Williams students, faculty and staff,
I want to provide an update on the campus encampment and protests, the college’s engagement with the protestors and other stakeholders, and address some questions we’ve heard from the community thus far.
To summarize recent history, last November, members of the group Jews for Justice (J4J) requested that the college convene our Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR) to hear their proposal about Williams’ investment approach. The ACSR comprises two students, two faculty, two staff, and two alumni. The Committee is charged to advise the Board “on matters relating to non-financial aspects of the investment portfolio.”
The J4J members proposed that the college divest from companies that sell weapons or vehicles to the Israel Defense Forces. The ACSR received a second request from a faculty member that the College not divest, and held conversations with both parties. Per its established process, which included coffee hours, a Google Form and other types of community outreach, the Committee then researched and analyzed the issue with the goal of delivering a report and recommendations to college leaders. I expect to receive that report by the end of this month at the latest, and the ACSR will also make it public. The Board will take it into consideration with advice from its Investment Committee. Under the College Laws, the Trustees are charged with decisions regarding general policies governing the investment of the funds of the college.
In the meantime, while this process was underway, on May 1 members of J4J and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) established an encampment on the Williams Quad. As I made clear in my prior emails in late April and early May, such encampments “in and of themselves do not violate any college rule… We expect any student who uses their voice to do so within the broad guardrails of the Williams Code of Conduct.”
Shortly after establishing the encampment, and one other time subsequently, representatives of J4J and SJP asked to meet with me. During the conversations they stated and then reiterated their goals of divestment and transparency of our investment strategies. I explained that college leadership is following the process laid out in our governance structure and bylaws.
The students have also introduced additional requests over time, including a meeting with the full Board. I recently responded to them, and we have published my response so that you can read my answers for yourself. As you will see, in accordance with our published principles, our approach has been to establish broad room for protest and expression (including counter-protest), guided by minimal but clear and consistent rules that ensure equal safety and access to educational opportunities for all.
In closing, I want to address the matter of Commencement. As I have said many times, Williams is a community, singular, and also a collection of communities, plural. We are engaging respectfully with the protestors as one group, and have a duty of equal respect for the diverse needs and expectations of others, as well. The Class of 2024 has been through some especially difficult moments during their time here in addition to all the hard work of typical college life. This is also a class whose members, due to Covid, did not for the most part have traditional high school graduations. So I want to reassure everyone that we are committed to, and are planning, a full ceremony and weekend of events this June. Some of the participants in the encampment are seniors themselves, and I have asked them to respect their classmates’ desire for a full and festive graduation.
Maud