Data & Analytics

Providing access to data for reporting, analysis, and decision making

W&M’s Data & Analytics (D&A) team works with partners across the university to turn institutional data into trusted, useful information. Data & analytics is a shared institutional capability — beginning with university activities and questions and extending through data management, reporting, analytics, and decision-making. 

Analytics Explained 

Data analytics turns data into useful information and insight. 

Reporting and analytics are related, but they serve different purposes. Operational reports provide the detailed information people need to perform day-to-day work and answer specific questions. Analytics builds on data from operations and other sources to identify patterns, understand trends, measure outcomes, and provide context for decisions. 

Reports help answer what happened. Analytics helps people understand what it means and what they may need to explore or do next. 

How W&M Approaches Analytics 

W&M develops analytics so information can be understood, trusted, shared appropriately, and sustained over time. 

How W&M approaches analytics

Trust the Data Understand its meaning, source, quality, security, and appropriate use.

Use the Data Make trusted information accessible for reporting, analysis, and decision-making.

Sustain the Data Design data and analytics so they can be reused, maintained, and adapted as needs change.

Innovate with Data Build a strong data foundation for advanced analytics, automation, and responsible uses of AI.

How Data Becomes Trusted Information

At W&M, the journey starts with a question or need and with data created through university activities and systems. That data may then be cleaned, organized, standardized, stored, combined, and moved between systems and platforms so it can support reporting and analytics. 

Reporting, dashboards, and analysis help turn that data into information that can be interpreted and used to understand trends, answer questions, support planning, and inform decisions. 

Throughout the journey, governance, quality, security, and stewardship help maintain trust in the data and its use. 

D&A Team and University Partnership 

W&M’s Data & Analytics (D&A) team, led by Marcus Nieves, Director of Data & Analytics, leads analytics delivery, drives the university’s data and analytics platform, and contributes to broader data governance and management efforts across W&M. The team works with university partners including Institutional Research, to connect important university questions with the data, tools, and expertise needed to answer them. 

D&A leads and supports high-value institutional initiatives such as enrollment analytics, KPIs, rankings strategy, athletics analytics, and other cross-university priorities. Working closely with Information Technology technical and development partners, the team aligns data architecture, platforms, integrations, security, tooling, and lifecycle practices to enable quality data and meaningful analytics that are scalable, secure, supportable, and sustainable. 

D&A also provides leadership for the university-wide Data & Analytics Team (DA&T), which brings together Data Analytics Leads, Data Product Managers, and other data expertise from schools, units, and administrative offices. Sponsored by the Data Governance Advisory Committee (DGAC), DA&T helps align distributed analytics work with broader governance priorities and promotes trusted, consistent, and reusable data and analytics across the university.