Phil Culhane asked a few days ago “Is Williams transparent enough with its stake holders (alum donors) as to its finances?” With some help from Teresa Lucia in the alumni office, I can now say that Williams does a pretty good job of being transparent. She provided a hard copy of “A Report for Williams: 2001-2002″ which looks like it got sent to all alumni, although I can’t recall getting a copy.

Most importantly, for Phil’s question, it includes a two page summary of the College’s operating budget and trends therein. I haven’t been able to locate a copy on-line, but will see if I can scrounge one up. Perhaps the key statistic is that the college’s operating budget increased at an 8% annual rate from 1999-2002. There are many businesses that wish their budgets were going up at this rate. Of course, to even think about the College as a business raises all sorts of complex questions (e.g., given the huge demand for places in an entering class, why doesn’t the College raise prices (read: tuition)) that will be a topic for another day.