Bureau of Disruption

All schools · Liberal arts college

Williams College

Williams College's course descriptions average 69.3 on the 100-to-0 ruler: clearly left of center. Across all 100 schools, the average is 67.5, so Williams College reads 1.7 points further left.

Liberal (100)center (50)Conservative (0)
Williams College: 69.3 (likely range 68.1 to 70.5) All 100 schools: 67.5 each other school in the comparison

Where its courses fall

3%Far left92–100
25%Left75–91
66%Center-left59–74
5%Center42–58
2%Center-right26–41
0%Right9–25
0%Far right0–8
260 plotted courses (the ones with a political framing). 100 = far left, 50 = the average American, 0 = far right.

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Underlined: words the model quoted from the description when we asked it, after scoring, to explain its score.

Furthest left

AAS 402 · Marxist Feminisms: Race, Performance, Labor (DPE)100

Ethnic & African American Studies

Cross-listings: WGSS 402 / AMST 402 Secondary Cross-listing This seminar provides an overview of queer, black and women of color feminist, decolonial, and critical ethnic studies critiques of orthodox Marxism. Beginning with core texts from…

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AFR 374 · Technologies of Race (DPE)100

Ethnic & African American Studies

Cross-listings: AMST 372 / STS 373 Secondary Cross-listing This course is an introduction to theories, methods, sources, and approaches for interdisciplinary research and creativity in and through the interdisciplinary field of American…

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WGSS 402 · Marxist Feminisms: Race, Performance, Labor (DPE)100

Women's & Gender Studies

Cross-listings: AAS 402 / AMST 402 Secondary Cross-listing This seminar provides an overview of queer, black and women of color feminist, decolonial, and critical ethnic studies critiques of orthodox Marxism. Beginning with core texts from…

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Furthest right

SOC 390 · Sex Marriage Family35

Sociology

Cross-listings: PSCI 380 Secondary Cross-listing Something has happened to America over the past fifteen years. Large minorities of young adults, especially young men, are now celibate. Cohabitation has skyrocketed but marriage is…

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PSCI 380 · Sex Marriage Family36

Political Science

Cross-listings: SOC 390 Primary Cross-listing Something has happened to America over the past fifteen years. Large minorities of young adults, especially young men, are now celibate. Cohabitation has skyrocketed but marriage is…

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HIST 462 · For the Soul of Mankind: The Cold War and American Foreign Relations40

History

The United States emerged from the Second World War with unprecedented power and influence; for the first time it was poised to take on a level of global leadership that it had long shirked. Yet the U.S. faced an uncertain world, marked by…

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Why this number, in plain words

Political lean of course descriptions. Average Framing score (0 = far right, 50 = center, 100 = far left) of the scored courses in the group.

50 is the survey-anchored center of US adults on each issue (the "moderate" place of the ANES/GSS/PRRI seven-label ruler), not the cohort midpoint; scores above 50 read leftward, below 50 rightward.

Counted: courses with a Framing score (categories L/R/B/C). The likely range (95% interval) is 68.1 to 70.5; a comparison whose range overlaps this one is not a reliable difference.

  • Most course descriptions carry no political lean at all and are not in this average; the "share described from the left" view counts them.
  • Readings are of catalog description text, not of teaching, syllabi or individual professors.
Williams College by department (share of courses described from the left)
DepartmentLeft-framed shareCourses
Ethnic & African American Studies62.2%90view
Women's & Gender Studies59.7%72view
Sociology50%30view
Anthropology40.7%27view
History27%100view
Political Science25.3%87view
Religious Studies25%64view
Art & Art History16.8%161view
English & Comparative Literature16.4%128view
Economics10.1%99view
Philosophy9.4%53view
Psychology7.1%42view

Lean (mean Framing score) is not published per department within a school; only the left-framed share is. Department rows carry no interval.

Details: exact rows, definitions and method
NameMetricValue95% intervalnscored
Williams Collegemean_bias_score69.368.1 – 70.5953260
All 100 schoolsmean_bias_score67.567.4 – 67.7124,29010,124
Formula
SUM(bias_score) / COUNT(bias_score)
Interval
normal approximation: mean +/- 1.96 * sd / sqrt(n), sample sd (n-1); undefined when n < 2
Model / prompt / snapshot
gpt-5.6-sol · r12 (2026-10-16-le49-r12) · 6df50b10
Metric caveats
Scored courses only (L/R/B/C); N and I carry no score and are excluded, so n here is smaller than the group's course count. Scores are model readings of catalog description text against a fixed anchored definition, not teaching or syllabi. The interval covers sampling noise in the mean only; it does not represent model reading error. Every value carries a `method` label: exact_rows or histogram_midpoint.

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