Thoughts on Radio, from a friend

From my friend Julian, a long post worth the read:

To take it back half a step, radio is still a fundamentally viable form even in these internet days. People still like listening to human voices, and people still like listening to music. And, beyond that, I think that it’s sort of an important piece of our popular culture, and one worth saving. We’ve sort of touched upon some of the things that good radio traditionally can/does do, but there is plenty of room for expansion within the form, and we can perhaps draw some inspiration from our cousins over in the UK, where the BBC is alive and well (another indication of radio’s fundamental viability as a technology). According to a pretty good article in the LA Times about a year ago, there is still a huge audience for radio in BBC-land, partly derived from a radio-listening culture (one interviewee had a radio for every room, I believe, and left them on in the way that Americans leave televisions on), but also from a great deal of excellent programming. Because radio is still respected, and because the BBC is state-run and therefore beholden to nobody, the money to produce quality programming can meet the quality talent required, creating a number of excellent shows. Plays are serialized, new works commissioned expressly for radio, esteemed commentators are heard nationally, and yes, they have a pretty thriving music show lineup too (Mark Lamar’s show God’s Jukebox is quite nice). The moral is many-fold: an expansion of public radio would greatly enhance our national culture, as we’d be able to support no-strings attached works of critical radio excellence; we should be so lucky as to have the same intellectual-respecting and cross-media popular culture as there is in the UK (where dudes like Stephen Fry can show up basically anywhere and say insightful things, and get listened to!); and the only limitation on radio is that it’s a purely auditory medium.

Be bold, Mr. President.

The country needs leadership. Besides the radical "Tea Party," there is little faith in anyone in government - no rising stars that can suck up the media spotlight with bipartisan popularity. There is, in short, no "2005 you" in this political calculus.

You must be bold. The Republican position has been panned by the Economist and even Ben Stein - it is both grounded in foolishness and delusional in the thought that higher taxes will destroy our economy.

The economy is not weak because of taxes, and you must say so. You must have faith that the American people will listen to you - actually listen to you - when you go on TV from the Oval Office to explain the peril that this debt issue involves us in, and the lack of choice that presents itself. You must be clear about the relative size of entitlements vs the defense budget vs everything else, and you must do this in the faith that Americans are waiting for you to step up.

We are waiting for leadership.

So lead.

On TFA

A friend sent me this link, which reads in part:

Every spring without fail, a Teach for America recruiter approaches me and asks if he or she can come to my classes and recruit students for TFA, and every year, without fail, I give the recruiter the same answer: “Sorry. Until Teach for America changes its objective to training lifetime educators and raises the time commitment to five years rather than two, I will not allow TFA to recruit in my classes. The idea of sending talented students into schools in high-poverty areas and then, after two years, encouraging them to pursue careers in finance, law, and business in the hope that they will then advocate for educational equity rubs me the wrong way.”

[...]

But the most objectionable aspect of Teach for America—other than its contempt for lifetime educators—is its willingness to create another pathway to wealth and power for those already privileged, in the rapidly expanding Education-Industrial Complex, which offers numerous careers for the ambitious and well connected. An organization that began by promoting idealism and educational equity has become, to all too many of its recruits, a vehicle for profiting from the misery of America’s poor.

The thesis of the article, in short, is that TFA has become a "stepping stone" for professional success, instead of a breeding ground for lifelong educators. The author uses the acceptance rates of Fordham vs Yale to support this thesis.

Flatly, I don't buy it. First, the author seems to make a logically false argument that the lack of progress in these areas is indicative of TFA's ineffectiveness, which is emotionally resonate but intellectually empty: it could just as easily be said that the lack of progress is because TFA hasn't done enough. Second, there's a good chance that the average student at Yale is probably more capable to pick up a teaching career out of nowhere than a kid at Fordham, given the kinds of students that enter those institutions (to be clear, we are talking about admissions, not educational quality). Third, there are solid arguments to be made that improvements are possible in public school education, though I think we face a crisis of parental responsibility just as great as problems within schools.

