A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff
ORIENTATION SESSIONS ARE OPEN TO NEWLY ENROLLED STUDENTS
First-Year Sessions:
Transfer Sessions:
Combined First-Year and Transfer Sessions – August 18
NEST – August 15-19
New Student Welcome – August 19-23
Learm more and find details on the orientation website. If you have any questions, contact Lillian Lester at llester@umw.edu for orientation information.
As you heard during the fall semester and reiterated in the spring assembly, we are well into our year-long, campus-wide initiative to strengthen our digital presence and ensure that our digital spaces are accessible and welcoming for all. This work is prompted by federal guidelines through Title II of the American with Disabilities Act as well as state guidelines in VA HB 2541, which updates the VA Information Technology Access Act. Both have deadlines of April 24, 2026, and require all state and local government entities, including the University of Mary Washington, to ensure their websites, digital documents, social media, and mobile apps meet specific accessibility guidelines for web content.
An introduction to this effort was shared at the start of the fall semester, and we’ve added resources online, focused on course remediation for faculty, and web accessibilities basics. These resources include Panorama and Screenpal, as well as tools in our Microsoft Office Suite. If you need a refresher or a reminder of these tools and tactics, visit the Web Accessibility Work Group Website.
Start with recorded training sessions and web accessibility basics.
The Microsoft Office Suite that we use at UMW already has website checkers specific to the content platforms, typically located in the Review or Message tabs, for example. As you draft and send messages, documents, presentations, etc., pause to check accessibility and correct any errors.
Learn more on our Resources page and watch the training videos from Microsoft for everyday tips.
This month, we’ll offer reminders for web editors. If you currently have access to edit a umw.edu website, you’ll be contacted with scheduling opportunities. If you’ve recently been trained in the new web theme, you’ll have the digital accessibility tools as part of the introduction. In many cases, the best practices are provided as part of the theme. Training sessions begin Jan. 28 through Feb. 19.
Sign up for a web editor training if you have access to edit pages on umw.edu.
The scope of this work includes all of our websites and the systems we use daily such as umw.edu and Canvas and includes documents, digital tools and other electronic content, including social media, and we are working with departments to examine out digital footprint and share best practices.
The Web Accessibility Team will be providing training in the near future on additional tools which will assist with enhancing accessibility.
We look forward to collaborating with you as we focus on federal & state compliance and enhance the UMW digital experience for all.
On behalf or the Web Accessibility Team,
Ruth Davison, Co-chair
Director of Compliance, Title IX Coordinator, ADA Coordinator
See an overview of the accessibility programming coming your way with a quick look at what’s coming in February, March and April, followed by a deeper look at February’s sessions, and an answer to the frequently asked question: “What score should I be aiming for in Panorama?”
If you have questions you want addressed, please feel free to send them to the Title II Accessibility e-mail: t2access@umw.edu. Your input makes these resources more helpful and relevant.
Thanks for everything you do to support accessible learning!
Mary Washington announced its fall 2025 President’s List and Dean’s List. More than 1,200 students achieved these honors during the fall 2025 semester. To be recognized on these lists a student must carry at least 12 graded credits of new coursework. Students who earn a grade-point average of 4.00 on all work taken for graded credit in a semester receive a spot on the President’s List. Students who earn a grade-point average of 3.50 to 3.99 on all work taken for graded credit in a semester are placed on the Dean’s List. Read more about the President’s and Dean’s lists.
The men’s basketball team is currently 17–1, marking the best start in program history, with recent wins delivering a major milestone for head coach Marcus Kahn. He now has over 400 collegiate victories in his career—making him one of just 31 active head coaches in NCAA Division III to reach the mark.
Kahn joins UMW women’s basketball head coach Deena Applebury in the 400-win club, placing UMW among only five Division III institutions nationwide with a pair of active men’s and women’s basketball head coaches who have each surpassed 400 career victories—an achievement that reflects the sustained excellence of both programs.
Now in his 12th season at UMW, Kahn has guided the Eagles back to national prominence, including NCAA Tournament runs to the second round in 2023 and the Sweet 16 in 2025, along with a Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference championship last season. On the women’s side, Applebury is the architect of the most successful era in program history. A former WBCA National Coach of the Year, she owns one of the highest career winning percentages in NCAA history across all divisions and has led the Eagles to conference championships, national rankings as high as No. 1, and deep NCAA Tournament runs, including Final Four, Elite Eight and Sweet 16 appearances.
