UMW President Troy Paino showed his support for both teams in a specially made Devil-Goat Day T-shirt. Photo by Tom Rothenberg.

First-year University of Mary Washington student Brianna Miles had a plan for besting her opponent in the Rocky River Log Roll challenge – keep her fleet planted and move her body just a bit. And it worked!

The giant inflatable game was one of many matches set up last week on Jefferson Square for a uniquely UMW competition called Devil-Goat Day.

“Everyone I talked to was excited about it,” Miles, who’s studying historic preservation and art history, said of the event, a tradition that dates back to the 1920s. “I’ve only been here a little while and I’m already having fun.”

Her victory counted toward the Goats’ tally in the high-energy annual contest of school spirit, where Devils, who graduate in odd years, and Goats, who graduate in even years, vie to collect the most points for participation and wins. The top-scoring team walks away with bragging rights … until the following year when Devil-Goat Day happens all over again. Read more.

UMW’s ‘Dear Colleagues: Title IX Exhibition’ traces the 50-year history of Title IX, which prohibited discrimination based on sex at federally funded institutions of education. The exhibit will remain on display through the end of April for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.

The University of Mary Washington is showcasing a half-century of Title IX history this April in recognition of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

Offices across campus came together to create two Simpson Library cases spotlighting the 1972 law prohibiting discrimination based on sex at federally funded educational institutions. Since then, Title IX has expanded its reach, from addressing inequities for women and girls to providing protections from sexual assault and harassment, and considering bias based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

Nowhere has the movement unfolded faster than on college campuses.

UMW’s “Dear Colleagues: Title IX Exhibition” traces the 50-year journey, from the story of the legislation’s inception to the mark it has made at Mary Washington, where events stressing the need for education, advocacy and prevention take place throughout the year. Featuring mementos from campus functions like Denim Day, the Red Sand Project and Take Back the Night, the display also pays tribute to Title IX trailblazers, the movement’s inherent connection to women’s athletics and more. Read more.

UMW alumna Jennifer Clift ’00 will deliver UMW’s 112th Commencement speech on Saturday, May 6, 2023.

A University of Mary Washington alumna and top technology official at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD) will deliver UMW’s Commencement speech next month.

Jennifer E. Clift, senior scientific technical manager and chief technology officer for NSWCDD, Virginia’s largest federal research and development employer, will address the University’s graduating class at the 112th Commencement on Saturday, May 6, at 9 a.m., on Mary Washington’s Ball Circle.

In her current role, Clift drives the vision and heads the efforts for advancing the Center’s technical capabilities through investments, partnerships and education. She oversees the Center’s innovation laboratory, science & technology portfolio, academic partnering and technology transfer efforts.

Throughout her 25-year career with NSWCDD, Clift has served in various technical and organizational leadership roles. As deputy head of the Electromagnetic and Sensor Systems Department, she provided leadership to a 600-person organization supporting research and development in the areas of electronic warfare, spectrum operations and advanced sensors. Read more.

Educator, writer and independent consultant Gayatri Sethi drew on excerpts from her book, ‘Unbelonging,’ to deliver the Women’s History Month keynote address on Wednesday, March 15, at the Hurley Convergence Center’s Digital Auditorium.

There’s something perhaps as powerful as the stories being shared during this year’s Women’s History Month – the ones that are not.

“If our feminisms are not inclusive, expansive and intersectional, are they feminism after all?” Gayatri Sethi asks. “When we speak of women’s empowerment … are we reinforcing gender binaries or erasing queer and trans folks?”

These are the types of questions Sethi posed – urging listeners to interrogate, reflect and consider the foundation of feminism – in her keynote speech for the University of Mary Washington’s Women’s History Month celebration. The talk took place at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 15, in the Hurley Convergence Center’s Digital Auditorium.

Women’s History Month also includes a Great Lives lecture on Anne Frank at 7:30 p.m. tonight, March 14, at Dodd Auditorium in George Washington Hall. Other events planned throughout March, and hosted by the James Farmer Multicultural Center (JFMC), are listed below. Read more.

Noal Rod (left) and Diora Nabiyeva (right) prepare to compete in the “Roller Coaster” category at a Virginia Science Olympiad at the University of Mary Washington Saturday. The regional competition brought hundreds of fifth- through 12th-graders to campus. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.

Stafford High School senior Justin Kelly used a curious collection of objects to make his science competition entry last weekend: PVC pipe, duct tape, Styrofoam, a No. 2 pencil, half a sock.

Despite its patchwork of parts, the contraption – an egg transporter that represents a lesson in physics – performed well in the “Scrambler” category, which tests devices designed to carry an egg to a finish line without cracking.

The challenge was part of a Virginia Science Olympiad (VASO) competition hosted by the University of Mary Washington on Saturday, Feb. 25. The last of this year’s three regional contests, it brought hundreds of fifth- through 12th-grade science enthusiasts to campus to test their STEM skills in biology and chemistry, anatomy and meteorology, forensics and forestry, and far beyond.

“UMW’s role as host gives students a glimpse of what opportunities are out there in terms of college,” said Senior Lecturer of Biology Michael Stebar, who served as onsite coordinator. “They’re in a physics lab surrounded by a myriad of equipment and instruments. They’re in a biology lab surrounded by microscopes and preserved organisms.”

The event had young scientists – 63 teams from 32 schools – testing bridges made of balsa wood, clocks that measured time with water and sand, and a host of homemade gadgets and gizmos designed to meet challenges under a constrict of rules. The top performers will be eligible to compete at the state level later this month in Charlottesville. Read more.

From left to right: The City of Fredericksburg’s Victoria Matthews, UMW Professor of Geography Steve Hanna, UMW Professor of Historic Preservation Christine Henry, UMW James Farmer Multicultural Center Assistant Director Chris Williams, Fredericksburg Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw, City of Fredericksburg Vice Mayor Charlie Frye Jr. and U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine clap toward the end of yesterday’s unveiling event for the City of Fredericksburg’s new Civil Rights Trail, “Freedom, A Work in Progress.” Matthews and Williams spearheaded the project to bring to light a comprehensive history of the struggle for social justice in Fredericksburg. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.

During Black History Month and amid a flurry of fanfare, the City of Fredericksburg in partnership with the University of Mary Washington unveiled its civil rights trail: “Freedom, a Work in Progress.”

The nearly three-mile walking trail, with some stops a close drive, guides participants through post-Civil War history into the modern day, drawing together the stories – one never-before-heard testimony after another – of the Fredericksburg-area people and places that helped shape the civil rights narrative.

“I can’t even begin to describe to you what a fantastic day this is for the City of Fredericksburg and the University of Mary Washington, and more importantly for our Black community,” said Chris Williams, assistant director of UMW’s James Farmer Multicultural Center. He and Victoria Matthews, tourism stadium and sales manager for the City of Fredericksburg, spearheaded the project.

Featuring Virginia historical markers – one at the first stop on the 1961 Freedom Rides journey that challenged segregation of interstate travel – the trail’s 21 stops pull together a saga of persecution and peril, power and promise. They chronicle court rulings and protests from the Jim Crow era to the Black Lives Matter movement, stopping at churches, cemeteries, markers and monuments throughout the city, across the UMW campus and beyond. Read more.