Poo Fighters
There are apparently some poo problems at Williams. (Could someone paste the campus e-mail that went out about this into the comments?) See here for discussion and here for details on tonight’s forum. Alas, the forum has already started but perhaps someone there is reading Ephblog. If so, pass on my plan.
The problem is that it is very hard for the College bureaucracy to monitor and punish student misbehavior without extensive student involvement. There are just not enough security officers. Moreover, students (like Joe) are generally unwilling to rat out their peers. Joe complains about damage in Perry House but has, presumably, not reported the miscreants to the Deans Office. Why not? Well, partly because students don’t want to rat out one another, partly because they distrust the Deans Office to do the right thing and, perhaps, partly out of fear of retaliation (see below).
How to fix it? Simple! WSO should create a public website, run by a student committee appointed by College Council or the Gargoyles and devoted to pictures taken by students of other students behaving badly. See someone steal a toaster from the snack bar or trash the picnic tables in the freshman quad or shout a drunken slur and, click, record the moment. Take their picture and send it in. Pissed that people are pushing rudely at a dance? Take their picture and send it in. If you know the names of the people in the picture, provide them. Tell the story behind the pictures. Explain why you don’t think that this behavior belongs at Williams.
Those pictures and the associated names and commentary would be posted for all to see, perhaps right on the WSO main page. Students who know the names of those pictured could post that information. Students who think that they are unfairly named or pictured would be able to respond, to explain why their behavior was misunderstood or justified or whatever. Discussion would ensue. Picture/names/incidents could be removed once “misunderstandings” were corrected.
What are the advantages of such a plan?
First, it is incremental. Try it for a while and see if it works. There is little cost to experimentation. If it doesn’t work, stop. If it does, expand the program.
Second, it does not require permission of the College. Students have the power to do this themselves. Moreover, any plan that requires an active change in College procedures is unlikely to be effective. The College has struggled with students-behaving-badly for decades. Other colleges face identical issues. If there were some policy change that administrators could make, that change would have been made by someone, somewhere. Waiting for the College to act is a prescription for despair. Such an approach also avoids the hard problems of guilt/innocence/proportionality/procedure that the College must consider it its official disciplinary procedures.
Third, it does not require resources. Indeed, a single student could start by just posting a discussion on the WSO homepage and keeping that discussion updated. (Can you include pictures in a discussion?) EphBlog would also be willing to host the effort. It would be better if the project were officially sponsored by CC or Gargoyles, but that could come later.
Fourth, students acting collectively to maintain and improve their community is in the best traditions of Williams. Indeed, students already do a great deal of looking out for each other, of stopping fights and avoiding trouble, of preventing a peer from doing something that he’ll regret in the morning.
The right way to think of this effort is not in terms of public shaming. Putting up a picture of Joe Idiot ‘08 as he pushes to the front of the drink line or trashes someone’s bicycle may shame him a bit, but it is more likely to anger him. The purpose here is not shame, it is prevention or even deterrence.
Once Williams becomes the sort of place at which destructive and disrespectful behavior is openly monitored and mocked by the students themselves, there will be a lot less destructive and disrespectful behavior.
See original post for links and discussion. You may not like this solution, but there is no better one.
Old Girlfriends
Think you are the coolest Eph? Depends on the metric. For example, is one of your ex-girlfriends accused of having an affair with presidential candidate John Edwards? No? Then you are not as cool as Jay McInerney ‘76.
On the deleted pages, the 44-year-old Hunter (formerly known as Lisa Druck) discusses her former hard partying days, her search for enlightenment, and her issues with drugs and debt. There is a 2005 interview she did with one-time boyfriend Jay McInerney, in which the celebrated novelist reveals that Hunter was the basis for Alison Poole, the main character of his book, Story of My Life.
“It was narrated in the first person,” McInerney writes in the intro to the interview, “from the point of view of an ostensibly jaded, cocaine-addled, sexually voracious 20-year old who was, shall we say, inspired by Lisa [aka Rielle].”
