A KIND of Justice
Growing numbers of undocumented immigrant children are crossing into the U.S. alone and finding themselves caught in a legal tangle. A trio of Williams alumni is working to help them navigate the system. The defendant’s hair was in pigtails. She wore a red dress and warm Ugg boots, and she clutched a doll as though…
Ephropology
The Williams Bucket List Hoping to equip first-year students with the collective wisdom of Ephs past, the Office of Alumni Relations asked writer/illustrator duo Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr (both Class of 1997) to create an illustrated “map” of the things a student must do before graduation. Highlighting places and experiences that define the Purple…
What Sawyer Said
How the words and ideas of John E. Sawyer ’39 continue to inform the Williams of today—and tomorrow. When CBS News rolled into Williamstown in February 1964 for an interview with President John E. Sawyer ’39 and University of Texas Chancellor Harry Ransom, the college was on the cusp of a decade of transformation. Some…
A Space for Study
January at Williams is Winter Study, an intentional break between the fall and spring semesters that allows students and professors time to stretch their intellectual muscles in ways they might not during the regular academic year. Ways that include studying the art and science of glassblowing in a converted chemistry lab. Or making a group…
Life Changer
A 750-million-year-old fossil discovered by geosciences professor Phoebe Cohen may hold clues to how life has changed the earth and how earth has changed life. Following up on work done by scientists in the 1970s, Cohen and a fellow Harvard University graduate school student traveled to the Yukon in 2007 to study rock formations and…
Daring to Ask
What might the historical and literary records of 19th century France have to tell us about gays in the military? Growing up watching war films with his military father, Brian Joseph Martin says he saw how soldiers survived the hardships of combat by “relying on the affectionate care of their buddies and comrades in the…
Williams Reads
Even before classes began last fall, more than 40 faculty and staff met with first-year students to host discussions about Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, this year’s selection for the Williams Reads program. The book recalls the writer’s attempt to understand poverty in America by spending the year working…
Sexy Songs
Few people have given as much thought to how bird songs change over time as Heather Williams, the college’s William Dwight Whitney Professor of Biology. In a recent paper in the scientific journal Animal Behaviour, she and her co-authors examine how and why Savannah sparrow songs have evolved over a period of 30 years. As…
A Perspective on the Papacy
Francis Oakley takes the long view on the pope’s recent resignation The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on Feb. 28 was a dramatic moment in the history of the Roman Catholic Church and of the papacy, and few people know that history more deeply than does Williams President Emeritus Francis Oakley. An esteemed scholar of…
Uncovering Dirty Politics
Since 1998, Antonia Foias, chair and professor of anthropology at Williams, has directed multifaceted archaeological research at Motul de San José in Guatemala. Now, with a grant from the National Science Foundation, she and an international team of scientists will return over two summers to explore the causes of the political dynamism of Maya states….
Going Home Again
As a young girl growing up in Chicago’s Puerto Rican neighborhoods, Professor Mérida Rúa took ”field trips” every Sunday after church to study her family’s history. Her father steered their Buick through the struggling neighborhoods of his 1950s childhood to the “places of his aspirations”—the skyline of Lake Shore Drive and the imposing walls of the…
A Closer Look… Running the Show
It’s a dark, chilly night outside the ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance. The front lobby and main hallway are eerily quiet; just a few students pass through on the way to dinner. But open a door to the backstage area, and a riot of sound bursts out. Rhythmic pulses emanate from an MP3 player…
In Memoriam, Spring 2013
The Williams community notes the passing of four members of the faculty since last fall: John A. MacFadyen ’45, Philip K. Hastings ’44, Olga “Ollie” Beaver and Henry Bruton. MacFadyen, the Edna McConnell Clark Professor of Geology, Emeritus, died on Sept. 1, 2012. During his 31 years on the faculty, “Black Jack,” as he was…
Burger Named President of Southwestern
Edward B. Burger, the college’s Francis Christopher Oakley Third Century Professor of Mathematics, will become the 15th president of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. Burger has received numerous national awards, including the 2010 Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching from Baylor University, the 2001 Deborah & Franklin Tepper Haimo National Award for Distinguished College…
