Opinions

Editorials

Patching a broken social scene

By Editorial Board - Record Staff

The Williams party scene is broken. A good party draws a crowd and gets loud, but, at Williams, as soon as good party gets underway, it gets discovered and shut down. The very characteristics of success breed failure. This situation that has left students and party planners frustrated is dismal, but by no means a lost cause. Those involved at all levels of party operations – from the head honc...»

Op-eds

Handing students the keys

By Wally Boudway - Contributing Writer and David Weimer - Contributing Writer

What are the advantages of the “Purple Bubble?" As students at Williams College, we should all be familiar with the occasional realization that we are alarmingly dislocated from the outside world. Of course, as Thoreau famously pointed out, this isolation has its advantages. We place ourselves in this bubble so that we might take advantage of its scholarly conveniences: namely, the convenience of...»

All quiet on Cole Avenue

By Matthew Roach - Senior Writer

It all happened so quickly, didn’t it? Suddenly, out of nowhere, Afroman was on the stage brandishing a Colt 45, belting out rude lyrics to phalanxes of screaming, toga-clad Ephs. It was sweaty, it was drunken, it was mildly disgusting. There was a lot of exposed skin. And it was fun as hell. And then, just as suddenly, the Williamstown police decided that a college campus is not an acceptable ...»

Delving beyond feelings: Class time is for analysis, not your own emotions

By Sayd Randle - Senior Writer

I’ll admit it. I really, genuinely did not enjoy reading Darwin’s Origin of Species for my English class on “Imaging Scientists." But even more embarrassing than my inability to appreciate the world’s seminal text on natural selection is the fact that I wasted my class’s time talking about my own dislike of the book. This feelings-centered approach to class discussions is unproductive, self-indul...»

Education for real life: Williams in New York fulfills needs for hands-on experience

By Anouk Dey - Staff Writer

For five consecutive years between the ages of 15 and 20, my parents and I would have the same conversation about my summer plans. It would normally take place in April or May and, for a week following the exchange, words between my parents and me would be scarce. My older sisters and brothers had warned me that there were two kinds of parents: those who would support their children backpacking...»

Letters to the Editor

Kennedy family chef to cook up dining hall storm

By -

Dear my fellow food-lovers, Every year Williams Dining Services invites accomplished chefs to travel to Williamstown to train our cooking staff and spruce up our dining hall fare. This Thursday, April 17, Greylock Dining Hall will boast perhaps the most famous chef yet, when world-renowned former Kennedy family chef Neil Connolly whips up an unforgettable meal open to the whole campus. (Greylo...»

TogaSpank sets standard for successful student events

By -

It’s almost 9 p.m. on Saturday night, and I’m holding a sheet in one hand and a safety pin in the other. The Bluto inside me says “Toga! Toga!” but the five semesters I’ve spent at Williams tells me that theme parties just don’t work here. Of course, anyone who was at TogaSpank 2008 knows that by 10 p.m. the tent at Poker Flats was a living, breathing thing filled to the brim with party-goers w...»