Advantages of POLI-EC
Those wondering about where a major in political economy can take them need look no further than the career of Dave Clawson ‘89. Clawson is heading into his first season as head coach of the Richmond Spiders and looking to put his Williams education to work.
Richmond hired Clawson, who turns 37 a week from today, in large part because of his reputation as one of the college game’s finest young offensive coaches. But as the Spiders begin preseason practice this afternoon, it’s logical to assume they will experience transitional trauma to some degree in ‘04. Clawson’s passing bag of tricks doesn’t fit the personnel signed by his predecessor, running-game disciple Jim Reid.
…
As an undergrad at Williams College, Clawson figured he was headed to a career in environmental law or investment banking. He left the academically prestigious Massachusetts school with a degree in political economy. He’s sharp enough to appreciate that his first Richmond offense won’t immediately demonstrate wide-open efficiency comparable to his last few at Fordham.
Good luck to Clawson and all the other Eph’s coaching fall sports this year. Goodness knows that I need some with my daughters’ soccer teams . . .
McGough ‘97 in SI
Matt McGough ‘97 was prominently featured in Steve Rushin’s August 2nd Sports Illustrated Air and Space column. According to Rushin, Matt’s forthcoming memoir of his years as a Yankees ballboy inspired Clubhouse, an hourlong CBS baseball drama. There are numerous quotes from McGough in the article, such as “Don Mattingly really did tell me to find him a bat stretcher on my first day on the job.”
Berkshire Preferences
Dean of Admissions Richard Nesbitt ‘74 got a nice mention in a Boston Globe article on college admissions.
In the college admissions game, plenty of students get a boost, with the most controversial preferences benefiting athletes, underrepresented minorities, and children of alumni.
But at least one “tip factor” rarely ends up in headlines: Students often get a leg up in admissions just for living down the road.
…
Few colleges seem worried that a student’s family might relocate to a new city or neighborhood to improve their child’s chances of getting into a given college. “That would be extreme,” said Richard Nesbitt, director of admission at Williams College. “I really don’t worry about that.”
I am moving to Williamstown for the climate.
Williams examines applicants from Berkshire County separately from the rest of its pool, which results in a small advantage for the local students. In a typical year, 12 to 16 Berkshire residents are among the 525 students in the freshman class. Nesbitt notes that the local newspaper, The Berkshire Eagle, closely follows the achievements of local athletes, musicians, and other performers who attend Williams. “There’s certainly the community relations factor,” he said. “Lots of really nice publicity comes out of it.”
I actually don’t see too much of this, and I look pretty closely for mentions of Williams in the Eagle.
The author, Ben Gose, is a little sloppy in his argument. For example, the fact that 26 applicants from super-elite Boston Latin were admitted into Harvard doesn’t tell us much about local preferences given by Harvard since a similar number were probably admitted into Yale.
In any event, the preference at Williams is probably so small that it can’t matter too much. Evaluating local kids is also easier for the admissions office. That is, you can get a more accurate reading about a kid that lives down the street than one who lives 1,000 miles away. So, even in the absence of explicit preferences, you might end up with lower average SAT scores for local enrollees.
EphTox
Annabel Kim ‘07 worries about getting old and needing Botox.
I’m getting old and I’m going to graduate soon and then I’ll have to start thinking about graduate school and jobs and assisted-living communities and carpeting the front porch (to minimize the chance of fracturing my hip should I fall down) and look into getting Botox . . .
Much easier and cheaper to get come EphGuy to fall in love with you. He’ll spend the rest of his life looking at you as if you are 20, no Botox necessary.
Quitting Smoking
DeWitt Clinton ‘97, a recent addition to our Eph Blogroll, has quit smoking.
Not that anyone cares or would find it relevant to their own life, but I’m now on day seven of quitting smoking. I’ve probably put on about ten pounds (tough to say because I don’t have a scale and actually have no idea what I weighed before anyway), but I’d almost be willing to attribute the weight gain to the fact that for the past week I’ve been basically living off of snacks out of the kitchen in the office. Between that and leaving work late and running move-related errands which keeps me from being active at all, it is hard to say whether the quitting smoking itself has greatly effected my metabolism.
EphBlog cares! Although it must be said that one of my favorite nutty theories is that a little bit of smoking — one or two cigarettes a day or exposure to second-hand smoke — is actually good for you, just like a little bit of drinking or a little bit of magnesium.
Leaving aside that bit of wackery, weight gain associated with smoking cessation is a common problem. Indeed, depending on the amount of weight gain (and many other factors), the benefits from stopping smoking may be largely counteracted by the side effects of doing so.
Besides which, it is Friday afternoon and I have run out of sensible things to say.
Class Schedule and Soccer Runs
If you’re a fan of EphBlog, then you have to be a fan of Eric Katerman’s ‘02 efforts to outline 4 years of classes at Williams. Obsession in the pursuit of Ephness is no vice.
