Fine By Me
Director of Campus Life Doug Bazuin just sent out an e-mail on the topic of what is fine by him.
The Office of Campus Life is offering “Gay? Fine by me” t-shirts to the campus. The purpose of this program is to affirm to the campus community that GLBT students (and faculty/staff) are accepted here at Williams. All you do is wear a t-shirt that says, simply, “Gay? Fine by me.”
More info here. Is there really nothing else that the Office of Campus Life might be spending time on?
The t-shirts are FREE, and come in a variety of sizes and colors, as well as men’s cut and women’s cut. Just stop by the Campus Life Office in Hopkins anytime between 1pm – 4:30pm, Monday – Friday to pick one up.
Free? Hmmm. Someone paid for them. Was it Williams? By the way, back in the day I don’t recall a distinction in t-shirts between men’s and women’s cuts. Was I missing something or is this just another example of how out of touch I am with today’s youth?
Also, is there any way for interested alums to get a shirt? I would certainly like one.
When you pick up a t-shirt, please leave your name and email address on our sign-up sheet. We will be sending emails before specific dates during the year that we’d like to try to get people to wear the shirts on the same day (National Coming Out Day, for example).
Good stuff. This is certainly more impressive a form of activism then claiming that everyone wearing blue jeans supports your cause.
The program was begun at Duke when they were labeled the most homophobic campus in the US by one of those ranking digests. Students at Duke decided they wanted to change that perception, and this is how they did it. The students who did this now run the non-profit organization out of New York, and colleges around the US are participating.
But the real question is what the College is saying to students, mainly very religious students, for whom homosexuality is not “fine by me.” Do they belong at Williams? Are their views valued?
More interesting still would be some counter-programming for the (few) conservatives on campus. I would certainly wear a t-shirt that said “Marine? Fine by me.” Trickier would be some trouble-making students who insisted on wearing t-shirts that said, “Gay? Not fine by me.” What would the College’s reaction be to that?
The problem here is not the sentiment (which I agree with) nor the t-shirts (which I would wear) but the College’s role in procuring and distributing them. These activities should be left to student groups, funded via College Council. The College, via the Office of Campus Life, has no business telling, say, devout Muslim students that their deeply held religious beliefs are wrong. Individual students (and professors, for that matter) should be encouraged — indeed, they have a positive obligation — to make that argument, to wear those t-shirts. But the College itself should be as neutral as possible.
Ducking the Hard Questions
With regard to this thread, a reader writes:
My comments have to do with the whole nose counting issue. First, let me state the obvious: I usually disagree with Dave and often find him annoying, difficult and insensitive. Also, I do believe that affirmative action has a place in today’s world. However, Rory et. al. are driving me nuts! Why won’t they address the problem of counting a URM for your numbers but that URM not bringing any significantly different experience than a comparable non-URM? It seems a fair and justifiable question worth a response.
My hope is that the admission office looks at the applicants background in detail and sees what kind of “URM experience” they bring to the table. I think all kinds of URM’s experience are valuable: from the prep-school URM to the inner-city URM. But clearly it is in the college’s interest to have a diversity of diversity.
I hate it when people I agree with duck the hard questions and do not have the courage to take on a well thought out critique.
I hate it too.
Deans ‘78 , RIP
Stuart Deans ‘78 died two weeks ago.
Stuart Deans swam as a boy, became an All-American swimmer in college and turned laps almost every day as an adult. As an official, he helped referee swim meets at the Family Y in Wilton and across the state. Last week, the 48-year-old Redding attorney, who specialized in environmental law, was back in the water in Hawaii.
As Deans finished his day with one last set of laps in a pool near the family’s hotel in Maui, he suffered heart failure and died in the water.
Younger Ephs should read the whole article to get a sense of what it means to live a well-rounded life.
Connie Deans [his wife], a Spanish teacher at John Read Middle School in Redding, produced one of her own memories — an e-mail sent by her husband to his office in Stamford on Earth Day last year.
