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Topaz Updates
EphBlog's favorite woke mathematician, Professor Chad Topaz, has a new analysis.
In November, 2019, the Notices of the American Mathematical Society (AMS Notices) published an essay critical of the use of diversity statements in academic hiring. The publication of this essay prompted many responses, including two public letters circulated within the mathematical sciences community. Both public letters were signed by hundreds of people and will be published online by the AMS on December 13, 2019. In this research brief, we report on a crowdsourced demographic study of the signatories to the two public letters. Letter A highlights diversity and social justice issues, and was signed by relatively more women, members of underrepresented ethnic groups, and professionally vulnerable individuals. Letter B highlights the need for discussion and debate, and, in stark contrast, was signed by substantially more men, white people, and professionally secure individuals.
1) I like Topaz. No, really, I do! Some of my closest friends/family share his woke political outlook. He is also an outstanding teacher, and there is no faculty attribute that EphBlog values more highly than excellence in teaching Williams students. Also, he is highly transparent in his research, providing, for example, the raw data underlying this analysis.
2) Despite his recent arrival, Topaz might play a major role at Williams over the next few decades. Note the blurb on his homepage: "data science, applied mathematics, and social justice." Topaz, a topologist, has, in recent years, dived into data science, a field likely to play a major role at Williams (and everywhere else) over the next few decades. Indeed, there are rumors that one of the major outcomes from Maud's strategic planning process is a new focus on Data Science. Topaz would be a natural leader for such an effort.
3) Topaz's entrepreneurial energy is impressive. He does a lot of stuff! A faculty member told me that, when Williams was hiring a senior mathematician a few years ago, Topaz was clearly the number one candidate on the market. I think that Topaz deserves 90% of the credit for the creation of QSIDE. What other Williams faculty members have done something like this over the last decade? The best analogue I can come up with is Economics Professor Stephen Sheppard and the Center for Creative Community Development. Other examples?
4) Should we be worried that Topaz is a little too entrepreneurial? Note that "The Center for Creative Community Development (C3D) is a Williams College research center." This is the normal way that such things are organized. Sheppard fund-raises, runs the effort and so on. But Williams College gets a cut and is, ultimately, in charge. QSIDE, on the other hand, seems to exist (completely?) independently of Williams. It is a 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Organization. Does it use Williams resources? How do the finances work? If I were a trustee, I would ask some questions.
5) The problem at Williams is not Chad Topaz, a dedicated teacher and skilled researcher. The problem is that there is no one (?) on the faculty who represents the other side of politics in America, much less globally. No one on the Williams faculty voted for Trump while, probably, about 10% to 20% of the students will.
6) And the problem with Chad Topaz is that he probably doesn't see a problem with this. He doesn't "debate social justice" and I bet that he has no interest in seeing such debates at Williams, or in even hiring a junior professor who thinks that such debates might be a good idea. Am I being unfair? Comments welcome!
Eagle Overview of WIFI Controversy
Excellent Eagle article from last June about the WIFI controversy.
Student group ignites tension over free speech at Williams College
Posted Saturday, June 1, 2019 7:03 pm
By Jeongyoon Han, Eagle correspondent
WILLIAMSTOWN — At graduation Sunday, Williams College celebrates achievement, but also closes a semester in which a divisive debate raised questions of free speech and drew national notice.
A request by students to create a group supportive of Israel was rejected by the student government, the College Council, in late April, amid accusations that the group's beliefs did not fit the moral values of the student body.
In the face of complaints from national right-leaning news outlets, Jewish organizations and free speech groups, the college's president and administration intervened, ultimately reversing the rejection in mid-May.
When the campus comes back to life this fall, the Williams Initiative for Israel, or WIFI, will be a registered student organization, having full access to funding and services available to official student groups.
But along the way, its birth sparked debates over pro-Israeli thought in the United States, scrutiny of how student groups win approval and the nature of campus political debate and free expression.
Student Molly Berenbaum, the group's founder and interim president, said that granting WIFI official status gives those who hold pro-Israel beliefs the right to express their views — just like any other student organization.
"Fundamentally, we're really no different from any other political or cultural or advocacy group here on campus," said Berenbaum. The group seeks to bring a more "balanced conversation" to campus regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, she said.
In a move called unprecedented, the council removed students' names from minutes of proceedings. And the final vote on WIFI's status was held by secret ballot, a move that limited transparency amid calls for steps to protect student safety.
Steve Miller, a professor of mathematics, said that denying WIFI official status posed a threat to diverse thought and intellectual growth at Williams.
"This is not an institution of indoctrination," Miller said. "This is a larger problem of shutting down discourse that you disagree with. We are limiting speech, and when you limit speech, you limit the ability to grow and to learn."
See the rest of the article below the break.
How is WIFI doing this year? Does it have members/meetings? Has it put on any events? Has it received funding?
I Don't Debate
Professor Chad Topaz's latest twitter thread deserves a thorough fisking. Key section:
Key sentence:
I don't debate social justice.
What are we to make of this?
1) I believe Topaz. He has no interest in a debate. (I reached out to him and received no response.)
2) There is a long tradition at Williams of refusing to debate, although it has been somewhat dormant in the last 50 years. The ministers who started Williams had no interest in debating the divinity of Christ. Mark Hopkins refused to allow Ralph Waldo Emerson on campus. Adam Falk banned John Derbyshire. Can any historians flesh out the attitude of Williams faculty toward debate during the 19th century? Topaz is a modern version of that worldview.
3) Nothing wrong with a refusal to debate, of course, if, that is, you are running a Madrassa. Is that what Williams is? I hope not!
4) I have no objection to Williams professors who prefer to have nothing to do with Topic X. Life is short! They are busy with their students and their research. But it seems unusual for a professor, like Topaz, to be so engaged in social justice issues — as he obviously is — and yet, at the same time, to refuse to discuss/debate the topic. Most SJW professors won't shut up about social justice.
5) I recommend that Topaz's opponents, like Professor Colin Adams, publicly challenge him to a debate about diversity statements and the desirability of publishing the views of their critics.
Easy-To-Handle Slights
The best content on EphBlog is often in our comments:
To paraphrase the original tweet:
People might not be happy on this holiday; therefore, we shouldn't wish that people be happy on this holiday, lest we make them feel alienated.
This is the kind of thinking that gets dissected in "The Coddling of the American Mind". It's good to be thoughtful towards others, sure, but constructing an environment where the goal is to make sure everyone is comfortable at all times leads to laughable recommendations results like this.
But, thinking big-picture, it's just not a service to students to shield them from the very normal and easy-to-handle slights that they will surely encounter in their day-to-day life outside the college. If a student is traumatized by the suggestion that holidays should be happy, they might want to figure out a coping mechanism. I'm curious how someone who is bothered by holiday well-wishing will handle their first performance review at work.
The college already lets many of these fragile students take reduced course loads, bring animals with them wherever they want, use "extra time" on assessments, and consult with the growing bureaucracy of diversity administrators who exist solely to reinforce their worldview.
Moreover, the college increasingly makes these well-meaning recommendations mandatory (for instance, the compulsory microagression trainings or mandates that student leaders ask for pronouns).
Nobody wants to challenge something that, on its own, seems trivial and intended to make others feel more comfortable. But this leads to the orthodoxy developing at Williams that the college's priority is to make all students feel comfortable, specifically those who complain most loudly.
Exactly right. Hey, Anon! You should write for EphBlog!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Last year, a faithful reader and senior faculty member wrote:
On the way to work today, I saw a group of students throwing snowballs at each other in front of Paresky. Minus the architectural backdrop, it could have been a scene from any point in the college's history in the last 225 years.
Indeed. I am thankful for Williams, for my parents for sending me, for the time I spent there, for the professors who taught me, the peers who challenged me and the woman who fell in love with me.
What are you thankful for?
I Wish You a Restful Break
Indeed. I never wish people a "Happy Birthday," and for exactly the same reasons. How can I ever know what sort of stressful situations they are going through? How can I ever know what effect my words might have?
More importantly, what if someone has turkeys in their extended family? This holiday is a nightmare for them! Have you no empathy?
