July 1, 2009
To the Williams Community,
Greetings from the President's Office.
I hope you all are enjoying a pleasant summer!
As I assume my new responsibilities, I want to take a minute to say how much I look forward to working with all members of the College community to maintain the forward momentum that, under the leadership of Morty Schapiro, we have managed to build in many areas, especially on issues of diversity and inclusion, international education, and environmental sustainability.
While the College continues to face challenging financial circumstances, we have a strong budget in place for this academic year and over the past several months have developed plans to meet a range of possible economic contexts in the years beyond. These plans preserve the quality of our faculty and our academic programs, reflect our commitment to the principles of need-blind admission and need-based financial aid, and avoid layoffs.
As you know, the June 30 endowment figure plays an important role in the College’s financial planning. While it will be months before we have a final audited figure, it is likely that our investment return will be better than the -35% that we conservatively used in our planning model. If that proves to be true and if our return for the next two years comes close to the zero that we have been modeling, that would reduce to some degree the extreme pressure that we had projected the College facing a couple of years from now. We still, however, continue to face significant challenges and will need to follow through on the cost-saving measures we have put in place.
I have admired the broad spirit of cooperation that has infused this budget planning process. I thank you for that. It demonstrates what makes Williams a special community and, more than anything else, gives me confidence in our ability to successfully meet the challenges confronting us in the months ahead.
With best regards,
Bill Wagner,
Interim President
top