Williams College President Maud Mandel talks about issues facing the college in the current political climate at her office on Friday.
WILLIAMSTOWN — Williams College and its president, Maud Mandel, have been beset by challenges from President Donald Trump’s administration.
The college is among institutions of higher education nationwide that could be impacted by a proposed endowment tax, the slowdown in student visas to international students, threats to research funding and a campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
In an interview last week in her office overlooking campus, Mandel depicted the new federal policies as something that happens under all presidential administrations, striking a business-as-usual tone rather than a defiant one.
Still, she took up for the importance of having and protecting international students, for campus diversity, for collegiate autonomy and for professors whose grant money for research has, for the time being, been paused as the college seeks clarity on a federal ban of the promotion of DEI in accordance with anti-discrimination laws.
Asked whether Williams would contest the policies, as Harvard University has done, acquiesce, as others have done, or land somewhere in the middle, Mandel said the college works to meet its mission of research and education “no matter what’s going on in the world.”
“I wouldn’t characterize it as ‘in the middle,'” Mandel said. “Last year when I said I wasn’t going to put out any more statements about things not related to higher education going on in the world, that’s because I felt that was the principled decision that would allow me to guide the institution to continue its mission.”
“I’m not trying to be more like this institution or less like this institution, or adversarial, or cooperative,” Mandel added, “but rather say, ‘What is right for this school?'”
Williams College President Maud Mandel talks about issues facing the college in the current political climate at her office on Friday.
ENDOWMENT TAX
Williams College’s endowment has hovered around $4 billion, depending on the performance of the stock market. It’s a major part of how Williams pays for itself; the college relied on the endowment and alumni gifts to provide financial aid to 53 percent of students in 2024-25 for a total of $92 million in aid so far this year.
At the moment, Williams pays a 1.4 percent tax on its endowment, which usually comes out to $2 million a year. Trump’s original megabill proposal would have raised the endowment tax to 21 percent, about $49 million a year, or 15 percent of the college’s budget. The tax bill passed by the Senate this week instead would tax institutions 1.4 percent, 4 percent or 8 percent, depending on how much an endowment is worth per student.
Based on a rough estimate, Williams would fall in the 4 percent range, and narrowly avoid the 8 percent tax, which kicks in if an endowment is worth $2 million per student or more.
About 60 percent of the school’s operating budget is funded through the endowment.
An amendment would exclude colleges with fewer than 3,000 tuition-paying students, which appears to spare Williams altogether. Trump signed the megabill, or the One Big Beautiful Bill, on Friday.
The Republican megabill caused some consternation at Williams, and Mandel called on students, alumni, faculty and anyone connected to campus to join in the lobbying effort to limit this tax.
If Williams were to have been taxed the highest amount, “it would have a real budgetary impact,” Mandel said. Compared to research universities, which receive federal funds, a larger percentage of Williams’ budget comes from its endowment.
“I’m not saying they’re pleased about this tax, but it really is a disproportional impact on the liberal arts college,” Mandel said. “An 8 percent tax is different than 21 percent. There would still be lots of impact at Williams, but smaller.”
As the House and Senate negotiated versions of the bill, Williams was part of a lobbying effort with more than 50 liberal arts colleges from states of all political persuasions “trying to make the point that higher education isn’t a partisan issue,” Mandel said.
If there is a silver lining, it’s that the proposed tax will not be retroactive. Mandel said the college does not yet know the extent of the effects of raising the tax.
RESEARCH FUNDING
In late May, Williams elected to pause the acceptance of National Institutes of Health, or NIH, and National Science Foundation, or NSF, grants rather than affirm that the college doesn’t promote diversity, equity and inclusion policies, a new federal requirement. While initial news media coverage painted this as a pointed stance against Trump, the college’s official statement is more temperate: It says the pause was “for a thorough review amid the rapidly evolving federal enforcement environment.”
The grants are significant at Williams and other institutions as a means to purchase equipment, furnish laboratories and fund student studies.
“It is a financial linchpin of the scientific endeavor in the United States,” Mandel said. She said the grants are good for scientists as they show their work is peer-reviewed and impactful, and allow for crucial collaboration internally and with other schools.
“The slashing of the funds is devastating for our own faculty and also for the work of scientific research in this country,” Mandel said.
Trump’s budget proposed drastic cuts to both the NIH (by 41 percent, or $18 billion) and the National Science Foundation (by 57 percent, or $5.2 billion).
Professors are to continue “to make grants and working with our grants office as we move toward what we hope will soon be certification again,” Mandel said.
Researchers such as biologists, chemists, statisticians and others on campus have the most at stake.
“They rely on these funds, so the freezing and diminishment of those funds will have an impact on them,” Mandel said. “We’re following the legal cases that are challenging this and trying to be helpful where we can be.”
DIVERSITY POLICY
As colleges deal with monetary threats to comply with the White House federal policy regarding “illegal DEI,” Williams is one of many institutions seeking clarity on what exactly that means. Mandel framed the topic similarly to related matters, saying the college would comply with all laws while finding ways to maintain its values of scholarship, the pursuit of education and “how to support the breadth of people who come to this campus.”
“We talked about international [students], but people from all over this country, every socioeconomic background, ethnic, racial, national, gender identification, intellectual formation, ideological commitments, a range of different types,” Mandel said. “We strive to support those people as best we can in all of their diversity.”
No matter the presidential administration, Mandel said, they all impose opinions and rules on higher education. She referenced the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to forbid the consideration of race in college applications, as well as changes former President Barack Obama’s administration made to Title IX.
“The fact that we make decisions or evolve policies is not new,” she said.
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
In her June 10 letter to campus following graduation, Mandel recognized how the federal government is making it harder to recruit students, faculty and staff internationally, whom she calls “a vital part of the college.” The letter acknowledged that “Government agents have also detained and sought to deport people who were in the country on student visas or work visas.”
About 10 percent of Williams’ student population is international. It has an entirely international graduate program, the Center for Developmental Economics, in which 30 students from the developing world annually come and earn a master’s.
Williams College President Maud Mandel talks about issues facing the college in the current political climate at her office on Friday.
The most recent obstacle had to do with issuing visas to incoming students. The slowdown concerned a planned social media review for those applying to come to school in the U.S.
“We have students in need of visas for September, some of them already had appointments before this was announced. Those went forward, but other things are moving more slowly,” Mandel said. “I think the jury’s out longer-term whether that group is going to be able to get visas. We’re … cautiously optimistic everyone will be able to get here.”
International students from countries with travel bans face a particular struggle, Mandel said.
Mandel pointed to problems posed to international students as another example of how a historically fruitful relationship between the federal government and higher education has become tense, saying, “That’s one arm of the partnership under stress at the moment.”