Professor Sarah Jacobson gets it:
Exactly right. In fact, I recommend that Professor Jacobson stop referring to herself as a "Professor" at "Williams College." Professor is, of course, a word with problematic roots. Indeed, any word with roots going back to the Normans, among the worst colonialists in history, merits banishment. And don't even get me started on the Romans! And Ephraim Williams' attitude toward Native Americans is well-documented.
Anyone who doesn't want to say "Thanksgiving" should never say "Williams."
Stay Woke, my fellow Ephs!
UPDATE: The last time the Williams College twitter account used the word "Thanksgiving" was 2015. How long before the official college calendar removes the word? (It currently refuses to use the words Columbus or Christmas.) Think I am crazy? Consider:
Enjoy the holiday-that-must-not-be named!
Particularly Nasty and Vitriolic
Will Professor Chad Topaz's jihad against the opponents of diversity statements go on long enough to require an EphBlog scandal name? If so, suggestions? Updates:
1) See this Inside Higher Ed article for useful background. Sadly, it does not mention Topaz or any other Eph.
2) Chicago Professor (and EphBlog critic) Jerry Coyne comes down hard on Topaz. Some of his points are good, some bad. All are made at excessive length.
3) Former Williams professor John Drew notes:
Academics offended by the extremism of Chad M. Topaz, a woke Williams College math professor, have organized a petition in response to his campaign to silence a white female math professor at UC Davis. He has gone so far as to try to get her fired.
What was most interesting to me about this statement is that it is basically coming from liberal academics who are for the most part in favor of affirmative action and okay with promoting diversity. The issue, for them, is that Chad Topaz has take on the role of enforcer of the most extreme policies expectations of critical race theory and identity politics. I was also surprised to see who has already signed the petitions complaining about Topaz.
Signatories include the following list of luminaries including at least six from his own college including – Luana Maroja, Matt Carter, Joan Edwards, David C. Smith, Phebe Cramer and Susan Dunn – and no less than five from his own math department – Colin Adams, Julie Blackwood, Richard De Veaux, Thomas Garrity and Steven J. Miller.
Hmmm. Have they really? (That is, do the petition organizers actually check that any signers are who they say they are?) If so, this should be the lead story in the Record next week.
4) Topaz provides an update here. Note:
For those of you who are in mathematics, advise grad-school-bound undergraduate students – especially students who are minoritized along some axis – not to apply to UC Davis. Advise your graduate student and postdoc colleagues not to apply there for jobs.
Shouldn't Topaz start his activism closer to home? Assuming that the signatories on the letter are real — and I have every reason to think that they are! — there are professors at Williams, even professors in the Math/Stat Department — who agree with Abigail Thompson, or at least disagree with Topaz's attempts to silence her.
How can Topaz recommend that "minoritized" high school seniors attend Williams or that "minoritized" graduate students apply for faculty positions at Williams if the chair of his own department, Richard De Veaux, is opposed to the proper use of diversity statements in academic hiring? The Record should find out.
UPDATE: Thanks to the first commentator for pointing out Topaz's other posts. They are preserved below the break for posterity.
Read more
Strategic Questions Worth Exploring
The Record provides no useful coverage on the strategic planning process. The College's presentation is professional but (because of that?) completely uninteresting. Comments:
1) This is Presidential Leadership 101. Come to a new college. Listen. Create a dozen committees. Seek lots of input. Come up with some pleasant ideas. Start the next capital campaign. Once again, we see that Maud is highly competent.
2) Predictions? Expect to hear about how all the things Williams currently does are wonderful and we should do more of it. The College is a supertanker, which even a president would have trouble turning. There will be a call for more new buildings (starting with a new field house and hockey rink), a constant refrain of the last 100 years. I have heard rumors about a major new initiative in data science, a hot, Hot, HOT part of academia right now. Anything else?
3) The big lost opportunity is a failure to have all these smart people look hard at major dimensions on which Williams differs from its peers. Have each working group pick such a topic (examples below), investigate it and write a thorough report. Ideally, the reports would include the best arguments for and against each of three options, one of which is the status quo. Example questions:
Which graduate degree programs should Williams offer? Amherst offers none. Wesleyan offers a dozen. It is highly unlikely that the optimal number for Williams to offer is exactly two.
How old should first years be? Back in the day, 99% of Williams first years were 18. Now, there is much more variation, driven both by changing student behaviors (the rise of "gap years") and changing admissions policies with regards to groups like male hockey players, veterans and community college students. Should 1% or 5% or 20% of Williams first years be older than 18? An important question! I assume that our peers vary on this metric, but I can't find any good data sources.
Should students be required to spend a summer in Williamstown? Dartmouth requires students to a) spend the summer after their sophomore year on campus and b) one semester away from Hanover during their junior year. That is, obviously, radically different from Williams, and almost every other elite college. But it is really interesting! And maybe a really good idea, both in the way that it brings a class together during the summer and in how it gives Dartmouth students a big advantage in doing substantive internships during their junior year. This is one topic where I don't know the right answer. So I want a group of smart Ephs to study the topic, educate us all, and make a recommendation.
Should Williams offer an engineering major? I have talked to many strong high school students who never apply to Williams because they are interested in engineering and at least want to maintain the option of studying it in college. Our Ivy League competitors all offer engineering options, even Brown! Swarthmore, and some other liberal arts colleges, do as well. Why don't we? How much would it cost? How hard would it be?
Should Williams offer an finance major? See here for the case in favor. Students at UPenn can major in finance. Why can't Ephs? Again, my goal here is not to make the case for any particular decision. My point is that a high quality strategic planning process would focus its efforts on these major questions.
Where should first years live? Almost all of us think that First Year housing at Williams — in entries, with JAs, in Mission and the Freshmen Quad — is excellent. But what if we are all wrong? What if a system like Smith's — first years live in the same houses as upperclassmen — is better?
How many international students? Williams (still?) has a quota for international students. But (in a policy change?), the class of 2023 is 11% international, very similar to Yale and Harvard. Is that the right percentage? Again, I don't know enough about the variation among our peers on this metric. Which is why we need a committee to investigate, to find out what other colleges do and why they do it. Washington and Lee, with Will Dudley '89 at the helm, is at 3% international. There is a case for 3% and a case for 25%. Make those cases so that the Williams community can make an informed decision.
Should we have affinity housing? Plenty of other schools do, including Brown. Yet I have never read a non-partisan investigation about well such houses work (or don't). How many of our peer schools have them? How do they work, precisely? (For example, at Amherst, you can only live in such a house for two years.) How popular are they? Why don't other schools (like Harvard and Yale) have them?
What preferences for athletes in admissions? Prior to the MacDonald Report, Williams gave very significant preference to athletes, which is why we had an almost unbeatable football team. Now we just give significant preference. (See this interest Record op-ed.) Caltech gives athletes zero preferences in admissions. What would happen if we adopted Caltech's approach?
As readers know, I have strong opinions on many of these questions. A serious strategic planning process would devote most of its time and energy to all of them, and to similar issues. How are we most different from other elite schools and are those differences best for the future of Williams? Is that what the 8 working groups are currently doing? Not that I have heard . ..
DIE Uber Alles
Last time a Williams faculty member was tagged by Steve Sailer? Tonight!
Chad Topaz is "disgusted" by an academic writing something with which he disagrees, so disgusted that he won't even link (pdf) to it?
I wonder if that argument would fly in a Williams history class? "I am so disgusted by this argument that I refuse to footnote it!"
Is Topaz as histrionic in person as he is here? Honestly curious!
UPDATE: Topaz provides more details on his views here.
Downside of Diversity
Former Dean of Yale Law School (and EphBlog favorite) Anthony Kronman '68 is fundamentally right about the decline of discourse at elite colleges but fundamentally wrong about the underlying cause. Kronman writes:
"Diversity" is the most powerful word in higher education today. No other has so much authority. Older words, like "excellence" and "originality," remain in circulation, but even they have been redefined in terms of diversity.
But diversity, as it is understood today, means something different. It means diversity of race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation. Diversity in this sense is not an academic value. Its origin and aspiration are political. The demand for ever-greater diversity in higher education is a political campaign masquerading as an educational ideal.