“Stuart was in Naples, Florida, and he was out swimming in the Gulf with our two sons,” Connie Deans told one visitor. “It was their birthday. While they were out, they were joined by four adult and one young bottlenose dolphins.”
In his e-mail, Deans wrote: “They never got closer than about five feet but it was pretty cool.”
Deans, who said it was a reminder of the environment people needed to protect, signed off: “Try to find a couple of minutes today to watch the sunset or notice a bird that has returned from winter’s migration, or whatever other symbol of the interconnected nature of things you choose.
“Enjoy the day!”
Carpe diem is a recurring theme among Ephs of all ages. Connie Deans is class of 1979. My wife is also one class younger than I. We are just a ten years younger than Stuart and Connie. If I knew today that my number would come up in just a decade, would I spend my time any differently? Would you?
As family and friends gathered Thursday to share their memories of Stuart Deans, his daughter, Emily, expressed her own. She recalled when she had friends sleep over, they often awoke to find her father left them doughnuts for breakfast.
“We always looked up to our dad because he was something we all aspired to be,” she said. “I think a lot of our friends felt the same way because he was also a friend to them.”
Emily started at Williams yesterday as a member of the class of 2009. She and her mother will be on the same reunion cycle for decades to come, reunited every five years in a place that can’t but help to remind them of Stuart.
Life is often too bittersweet for words.
Condolences to all.
First Days
If it is a rainy day at the end of August, it must be First Days at Williams. Throughout the 80’s the day of then freshmen now first year arrival seemed to always be a day like today, overcast with a bit of rain but not enough to make moving in too hard. At least, that was the weather 21 years ago.
But, from EphBlog’s point of view, there are two key questions: First, is anyone blogging the First Days experience? We are most interested in the presentations that the College makes. I heard some negative comments about last year’s speakers and wonder if things will be better this time around. Second, is anyone taking pictures?
Previous posts on First Days here and here. And, of course, I wonder if the class of 2009 will be learning The Mountains?
The central goal of First Days should be to ensure that every first year makes at least a friendly acquaintanceship with 50 or so other members of the class. A week is not enough time for friendship, of course, but it would be nice if everyone knew enough people well enough that there was always a table for them to join in Baxter (or wherever it is that first years are eating now). Also, it is best if these meetings are as randomized as possible. Ephs of specific interests and backgrounds will have no doubt congregate in the years to come. First Days is the time to meet those who you might not ordinarily meet.
The College already starts this process in the right direction by ensuring that entries are a microcosm of Williams as a whole. There is nothing wrong with well done social engineering. It is also wise to provide a week for the first years to do things as a class, without the pressure/distractions of other obligations. (Am I right in thinking that first year athletes don’t start practicing with their teams until after First Days are over?) I hope that the JA’s also mix up people (perhaps via entry-pairings?) in the discussions after the various speakers. And, certainly, every discussion should begin with the sort of learn-everyone’s-name game that is a staple of summer camps and retreats.
It would be also good to see more of this forced mixing. I hope that WOOLF groups are, for example, not organized by entry but instead mix up the entries as much as possible. It would be even better if the College put WOW later in the semester so that URMs are not (self-)segregated from the very start of their Williams experience.
We are all purple first.
Bergeron ‘04 Update
Here’s a nice update on the baseball career of Jabe Bergeron ‘04.
After graduation, Bergeron eagerly anticipated the draft but was ultimately overlooked. But a short time later he received a call from the Mets offering him a contract.
He spent the majority of his time between the Kingsport Mets, a rookie-ball affiliate in the Appalachian League, and the Capital City Bombers, a single-A affiliate in the South Atlantic League.
In the minors he continued to hit for power while keeping a respectable average. He finished his first professional season with a .283 batting average, 10 homeruns and 34 RBIs.
See here for previous posts on Bergeron. Alas, the Mets recently released him. He now plays in Canada.
And the one thing Bergeron said he has learned through all of his experiences is to stick to what you know.
“Once you start getting down then you start wondering, you start tweaking things, you go into a slump,” he said “The more positive you stay, the better you’re going to play. As soon as you start getting into your own head and start analyzing and thinking too much, you start changing things that didn’t need to be changed in the first place.”
