The Celestials
The strange story—in fact and fiction—of how 75 Chinese workers came to live and work in 19th century North Adams It was a chaotic scene on the afternoon of June 13, 1870, at the North Adams train depot. Thousands of people stood at the platform awaiting the 4:15 from Troy, N.Y., an arrival that would…
Daring Change
On the first Saturday in April, members of the campus community came together to participate in Daring Change, a series of 12 thought-provoking talks about the future and about Williams. Throughout the TED-like program, the presenters—faculty, staff, students and alumni—pondered four questions: What will we learn? How will we learn? Who will we be? What…
A World of Study
See where some of this year’s fellowship recipients are headed A Truman Scholar. Two Watson Fellows. A Goldwater, a Gates-Cambridge, a DAAD, and 16 Fulbright winners. These are just some of the honors bestowed on Williams students and alumni in 2013—28 national fellowship winners in all. Nineteen seniors and 48 sophomores and juniors also received…
Three Conversations from 2013
Williams people aren’t always at ease talking about themselves; they’re far more comfortable singing the praises of others at Williams—their professors, fellow students and staff members. So as graduation neared and we asked seniors about their plans for the future, they were happy to talk about members of the campus community who had played some…
Mystery of the Mummified Hand
“The hand is no longer lost on the time line of history. It can be reclassified as a living reminder of an ancient civilization.” – Elizabeth Hart ’14, anthropology and biology major Each semester, Antonia Foias’ anthropology students visit the Rose Study Gallery at the Williams College Museum of Art to view ancient artifacts. And,…
History Professor Pursues “New Directions”
Two new research projects are taking Williams history professor Sara Dubow ’91, the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation New Directions Fellowship, back to school in the fall. While finishing her Bancroft Prize-winning book Ourselves Unborn: A History of the Fetus in Modern America (Oxford University Press, 2010), Dubow became interested in how law,…
Student Research Wins Awards
In much of basic science, mice serve as important models of human conditions. Researchers can manipulate their genes, linking them with specific functions, and can translate the findings to humans. But the many ways in which mice differ from humans can present challenges to that research—and to the mice themselves. “There was a pretty steep…
On Being 18 in America
Two months before enrolling in Williams College, where he’d been accepted early decision, Williamstown native Dylan Dethier ’14 found himself feeling like he hadn’t really done anything with his life. So he deferred admission, loaded up his Subaru with golf clubs, collared shirts and granola bars, and set out to drive solo across the country….
Celebrating CS:25
In 1993, five years after Williams first established its computer science program, a new faculty member named Andrea Danyluk was asked what equipment she’d need to do her work. Her request—a SPARCstation 20 with four 50 MHz processors, 512 MB of memory and 1.05 GB of disk space, plus a separate 10 GB external hard…
An Award-Winning Exhibition
The Williams College Museum of Art has won the 2012 award for Outstanding Exhibition in a University Museum for Sol LeWitt: The Well-Tempered Grid. The prize was presented by the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) at its Annual Awards for Excellence in May. The Well-Tempered Grid, curated by Charles “Mark” Haxthausen, professor of art…
Varieties of Understanding
Our smartphones are always within reach. Any question we have can be Googled in seconds from almost anywhere—the car, the kitchen, the classroom. We have access to more information than ever before, and that access is only becoming more immediate as devices become smaller. But what do we do with all this knowledge, and does…
A Closer Look… Orchestrating Commencement
Three things one notices about Carrie Greene during commencement weekend: 1. She moves quickly. 2. She stays cool in the face of unrelenting heat, literal or figurative. 3. She knows exactly how to get 4,000 commencement attendees, students and staff where they’re supposed to be, on time, in order and according to plan. Together with…
By the Numbers… Williams Welcomes the Class of 2017
6,852 Total Applications 1,200 Total Admitted 17.5% Admit Rate 552 Enrolling 275 Women 277 Men 72 First Generation to Attend College 49.46% Awarded Financial Aid $45,375 Average Financial Aid Awarded 39 International 295 White 206* Students of Color (*12 students declined to indicate race) 77 Asian American 66 Black 59 Hispanic/Latino 4 Native American
Ephs Win 16th Directors’ Cup
For the 16th time in 18 years, Williams has taken home the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup, awarded annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the best all-around athletics program for team performance in 18 sports. “This award celebrates the culmination of a year’s worth of work by our coaches and our…
Six Alumni to Receive Bicentennial Medals
During Fall Convocation on Sept. 7, the college will award six alumni with Bicentennial Medals for “significant achievement in any field of endeavor.” This year’s recipients are: Bill Moomaw ’59, a former director of the Williams Environmental Studies Program and a policy scientist working to address global warming and climate change through international environmental policy;…
Changes Announced to College Board of Trustees
The Williams College Board of Trustees welcomed three new members on July 1: Elizabeth A. Andersen ’87, William C. Foote ’73 and Richard R. Pickard ’75. Pickard was appointed by the Society of Alumni at its annual meeting in June. Kate L. Queeney ’92 was reappointed for another term on the board. And Fred Nathan…
Williams Directs $450K to Local School District
In June, the Mt. Greylock School Committee accepted $450,000 from donors to Williams to support innovative projects at the high school over the next two academic years. The funding is in addition to the $285,000 received for use over the last two academic years. The majority of the $735,000 given to the Williams College Fund…
Living With Art
Beginning this January, Williams students may have artwork by masters including Paul Cézanne, Jim Dine (whose work is pictured) and Winslow Homer gracing the walls of their dorm rooms. The Williams College Museum of Art will debut the student art loan initiative, a key component of the Fulkerson Arts Leadership Program, established by Allan Fulkerson…
Daring Conversations
More important than finding answers is asking the right questions. That’s true not only in the individual disciplines we teach but in how we think about the college as a whole. We’ve recently been working at imagining the future of Williams through the lens of its past. That might seem an odd approach, but I’ve…
Band of Brothers
I read with interest Robert Seidman’s ’63 article “Band of Brothers” (spring 2013) and reflected on the ripple effect of his actions in 1961, one washing over me in 1962 as a high school senior. I had my heart set on Northwestern but found off-putting the dominance of the Greek system during a visit in…
Papacy in Perspective
After reflecting on President Oakley’s “A Perspective on the Papacy” (spring 2013) and following the first weeks of the new pontificate, I believe that Benedict XVI’s resignation may in fact add to “the mystification of the papacy.” By stepping aside, he sends a clear message to his successors: “You’d better be ready to travel the…
What Sawyer Said
Your article on Jack Sawyer ’39 (spring 2013) reminded me of a vignette about him and his leadership style. On a beautiful spring day shortly after the Cambodian bombing in 1970, Dick Berg ’71 and I were lounging on the bench at the head of Spring Street, contemplating the weather and life. Shortly after lunch,…
Ears of a Deer
The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) owns 83 prints from Eadweard Muybridge’s massive portfolio of nearly 800 photographic studies of the movement of men, women, children and animals. Published in 1887, the set, called Animal Locomotion, is the capstone of Muybridge’s career as a photographer. Born Edward James Muggeridge in England in 1830, Muybridge…
Broken Silence
On a fall afternoon a few years ago, inside my dorm room at Deerfield Academy, I started hearing gunshots. The sounds brought back images from my home village in Burundi. This disturbed me. Finally, I covered my ears. From time to time, I would uncover them, hoping the sounds had ended, but the gunshots went…
More Magazine Praise
The format, styling, color, photos, etc., of the magazine are all great! One of the most attractive magazines of any kind I have seen. You are doing a great job. Thank you. —Charles Dunkel ’59, Santa Rosa, Calif.