On Campus

President Richard V. Hurley announced in April that he will retire at the end of the current academic year. At Mary Washington for 16 years, he has served as president since July 1, 2010. Previously, he served twice as acting president, as well as executive vice president, chief financial officer, and treasurer of the UMW Foundation. Hurley has presided over the institution during a time of nearly unprecedented capital expansion. Projects include the completion of the Anderson Center and the University Center; the design and construction of Mary Washington’s third campus, the Dahlgren Campus Center for Education and Research in King George County; and construction of the 72,000-square-foot Information and Technology Convergence Center. In honor of the ninth president’s service, the UMW Board of Visitors voted at its September meeting to rename that building the Hurley Convergence Center. “President Hurley has made an indelible impact at Mary Washington,” said Rector Holly Tace … [Read more...]

Gov. Terry McAuliffe made three new appointments to the University of Mary Washington Board of Visitors: Heather Mullins Crislip ’95, Davis C. Rennolds ’06, and Rhonda S. VanLowe. They will serve four-year terms, which expire June 30, 2019. The three newest board members succeed Joseph Grzeika ’83, Dorcas Hardy, and Jud Honaker, whose terms ended June 30. Crislip, a Richmond resident, has been president and CEO of Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia Inc. since 2012. Before that she oversaw bipartisan policy projects for the Miller Center at the University of Virginia for former Gov. Gerald Baliles and served as the staff director of the Goode National Transportation Policy Project, which was honored by President Obama in a Rose Garden ceremony in 2010. Crislip led the Miller Center’s higher education policy work, including the report Front and Center: Critical Choices for Higher Education. After graduating from Mary Washington, she received a J.D. from the University … [Read more...]

You may have noticed we’ve ramped up our advertising. UMW students are sharing their real Mary Washington stories online, in full-page newspaper ads, and on mall displays, billboards, and bus wraps. Our great minds are turning heads from Norfolk all the way up to Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Maryland. This semester, we took our branded marketing campaign and the momentum it’s gained since its launch in 2011, and we moved it up a notch. UMW’s first-ever TV commercial hit airwaves this fall in two of our top target areas – Richmond and Hampton Roads. Catch us through the end of the year on networks like ABC Family, Comedy Central, NBC, MTV, and VH1. Or cheer us on during Monday Night Football on ESPN. With the potential for reaching more than a million people in the two markets, Mary Washington’s 26-second TV debut pulled out all the stops, calling in top industry talent from across the country. Director Ineke Caycedo flew in from Educational Marketing Group (EMG) in … [Read more...]

Associate Vice President and Dean of Student Life Cedric Rucker ’81 literally put on a different hat Sept. 26 when he took the Dodd Auditorium stage and foxtrotted through a V-J Day-themed performance that earned him the “best costume” award. He was one of 10 community members participating in UMW’s third Dancing With the Fredericksburg Stars competition, which raised money for another arts scholarship. With partner Melissa Scott of Strictly Ballroom, Rucker re-created that iconic Times Square kiss image. Commended for his fancy footwork, Howard Heppe, a local plastic surgeon, took home the first-place mirror ball trophy with a cha-cha-cha performed to ZZ Top’s “Sharp Dressed Man.” … [Read more...]

The University of Mary Washington welcomed an estimated 1,380 freshmen and transfer students in late August, its largest-ever incoming class. Of those, about 1,000 are first-time freshmen. Most hail from Virginia, but some come from 25 other states and Washington, D.C. Students from Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and North Carolina chose UMW – but so did students from California, Oregon, Washington state, and Hawaii. Aloha! Nearly a quarter – 24 percent – identify as minorities, including Hispanic/Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, black or African American, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and multiracial. Transfer students are important too. More than 350 enrolled at UMW this fall, most from Germanna Community College and Northern Virginia Community College campuses in Annandale and Woodbridge. The middle 50 percent of entering freshmen – meaning 25 percent scored higher and 25 percent scored lower – earned, on average, a high school GPA of 3.54, an ACT … [Read more...]