Or perhaps having ex-girlfriends in the news is not a good metric for coolness . . .
Williams College Photos
I was in Williamstown recently (the same weekend that Dave was giving his talk, except that I missed it to make it to a wedding). My wife, Katie Davis ‘00, lead a discussion group at a teacher conference. While she did that, I wandered around campus taking photos.
Here is a link to my Williams College Flickr Set. I don’t know that any of them are anything new compared to the excellent work that Diana Davis ‘07 has been providing us, but for those interested in such things, there you go.
I have about 1000 photos, literally, that I took that day and it is taking me some time to weed through them and find ones worth adding to the set - so it may grow over time as I try to squeeze in time to review them. I have been adding my memories/thoughts on various shots, please feel free to add any of your own as well.
A perfect viewbook picture
I am interspersing this one in the middle of all the construction pictures, because really Williams is beautiful; the construction does little to diminish that. Here are some students relaxing on the Science Quad on a beautiful fall day.
Pro-Athlete, Anti-Tip
PTC asks
David- Were you an Athlete in College? A lot of your posts suggest to me that you think sports is given too much emphasis when it comes to getting into Williams? I am just wondering.
1) Whether or not I was an athlete at Williams is fairly irrelevant to this issue. I was.
2) I am pro-athlete but anti-tip, or at least anti the current amount of emphasis on athletics in admissions at Williams. In other words, I think that Williams should place a lot of emphasis on athletics. If anything, I would like to see more done for Eph athletes.
For example, there ought to be a freshmen soccer team. Many male (and female?) Ephs come to Williams loving to play soccer but not skilled enough for either the varsity or JV teams. Such Ephs should have another option, at least for freshman year, a way to wear the purple and gold for the school they love. Even if this were a casual team, coached by a senior, with only a handful of games against local high schools, it would still be a wonderful experience for the Eph athletes involved. Williams should provide that experience. The same goes for JV baseball, freshman basketball and any other sports with enough interest.
3) But, even though I want more done for Ephs who are athletes, I would like to see less emphasis placed on athletics in admission. This has already come to pass in the 6 years since the Report on Varsity Athletics. There are many fewer athletes admitted to Williams with sub-1200 SAT scores than there used to be. Some folks, like former baseball coach Dave Barnard (and even I), predicted (and here) that Williams would no longer be able to compete, at least in the elite men’s sports which have often needed admissions help in the past. Fortunately, that prediction turned out wrong.
If Williams, even with more stringent admissions, can still win the Directors Cup, have football go undefeated and win NESCAC championships in basketball and baseball, there is no reason to think that we need more emphasis on athletics. If anything, I would like to see (and I expect Morty to take) another step in the opposite direction. Right now, there are Academic Rank 4 and 5 athletes who are admitted while AR 1 students, especially foreigners, are rejected. That ought to change, at least on the margin. I bet that it will.
I am pro-athlete and anti-tip.
Cluster + Something with a U in it
Contain your excitement! The Cluster Cup competition — I will resist cheap jokes on this phrasing for now — is heating up this week-end with doubles tennis. I predict dozens of participants, cheering throngs and much cluster-bonding.
Or not. (See also here.) As for me, I am still looking forward to those cluster speaking competitions. That would do the trick!
Mountain Day History
Back in the 1980s, there may have been an official Mountain Day, but it was a pale and pathetic imitation of the glorious tradition we now have. Only a small percentage of students participated, the day itself was scheduled in advance (regardless of weather) and always fell on a week-end. (I can’t remember if it was a Saturday or Sunday.) Classes were definitely not canceled.
See our coverage of this year’s event along with a nice page from the College.
Question: When did Mountain Day change? In particular, what was the first year that classes were canceled and that the day was a “surprise,” picked on the basis of the weather? And who deserves credit for all of this excellence?