By the Numbers… Feeding Students
On a typical day, the college’s three main dining halls serve 4,300 meals to 2,000 students. Those meals are healthier and fresher—with ingredients more likely to be locally sourced—than ever before, says Bob Volpi, director of dining services. Students can even use a tool available on the web and mobile devices that helps them compare…
“She did it all by herself for a long time…”
“She did it all by herself for a long time. All the recruiting, film watching, film breakdown. She was always accessible. And she has done a really great job of instilling pride in the history of the program. She had an interest in us as kids as well as people and was more than happy…
iam.williams.edu
“I Am Williams,” an ongoing photographic exhibition that grew out of the Diversity Initiatives of 2004, now has a dynamic new home online. So far the website includes about half of the project’s 350 participants, who were photographed during professional shoots starting in 2006. Along with printed posters hanging all over campus, the website serves…
A Living Building
The nearly 220-year-old Kellogg House—soon to be the shared home of the Center for Environmental Studies and the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives—will undergo a “green” renovation and expansion. And in February the campus learned that the college is pursuing the extraordinary designation of “Living Building,” a status attained by only a handful of projects…
Digging Deeper
On Jan. 31 students, faculty and staff came together to celebrate Claiming Williams Day, aimed at building an inclusive community on campus. With the theme “Dare to Dig Deeper,” the day kicked off with an address in the ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance by Melissa Harris-Perry and continued on into the evening with forums,…
The Essential Human Input
Animating the past is important, especially with a history as rich as Williams’ and particularly when passing major milestones. As readers of the magazine know, the college is experiencing the 50th anniversary of a decade of extraordinary change that, not coincidentally, occurred during the Williams presidency of John E. Sawyer ’39. This change included the…
Lessons from the Grid
Kudos and gratitude to the magazine and the faculty contributing to “The Well-Tempered Grid” (fall 2012). The article is a veritable proof of the practical value and importance of the liberal arts today. By studying Sol LeWitt’s art, one hones skills of abstraction, enumeration and integration—so critical to information technology. By studying the dance of…
Game Changer
As the 77-year-old winner of a gold medal in diving at the 2005 World Masters Games, I am very familiar with Title IX (“In the Game,” fall 2012). The revolution in collegiate sports since 1972 has been dramatic and particularly advantageous for women’s roles in varsity competition, and very deservedly so. But there have been…
A Time of Transition
The illustrations for “A Time of Transition” (fall 2012) were not only beautiful—magnificent would be a far better word! The article was thoughtful, and as proud as I am as a Williams graduate, the story reminds me of how great Williams College really is—a place for many to attend in our very diverse world. Thanks…
…And One Concern
I like the new magazine design, but I don’t like the new size. I retain prior issues of the Alumni Review, and the new size doesn’t fit the shelf. —Guy Verney ’54, Madison, Conn.
Some Redesign Kudos…
Thank you to the group of people who produced the fall 2012 issue of Williams Magazine. You have done an outstanding job inspiring, entertaining, informing and stretching a reader. It’s truly like a liberal arts education condensed into 40 pages—just add water, read and enjoy. —Malinda Bergamini Chapman ’80, Ticonderoga, N.Y. I knew that the…
It’s All Greek
The college’s Archives and Special Collections include more than 82 linear feet of material documenting 13 of Williams’ 15 fraternities. Among the collection are typical items such as minute books, photo albums, pledge pins and paddles. But there are some unconventional pieces as well, such as this 150-year-old ballot box used by brothers of Delta…
Band of Brothers
I remember my classmate Myong-Ku Ahn ’63 as a pleasant guy, rather quiet. I didn’t know him well, but sophomore year we did share meals at the Alpha Delta Phi house, where several classmates and I had pledged that fall. Ahn, who was from South Korea, was assigned to the house as a “social member,”…
A Cool Visualization
Satyan Devadoss’ “Visualizing the Liberal Arts” (fall 2012) is about the coolest thing I’ve seen in any publication in a very long time. I went to the website, where its “coolness” only grew. Thank you for publishing that—I’ve shared it with my kids (both committed liberal arts majors, too, and facing uncertain career opportunities these…