Exactly right, as is most everything Kronman has to say on the topic. Read the whole article, and his book, The Assault on American Excellence. But Kronman is wrong in his description of the fundamental cause. He writes:
The demand for greater academic diversity began its strange career as a pro-democratic idea. Blacks and other minorities have long been underrepresented in higher education. A half-century ago, a number of schools sought to address the problem by giving minority applicants a special boost through what came to be called "affirmative action." This was a straightforward and responsible strategy.
Kronman is no conservative. He, and the other elites who have been running US higher education for 50+ years, see no problem with having different standards for different racial groups. Who cares if the SAT scores for African-Americans at Williams are 250 points lower than those for Asian-Americans? What could possibly go wrong? Instead, Kronman blames the courts:
But in 1978, in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the Supreme Court told American colleges and universities that they couldn't pursue this strategy directly, by using explicit racial categories. It allowed them to achieve the same goal indirectly, however, by arguing that diversity is essential to teaching and learning and requires some attention to race and ethnicity. Schools were able to continue to honor their commitment to social justice but only by converting it into an educational ideal. The commitment was honorable, but the conversion has been ruinous.
Consider this 1969 prediction from Macklin Fleming, Justice of the California Court of Appeal, writing to Louis Pollak, the then-dean of Yale Law School (pdf):
No one can be expected to accept an inferior status willingly. The black students, unable to compete on even terms in the study of law, inevitably will seek other means to achieve recognition and self-expression. This is likely to take two forms. First, agitation to change the environment from one in which they are unable to compete to one in which they can. Demands will be made for elimination of competition, reduction in standards of performance, adoption of courses of study which do not require intensive legal analysis, and recognition for academic credit of sociological activities which have only an indirect relationship to legal training. Second, it seems probable that this group will seek personal satisfaction and public recognition by aggressive conduct, which, although ostensibly directed at external injustices and problems, will in fact be primarily motivated by the psychological needs of the members of the group to overcome feelings of inferiority caused by lack of success in their studies. Since the common denominator of the group of students with lower qualifications is one of race this aggressive expression will undoubtedly take the form of racial demands — the employment of faculty on the basis of race, a marking system based on race, the establishment of a black curriculum and a black law journal, an increase in black financial aid, and a rule against expulsion of black students who fail to satisfy minimum academic standards.
It was obvious, in 1969, that different standards would lead to disaster. And here we are today. Even if the reasoning behind Bakke were different, even if the courts had never mentioned "diversity" as a rational, all the pathologies forecast by Fleming would have played out just as they have. Once you decide that objective standards are not necessary for admissions, it will be impossible to keep them anywhere else. Sacrifice "excellence" there and, over time, you will lose excellence everywhere. For Kronman to blame Bakke for this sad state of affairs is mere deflection. It is he, and elite education leaders like him, who are at fault.
How bad would Williams/Yale have to become before Kronman reconsiders the wisdom of affirmative action in admissions?
Weekend Links
Wall Street Journal college rankings are probably the most serious competitor to US News.
New York Times article on rising tensions between two groups of African-Americans: those descended from American slaves and those not (mainly immigrants and their children).
Roughly 10 percent of the 40 million black people living in the United States were born abroad, according to the Pew Research Center, up from 3 percent in 1980. African immigrants are more likely to have college degrees than blacks and whites who were born in the United States.
A 2007 study published in the American Journal of Education found that 41 percent of black freshmen at Ivy League colleges were immigrants or the children of immigrants, even though those groups represent 13 percent of the black population in the United States.
What percentage of African-Americans at Williams have no American slaves among their ancestors? Any tensions along this dimension at Williams yet?
Long History of Discrimination
abl writes, in explaining the differential status of men/women in math and, therefore, the need to active efforts to ensure equal male/female representation on panels at math conferences:
[T]here's a long history of discrimination in math against everyone who is not cis male (at essentially all levels of education).
Tell us this history! But be specific! Who, at Williams, has been discriminating against women in math? Maud Mandel has only been here at year, but maybe she has been discriminating. Maybe she has been unfairly attacking female applicants for faculty positions, insisting on hiring less qualified men. What about Professor Allison Pacelli? Has she been abusing female math majors for the last 15 years, mocking them in class and belittling them in private? Tell us those stories!
Perhaps this "long history of discrimination" goes back further and reaches higher in the Administration. Nancy Roseman was Dean of the College in the early oughts. She was probably forcing female undergraduates to switch majors out of math. Cappy Hill '76 was Provost back in the 90s. Was she diverting funding away from female math faculty and toward male math faculty? Probably!
And no doubt other institutions were even worse. Harvard under Drew Faust was infamous for its Mock-a-Female-Mathematician events. Mount Greylock High School, with a majority female teaching staff for, oh, 100+ years or so, didn't give math books to female students. And on and on.
Let me rewrite abl's tendentious claim:
[T]here's a long history of vodoo in math against everyone who is not cis male (at essentially all levels of education).
Could be true! What else could explain differential performance between men and women in math? If there is a difference — and there sure is! — voodoo (or a long history of (invisible) discrimination) must be the explanation. What else could it be!
See Slate Star Codex for further thoughts, as well as this EphBlog classic from a decade ago. Perhaps that should be an annual post . . .
One Concern
From Math Professor Chad Topaz:
Here at QSIDE, we wake up early, drink coffee, and write these:
Hi organizers [of a one-day conference],
Thanks so much for organizing this event. I know it takes a lot of work to pull it off.
I do want to bring up one concern. If I am wrong in my assessment, please forgive me and ignore the rest of this email, but it seems all the speakers are liberal. It's disappointing to see the many excellent not-liberals excluded from participating as speakers, and moreover, it sends a really discouraging message to any attendees who aren't liberals.
I hope you might find a way to bring political diversity to your set of speakers. There are lots of great, effective practices for speaker selection that would result in a more politically-diverse program.
Thanks for hearing me out on this, and thanks again for the work you do to put it all together.
1) How wonderfully (passive) aggressive! Not that there is anything wrong with that!
2) Does Topaz send these out to colleagues organizing such conferences at Williams? Kudos to him if he does! The more thought put into panel selection, the better. EphBlog has been complaining about the lack of political diversity on panels at Williams for decades!
3) If you were a junior member of Topaz's department, what would you think? EphBlog's advice would be to follow Topaz's suggestions! They are sensible (or, at least, not nonsensical) and, more importantly, he will be voting on your tenure in a few years.
4) How would you feel if you were organizing a conference at, say, Harvard and some rando from Williams sent you this e-mail? Good question! Perhaps our academic friends like dcat and sigh might opine.
5) I would chuckle, then ignore it. Does Topaz really think that I am unaware of political diversity and its importance? What wonderful arrogance from some nobody teaching at a jumped-up prep school! Putting together conferences is difficult, balancing participant priorities is hard, and even getting people to agree to come is annoying. The last thing I want to deal with is somebody who isn't even attending the conference kvetching about his personal hobbyhorse. Of course, at the end of the conference, I will seek opinions from the attendees to see how we might improve things next year and, if others share Topaz's (idiosyncratic?) views, I will try to adjust, subject to all the other constraints I need to deal with.
Boycott English
Inside Higher Ed has a thorough article on the Boycott English movement at Williams.
Williams College built its reputation on the liberal arts. Now students at the college are calling for a boycott of the English department, saying the program has long had a racist underbelly. Their comments echo those made by some past and present professors of color.
"We, the undersigned students of Williams College, pledge to an indefinite boycott of all English classes that do not take seriously the matter of race — that is, those classes which do not include more than a token discussion of race and more than a token number of writers of color," reads a boycott pledge that is a part of a detailed pro-boycott website. The names and identities of those taking the pledge are not yet public.
Entire article below the break, for the benefit of future historians. Comments:
1) I believe that EphBlog, although unmentioned in the article, is fundamentally responsible for this turning into a national story. A comment from a longtime reader about the boycott appears on November 1. This led to blog posts from John Drew and Jerry Coyne on November 3. This led to right wing coverage at places like Breitbart and the College Fix yesterday. (I could be wrong about the causative chain. Perhaps the same person who tipped us also tipped Coyne and others.) How long before this story breaks into the New York Times?
2) Do we need a controversy nickname? Depends on how long this will go on and how much we plan on covering it. Suggestions?
3) The metaphors to the French Revolution are almost too easy.