A lesson that applies to more than baseball.
Some Context for Ephblog
While we’re having highly nuanced conversations on Ephblog about Williams and higher education, every once and awhile it’s good to step back and think about how rare that is in the U.S. According to an article entitled, “Scientific Savvy? In U.S., Not Much,” that ran in today’s New York Times,
American adults in general do not understand what molecules are (other than that they are really small). Fewer than a third can identify DNA as a key to heredity. Only about 10 percent know what radiation is. One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth, an idea science had abandoned by the 17th century.
A sobering thought.
Helicopter Parents
An Associated Press story on Sunday talks about “helicopter parents” — parents of college students who “hover” over their children. For example, calling to complain to college administrators when their sons or daughters get bad grades, or
Recently, one parent demanded to know what Colgate planned to do about the sub-par plumbing her daughter encountered on a study-abroad trip to China.
According to the article, consumer-oriented parents expect a superb experience for their kiddies at $40,000 a year, and aren’t bashful about pointing that out to college administrators.
To foster student self-reliance, colleges have turned to skits, lectures, and reading lists to explain to parents that a certain amount of student flailing (without the crutch of parent intervention) is expected and good.
The Magnificent 14
The College, as predicted by EphBlog, has declined to list the 14 faculty members that it considers to be Hispanic. It claims to consider such information “private to the individual.” But EphBlog has many readers and sources. One of them suggested:
Gene Bell-Villada (Romance Languages) Maria Elena Cepeda (Latino Studies) Ondine Chavoya (Studio Art) Joe Cruz (Philosophy and Cognitive Science) Antonia Foias (Anthropology) Soledad Fox (Romance Languages) Berta Jottar (Theater) Manuel Morales (Biology) Enrique Peacocke-Lopez (Chemistry) Ileana Perez Vasquez (Music) Merida Rua (American Studies and Latino Studies) Cesar Silva (Math) Armando Vargas (Comparative Literature) Carmen Whalen (Latino Studies)
as the magnificent 14. True? I don’t know. I have been told that one of these might be considered a “stretch,” but your mileage may vary.
Interesting to see that Williams has two professors of Latino Studies. Williams also has two statisticians (Richard DeVeaux and Bernhard Klingenberg.) I predict/hope that, in a few decades, this parity will seem bizarre.
Berke ‘94 Opens Clinic
Dr. Beatrice Berke ‘94 has opened her new dermatology clinic in Bradenton, Florida. Perhaps it is time for an Eph Derm Mafia?
My neighbors in Williams D back in the day will certainly recall their JA, Clark Otley ‘86. Other members might include Shobha Jetmalani ‘81, Richard Castiello ‘63, Sewon Kang ‘80 and Williams Wickwire ‘80. My own genius wife was taught by both Otley and Kang.
To all the Ephs in medical school, remember one word: Dermatology. It’s the plastics of the 21st century.
True and Not True
Emily Thorson ‘02 has some amusing examples of “things I thought were true but turned out upon further reflection to be wrong.” But she ends her list with:
That the guy in full U.S. Army camoflage on the orange line was actually the best-disguised terrorist ever. [On a larger scale, this actually is true].
Hmmm. I don’t get it, but I am ready to take offense.
Admin Realignment
On August 24th, Morty announced some administrative changes at the college. Helen Ouellette’s former post, that of Vice President of Administration and Treasurer, has been abolished, and its responsibilities are being parceled out. Williams will now have a CFO position (awarded to Cappy Hill), a Vice President of Operations (to be appointed), and a Vice President of Investments (to be appointed).
Photo ID, #17
David suggested that people really do like seeing pictures of Williams College, so I’ll provide you with some on Fridays. I am studying at Williams-Mystic this semester, so I might put in some pictures of Mystic every so often, too. Tell me what you’d like. Feel free to identify the photos; I think it’s more fun if I don’t do it for you.
