The UMW Office of Alumni Relations is pleased to host their second biannual Volunteer Leadership Summit January 31 – February 2. Nearly 90 alumni leaders from across the country are expected on campus to network, share ideas, and learn leadership strategies and best practices. Summit highlights include a presentation by Shin Fujiyama ’07, Founder and Executive Director, Students Helping Honduras, and a keynote address by Capt. Nizhonlii Robinson, of the United States Naval Academy, entitled “Leadership is a Relationship.” The summit will conclude with a “Spirited Social” at A. Smith Bowman Distillery. Representatives from the Alumni Association Board of Directors, Young Alumni Council, UMW Foundation Board of Directors, College of Business Executive Advisory Board, College of Arts & Sciences Advisory Board, College of Education Advisory Board, Regional Network Leaders, Affinity Group Leaders, Honors Program Advisory Board, Student Alumni Ambassadors, and others will be in attendance. A few spaces remain for faculty and staff to attend. Email Mark Thaden – mthad2zw@umw.edu if you would like to attend.
Great Lives Continues with JFK and James Bond, Francis Gary Powers
The 17th season of the William B. Crawley Great Lives Lecture Series continues this evening, Jan. 30, with a look at the handsome, young president who was the epitome of masculinity in the early 1960s and the debonair spy who captivated fiction readers and filmgoers, including JFK himself. This series is open to the public free of charge and no admission tickets are required. Programs begin at 7:30 p.m. in Dodd Auditorium in George Washington Hall. Each lecture concludes with an audience Q&A session with the speaker and a book-signing. The John and Linda Coker Lecture.
Steven Watts’ JFK and the Masculine Mystique: Sex and Power on the New Frontier argues that John F. Kennedy may best be understood as a cultural rather than a political figure. A widespread crisis of manhood in the 1950s pictured American males as falling victim to the drudgery of bureaucracy and the softness of consumerism. The fighting man of World War II had given way to the timid, domesticated suburban father and husband in the Age of Eisenhower. Then the youthful, vigorous JFK burst on the public scene as the picture of male physical fitness and glamour. His ethic of “tough-mindedness,” energy, and “cool” promised to regenerate American public life as he swept into the presidency.
JFK’s masculine mystique was heightened by his association with virile icons such as Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, Norman Mailer, Hugh Hefner, General Maxwell Taylor, the Green Berets, and the Mercury 7 astronauts. But the New Frontier’s vigorous masculinity was nowhere better reflected than in a British writer, Ian Fleming, who became friends with the young president, and his creation, James Bond, a fictional secret agent who starred in some of Kennedy’s favorite books.
The Great Lives series will continue on Tuesday, Feb. 4, with Spy Pilot, about the life of American pilot and Cold War captive, Francis Gary Powers. The lecture will be given by his son and biographer, Francis Gary Powers Jr. The Community Bank of the Chesapeake Lecture.
One of the most widely discussed and controversial events of the Cold War was the downing of the American U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers over the Soviet Union on May 1, 1960. The event was recently depicted in the Steven Spielberg movie Bridge of Spies. Powers was captured by the KGB, subjected to a televised show trial, and imprisoned, all of which created an international incident. Soviet authorities eventually released him in exchange for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. On his return to the United States, Powers was exonerated of any wrongdoing while imprisoned in Russia, yet a cloud of controversy lingered until his untimely death in 1977.
His son, Francis Gary Powers Jr., has written a new account of his father’s life based on personal files that have never been previously available. Delving into old audio tapes, the transcript of his father’s debriefing by the CIA, other recently declassified documents about the U-2 program, and interviews with his contemporaries, Powers sets the record straight. The result is a fascinating piece of Cold War history which will be the focus of this lecture — one proving that Francis Gary Powers acted honorably through a trying ordeal in service to his country.
Great Lives continues on Thursday, Feb. 6 with The Beach Boys, with author Peter Ames Carlin.
