Welcome to our first issue of the Data Science & Society (DSS) Newsletter!

We wanted to share with you the brief history of DSS at Vassar, which is still in its infant stages:

• May 2020 – Letter signed by 69 faculty members from across departments & programs highlighting the emerging field of Data Science and its importance at Vassar; sent to President Bradley and Dean Hoynes.  Thanks to many of you who signed the letter!
• January 2022 – DSS Steering Committee formed
• July 2022 – First DSS postdoctoral fellow Simon Hoellerbauer arrives on campus!  Simon earned his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Political Science with a minor in Statistics.
• November 2022 – DSS “goes live” with this inaugural newsletter and website: https://pages.vassar.edu/dss/

DSS Colloquium Series.  In this first year, one of the main priorities of DSS is hosting a colloquium series.  Our first colloquium was held on Friday, October 7, 2022.  Dr. Marie desJardins spoke on Fairness and Equity in Data Science: Challenges and Possibilities.  Please join us for our second colloquium on Friday, November 4, 2022 at 4PM in Rockefeller Hall 312 with Michael Burnam-Fink (VC ’10, STS).  Michael will speak on “What is Scientific about Data Science?”  If you or any of your students are interested in meeting with Michael on Friday, November 4, please email us at dsscommittee@vassar.edu.

Coming this semester: Listening sessions.  Beginning this semester and into next semester, we plan to hold listening sessions to hear what those on campus think about data science or hope to see develop with data science at Vassar.  Look out for invitations to conversations on Data Science & Society at Vassar, both with all faculty and with individual departments and programs.

Coming in spring 2023: Technical Workshops.  In spring 2023, we are planning to host hands-on data science workshops for faculty who would like to incorporate more data science into their courses.  These will be open to faculty with all backgrounds of programming.  More information to come.

Interested in more?  As a faculty member, there are at least two ways you can be involved in DSS at Vassar-

• As an interested faculty – join our mailing list to receive announcements of upcoming talks, monthly newsletters, and topic-focused conversations (e.g., curricular development)
• As a steering committee member – agree to be an interested faculty, attend bi-weekly meetings, share the workload of building DSS at Vassar, attend talks and events

Email dsscommittee@vassar.edu with your desired level of involvement.  Someone from the steering committee will be in touch with you soon!

We’re sending this message to those who have expressed an interest in data science and society at Vassar.  Please feel free to share with others.  Thank you!