Deviants
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The name "Deviants" was adopted by members of the Williams community who associated themselves with a less mainstream culture, particularly social life. The name was taken from a listserver owned by Jesse Dill '04 and Chris Holmes '03, which was first created to organize Driscoll Deviations, and then gradually became a means to announce social events in general. It is still used for this purpose.
The Deviants emerged in 2002 and enjoyed the height of their mischief in 2003. Prior Williams generations of people who enjoyed doing things that were off the beaten path had, until then, associated themselves with WARP and used that listserver as primary means of communication. With the graduation of the class of 2002, in 2003 WARP took on a slightly heavier role playing, bopsword, video gaming identity. Out of a desire to participate in quirky, fun events but not necessarily under the WARP banner were born the Deviants.
Josh Ain '03 once questioned whether WARP and Deviants, indeed, needed to be separate groups, or at least have separate listservers. In an email he'd sent to both lists, he asked if Deviants was not just, in fact, a subset of WARP. He was, however, within hours of his message so deluged with replies from mildly-indignant non-WARP Deviants that he sent out another email yielding the case. The Odd quad soon took on a dual identity as Deviants "deviated" from WARP and became accepted by the campus as a group of fun-loving students who sometimes wore a toga to dinner.
Besides the traditional Driscoll Deviations, other events organized or semi-organized by the group included Storytime, as read from the balcony window of Currier Ballroom or in the basement, co-ed naked snowball fights, murder mystery parties, landmark Cribbage matches, screenings of student-made film masterpieces (such as Secret of the Sock Monkey), a Bad Poetry Slam, and other events.
Deviants generally reside in the Odd quad, although estranged deviants can be found in other parts of campus.
Deviants is not sponspored by the college and receives no funding. Its activities are made possible by the efforts of individual members of the group. Membership in "Deviants" is unofficial.
Deviants is associated but not affiliated with WARP by virtue of an large intersection in membership. Deviants is also similarly associated with the Elizabethans and the (Moocho Macho Moocow Military) Marching Band.
With the co-founders having graduated in 2003 and 2004, Deviants lives on in the hands of the new generation of Williams students, perhaps waiting to take on a new meaning of its own.