Is Dartmouth Following Williams’ lead?

We will continue to provide free tuition and no loan expectations for students with family incomes of $75,000 a year or less. For financial-aid recipients from families with incomes above $75,000, we will be re-instituting a loan requirement of approximately $2,500-$5,500 a year beginning with the Class of 2015, whose members will enter in fall 2011.

1) Exercise for the reader: Calculate the marginal tax rate of a family making $74,000. Will there really be a bright-shining line at $75,000 exactly?

2) $2,500-$5,500 is a huge range. Just how is that calculated? I thought (corrections welcome) that Williams, back when it required loans, just set a maximum. If you needed $1,000 — after accounting for your savings, EFC and so on — then that is what you borrowed. If you needed $10,000, then Williams gave you a grant of X to bring the loan down to the maximum, which was at around $3,000 (?) a few years ago.

So, describing a range rather than a maximum is interesting. Comments? It certainly provides Dartmouth with a lot “flexibility” in matching offers from other schools.

3) How do you think Williams will structure its program? How do you think it should? The more faculty members that I talk to (and I have communicated with almost 10 on the topic), the more responsive I become to their concerns about “rich” families getting a deal from Williams, about families “scamming” the system. The current mechanism is awful imprecise and suspect, as we have documented in great detail.

Up till now, I have been a big defender of the system purely on competitive grounds. I want the best students to choose Williams. If Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Stanford/Dartmouth/Amherst offer a better deal to student X, she is likely to take it. In that world, Williams would only win the yield battle among rich kids. Every non-rich student would turn us down for one of those schools.

Solution? Cut the Gordian Knot of need-blind admissions, which is a Big Lie anyway. No elite school is truly need-blind since all feature development admits. The whole scheme is sleazy and ripe for abuse. Instead, admit that Williams is family-income aware, but then match any financial aid offer from an elite school. This would focus our financial aid spending on precisely the students who deserve it. Students not talented/desirable enough to get an admissions offer from another elite school would still be offered a financial aid package, but it would feature 1990-levels of generosity: tens of thousands in loans.

What say our readers to such a plan?

Also:

Separately, I [Dartmouth President Kim] have joined Carol Folt, Acting Provost and Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences, and Steven Kadish, Senior Vice President, in donating 10 percent of our salaries to be split between the Dartmouth College Fund and a hardship fund. The hardship fund will assist those with financial difficulties not met through our other programs such as layoff packages or our staff loan program.

Morty was never the sort of guy who would donate 10% of his salary. Is Bill Wagner?

In what seems like a twice-per-decade occurrence, students are involved in an effort to revitalize The Log, which, apparently, has lay virtually dormant since 2007.  Sometimes these efforts will go strong for a year, but inevitably interest / enthusiasm seems to wane as the generation motivated enough to establish a new tradition (which oftentimes is quite popular) graduates.  More details, and a petition drive, can be located at the Willipedia page on point.

If President Falk wants to make an instant impact on campus, some creative thinking about how to better utilize one of the very best, if not the best, social spaces on campus would be a great place to start: in particular, some sort of mechanism to keep momentum and funding in place from year to year would be ideal … perhaps using The Log more during the early weeks of First Year, to establish its value early on in students’ tenure at Williams.  No student space has remotely the same character or history, not to mention a perfect location on Spring Street.

Fortunately, it seems like there is a lot of student enthusiasm and commitment behind this latest effort.  Maybe Ephbloggers with fond Log memories could share their thoughts on the best past uses of the The Log?  A history of what has worked, and what hasn’t, over the years at the Log might help guide current students in their efforts.  The biggest problem will, of course, always be the drinking age, which is what destroyed the Log as a central part of campus social life, to begin with.  Any viable plan for the Log HAS to feature a wide array of options that will be equally attractive whether or not alcohol is involved.

I believe that weekly Pub Trivia, mentioned in the WSO thread, is a great idea that would attract a lot of students to the Log.  In the fall, football and pizza / wings Sundays would likely be popular; so would, I imagine, a March Madness set-up.  Anyone else have thoughts for ideas that would attract those under and over 21 alike?

You know it’s important when you receive a note from one brother (that is what we called ourselves in the 50’s) passing on a note from another brother.

So when I opened my email and found this note from Bob Buss ‘56 containing this life lesson from Dick Hall ‘54, I knew it was important!

My thanks to Bob and Dick. I share it with EphBlog readers climbing the ladder to help ensure their success.

“What Makes 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%?
We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%. How about achieving 103%?

What makes up 100% in life?

Here’s a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions: (more…)

Another ridiculous pie chart (achive here) — this time in duplicate!

1) Pie charts are among the worst methods for transmitting numerical information. Bar charts are much better.

2) You have the data for each year for the last 10 years. Show it! The more data that you show people, the more informed they will become.

