WILLIAMSBURG — William & Mary students, faculty and alumni joined together Friday to mark the school’s 332nd birthday with its annual Charter Day celebration.

While marking W&M‘s 1693 founding by British royal charter, the event launched the Year of the Environment, which will recognize the university’s commitments to healthy ecosystems with a year-long observance aimed at advancing preservation efforts on campus and beyond. W&M recently completed its Year of the Arts.

“Our communities, our economies, national security, transportation, energy, food supply, all hinge on our ability to create science for solutions,” said William & Mary President Katherine A. Rowe. “To find the path to resilience.”

Noting that “nearly five million people” live on the coast in Virginia, Rowe said conserving the world’s ocean coasts and waterways has been the main focus of the university’s 2026 Strategic Plan Vision. The observance comes after W&M received a $100 million donation from philanthropist Jane Batten last year to support the Batten School of Coastal and Marine Sciences at the Gloucester Point campus.

Thursday, the university announced that William & Mary graduate Dr. R. Todd Stravitz, through his family’s Barbara Brunckhorst Foundation, donated $50 million in scholarship aid. The funds will go toward the new bachelor’s degree program in coastal and marine science, which the state approved Jan. 30.

During his remarks on Friday, Derek Aday, dean of the Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences and director of the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, thanked Stravitz for his “incredible generosity” and the commitment the gift makes to future students.

“Indeed, when you think about future coastal and marine sciences majors, I am asking you — all of you here — to think about the ways that you can influence their pursuits,” Aday said. “Everyone here today is in some important way connected to the 332-year-old legacy of our educational excellence.

“For future coastal and marine sciences students, with the support of this incredible gift, that means solving some of the most difficult, grand environmental challenges that we face.”

During the ceremony, W&M officials acknowledged the Indigenous peoples who once inhabited the land the university stands on today.

Todd A. Stottlemyer, alumnus, former W&M rector and Acentra Health CEO, received an honorary degree. He commended Rowe’s work as president while also praising the university’s recent coastal and marine sciences successes.

“For these, and so many other reasons, it is an exciting time to be at William & Mary,” Stottlemyer said.

James W. Robinson, 757-799-0621, james.robinson@virginiamedia.com