Who is a Peabody Winner?
Don’t care about who is and who is not a Peabody winner? Don’t read this post! (But if you know any Ephs who have won a Peabody, please tell us in the comments. As far as I can tell, there is not a single Eph who can honestly claim to be a “Peabody winner.” Correct me if I am wrong!)
Eph Pulitzer Winners
How many Ephs have won a Pulitzer Prize? This seems like the sort of empirical question we ought to be able to answer. Indeed, perhaps it is time for a Wikipedia page on the topic. I see:
John Toland ‘36
Professor James McGregor Burns ‘39
Bernard Bailyn ‘45
Hedrick Smith ‘55
John Kifner ‘63 (who wins (?) via his contribution to a collection of articles for the New York Times. I think that all the reporters in such a collection can and do describe themselves as Pulitzer-winners. Is that the convention? Or do you need to be cited by name to claim that honor?)
Edward Larson ‘74
Stacy Schiff ‘82
Sonia Nazario ‘82
Former Professor Louise Gluck (not sure if a non-alum belongs in this list but she won the Pulitzer while she was at Williams).
Are there any others? Leaving aside Gluck, all of these Ephs have won Bicentennial Medals except for Smith and Larson. Surely they should be near the top of the list as the committee members consider nominations for next year.
UPDATE: Thanks for the comment below on Greg Jaffe ‘91. Since he is the author of several of the articles for which the Wall Street Journal won, he is, indeed, a Pulitzer Prize winner. (Note the confusion here on that topic.) In the category of Williams alum Pulitzer winners who have not won Bicentennial Medals, we have 3 men and 0 women. Nothing to see there! Please, just move along.
Photo ID, #94
This isn’t at Williams, per se, but here’s hoping you can still identify where it is, even if you’ve never been there.
Boston Globe Article on Financial Aid for the Middle Class
At the moment, the most e-mailed article on the The Boston Globe’s web site (www.boston.com) is one entitled, “At elite colleges, new aid for the middle.”
Some excerpts:
“The misconception is you get financial aid only if you’re poor,” William R. Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard, told about 160 parents and their college-bound children last week at a recruitment event at a Worcester hotel also attended by admissions officers from Duke, Stanford, Georgetown, and Penn.
Fitzsimmons and the other officials said they are increasingly reaching out to families caught in the middle: those who are too wealthy to be eligible for federal grants, but not so wealthy as to be able to absorb the $50,000 a year for college, particularly with the rising costs of home ownership.
A decade ago, when the annual price for elite colleges hovered near $30,000, the five colleges gave little or no financial aid to families earning $100,000 or more, unless they had more than one child in college. Now, colleges say they typically cover between $20,000 and $30,000 of the $50,000 bill for comparable families.
At Harvard, the average need-based grant for families in the $100,000-$140,000 income range last school year was $21,693, up from $17,910 in 2004-05.
At Stanford, a family with an income of more than $100,000 with one child in college would get about $30,000 this academic year, compared with just $4,000 to $5,000 a decade ago. Stanford specifically targeted $5 million of its $10 million overall aid increase last year for middle- and higher-income families, its financial aid director said.
College officials define middle class as families who make $100,000 and more per year….
At the admissions directors’ presentation in Worcester, Fitzsimmons stunned many parents when he showed a slide of the income levels of Harvard’s 3,357 undergraduate aid recipients last academic year. About 40 percent of the recipients came from families who made more than $100,000, while just over 30 percent were from families making under $60,000. The highest income on the slide was $180,000 and above.
Gender Disparity in Bicentennial Medal Standards
My friend Jeff claims that I have been “soundly trounced” on the issue of whether or not the same standards apply for male and female Ephs in the awarding of Bicentennial Medals at Williams.
[Previous discussion here. Strictly speaking there are two separate issues. First, are the standards lower for female Ephs and for male Ephs in general? Second, does any particular Eph, male or female, deserve to win? The second questions is much more difficult and contentious than the first. Here, let me focus on the former. Only those naive to the ways of places like Williams and to the unyielding reality of the underlying demographics believe that standards for men and women are the same.]
Jeff provides a handy “proof” of his claim, illustrating, in his view, that there are female Ephs with credentials more distinguished than Earl Potter ‘68 who have not won Bicentennial Medals.
By the way, Catherine Hill has better than “the same” achievements (President of a more prestigious institution, Vassar, as well as years of service to Williams) … she has not (yet) been awarded a medal. QED.
I do not think that QED means what you think it means.
