Longwood Magazine Fall 2013

longwood

A MAG AZINE FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF LONGWOOD UNIVERSITY

FA L L 2 01 3 Longwood’s 26th president takes office Celebrating Longwood’s 175th Anniversary Faculty and students share uncommon bonds

Vital Signs With its first class of graduates now in the field, the nursing program’s heartbeat is strong

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The Longwood @Yellowstone program has been developed as a way for young people to gain a new perspective on what it takes to apply a university education to real-world problems.

Photo by Mike Kropf ’14

COVE R STO RY

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Ready for Action

Longwood's first nursing graduates enter the workforce prepared to make a real impact

FEATURES

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A Higher Calling

President W.Taylor Reveley IV takes the helm of one of the nation’s oldest universities.

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Longwood at 175

At the start of our anniversary year, Longwood looks to the future.

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Uncommon Bonds

Longwood’s impact often goes beyond classroom walls as students and professors forge unique connections.

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DEPA RTME N T S

24 ON THE COVER Illustration by Alessandro Gottardo, who works and lives in Milan, Italy. His work has appeared in The NewYorkTimes,The NewYorker,The Wall Street Journal,Time, Esquire, National Geographic, Le Monde and other national and international publications.

Story on Page 18.

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YourLetters OnPoint InPrint LongwoodCalendar LancerUpdate AlumniNews EndPaper

longwood

Andrea Dailey

A MAG A Z I N E FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF LONGWOOD UNIVERSITY FALL 2 0 1 3

Publisher

Longwood University Foundation Inc. Robert Burger Jr., President Editor

Sabrina Brown Creative Director

David Whaley Associate Editors

Kent Booty, Matthew McWilliams Photographer

Andrea Dailey Contributors

David Driver, Diane Easter, Patrick Folliard, Richard Foster, Allesandro Gottardo, Chase Jarvis, Mike Kropf ’14, Greg Prouty, Ashley Robbins, Elizabeth Seaborn, Lydia Williams Advisor y Board

Larissa Fergeson, Franklin Grant ’80, Suzy Szasz Palmer, Kenneth Perkins, Bryan Rowland, Nancy Shelton ’68, Bennie Waller ’90, Elizabeth Power-deFur Board of Visitors

Marianne Moffat Radcliff ’92, Rector, Richmond Edward I. Gordon, Farmville Eric Hansen, Lynchburg Thomas A. Johnson, Lynchburg Judi M. Lynch ’87, Vice Rector, Richmond Jane S. Maddux, Charlottesville Colleen McCrink Margiloff ’97, Rye, N.Y. Stephen Mobley ’93, McLean Brad E. Schwartz ’84, Chesapeake Shelby J. Walker M.S. ’93, Charlotte Courthouse Lacy Ward Jr., Farmville Robert S. Wertz Jr. ’85, Leesburg Ronald Olswyn White, Midlothian Editorial offices for Longwood magazine are maintained at the Office of Public Relations, Longwood University, 201 High Street, Farmville, VA 23909.

Telephone: 434-395-2020; email: pr@longwood.edu.

Comments, letters and contributions are encouraged.

Printed on recycled stocks containing 100% post-consumer waste.

President Reveley examines the recently found portrait of his great-grandfatherThomas Eason, who taught biology at Longwood.

FROM TH E PR ESID ENT Getting ready for this school year, as Longwood looks to its 175th Anniversary, has been like a homecoming for me. My grandmother Marie Eason Reveley, a member of the Class of 1940, regaled me often with stories from the college days she and her sisters shared here, and with stories about her mother, Carrie Rennie Eason, of the Class of 1910. My grandmother likewise brought me to campus frequently as a child.

The Rotunda fire was poignantly sad for her, especially because afterward she and our family couldn’t locate Longwood’s portrait of her father,Thomas Eason, who chaired the biology department here from 1911 to 1918 and then went on to hold a significant government post overseeing higher education for Virginia. She made several attempts to find it again before she passed away in 2006.

During my first week in the office this June, in a powerful gust of the Longwood spirit, the portrait of my great-grandfather Dr. Eason was found—before I had even asked after it—thanks to the inspired sleuthing of many co-conspirators across the university. It was a deeply touching moment for me to see it unveiled, and it now hangs proudly in my office in Lancaster.

These first months have been as busy and as energizing as you might expect.

