The Office of Student Activities and Engagement (SAE) is hosting an Open House Carnival next Wednesday, Oct. 7 from 5 to 7 p.m. Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to stop by the SAE suite in the new University Center to see all the resources being offered. There will be food, fun carnival games and prizes, including a raffle for UMW gear. Clubs with three or more members attending will be eligible for a drawing that could win their group $100 if they complete all the information stations available. We hope to see you all there!
Guaranteed Life Insurance Coverage Opportunities
We have two providers, New York Life Insurance and Washington National Insurance, providing guaranteed issue of life insurance (no medical questions and no physical). Please think carefully about your life insurance beyond your UMW employment because our coverage is a term life insurance policy. If you leave employment before you are eligible to retire, your life insurance ends. Here is the link to review the impact due to separation of employment. Full-time employees may review this link for information on the group basic life insurance benefit
If you are purchasing optional life insurance, please review this link.
If you want to know your coverage amount, you may contact Minnesota Life at 1-800-441-2258 or log into your MyVRS account (if you are a VRS Participant).
New York Life – all full-time employees are eligible to purchase a whole life policy from $5,000 to a maximum of $200,000. New York Life representatives will be on campus, September 10th and 14th in Lee Hall, Room 412 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. General Information sessions begin at 9 a.m., Noon, and 3 p.m. on each day. Please contact Denise Frye at 540/654-1210 or dfrye2@umw.edu, if you want to schedule an individual appointment on September 1oth or September 14th.
Washington National – All employees are eligible, however, guarantee issue up to $50,000 is contingent upon the enrollment of 74 employees. Washington National Representatives will be on campus in Lee Hall, Room 412 on September 8th, 15th, 21st, 29th and 30th and October 13th, 14th, and 15th. Stop by at your leisure, no appointment is necessary. To schedule an appointment you may contact the representative directly at kmmarcellus@gmail.com
2015-16 Fire Drill Schedule for Academic and Administrative Buildings
To comply with state fire safety guidelines and to enhance the safety of the UMW community, the University will conduct annual fire drills in administrative and academic buildings beginning the week of Oct. 5. Exact dates and times will not be posted, but the week each test occurs will be listed. Be assured these exercises are being conducted in ways that minimize negative impact on the University community, but their intent is to test emergency procedures with the buildings occupied.
Observations from last year’s round of fire drills are included with the schedule. Also, guidelines for how fire drills will be conducted are posted on the Emergency Management and Safety website so all are aware of their roles and responsibilities. Supervisors and faculty should make sure that students, faculty and staff are aware of expectations and have a general understanding of how these drills will be conducted. Questions may be directed to Briant Atkins at Brent House (540) 654-2108 or batkins@umw.edu.
2015-16 Administrative and Academic Building Fire Drill Schedule
| Week Number | Date | Building 1 | Building 2 | Building 3 |
| 1 | October 5-9 | GW | Lee Hall | ITCC |
| 2 | October 12-16 | Simpson Library | Combs Hall | 1004 College |
| 3 | October 19-23 | Dupont Hall | Pollard Hall | Melcher Hall |
| 4 | October 26-30 | Fitness Ctr/Goolrick Hall | Trinkle | 1201 William |
| 5 | November 2-6 | Alumni Center | Tennis Center | Brent House |
| 6 | November 9-13 | Fairfax House | Hamlet House | Tyler House |
| 7 | Nov 16-20 (Inspections) | Annex A | Annex B | Marye House |
| 8 | Nov 23-27 (Thg Break) | None | None | None |
| 9 | Nov 30-Dec 4 (Final Study) | Stafford N | Stafford S | Dahlgren |
| 10 | December 7-11 (Finals) | Heating Plant | Brent | Make-up /Resch |
| 11 | December 14-18 | Make-up /Resch | Make-up /Resch | Make-up /Resch |
| 12 | December 21-25 | Closed | Closed | Closed |
| 13 | Dec 28-Jan 1 | Closed | Closed | Closed |
| 14 | January 4-8 | Monroe | Jepson | Make-up/Resch |
| 15 | January 11-15 | Make-up /Resch | Make-up /Resch | Make-up /Resch |
Common issues and observations from last years fire drills:
- Generally most went well
- Marshaling or gathering points too close to buildings
- Some facilities had spent more time planning than others and this was noticeable.
