, but I know I talked to my parents maybe once or twice a week during my first semester. I went from playing my mom in “Words With Friends” almost every day to never checking the game. College was my first taste of being totally by myself, and in that excitement, I didn’t call, I didn’t text, I didn’t try. And it made our relationship – one that was never going to go away because, I mean, that’s my family – a lot harder. Thankfully this semester has been better, and it made me realize that my true forever family isn’t changing anytime soon. So, rather than looking at our Sunday FaceTime calls as my weekly obligation, I view them as an addition to the texts I send my family throughout the week. I’ve begun to do this with the other relationships I’ve struggled to maintain in college as well. A small text here and there isn’t hard, and the difference it makes is truly astounding.

Relationships are hard, no matter who they’re with or where you are. It may be easier to communicate in person, but the move to college and the friends we lose contact with along the way reveal a deep truth about us. It shows us who we view and what we think is truly important. And if that’s not your chemistry lab partner from junior year, that’s okay. And if it is, that’s okay too. As long as you’re putting yourself and the relationships you really value first, then you’re doing just fine and everything else will fall into place.

Ruth Kramer ’22 is from Maineville, Ohio.

By JONAH GARNICK The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement — which seeks to impose a total academic, financial and cultural boycott on Israel and Israeli goods — continues to sweep across American college campuses, and its appeal is understandable. One sees the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza in contrast to the economically and militarily formidable Israel, and reasons that economic pressure could force Israel to ease the Gaza blockade and level the negotiating table. Unfortunately, though, few of its collegiate supporters really understand BDS’s demands, which, when critically evaluated, prove specious and confused.

Let’s take a bit of time to explore BDS’s primary demand: the Palestinian right of return.

The right of return is the demand that living Palestinians have a right to land in current Israel that their ancestors lived in before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. On the surface, this request seems reasonable. Until you see that this exact logic applies to Jews, who, in a series of expulsions two-thousand years ago, were forced into exile from modern day Israel.

Does the right of return not apply to them, too? Clearly, this business of quibbling over “who lived there first” is a bad recipe for resolution.

In fact, all of human history is a series of movements and expulsions.

If we’re going to suppose that historical ancestry entitles one to land, we’ll end up on an infinite regress back to the Stone Age. My mother had to leave Lebanon as the result of war. My father’s family left Ukraine because of anti-Semitism. But I don’t feel entitled to land in either country. Universalizing this “historical ancestry” principle would lead to total chaos.

Plus, we must remember that the Nakba was succeeded by the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Jews from Arab lands (many of whom fled to Israel). We don’t see BDS calling for their right of return.

It’s ironic that much of the rhetoric we see on the far left on this issue— talk of stagnant ancestry—is the same kind of rhetoric that fuels anti-Mus-

lim sentiment among far-right parties in Europe right now.

But, beyond the general incoherence of the idea of a right of return, there’s the Zionist justification against the right of return — ‘Zionist’ has unfortunately become a slur and stand-in for Jew on the extremes of the left (Zionist pig, Zionist media, Zionist controlled government, etc.), but my use means just “a belief in the mere existence of the Jewish state.”

The ideological underpinnings of Zionism find root in millennia-old anti-Semitism, which I’ll spare you a lengthy history of. The short of it is this: anti-Semitism began about 2000 years ago; had varied causes; and resulted in pogroms, discrimination, expulsions and genocide.

Zionism arose in the late 19th century as a practical solution to a pernicious problem. If Europeans were going to deny equal rights to Jews (and seek their extermination), security for Jews was to be found only in a Jewish state.

In the 40 years after the beginnings of Zionism, Jewish immigration to Palestine rose exponentially, spurred by the Nazis’ rise to power—again, it’s odd that many BDS supporters call Israel a colonial enterprise (the Jews coming to Palestine resembled refugees more than anything). In 1947, the U.N. proposed and passed a partition plan for Palestine, which Jews immediately accepted and over which Arab nations declared war and sought explicitly Israel’s destruction. And it was in this war that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled their homes. (What actually happened to the Arab populations of Israel during the ’48 war is complicated but there certainly wasn’t an Israeli governmental policy of systematic ethnic cleansing.)

All this is to say that, yes, the Nakba was a tragedy, but the right of return would destroy the Zionist state, which serves as a refuge for Jews everywhere.

Why “solve” one tragedy with another?

If you truly believe expelling a people from their homes is wrong — which I don’t concede is truly what happened —why would you support the right of return? By its own logic, the right of return doesn’t make sense.

As anti-Semitism continues to rise across the US and Europe, I am continually reminded of the necessity of that refuge. Jewish emigration from Europe is on the rise explicitly because of anti-Semitism. Half of British Jews will consider leaving if Jeremy Corbyn becomes premier. The vast, vast majority of religious hate crimes in the US are against Jews (considered per capita or numerically).

Many on the left claim Israel is a racist colonial enterprise against people of color and hence call for its destruction through demanding a right of return.

It’s an idea which falls apart under scrutiny, which denies the history of oppression of Jews, ignores the fluidity of peoples throughout human history, exhibits peculiar double standards and is a principle which, if universalized, would lead to chaos.

Unfortunately, the conviction that eventually all Palestinians will return to Israel, and that Israel’s Jews will disperse back to Europe, is even more pervasive among the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank than it is among supporters of BDS. This total Jewishstate rejectionism has unfortunately motivated many of the repudiations of various peace proposals.

Obviously, Israel is far from blameless, here. Benjamin Netanyahu is a corrupt fearmonger whose encouragement of settlement building is pernicious and illegal. And Israel’s current wave of right-wing politics must be opposed—I’m writing this before Israel’s election results but I’m praying Netanyahu loses.

In principle, I’m not against a financial boycott to pressure Israel into stemming settlement building and easing the blockade of Gaza—though I think academic and cultural boycotts are counterproductive.

But BDS doesn’t offer this kind of measured approach. It offers a boycott that will likely further isolate and polarize Israelis. It offers old anti-Semitic canards dressed up as legitimate anti-Israel criticism.

And, ultimately, it offers a policy of Israel’s destruction, which I hope all reasonable people would oppose.

Jonah Garnick Weston, Mass.

’23

is

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April 10, 2019

Speech panel discussion draws supporters as well as critics CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 decide what we can and cannot [hear].”

Maroja cited Reza Aslan’s address during a free speech panel earlier in the year as the motivation behind her advocacy for the Chicago Principles. “This nonsense … was met with intense student applause,” Maroja said.

The faculty petition advocating for the adoption of the Chicago Principles circulated following that panel. “We do not want free speech because we want to invite bigots but because we cannot have discussions stifled without hurting the cause we’re trying to protect,” she concluded.

The second panelist to speak was Perino, who began by identifying the changes that discourse surrounding free speech has undergone on campus, identifying the 2013 student protest against former New York police commissioner Ray Kelly at Brown as a turning point. “Students were our best advocates for free speech on campus … That’s when we started to see these trends you’re hearing about today percolate,” Perino said regarding the demonstration against Kelly.

“That’s when we started to see violence on campus.” The protests against Kelly resulted in his presentation ending early, though the student protest did not involve physical violence.

Perino later went on to reference 2017 as the peak year of violence on campuses, citing protests that had taken place at UC Berkeley that year that resulted in property damage and some injuries. Perino believes that this violence can have the most direct impact on faculty. “There are [a] myriad of cases where faculty are subject of internet mobs that call for their firing,” he said.

Perino also cited threats to student press as a current threat to free speech, with examples like Loyola University Chicago’s policy of requiring that the campus newspaper seek interviews through the college’s communications department.

Lastly, Gerrard, the moderator of the panel, explained his reason for being on the panel.

“My passion for free speech comes from the left,” Gerrard told the audience. “The present atmosphere at Williams is doing

ARRINGTON LUCK/NEWS EDITOR

Last Wednesday, Nico Perino, Steven Gerrard and Luana Maroja responded to student questions surrounding their positions on free speech at the College. great damage to the training of leftist social activists.”

Gerrard posed several questions to Maroja and Perina, including, “Given the benefits of speech, given that the costs are not borne equally, do you have suggestions [for] what we do with that situation?” To this, Perino responded with an anecdote from Hosea Williams, a Black civil rights leader, to support her statement that “the free speech movement is truly a movement born out of the civil rights struggle.” Maroja reiterated her belief that speech is essential to learning. “Yes, it is a burden,” Maroja said of free speech, “but it is a burden I want to fight.”

After questions from Gerrard, the panel received audience questions, many of which were critical of the panelists’ positions.

The first question was asked

by Bilal Ansari, director of campus engagement and acting director of the Davis Center. Referencing the memorials erected to Love and Green, Ansari told the panel, “Sometimes, we have members of faculty or people who are in power who don’t follow those four steps and they end up shutting down the free speech of those who don’t have that power,” referring to the four basic steps of a nonviolent campaign written in Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

Perino responded first, stating that “From FIRE’s perspective, that’s a more speech activity, that’s beauty.” Perino later reiterated FIRE’s position that

“Even if it violates some piddling code somewhere, it would be our position that the administration should try and do something, so long as it is not exceedingly disruptive [and] to allow that speech to occur.”

“How do you account for [the] capital that could be given to a marginalized identity, that could actually benefit people, and benefit a greater cause than somebody who is saying that Black people aren’t as intelligent?” Adna Mohamed ’22 asked, referencing the funds that would be used to bring a speaker to campus.

Perino responded, reiterating his personal distrust of power.

“My concern always is with power,” Perino said. “If the concern is the administration here with all its power...I am worried about what viewpoints would end up getting funded under a viewpoint-based criteria.”

Seyi Olaose ’22, referencing the homogeneity of the positions of panelists, asked, “Why aren’t there opposing views on your stage?”

“None of us organized the event,” Gerrard said, later explaining that “pluralism and diversity [don’t] always have to be at one place, at one time.” Perino remarked that he’d “love to come back and debate.”

Peter Martin ’56 also raised issues of implicit support of speakers through means of invitation. “Every student on this campus has free speech access,” Martin said, referencing widespread student access

Licensing company reprimands theatre department

By REBECCA TAUBER EXECUTIVE EDITOR Following the College’s March production of Stephen Adly Guirgis’ play “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot,” the theatre department received a reprimand via email from Dramatists Play Service for breaking copyright law and breaching its licensing agreement.

These accusations stemmed from decisions made during the production process to cut lines actors found to be offensive, as well as the inclusion of a dance number in the performance.

Dramatists, one of the three main companies that sell play licenses, emailed the department after being tipped off by a letter from community member Ralph Hammann, a local teacher and director, who wrote a letter to the editor for this issue of the Record.

Chair and Associate Professor of Theatre David Gürçay-Morris ’96, who received emails from both Dramatists and Guirgis, explained that “the changes were very limited,” consisting of altered gender pronouns to match the actors and the removal of a homophobic slur in an attempt to improve the production environment for students as actors.

