Author: Brynn Boyer

The university is looking forward to welcoming 347 of our new students and their families to campus for “FLIGHT SCHOOL” on Friday, June 22. The planning committee has been working hard to create a program that is both informative and fun for our incoming freshmen and transfer students. While we expect most of the guests to park in the Parking Deck, we are aware that parking may be difficult across campus. Please plan accordingly.

We will be hosting a meet and greet with families on the Lee Hall Terrace from 10:30-11:30 a.m. that day. All campus staff is welcome to join us and partake of the refreshments. Please remember to wear your UMW nametag!

UPDATE:
Due to extreme registration numbers, heat and possible thunderstorms the Administrators Meet & Greet has been moved to the Anderson Center Lobby from the same 10:30 to 11:30 time.  We have a FRED bus, golf carts and even a van to transport people from main campus (Lee Hall Loop) to the Anderson Center on a continuous loop.

You can find more information about “Flight School” at www.umw.edu/flightschool. The schedule of events can be reached via the link on that page.  If you have any questions, please email Chris Porter at cjporter@umw.edu.

Thank you for all you do every day to make UMW a place where great minds get to work!

Sincerely,
The UMW “Flight School” Planning Committee

From the Office of Human Resources.  If further assistance is needed, please contact Denise M. Holmes, Benefits Administrator dholme2@umw.edu

Special Enrollment for Medical Flexible Reimbursement Accounts ends on Friday,  June 22.

As stated below, you may now contribute up to $5,000 to the Medical Flexible Reimbursement Account (MRA) for the plan year of July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013.  To enroll, increase or decrease your MRA contribution, please complete the special enrollment form and forward the form Office Of Human Resources on or before close of business Friday, June 22, 2012.  EmployeeDirect will not be available for this special enrollment.

If you take no action your 2012-2013 MRA will remain as you elected during our annual open enrollment.

It is with deep sorrow that we notify the university community of the passing of Cheryl Hawkinson-Melkun, Assistant Professor, College of Business, a university employee of 16 years. She is best known for many years of service with the Stafford Campus writing center, prior to assuming her most recent teaching role.

Cheryl was dedicated to her students. One of her students once wrote, “Her enthusiasm and interest in the topic were infectious.”  Her department chair, Raul Chavez, commented, “Her legacy as a dear friend, colleague, and former Director of the Writing Center will live on forever in our memory.”

Our thoughts and prayers are with Cheryl’s family at this time. As listed in the obituary in the Free Lance-Star, the family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, June 22, at Mullins and Thompson Funeral Service in Fredericksburg. A service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 23, at Fredericksburg United Methodist Church. Burial will be private.

Virginia’s Executive Mansion in Richmond has a new addition – an almost 200-year-old painting on loan from the James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library. A portrait of James Monroe will reside in the State Dining Room of the Executive Mansion for two years to commemorate the bicentennial of the building’s construction in 2013. On Thursday, June 21, Gov. Bob McDonnell and First Lady Maureen McDonnell will formally unveil the Rembrandt Peale portrait in a private reception.

Members of the James Monroe Museum staff, including Director Scott Harris and Curator Jarod Kearney, were on-hand to help install the portrait in February.

“The process of transporting and installing the painting was carried out flawlessly by personnel from our art handlers, Ely, Inc., and staff at the Executive Mansion,” Harris said. “Peale’s portrait of Monroe is at a near life-size scale, and with its frame is quite heavy. Once it was in place, First Lady Maureen McDonnell texted the Governor, who was at the State Capitol, telling him ‘James is here!’”

The portrait, painted by Rembrandt Peale from 1817 to 1825, is thought to be based on an earlier bust-length portrait of Monroe painted by Peale from life. The James Monroe Museum has housed the portrait since 1985.

“What makes exhibiting James Monroe’s portrait in the Virginia Executive Mansion so special is that, while he signed the legislation to build the home during his last term as governor, he never got to live in it,” Harris said. “It is therefore fitting that he has returned to take up residence in the house he helped build during its bicentennial commemoration.”

At the Sorensen Institute of Political Leadership’s College Leaders Program, party lines are set aside. Participants are not allowed to disclose their political affiliations to each other.

“It bonds everybody together,” Brendan Oudekerk said. “It is really refreshing to get along with everybody…and know we are working toward common goals. Each person brings different qualities to the table.”

Oudekerk, a 2012 graduate of the University of Mary Washington, and UMW seniors Meghan Hobbs and Sean Simons are among 18 college students or recent graduates who were selected for the four-week-long summer program held at the University of Virginia.

The College Leaders Program, now in its eighth year, brings together youth leaders from across Virginia with a focus on ethics, bipartisanship, public policy and civic engagement. The Sorensen Institute was founded as the Virginia Institute of Political Leadership in 1993 in hopes it would identify and bring together Virginia’s emerging political leaders. More than 1,200 Virginian students have graduated from the Institute.

For Oudekerk, who is working toward a career in economic development, the program is a chance to network and learn more about Virginia politics.

“As a graduate, I’m using it to be more well-rounded,” he said. “It helps to come together with people from different backgrounds.”

The 18 program participants are divided into three groups – economics, higher education or transportation – to develop policy proposals. The groups will present their findings at the end of the program, in hopes a Virginia legislator will want to adopt the proposal.

One of last year’s groups actually got a bill passed, Hobbs explained.

“That’s everyone’s aspiration,” she said.

Hobbs, an international affairs and political science major, plans to attend law school after graduation, but also is interested in politics.

“I have been wanting to get a look into state politics,” she said, “so this program is really helping me with that.”

On Tuesday, June 12, the students met with Sen. Mark Warner and Sen. Jim Webb at the U.S. Capitol Building.

Simons, chair of UMW’s Legislative Action Committee and an intern in President Richard V. Hurley’s office, got to introduce the senators to the group: “It was an honor to have that privilege,” he said.

When the program ends on June 23, Simons says the experience of a respectful, bipartisan atmosphere will stick with him.

“A lot of issues are played in the media as being very polarizing, but people, especially my age, are much more willing to compromise and come together to find solutions,” he said. “I have a greater appreciation for what I think our generation can do.”