TFA does have problems: it is seen as a "good person resume booster," which ends its tour of service before people can really master their field. But I think there is a value and benefit with the cross-cultural connections that the author seems to deplore. No matter how elite or effete our surroundings, we must always remember that there is poverty and injustice all around the air-conditioned board rooms where decisions are made. Power carries a responsibility, and hopefully, TFA can help to build awareness of that responsibility - and the failures of this country to meet its obligations thus far.

For a Prefrosh

I gave up on my schedule, it seemed a little TMIish.....these are quotes from an e-mail I sent a prefrosh who asked me several questions about Williams online (her questions/quotes deleted):

I actually wouldn't worry too much about the weather - snow can be annoying, and slushy stuff moreso, but the weather Sept-Nov is wonderful, as is April-May. Being so far from your family is also probably, in my experience, not going to be the main issue (the relevant point is if you're within driving distance to go home for the weekend), and in this era of Skype/Cell Phone, the isolation of Williamstown is less punishing.

What will remain, though, is that Williams is a school in the middle of nowhere. We have one movie theatre in town, 3 bars (if you count one I've never been to), and the restaurant of choice ("the Forge") is a decent drive. There are gobs of things to do every weekend; boredom is never a problem, but some of the things that are normal in cities (a nearby airport, traffic lights, variety of live shows) just aren't present here. Instead, we're surrounded by BEAUTIFUL mountains and a variety of trails, from casual to punishing. The Outing Club is really awesome here, and Mountain Day, of course, is all about our surroundings. The question that I think many frosh can fail to answer is "Do I want to be in a context of trails/mountains/beauty, giving up the accessories of a city?"

For most Ephs, that question is a nobrainer, but some don't give it a thought, and then can't enjoy the wonderful science/art/music/what-have-you facilities and resources because of a Williamstown block....

Financial Aid is strange; the colleges used to coordinate aid packages so that students would be able to attend a college of their choice, regardless of aid, but the antitrust folks didn't really go for that. Not super relevant, but that's the sort of thing that you learn here in a course about higher ed taught by the President. However, if you didn't like Bowdoin Williams might not be much better; you should also feel free to appeal their decision; it can't hurt after all.......

Roughly 2/3s of freshman rooms are singles, but that doesn't mean a majority of frosh get them. I would actually say that living with a roommate for a year teaches valuable skills, and helped me to appreciate my singles for years 2-4 much more. Plus doubles are all in frosh quad, which has a much better location.....

 My entry was a mess for a variety of reasons, but I still like all of my entrymates: more importantly, while I am living with two people from my entry this year in a FABULOUS co-op (you can come visit us @ Susie Hopkins during previews if you want), I didn't do that for the past two years. In fact, I've found that my closest friends at Williams have been gained slowly but surely, from year to year to year. Not getting along with one's entry is not the doom that you might have heard of. It does happen, and will happen though. The entry is supposed to be a "family" of default connections for each frosh, but because of the demographics that means that a huge range of incomes/origins/mindsets are in a veeerry small space. Is that always comfortable? no. Do I think its valuable? YES.....

(about diversity) - The $64,000 question. Of course, I'm a white-straight-male, so the closest I've gotten to some of these issues has been living in black DC for a few weeks in winter study and experiencing the feeling of standing out like a sore thumb. One thing I'll say straight away is that people have a variety of high school experiences - for some of us, we were the smartest kids in the room from K-12; others went to Williams-like prep schools where everyone is smart. I had something of a hybrid experience - my school was 50/50 black/white with a similar socio-economic gap, but I think when I came to Williams I expected a bunch of people like the "smart kids" at my high school.