Post Talk
My Williams talk was a fun time. There were 8 students in attendance. I kept my prepared comments to 9 minutes and then spent 30 minutes answering questions. I then let all those who had heard enough go, but spent another 45 minutes chatting with two students with very specific questions about their own plans.
Rahul Bahl ‘09 took notes. See below. If anyone has questions, please ask them in the comments.
Thanks to the Purple Bull for the invitation. I hope to speak on campus again in January, during my annual recruitment trip.
No Man’s Land
I don’t know who put up this sign — workers, administration, students? But I like it.
Cui Bono?
This article needs a better title than “Hikers benefit from land deal.”
Thanks to a land deal between a local entrepreneur and Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation, hikers will enjoy some new acreage on the northeastern edge of town.
The WRLF announced yesterday that it had acquired a 104-acre parcel of Pine Cobble, a mountain that borders Clarksburg State Forest and a portion of the Appalachian Trail.
The land was purchased for $40,000 from William “Bo” Peabody, the owner of the Sweet Farm Nominee Trust and a managing general partner at Village Ventures, a Williamstown-based venture capital firm.
Read the whole thing. Comments:
1) What was the market vale of this land?
2) How much taxes were paid to the town for this land last year? Since the land has gone to a “non-profit,” no taxes need be paid from now on. The town will need to make up that revenue somehow . . .
3) Does Peabody retain ownership of any of the land surrounding this parcel? One of the central scams of these sorts of deals — especially common at places like Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard — is that a rich landowner “gives away” a bunch of property abutting his house that he never intended to build on anyway. It was just his big beautiful backyard. He doesn’t want it to change, but he doesn’t want to pay taxes on it either. “Donating” it to a land trust is a perfect solution, although sometimes other local taxpayers disagree . . .
Some besides “hikers” is benefiting from this deal.
No Division IV
Matt Casey ‘03 is now a regular columnist for NBCSports.com. He has followed in the proud tradition of Pete McEntegart and Tim Layden, both of whom regular feature Williams sports tidbits in their on-line columns. Plus, he’s damn funny. Note the famous Dick Farley quote in this recent column.
Speaking of Williams football, congrats to the Ephs on knocking off previously undefeated Middlebury. Next up is 4-0 Tufts, the last remaining NESCAC unbeaten.
The Case That Would Not Die
Must-read Mark Bowden column on the vicious back-stabbing of Tracy McIntosh ‘75.
North side of Stetson-Sawyer, from the other side
I took this video from Lehman. There is narration. The video is a bit washed out, but you should get a sense of how the new building fits in with Brooks-Rogers, Chapin, and of course Lehman. This part of Stetson-Sawyer is on top of the building featured in Photo ID #50.
Stiglicz, RIP
Former Williams political science professor Robert Stiglicz has died.
Tired of studying war and politics after seven years at an Eastern college, F. Robert “Zack” Stiglicz turned from teaching political science to pursue the life of an artist.
Mr. Stiglicz, 54, an experimental-film maker and painter who taught at the School of the Art Institute and at Columbia College, died Monday, Oct. 8, of heart failure at his home in Evergreen Park, said his wife, Shellie Fleming.
From 1980 to 1987, Mr. Stiglicz was an assistant professor of political science at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. He received a bachelor’s degree in the subject from Miami University in Ohio and a doctorate was granted by the University of Minnesota in 1999, years after he had completed almost all of the work to receive it, his wife said.
I never had Stiglicz for a class but I recall him as an intense professor who taught the required empirical course in the department, a requirement that has since been dropped from the political science major. If you have fond memories, please share them with us.
Condolences to all.
Art and Barnes & Noble and Govan ‘85 and Beacon and … Just Read The Damn Thing
He was the young, ambitious head of a prestigious art foundation. The other he was the founder of the nation’s foremost bookselling chain, strong-willed and generous perhaps to a fault. They met. Sparks flew. A museum got built. And then, somehow, it all went wrong.
