Williams at Oxford Social Network
The site is wiox.org. It has been active since December, but it went live about the same time that EphBlog switched over to WordPress, and I didn’t want to make an announcement while this blog was switching over, for fear that it wouldn’t get out to the readers.
Anyway, if you know anyone who was part of the program, pass this along and let them know it’s out there. I hope it will be the one stop shop for info leading up to the 25th anniversary of the Williams-Oxford program in 2010.
Weakness
Thanks to Neil for pointing out this New York Times article.
Despite the economic downturn and fears of recession, major charities say their fund-raising has not fallen off.
“We’re doing fine,” said Christina Walker, director of development at the Cleveland Orchestra. “We haven’t seen any effect yet.”
In fact, some 64 percent of the organizations that have responded so far to the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ annual survey on fund-raising have reported bringing in more money in 2007 than the year before.
…
Some fund-raisers already see what could be signs of a downturn. Stephen R. Birrell, vice president for alumni relations and development at Williams College, said that the college’s annual fund-raising effort was doing well but that the number of donors was down somewhat.
“I hesitate to single this out,” Mr. Birrell said, “because I don’t know what to make of it.”
The reason for his uncertainty is that a plan that Williams adopted in 2003 to raise $400 million through a special campaign by the end of this year has so far exceeded the goal by more than $50 million, he said, and may have drawn donors away from the annual fund.
One donor to the special campaign, Paul Neely, said he would look at his seven-figure gift differently today, because the value of the stock he donated had since dropped by roughly a third.
“If I wanted to give the same dollar amount today, I would have to give more shares and then worry that they might go back up,” said Mr. Neely, a Williams trustee. “That’s the kind of calculation that I think people are turning over in their minds, which hasn’t noticeably impacted us yet but it may very well by the end of the year.”
Comments:
1) Kudos to Birrell and Neely for getting Williams into the Times in this context. The more people know about Williams, the better. But what is the backstory? I assume that Times reporter Stephanie Strom did not call them up randomly. One guess would be that Strom knows Neely via Neely’s former job as publisher of The Chattanooga Times. I had an interesting chat with Neely at the Road Scholars event a few weeks ago. There are few Ephs who know more about the behind-the-scenes discussions and debates that have shaped the College for the last 15 years. The Record ought to do a big interview/profile.
2) Are the number of donors down a meaningful amount? Not in the class of 1988! We are, I think, hitting a record this year. I think that the details will be made public soon. To the extent that he overall participation rate is down, I am pretty sure that it is not down a meaningul amount.
3) Even if it is down a non-trivial amount — and every percentage point matters for those US News rankings — it is highly unlikely that the capital campaign has anything to do with that. Or am I misinformed. Only very rich Ephs are approached to give directly to the capital campaign. We mere mortals contribute via the alumni fund. It is hard to tell a story whereby capital campaign giving plays a role in alumni fund participation. And note that the campaign has beenn going on for several years, so why would this year see an impact?
4) You can certainly tell a story whereby the current downturn is impacting big ticket gifts. But, lucky for Williams, we are at the end of the capital campaign. In fact, for Ephs, 2008-2010 is the perfect timing for a recession.
5) I wonder what stock Neely gave to the College. His distinguished career in the news business is not the sort of thing that generates significant wealth. Or am I underestimating how much publishers get paid? Maybe this is Times stock. That seven figure gift is probably connected to his generosity here. Alas, I am travelling for the next two weeks and don’t have Bloomberg access. Perhaps one of our finance readers could note Neely’s holdings in the comments. My guess is that this is family money. Hey, Dad! Where’s my trust fund?
6) My take is that Stephanie Strom knew what story she wanted to write before she even called Neely/Birrell. Then, she misunderstood what Birrell was saying and/or kept asking him questions until she got a quote that she liked. It seems highly unlikely that the capital campaign has any causal effect on participation rates in the annual alumni fund.
Corrections from our friends in the Alumni Office are welcome!
1988 Yearbook: Page 99
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1988 Yearbook: Page 98
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Tearing It Up
Nice article on alpine ski team captain Charles Christianson ‘08.
Charles Christianson was having a stellar slalom run under dicey conditions. He was 50 feet from the finish, and could tell by the throaty surge of the crowd that he was about a second away from winning the prestigious 2007 World University Games in Bardonecchia, Italy.
more stories like thisChristianson broke over the final steep pitch and aggressively dug in his left ski. He careened forward and gunned for the finish. His leg didn’t.
