Author: Brynn Boyer

UMW will soon have more parking space near the Fredericksburg campus. Fredericksburg City Council recently approved a special-use permit for the UMW Foundation to build a parking lot on property it owns near the heating plant off College Avenue.

Demolition of three buildings, two houses on Thornton Street and a duplex on Powhatan Street, is expected to begin in October. The area will allow for 47 parking spaces for use by faculty, staff and students. The lots also may allow for some overflow event parking. The nearby Pizza Hut will not be affected.

Depending on the weather, the lot could be paved and open early next spring.

Eddie Perry, chief of police,  was recently voted vice president of the Virginia Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (VACLEA).  Chief Perry has previously served as the second vice president and as secretary of VACLEA.

VACLEA was started in 1973. It is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to promote professionalism in the field of law enforcement among the universities and colleges of Virginia, thereby establishing a climate conducive to the achievement of academic excellence.

For more information about VACLEA, visit http://www.vachiefs.org/index.php/affiliate_organizations/vaclea/ or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Virginia-Association-of-Campus-Law-Enforcement-Administrators/362741047112674.

Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies, was co-author of a research paper entitled, “Authors’ Response: Improving News Coverage in the 2012 Presidential Campaign and Beyond,”  which was published in the August 2012 issue of Politics & Policy.

Nicole Crowder, assistant professor of chemistry, presented the results of her research at the 244th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, held in Philadelphia, Penn., August 19 to 23.

Her presentation, in the Inorganic Catalysis session, is entitled “Characterization and Quantitative Determination of Surface Loading of Phosphonate Monolayers on Copper for Electrocatalytic Applications.” These results are part of her larger research project that aims to artificially replicate photosynthesis to use carbon dioxide as a carbon feedstock material.

Demolition for the building on the Hyatt Place construction site in Eagle Village began Monday, Aug. 20. It will take about one week to remove interior fixtures and physically separate the existing building structure, another two weeks of major demolition and a week of cleanup before moving ahead with groundbreaking and construction on the hotel.

Construction fencing has been placed around the vacant buildings and pedestrian traffic has been re-directed in front of the construction site with a defined walkway.

The hotel, a project of the UMW Foundation, is set to open in fall 2013.