Together, Kahn and Applebury have established UMW basketball as one of the most distinguished dual-program success stories in Division III.
Welcome back, Eagles! Get access to all our Group Fitness Classes for just $15 for the entire Spring semester. Purchase online at campusrec.umw.edu. Learn more at campusrec.umw.edu.
UMW’s Office of Sustainability partnered with Dining Services for Weigh the Waste Week recently to help students see how everyday food choices add up. Throughout the week, they were weighing post-consumer food waste in the dining hall and engaging students in conversations about practical ways to reduce waste.
The Weigh the Waste activity helped make food waste visible and sparked great conversations with students in the dining hall. Many students participated by taking the Food Waste Pledge, committing to simple actions like taking smaller portions, going back for seconds only if needed and being more mindful about leftovers.
Seeing food waste weighed in real time helps show how quickly waste adds up even in a short period. These conversations are a key part of building a campus culture of sustainability and encouraging long-term behavior change.
A huge thanks goes to student volunteers and Dining Services for supporting this effort. Together, we’re taking meaningful steps toward reducing food waste and advancing Zero Waste goals on campus!
We hope you have had time to review and reflect upon the January 2026 release of the initial complete draft of UMW’s Strategic Action Plan for 2026-2031, which is again attached to this email (see employee email from Jan. 8). As we continue this work this semester to refine ideas, assess resources and map out the timelines, milestones and measures for each action item, we appreciate your feedback.
If you have comments on the plan at this stage, please complete the UMW Strategic Action Plan – January 2026 Campus Community Feedback Form by January 30.
You can also provide feedback through the University Faculty Council, University Staff Council, or Student Government Association if you prefer, as the plan will be on agendas of upcoming meetings.
Thank you for your engagement in the planning process and for sharing your perspectives.
To learn more about the planning process and the priority groups, visit the strategic plan website.
On behalf of the steering committee,
Chief of Staff and Vice President of Strategy Jeff McClurken & Provost Tim O’Donnell, co-chair
In the Company of Strangers: AI and the Value of Estrangement
Dr. Alexa Alice Joubin, Professor of English at George Washington University
Monday, Feb. 2, weather permitting
4 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Combs 139
Reception to follow
About the talk: AI makes us strangers to ourselves in a productive manner. AI can produce uncertainties, but AI also compels us use estrangement as cognitive and affective intervention. We put our embodied perception and emotions on the line when we interact with human and more-than-human entities. This hands-on workshop addresses two of the challenges in our era: (1) data poverty despite informational abundance due to AI’s inequitable filtration, and (2) disempowerment through exclusion, which is caused by technological opacity. The solution to information inequity is open culture, which transforms us from mere consumers of AI to informed participants in the digital world. The antidote to opacity and exclusion is participatory justice through meta-cognition (the ability to reflect on one’s own thought processes).
About the speaker: Alexa Alice Joubin is a leading voice on AI, social justice, and higher education. She is Director of the Digital Humanities Institute and Professor of English, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Theatre, International Affairs, and East Asian Languages and Literatures at George Washington University. She is a faculty of the Trustworthy AI Initiative and an affiliate at the NSF’s Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law & Society. In 2024, she was named the inaugural Public Interest Technology Scholar.
The Center for AI and the Liberal Arts invites you to a Public Debate on the question:
Should the University of Mary Washington be an AI University?
Wednesday, Feb. 4 at 3:30 p.m.
Weatherly Wing, Seacobeck Hall
Arguing for the resolution: Anand Rao (CDS)
Arguing against the resolution: Stefan Bauschard (Adjunct CDS; Berkeley Prep Debate Coach)
Moderator: Tim O’Donnell
This debate will explore what it might mean—academically, institutionally, and culturally— if UMW were to define itself as an “AI University.” Following the debate, there will be time for audience questions and discussion. Please encourage your students to attend. We will have attendance sheets available and will share copies with instructors after the event.
We also invite you to send us suggested lines of argument or key questions in advance, especially issues you would like to see addressed in the opening speeches. This is meant to be a fun and engaging debate with a provocative topic. I would like to follow the debate with an open forum in the coming weeks for a more deliberative conversation of AI initiatives, including curricular proposals. I hope this public debate prompts ongoing discussion about the university’s future, and I welcome suggestions for how the Center can support those discussions.
This event is sponsored by the Center for AI and the Liberal Arts and is open to the public. We hope you will join us for what should be a thoughtful and engaging conversation about the University’s direction.