Sending the Right Message

Remarkable in its simplicity, the message is one Williams brought with her this summer as she became Ithaca College's seventh-and first woman-president. Williams, 49, succeeded James J. Whalen, who in July ended a 22-year career here.

"I believe that over the last 25 years society has changed quite a bit in terms of its messages to girls and women regarding opportunity, what they can be, and what they can contribute," says Williams. "I also believe we have a long way to go."

Unlike many women, Williams was reared and educated in an encouraging environment. The product of all-girl schools until she headed to college, she never saw a man in charge and never had a male principal or a male teacher. "That," she says, "is an important part of my background that you won't find on my resume. I also grew up in a family that believed in the equality of the sexes. The message I got from the time I was little was, 'Well, what do you want to do? Go for it.' "

Today, Williams is active in women's organizations in an effort to give young women the best message possible, to convince them not to allow gender to interfere with aspiration. "Women who are in a position like mine need to take opportunities to share their stories and encourage others without saying that everyone needs to be a president, because that is also the wrong message," she says. "To me, the message is, 'What is it you'd like to do, what are your talents, how can you get there, and how can you live that life?' I know that this is not the message a lot of women my age had, and really, not the message many girls are getting even now. I was lucky-I excelled in math and science, but nobody ever told me I wasn't supposed to."

It seems clear, though, that Williams would have succeeded no matter what advice she had been given. Throughout her life, it has been she who plotted the course.

Indeed, one of her earliest decisions ran counter to the norm in her hometown Montreal --- she left to study at St. Michael's College of the University of Toronto. "That was seen as heresy at the time," Williams recalls. "The custom in big Canadian cities was to go to school where you live, but I wanted to go away. Ninety five percent of my class was going to McGill, but I wanted to go away. Toronto was a great place to be, a great place to go to school, even though it was seen as a cow town at the time."

Williams moved to New York State in 1968 after earning a bachelor's degree in psychology (she still maintains dual citizenship in the U.S. and Canada) and was soon employed as a caseworker with the Monroe County Department of Social Services. She held that job until 1972, when she accepted a position as a medical social worker with the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont. In 1973 she began a three-year stint as an academic adviser at the Community College of Vermont-a place where, she says, she "grew up, professionally." It was during that time that she went back to school, and by 1976 she had earned a master's degree in education from the University of Vermont. Williams served as regional director for the Community College of Vermont from 1976 to 1982, spent the summer of 1981 as assistant to the president of Johnson State College in Johnson, Vermont, and served from 1982 to 1985 as director of educational and personnel services at the chancellor's office of the Vermont state college system. She was working as associate academic dean and was an associate professor at Trinity College in Burlington, Vermont, when she was named president of Lyndon State College at Lyndonville, Vermont, in 1989.

To Williams, the move from social work to higher education seemed a natural one. "It was a very conscious decision to get into another realm of the helping professions," she says. "I went back to school to learn more about the field. I remember that during master's degree orals a professor asked when I was going to go for my doctorate, and I almost flung a pencil at him. Actually, it was only two years after that that I was applying. [She earned her doctorate in 1983 at Harvard University] Sometimes others know us better than we know ourselves. That was the nudge."

Now, she embraces the challenge here at Ithaca. "I am one who deals with transitions by becoming a learner," she says. "The institution has a long history, a long tradition, a culture that's in place. I accepted the position based on the premise that this is the place I'd like to be associated with and would like to lead, but that doesn't mean I have the answers to all the issues that need to be addressed."

Williams said she will spend time on campus with people and will also make sure to meet all the external constituencies. A primary goal, she says, is to listen to other people. "I want to hear their ideas, what's going well, what needs attention, the ideas they have for the College's future. That's really what a president does. The president doesn't weigh in with an agenda from the outside, the president builds an agenda with the constituencies of the institution. That's my position, and I'm not apologetic for it at all-to me, that's the only way that makes sense."

Williams has a number of interests aside from work, interests she characterizes as "quiet" or "active." The former includes reading, photography, and music. Her reading focus is primarily in nonfiction areas of social issues, history, and politics, with a strong interest in other cultures. Currently, the Middle East and the Balkans are capturing her attention. She is also beginning to explore writings on spirituality. Williams counts sailing, skiing, camping, swimming, and cycling among her "active" interests.

Williams also has a keen interest in humor and the value it can have in the workplace. "It's something that's been a part of who I am all my life," she says.
"I really do have to laugh many times a day. I'll laugh all by myself if I have to, I don't care. I find it breaks the routine, the stress of the day, and it can also serve as a point of connection with others as well as a source of creativity. I don't tell jokes, but a playful exchange with someone can make you feel that you're relating. You can learn from a wisecrack, for example. I do have the tendency sometimes to come into something from another angle. I even sometimes say, 'now this may be really crazy,' and maybe it is, but maybe it also breaks the conceptual framework and frees people up to think a little differently. You have to be careful not to be cutting, to avoid humor at the expense of others --- I don't do that and I don't tolerate that in others --- but in itself, humor is a way of being for me."

Just days after presiding over her first convocation, Williams is working hard to position the College for the next millennium. "As a newcomer, I ask people to be patient as I learn my way around a new place," she says. "I realize that I am following President Whalen, who has led the College to where it is today. The College has had a long and
impressive record of accomplishments during his tenure, and I look forward to working with the College community and friends of the College to build on those accomplishments as we develop future plans. I am anxious to hear about people's hopes and dreams as we look ahead."