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The below message was sent to faculty, staff, and students on December 2, 2024.

Dear ������̳ Community, 

December is not always my favorite month. It is dark before the workday ends, and it is usually still dark when I wake up in the morning. It is the month for exams, finals, and grading, which is a lot. And then there are “the holidays” that some of us celebrate, which are sometimes fun and sometimes feel like enforced socializing or like being alone in a crowd.  

A few years ago, I tried giving in to my December grouchiness. That didn’t mean I stayed in bed all day. It meant that I saw and tried to honor how grouchy I was, rather than pushing it away. I bought a sun lamp for my desk and a heavy blanket for my bed, and I kept my eye on the date of the winter solstice (December 21 this year), knowing that every day after that would be a little longer and a little lighter. I tried going outside first thing in the morning to get as much sunlight as I could, and I asked myself whether the long nights might just be an invitation for a bit more rest (and a bit more reading of fiction before bed!). 

I share this to encourage all of us to show up in December, however we are. We will have some extra opportunities to get together at the College – to come inside from the darkness – and I hope you will join us, as you are.  
 

• Thursday, December 5, from 9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.:  will feature sustainability tabling. Come talk sustainability and stay to shop until 2:00 p.m. 

• Saturday, December 7, from 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.: all students are welcome to stop by the President’s House at 1007 Wyndon Avenue for snacks and warm drinks and to help us decorate the house in woodland themes for our first year here. 

• On Tuesday, December 10, faculty and staff will gather from 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.in the Great Hall for a holiday lunch. 

• And on Friday, December 13 from 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.: the weekly Friday Faculty Happy Hour will be held at the President’s House. Partners and children welcome. 

We will also share the results of the start/stop/continue survey staff and faculty completed earlier this fall at a Town Hall for the whole community on Tuesday, December 10, from 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. in Old Library's Great Hall. This is an important step in our building the College’s next chapter together, and I hope you will attend. 

In other news: 

• We are interviewing candidates this month for both the Vice President for Finance & Administration (Chief Financial Officer/Chief Administrative Officer) and the Chief Information Officer and Constance A. Jones Director of Libraries. We will share more information as we are able.  

• Provost Tim Harte is in his fifth year of service, which is when all senior staff members are reviewed comprehensively in a process that includes input from the faculty, staff, their peers, and members of the Board of Trustees. Information will soon be sent to each of these groups. If you want to contribute and do not receive a separate email, please email me your comments directly.  

• More than 40 people attended the listening session to think about the next steps in our accelerated approach to sustainability. I invite you to attend the December community coffee hour (alongside the Staff Association Holiday Fair) on December 5 at 9:30 a.m. to learn more and share your thoughts. We aim to post the job description for the full-time sustainability position and invite applications early in 2025.  

• The steps and timeline for building the fiscal year 2025-26 budget are posted , and we will start that process this month. 

• There will be an update about  implementation this week – please continue to practice your patience (and remember your sense of humor). We will get through this huge change for the College together step by step. 

• A revised draft of the renamed Time, Place, Manner policy will be shared this week with one more window for feedback. We will finalize this policy by the start of the spring semester.  

• We received several submissions in response to the  around student space. Karlene Burrell-McRae (Dean of the Undergraduate College) and Jessica Vitali (Assistant Director for Planning and Projects/Campus Architect) are co-leading this process with students and moving things forward so spaces are ready by the time students return for Fall 2025.  

• The pilot testing center will be open by the first day of classes in January.

A reminder that the College will be closed from December 23 through January 1 to enable all of us to rest. I will be back in touch at the start of January with details about spring plans and events as we look towards 2025. 

With gratitude, 

Wendy

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President
Professor of Sociology
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(Pronouns: she/her - )