The NFL Playoffs have take
The NFL Playoffs have take precedence over blogging, but it’s worth mentioning that yesterday was an awful day for Ephs sports, not only because of the men’s basketball loss which David already mentioned.
Women’s swimming and diving had a 104-meet winning streak snapped yesterday by the ‘Herst as well.
The men’s basketball loss was too depressing to write about.
As for Paulsen being Phi Beta Kappa, the Record ran a profile of him last March.
Off the court, Paulsen quietly earned Phi Beta Kappa honors in history. One of his advisors, the late Russ Bostert, foresaw great things for him in the field, if only he could resist the temptation of coaching basketball.
“He told me, ‘Do that for a few years, and when you see the error of your ways, go get a Ph.D.,’ or something like that,” Paulsen said.
The Ephs lost to Amherst
The Ephs lost to Amherst last night in men’s basketball. The game does not look to have been particularly good, but there is a nice overview article on the basketball rivalry here. Best quotes are:
The football battles between the two schools are the stuff of legend. The annual season finale (called ”The Biggest Little Game in America” at Williams, and simply ”The Game” at Amherst) is the longest-running Division III rivalry in the country.
Amherst graduate and former NFL tight end Jean Fugett articulated the meaning of the contest perfectly in the early 1990s when he said, ”I remember my last Williams game better than I remember Super Bowl X - and I started in both games.”
…
[Amherst Basketball coach] Hixon has devoted much of his life to this rivalry. He played at Amherst in the mid-1970s, losing both games to Williams on the freshman team, and then all six on the varsity.
When his career ended with a loss to the Ephs, he sat slumped in the locker room long after his teammates had left until an old custodian came to mop up. He looked at Hixon, still clad in his uniform, and said, ”C’mon, boy, you have to take that shirt off sometime.”
I can’t speak for Hixon, but here at the Williams Blog, we’ll never take our shirts off . . . er . . . something like that.
Best tidbit is that Basketball coach Dave Paulsen ‘87 was Phi Beta Kappa. Who knew? ;-)
One question that came up
One question that came up with regard to the Transcript’s juxtaposition of war-protesting Ephs with military-serving local residents concerned current Ephs in uniform. Our vast web of Eph sources around the globe reports that Zack (Adam) Pace, Bungee Cooke and Dan Ornelas (all ‘98) are in the military. Pace and Cooke are serving in the Marine Corps while Ornelas is in the Army. Anyone with more details or, ideally, pictures should send them our way.
I suspect that Ephraim Williams, career soldier that he was, would be proud.
Re: Ed Epping’s anti-war postcards,
Re: Ed Epping’s anti-war postcards, he has continued to do them since January; he e-mails a new one out every night (yesterday was Day 295). As for publicly pro-war professors, Associate Professor of Political Science James McAllister has publically supported the war.
Williams and Amherst play their
Williams and Amherst play their first men’s basketball game of the season tomorrow at 8 pm. Williams is ranked #1 nationwide and Amherst is #6. The regular season game at Amherst was the only loss for the Ephs last year.
You can listen to the game live on WCFM by clicking here. I’ll be doing the play-by-play alongside Ben Fleming ‘04. The 6 pm women’s game will also be broadcast live.
I guess that our Eph
I guess that our Eph Holiday Card Project could, at best, be termed a partial success. We published some cards, but I didn’t receive any cards that I wouldn’t have gotten anyway. Maybe next year.
In any event, our last card is from Dave ‘87 and Jen ‘89 Grossman.
I am still trying to convince the class of ‘89 15th year reunion committee that this blog, or some other blog, would be a useful tool for generating interest in the reunion. It seemed (?) to work, at least a little, for the class of 1988 last year.
Lest we at the Williams
Lest we at the Williams Blog be accused of not “working for peace,” we bring this site, with the full (?) collection of postcards created by Professor Ed Epping about the war in Iraq.
They make for interesting reading.
I don’t know if Epping has continued his postcard efforts since September but will try to find out.
The problem is not that Williams has professors that are passionately and intelligently and publicly anti-war. That is a good thing. The problem is that, as best I can determine, Williams has no professors that are publicly pro-war. Is anyone aware of a public pro-war statement by a faculty member?