First, Catherine Hill was awarded an Honorary Degree in 2006. An Honorary Degree is much more prestigious than a Bicentennial Medal. As a rule (counter-examples welcome), the College does not award both to the same person. Consider Nobel Prize winner Robert Engle ‘64, awarded an Honorary Degree in 2007. We all agree that he has displayed “distinguished achievement.” Why no Bicentennial Medal for Engle? Because the College awards honorary degrees to the real stars.
Second, even if you want to compare Cappy Hill to someone, the natural comparison is to Steve Lewis ‘60. Both are Williams graduates, Williams economics professors and Williams provosts. Both became presidents of elite liberal arts colleges. Why does Lewis only get a Bicentennial Medal after a decade of being a college president while Hill gets an Honorary Degree just as her college presidency begins?
But these are quibbles. The Lewis/Hill outcomes might have nothing to do with gender. Morty might just like Cappy and not like Steve. Instead, of looking at this difficult case, let’s take a simple test. Here are neutral descriptions of three alums in the same field.
1) Successful in business and owner of a minor league baseball team.
2) Successful in business and owner of a major league baseball team.
3) Successful in business and commissioner of Major League Baseball.
Which one of these three alums has most displayed “distinguished achievement” in his/her field? Now, it would be reasonable to say that none of them have, that baseball is such a trivial part of human endeavor that none of these Ephs deserve a medal. It would also be reasonable to think that baseball is so wonderful that all three Ephs should win.
But there is no possible objective criteria by which you can prefer Eph #1 over #2 and #3. What if I told you that, in fact, #1 had been awarded a Bicentennial Medal in 1994 while Ephs #2 (George Steinbrenner ‘52) and #3 (Fay Vincent ‘60) had never been so honored? What would your first guess be about the gender of Eph #1? That’s right! Eph #1 is female.
Tracy P. Lewis
Class of 1983
Awarded the Bicentennial Medal in 1994.Business woman and entrepreneur – first woman to own a minor league baseball team.
I am happy to grant that Tracy Lewis is a wonderful person (more wonderful than me) who has achieved a great deal (more than me). But if she had not been a woman, she would not have been awarded a Bicentennial Medal.
One example not enough? Fine. Let’s play again! Which of these four Ephs deserves a Bicentennial Medal?
1) Elected District Attorney in Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
2) Elected Congressman from 2nd District of Hawaii.
3) Elected Congressman from 2nd District of Colorado.
4) Elected Governor of Minnesota.
Again, maybe all of these Ephs deserve medals because elected office is so important. Many none of them do because politicians are venal. But there is no objective criteria imaginable by which a fair committee would choose #1 over any of #2, #3, or #4.
Who won? Surprise! It was Eph #1 in 1999.
Martha M. Coakley
Class of 1975
Awarded the Bicentennial Medal in 1999.Middlesex County District Attorney
Neither Eph #2 (Ed Case ‘75) nor #3 (Mark Udall ‘72) nor #4 (Arne Carlson ‘57) have won Bicentennial Medals. If any were female, they would have.
I am happy to play this game all day long, but, please, just think about the demographic reality. Women have only been at Williams for the last 30 years. Bicentennial Medal winners tend to be older because it often takes a lifetime to demonstrate “distinguished achievement.” Many/most female Ephs take substantial time off from their careers for family reasons while very few male Ephs do the same. Given all these facts (and without even entering the wonderful world of Larry Summers), there is no way that objective criteria would produce a 50/50 split between male/female medal winners.
What would the split be if the committee were gender-blind? Excellent question! I don’t know. There is already more male than female winners. A rough guess would be that 25% of the winners are female. If there were not a concern to make the winners look like Williams, the percentage would be much lower.
And, as always, this discussion should take nothing away from the female winners who would have won even if they were male. For example, it seems (counter-examples welcome) that every Eph Pulitzer Prize-winner has won a Bicentennial Medal. Sonia Nazario ‘82 and Stacy Schiff ‘82 fully deserved their medals. The same can not be said for some other female Eph winners. They were chosen, not for “distinguished achievement” among all Ephs, but for success in comparison to other female graduates of Williams.
It is an empirical fact that the standards for awarding Bicentennial Medals for women are lower than those for men. That may be a good thing. (I don’t really object much, if at all.) That may be a bad thing. But people like Jeff who would prefer that reality were other than it is should try to do that pretending elsewhere. They will have better luck.
Yacht Club
Add Earl Potter ‘68, president of St. Cloud State University, to the list of Eph college presidents. Is this news story a compliment or an insult?
But behind those achievements lie a man whose history is as complex and diverse as the list of schools he’s studied at and led.