“It was not a hack-and-slash rewrite of the script in any way,” Gürçay-Morris said. “Instead, the focus was on actively soliciting student perspectives about their characters and dialogue.”

Hammann and Dramatists learned about the decision to alter the play from the Record article “Student input, new leadership help ‘Judas Iscariot’ impress” (March 13, 2019). The article highlighted the collaborative process that went into the show, including many long table reads in which a few lines were removed.

Peter Hagan, Dramatists’ president, and Craig Pospisil,

Dramatists’ director of nonprofessional rights, took issue with the removal of lines and the inclusion of a dance number. “You’re not allowed to cut or alter anything in the text of a copyrighted work; you’re also not allowed to add something,” they said. Had Dramatists found out about the changes during the show’s run, the company would have withdrawn permission and shut the performances down, Hagan and Pospisil explained.

“Part of the lesson to be learned here is [to] ask,” Hagan and Pospisil said. “Some authors will be very open to allowing changes.

Some may be more rigid.” Gürçay-Morris pointed to instances of contemporary alterations to original works, ranging from a current Broadway production of “Oklahoma!” to a high school adaptation of the movie “Alien.”

In the future, Hagan and Pospisil noted that it would be “exceedingly unlikely” for Dramatists to refuse a license to a group due to a copyright violation. “We’re not going to stop licensing to Williams or anything like that, but we’ll certainly keep a closer eye on it,” they said.

Gürçay-Morris explained how the department has been working with the licensing company to move forward. “I respect DPS’ [Dramatists Play Service’s] concerns, and we’ve responded in an effort to open a dialogue with them about how this can be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction,” he said. “We will certainly be paying close attention to the terms of our performance licenses, and how decisions are made during the development and rehearsal process.”

The department is also using this incident as a teaching moment, with Gürçay-Morris reading the email from Dramatists to students last Friday at the weekly pizza lunch hosted by the department. “We engaged

in a frank discussion of these issues – both in the context of Williams College but also more broadly how these same issues play out constantly during the course of a professional career in theater,” he said. “This is not something that one only wrestles with in ivory towers; it is a constant reality in the life of professional artists, and particularly in a collaborative medium like theatre where we have to engage with copyright from both sides: as copyright users of the work of others, and copyright holders of our own work.”

Gürçay-Morris emphasized that department productions will continue to work to provide the best possible production environment for students.

“What this will not do is cause us to move backwards in our ongoing exploration of how to make work collaboratively and share it with our audiences in a way that arises from, and best speaks to, the current concerns of our community surrounding inclusivity, whose stories get told, how they are told and by whom,” he explained. “We have, for the last year and a half, been very actively interrogating long-standing traditions and assumptions about who makes work, who that work is for and what purpose it serves. These questions are far from answered, and it is an ongoing struggle we are all engaged in. The recent production of ‘The Last Days of Judas Iscariot’ represented a different approach to ensemble work, decision-making and creative process which we are very proud of and feel has been, for us, a good step forward – the first of many more.”

At the time of publication, director Shadi Ghaheri and dramaturg Catherine María Rodríguez had not responded to the Record’s request for comment.

to the internet. “Forty percent of this college are minorities, so the question is not so much free speech but what should the College put its money [toward] bringing to campus,” he said. “I would argue that every minority student knows here that there are people who hate them. Why should we pay money to bring that kind of person?”

Perino sought to clarify the extent to which these speakers utilized college resources.

“It is minuscule the amount of money that would be spent on someone like [John] Derbyshire,” said Jana Sawicki, chair of the philosophy department, who also chairs the ad hoc committee on inquiry and inclusion.

Martin reiterated that, to him, it was about values, not money.

Mohamed also raised the question of the ability for speech to metastasize into physical violence. “Can’t you make the argument that the fact that Hitler’s propaganda was so strong and that he was able to, through his words and through his images, control a big majority of Germany, is what led him to murder 11 million people?”

Perino responded, citing a weakened Weimar government: “My understanding is that the weakness of the Weimar government and its inability and unwillingness to punish political violence is one of the main reasons that Hitler was able to come to power.”

Subsequently, Joshua Teruneh ’19 asked the panel, “How do you balance the prin-

ciple of free speech with the principle of free association?”

Gerrard reiterated what he believed to be the dangers of censorship and consolidation of power. “Free speech has always been the necessary weapon of the oppressed. The powerful, by definition, don’t need free speech; They own the fucking printing presses,” Gerrard said. Perino agreed with and built upon this, reiterating, “Be wary of the power to censor.”

Maroja took the question in a different direction, pondering the potential backlash that the College could receive as the result of a rigid speaker policy.

“Once you decide on who is allowed to be invited, then you are effectively endorsing speakers, and I find that an extremely dangerous place to be,” Maroja said.

The discussion shifted toward the decision by McPartland to dismantle the memorial in Hollander. “Whose free speech do you believe in?” Olaose asked the panel, highlighting both McPartland’s free speech advocacy and his removal of the memorial.

Maroja responded to the question, stating that “he was acting as the building committee chair,” and told the audience that McPartland was in contact with the fire marshal and security.

The Record has not been able to verify the claim that McPartland contacted the fire marshal prior to his removal of the memorial.

Olaose disagreed with this assessment, telling Maroja, “That was false because he

had not contacted the fire department.” Mohamed further questioned the panel, “Why was it so easy for [McPartland] to rip apart that shrine if he is so for free speech?”

“There [is] a definition of free speech in which you are able to put [up] signs along as it doesn’t disturb things,” Maroja told the audience, “You are not able, under free speech, to stop traffic. You will actually go to jail if you stop traffic to protest something.” Maroja also cited the materials that were posted on McPartland’s door as symbolic of his dedication to freedom of expression. “It’s an unfortunate event,” Maroja said.

“Everything you said was false,” Olaose told Maroja, citing Maroja’s description of McPartland’s actions. “He did not remove [the memorial]. He destroyed it.”

Hamza Mankor ’22 posed the final question, asking, “What’s the purpose of inviting these speakers, truly?

What are we learning from a inviting these speakers to campus? … Why is black inferiority up for debate?”

“There are two questions,” responded Gerrard, who pointed out separate questions regarding who students should invite and who students should want to invite. “When we say who we want to invite, that involves our values.”

Mankor reiterated his question to the panel, asking, “What is there to learn from inviting these speakers to campus?

What are we gaining educationally from inviting hate speech on campus?”

Gerrard responded again, telling the audience that students would have gained an insight into a Trump immigration policy from John Derbyshire, a white nationalist whom then President of the College Adam Falk disinvited from speaking at the College in 2016 following student protests.

Perino concluded the event with a defense of speech on the grounds of precedent. “Upholding the process is important, and there is a concern about what would happen if you just create an ad hoc process where the whims of any one individual can decide what justice gets administered,” he said.

BEYOND THE PURPLE BUBBLE Stop & Shop releases “final offer” to workers threatening strike

By REBECCA TAUBER EXECUTIVE EDITOR Following weeks of tense negotiation, Stop & Shop updated its “final offer” to the five local unions that authorized a strike against the grocery store chain in March. Among the unions moving toward a strike is United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1459, which represents workers in Western Massachusetts.

Last week, negotiations continued between UFCW chapters and Stop & Shop with little progress. On Thursday, UFCW Local 1459 posted an update on its website telling its members that “the company is continuing to be unreasonable.” The next day, the union wrote, “No progress was made yesterday as the company is continuing to propose senseless and mean-spirited demands of the membership that will hurt both members and the customer.”

On Saturday, the UFCW Stop & Shop Negotiation Coalition and the grocery chain made slight

progress toward an agreement.

“Because of your hard work and service to the customers, the company has begun to make some slight movement,” the coalition wrote to its members.

Stop & Shop posted its offers to the five unions on its website on Monday. “We believe this proposal represents a responsible balance that continues to keep Stop & Shop’s full-time associates among the highest paid in the industry while also providing pay increases and a wide range of benefits for those working full- or part-time schedules,” the website said. The update cited difficulties unique to the Berkshires as the reason for the challenging negotiations, including competition from other non-union stores, state regulations and increased costs of benefits.

Many Stop & Shop workers still view the updated offers as unjust and harmful. In an oped in the New Haven Register, UFCW Local 919 member Michael Dutton explained some of the reasons why the offers have angered workers, including pro-

posed cuts in benefits and wage freezes. “In their press releases, management does not address the wages of the majority of its employees, the part-time employees,” Dutton said. He also notes that while benefits are better than smaller stores, Stop & Shop is part of a larger company, Ahold Delhaize. “To someone from another major international employer, our benefits are less than impressive,” he wrote.

As of publication, none of the five unions involved in negotiations had released an official statement in response to the new offer. Many union members, however, have expressed anger at the proposal. A photo on the UFCW Local 919 page showed the union preparing strike packets. Another photo included a copy of the final offer posted around Stop & Shop stores, with a sign taped to it ensuring, “This is not a final proposal! The union has not agreed to anything! The company and union are still talking! This is a scare tactic to weaken us! Stay strong, stay united, stay calm!”

Racially insensitive question on state exam sparks controversy

By JEONGYOON HAN EXECUTIVE EDITOR The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will not score an essay question from the 10thgrade statewide Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam that prompted students to write in the persona of a racist character.

The essay prompt from the English Language Arts portion of the exam – administered in public schools beginning March 26 – asked students to read an excerpt from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-Prize winning The Underground Railroad, a 2016 his-

torical fiction novel that follows two slaves’ journey to freedom in the 19th century. 10th graders taking the exam were asked to write from the perspective of Ethel, a racist white woman who uses highly derogatory language toward slaves.

Students, educators and school administrators across the state were shocked by the racially insensitive question, prompting the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to announce on March 31 that they would not score the question. “[Students] felt like they were being asked to basically write creative racist thoughts and put

them into words for this character,” said Max Page, vice president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association. “This seemed like a disturbing thing to ask students – especially students of color – to do.”

The DESE reviewed and approved the question in 2017, and included it in a field test. No problems were reported.

Whitehead, the book’s author, said in a statement that he was “appalled and disgusted” by the essay question. “What kind of idiot would have students imagine the rationalizations of a racist coward who shrinks from moral responsibility?” he said on WBZ-TV. “

April 10, 2019

Alums, faculty, students, community members commemorate Africana 50 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 “While I had met a number of alumni from the early 70s in the past, I had never heard their stories told in such a substantive way. And by hearing their stories, I appreciated my Williams experience even more,” she said. “I appreciated what alumni had done before me to make my student experience a rich one.”