Of course, it could be that all the pro-war faculty are just in the closet about it . . .
Although the WSO blogs are
Although the WSO blogs are a technically impressive achievement, their content has not been everything that one could have hoped for. There are, on occasion, interesting posts. Topher Cyll has some comments on “Intolerance and Pseudo-intellectualism at Williams” in a post today, for example.
Everyone once in a while, though, a fascinating, well-informed discussion and debate erupts, almost out of nowhere, on the blogs. The recent one, started by Evan Miller, on “Justice, Diversity and Financial Aid” is a great example of the genre. Not only does Miller begin the debate with a thoughtful and link-filled essay, but his commentators respond in kind. Miller summarizes his argument as:
I have, then, five recommendations for elite colleges such as Williams that are interested in advancing diversity, justice, and their financial situations:
1) Invest in an internet initiative akin to OpenCourseWare to spread learning as widely as possible;
2) Withdraw from athletic agreements that prohibit merit scholarships;
3) Define merit as any characteristic that adds value to the college campus, and award scholarships (or quote tuitions) accordingly;
4) If a scholarship is based on need, ensure that either:
a) the student’s neediness will improve the learning experience of his peers, i.e., the scholarship is actually merit-based; or
b) the student comes from a low-income family, and his long-term career prospects will be significantly better by attending an elite college instead of a non-elite college.
5) Recognize that there is nothing unfair about denying aid to students whose long-term career prospects will not be affected if they attend a non-elite instead of an elite college.
If the college is truly motivated by interests in diversity and justice, I think it would do well to consider this advice; but if it is more strongly motivated by a love of intercollegiate athletics and a suspicion of wealth, then I think it would do better first to revalue its values.
I am not sure if this brief summary does justice to Miller’s argument. In any event, the whole debate makes for interesting reading.
One problem with academia nationwide,
One problem with academia nationwide, and one that seems particularly worrying in English departments, is the prevalence of group think on certain issues. For example, take this account of last week’s Modern Language Association meeting from The Boston Globe.
In more than a dozen sessions on war-related topics, not a single speaker or audience member expressed support for the war in Iraq or in Afghanistan. The sneering air quotes were flying as speaker after speaker talked of “so-called terrorism,” “the so-called homeland,” “the so-called election of George Bush,” and so forth.
The approach to the war was certainly wide-ranging — from cultural studies to rhetoric to literature to pure political speechifying. In a session on “Shock and Awe,” Graham Hammill of Notre Dame traced the ideas behind the initial bombing back to the Roman historian and orator Tacitus’s idea of arcana imperii, which translates roughly as “mysteries of state.” Like Roman emperors who used rhetoric to sway the populace, Hammill argued, the Shock and Awe campaign was a rhetorical gesture aimed at demonstrating US power as much as flattening Baghdad.
At a different panel, Cynthia Young of the University of Southern California spoke about how the White House uses Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell “to create a distorted multiracial mask on imperialism.” “What does it mean,” Young asked, “when imperialism comes wrapped in a black bow?”
I guess we can be thankful at Williams that comments as inane as Prof. Young’s aren’t routinely made by our faculty. As for intellectual diversity: Last February, 123 faculty members signed a “statement of resistence” to a war in Iraq. There were certainly not 10 faculty members who supported the war and there almost certainly were not 5.
There is a great article
There is a great article in iBershires.com about retiring football coach Dick Farley. (The more stuff that I read from iBerkshires.com, the more impressed that I become. I am not sure how they can generate enough revenue to support so many talented reporters.) The whole article is worth a read. One nice part mentioned:
Whatever activity Farley is involved in, those he is working with can be assured they will have his full attention and devotion to the task at hand. His guiding principles are honesty, hard work, preparation and focus; those who get a chance to play for or coach next to him absorb every “Farleyism,” as his mannerisms are commonly and affectionately referred to around campus.
It sure would be nice if some of Farley’s current and former players collected those “Farleyisms” somehow, perhaps on a website somewhere. That, along with written stories and old pictures would serve as a fitting tribute. The article also recalled a classic
anecdote in which he called the home of legendary Penn State University Coach Joe Paterno, whose son Scott was considering coming to Williams. When Coach Farley explained to Sue Paterno, Joe’s wife, that he could not come to Pennsylvania for a home visit with Scott because off-campus recruiting is prohibited in Division III, she told him he had the best job in the country. “I know,” Farley replied.