UMW Galleries Highlight Alumni and Faculty Artists Past and Present
Origins
A retrospective of artwork from Mary Washington alumni and faculty past and present will be featured in one of two exhibitions hosted by the UMW Galleries, beginning on Thursday, Feb. 6. The other will honor the legacy of a former professor who was instrumental in cultivating the University’s art collection.
The exhibits, Origins: UMW Ceramics Faculty and Alumni in the duPont Gallery, and Julien Binford: A Legacy of Inspiration & Enterprise in the Ridderhof Martin Gallery, will open with receptions from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday.
Origins, which will be on display through March 29, showcases the diverse artwork of faculty and alumni from the University of Mary Washington’s ceramics program over the past 50 years. It is also a concurrent exhibition for this year’s National Conference on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), to be held in Richmond Virginia in late March.
Julien Binford
By bringing together a variety of expressions, techniques and processes, the exhibition highlights the success of our former students and the strength of our department while illustrating the range and depth of contemporary ceramic art. From sculptural objects and installations to functional pottery, Origins celebrates our community, and reiterates Mary Washington’s identity as an institution grounded in the liberal arts.
Julien Binford, on display through March 15, honors the legacy of former Mary Washington Professor of Art, Julien Binford. The show presents preparatory drawings that Binford created during the 1940s and early 1950s for important commissions he received from LIFE Magazine and The Greenwich Savings Bank. These works were graciously loaned by Maureen Paige (UMW, Class of 1970), a former student of Julien Binford. Also on display are artworks acquired by Binford during his tenure at Mary Washington.
PCOW: Sleep Hygiene Workshop
The President Council on Wellness (PCOW) is sponsoring a Sleep Hygiene Workshop facilitated by Dr. Wang and Dr. Zukor on Thursday, February 6th at 4:00pm on the 2nd Floor of the University Center. Our discussion will be on the importance of sleep, what can help us with sleep and what can interfere with our sleep. What do you do when you can’t sleep? Come join us for some great information and helpful tips. For more information, please contact us at wellness@umw.edu.
Teacher of the Year Shares Mission of Equity at UMW
Rodney Robinson, the 2019 National Teacher of the Year, will speak to aspiring educators from UMW’s College of Education and the local community on Wednesday, Jan. 29, at 6 p.m. in Dodd Auditorium.
Rodney Robinson was inspired to become a teacher because of his mother. Growing up in rural Virginia, segregation and poverty hindered her own education, but it didn’t stop her from finding her calling teaching young children in her home daycare.
“She always taught us that every child deserves the proper amount of love to get where he or she needs,” Robinson said.
Named 2019 National Teacher of the Year, he will share his teaching philosophies, and his support of economic and cultural equity in the classroom, with aspiring educators from UMW’s College of Education and the local community. The talk will take place next Wednesday, Jan. 29, at 6 p.m. in Dodd Auditorium.
Robinson said he took his mother’s lesson, which he shared recently with his alma mater, Virginia State University (VSU), to heart. Since 2015, he’s taught history at a juvenile detention center in Richmond, believing that access to a quality education and empathetic teachers can be keys to success for these students.
“Mr. Robinson is making a positive difference in the lives of students who need it the most,” said Pete Kelly, Dean of UMW’s College of Education. “As the National Teacher of the Year, he has an important story to tell, and I encourage everyone to come hear him speak.” Read more.
Great Lives Series Continues with Tiger Woods, D-Day Girls
The 17th season of the William B. Crawley Great Lives Lecture Series continues this evening, Jan. 23, with a look at PGA Champion and one of the greatest golfers of all time, Tiger Woods. This series is open to the public free of charge and no admission tickets are required. Programs begin at 7:30 p.m. in Dodd Auditorium in George Washington Hall. Each lecture concludes with an audience Q&A session with the speaker and a book-signing. The sPower Lecture.
