“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 then thought, “Well, let’s take these upper middle-class males,” which we all were at that point, “and throw them in these different places.” I think it would have been interesting again to see what Gaudino would have done over the next 10 or 15 years as the campus became not only co-educational but more diverse racially and economically and internationally. It wouldn’t have been quite the same white, middle-class male, stereotypical background, but even then most Williams students–probably even today–are going to be relatively sheltered coming in here.

–Jeff Thaler '74