Students were also able to draw connections between alums narratives and their experiences today. Olaide Adejobi ’19, secretary of the BSU and a panelist at the symposium, spoke about the cyclical and iterative nature of student activism and its demands. “Hearing what the original organizers of the Hopkins Hall occupation had to say about their time at Williams is so resonant with what students experience today, and that was a really powerful reminder and that was definitely something that came up a lot during the weekend,” she said. “It was a powerful reminder of how things really are static and dynamic.”

The celebration also included walking tours. “Not A Onetime Event: Echoes of the Hopkins Occupation” was organized by public humanities fellows and drew on the history of student activism to emphasize the existence of unmet demands and the tactics used by the College to stall and repress student demands.

“In my own research, I found a stunningly, almost comically, common theme: committees. It seems Williams College makes a Committee for almost everything and anything it doesn’t want to have to answer to,” said Emma York ’19, a public humanities fellow, on her research on anti-apartheid activists who fought for the College to divest from South

NEWS 5

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Africa in the 1970s and 1980s, and the hunger strike that followed it. “This pseudo-commitment to meeting the needs of a diverse – and quickly diversifying – student body contributes to activist fatigue and relies, again, on the unacknowledged, uncompensated labor of PoCs, minorities and more.”

BSU also organized a town hall on saturday, which strived to look forward and engage alumni in tackling unmet demands.

Rocky Douglas ’19, one of the co-chairs of the BSU, and Shane Beard ’20, MinCo representative and community outreach coordinator, commented on some of the discussions from the town hall meeting. “I sincerely hope that in the next 50 years there will be more support for departments like Africana, that there is an Asian American studies department, that those are both majors, that there is different representation for ideas like Indigenous studies, in our curriculum,” Beard said.

“And that we’re finally ADA compliant, and that we are actually respecting and prioritizing the safety of survivors on campus. There are so many different things that people have been fighting for a while, that we’re still not there yet,” Douglas added.

Additionally, the BSU Town Hall centered around the need for affinity housing – which was one of the 15 demands of 1969 (“A case for affinity housing: Why the College should reconsider the housing system” by Alia Richardson ’19, Nov 14 2018) – and the conversations around free speech on campus that could inflict violence against marginalized people.

“What’s been so frustrating about the conversation about free speech right now is that it’s presupposing that the best thing to do to challenge

ideas that dispose of the humanities of marginalized people is to debate it, which is to say that it’s like you go into the discussion with the premise that what the opponent is saying is true, that being, you are not human,” Beard explained. “What’s so frustrating is the idea that the College is supposed to be a safe home for everyone. It’s a residential college. If this is supposed to be a home, you can’t have a home that’s also hostile. Those two ideas don’t work with one another.

It’s real violence.”

“This would be different if it was just intellectual. But this is about our livelihoods, this is 24/7. I have to eat lunch in the same place as these people, and go to class with these people, and sleep in the same space as these people,” Douglas said on the inconsistency between the celebration of the Hopkins occupation, while validating the ideas and dangers that could come with allowing speakers that denounce the humanity of marginalized identities.

Similar sentiments were shared by alums as well. Julien, former assistant dean of the college and director of the Institute of Advanced Study and Professor of Comparative Literature, French and Italian and African Studies at Indiana University commented, “We want benchmarks, but we really want also a change in disposition … we need to create the terms of our community, the terms within which we interact with one another.

“Our society cannot last with the kinds of enormous tensions and, you know, the sense of having been wronged, the psychological violences, and I say that because white students, the majority students, have to be convinced that it is in our welfare that it is in their welfare that everyone feels like they have a fair

chance, that they’re heard, that they have opportunity, so that we can all contribute to create the kind of place where we can achieve and be fruitful and be productive and be fully human.”

Clifford Robinson ’70, one of the founding members of the Williams Afro-American Society and the leading organizers of the occupation, remained hopeful about the next 50 years. “There’s been so much change since we started here, and it’s worth remembering that,” he said.“Williams is going to always have to adapt to change. Change is going to come fast furious, in the next few years, even more than what we went through.”

Students and professors also expressed their wishes for the future. “Because I believe in the idea of freedom dreams and we have to dream of the impossible to get anywhere closer to where we want to be, my dream is that in the next 50 years, Williams is a campus where people don’t have to go to drastic means such as an occupation, or releasing demands, or a die-in, or a hunger strike, or two professors taking leave, to make social change,” Douglas said.

“Thinking about the future, thinking about 50 years from now, would be that Williams could be a place, and would be a place, and will be a place where folks of African descent, in particular but not exclusively, feel like Williams is really a place for them, feel like it’s a place where they can learn all kinds of things, including and especially about themselves, and how to navigate their existence in the world.

I want Williams to be a space that can equip people to feel that way, think that way and create that way and contribute in that way,” ManigaultBryant said.

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College expects to meet sustainability targets

By JEONGYOON HAN EXECUTIVE EDITOR With less than two years remaining, the College is poised to reach its 2020 sustainability goals, according to the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives. It expects to reduce campus emissions to 35 percent below 1990 measured levels and to achieve carbon neutrality through carbon offsets.

In Sep. 2015, in response to student activism on campus calling for fossil fuel divestment, then-President of the College Adam Falk and the Board of Trustees listed these goals. The Zilkha Center has spearheaded the five-year project with a focus on using various methods to reduce the metric tons of carbon (MTC) emitted by the College from 23,168 MTC in 1990 to 15,059 MTC by the end of 2020.

Zilkha Center Director Amy Johns said that improving the efficiency of buildings, from changing light fixtures to improving insulation and weatherizing, has been crucial to these efforts.

“These sorts of projects don’t get as much attention because they’re ‘back of the house’ projects, but they’re really critical parts of the College’s strategy,” Johns said.

Starting next year, the College will purchase all electricity from renewable sources, invest in sustainable design and construct a solar-power facility in collaboration with Amherst, Bowdoin, Hampshire and Smith. The facility in Farmington, Maine, will generate electricity for the equivalent of about 5000 homes.

With the College set to fulfill its emissions goals by 2020, students and staff at the Center are already looking ahead for ways in which the College can further its sustainability mission, according to Johns. “I and lots of others on campus hope and expect the to College set additional goals, because we don’t want it to be like, ‘2020 happened. We achieved our goal – we’re done,’” she said.

“We need to figure out what the next goal is, and that goal is going to necessarily require us to do

something about the fossil fuels at the central heating plant.”

The sentiment comes from a desire across colleges and universities to push toward fossilfree sustainability practices in upcoming years, including Middlebury, which plans to phase out its investments in fossil fuel companies over the next 15 years and promised to not make any new investments.

Johns said that realigning the College’s energy sources should also be a priority in the upcoming years, especially with regard to the College’s central heating plant and water and heating source, the two largest sources of energy consumption at the College.

“We have a central heating plant that burns a lot of natural gas and fossil fuels,” Johns said.

“And in the long run, that’s not sustainable, but the College has a ton of existing infrastructure related to the central heating plant.”

Caroline Weinberg ’19, an eco-adviser intern for the Zilkha Center, noted that faculty and staff air travel has contributed 17.3 percent of the College’s carbon emissions, and argued that considering how to address such emissions will be helpful.

Weinberg and Johns both emphasized that simply hitting the target of reducing carbon emissions to 35 percent below 1990 emissions can be misleading, since the calculation does not include all forms of carbon emissions and energy consumption – particularly construction work on campus. “Construction practices have not changed as much as I would have liked, because they’re not really under the College’s control,” Johns said.

Weinberg's final suggestion, in addition to improving construction practices as projects ensue, was that the College should be more mindful of environmental social justice practices. “If we’re thinking about a ton of new materials for a building, how do we ensure the materials that we’re buying and the labor that went into the prod and trans of materials was just and equitable?”

Weinberg said.

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The Williams Record

April 10, 2019

One in Two Thousand

By KAIRA MEDIRATTA and IRENE LOEWENSON RECORD STAFF Kaira got to know Faris when they were co-Arts editors for the Record during the spring semester of 2018. Irene first met Faris last month, when he was having dinner with Editor-in-Chief Danny Jin ’20, who introduced the two to each other. We sat down with the man himself to talk about Facebook ruses, vape clouds and camel humps.

KM: How was your break?

FG: It was good. I went back to Seattle, and a bunch of Williams kids visited, and they wanted to go to the “hot spot” in Seattle.

And the only hot spot in Seattle is this place called Pike Place…

It’s basically a fish market. So I went to the fish market seven times over the course of 14 days.

KM: I thought you went skiing, too. You posted a lot on Facebook about it.

FG: Uh, yeah. That was totally me.

KM: Wait. What do you mean? What’s up with your Facebook?

Does someone else run it?

FG: It’s quite possible that a wide variety of people have access to my Facebook at this time.

IL: What? Why? FG: Oh, man. I’m going to get totally exposed. I think I ac-

cidentally logged into a computer at my uncle’s house, and so now my entire extended family has my Facebook.

FARIS GULAMALI ’21

FG: So there was this musical that was here over the summer. It had a lot of singing, and it was very exciting. But at one point, I think they brought in Eden Espinosa, who is kind of famous. And as part of the play, she walked out, and she just started vaping on the stage.

And I was sitting in the front row. So I got to smell Eden Espinosa’s vape smoke. Which smelled like normal vaping smoke, but it was, like, Eden Espinosa’s vaping smoke.

KM: Whoever’s running your Facebook posts so many photos of you wearing sunglasses. And they posted one of you skiing over spring break. They commented below it, “Spring break!!!!” with, like, four exclamation points.

FG: Oh, yeah. I did see that, eventually. But I did not do that. Can I tell you something? I didn’t even go skiing.

KM: That was a part of the play?

IL: What’s your major?

FG: Chemistry, definitely...

It’s a super interesting topic, because you’re exploring things as they are, on a molecular level. It also applies to bio and physics, which are also topics that I’m interested in. I don’t enjoy pipetting, though. I don’t like chem research at all. I do like learning about it, though.

IL: What do you have against pipetting?

FG: It’s very exhausting. It’s a lot of work. You use your thumb and you have to move your arm and your hand a lot of times.

KM: I heard through the grapevine that you lift weights so that your hand doesn’t shake when you pipette. Is that true?

KM: Well, tell me about the plays that you saw.

ANIAH PRICE/PHOTO EDITOR FARIS’ HOMETOWN BELLEVUE, WASH.

FARIS’ RESIDENCE FAYERWEATHER

FG: Oh, that is true.

KM: Is this gym routine working for you?

FG: Yes. Definitely. My physical strength might not be going up, but in terms of, “Is my hand shaking when I pipette?” it’s not, which is ultimately the goal.

KM: Were you doing that over the summer, when you were here?

FG: Oh, no. Over the summer I was doing chem research, and that’s when I realized I didn’t like chem research.

PERSON RUNNING FARIS’ FACEBOOK NOT FARIS

KM: I heard that you did like going to plays over the summer, though.

FG: Oh, I went to so many plays! I saw Ferris Bueller!

