Archive for June, 2008
Monday, June 30th, 2008
Recht’s not going to be happy with me …
8 Comments » - Posted in 1 by Dick Swart
Monday, June 30th, 2008
It’s a simple matter of adding human proportion …
5 Comments » - Posted in 1 by Dick Swart
Monday, June 30th, 2008
Distinctive
At graduation three years ago, class speaker Ben Cronin ‘05 said (HT to Jonathan Landsman ‘05):
Merit, of course, is important, but it is not what makes Williams distinctive. The entire university system incubates merit, each institution in its own way. Indeed, I will be so un-nationalistic as to say that even Wesleyan and Amherst serve [...]
3 Comments » - Posted in 1 by David Kane
Sunday, June 29th, 2008
Dude, where’s my town?
This is the most irresponsible thing Williams has ever done. It punishes the landscape as a reminder to us all, that life is about more than money.
41 Comments » - Posted in 1 by PTC
Saturday, June 28th, 2008
Local swimming hole #3
The Tubs
This is private property, so I am not going to give the exact location on the internet. It is in Pownal just off of Rt 346, about fifteen minuets from town. If you want to check it out, make friends with a townie and they will show you the way. It is a very beautiful location.
Warning- the [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Drinking in the Berkshires by PTC
Saturday, June 28th, 2008
An Asian Partner?
Could this story about a Singapore university seeking a partner (and mentioning Williams by name) be part of the reason a large entourage of Williams employees, including President Schapiro and development officers, is reportedly in Asia?
http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/STIStory_252307.html
6 Comments » - Posted in 1 by lgeorge
Saturday, June 28th, 2008
Deviants
Now that the Odd Quad has been dead for two years, where does the current generation of “Deviants” hang out?
The name “Deviants” was adopted by members of the Williams community who associated themselves with a less mainstream culture, particularly social life. The name was taken from a listserver owned by Jesse Dill ‘04 and Chris [...]
9 Comments » - Posted in 1 by David Kane
Friday, June 27th, 2008
Ugly Buildings for Obama
In my regular truckload of political news yesterday and today, I noticed a little gem about Williams’ regular contributor and building namesake Edgar Bronfman, Sr. (of Seagram’s fame). Well, technically I think the building is named after the whole Bronfman family, many of whom contributed to the building, but still…Edgar was the initial Williams connection so far [...]
8 Comments » - Posted in Alumni, Buildings, News by JG
Friday, June 27th, 2008
Summer Theater
I hadn’t realized just how big the summer theater has become, and how many venues in Williamstown they are using. The place is jumping!
http://www.williams.edu/admin/news/releases/1654
6 Comments » - Posted in 1 by lgeorge
Friday, June 27th, 2008
Summer Athletics Round-up
Lots of athletics tid-bits over the last few weeks.
First, on the alumni front, several former Eph basketball players have been in the news: Mike Crotty ‘04 for his job with the NBA champion Celtics, and Casey Gibbons ‘06 for the basketball recruiting company he started. Also, check here for a nice feature [...]
16 Comments » - Posted in Athletics by jeffz
Friday, June 27th, 2008
Wonk Poet
An unusual poetry slam.
Educational wonkery as…poetry? Inside Higher Ed columnist Wick Sloane has accepted an invitation to read from his work 7 p.m., Friday, June 27, 2008, at La Luna Caffe, Cambridge (where else?) as part of the acclaimed City Nights Reading Series. Wick will read from his column, “The Devil’s Workshop,” including selections from [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Wick Sloane '76 by David Kane
Thursday, June 26th, 2008
Intellectual Honesty
Information wants to be free, or so all the cool Ephs tell me.
One of my favorite recurring crusades is to encourage/cajole/force Williams into being more transparent. Too much information is too restricted to too few people. A central hallmark of an academic community is openness, a willingness to consider evidence and discuss policy. To that [...]
3 Comments » - Posted in Transparency by David Kane
Thursday, June 26th, 2008
Large Employee Entourage off to Asia?
Reading through one of the blogs featured in EphPlanet, I came across this comment: “…this story comes just as the president of my college, and a rather large entourage of administrative and development staff, are making a visit to China and Hong Kong and Taiwan.” The author was very clearly referring to President Schapiro and [...]
4 Comments » - Posted in 1 by lgeorge
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
Financial Aid
In response to a question on financial aid, Morty told a story about an alum who is a college professor. Her son had been accepted by Williams and by an Ivy. [Morty did not so say directly, but the school was almost certainly Harvard, Yale or Princeton.] The alum told Morty that the Ivy was [...]
42 Comments » - Posted in Financial Aid by David Kane
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
The Disadvantages of an Elite Education?
I’ve been a frequent reader of (and occasional commenter on) Ephblog for a while, so when I encountered a discussion of the disadvantages of an elite education on MetaFilter, I emailed David to say this might be interesting content for this site. And now I seem to have become an author.
Anyway, the MetaFilter thread is [...]
30 Comments » - Posted in Academia, General by Dan Seaton
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
Fixing Soccer
Bill Ryan ‘89 is not having as much fun watching Euro 2008 as I am.