In their 2018 New York Times bestselling biography Tiger Woods, authors Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian wrote that “in 2009, Tiger Woods was the most famous athlete on the planet, a transcendental star of almost unfathomable fame and fortune, living what appeared to be the perfect life. Married to a Swedish beauty and the father of two young children, he was the winner of fourteen major golf championships and earning more than 100 million dollars annually. But it was all a carefully crafted illusion. As it turned out, Woods had been living a double life for years – one that unraveled in the aftermath of a Thanksgiving night car crash that exposed his serial infidelity and sent his personal and professional lives over a cliff.”
In their book, based on hundreds of interviews with people from every facet of Woods’ life, and extensive and careful research, the authors have uncovered new and surprising details about the man behind the myth. The resulting biography—upon which Benedict’s presentation is based—presents a sweeping, revealing, and defining biography of an American icon.
The Great Lives series will continue on Tuesday, Jan. 28 with D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II, with author Sarah Rose. The Chancellor’s Village Lecture.
In 1942, the Allies were losing, Germany seemed unstoppable, and every able man in England was fighting. Churchill believed Britain was locked in an existential battle and created a secret agency, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), whose spies were trained in everything from demolition to sharp-shooting. Their job, he declared, was “to set Europe ablaze!” But with most men on the frontlines, the SOE did something unprecedented: it recruited women. Thirty-nine women answered the call, leaving their lives and families to become saboteurs in France. Half were caught, and a third did not make it home alive.
Sarah Rose draws on recently declassified files, diaries, and oral histories to tell the story of three of these women. There’s Odette Sansom, a young mother who feels suffocated by domestic life and sees the war as her ticket out; Lise de Baissac, an unflappable aristocrat with the mind of a natural leader; and Andrée Borrel, the streetwise organizer of the Paris Resistance. Together, they derailed trains, blew up weapons caches, destroyed power and phone lines, and gathered crucial intelligence—laying the groundwork for the D-Day invasion that proved to be the turning point in the war.
Chavis Delivered Keynote Address for UMW’s Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration
A civil rights trailblazer and former NAACP executive director, Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr. was the keynote speaker for UMW’s MLK Jr. Celebration.
In 1961, Benjamin Chavis Jr., tired of reading tattered books, boldly marched into the whites-only library in Oxford, North Carolina. The young teen, already a NAACP member, was promptly asked to leave; instead, he stood his ground.
“He asked why,” a friend recalled to The New York Times. “A lot of us when we were told to go away would just do so, but Ben would always challenge, always ask why.”
Chavis’ persistence resulted in blacks being able to borrow books from the Oxford library. It also led to a lifelong career fighting for justice and equality. Just two years after the library incident, he became a statewide youth coordinator for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Now a civil rights icon himself and the NAACP’s former executive director, Chavis delivered the University of Mary Washington’s MLK Jr. Celebration keynote address on Wednesday in the University Center’s Chandler Ballroom. The event was sponsored by the Office of the President.
Hosted by the James Farmer Multicultural Center (JFMC), this weeklong celebration recognizes the life – and assassination – of Dr. King. Events include an MLK Jr. Kids Day, a documentary on his life and legacy, a Day of Service for the UMW community, and a visual and performing arts event honoring King and other champions of social justice. Read more.
PCOW: January 29th Sleep Event
The President’s Council on Wellness (PCOW) is sponsoring a Faculty and Staff CommonHealth of Virginia event this month called, Getting Your ZZZs on Wednesday, January 29th from 11am to Noon in the UC Capital Room 314.
A goodnight’s rest can be determined by many different aspects and circumstances. The CommonHealth program (which is a free-state employee wellness program) mentions that “Our bodies have a powerful internal drive to sleep, and sleep is critical to our heart health and well-being. Not only does sleep give our hearts a break by reducing heart rate, blood pressure, and stress hormones, it also boosts learning, memory, and our immune system. NIH (National Institute of Health) recommends 7-8 hours of sleep daily for adults, and studies suggest that sleep is just as important for survival as eating, drinking, and breathing.” Come join us as we find out tips for good sleep hygiene, getting the best night’s sleep, and what signs might show up for sleeping disorders. If you have any questions, please contact us at wellness@umw.edu.
