The University of Mary Washington athletic department finished 40th among 432 NCAA Division III schools in the final Learfield Director’s Cup standings for the 2022-23 year. The finish is the Eagles’ highest since 2009-10, when they finished 39th, and is the program’s eighth-highest finish since the program began in 1995-96. UMW accumulated 453 points this year. Read more. 

When student-athletes sign up to compete at the collegiate level, they have a goal – to play the game and win. All too often, mental health takes a back seat. That’s where Eagles Let’s Talk comes in. 

The program aims to help the University of Mary Washington’s more than 525 student-athletes – from soccer and lacrosse players to swimmers and equestrians – identify and discuss stressors that could affect their performance in the classroom or on the field. Spearheaded by UMW Assistant Athletic Trainer Katie Carnaghi, the initiative lays out a full game plan, with monthly meetings, timely topics like nutrition and stress management, and most of all, a safe space for sharing concerns and conversation. 

“It really does make such a difference to have an open and safe environment that allows people to feel comfortable to talk about the tough stuff,” said senior Krista Rogers, a volleyball player and Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) member who helped get Eagles Let’s Talk off the ground. Read more.

University of Mary Washington has a long commitment to community and civic engagement, encouraging students to get involved in the broader community through service, volunteerism, community-engaged classes, and civic learning. In fact, civic engagement is a leading goal in UMW’s strategic vision and a realization of the public purpose on our mission. A statewide conversation brought these topics to the forefront on June 5, 2023, as the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) hosted the “Day of Dialogue” at Mary Washington.

“We appreciate the work that each and every one of you do,” said UMW President Troy D. Paino. “Civic learning and student engagement are where our schools live their public purpose, while offering our students a chance to explore what gives their lives meaning and purpose.”

The annual event, just in its second year, brought together some 75 higher education leaders to share ideas.  The goal was to explore best practices for community and civic engagement, including ways to foster respectful dialogue on campus. Participants also explored issues related to evaluating civic engagement and strategies for engaging students in this important work. Read more.

Organizational leadership isn’t just a scholarly discipline for Filiz Tabak. It’s also a specialty she has successfully practiced over the past 28 years in the College of Business & Economics at Towson University – as a faculty member, graduate program director, department chair and, most recently, acting associate dean.

Now Tabak brings that expertise to the University of Mary Washington, where she’ll become dean of the College of Business (COB) starting July 10.

She already has a plan for her first few months on campus – to learn the strengths, experiences and passions of the faculty she’ll lead and the UMW students she’ll help educate. At the same time, she plans to connect with the COB Advisory Board, the deans of UMW’s College of Arts and Sciences and College of Education, and others in the campus community, “to see what we can accomplish together.” Read more.

The University of Mary Washington announces its spring 2023 President’s List and Dean’s List.

To be recognized on these lists a student must carry at least 12 graded credits of new coursework. Students who earn a grade-point average of 4.00 on all work taken for graded credit in a semester receive a spot on the President’s List. Students who earn a grade-point average of 3.50 to 3.99 on all work taken for graded credit in a semester are placed on the Dean’s List.

Decisions regarding inclusion on the lists are based on a student’s record as it stands at the official close-of-the-semester grading period. A temporary grade (I or G) postpones consideration; however, once this grade is converted to a permanent letter grade, the student’s GPA is calculated and, if appropriate, a list notation will be made on the student’s permanent record.

We congratulate the students earning these honors this semester and hope you will share in recognizing their academic achievements @MaryWash. Read more.

The University of Mary Washington continues its Fulbright tradition with the recent announcements of grants for two alumni.

Emma Bathke ’21 and Olivia Foster ’23 will teach English overseas as participants in the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

They are among 28 Mary Washington student Fulbright recipients since 2006, according to Professor of Middle East History Nabil Al-Tikriti and Professor of Biology Dianne Baker. Al-Tikriti and Baker are co-directors of the UMW Fulbright Committee, which works with student candidates to craft compelling applications.

Bathke, an international affairs major with a minor in business German, will travel to Germany in September to teach English. Until then, she’s working for the Library of Congress in the Congressional Research Service. Foster, a history major from Richmond, will teach English in Argentina beginning in March 2024. Read more.

University of Mary Washington Professor of Political Science Stephen Farnsworth and Professor Emeritus of Psychology David Rettinger have received Fulbright grants to teach and share their professional expertise overseas.

Farnsworth, who directs the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at UMW, will travel to Poland to serve his third Fulbright assignment in spring 2024, during a sabbatical from Mary Washington.