Potter grew up in a small, waterfront town in Rhode Island along with his parents and younger brother and sister.
Potter described his past as one full of choices, of trying to fit in with the various social circles that ran rampant in his life in North Kingstown.
Church, high school and the yacht club were just some of the many directions the young Potter was pulled in.
But though it could be difficult at times to sort through those various circles, Potter said he learned to make up his own mind on what was right and wrong, and gained an independent streak which helps guide him through decisions he continues to make.
Ah, the pull of the yacht club. Beware the infernal temptations of youth!
To be fair, Potter seems like an interesting fellow. He spent many years in the Coast Guard, not dodging his military obligations like so many Ephs of his generation. Will the College be awarding Potter a Bicentennial Medal anytime soon? Maybe. A female Eph with the same accomplishments would be a shoe-in.
Perky
Amused Cynic (aka Driver), a 2007 parent, has thoughts on Commencement Speaker Katie Couric. Driver is not a fan.
Giving Up
Did you know that Anthony Kronman ‘68, former Dean of Yale Law School, was a member of the Vast Right-wing Conspiracy, Eph division? Me either! Kronman’s new book, Education’s End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life, aims to be The Closing of the American Mind for 2007.
The question of what living is for — of what one should care about and why — is the most important question a person can ask. Yet under the influence of the modern research ideal, our colleges and universities have expelled this question from their classrooms, judging it unfit for organized study. In this eloquent and carefully considered book, Tony Kronman explores why this has happened and calls for the restoration of life’s most important question to an honored place in higher education.
The author contrasts an earlier era in American education, when the question of the meaning of life was at the center of instruction, with our own times, when this question has been largely abandoned by college and university teachers. In particular, teachers of the humanities, who once felt a special responsibility to guide their students in exploring the question of what living is for, have lost confidence in their authority to do so. And they have lost sight of the question itself in the blinding fog of political correctness that has dominated their disciplines for the past forty years.
Yet Kronman sees a readiness for change — a longing among teachers as well as students to engage questions of ultimate meaning. He urges a revival of the humanities’ lost tradition of studying the meaning of life through the careful but critical reading of great works of literary and philosophical imagination. And he offers here the charter document of that revival.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know that many readers will expect an ex-Marine, anti-big-government wingnut like me to eat this stuff up with a rich man’s spoon. Sorry to disappoint! This is 90% gibberish.
1) Just when was this golden age when “the meaning of life was at the center of instruction?” Was it when I was at Williams 20 years ago, Kronman 30 years ago or my father 50 years ago? I would take the other side on any of those claims. We talked endlessly about the meaning of life in Williams dorms 20 years ago. In classes? Not so much. Of course, there were some great discussions. I still recall arguing over Alistair McIntyre’s conception of virtue in a class with Philosophy Professor Alan White. But, surely, such class room debate still goes on.
2) I do my fair share of fighting against the “fog of political correctness” (fun examples here and here), but the PC ethos has no problem with prattle about the meaning of life. In fact, I bet that the more PC the teacher, the more such prattle there is. It is the “conservatives” in departments like English who insist on focusing on the actual works on the syllabus, who demand that students discuss what Shakespeare wrote and why, rather than on what 18 year-olds think about the “meaning of life.” PC prevents a discussion of actual facts (which might offend someone) rather than sophomoric musings. You can discuss the meaning of life all day, every day at Williams. No one will complain. Try to have a discussion about why there are no African American faculty in Division III. The PC’ers will be at your throat in minutes. Ask Larry Summers!
3) There is a “a longing among teachers” for this? Yeah, right! The faculty control places like Williams and Yale. If there was a real longing among a non-trivial portion of the faculty, we would see much more of this. We don’t, so there isn’t.
4) Is there any evidence that humanities professors in general have “lost confidence in their authority” to guide students on important questions? Not that I have noticed!
There is also an interview with Kronman here which I find much more congenial. Perhaps the book might make for an interesting CGCL. Thoughts?
Williams Connections to the 2007 MacArthur Fellows
Well, the MacArthur Foundation’s “genius awards” are out, and there are no Williams graduates in this year’s list. However, Peter Cole started out at Williams and then transferred to Hampshire College.
There is another Williams connection–Marlies Carruth ‘80 is a Program Officer there. The Program Staff web page notes:
Marlies Carruth is a Program Officer in the Fellows Program.
After more than a decade with First National Bank of Chicago and Leo Burnett, Carruth turned her energies toward the creative arts and community development. As an independent film producer and director, she produced concept pieces, short films, and a feature-length movie, each exploring important contemporary social issues. In addition, Carruth co-founded Indie Day, a national grassroots film festival for cable television.