Purple People Magazine
Well, I just received my first copy of People Magazine, Williams style, in the mail today. Apparently, the college has decided to split the Alumni Review into two parts: People (issued 3 times a year), which contains the Class Notes and other alumni news, and the Alumni Review (issued 4 times a year), which will continue to report on college news.
People is a more compact format than the Alumni Review, measuring 6 inches wide, 10.5 inches tall, and (in this case) 0.25 inches thick. After getting over the shock — I’d heard no whispers of this heresy from the college — I kinda like it. It’s sort of a nice, toss-it-in-your-briefcase-and-read-it-on-the-plane-or-commuter-rail format. (I still think the type is too small, but based on the angry Letters to the Editor that say the same thing and get ignored, it’s clear I’m not going to win that battle. Apparently everyone who works on the Alumni Review has good eyesight.)
So what do you think about People? Like it, hate it, or somewhere in-between? The college is asking for your feedback via a mail-in card or an online survey (http://www.williams.edu/alumni/alumnireview/survey), but that will take months to collate, and any blunt comments will be smoothed out before public consumption. In this Internet age, why wait? What’s the collective, non-bashful opinion of EphBlog readers?
Read the NY Times, Then a Williams Thesis
On Wednesday, The New York Times had an article on colleges adding locally grown food to their menus. The article mentioned Bates, Kenyon, Middlebury and Oberlin, but not Williams.
At this point, at least this Williams alum thought, “Hmm… I know Williams is doing some of this; I wonder what the Williams-specific take on this is.” And then, viola, I discovered this was covered in Jocelyn Gardner’s senior thesis for Human Ecology and Environmental Studies entitled, “Think Globally, Eat Locally: An Analysis of Williams College’s Food Consumption.”
If you’re wondering about the dynamics of offering locally grown produce and running a college food service, this makes pretty interesting reading, as she takes the time to set the problem in context. Jocelyn spends the first 30 pages describing the history of agriculture in the U.S., the next 20 talking about Berkshires agriculture, and then the next 25 about food consumption and Dining Services at Williams. She closes with five pages of recommendations.
Some factoids. During the 2003-2004 academic year, Williams served 775,000 meals and spent $2.44 million buying food. Meat, fish, and poultry was 34% of that expenditure, fruits and vegetables was 11%. Williams spent $13,830.77 on hot dogs and $4,880.78 on cottage cheese. Per capita consumption of beef for the year was 32.1 pounds; ice cream, 25.9 pounds.
She has some heartbreaking quotes from Bershire farmers who have had to get out of the business, and discusses the tradeoffs that Dining Services has to consider in order to offer fresh and interesting food without breaking the bank. Highly recommended.
Anchor Housing and Intramurals
Any fan of Williams intramurals (IM) should be worried about the effect of anchor housing on this hallowed tradition. In fact, I predict that the institution of anchor housing will lead, almost inevitably, to an intramural scene at Williams that is much less popular and inclusive than the current one, and even worse than what IM sports could be with only some minor improvements. Yet only screed-lovers should read further.
Fisketjon ‘76 Interview
An interview with editor Gary Fisketjon ‘76.
Slushpile: Knopf, like most of the major publishers, no longer accepts unsolicited, un-agented submissions. Do you ever fear that you might be missing some great new writer with this policy?
Fisketjon: Not true. We get scores, possibly hundreds, of them every week and log countless hours considering them – not, perhaps, to the satisfaction of those submitting them, but surely to my satisfaction, and surely more than any baseball-minded fool would get if he were to walk up to Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park and demand a try-out. Aspiring writers always tell me that agents are less accommodating in this respect, but about that you’d have to ask an agent.
Who needs an agent when you can blog? More on Fisketjon here:
“Who says there are no great editors anymore,” asks Peter Carey in the acknowledgments to his new novel, a reference to Gary Fisketjon. Novelists Kent Haruf and Joy Williams, also guests at this year’s conference call Gary ‘editor,’ as have Raymond Carver, Jay McInerny, Bill Morrissey, and Tobias Wolff from previous UND conferences.