“My downhill ski just caught,” the Williams College senior captain said. “It’s like time slowed down. I could literally feel individual things tearing in my knee. Before I even hit the ground, I thought, ‘Everything I’ve worked so hard for is gone. I put so much into this, and that’s it - campaign over, season over, career over.’ ”
Christianson’s damage was extensive. He had torn not one, but three of the four major ligaments in his left knee: The anterior cruciate ligament, the lateral collateral ligament, and the medial collateral ligament. He also ripped one of two menisci, the cartilage that cushions the knee joint.
“It didn’t necessarily hurt,” Christianson said. “It was more warm and loose. I have tons of friends who haven’t come back from [knee injuries] or are never the same.”
Despite the daunting prognosis, Christianson is back in action, and in a big way.
Read the whole thing.
1988 Yearbook: Page 97
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Note to current Ephs who’ve signed on with Bear Stearns
I know there’s usually a few seniors who get a job there, and a similar number of summer analysts; for them, here’s some unsolicited advice from Dealbreaker:
who needs summer [analysts] when they don’t know if they’ll make it through spring? your best bet is to dress up the resume and restart your search process. if you managed to get an offer from bsc, I’m sure you’re still marketable - however, the field just got a lot more crowded. ditto for full time offers. back in 2001, banks deferred or withdrew offers outright. this is no different
I don’t mean to panic anyone, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.
1988 Yearbook: Page 96
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Podcasts for the Ides of March
Keeping up what seems to be a monthly posting, here are two shows I have done on Roman History.The first is with Adrian Goldsworthy talking about his 2006 book, Caesar: Life of a Colossus. It is one of my favorite shows, mainly because it is the first interview I did for Yale, hence my first professional gig. If you like Casear, this is THE book.The second interview is with Mary Beard, talking about her 2007 book, The Roman Triumph. Mary is the Classics editor at The Times Literary Supplement, the author of an incredibly addictive blog called A Don’s Life and is someone Williams should make every effort to get as a speaker.
Caesar: Life of a Colossus Interview [17:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download The Roman Triumph Interview: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadUnacceptable
For years, I have been trying to convince former Williams Professor Marc Lynch that Hillary Clinton is trouble. He has finally seen the light.
do try to stay away from domestic politics here, but this has been eating at me. So… On the eve of the Maryland primary, I said that despite my strong support for Obama I had no problem with Hillary Clinton and thought she would be a fine President were she to win the nomination. I no longer believe that. After her performance the last few weeks, I no longer consider her an acceptable President.
I won’t bore people with my personal conversion narrative, the accumulation of outrages minor and major, which probably mirrors that of many other people (certainly the ones I talk to). What pushed me over the brink was the Clinton campaign’s treatment of Samantha Power. Not because she’s a personal friend - I’ve never met her - but because of the deeply ugly implications of Clinton’s decision to burn a well-respected, decent, intelligent Democratic Party foreign policy advocate to secure a momentary political advantage.
…
It’s a small thing, but sometimes it’s the small things which tell. The Clinton campaign burned one of our own, one of what you’d think would be their own - all to gain momentary advantage over one or two news cycles. When you start throwing your teammates to the wolves for personal gain, you aren’t on the team anymore. When you buy into and reinforce the other team’s arguments, narratives, innuendoes and slanders, you’ve crossed over the line. Clinton and her surrogates should be ashamed… but shame is not an emotion which seems to have much purchase in her campaign.
Do tell! We members of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, Eph Division have been saying the same for years.
Ephs for Obama! Professor Sam Crane is on board, although the precise link eludes me. (But, then again, Sam and I agree about most things.)
1988 Yearbook: Page 95
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1988 Yearbook: Page 94
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Commencement Speakers
Let’s gather a little bit more of Williams history. Who has spoken at Commencement? Wikipedia provides a list (which I helped start) but it is far from complete. Help us fill it out. For starters, who spoke at Commencement in 1989? I have a vague memory that it was an African-American woman (Johnnetta Cole?) and that she spoke about the centennial of Charles Gaius Bolin’s ‘1889 graduation. Is that right? What about other years?
Winter Study Statistics
An interesting collection of student choices for Winter Study classes. Given the continued student demand for classes like ECON 15: Stock Market, it is a shame that the Economics Department does not do a better job of matching its course offerings to student demand. Why is there no class at Williams like Economics 1723. Capital Markets at Harvard or Corporate Financial Accounting and Reporting at MIT?
1988 Yearbook: Page 93
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Commencement Speakers Announced
So exciting - my very first post, and it’s a scoop.
Williams announced its commencement speakers and honorary degree recipients today. You can check out the Press Release for the full details.
For those without the time to go read:
Acclaimed artist and sculptor Richard Serra will be the principal speaker at Williams College’s 219th Commencement on Sunday, June 1. Actor, director, and author LeVar Burton will be the baccalaureate speaker on Saturday afternoon, May 31. Former Secretary of State George Shultz will deliver an invited lecture on Saturday morning, May 31.
