September 10, 2009
To the Williams Community,
As we begin this new academic year, I thought it might be helpful to gather here some of the changes in college operations that have been put in place for reasons that relate to college efforts to control costs, reduce FTE, advance sustainability, or some combination of the three.
Some of these changes involve the removal of a central subsidy and thus will affect some offices’ spending plans. In deciding when to put such changes into effect, the college has had to balance the desire to give offices maximum planning time and the need to begin saving money now. If any of these moves places a particular burden on your operation, your Senior Staff member is prepared to work with you on strategies to address it.
Newly Announced
Faculty House
Beginning Nov. 2, 2009, the Faculty House will stop serving the lunch buffet Mondays through Thursdays, but will offer it on Fridays. The cost will be $9.50. The traditional Thanksgiving and Holiday luncheons will continue. The cost will be $11. The program of Friendly Fridays will continue.
Meeting rooms can still be reserved for breakfast or lunch meetings, with meals provided by the Catering Office.
We’ve found a way to make this change without eliminating any current positions.
A set of questions and answers regarding this change is available at faculty-club.williams.edu.
Closing for Winter Break
The experiment of closing college facilities as much as possible over Winter Break will be extended to a second year. We have more time to plan than we did last year, which will allow for consultation with a broad range of faculty and staff about the details. To the degree possible, buildings will close at the end of Dec. 23 and open again beginning Jan. 2. This will result in four additional paid holidays for staff. We’ll assess the results after this second, more fully planned experience.
Wellness
The employee wellness program will no longer include two free massages per year, as of Nov. 1, 2009.
Study-Away Fee
Beginning with the 2010-11 academic year, students who enroll in a program off campus for a semester or year will incur an administrative fee of $1,500. It’ll be added to the cost of attendance and therefore covered by financial aid. Exceptions are for enrollment in Williams programs: the Williams-Exeter Program at Oxford, Williams-Mystic, Williams in Africa.
Recently Announced
Vehicles
The college fleet no longer includes sedans, just vans and mini-vans, which are in high demand.
You can rent a car by the hour from Zipcar. To establish an office account (more convenient in most cases) contact Tim Reisler at treisler@williams.edu or x3319.
Williams people 21 and older can rent a car for a day or longer through Enterprise at 664-7620. They will deliver and pick up from the Facilities office so you can get an Enterprise vehicle and drop it off there.
College Printing
The college no longer does mass printings of the course catalog or directory.
The online course catalog is at www.williams.edu/Registrar/catalog.
Contact information is available in the “People Directory” on the college home page under “Directories.” Suggestions on how to take advantage of the greater flexibility of the online directory, which can also be accessed from off campus with a Williams username and password, are at www.williams.edu/home/dir/people/howto.php.
You can also download and print your own simplified directory at www.williams.edu/home/dir/downloads. It’ll be updated twice a year.
Student Printing
Students will now print documents through a system that’s free up to a limit per semester. Those who go beyond it will pay per page. The system is described at print.williams.edu.
In General
Even with best efforts to find efficient and creative ways of doing things, our having fewer staff (through attrition) means that we should anticipate longer response times to some requests and somewhat less polish to the look of our buildings and grounds. As always, priority will be given to projects that most directly affect our academic activities.
My thanks go to all who are helping the college manage effectively this change in the economic climate. It’s raised for us all new challenges, ones that so far we’ve been able, with your contributions, to weather well.
Regards,
Bill Wagner
Interim President
top