Williams Mystic Program Will Continue (updated July 2024)

• Williams has confirmed a plan to continue our Mystic program by renewing our partnership contract with the Mystic Seaport Museum.  

• Maud and Provost Eiko Siniawer announced last April that the college was considering closing the program at the end of June 2025, when our current three-year contract with the Museum was set to expire. This consideration was prompted by concerns about a persistent gap between program revenues and expenses, and the cost of covering that gap in relation to other college needs and priorities.

• Read the College's announcement to continue the program here.   

Israel/Hamas, Campus Speech and Protest Policy, Response to Calls for Divestment

• In October 2023, and September 2024, President Mandel released a letters outlining her policy not to send out campus-wide messages about domestic or international events. These principles are as follows: 

• 1) Williams’ mission is to teach students how to think, and empower them to do so for themselves—not tell them what to think. Our faculty, staff and alumni’s devotion to this educational project is central to our excellence. 2) Tragedies and injustices occur all the time and at every scale. Many affect members of the Williams community and their colleagues, family and friends. The practice of issuing statements supports some members of our community while disregarding others, intentionally or otherwise. It makes some issues visible while leaving many more unseen. 3) My [Maud's] primary duty, when national and world events are at issue, is to help the college enact varied educational opportunities and personal supports. I will on rare occasion assert an institutional position if a matter bears very directly on our core educational mission (for example, in the case of a proposed change to federal or state educational policy). But when the subject is national and world events I do not believe it is right, or even possible, for me to speak on behalf of the thousands of people who together constitute Williams.

• Campus speech and protest policy/code of conduct

• Two proposals submitted to the committee last fall: One, from a student group, requested that the college divest from companies that sell weapons or materiel to the Israel Defense Forces; adopt ESG (environmental, social and governance) standards that specify what the college will henceforth divest from and not invest in; and be more transparent about its investment management strategies.  

•  Response examples

Theme/Affinity/Program/Special Interest (TAPSI) Housing (Updated September 2024)

• Theme/Affinity Housing grants students who share an aspect of their identity the opportunity to live together in an intentional community with shared values and goals, allowing these students to feel supported and have their identities affirmed by those who live around them. This type of housing serves to enrich the lives of house members by providing resources for educational, cultural and social programming, thereby promoting a stronger sense of solidarity among students of marginalized identities.

• Program/Special Interest Housing grants students who share a particular programmatic or special interest to live together in an intentional community with shared values and goals, allowing these students more resources to explore their interests and share them with the larger Williams community. This type of housing serves to enrich the campus life of residents by providing educational, cultural and social programming, thereby promoting additional opportunities for co-curricular learning among Williams students.

• Read more information about TAPSI Housing on the Williams website.

Asian American Studies

• In the 2023-2024 academic year, the Asian American Studies Program (AAS) was inaugurated, and is the outcome of decades of student activism, alumni engagement, and faculty labor. This is a concentration consisting of 5 courses, hosts guest speakers on campus and, in general, strives to support students in their various curiosities, explorations, and passions.

• Students first proposed an Asian American Studies (AAS) program in the early 1990s through the group Asian American Studies in Action (AASiA). 

• Students brought their concerns to the trustees in October 2018 forum but curriculum decisions rest solely with the faculty not the trustees.  

• Faculty formed the Asian American Studies Working Group in 2016. This working group submitted a new faculty request to the Committee on Appointments and Promotions (CAP) and CPC in March 2018. 

• In February 2019 the Curricular Planning Committee (CPC) announced its recommendation that two tenure-track faculty be hired who would devote at least half of their teaching to an AAS curriculum. The report suggested the formation of an AAS concentration composed of at least five courses, including one introductory course and one capstone seminar.

Williams Divestment in Fossil Fuels/Sustainability

• On June 11, 2024, President Mandel and Liz Robinson '90 (Chair of the Board of Trustees) released a letter  in response to calls for divestment.

• After thorough deliberation, including a review of the ACSR’s report and recommendations; advice from the Board’s Investment Committee; an interview with members of the student groups Jews for Justice and Students for Justice in Palestine to hear their case directly; study of petitions from faculty, staff and alumni; and consideration of many points of view communicated to the college, the Board has decided to follow the ACSR’s major recommendations not to divest; to continue with our current, holistic investment philosophy, without adopting “a blanket exclusionary approach to ESG investing”; and to enhance transparency.

• The Trustees’ deliberations were characterized by several major themes:

1) Our view that the college’s foremost duty is to make the highest-quality liberal arts education available and affordable to a diverse population of future leaders 2) The Board’s fiduciary responsibility, encoded into the College Charter and Laws 3) The fact that the endowment is essential to that work, and is not a vehicle for expressing views on world affairs or conducting advocacy 4) Respect for the importance of thoughtful protest as a feature of a healthy educational community 5) Appreciation for the community’s interest in understanding the endowment, including our governance and decision-making practices.

• Here  are details about sustainable buildings on campus. Since 2008, there have been 16 capital projects that have been associated with sustainable building certifications.

Legacy Admissions

• All students admitted to Williams each year are deemed to be highly qualified by a range of measures through our holistic review. That includes all students who are children of alumni. Every student at Williams is much more than any single label or identity; our admissions work is rooted in an effort to understand applicants as multi-dimensional people. No student is ever admitted simply because they identify in one way or have one strength or talent. To try to reduce our students to any one thing flies in the face of everything we know about the exceptional people they are. 

• The impact of being the child of alumni is one factor among many that is considered as part of the admission decision and is taken into account at the very end of the process. Legacy admits are typically among our strongest applicants academically and in terms of their community impact. Because of their family association, many talented children of alumni make Williams a top choice among many highly selection options.

• Over the past few decades, the relative share of each incoming class who are legacy students has been around 10%.

• Over that same period, the share of students who are first in their family to attend college has grown tremendously. Today, roughly 15-20% of entering students are first-generation students.