Articles

Dear Williams Families and Guests,

Please read the following message, which we sent to your students a few days ago.

We hope to see you on campus in just a few weeks!

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Dear Graduating Seniors and Mid-Cycle Seniors,

Commencement is fast approaching! We look forward to helping you celebrate your Williams graduation with your classmates and your families and guests. This is the first of several communications I will send to you about Commencement Weekend. Please read through the end for important information about tickets and caps and gowns.

Below is a summary of the major weekend events.  Please mark your calendar and share with your family and friends. ( If you or your guests have accessibility needs, please visit our Accessibility page.)

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Schedule for Commencement Weekend

SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 2023

Ivy Exercises. Seniors assemble in the First-Year Quad at 12:50 p.m., the ceremony begins at 1:10 p.m. on the Williams (Library) Quadrangle. Rain location: MainStage, ‘62 Center.

Baccalaureate. Seniors assemble in the First-Year Quad at 4:30 p.m., the ceremony begins at 5:00 p.m. in Chapin Hall. Tickets and masks required. 

SUNDAY, JUNE 4, 2023

Commencement. Seniors and mid-cycle students assemble alphabetically in the First-Year Quad at 9:00 a.m. The ceremony begins at 10 a.m. in the Williams (Library) Quad.

President’s Reception. Enjoy a picnic lunch on Chapin Lawn, immediately following Commencement (~12:15 p.m.)

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Seniors process into Ivy Exercises, Baccalaureate, and Commencement in their caps and gowns. The Class Artist, Kristen Chou, carries the class banner at the front of each procession. The elected Class Marshals, Mohammed Faizaan and Yunjin Park will lead the class. The appointed Class Marshals, Emmanuelle Copeland and Shirley Lin, are the last to process.

Ivy Exercises is an informal celebration of the Class and its achievements. The Class Officers organize it and preside. Class Gardener Lydia von Schwanenfluegel plants the eponymous ivy, Olmsted Award recipients are recognized, Class Poet Cameron Pugh presents a poem, Class Historian Jackson Hartigan speaks, Class Musicians Joel Nicholas and Oliver Hall perform, Dean Gretchen Long awards over 100 prizes, Class Bell Ringers Ashlyn Oh and Francesca Hellerman will ring the bells, and in a 100-year-old tradition, two Class Officers drop a watch from the tower of Thompson Chapel. (Legend has it that if the watch breaks, your class will have good luck!)

Baccalaureate is the interfaith service held Saturday afternoon. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Director Sara J. Bloomfield delivers the Baccalaureate Address.

Commencement on Sunday morning begins with an academic procession across campus and culminates with awarding your degrees. Fred Krupp, a leading voice on climate change, energy, and sustainability, delivers the Commencement Address.

TICKETS and RAIN PLANS

All official events of Commencement Weekend are free of charge and only Baccalaureate requires tickets.

• Indoor Commencement: Weather permitting, Commencement is held outdoors on the Williams (Library) Quadrangle, facing Stetson Hall. No tickets are required but we do ask that you limit the number of guests in the venue to six. The ceremony is also simulcast into Chapin Hall and live streamed for friends and family who cannot attend.
• In case of extreme weather, the ceremony is held in Chapin Hall. Admission to the Indoor Commencement Ceremony is limited to ceremony participants (seniors, masters students, stage party, and faculty). The ceremony will be live-streamed into multiple campus venues and will be available for viewing off-campus from the Commencement website.
• We favor an outdoor ceremony even under threatening skies and/or moderate rain.
• Tickets for Baccalaureate: Seniors in cap and gown do not need tickets to attend this event. Each participating student may request up to two guest ticketsfrom now until May 20. Due to the limited seating capacity of Chapin Hall, we are unable to seat all guests in that venue. Please check with your guests prior to reserving tickets.
• If you are unable to get tickets to Chapin Hall or have additional guests, your guests are welcome to view the simulcast in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall or Presser Chorale Hall. No tickets are necessary for these venues. Masks required.

