Upcoming highlights
CELEBRATE 40 years of the Williams Black Alumni Network! Are you a WBAN member interested in supporting this milestone with an idea or as a volunteer? Please let us know!
In Case You Missed It
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Reunions Continue
Classes of 1995 and 1996 gathered for a delayed celebration of their 25th milestone reunion gathering at the end of June. The sun shone on 400+ smiling Ephs and their families —flip through photos of all the festivities.
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A gift of Real Estate is a Real option In the most recent issue of Giftwise, learn about the Adler family ’s generous gift to the college of a home in Williamstown. Herb Adler, who passed away in 2005, was a passionate arts patron —his widow Susan and daughter Maggie Adler ’99, MA’11 have given the property to the college with proceeds from the sale going to support a new home for the Williams College Museum of Art in Herb ’s honor.
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Alumni in Focus- After celebrating the Grad Art program’s 50th anniversary on campus, Brian Allen MA ’92 describes his transition from politics to the art world and his experience at Williams.
- Pay thousands of dollars to store a huge artwork or dismantle it? Pamela Council ’07 faced that question when their 20,000-pound outdoor sculpture A Fountain for Survivors was removed from its Times Square installation.
- Frank Doelger '75 talks about how Williams shaped his journey to becoming a multiple Emmy-award-winning producer (Game of Thrones, John Adams, and more), what it was like to teach Winter Study, and what he's working on now.
- “Toughness, sacrifice and passion are the three things that are most important to me,” says Will Hardy ’10, recently named head coach of the Utah Jazz.
- “You can expect to see big lawsuits,” says Lina Khan ’10, chair of the Federal Trade Commission, in an interview about how things may change now that Democrats make up the majority of the agency.
- Sumi Loundon Kim ’97, Buddhist chaplain at Yale University, discusses the lessons she’s learned about building sustainable communities and the value of implicit learning.
- “Humans sleep less than any ape, monkey or lemur that scientists have studied,” says Elizabeth Preston ’07 on why humans don’t get as much shut-eye as other primates.
- Michael Roizen ’67, chief wellness officer of the Cleveland Clinic, discussing choices that can prevent disease and extend life.
- David Shipley '85, new editorial page editor for The Washington Post, will have the opportunity to shape the commentary and expand the reach of the paper.
Alumni can catch up with classmates in the May issue of Williams People.
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Geosciences professor Phoebe Cohen begins work on a dinosaur trackway.
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News from the college
Summer SchoolResearch and study don’t stop at the end of the spring semester, thanks to a robust slate of summer programs, listed on the Campus Life website. There are enrichment opportunities for incoming students during intensive, five-week immersions into the arts, sciences and humanities. And current students can work alongside their professors in nearly every academic discipline. Above, geosciences chair Phoebe Cohen tests out novel ways to remove sedimentary rock from the footprint of a dinosaur before handing the tools off to her summer research students. Located in the Wachenheim Science Center, the footprint is part of a new 40-foot trackway, the first of its kind to be installed in the last half-century or more.
Welcoming New TrusteesEarlier this month, the Williams College Board of Trustees gained three new members: Alumni Trustee George Creppy ’97, who was elected by the Society of Alumni, and term trustees Jeff Delaney ’05 and Matthew Harris ’94. Jillian Charles ’91 stepped down after her five-year term ended in June. Read more about the new trustees.
Faculty in Focus- David Edwards, anthropology professor, is teaching former students from the Taliban-exiled American University of Afghanistan to tell the stories of refugees through film. (Geneva Graduate Institute)
- Chair and Associate Professor of Religion Jeffrey Israel answers questions about the role of comedy in a society grappling with issues involving race, gender, sexuality and more. (Philosophy Talk)
- In Duped: Why Innocent People Confess—and Why We Believe Their Confessions, Saul Kassin, psychology professor, emeritus, investigates confessions from innocent people and the interrogation processes that forced their guilty pleas.
- “The problems we have as a country were really just exposed by Covid,” says English professor Jim Shepard in an interview about climate change, politics and his novel Phase Six. (The Michigan Daily)
- Tanja Srebotnjak, director of the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives, talks to Midday Magazine about what sustainability will look like in practice on the Williams campus as part of the college’s strategic plan. (WAMC)
- The National Bureau of Economic Research cited Associate Professor of Economics Owen Thompson’s co-authored article “The Long Run Impacts of Court-Ordered School Desegregation”—a look at how African Americans fared in the job market after attending integrated schools—as a featured working paper.
- Elizabeth Iams Wellman, visiting political science professor, won the Best Article Award from American Political Science Review for “Emigrant Inclusion in Home Country Elections: Theory and Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa.”
In MemoriamThe Williams community recently lost two former professors and a former campus safety leader. Robert F. Dalzell Jr., the Frederick Rudolph ’42 Class of 1965 Professor of American Culture, Emeritus, died on June 23, and Professor of Physics, Emeritus, C. Ballard Pierce passed away on June 18. Dalzell often focused his research on the impact of the relationship between business and society, retiring in 2003. Pierce chaired the former physics and astronomy department for 15 years before retiring in 1994. Ransom Jenks served as director of security for the college for decades and was particularly proud of his work and relationships with students.
For more stories and news about the Williams community, visit Williams Today.
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| Meet Steve Troyer ’86 and other Ephs on Ephalum | | See beautEPHal photos (and paintings) on Instagram | | Learn about summer on campus on Facebook | |
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