Messages from the Dean

We’re no longer inching closer to the close of the academic year, we’re hurtling rapidly. As you prepare to close out another eventful week, I bring you a few key updates and reminders and with them, my thanks for all you do to contribute to the excellence of our community.

Last week, we received the heartbreaking news of the loss of one of our students, Edwin Jay “E.J.” Baum, a senior majoring in Neuroscience. This year has brought great loss to the W&M community and our hearts remain with E.J.’s family and loved ones as they face the unimaginable. This week, SVP for Student Affairs & Public Safety, Ginger Ambler, shared an update on E.J.’s memorial service for family and friends, to be held on Tuesday, April 15 at 10:00 a.m. at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 228 S. Pitt Street in Alexandria, VA. Here is a link to E.J.’s obituary. The university has arranged for a bus to depart from William & 玛丽 at 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning to transport any students, faculty, or staff who wish to attend. The bus will return to William & 玛丽 following the service. Both breakfast and lunch will be provided for those riding the bus. Please RSVP to ride the bus no later than Friday, April 11 at 5:00 p.m.

It’s been a busy week on campus and as green growth burst forth all around us, we celebrated One Tribe One Day on Wednesday, another wonderfully successful annual giving day. Huge thanks to our wonderful Advancement team and to all of you who participated by giving or helping spread the word (or in the case of one department chair who shall remain nameless, running more than 50 miles on a treadmill while livestreaming). Also this week, we celebrated our inaugural Declaration Week. Declaration celebrations continue on Sadler Terrace today from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. so if you have time to stop by and celebrate all of our majors, please do!

I hope you had a wonderful week and maybe even noticed some bright yellow and pink and white things popping up all over campus: they are called “flowers” or “blooms” and are, eternally, a visual reminder of the changing nature of… well, nature. (Aren’t we all nature?)

As we move into the second half of the semester and continue to navigate this eventful time together, we also celebrate the many successes and achievements of our community. Your dedication makes Arts & Sciences the heart of W&M.

Friends, you’ve nearly made it to spring break! For me, there is reassurance in the rhythms of the semester and the many daily reminders of our community values, put into action in a thousand big and small ways.

Congratulations! You’ve made it to another Friday. But of course, the arrival of Friday means the arrival of my message. C’est la vie. As we close out the week, I want to take a moment to acknowledge your hard work and the countless ways you support our students and each other. I know I say this all the time, but it’s because I mean it: your daily efforts continue to shape the success of W&M and our world.

Though it can be difficult to suddenly switch your plans, I hope you have been able to enjoy the snow and perhaps a bit of forced downtime during the campus closures.

Our world, our individual lives, and our campus are filled with complexity—some components are wonderful, some difficult, some rather ordinary. But as we know, many things can be true at once. We contain multitudes, and I’m grateful that we are navigating them together.

I have been having conversations with many of you and I know faculty, staff and students are feeling the weight of various challenges and uncertainties. I want to acknowledge the support you provide to our students while also managing your own situations. Your dedication does not go unnoticed and I am deeply grateful for your resilience and commitment.

In light of Monday night’s announcement of an abrupt pause in federal funding—followed by its temporary block and recission—I want to acknowledge the significant impact of this and other executive orders from the new federal administration. I understand that this uncertainty is a source of concern for many of you.

This week, I’m thinking about that idiom “the best laid plans” which has its roots in a poem by Scottish poet Robert Burns entitled “To a Mouse.” Robert Burns’s mouse is called “Mousie,” an inspired choice of name. Why didn’t I think of that when my kids were born? Herein lies the key line, though my version might say “the best-laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Humankind.”

Here we are, poking our heads out of our parkas and peering around at each other as the spring semester materializes. I hope you had a restful break and enjoyed time with family and loved ones.

We’ve nearly reached the end of the semester and this is the last Friday message you’ll get from me until 2025 (though I can’t promise it’s the last you’ll hear from me this year).

