Equity on Campus

To see campus initiatives towards equitable sustainability that you can get involved in, check out the initiatives and organizations pages!

• Zilkha Center and Davis Center Partnership

  The Zilkha Center and Davis Center join forces frequently (and even have a moniker of their own-- go ZCDC!) They have a monthly/quarterly joint staff meeting and collaborate on Root, which is a first-year EphVenture  that focuses on identity, sustainability and social justice. Read this article about how Root leaders prepared to welcome the class of 2021!

  Under the Davis Center is the Minority Coalition, which "provides a more unified voice against prejudice and discrimination against minority students by serving as a mechanism for minority groups to come together in organizational, social, academic and political spheres."

• Living Building Challenge Equity Petal

  The Class of 1966 Environmental Center houses both the Zilkha Center and Center for Environmental Studies. The building itself has taken on the Living Building Challenge , under which there are 7 petals--one of these being the equity petal. The equity petal strives to “transform developments to foster a true, inclusive sense of community that is just and equitable regardless of an individual’s background, age, class, race, gender or sexual orientation.” 

  The Environmental Center promotes human-scaled interaction, exploration and engagement with its accessible indoor spaces and surrounding habitats and gardens. The center is open 24/7 to students via swipe access and has elevators to ensure everyone has equal access to the space.  While the building exhibits certain tenets of equity, going beyond a building-by-building approach to equitable sustainability is necessary.  

• Equity Drafting Table

  The Equity Drafting Table is part interactive pop-up and part art installation that fosters community conversations about equity in the built environment.  A tool created by the International Living Futures Institute initially for community conversations, the EDT was adapted by the Zilkha Center adapted for campuses.  The guiding questions include: “What will it take to make my community inclusive and robust for all?” “How do the planning, design, construction, and inhabiting of our built environment create more equitable spaces?”

• CLiA

  The Center for Learning in Action (CLiA)  "strives to cultivate and sustain experiential learning opportunities, curricular and non-curricular, in service of the teaching goals of our faculty, the civic aspirations of our students and the needs of the wider community."

  CLiA also advises and supports a food recovery student-run program called WRAPS (Williams Recovery of all Perishables).

• Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity

  The Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity at Williams College "works to assess and improve campus climate, helps lead the development and implementation of campus policies, procedures and practices impacting students, faculty and staff, develops and supports efforts to recruit, retain and develop a diverse faculty, staff and student body, facilitates discussions around diversity, equity, and inclusion in the community, and resolves conflicts and grievances."

• Office of Special Academic Programs (OSAP)

  The Office of Special Academic Programs (OSAP) works to "make sure all students thrive academically at Williams and beyond through opportunities and programs that work to eradicate racial and socio-economic disparities in higher education." It administers the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF), the Allison Davis Research Fellowship (ADRF), and the Summer Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS) programs, among other diversity initiatives available to Williams students.