3) Without the numbers for specific categories, it is hard to make sense of things. Has spending on the library/museum increased or decreased (in percentage terms) in the last decade? Looking at the pie chart, we can’t tell!

If I were a Trustee, I would be quite critical of this chart. Doing it right takes no more time than doing it wrong.

DONATE ONLINE HERE

Friday, February 5

• COFFEEHOUSE FOR HAITI 7-9:30pm, Paresky
• WILLIAMS AFTER DARK: HYGIENE KITS FOR HAITI 9-12am, Paresky

Monday, February 8

• JRC PASTA DINNER 6pm, JRC

Wednesday, February 10

• HAITI RELIEF STRESSBUSTERS: HAITIAN COOKBOOKS 8-10pm, Paresky
• CONCERT FOR HAITI 9-11pm, Paresky  feat. Eddie Mazurek and Empire Polo Club

Thursday, February 11

• NEIL ROBERTS LECTURE 5pm, NAB 241  «Existentia Caribbeana : Why the Haitian Revolution Still Matters »

Friday, February 12

• HAITI RELIEF DINNER, Congregational Church, First Seating 5-6:30pm, Second Seating 6:45-8:30pm

• BUS TO MEN’S BASKETBALL GAME AT AMHERST 6pm, Chapin Drive
• WOMEN’S HOCKEY HOME GAME 7pm, Hockey Rink
• MEN’S BASKETBALL AWAY GAME 8pm, Amherst,  Half-time event announcing competition winner.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday:

• 5CEE CLOTHING SALE 10-10pm, Paresky,  Half of proceeds to Haiti

For Sale All Week in Paresky and Dining Halls

• VALENTINE’S DAY TRUFFLE SALE FOR HAITI
• HAITI RELIEF DINNER TICKETS
• BUS TO AMHERST BASKETBALL GAME TICKETS
• EPHS FOR RELIEF T-SHIRTS

DONATE ONLINE HERE

Also, look for donation tin cans around campus.

(information courtesy of Lizzy Brickley ‘10 and the Haiti Relief website)

Here are some updates on legacy admissions. (Read our archives for background.)

1) Director of Institutional Research Chris Winters ‘95 reports on the numbers for the class of 2013. There are 69 students (13%) with at least one alumni parent and another 10 (2%) or so with no parent but at least one grandparent. (Some people restrict “legacy” to mean the children of alums, others include grandchildren.)

2) Here are my notes on Morty’s remarks about legacies from reunion last June.

Many schools (not naming names but mentioned Amherst at 9% in this context) seem to want to keep legacies to single digits. That seems stupid to Morty. We are at 13%-15% legacies defined as mom or dad (or both) at Williams. Add another 3% for grand children. Legacies are good kids, more likely to be JA. Williams gives 1/2 the advantage to legacies that it did 15 years ago.

It is not clear to me what it means for Williams to give 1/2 the advantage that it did 15 years ago. Half of what? My guess would be that this refers to the difference in Academic Rating between legacies and non-legacies. But recall what he said in 2008:

Morty noted that a decade or so ago [or perhaps when he arrived?], the average legacy was a 3.3 on the 1-9 scale of academic ranks while the average non-legacy was 2.3. Morty did not seem to be a huge fan of this gap, or of giving legacies such a preference. He then noted that the latest statistics show that legacy and non-legacy are now equivalent (both at 2.3). Morty confirmed, consistent with all the analysis I have done, that being a legacy is not a meaningful advantage in getting into Williams.

3) How can both these claims be true, that legacies get an advantage (if only half as much as they used to) and that the average legacy has the same Academic Rating as the average non-legacy? Easy! The key is whether you are comparing legacies to applicants that are like them (rich, mostly non-URM and non-tip, from good schools, and with college educated parents) or to all applicants. The second group includes many more URMs and athletic tips, both with substantial admissions advantages, than the former. So, legacies are, on average, the same as all students but not (quite) as qualified as the more elite pool which has many fewer URMs/tips.

4) There is still an amazing senior thesis to be written about legacy admissions at Williams. You should write it.

Summary: Legacy status counts for much less at Williams then it did 10 or 30 years ago. The doubling of the number of students in the 70s meant that the (fewer) children of 50s graduates had (proportionately) more open spots. The dramatic increase in student selectivity in the 80s meant that Eph children were becoming smarter and coming from families with more of a focus on elite education. All those trends are continuing. Within a few years, being a legacy will count for, essentially, nothing when you apply to Williams. Till then, the main advantages are: 1) The Admissions Office will give you a secret wink if you really have no chance, thus saving them (and you) the awkwardness of a formal rejection and 2) AR 1 legacies are always (?) admitted.

We had fun live-blogging the Coakley-Brown election last month. I asked if people were interested in live-blogging other events, even if there was no Eph connection. Some folks expressed enthusiasm. So, this is your Super Bowl thread. Who are you rooting for? What score do you predict? (Shall we have a pool?) Extra credit for any Eph connections to the game . . .

