March 17, 2026

EagleEye

A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff

UMW Men’s Soccer Hosts NCAA Division III Tournament This Weekend

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The University of Mary Washington men’s soccer team will host the first and second rounds of the NCAA Division III Tournament this weekend at the Battleground Athletic Complex. The Eagles will host Keystone College on Saturday at 11:00 AM, and Rowan University will face Salve Regina University at 1:30 PM. Saturday’s winners will meet on Sunday in the second round at 1 PM.

Tickets for the games cost $6 for adults, $3 for students and seniors, and $2 for children age six and under. ALL UMW FACULTY, STAFF, AND STUDENTS WILL BE ADMITTED FREE WITH THEIR VALID UMW I.D.

The Eagles enter play in the NCAA Tournament for the 13th time in program history, after claiming their 11th Capital Athletic Conference tournament, including their third straight. UMW has been ranked as high as 11th in the nation this season.

For more information, please contact Clint Often at coften@umw.edu, or 654-1743.

Get Involved in COAR’s Head Start Gift Box Drive

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It’s time for COAR’s annual Head Start Gift Box Drive! Each year we ask students, faculty and staff to fill boxes full of necessities and toys for children 3 to 5 years old in the Head Start programs in Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania schools.

Boxes can be checked out now through Nov. 22 in the University Center Lobby from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. or in the Center for Community Engagement (Suite 320) during normal office hours, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. We can also deliver boxes to you at your office and pick them up as needed. If you would like a box delivered or picked up, please email us at coarumw@gmail.com.

All gift boxes that are checked out will need to be returned by Tuesday, Nov. 26, at 5 p.m.

Required items for the boxes are hats, gloves, scarves, small toys, coloring books, crayons and markers, and small books (all of these items will need to fit inside a shoe box-sized box).

We appreciate your continued support of service at UMW. Thank you and happy holidays!

Faculty and Staff Thanksgiving Lunch

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Campus Dining will host a Thanksgiving Lunch Buffet for UMW faculty, staff and their guests on Tuesday, November 19th in the Chandler Ballroom. The lunch will feature classic roast turkey,  stuffing and gravy along with all the trimmings. Doors will open at 11:30 a.m. and close at 1:30 p.m. The cost is $7.00 for faculty and staff and $11 for guests. For additional information contact Leslie Jacobs at ljacobs@umw.edu or call 540-654-1931.

Poetry Reading by Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Linda Gregerson, Nov. 14

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Professor Linda Gregerson

Professor Linda Gregerson

The Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Program presents

A POETRY READING

Professor Linda Gregerson

Linda Gregerson is the Caroline Walker Bynum Distinguished University Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Michigan. She is co-editor of Empires of God: Religious Encounters in the Early Modern Atlantic and author of The Reformation of the Subject: Spenser, Milton, and the English Protestant Epic, as well as six books of poetry and a volume of essays on the contemporary American lyric. Her essays on Milton, Spenser, Shakespeare, Wyatt, and Jonson appear in numerous journals and anthologies. She has received awards and fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Poetry Society of America, the Modern Poetry Association, the Institute for Advanced Study, the National Humanities Center, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim, Mellon, and Rockefeller Foundations. She is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Professor Gregerson will read from a range of her poems and offer commentary, followed by a question-and-answer session.

Thursday, November 14, 2019 at 5 p.m.
Combs 139

For more information, contact Professor Gary Richards at (540) 654-2365 or grichard@umw.edu.

Co-sponsored by Phi Beta Kappa’s Kappa of Virginia and the Department of English, Linguistics, and Communication and generously funded by the Wendy Shadwell ’63 Program Endowment in British Literature

UMW Students Earn Voter Participation Award

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Center for Community Engagement Associate Director Sarah Dewees, A.J. Robinson, Stephanie Turcios and Amber Brown show off UMW’s Platinum Seal award at the 2019 ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge Ceremony at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

Center for Community Engagement Associate Director Sarah Dewees, A.J. Robinson, Stephanie Turcios and Amber Brown show off UMW’s Platinum Seal award at the 2019 ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge Ceremony at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

On the heels of last week’s statewide elections, UMW received the 2019 ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge Platinum Seal for schools with a student voter participation rate above 50 percent. Center for Community Engagement Associate Director Sarah Dewees accepted the award Tuesday with students at a ceremony held at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

“I’m proud of our students but not surprised,” said President Troy Paino. “This national recognition reflects just one aspect of the longstanding commitment of Mary Washington’s faculty, staff and students to civic engagement.”

Since its 2016 launch, the challenge, a national initiative, has recognized and supported institutions of higher education in their efforts to achieve full student voter participation, promote an informed electorate and make civic engagement a core value on their campuses. To date, over 6.2 million students and more than 560 colleges and universities have taken the challenge. Read more. 

Leadership Colloquium Challenges Women: ‘Be Your Own Hero’

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Cosmo Fujiyama, who owns a consulting firm in education design, was the keynote speaker at the 26th annual Women’s Leadership Colloquium @ UMW. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.

Cosmo Fujiyama, who owns a consulting firm in education design, was the keynote speaker at the 26th annual Women’s Leadership Colloquium @ UMW. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.

At 25, Cosmo Fujiyama was at a crossroads, stalled between an internship and grad school. She’d had a long day at a professional conference, and she was feeling tired and drained. The last place she wanted to go was to a group dinner at P.F. Chang’s.

“It turned out to be an incredible opportunity,” Fujiyama told a roomful of women at UMW’s Stafford Campus, thanks to five words from the young man she sat down beside: “What’s bringing you joy lately?”