His collection of essays is positively hypnotic. Do they still tell would-be soccer players to aim for a specific time in a 2.5 mile run? That was true 20 years ago as well . . .
Sox Diary: 8-5-04
Thursday, August 5, 2004: Hard not to draw the conclusion that this Sox team that we are seeing on the field, and not our conceptions of what they might be able to be, represent the reality. Despite the personnel changes, the fundamental ingredients are the same as they have been all year and are not worth going over again. What is most bothersome is how dumb we play. Physical errors are one thing. They happen. Those balls are moving fast, it is not easy to be a major league fielder, and I can live with that. But when you play 162 games a year you have to understand intuitively the job of the cutoff man, or the rudiments of baserunning. And the coaches have no excuse for the sorts of dumb, mental errors they are making - they do not play the game - their contribution is overwhelmingly mental. If they consistently screw that end up, their raison d’etre becomes difficult to justify.
Wagner on Training
A while ago, I posted on the topic of teaching and tenure at Williams. Professor Wagner was kind enough to send in these comments:
It is a bit hard to remember exactly what I had in mind two years ago, but reflecting on my comment, I believe that by “training” I meant the multiple ways in which the college helps younger faculty develop professionally in the crucial early years of their careers.
Much of that help, of course, is focused on teaching, and takes place both informally and through formal college and departmental mechanisms. But the college also expends considerable resources helping younger faculty (and not just younger faculty) develop their research, for example through generous leave policies (after reappointment, untenured faculty now regularly receive a full-year leave at 3/4 salary, which many extend to a year and a half through outside funding) and financial, library, and technical support. The degree of further support for research that takes place varies by department and discipline, but many departments organize research seminars where we provide feedback to each other, and the Oakley Center provides financial and logistical support for interdepartmental seminars.
Less formally, we give our work to colleagues to read for their criticisms. On a wider professional level, although this can seem a double-edged sword, younger faculty as a rule are involved in departmental and college governance from the moment they arrive, which can be time-consuming but also useful in learning how to operate professionally in the world of higher education.
All of this takes place to varying degrees at other institutions, of course, and I am not claiming Williams is unique in this regard. But my conversations with colleagues at other institutions over the years suggest that the college does compare favorably with respect to the help it provides younger faculty in establishing themselves and developing their careers.
Many thanks to Professor Wagner for taking the time to write. All of the above is perfectly reasonable and consistent with what other people have told me.
My main concern remains that Williams places too much emphasis on research productivity it its hiring and tenure decisions and that this emphasis has increased significantly in the last 20 years. I have blogged about these sorts of issues here, here, here, here and too many other places to link to. I’ll be riding this hobby horse for many years to come.
New link badge of awesomeness
For those of you that pay attention to website related details, this one goes out to you.
The great Todd Gamblin ‘02 (I am guessing he never gets tired of “Vegas” references to his last name) has made us an additional link badge. It looks a little something like this 
. You will also note that we have it over there on the right in the sidebar as well… see? Yes, good stuff.
For those of you slow on the uptake, like myself, the main difference being that there is a “W” in there that references “Amherst”. Or maybe “Weslyean”. Or perhaps “Eph”.
So anyway, a big thanks to Todd for keeping it real and all.
Now back to the regular show.
A Late Summer Diary Entry from Ronit Bhattacharyya ‘07
I have been working this summer for SOME (So Others Might Eat), a charity in Washington, DC. SOME provides a range of services to the poor and homeless of Washington, including: food, clothing, health care, affordable housing, addictions treatment, counseling, services for the elderly or mentally ill, and job training.
Reunion Pictures
EphBlog was at reunion!
Thanks to the always interesting EphNotes (which really ought to be posted in pdf or html), we finally have information on pictures from reunion. (Alas, this web page doesn’t seem to have the July issue posted yet, but, if you’re reading this, you probably received it via e-mail.) In any event, EphNotes reports that:
The College has teamed up with a Web-based company, EveryoneSmile.com, to bring you a slew of Reunion ‘04 photos, organized by cohorts and activities (25th, 50th, Parade, Family Fun, etc.). Go to http://www.everyonesmile.com/williams and fill in your e-mail address. Within 24 hours you’ll receive an e-mail granting you access to view all the photos and share them with friends. You’ll also be able to order one free 5 x 7 photo print. When signing up, you will be able to opt in or out of EveryoneSmile e-mails and promotions, but rest assured, the company has guaranteed not to share your e-mail address with any other vendor.
This seems like a lousy idea to me. Last year, the pictures for the reunion were posted for all to see. I think (hope) that there are some alumni who would be happy to surf around easily-accessible pictures and take a look. I believe that there are very few alumni who would take the time and trouble to register for the privilege of doing so.