Carruth received her B.A. in Political Economy from Williams College and her M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, with a concentration in Finance.
Machete Ball
(d)avid points out this e-mail to Andrew Sullivan on the topic of the domination by Asian-Americans of evangelical groups at elite campuses.
Andrew, two things:
First, it is indeed true that Asians dominate Christian groups at elite US colleges. At Williams, my friends and I lived in a suite opposite six or seven Christian, Asian girls, very sweet and demure and renunciatory of things of This World: I know it bothered them living with four more or less Wild Men (like the figure of medieval popular mythology) who were constantly smoking pot, shouting, and carrying machetes (we used to play a game called Machete Ball, very wasteful and American; it’s pretty much baseball except one uses fruit for the balls and a machete for the bat — quite satisfying). Or rather, I do tend to think that along with the disapproval, there was a genuine amount of fear, which is not unreasonable.
So that statistic rings true.
Secondly, Harvard was not an evangelical institution in the 17th C., it was only in the 18th C., with the Great Awakening, that what we know as Evangelicals really came on the scene. The 17th Century types were much more grim and bloody-minded Calvinists, Cotton Mather style.
Sorry to be pedantic, but New England 17th and 18th C. History is my specialty.
(d)avid writes: “I can’t believe that Ephblog somehow missed out on machete ball. Definitely a trend that deserves watching.”
Indeed. Comments:
1) If you care about the history of Williams, you have to read Mark Hopkins and the Log by Professor Fred Rudolph ‘39. Lots of good stuff on the Great Awakening.
2) Is Machete Ball still played at Williams? Pictures, please.
3) Are their evangelic groups active at Williams? What is their ethnic breakdown?
Windowpane
Wick Sloane ‘76 writes about another day in the life of a community college English professor.
“Good prose is like a windowpane,” George Orwell warned the wordy in Why I Write. In the face of a confounding situation, squirt the Windex, wipe the glass, shut up and write. This is one of those times.
Read the whole thing.
Crush on Ahmadinejad
Dan Blatt ‘85 reports that Left-Wing Lesbian Has Crush on Ahmadinejad. I shudder to think what Google searches will find their way to EphBlog as a result.
Eph 400
The Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans is out. How many Ephs are on it? Excellent question! I see:
1) Edgar M Bronfman Sr ‘50 at $3.2 billion. Bronfman never graduated from (was kicked out of?) Williams. Surely there is a story to be told . . .
2) Herb Allen ‘62 at $2.0 billion. By the way, Allen is listed as a college drop-out. Does he have a degree from Williams or not?
3) Robert Rich Jr ‘63 at $1.5 billion. Note also this great article.
4) George Steinbrenner III, ‘52 at $1.3 billion.
Non-Ephs on the list with Eph connections include Robert Kraft (father of several Ephs including Trustee Jonathan Kraft ‘86) and Matthew Bucksbaum grandfather to a current Eph and father-in-law to Williams Commencement (Re-)Speaker Thomas Friedman.
Here is a handy alphabetical list of all 400. Are there any Ephs we have missed? (Why doesn’t this tool provide a Williams option?)
Unfortunately, Steve Case ‘80 is no longer on the list. Alas, $825 million isn’t what it used to be! Eph most likely to make this list someday? Chase Coleman ‘97.
Sani ‘08 Scores
Just how good is women’s soccer this year? Pretty good.
Western Connecticut came to Cole Field with an undefeated record and a No. 9 national ranking in the latest Division III women’s soccer poll. The Colonials left Williams College with its ranking — but not the undefeated season.
Four different Ephs scored goals as they rolled over Western Connecticut 4-0 yesterday afternoon. The win improved Williams’ record to 5-0-0, while Western Connecticut falls to 4-1-1.
The visitors entered the game having moved up to the No. 9 ranking in the latest national poll. Williams was not ranked, but did receive some Top 25 votes.
Five minutes into the game, the Ephs scored a goal and made a statement that they belong in the poll. Williams netted three goals in the opening stanza.
“We have been starting our games strong and that has been very effective for us,” said Ephs coach Michelyne Pinard.
Williams’ Ana Sani had two goals, giving her a NESCAC-leading five for the year.
Longtime readers will recall that Sani appeared on the front page of the New York Times two years ago. Glad to see that her knee is feeling better!
By the way, another of my crazy ideas is to stop reserving the 1:00 PM time slot at Weston Field for the football team on Homecoming Week-End. Almost all alums come for fun and friends, not football. Attendance would be the same if, say, women’s soccer were playing.