Crack NYT business columnist Joe Nocera has the story in today’s Times Magazine section. The museum man in question is Michael Govan ‘85, the former head of the Dia Art Foundation, currently in charge of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, or LACMA. Yet another branch of the Williams Art Mafia Tree, this one springing forth from Guggenheim impresario and noted expansionist Thomas Krens ‘69.
Still, he was undeniably a Krens acolyte. Govan first worked for Krens at Williams College, where he was a student and Krens was running the Williams College Museum of Art. A year after Krens got the job at the Guggenheim, he hired Govan, who was then 27, as his deputy director. At the Guggenheim, Govan won his spurs by landing a large cache of contemporary art that Krens had long coveted — the Panza Collection, it was called, which now forms the backbone of the museum’s contemporary art collection. As a result of landing that collection, which included many of the artists Dia supported, Govan got to know Charles Wright, a wealthy Seattle lawyer. Wright was then Dia’s director — and was desperately looking for someone to take his place. In 1994, Govan agreed to take the job, with Wright staying on as chairman. By then, he was all of 31.
The bookseller in question is Barnes & Noble honcho Leonard Riggio, the prickly patron of the Dia Art Foundation’s outstanding space sited in the Hudson River town of Beacon, N.Y. Jerk.
By the time Riggio joined the Dia board, it was clear that the new museum could never be put in New York City, where it would be impossible to find the gargantuan space Dia needed. Govan took him to North Adams, Mass., which was turning some abandoned factories into what eventually became Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Govan had been trying to work out a deal with MassMoCA, and in his version, the deal was running into roadblocks. Riggio’s memory is a little different. “I wasn’t particularly interested in a big building project in Massachusetts,” he says. “I told Michael that I would help him find a place and that it had to be someplace in New York.”
It’s a story of how vision, money, and influence interact in the art world. While Nocera is at pains to portray both sides as using each other to achieve their own aims, Riggio — who resigned from Dia’s Board of Directors not long after Govan decamped for the West Coast — comes off as a bit of a maniac and Govan appears more than a little opportunistic.
In any case, it’s an excellent read.
Coos
Can Susan Schwab ‘76 save free trade?
Susan Schwab is sitting inside a VIP lounge at Dulles airport near Washington, waiting for a call from The Chairman. Jet fumes hang on the tarmac outside, but what Schwab smells is a deal.
That’s why she’s grounded for the moment on her way to Tampa, where she’s scheduled to give a speech to 1,000 people the next morning. In this twilight March moment, waiting for word from The Chairman, there was no better encapsulation of the power shift that had taken place in Washington: President Bush’s trade ambassador, yellow legal pad on lap, faux quill pen in hand, surrounded by a handful of aides, hoping for Charlie Rangel to call.
That is the kind of humbling moment that makes up Sue Schwab’s lonely crusade to fight the rising tide of protectionism. It was her fate to take this job just months before the Democrats gained control of Congress, bringing with them an end to the unfettered, free-trade era of Bush’s first six years.
During that time Bush and the GOP leadership in Congress rammed through global agreements to open trade in the U.S. and abroad - ignoring a shifting political zeitgeist in which Democrats were jumping off the free-trade bandwagon to complain that American workers were being harmed.
Now Schwab finds herself in the delicate position of pleading for support from the same Democrats who had been bulldozed by her White House boss for six years.
“Hello! Mr. Chairman!” Schwab coos after an aide announces the caller and delivers her cellphone. Even at age 52, draped in a St. John knit and an Herm�s scarf, Schwab has a pixie quality; she’s the classroom good girl whose razor intellect lies just below the surface.
Read the whole thing. Were male trade negotiators described as cooing? Just asking!
Schwab is near the top of two lists: future Bicentennial Medal winners and likely Treasury Secretaries in the next Republican administration. I bet that the former happens before the latter.