IL: I was actually going to ask, do you get a lot of jokes about your name?

Do people make Ferris Bueller jokes a lot?

FG: Surprisingly, not really.

Honestly, I think I’ve heard as many Ferris Bueller jokes as I’ve heard ferrous chloride – like iron – jokes, so I’ve heard like an equal amount of those.

FG: It was part of the play!

Like, Eden Espinosa just looks in my direction and takes out her, like, Juul or something – I don’t know what it’s called – and she uses it and blows it into my face and I’m like, “Yes. Mission accomplished. That’s all I wanted in life.”

KM: So, I don’t know if this one’s true: I’ve heard you go to every lecture, ever, at Williams.

FG: That is 100 percent true.

I went to almost every faculty lecture [last semester], save one, I think because I had to go to another lecture?

KM: And then you take furious notes.

FG: Yeah, so I have this journal. My sister thought it was

a diary, and she tried to look through it. During fall, there was a series of chemistry lectures, and I took notes in my journal. And then I went home, and my sister looked through my journal and she’s like “Where are all your secrets?” and I’m like, “They’re in the chemistry notes.” And she learned, like, organic chem in a month. Because she was studying my notes so intently to find my secrets.

I don’t know if I should’ve done that, but she’s smarter for it.

KM: Wait, Faris, how many siblings do you have?

FG: I only have one, a younger sister. She’s basically me, but better. In every way. Like I’m not really a musician, but she’s a legit musician. She’s a cellist. She plays chess better than I did. Like, I went through the same classes in high school and barely passed some of them, and she’s chilling with 99s and I’m like, “What.” Which is good! That means that she’s doing well.

KM: Any final thoughts?

FG: Oh yeah, I learned something really interesting. Did you know that camels are just fat horses? So you see the hump, right? And you think, “What’s in the hump? Water.” But it’s not water! Camels don’t actually store water that way. They store it as fat. So really, camels are just fat horses.

Jeffrey Israel explores pop culture, hate in new book

By REBECCA TAUBER EXECUTIVE EDITOR

PHOTO COURTESY OF VICTORIA MICHALSKA.

Victoria Michalska ’22, whose art is pictured, is one of many who draw inspiration from nude models.

Nude models bare all for studio art classes

By KATHERINE HATFIELD CONTRIBUTING WRITER In his first nude modeling session, Felix Knollman ’19 ended up with a partner model: his good friend’s girlfriend, whom he had not formally met yet. “It wasn’t particularly awkward, actually,” Knollman said.

In his sophomore year, his friends’ jokes about his partial dressing habits inspired him to become a nude model. Knollman and the College’s other nude models pose for biweekly figure drawing sessions – open to all students for free and to non-students for $5 – and for studio art classes.

For Knollman, the weirdness of being nude in front of a class subsides after only three seconds. When Aidan Dunkelberg ’22 takes his clothes off, he experiences “20 seconds that are the most nerve-wracking part of anything ever,” but once naked, he does not feel self-conscious.

He first heard about the nude modeling position at a WOOLFrelated lunch. Everyone had laughed, but he recalled thinking, “Hey! That might not be that bad.” New to semi-public nudity, Dunkelberg said he feels “a rush of confidence because I’m experiencing something that’s totally abnormal for me.”

Not everyone feels so liberated. Veronica Berger ’22, who added her name to the nude modeling list because of the lucrative $14 hourly wage, described her first session as “terrifying” and “stressful.” In that session, she posed with her head up or to the side to avoid eye contact. Although by the end she was more comfortable, she left shaking and thought, “I hope I don’t run into anyone from that class.”

The next day in her economics class, Berger sat across from a girl who kept smiling at her.

Berger smiled back, thinking, “She’s smiling because she’s like, ‘Ugh, this class, I’m not really about it’ ... like, an econ smile.” The next time Berger modeled, she recognized her classmate and understood the reason for the smile. “I want to die; I want to disappear,” she thought at the time.

The vulnerability of nudity is not the only challenge of this position. Working from general guidelines, models invent their own poses, which they must hold anywhere from 30 seconds to an hour. According to Berger, this freedom can be “nerve-wracking because ... I’m trying to think of what I can do next that won’t disappoint them, that won’t be too boring.”

For Knollman, the years of creating his own poses have increased his artistic awareness of his body. He thinks about what positions “will form lines or contours that are interesting” or “make some of my muscles flex so that there are actually outlines that you can draw.”

Berger, Dunkelberg and Knollman all brought up the balance between striking interesting and comfortable poses. “If you pay attention, we’re never actually still in our day-to-day lives,” Knollman said. “If you force yourself to be still in one position ... it’s hard, and it hurts.”

Knollman and Berger both said their worst pose choice was a deceptively uncomfortable seated position with arms back and elbows locked. As one’s arms tire, the position requires increasing core strength. Berger said, “Five minutes in I was like, ‘This kind of hurts, but you know, 15 more minutes, OK.’ Uh-uh. It just got so much more unbearable. I felt like my arms were shaking. Everyone could see me struggling. But I didn’t fall out. I just, you know, inside

my head, I was like, ‘You better stay there. You can’t move.’”

Dunkelberg, however, has few regrets. “Any pose ... will start to hurt after long enough,” he said. “I’ve done things that have hurt more than others, but it’s not like, ‘Oh, this is a grave error,’ because it wouldn’t be good regardless.”

If Knollman knows one of the artists, he comes up to them during breaks, and they discuss the drawings. People have come up to Dunkelberg after the session to praise his modeling skills, and he and the students acknowledge each other outside of sessions.

Though Berger rarely interacts with the artists, she said she felt that they “understood that I was a person also... It was all in the purpose of art.”

Victoria Michalska ’22, a student in ARTS 230: “Drawing II,” said she imagines that nude modeling is “very nerve-wracking because in our society we’re taught that that’s such a vulnerable state.” But for her, “a model is a model.”

“When I’m drawing them, I’m focusing on the curves and the lines,” she said. “That’s the relationship between me and the subject.”

Although she observes them as curves and lines, Michalska said she respects her models in her artistic process. “I feel the need to represent them accurately because that’s who I am as a person,” she said. “I’m trying to present them with accurate proportion, not idealize anything too much but still impose my feelings onto it.”

Michalska admires that the models she has worked with have become more comfortable during their sessions. “Coming over that vulnerability – that’s a step in your relationship to your physical self,” she said.

Jeffrey Israel, assistant professor of religion and Jewish studies, does not believe that in an ideal future America, the “nasty” parts of society will simply disappear. Instead, he imagines these grotesque elements finding their place within what he refers to as a “domain of play.” Israel entrusts play, a realm that includes comedy and sit-com television, with the power to help society deal with omnipresent resentment.

He lays out this argument in his new book, Living with Hate in American Politics and Religion: How Popular Culture Can Defuse Intractable Differences, released yesterday.

To Israel, the stakes are high.

“We are at a crisis point in the country, where it has become increasingly difficult to imagine how we can all pursue a shared life together,” he said. With that in mind, Israel seeks to present a way for America to “pursue a more mature political love that doesn’t imagine that we forgive and forget, but instead tries to make it possible to have political love without forgiving, and without forgetting.”

Living with Hate in American Politics and Religion provides an alternative to the idea that “people will basically reform their former nasty attitudes and come to a kind of sense of brotherhood and sisterhood or a sense of political love, which has abandoned all of its grudges and resent-

ment.” According to Israel, this vision is neither realistic nor ideal. “You don’t invite people genuinely into a society where they can flourish if you say you have to check all your historical resentment at the door,” he explained.

Rather, Israel argues that these historical resentments can have a productive role in society through play, including popular culture, such as comedy and performance. “We need to learn how to shift this nasty stuff away from being baked into laws and policies and into the expressive life of a very specific realm where no claims are made,” he said.

Israel recognizes, however, that the ability to play with one’s resentments requires a larger sense of safety in society. “Only when people feel truly secure, truly seen with compassion and care by their political institution, can we expect them to be able to endure a really perverse and wild domain of play,” he said.

Living with Hate in American Politics and Religion uses Jewish American history and culture, one of Israel’s areas of research, as a case study for his argument. “Particularly after World War II, Jews were more secure than they had ever been, and in this context they produced the most aggressive, perverse, provocative humor and cultural production than they had ever produced,” Israel said. He points to the work of comedian Lenny Bruce, author Philip Roth, poet Allen Ginsberg and other famous

American Jews as examples of productive play.

By using Jewish American pop culture as an example, Living with Hate in American Politics and Religion addresses a dual audience: Jews specifically and Americans at large.

“The book will have particular things to say to Jewish Americans thinking through their own liberal commitments, and their own Jewishness, in the context of twenty-first century America,” Israel noted.

Yet, more generally, Israel’s book also seeks to “develop liberal political thought” for the sake of America’s future.

Creating this imagined future would involve both improving the political reality and fostering a domain of play. “Simultaneously, we need to make sure that there is time and space for people to play with the legacies of historical oppression, and at the very same time, create laws and policies that make every person that lives within this country feel a deep respect and compassion from its institutions so that kind of playing can be tolerable,” Israel said.

Despite its focus on lasting resentments and underlying oppression in society, Israel explained that Living with Hate in American Politics and Religion ultimately presents a positive image for the future. “The book is very much about what it would mean to live together in a way where each of us sees the good of every other as a part of our own good,” he said.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE.

Jeffrey Israel released a book yesterday on the interplay between resentment and popular culture.

April 10, 2019

FEATURES 7

The Williams Record

team unnels

Legends from the underground, past and present

By NIGEL JAFFE FEATURES EDITOR Beneath campus, stretching from Hopkins to Greylock, from Lasell to the President’s House, is a legendary network of tunnels. Constructed to connect the central heating plant’s utility lines to various buildings across campus, the tunnels have slowly expanded in both size and notoriety for the better part of a century. Dating back almost as long are efforts by students to take advantage of numerous entrances and exits around campus by “tunneling” from place to place after hours.

The most popular stories surrounding the steam tunnels tend to revolve around the catand-mouse dynamic between Campus Safety and Security (CSS) and the students involved in those late-night expeditions.

Director of CSS Dave Boyer, who has overseen one side of that rivalry for more than 30 years, corroborated one of the most lurid tales, in which a student in the early ’90s lost their scalp while fleeing CSS. “I followed the blood trail that night,” Boyer said. “The student hit a very low-hanging beam that had a sharp edge on it. I believe they had to get somewhere between 60 and 80 stitches to reattach their scalp.”

It was unclear at first whether Boyer was serious. Such hair-raising details, often repeated rather facetiously by students hoping to add to the sense of mystery, are almost unbelievable. But this was only the first of several such stories that turned out, in the end, to be true, another addition to the lore of a not-so-secret tradition maintained across more than 70 years at the College.