That's not what I found. Athletes at Williams do tend to be whiter, richer, and more from the northeast, partly because Williams is athletically strong and it takes money to develop those skills in high school, but the key thing for me is that for many students at Williams, everyone around them has always been smart, which means that their social identity has never been about being a "nerd." For others of us, we were the nerds growing up, so we tend to take on that role at Williams, which can be hard because everyone here is smart. I think part of what you have heard about is the clash/surprise of having to find a new identity - based on being a leader, an artist, a historian, a dancer, a musician, a future-doctor, a fun-lover, an outdoors-lover, a cook, a religious person, or mostly likely some combination of these and many more possibilities. That's hard, and the people coming here from prep school don't have the same hurdle, in some ways.

Specifically addressing you concerns, I think it's more that athletes tend to cluster in their teams, which makes sense - they spend huge amounts of time in practice, on the road, or at games together, and they all share common attributes. But for the rest of campus, it can sometimes feel like athletics steal people away from the rest of us, espeically fall-sport athletes who honestly might not have much time for their entry until season is over. Is there a divide of sorts between athletes and non-athletes? Yes, but its a very bridged divide, and more about individual groups/teams than anything else, just as many friend groups at Williams are based on entries.

As for race, there are many types of people of every race here; I think the shock can be suddenly being surrounded by so many white people (I had to get used to having white custodians, which don't exist in the South, and not a lot of blacks). Williams is small, though, and there is no group on this campus that won't welcome yo because of your race. Not one. I think that we play out some of the gaps in society in the uncomfortableness of putting so many people together. We're not a happy family of perfection up here (you won't find that anywhere, despite what brochures will tell you), but I think we do it pretty well. Some of the older alums can be problematic at times, but that's something you'll only see if you want to be involved with them.....

 (on grades) -
Where do you hear this? I don't think its that hard, really, so long as you plan ahead, stay on top of your readings, and give assignments enough time. It can be hard to get an A if you're doing a million other things, but if you spend the same amount of time you used to be in school focused on your work you'll be far ahead of the rest of us. We do operate with curves here, to work against grade inflation, but I think an A-, at least, is always in reach, and probably higher than that in many classes. There are a lot of resources (Math/Scienve Resource Center, Writing Workshop) for people to use; I'd only make sure that you don't put yourself in a class you aren't prepared for....

(Screencap source)

Dear media,

The general public/yours truly didn't have a clue about what radation levels constituted "dangerous" or "normal" before the Japan Quake, and since most people aren't as hyperactive news-readers as I, most don't know today that minute amounts of radiation are everywhere, and no cause for concern.

But when you report that there are "trace" or "minute" amounts of radiation in milk or in the air, people don't know that radiation also comes from flying cross country, or even from eating a banana. And because you don't tell them that, (instead saying that "government experts say it wont hurt us"), what you're really telling people to do is to freak out unnecessarily, and from what we know about stress, I'm fairly positive that the media attention to this is going to cause more economic damage in worry and reduced buying of COMPLETELY SAFE PRODUCTS than the radiation ever could.

The fix is simple: compare the radiation level in milk to a "normal" level, or use some sort of relative figure, for example that a person would have to drink 6 billion glasses of milk to get a dangerous dose. These are easy. Sadly, your duty to alert/alarm works, in this case, against the public interest, and it's one of the few times I'm quite disappointed in the modern media.

Dear Mr. President

Not that he'll ever read this, but open letters are hardly ever written for the person in the "To:" line.

Sir,

It's 2011 and your re-election campaign starts now. Deplorably, the system as it stands is slowly accelerating in this direction. We've already had a G.O.P. debate and there will be many more, but you have to think long-term. You got healthcare, and you got the tax deal passed. But you need to out-do the GOP and stake your own claim on the title of "conservative," since they aren't acting conservative.

You need to insist on cuts in defense, which every informed person knows to have a ridiculously bloated budget. You need to embrace long-term deficit reduction, and confront the GOP with the choice that confronts all responsible parties in government: given that we are paying out more than we take in, what will be cut, or where will extra revenue be raised? You need to make these choices obvious and apparent, so that a public with a short attention span can see that the President is working while the opposition is talking.

And you need to escape the bubble. Somehow.

-Will

Just wrote this to a pre-frosh

Some portions edited out - thoughts?

