The following message is from the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:

Hello UMW Family,

I hope that your start to the spring semester has been strong and prosperous. As we have recently ushered in a new year I, like many of you, have been thinking about all of the good things that the previous year had in store for you. For me, this is very easy. I am grateful to have joined our campus community which is grounded in our ASPIRE community values that guide us in our daily lives. To be an Eagle means that we are Accountable for all of our actions. It means that we are always seeking the pursuit of Scholarship. In all that we do, we maintain the highest levels of Personal and Institutional Integrity. We work every day to foster a climate of Inclusive Excellence for everyone. Each one of us takes care to exercise Respect and Civility through our words and actions. And, we are Engaged in the upbuilding of the communities to which we belong.

Our community values are our philosophy as much as it is a call to action. We ASPIRE to do our part to make the world a better, more just, and inclusive place for each other. Now more than ever the time is right to be a beacon of hope in times of despair. Just consider some of the realities that we are facing.

Antisemitic actions, as well as subsequent harmful, hurtful, and unacceptable rhetoric, have been on the rise within our nation. It’s even made its way to an anonymous social media platform within our city. This goes against every principle of our community values and is wrong and reprehensible. Yet I have also learned of ASPIRE values being displayed on this platform through countering words of hate with ones of outrage for such behaviors and support for those impacted. That is what ASPIRE requires us to do in standing up against anything that is to the contrary and in so doing, transforming our world, one action at a time.

As a new year dawns, many of us also set new goals for ourselves. My goal is to support the initiative launched by the Vice President of our Student Government Association, Ms. Jaylyn Long, in celebrating and recommitting ourselves to our values through our first ASPIRE Week occurring April 10th-15th, 2023. In the weeks ahead, we will share more details about how our campus will celebrate each day of the acronym as planned by the members of the ASPIRE Week committee. We look forward to you joining us and hope it becomes an annual tradition.

So as the semester continues, I hope that you will endeavor to continue to uphold our values in all that you do. Our collective action has the power to make our world a better place.

Sincerely,

Dr. Shavonne Shorter
Associate Provost for Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer

Severe Weather Awareness Week will be held March 6-10. The Virginia Statewide Tornado Drill will take place on Tuesday, March 7, at 9:45 a.m. Emergency Management and Safety will conduct a test of the Emergency Alert System, which includes UMW Alerts, desktop alerts, Area Warning System, and the digital screens across campus. The test is being held to prepare Virginians for tornado emergencies. For more information about tornado preparedness, please visit the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.

For more information about weather awareness, visit Virginia Severe Weather Awareness Week 2023.

For questions about the event, please contact Christopher Cash at ccash@umw.edu.

To thank everyone for their support and encouragement, Grace Anne Braxton, longtime UMW Dining employee, Panera cashier and Special Olympian, wanted to create a menu for the Top of the CRUC and personally thank everyone. That idea is a perfect example of Grace’s spirit and heart. With that, we thought we would expand on her idea. Tuesday, March 7, will be Amazing Grace Day! She is an inspiration in many ways, so we wanted to take that time to thank Grace! Please join us on March 7 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for Amazing Grace Day at the Top of the CRUC. Chef’s Fare and the Campus Grill will feature entrees hand-picked by Grace.

On Saturday, March 11, 2023, the James Farmer Multicultural Center will host its seventh annual Social Justice and Leadership Summit, beginning at 9 a.m., inside the Hurley Convergence Center in the Digital Auditorium. The purpose of the summit is to create a valuable and meaningful opportunity for college and high school students to enhance their awareness of social justice issues and learn about strategies and resources to effectively address and respond to them. Additionally, this summit will provide attendees with an opportunity to build coalitions across cultural barriers, strengthen advocacy, and support the promotion of an equal, equitable campus culture and climate in U.S. society. This year’s theme for the summit is “If Not Us, Then Who?” A free breakfast and lunch will be provided.  There will be dynamic keynote speakers and leaders, as well as free T-shirts and stickers given to attendees.

Register for the event.

The Women’s Leadership Colloquium March Coffee Talk will take place Tuesday, March 14, from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., in person, at the Jepson Alumni and Executive Center’s Kalnen Inn Living Room, 1119 Hanover St., Fredericksburg. Street parking is available on Hanover. Register for the event.

This month’s Coffee Talk topic is The Power of Rest, led by Kimberly Young.

We often plan our days, our projects, or strategic initiatives very carefully with timelines and activities. But how often do we pencil rest into that plan?

An interesting fact is that physiologically, our bodies cannot repair without rest. Despite this fact, we often ignore our need to recharge and push past our breaking point to get to the next accomplishment. In this talk, we will explore the power of planning rest and the downside of ignoring our need for rest.

Note: This session is being led by someone who recently failed to acknowledge the warning signs and can share lessons learned and strategies for bouncing back.

Kimberly Young is associate provost for Career and Workforce at the University of Mary Washington.

She has more than 20 years of experience in higher education, leadership development and consulting in multiple sectors including education, health care, hospitality, and the arts. She is a facilitator and a strategic thinker who cares deeply about equipping organizations with the tools to achieve their goals.

During her time at Ernst & Young, Kimberly led and supported projects in process improvement, change management, strategic communications, and organization design. She managed large scale change projects in conjunction with new enterprise resource planning system implementations and implemented new organizational structures to support the evolving needs of her clients.

Kimberly has worked with leaders in classroom-based and experiential learning in the United States, Canada, China, and Malaysia. Ms. Young was the founding director of the Bloch Executive Education Center at the University of Missouri—Kansas City where she oversaw the Executive MBA, international programs, and custom corporate education. Through her work over the years, her client list includes companies such as Coca Cola Company, Garmin, Eli Lily, H&R Block, 3M Corporation, and Cerner Corporation.

She earned her B.A. in Public Policy Studies from Duke University, and earned both an MBA and a Master of Management in Hospitality from Cornell University. Kimberly is an active member of the Region 6 Growth Opportunity Virginia Council, the Mary Washington Healthcare Board of Trustees and the Board of Governors of the Community Foundation.

For more information and to register, visit us online.

The next Mary Talk will feature Julius Esunge, professor and chair of mathematics. His presentation, “The Ubiquitous Pi,” will explore how, where and why pi shows up and why it’s so important. The talk will take place on Wednesday, March 15, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m., online via Zoom. Register to attend.