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Hello friends,  

I want to start with gratitude for all you do. As we settle into the swing of a semester, yet prepare for energy and activities to ramp up this fall, please know that your work is seen and deeply appreciated. The Council of Arts & Sciences, our philanthropic advisory board, is meeting on campus today and it’s great to catch up with them. I’ll have more details about our meeting next week. 

As you prepare to head into the weekend, I’m writing to share several important updates and reminders.  

• Additional authorized positions for A&S:  Just in case you didn’t see my update yesterday, I am delighted to announce that the Provost has agreed to provide additional funds to support the positions listed below, based on data about faculty-student ratio and detailed justifications we provided to her about urgent need. I am deeply appreciative of her partnership and commitment to A&S. 
  • Additional approved positions: 
    • 1 TTE – Mathematics 
    • 1 TTE – Biology 
    • 1 TTE – History, joint appointment with Africana Studies 
    • 1 TTE – Environment & Sustainability 
    • 1 TF – Russian; creates capacity for support of Film & Media Studies 

• Call for nominations for professorships and awards: In case you missed this one too, please note the call for nominations. Due date for professorship nominations is October 14, and for awards and fellowships December 9. Please note that Teaching Faculty are eligible for the Lambert Scholar Award. We will soon be sending out an additional call for professorships and awards handled by the Provost’s office and open to faculty across the university, so look out for that. 
• Workday end-user readiness survey - Last week you received an email from the executive sponsors of the Workday implementation initiative letting you know about a campus survey that will help to gather feedback on the project so far. This insight will assist the project team in identifying communications and activities that will improve awareness and understanding across campus. As we prepare to implement Workday, a platform that will transform the way we manage our HR and Financial processes, it is important for the project team to hear from you. Please take five minutes to respond to this End-User Readiness Survey and provide your honest feedback. Responses are requested by September 24th.  Your responses are completely anonymous and will be used to help us develop future communications and engagement plans for the project. For more information about this initiative, visit the Workday website. If you have any questions, please reach out to the project team at workdayproject@wm.edu. Thanks in advance for your time and thoughtful survey responses.  
• Library textbook collection - In summer 2024, W&M Libraries staff examined library collections and compared them to the textbook adoptions list for fall 2024. The goal is for every student to easily and affordably find the books in our collections that support their academic success. Access to online textbooks also support the accessibility needs of our students including those with disabilities. Browse the online textbook collection. Print copies of textbooks from high enrollment courses were purchased and are located at the circulation desk at Swem Library for short term use. In addition, any book that was on the adoptions list already in the library collection was added to the reserves collection. A partner in this work is VIVA, the Virtual Library of Virginia, who purchased unlimited user ebook copies of nearly 70 titles that were on the fall adoptions list.   

This week I had the pleasure of uttering four words (in two separate outbursts of two words each) that I have not had occasion to say since my father died in 2006. In case you are already trying to imagine what those words might have been (because there are many candidates), I will save you the trouble and tell you that the two phrases are "Patum Peperium" and "Gentleman's Relish." Rein in your imaginations and look down to see a picture of this thing:

I had occasion to say these hallowed words when I met Mark T. Smucker '92, President of J.P. Smucker's on Monday (he was a Geology/English major). His company for a brief time owned the company that made Gentleman's Relish, which my father ate faithfully every day of his life. What is it? That's a secret I never will tell.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Suzanne

Suzanne Raitt 
Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences 
Chancellor Professor of English 
Pronouns: she/her/hers