McIntosh ‘75 Sentencing
Latest update on on Tracy McIntosh ‘75, most famous convicted Eph sexual assaultist. Previous Ephblog coverage here.
Former University of Pennsylvania professor Tracy McIntosh said today that he would proceed with resentencing on his 2004 no-contest plea to sexually assaulting a graduate student.
McIntosh and defense attorney Joel P. Trigiani announced the decision not to contest his original plea during a brief hearing this morning before Common Pleas Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe.
Dembe set sentencing for Dec. 21.
Dembe became the new sentencing judge Feb. 7 when the original judge, Rayford A. Means, disqualified himself rather than go through the appeals-court ordered resentencing.
Means said his controversial 11-1/2- to 23-month sentence of house arrest for McIntosh, 54, of Media, an internationally known researcher into treating brain injuries, had made him the issue rather than justice for McIntosh or his victim.
I don’t have much new to add except that, if you are a JA romantically involved with a first year, then you are, morally, little better than McIntosh. Don’t see why? Read this.
With a Laugh
News from our friends to the north.
Elisabeth Ward said she was happy to see the way the college has continued to grow since she graduated in 1952. Ward is practically family at Bennington College. Her father was the assistant to one of the college’s founders so she spent the first three months of her life living in faculty housing and her aunt, Vermont author Gladys Ogden Dimock, was a member of Bennington College’s first graduating class.
“Bennington exposed me to things I had never been exposed to before - music, dance, drama,” she said.
Ward said one of the most prominent change is the presence of male students. Until 1969, the college only accepted women.
“We all dated Williams (College in Massachusetts) men,” she said with a laugh.
Frank Uible ‘57 could not be reached for comment on this story.
Hate Speech
Are the recent incidents at Columbia more or less troubling than last spring’s Mary Jane Hitler incident at Williams? It is interesting that police were never involved in the Williams incident; one might also remember how, around the same time, the administration and police quickly buried the case of some students building a bomb in Cole Field (did we ever get a follow-up report on that case?). Either Manhattan is more prone to panic, or it’s not so easy to hush things up:
At Columbia, detectives were still reviewing 56 hours of security camera images captured by seven security cameras in and around the building where the noose was discovered early Tuesday morning hanging from the doorknob of a black professor’s office, Browne said.
Students, faculty and administrators at Columbia have denounced the attack on professor Madonna Constantine, 44, a professor of education and psychology who has written extensively about race.
Police were testing the 4-foot-long piece of twine for DNA evidence and interviewing students and faculty.
Among those questioned was another Teachers College professor, Suniya S. Luthar, who had feuded with Constantine; police said she was not considered a suspect.
…Meanwhile, police were called to the Ivy League campus again Thursday to probe another troubling discovery — a caricature of a yarmulke-wearing man and a swastika found on a university bathroom stall door.
The hate crime unit was investigating the black-ink drawing, but police said there was no reason to believe the two incidents were linked.
University President Lee Bollinger said the sketch was promptly removed, adding that he was reluctant to call attention to such drawings because he did not want to “broadcast, in any way, the message they attempt to send or empower those behind them.”
I seem to recall David suggesting that bomb-making was a form of protected speech, so I’ll wait for someone to supply a defense of how nooses are also protected by the First Amendment.
Ruminations
Some ruminations from an anonymous reader of EphBlog on athletes and admissions.
Photo ID, #96
They spent a few days installing this. I’m not sure why. Does anyone have a guess (in addition to identifying its location)?
Quiet Columnist
Is Thomas Friedman the most over-rated columnist in America? I think so! Let’s take a tour through yesterday’s offering (hat tip to Will Slack ‘11) and see why.
A new roofline between Brooks-Rogers and Sawyer
From Baxter Lawn, a new peak is visible between the two existing buildings (behind the tree). It is just a skeleton now; it will be interesting to see how the rooflines interact once Stetson-Sawyer is complete (and once Sawyer is gone).
