September 27, 2024

Dear friends,

As parts of the U.S. are dealing with the effects of Hurricane Helene, my thoughts are with any of you with friends, family or loved ones impacted by the storm.

It is also Family Weekend at W&M, and we are thrilled to welcome the families of our students to campus. A special thank you to those of you who have opened your Friday classes to parent and family guests. I am also grateful to Heather Deere, Director of Family Engagement, and the mighty team effort behind planning and hosting this weekend that is so important to our students and their families.

Some reminders and updates for you this week:

Take 6 and Alan Morrison this weekend: Our Office of the Arts is kicking off the inaugural season of William & Mary Presents! this weekend. Tickets are still available. Join us on Saturday for Grammy award-winning vocal group, Take 6 (purchase tickets), or on Sunday for one of America’s premier concert organists, Alan Morrison (tickets are free!). We are so proud to be launching this presented season in our beautiful new Arts Quarter with award-winning artists.
Future of A&S preliminary report: I am grateful to the Future of Arts & Sciences coordinating committee for their incredibly hard work bringing the preliminary report to the A&S community. I look forward to taking a deep dive into this comprehensive report. While the committee continues their work through the fall semester, I want to acknowledge the depth and breadth with which they have conducted research thus far. This committee was given a very broad charge and has made steady progress since January. My thanks to the tireless committee, and to those of you who shared your thoughts. I have said from the beginning that the future of Arts & Sciences is up to the faculty of Arts & Sciences. While, collectively, we must move forward in a unified direction, we can do so in many ways, and with the input of many voices. The Future of A&S initiative is our first step.
W&M’s long view: W&M News published a wonderful and informative piece highlighting the university’s leadership in preparing students for lives of meaning and success. Sharing strategic wins as well as recent rankings, this overview contextualizes W&M’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) with the ongoing shifting of importance in rankings and ranking methodology. I encourage you to familiarize yourself with the KPIs, which allow board members to understand how W&M’s executive leadership team measures performance. Ranking highlights include:
- U.S. News & World Report ranked W&M sixth among public universities for undergraduate teaching.
- The Princeton Review ranked W&M eighth among public schools for internships.
- Forbes ranked W&M the 17th best public university.
- Based on a survey of faculty nationwide, W&M’s undergraduate program in international relations ranked 16th. Policymakers ranked W&M 14th, and think tank staff members ranked W&M 15th.
Return of the Raft Debate: I am delighted to announce the return of the Raft Debate, a longstanding W&M tradition some have described as “a delicate balance of comedy and lecture.” Paused for the pandemic and now happily resurrected, better than ever, the Raft Debate will feature four dynamic faculty members ready to debate for the survival of the sciences, social sciences, the humanities, or none of the above. A judge presides, but the audience decides… who will survive for the sake of humanity? Come out to Commonwealth Auditorium on Monday, October 28 at 6:30 p.m. and help decide!
Google email removal: In the spring you received a notification letting you know that Information Technology will be turning off access to your W&M Gmail inboxes and Google Calendars this fall, which is the final step in William & Mary’s transition to Microsoft Office 365. Student accounts have already been retired. Please refer to the September 18 email from IT Announcements for additional information. It is important to note:
- Your access to Gmail and Calendar will be removed on October 29th.
- Following this change, you will no longer be able to access your university-issued Gmail inbox and Google Calendar.
- Access to Google Workspace apps (Google Docs, Google Sheets, etc.) will not be impacted by this change. All your current content outside your Gmail inbox will remain accessible from your university Google account.

A reminder of two working group invitations:

Working group on the effective evaluation of teaching - please volunteer: Thank you to those of you who have already volunteered for this working group, which will explore how we can more effectively evaluate and improve our teaching, both for the purposes of assessment (merit) and to become better teachers. Elizabeth Barnes, Professor of English, has agreed to co-chair the working group. The other co-chair will be confirmed soon, and I am in the process of developing a formal charge. I anticipate that the working group will deliver a report by the end of the spring semester, 2025. If you are interested, please let me know by today, Friday, September 27. There are still a few hours left!
Working group on the allocation and training of TAs - please volunteer: Thank you also to those of you who have already volunteered for this working group. I am especially interested in undergraduate TAs: how they are selected, how they are trained, and how they are compensated. But graduate TAs are also relevant. I'd like to understand what's going on so we can make sure our practices are consistent and fair and that you have the TAs you need. Rob Hinkle, Vice-Dean for Natural, Computational and Physical Sciences & Interdisciplinary Studies, has agreed to chair the working group. Again, I welcome volunteers for this task. If you are interested, please let me know by today, Friday, September 27. Again, still a few hours left!

And now, the line.....

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As I write this, torrential rain is falling outside my window and creating those characteristic W&M lakes around campus. Water is all around us, including in Vision 2026. It's inside us too, as my biology colleagues know (and perhaps a few others as well). Sometimes in past messages I have tortured you with poetry, and you won't believe how many poems there are that are simply called "Water." And there are thousands more with "water" in the title - "Water Wheel," "Water's Lubricious Edges," "Water Poppies Open as the Mouth," "Watering the Lawn".....And here is a little excerpt from Sandra M. Gilbert's "Water Music" (1994), which captures what I am experiencing right now. (Actually it's set at night and for once I am not writing this at night, but the rest of it is right).

In the night,
an immense seething through the trees,
a seething and hissing as of a hasty invasion
led by brilliant insects from the north,

and then a scratching a tearing
a sudden scarification of windows, a plunge
of something swift and shapeless
and impartial

into leaves dirt stones shells flesh,
a flashing without color
into color.......

If you read this far, thank you. You are my people. And even if you didn't, you're my people too, but you don't know it.

Have a great weekend, everyone,

Suzanne

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