We here at the Gale believe in all the best things about William & Mary. We hope to inspire and motivate alumni and friends to take action and save W&M from its identity crisis. We do love a good metaphor around here. But we recognize that some people need real numbers. So let’s do both.

Today, we’re unveiling our candles: six ways to tell us where W&M stands, and how far on- or off-track it’s going. Check them out here.

These candles each represent what we think are some of the College of William & Mary’s most important strengths — they’re a report card on our core identity. We mean this as an alternative to our national ranking, which has been falling mostly due to changing methodology and now ignores the things that make us special. Our candles should tell us if W&M is being its best self — not capriciously chasing trends, ranks, or “preeminence,” whatever that means.

Here’s how the candles can look:

Lit

Flickering

Out

• Lit: W&M is achieving this goal by some verifiable metric. (1 point)
• Flickering: W&M is in danger of not meeting this goal. (.5 points)
• Out: W&M is not meeting this goal. (0 points)

Right now, the candles tell us the College is only meeting 50% of our metrics. But we know W&M can do better.

A few notes: first, we attempt to be agnostic about the College’s disciplines of study — we do not oppose new fields, new programs or new departments in principle. The pursuit of knowledge must lead where it will. Second, we do not attempt to address questions of access, funding or diversity. We deeply believe in all three, and there should be a lot more of all three. We don’t want to set any boundaries in these areas, especially given recent unfortunate news. But we will hold on to the relevant data just in case we need it someday. Let’s hope we don’t.

If you have ideas about how to improve our data, our candles, or our website, please contact us and share your thoughts. Over time, we’ll update the candles, add new report cards and establish a trend line. We’ll keep using our usual lofty rhetoric, but now with something more concrete to back it up. As always, take care of our College.