The Well-Tempered Grid
A shared love of classical music initially drew art history professor Charles “Mark” Haxthausen into the world of Sol LeWitt. And a 2010 visit to LeWitt’s Connecticut home—where Haxthausen discovered 4,000 audio cassettes, meticulously catalogued and shelved in the manner of the artist’s iconic wall drawings—inspired the concept for the Williams College Museum of Art…
Lost and Found
In September, Charles N. Waigi ’72 received a Williams Bicentennial Medal for distinguished achievement. It was only his second visit to campus since his graduation 40 years ago. He’d been on the college’s list of “lost” alumni since 1979, around the time he left the U.S. for his native Kenya. But his classmates tracked him…
In the Game
How the 1972 anti-discrimination law known as Title IX has played out in Williams athletics. In 1985, armed with a résumé that included a handful of coaching assignments—only two of which actually involved monetary compensation—Lisa Melendy arrived at Williams to coach the women’s varsity soccer team. Or so she thought. For what she now remembers…
A Time of Transition
In this cradle of intellectual exploration, transgender people at Williams are on that most basic human quest–figuring out who they are. College is a chrysalis into which 3 million hopeful young freshmen enter each fall. Four years later, most emerge smarter, surer, more worldly—ready to spread their wings. For some students, the metamorphosis is far…
Visualizing the Liberal Arts
Math majors Hayley Brooks ’12 and Kaison Tanabe ’13 know that a liberal arts education is supposed to prepare students for life, not train them for specific careers. Still, they were curious about the relationship between college major and career path. The two students, together with associate professor of mathematics Satyan Devadoss—and with the help…
A Court Transformed
An Excerpt from Justin Crowe’s ’03 Recent Book When the U.S. Supreme Court convened for the first time in history at the Royal Exchange Building in New York City on Feb. 2, 1790, it was a sorry scene, and even the justices knew it. With only four of George Washington’s initial six nominees bothering to…
Beyond Words
Chapin Library’s Breman Collection of Black Poetry is a Treasure Trove for Scholars It’s one thing to read a poem by Langston Hughes. It’s quite another to hold an inscribed, first edition of his work—one with a signed birthday card or personal note from him tucked into the pages. These are the kinds of treasures…
One of the Last of the Latin-Named Plants
Admittedly, it’s a mouthful: Packera insulae-regalis. Especially considering that most people—including botanists—will call this new plant species by the simpler Isle Royale Ragwort, named for its home on the far side of Michigan’s Lake Superior. But when Joan Edwards, the Washington Gladden 1859 Professor of Biology at Williams, and two colleagues from the University of…
Students Help Keep Berkshire Farming
Samantha Murray ’14 had never before set foot on a farm. Yet at one point over the summer, the beach loving, Southern California native found herself in a field, facing down 50 sheep who’d come barreling over a hill in her direction. It’s an experience Murray says she’ll never forget. And it was just one…
Danger in the Classroom
When history professor Magnus Bernhardsson was asked to serve as the college’s Gaudino Scholar in 2011, the Arab Spring was in its early days. “I was impressed with the lengths to which young people were willing to put themselves in danger to implement change,” he says. Working to shape opportunities for experiential education and uncomfortable…
A Closer Look… Sunrise with Scott Lewis
They gather at 6:03 a.m. on the steps of Chapin Hall. Thirty-one students and a recent graduate, many of whom are meeting each other for the first time. In the pre-dawn darkness they board two college vans that transport them to the Pine Cobble trailhead, a major ramp onto the Appalachian Trail. As the vans…
In Memoriam, Fall 2012
The college notes the passing of two retired faculty members—music professor Irwin Shainman and sociology professor Robert Friedrichs. Shainman, the Class of 1955 Professor of Music, Emeritus, came to Williams in 1948. In his 43 years here he inspired generations of students to develop a passion for music. He conducted the Berkshire Symphony, led the…
Hallem ’99 Named a MacArthur Fellow
UCLA neuroscientist Elissa Hallem ’99 has been named a MacArthur Fellow by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Hallem’s research involves the physiology and behavioral consequences of odor detection, work that may eventually lead to fewer parasitic infections in humans. She is one of 23 people from around the world selected to receive…