… and see who salutes”, as the 60’s ad cliche went.

One of the annoyances with EphBlog is that postings run down the page and disappear, A post that might have been important to you becomes invisible. While the list of recent comments may still point to some interest, they too disappear down the page.

In fact, we are working in vertical time on the blog.

An answer to this might be to revise the format to be more like the New York Times blog format (and many others)

The NYT has a front page with a variety of concurrent leads and then a horizontal bar with topics from which you can select.

This is working in horizontal time.

It might be interesting if EphBlog went on horizontal time.

Again, as we used to say in the ‘60’s “Bear in my mind, this is only the ruff”.

Your comments, please!

Fascinating discussion at WSO about Monday’s Black Student Union protest. Read the whole thing. Key protest description:

This year 2010, The BSU and You will be commemorating both moments in history and creating a new story by sitting in Paresky (Whitmans) on Monday Feb. 8th, 2010 from 11:00am-1:30pm (lunch)

…

-Come dressed in your “sunday” best.
-Bring a book to read, preferably one about the cause you are sitting for
-Sit in Silence without food

Good stuff. Kudos to the students behind the effort. Seems clever and original to me. (See the WSO discussion for a dissenting view.) I hope that someone takes some pictures and posts them. Do our readers have any advice for the protesters? What book would you bring?

Recommended reading: A Black Williams: A Written History and Voices of change: Williams College black students and the 1969 occupation of Hopkins Hall.

Entire BSU e-mail below:
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Time to clean out my e-mail box of EphBlog material

1) Todd Pelkey ‘89 pointed out (two years ago!) this article about Michael Govan at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

2) From the Purple Bull mailing list:

Skip, a purple bull alum, just emailed me to let you guys know that Lehman will be here tomorrow at the Job Fair. He said:

“It will probably be most helpful for people looking at next year (current sophomores applying for internships next year and current juniors applying for full time next year).”

So, I encourage you all to check it out. Will be a good opportunity to get to know the Lehman folks, which is important since we’re not a core school for Lehman any more.

No worries on that front!

3) John Berger ‘89 founded and runs (with his wife) The Emancipation Network: Fighting Human Trafficking and Slavery with Empowerment. Read about them here. Someone should invite him to give a talk at Williams.

Amity Shlaes on Bloomberg in December.

Youth is what the climate change conference in Copenhagen is supposed to be all about.

The advertising campaign for the United Nations Climate Change Conference on global warming that opens this week is even called “Hopenhagen,” to suggest that young people need to push their governments to save the Kyoto Treaty if they are going to prevent environmental apocalypse.

One reason that Hopenhagen has caught on is that youth fashion these days is as green as it gets. Copenhagen, thrift and handbags made of recycled seatbelts all go together in the under-30 mind. At Williams College in Massachusetts, some 50 students and faculty started a hunger strike to show their support for a climate-change agreement.

7) Most bizarre article featuring an Eph.

8) (d)avid points out this article (pdf): “Why do Institutions of Higher Education Reward Research While Selling Education?”

9) A letter from John Calhoun ‘62:

(more…)

Ephs for Relief is planning several fundraising and awareness raising events throughout the next week, and the group wants to alert alumni about two things.

First, there is a fundraising competition going on between Williams and Amherst from today (February 5) through next Friday (February 12). Donations from students, faculty, staff, and alumni can help Williams beat Amherst and, more importantly, help Haiti.

Second, this fundraising is made easy through a partnership with Partners in Health. Anyone can donate to Partners in Health (and be affiliated with Williams) by going to this page:

Would it be possible to share this information with any alumni that you might know?

Please let me know if you have any questions (Rachel.A.Hudson at williams dot edu) – and thank you in advance for your help.

Best,
Rachel Hudson

“Attention, Mister and Mrs EphBlog and all the ships at sea! We go to press …”

Wow! The Sweet Smell of Dave!

J.J.: who commands the minds of sixty million readers of his column – and the bodies and souls of big shots and big names who bask in the sunshine of success

Sid – who’d sell out his own girl if he could stand up there with J.J. – and suck in the sweet smell of success!

http://www.filmsite.org/sweet.html

This WSO discussion is excellent. Minor point:

Hey Patrick, I don’t know if you got a chance to watch the “In Our Own Words” movie but it has a lot of Williams people desribing their own incidents of unsafety/discrimination.. about women on campus being raped/sexually assaulted, racist slurs being thrown etc

I’m sure Prof. Wendy Raymond would be happy to lend it out.

Don’t be so sure. I am interested in this topic and asked Professor Raymond for permission to view the video. She refused. If I could not attend one of the public showings, I was out of luck. If Patrick can’t attend the public showings (are anymore scheduled this semester?), he can’t learn about the views/experiences of Williams students.