Dear Soccer,
While I was at the gym today, you happened to be on the television in front of me. That’s cool, I am a sports fan. It is certainly better than watching one of the news networks lie.
Until the 18th time [...]
16 Comments » - Posted in 1 by David Kane
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
Symington ‘76 Running for Vermont Governorship
Gaye Symington, Williams ’76, is running for governor in Vermont. She has been Speaker of the House. She’s a fine person. Vermont is lucky.
Symington for Governor
http://symingtonforgovernor.com/
Gaye Symington - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gaye R. Symington (born: 20 April 1954 in Boston, Massachusetts) is the Speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives, the lower house [...]
3 Comments » - Posted in 1 by wsloane
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
What is a Williams education for?
As a counterpoint to the NY Magazine think piece on the sexy and wealthy life of Harvard grads I posted on last week, I offer you this NY Times article on a Harvard education professor who is teaching “reflection seminars” at Harvard, Amherst, and Colby to encourage students to look “beyond the consulting and financial [...]
21 Comments » - Posted in 1 by mjsahm
Sunday, June 22nd, 2008
Building Names
Morty mentioned that the North and South Academic buildings already had names. I think that they will be formally dedicated this fall. He gave no hint as to what the names would be. I am still guessing that one will be Kraft Hall. Other guesses? Assume for a second that the donor will not be [...]
11 Comments » - Posted in 1 by David Kane
Saturday, June 21st, 2008
Athletic Admissions
Morty took great pride in claiming that athletic admission were very different now then when he started 8 years ago. This was clearly a great success, in his mind. I agree. He offered few details, but see our previous discussions. If Williams still had the same process in place today that it hard 10 years [...]
54 Comments » - Posted in Tips by David Kane
Friday, June 20th, 2008
Tutorials
Morty repeatedly sang the praises of the tutorial program. He mentioned that this was Williams’ “signature” program and cited impressive numbers as to tutorial growth over the last 8 years, something like 20 tutorials to 71 and 160 students enrolled to 760. [Does anyone have the exact numbers? I am (mis)remembering as best I can.] [...]
5 Comments » - Posted in 1 by David Kane
Thursday, June 19th, 2008
Local swimming hole #2
The Hopper.
Check it out. Local, everyone knows where it is. You could jog here. Fast cold water, a nice field to picnic in, and you do not have to worry about the above sign. It is legal to swim here.
I may make it home this summer. If so, I’ll check up on some of my [...]
19 Comments » - Posted in 1 by PTC
Thursday, June 19th, 2008
Veterans?
What programs does Williams have to help our veterans afford a Williams education? Does the school offer anything to veterans in terms of special financial aid?
It would be really great if Williams offered veterans an education for the cost of the current GI Bill. Bush has promised to veto the Webb GI Bill and [...]
21 Comments » - Posted in 1 by PTC
Thursday, June 19th, 2008
How is it done?
How do you track where a person is when they post on this blog? I understand that when you get the IP Address of an idnividual blogger, you can run that through a varitey of webpage programs to see where the person was when they posted- but how do you get their address? Can anyone [...]
23 Comments » - Posted in 1 by PTC
Thursday, June 19th, 2008
Social Life
Morty discussed campus social life a bit, especially the housing system. He confessed that, when grading his own performance at last week’s trustee meeting, he gave himself the lowest grade in this category. He felt that the College was still trying to figure out the best ways to do things. He reiterated again his dislike of the [...]
11 Comments » - Posted in 1 by David Kane
Thursday, June 19th, 2008
Berkshires Art Update
Today’s New York Sun features a lengthy article on the Clark expansion, including a nice slide show of the new Stone Hill Center.
Meanwhile, North Adams is keeping up with the neighbors, creating a new art map highlighting various galleries and artist residences around town, and putting the finishing touches on the massive new Sol LeWitt exhibit [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Williamstown by jeffz
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
Meet The New Test
Useful overview of research about the new SAT. Main Eph-related hook is comfirmation that the Writing section is useless, just as Jen Doleac ‘03 explained to us five years ago.
3 Comments » - Posted in 1 by David Kane
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
Intellectual Vitality
Morty discussed the issue of intellectual vitality. He pitched this, not so much as a way to somehow identify kids with some sort of spark — see my previous discussion — but as a method for avoiding punishing kids who “take chances.” Let’s say you have two students, both with similar academic profiles. But one [...]
6 Comments » - Posted in Admissions by David Kane
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
Better Than You: Harvard ‘03
New York Magazine’s Intelligencer has published an item on the Harvard class of 2003, which has just recently celebrated its five-year reunion in Cambridge. And they would like to point out that unlike classes churned out by other schools with pretensions to empire, they are sickenly successful. Sorry, Williams!
Famous alums include NY Observer publisher Jared [...]
7 Comments » - Posted in 1 by mjsahm
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
Legacy Admissions
Morty answered a question about legacy admissions with all sorts of juicy details. He mentioned the distinction between direct legacies (one or two parents from Williams) and skip legacies (no parents but at least one grandparent). He noted that the former were more of a focus than the latter. He reported that 12%-15% of a [...]
