Williams Confessions
Please check out this link on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WilliamsClassConfessions
Reading the posts is super troubling to me - any thoughts???
Do you think that this is somehow different at other colleges? Check out the Class Confessions Page for Stanford, UChicago, or Columbia: this is a problem that permeates every elite college, not just Williams.
Just like any top-tier school, Williams has very wealthy students and students who are low-income. When I first read the page, I too was troubled. I had never seen any sort of class divide in my own experience (something that is still true - I have no idea what the financial status is of most of my friends). However, as more and more posts came in, I saw that the group was serving not as a place to post grievances about Williams’ socioeconomic divide for the sake of complaining, but rather to get something off peoples’ chests, to help those who are not first generation or low-income understand what it’s like to come to a place so different from where they came. Differences in people naturally lead to divisions, and this group seems to me to be a place for people to attempt to bridge the gap and close the divide between people of different financial statuses. Many posts say how lucky they are to be at Williams, and many others are just trying to let people know that there are other people having the same struggles as them.
I’d also like to say that Williams seems pretty good in its openness about these issues. Every dividing issue on campus, whether racial, economic, or social, is discussed in detail in order to increase understanding on both sides and try to create a better situation for everyone. These talks can be formal or informal, in and out of entries and dorms, and between people of similar or disparate backgrounds. I personally find them immensely helpful and interesting.
Basically, this group is classic Williams - let the student body know that there is a problem (anonymously or not) so that we may remedy it as a community.