The article overflows with great quotes. One nice one is:
“It’s not about football with Coach Farley,” Reardon ['03] said. “It’s about life. He would stress the importance of learning from a loss and that made losses valuable. He made us appreciate how lucky we are — to be playing football, to be attending Williams and to have each other. He puts things in perspective.”
What more could be asked of any teacher?
Although the this blog might, to an unsophisticated reader, seem somewhat anti-athletics at Williams, I stand second to none in my appreciation of how much Farley brought to Williams. His contribution to the shaping the hearts and minds of the undergraduates he came in contact with was probably on par with all but a handful of professors over the last 25 years. The College is well-served to treat the selection and retention of its athletic faculty with the same seriousness that it brings to the process for academic faculty.
That said, the institution of “tips” — extreme admission favoritism for 50+ highly talented athletes per year — should be ended. In a world without tips, Farley’s records in both football and track would, presumably, have been worse. But he would have had the same sort of impact on the same raw number of Ephs. They just would have been smarter Ephs.
Welcome aboard to Mike Needham
Welcome aboard to Mike Needham ‘04 who has kindly decided to contribute his thoughts on all things Williams to this effort. Again, we are eager to enroll other conspirators. Note that anonymous blogging is possible. Surely there is a member of the faculty or administration out there who would like a way of bringing their thoughts and concerns to a larger audience, either safely or not . . .
Of course, the true Dream Team of Eph undergraduate bloggers would include both Needham and Aidan, but Finley has done a better job of resisting my entreaties.
Williams College scoops national media:
Williams College scoops national media: Though the vast majority of the world couldn’t care less, Bill Bradley has endorsed Dean for the Democratic nomination. Bradley was at Williams in October helping North Adams Regional Hospital kick off its capital campaign (the tie between Bradley and NARH is complicated and not too interesting) and essentially made the Dean endorsement at that time:
“[Dean] has potential to be the recipient of the public upswelling, and gives the idea that we can shape our future,” Bradley said.
Incidentally, I should use this time to introduce myself as David has kindly asked me to join him on the blog now that I have too much free time on my hands. My name is Mike Needham. I’m a Williams senior double majoring in political science and economics. I’m the former editor of the Record (ergo, the free time); I’m an avid sports fan, but understand where those people who are labeled “anti-athletics” at Williams are coming from and often agree with them; I talk to much when I’m drunk and sometimes even when I’m not. Though it is winter study up here at Williams, I am not drunk right now.
With that, I will be serving as on-campus correspondent mainly by default as Scott Grinsell has been AWOL from his posting obligations.
The Transcript has a somewhat
The Transcript has a somewhat snarky reference to the protest activities of Williams students:
In January, while students at Williams College traveled to Washington D.C. to protest war with Iraq, Northern Berkshire Regional Vocational School District Superintendent James Brosnan was called to active duty overseas. His departure to the Middle East was followed by those of a number of area soldiers over the following months.
The problem, of course, is not the protesting students. It is the appearance that Ephs only protest while others fight. I am pretty sure that there has been at least one Eph fighting overseas during the current conflict (class of ‘98?), not to mention the many Ephs, like Drew Erdmann ‘88, risking life and limb in the cause of freedom. It is too bad that the Transcript fails to recognize this. It is also too bad that the College doesn’t do more to create and present a more balanced outlook on important issues of the day like the war in Iraq.
More about trivia from a
More about trivia from a former member of “Well, yes” and “The Supplicants of Gozer”….
It appears one can listen to WCFM via real audio. I have no idea if this works or not. It’s 7am on a weekday in January and WCFM is off the air. All the students must be out “falling in love.”
Fall in Love
Although I generally shy away from too much specific advice to current undergraduates — what can an old man like me possibly know? — I can’t help but to post on the real purpose of Winter Study, especially for male undergraduates.
The real purpose of Winter Study is to fall in love.