The mystique builds The first substantial documentation of the tunnels in the Record dates back to December 1949, when the paper sold for 10 cents per issue and counted George Steinbrenner ’52, former owner of the New York Yankees, among its editorial staff. An article by Richard Duffield ’52, “Subterranean tunnel system shrouds College campus in mystery, danger,” places initial construction of the steam tunnels around the late 1920s. Comparing the College’s tunnel network to the system used by New York City’s subway lines, Duffield meanwhile credits students with

making use of the passages for certain “ingenious purposes.”

Senior Project Manager Jason Moran confirmed Duffield’s historical account. “From initial plan review of early design drawings, the tunnels predate the 1930s,” he said. “The previous versions mimic the current versions: a structure that steam pipes were installed in that allowed for visual inspection and maintenance.”

Executive Director for Facilities Operations Bob Wright provided further insight into the structural details of the passageways. “The steam tunnels range in size from just large enough to accommodate the utility conduits to larger tunnels that can accommodate our maintenance staff,” he said. “Mystery and intrigue have followed these tunnels for years. Until additional precautions were taken, students would periodically find ways to infiltrate the tunnels.”

Rhett Austell ’48 lived in Morgan Hall – a prominent access point for students up until at least the ’90s – in the summer of 1943. Thinking back on the tunnels’ reputation among the student body at the time, he recalled that he “had heard about the tunnels, but never knew anyone who had walked through them.” Countless alums of more recent generations would echo that stance, reflecting a general awareness of the illegal activities but a reluctance to participate.

During the decades following Austell’s time at the College, the tunnels grew both in size – with expansions in 1965 extending to Greylock and Science Quads – and in reputation. An Oct. 31, 1969, edition of the Record features a quote from an “indignant” Paul Morello ’72, who declared, “The two most important things at Williams are the dogs and the steam tunnels.”

In the ensuing decades, the tunnels appeared in two separate April Fools issues of the Record, with satirical articles from 1979 (“Alliance protests steam tunnel threat”) and 1981 (“Heating system goes nuclear”) capitalizing on the general sense of mystery the tunnels had acquired.

Narrow tunnels, narrow escapes According to alums from that period, using the tunnels to gain access to desirable locations after hours was a fairly widespread practice. “Tunneling was a popular activity,” Professor of Chem-

PHOTO COURTESY OF BOB WRIGHT.

Before alarms were installed in the College’s steam tunnels, students would use the tunnels to sneak around campus late at night. istry Jay Thoman ’82 said. “For many people, a destination was the [College’s swimming] pool.”

Professor of Chemistry Tom Smith ’88 gave a similar account. “There certainly is a lot of lore about ‘tunneling,’” he said.

“I have friends and classmates who talked about it, but I never did it myself. I remember hearing about people tunneling into the pool and then getting caught by security and being asked to show their campus IDs.” Ben Cart ’80, an avid tunneler during his time at the College, remembers his own experience taking part – and getting caught – in exactly such a scenario. “We were skinny dipping in the pool at 1 a.m. – four

freshmen having the time of our lives,” he said. “What I recall is the noise caused by the banks of lights going on… CLANK, CLANK, CLANK. All of a sudden, daylight in the swimming pool. Thoroughly embarrassed, we scrambled to the edge of the pool, and there’s [CSS Officer] Bill Busl in his security uniform. He gave us the quote of the night: ‘I don’t suppose you’ve got your IDs on you…’”

Once inside the tunnels, those trying to reach a specific location often found it difficult to navigate effectively. The tunnels run directly under Hopkins Hall, potentially making CSS’ job much easier. “One entrance was in the basement of Hopkins Hall, in

Williams College Utility Map

a restroom very close to Security,” Thoman said. “One might imagine it was an amusing way to leave the steam tunnels, with a wave to the dispatcher.”

Cart hardly has to imagine – his time in the tunnels eventually led him to make that very mistake. “One night, we reached a grate that was big enough to climb through, right above a well-lit hallway. The first two of us dropped down and pushed the grate open, and then we were standing there, brushing the dirt off and wondering where we were. Down at the end of the hall is the 24hour security office in the basement of Hopkins. There’s a guy at the desk with his head down, because of course, it never occurs to him that there’s going to be kids popping out of the wall.”

Incredibly, Cart escaped capture, but others in his position may not have been so lucky.

Dangers limit tunneling Modern developments have strengthened security in an effort to keep students from engaging in dangerous unauthorized usage of the tunnels. According to Wright, the most recent structural changes are a direct response to the hazardous conditions.

“The tunnels are a confined and dangerous space, with 300-degree steam running through pipes and 480 volts of electricity running through electric lines,” he said. “That is why the tunnels are now very sensitively alarmed, reporting back to the security office, and are locked.”

Wright stressed that the security measures reflect serious safety concerns. “When a worker goes into the tunnels, they must be equipped an audible alarmed meter which detects unsafe levels of oxygen, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide and LEL (lower explosive level),” he said. “They also must be outfitted with a harness to help with their removal if they were to be injured, and a two-way radio for communications.”

Those hoping to enter the tunnels by official means are required to undergo federal training. “The tunnels are actually

classified by federal law under OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] standards as a ‘confined space,’” Wright said. “This means that our maintenance staff, as well as any outside contractors, have to receive OSHA confined space training before they are allowed to enter the tunnels.”

One such outsider who received clearance was Ian Nesbitt ’13, whose exploits are documented in the Willipedia page on the steam tunnels and the Williams Magazine piece debunking some of the myths surrounding them. He completed OSHA training and entered the tunnels as part of his work in geosciences classes at the College.

Boyer said he hopes that efforts such as Nesbitt’s will cause the aura of intrigue around the tunnels to fade, no longer incentivizing students to break in. “I almost wish somebody could actually go through with a camera and film it, so that would take away the mystery of the place,” Boyer said. “Believe me, the mystery and allure of the underground space is much more exciting than the reality of being down there.”

He pointed out that the placement of the tunnels is actually less of a secret than students may think. “If you consider it from a heat distribution standpoint, even if you didn’t know where the steam tunnels were, you could probably figure it out,” Boyer said. “If you look at the grass, where the snow first melted, I’ll bet that you could draw a pretty accurate depiction of where they might have placed the tunnels.” His intuition echoes Duffield’s 1949 Record article, which reads, “[Their] path can be traced in the wintertime when the heat from the pipes melts the snow, leaving a bare track on the surface.”

Cart gave his thoughts on what motivated the expeditions, if not the thrill of the tunnels themselves. “The adventure was all about going somewhere you shouldn’t. It was all about exploring,” he said. “In four years of college, if you didn’t do something a little bit off the books, I pity you.”

8 ARTS

The Williams Record

April 10, 2019

Raveena Aurora discusses music, creative process, identity

By SURABHI IYER CONTRIBUTING WRITER R&B singer Raveena Aurora and rapper Rocky Rivera put on a transformative concert to kick off Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month at the College last Friday night in Goodrich Hall. While Rivera electrified the audience with her powerful lyrics, Raveena encouraged audience members to recharge and practice self-love.

To make this event happen, Olivia Tse ’19.5 and Tyler Tsay ’19, the concert organizers from Asian American Students in Action (AASiA), communicated and negotiated with the artists' agents, met with the Office of Student Life and AASiA to secure funding and handled logistical details throughout. When asked why they decided to bring Raveena, who is Indian American, and Rivera, who is Filipino American, to campus, Tse mentioned how she has “often felt like East Asian representation dominates AAPI conversations on campus” and how both artists “us[e] their music to heal and empower other women of color.”

To get a better understanding of Raveena’s artistic and personal journey, I sat down to talk with her in the Goodrich dance studio before the show.

Despite all of the chaos happening around us, she brought the same peaceful, warm energy of her performance to our conversation. We discussed everything from our mutual love for Bend It Like Beckham, to her Indian American background, to her initial struggle to control her creative narrative. During our interview, I got the feeling that I was talking to someone on the cusp of becoming a very big deal.

Surabhi Iyer (SI): How did you get into music?

break down the walls of what someone thinks a South Asian artist should be.

SI: An artist.

RA: Yeah, an artist! It shouldn’t just be like “South Asian artist,” or “female artist”; I’m a human being here to give love and receive it, you know?

SI: Did you ever feel cultural pressure against your following this life path?

PHILLIP PYLE/ARTS EDITOR

Asian American Students in Action brought Raveena to Goodrich for an Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month kickoff concert.

Raveena Aurora (RA): I started when I was maybe 10 years old. I listened to probably only Indian music and pop music up until that point, but somehow I came across Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, and the tones of their voices were just so magical. I just fell in love with soul music and had this deep connection to it.

SI: Is there anybody who has inspired you in your artistic journey?

RA: Sade’s a huge influence.

She makes timeless music, and she’s always been driven by pure emotion and vulnerability.

And I love artists who take the whole visual approach really seriously. Artists like M.I.A. [are] a huge influence, and women who have control over every single part of their career, who know every part of themselves completely – as brands, musically, visually; Solange, FKA twigs, Björk, are like that. So just, kind of, badass women.

SI: Was it hard for you earlier in your career to get complete creative control?

RA: Yes, I did struggle with it. I was signed with this really horrible publishing deal at one point, and they would only encourage me to write pop songs. This is right when I found Everett [Orr, her producer and longtime partner] and was just starting to make the music I loved, and they actively discouraged it. But once I found him, everything kind of clicked, and we’ve just been on this journey ever since.

SI: What does your creative process look like as a writer and as a singer?

RA: I feel like the creative process is literally just my everyday living and working. I work 12, 13 hours a day. I’m engaged picking out the exact shade of eyeshadow that I want to wear in a music video, or going to the studio and rehearsing for tour, and it’s all creative. But for songwriting, it

definitely happens by feeling.

Usually we start out with an instrumental and I’ll wait. I’ll gather words for a while.

SI: Are there are any words or concepts that are appealing to you right now?

RA: I’m really into the concept of intergenerational trauma. Just like, looking at what women in my family have been through before me, and the sacrifices they made. Thinking a lot about different facets of love – I’ve been in a serious relationship for four, going on five, years – so thinking about how deep shit gets, when you’re in it that much with somebody. Thinking about big girl things, like marriage and stuff. [Laughs.]

SI: How do you care for yourself?

RA: You can be a spiritual person but have these moments of anger and anxiety and fear,

and it doesn’t take away from your journey. It’ll be a constant process of self-care and self-learning; you’re going to keep falling and getting back up. And that’s been something for me to learn, because even though my life is so much better than it was a couple years ago, it’s not like I’m the most calm that I’ve ever been.

SI: How would you describe your relationship between your identity, culture, life experience and your art?

RA: I had to deal with my identity head-on since the beginning, because when I started out at 17 or 18, it was not a receptive industry to South Asian [artists] at all. I think it’s just started to open up. I was always confronted with the fact that I was Brown and Indian. It’s always been something that I had to be aware of, but I never wanted it to take away from the human-ness and vulnerability of my music. I really want to

RA: 100 percent! In the beginning, my parents and family were like, “Is this the right move?