I bet that very few alumni, and almost none that work outside of Williamstown, have registered for this service. (Perhaps someone in the know could tell us the actual results.)
But, EphBlog did register, of course. The pictures were OK, but last year’s seemed better. You can see them for yourself here, using “eph@ephblog.com” as your login and “qkqln” as your password.
Sox Diary: 8-3-04
Tuesday, August 3, 2004: OK, several days have passed now, and the Sox have started off this series against an improved Tampa Devil Rays squad by winning two straight, so I am now ready to talk about recent events. On the field, in all honesty, there is not a whole lot to say. After taking the first game against the orioles we went right back into our little cocoon, losing two, both of which we should have won, and both of which were the result of blown relief outings and some generally bad play, coupled with the sort of untimely offensive slumps that make most of us realize that for all of the talk and all of the inflated stats, this is simply not a great offensive team.
Face Tatoo
I am a little worried that Eric Smith ‘99, the evil genius technical mastermind behind EphBlog, is considering a face tatoo.
EphBrides are not known for their fondness for face tatoos, but I am not one to generalize.
Wordpress
John Stahl ‘95, another recent addition to our Eph Blogroll, has kind things to say about Wordpress as a replacement to our current blogging tool, MovableType. Stahl works at ONE/Northwest, a “non-profit organization based in Seattle, providing technology assistance to conservation activists and organizations in Alaska, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.”
I wonder if they do anything with Salman Nation?
This Entry is not an Entry
Diana Davis ‘07 is a recent addition to our Eph Blogroll. [EphBlog Blogroll? -- ed. It's too early in the morning for this . . .] Her site, entitled “Diana’s Blog Which is not a blog and is therefore an antiblog”, is, nevertheless, quite fun. She is
currently reading the Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle, specifically chapters eight and nine, which concern friendship. I was reading The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, in which she constructs her idea of the “perfect man” (philosophically speaking). This man, Howard Roark, seems to be completely self-sufficient, so I wondered: are people supposed to be so self-sufficient, or do people essentially need other people?
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I certainly need my EphWife. I am not sure where Diana is getting her reading list from, but better Atlas Shrugged than The Fountainhead. And, for lazy summer reading, better Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance . . .
Diana also has lots of fun material at her website. Longtime readers will recall that Diana has appeared in EphBlog before. Her latest literary effort is an Ode to Williams Women’s Novice Crew.
What’s a LYBuNT?
Check out last spring’s Alumni Fund Progress Report. It’s filled with interesting stuff about fund-raising and provides an interesting look inside the machine. It uses the term “LYBuNT” to describe, I think, Ephs who donated [ast year but not this year. I am guessing that the term is an acronym --- "[L]ast [Y]ear . . . ” — but I can’t quite get the letters to work out.
Does anyone know the precise meaning?
It also mentions a “Class Agent Handbook”. It would be fun to post a link to this, but I can’t find one, perhaps not surprisingly.
Three Questions
Karen Lichtman ‘02 writes:
Go ahead, anyone who reads this… ask me any three questions, and I will answer.
1) What is your fondest childhood memory of time spent with your father?
2) What is the biggest fight that you even got into with your father?
3) If you could ask your father to have done one thing differently with regard to his parenting of you, what would it be?
This whole fatherhood thing continues to be a bit of a mystery to me, so I’ll look for help wherever I can find it.
Engberg ‘06 to Oxford
Nice local paper article on Nika Engberg ‘06 and her forthcoming year in Williams-Exeter.
Admission to the program is highly selective. Candidates must have already completed Williams’ distribution requirements by the end of their sophomore year. Applicants are recommended by faculty members for their good grades, writing aptitude and academic independence.
“Highly selective”? Back in the day, Williams-Exeter took most/all comers. It was still, via self-selection, an academically serious group, but there weren’t a lot (any?) disappointed applicants. I would be surprised if more than 30 students applied for the 20-odd slots. If there are more applicants than this nowadays, then they ought to expand the program.
While still unsure about her course for the future, Engberg said she is leaning toward attending law school or studying public policy at graduate school like Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
“It’s sort of hard for me to decide at this point,” she said.
Hard for all of us, even 20 years later.
But law school? To many young Ephs, good at school and unsure what to do with their lives, go to law school as a sort of default. They shouldn’t. Of course, if you (or your parents) are wealthy and in no rush to get anywhere else in your life, there is nothing wrong with law school, but you should know what you are getting yourself into. Go spend a day in a first year law class on torts.
And public policy is fine too, but 80% of what they would teach Engberg at a place like the Kennedy School is available to her right now at Williams. The real guts of a public policy masters is micro-economics and statistics (i.e., ECON 251M, ECON 255, STAT 201 and STAT 346). Throw in a seminar or two and you can have your masters for the price of your BA. Of course, anyone interested in a masters in public policy ought to seriously consider the POLI-EC major.
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