Tue 9 Sep 2008
Miss those great posts by JG featuring old New York Times articles about Williams? I do! (Examples here and here.) Yet the right response whenever you want JG, me or any other EphBlog author to do something is not to complain. Instead, encourage! In that spirit, here is an New York Times article from 1913.
Williams College is a unique institution in more than one respect, but its policy in regard to numbers is perhaps more distinctive than any other. Most American institutions of learning welcome an increase in enrollment of students, and the Berkshire college is almost in a separate class because it does not hold to this popular course and because it has the courage to stand out against quantity.
And, to some extent, the same is true today. Both Yale and Amherst, for example, are expanding their student bodies. Williams, fortunately, is not. If anything, Williams ought to give some thought to reducing the size of the student body, perhaps by 10%, perhaps by a bit more. It would be good, for example, to provide every student with a single and to increase the faculty:student ratio. One could achieve these goals by building more buildings and hiring more faculty, but the College is big enough as it is.
Alas, I lack the ability to copy-and-paste other sections of the (pdf) article for those without NYT logins. Perhaps a more skilled reader could do so in the comments. Read the whole thing.
September 9th, 2008 at 7:17 am
Currently aren’t there some (many?) students who prefer to live with a roommate or roommates? I know that back in the day I did. I liked the guys with whom I roomed, and their company made life more sociably lively.
September 9th, 2008 at 7:29 am
We’ve had this debate before, and I am pretty much the only guy around these parts who thinks Williams should go the other direction with a modest increase in student body size. Not enormous, mind you, it should still be a very small school, but I tihnk adding 30-40 kids a class, gradually, would make sense. Providing a Williams education to more people, in my view, would only be good for the world … so the question is, would adding that number of kids diminish the caliber of that education? Given the massive increase in the applicant pool, the caliber of students would not go down — the school could easily add 15 top notch internationals and 15 top notch academic, well rounded kids without any particular hook, each each, and the average SAT’s and such would only go up. I don’t see a less than 10 percent increase in the size of the student body having a demonstrable impact on campus culture, and if any, it would be positive — there are very few if any activities or campus events that are turning people away, but several that could benefit from additional critical mass. By a few years from now, there will be massive new facilities for almost every campus function, so physical plant won’t be an issue. If anything, a few extra students could help fill up the new theater, soon-to-be-new library, new students centers, and soon-to-be-new athletic facilities. The only thing williams would need to do is build maybe one or two additional mid-sized dorms, and hire about 15 or so additional faculty to keep the student/faculty ratio at what it is.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:19 am
I concur with Jeff Z. I think expanding to 2250 or so (I think the college is generally around 2050) would have minimal impact.
My vision would be for a more international college - using those slots to grow the international presence in the undergrad (non CDE) population.
If that growth were coupled with some additional unique signature study abroad options like Oxford and these initiatives followed by greater enrollment in junior year abroad by the broader college community, the actual impact on enrollment on campus might be less than the additional 200 students indicated above. I recall applying for study abroad as a chaotic experience with little support of innovative and rigorous experiences. But this was 20 years ago.
Williams offers a terrific undergrad experience - but I think it must invest to ensure that its students have the same opportunities for cross cultural interactions 24/7 to benefit the educational experience and to compete with H/Y/P/S. I don’t think less than 10% international gets us there.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Agree with Jeff S. 100 percent.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:17 am
I would like it ratcheted back to 1,800. In recent years the college has sometimes scrambled to find housing for all students. Shrinking the student body would also increase the student teacher ratio without having to hire more teachers. Williams will never be able to educate the whole world; I would rather the experience be superb for everyone enrolled.
While the story talks about Williams not expanding, the number of students has grown over the years. Enrollment was 800 in the 1930’s, 1,200 in the late 1960’s, 1,800 in the late 1970’s, and 2,000 by 2000.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:45 am
I still think the experience will be superb, with a modest increase in the student body. Again, building a few more dorms and hiring a few more professors won’t break the bank. Williams has an enormous endowment, and when all is said and done will raise around a half billion from the fund drive finishing up. Giving ten percent more people the Williams experience is something that, in my view, the school can afford without materially changing that experience, with the only additional expenses being a relatively small infrastructure investment and the money for new faculty (which will be partially offset by additional tuition revenue). Given that the school has already invested in radically improved and expanded facilities across the board, and the commercial district of spring and water streets will also be expanding slightly in the near future with expected new businesses, the school and town should have the capacity to host a few more students without any noticeable difference in the quality of life or academic experience.
September 9th, 2008 at 11:20 am
You are right that williams cannot educate the world.
But if Williams students are not conistently getting multicultural and multinational experiences in their entries and classrooms, we will not have a hope of attracting the best and brightest from within the US.
Our economy has changed. The world’s economy has changed. Culture, the arts and the sciences are increasingly international and transnational in their influences and audience.
If Williams is 6% international now, that translates into 1.2 to 1.5 international students per entry. What would it take for every freshman entry to have the benefit of multiple international points of view? I posit that it is very difficult for 1 or 2 students to be put in the position of being representatives from away.
