Letters from the President

Announcing the next director of Williams-Exeter Programme

Dear Colleagues, I am delighted to announce that Sam Crane, the Edward S. Greenbaum 1910 Professor in Political Science, has accepted our invitation to become the next director of the Williams-Exeter Programme at Oxford University (WEPO). His term of service will be two years, starting July 1, 2024. Sam… Continue reading »

Welcome to the Spring 2023 Semester!

Williams students, staff and faculty, Welcome to the first day of Spring 2023. I’m excited for the Williams community to embark on a new cycle of learning. It was wonderful to see winter study back in action: Students dug into topics ranging from impact… Continue reading »

You’re invited to Claiming Williams next Thursday

Williams students, faculty and staff, It is my pleasure to invite you to participate in Claiming Williams next Thursday, February 2, 2023. For those new to the college, Claiming Williams was created in 2008 when students, joined by staff and faculty, responded to a series of racist and sexist… Continue reading »

Summary of the January 2023 Board of Trustees meeting

To the Williams community, The Board of Trustees convened on campus last Friday and Saturday for their January 2023 meeting. I want to offer my usual summary of the business they conducted during the meeting. The Board’s plenary sessions fell into two broad categories: one group was devoted to imagining… Continue reading »

The retirement of CIO Collette Chilton

To the Williams community, I write to announce that Chief Investment Officer Collette Chilton will retire from Williams at the end of calendar year 2023. Everyone who has been at Williams over the last sixteen years has benefited from Collette’s work, but relatively few know to whom credit is due. Continue reading »

Gaudino Scholar Appointment

To the Williams Community, I am pleased to report that Amy Holzapfel, Professor of Theater, has agreed to serve as the college’s next Gaudino Scholar. Her three-year appointment to this post will begin July 1, 2023. Amy will be the 18th faculty member to hold this title. The position… Continue reading »

Creating an Ad Hoc Anti-Racism Campus Task Force

Williams community, We have had multiple incidents this semester involving racist words and phrases written on college or personal property on campus. I have written out with specifics in several of those cases. They also fit into a longer lineage of problems with racism here. Today I am writing with… Continue reading »

Supreme Court oral arguments on race-conscious admissions

To the Williams community, I write in the wake of yesterday’s oral arguments in two major Supreme Court cases—cases likely to influence our work for diversity in higher education. At Williams, we consider it part of our mission to attract and educate a community made up of many different kinds of… Continue reading »

Toward a more inclusive community

Dear Williams community, In the last few days, I have been troubled by things I have seen and read on our campus. Earlier this week, a member of staff found a college space defaced with an anti-Black racial slur. It’s unacceptable that twice in… Continue reading »