Remember that e-mail I sent to the Claiming Williams committee? They never responded. Is it any wonder that (some) white males don’t bother with Claiming Williams?

This is a small example of why white males like me don’t feel welcome at events associated with faculty members like Wendy Raymond.

If Bowdoin can afford to be No Loans, then Williams can too.

Williams College announced plans to revoke its no-loan financial aid policy on Sunday, citing a $500 million drop in its endowment over the past three years, increasing financial aid expenditures, and unstable economic conditions.

In response, President Barry Mills said that Bowdoin has no immediate plans to eliminate its own no-loan policy. Speaking at Monday’s faculty meeting, he affirmed his commitment to the policy, stating that any changes would only be considered in light of economic conditions rather than peer schools’ decisions.

“The no-loan program is certainly among the things to look at if we decided we needed to make adjustments based on the economy,” he said in an interview with the Orient.

“But…we wouldn’t move back just because the competitors allowed us to move back, merely to save money,” he added.

Perhaps Williams is using this policy change as an excuse to solicit a major gift? Surely, there must be an alum willing to write a $50 million dollar check to guarantee no-loans forever . . .

Amherst makes public, and has done so for many years, its Report to Secondary Schools. These documents are thorough and informative. Kudos!

Why doesn’t Williams do the same? We have all the same data. We almost certainly prepare a similar report for internal use. (I bet that the trustee (pdf) “Committee on Admission and Financial Aid: Robert G. Scott, Chair; David C. Bowen, Valda C. Christian, Michael R. Eisenson, Jonathan A. Kraft, William E. Oberndorf, Malcolm W. Smith, Laurie J. Thomsen” looks at a report each year that is indistinguishable from this one.) Here are some historical copies. I read the one from my class and it was, unsurprisingly, very similar to what Amherst makes public.

Simple rule: If we create a already create a report for internal use that is almost identical to a report which Amherst makes public, then we ought to make our report public as well.

I have never met a family that actually celebrated Kwanzaa. Have you? But perhaps Williams commencement speaker Chuck Davis does.

Chuck Davis, founder and artistic director of the African American Dance Ensemble, launched the lively service by lighting two candles on a kinara, a seven-pronged candle holder similar to menorahs lit during the Jewish Hanukkah holiday.

Kwanzaa is a holiday rooted in the African tradition that is celebrated from Dec. 26 through New Year’s Day. It’s based on the agricultural celebration known as “first fruits,” which has to do with times of harvesting, reverencing, commemorating the past, recommitting to cultural ideals and embracing what’s good.

Davis lit the black candle standing tall in the center of the kinara to signify the first day of Kwanzaa — the day after Christmas — focusing on what’s known as umoja, or unity.

Sunday was the second day of Kwanzaa, and the principle was kujichagulia, which is about — if you’ll recall Shakur’s call-and-response session — self-determination. Davis lit the appropriate candle on the kinara.

Rounding out the seven principles of Kwanzaa are ujima (collective work and responsibility), ujama (cooperative economics), nia (purpose), kuumba (creativity) and imani (faith).

Kwaanza has an interesting history.

Ron Karenga created Kwanzaa in 1966 as the first specifically African American holiday.[2] Karenga said his goal was to “give Blacks an alternative to the existing holiday and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society.”[3] The name Kwanzaa derives from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, meaning first fruits of the harvest.[4] The choice of Swahili, an East African language, reflects its status as a symbol of Pan-Africanism, especially in the 1960s.

Kwanzaa is a celebration that has its roots in the black nationalist movement of the 1960s, and was established as a means to help African Americans reconnect with their African cultural and historical heritage by uniting in meditation and study of African traditions and common humanist principles.

…

During the early years of Kwanzaa, Karenga said that it was meant to be an alternative to Christmas, that Jesus was psychotic, and that Christianity was a white religion that black people should shun.

Not that there is anything wrong with that!

Archive of comments from Speak Up. Please continue the conversation about names, deleted threads and so on here.