So, instead of football, honor whichever team (male or female) has had the best fall season by giving them the 1:00 PM slot at Weston. If it isn’t football, then they could play either before or after. I realize that Weston is not (easily) set-up for soccer (or field hockey) but I am pretty sure that the players would rather be at the center of attention even if the field were sub-optimal.
$5 Million for Sustainability
To the Williams Community,
I am very pleased to announce the next important step in our effort to make College operations environmentally sustainable — the launching of a center to lead those initiatives, funded by a wonderfully generous gift of $5 million from Selim Zilkha, Class of 1946. full text
So starts a letter to the campus from president Morty. What does $5 million mean for the campus?
The Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives will work with students, faculty, and staff to incorporate principles of sustainability into the fabric of campus life — in learning, in our purchasing and operations, in capital projects, and in the daily routines of us all. It will lead the development and management of a strategic plan for sustainability to include energy management and greenhouse gas emissions reductions, waste management, environment-friendly development and purchasing, and student involvement and education. This work will complement the already strong academic programs of our longstanding Center for Environmental Studies.
Football Webcast
Looking for a webcast of today’s football game? Try here. Let us know if it works. How many years before almost every Williams sporting event is webcast?
Contract Major
Erik Tillman has a question.
Can anyone offer some advice on whether it’s worth it, how to decide whether to pursue it, what it actually entails… anything? I’m thinking of maybe combining bio and philosophy into a bioethics-type program. Maybe.
Not worth it. First, why not be a biology major or a philosophy major or (even better) a double major instead? If you are really interested in bio-ethics then you ought to study a lot of both biology and philosophy at Williams. (I would especially recommend learning all the technical details associated with the BiGP program.) Second, even if you are not interested enough in, say, biology to double major, philosophy is still a natural home for a budding bio-ethicist. You can certainly do a bio-ethics thesis and might even be able to swing an independent study. (You should already be taking classes with an eye to establishing relationships with philosophy professors (who?) with an interest in the topic. Third, a contract major is a pain. There is a big bureaucratic process to go through and you need to sweet-talk professors to make it all happen. The College makes the process tough on purpose to weed out those who aren’t that serious or who would be just as well served by a regular major.
There is nothing wrong with a contract major, but the costs are high.
Are there an contract majors among our readers?
Photo ID, #93
Bookstore Monopolies
One might fulminate about the ridiculous prices and endless queues at Water St. Books during the start of semester, but at least they never tried a policy as brain-dead as this one:
The Coop, Harvard’s Barnes-and-Noble-run bookstore, has begun to throw out students who “take a lot of notes” about book pricing, stating that their prices are “intellectual property.” Apparently, no one with a Harvard Law degree is involved in formulating this notion, as factual matters (such as pricing) are not copyrightable.
Coop President Jerry P. Murphy ‘73 said that while there is no Coop policy against individual students copying down book information, “we discourage people who are taking down a lot of notes.” The apparent new policy could be a response to efforts by Crimsonreading.org–an online database that allows students to find the books they need for each course at discounted prices from several online booksellers–from writing down the ISBN identification numbers for books at the Coop and then using that information for their Web site. Murphy said the Coop considers that information the Coop’s intellectual property.
A policy like this only drives students further away from shopping at traditional campus bookstores. If comparison shopping is discouraged, students are probably better off making their purchases directly online, since that will almost always turn out to be cheaper in the end.
I wonder how long it will be until some tech-savvy college uses Amazon’s aStore bookstore-creator to offer a completely online campus bookstore. The primary value offered by traditional campus book stores is that they make it easier for students to navigate to the book list for their specific course. However, a well-made online campus bookstore could be even easier to navigate: students could enter their student ID number, which would be linked in to the college’s course registration and billing databases, in order to automatically receive a list of all books they need to get for their courses. They could then have the books they purchase delivered to the campus mail room, while the cost of the books would be added to their term bill. This would reduce the process of book-buying to a couple of clicks.
Perhaps Amazon could offer some bulk discounted shipping options to colleges; we would also need a user-friendly API that lets registrars upload courses and book lists easily using a spreadsheet. Are any developers listening?
New Center for Environmental Initiatives
Morty just sent out an e-mail to the college detailing a new full-time staff position within the office of the vice president for operations. The staffer will lead the Center for Environmental Initiatives, which will create and maintain a strategic plan for the college’ sustainability goals.
It looks like the Thursday Night Group just got a corresponding official within the college.
Read the whole letter at the link below.
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