I'm a Political Economy major, which is a hybrid between Poli Sci and Econ. It's sort of equivalent to a Public Policy Major. You can explore the POEC class descriptions (and everything else) at: http://catalog.williams.edu/ and http://www.williams.edu/politicaleconomy/

A bit about Williams:

Williams is great in that it's taught me a huge deal in critical thinking, such that I can solidly say that my school is going to share many aspects of other top-notch schools. The students here are great, super busy, and the campuses still have issues, but at this tier of higher ed, every department and program is notable and strong. You can major in anything here and be FINE.

Here are the things that make Williams different, which should clue you in as to if you want to be here:

Small. 550 per class is smaller than you think. You can't hide in class, and you can't hide from your ex's, but on the bright side, you will see your professors at the grocery store and some of your friends as you walk around. I love the little impromptu conversations that only happen because we're small. BUT, that might mean we can't offer all of the courses and subjects as regularly as other schools. We do our best to do that, but we can't hit maximum breadth and depth in the course offerings at the same time because of size. You'll see this in the "not offered" courses in the catalog.

Accessible. Lots of dorms have elevators, but I don't mean in the physical sense. The Dean is a personal friend of mine. The President knows my name, as does his predecessor. My professors are fine with me stopping by and many keep their doors open all of the time. I can see profs whose classes I'm not taking (because they aren't great at lecture), but who I love talking to in office hours. If I (admittedly, a now-senior involved in college governance) need the Dean to call ME, RIGHT NOW, I can get that call, and got it today.

Middle of Nowhere. We have lots of trails, but one street where the one indian restaurant, the one thai restaurant, the one coffee shop, and the one deli are located. (and the one others). We live in a "Purple Bubble" where almost everyone is fit, almost everyone is smart, and where the problems of the outside world don't really reach us. We are isolated. But we also have Mountain Day, a Friday in October when classes are canceled (without warning) and huge numbers of students stream up mountain trails to sing songs and have donuts/cider on Stony Ledge. It's AWESOME, and there's a shorter hike also with donuts at the top of Stone Hill if you want to spend your afternoon doing something else.

study break.

Date:	Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:35:35 -0500	7 of 10920
From:	10ebb(at)williams.edu
Subject:	study break.
To:	WILLIAMS-STUDENTS@williams.edu

All-campus snowball fight.  Paresky Lawn.  11pm.  Tonight.

Lizzy and Mike
CC Co-Presidents

PS Vote in the CC elections beginning tomorrow!

Updates on College Finances

To the Williams Community,

I would like to bring you up to date on the process, both on campus and with the Board of Trustees, of determining the College’s next financial steps.

We are operating in unsettled and, for us all, unsettling times. I admire and thank all of you who have been rising to the occasion by adjusting to new ways of doing things and planning creatively how Williams can best adapt to these new circumstances.

Our situation, described in detail at http://provost.williams.edu/?page_id=182 , is best summed up in the conclusion that “Williams is in a strong financial situation by virtually any comparison—except with the Williams of three years ago.”

Over that time, the value of our endowment dropped by $500 million and there is no reason to believe that it will grow at anything like the unprecedented rate that it did in the fifteen years before the market crisis.  Meanwhile the annual cost of financial aid increased by $16.2 million and gifts slowed, as expected in a recession.

The College’s focus is on adjusting to this new reality in ways that protect our core academic mission for the long run, keep Williams widely affordable and accessible, and value the great dedication of our faculty and staff.

As we move toward that goal, here is where things stand on several issues.

Construction Projects

The Trustees have re-affirmed both the importance of the Library and Weston Field projects and their current programs. Since prudence dictates not starting them in 2010, we will use the extra time to advance the projects’ financing and the resulting structures’ sustainability and adaptability for possible future changes in patterns of use, with the goal of beginning construction in the 2011-12 academic year.