CAPS AND GOWNS

Seniors wear caps and gowns at Ivy Exercises, Baccalaureate, and Commencement.  The College supplies, free of charge, one cap and one gown for each Senior.  If you did not get a cap and gown in September, please go to The Williams Bookstore between noon and 6 p.m.  Thursday, Friday, and Saturday the week of Commencement. Last-minute pickup for seniors who will not be on campus until the day of the ceremony is at 8:45 on Commencement Sunday. If you need a replacement cap and gown, you will be able to purchase a set at the bookstore.

I will email you with more information in May.  In the meantime, please visit the Commencement website.

If you have questions, please send email to [email protected]

Please note: We are relying on digital communication with you at this time. We will forward this email communication to your families, but we realize not all families have registered their email addresses with the college. If you could please ensure your friends and family have this information, that would be greatly appreciated.

Best,

Lee Park, College Marshal

Can’t make it to Friends and Family Weekend? No problem! For some, the time and expense to travel to Williamstown are too great. (And let’s face it: though Williams is a beautiful place, it’s far away from where most people live!). For others, there are special times in their students’ four years at Williams—from a special sports event or musical performance to Commencement—when a visit makes more sense.

And you can always stay in close touch with your student, even from a great distance. Phone calls, emails, and texts all work in their own ways. Students also love receiving old-fashioned mail, from a simple postcard featuring a hometown view to a small batch of homemade cookies (even if they crumble a bit along the way). You can send them through regular U.S. mail or via FedEx, UPS, DHL, or other non-USPS carriers.

Finally, rest assured that we’ll post video recordings of key Friends and Family Weekend programs shortly after the weekend.

With best wishes,

Rob White
Director of Parent and Family Programs

Dear Sophomore Families,

Soon (and definitely by late April!) your students will choose the academic department in which they’ll major at Williams.

By now, they’ve been able to explore a wide range of courses in a variety of academic disciplines, and some already know what major they’ll declare. Many others remain undecided, and that’s entirely fine. It’s still very early in their exploration process, and some of the courses they plan to take this semester may turn out to be the springboard into a major. But whether students think they are settled or are not yet sure about their choice of major, the decision process will be much more enjoyable and meaningful if they begin some key conversations now.

These conversations can occur with their academic advisors, their favorite professors, academic department chairs, my colleagues in the Dean’s Office, The Davis Center, The Career Center, their JAs, and older students who’ve already chosen their majors. More conversations with more people are always better.

There are a few other pieces of information your own student should take into consideration. One is purely logistical: to be eligible for any major, a student must have a C-minus or better average in courses in the major. Students should check with the department they plan to major in for any additional grading requirements. Your student may stop by the registrar’s office for clarification on declaring a major.

More broadly, your students should keep well in mind that the requirements of a major (which vary somewhat from department to department) still leave plenty of room to continue exploring courses across the entire curriculum for their final two years at Williams. This is why we encourage students to think carefully before declaring a double major. It’s often better to declare a single major and retain full flexibility to choose the rest of their courses, which they may use to take some clusters of classes in other areas they are very interested in, to explore broadly all over the curriculum, or both. Majoring in one subject (such as biology) and concentrating in a particular area of academic interest (such as Africana Studies) is a great way to go.

It’s also worth reminding your students that their particular choice of major may have less impact on determining their future professional life than they think. Students often pursue careers and even graduate study in fields in which they didn’t major. And professors regularly write recommendations that speak to the talent and skills of students in their courses, whether they were majors or not.

I hope these thoughts prove useful as you continue your own conversations with your students about their academic paths through Williams. When you do, please remind them to take full advantage of all the campus resources available to help them with these key decisions, and to seek me out for guidance at any point.

In the meantime, my very best wishes for 2023, and many thanks, as ever, for the privilege of working with your wonderful students.

With best regards,

Tamanika Steward
Associate Dean for Sophomore Year Students