Friedman on the Purple Bubble
Thomas Friedman has a new opinion piece out today regarding the lack of activism on college campuses, and specifically mentions Williams.
America needs a jolt of the idealism, activism and outrage (it must be in there) of Generation Q. That’s what twentysomethings are for — to light a fire under the country. But they can’t e-mail it in, and an online petition or a mouse click for carbon neutrality won’t cut it. They have to get organized in a way that will force politicians to pay attention rather than just patronize them.
Thank You Note
Andrew Wang ‘08 notes this New York Times article on sending thank you notes as part of elite college admissions.
Even when thank-yous are received, they are not necessarily kept. Admissions officials at some colleges, like New York University, Johns Hopkins and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, say they are tossed.
Barbara F. Hall, associate provost for enrollment management at N.Y.U., said writing a note was “a very polite thing to do.” But, she added, the university does not keep the notes, because “with our reading files twice, we don’t need extraneous material, and that is extraneous.”
At other campuses, like Williams College and Princeton, the notes go into applicants’ files.
“Is it necessary to write a thank-you note?” said Janet L. Rapelye, dean of admissions at Princeton. “No. But I’m still in favor of them. Expressing gratitude is a lovely quality.”
Indeed. Admissions officers are people too. At places like Williams, there is an individual who needs to make your case to the Admissions Committee. You want her to like you. In 99% of the cases, it won’t matter, but you never know. Be nice: Send a thank-you note.
Stetson-Sawyer north side, from Rt 2
The construction is quite visible from Route 2, but much less has been done than on the north side.
P.S. Jonathan, notice how nicely this picture is framed with leaves in the corners.
Short term, paid political work for an Eph?
I don’t remember is there are any programs in which current Williams students spend a semester in Washington. If so, such students are likely interested in politics and perhaps in political campaigns. Chap’s campaign has a short-term, paid opportunity for anyone who is interested. Details below in an e-mail from Chap. The e-mail alone presents a pretty interesting picture of a modern political campaign.
Paresky Center, newly labeled
Several new additions have been made to the Paresky Center: A label, to the right side of the front, and Adirondack chairs on Baxter Lawn. Pictured on the balcony may be the trustees — I know they were in town and I saw them having a reception just inside the balcony the previous evening. (Those who can recognize trustees can click for the large version and tell us.) I visited over Reading Period, so many students were off campus and were not out on the lawn on this Saturday afternoon.
Studying the Self Study
Perhaps this year’s CGCL should be about the Self Study for Accreditation that the College is currently undergoing. Comments welcome!
First, the College deserves credit for a fairly transparent process. Kudos to Roger Bolton for putting (much of) the study material on the web for all to see. Second, the committee asks for feedback. Do they really want it? Have they gotten any? Here is what I sent in.
Is the visiting committee being presented with the full picture of the campus debates surrounding the housing issue rather than *only* the summary written by the Williams administration? Certainly, if I were among the visitors I would want to be more fully informed. I am thinking, in particular, of the document that was sent to all the trustees by a group of students and alumni who opposed the new housing system.
Thanks,
Dave Kane ‘88
PS. Asking the tough questions just as you did with my senior thesis 20 years ago! :-)
The reference is to this section of the report on the new housing system. Are they going to show the visiting committee this document (pdf)? I have my doubts . . .
Interesting Athletics Speakers
Two very interesting upcoming events related to athletics:
First, on Thursday a panel is discussing the Duke lacrosse case. This should provide a nice counter to last year’s nonsensical rant from Grant Farred. I am surprised KC Johnson isn’t involved given his Williams connection.
Second, Bob Costas and Fay Vincent are having a “conversation about sports” on October 18th.
Oh, and speaking of athletics, if any Ephblog readers are curious to see what prolific commentator Frank Uible looks and sounds like in person, then you can do so here. You need to wait until the end of the webcast to hear Frank’s scouting report.
