<p>The response to Mary Jane Hitler was pathetic. That is a different sort of case where the actor was known and motivations and lack of remorse were made clear.
We don’t have such clarity in the current case but I believe it is wise of the administration to take it at face value. Clearly it affects members of the community as such. I don’t think taking a day for dialogue does anything towards preventing idiots or remorseless haters from taking Sharpies in hand in the future, but it does allow people to be heard and that’s a good thing.</p>
<p>My son considered Williams. We spent a day there. I got the impressions that the school was really trying to increase diversity but we didn’t see it at our visit. I had read about “Claiming Williams” here [Claiming</a> Williams](<a href=“http://claiming.williams.edu/]Claiming”>http://claiming.williams.edu/) and you can look at question and answer results by students and faculty [2010</a> Q&A | Claiming Williams](<a href=“http://claiming.williams.edu/claiming-williams-2010/faq/]2010”>http://claiming.williams.edu/claiming-williams-2010/faq/) It’s quite interesting.</p>
<p>These questions were posed during January and people submitted answers
anonymously. Click on the question for the answers.</p>
<p>Everyone has a privilege of some kind. How does your privilege affect your interactions with students, faculty and staff at Williams?</p>
<p>Finish this sentence: I am <strong><em>and this means</em></strong>.</p>
<p>How have you been affected by racism? classism? sexism? heterosexism? Or religious intolerance?</p>
<p>How valued do you feel at Williams based on your status as student, faculty or staff?</p>
<p>What do you notice about socio- economic class at Williams?</p>
<p>What do you think keeps Williams from being as all-inclusive as it can be?</p>
<p>My understanding is that the students pushed the administration for a strong response. The students thought the initial response, a vaguely worded E-mail, was too weak and didn’t speak the the gravity of the situation. Therefore, students marched and advocated for a day of conversation and reflection. Such student demands seem to be a better step toward culture change than the administration coming up with the idea.</p>
<p>That would be both refreshing, and a shame.</p>
<p>These things DON’T seem to happen on such a regular basis elsewhere, at least from what little I know. Yes, every campus will have an occasional idiot turn up, or so it seems. But why does my alma mater seem to attract so many of them, and with such regularity? (or alternatively, why is the institution so blind to its educative function?) </p>
<p>I’m saddened.</p>
<p>One of the answers to the question in the survey cited above, “What do you think keeps Williams from being as all-inclusive as it can be?” really struck me:</p>
<p>“An overemphasis on demographic diversity instead of diversity of interest.”</p>
<p>Somehow this captures a feeling I have had for some years, without being able to articulate accurately: that the College has managed to increase its numbers of underrepresented minorities and expanded the numbers of the less wealthy, but has not really managed to break the stereotype of the well rounded, athletic, bright student with finance as a career goal. It’s not that all Williams students fit this mold, but, rather, that the College has not, despite a healthy applicant pool, been interested in or able to attract a truly wide range of students. Think of the breadth the College could have it really wanted it. </p>
<p>The number one liberal arts college in the country–if we are willing to accept this honor–could be, at least in part, artsier, more intellectual, politically active, religious, I mean, all sorts of things, without having to give up its preppy core.</p>
<p>midlifedad, I wouldn’t dispute that Williams admits a personality type, and that well rounded, athletic, bright (I would add energetic, extroverted) accurately describes the Williams character. However, I would take exception to your comment that Williams is less focused on the arts than it could be.</p>
<p>Williams has one of the best (maybe THE best) art history departments in the country, with three worldclass museums on or near campus. In addition the art studio, music, and theater departments and extracurricular opportunities are excellent to very good. I would rate Williams higher for an all-arts focus than any of its LAC peers.</p>
<p>From what I’ve seen of my son’s friends, artsy, intellectual, politically active, religious certainly applies, but still within the overarching Williams character. I would argue that the college IS achieving that goal.</p>
<p>It’s very difficult for any small LAC – let alone one in the middle of nowhere – to attract high achieving minorities, and Williams does continue to struggle as do other Northeastern LACs. But as far as attracting range of perspectives, interests and talents, I’d give the college high marks.</p>
<p>My complaint would not be about whom the college is managing to attract (I guess they are doing okay, though demographically, there really hasn’t been much change in a long while), but what they are doing (or not doing) with them once they are there.</p>
<p>I am an “old fart alumni”, with a freshman daughter at Williams this year. One of the joys in my life was bringing her to Williamstown this fall. I am deeply disappointed that this action occurred and I know that it causes parents and alumni pain to see the image of Williams tarnished. But I am also very proud of Pres Falk’s response and after meeting him a few times over the past year I know he cares deeply about what has happened and is the right person to lead the college in the coming years. </p>
<p>I was on campus in 1980 during an even more horrific racial episode and the emotional responses to it from everyone on campus made me eternally aware of the troubling realities of our world. </p>
<p>I truly feel that last weeks event will galvanize the school, faculty & student body and help unite them in a common goal of compassion for each other. Naive concept maybe but an optimist in my heart.</p>
<p>There is excellent coverage of events in The Williams Record. Of note, administration was notified via email only and it wasn’t until 6am Saturday that a dean was even aware of events.
