Internal announcements of interest to faculty and staff.
Please join us in congratulating Jessica on her promotion to full-time emergency communications officer with UMW Public Safety.
Scheduling requests should no longer be sent to Jessica. Instead, please direct requests to Susan Knick at sknick@umw.edu. For meetings and other uses, please allow a minimum of 7 working days between date of request and date of use.
I wanted to draw your attention to our new summer enrichment program. You can find out more at www.umw.edu/sep . It’s designed for rising 8-12 grades and has a wide variety of courses. I am giving all faculty and staff a discount, so if your kids need to have something fun to do, just send me an email.
Best,
T
Teresa A. Kennedy
Professor of English
Chair, Department of English, Linguistics, and Communication
The James Monroe Museum will be hosting an elegant full afternoon tea in our Memorial Garden on Sunday, June 5, from 2 to 4 p.m., in honor of Elizabeth Monroe, who was born in June. We’ll enjoy lovely harp music from Mary Triola; hear a few words about Mrs. Monroe from Heidi Stello, research associate at the Papers of James Monroe; and enjoy delicious munchies and tea served by costumed members of the Rappahannock Colonial Heritage Society. Catering will be generously donated by Sodexo, Inc.
Our space is limited and reservations are required. UMW faculty and staff can purchase tickets for the reduced price of $10/person. For questions or to make reservations, call JMM Membership and Special Events Coordinator Adele Uphaus-Conner at x1123, or send e-mail to auphaus@umw.edu.
A great local photographer (Korie Lynn) and wedding planner (C&A Events) recently staged a wedding photo shoot in the renovated garden here at JMM. We wanted to share some of the pictures, because they are beautiful and give a sense of what the space has to offer!
Please keep the museum in mind if you or someone you know is planning a wedding or other special event! The site is perfect for intimate ceremonies and receptions and is right in the heart of quaint downtown. Find out more at our website.
On March 31st Epsilon, a company that provides commercial email services, sent notice to their customers that they had experienced a data breach. Their customer list includes over 2500 clients including TIAA CREF, US Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, American Express and Capital One. The data that was lost includes a list of each organizations client email addresses and their full names. A full list of companies affected is available here: http://www.securityweek.com/massive-breach-epsilon-compromises-customer-lists-major-brands
As a result, a notable increase of SPAM and phishing email has permeated the Internet. The resulting phishing attempts will be more difficult to spot as they will target only customers of their respective institutions and will be able to personalize the messages. This is known as spear-phishing.
We want to remind everyone that you should never provide any password or account information to anyone via email. Users should be especially vigilant in the next few weeks. All email should be considered suspect. Users should avoid clicking links within email, instead opening your browser of choice and hand typing the company’s address.
The university blocks thousands of SPAM messages every hour, but due the sheer volume and quality of this round of phishing messages, some may make it through our system. Additionally other personal mail providers will likely experience similar spikes in unwanted email. We want to ensure that the UMW community is aware of the dangers and repercussions of this recent incident.
There are several steps that you should take to protect your account if you receive a phishing email: