March 17, 2023
Summary
Sorry to intrude on your spring “breaks,” but if you didn’t get a message from me, you wouldn’t know it was Friday, and TGIF, so I wouldn’t want to deprive you of that knowledge. Not much to report this week. It has felt a little bit like being on a hamster wheel, which was not the way I hoped to spend the break (I would have preferred a scratching post, or even perhaps a nosebag. Actually, definitely a nosebag, with chocolate in it). But hamster wheel it’s been, and now I really admire the exceptional resilience of hamsters. (Scroll down for some delightful hamster images, and here’s one you don’t even need to scroll down for: ??.) So, what was on our wheel in Ewell this week?
Full Description
Dear all,
Sorry to intrude on your spring “breaks,” but if you didn’t get a message from me, you wouldn’t know it was Friday, and TGIF, so I wouldn’t want to deprive you of that knowledge. Not much to report this week. It has felt a little bit like being on a hamster wheel, which was not the way I hoped to spend the break (I would have preferred a scratching post, or even perhaps a nosebag. Actually, definitely a nosebag, with chocolate in it). But hamster wheel it’s been, and now I really admire the exceptional resilience of hamsters. (Scroll down for some delightful hamster images, and here’s one you don’t even need to scroll down for: 🐹.) So, what was on our wheel in Ewell this week?
- Hiring, hiring, hiring. Unbelievably, we authorized 50 full-time faculty hires this year – though some of them were extensions to existing contracts. All of you have been working so hard on these and you have brought forward exceptionally good candidates. We already have a number of acceptances – kudos to everyone who made those happen. We’re working through the rest and supporting you as best we can. We are excited at the range and diversity of faculty expertise, experience and background that we’ll be bringing on board next year: one of our priorities is working with the Provost’s Office to identify dedicated funding sources to increase the diversity of our faculty.
- Meeting next Friday of the Council of Arts & Sciences (CAS) at the W&M Washington Center. We are very much looking forward to a two-day meeting of CAS next week. (For those of you who don’t know, CAS is a group of alums and parents assembled by Maria to act as a philanthropic advisory board for A&S). Our goal for this meeting is to explore how to tell the story of A&S to all those with an interest in it: donors, prospective students, prospective parents, faculty and staff recruits, the Provost, the President, the BOV. Who are we? What do we stand for? This meeting will explore aspects of the A&S experience that are sometimes not captured in the stories we tell: study abroad and away, and applied learning. Our students have those experiences, usually mentored by our faculty, and we think we need to really capture those aspects of what we offer in our communications. To aid us in exploring this aspect of our work, we are very grateful to Heather Golden (Chief Marketing Officer), Teresa Longo (Associate Provost for International Affairs & Executive Director of the Reves Center), Elizabeth Harbron (Director of the Charles Center) and Abbie Schafer (A&S Director of Communications & Special Projects) for attending parts of the meeting and engaging in conversation with our wonderful Council members. If you have suggestions of other aspects of A&S work that we can share at a future meeting, please let me know.
Thanks! And finally, our moments of Zen, because what is spring break without them? See below for the moments. There are three, so keep scrolling.
Best wishes, Suzanne
Suzanne Raitt
Acting Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences
Chancellor Professor of English
Pronouns: she/her/hers