Financial Aid

Making a Williams education available to students from all financial backgrounds has long been among our deepest values. That is why our expenditures on financial aid have tripled in the last ten years (from $14.6 million in 2000-01 to $43.7 million in 2009-10) and why financial aid was the only item in our budget to increase this year as it will be in the next. The continuous review of our aid policies is among the most careful of the College’s long-term deliberations. In recent years a focus of those discussions has been on determining appropriate loan levels.

Our loan expectations were already among the lowest in the country (and zero for the lowest-income students) when we eliminated them for all aided students beginning in 2008-09. It now seems prudent to reintroduce modest loans for some aided students, beginning with the class that enters in the fall of 2011. No current students will be affected; neither will those who enter this fall. As before, families below a certain income, and with typical assets, will not be expected to borrow at all. Others will be offered loans on a sliding scale up to a maximum size that will again be among the lowest in the country. After four classes have entered through this program, it will make available about $2 million per year.

Our financial aid program will continue to be one of the most generous anywhere, as it should be, and we are convinced that Williams will remain financially attractive to aided students at all levels of income.

Structural Reorganization

The College has no plans to reduce the salaries of current faculty and staff. To hit our spending targets for the coming years, we will, however, have to spend less on compensation, which currently accounts for 62.5% of our spending outside of financial aid. As the College’s financial strength grew substantially over the decade leading up to the global economic crisis, so did our number of faculty and staff, to levels among the highest compared with similar colleges. The challenge is to reduce these numbers somewhat, in a way that honors the commitment of our remarkable faculty and staff.

We have realized savings by not filling many open positions, and while that process will continue, it will not by itself bring us to sustainable levels. We therefore anticipate offering to faculty and staff some form of retirement incentives, the details of which will be worked out in the coming months. Operating with somewhat fewer faculty and staff will require further thoughtful planning on what departments, programs, and offices can and cannot do and how we can reorganize to maximize efficiency. That planning will engage representatives of the whole campus community.


The key to the College’s current planning is adaptability, a trait that has served Williams well through its history. In our current situation, this means reducing our spending so that we can return as soon as possible to where, if capital markets remain steady, our operations can stabilize and rebuild momentum from their new, smaller base.

I know how hard it is to hit challenging spending targets and to alter how we work (and even how much we work) because of faculty and staff positions left unfilled. Thank you for your dedication and flexibility. I am grateful to the Trustees for their wise counsel and for the patience that enables us to plan thoughtfully. I appreciate the sacrifices that families make to pay for their children’s Williams education. And I am encouraged by the engagement and ongoing support of our alumni, parents, and friends, especially at this key moment.

For these reasons and more I am confident that this period will be looked back on as another in which Williams adapted to its times with care, foresight, and a shared sense of purpose.

With regards,
Bill Wagner
Interim President
 

Haiti Relief at Williams

To the Williams Community,

The devastation in Haiti and especially the horrible human suffering there have touched us all. The news has been almost heart-stopping.

No Williams students were in the country at the time but at least one student appears to have lost family members. On a special online discussion group set up for alumni, many have reported that their family members are safe but that is not true for all.

A news story about an alumnus now providing medical help there, Hernando Garzon '84, can be read at http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/2460673.html .

Students, faculty, and staff are organizing Williams-based responses. You can follow the plans and join in through http://haitirelief.williams.edu .

Many organizations are taking donations to support relief efforts, including:

The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund at http://clintonbushhaitifund.org/
The American Red Cross at http://www.redcross.org
Partners in Health (Paul Farmer's organization) at http://www.standwithhaiti.org/haiti
The Boston Foundation (where donations are being matched dollar for dollar) at
http://www.tbf.org/Giving/GivingDetail.aspx?id=13244

I trust that in this time of such unimaginable human suffering we will each of us be moved to do all that we possibly can to help.

With regards,
Bill Wagner
Interim President

In the Times

To the Editor:

Re “Wind Power” (editorial, Jan. 9):

When you called for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to make his own decision on the Cape Wind project soon after the March 1 deadline, I was hoping that you would call for him to kill this irresponsible project.

