Category: What’s New @ UMW

Starting Friday, Feb. 24, high-definition presentations of all 2012 lectures in the Chappell Great Lives Lecture series will be available online.

Every Friday, another presentation will be released in chronological order, starting with Charles J. Shields’ talk on the life of American novelist Kurt Vonnegut, which was the first lecture on Jan. 24. The release dates will run into the end of June, the last being James “Bud” Robertson’s lecture on the Civil War soldier. After that, several years’ worth of lectures will be available.

Each presentation will begin with a short introduction summarizing the life of person written about, followed by background about the lecturer. Subscribers to updates about the series will automatically receive a reminder e-mail that a new presentation is available. Each presentation is full-length, about an hour, which includes questions from the audience at the end. The series is being filmed and edited by UMW’s Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies.

The videos will be accessible for viewing online under “Archived Lectures” on the homepage of the Chappell Great Lives Lecture Series. A link to the schedule of releases will be there, too. The series will also be posted on YouTube and a number of other social media outlets.

The schedule of the lectures, and the release dates of the videos is here: http://www.umw.edu/greatlives/2012/02/20/great-lives-videos-to-be-released-weekly-beginning-march-24/.

UMW’s 2012 Executive-in-Residence Thomas P. Nerney will visit the Stafford and Fredericksburg campuses on Thursday, March 22 and Friday, March 23 as part of the Executive-in-Residence program. The program gives UMW students the opportunity to interact with prominent leaders of the corporate world and to enhance their knowledge about the free-enterprise system.

Nerney has been the chairman, president and CEO of the A++ rated United States Liability Insurance Group for more than 15 years. During his visit to UMW, Nerney will interact with students, faculty, staff, alumni and local business leaders.

While on the Fredericksburg campus, Nerney will give several presentations for students, faculty and staff. No registration is required to attend.

On Friday, March 23 from 10 to 10:45 a.m. and from 11 to 11:45, Nerney will present “Driving Success Through a People-Focused Organization” in Monroe Hall, room 116.

He will present a career forum, “Planning Career Development and Understanding the Importance of Corporate Culture,” at 2 p.m. in the Jepson Alumni Executive Center. The career forum is open to UMW alumni, as well as students, faculty and staff.

During his visit, Nerney also will participate in several invite-only receptions, presentations and discussions with UMW alumni, students and regional business leaders. More information about the Executive-in-Residence program and schedule details can be found at http://business.umw.edu/eir/.

The Galleries and the UMW Department of Art and Art History traditionally host three student exhibitions during the spring semester: two for senior art students and one annual student exhibition, open to all interested students in the department.

“Markers’ Make,” the first senior student exhibition opens Thursday, Feb. 16 and runs through Sunday, Feb. 26 at the duPont Gallery.

The exhibition features the work of Kyle  Anderson, Alanna Betts, Lauren Gottschlich, Erin Kenderish, Erin Kohler, Claire McKinley, Minta Smith, Suzanne Stewart and Emilia Sanchez.

The duPont Gallery is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. For more information, contact the UMW Galleries at (540) 654-1013.

As a political science and pre-law philosophy double major, Michael Behrens figured he would spend much of his senior year writing extensive research papers. He never expected to collaborate with his professor on writing a book.

Behrens and three fellow seniors — Chris Blough, Ian Huff and Eric Stortz — have teamed up with Assistant Professor of Political Science Chad Murphy to research and write chapters for a book on presidential rhetoric.

The project is one of more than dozen research initiatives in the university’s innovative undergraduate research program. This semester’s undergraduate projects delve into such issues as women in Islam; statistical consulting for after-school programs; stress, guilt and eating; the effects of Atrazine in zebra fish; and the effects of exercise and estrogen on mouse hearts.

Still Behrens isn’t surprised to be part of such a challenging project at UMW.

“That’s just the environment that the school’s attitude cultivates,” he said. “If you have a professor who has a common interest, there’s no harm in asking if there is a project you can work on.”

Murphy had no qualms about teaming with his students.

“The undergraduates here are really strong, they can pull off something like this,” said Murphy, who has published articles on the effects of political rhetoric and the media in numerous peer-reviewed journals. “This is the chance to do professional-quality research as an undergraduate.  When you go to the bigger state schools, you don’t get that.”

The idea for the book project grew from a thesis written by former student Anne Morris, who graduated in 2011. Her year-long research for a paper about presidential rhetoric addressed some compelling issues.

“She answers the question in a really creative, interesting way,” Murphy said. “I think it has such promise.”

Murphy invited all students from his upper-level political science research methods class last semester to participate in the project. He assigned the students chapters based on the subjects he believed would be most compatible with their interests.

Others in the class tackled a myriad of other political issues that range from social media’s effect on voter turnout to how scandals impact of politicians’ prospects for re-election, with many continuing their projects as independent studies this semester.

One of the students who is continuing her thesis, junior political science and education major Erin Hill, agreed. She said that at other schools, undergraduates typically gather statistics and do the grunt work of the project.

“You aren’t really exploring the question,” she said. “Here, you’re doing the complete thing all by yourself. If I went to grad school, I would know how to fully explore a question.”

Blough, who has applied to several graduate schools to study urban planning, feels more prepared by working on the research for the book.

“You really have a lot of opportunities to do one-on-one research here,” he said. “You have a lot of guidance. It really helps you if you’re applying to grad school. It shows that you have the experience.”

Stortz also believes his research and writing project will give him credibility after graduation.

“It’s one thing to say ‘I’m a good writer;’ it’s another to say, ‘I’m published,’” Stortz said.

But Stortz is most impressed with the amount of faith Murphy has placed in his group of students.

“I think this project shows that Professor Murphy has a lot of faith in Mary Washington students in general,” he said. “The opportunities are out there if you put the effort in.”

# # #

By Anne Elder

The 2012 Relay for Life at UMW will be Saturday, April 21. The following message is from Jon Meister, the faculty and staff committee chair for UMW’s Relay for Life:

Relay for Life is an incredible organization, and my hopes are for all faculty and staff to participate in all events or at the very least participate in the big event in April. If you have never participated in Relay for Life, I have provided a link that will give you plenty of information: http://www.relayforlife.org/learn/whatisrelay/index. All University of Mary Washington students would be very excited to see any faculty or staff at the big event. It creates a huge morale booster when walking all night for a great cause. For all survivors, we would love to have you participate in the survivor lap. It means a lot to see the faculty members that have fought this difficult battle and won. All my information is provided below and I will be able to redirect you to the survivor committee chair member if needed. Finally for all department chairs, if it would be possible to schedule a meeting with your department that would really help with my goal. It would only be for about 10 minutes to explain what Relay for Life is and how you can begin to participate at University of Mary Washington Relay.

Sincerely,

Jon Meister
Faculty and Alumni Committee Chair
Jmeister@mail.umw.edu