The fence the bicycle is resting on is similar to class benches found at some colleges. Student progress in college is often recognized by inclusion on lists or induction into societies. James, for example, became a member of Phi Beta Kappa after his junior year. In earlier times, upperclassmen were allowed certain liberties, including sitting on special furniture like the Williams fence. You can see the Amherst senior benches just right of the tree in the center of this image (click for larger view):
Those benches are there today.
[Update 1/30: It turns out that these benches have served a purpose much as described. These benches are know as the Gargoyle Benches, and are where juniors would sit when being "tapped" for induction into the Gargoyle Society. Here, we see a junior selected by a Gargoyle member, sometime before the construction of Bronfman Science Center:
The Gargoyle Society is a leadership organization that is responsible for helping to focus student action on campus. More on this, no doubt, later.]
Back at Williams, we're in a Science Quad, of course, so it's no surprise that where James is standing is actually part of a large double-slit experiment where students leave the Science Atrium through two breaks in this fence. James is standing to the right of the right break in this image from Google Maps:
It's not clear, yet, the interference patterns that might arise. Still, we'll see indications this year that students sometimes enter the quad as individual people or, at other times, as waves.
Stay tuned!
[Update 1/30: It turns out that these benches have served a purpose much as described. These benches are know as the Gargoyle Benches, and are where juniors would sit when being "tapped" for induction into the Gargoyle Society. Here, we see a junior selected by a Gargoyle member, sometime before the construction of Bronfman Science Center:
The Gargoyle Society is a leadership organization that is responsible for helping to focus student action on campus. More on this, no doubt, later.]
Back at Williams, we're in a Science Quad, of course, so it's no surprise that where James is standing is actually part of a large double-slit experiment where students leave the Science Atrium through two breaks in this fence. James is standing to the right of the right break in this image from Google Maps:
It's not clear, yet, the interference patterns that might arise. Still, we'll see indications this year that students sometimes enter the quad as individual people or, at other times, as waves.
Stay tuned!