By June 1794 France had become fully weary of the mounting executions (1,300 in June alone), and Paris was alive with rumours of plots against Robespierre, member of the ruling Committee of Public Safety and leading advocate of the Terror. On 8 Thermidor (July 26) he gave a speech full of appeals and threats. The next day, the deputies in the National Convention shouted him down and decreed his arrest. He was arrested at the Hôtel de Ville, along with his brother Augustin, François Hanriot, Georges Couthon, and Louis de Saint-Just. The same guillotine that on 9 Thermidor executed 45 anti-Robespierrists executed, in the following three days, 104 Robespierrists, inaugurating a brief "White Terror" against Jacobins throughout France.
Katie Kent '88 is almost a parody of the campus left, an activist who came of age in the 80s and who was the leading social justice warrior on campus during that time. She was the revolutionary of her era. And now the Revolution has come for her.
Should I spend a week or two going through the news in detail? Or are you, dear reader, already bored with this nonsense?
UPDATE: Corrections made. See comment thread for details.
Safety Dance Update
Here are the latest filings in the Safety Dance sexual assault case: 178-main, 182-main, P reply to D opposition, D opposition to P motion to file, 178-6, 178-4, 178-5, 178-2, 178-3 and 178-1.
Any comments?
I think that, over the last year, nothing has gone well for Williams. (Their lead attorney Daryl Lapp, on the other hand, has been running up the billable hours and raking in the dollars. So, some good news!) Doe's case is getting stronger, with more support from the court. Perhaps more importantly, the overall legal landscape is changing, with major set backs for colleges in the Boston College case.
Maud: Settle this case! It is a sure loser for the College.
Williams Record: Cover this case! Your readers would find it interesting and you might even get some attention from media outside of Williamstown.
Why do I call this case "Safety Dance?"
And the lyrics from the song "Safety Dance":
We can dance if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
'Cause your friends don't dance and if they don't dance
Well they're no friends of mine.
I say, we can go where we want to
A place where they will never find
And we can act like we come from out of this world
Leave the real one far behind
And we can dance
Alas, John Doe has discovered that, leaving the real world far behind, is not so easy when it comes to the sexual assault bureaucracy at Williams . . .
Key facts:
This is nuts! Does anyone disagree? Read the full document for details, but it is not disputed that Smith only complained about the alleged assault after her attempts to get Doe thrown out for a never-happened honor code violation failed.
I am honestly curious to know if there are readers who agree with the College's decision to throw Doe out, denying him his degree even though he has completed all the requirements for graduation.
Recall my question from last year:
How many times has Maud Mandel sexually assaulted her husband since arriving at Williams?
I am 100% serious in asking this question. Consider:
The Williams College Code of Conduct requires affirmative consent for all sexual activity.
Consent means that at the time of the sexual contact, words and conduct indicate freely given approval or agreement, without coercion, by all participants in the sexual contact. Consent may not be inferred from silence or passivity.
Williams also defines "sexual activity" very broadly, as "any sexual touching, however slight, with any body part or object, by any person upon any other person . . ."
So, if Maud Mandel, without asking (and receiving!) explicit permission, has ever kissed her husband goodbye in the morning, or given him an affectionate pat on the behind as he walked out the door, or . . . anything really — then she has committed sexual assault and should, like John Doe, be kicked out of Williams.
This is, of course, nonsense. No normal person thinks that people, like Maud Mandel, in a relationship need to get permission for every single sexual activity ahead of time. But that is still the official policy at Williams, a policy which is used as a stick the ruin the lives of men — many of them poor and/or minority — much less powerful than Maud Mandel.
If John Doe deserves to be kicked out of Williams, than Maud Mandel is guilty of sexual assault.
How to Write a Chance Request at College Confidential
A regular part of the conversation at the Williams board on College Confidential is a "chance" request. A high school student wants the community to provide feedback on her chances of being admitted to Williams. Unfortunately, many of these students are uninformed about the reality of elite college admissions so they don't provide us with the necessary information to "chance" them correctly. (They also generally provide a mass of irrelevant data.) To make the world a better place, here is EphBlog's Guide to How to Write a Chance Request for Williams. (The same advice applies to most elite colleges. Please read How Admissions Works at Williams.)
First, estimate your Academic Rating and provide the key evidence behind that estimate. (Background information here and here.) Tell us your Math/Reading SAT scores (and/or ACT), and your AP scores. Just tell us what you will be submitting to Williams. We don't care how many times you took these exams or about the details of your Super Scoring efforts.
We also don't need to know about the details of your academic program. Just provide an honest estimate of your Academic Rating and some background on your high school. (Telling us the name of your high school can be useful, but is not necessary.) We don't care about your exact GPA. (If you did not take the hardest classes that your high school offers, admit that to us.) The best clue about the quality of your high school record can be found in the quality of schools that similarly ranked students have attended in past years, so tell us that. Even if your high school does not officially rank students, you must have a rough sense of where you stand (#2, top 5, top 10%, whatever). Tell us where the students at about your rank in the previous year's class went to college.
The Academic Rating is the most important part of the process, so focus your words on that topic.
If all you do is just a big copy/paste of all sorts of blather (examples here and here) — the exact same 1,000 words that you might paste into other discussion boards, don't be surprised if the only feedback you get is generic.
Second, cut out all the other cruft. We don't care (because Williams doesn't care) about all your clubs, activities, volunteer work, et cetera. Despite what your high school and/or parents may have told you, such trivia plays a de minimus role in elite college admissions. For example, your sports resume is irrelevant unless you are being recruited by a Williams coach and, if you are, they will tell you what your chances are.
Third, tell us your nationality. Williams has a quota against international applicants.
Fourth, tell us your race, or at least the relevant boxes that you will check on the Common Application. (See here and here for related discussion.) Checking the African-American box gives you a significant advantage in admissions, as does checking Hispanic, but less so. Checking the Asian box hurts your chances at Ivy League schools. There is a debate over whether Williams also discriminates against Asian-American applicants. It is also unclear whether or not checking two boxes or declining to check any box matters. So, for example, if you have one white and one African-American parent, you are much better off checking only the African-American box.
Fifth, tell us about your family income and parents background. Williams, like all elite schools, discriminates in favor of the very poor (family income below $50,000) and very wealthy (able to donate a million dollars). There is some debate over the exact dollar figures at both ends. Might Williams favor applicants whose families make us much as $75,000? Sure! Might Williams be swayed by a donation in the six figures? Maybe! Tell us whatever other details might be relevant. For example, Williams cares about socio-economic status more broadly than just income, so having parents that did not graduate from a 4 year college can be helpful. Among rich families, Williams prefers those who have already donated to Williams and/or have a history of supporting higher education.
The College loves to brag about two categories of students: Pell Grant recipients and "first generation" students, defined as those for whom neither parent has a four year BA and who require financial aid. If you can show the College evidence that you (will) belong in either category, your chances improve.
Summary: Almost all of elite college admissions is driven by Academic Rating, albeit subject to three broad exceptions: athletics, race and income. In order to provide you with an accurate chance, we need the details concerning these areas. Don't bother us with all the other stuff.
Guide to Athletic Admissions
The purpose of this post is to provide a guide to athletic admissions at Williams. Read Playing the Game: Inside Athletic Recruiting in the Ivy League by Chris Lincoln for all the messy details. (Despite the title, Lincoln covers NESCAC athletic admissions thoroughly.) See this three part series from the Bowdoin Orient. Williams is no different than other elite schools when it comes to athletic recruiting. Check out EphBlog's prior coverage. See also last month's review of Williams admissions as a whole.
1) General athletic ability/accomplishment does not matter. No one cares if you won the high school Judo state championship because Williams does not compete in Judo. No one cares if you were captain of your high school soccer team if you aren't good enough to play for Williams.
2) Only the coach's opinion matters. Even if you play a sport that Williams cares about at an elite level, it won't matter unless the coach wants you. If the field hockey coach already has 2 great goalies, you could be an amazing goalie, perhaps even better than the current Ephs, and it would not matter for your chances at Williams because you would not be on the coach's list. (She only has so many spots and wants to use them for positions that need more help.)
