Archived Edition: May 10, 2006 | Back to Current	Jul 31, 2010

Promoting Comfort
Sulgi Lim

The Office of Admission’s Multicultural Previews program was addressed as problematic in a couple of opinions published in the Record in the past month. Those that accuse the multicultural previews program of hampering efforts to promote diversity on campus and that advocate the program’s removal fail to recognize how instrumental the program is to bringing a diverse group of students to our campus.

It is naďve to think that diversity just happened to Williams. As a college that has traditionally been largely homogenous and highly exclusive, diversity is something that Williams has had to, and must continue to, intentionally take up. “Diversity has to be built,” as Mark Robertson, assistant director of admission, has said. Many of us on campus often fail to realize that it took a lot of strategic planning, programming and commitment of resources on the part of the admission office to make our student body look the way it does. The multicultural previews program is a component of this intentional recruiting effort.

About 10 years ago, Gina Coleman ’90, associate director of admission, started the Multicultural Previews program. The program was directed at students from groups that have been historically underrepresented at Williams. It was meant to provide them with an opportunity to better understand what the Williams liberal arts education has to offer, to encourage them to apply and, in the case of accepted students, to matriculate to the College.

It is a widely held misconception that multicultural previews weekends are solely for racial minorities. This is not the case. Many situations merit an invitation for multicultural previews weekends. Among students of underrepresented groups, the admission office makes the students who would otherwise be unlikely to come and visit the College a particular priority. Often, but not always, this translates as students without the means to visit. The admission office also picks out students who would be the first in their families to attend college, students from far across the country, students from low-income households, children of immigrants who may not be familiar with the liberal arts education, in addition to racial minorities.

From first-hand experience, I know that if the admission office did not have its multicultural previews weekends, the group of prospective students that visit the College would be fairly homogenous in terms of education, socioeconomic status and racial backgrounds. As a tour-guide for the admission office for the past four years, I have met hundreds of students through the tours and information sessions I have led over spring breaks, summers and the regular school year. The majority of those who visited hailed from private schools or public schools in fairly well-funded school districts and lived in suburban areas. The number of racial minorities and children of immigrant families were not nearly proportional to the percentages that these students maintain in the Williams students population. I do not mean to say that we should disregard individual diversity in terms of political views, life philosophies, extracurricular activities and personalities. I am saying that without the multicultural previews program, certain kinds of diversity would not be represented in the group of students who visit this campus.

I know some people take issue with the fact that the fall multicultural previews weekend does not have a “regular” equivalent, and that the spring program starts a couple days earlier before it merges into the “regular” program that is open to all prospective students. Personally, I appreciate the College’s effort to recognize that if you come from an underrepresented group, that background may inform your Williams experience in significant ways. I like that the admission office puts together a panel for students to discuss issues of diversity on campus and to ask questions about it. To me, it is a statement that the College acknowledges how, for many students, an institution like Williams or a town like Williamstown is not a familiar place. Their transition may be slightly different from others’. The program makes it known to these students that support will be available for them here.

The multicultural previews program does not seek to define any student by his or her race, family background, socioeconomic status or region. It simply tries to provide – for students who may not necessarily consider Williams – an opportunity to make an informed decision about the College. The fact of the matter is, Williams needs the multicultural previews weekends to recruit students who have historically been underrepresented at the College. We should carefully consider what the program seeks to do and successfully does before we talk about getting rid of this instrumental program.



Sulgi Lim’06 is a history major from Kyungki, Korea.