By the Numbers… Student Involvement
According to responses to the senior survey, 92 percent of Williams students are involved in at least one extracurricular activity during their four years here. Take a look at what students are up to: 27% music or theater 21% student publications 12% student government 7% political groups 33% club sports 42% service organizations 19% religious…
Roseman Named President of Dickinson
Congratulations to Nancy Roseman, professor of biology, who last month was named the 28th president of Dickinson College. At Williams Roseman has served as dean of the college and director of the Williams-Exeter Programme at Oxford. She was a member of several faculty committees, including the Faculty Steering Committee and Committee on Educational Policy. She…
How Students Learn Best…
“We’ve analyzed which educational inputs best predict progress in these deeper aspects of student learning. The answer is unambiguous: By far the factor that correlates most highly with gains in these skills is the amount of personal contact a student has with professors. Not virtual contact, but interaction with real, live human beings, whether in…
Convocation Features Erin Burnett ’98
According to Erin Burnett ’98, three characteristics “scream success”: conviction, courage, and civility. “If you have those things, you’re going to be a superstar, no matter what you do,” she said, addressing the senior class at Convocation on Sept. 8. Burnett, host of CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront, was one of five alumni to receive a…
Weston Field to Undergo Transformation
The Board of Trustees voted in October to proceed with a $22 million project to renovate and re-invent Weston Field. The project was one of two put on hold in 2008 during the global financial crisis—the other one being construction of the new Sawyer Library, slated to open in fall 2014. Delaying the Weston project…
Rededicating the Davis Center
During a two-day conference in October, the college rededicated the Multicultural Center as the Davis Center in honor of two pioneering black alumni, the late W. Allison Davis ’24 and his brother John A. Davis ’33. With its new name, the Davis Center has a new mission focused on three pillars—to educate, to support, and…
Exciting Particles: Making Sense of the Higgs Boson
Colleges are, perhaps more than anything, places of intellectual excitement. Since I last wrote in this column, my field of particle physics experienced one of its most riveting moments in the past half-century. That was when scientists at the CERN laboratory in Geneva found tangible evidence of the (until-then theoretical) Higgs boson, a discovery that…
A Mayor’s Legacies
Mayor Kevin White ’52 didn’t lose interest in 1983 in healing Boston and making its neighborhoods—including South Boston—part of a world-class city (“A World-Class Mayor,” July 2012). In fact, there’s also a Williams twist! Columbia Point, a former city dump, is now home to the Kennedy Library, UMass-Boston, Boston College High School, and the Harbor…
Inspiring and Impressive
I loved the feature of the 10 graduating seniors (“10 in 2012,” July 2012). Each had such different paths, but all of them were inspiring and impressive. It brought to life everything we love about Williams. Also, I really enjoyed the president’s essay about the trip with the Williams Outing Club (“Learning: 2,500 Miles from…
Editor’s Note
I’m pleased to share with you the fall issue of Williams Magazine. The new design and name reflect an approach to coverage that is complex and multilayered, offers readers something unexpected, showcases the best of the Williams community, and challenges us all to move beyond our comfort zones. It’s an approach rooted in Williams’ enduring…
A Gift Horse
Part of the Williams College Museum of Art’s collection of ancient Greek objects, which numbers more than 200 (including pottery sherds), this nearly intact terra cotta figurine was given as a gift to the museum 35 years ago. While little is known about the horse, other Greek Boeotian objects at WCMA have been the subject…
The Percheron in the Tunnel
Imagine you come across a little girl in a sandbox, and you ask her what she’s building. If she says she doesn’t know, you don’t answer, “Well, then, get out of the sandbox.” If she says she’s building a castle, you don’t answer, “Oh, there’s an original idea. Nobody ever built a castle before. Think…
Serving Others
The story of Williams’ four chaplains serving others in a time of great need (“Alabama Calling,” July 2012) reminded me of four chaplains of WWII fame. Two Protestants, a Catholic, and a Jew were sailing to war as chaplains on the S.S. Dorchester in 1943 when their ship was hit by a German torpedo. They…