Affording Change

“As we serially expanded our aid program, we weren’t thinking just in terms of dollars and cents; we saw aid as an inclusion strategy, and we crafted our aid programs to be welcoming and supportive of the people we wanted to be at Williams,” President Maud. S. Mandel said upon accepting the inaugural 1vyG Institutional Changemaker Award earlier this year at the University of Pennsylvania. The award recognizes administrators who have set new norms for how higher education supports first-generation and low-income students, according to the organization’s website.

Mandel was recognized for her work making Williams the first college or university in the U.S. to offer all-grant financial aid. Launched in April 2022, the initiative permanently eliminated loans, campus work requirements and mandatory summer contributions for all aided students.

“We’re still in the first year of the all-grant program,” Mandel told those gathered at the 1vyG event. “But the early evidence is that it’s helping.”