3) There are approximately 100 students in each class who would not have been admitted were it not for an Eph coach's intervention. There are 66 "tips," students whose academic qualifications are significantly below the average for the class as a whole. There are also 30 or so "protects" — perhaps currently terminology is "ices"? — who also would not have gotten in without coach intervention, but who are only slightly below average for the class as a whole in terms of academic ability. I believe that protects are academic rating 3s, while tips are academic rating 4s and below.
4) The number of tips/protects varies by sport as do the minimum standards. Football gets the most, by far, followed by hockey. Certain sports — crew, golf, squash — receive much less leeway. Football and hockey can let in (some) AR 5s. Other sports can't go below AR 4 or even AR 3. Coaches have some flexibility in terms of using these spots, taking 4 people this year but 6 next year.
5) The biggest change in athletic admissions in the last 20 years followed the publication of the MacDonald Report, with support from then-president Morty Schapiro. Those changes both decreased the raw number of tips and, perhaps more importantly, raised the academic requirements, especially at the low end. In particular, there are very few athletic admissions below academic rating 4 — top 15% of HS class / A – B record / very demanding academic program / 1310 – 1400 composite SAT I score.
6) Despite coach complaints and predictions of disaster, Williams athletics have been as successful in the last decade as they were in the decade prior to these changes.
7) My recommendation to President Mandel: Create another committee to revisit this topic. Fewer preferences given to athletes would raise the quality of the student body as a whole. The MacDonald Report made Williams a better college. Do the same again.
Weekend Links
Lt Col Bunge Cooke '98 brings football film analytics to the Marine Corps.
Republican/Conservative/Libertarian Professors at Williams
A New York Times op-ed two years ago:
Faculty members in New England are far more liberal than their counterparts anywhere else in the nation, even controlling for discipline and school type. In 1989, the number of liberals compared with conservatives on college campuses was about 2 to 1 nationwide; that figure was almost 5 to 1 for New England schools. By 2014, the national figure was 6 to 1; for those teaching in New England, the figure was 28 to 1.
I cannot say for certain why New England is so far to the left. But what I can say, based on the evidence, is that if you are looking for an ideologically balanced education, don't put New England at the top of your list.
Who are the Republican/Conservative/Libertarian professors at Williams? The Record had an excellent article on that topic last week:
Several professors at the College, however, openly profess conservative views. Their presences in Williamstown have the potential to elucidate political dynamics at the College that may be invisible to the student body's liberal majority.
Four professors agreed to go on the record for this article: Professor of Mathematics Steven Miller; Professor of Art Michael Lewis; Professor of Political Science Darel Paul; and Visiting Professor of American Foreign Policy Chris Gibson, who will depart the College and begin teaching at Siena College, his alma mater, at the end of the academic year.
While they all fit under the umbrella term of "conservative," these professors hold a range of beliefs.
Read the rest for an intelligent and nuanced discussion.
According to campus gossip (and EphBlog reporting), the basic zoology of Republican/Conservative/Libertarian professors at Williams is as follows:
Republicans: Steven Miller and Michael Lewis. Lewis is perhaps the most famous "conservative" professor at Williams, known for his writing at the Wall Street Journal, Commentary and other outlets. He was a strong critic of Falk's decision to ban Derbyshire. Are there any other faculty members that are registered Republicans? Tell us in the comments!
Libertarians: Kris Kirby and Fred Strauch. The Record ought to seek them out for a second article.
Curmudgeons: This is the category of professors who are not registered Republicans and almost certainly did not vote for Trump, but who care about ideological diversity and/or are conservative (or at least anti-leftist) in the context of the Williams faculty. James McAllister, Darel Paul and Luana Maroja come to mind. Others?
Former faculty of a similar persuasion include: Robert Jackall, George Marcus, Chris Gibson and Jane Swift. (I realize that Gibson has not left yet, but visitors shouldn't even be part of this conversation. They are at Williams for too short a time to matter.
Happy Indigenous People's Day
From the Berkshire Eagle two years ago:
Williams College celebrates its last Columbus Day
In ending the Columbus Day off at Williams College, it came down to accounting.
Sure enough, the current calendar makes no mention of Columbus. Would you, dear reader, have predicted that a decade or two ago? Me either! What changes will come by 2029? There is no longer a reference to either Veteran's Day or Christmas in the calendar. I am not sure when those disappeared. "Thanksgiving" is still mentioned, but for how much longer?
The faculty voted to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a holiday for faculty, staff and students about six months ago.
How long before the #MeToo movement comes from MLK?
The human resources department determined the college would trade off another holiday — Columbus Day — rather than adding another holiday to the calendar.
"This was just a simple trade-off," said Jim Reische, chief communications officer at Williams College. "We didn't do anything with Columbus Day. It was just a three-day weekend."
Could this be (just!) about holiday bookkeeping? Perhaps! The College is a business and needs to track vacation days.
Administrative staff still had the day off on Monday, but that will change come next year. Classes still met.
Administrative staff will still be allowed to take the Columbus Day off next year if they choose, but they'll have to use a floating holiday day. There will be classes on that day.
"The major driver was — we needed to consider MLK Day a holiday," Reische said. "There was a strong push to make that a day off, to recognize it."
"Push" from whom? I doubt that the typical dining services worker cares which holiday she gets. If anything, I bet that the preferences run the other way. The vast majority of Williams employees (below the faculty) are white working class, many of them Italian-Americans. An enterprising Record reporter would interview them . . .
And isn't a holiday in the Berkshires in the fall much more desirable than one in January?
More important to the college in terms of programming is Claiming Williams Day, which began in 2009 after a series of racist and sexist incidents on campus in 2008, Reische said.
Can we please get our history straight? There was one key incident that drove Claiming Williams.
Claiming Williams Day includes a full roster of programming exploring what it means to be a diverse and inclusive campus, he said.
"It's much more about academic and community-building than anything we ever did with Columbus Day," he said.
Well, sure. But aren't these separate issues? Issue one: Which holidays does Williams officially recognize and give staff members a day off for? Issue two: What events does Williams schedule on which days? The former has little to do with the latter.
The town of Williamstown took a different direction on Columbus Day earlier this year.
In May, town meeting voters agreed to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day.
Williamstown Elementary School labeled Monday's holiday Indigenous Peoples Day on its website as of Monday morning.
If I were Trump, I would make a huge deal out of Columbus Day: big celebration at the White House, perhaps a speech about how Democrats consider Italian-Americans to be deplorables, an (outrageous) proposal that any town/city/state which wants federal funds must celebrate Columbus Day. There would be few better ways of motivating the voters he, and the Republicans, will need in November.
Political Science 101 at Williams taught me that, he who picks the issue to fight over, wins. In any fight between "Columbus Day" and "Indigenous Peoples Day," Trump wins easily.
Trump reads EphBlog! Last year, two hours after this post went up, he tweeted:
How long before Democratic activists start to attack Columbus?
Or maybe Trump is saving this as a fight to have in the fall of 2020?
Correct in Assuming
Were the student members of the Sawicki Committee rolled? From former Williams professor John Drew:
In a recent Press Record podcast, one of the student members of the Ad Hoc Committee on Inquiry and Inclusion, Eli Miller '21, pushed back on campus watchdogs who believe the Sawicki report supports free speech to the extent that it would allow controversial speakers like John Derbyshire to appear on campus. Miller, a math and statistic major, was interviewed by a fellow student, Rebecca Tower '21.
Rebecca Tauber
Do you have any last thoughts on the committee, their report, going forward?
Eli Miller
I think my one concern is that this committee — which I don't think I've seen very much here, but I've seen sort of from like campus watch dogs — is that this is seen as a victory for people who believe that free speech is like an absolute right and that people on college campuses who try to dis-invite people are like liberal snowflakes.
That whole narrative is very popular, and my concern that this report gives those people a win.
I don't think those people are correct in assuming this report supports them. But I think that definitely people have read it that way. And I guess I wish we had done more to resist that reading because I think it is a lot more nuanced and complicated than that. But I think at end of the day people are going to want to read what they want to read.
See Drew's post for more commentary.
1) It is not clear if Miller is referring to EphBlog when he uses the phrase "campus watchdogs." Clarification would be welcome!
2) Miller (and the other students on the committee?) were rolled. Sawicki (and other faculty?) knew what answer they wanted before the first meeting and they got it. When will Miller realize this? Probably when Derbyshire comes back to Williams. And, believe me, he is coming back . . .