Also, rather timely considering the discussion here…in the features section, there are pieces about an alum satisfied with his career in investment banking, and a first-year student who identifies as priviledged who is very much an engaged activist.</p>
<p>To correct something mini said, Williams has been highly successful at diversifying, at least in terms of race (and from what I understand, income as well, although that is a slower process, Williams is near the top of the liberal arts pyramid in terms of percentage of Pell recipients at least) its student body in recent years. The percent of entering students who are American students of color has risen from 29 to 37 percent over the past five years, that is a dramatic change in a short time period:</p>
<p><a href=“http://admission.williams.edu/files/2010/01/2015-Profile2.pdf[/url]”>http://admission.williams.edu/files/2010/01/2015-Profile2.pdf</a></p>
<p>Within 5-10 years, the school will almost certainly be combosed of less than 50 percent white domestic students. So the demographics ARE shifting. </p>
<p>The key remains in my mind actually identifying who is responsible for this act (and when i said a few similar acts, I think there have been three VERY similar instances of provocative graffiti over the past four years, and for none of them, a perpetrator has been located … if those three acts are the product of, say, one disgruntled college neighbor, or one unbalanced student enjoying creating a reaction, or whatever, that would not to me indicate a wider institutional issue of any kind). Until we know that, these kind of sweeping commentaries about Williams are overly speculative. </p>
<p>People point to a pre-ibanking culture, but no more Williams people are going into that field than folks from, say, Amherst or Midd. People point to a sports culture, but Amherst managed to handily beat Williams is virtually every contested team sport this fall, and virtually every NESCAC school has a similar emphasis on athletic recruiting. In short, people are drawing correlations without any evidence based on their OWN troubling biases grounded in demographic assumptions. </p>
<p>This series of events is very, very troubling. I am glad the college is taking it seriously. But we are talking about, at most, 3-5 people, perhaps fewer, some of whom may not even be affiliated with the college. Indicting an entire campus culture or an entire student body based on actions that aren’t even fully understood at this point is simply unfair.</p>
<p>“To correct something mini said, Williams has been highly successful at diversifying, at least in terms of race…”</p>
<p>Fair enough. Though the problem, in my mind has never really been about campus diversity - they do what they can, I guess - but what happens once they are there. </p>
<p>“But we are talking about, at most, 3-5 people,…” You mean the Hardy House takeover (response to homophobia), the reported repeated episodes of homophobic slurs, the racial slurs among the faculty, the anti-Semitic incident, etc., etc. over a five-year period are all the result of 3-5 people, some not affiliated with the college? I think you are a bit “Panglossian” (see, I’m putting my Williams education to work). At any rate, I’d love to believe you are right; my experience suggests you aren’t. And I think 99% of Williams students are really good people (as are people everywhere) - and, like most people everywhere, I don’t think they’ve been educated particularly well (and certainly not by the past college administration - as noted, I have high hopes for this one.)</p>
<p>Ephman, I agree with some of what you’re saying.</p>
<p>There are many old-timers who are quick to cast blame on segments of the Williams community against whom they hold deep-seated grudges or toward whom they hold deep-seated bitterness – painting them with broad strokes and assigning blame for actions that the many self-respecting, and respectful, Ephs I’ve known through the years would never think of perpetrating – if they even held such disrespectful / hateful opinions.</p>
<p>The driving influence behind “Mary Jane Hitler’s” actions was a non-student, an older, “thirtiesish,” self-avowed anti-Semite – a druggie under whose influence she had come (she later admitted that she had “really poor taste in men” and that her Svengali had “a sketchy past”).</p>
<p>Among other of the many destructive incidents on campus that have been caused by outsiders, you may recall those of the “mad pooper,” who was eventually determined to be a Lord Jeff – but not before the Williams old-timers on their soapboxes had ample time to rail on and on about the depraved Eph/s who was/were to blame.</p>
<p>There are many, as you say, both locally and outside the Williamstown community, who harbor deep resentment toward / jealousy of the institution and students of Williams and who would not hesitate to stoop to such debased actions to cast Williams in a negative light. As others here have noted, the hate speech scrawled on a wall in Prospect was discovered the night before / early morning of the homecoming game against Amherst – and there were other acts of vandalism noted that weekend as well (e.g., the rear window of a student’s car shattered).</p>
<p>It’s unfortunate for all involved, especially because it negatively affects the feelings of safety and well-being that those on a college campus should otherwise feel.</p>
<p>“There are many old-timers who are quick to cast blame on segments of the Williams community against whom they hold deep-seated grudges or toward whom they hold deep-seated bitterness – painting them with broad strokes and assigning blame for actions that the many self-respecting, and respectful, Ephs I’ve known through the years would never think of perpetrating – if they even held such disrespectful / hateful opinions.”</p>
<p>What on earth are you saying? That to wonder why there have been a series of such unfortunate events at the College is a mark of bitterness and alienation? I do not know who scrawled hate speech on the wall at Prospect anymore than you do. I do know that the College president did not choose to cancel classes and gather the community together for a day simply to brush the incident aside as the work of “outsiders.” And for that, I say, thank goodness.</p>
