News from the college
Welcome Back
The return of students to a fully in-person semester—the first since fall 2019—brought new life to campus as classes began Sept. 9. “Welcome back. Those words have rarely carried as much meaning for me as they do this fall,” Williams College President
Maud S. Mandel wrote in a warm
letter of welcome to the campus community. Safety measures remain in place; more than 97% of the campus community was vaccinated before the start of the semester, and everyone, regardless of vaccination status, is being tested weekly for Covid. Check out the recently updated
Covid dashboard, which now includes detailed Williams data along with data about the region.
Care and Community
The senior class gathered in Chapin Hall on Sept. 11 to mark the start of the academic year with Convocation and the awarding of a Bicentennial Medal for alumni achievement. Acknowledging the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, President Mandel in her remarks stressed the importance of optimism: “Your generation is on the front lines and simultaneously in the crosshairs,” she told those gathered. “But you continually impress me with the ways you create practices of care and community and joy amidst the chaos.” Mandel presented a Bicentennial Medal to
Val DiFebo ’84, CEO of Deutsch North America’s New York office. In her Convocation Address, DiFebo encouraged students to “be leaders with the superpower of ‘yes,’” providing examples of when this strategy worked in her own life. Watch a
video of the event, and check out a
collection of photos.
Warrior-Scholar Project
Marine Corps veteran
Joseph Grillo '24 believes courage isn't the absence of fear.
“It's putting one foot in front of the other when you're scared as hell.
” This conviction allowed him to enroll at Williams in the fall of 2020, and it also helped him lead the way for other veterans through the
Warrior-Scholar Project.
Faculty News
- Susan Dunn, Massachusetts Professor of Humanities and Franklin Delano Roosevelt expert, considers Supreme Court reform in Newsweek and compares today’s political environment to the FDR era: “The country is deeply divided and polarized now, in a way it wasn’t when FDR proposed expanding the court.”
- Astronomy professor Jay Pasachoff spoke with scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson about exploring science through art—starting with the question “Can you hear colors?”—on the radio show StarTalk.
In Memoriam
Williams recently said goodbye to three members of the community:
Ben Labaree, professor of history and environmental studies, emeritus, and founder of the Williams-Mystic Coastal and Ocean Studies Program, on Aug. 30;
Chester “Chet” Lasell ’58, former director of alumni relations, on Sept. 12; and
Bill Wagner, Brown Professor of History, Emeritus, and former interim president and dean of the faculty, on Sept. 12.
Top photo credit: Bradley Wakoff/Berkshirian Images