3) The Record wrote a solid article when the Report was issued, including comments from Miller. But this topic is important enough that we need more reporting. Go ask the Administration if Derbyshire would be allowed to speak on campus if he were again invited by a student group in accordance with current policies. Not a hard question! And then, once the Administration tells you "Yes," go interview Miller and other students on the Committee for their reactions.
4) Thanks to Drew for taking the time to transcribe the Miller interview.
Endowment Performance
Chief Investment Officer Collette Chilton is probably not EphBlog's biggest fan.
And why is the investment office in Boston in the first place?
Note the charmingly naive coverage of this topic from the Record.
Chilton will commute between her offices in Williamstown and Boston. "Investment does not occur here at Williamstown," Chilton said, "and so we need to have an office at a financial capital, which in this case is Boston." She will be on campus Mondays and Tuesdays on a regular basis. "So far it's been easy," she said, "but then again, it's not snowing yet."
This is highly misleading. When you control an endowment of $1.5 billion, you are the client, you are the one with the power, you are the one that other people travel to meet. Investment managers, whether from the worlds of private equity, hedge funds, venture capital or any other field, will gladly come to Williamstown (or anywhere else) for a chance to manage a portion of that money. The reason that Chilton does not move to Williamstown is, almost certainly, because she and her family prefer to live in Weston. Nothing wrong with Weston, of course, but if Chilton does not care enough about Williams to move to Williamstown, what possible loyalty will she feel toward the College? Why wouldn't she just take another job when a better offer comes along?
President Schapiro also played a part in this deception.
Eager to get started, Collette will disengage as quickly as possible from her current responsibilities and take up this new position sometime in October. As is typical with such positions, she'll be based in a financial capital, in her case Boston, and have an office in Hopkins Hall, where she'll spend significant time.
"I consider this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be involved in the entrepreneurial start up of a new operation," she said in accepting the position. "And Williams is such a fantastic school; I look forward to becoming part of the college community."
First, it goes without saying that it is impossible to be a "part of the college community" if you live in Boston. But the key weasel phrase is "typical with such positions." If the Record wanted to make trouble, it would investigate the truth of this statement. Find a set of positions like Chilton's (CIO of a large endowment) and investigate how many of these individuals are located in a "financial capital" away from the institution for which they work.
Let me help. The article later mentions Paula Volent, vice president for investments at Bowdoin (and a protege of Swensen). She manages $670 million from that famous "financial capital," Brunswick, Maine. Peter Shea does the same for Amherst from sunny central Massachusetts. Thomas Kannam is somehow able to manage Wesleyan's $600 million endowment from Middletown, Connecticut. My, but the list of financial capitals in New England is larger than I imagined! And, of course, David Swensen himself does fine living in New Haven. Turns out that, if you control the money, people come to you.
If we can't trust Morty/Chilton to be transparent with us about why she wants to work in Boston, why should we trust them to be honest about anything else?
According to the College's Form 990, Chief Investment Officer Collete Chilton's total compensation was $726,556 in FY 2008 and $686,053 in FY 2007.
The Record should do an article about Chilton's compensation. Don't the editors believe in muckraking anymore? I bet that some of the more left-wing Williams professors would provide good quotes, either on or off the record. Don't think that there is anything suspect going on here? Perhaps you failed to read the College's letter to the Senate Finance Committee.
Some members of the Investment Office are eligible for bonuses based on the return on our investments, though the office is so new that we have not completed the first year of returns on which bonuses would be computed. So, in the past ten years no such bonuses have been paid.
In other words, the College worries that Chilton and other (how many?) investment professionals won't work hard enough even though Williams is paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. So, in addition to all that guaranteed money, we need to pay them extra bonuses or else they'll —- what exactly? Spend all day at the movies?
Other fun posts include here, here and this five part series.
But credit where credit is due. The performance of the Williams endowment over the last decade has been outstanding.
Thanks to an Eph with Bloomberg access for sharing the data.
Apologies that this is tough to read. Key point is that, over the last decade, the Williams endowment has compounded at 8%, which is the second highest in its peer group of small college endowments and, roughly, 2% per year better than the average performance. How much richer is Williams because of this outperformance? Good question! My rough guess is that, if the value of the endowment has averaged about $2 billion over this period, 2% outperformance, compounded over 10 years generated about $400 million in additional wealth.
Perhaps former trustee chair Mike Eisenson '77 — the Eph most clearly responsible for the creation of the investment office and (probably?) the person with the most say in the hiring of Chilton — is smarter than me, at least when it comes to money? Perhaps Collette Chilton knows what she is doing? Perhaps I should stick to blogging? Perish the thought!
Weekend Links
"Democracy Requires Discomfort" by (honorary degree) Eph Michael Bloomberg, including a couple of Williams references.
"The strange saga of a Division III golfer who got kicked out of the NCAA" by Dylan Dethier '14.
Dynamics of Romance
Victoria Michalska '22 writes in the Record:
But for those looking for something more, it's an interesting dynamic. You could find yourself a random almost-stranger, and go to the dorm of whoever lives closer, but that isn't necessarily for everybody. The repetition of seeing specific people at these parties means that some bond will start to develop between you two, ambiguous as to whether it's friendship or something else, and the decision to pursue more begins to linger in the air more powerfully with every encounter. That development is as close as one could get to romance on Hoxsey, I think: a moment of eye contact across the room and the question of whether or not they'll walk over and talk to you.
EphBlog is here to solve Michalska's problem:
1) Pick 5 Williams men you would like to go out with on a date. You are, obviously, not picking a husband at this stage, but you are selecting likely candidates. Because men are shallow creatures, select men that are about as handsome as you are pretty. If you are average, then select an average man. Even better, select a man at the 25th percentile of attractiveness. If you end up married, he will spend the rest of his life marveling at the beauty of the woman in his bed each morning and vowing to do his best not to screw up his good fortune.
2) Pick a friend to be the matchmaker. Many of your friends would jump at the chance. You need someone social, someone not afraid to approach a (possible) stranger on your behalf.
3) Have your friend approach a candidate and let him know that, if he asked you out on a dinner date, you would say, "Yes." Assuming you have picked wisely, he will be excited! There are few things a boy likes more than knowing a girl is interested in him. And the reason he hasn't asked you out before was, most likely, that he was afraid you would say, "No." There is nothing a boy fears more than rejection. Since he knows ahead of time what your answer will be, you can be (mostly) certain that he will ask you out. If you want to avoid the embarrassment of rejection yourself, just allow your friend the discretion to approach the men in the order she sees fit. Then she won't even need to tell you if candidates 1 and 2 turned down this opportunity.
Read the whole thing for context.
Harvard Wins Anti-Asian Affirmative Action Case
From the Harvard Crimson:
Harvard College's race-conscious admissions policies do not illegally discriminate against Asian American applicants, federal judge Allison D. Burroughs ruled Tuesday.
The ruling brings an end to this stage of the lawsuit filed against the University by anti-affirmative action group Students for Fair Admissions in 2014. SFFA alleged that the College's admissions policies discriminate against Asian American applicants by holding them to higher standards. Burroughs, however, found that Harvard's use of race in its admissions process is legal.
"Ensuring diversity at Harvard relies, in part, on race conscious admissions. Harvard's admission program passes constitutional muster," Burroughs wrote in her decision.
See the full decision (pdf) for details. I could spend a week or two going through the decision. Should I? Not sure any commentary would be that different from my five part series last year.
Thanks to David Kane '58 for the pointer.
How Admissions Works at Williams
Williams admissions work the same as admissions at most other elite colleges. If you understand the process at Swarthmore or Princeton, then you understand 99% of what happens at Williams. There are a variety of books about admissions at elite colleges, e.g., The Gatekeepers and A is for Admission. They capture 90% of the details. (These books are somewhat dated and may gild the lily a bit when it comes to race.) Williams Magazine published (pdf) an excellent 2005 article, "Recipe for Success," about admissions. Virtually everything in it is true, but it also leaves out many of the more controversial aspects.
The purpose of this post is to explain how the Williams admissions process works in reality, not how it should work.
