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• Dean's Friday Messages

December 15, 2023

Dear friends,

I’m writing to you with my final Friday message for 2023. Can you believe it? I think I’ve just heard a collective sigh of relief. I share in your excitement to bring another semester to a close – but I am also invigorated by working alongside you and the deep satisfaction that comes from doing challenging, good work together.

It has been an intense but rewarding semester and the forward momentum continues – right after we all take a deep breath and get some rest.

I think it’s important to reflect on all we’ve achieved, so here I offer just a small sampling of the many things happening across Arts & Sciences over the past several months, starting with the most recent achievements of some of our wonderful faculty.

• We celebrated the opening and dedication of phase 2 of the new Arts Quarter, and the dedication of the Glenn Close Theatre at Homecoming. Though the work continues, arriving at this milestone was truly something to celebrate. President Rowe launched the Year of the Arts, which shines an important spotlight on art at W&M in all its forms. The Year of the Arts continues in 2024.

• We saw the Board of Visitors approve the proposal for a new school to be formed by our colleagues in Computer Science, Data Science, Applied Science and Physics. As the next chapter unfolds, I look forward to strong collaboration between Arts & Sciences and the new school. I encourage us all to remain open and engaged, cognizant of all that makes W&M the place it is today, and to think creatively about how we can best meet the needs of tomorrow’s students.

• I shared an update regarding the Future of Arts & Sciences committee in last Friday’s message, and I am excited for this committee to begin their work in early January. A website for the Future of Arts & Sciences initiative will be available in January. Your input and ideas will be valuable as we navigate this pivotal time for Arts & Sciences.

• This month, we are in various phases of four key searches that bring significant and exciting changes to the A&S leadership team: the Vice-Dean for Arts, Humanities & Interdisciplinary Studies, the new Executive Director of the Arts Quarter, the Senior Associate Dean for Finance & Administration, and the Associate Director for Development (who will work with Gerald Bullock). We are thrilled to welcome Rich Lowry to the Dean Team, and we look forward to providing updates on the remaining searches in the new year.  

A few important notes for you as we prepare for our last week before the break:

• Yesterday, I shared the call for Spring 2024 professorships and fellowships (attached). Please take note of relevant deadlines for submission of nominations and creating Blackboard dossier sites.

• The Arts & Sciences website has a fresh new look!

  • If you scroll down to “Resources for…”, you will notice a Faculty & Staff button. Resources for Faculty & Staff has been updated to improve navigation and hopefully make it easier to find what you’re looking for in the extensive A&S library of resources.

  • Our communications team has compiled an ever-growing collection of resources and guidance and launched a new Communications Hub. Browse by topic and look for more information on this in the new year.

I want to close with my sincere thanks to each one of you. For many in our community, it has been a very challenging semester. All of us have grappled with world events brought home to our families and communities. There is unspeakable pain, and we acknowledge and hold space for our colleagues affected in any way. We also hold in tension the joy, too. Our W&M community has found ways to rally around each other, to continue to grow, to ask questions, to explore, and to support one another.

I’m so grateful for each one of you, and I’m so glad you are here – part of the Arts & Sciences community, and part of William & Mary. You belong. And I’m so glad you choose to be here with us.

My warmest wishes for a joyous and restful season, and now for the results of last week's quiz....

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You did remarkably well, given how easy difficult it is to look these answers up on Google. It's amazing how well hidden they are. Correct answers ranged from 64% to 79%, but I think some of you were teasing. I know you don't really think that the take-off weight of an Embraer 190 is 8 oz. Here, in descending order of the questions, are the correct answers. The longest commercial airliner in the world is the Boeing 747-8, at 75.3 meters (only 0.3 meters longer than the Airbus 340-600. Can you imagine the frustration over at Airbus when that ridiculously long Boeing slunk out of the hangar?). The longest commercial airline route in the world is New York to Singapore (almost 19 hours), so don't do that. You might get a DVT. The take-off weight of an Embraer 190 is, of course, 114,199 lbs. And finally, you all knew the Yule Log ceremony started in 1930.

It's late now, and I need to fill my hot water bottle (a special British thing which you may not have heard of, but if you haven't, you are missing an amazing warm, soft, cuddly experience - unless you don't have a cover for yours, of course.) What better way to end my first year of Friday messages than with some dog cartoons? In fact, what better creature than a dog? I leave you to ponder that weighty question. Please, have a wonderful start to 2024.