To the Williams community,
I write to offer a summary of the June 7-8 Board of Trustees meeting. The Board devoted particular attention to sustaining Williams’ focus on our mission and priorities amidst significant political and financial uncertainty.
Their agenda included the following items:
- Provost and Charles R. Keller Professor of History Eiko Maruko Siniawer ’97, Vice President for Finance and Operations and Treasurer Mike Wagner and I provided Trustees with an update on federal higher education policy and the current environment. Our conversation touched on many subjects, including research funding, immigration, financial aid, civil rights and higher ed finances, including a potential major increase to the federal endowment tax.
- Dean of Admission and Student Financial Services Liz Creighton ’01 provided an update on various topics related to admission and financial aid, including our test optional pilot.
- The Board also reviewed preliminary results of our Athletics and Wellbeing Programming Study with Andrew Grote and Jennifer Williams from our planning partners, Perkins & Will, and Jonathan Dolan from our contracting firm, Suffolk Construction. The session confirmed our project focus for the next phase of the planning effort.
- On Saturday, the Board received its regular updates from Mike on the college’s budget performance; from Vice President for College Relations Megan Morey on college fundraising; and from Chief Investment Officer Abigail Wattley ’05 on endowment performance.
- Trustees also heard about and discussed the most recent thinking about our Energy and Carbon Master Plan (ECMP) and campus electrical system upgrade in a session with Eiko, Assistant Director for Energy and Utilities Jason Moran and Executive Director of the Zilkha Center for the Environment Tanja Srebotnjak. The Board later approved funding to prepare for the medium voltage upgrade.
On Friday night, Board members honored two trustees who concluded their terms of service at the June meeting, Bill Foote ’73 and Vidisha Patel ’85. On July 1, we will welcome Steve Nielsen ’85 and Arun Dhingra ’90 as our new trustee and alumni trustee, respectively. Bill and Vidisha have been wonderful partners, counselors and leaders, and I look forward to working with Steve and Arun in a similar spirit.
On Saturday night, a number of Board members joined faculty hosts and guests to honor this year’s recipients of the Olmsted Prize for Excellence in Secondary School Teaching. Many Trustees also attended Saturday’s Baccalaureate ceremony and Sunday’s Commencement, and a few stayed on to celebrate with classmates during Reunion 2025 the following weekend.
June’s events are a great reminder of how joyful learning can be, and of the value of our hard work and investments to make that joy in learning possible. The Trustees, in their fiduciary capacity, steward our resources for this work, and I was pleased that we could all come together in June to celebrate the results.
Maud