WILLIAMSTOWN — Williams College's Towne Field House will be demolished and replaced rather than repaired, college president Maud Mandel announced Monday in a letter to students, faculty and staff.
The 55-year-old field house, on Latham Street near the foot of Spring Street, was closed in March after a structural problem with one of its support beams was discovered. While there were initial hopes the building could be repaired, the plan is now to replace it with a temporary structure until a permanent structure can be designed and built.
“We’ve made good progress on plans for a new Multi-Purpose Recreation Facility to accommodate activities from Towne Field House while we work on a permanent replacement,” Mandel said.
In the letter, Mandel also outlined a plan to review admissions practices following the U.S. Supreme Court decision that outlawed affirmative action. Mandel said that this past summer, the College “redoubled ... efforts to ensure that our admission program continues to bolster our commitments to access and diversity in legally-compliant ways.”
TEMPORARY REPLACEMENT
The field house is a multipurpose athletic building used by numerous Williams sports teams, and has an indoor track and a rock-climbing wall. Jim Reische, a spokesman for the college, said in April that students using the climbing wall noticed it was pulling away from the interior wall of the building, and alerted the college’s facilities team.
Reische said the temporary solution could last “a significant number of years.”
A look through windows on a door into the Towne Field House on the campus of Williams College, which has been closed since March due to structural integrity. It is now going to be demolished.
The temporary replacement building will be built north of the tennis courts, and “is already attracting alumni support,” Mendel said. It will not be ready for competition this academic year. Williams is also developing plans for a permanent replacement building, which could be built at the current Towne site, or elsewhere. Those details have yet to be finalized.
That said, there's already significant financial support for the work ahead, Mandel said.
“The WEM Foundation and Jim Hield ’77 gave [$15 million] to support a comprehensive program and site planning study, the construction of the new multi-purpose recreation facility and the eventual construction of an Athletics and Wellness Complex,” Mandel said.
Once there is a new field house, the fate of the temporary multi-purpose building will be up for discussion, Reische said (the possibility of demolishing it when the time comes was originally on the table, but the college is planning on keeping it for various future uses). In the meantime, those who need to use the field house are renting or borrowing various alternative spaces around the region.
ADMISSIONS POLICIES
In addressing the impact of the Supreme Court decision repealing affirmative action, Mandel said she and the Williams Board of Trustees have convened a working group of trustees, administrative leaders and faculty to review admissions policies and practices during the 2023-24 academic year.
“The group’s work will help guide the [Trustees'] consideration of how well those policies and practices support our mission and aspirations, described in the strategic plan. We’ll announce further opportunities for campus and alumni input soon,” Mandel said.
The working group has a webpage outlining its mission and members, as well as an online form for members of the Williams community to submit comments. On the webpage, the group says it's charged with reviewing historical and current data — both Williams’ own and in the context of the national admission landscape. "Their work will guide Williams’ Board of Trustees in its consideration of how current admission practices and policies support Williams’ mission and aspirations, described in the strategic plan.”
The June decision by the Supreme Court was seen as a major win for conservatives, as repealing affirmative action has been a benchmark issue for the Republican Party. But it has also raised issues for students of color. Affirmative action was put in place in the 1960s following a historical pattern of discrimination based on race and nationality.
Williams College has repeatedly voiced opposition to the Court’s decision. Mandel did so again in Monday’s letter. But Reische said Tuesday that Williams is not commenting further on the topic of affirmative action and admissions policies for the time being, and will wait for the working group to finish its work.
“I’ve been troubled to see how the Court’s decision has caused college students across the country to question their place in higher education,” Mandel wrote Monday. “So I want to emphasize: Everyone at Williams earned your place. The sense of belonging is a gift we can—and should—give to each other, especially in this moment.”