And here:
And now we come to the club master, Gary Fisketjon, who knew and encouraged them all, this band of renegade writers who, one after another, found fellowships, publishers, and universities that welcomed them.
I know little about him accept he chain-smokes unfiltered Camels and is a vital and welcoming editor to the talented. He is about fifty and has been described as a cross between Maxwell Perkins and Steve McQueen.
Why not Fisketjon as Commencement speaker this coming fall, in connection with his 30th anniversary? He seems as accomplished as an editor as past Commencement speakers have been in their more visible fields.
Ask a Chemist
Geoff Hutchison ‘99 is answering chemistry questions for the local paper in Ithaca. He offers to answer ours as well. Do you have any questions for Geoff? Here are mine:
1) Is percholate really that dangerous?
2) Are you as embarassed as I am about the pathetic gut courses that the chemistry departments offers? I am especially dismissive of Chemistry for the Consumer in the Twenty-First Century.
By the way, my solution to the problem of gut science courses at Williams is actually simple. Departments should only be allowed to offer courses that earn credit for the major.
Purple Referrals
It’s been interesting watching traffic from Ephblog turn up on my blog. After David pointed to my blog on August 20th, I’ve received a steady stream of visitors: 27 so far, to be exact. From far away — Korea, the UK — and from prestigious universities — Cambridge in England and Princeton in the U.S. Even someone from Williams — I can’t tell whether it’s a student or administrator — clicked over.
For those who wonder about Ephblog’s reach, take a look at the affiliated SiteMeter page. At this moment, it’s reporting that Ephblog gets 412 visits a day. The last 100 visits superimposed on a world map is sort of interesting as well.
So for those privacy freaks, yes, Big Brother is watching.
We’re Number 14!
We all know there is a certain arbitrariness to the US News and World Report College Rankings. The selection of criteria and the weighting of the criteria are idiosyncratic. Alternative ranking exist. For instance, some clever economists ranked colleges by the head-to-head choices made by high school seniors). Well, the liberal Washington Monthly weighs in with its own rankings emphasizing public service:
From this starting point, we came up with three central criteria: Universities should be engines of social mobility, they should produce the academic minds and scientific research that advance knowledge and drive economic growth; and they should inculcate and encourage an ethic of service.
The authors are forthcoming with the limitations of the methodology and data (part of their purpose is to encourage universities to release data — something David Kane can fully support). The rankings of universities is radically different from US News and World Report. Here are the top ten universities: 1) MIT; 2) UCLA; 3) UC-Berkeley; 4) Cornell; 5) Stanford; 6) Penn State; 7) Texas A&M; 8) UC-San Diego; 9) U Penn; 10) University of Michigan.
The rankings for liberal arts colleges are not radically different: 1) Wellesley; 2) Wesleyan; 3) Bryn Mawr; 4) Harvey Mudd; 5) Fisk; 6) Amherst; 7) Haverford; 8) Wofford; 9) Colby; 10) Spelman.
Williams comes in at #14.
Williams, which U.S. News ranks as the top liberal arts school in the country, wound up at #14 on our list, one slot below Presbyterian, largely because of its weak service numbers.
One methodological irony is how Washington Monthly measured service. Numbers on teachers and government employees are not readily available. However, ROTC numbers for each college are easy to find. So schools with active ROTC programs are ranked more highly than they might be otherwise. Again, I think David Kane might fully support an expansion of the Williams ROTC program.
This might be the only source of agreement between David and Washington Monthly.
Theses On-line!
EphBlog gets results! Some senior theses for 2004/2005 are now available on-line. (Thanks to Ronit Bhattacharyya ‘07 and College Librarian David Pilachowski for the pointer. I also know that Morty was a fan of this effort.)
Again, no one believes that there are thousands of readers about to dive into these. But there are more than a few worth reading (although I have only had time to finish Lindsey Taylor’s so far) and several which will have portions more widely read then the vast majority of work produced by members of the Williams faculty this year.
Most importantly, the more public and open the College makes the process and product of academic work at Williams, the better that work will be done. Want to increase the quality of intellectual life among current undergraduates? Let the rest of us listen in.
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