<p>Williams is a highly ranked, well endowed and sophisticated college. It can handle a frank discussion of what it has been, who it is now, and where it is going, believe me. Indeed, such discussions go one all the time among students, staff and alumni, without apparent damage to the College or its reputation. If the incident was the result of someone “jealous of the institution and its students,” as you suggest, the community will deal with that. If it was a sign of unease with increasing diversity among the student body, well, it will have to deal with that, too.</p>
<p>Midlifedad, I applaud the college for confronting these issues, and no matter who was responsible, what is important is that students who are concerned have a forum to express those views, and that the college takes strong action to make them feel safe. NO ONE is saying that the college should just sweep this under the rug. And the college did not. NO ONE is saying this should not be taken seriously, regardless of who was ultimately responsible for the actual hate crime. </p>
<p>But I do find upsetting that certain alumni almost gleefully jump all over these incidents to broadly attack certain college policies, or even more troubling, certain broad elements of the Williams community, and try to cast collective blame / suggest that something is fundemantally wrong with Williams or portions of its student body (prep school kids, future consultants, varsity athletes, etc.). I just don’t think those sort of correlations or conclusions are proper without having better knowledge of who was responsible, and why they acted. Because we know in the past that at least some incidents have not come close to fitting the narrative that some here (and elsewhere) assume they MUST conform to. </p>
<p>Williams, like EVERY other school, indeed every other diverse institution, will always have to confront challenges related to making a diverse population work together and feel like a full part of the community. Williams is a very small place, in a remote location, which may in some ways make those challenges more acute. Williams can certainly improve as an institution in regard to these type of issues, and no one is saying that the school should not be focused on doing so. </p>
<p>But what I (and some others) ARE saying is that the overwhelming majority of Williams kids aren’t remotely racist or homophobic, and moreover, that trying to make broad condemnations of the school or of paricular groups on campus based on a series of incidents that are not close to being fully understood is unwise. Because the significance of these graffiti incidents I mean, I am sure some people cast Williams as racist back in the 1990’s when there was a similar incident, and it ended up being the work of a minority student’s (not-terribly-wise) class project for a course on anarchy or something. I am not saying the school shouldn’t be concerned, and of course it is crucial to take this type of thing VERY seriously. But to suggest that somehow there is a broad problem endemic to Williams and Williams alone seems totally wrong to me without fully understanding who is responsible for what amounts to a small (not to minimize – they are each highly troubling, but relatively speaking, 98 or 99 percent of students are, no matter what, NOT involved in this type of thing) handful of events, some of which we already know or suspect were partially or wholly perpetrated by campus outsiders, as onemoremom highlighted, and several of which could have been perpetrated by a single individual acting out of who-knows-what motivation.</p>
<p>Dartmouth recently faced a similar event.</p>
<p>[TheDartmouth.com:</a> Verbum Ultimum: A Mistake to Learn From](<a href=“http://thedartmouth.com/2011/11/18/opinion/verbum]TheDartmouth.com:”>http://thedartmouth.com/2011/11/18/opinion/verbum)</p>
<p>The response from the administration may not have been as timely or as open as some may have thought. A group of students and faculty members are circulating a petition demanding changes to process in dealing with such incidents. For those interested:</p>
<p>[Petition:</a> Senior Administration of Williams College: Adopt greater procedural transparency and outlined procedures. | Change.org](<a href=“http://www.change.org/petitions/senior-administration-of-williams-college-adopt-greater-procedural-transparency-and-outlined-procedures]Petition:”>Petition · Adopt greater procedural transparency and outlined procedures. · Change.org)</p>
<p>My daughter, who is Caucasian/Asian, is intending to apply to Williams this year. There is so much we like about the school, but incidents such as this are troubling. Its difficult to know to what extent they should effect her decision to apply/attend.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about it, Count–in my experience, things like this happen at a lot of schools, but few publicize such events as much as Williams does. I’m not sure the school is doing everything right in response, but it’s not a simple thing to deal with, and schools as far-flung as Dartmouth and Kalamazoo are taking cues from Williams in dealing with their own recent racist incidents.</p>
<p>From the perspective of a current Williams student, I think it is critical to note the reaction that people on campus had to such a vile act. The student body as a whole was deeply disturbed that an individual (who may or may not even attend Williams given the fact that the incident occurred on Homecoming weekend in a dorm very close to the location where many non-Williams people were) would express such a sentiment and the campus-wide reaction illustrates the clear fact that the students here care about each other and this community.
While the writing was by no means acceptable, incidences of this nature happen far too frequently at schools across the nation but Williams is one of the few that passionately responds to such threats. For those of you who may not have heard about the events that happened the Monday after the event, it was incredibly powerful to see nearly the entire student body come together to speak out against acts of hate that can occur. Whether it was President Falk’s address, student speakers, the open mic in Paresky, or the hundreds of conversations between students, faculty, staff, and administrators, campus came together to support each other and speak out against acts of hate against anyone in this community. This is a place where people will take action against what they see as wrong and that is exactly what campus did that weekend and has done since then.</p>
<p>Vivienne8-
Thanks for sharing the perspective of a current student.</p>