The question was pivotal for Fujiyama, now 34, who runs a Brooklyn-based consulting firm dedicated to bringing joy and emotional intelligence to the places people work and learn. She repeated the words on Thursday in her keynote address at the 26th annual Women’s Leadership Colloquium @ UMW.

Designed to foster the connectivity of professional women and inspire them toward a lifetime of leadership, the colloquium attracts managers, administrators, educators, business owners and representatives from the public and private sectors each year. Last Thursday’s event – brimming with breakout workshops; networking opportunities; and a colloquium-first, one-on-one career coaching sessions – revolved around the theme “Be Your Own Hero.” Read more.

UMW’s Great Lives Lecture Series Announces 17th Season

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Professor Emeritus William Crawley, founder and director of Great Lives, announces the 17th season of the biographical lecture series to a packed reception at the Jepson Alumni Executive Center. Photo by Karen Pearlman.

Professor Emeritus William Crawley, founder and director of Great Lives, announces the 17th season of the biographical lecture series to a packed reception at the Jepson Alumni Executive Center. Photo by Karen Pearlman.

Abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Hollywood actress-turned-inventor Hedy Lamarr and children’s author Theodor Geisel – better known as Dr. Seuss – are among the prominent individuals to be featured in this year’s William B. Crawley Great Lives lecture series.

Now in its 17th year, the stellar season was revealed to a packed reception Wednesday evening at the Jepson Alumni Executive Center. Lectures will take place at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, from Jan. 21 to April 14, at the University of Mary Washington’s Dodd Auditorium on the Fredericksburg campus. They are free and open to the public without admission tickets.

Bestselling biographers – many of whom are distinguished historians and award-winning journalists – have spent countless hours chronicling the fascinating lives of their iconic subjects. At UMW, they’ll showcase these celebrated historical figures – notorious, in some cases – and provide illuminating insight into their lives and loves, successes and failures, strengths and struggles.

“I always say this, but this season is probably the most impressive lineup ever,” said Professor Emeritus William Crawley, Great Lives founder and director, who added he is confident that audiences will find multiple topics of interest. Read more. 

PCOW: Savor the Moment Challenge

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The President’s Council on Wellness has a social media challenge for the month of November: “Savor the Moment.” Take some time and stop and appreciate each moment in your life. Snap a photo of one of those moments, whether you are enjoying a walk outside with the falling leaves, a cup of hot chocolate/coffee, or having a good time with friends and family. Post your photo on Instagram or Facebook and tag @UMW_Wellness with #UMWSavorthemoment. Everyone who posts a photo will be entered into a raffle and we will draw one prize winner each week to win a gratitude journal during the month of November!

“Seize every second of your life and savor it. Value your present moments.” – Dr. Wayne Dyer

Actors Split Role in UMW Musical ‘Fun Home’

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In UMW Theatre’s production of Tony Award-winning musical ‘Fun Home,’ three actors – Madison Neilson, Olivia Whicheloe and Lydia Hundley – portray graphic novelist Alison Bechdel at various stages of her life. Photo by Geoff Greene.

In UMW Theatre’s production of Tony Award-winning musical ‘Fun Home,’ three actors – Madison Neilson, Olivia Whicheloe and Lydia Hundley – portray graphic novelist Alison Bechdel at various stages of her life. Photo by Geoff Greene.

A pivotal scene in UMW Theatre’s current musical features the protagonist recalling a drive she took with her late father. Struggling to find the words, they sing a heartbreaking duet about their failure to have an open and honest conversation.

“I’ve lived that exact moment, looking out the car window because I didn’t know what to say to my dad,” said senior Lydia Hundley, who plays the college-aged Alison Bechdel, who later became a successful graphic novelist, in Fun Home. Hundley credits Bechdel’s critically acclaimed memoir and the musical it inspired for teaching her how to communicate with her own parents.

She’s one of three actors who will portray Bechdel at various stages of her life. Junior Madison Neilson plays her at age 10, and senior Olivia Whicheloe portrays her as an adult. The show, which continues UMW’s 2019-20 theatre season, runs Nov. 14 to 16 and Nov. 21 to 23 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 17 and 24 at 2 p.m. in duPont Hall’s Klein Theatre. Tickets cost $25 for general admission, and $20 for students, senior citizens, alumni and military. Read more. 

Mary Washington Casts Vote for Participation on Election Day

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Forty-five students registered to vote during UMW’s celebration of National Voter Registration Day. Photo by Matthew Sanders.

Forty-five students registered to vote during UMW’s celebration of National Voter Registration Day. Photo by Matthew Sanders.

When voters from across Virginia voice their opinions at the polls tomorrow, UMW students will be among them. That’s thanks in part to rides being offered all day to students who wish to cast ballots.

“Civic engagement isn’t just an idea at Mary Washington,” said Sarah Dewees, Associate Director of the Center for Community Engagement (CCE), which will provide rides, along with UMW Votes, Citizens for Democracy and other campus groups. “It’s a way of life.”

With a voting rate higher than the national average – and lots of planning and energy – UMW students have worked all year to keep it that way, from prepping voters for trips to the polls to establishing a “2020 Day on Democracy,” allowing classes to be cancelled on Election Day next year.

“When individuals miss their opportunity to vote, they miss their chance to have their voices heard,” said UMW Voting Ambassador Kayli Ottomanelli, a junior who cited issues that matter to undergrads, like tuition rates and student loan debt. “When younger generations don’t turn out to vote, we’re allowing older generations to decide on these significant matters for us.” Read more.