Mindfulness Course & Jump Start Program Begins Soon
Introduction to Mindfulness & Meditation Course
Learn the practice of mindfulness in a 7-week, non-credit course led by Bill Brooks, a certified meditation teacher through the Meditation Teacher Training Institute. This experience is $15 and participants who attend six or more sessions will receive that money back in the form of a UMW bookstore gift card. Our lives are often overly stimulated. What would happen if we gave ourselves a few minutes each day to stop, and be fully silent and still – to meditate? Research has shown that the practice of mindful meditation can lead to a calm and focused mind. Such a practice helps to reduce stress, enhances self-awareness, and offers a greater sense of inner peace and connectedness with life. This 7-week introductory course is being offered to UMW faculty, staff, and students. It will answer the basic question: What are we doing when we meditate? You will learn about meditation through instruction, discussion and guided practice. Specific training will be provided on obstacles to meditation and how to work with them. Upon completion of this course, you will have the tools and experience needed to continue an independent practice of mindfulness meditation.
Spring 2020: Mondays *New day of the week, different from previous semesters!
6pm-7:30pm
February 10 – March 30 (Excluding Spring Break on March 2)
Leidecker Center, Trinkle B-39
Cost: $15 (but get that money back if you attend 6+ sessions!)
Sign up on our registration site under “Courses”.
Jump Start Program
For Your Information: A new collaborative program between Campus Recreation, the Talley Center for Counseling Services, the Student Health Center, and the President’s Council on Wellness is beginning January 27. This is a student-focused program. Learn more about the Jump Start Program in case you know a student who may benefit from this program:
This 5-week program is designed to provide students a slow, guided introduction to fitness facilities and programs at UMW. Students will have the opportunity to be introduced to exercise in a less intimidating way by a peer who works for Campus Rec, socialize with others, and get assimilated in a new environment with other UMW students who have similar levels of exercise-familiarity. The group is limited at 12 people, so please register when you are ready to commit.
Students from the Talley Center and Health Center can be referred to the Jump Start Program by their clinician. Otherwise, the program is available for any UMW student to join for $15 per 5-week session. Students can sign up at campusrec.umw.edu under “Courses” or at the Fitness Center front desk.
Once a week, for five weeks, students will meet with their Jump Start Program leaders (two Campus Recreation fitness instructors, Brenna and Sasha) who will spend 60 minutes doing an activity, learning a lesson and having a discussion surrounding the topic of the week. Each lesson will include a worksheet with fitness education.
President Paino: UMW Positioned to Think Big
Mary Washington President Troy Paino charged the faculty and staff to “think big” at the All-UMW Assembly on Tuesday. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.
On the cusp of a new decade, the University of Mary Washington is poised to meet the changing needs of a student body that will become even more diverse. President Troy Paino delivered that message Tuesday at an All-UMW Assembly, while also sharing accomplishments, updates and reflections.
Monday’s launch of UMW’s Farmer Legacy 2020 celebration gave him a sense of optimism, Paino told faculty and staff in Dodd Auditorium, but he expressed concerns over how the upcoming election and polarized politics may impact campus life in the coming year. As a public university, UMW must encourage civil debate, he said, asking faculty and staff to reflect on the values of the late Mary Washington history professor and civil rights icon Dr. James Farmer and the University’s yearlong commitment to action in his honor. “We have to remind ourselves of our roles as mentors and advisors to these young people,” he said, noting that many UMW students will be voting in a presidential election for the first time.
Mary Washington is serving a more diverse and underrepresented student population than ever before, Paino said. In an effort to make the external environment more inclusive and reflective of our values, he said, the University will begin exploring and executing the recent recommendations made by the Campus Environment Committee, including a name change for Trinkle Hall.
“We need to look back to understand who we are, but we also can look forward in terms of who we aspire to be,” Paino said. Read more.