<p>Hill and crnchy, what can you tell us about the racist episode that occurred in February and the anti-Semitic episode that occurred last year? What was your take on each of these? I had a long talk with someone on staff about them last month, out of serious concern about the values and mood on campus. He seems to feel that this could be an exciting time to be at Williams because the community is beginning a substantive conversation about its own standards about these things, i.e., what will be tolerated and will not be. How do the two of you see it?</p>
<p>Thank you all for your valuable input! It's really interesting to see both sides debate and clear out some of the myths about Williams. I'm curious about the two racial incidents mentioned by wolrab, however. Can anyone please elaborate? </p>
<p>I'm aware of the rural setting of Williams. Fortunately I'm not an urban girl so it's not too big a problem for me. But please keep the discussion going. I'd love to hear more about bad things on housing/academics/faculties.</p>
<p>These are the sorts of complaints you'll hear at any school, so I don't there's any reason to discount Williams because of them - but you asked:</p>
<p>on housing - some rooms are small. the cluster system is incredibly stupid, keeps you from living where you want, and more sadly keeps a lot of people from living with your friends. it also forces a lot of sophomores into doubles.</p>
<p>academics - only about a quarter of the professors are gods. another quarter are really good, another quarter are pretty good, and the remaining quarter are bad. We probably have a better good-to-bad professor ration than anywhere else, and higher standards because of it, but we still have bad professors.</p>
<p>facilities - classroom facilities are great, although admittedly most of the classes I take don't require more than a few chairs, a blackboard, and maybe a projector or a table to sit around. Pretty much every classroom has that, and some have a lot more.</p>
<p>as far as non-academic facilities go, people have various complaints about the athletic facilities, although those are supposed to get major upgrades over the next year or so.
another issue - there are no good concert venues. Chapin Hall is okay for classical performances, but the seating sucks, the stage is too small for a full orchestra, and the acoustics are useless for anything non-classical. Every other location suffers from some combination of limited capacity, noise concerns, and outrageous cost. Afroman came and performed in a tent last month and got shut down by the police due to noise complaints (also, Williamstown Police are essentially nazis). Third Eye Blind came a week later and played in the fieldhouse (set up with a stage at great expense) to the smallest crowd they've played for in eight years, because the fire capacities on campus have all been slashed this year. I guess it's somewhat moot anyway, because we only get a few decent bands per year.</p>
<p>also, the administration goes out of their way to make it difficult for students to park conveniently (e.g. the debacle with the Greylock garage, also the wholesale lack of parking anywhere near Currier cluster).</p>
<p>To everyone else arguing over exactly what Williamstown has to offer - Williamstown is good if you like exactly the sort of things that it has. For example, Hot Tomatoes is a decent (if expensive) pizza place, but if you don't like their style of pizza (and many people don't) then Williamstown has no good pizza. Mezze and Papa Charlie's are good if you're willing to pay their exorbitant prices - most students aren't. Coyote Flaco, 6 House Pub, and Jae's are technically in Williamstown but not really within walking distance of campus (6 House comes closest), unless you want to spend a lot of time walking on that part of Route 7, which I don't think has a sidewalk. Sushi Thai and Spice Root are probably the most popular options, but eventually you get tired of that particular region of cuisine.
the same is true for everything else you mentioned - e.g., Images is great if you like indie movies, but don't expect to see more than a couple "mainstream" films per year. and so on... that's just the nature of being a small town.
of course you get to a lot more if you have a car and can drive to north adams / bennington / pittsfield. although, as I said, the administration goes out of their way to make that as difficult as possible.</p>
<p>rl.hill-re: water street books - all college bookstores are for suckers. This is what Amazon is for.</p>