Multicultural Fair’s Return Brings Fun and Funnel Cakes to Campus
Saturday’s 32nd annual Multicultural Fair – held for the first time in three years, under finicky skies – brought throngs of visitors to campus. The event is sponsored by UMW’s James Farmer Multicultural Center. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.
The Multicultural Fair is back! After a two-year hiatus due to COVID, the colorful, festive, crowd-pleasing event returned to the University of Mary Washington’s Fredericksburg campus Saturday. The nexus may have shifted from Ball Circle – sacred site of Commencement, and current incubator to baby grasses – to Jefferson Square, but the familiar sounds and scents wafted down Campus Walk, which was filled with people, dogs and vendors.
The sun peeped from behind the clouds every now and then, and random raindrops fell, but none of the activities were dimmed.
“It was great to host the Multicultural Fair in person again,” said Marion Sanford, director of the James Farmer Multicultural Center, sponsor for 32 years of this annual spring event. “It was wonderful to have the amazing vendors and dynamic performances throughout the day.” Read more.
College of Education Countdown is Complete: Six Things About Seacobeck
UMW President Troy Paino gives the podium to Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Rogstad Guidera at yesterday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony recognizing the official opening of Seacobeck Hall as the new home to the College of Education. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.
Future educators began filling its classrooms and meeting spaces this semester, but a ribbon-cutting ceremony yesterday made it official: Seacobeck Hall is the new home of the University of Mary Washington’s College of Education and Office of Disability Resources. A years-long renovation transformed the building – which served as a dining hall for decades – into a state-of-the-art learning facility to primarily nurture budding teachers.
“It’s so much more than a building. It’s about what happens in here,” Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Rogstad Guidera said during the event. “People gathering, connecting, working together… and helping people prepare for life matters so much to the health of our communities and to the future of the Commonwealth and the future of this world.”
UMW President Troy Paino, College of Education Dean Pete Kelly, Board of Visitors Rector Heather M. Crislip ’95 and Chief of Staff Jeff McClurken also spoke, as did Mary Washington junior Katya Stafira, who is studying special education.
“You’re actually able to put yourself in the space of being a real teacher,” Stafira said of Seacobeck’s specialized rooms and dynamic details that help students see themselves leading a classroom from the start of their education. The Office of Disability Resources, formerly located in Anne Carter Lee Hall, now has more space, including rooms for students who require more time for test-taking. Read more.
Alumna Adds POW! to Comic Book Pride for Women’s History Month
Based in L.A., comic-book writer Marguerite Bennett ’10 – widely published in DC, Marvel and more – is known for her depiction of female relationships. She will deliver the Women’s History Month keynote speech at UMW tomorrow night.
Marguerite Bennett promises to spill as much or as little as a University of Mary Washington crowd wants to hear tomorrow night.
The 2010 grad – UMW Women’s History Month keynote speaker – is brimming with girl-power stories in all shapes and sizes, in her career as a comic book writer and in her personal life.
“I love women, in their infinite forms, their infinite power,” said Bennett, whose New York Times-bestselling, GLAAD-nominated work has appeared in DC, Marvel, Aftershock, Dynamite, Archie and more. She’ll dish about her colorful – yet sometimes stormy – journey Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the University Center’s Chandler Ballroom.
Bennett ka-pow’ed and sha-bam’ed her way through a glass ceiling in her writing career, crashing into the notoriously male-dominated comic book industry while still in grad school. Now, with an earned reputation for her particularly genuine portrayal of LGBTQ+ characters, she’s encouraging others to harness their own victories. Read more.
(Please note: Marguerite Bennett spoke at UMW on Wednesday, March 9. This article ran prior to the event.)
UMW Renames Campus Hub in Honor of Longtime Dean
Rucker was emotional after this morning’s unanimous Board of Visitors vote to rename the University Center in honor of him upon his June retirement. Photo by Karen Pearlman.
His big laugh and bowties may not be present at the University of Mary Washington much longer, but a decision at today’s Board of Visitor’s meeting ensures that Associate Vice President and Dean of Student Life Cedric Rucker’s legacy will live on in the heart of campus.
The UMW Board voted today to name the University Center – the four-story hub of student activity on bustling Ball Circle – the Cedric Rucker University Center.
Rector Heather Mullins Crislip ’95 said of the decision, “Cedric Rucker has had an indelible impact on thousands of Mary Washington students and alumni. He made us better people and inspired us to live lives that are authentic, pursue justice and seek to deeply understand each other. I can think of no other person who perfectly defines the Mary Washington ideal than Cedric.”
The renaming goes into effect upon Rucker’s official retirement on June 24, 2022, more than four decades after he arrived on Marye’s Heights in 1977 as an undergraduate who’d go on to study sociology and weave himself into the fabric of Mary Washington.
The first African-American male graduate to live in the residence halls, Rucker soaked up campus life, joining the anthropology club, working at the library and radio station, and forming unbreakable bonds with his classmates.
“Mary Washington just felt like mine,” he said during a recent interview. Read more.
Soccer Player Kicks Computer Science Master’s Into High Gear
UMW senior Steven DeVerteuil is the first to take advantage of a ‘4+1 pathway’ in computer science that allows students to receive early admission to grad school and spend less time earning a master’s degree. Photo by Karen Pearlman.
Goalkeeper Steven DeVerteuil expects the unexpected on the soccer field. A startling score. A fortuitous save.
It’s what happened in the classroom that threw him off guard. A course he took to fulfill a University of Mary Washington liberal arts and sciences requirement peeled back the layers of a technology – and a world – he had taken for granted.
“It kept opening up my mind and pushing me in ways that I thought I could never be pushed,” DeVerteuil, a UMW senior, said of his major, a subject he discovered by chance. Now the first to pursue a Mary Washington partnership program in computer science and applications, he’s positioned to earn a master’s degree in less than two years and perhaps a career in the big leagues.
“I expect Steven will be very successful,” said Associate Professor of Computer Science Ian Finlayson, who was department chair when the program, part of Virginia’s Tech Talent Pipeline, was formed. Read more.