First, the most important part of the admissions process is the "academic rating," often abbreviated as "AR." From the Recipe article:
The full-time admission staffers, plus a handful of helpers like Phil Smith '55 (Nesbitt's predecessor as director), pore over the folders. Two readers examine each folder independently, without seeing each other's comments, and assess them in three major ways. Each applicant gets an academic rating from 1 to 9 that focuses heavily on his or her high school grades, standardized test scores, the rigor of his or her academic program within the context of the school setting and the strength of teacher recommendations.
Nurnberg '09 et al (pdf) provide a similar description:
After evaluating the applicant's SAT scores, high school grades, essays, class rank, high school academic program, support from the high school administration, AP test score — or IB test scores — and teacher recommendations, admissions readers assign the applicant an academic rating from the scale 1 — 9, with 1 being the best.
Amherst, and all other elite colleges, use essentially the same system. The College does not like to reveal the details of these ratings, but we know from Peter Nurnberg's '09 thesis that:
While the academic reader ratings are somewhat subjective, they are strongly influenced by the following guidelines.
- Academic 1: at top or close to top of HS class / A record / exceptional academic program / 1520 – 1600 composite SAT I score;
- Academic 2: top 5% of HS class / mostly A record / extremely demanding academic program / 1450 – 1520 composite SAT I score;
- Academic 3: top 10% of HS class / many A grades / very demanding academic program / 1390 – 1450 composite SAT I score;
- Academic 4: top 15% of HS class / A – B record / very demanding academic program / 1310 – 1400 composite SAT I score;
- Academic 5: top 20% of HS class / B record / demanding academic program / 1260 – 1320 composite SAT I score;
- Academic 6: top 20% of HS class / B record / average academic program / 1210 – 1280 composite SAT I score;
- Academic 7: top 25% of HS class / mostly B record / less than demanding program / 1140 – 1220 composite SAT I score;
- Academic 8: top 33% of HS class / mostly B record or below / concern about academic program / 1000 – 1180 composite SAT I score;
- Academic 9: everyone else.
These ratings are high-school-quality adjusted. At an elite school like Boston Latin or Exeter, you can be in the top 5% or even lower and still be an AR 1. At a weaker high school, you need to be the valedictorian. At the weakest high schools (bottom 25%?), even the valedictorian is almost never considered smart enough to go to Williams, at least in the absence of top standardized test scores.
Note that the working paper (pdf) from which these details are taken was co-authored by then-Williams president Morty Schapiro, so one hopes that it is accurate! Nurnberg's senior thesis included a copy of the "Class of 2009 Folder Reading Guide, Academic Ratings," which provided these details:
verbal math composite SAT II ACT AP AR 1: 770-800 750-800 1520-1600 750-800 35-36 mostly 5s AR 2: 730-770 720-750 1450-1520 720-770 33-34 4s and 5s AR 3: 700-730 690-720 1390-1450 690-730 32-33 4s
Williams, and all other elite schools, use this system because academic rating does a wonderful job of predicting academic performance at Williams and elsewhere.
Perhaps the main reason that this post is necessary is that Williams, when politically convenient, likes to deny the fundamental realities about how it decides who to admit and who to reject. Consider then-President Adam Falk and Director of Admissions and Financial Aid Liz Creighton '01 writing in the Record:
[T]he very notion that the "quality" of students can be defined on a single linear scale is preposterous
Academic rating is, precisely, a "single linear scale" and it is, by far, the major driver of admissions decisions. This is true both for the process as a whole and within sub-groups. For example, African-American applicants with academic rating 1 to 3 are virtually certain to be admitted while those with academic rating of 9 are almost always rejected. The College may have different standards across sub-categories but, within each subcategory (except athletes and development prospects), the academic rating explains 90% of the variation.
Second, students with an academic rating worse than 2 (i.e., 3 or higher) are summarily rejected unless they have a specific "hook" or attribute.
The Recipe article is explicit:
In general, all applicants with a combined academic rating of 3 or higher are rejected at this point, unless the first and second readers have identified one or more "attributes" that warrant additional consideration.
The readers also assign any of more than 30 "attributes" that admission uses to identify exceptional traits. Some of these are easily quantified, such as being the child or grand-child of an alumnus, a member of a minority group, an "impact" athlete or a local resident. Other more subjective "tags" draw attention (usually but not always favorably) to something special about a candidate, like a powerful passion or aptitude for scientific research or an interest in getting a non-science Ph.D.
From Nurnberg '09 el al, attributes (in addition to race/ethnicity/gender) include:
alumni grandparent, alumni other, alumni parent, alumni sibling, studio art, development or future fundraising potential, dance, institutional connection, intellectual vitality, local, music, politically active, religious, research science, economically disadvantaged, social service, theater, top athlete, tier 2 athlete, and tier 3 athlete
The naive reader will assume that all these attributes have a similar effect. Being a great musician or a great athlete will help some AR 4s get into Williams, and that is OK. (And the College wants you to think that.) In fact, some attributes matter much more than others. Recall (from 2004!) Admissions Director Dick Nesbitt '74:
We are able to admit roughly 120 top rated musicians each year from the top of the academic reader rating scale–what we refer to as academic 1′ and 2's (broadly defined as 1500+ SAT's and very top of the class).
For most attributes, the College does not need to dip below AR 1s and 2s. Yes, being a top musician may help you in the competition with other outstanding students, but, if you are AR 3 or below, it won't. You will be rejected. And the same applies to other attributes. Top students are also, often, deeply involved in social service or theater. In high school, they often excel in research science or political activism. If Williams were to admit only AR 1s/2s, it would have plenty of students in all these categories.
Third, for applicants with AR 3 or below, the attributes that matter most are race, income and athletics.
Does this mean that no other attributes ever matter? No! It is certainly the case that the daughter of a prominent alum could get into Williams as an AR 4 or the son of a Williams professor as an AR 3. But the major categories, the ones that account for the vast majority of AR 3 and below admissions are race, income and athletics.
Don't want to read all the posts from those links? Here is a brief summary:
1) There are 100 or so admissions decisions which are driven by a Williams coach. You are either on her list or you are not. These "tips" and "protects" are, by definition, only used for students with AR 3 and below. Best single post overview of the topic is here. See this for older commentary.
2) In the class of 2022, Williams has (pdf) 98 African-American/Hispanic students. A few of these are AR 1 or 2 applicants who would have been accepted at Williams regardless of which racial box they checked. But a majority, probably a vast majority, are AR 3 or below. Recall this discussion of SAT scores:
Asian-Americans in the 700+ range are at least 6 times more common than African-Americans/Hispanics. So, how can Williams have more African-Americans/Hispanics than Asian-Americans enrolled? (Hint: It isn't because there aren't 100+ Asian-Americans among the AR 1/2 applicants who are currently rejected by Williams.) The reason is that Williams admits scores of African-American/Hispanic applicants with AR 3 and below. Williams does this because it wants a class which "mirrors" or "reflects" the US population, at least when it comes to African-Americans and Hispanics. Note that the average African-American student at Amherst has an SAT score consistent with AR 5. It is highly unlikely that Williams does a better job than Amherst at attracting highly rated African-American students. The biggest problem that Williams faces is that Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Stanford accept virtually every African-American (and almost all Hispanics) with AR 1/2 credentials, and Williams almost never wins those applicants, not least because it offers much less generous financial aid.
3) Unlike athletics (which the college is, sometimes, transparent about) and race (on which there is good data), family income and parental education are trickier. The College reports (and is proud of the fact) that 15%-20% of students are eligible for Pell Grants and that 15%-20% of students are first generation college students, meaning that they come from families in which neither parent has a 4 year BA. (Of course, there is a big overlap between these two groups, and, to a lesser extent, between these two groups and African-American/Hispanic students.) The problem is that all standardized test results (and, therefore, academic rating) are much lower, on average, for such students. So, in order to get such high enrollments, Williams must admit scores of such students with AR 3 or below.