• The men’s ice hockey team receives some negative attention on this blog.  It is only fair that they are recognized for their exemplary record of community service as well.  The team is currently engaged in an effort to assist the children of fallen soldiers, led by hockey humanitarian award finalist Zach Miller ‘11, who follows in the sizeable footsteps of uber-Eph Will Bruce ‘10 (if there is any way to get on David Kane’s good side, this HAS to be it).  Men’s ice hockey continues to perform well on the ice as well; with one of the strongest teams in recent history, hockey currently ranks second in NESCAC, just behind Amherst.   Women’s ice hockey is also much improved, led by star frosh and NESCAC player of the week Nicole Perry.
• Speaking of community service, the wrestling squad participated in the awesomely-named “headlock for hunger” event last week.   The wrestling team continues to have its best year ever, and remains first in New England after upsetting 11th-ranked TCNJ.  Ryan Malo is having a spectacular junior year, and was recognized as a Sports Illustrated face in the crowd accordingly.
• After several weeks on the road, hoops returns to Billsville in a huge way this weekend.  On Friday at 6:00,the Williams’ women’s basketball team, ranked third in New England and tied for first in NESCAC, battles Colby, ranked sixth in New England.  Women’s hoops continues to surprise this season, and right now are on the bubble as a potential NCAA team.   Beating Colby would go a long way towards securing a bid; beating Colby AND Eph nemesis Bowdoin on Saturday would put the Ephs in a particularly strong position.  Immediately following the women’s game (at 8:00), Williams’ men (fresh off last week’s huge win over Middlebury), ranked second in the country, first in New England, and tied for first in NESCAC, battle the Colby men (fresh off their own huge defeat of Amherst), who are ranked 25th in the country, third in New England, and are, like the Ephs, a perfect 5-0 in NESCAC.  Two of the best players in New England (and arguably the country), senior small forwards Blake Schultz and Adam Choice, will be facing off in a great head-to-head match-up; the winner of the individual battle will be a big favorite to earn NESCAC player of the year honors, but obviously the game result is far more meaningful to both.  Williams will also have to play close attention to physical forward Mike Russell, NESCAC’s leading rebounder by a comfortable margin.  The Eph women are led by sweet-shooting Chessie Jackson, a junior who is already only 60 points away from hitting 1000 for her career; she is on pace to finish as one of the all-time leading scorers for the Ephs.
• Saturday is Senior Day for men’s and women’s basketball, the last regular season home game for both men’s and women’s hoops.  Men’s hoops features a huge (seven member) senior class that has had a lot of ups and downs over four years (surprise NESCAC championship run as frosh, rough year as sophomores, new coach and season-long improvement last year, capped off by a stellar senior year), so it should be an emotional day.  Bowdoin, the Senior Day opponent, has had the Ephs’ number in recent years.  The men have beaten Williams two straight and three out of four times, and the Bowdoin women’s juggernaut have beaten Williams an astonishing fourteen straight times (incredibly, ending the Ephs’ season in NESCAC tourney play in five out of the last eight seasons), so both squads should be doubly motivated.  Watch all the games here (you need to pay, but you can follow the live stats for free as well).
• Men’s hoops continues to lead the country in numerous categories, including scoring margin, field goal percentage, and three point field goal percentage.  Junior Troy Whittington leads the nation with an astonishing 70.4 percent field goal percentage.  In addition, Blake Schultz and James Wang would be among the nation’s leaders in three point percentage had they attempted enough shots to qualify.
• Article on future Eph running back Alex Scyocurka.  Anyone who picks the Ephs over Amherst, at the very minimum, has demonstrated good judgment.   Scyocurka, whose name is destined to give NESCAC broadcasters (who often struggle to pronounce “Ephs” correctly) fits, is a former Western Mass player of the year and dominated his competition in prep school last year.
• Finally, this article notes the basketball coaching success of Eph alum Jessica Katz.

Continuing our two week review of the 2010 Provost Report.

Another pie chart that should have been a bar chart with 10 years of data in it (archive here). More importantly, this is the first example of a statement that might mislead an inattentive trustee (i.e., one that does not read EphBlog).

Williams is a different college from what it was ten years ago in a number of ways. One is that the student body has become much more socio-economically diverse. That’s the main reason why the percentage of our operating spending devoted to financial aid has grown from 13% to 21%.

There is evidence that Williams has become more socially diverse, in the sense that a higher percentage of students have parents without college degrees now than in the past.

There is no evidence that Williams has become more economically diverse in the last decade, at least with regard to US students. So, there is no good (at least public) evidence the “main reason” for increased spending on financial aid is the change in the mix of students who attend Williams.

I have reviewed this topic many times. See below for a refresher.
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Is Williams a dramatic outlier in international admissions and financial aid? Perhaps:

Pomona and Swarthmore are not need-blind for international admissions. Their percentage of internationals qualifying for aid is roughly the same as the percentage for US students. More importantly, the average net price paid (after aid), is reasonably close for both US and international students. Amherst and Williams are another story. 89% and 93% of their internationals qualify for aid. The impact on net price paid is stunning. Amherst internationals pay, on average, $6255 per year. Williams is even lower at just $4996 per year. That’s not even enough to cover the cost of the food they eat in the dining halls!

