March 24, 2023
Summary
This has been a very quiet week in Ewell. To relieve the boredom, the Ewell team has been amusing itself in the following ways. On Monday, we went to the beach. On Tuesday, we went to a soft-play center. On Wednesday, we toured some wineries. On Thursday, we were bungee-jumping. And today, we are downhill skiing. I write to you from a Black Diamond slope. And none of us interviewed for a job.
Full Description
Dear all,
This has been a very quiet week in Ewell. To relieve the boredom, the Ewell team has been amusing itself in the following ways. On Monday, we went to the beach. On Tuesday, we went to a soft-play center. On Wednesday, we toured some wineries. On Thursday, we were bungee-jumping. And today, we are downhill skiing. I write to you from a Black Diamond slope. And none of us interviewed for a job.
OK, not all of the above is true. In fact, none of it is true. We did none of those activities and one of us did in fact spend the entire day on Wednesday interviewing for a job. (Thank you to all of you who took time out of your busy days to participate.)
Here’s what we actually did this week:
Hiring, hiring, hiring. Thanks to all of you who have spent precious time and effort recruiting and negotiating with exceptional finalists. So far, we have successfully completed 20 searches. Many others are still in process. I am really excited about all the amazing people who will arrive on our campus in Fall 2023 and look forward to even more great news as the remaining searches progress.
Student Success and Committee on Academic Status Shelly and I have started a series of meetings with staff in the DOSO about how to disentangle purely academic decisions from decisions that involve social/emotional/behavioral issues, with the aim of rationalizing and streamlining the work of CAS, and delineating more clearly where decision-making authority belongs. This will be a longer conversation and we’ll need your feedback, but we’re excited about this collaboration with DOSO which we think will substantially improve the ways in which we handle student petitions, and allow DOSO to focus their efforts on student academic and social/emotional support. I should say that we know very well that wellbeing and academic issues go hand in hand and affect each other, so close collaboration will continue to be necessary.
Student climate survey Many thanks to Wanjiru and the A&S CDEI for all their work on an A&S student climate survey that will go out tomorrow. We look forward to reading and analyzing the results, which we will share with Chairs and Directors when they’re ready to help them understand the student experience in their units.
Faculty Grants Fund It’s really exciting to read everyone’s proposals – you all are a really creative and dynamic bunch. Funding allocations will go out very soon if they haven’t already.
Council of Arts & Sciences Meeting As I mentioned last week, our philanthropic advisory group, the Council of Arts & Sciences meets today and Saturday in Washington DC. We’re excited about the meeting and grateful to all our Council members and visitors for making the time to participate. I’ll have more to report after we’ve met.
Thanks for reading this far with your tired eyes and your over-stretched brains. I really appreciate it. Over the weekend, I hope you will be able to take some time to refresh your eyes and loosen up your brains.
Take care, Suzanne
Suzanne Raitt
Acting Dean of Faculty for Arts & Sciences
Chancellor Professor of English
Pronouns: she/her/hers