At the American Studies Center of the University of Warsaw, he will teach a graduate-level course about U.S. presidential communication regarding domestic and foreign policies. He’ll also look at how presidents use direct communication and the mass media to shape public perceptions of their own characters.

Farnsworth’s Poland assignment falls under the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. It’s his third Fulbright; in 2019 he served in Malaysia as a Fulbright specialist, and in 2006-07 he held a Fulbright research chair in public policy in Canada. Read more.

The University of Mary Washington Board of Visitors approved tuition and fees for the 2023-24 academic year at its May 18, 2023, meeting. Undergraduate tuition will remain the same in the coming year. Graduate tuition will increase 3%, and the auxiliary comprehensive fee and housing and dining fees for all students will increase by 5%.

UMW’s tuition and fee rates are one part of the equation to begin the year with a balanced budget, a requirement for public colleges in Virginia. In addition, the University relies on the state budget, and in recent years has pulled in reserve funding, particularly during the pandemic when enrollment varied.

All three strategies will once again result in a balanced budget to start fiscal year 2024, overcoming a deficit of nearly $7 million. The total is due to inflationary cost increases and changes in base expenses, primarily in energy and dining charges; state-mandated increases in salaries and health insurance premiums as well as minimum wage and administrative system charges for financial, human resources and information technology services; and adjustments to revenue sources from enrollment. Read more.

First-year University of Mary Washington student Tonia Attie has been recognized by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge (ALL IN) as part of the 2023 ALL IN Student Voting Honor Roll. This roster highlights college students doing outstanding work to advance nonpartisan democratic engagement at participating campuses.

Attie joins a group of just 175 students recognized for their voter registration, education and turnout efforts ahead of last year’s midterm elections, which saw a sizable number of young people weighing in at the polls.

A double major in political science and philosophy with a pre-law focus, Attie quickly established herself at UMW. “Having grown up in Fredericksburg, I’ve genuinely always wanted to go to Mary Washington and give back to my hometown,” she said. “As I started looking into college, I just knew that UMW would be the perfect fit for me.” Read more.

The University of Mary Washington Center for Historic Preservation is proud to award its 2023 Book Prize to Heritage and Hoop Skirts: How Natchez Created the Old South by Paul Hardin Kapp. Heritage and Hoop Skirts is a well-researched book that examines how the women of Natchez, Mississippi, underpinned a flagging Depression-era economy through an embellished interpretation of its history. However, Kapp goes well beyond just a simple narrative describing the process but rather weaves, in a wonderfully cohesive way, a complex and compelling story involving not only the Natchez Garden Club but federal Depression-era programs like the Historic American Building Survey (HABS) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which contributed to this re-imagined narrative.

While preservation efforts associated with selective elements of the built environment proved successful in many instances in Natchez, they did so at the cost of further marginalizing African Americans and perpetuating the myth surrounding the Lost Cause. Far from shying away from these complex issues, Heritage and Hoop Skirts offers a critical lens through which to view these preservation efforts. This book is a timely and relevant resource for preservationists in historic towns across the South who are interested in further understanding the movement during the 1930s and acknowledging how these biases continue to shape historical interpretation and representation today.

Paul Hardin Kapp is an associate professor of architecture in the College of Fine and Applied Arts, as well as the associate director of the Collaborative for Cultural Heritage Management, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Kapp also won the UMW Center for Historic Preservation Book Prize in 2013 for SynergiCity: Reinventing the Postindustrial City.

The University of Mary Washington Center for Historic Preservation has awarded this prize annually since 1989 to the book (or books) with the most potential for positively impacting the discipline of historic preservation in the United States. In making its selection, the jury focuses on books that break new ground or contribute to the intellectual vitality of the preservation movement. Winners receive a monetary prize and are invited to give a lecture at UMW. The jury was comprised of preservation academics, professionals, alumni and a current student.

2023 University of Mary Washington Book Prize Committee:
Michael Spencer, Associate Professor of Historic Preservation, University of Mary Washington (Chair)
Christine Henry, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Historic Preservation, University of Mary Washington
Kristen Laise, Executive Director, Belle Grove Plantation
Michelle Magalong, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Historic Preservation, University of Maryland School of Architecture
Andrew Wilkins, Ph.D., RPA, Cultural Resource Specialist, EMPSi
Abigail Zurfluh, UMW Class of 2023, Knight Scholar, Historic Preservation, University of Mary Washington