It’s hard to imagine how their admissions offices could do so poorly in attracting tuition-paying internationals. Let’s face it, the international students who ace an IB program in a top feeder school and qualify for admission to these colleges are not living in grass huts. So either the admissions offices are intentionally looking for no-pay internationals (concealed athletic scholarships?) or there are serious flaws in the aid formula for wealthier (but less than full-fare) internationals. …

Pomona (2008-09)
----------------------------------------
    4%	% international students
   48%	% receiving aid (international)
   52%	% receiving aid (US)
29,420 	Avg net price paid (international)
32,131 	Avg net price paid (US)	

Swarthmore (2009-10)
----------------------------------------
    7%	% international students
   57%	% receiving aid (international)
   53%	% receiving aid (US)
25,184 	Avg net price paid (international)
33,569 	Avg net price paid (US)	

Amherst (2009-10)
----------------------------------------
    8%	% international students
   89%	% receiving aid (international)
   54%	% receiving aid (US)
 6,255 	Avg net price paid (international)
31,035 	Avg net price paid (US)

Williams (2009-10)
----------------------------------------
    7%	% international students
   93%	% receiving aid (international)
   49%	% receiving aid (US)
 4,996 	Avg net price paid (international)
33,852 	Avg net price paid (US)

1) Stunning analysis. Read the whole thing. Does anyone know what is going on? (See UDPATE below.) Possibilities:

a) Williams takes its committment to Need Blind admissions seriously. Given that there are many more poor smart students than rich smart students outside the US, it is hardly surprising that the vast majority of the admitted applicants have no money. Key comparison: Difference of GPAs between internationals and domestic students at Swarthmore/Pomona versus the same differrence at Williams.

b) Williams does not do as good a job as it should it getting money out of international students. On occasion, one reads claims on College Confidential that students hide assets/income. That is obviously much easier for internationals. Do Williams policies/practices differ from Swarthmore/Pomona?

c) Williams, because of its shallow fixation on socio-ec 1 admissions, gives dramatic preferences among international applicants to those whose parents don’t have college degrees. In other words, the top of the international applicant pool is strong. But, instead of taking a reasonable cross section of the entire pool, Williams focuses on students whose parents did not go to college. They are just as (almost as?) strong as the other candidates, so why not? Morty gets to brag about how he has increased the percentage from 13% to 21%. Every feels all warm and fuzzy and inclusive.

The key problem is that there is a big correlation between parents-did-not-attend-college and poverty. So, even though Williams is not favoring poor internationals per se, it is ending up with an international student cohort that is dominated by students who need a full ride.

2) Speaking as the person who first exposed and then railed against the quota for international students at Williams, I hope that I can claim the moral high ground when I argue that this stinks. There is no way that Williams can, in good conscious, demand loans from US students while simultaneously (seeming) to offer a dramatically better deal to international students without also enrolling much smarter, more academically serious students. (If it turns out that Swarthmore/Pomona enroll a bunch of stupid but rich internationals, then I retract this complaint.)

3) Might this already be changing? Recall Joe Foster’s ‘90 news that two of the 11 international students admitted early decision were from Daewon. The average student from there could afford at least $10,000 per year for Williams, and probably more.

4) My policy preference is the same as before. Dramatically increase the number of international students, but focus efforts on elite English-immersion schools like Daewon. This will, naturally, lead to an international student profile that, in terms of financial aid, matches the US student profile. Williams will a) Save millions of dollars, b) Increase the average academic quality of its student body, and c) Become a more global, and truly diverse, institution.

UPDATE: D’oh! I had assumed that Swarthmore and Pomona were need blind for international students. As HWC points out, they are not. My mistake! So, the obvious explanation has nothing to do with airports and warm weather. Swarthmore and Pomona let in a bunch of rich, but less smart, international students. Amherst and Williams are need blind and find, unsurprisingly, that if you ignore family income in admissions, the vast majority of the best international applicants are very poor. Apologies for not figuring his out sooner!

The key comparison: How much weaker are the international students at Swarthmore/Pomona compared to the international students at Williams/Amherst?

Ugh. I drag myself out of the bed at 8:40 in the morning, my body tired from the hustle and bustle that was the first day of spring term. Why? I had promised myself not to let this “free” day go to waste and actually attend a lot of the events. At least, as much as my mind could stay awake for. Professor Fein’s address was going to start at 9:30, and I wanted to make sure I had a good seat at Mainstage.

I got there expecting virtually nothing. To credit the organizers for the events, it must have been really hard to pull all of these speakers and events together for a single day. However, I learned the day before that many of the freshmen were still not really sure what Claiming Williams Day will consist of. We saw all of these flyers and advertisements. Heck, the organizers event came through during entry snacks to encourage everyone. But still, we were as confused as ever, many of us opting to go to a lecture or two and call it a day.

When I entered Mainstage, I saw a surprising amount of faculty members already seated in the audience. My friend pointed out that even Adam Falk was here to listen to the start of this day. Slowly, the groggy students filed in to fill the rest of the seats. To some point, I expected less students to show up simply because it was 9:30 in the morning. Many people I recognized, and far more that I didn’t really know, were present to listen to Professor Fein.
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System down from 12:08E to approx. 12:28E.

The final Claiming Williams event.