Can you have a career in this?”

The hardest point was this twoyear period out of college; I was a full-time nanny for rich Upper East Side moms, and my parents didn’t know. I told them I worked at a marketing job. And I was just really stubborn, and I loved [music] so much that they realized over time they couldn’t really change that, so they just kinda had to go along with that!

There’s a lot of pressure, especially on Indian women to have a career, you know?

SI: What are your immediate hopes for the future?

RA: Ooh! Just that people receive Lucid well, and I don’t know… This album is everything.

I put everything into it. I just want it to do well. [Laughs.]

SI: Do you have any advice for aspiring artists?

RA: Staying focused on the craft is the most important thing. If you want to be in it in a full-time, this-is-my-life kinda way, it’s a lot about practice and getting really good at whatever you want to master, and then the rest will follow!

"Us" : students react Last Thursday, ACE held a screening of Jordan Peele’s hotly anticipated film "Us." After the film, I spoke with students about their reactions.

Interviews and photos by Phillip Pyle, Arts Editor

Gavin Li ’22 “I honestly didn’t know what was going to happen. I didn’t even know what it was about. My friend brought me here, so I was like, ‘OK, girls’ night out!’ But it was actually a lot more than I expected.”

Tobias Delgado ’21

Lizzie Hibbard ’19 “The point where she strangles the shadow self and smiles seemed a little out of character… I was really confused at the end by the exposition that the shadow woman gives... Also, where did they get all the material for the clothes? And, I feel like there wasn’t that much security in the underground terrain. Couldn’t they have just left?”

“I think it says a lot more than what I initially got from it. I was not scared because I think they are depicting something that is more or less faced by people.

There’s too much to say after watching it for the first time.”

WCMA moves to Spring Street for the summer

By ZOÉ CHEVALIER STAFF WRITER

“In terms of cinematography, it was really beautiful. I personally didn’t think it was scary just because I love scary movies, so I’m used to them. I have never seen "Get Out," so this was my first experience of one of Jordan Peele’s films... I didn’t really want to spoil myself, so I didn’t look at anything on the internet, but I kind of guessed the twist from the beginning.”

Loïs Umutesi ’22

ANIAH PRICE/PHOTO EDITOR.

76 Spring Street, formerly Lickety Split, will house WCMA for the summer as Lawrence Hall undergoes renovation.

Art will replace ice cream this summer as the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) moves to 76 Spring Street, the former address of Lickety Split. The ice cream spot is moving to the end of Spring Street, by the Tunnel City Coffee parking lot, nearwhere it had previously been.

Lawrence Hall, which currently houses WCMA, will be undergoing renovations this summer to improve maintenance and accessibility, and it will be closed from June 3– Sep. 6. Nina Pelaez, director for academic and public engagement at WCMA, said, “We didn’t want to just not exist over the summer, so we decided take the work that the museum is doing for the community and challenge ourselves to get outside of our walls.”

A year and a half ago, the museum decided to continue its curatorial work over the summer of 2019 by taking over a College-owned space and creating a presence on Spring Street. The new space will consist of a shop, some seating and an exhibition space.

When looking at the location on 76 Spring Street, it is hard at first to imagine it becoming a gallery. With a large counter in the middle of the room and a relatively smaller exhibition space, the new gallery will create some challenges for the WCMA team. For instance, the museum could not bring its permanent collection to the

new space, as the works would be exposed to risks linked to security, climate or light, Pelaez said.

The College plans to renovate the space before the gallery opens; renovation ideas include painting the walls white, removing the counter and making it generally more inviting. “Who we are is very defined by the unique architecture of our space, and this is much more straightforward and smaller, so the challenge will be to infuse the ethos of what WCMA is in this new space,” Pelaez said.

On the curatorial side, WCMA plans to exhibit works from the WALLS collection, which has special insurance and security features that make it possible to display outside the museum walls. WALLS, which stands for “Williams Art Loan for Living Spaces,” is a special collection that was built with the sole purpose of being loaned to Williams students every semester. The students then submit a journal describing their experience living with the artwork, and the journal is passed down to the next owner.

The collection comprises 127 pieces of art, including work by artists such as Francisco de Goya, Kiki Smith, Kitagawa Utamaro and Titus Kaphar. Though enjoyed by WALLS participants, these works are rarely shown to the general public. WCMA is excited to use this opportunity to show these works of art to

the community, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs Lisa Dorin said.

The selection of pieces displayed at the temporary gallery will be made by a student group working at WCMA, the Agents for Creative Action.

They will work to choose a theme or make a selection of works that resonates for them.

Also, student interns will lead tours of the display for members of the community.

WCMA will continue its usual summer program, partnering with artists, student and members of the community to offer a wide range of events such as its popular summer lecture series, Ologies, which spotlights the diverse and unique fields of study at Williams.

The program is scheduled to run weekly on Thursday evenings from July 11–Aug. 15.

Pamela Franks, the Class of 1956 director of WCMA, expressed excitement about WCMA’s presence in the heart of downtown Williamstown during the busy summer tourist season. “While we will miss being in beautiful Lawrence Hall for the summer, having a gallery right on Spring Street will let us continue to reach visitors and residents alike and share what WCMA has to offer,” Franks said.

The Spring Street WCMA gallery space will be open daily from June 3 to Sept. 6 from 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Staff offices will be moved to Schow Library during renovations.

April 10, 2019

ARTS 9

The Williams Record

Rosenwinkel dazzles with electric standards, originals

By NIGEL JAFFE FEATURES EDITOR “That’s the first time this has happened in two years, so I guess you guys got the lucky lotto,” said Kurt Rosenwinkel during his visiting artist series performance at BrooksRogers on April 8, referring to a brief period during which his amplifier inexplicably failed. Drummer Mark Whitfield Jr. filled the space with a short drum solo while Rosenwinkel tweaked his equipment, shifting seamlessly into the opening phrases of the following song as the guitar came back to life.

Such a smooth transition is to be expected from the trio, composed of Rosenwinkel, Whitfield and bassist Dario Deidda. Though the three were remarkably tight as a group, Rosenwinkel was undeniably the focal point of the night: During his solo opening to the original “East Coast Love Affair,” Deidda and Whitfield repeatedly leaned forward, ready to play, before falling back.

Meanwhile, even when Rosenwinkel’s guitar gave out without warning, he still directed the close of the song, sweeping his arm with the gravitas of an orchestra conductor.

Rosenwinkel is commonly regarded as one of the most influential jazz guitarists of his generation, frequently inviting comparisons to older talents such as Pat Metheny.

PHOTO COURTESY OF NPR.

Critically acclaimed jazz guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel delivered an exciting and original performance at Brooks-Rogers on Monday night.

Leaving Berklee College of Music to tour with vibraphonist Gary Burton – the dean of the school – he went on to collaborate with such diverse artists as Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, Steely Dan frontman Donald Fagen and various

other jazz artists, such as Joe Henderson, Brad Mehldau and Brian Blade.

Past achievements aside, the trio assembled here boasted immense talent in its own right. Whitfield, another Berklee graduate, put in a ju-

bilant performance, shifting regularly between delicate brushwork and thunderous solos as the mood demanded. Meanwhile, Deidda was impeccable on electric bass.

His ability as a jazz performer was clear on the bluesy

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“Self-Portrait,” which ended with a smile from all three band members. Later on, the opening to his original “Angels Around” evolved from a spirited bass stretch to an incredibly funky piece built around variations on a cen-

tral phrase. Rosenwinkel offered tasteful trills to complement his bandmates’ solos, launching into his own with tangible vigor.

Just to be clear: Usually, I really do not take well to jazz guitar. The problem is not necessarily the instrument, which is a mainstay of many other genres, and it certainly is not jazz itself. The combination of the two frequently strikes me as awkward. Often resembling a flute or a slide whistle, the potentially hollow tone of the electric guitar can be tough to pick out among larger ensembles; as the centerpiece of a trio like this one, it can feel strident and somewhat difficult to get behind. Save for the legendary Django Reinhardt or the more accessible Kenny Burrell or Grant Green, I tend to shy away from committing to jazz guitar in larger doses.

But if any live act could convince me otherwise, Rosenwinkel came close, putting in a valiant performance by every metric. He played with a rapid, expressive flair, consistently firing off furious licks that stood in stark contrast to his unassuming brown cap and blue plaid. Leading with a casual and nonchalant authority, dominating the solos and taking control of the selections as they came, Rosenwinkel’s dynamic style – in turns fiery and mellow – was in itself a convincing argument.

10 SPORTS

The Williams Record

April 10, 2019

CAPTAINS’ CORNER: JESSICA KIM ’19

PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.

By JACK McGOVERN SPORTS EDITOR

How did you first get into playing softball?

visit, I liked the campus, I liked the people.

I started playing when I was 7 years old. My brother played baseball and he’s two years older than me, so I grew up watching him play, and of course, being a little kid, I follow[ed] everything that my brother [did]. So I was like, “I want to play softball, which is like the girl version of baseball!” So got into that, played rec ball, which is like Little League, and that’s how it all started.

What’s your favorite thing about the team here?

Why did you want to come to the College to play softball?

Team: Softball Hometown: Tustin, Calif.

Major: Psychology

Definitely academics is a huge part of it. I loved how I didn’t have to sacrifice any of the academic part to play a sport.

Also, it helps that Williams is really dominating in sports, so it’s good that we’re on a winning campus. And I came to

Man, the team this year is especially just amazing, but if I were to point it down to one thing, I would just say the team dynamics. We’re just such good friends, even off the field.

Do you have a favorite team memory?

Well, we just came from California for a spring break trip.

Lots of memories in there, but getting up in the morning, cooking breakfast together and just hanging out. All of that was just really fun.

That sounds like a good team-bonding tradition.

Are there any other teambonding activities that you do?

During the fall, we all went to [the] Apple Barn together.

That was a tradition that sort of died out in our past, but we brought that back. So it was fun to go out together and eat some donuts. [Laughs.]

What’s been the most rewarding part of being a captain for you?

Just being looked up to by others is awesome. Just passing down my experiences throughout the years. I don’t know – it’s hard because on our team, there’s really not that much of a hierarchy or power dynamic that people would often would associate with “captains” and “players.” We’re definitely just all players, and we’re all working together toward a common goal. So it’s rewarding to be on a team like that. That’s what’s so special about this team: There’s

none of that, and everyone is on the same level.

What are some of those experiences that you are really trying to pass down?

How important it is to have that positive, good relationship off the field, because there’s definitely teams that function on the field [and] don’t hate each other off the field, but it’s just so much better if we all like each other. So why not like each other? So just fostering that type of environment in all aspects of being a student here at Williams.

