Author: Brynn Boyer

The University of Mary Washington’s Executive-in-Residence program, scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 31 and Thursday, Nov. 1, has been cancelled due to travel difficulties caused by the weather. The Executive-in-Residence for 2012-2013 Doug Dolton ’78, founder, chairman and CEO of San Francisco Motorsports, had been scheduled to speak to regional business leaders and meet with the students in the College of Business during his two-day trip.

The university hopes to reschedule Dolton’s trip for the spring 2013 semester.

Dolton has more than 30 years of experience in the financial services and banking industries and has served as president and CEO of Servus Financial Corporation, now owned by Wells Fargo, Chela Education Financing, now owned by Nelnet, and Zopa, a U.K.-based peer-to-peer online lending marketplace. He founded San Francisco Motorsports, a luxury automotive retailer based out of Northern California, in April 2010 and has served as chairman and CEO of the company for almost three years. He received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Mary Washington in 1978.

Established in 1989, the Executive-in-Residence program is coordinated through the UMW College of Business and the Division of Advancement and University Relations.  Since its inception, the program has brought more than 40 well-known and established business leaders to the university.

From a camera installed on the top of the Jepson Science Center, you are now able to take a look at the Convergence Center construction site as the work unfolds.  The WebCam feed is available at: http://provost.umw.edu/convergence-center/.

In the upper left hand portion of the WebCam window you’ll see a series of buttons.  By clicking “Just Watch” you’ll see still shots taken of the site at various intervals.  Click “Time Lapse” and you’ll see a series of images one right after another that go back several days and move up to the present.

Additional material about the project is also available at the same location.

John T. Morello, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs

Whether you work in an office with a lot of people or just a few, chances are there’s that one room or area where the lights are probably kept on even when not in use.  Is it a copy room that might have a few people going in and out every hour, but the lights are turned on in the morning and kept on until the last person leaves for the day?  What about your office kitchen?  It probably sees the most traffic early in the morning and between the hours of 11am and 1pm, but are the lights left on all day?  Clearly we do not want to be working by candlelight or microwaving our Smart Ones Chicken Fettuccines in the dark, but take a moment to consider those spaces and other areas in your office where lights are left on for extended periods of time when clearly the space is not in use.

Consider your own personal office space as well.  My office has two light switches.  Flipping just one on in the morning does the trick.   Do you have windows in your office?  (Lucky!)  Consider the feasibility of using the natural light your office receives as opposed to the overhead fluorescent lighting.  Also, if you’re attending a short meeting, walking across campus, going to lunch – do you turn off the lights in your office?   It’s in the best interest of maintaining a green office to do so.  Another tip in conserving energy is turning off your computer, printer, monitors, etc. when you leave for the day.  Even reducing the brightness of your laptop screen or computer monitor reduces energy use.  And when you’re away from your office, consider turning off your monitor altogether.

Hopefully you’re already doing some if not all of these little things that help to conserve energy.  If not, there’s no better time than now to start making these small changes.  And while you’re at it – take the opportunity to set an example for your co-workers by posting reminders and having these types of discussions during staff meetings or office gatherings.   If you have any suggestions for things we can all do differently each day to create more sustainable office environments, please feel free to leave a comment or email me the suggestion to be featured in a future Tip of the Week.

Last Week’s Tip: http://tinyurl.com/9w4sb2v

A segment featuring Rosalyn Cooperman, associate professor of political science, will appear on WUSA-9 during tonight’s 11 p.m. broadcast. In the interview, Cooperman discusses the importance of Prince William County to the presidential election, as well as the impact of women voters.

It is with regret that we inform you that Alice B. Rabson, former professor of psychology, died in Fredericksburg on Monday, Oct. 22, at the age of 92.

Born in New York City in 1920, Rabson taught at Cornell University, the Fels Research Institute, Purdue University and the Merrill-Palmer Institute before joining the Mary Washington faculty in 1969.

During her 15-year tenure at Mary Washington, Rabson traveled extensively and wrote and presented on the changing roles of women.

After her retirement from Mary Washington in 1985, Rabson joined the Peace Corps at age 65.

She was co-founder of and longtime counselor for the Rappahannock Council on Domestic Violence (now known as Empowerhouse). She also served as president of the Fredericksburg chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and was on the state board of the National Organization for Women.

A memorial gathering will be held in Rabson’s honor at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 25 Chalice Circle, on Saturday, Nov. 3, at 3 p.m.

The Free Lance-Star remembered Rabson in the article “Rabson Leaves a Legacy of Activism.”