He and I went down South in the ‘60s to help build churches together that had been burnt down. We were living with black families and living on a black campus together. And his advice to students was a simple one — be as open as you can possibly be, do not be judgmental. When […]

Clearly Gaudino had evolved this over a number of years in the ’60s leading up to Williams-in-India and then the story was that while they were in the mountains, in the Himalayas, talking about how the different experiences were they realized that all these guys really didn’t know their own country very well and Gaudino […]

Well, for those on his wavelength, with his concerns and his interests in some of the classical values of political science but also some contemporary things as well, yes, he was charismatic. But for others, when he would get going on some of his pet projects, and particularly make difficult-to-understand speeches in faculty meetings, a […]

I was unbelievably impressed by not so much the Williams-in-India program but by the idea, as I remember Gaudino explaining it to me, this is well after I graduated, that people in the William-in-India program as they were sitting around talking about their experience in India it dawned on them that they knew a whole […]

It’s the Village Beautiful.

So here’s a guy who was an extraordinarily successful classroom teacher, you know, Socratic method, going off and doing this experiential education thing, very, very different, but still interested in these core ideas. Well, he was extremely interested in what he called “Public Authority,” this sort of the way public authority gets established, the way […]

When he was proposing Williams at Home it was when he was then quite sick. And his proposal went to the Educational Policy Committee or whatever it was called, then came to the faculty. Somebody moved it, somebody seconded it, “Any discussion?” and nobody was gonna object to anything at all. And Gaudino got up […]

Our purpose is not just to have experience. It is to use it. It is to reflect upon it, to let it enhance or inhibit our sense of self. It is not learning just by absorbing many discrete details of personality and places. Rather, it is learning by direct engagement, by opinions in tension and […]

Towards the end of my freshman year I remember going to the information session about Williams-at-Home. It was held in Griffin Hall. There was something a little bit unusual about the way he held himself physically that struck me as a little strange. He didn’t move very much as he spoke. And when he turned, […]

I remember meeting some of the students who went on the Williams-in-India and was fascinated by it. I might have done that although in retrospect it might have been too frightening. And he was asking me specifically, “Why did you decide to go?” I was not comfortable with the sort of intellectualism or the sort […]