The tribal rhythms of academia are indeed familiar to me, engrained even.The summer is a season for fresh plans. Rector Marianne Radcliff ’92 and I—along with the entire university community near and far—are looking forward to building on the powerful momentum Longwood enjoys.

Over the summer days, Longwood’s prior presidents have been in touch with generous words of welcome. Henry and Mary Willett, in fact, visited Marlo and me to offer tips on raising young children at Longwood House, as they themselves did starting in the late ’60s. Marlo’s and my twins, May and Quint, recently had their first birthday, and their great-great-aunt Judy Eason Mercer ’44 was on hand at Longwood House for the celebration.

Perhaps one of my favorite days this summer—because it so well captures the essential connection of past and future—was visiting Elsie Stossel Upchurch of the great Class of ’43. When Franklin Grant ’80 and I arrived at her home in Front Royal, she had yearbook pictures earmarked to show us of my grandmother, my great-aunt Judy and their sister, Caroline, all of them friends with Elsie. In 2012, Mrs. Upchurch made the largest capital gift in the university’s history. Her $4 million gift will drive the creation of the Norman H. and Elsie Stossel Upchurch University Center, a beautiful facility in the heart of campus that will foster the Longwood spirit in generations of students to come.

It is truly wonderful to be under way.

No state funds were used to print this publication.

To request this magazine in alternate format (large print, braille,

Thank you and my best,

audio, etc.), please contact the Longwood Learning Center, 434-395-2391; TRS: 711.

Published September 2013

W. Taylor Reveley IV President

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YOUR LETTERS On Losing the Cunninghams Last weekend I attended my 50-year class reunion at Longwood. It was a wonderful yet bittersweet event for me. I realize this letter will not bring any change, but I would still like to register my feelings about the “removal of the Cunningham residence halls.”

Three of my happiest years at Longwood were spent living in Main Cunningham and South Cunningham. I can still remember watching the election night coverage news of JFK’s win over Richard Nixon in 1960 at Cunningham.

I understand that old buildings make way for the new buildings (progress, I suppose) and that it is wrong to live in the past. However, everyone should have an appreciation of the past. Why can it not be declared a historic site, and why does the financial side of things always seem to change the whole atmosphere of the college?

It bothered me also to hear the “Cunningham Residence Halls” referred to as the “Hams.”

I think that is extremely disrespectful to the memory of President John Atkinson Cunningham.

I realize this letter will not change anything but at least I have honored my feelings and registered my thoughts. What a loss for Longwood.

Christopher Register,The Cunninghams from Beale Plaza at Longwood University, detail, 2012, watercolor and gouache, 10.875 x 17 inches. Collection of the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts, Longwood University History Collection, 2012.10. Gift of the Class of 2012. Photograph by Alex Grabiec ’07.

for the abuse. The headlines screamed about the abuse for days and fueled the passions of pacifists all across the nation. Regretfully, it is still being referenced today in articles such as this one.

Dr. Tracy maintains that torture was ineffective in the Middle Ages, and, consequently, it will be ineffective for “us” as well. By “us,” I assume she means military forces of the United States. Her article left me somewhat frustrated.

As the mother of a captain in the United States Army who has been deployed twice to the Middle East, I have a somewhat different opinion of the torture-or-not-to-torture debate. Yes, torture is sometimes used as a means of gaining information from Middle Eastern soldiers. This information is used by special forces and other military units to safeguard Carol Forehand Gregory ’63 our freedom.

Do you ever wonder how our Norfolk military came into possession of Osama bin Laden’s location? How did we obtain the intelligence? Did we use torture? I assume this inAnother Perspective formation is a closely guarded secret.

Homeland Security, the CIA and other on Torture clandestine organizations have thwarted many attacks that were planned to kill our citizens.

I am writing regarding an article in the fall How many? We will never know how many 2012 issue of Longwood magazine about rebecause our successes are not headlines in the search done by Longwood professor Dr. Washington Post. Our successes cannot become Larissa Tracy.

Although I am sure Dr. Tracy is an expert in headlines because of the very nature of clandestine operations. To reveal such information her field of medieval studies, I am concerned could very well reveal the source, thus endanabout her comparison between medieval torture and Abu Ghraib, and the morality of tor- gering many lives. For the most part, the militure. Abu Ghraib was not our military’s finest tary’s successes are kept secret—no publicity.