Most people don’t realize that it would take about a half dozen of these similarly environmentally blighting huge wind projects to match the output of a single nuclear power plant that would take up much less space and be much less visible. And the problem of the irregularity of the wind’s blowing has not yet been solved, while a nuclear plant’s output is steady.

Jay M. Pasachoff
Williamstown, Mass., Jan.
9, 2010

The writer, a solar physicist, is a professor of astronomy at Williams College.

Prof. Ed Burger Wins National Teaching Award

To the Williams Community,

I am pleased to report that Professor of Mathematics Ed Burger has today been named recipient of The Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching. The award, managed by Baylor University, encompasses all faculty throughout higher education.

What a great honor for him, for the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, and for the entire College.

Since its beginning in 1991, the Cherry Award has been given to 18 teachers, including Bob Bell, the Frederick Latimer Wells Professor of English, in 1998, and Colin Adams, the Thomas T. Read Professor of Mathematics, in 2003. The faculty at no other college or university has received more than one.

Focus on the quality of teaching here at Williams has long been a part of the College culture, and an occasion like this reinforces that pride.

But today belongs to Ed, whose contributions to mathematics, to teaching, and to Williams are truly extraordinary.

With regards,
Bill Wagner
Interim President

The full announcement is at http://www.baylor.edu/pr/news.php?action=story&story=67452

Four Proposals for Residential Systems

Note: This is a copy of the e-mail sent to the campus, edited for formatting.

 

 

Greetings Campus,

College Council invites you to attend the third Neighborhood Review Forum, which will be held tomorrow night, Tuesday, January 12, at 7:30 pm in Baxter Hall.  The Neighborhood Review Committee and the Committee on Undergraduate Life will present four proposals for future residential systems at Williams College.  We welcome all questions and feedback.  Please read below for more information on the proposals.  The full second interim report of the Neighborhood Review Committee can be found at www.williams.edu/dean/.

See you tomorrow!

Lizzy Brickley and Mike Tcheyan

CC Co-Presidents

*******************************************************************************************************

Four Proposals for Residential Systems

To Be Discussed at the Third Public Forum, January 12, 2010

Sponsored by the Neighborhood Review Committee, The Committee on

Undergraduate Life, and College Council

Weather

Dear Students:

Some of you who planned on driving back to campus today have let us know that you’re worried about driving conditions, but that you’re also worried about not being able to attend the first meeting of your Winter Study class. You should certainly exercise caution in deciding whether to drive this afternoon or evening, based on the current weather and the forecast. We’ll let faculty and WSP instructors know that some of you may have to postpone your return to campus and should not be penalized for missing the first class meeting; you, in turn, should e-mail or call your instructors and let them know if you will not be in class tomorrow.

Best wishes for the new year,

Dean Merrill

Administrative Announcement

To the Williams Community,

Greetings from Baltimore. As the fall term winds down and April 1 approaches, I’m eager to be with you more regularly. As the next step, I’ll be focused on Williams matters generally one day a week, often in Williamstown, from January through March.

In other transition news, I’m pleased to update you on the terms of service of the faculty’s senior administrators.

Karen Merrill has decided that her term as Dean of the College should end as planned this June 30th. I’m impressed by the dedication and care that she’s brought to this position. She certainly can return to fulltime teaching and research with a deep sense of satisfaction. I’ll be consulting with the Faculty Steering Committee on selecting her successor.

Following consultation with the Committee, I’ve asked Bill Wagner and Bill Lenhart to serve as Dean of the Faculty and Provost, respectively, through the 2010-11 academic year, and they have agreed. I hope you’ll join me in thanking them for the distinguished service they’ll continue to provide to the Williams community in these roles, and in the case of Bill Wagner for his exceptional and ongoing responsibilities as Interim President.

Andrea Danyluk will remain Acting Dean of the Faculty until Bill Wagner resumes those duties April 1. To her, as well, we are all grateful.

Williams is fortunate to have faculty willing and able to fill these important and demanding roles. It’s one of the many reasons why I’m so looking forward to joining this remarkable community.

Regards,
Adam Falk
President-elect