February 17, 2023

Summary

Greetings on this rainy Friday. I hope you are all planning restful and happy weekends after what has seemed like a very busy week. Last weekend was Charter Day, which included a happy and raucous Dean’s lunch for the Council of Arts & Sciences (our philanthropic advisory board) and other friends of A&S. This morning, Vice-Dean Silvia Tandeciarz, A&S Development Officer Gerald Bullock and I had the pleasure of touring the new Arts Quarter buildings with two generous supporters of the project. The building was awe-inspiring: large, airy spaces; beautiful vistas and perspectives; and perfectly designed acoustics (for which we have another donor to thank). Even better than the building were the special clothes we had to wear: neon vests (which Silvia says were color-coded to show we were idiots who had to be watched carefully by those in authority), hard hats, and some special glasses which I tried to smuggle out of the building without success. My hope is that we will continue to be provided with these special clothes even when the building is open to all. I have always wanted to wear a hard hat, and once was not enough.

Full Description

Dear all,

Now, down to business. There are four items, numbered sequentially below for your viewing pleasure.

ToR Faculty Framework: Thanks to those of you who attended the special FAS meeting on the ToR Faculty Framework on Tuesday. The BOV approved the change to the Faculty Handbook that allowed NTE faculty votes to be counted, so we took a vote of all full-time faculty. The framework, with one or two amendments, passed with 95% of votes in favor. The Personnel Policy Committee (PPC) met the next day and also voted in favor of accepting it. The PPC is advisory to the Provost and President, so there will be a short delay while they review the framework. Once we hear back from them – which should be in early to mid March – we will start sending out notifications, assuming they approve it, which seems likely. We are still on track to issue new contracts to those who accept them, in time for them to be in effect at the start of AY 2023-24. Thanks to everyone who worked so hard on this over several years. It was a great service to our entire community.

Steering Committee on the Computational, Data and Applied Sciences Initiative: The committee is now well into its work of researching, consulting and gathering feedback from the community. There are number of ways to interact with us, and all are laid out on the committee’s webpage. I would like to draw your attention especially to the highlighted items below.

Town halls: All are invited to attend one or more of the following three town halls. These will be listening sessions for the Co-Chairs David Yalof and Suzanne Raitt, and other members of the steering committee, to learn more about opinions and views among the wider community. Right now three town halls are scheduled, but we may add a fourth:

In-person session in the Sadler Commonwealth Auditorium on Feb. 22nd from 6-7:30 pm. No registration required.

In-person session in the Sadler Commonwealth Auditorium on Mar. 7th from 10-11:30 am. No registration required.

Virtual session on Feb. 28th from 3:30-5:00 pm. Please email awhoward@wm.edu to request the Zoom link.

Surveys: We will be sending out two surveys to the W&M community. The first will invite respondents to identify up to three questions they would like the steering committee to answer. You can access that survey here. Please respond by February 27th, 2023. The second survey will include information about potential models for the new unit, as well as for the rest of Arts & Sciences. In the survey, we will ask for your opinions on each option.

Meetings with members of the committee: If you, your department, your program or a group of faculty would like to meet, or otherwise interact with, members of the steering committee, please use this form to contact us and request a meeting. You can request to meet with members of the steering committee, either as an individual or as a group; you can invite members of the steering committee to attend a meeting of your department or program; or you can send a written submission to the committee. Once you have submitted your request, we will contact you to find a date and time to meet.

Anonymous online feedback form: Please use this form to share your thoughts with the steering committee. You may identify yourself, but you do not have to.

Pre-med advising: I am really grateful to Bev Sher (CHEM), and before her Randy Coleman (CHEM), for all the amazing work they have done to prepare our students to apply to medical school. I am delighted to announce that this semester, Shantá Hinton (BIOL) and Doug Young (CHEM) will be joining Bev for three semesters as official pre-med advisers. During those three semesters – Spring 2023, Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 – Shelly Laurenzo will be chairing a working group to consider a long-term, sustainable model for pre-med advising going forward – one that builds on the strengths of W&M, and is also efficient and effective for both advisers and students.

Glenn Kessler Fact Check on COLL 150 enrollments for Fall 2023: It has come to my attention that there is a rumor going around that all COLL 150 courses next year will be capped at 20. I asked Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post what he thought of this rumor, and this was his reply: “False. The standard cap for all 65 sections of COLL 150 at W&M in Spring 2023 was set at 16. A very few went to 17 and one was capped at 20 with permission of the instructor. For next year, with a more refined process and better predictive data, A&S hopes to hold enrollment to 15 – maybe 16 as a last resort.” Thank you, Glenn. [Note: Glenn Kessler was not actually consulted in the writing of this message. But you knew that.]

Have a good weekend, everyone.

Suzanne

Suzanne Raitt

Acting Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences

Chancellor Professor of English

Pronouns: she/her/hers