Williams Affected by Financial Downturn

Calreader
Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:14:31 +0000

We attended the “Fall Family Days” this past weekend, and the college president gave a talk that included some Q&A about this memo. One part that had made a few parents and alumni concerned was the bit about increasing the number of students. Morty (the president) said that the number he had in mind was about five extra students each year for the next four years - so a short-term increase to the student population of about twenty students. Each class has about 538 students right now, so this would bring each class to about 543.

His thinking is that the marginal cost of adding the students is close to zero, since there is extra space in the dorms and in classes, and the marginal benefit through increased revenue would be really helpful during the economic downturn. He thinks that the addition of this many students would not make the campus community feel too large.