During the Commencement ceremonies on June 1, President of the College Morton Owen Schapiro will confer honorary degrees on Serra, Burton, Shultz, British economist Frances Cairncross, financial director and advisor Robert Lipp, and women’s health advocate Dr. Nawal Nour.
And now for the commentary aspect that will possibly make David regret letting me post: is it just me, or is Williams still following the not exclusive, but seemingly common, pattern of people of color speaking at baccalaureate and not graduation? I suppose I should preface this by commenting that I’m not in any way saying that the commencement speakers are not deserving….that is not what this is about. We have been lucky at Williams to have a distinguished group of speakers who admittedly have not all been white (and shockingly an entire 5 out of the last 35 have been women). It was, however, a running joke when I was at Williams that when we heard the list of the honorary degree recipients, we could guess who would be the baccalaureate speaker - or at least who wouldn’t speak on the big stage. True, it is a pretty great honor to be asked to speak at Williams at all, but all things being equal (accomplished, talented, powerful, inspiring people worthy of coming to Williams to speak) there was a perception by students that there was a tendency not to let some people speak at commencement.
The list of commencement speakers is on Wikipedia (although some of the links seem to be to other people with the same names, notably Chuck Davis). It is not exclusively white dudes, but it is overwhelmingly. And before the usual “but until 1970 Williams was mostly white guys” chorus starts - being an alum is not a prerequisite for speaking at graduation.
I don’t have time to run through every press release for the last however many years (and they are only archived to 2001 on the Williams website), but a quick look shows that we had a white grad speaker and person of color as baccalaureate speaker in 2007, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, and 2001 - and we will in 2008. So in 2006 they broke with tradition. This may just be me seeing things that aren’t really there, but, like the amazing lack of younger alums, women, and alums of color on the Board of Trustees, such oversights can cast a negative light on the Williams we all know and love. This struck me tonight given the flap about Geraldine Ferraro’s recent comments and her “don’t call me a racist, I’m oppressed, too” response. You don’t have to consciously be a racist to say things or do things that are taken to be totally insensitive. I just think it is worth pointing out that this tendency was noticeable enough that students at Williams joked about it.
And hello everyone! I promise to enjoy the arguments that are sure to ensue from any posts I make. I’ll try to get a real bio up at some point soon. Basics now: graduated in 2001 with Religion major and African-American Studies concentration. I was a nonprofit fundraiser and then an organizer for a few years before heading to law school. I graduated in May, and now I’m in DC as an honors attorney with one of the banking agencies (which means I can’t comment too closely on any issue relating to work).
1988 Yearbook: Page 92
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EB stalker watch
In case you thought EphBlog had a creepy obsession with Erin Burnett ‘98, I’d just like to point out that our interest is positively healthy compared to this latest post by John Carney of Dealbreaker.
Stetson-Sawyer Blog
Check out the new blog on the Stetson-Sawyer project, as well as the homepage for the forthcoming (and very cool looking) Center for Media Initiatives.
More Training
Kudos to the folks at Stand With Us for updating their website with a new header featuring pictures of the rally. Nicely done. They provide an update on their current plans, also posted to WSO. Much of this is interesting and valuable, but I will start with a quibble.
We are planning on improving JA training on issues of discrimination and respect by bringing in outside facilitators in both the fall and spring.
…
Commitment from Mike Reed, VP for Strategic Planning and Institutional Diversity, for diversity/sensitivity training by outside professionals for staff, that will be open to interested faculty.
Comments:
1) Do JAs need more training about “discrimination and respect?” Give me a break. Don’t they already get many hours of (suspect) training in August? How much training — 5 hours? 10 hours? 50 hours? — is enough? I think that our JAs get more than enough such training right now. Do current or past JAs disagree?
2) Are they really suggesting that JAs need more training <i>during the school year</i>? Perhaps I am just misreading the meaning of “both the fall and spring.” JAs are some of the busiest people on campus. They do not have time for more training. They should be spending that time with their entry. Diversity bureaucracies are problematic because of the huge time costs that they enforce on others.
3) Note how training for JAs is required but training for faculty is optional. This is an example of “invisible privilege” that is, perhaps, not so invisible.
4) Why do we need “outside professionals” for any of this? Let’s waste more money! One of the points, one would think, of having a Multicultural Center (with a staff of 5) and a VP of Institutional Diversity (with a staff of 7) is that these folks could do most of the training that Williams needs themselves. If they aren’t qualified to do so (!?), then let’s send them to some course so that they become so. It is ridiculous for Williams to have to bring in outsiders every year for this sort of training. Why not invite outsiders each year to coach the football team or teach chemistry? Embarrassing.
