Williams College Names Interim President

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Williams College professor Protik (Tiku) Majumder has been named the college's interim president, effective Jan. 1, 2018, until a new president is in place.

Majumder will replace current President Adam Falk, who announced in June he would leave Williams at the end of December to become president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. He has served as president since 2010.

The Williams College Board of Trustees approved the appointment of Majumder on Monday.

Majumder currently serves as the Barclay Jermain professor of Natural Philosophy and director of the Science Center. In a letter to the college community on Tuesday, Michael Eisenson, chairman of the board of trustees, wrote that Majumder "graciously" agreed to accept the role.

"Tiku has an outstanding record as a Williams teacher and mentor, scientist, and faculty leader, and just as importantly has earned wide trust and respect across the Williams community," Eisenson wrote. "Our objective was to find an interim president with a keen understanding of our institution, a love of Williams, of its students, and of its faculty, enormous patience, tact, and insight, and an ability to respond with intelligence, compassion, and calm to the inevitable challenges that will arise from time to time. 

"Tiku has each of these qualities, and many more. He will do a superb job of keeping Williams on track."

Eisenson said the trustees have formed a Presidential Search Committee charged with presenting to the fill board candidates to become the next president, as well as with ensuring that every member of the Williams community has an opportunity to give input with respect to qualities sought in a new presidents. The Search Committee includes representatives from every sector of the Williams community: students, staff, alumni, faculty, and trustees. Several members are also Williams parents. 

The board has retained the firm Spencer Stuart as consultant, to help manage the search process. Spencer Stuart has been involved in numerous recent and successful academic searches at the highest levels, according to Eisenson, who wrote that presidential searches are "complex and sensitive."

The Search Committee will begin its work shortly; as a first step, it has created a website to find information and materials related to the search. 

"On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I want to again thank the members of the Presidential Search Committee for the work they are about to do, and Tiku Majumder for his service as interim president," Eisenson wrote. "I also want to convey to our entire community our enthusiasm and optimism as we set out to find the 18th president of Williams College."

Lanesborough Officials Review Schools' Budgets

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:49AM / Thursday, April 09, 2026

Mount Greylock Superintendent Joseph Bergeron, left, addresses the Lanesborough Select Board and Finance Committee as School Committee member Curtis Elfenbein looks at the projection of a slide in the district's budget presentation.

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Town officials Monday appeared generally receptive to the fiscal year 2027 spending plans for the two public school districts that serve the town.

 

Superintendents from the Northern Berkshire Vocational Regional School District (McCann Technical School) and Mount Greylock Regional School District presented their respective FY27 budgets to a joint meeting of the town's Finance Committee and Select Board.

 

Both districts are sending significantly higher assessments for approval at Lanesborough's annual town meeting in June.

 

McCann Tech, which constituted a $317,109 expenditure for the town in the current fiscal year, is seeking $463,978 for the fiscal year that begins on July 1 even though the school's operating budget is up just 3.2 percent year to year.

 

The 46 percent increase in Lanesborough's share of McCann Tech's budget is is due to two factors: a rise in enrollment of town residents at the vocational school from 20 in 2025 to 29 in this school year and a capital assessment for the first round of payments — for interest only — for a roof and window replacement project on the North Adams campus.

 

The Mount Greylock assessment, a much larger component of Lanesborough's property tax bill, is up 10.99 percent from FY26 to FY27, from $6.8 million to $7.6 million.

 

Mount Greylock Superintendent Joseph Bergeron gave a budget presentation similar to one he has delivered twice to the district's School Committee and again last month to the Williamstown Finance Committee, explaining that while the FY27 budget maintains level services to students with a net reduction of three positions, a series of factors are driving much larger assessments to Mount Greylock's two member towns.