My point in writing is to simply suggest that, hour. The Army, however, admitted that it ocalthough torture is not a desirable factor of curred and punished the soldiers responsible

war—and this is a war—it nevertheless exists.

And it exists to enhance the safeguarding of our freedoms. Ask the survivors of 9/11 what their opinion of torture is. And make no mistake about it, if my son had been captured, I would have moved heaven and earth to find him.

And I would have tortured anyone in my way.

Hopefully, I am not sounding like a warmongering lunatic. I did not want my son to go to the Middle East. What mother would knowingly wish her child to be in harm’s way?

He was 12 when September 11 became part of our history. He decided then that he wanted to serve in the military. He did not go there to torture or kill. He went there to win the peace.

And I am so very proud of his service as well as the other military volunteers who have and are giving their time to defend our country.

Betty King Guilliams ’70

Waynesboro

As space allows, we print letters to the editor referring to articles that appear in Longwood magazine. Letters may be edited for length and style. Please email letters to browncs2@longwood.edu, or mail them to Longwood Magazine, Office of Public Relations, Longwood University, 201 High Street, Farmville, VA 23909. Please be sure to include your class year if you are an alum, your city and state of residence, and a contact phone number.

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Photos by Andrea Dailey

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(opposite page, top)The new buildings at Lancer Park surround a green space. (opposite page, bottom) Windows and natural light are important features in bedrooms. (this page, clockwise from top left)The commons building includes a food service area, and skylights brighten the interior of the building. Kitchens feature full-size appliances. Landscaping beautifies the exterior of the complex.

Living Large Students move into 130 new apartments at Lancer Park Longwood’s two newest residence halls opened this fall semester at Lancer Park.

The four-story buildings at the Longwoodmanaged apartment complex are home to a total of 454 students living in 100 four-bedroom apartments, 24 two-bedroom apartments and six studio apartments. Lancer Park North and Lancer Park South are mirror images and face each other, separated by a courtyard. They are flanked on one end by a new commons building that houses a food service

operation, a small fitness center and a game room.

In addition to other amenities, Lancer Park offers the latest in laundry technology. Students can download an app that enables them to be notified when loads are ready to be removed from the dryer.

The project was financed through a $45 million bond issue, with the construction costing $39 million. The general contractor was English Construction Co. of Lynchburg.

Students in the new residence halls join the

264 students in existing housing at Lancer Park, a combination of four-bedroom townhouses and two- and four-bedroom apartments that recently underwent an exterior facelift.

Formerly called Stanley Park, the Lancer Park complex is just over a half-mile from the main campus. The property was purchased by the Longwood Real Estate Foundation in 2005 and has been managed by the Office of Residential and Commuter Life since 2006. —Kent Booty

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CrashCourse Business 250: Personal Finance Instructor Bennie Waller, professor of finance and real estate What’s New Taught at Longwood for several years, this course was offered to high-school students for the first time as a dualenrollment course this past summer. It was adapted to satisfy a highschool SOL (Standards of Learning) requirement in finance and economics.

Longwood is the only four-year college to offer a course that meets the requirement.

Where Credit’s Due Students earned 3 Longwood credits and 1 high-school credit.

Lear n and Live The Henrico County high-school students who took the hybrid course (online plus some face-to-face instruction) thought it would be “just about balancing a checkbook, but it was much more in-depth,” said Waller. “ I want students to start thinking about these concepts early and often, so they’ll learn them and live them.”

Topics covered included the importance of saving, investing and having a will, as well as buying a home vs. renting an apartment and buying vs. leasing a car. Waller always adds current topics, which this summer included the recent NSA identify theft case and whether the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates.

Waller expects a larger number of highschool students to take the course next summer.

Suggested Reading Personal Finance by Art Keown

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Growth Spurt Longwood welcomes the largest freshman class ever At a time when some colleges and universities are struggling to meet their enrollment goals—and a few are even closing their doors—Longwood experienced a 3 percent increase in applications and welcomed its largest freshman class in history this fall.

About 1,115 freshmen began their studies at Longwood on Aug. 26, said Dean of Admissions Sallie McMullin. (Enrollment figures were not final at press time.) That’s an 8 percent increase over last year’s freshman class of 1,036, and a 4 percent increase over the previous record-setting class of 1,074 freshmen who entered in fall 2011, she said.

