July 27, 2026

EagleEye

A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff

Farnsworth Comments in the Regional and National News

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Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies

Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies

Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, has been quoted in several regional and national news stories:

Trump’s sales pitch: I’ve got a list for you (Politico)

An Early Look at the 2021 Gubernatorial Race (WVTF)

Study: COVID-19 Deaths Concentrated in Urban Areas Represented by Democrats (US News and World Report)

Protests in the US:  Can the president calm the situation? (CHQR)

Trump Threatens to Send in Army (CTV News Channel)

New Charges Against Police in Floyd Case (CTV News Channel)

Richmond mayor faces angry crowd after tear gas used (The Washington Post; The Virginian-Pilot)

Virginia Governor Orders Removal of Confederate Statue Amid Protests (Courthouse News Service)

McMillan Elected President of Archaeological Conference

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Lauren McMillan

Assistant Professor of Historic Preservation Lauren McMillan

Lauren McMillan, assistant professor of historic preservation, was recently elected president of the Middle Atlantic Archaeological Conference. She will serve as the president-elect until March 2021, at which time she will transition into the president position. The Middle Atlantic Archaeological Conference facilitates a yearly conference and professional journal for archaeologists working the Mid-Atlantic region. McMillan has been a member of this conference since 2007, while a student at UMW, and has previously served as the program chair, social media chair, and as a student paper judge.

Buster-Williams Participates in Virtual COVID-19 Discussion

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Vice President for Enrollment Management Kimberley Buster-Williams

Vice President for Enrollment Management Kimberley Buster-Williams

Kimberley Buster-Williams, vice president for enrollment management, participated in American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) virtual Coffee Talk event on Friday, May 1, 2020. Buster-Williams presented with colleagues Tom Green, Stan Henderson, and Jody Gordon (University of the Fraser Valley). The 60-minute session was titled, “AACRAO Coffee Break: Enrollment Planning for COVID-19 and Beyond.”

UMW CPRD and BU Classical Studies Co-host Webinar on Social Justice in the Discipline

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US and UK Scholars tackle social justice and the uses/misuses of Classics in Western education

The departments of Classics, Philosophy, and Religious Studies and Classical Studies at Boston University co-sponsored a webinar entitled “RES DIFFICILES: A Conference On Challenges and Pathways for Addressing Inequity In the Ancient Greek and Roman World,” on Friday, May 15, 2020, with American and British scholars and broadcast to nearly 250 attendees in the U.S., U.K., and a dozen other countries from Australia to Russia. The co-hosts, Joseph Romero (UMW Classics) and Hannah Čulík-Baird (BU Classical Studies), assembled a group of scholars to address a critical issue in a discipline that is rapidly transforming itself into a significant contributor in the humanities for social justice. Romero also delivered a paper entitled, “Walking the the Cleopatra Ode (Hor. carm. 1.37), Then and Now.” The conference had originally been scheduled to take place on the UMW campus, but the pivot to webinar after the COVID-19 interruption produced the happy result of convening scholars from all over the world.

Al-Tikriti Presents “Engaging with Higher Education in Azerbaijan”

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On Tuesday, May 12, 2020, Middle East History Professor Nabil Al-Tikriti presented a talk entitled “Engaging with Higher Education in Azerbaijan,” invited and hosted by Drexel University’s Global Education Curriculum. This talk was shaped by Prof. Al-Tikriti’s experiences as a Fulbright Scholar in Baku, Azerbaijan in academic year 2018-2019. In this presentation, he addressed points concerning American preconceptions of post-Soviet societies, Caucasus politics, and challenges of Higher Education in Azerbaijan. He wishes to thank Drexel University Professors Joyce Pittman and Kristy Kelly.

The event abstract read as follows: “In this talk, Prof. Nabil Al-Tikriti will describe his year serving as a Fulbright Scholar in Baku, Azerbaijan. In the course of that year, he compared his experiences teaching research methodology to undergraduates with Azerbaijani colleagues, conducted historical research in manuscript collections and university libraries, and assisted national counterparts in designing a proposed reform of Baku State University’s American Studies curriculum. In the course of his immersion, Prof. Al-Tikriti gained numerous insights into post-Soviet legacies in Higher Education, as well as in alternative models of university instruction.”

Those wishing to screen the presentation can access it via this event series link: https://drexel.edu/soe/resources/events/event-series/gec/May-12-2020-event/.

Lawson Graduates from Leadership Fredericksburg

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Kunle Lawson, head coach of UMW's cross country and track and field programs

Kunle Lawson, head coach of UMW’s cross country and track and field programs

Kunle Lawson, head coach of UMW’s cross country and track and field programs, was a graduate of the 13th Leadership Fredericksburg class, which graduated 31 fellows during a virtual ceremony May 15 on Facebook. Lawson has coached at UMW for the past four years; prior to that, he served as director of track and field at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. Congratulations, Kunle!

The 31 fellows – who came from such local organizations as Mary Washington Healthcare, Rappahannock Electric Cooperative, Rappahannock Area Community Service Board and the Central Rapphannock Regional Library – began their Leadership Fredericksburg experience last September with a personality profile assessment. Each month, community, business, nonprofit, political and educational leaders offered the fellows insights about their personal leadership journeys. In addition, each fellow was paired with a trained mentor from the business community who supported their progress throughout the program.

Prior to graduation, four teams from the class of 31 fellows presented the results of their Community Action Projects for the Fredericksburg Rescue Squad. Each team presented reports on their projects during the Project Presentations on Facebook Live. Read more.

Grothe Pens FLS Letter to the Editor on Clean Energy Act

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Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Pamela Grothe

Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Pamela Grothe

Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Science Pamela Grothe penned a letter to the editor of The Free Lance-Star, along with Julie Kay of the Climate Reality Project and Amanda Stebbins of Fossil Free Fredericksburg. Entitled “Cost of Clean Energy Act overblown,” the op-ed addresses the newspaper’s criticisms of clean energy and other efforts to combat climate change. The authors advocate on behalf of the Virginia Clean Economy Act, legislation that will help move the commonwealth away from reliance of fossil fuels and toward clean carbon-free energy. Read more.

Stommel Comments on Surveillance Platforms to Curb Cheating

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Jesse Stommel, Senior Lecturer of Digital Learning

Jesse Stommel, Senior Lecturer of Digital Learning

Jesse Stommel, a senior lecturer in Digital Studies, offered comments for an Inside Higher Ed article entitled, “Is the fight against cheating during remote instruction worth enlisting third-party student surveillance platforms?”

Jesse Stommel, senior lecturer in digital studies at the University of Mary Washington and co-founder of the Digital Pedagogy Lab, said “cheating is a pedagogical issue, not a technological one. There are no easy solutions.”

The work doesn’t begin “with an app or a license for a remote proctoring tool,” he said. Instead, teachers have to start by talking “openly to students about when and how learning happens,” so they take ownership of their educations.

“We have to start by trusting students and using approaches that rely on intrinsic motivation, not policies, surveillance and suspicion.” Everyone wants this pivot to all-online instruction to work, Stommel added, and anxieties about testing are high. But maintaining “the status quo isn’t possible and so-called solutions like remote proctoring tools will create many more problems than they solve.” Read more.