Williams College
PA-6: Support for Underrepresented Groups

The Davis Center is a part of the Office of Strategic Planning and Institutional Diversity which also consists of the Vice President, Associate Dean, and Special Academic Programs. Together, this unit seeks to strengthen Williams College’s commitment to inclusion by ensuring that diversity initiatives are advanced and celebrated.

The Davis Center serves as a nexus, linking communities, galvanizing individuals. It provides a context for incisive, mobilizing, transformative interactions—planned and impromptu—that contribute to the advancement of diverse social identities, particularly those defined by race, ethnicity, class, gender, religion, ability and sexual orientation.

Through collaborative efforts with faculty, staff and students the Center bolsters critical thinking, facilitates meaningful dialogue and precipitates multilateral exchange throughout the Williams College community. The result is empowerment—fundamental to leadership and essential to social change.

Affinity groups include the Chinese-American Student Organization, Koreans of Williams, South Asian Students Association, Black Student Union, International Club, Muslim Student Union, Queer Student Union,Vista (Latinos at Williams), Williams College Jewish Association, and the Women's Center.

The Office of Special Academic Programs helps all students, regardless of background, thrive academically at Williams. While OSAP’s work concerns itself generally with eradicating racial and socio-economic disparities in higher education, it focuses on several specific programs.

The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) and the Williams College Undergraduate Research Fellowship (WCURF) work to increase racial and socio-economic diversity in higher education by preparing students from underrepresented groups for academic careers. Both fellowships provide opportunities for faculty-mentored research, preparation for graduate school, and individualized support from the Office of Special Academic Programs.

The Summer Humanities and Social Sciences program (SHSS) is a 5-week program for talented incoming first year students with a passion for the humanities or social sciences who are from underrepresented minority groups and/or who are first-generation college students. The program has two main goals: First, it provides its students with a preview of the Williams experience and familiarizes them with some of the extraordinary academic opportunities the college offers. Second, we hope that the glimpse of research and teaching afforded by our faculty and Teaching Assistants will inspire some of our students to consider a career in one of the academic fields of the humanities and social sciences.

If you feel you have experienced an incident that could be either discrimination or sexual harassment/misconduct, talking about the incident soon thereafter with an official representative may be helpful. The College has designated members of the community who serve in the official capacity of discrimination and sexual harassment advisors. These advisors include health staff and counselors, assistant and associate deans, human resources officers, chaplains, and the V.P. for Strategic Planning and Institutional Diversity (also serves as the affirmative action officer). Among them are a number of people who have training in discrimination and sexual harassment counseling (see sexual harassment/discrimination advisors).

Office of Strategic Planning and Institutional Diversity
To fulfill its mission, Williams must continually foster a community in which members from all backgrounds can learn, live, and thrive. The Office of Strategic Planning and Institutional Diversity has primary responsibility for overseeing and coordinating that effort.

We collaborate with faculty, staff, students, alumni, and senior leadership, including trustees, to develop strategies and implement programs to advance issues of inclusion. Key initiatives currently include:

increased recruitment and retention of a diverse student body, faculty and staff
more effective and inclusive processes for staff assessment and professional development
programs that promote inclusive academic excellence
increased engagement with emerging alumni populations
pipelines to strengthen diversity within the Board of Trustees
The Office serves as a resource for all members of the College community in addressing grievances and issues of discrimination and sexual harassment/misconduct.