5) By the way, the Williams home page currently provides a direct link to Stand With Us. I have never seen such a link to WSO or the Record, much less EphBlog. Powerful faculty/administrators like Wendy Raymond and Mike Reed ‘75 are good people to have on your side.
6) But let me end on a good note.
Development of a web site to be housed by the Office of Strategic Planning and Institutional Diversity for info/activities/links that will include an institutional history of community bias and hate events.
Great idea! (And one that I have championed for several years.)
1988 Yearbook: Page 91
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EphTube: Salt n Pepa
Still no luck in tracking down a video of Rory breakdancing, but a friend who went to Amherst passed along this performance by Ephoria, describing it as “possibly the whitest thing I’ve ever seen”, though I don’t think it even comes close to this. Enjoy:
1988 Yearbook: Page 90
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1988 Yearbook: Page 88
Click below for full image. Is anyone else as fascinated with these yearbook pages as I am? Who is Louis Guzzetti (apparently not an alum) and why was he a trustee in 1988? Paul Boyer, director of financial aid, has not aged in 20 years. The motorcycles, perhaps? And, yes, current students in micro-economics, Ralph Bradburd intimidated us then, just as he does you now, but in a good way!
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A Wild Spirit
Mayda del Valle ‘00 is performing at the University of Delaware tonight. If you go, tell us about the show. Previous post here.
Wouldn’t it be cool if we could provide a listing of every public performance/speech/debate/whatever featuring an Eph? A calendar for forthcoming events for “All Things Eph?”
If we build it, they will come.
Dave Clawson ‘89 in the Spotlight
Great feature on new Tennessee Vols offensive coordinator Dave Clawson. There is no more rabid group of college football fans than those at Tennessee, so Dave will be under immense scrutiny. If he succeeds, he will have his choice of plum Division-I coaching jobs. Dick Farley comments on Dave’s time as an undergraduate:
“He’s youthful and very bright,” Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer said of Clawson, who replaces David Cutcliffe. “I’m smart enough to hire people smarter than me.”
Dick Farley, who coached Clawson at Williams College from 1985-89, knows all about his former player’s intelligence.
It was Farley who shifted Clawson, a Youngstown, N.Y., native, from quarterback to defensive back. Farley, who retired four years ago as football coach, has proudly followed Clawson’s career since he left Williams, a 2,000-student institution in Williamstown, Mass., that has been ranked the No. 1 national liberal arts college in America.
“I always kid Dave that we’re going to put, ‘He was a quarterback,’ on his tombstone,” Farley said. “He was a very smart guy at a school where you have to be pretty darned bright. He just decided to take an Ivy League-like education and coach football instead of going to Wall Street like some of his buddies.”
Farley, whose son played under Clawson when he was Villanova’s offensive coordinator, feels the Vols are getting a mind with a flawless track record.
“Dave is looking all the time at mismatches and where he can take advantage of either a linebacker or safety,” Farley said. “He’s never failed at anything he’s done. He looks like a choir boy off the field, but I know since he played for me, he’s very thorough and very demanding.”
1988 Yearbook: Page 89
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Sankofa Reunion Step
Tired of looking at Eliot Spitzer on the top of EphBlog? Me too!
A 2002 step video from Sankofa. This seems to be a “reunion” step, meaning, I think, that it includes alums. True? Or is that just the name of the routine? I love watching the Octet reunion concerts in which Ephs from across the decades sing together many of the same great songs. With luck, Sankofa will be doing the same 20 years from now. They just celebrated their 10th anniversary as a campus organization.
Power Couples
Now that we know what happens when, as the cover of Havahd’s alumni magazine puts it, “Harvard meets Harvard” (corrupt prostitute sex, obviously), this got me thinking: who are the most prominent couples from Williams College?
The best I could do from a quick search of Wikipedia was R.A. Montgomery and Shannon Gilligan, co-creators of the Choose Your Own Adventure series which defined my childhood. But there must be more. What say ye?
Williams Community Building Program
Can anyone provide background on this group?
Want to be a SPARC facilitator? Want to be a part of community building at Williams? Join WCBP! The Williams Community Building Program (WCBP) is a diverse group of students who work with the Multicultural Center to foster a sense of community in and around Williams College by leading workshops and discussions about topics such as diversity, prejudice, racism, sexism, homophobia and community building.
My natural skepticism argues that this program is probably just silly diversity make-work, that it exists mainly so that MCC staff can have something to do, that few if any “typical” Williams students — i.e., those not already part of the choir — have ever been to a WCBP-run event that accomplished anything useful. And, in the past, I have heard little but bad things about SPARC.
But what do I know? I am just an out-of-touch alum. What do our Williamstown readers say? Have you been to one of these “workshops?” What was it like?
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