You will never, ever be surrounded by as many smart, pretty, eligible women as you are right now. Life after college is, comparatively, a wasteland. Of course, as you pass into the great beyond, you will meet other women, but they are unlikely to be as wonderful, physically and mentally, as the Eph women you are now blessed to know. More importantly, the best of them will choose mates sooner rather than latter. This isn’t to say that exiting Williams without a serious girlfriend is a one way ticket to permanent bachelorhood, but don’t delude yourself into thinking that it is a smart way to play the odds. The odds favor love now.
It isn’t that your classes and papers, your theses and sports teams, are unimportant. They do matter. But finding a soulmate to grow old with, someone to bear your children and ease your suffering, someone to give your life meaning and your work purpose — this is a much more important task than raising that GPA enough to make cum laude.
So, stop reading this blog and ask out that girl from across the quad. I did the same 16 years ago and have counted my blessings ever since.
If you’re on campus, you
If you’re on campus, you already got the e-mail about the upcoming trivia contest. But, for those far away, I have posted it below.
One of my regrets was never really playing trivia (although I cheered for a group in Williams C 19 years ago), but, back in the day, trivia was during Reading Period, not Winter Study. Kids today don’t know how easy they have it.
I am not sure if the game will be accessible to those whose radios do not receive 91.9, but I will post any information that I can find.
A twisted nocturnal tradition since 1966, the biannual Williams Trivia radio contest will reach its 75th installment this Friday night (January 9).
As always, the contest will be heard on WCFM (91.9 FM). The anniversary broadcast begins at 11:45pm, and continues until 8:00 Saturday morning. The event will be hosted by the team called “Click Here to Get Huge.”
The contents of Friday night’s contest are top secret, of course. But an embedded source says you can expect to be quizzed on brain-busting details about TV, music, comics, history, sports, movies, and other pop culture detritus. Ha! Your expensive fancy-pants liberal arts education can’t save you now! (Except for the parts about “Williamsiana.”)
Will there be audio bonuses (surgically edited clips built around a central theme)? You betcha!
Will there be hourly Action Trivia, which will require teams to perform bizarre skits, impressions, songs, or other foolishness? Oh, yes!
Will there be a bunch of great songs you haven’t heard in a few years, mixed with grotesque sonic atrocities that cannot be explained? Always!
Will there be surprise extra features and puzzles and challenges in honor of the contest’s 75th edition? No doubt!
Will the contest be half as thrilling and well-fought as the four-hour mini-contest between frosh teams last October, which ended in a razor-thin 1-point victory? Who knows? Unlike the WWE, dog racing, and Presidential elections, Trivia’s outcome is not rigged.
Playing Williams Trivia is simplicity itself. You need a radio to listen, and a phone to call in. Score the most points, and you win!
You’ll also want some likeminded friends who’ll see the obvious wisdom in blearily trying to list Hermione Granger’s entire curriculum at 5 in the morning. You should pack in food supplies…. especially brightly-colored crap. And if you have any interesting props, costumes, or other items you think might net you that extra Action Trivia point, by all means bring ‘em along. Then, pick some weird, funny, or obscure reference as your team’s name, and you’re ready to roll!
To view the list of every winning team ever, plus mountains of on-air questions, bonuses, scores, photos, comics, essays and other lunacy, click on over to.
Or just check out what the Williams Record had to say about Trivia in November, 2001.
We hope to see and entertain you at the 75th Williams Trivia contest: January 9-10, 2004. 11:45 pm-8:00 am. On WCFM radio (91.9 FM). The college’s most unusual tradition continues.
It’s sad to say, but
It’s sad to say, but I often only find out about famous and accomplished Ephs when their number comes up and they end up in the obituaries. John Toland ‘36 passed away two days ago. The AP reports:
John Toland, who won the 1971 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction for “The Rising Sun,” a historical narrative of the rise and fall of the Japanese empire during World War II, died Sunday at Danbury Hospital, he was 91.
…
Although “The Rising Sun” won the Pulitzer, Toland may best be known for “Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography,” originally published in 1976. “Hitler” became a national bestseller that Newsweek called “the first book that anyone who wants to learn about Hitler or the war in Europe must read … a marvel of fact.”
Tamiko Toland said her father may have generated the most controversy with his 1982 book, “Infamy: Pearl Harbor and its Aftermath,” in which he wrote about evidence that President Franklin Roosevelt knew about the attack but remained silent.