In ceremonies May 8 and 9, 2015, the University of Mary Washington awarded 1,158 degrees – 169 graduate and 989 undergraduate. Three students from Virginia, Claire R. Harrington ’15 of Chesapeake, Lisa Blake Johnson ’15 of Vienna, and Emma Katherine Leheney ’15 of Arlington, received the Colgate W. Darden Jr. Award for having the highest grade-point average over four years of undergraduate study. Each had a perfect 4.0. Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees were awarded to undergraduate commencement speaker Pamela Bridgewater and posthumously to Claudia Emerson, a poet and longtime professor at UMW. Bridgewater is a retired career ambassador with the U.S. Diplomatic Service. The graduate commencement speaker was Steven R. Staples, Virginia’s superintendent of public instruction. Other noteworthy honors were: * Grellet C. Simpson Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching – Liane R. Houghtalin, professor of classics, philosophy, and religion * UMW Alumni Association … [Read more...]

The family of a prominent alumna has honored her memory with the gift of the clock in the pediment of UMW’s new University Center, overlooking Ball Circle. Edith Logan Sheppard Ott ’59 earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Mary Washington, and eventually earned a doctorate in psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University. She served two terms on the UMW Board of Visitors. She served for many years on the Class of ’59 reunion committee, was a member and then president of the Alumni Association Board of Directors, and was a member of the President’s Council. For her contributions, she was awarded the 2010 Frances Liebenow Armstrong ’36 Service Award. She died in 2014. Her husband of 55 years, Matthew Nelson Ott Jr., helped Vice President for Advancement and University Relations Torre Meringolo unveil the clock’s dedication plaque at a ceremony Sept. 17. Also present were the couple’s children, Heather Ott, Matthew Ott III, and Meredith Ott; and Mrs. Ott’s sister, Sally … [Read more...]

Get on the line with Alexander Graham Bell and walk the line with Johnny Cash through the 2016 Chappell Lecture Series, Great Lives. Those are among the 18 interesting lectures included in next year’s lineup of this perennially popular series. Admission is free for these lectures, which begin at 7:30 p.m. in George Washington Hall’s Dodd Auditorium. Jan. 14: Jack London, by James L. Haley, author of Wolf: The Lives of Jack London Jan. 21: Georgia O’Keeffe, by Roxana Robinson, author of Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life Jan. 28: Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Feb. 2: Alexander Graham Bell, by Charlotte Gray, author of Reluctant Genius: Alexander Graham Bell and the Passion for Invention Feb. 4: Johnny Cash, by Mark Stielper, historian, essayist, and Cash confidant Feb. 9: Aviation Icons, by Winston Groom, author of The Aviators: Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, and the Epic Age of Flight Feb. 11: … [Read more...]

On the heels of an on-campus performance by one of The Three Tenors, violin virtuoso Joshua Bell will be the William M. Anderson Jr. Celebrity Series guest with the UMW Philharmonic Orchestra this spring. Bell will perform Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor with the Philharmonic at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 26, 2016, in Dodd Auditorium. The romantic concerto is one of Bell’s longtime favorites. Bell performs on the 1713 Huberman Stradivarius violin. Tickets can be purchased at umwphilharmonic.com/tickets/. Mary Washington audiences heard another musical superstar, tenor José Carreras, last month. In his only U.S. concert of 2015, Carreras performed Oct. 17 at the Anderson Center. He was joined by Irish soprano Celine Byrne and conductor David Giménez.   … [Read more...]

Juliette Landphair has hit the ground running as UMW’s new vice president for student affairs, with responsibilities for student engagement programs, residential life, health and counseling services, athletics, safety, and administering the student-run honor system. In August, Landphair joined UMW from the University of Richmond, where she was dean of Westhampton College and associate dean in the School of Arts and Sciences. She succeeded Douglas N. Searcy, who is now president of Barton College in Wilson, N.C. Landphair received the Influential Woman of Virginia award presented by Virginia Lawyers Media and the Bob E. Leach Award for Outstanding Service to Students presented by NASPA Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Tulane University and master’s and doctoral degrees in history from the University of Virginia. … [Read more...]