You played almost 20 games over break. How do you get through a schedule like that?

It’s definitely crazy, but once you’re in that system of eating, sleeping, playing soft-

ball, it’s just the best thing in the world, and it’s great that we don’t have to really worry about school that much during spring break. Definitely hard on the body, but it’s just so much fun.

So you have had a great start to the season with a record of 19–4. What are your goals for the rest of the season?

Definitely keeping the momentum that we have now.

This week is actually a really important week for us.

We’re playing higher-ranked teams, other teams that have similar records as us who we’ve played in the past [and] who we’ve won against, lost against, whatever. But definitely just keeping that high that we’ve been playing off of right now and also just having fun, because we live for that. [Laughs.]

Men’s lacrosse knocks Amherst from the ranks of the undefeated

By WILL GENTILELLO SPORTS INFORMATION No. 9 men’s lacrosse (8–2, 4–2 NESCAC) defeated No. 5 Amherst 13-11 in Saturday's rivalry matchup at Farley-Lamb Field. With the victory, the men gave the previously undefeated Mammoths their first loss of the season. “[Saturday] was a great team victory for us,” Eph head coach George McCormack said after the game. “Our 6-on-6 defense and offense played well the whole game and it showed in the end result.”

Amherst took the lead early on, scoring 20 seconds into the game. The Ephs soon tied the game, with a feed from Jake Haase ’22 and a crease-crank from Cory Lund ’21 with 11:21 left in the period. Three minutes later, the Ephs took a 2-1 lead off of an unassisted goal by Calvin

Collins ’20 and, 20 seconds later, brought the score to 3-1, when Brendan Hoffman ’20 ripped a shot and scored unassisted.

With 7:21 left in the quarter, Amherst fought their way back into the game, with a bounceshot and goal. The Ephs then scored two straight goals by Matthew Seligson ’20 and Kevin Stump ’20, bringing the game to 5-2. With only 3:20 left, Stump shot from 15 yards out and netted a goal unassisted to increase the lead to 6-2.

The Mammoths netted the first goal of the second quarter, which was soon followed by an Eph goal scored by Collins unassisted. With 5:52 left until halftime, Amherst scored off of a dunk to bring the game to 7-4.

Two minutes later, the Mammoths scored again. With 15 seconds left in the quarter, Seligson slam-dunked the ball and drew a

penalty, securing a man-up opportunity that the Ephs failed to capitalize on. Nevertheless, the Ephs maintained an 8-5 lead at the end of the half.

Jared Strauss ’21 netted the first goal of the second half, ripping a shot into the top right corner of the net. The Mammoths responded 20 seconds later with a goal, which was followed by an unassisted goal by Hoffman.

This back-and-forth scoring brought the Ephs to a 10-6 lead.

At 10:11 left in the third quarter, defenseman Chris Burdick ’22 ripped a shot on the run to grow the Ephs’ lead, which was soon counteracted.

With 7:33 remaining, the Mammoths scored again, reducing the Ephs’ lead to 11-7.

One minute later, Lund shot a worm-burner of a goal to give the Ephs back their fourgoal cushion. The men were

up 12-8 going into the final quarter of play.

Amherst scored twice to start the fourth quarter, bringing the game to 12-10. With 7:47 remaining, the Mammoths netted another goal, putting them only one behind the Ephs. This was countered 10 seconds later by an Eph goal scored by Alex Kitt ’21 who won the faceoff and went in directly on goal to score, giving the men a 13-11 lead.

Eph goalie Harry Gahagan ’21 recorded 10 saves, while Mammoth goalie Chad Simons registered 14 saves. The Ephs were led by Collins, Lund and Hoffman, who each had two goals and one assist.

The men followed their upset of Amherst with a 12-6 victory over Hamilton on Tuesday. The team travels to Colby next on April 13.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.

Brendan Hoffman ’20 scored twice in Saturday’s win over Amherst.

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April 10, 2019

SPORTS 11

The Williams Record

Spring break training trips bring team bonding, sunny weather

By SOFIE JONES SPORTS EDITOR Many Eph sports teams returned to campus last week after taking spring break training trips to warmer climates. While away, the student-athletes competed against opponents from across the country and honed their skills for the upcoming spring season while still exploring their surroundings, enjoying some sun and spending quality time with their teammates.

The men’s and women’s crew teams made an over 15-hour bus journey to Myrtle Beach, S.C., where they rowed in the water for the first time since the fall. While there, the men and women were hosted by the Briarcliffe RV Park, a mobile home community that has welcomed the Ephs for many years. The residents made breakfast for the teams each morning and invited them to use all of the community’s facilities.

During the trip, the teams practiced twice a day, early in the morning and in the afternoon. After their morning practice, the athletes were free to rest or explore the nearby area. “Napping between practices might be the most popular activity on

spring break,” captain Annie Rush ’19 said. “Driving to get food also ends up being a big activity that we do for fun.

We go to the beach basically whenever it is warm enough.”

The teams then reconvened for their afternoon practices and shared nightly team dinners. After dark, the women decompressed with board games. Bananagrams and Settlers of Catan were two team favorites, Rush said.

Toward the end of the trip, the team hosted a skit night, which Rush described as “always pretty funny and pretty awkward.” The night began with a team sing-along with Briarcliffe residents. “We get in touch with our country roots and sing a lot of Johnny Cash,” Rush said.

This trip concluded with “Race Day,” an opportunity for the men’s and women’s teams to compete against each other. Despite an early morning start, the crews enjoyed watching the sunrise on the water before heading back to Williamstown.

The track and field team also headed to a warmer climate, flying to San Diego to train and compete for two weeks. On days when they were not at competitions, the team practiced in the mornings and then spent the re-

PHOTO COURTESY OF EPH ROWING.

The women’s crew team, including their members pictured above, traveled to Myrtle Beach, S.C., to train over spring break. mainder of the day exploring Southern California.

Team members visited a local zoo, refined their Spikeball skills and observed sea dogs in the ocean at night. They also relaxed by checking out a local smoothie spot and taste-testing tacos. “My favorite part of the trip would have to be interacting with people outside of my own event group and

getting to know them better,” said Kiara Tan ’22. “Oh and the tacos!”

Men’s tennis also travelled to the West Coast, competing in San Diego and Claremont, Calif. Over the course of the trip, the men played eight matches. On game days, the team woke up early, competed until the afternoon and then gathered for dinner and some bonding time.

On non-match days, the team practiced, spent time in town and relaxed. “We scootered everywhere on Limes [electric scooters] and would go to the beach,” Deepak Indrakanti ’19 said. “Also, we would watch ‘Temptation Island’ as a team.”

While the teams worked hard to hone their abilities ahead of a busy spring season, the trips also served

as an opportunity for them to come together as a team while away from the pressures of daily life at the College. “My favorite part of the trip is getting to focus on rowing without having to worry about getting all of my school work done,” Rush said. “There is nothing better than getting to hang out with my best friends basically 24 hours a day for two weeks.”

Sports shorts: Early spring season updates CREW

Emma TenBarge ’19 has scooped up 24 groundballs and a team-high 62 draw controls this season.

Back from their spring break training trip to South Carolina, the men’s and women’s crew teams kicked off their seasons on Saturday. The men’s team competed against Tufts, MIT and Coast Guard in Malden, Mass. The Ephs clinched several close race victories, including their first varsity boat’s first-place finish over Tufts by a 6-second margin.

The women’s team headed to Geneva, N.Y., to take on William Smith and Wellesley. The women secured four first-place finishes at the regatta. Both teams will compete next Saturday in Worcester, Mass.

NO. 13 MEN’S LACROSSE

NO. 3 MEN’S TENNIS

NO. 8 WOMEN’S TENNIS

Overall: 8–2 | NESCAC: 4–2

Overall: 6–4 | NESCAC: 3–0

Overall: 6–4 | NESCAC: 3–0

The men bounced back from a 14-12 defeat to defending national champion No. 6 Wesleyan in the first game of the season to win their next seven consecutive games. The win streak included a spring break trip to Colorado for games against Colorado College and MIT. While the men narrowly fell to No. 4 Tufts 1514 on April 3 for only their second loss of the season, the team upset No. 2 Amherst at home three days later. The Ephs honored the late former lacrosse head coach Renzie Lamb, who passed away in November, in a pregame ceremony.

The Ephs opened the season with a seven-game California road trip over spring break.

After falling to Div. I opponent Harvard in their first match of the season, the men split their next six games against tough competition. The team knocked off No. 13 PomonaPitzer and No. 21 Caltech but dropped close matches to No. 1 University of Chicago, No. 3 Emory and No. 4 ClaremontMudd-Scripps. Since returning to campus, the men have recorded 9-0 victories over conference rivals Trinity and Connecticut College.

After kicking off their season with a 5-4 win against No. 13 Skidmore on March 9, the women traveled to California for six games over spring break. On the road trip, the team fell to No. 2 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, No. 4 Pomona-Pitzer and No. 7 Tufts before defeating No. 9 Chicago 7-2 in its last game. Despite the early loss to Tufts, the women have a winning record in the NESCAC thanks to decisive wins against Trinity on March 31 and Connecticut College on April 6.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.

By JACK McGOVERN SPORTS EDITOR

WOMEN’S LACROSSE Overall: 5–5 | NESCAC: 1–5 The women have battled through a tough schedule to start with an overall record of 5–5.

Two of their victories — a 15-11 win against Pomona-Pitzer on March 26 and a 14-13 triumph over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on March 28 — came during a spring break trip to California.

Midfielders Claire Fitzpatrick ’21 and Emma TenBarge ’19 are tied with a team-high 22 goals, and goalie Kami Cisneros ’20 is second in the NESCAC in saves.

BASEBALL

SOFTBALL

Overall: 13–3 | NESCAC: 4–2

Overall: 19–4 | NESCAC: 6–0

Only a year after going 9–21 and 4–8 in the NESCAC, the men started the season 12–1 during a spring break trip to Florida. The two-week stretch concluded with a 14-13 walk-off against Colby, when outfielder Erik Mini ’21 hit a three-run walkoff home run in the bottom of the ninth. Infielder Doug Schaffer ’21, who is batting .548 with 30 RBIs in 15 games, earned back-to-back NESCAC Player of the Week awards. The team took one out of three games against reigning NESCAC champion Amherst in their first week back on campus.

The women played more games than any other team during spring break, with 16 contests in California and three matchups at home. After splitting a doubleheader with Cal Lutheran on March 19, the Ephs notched eight consecutive victories on the West Coast. The team has recorded three-game sweeps of Hamilton and Middlebury since returning to campus. Pitcher Mackenzie Murphy ’19 became the all-time wins leader on April 7, when she recorded her 53rd career victory in a five-hit complete game. Utilities Kristin Mapes ’20 and Mara Kipnis ’22 have received NESCAC Player of the Week recognition.

MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD

NO. 2 WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELD

The men contested their first three meets of the outdoor season in California.

Ben Telicki ’22 debuted in the decathlon and finished 13th in a field of mostly Div. I competitors at the Point Loma Invitational in San Diego. Aidan Ryan ’21 also placed first and set a personal best in the 1500m at the meet. Ryan, who was named NESCAC Track Performer of the Week on April 1, also recorded a NESCAC-best time in the 5000m at the California Collegiate Invitational on March 30.

Following their indoor NCAA title last month, the women started the outdoor season in California. The Ephs won the Point Loma Invitational on March 23 and placed second at the California Collegiate Invitational a week later. Anna Passannante ’20 was named NESCAC Track Performer of the Week for her personal best in the 1500m and her first-place finish in the 800m on the trip. Caitlin Ubl ’19 also set a personal best and broke a 14-year-old school record in the heptathlon over the break.

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ATHLETES OF THE WEEK “Brendan has been contributing to our program for the last three years.

He is a true two-way midfielder who can play at both ends of the field. His athleticism and size, combined with a relentless attitude, is what separates him from others."

“Leah lives and breathes in the moment for Williams tennis. Last weekend was no exception - she brought everything she had to each match and stayed focus from start to finish. I’m looking forward to watching her compete this upcoming weekend!”

-Head coach George McCormack

-Head coach Anik Cepeda

BRENDAN HOFFMAN ’20

LEAH BUSH ’19

MEN'S LACROSSE DARIEN, CONN.

WOMEN'S TENNIS WESTON, FLA.

Hoffman notched 2 goals and 1 assist on Saturday’s game against Amherst. He has scored 25 goals so far this season.

Bush, who plays No. 1 singles for the Ephs, took down her Connecticut College opponent in straight sets in Saturday’s 9-0 victory.

12 SPORTS

The Williams Record

April 10, 2019

It’s a whole new ballgame: Baseball starts new season strong Ephs win 12 games in 12 days during Florida spring break trip

By LUKE VALADIE STAFF WRITER After struggling during the 2018 season, baseball (13–4, 1–3 in the NESCAC) has shown remarkable improvement this year. Battling many injuries, the team ended last season with a record of 9–21. The men have already surpassed this win total less than halfway through the 2019 season.

The season kicked off with a successful spring break trip to Florida. Despite playing a grueling 13 games over a 12day span, the men managed to maintain their momentum throughout the trip. The Ephs began with a five-game win streak in Fort Myers. The fourth of these wins came against No. 16 Johns Hopkins on March 22, when the Ephs beat the Blue Jays 9-8.

“I think one game that was big for us was the Johns Hopkins game,” catcher Dave Driscoll ’22 said. “It was our first test of the year, and it was the first time we really had to come together as a team and overcome adversity. [Johns Hopkins] came back twice throughout the game, and we had to kind of fight back and regain leads.

I think we did a good job of that. We came together. It was a good team win in general.”

The streak ended with a loss to No. 18 Denison. After the loss, the team rebound-

ed and went undefeated for the remaining seven games of the trip. First-year players attributed much of the team’s success to the leadership of upperclassmen.

“I think the captains are the biggest part of the team, or [all] the seniors, the upperclassmen. I think being on the team last year, they kind of realized what went right and what went wrong,” Driscoll said. “They decided to really take [on] leadership position[s], all of them, and starting in the fall with practices and lifts, they[’ve] held everyone accountable.”

Pitcher and infielder Danny Lynch ’22 also believes the captains played a critical role in establishing the team’s culture. “Everyone’s truly all in,” he said. “We’re all playing for one team rather than playing for ourselves. We’re playing for one common goal, which really started with the captains and the attitude they brought to the table when we all got here.”

The team’s leaders have deliberately sought to cultivate a winning culture. Tri-captain Alex Panstares ’19 said that the process began long before the start of the season.

“Building a strong culture begins in the offseason,” Panstares said. “As captains, we had a vision of what we wanted this team’s culture to look like, and we worked hard

PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.

The Ephs traveled to Florida for spring break and compiled a 12-1 record to start their season. The men upset No. 16 Johns Hopkins on March 22. to develop that throughout the fall and winter. It’s certainly easier when your teammates are all of your best friends, but they did a great job of buying in to what we were preaching. Once the season began, the transition to practicing and playing with coaches was seamless, which says a lot about our coaching staff.”

The team says it is happy with what it has accomplished so far, but it is focused on sustaining its success throughout the remainder of the season.

“We are healthy compared to last year, and our first years have made a significant contribution,” head coach Bill Barrale said. “Leadership

in the offseason has been very good. We plan on taking it one game and one pitch at a time, and focusing on the things we can control.”

Panstares echoed some of his coach’s sentiments. “Our overarching goal is to win the NESCAC, but honestly, our goal is always to execute the task at hand,” he said. “As a

team, we’ve done a great job of taking everything one day at a time, and we will continue to take that approach.”

The team will seek to continue its successful season with a midweek contest at 4 p.m. today at Vassar in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and a three-game home series against Middebury over the weekend.

Duncan Robinson takes talents to South Beach, inks two-year deal

PHOTO COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION.

Duncan Robinson earned All-America honors and started for the Ephs in 2014.

By CHARLES XU EXECUTIVE EDITOR Down one point with less than a minute remaining, amidst the buzz of a rowdy Hampden-Sydney crowd on Jan. 2, 2014, first-year Duncan Robinson set a ball screen for Hayden Rooke-Ley ’15, popped off for the pass and drained the go-ahead 3-pointer from the top of the key that would eventually secure a 70-68 victory for the Ephs. The Portsmouth, N.H., native looked nonchalant after hitting the game-winner in a seemingly ordinary, wellexecuted play.

“At the time the play was called, it felt very normal, and I didn’t question Coach [Mike] Maker’s play call at all because I thought that was a decision that would give us a really good chance to win,” Dan Wohl ’15 said.

“But I remember thinking, after the game, that it was different because we had called a play for a freshman

to win the game against a really good team, and in a really pressured moment — except Duncan came through.”

Today, Robinson drains the same shots from deep, but he now does so in the American Airlines Arena in front of 20,000 fans. On a two-way contract with the Miami Heat, Robinson played 13 games in the NBA (starting in one of them) and spent the rest of the 2018–19 season with the Sioux Falls Skyforce, Miami’s G League affiliate.

On Tuesday, the Heat converted his deal into a standard NBA contract through the 2020-21 season.

When Robinson first strolled onto the court to meet his new Eph teammates in the fall of 2013, Wohl recalled it wasn’t his 6’7” frame or his look of calm intensity that stuck out, but rather what was on his feet – retro Jordan 11 sneakers.

“A lot of players who end up at Williams really love

PHOTO COURTESY OF NBA.

Robinson signed a two-year standard contract with the Miami Heat on Tuesday.

basketball, but it’s not necessarily [priority] No. 1,” Wohl said. “I remember thinking the fact that he was wearing those Jordans suggested that he was pretty obsessive about the game.”

Wohl’s first impressions were spot-on.

Robinson proved to be much more than a sneakerhead during his first year at the College, going on to not only drain the gamewinning shot against Hampden-Sydney, but also earning NESCAC Rookie of the Year and All-America honors in the 2013–14 season that ended in a NCAA national championship game defeat.

Following the Ephs’ loss to the University of Wisconsin—Whitewater on a lastsecond layup in the tournament final, the men would suffer an even greater blow when Maker announced his decision to leave for a Div. I coaching job at Marist. Just as Maker was accepting his promotion, Robinson was offered his own chance at Div.

I competition with an offer from Michigan. Maker and Robinson would both have a hard time leaving Williamstown, a place where special memories were made.

“I had my heart set on staying at Williams,” Robinson told the Record. “I wanted to be there to get back to the national championship.

I wanted to win one first and then multiple. I wanted to win NESCAC championships. I wanted to have some personal accolades as well. I wanted to be an All-American all four years. I wanted to win NESCAC Player of the Year. I wanted to win National Player of the Year.

I wanted to be the all-time leading scorer. All goals and dreams any kid who puts on that jersey wants to have.”

In the fall of 2014, Robinson would transfer to play Div. I basketball at Michigan, where he became the 53rd player in history to score 1000 points as a Wolverine. With his Williams

teammates watching in the Alamodome, the forward helped lead Michigan to the NCAA national championship game against Villanova during his senior year and was subsequently named 2018 Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year.

When summer came around, Robinson had to make another pivotal decision, either accepting a spot on the FIBA Basketball World Cup team or joining a team in the NBA Summer League. A call from two-time NBA champion and Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra cemented his decision to realize a lifelong dream.

After training with the team and brushing shoulders with future hall-of-famer Dwyane Wade and 16-year Heat veteran Udonis Haslem, Robinson made his official NBA debut on Oct. 24 against the New York Knicks. Within 20 seconds of checking into the game, he knocked down a transition 3-pointer from the

top of the key for his first career NBA points.

“It was pretty surreal just being out there,” Robinson said. “Obviously, you dream your whole life of scoring your first NBA points, so it was definitely pretty special, but I certainly have my sights set on far greater accomplishments. But definitely good to get that one out of the way.”

Despite his meteoric rise from a Div. III athlete to an NBA player, Robinson still remains close with the people who saw him putting up shots in Chandler Gym late into the night.

“Duncan’s worked for everything he’s gotten, and he’s been good to his coaches, to his teammates, [to all] the people who’ve supported him,” Rooke-Ley said. “It was a really special season we had when he was there and something we all cherished for a long time and bonded over, but he’s made a strong effort to maintain his relationships with a lot of his teammates from that year… You like to see people succeed who do it the right way. And Duncan does it the right way.”

While Robinson finished his first season in black and red, his time donning the purple and gold stays with him even five years later.

“As I moved forward and the more I did, I’m removed from my time at Williams, and the Williams narrative can kind of get lost in the shuffle,” Robinson said. “A lot of times, I get called a Michigan alum — which I am — but my time at Williams meant a lot to me. It was really one of the first places where a fanbase, coaching staff [and] my teammates really believed in me. Their support in my time there is definitely not lost on me in terms of how valuable it really was. I really feel like it set the springboard for the rest of my career.”

Games of the Week Wednesday April 10 Softball at RPI Away, 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Women’s lacrosse vs.

Hamilton Home, 6 p.m.

Baseball at Vassar Away, 4 p.m.

Saturday April 13 Men’s and women’s tennis at Wesleyan Away, 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Track and field at MIT Away, 12 p.m.

Crew at Donahue Cup in Worcester, Mass.

Away, 10 a.m.

Women’s lacrosse vs.

Hamilton Home, 6 p.m.

Monday April 15

Baseball vs.

Middlebury

Softball vs. WPI and Tufts

Home, 12 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Home, 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.