Columns, Essays, and Speeches

In marking four decades of coeducation, what we celebrate most deeply aren’t the ways in which Williams has changed women, but rather how women have changed Williams. Continue reading »

My personal commitment, as firm as any I can make, is that sexual assault must be eliminated in our community. Continue reading »

To most effectively educate students of all backgrounds, we need faculty of all backgrounds. Continue reading »

The difference our alumni make—to the world, to Williams and to our students—is astonishing. Continue reading »

I hope and expect that we’ll continue to win a lot of contests, and even perhaps more Directors’ Cups. The real measure of our athletics program’s success, though will always be how well we fulfill our deeper ideals. Continue reading »

I appreciate the opportunity to comment here, as a college president, on the effort to develop a system of rating colleges that would better inform students and families and provide a measure for the disbursement of federal financial aid. Continue reading »

Open discussion of such matters is an important part of the academic freedom we all cherish. Continue reading »

Remarks Submitted to the Joint Committee on Higher Education’s Subcommittee on Student Loans and Debt for Its Hearing of November 18, 2013 Thank you, Senator Donoghue, Representative Paul, and the members of the subcommittee, for this opportunity to share data and perspectives on the issues that are before you. They… Continue reading »

From the Fall 2013 Williams Magazine Fall brings each year an odd juxtaposition. It’s the season of college rankings, in the middle of which we honor members of the Williams family with Bicentennial Medals. Both say something about the value of a Williams education, or at least… Continue reading »

From the Summer 2013 Williams Magazine More important than finding answers is asking the right questions. That’s true not only in the individual disciplines we teach but in how we think about the college as a whole. We’ve recently been working at imagining the future… Continue reading »