An e-mail sent to the community of the College of William & Mary suggests that interim president Taylor Reveley may lose his “interim” status.
The Daily Press has details here with a link to the e-mail.
By Peter Vieth
Former College of William & Mary president Gene Nichol and his wife, Glenn George, are headed to Chapel Hill, NC, to rejoin the faculty of the University of North Carolina law school, reports The Daily Press.
Nichol resigned the W&M presidency abruptly last month after learning his contract would not be renewed; he and George have remained on the W&M law faculty.
Nichol was dean at the UNC law school from 1999 to 2005.
The Board of Visitors at the College of William and Mary announced in a statement this morning that President Gene Nichol had resigned following the board’s decision not to renew his contract.
Nichol also released a statement, noting that he will return to the faculty of the William and Mary law school.
Nichol’s 16-month tenure was marked by a number of controversies, including a dust-up over the presence of a cross in the school’s historic Wren Chapel. This past week, several members of the board were called to appear before the General Assembly and to hear some members’ displeasure with the recent Sex Workers’ Art Show held on campus.
The board said that Dean W. Taylor Reveley of the law school will serve as interim president of the College while a search for a new leader begins.
Hope, Emily Dickinson famously once wrote, is a thing with feathers.
The new logo for the College of William and Mary is a thing without feathers. The NCAA decided the two feathers on the school’s previous logo were “hostile and abusive” to Native Americans.
But the new logo is pretty hopeless. It’s dull. W&M is a school rich in tradition and history, and this is the best they can do? The school was founded in 1693, for crying out loud. When I was at W&M back during the Bicentennial, we were known as “The Alma Mater of a Nation.” Thomas Jefferson went here. So did James Monroe. It’s in Williamsburg, home of pineapples and scrolly colonial writing and tricorner hats and little horsedrawn carriages.
Pictured above, it’s the letters “W” and “M” as mirror images of each other. Take a look. Tell me when you wake up.
The Daily Press has a report on the new logo, and three new “secondary” logos.
The paper says that the school paid $7,000 to a New York design firm for the privilege.
The NCAA may be happy that the feathers are toast. But the early reviews of the new look aren’t complimentary. An online poll about the new logo conducted by The Daily Press is running 81% hate it, 7% love it. Some 12 percent could care less.
Anita Poston, a Norfolk lawyer, former VBA president and W&M board member, may have put it best. She asked if the new logos would infringe upon the logo of Waste Management Inc., which has a side-by-side green W and gold M.
Great question. When your school logo could be confused with something on a garbage truck, it’s time to punt and start all over again.
Here’s one for the alums of Their Majesties’ Royall Colledge of William and Mary in Virginia: The Delly has been saved.
The College Delly, that is.
Back story: Last September, a plan filed with the Williamsburg Architectural Review Board provided a shock: Starbucks was going to buy The College Delly, and turn it into…well, a Starbucks.
The spelling-challenged Delly, at its current location since 1976, is a W&M institution. It’s a place to get a sandwich, to go on a casual and cheap date, to see and be seen. After the Starbucks announcement, someone started a Facebook group seeking to save The Delly. Current students started an online petition. Alums moaned and groaned, figuring each trip to Williamsburg and The Delly might be the last.
Well, fall gave way to winter, and The Delly still was there. Come spring…still there.
Happy news in The Daily Press today: The owner of The Delly, Dean Tsamouras, has sold to a local businessman, Jerry Tsitsidopoulos, who plans to keep The Delly as a restaurant and sandwich shop. The closing was held last night at the office of Williamsburg lawyer John Konstaninou.
A Newport News federal district judge yesterday denied an ex parte discovery motion filed by music companies seeking to discover the names of seven Internet users at The College of William and Mary the companies allege violated copyright laws by Internet file-sharing.
The group of plaintiff music companies includes BMG Music, Elektra Entertainment, Arista Records, Sony BMG Music and Virgin Records.
In their lawsuit, Interscope Records v. Does 1-7, the music companies identify each defendant by the unique Internet Protocol address assigned to that defendant on the date and time of the alleged illegal activity. The complaint says the defendants violated copyright law by downloading and distributing copyrighted sound recordings owned by the companies, and by using a file-sharing network accessed via the same Internet service provider.
Judge Walter D. Kelley Jr. denied the music companies’ motion seeking immediate discovery of the identity of the seven John Doe users.
Users who can access the Internet through William and Mary may want to do their own investigation by checking out the ISP addresses listed as an exhibit to the complaint. In the alternative, potential defendants can check out the playlist for each user and see if they recognize their own tastes. It’s a pretty eclectic assortment – country, soft rock, oldies, a little Dr. Dre, and yes, even Celine Dion and M.C. Hammer.
Richard A. “Dick” Williamson, a longtime law professor at the College of William and Mary, died last Friday, June 15. He was 63.
Prof. Williamson taught law at the school from 1970 until his retirement three months ago. He also served for a number of years at the college’s coordinator of legal affairs. In that role, he was involved in the school’s skirmish with the NCAA over use of two feathers in the college logo.
The Daily Press has an obituary.
Sen. Tommy Norment, R-James City County, and the College of William and Mary have quite a thing for each other.
Norment, a graduate of the W and M law school and a partner in the Williamsburg office of Kaufman & Canoles PC, represents an area that includes the school’s Williamsburg campus. He is one of the college’s staunchest supporters on Capitol Hill.
Norment worked to secure $5.4 million for the W and M School of Education, which will be getting a new building, thanks to the General Assembly. With that money, the project now can move forward with planning and design.
The ed school showed its appreciation by honoring Norment with the Jo Lynne DeMary Award last month. Named for a William and Mary alumna who served as state superintendent of schools, the DeMary award recognizes individuals for leadership in education.
And tomorrow, William and Mary President Gene Nichol will present the college’s Prentis Award to Norment at a reception in his honor.
Prentis Awards are given annually to community members whose civic involvement benefits the community and the College.
And for whom is this award named? The Prentis family owned an 18th-century shop on Duke of Gloucester Street that was a hub of colonial life. Members of the Prentis family have been friends of the College and the community since 1720, when the store was first established in Williamsburg.
