What's new at W&M this year
It may be August, but it’s the start of a new year for William & Mary.
While new students, faculty and staff familiarize themselves with the university, those returning to campus may notice some new aspects of W&M, from the material to the academic.
Academics
Arts & Sciences is rolling out the third year of the College Curriculum, after last year's full pilot of the campus COLL 300 component. COLL 300 courses are designed to take students out of familiar surroundings and expand how they see themselves in the world, according to the COLL website. The campus COLL 300 courses are organized around faculty-developed themes that are connected to and supported by faculty-proposed campus visitors. This year will also serve as the pilot for COLL 400 classes, which are capstone courses.
Starting this month, W&M Law School began offering an online certificate program for anyone who wants to become a knowledgeable and effective advocate for veterans and service members seeking disability compensation benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs. Sixteen people, the majority of whom are veterans, enrolled in the first eight-week term that began Aug. 21. Applications are now being accepted for the next three terms, which begin in October, January and March.
Bookstore
The Sprit Trailer received a facelift and will be available for the first home football game on Sept. 16.
Back by popular demand, W&M Bookstore will continue to price match textbooks, including new, used and used rental prices. Price matching is conducted with bn.com and amazon.com. Some exclusions apply.
Dining
Cosi will be a part of the late-night line-up, serving menu favorites until midnight, Monday-Friday.
Qdoba now has a permanent location on campus in the Student X-Change and will be open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to midnight serving lunch, dinner and late night offerings. Qdoba will also be open from 5 p.m. to midnight on the weekends.
The Center Court in Sadler will expand its late-night meal swipe options offering burgers, wings, quesadillas, flat bread pizzas and more.
Boehly Café in the School of Business is now brewing Starbucks coffee and will offer a complete bakery menu with sweet treats, grab-and-go options and more. Boehly Grill will continue to offer grill favorites and have added a new sandwich line-up and international options to the menu.
The Tribe Truck received a facelift and will feature five different dining experiences throughout the year. Menu options will include farm-to-table, seafood, gourmet sandwiches and subs, international-inspired entrees and traditional “comfort foods.”
On the residential dining side, Commons will begin offering custom-made Buddha Bowls that allow students to choose from a variety of grains, vegetables or other plant-based proteins and dressings to complete their entrée.
Center Court at Sadler Center will see an expanded salad bar, a revamped Maize (vegetarian and vegan) station with additional hot options and a relocated Simple Servings (allergen-free) station. Nut- and tree-based products, including peanuts, have also been removed from Center Court in Sadler to provide a safer environment for students with allergies. Additionally, the campus dietitian has worked closely with the culinary team this summer to incorporate additional vegetarian and vegan options throughout the entire dining program. Students will also find that lunch has been extended to 2:30 p.m. and breakfast will begin as early as 8 a.m. on the weekends. Dinner will be offered until 9 p.m.
W&M Dining is continuing its relationship with KelRae Farms after it resulted in the successful harvesting of more than 3,000 pounds of food last year. Students are farming six rows through the partnership and have been harvesting tomatoes, onions, potatoes and melons throughout the summer. Commons added a hydroponic garden wall, funded through a Green Fee grant, which will supply the program with fresh herbs and lettuce. The garden will be jointly managed by student sustainability interns and staff.
Beverage machines, provided by Pepsi, now offer pay-by-credit and mobile pay options in addition to cash and W&M Express.
Facilities
William & Mary’s new Richmond Hall on Richmond Road, formerly a Days Inn, has opened, and residents began moving in over the weekend. The William & Mary Real Estate Foundation announced last August its plans to buy the property to use as student housing for upperclassmen while major renovations take place at other residence halls on campus.
Work on one such residence hall, Landrum, began over the summer. The residence hall, located off of Jamestown Road, is expected to undergo a major overhaul, with all-new finishes and fixtures to be installed, spaces to be reconfigured and a two-story atrium space to be created. Work on that building is expected to be completed by July 2018.
Also expected to be completed around the same time is the McLeod Tyler Wellness Center, located behind the Sadler Center. Ground was broken on the facility — which will contain the university’s health promotion team, counseling center, health center, campus recreation’s wellness programming and a Center for Mindfulness and Authentic Excellence — in June.
Work also started on installing an elevator in Adair Hall, one of the few academic buildings on campus without one, this summer. That conveyance is expected to be ready for use by May 2018.
Over at the Student Recreation Center, new HVAC and pool filtration system are being installed, and are expected to be in place by early October. Additionally, the locker rooms are being remodeled with brand new lockers, new flooring, new toilets, new partitions and will be completed this week.
Conference Services assumed responsibility for Kimball Theatre on Aug. 1 and has since been busy rebooking previously scheduled events. Additional information can be found at kimball.wm.edu, including a full calendar of events.
Flex MBA students are starting the fall 2017 semester in a brand new Peninsula Center in Newport News where students will enjoy tiered classrooms, well-equipped team rooms and common study/gathering areas.
In case you missed it: W&M now has a dedicated office in downtown Richmond located at 108 N. 8th St., in the Virginia Credit Union League building. The space is primarily used by the President’s Office and Office of Government Relations but is available to other W&M units on a limited basis. For more information contact Fran Bradford, associate vice president for government relations, at fcbrad@wm.edu.
Parking
Parking will implement a pay-by-phone feature after 5 p.m. for guests visiting the William & Mary Hall and Zable Stadium lots. This new service will replace the coin-operated kiosks and will provide for better efficiency when arriving on campus. Visitors may download the “Passport Parking App” from either the Apple Store or Play Store or by visiting ppprk.com
Sustainability
Creation of a campus wide sustainability plan underway, with the planning process expected to begin this fall. Input from the campus community is wanted, and several campus listen sessions are being planned. An online feedback from will also be available. Check the sustainability website for updates.
Additionally, members of the campus community will begin seeing more bottle-filling stations across campus, thanks to a plan that was finalized in the spring. The initiative, made possible through a $40,000 Green Fee grant from the Committee on Sustainability, aims to install at least one station in each high-traffic building on campus. The Committee on Sustainability is leading the effort in partnership with Facilities Management, Residence Life and the student organization Take Back the Tap.
Technology
As part of an ongoing effort to maintain and improve information technology services, email and calendaring services are in the process of moving to Microsoft Office 365. Email and calendaring services for William & Mary faculty and staff are moving to the Cloud, supporting the Business Innovation initiative, which is a strategic effort to improve effectiveness and efficiency across the university. The move will usher in a new suite of Microsoft web applications that offer exciting new ways to organize, manage and improve business processes.
