Catalog 04-05 to Printer

CONTENTS History of the College . 3 Mission and Objectives . 6 The Curriculum . 8 Academic Standards and Regulations. 18 Academic Advising. 23 Statement of Academic Honesty. 24 Expenses. 26 Preparation for Graduate and Professional Study. 31 Graduate Programs. 34 Prizes and Awards. 35 Courses of Instruction. 45 African-American Studies. 46 Maritime Studies . 219 American Studies. 48 Materials Science Studies. 221 Anthropology and Sociology. 54 Mathematics and Statistics . 222 Art. 62 Music . 232 Asian Studies. 80 Neuroscience . 241 Astronomy, Astrophysics. 86 Performance Studies. 242 Bioinformatics, Genomics, and Philosophy . 244 Proteomics. 91 Physical Education . 252 Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. 92 Physics . 253 Biology. 94 Political Economy . 259 Chemistry. 101 Political Science . 261 Classics. 109 Psychology . 277 Cognitive Science. 115 Religion . 283 Comparative Literature. 116 Romance Languages . 290 Computer Science. 123 Russian . 299 Contract Major . 130 Science and Technology Studies . 302 Critical Languages. 131 Teaching, Williams Program in . 303 Economics. 132 Theatre . 304 English. 142 Women’s and Gender Studies . 310 Environmental Studies. 164 Critical Reasoning and Analytical First-Year Residential Seminar. 172 Skills (CRAAS) Courses . 316 Geosciences. 172 Experiential Education Courses . 316 German. 178 Peoples and Cultures Courses . 317 History. 182 Quantitative/Formal History of Science. 202 Reasoning Courses . 321 Interdepartmental Program. 203 Related Course Listings . 322 International Studies. 205 Tutorials . 323 Jewish Studies. 209 Writing-Intensive Courses . 324 Latina/o Studies. 212 Williams-Exeter Programme Leadership Studies. 215 at Oxford University . 327 Legal Studies. 217 Williams-Mystic Program . 336 Linguistics. 218 Winter Study Courses. 337 Presidents, Trustees and Committees. 392 Faculty. 394 Faculty Committees and Special Faculty Advisors. 410 Sexual Harassment/Discrimination Advisors. 412 Offices of Administration. 413 Degrees Conferred and Enrollment. 421 Prizes and Awards Granted. 426 Index of Topics. 431 ____________________________________ Additional information about Williams College and its educational programs can be found in the Courses of Instruction, Williams College Prospectus and Application, and Student Handbook. ____________________________________ W illiams College admits men and women of any background to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the College. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sexual orientation, or national or ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other College-administered programs. The College does not discriminate on the basis of sex in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1973, or the regulations thereunder, in the education programs or activities which it operates, including employment therein. The College does not discriminate on the basis of handicap in violation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, or the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, or the regulations thereunder, in admission or access to its programs and activities. The Williams community includes talented students with docu- mented disabilities who may require learning, sight, hearing, manu- al, speech, or mobility accommodations. Although Williams operates no specially structured academic programs for individuals with disabilities, the College is committed to providing support services and accommodations in all programs to students who need them. Williams endeavors to provide equal access to campus programs and activities for all members of the college community. The Dean’s Office, through the Associate Dean for Academic Programs, coor- dinates the various accommodations required to make students’ educational experiences successful. Inquiries concerning the Col- lege’s nondiscrimination policies may be referred to the Dean of the College, Williamstown, MA 01267 (413-597-4171). ________________________________ This bulletin contains information that was complete and accurate at the time of publication. Williams College reserves the right, however, to make from time to time such changes in its operations, programs, and activities as the trustees, faculty, and officers consider appropriate. Charles Toomajian Editor HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE The chartering of Williams College in 1793 was an act of faith and certainly an act surpassing the modest intentions of Colonel Ephraim Williams, for whom the college is named. Colonel Williams had not intended to found a college. Enroute with his regiment of Massachu- setts militia to join the battle with the French and Indians at Lake George, the Colonel had tarried long enough in Albany to write his last will and testament on July 22, 1755. In it he bequeathed his residuary estate for the founding and support of a free school in West Township, where for some years he had commanded a detachment of militia at Fort Massachusetts, farthest outpost of the province. The will stipulated that West Township, then in dispute between Massachusetts and New York, must fall within Massachusetts and that the name of the township must be changed to Wil- liamstown, if the free school was to be established at all. On September 8, 1755, Colonel Williams was killed at the Battle of Lake George. On October 26, 1791, after many delays, fifteen scholars were admitted to the free school in Williamstown. Within a year the trustees, not content with the original modest design of the founder, were captivated by the idea of creating a college where, as they put it, “young gentlemen from every part of the Union” might resort for instruction “ in all the branches of useful and polite literature.” The proposal was extremely ambitious, to be sure, but ambition was a common American ailment. England did not develop a third university until the nineteenth century; Williams was the twenty-first institution of higher learning to flower in onetime British colonies, the second in Massachusetts, the sixth in New England. On June 22, 1793, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts granted a charter to Williams College. I The bold decision to plant a college in the wilderness betrayed the intentions of Colonel Wil- liams; yet the new vision had been fed by the same sort of dreams that had led Ephraim Williams to see a school and a comfortable community where only a military outpost had stood. The early trustees and the legislature of the Commonwealth were to be remembered for their foresight, but in the decades after 1793 they had reason to acknowledge that the soil they had chosen was stubbornly uncongenial—so uncongenial, in fact, that for many years the trustees of Williams spent more time and energy in trying to close the College than in trying to keep it open. In 1819 they petitioned to move the college to Northhampton, and in 1821, having been spurned by the legislature, President Zephaniah Swift Moore took matters into his own hands. Convinced that almost everything about Williams was impossible—its location, its funds, its enrollment—he led a group of students over the mountains into the Connecticut Valley. There he became their president once again, at the struggling new college known as Amherst. As for Williams, one member of the senior class wrote home to his father: “It remains for us to say whether it shall die suddenly, or whether it shall linger along for two or three years.” In the past the public had come to the support of the institution. A lottery furnished funds essen- tial to the opening of the free school. A public subscription was the answer of Berkshire County to the threat of removal in 1819. What saved the College in 1821 was the willingness of the Reverend Edward Dorr Griffin to take the job of president and the determination with which he drew upon the College’s reputation for religious conservatism to collect much-needed funds. By 1828, the Rever- end Griffin could be seen standing in the middle of Main Street, supervising the construction of a handsome new building, housing a chapel, a library, and classrooms, a testament to his confidence and his skill. The building is now known as Griffin Hall. The College which had been taking shape under Griffin and his predecessors was not unlike many other New England colleges where the classical curriculum and a moral atmosphere served as the basis for training young men for professional life. The college turned out its share of clergymen, doctors, lawyers, and teachers, serving the needs of Western Massachusetts and surrounding com- munities in New York and Vermont. But Williams was not yet a place to which “young gentlemen from every part of the Union” resorted. In fact, Nathaniel Hawthorne, attending the commencement exercises in 1838, jotted in his notebook some observations on the Williams students he saw there: “Country graduates—rough, brown-featured, schoolmaster-looking...A rough hewn, heavy set of fellows from the hills and woods in this neighborhood; unpolished bumpkins, who had grown up as farmer-boys.” – 3 – History of the College Williams seldom knew financial security until the end of the nineteenth century. But it did have assets that enabled it to develop into a prototype of the small New England liberal arts college. Scen- ery, a reputation for moral soundness, a loyal body of alumni, and a devoted faculty went a long way toward compensating for inadequate funds. Of the scenery,

Load more