Photos from Claiming Williams 2018 are available here.
The Claiming Williams Steering Committee began meeting this fall with protests in Charlottesville, on football fields, and in Congress unfolding around us. In the face of these and other actions, we turned back to the birth of Claiming Williams in 2008. Sparked after a series of incidents in an entry, students’ protests were joined by staff and faculty and became known as Stand with Us. That protest asked the community to stand together to acknowledge the differences — racial, religious, national origin, gender, political, socioeconomic, etc. — that shape our experiences at Williams and make the College a better place.
Claiming Williams Day provides the campus with opportunities to discuss and — often — disagree about issues that impact this diverse community. This year, the Steering Committee hopes you will consider the important and often difficult process of moving from talk to conviction and then to action. Just as the Stand With Us protest ignited change, events on and off campus call on us to do something in the face of injustice, violence, and inequality. As you participate in today’s programs, we hope you will ask how do politics shape the ways we relate to each other at Williams? What makes it hard to take action? How can we exercise self-care and remain engaged in the face of division? What resources and changes are needed to ensure that we have a safe campus – and what does a safe campus look like? And, most importantly, what are YOU doing to take a stand?
You are invited and encouraged to attend as many of the day’s events as possible.
Keynotes are open to the public. All other events are intended for the Williams College Campus Community.