I hope you all enjoyed a restorative break and quality time with family and friends over the Thanksgiving holiday. Today is a milestone: the last day of classes for undergraduate students. I’m grateful to all who made it possible for our students to reach this day, and very mindful of our two students who are not here to celebrate with us: Lana Fellows and Rose Way. We feel their loss keenly and my thoughts remain with the families of Lana and Rose.

We’ve very nearly made it to the end of the semester and next week we are on break! A final (and probably unnecessary) reminder that while classes continue through Monday and Tuesday, they must be held remotely.

As a Brit, I feel duty-bound to talk about the weather occasionally, so I must mention that, just in time for Thanksgiving break, it finally feels like fall. I have been finding peace and solace in nature this season, letting the scenery and (occasional) crisp temperatures serve as a reminder to be present. Also, being rained on reminds me to stay awake. Two quick notes before I dive in. Congratulations to Regina Jones, Fiscal Technician in A&S, for being the first to correctly identify the three locations in this week's A&S newsletter. Regina gets the prize! And also, for those of you who are linguistically minded, the subject line is in Thai. Very beautiful.

I recognize this may be a time of reflection and heightened sentiment for many. As we navigate the impact of events this week, I look forward to continuing our work together toward our shared goals.

It’s been a busy week across campus and this is a full message. I strive to keep you updated with only the most important, current information in my Friday messages and I am truly grateful for your continued attention to these weekly missives.

I’m not sure if you feel the same, but this fall semester seems to be flying by in a blur—an exciting and intellectually stimulating blur, at that! As we move forward, I wanted to take a moment to share several important opportunities to connect and engage on campus this week.

My heart is heavy with the news of the passing of one of our students, Rose Way. My thoughts remain with the Rose’s family, friends, and all who knew her. The William & 玛丽 community cares deeply for its own and this loss impacts us all.

I hope this message finds you well on this second day of Fall Break, and that you’re able to find some time during the break to rest and recharge for the remainder of the semester. Please take a few minutes to read these important updates.

W&M's Board of Visitors met on campus September 25-27. Members of the Dean Team attend every BOV session and below are a few key updates to be aware of following this BOV's meeting. As always, the board agenda, minutes and pre-reads are available online.

We are wending our way into October, and toward the middle of the semester. I don’t hear the word “wend” often, but I enjoy this definition: “If you wend your way in a particular direction, you walk, especially slowly, casually, or carefully, in that direction.”

As parts of the U.S. are dealing with the effects of Hurricane Helene, my thoughts are with any of you with friends, family or loved ones impacted by the storm.

After a rather grey and humid week, I’m happy to see the sun today. So many exciting and curious things are happening across campus. You need only to take a look at the university events calendar – and the many individual calendars – to see what I mean.

I want to start with gratitude for all you do. As we settle into the swing of a semester, yet prepare for energy and activities to ramp up this fall, please know that your work is seen and deeply appreciated. The Council of Arts & Sciences, our philanthropic advisory board, is meeting on campus today and it’s great to catch up with them. I’ll have more details about our meeting next week.

Though it’s been a short week (has it?), we managed to pack in lots of quality time, including our first Faculty of Arts & Sciences meeting of the semester, followed by our kickoff celebration. My request for temperate weather was evidently received and granted because it was a beautiful day to spend some time together, to talk, laugh, eat delicious food and enjoy each other’s company.

We’re off to the races! That is, if “the races” involve late-night syllabus updates, employing your best mnemonic devices to commit new students’ names to memory, and more semester kick-off celebrations than you thought possible. What an exciting time of year, and what a pleasure it was to witness our new students walking through the Wren arch lit up by their dreams and hopes. Oh to be young again.

Welcome to the fall 2024 semester. I’m back in your inbox, wielding (gently) my first (rather long) Friday message of the semester. As we begin this busy and crucial time, especially for our first year and transfer students and our new faculty members (to whom, welcome!) I want to share some important updates and reminders.