Winter Study Program (WSP) 99s

The WSP offers sophomores, juniors and seniors the opportunity to pursue special projects of their own design, called 99s.  A WSP 99 may provide potential benefits that, although difficult to obtain in regular semester classes, are valuable to your education and development.  The Winter Study Committee (WSC) encourages 99 proposals for projects that are intellectually challenging, coherent, and rewarding. 

Project proposals for 99s that do not contain a clear intellectual challenge, are not coherent or do not have adequate faculty guidance will be rejected. The burden of proving the merit and feasibility of the project rests with the student.  The WSC will be concerned about how the applicant proposes to complete the project and the sponsor’s method of evaluation.  Plan to prepare a paper of at least 10 pages or its equivalent.  It is crucial that the focus and content of the paper be carefully delineated prior to submitting your proposal.  Discuss this fully with your faculty sponsor.  Papers should demonstrate outside research, comprehensive thought, and knowledge assimilated and applied.  A daily journal alone or a paper that is merely a reflection on your experience will not satisfy the requirement. 

Off-campus 99s must demonstrate the educational value of working elsewhere, and should not be substitutions for courses that could be taken in the regular semester. Projects that take students away from campus, therefore, should be thought of as exceptional.

A student cannot revise a proposal AFTER it is approved by the sponsoring department unless the Winter Study Committee requests additional information.

Types of 99 projects that are educationally valid

1. research projects:  You should be acquainted with the methodological issues, know something of the techniques and tools available and have demonstrated an ability to handle the type of problems defined and research to be carried out.

2. discovery projects on an unfamiliar subject or issue: The aim of such a project is to enable you to understand things more clearly than you might be able to otherwise.  The typical discovery project will be on campus, under consultation with the advisor.  However, language and other academic programs also fall into this category.  While these take place off-campus, sponsoring institutions will provide the necessary guidance. 

3. internships:  The Winter Study Committee (WSC) supports internships that provide “an opportunity for active intellectual exploration—that is experience shaped by thought.”  Proposals for internships, volunteer positions and research or teaching apprenticeships must have supporting letters from sponsoring institutions, and must desribe the activities the student will be involved in, as well as the intellectual challenge of that
   experience. Similarly, proposals to enroll in an academic program must include the program’s website or a formal brochure from the institution. The student must be engaged in project activities for at least 26 hours per week.  Students cannot receive pay for work done for Winter Study Credit.

Checklist of essentials for 99 proposals

A sponsor should have expertise in the subject area of your project.  If you are unsure of whom to contact you might start by contacting a member of the department corresponding to the subject of your 99 proposal whom you have had as an instructor in a class.  If you have not worked with any of the department’s faculty, you should contact the chair of the department to request a recommendation, or contact Barbara Casey, Associate Registrar (bcasey@williams.edu) or Paula Consolini, Coordinator of Experiential Education (pconsoli@williams.edu).  Do this early, since you should consult with the sponsor when developing your proposal.

This stage of the process should be carried out in close contact with the project sponsor. All WSP 99s must have a clearly defined intellectual challenge.  You should, therefore, be refining your ideas about a project and limiting it to something that can feasibly be completed during the time available.  99s solely involving physical challenges will not be accepted.

In order to submit a successful 99 proposal it is essential that you do extensive background research into the topic so that you can demonstrate to the WSC that you are aware of the main contours of the field and where this project fits into that context.  In order to do this you will need to develop a detailed bibliography in consultation with your sponsor and a Reference Librarian.  The bibliography indicates that a proposal is well thought out and taken seriously.  It is one facet in demonstrating to the WSC that you have devoted considerable effort to developing or furthering knowledge of a subject.  The only types of projects for which the WSC does not require a bibliography are those sponsored by an outside institution, such as a language program.  As part of your preliminary research, you should also determine what resources or materials you will need (e.g., software, equipment, on-campus space, library resources).

It is critical that all sections of the WSP 99 form be completed according to specifications. All approvals are contingent upon receipt of required information. Be sure to take note of the following details:  title: Make sure it is restricted to 30 characters (including spaces) for the purpose of transcripts; prefix: ALL 99 proposals must have a normal subject prefix, e.g., BIOL, WGST, RLFR, or SPEC—and the same prefix is used when registering for the course—otherwise it cannot be processed.  “SPECial” is used for those 99s that do not fall within a regularly used subject prefix; off-campus address: If your proposal includes being off-campus for all or part of WSP, a reliable address where you can be contacted is required; confirming letter: If applicable, a letter supporting your internship, apprenticeship, or volunteer position is required for the approval of your 99; financing: There are no College funds to support 99 projects other than those provided to financial aid students, in which case reimbursements equal to 75% of the proposed costs, up to a maximum of $500.

You need to first register for Winter Study and list the 99 as your first choice.  Registration for Winter Study will occur from Wednesday, October 16, 2013 to Sunday, October 20, 2013.  Notification of approval or rejection for all 99s submitted by departments in their entirety to the Registrar’s Office by Friday, October 5th will be given prior to the closing of the registration period, allowing you the opportunity to amend your registration if your 99 is rejected.  A 99 proposal must be completed online (web.williams.edu/Registrar/winterstudy/99direct.html), printed in duplicate and submitted to your faculty sponsor by Thursday, September 26, 2013  If you are on financial aid and wish to request scholarship aid for any costs associated with the project, the appropriate form must accompany the proposal.  This form is available in the Financial Aid Office.  Your sponsor should review both the proposal and an request for financial aid, complete the appropriate section on the proposal and then sign both items.  The proposal must then be approved by your sponsor’s department before it is submitted to the Registrar by the department chair by Friday, October 4, 2013.  You may only submit ONE 99 project per Winter Study Period.

For off-campus 99s, it is important that you are aware of the dangers (violence, health risks, traffic dangers), discomforts (weather and climate, travel, long waits, availability, or lack thereof, of sanitary facilities) and realities of the trip (potential disappointments, planned visits disrupted, contacts not coming through, location not as nice as it seemed).  The websites for the State Department (http://travel.state.gov/travel_warnings.html) and the Center for Disease Control (http://www.cdc.gov/travel) offer complete information concerning pertinent political, criminal and health dangers.  Before proposing an off-campus 99, you should note that if you are enrolled in a 101-102 language course you may be required to take the sustaining Program during the WSP and thus remain on campus.  If you are a junior or senior, you should also check the Bulletin to see whether your major department(s), or program(s), requires you to take an on-campus WSP.  Although it is a College rule that students may not be paid for work earning credit, the WSC will allow a student with an off-campus 99 project to receive living expenses, which may be offered for this purpose and not as pay.  The request to receive this living allowance must be approved by your faculty sponsor, the department and the WSC. 

If you are considering pursuing an Economics 99, in addition to reading the instructions given above, you should reference the “Economics Department Guidelines for WSP Internships and Other 99s” which is available online (web.williams.edu/Registrar/winterstudy/economics.html).  If you are considering pursuing an Anthropology or Sociology 99, you should reference the “Anthropology & Sociology Guidelines for WSP Independent Projects” which is available online (web.williams.edu/Registrar/winterstudy/anso.html).

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