University of Mary Washington senior Charles S. Reed Jr. is the sole Virginia student-and one of only 40 U.S. college students-chosen through a nationwide competition to retrace the historic route of the original 1961 Freedom Rides that challenged segregated bus travel in the South.

The University of Mary Washington Center for Historic Preservation has awarded the 2011 Historic Preservation Book Prize to "Line, Shade and Shadow: The Fabrication and Preservation of Architectural Drawings" by Lois Olcott Price.

More than 50 University of Mary Washington students are participating in Two Dollar Challenge Week, living on $2 a day in makeshift shelters on Ball Circle through Friday, April 8 to raise awareness of global poverty and microfinance.

Kyle McCartt met a bashful porcupine fish over spring break.
The University of Mary Washington senior biology major encountered the fish in a cave during a snorkeling expedition in the U.S. Virgin Islands with biology professor Steve Fuller’s tropical ecology class. The porcupine fish measured what looked like three feet by two feet.

Gari Melchers Home and Studio at Belmont will host a Spring Open House on Sunday, April 10, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event is free and open to the public who will have the opportunity to experience the formal gardens exploding with color as well as the verdant woodland paths and trails. Both the house museum and studio will open for tours throughout the day.Artists are encouraged to paint on the grounds in the plein-aire style Gari Melchers embraced.

The University of Mary Washington Department of Art and Art History announced its student awards at the opening of the Annual Student Art Exhibition, which will run through Sunday, April 17 at the duPont Gallery.

The University of Mary Washington’s anti-cancer charity fundraiser Relay for Life raised more than $65,000, easily doubling the funds collected in 2010.

In a June 1, 1961, article for Jet magazine, Simeon Booker wrote that "a fist crashed against the head of Charles Person" on a bus in Alabama.

Fred A. Pierce III has been named associate provost for enrollment management and student services at the University of Mary Washington. Pierce, who currently serves as director of undergraduate programs for the University of Tennessee’s College of Business Administration, will oversee all matters related to enrollment, recruitment and student services at Mary Washington. He begins work at UMW July 25.

The University of Mary Washington’s Department of Music will hold auditions for this summer’s Operafest on Saturday, April 16 from 2 to 4 p.m. in Pollard Hall, Room 304. Singers should prepare a classical piece. An accompanist will be provided.