Category: What’s New @ UMW

The Virginia Festival of the Book, a program of the Center for the Book at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, seeks applications for the 2013 Virginia Festival of the Book, which will be held in Charlottesville from Wednesday, March 20 through Sunday, March 24.

Professors or staff members who have written books in the last one to two years are eligible to apply. The program is interested in fiction, poetry, biography, memoirs, current affairs, history, Virginia stories, mysteries, science, science fiction, cooking or sports, with an emphasis on books that would appeal to the general reading audience.

If you would like to apply or need more information, contact Marty Morrison or Brynn Boyer in the Office of News and Public Information by Friday, August 31.

UMW will soon have more parking space near the Fredericksburg campus. Fredericksburg City Council recently approved a special-use permit for the UMW Foundation to build a parking lot on property it owns near the heating plant off College Avenue.

Demolition of three buildings, two houses on Thornton Street and a duplex on Powhatan Street, is expected to begin in October. The area will allow for 47 parking spaces for use by faculty, staff and students. The lots also may allow for some overflow event parking. The nearby Pizza Hut will not be affected.

Depending on the weather, the lot could be paved and open early next spring.

Demolition for the building on the Hyatt Place construction site in Eagle Village began Monday, Aug. 20. It will take about one week to remove interior fixtures and physically separate the existing building structure, another two weeks of major demolition and a week of cleanup before moving ahead with groundbreaking and construction on the hotel.

Construction fencing has been placed around the vacant buildings and pedestrian traffic has been re-directed in front of the construction site with a defined walkway.

The hotel, a project of the UMW Foundation, is set to open in fall 2013.

The University of Mary Washington’s undergraduate orientation for new students begins Wednesday, Aug. 22. Move-in day will begin at 8 a.m. at each freshman residence hall and will continue with welcome sessions, student meetings and a new student barbecue.

A full schedule is available at http://students.umw.edu/fredericksburg-orientation/.

The UMW Staff Advisory Council has chosen Kate Waller Barrett Elementary School as the recipient of this year’s S.A.C. School Supply Drive 2012.  The drive began on Wednesday, August 1 and will run through the end of August.  Please note that Virginia’s No-Tax School Supply dates are August 3 – 5, so you may want to take advantage of this when shopping for  your donations.  Look for donation boxes in your building, along with lists containing specific items needed for grades K – 5.

If you are unsure of where your nearest donation box is located, please email Priscilla Sullivan, S.A.C. Activities Chair, at psulliva@umw.edu.  Thank you in advance for your donation; our hope is that it will make the school year a little easier on students, parents and teachers at Kate Waller Barrett Elementary School.