哈勒兰对全体教员说：我们掌握自己的命运
教务长迈克尔·哈勒兰说 发现他对威廉和玛丽的喜爱和尊重与日俱增。
“What has struck me repeatedly over the last 2½ months is what a wonderful university this is,” Halleran recently told attendees at the annual college-wide faculty meeting. “From the high quality and dedication of the faculty, to our very remarkable students, to the dedication of our staff and alumni to be what we pride ourselves on being: a wonderful liberal arts university.”
Halleran’s enthusiasm was obvious during the gathering that serves as the faculty’s official kickoff to the school year. He gleefully referred to statistics such as the College’s freshman class of 1,395, its 200 transfer students, its 25 new tenured or tenure-eligible faculty members.
He described the new 米勒大厅 at the Mason School of Business as “magnificent . . . something for us to celebrate.”
He invited the entire faculty to actively participate in discussions of the first of six “Grand Challenges” adopted last year; 也就是说，作为一所文理大学意味着什么。
“Everything else flows from it,” Halleran said. “What does it mean as far as our balance between teaching and research? 就整合专业本科课程而言，这意味着什么？ How do we take advantage of our attributes and turn them into our advantages?”
The remarks were appropriately reflective of someone who was described by various colleagues and associates at 之前的 stops along his academic career as “a visionary,” “innovative and collaborative,” “progressive,” “inquisitive” and “entrepreneurial.”
“(Retired Provost) Geoff Feiss left very large shoes,” W&M President Taylor Reveley told the faculty. “I am happy to say that Michael Halleran has filled them ably. I think he is going to become one of our great leaders.”
哈勒兰是一位杰出的古典研究学者，1981年在哈佛大学获得博士学位，他从迈阿密大学来到学院。 他于2005年加入哈佛大学，担任文理学院院长，该学院有4000多名本科生、600多名研究生和400多名教职员工。
在此之前，他从1983年开始在华盛顿大学工作，担任了8年的艺术与人文学院院长。
他利用这段经历勾勒出了他的学术哲学的基石之一。
“As dean at the University of Washington and Miami, every year my first question was, ‘Are we stronger in our faculty than we were 12 months ago?’ 教师 retire, faculty leave, some see their careers take off. It’s a difficult calculus, there’s no simple way to determine it. But if we are stronger in our faculty, our goals become achievable.”
The meeting’s question-and-answer session was, of course, punctuated by concerns over the recent state budget cuts assessed state agencies by Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine. At W&M, the cuts amount to $6.1 million, or 15 percent, of state support for the College’s operational budget.
Halleran, citing a 40-year nationwide trend in which public universities have seen constant slashes in support, echoed President Reveley’s long-held contention that public colleges in the Commonwealth need “new funding models” to complete their academic mission.
但他也恳请教职员工以更广阔的视野看待未来。
“In the short term, we certainly will have some challenges,” Halleran agreed. “But in the middle term and long term, we will be fine and will continue to be a splendid institution because our budget is not what ultimately defines our vision.
“I always like to remind folks that the most important things we do as an academic institution – whom we hire and whom we teach, what we teach, how we teach it, what we want to look like – these things we control beyond all else and these things are important beyond all else.”