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• Homecoming: October 17-20: Homecoming is quickly approaching, from October 17-20! We encourage everyone to join in the festivities. For a full schedule of events, visit Homecoming Events. A special thank you to those who are organizing and hosting events in your departments or programs during this busy weekend—your efforts are much appreciated and help make this a memorable time for our entire community.
• William & Mary Presents!: Julian Lage, October 17: As part of William & Mary Presents!, we are thrilled to welcome acclaimed guitarist Julian Lage to campus for a performance on October 17 at 7:30 p.m. This promises to be an incredible evening of music, and I hope you can attend! Purchase tickets.
• Tack Lecture nominations: Nominations are open for the upcoming Tack Lecture series in Spring 2025 and Fall 2025. Your nomination packet should include 1) Dean’s nomination letter that discusses the excellence of the nominee and outlines their ability to engage with a large audience; 2) a copy of the nominee’s CV; and 3) a one-page outline of the proposed lecture from the nominee that includes a section that addresses the prompt of “why me?” Multiple nominations from your area are encouraged for the selection process. Please send final nominations directly to provost@wm.edu and a copy to Adrienne Howard (awhoward@wm.edu). The deadline for submission is December 1, 2024.
• Board update: Last week, I sent out an update on the most recent Board of Visitors meetings. My messages to A&S faculty and staff are archived here, and this message has been posted with some corrected information regarding KPIs.
• Dean drop-in hours Each of our deans will be holding drop-in hours most weeks, offering an open invitation for faculty and staff to meet and discuss any topics you wish. These sessions are a great chance to raise questions, share ideas, or address any concerns—no appointment necessary. We look forward to seeing many of you! Please refer to the schedule on our website for details.

Last weekend I saw a beautiful, haunting movie called The Outrun. I had already read the book by Amy Liptrot and very much wanted to see the film. It opens with an amazing sequence about the selkie. In Celtic and Norse folk cultures, selkies are shape-shifters, seals that can swim onto shore, remove their skins, and live as humans. If they put their skins on again, they can return to the water. Coincidentally, I am reading a mystery novel the key to which is the selkie. I can't tell you which one, or you'll know the clue before you even start to read. But what are the odds that I would start reading a novel about a selkie after just seeing a movie that reflects on selkies? Thinking about seal-people made me think about the ways in which different species are barely differentiated, at least in mythology. We move through the world as if through water: pockets of coldness and then pockets of warmth, movement all around us, seeing only through ripples, hearing through the sound of waves. 

Enjoy your weekend, everyone.

Best wishes, Suzanne