October 2, 2023

Dear colleagues,

While September closed out with another successful Board of Visitors meeting, October has brought colorful leaves of fall to our campus. This means it’s nearly time for Homecoming, an energizing and fun tradition and also an opportunity to nurture relationships with a vast and passionate W&M community.

In the meantime, I look forward to the work of the week ahead, including visiting the W&M Washington Center to participate in “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights: One Year Later,” held by William & Mary, Data & Society and the Center for Democracy & Technology.

Here are this week’s Top Five Things to Know:

The topic of service obligations and scope of service responsibilities has come up often over the past several years. As I indicated in the spring, I am interested in learning more about the various ways in which our faculty contribute to the university, community and their disciplines. The first step in this work includes conducting a service survey of all faculty members. All faculty will receive an invitation to participate in the survey this week. Thank you in advance for providing your responses.
The Faculty Affairs & Development office unveiled its new website at the New Faculty Orientation. All faculty will find valuable information and resources with a quick click. The Faculty Careers and Faculty Policies sections offer easy access to materials based on career stage, including summary lists of awards and funding opportunities, resources for faculty leadership, and information on compliance and faculty governance. The site also provides updates on upcoming events and workshops, news and highlights, and data trends. Bookmark this new website as a quick resource!
As we enter into, believe it or not, midterm season, I ask that you share information about the Student Accessibility Services William & Mary offers to our students. As we strive to be an inclusive and accessible space for our community, testing options are just one of the many services we have available to make that the case.
The Office of Community Engagement is holding its annual W&M Community Partnerships Breakfast in Sadler Center on Oct. 26 from 9:30-11:30 a.m. All are welcome and encouraged to join the conversation with representatives from a range of community organizations as well as fellow faculty members and staff from the university. This breakfast provides space for focused and organic connection and collaboration around shared interests such as housing, health, youth development, sustainability, and more. Please note that you are welcome to come and go as your schedule allows.
This week’s shout-out goes to the W&M Literacy Lab, which recently hosted its annual Data Drive. During this event, area teachers bring the literacy assessment data they have collected on their students and analyze the information in a group of experts and peers, allowing teachers to collaboratively interpret student data and determine what it means for individual classroom needs. This work, and so much more the Literacy Lab does, has a critical impact on education in our community. To learn more about Data Drive as well as the other work of the Literacy Lab, read this recent W&M School of Education news story.