At Williams, how can we effectively create and strengthen coalitions to provoke institutional and cultural changes that address privileges based on class, race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and religion? This forum will bring together any individuals interested in this work, including campus leaders from various organizations, to articulate a list of goals and demands.

I was going to write a screed describing how narrow-minded this view of Williams is. But someone way smarter already did so on WSO!

I want to make a point about an issue that’s been particularly bothering me over the last few months (though I’ve noticed this since I’ve first stepped foot on campus two and half years ago), and that is the marginalization of the White Male Athlete Who Drinks (WMAWD – I know there are a few more letters in there, but bear with me). I was especially struck by the pervasive nature of this dismissive attitude last night as I was reading a few posters set up on an easel between the two front entrances of Paresky. These posters essentially had quotes taken from students, faculty, and staff on their different perspectives of the interaction between personal identity and the Williams community. As we scanned the pages, we came across, “I feel marginalized as a white, heterosexual male athlete,” or something along those lines. My friend, who I usually find I agree with on most issues of diversity and the appropriate social and institutional response to these issues, snorted and made a remark that clearly showed his contempt. On another occasion, there was a discussion about the reclamation of Hardy House as the GSRC and someone retorted, “What are you talking about? You don’t need a space, Williams campus is your space.” And while I see some degree of validity in that statement, it highlights the widespread notion that WMAWD have such a long history of sitting on top of every social hierarchy, that they have so much privilege in comparison to the rest of us, that they simply have no say in these matters.

Essentially: Be an ally, a supporter, seek only to listen, understand, accept, or shut the fuck up.

What I’m saying here is that Claiming Williams in particular, and in general the whole compartmentalization of distinct facets of our individual identities based on our socioeconomic status, race, and sexual orientation that is so deeply ingrained into our relationship to the our personal fractured versions of Williams College, has serious undertones of “I’m poor/a minority/queer and therefore underprivileged. You, the WMAWD, have never experienced such adversity, and therefore can’t belong to our various forms of the same I Am a Victim Club. Your privilege was established through the exploitation of our communities, and therefore shut up and bow your head in shame as we give voice to our self-righteous victimization from which you profit.”

The fact of the matter is, the use of this term “privilege” is simply misleading. It implies that they have somehow been given a gift at birth, a Golden Ticket that the rest of us never got in our chocolate bars, when it would be more accurate to see the “privileged” as the standard, the norm of social status. It is more correct to see the rest of the population as “underprivileged”, as missing a trait that is artificially conceived to somehow be better. But even here, the WMAWD is the true minority. We have all have had some title that bestowed upon us all the burden and the benefits of historically rooted social adversity, which brings individuals together into a community like no other cohesive phenomenon.

It’s not enough to say that they have all the rest of the campus outside of our self-segregated spaces. It’s the fact that they are perpetually marginalized with the unspoken assertion that they simply “don’t know what it’s like.”

The whole post is genius. This was exactly what I thought at Williams 25 years ago. Can you guess the writers race or gender? Rest below.

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From WSO:

I’ve heard from many minority students here at Williams and throughout my academic life about the “burden” of representing their respective minority group in a class setting. More specifically, the situation that may arise if they are in a class talking about a particular issue and are looked at to provide insight on their views as a member of whatever minority group to which they may belong. This is done in order to help others understand that particular minority perspective. Obviously this is not a good way by any means to understand a perspective of any culture, but it does suffice as a short term solution in the classroom. While it may seem as if this idea is “racist” or “intolerant” or whatever term you deem appropriate, I think that this act is so natural that no one can truly be judged for doing so.

Read the whole thing.

1) This always generates a dilemma for the professor leading the discussion. Anytime you think a student has a different perspective on topic X, you want to ensure that the other students benefit from that perspective. (This applies in all sorts of contexts, not just race/gender/class/whatever.) How do you ensure that the student has a chance to speak (if she wants to) while not forcing her to speak (if she doesn’t) and, at the same time, encouraging her to speak if she is initially indifferent or even hesitant? Hard to do, especially in the middle of a free-wheeling discussion that covers many topics.

2) The primary (legal) justification for affirmative action is precisely this sort of diversity-educations-all-the-students argument. Michigan can admit less qualified black students as long as it can plausibly claim that those black students, because of their life experiences, add to the education of the students admitted without regard to race. But, of course, if the affirmative action students do not “provide insight on their views as a member of whatever minority group to which they may belong,” then the rational for affirmative action, at least according to the US Supreme Court, collapses.

3) It is easy to understand why some students would find such perspective-sharing a burden. “Why does the professor always turn to me when some African-American related topic comes up? Just treat me like all the other students in the class. Is that so hard?”

In any event, with luck Claiming Williams has generated many honest conversations about these issues. Any reader reports from the various events?

Abdulsalam al-Zahrani was indicted on Jan. 22. He pleaded not guilty today.

On giving to Williams (archive here).

