For the past quarter-century at least, Williams has promoted diversity, highlighting the strides it has made in bringing students from a broad variety of backgrounds into the Purple Valley. The Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (OIDEI) lists eighteen names, including two faculty members.

On their web-page, that office informs us that

Diversity refers to all the many ways in which people differ, encompassing the characteristics that make one individual or group different from another, including, but not limited to race, ethnicity, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender expression, socio-economic status, language, culture, national origin, religion/spirituality, age, (dis)ability, and military/veteran status.

Interesting that they left out diversity of political viewpoint, particularly given a recent survey the college commissioned. The 2025 Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium (HEDS) Diversity & Equity Campus Climate Survey found that

Political bias was the most commonly reported bias, with 55% of staff, 66% of faculty, 70% of students, frequently hearing disparaging remarks about people with a particular political view. Politically conservative individuals reported higher rates of discrimination and/or harassment aimed at their political views than liberal, or middle-of-the-road individuals.

That same survey reported that more than twice as many respondents (630) identified as Liberal than identified as Middle-of-the-road (227) and we (42) combined. Now, to be sure, these numbers represent just under one-third (30.5%) of the 3,374 Williams community members (students, faculty, and staff), but that’s a 70% higher return rate than the national average of this survey.

This does appear to be a representative sample of the college community.

Despite all the college’s efforts to promote diversity, this survey does not show much diversity of viewpoint. Meanwhile, the office tasked with addressing diversity does not seem much interested in addressing the “most commonly reported bias” on campus.

But there are signs of hope. And they’re coming from students.

We are heartened to learn not just about the launch of the Williams College Conservative Society, but also about the reinvigoration of groups on the left, including the College Democrats and the Young Democratic Socialists of America. While each is putting together its own programing, leaders of all three groups are working for joint activities to better promote dialogue across differences.

Given the HEDS survey, a conservative student organization carries particular significance, an important first step toward bringing marginalized views into the mainstream of campus conversation. Their good-faith dissent becomes essential to promoting intellectual pluralism.

Not just, when students in these clubs, in class, and discussions around campus, the college can more readily realize its stated commitment to diversity. If diversity is understood to include the many ways individuals differ in background and experience, it should also extend to intellectual and political viewpoints, especially when the college’s own survey identifies political bias as the most commonly reported form of bias on campus.

This way, Williams can better fulfill its ideal as a liberal arts education encouraging students to listen to and engage with those holding views different from their own. While the Williams administration has been slow to address viewpoint diversity in the Purple Valley, students appear ready to fill in the gap. Let us wish them every success.