- Fire drills occurring during class (or actual alarms) should be addressed early in semester to get students in the state of mind
- Some persons did not evacuate buildings. All are required to leave the building when the fire alarm sounds for whatever reason.
- Accountability of students when drills occurred during class. Some students were told that they could go ahead and leave prior to evacuating for the fire drill. There was a lack of accountability for both students and staff.
- Close doors where you can, but not an absolute. Doors contain fire for a period of time.
- Develop procedures with connecting buildings where the alarm may or may not sound when your building does.
- Staff should be discouraged from checking buildings especially where hazardous conditions, like smoke, may exist. Account for personnel outside.
Subramanian Publishes Article in Women’s Heath
Sushma Subramanian, journalist and assistant professor of English, recently published “A Shock to the Senses” in the October issue of Women’s Health. The article explores how we can can protect our senses in light of constant media overstimulation.
Nominate Outstanding Commuters
The Office of Commuter Student Services is seeking nominations for our October “Feature a Commuter” program. Faculty/staff wishing to nominate an off-campus student (whether they commute by foot, bike, or car) for demonstrating UMW’s values of integrity, dignity, respect, diversity, intellectual inquiry, responsibility and leadership should send their nominations and reasons for nomination to Meg Pultz at mgruen@umw.edu. Winners will be featured in the October Commuter Newsletter and will receive a $20 gas gift card. Thank you for recognizing our wonderful commuters!
Bonds Publishes Article on Iraq and Afghanistan War Pollution
Assistant Professor of sociology Eric Bonds recently published an article in the journal Environmental Politics on the U.S. military’s practice of burning its solid waste in open-air pits or trenches during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. While there is growing recognition that emissions from this waste have negatively impacted U.S. service members, Bonds used Google satellite images to show that civilians must have been negatively impacted as well. Bonds also conducted a content analysis of newspaper coverage of the burn-pit controversy, which shows that potential civilian impacts have been largely ignored in the mainstream news.
Marshall Presents Paper and Publishes Research Article
Andrew Marshall, assistant professor of Computer Science, presented a paper, “Unification and Matching in Hierarchical Combinations of Syntactic Theories,” at the 10th International Symposium on Frontiers of Combining Systems on Sept. 20 – 24. The paper will be published in the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series, volume 9322. Andrew also recently co-authored a research article, “On Unification Modulo One-Sided Distributivity: Algorithms, Variants and Asymmetry,” which was published in the journal Logical Methods in Computer Science in June.
Nabil Al-Tikriti Facilitates Debates on International Humanitarian Law, Forced Migration
During this past summer, Associate Professor of History and American Studies Nabil Al-Tikriti carried out many activities while continuing to actively serve as a member of the Board of Directors of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)/Doctors Without Borders USA.
For five weeks in May and June, Al-Tikriti served as a cultural facilitator/mediator on MSF’s “Bourbon Argos” ship off the Libyan coast. In the course of this period, the ship rescued well over 1,000 individuals from more than 20 countries.
While in the Mediterranean, Al-Tikriti co-authored an article with Ahmad Al Roussan addressing Turkey’s role in today’s migration movements. Entitled “Syrian and Iraqi conflicts move Turkey to the heart of Europe’s refugee crisis,” the article was carried in both the May 2015 print and digital editions of the Turkish Review, and can be accessed here: http://www.turkishreview.org/opinions/syrian-and-iraqi-conflicts-move-turkey-to-the-heart-of-europe-s-refugee-crisis_551188.
Upon return to the U.S., Al-Tikriti moderated a panel on International Humanitarian Law at the 2015 MSF USA General Assembly. Panelists included MSF’s own Francoise Saulnier and Jordan Davidoff, as well as Action Against Hunger’s Chris Lockyear and ICRC’s Philip Spoerri.