About 1/2 of a Williams class is AR 1 or 2. (The median math+verbal SAT score at Williams is 15101, which is between AR 1 and 2.) There are 100 recruited athletes (all of whom, by definition, are AR 3 or below), 100 African-American/Hispanic students, 100 first generation and 100 Pell Grant recipients. That adds up to 400+ in a class of 550! Of course, many students fall into more than one category. Many (outside the athletes) are AR 1 or 2. But, given that we only have 275 spots left beneath AR 1/2, a large majority of the bottom half of the class are members of at least one of these 4 categories. The bottom 100 students in each class (approximately AR 5 and below) is almost completely dominated by these students. And, in the categories outside of athletes, academic rating drives the decisions. Williams is much more likely to accept an African-American and/or a first generation student and/or a future Pell Grant recipient if her academic rating is 1 to 3. Every single AR 9 applicant is rejected, regardless of her other outstanding attributes.
And that is how admissions works at Williams, and at almost all other elite colleges.
If knowledgeable observers (like abl) think that any of the facts above are wrong, please comment.
[1] Note that the renorming of SAT scores a few years ago has caused a big increase from the old median of about 1450. This makes the usage of written guidelines from before the increase a bit tricky. Does anyone know if Williams has changed the definitions for Academic Rating?
Weekend Links
Wesleyan President Michael Roth writes in the Wall Street Journal about "why universities need affirmative action for the study of conservative, libertarian and religious ideas."
"DOE Office of Civil Rights investigates College's alleged Title IX violation in discipline case" — good Record coverage from new (?) editor-in-chief Nicholas Goldrosen.
Lovely feel-good column from the Eagle: "As a community welcomes Williams students, they repay the favor with a meal."
Elite Admissions Based on Academics Alone
We have covered the Harvard admissions trial a bit at EphBlog. Do readers want more? In the meantime, one of the most interesting exhibits comes from this expert report (pdf):
There would be (shockingly?) few African-Americans or Hispanic students at Harvard if admissions were based solely on academics. If fact, this table is an overestimate since things are worse in the tails and Harvard could admit an entire class from just the top 5% of academic ability. Interestingly, white enrollment is largely unaffected.
Affirmative action at elite schools consists, almost entirely, of replacing Asian-American students with African-American and Hispanic students.
Although we lack the data, the same is almost certainly true at Williams. In fact, it is even worse because Harvard (and Yale and Princeton) accept/enroll not only the (few) African-American/Hispanic students with HYP credentials but also the next few hundreds, i.e., all the African-American/Hispanic applicants with only Williams-level credentials.
Maybe this is good policy. Maybe not. But EphBlog is here to explain exactly what is going on.
Do Not Go to Graduate School
An interesting forum from back in 2010:
If you've considered going to graduate school in history, come to a History Graduate School Panel discussion on Tuesday at 7:00 pm in Griffin 7. Professors Dubow, Fishzon, and Kittleson will speak about their own graduate school experiences, and will answer any questions you might have.
Good stuff. Kudos to the professors involved for taking the time to participate. Comments:
1) Relevant discussion here and here. I second Professor Sam Crane's remarks:
In fact, I tell them the academic job market is horrible, has been bad for a long, long time, and is getting worse. I tell them that getting a job like the one I have is unlikely. I tell them that they should go on for a Ph.D. only if they truly love the learning, because that is something they will be certain to have for a lifetime, regardless of what job they find themselves with. And for some of them, that is what it is about. Love of learning, regardless of whether they get an ideal academic job.
This was true in 2010 and is even more true now. It is true, not just in history and political science but in almost every academic field. If anything, areas like physics and biology are even worse, mainly because of the volume of Ph.Ds which they produce.
My only quibble with Sam's comments might be to clarify that a love of learning is not enough of a reason to justify graduate school in history. With the internet as your oyster, you can pursue learning as much as your free time allows without going to graduate school.
2) Read Derek Catsam '93:
[G]raduate students and those looking at entering this competitive world need to be cognizant of the realities. If you are planning to enter a field like, say, US history, it is probably incumbent upon you to know the odds. Further, it seems to me that it is pretty irresponsible of those of us with the ability to advise students if we emphasize the great aspects of intellectual life within the academy and do not point out the reality — your odds of getting the PhD are smaller than you think, your odds of getting a job are slighter still, and your odds of getting tenure at a place yet smaller, and then all of this happening at a place you would otherwise choose to live? Infinitesimal.
Also Swarthmore Professor Tim Burke:
Should I go to graduate school?
Short answer: no.
Long answer: maybe, but only if you have some glimmering of what you are about to do to yourself. Undergraduates coming out of liberal arts institutions are particularly vulnerable to ignorance in this regard. …
Just don't try graduate school in an academic subject with the same spirit of carefree experimentation. Medical school, sure. Law school, no problem. But a Ph.D in an academic field? Forget it. If you take one step down that path, I promise you, it'll hurt like blazes to get off, even if you're sure that you want to quit after only one year.
Two years in, and quitting will be like gnawing your own leg off.
Past that, and you're talking therapy and life-long bitterness.
Burke is right. I hope that the panelists back then, whether or not they agreed with Burke, made sure that students know what some historians believe. I worry that such an event might too easily have degenerated into a "You are all smart Williams students who should dream big and live large!" Nothing wrong with that advice when a student asks if she should try a difficult upper-level seminar, but Ephs need a more reality-based answer when leaving the Purple Bubble. Large numbers of students in the class of 2020 who are going to graduate school are making a mistake. Professor Sara Dubow is, no doubt, a wonderful, hard-working professor. But there is also a sense in which she won the lottery . . .
3) Key data would be a listing of all the Ephs who went to graduate school in, for example, history from 1990 through 2000. Where are they now? What happened to them along the way? If there were 50, I bet that fewer than 40 made it to Ph.D., fewer than 20 got any tenure-track jobs at all, and fewer than 5 got tenure. How many got tenure at a place that pays as well as Williams? I don't know. In fact, I have trouble coming up with many Eph historians of that era, other than our own Derek Catsam '93, Sara Dubow '91 and Eiko Maruko Siniawer '97. Pointers welcome!
4) There are some fields — like economics, statistics and computer science — in which supply/demand are more in balance. There are still nice academic jobs at places like Williams and plenty of opportunities in industry.
5) Never attend a Ph.D. program which is not fully funded.
6) The 2010 comment thread includes excellent discussion. I miss the old EphBlog!
7) Still want to get a Ph.D. even though you are fully aware of the likely outcomes? Cool! EphBlog fully supports informed decision-making. Our main point here is to encourage you to be fully informed. Graduate school in history can be fun and rewarding! Just be sure to have a back-up plan . . .
UPDATE: First version of this post went up 9 years ago. What is the academic job market like? Consider what happened to the professors who participated in the panel.
Roger Kittleson was already tenured at the time of the panel. Life at Williams is (I hope!) good. What sort of advice does he give to history students today?
Sara Dubow is now a full professor of history at Williams. She is our lottery winner.
Anna Fishzon is listed as a "Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University in the City of New York." But she still lists her Williams assistant professor position at the top of her profile, so it is not clear how much substance there is to the Columbia position. Even though she did great work in graduate school — which is the only way she got hired by Williams in the first place — there is no (stable) job for her in academia. Is there one for you, Dear Reader? Probably not.
Weekend Links
Bethany McLean '92 on Elon Musk in Vanity Fair. Self-recommending.
Wesleyan President Michael Roth writes in the New York Times about safe spaces.
Currently browsing posts authored by David Dudley Field '25


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Step inside the world of Flea Style
A hub for massive curated pop up markets, cool educational conferences, artisan workshops and an online shop — and join founder Brittany Cobb as she interviews established and budding business owners, operators and influencers about their creative companies.
Thom Filicia
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Design and TV star Thom Filicia fills this funny podcast with poignant advice and on-point comedy that will leave you equally inspired and in stitches. From his early days as a design intern to starting his own business and building a booming lifestyle brand, the New York native walks us through his wild journey and big break — in a broken elevator of all places. "Take your business very seriously, but don't take yourself too seriously," says the 50-year old CEO. Learn more from this insightful entrepreneur on our final episode of season six.
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About Your Host: Founder of Flea Style
Brittany is a journalist turned interior decorator that has always been obsessed with flea markets and shopping small. In 2009 she decided to create her own market – mere weeks before being laid off from her real job – and, her life changed forever. Today that market is her full-time job and a growing company called Flea Style that includes biannual pop up events, a brick-and-mortar store, e-commerce site and this podcast. Everything Flea Style does is about supporting small businesses and one-of-a-kind style.