Spring 2009

Sweet

Bob Volpi, director of dining services since 2002, learned that honeybuns were “a sacred thing” at Williams during planning for the Paresky Center. The question of where the confections would be made was key in the building’s conception. Today, a room in the basement of Paresky is stocked with mixers, “dough sheeters” and a donut…

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Safeguarding Our Schools

Former Secret Service psychologist Marisa Randazzo ’89 discusses the nature of school violence and how to prevent it. It seems counterintuitive, but school shootings are rarely the acts of deranged murderers who just “snap” one day and show up with a gun. In fact, according to Marisa Randazzo ’89 and others who study targeted violence,…

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Ephvolution

A century’s worth of Class Notes helps explain the unique anthropology of Williams alumni. The latest issue of Williams People arrives in your mailbox, and you dive into the notes for your class. You probably browse nearby pages devoted to the years around yours. Maybe you scan the news of your parents, children or other…

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The View from Up Here

The Williams Campaign came to an end in December $100 million beyond its original $400 million goal. Shortly after the books were closed, the Alumni Review sat down with President Morty Schapiro to celebrate the College’s success and discuss how the campaign has made a great college even better. Alumni Review: So The Williams Campaign…

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Art Behind the Scenes

Ever wonder what it would be like to examine a Rembrandt etching through a magnifying glass? Or analyze different states of a Whistler print? Or pore over sketchbooks that reveal the creative process of Maurice Prendergast? This summer, you can, thanks to “Behind the Scenes at the Museum,” a series of workshops presented by the…

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From the Bookshelf

Organizing for Good: What it Takes to Achieve Sustainable Excellence. By Michael H. Annison ’65. Outskirts Press Inc., 2008. A summary of what it takes to achieve sustainable success by rethinking the way we approach management. Amazing Kitchen Chemistry Projects You Can Build Yourself. By Cynthia Light Brown ’83. Nomad Press, 2008. The complexities of…

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In the News

Williams professors and others weigh in on the issues of the day. For a complete listing of media appearances, visit www.williams.edu/admin/ news/inthenews A Feb. 1 New York Times Magazine article on the growing number of women who choose to be single mothers includes research by economics professor Lucie Schmidt, who says, “What’s striking is how…

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Writing the West

“I always have ideas, and I’ll die with a number of uncompleted ideas—and that’s all right, too. At age 73, that’s not a bad life: to still be excited by ideas.” While researching the papers of his latest subject, Wallace Stegner, author Philip Fradkin ’57 was surprised to come across a file with his own…

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Failing to Learn

“While we can debate if creativity is an actual ‘skill,’ I strongly believe we can all be more creative by intent: we need only—just as these students did—journey in the right direction.” Mathematics professor and Gaudino Scholar Edward Burger wants more Williams students to fail. Not to flunk, of course, but rather to take creative…

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Sports Wrap

“Kevin exemplifies what being a student-athlete at Williams is all about—excellence on and off the court. He will certainly leave the program better than how he found it, and I can’t imagine where we’d be without him.” —Men’s basketball coach Mike Maker on guard Kevin Snyder ’09, who was named to the All-Academic District Second…

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The List: Recreational Reading

Williams students aren’t the only ones on campus with stacks of books at their bedsides. Here’s what faculty were reading during the long winter months in Billsville. Julie A. Cassiday, professor of Russian and chair of German/Russian. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, because “I always find some new detail, insight or connection that makes [re]reading…

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Tutorial Funds Honor Fuqua

One of John Foster’s ’80 few regrets about his Williams education was that he shied away from forming close relationships with his professors. But he fondly remembers Charlie Fuqua, who taught one of Foster’s first college classes, as “the man who introduced me to education at Williams in a generous and thoughtful way.” And so,…

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Taconic Gets a Face-Lift

The College’s historic Taconic Golf Course is getting a face-lift, in part to return it to the form it was given by architects Wayne Stiles and John Van Kleek in their original 1927 plans. Most of the work being done will be completed by late spring and includes felling trees, restoring bunkers, redefining the edges…

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They Said:

Some thoughts expressed during Claiming Williams Day on Feb. 5, 2009. “You come to college to be among people who are remaking themselves. … You come to this place where you are not safe but have to pretend every day to be so.” —Dorothy Allison, award-winning author, feminist and editor of early lesbian and gay…

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A Diamond of an Anniversary

The Ephs and Lord Jeffs will square off on May 3 for a scheduled league game commemorating the 150th anniversary of the first-ever collegiate baseball game. The 1 p.m. match-up, to be held at the original Wahconah Park site in Pittsfield, Mass., will be televised nationally on the ESPN-U network. The weekend will also feature…

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Presidential Search Under Way

Following President Schapiro’s announcement in December that he would move to the presidency of Northwestern University this summer, the Williams Board of Trustees has formed a Presidential Search Committee. Its 16 members (trustees, faculty, staff, students and alumni) are charged with recommending a short list of finalists to the board, which will make the appointment….

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Claiming Williams Day Engages Campus

It was a daunting schedule: 26 lectures, forums and performances taking place over the course of 12 hours, all exploring the theme “Examining privilege, building community” during Claiming Williams Day on Feb. 5. But the campus community responded in droves, from the athletes who ended practice early for a 9:30 a.m. lecture by sports guru…

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Houses Burn, People Die

Years ago when I heard “West Virginia” I would think coal, hillbillies and bluegrass music, mystery, mountains and moonshine, Daniel Boone, Homer Hickam and basketball’s Jerry West. Not anymore. Now I think mountaintop removal, the horrifying destruction of 300-million-year-old hills to get black gold in the cheapest, fastest way. You must fly low over the…

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Letters

The account by Caroline Cretti ’06 of her Olympic Trials marathon experience (“Quite the Crowd,” January 2009) was a delight on two counts: She writes beautifully; and she captures—with all the power of a simple story, well told— the extraordinary nature of the bond among graduates of Williams. Thanks to her and also to Ernie…

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A Spirit of Change

The spirit of change sweeping through our social, cultural, political and economic institutions needs to include higher education as well. U.S. higher education may be the strongest in the world, but to help produce the future leaders we need and to secure our economic future, it must adapt to new realities. The biggest challenge is…

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