What do social scientists say might be the appropriate target for international students to consistently influence the culture and learning environment of an individual entry?
In my opinion that should be the starting point for developing an international strategy for Williams. Not so Williams can educate the world, but so the world can educate Williams students.
September 9th, 2008 at 11:27 am
If you have the time to down-load this pdf of the January 24th, 1949 issue of LIFE magazine (an old employer of mine), you will catch a glimpse of ‘back in the days’ which will seem like only yesterday to at least three of the constant readers of this blog.
Senior management of LIFE was heavily Williams which accounted, I was told in 1968, for the appearance of the article over some objections from the editors. The same situation arose later on an article about Deerfield.
I, as an old guy, feel that enlarging the school and allowing alternate living accommodations has taken away rather than added to the Williams experience.
This was driven home to me in some thread on the unfortunate campus behavior incidents when I observed that the student body was a small and homogenous group in a very small setting in which some standards of behavior were required for the common good.
I was answered by a thoughtful, and, I felt, sad, reply that the campus was a direct reflection of typical larger population areas with all of the problems.
Sad, because that is not what this educational experience should be about.
For a glimpse of an older other world download the pdf.
http://www.williams.edu/alumni/alumnireview/winter03/v03_Life_FINAL.pdf
September 9th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
New laurels we’ll bring to thee,
Won on life’s field;
Honor and victory to thee we will ever yield.
Let’s pledge loyal hearts again,
Come now with all your might;
And sing to the glory of the green and the white.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Swart: Ah, the lights in the old Deke house welcome one final time on a winter’s eve. As you have said, it seems like only yesterday, and enveloped in the mist from my breath I’m walking toward the house in return from weight training at the top of the squash courts - in anticipation of a pleasant dinner and entertaining banter with camrades.
September 9th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Frank -
Indeed, yes!
This is what I was trying to describe under the ‘acculturation’ thread at comment #15. Do the students still get it?
Dinners and bull sessions at Theta Delt with Murphy and Moro and Mathews and Buss and Evans and Tucker and Garret Schenck and the ‘Ad Hoc’ committee!
I know the teary reminiscences of us old guys have all the appeal of appearing with the albatross around one’s neck, but still and all, a small New England school shouldn’t be trying to be a mini simulacrum of society.
Nuts joins in very nicely with the Deerfield school song! I am sure that this is not meant as a satyrical comment!
September 9th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Swart: I agree with you - no Eph would possibly be so crude as to demean the simple pleasure of another in reminiscing about simple pleasures past.
September 9th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Satyrical? No way, not unless I was a Choate-ee and then what are the chances I would know the refrain?
A sentimental junior, I sported a moustache;
Among the innocent maidens I cut an awful dash!
I broke a leg on the football field, but I only said, “Oh! Gee!”
For I never swear, I’m a moral man
And the son of a DKE.
Remember when moral men didn’t swear? I was hoping you did because I don’t.
I’m the son of a, son of a, son of a, son of a, son of a DKE!
I’m the son of a, son of a, son of a, son of a, son of a DKE!
Like ev’ry college fellow, I like my whiskey free,
For I’m a rambling rake of a college man zim zam goddamn, and the son of a DKE.
September 9th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Please note in the Life Magazine issue (thanks Dick!) the mention of the Biology lecture of 130 students, a reminder of the great tradition of lecturing, sometimes to rather large numbers of students, that has always been a part of Williams.
September 9th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Sam -
A great tradition of lecturing! I reminded readers under the Goodrich thread that this was the use of that hall in the 50’s for history, philosophy, and I believe, religion 1-2 courses.
Also the steep climb up on those icy, snowy days.
Nuts - not a chance I’d remember. And I thought I did pretty well until I was drafted!
RT did get back to you on sack of shit but he may have misunderstood your context!
September 9th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
While a few more professors won’t break the bank, each generation seems to add “just a couple hundred” students, and all those minor tweaks eventually add up. I would argue that Williams with 1,200 students was a significantly different experience compared to Williams with 2,200 students. Yes, more diverse–that’s a good thing–but also conceivably more divided.
I worked with a graduate of the Class of 2000, and I was amazed at how much of a smaller world he moved in than I did. So while the student body was more diverse than when I attended, I’m not sure Alex experienced all the diversity that I did, because he moved in a smaller, more self-selected circle.
So while I would like to see more diversity, I think the value comes from experiencing and leveraging it–and I’m not sure a larger student body that splinters into subgroups is the way to do it.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
There was a significant Williams (to be more accurate, a Hotchkiss/Williams) contingent at Time-Life in the 50’s and 60’s. James Linen was very high in Time-Life, as was Hedley Donovan and Rhett Austell. All three had sons who graduated from Williams in the 1970’s.
September 11th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
I interviewed at a liberal arts college significantly smaller than Williams last Spring. Almost a quarter of their entering students leave before graduating (though undoubtedly most of these students finish a degree elsewhere). Although this school is less selective and so some of these dropouts are for academic reason, the Dean, whom I talked to briefly, said that many students left because they did not fit in to the campus culture.