April 5, 2024
Dear friends,
We’re entering the final stretch of the semester, and April promises to be an eventful and exciting month. We’re also entering that time of year in our region where everything turns yellow. This phenomenon is both fascinating and slightly horrifying. Another phenomenon, though not horrifying and far less likely to irritate your allergies, is Monday’s partial solar eclipse. The departments of Art & Art History and Physics invite you to the Sunken Garden on Monday for a viewing – special glasses will be provided. More details below. I may keep my glasses on after the viewing to try to keep the pollen out of my eyes.
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The Future of Arts & Sciences committee has provided an update on their work, which you can read on their website here. My continued thanks to this committee as they research peer institutions, gather data and engage broadly with the A&S and W&M community, including at two upcoming listening sessions for A&S faculty and staff. I encourage you to engage with the committee as intensively as you can, even at this busy time of year. As a reminder, this committee has not been charged with making recommendations, simply with gathering and submitting thoughts, ideas and feedback as we seek to establish a trajectory for the next five and ten years. We are engaged in shaping our future and the future of the students to whom we are all deeply committed. The committee's preliminary report in May, as well as their final report in December, will be shared with the A&S community.
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Speaking of futures, the graduation of our students in not just their achievement, but yours. Because of the hours, days and weeks you put in teaching, mentoring and supporting them (shout-out here to OUAA, WMSURE, and every A&S faculty and staff member who has ever spoken with a student), they are about to celebrate a major, life-changing accomplishment. Please come out to celebrate with them, both at your department/program ceremonies and at the big Commencement celebration on Friday, May 17th, 7-9 in Zable Stadium. If you plan to process during the main Commencement ceremony and wish to rent regalia, please note that the deadline for ordering rental regalia is this Sunday, April 7. You can order here. Campus loaner regalia is extremely limited. If you require regalia for the main or departmental ceremonies, please rent from the bookstore at the link provided.
- The spring semester series of Scholarly Perspectives on the Middle East concludes next week with a lecture from Dana El Kurd. I am deeply appreciative of the group of A&S faculty who initiated this series and for the support and collaboration of the Reves Center for International Studies. The opportunity to learn about and discuss challenging but important topics is vital to our community. The consortium invites William & Mary faculty interested in inviting speakers or moderating panels on this topic in Fall 2024 to contact the Reves Center at international@wm.edu.
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You should all be aware by now of the upcoming change from the current Blackboard Original Courses format to Ultra Courses. Ultra really is different and if I were you, I would not wait until the week before classes start in the fall to get acquainted with it. The wonderful folks in IT have provided detailed resources, demos and training sessions, including Intro to Ultra sessions and an open lab on April 10 from 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. AND 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. in Jones Hall Room 203. Bring your laptop and questions and IT will be there to assist you! More dates and resources are available on the IT website.
- The Year of the Arts continues with a loaded arts calendar, a very busy Executive Director of the Arts (Eric Despard) and even Year of the Arts shirts available for sale in the campus bookstore!
- Last year the Society of 1918 launched a grant opportunity for students, staff and faculty to apply for funds that engage alumnae with W&M AND invest in women. The $45,000 in grants awarded in FY24 supported research, mentoring initiatives, networking, mental health, disability awareness, women in the arts, and more. They are now launching their second grant cycle. More details and the application can be found here. All genders are invited to apply. Deadline for application is May.
- Next week: we look forward to welcoming the Council of Arts & Sciences, the A&S philanthropic advisory board, to campus for several days, and on Saturday, April 13, we warmly welcome prospective students and their families on Day for Admitted Students.
- Just for fun: Art & Art History and Physics invite the W&M community to join on or near the Sunken Garden to view the partial solar eclipse on Monday, April 8, beginning at 2:00 p.m. and peaking at around 3:30 p.mo. They will have solar telescopes and eclipse glasses to share. Thanks so much to the faculty who are organizing this event.
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I have just spent many weary hours searching the internet for a full-text version of Virginia Woolf's amazing essay "The Sun and the Fish," about the total solar eclipse of 1927, which she traveled to Yorkshire by train to see. Google knows most things, but it doesn't know everything, and it couldn't find the essay (which sits at home on my bookshelves, but I am at a mystery location which is not home). I toyed instead with asking AI to write the essay for me, but refrained. Here instead are some lines from various poems about eclipses. (State regulations prohibit me from quoting from "A Voluptuous Dream During an Eclipse," by Elaine Kahn - actually not as voluptuous as its title claims).
Or something night and day between,
Like moonshine - but the hue was green;
William Wordsworth, "The Eclipse of the Sun, 1820"
...night
without sunset, the sun noon
high, bruised black by the moon.
Deborah Trustman, "The Eclipse" (1975)
We shared chocolate, and one man from Maine
Told a joke. Suns were everywhere - at our feet.
Robert Bly, "Seeing the Eclipse in Maine" (1997)
You are invited to watch. The body
in complete dark casting nothing back.
The thing turns and flicks and opens.
Ann Lauterbach, "Eclipse with Object" (1994)
Thank you for indulging me (if you did, of course). I am excited to see some of you, and lots of little crescent suns, in the sunken garden on Monday.
Have a great weekend,
Suzanne