Alas, I haven’t read any of Toland’s books. Note that, at least judging by names, Toland’s wife is Japanese-American. I would wager that there is an interesting back story there.
Here is a nice article
Here is a nice article on the tutorial program, including a nice quote from Mike Needham ‘04. The only new information, for those who are already familiar with the tutorial program comes with the numbers.
Historically — from the time the first tutorials were offered in 1988 and up until 2000 — between 25 and 30 tutorials were offered each year in a wide range of disciplines. The recent expansion of the tutorial program embarked on the long-range objective of increasing the number tutorials each year.
The desired expansion is reflected in a glance at tutorial numbers. Last year the Williams curriculum offered 36 tutorials. Fifteen of the 36 were at the 200 level — the sophomore level — and 21 were at the junior and senior level.
This year the college will offer 46 tutorials in a variety of subjects, representing a significant increase. Nineteen of the 46 tutorials will be specifically geared toward sophomores and 27 will be at the junior and senior level. It is expected that in the year after next the total number of tutorials offered will exceed 50.
All of which sounds good. The next steps are, obviously, to start making tutorial available to first years — what better way would there be to be introduced to the life of the mind? — and to make them a requirement in various departments. Certainly, something like ECON 401 (the senior seminar) would be much more powerful and memorable as a tutorial.
Another idea would be to require something like a sophomore tutorial for all majors in a given department. In something like ECON, this could (read: should) use a common curriculum with lots of Adam Smith and Karl Marx — sort of like the current POLI-EC 301 — but add in discussion of current debates of the day. It should also be taught by all members of the department, presumably on a rotating basis. It is hard to imagine a better way of introducing students to the world and wonder of economics.
Professor Fix notes, “It might be nice to eventually get up to around 60, but we’re trying to keep our eye on student demand, as these are resource intensive courses. We don’t want to have more tutorials than we need to meet student demand, but we’re guessing that something in the 50-60 area is about right.”
I think that Fix might be putting the cart before the horse here. Although the notion of “student demand” is an important one and the College should make every effort to gauge it, not everything that students want is good for them and not everything that they don’t want should be avoided.
Reading between the lines, it seems clear that the not as many students are signing up for tutorials as one might have hoped/expected. That’s too bad since tutorials must be good for students, both in the short and the long term, even if some of them don’t quite realize it yet. The obvious solution is to make them a requirement, either as part of individual majors or as a generic one-tutorial-per-year requirement.
UPDATE: Turns out that this article began life as a College news release. Also, Mike Needham, who clearly needs a hobby now that his days as editor of the Record are over, points out that ECON 401 is offered as a tutorial.
Happy Belated Holidays to Ephs
Happy Belated Holidays to Ephs far and wide.
Williams continues to get great press from the New York Times. Alas, the article, “College Basketball: At Tiny Williams, Book-smart Players with Big Games,” from December 24 is no longer on-line, but a version still lives in at the International Herald Tribune. The article begins with:
Guard Michael Crotty had his laptop with him for the bus ride home from Worcester after Williams College’s game against Holy Cross. Crotty, a senior, figured he would be able to use the two-hour ride to outline a 25-page paper on military leadership for his history class.
Instead, one of the most improbable upsets of the basketball season happened, and Crotty’s elation bumped aside Napoleon, Churchill and Stalin for a few hours.
Crotty led Williams, a Division III school, to a 78-71 victory on Dec. 4 over the Crusaders, a Division I member that has played in the past three NCAA tournaments.
The whole article is worth a read and there is not a negative word about Williams anywhere. I am a little suspicious about some of the facts in the article. Did most of the basketball players really head to the library at midnight? Unless the libraries are open much later than they used to be, I suspect that they went to work in their rooms.
The article also claims that “Professors will also watch practices and evaluate [men's basketball coach] Paulsen’s teaching throughout each season.” I certainly believe that Harry Sheehy might serve in this role, but the context implies that “professors” means someone outside of the athletic department. Really? Isn’t Cheryl “Nike Camp with enrichment classes” Shanks a little overworked already?
;-)
Again, the article is a run read. Dave Paulsen ‘87 was a nice, thoughtful guy 20 years ago. I am sure he is the same today. Williams should seek more coaches like him from among the alumni. They clearly understand what makes Williams special.