Recessions understandably affect giving. Not all the giving shown here is spent on current operations; some goes to endowment and to building projects. The numbers for recent years were affected positively by The Williams Campaign, which ended Dec. 31, 2008. Despite the continued commitment and generosity of our alumni, parents, and friends, it’s likely to be a few years before we experience those levels of giving again.

I don’t really understand these donation totals, averaging about $50 million per year from 2006 — 2008. Can someone explain?

1) The College claims that the Williams Campaign raised $500 million from 2003 to 2008. Great. But then how come these donations don’t add up to anywhere near that?

2) In discussing revenues, Provost Lenhart reports that 5% of the $205 million in revenue for 2009-2010 was from “Annual Giving.” But that would only be a little over $10 million. This chart has “Total Giving” at $35 million, which I guess is not the same as “Annual Giving”

3) Most likely, we just need a more careful breakdown of donations into different categories. My guesses (clarifications welcome):

a) The $10 million in “Annual Giving” from the Revenues chart is from the annual Alumni and Parent fund drives. The College takes this money and spends it directly on operations.

b) The $35 million in “Total Giving” from the Giving chart includes the Annual Giving and some special categories that recur every year. The big items would be the class gifts for the 25th and 50th reunion classes. (Some info here.) This might also include Planned Giving and/or donations from corporations. Much of this money, especially the 25th and 50th reunion gifts, goes to specific uses, not just general operations.

c) The $100 million per year that the Williams Campaign raised over the five years from 2003 through 2008 includes a) and b). It then adds in the Leadership gifts that fund major items.

4) Keep the following table in mind when trying to understand donations at Williams.

Just 89 donors (out of over 25,000 alumni) are responsible for 60% of the money raised. Just 561 account for over 85%. Want the people in Hopkins Hall to take your opinions very seriously? Get on those lists.

Claiming Williams is today. Which events do you recommend? If you attend an event, please tell us about it.

From College Librarian (and all around excellent guy) David Pilachowski:

A fair question is “How can we be sure that new Sawyer Library, as it will be called, will provide a long-term answer to campus library needs for 50-100 years?” With the assistance of the Bohlin Cywinski Jackson architects, and the involvement of the Stetson/Sawyer Building Committee, librarians and information technologists, and the President’s Senior Staff, the building has been designed to meet changing needs over the years ahead. In particular, the collection area will accommodate compact shelving on all levels; an off-site shelving facility can accommodate growing collections while ensuring that users are not squeezed out by books; raised floors and demountable walls in areas most impacted by technology changes will facilitate repurposing space; and standard floor to ceiling heights will allow conversion of selective collection space to such people-centric functions as classrooms and academic support should that be desired.

1) The College ought to put the plans on-line so that the rest of us can take a peak. (UPDATE: Here are some details. Thanks to Pilachowski for the link.)

2) I have a great deal of faith in Pilachowski, Professor Michael Brown and all the other folks engaged in this project. I bet that the new Stetson/Sawyer (or INSERT-YOUR-NAME-HERE) will be fantastic.

3) I still wish that the College had not engaged in this particular spending spree, but, at this point, there is no going back.

4) What is the carbon emissions impact of this new construction? Williams won’t tell you! Nor will it include that impact in its aren’t-we-special report on carbon emissions. This is the main environmental hypocrisy of Williams: We claim to be reducing carbon emissions, but then we don’t count the carbon emissions associated with new construction.

5) My main concern is with “repurposing space.” What percentage of the total floor space is devoted to books and periodicals? My prediction is that, within a decade, less than 10% of that space will be needed. Anything not online, and easily reachable via Kindle/Ipad/Android, will be invisible and unwanted. As long as most/all of that space can, easily, be turned into classrooms, meeting spaces and so on, I am satisfied.

Sorry, Neytiri!

Here we are again at that time of the year when the Hollywood glitterati and the EphBlog flitterati mix in an amalgam of star-lust and sweaty palms to wait for that final vote to come in. The vote that, like Massachusetts, will determine studio production schedules and whether Democrats have lost that all-important SAG-AFTRA bloc.

And so for the third year in a row, EphBlog is excited to announce its contest for prognosticators of the proletarian, salons of the salacious, and boffins of the box-office: Oscars 2010 3D!

Prizes, will there be prizes for foretelling the winners in the major categories even before the votes are announced? Ya, you betcha! Just like the last two years. Real crap souvenirs of Hood River like windsurfer pens and fukitznukin refrigerator magnets. Unknown at this writing because I need a trip to Chatchkes-R- Us.

But the real prize is winning the respect and admiration of your peers here on the blog. This is your chance to show those muscled masticators of metaphor that you are not a 97-pound weakling.

Enter early, enter often! Here are the nominees by category: (more…)

Just a warning. Probably down for 45 minutes. This will not be our normal procedure– establishing a baseline/backup.