“Longwood’s goal was to increase enrollment by 100 students. The increase in freshmen coupled with the slight increase in transfer students certainly contributed to the overall goal. We are optimistic that when graduate student enrollment, as well as retention numbers, are finalized we will surpass our target,” McMullin said.

Another successful year in transfer student recruitment helped in reaching that goal.

1,074 1,010

1,012

2009

2010

2011

About 220 transfer students enrolled this fall compared with 214 last year, McMullin said, adding that this is the first time transfer enrollment has exceeded 200 two years in a row.

McMullin said the admissions staff turned up the volume this year in their recruitment efforts but also credited the entire Longwood community with working toward the 100student increase.

“There’s not a person on this campus who doesn’t play some role in student recruitment,” she said. “The Longwood team consists of faculty, staff, alumni and current students, and they are some of our best recruiters.”

In addition to increasing the number of students overall, recruitment efforts targeting particular majors were successful, as well, McMullin said.

Incoming computer science majors are up 50 percent; biology majors, 17 percent; business majors, 12 percent; and liberal studies (the major for aspiring teachers), 12 percent.

—Sabrina Brown

1,036 2012

1,115

2013

Longwood University freshman enrollment

Vikings may have gotten bad rap, says medieval scholar The Vikings were not just the wanton marauders of popular portrayal, says a Longwood medieval scholar who has conducted archaeological research on the Isle of Man. “The exclusive image of rape, pillage and burning by the Vikings is probably inaccurate,” said Larissa “Kat” Tracy, associate professor of English.

Tracy spent a week photographing inscriptions on Viking-age stone monuments on the island between Great Britain and Ireland.

“I saw Celtic grave markers and Viking-age burial sites, many located within church closures or near Christian church sites,” said Tracy. “I also saw the foundations or ruins of small chapels, which either predated or were concurrent with the Vikings.”

Based on her observations, Tracy concluded that the Vikings, who raided and settled

throughout Europe from the late 8th century through the 11th century, were perhaps more interested in winning the hearts and minds of the people they encountered than is often thought.

“There is evidence that the Vikings integrated into the community,” said Tracy, a medieval literature specialist. “There have been two assumptions about the Vikings—that they either took over Christian Celtic civilization or that they conquered it but co-existed and assimilated.

While most likely there was some violent action, the crosses I saw—a majority of which have depictions of legendary pre-Christian heroes— indicate a shared tradition and assimilation.”

Tracy’s research trip, which was funded by Longwood, was related to her current book project, England’s Medieval Literary Heroes: Literature, Law and National Identity.

—Kent Booty

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All expenses paid for students interning at Carnegie Mellon Eric Hansen

Colleen Margiloff ’97

Stephen Mobley ’93

Robert Wertz ’85

New Leadership 3 alumni are among appointments to Board of Visitors Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s appointments to the Longwood Board of Visitors include three alumni of the university—Colleen McCrink Margiloff ’97, Robert S. Wertz Jr. ’85 and Stephen L. Mobley ’93—and distinguished business leader Eric Hansen, president and CEO of Innovative Wireless Technologies.

Also, at the June Board meeting, the Board of Visitors elected officers for the coming year.

Marianne Moffat Radcliff ’92, rector, Dr. Judi M. Lynch ’87, vice rector, and Ronald O. White, secretary, were re-elected unanimously to their positions, and Jane Sheffield Maddux of Charlottesville, a retired businesswoman and community leader, was elected unanimously as member-at-large of the Board’s executive committee.

Margiloff and Wertz are first-time appointments to the Board of Visitors. Margiloff of Rye, N.Y., is a former middle school teacher who also served as president of the Longwood Alumni Association. Wertz of Leesburg is commissioner of the revenue for Loudoun County. Mobley of McLean, program manager for Thomson Reuters’ Scientific and Scholarly Research division, and Hansen of Moneta, president and CEO of Innovative Wireless Technologies (IWT), were reappointed to the Board by Gov. McDonnell.

All four were named to four-year terms.

Margiloff also serves on the board of Behind the Book, a nonprofit organization that motivates young people in New York City to become engaged readers. She has served on the university’s Alumni Association board since 2007 and has been president since July 2012, a position from which she has stepped down in light of her Board of Visitors appointment.

Wertz was first elected Loudoun County’s commissioner of the revenue in 2003 and has been re-elected twice since then. His current term runs through 2015. Prior to his election as commissioner of revenue, he had worked in the commissioner’s office since 1992. He has been a member of the Longwood Foundation Board since 2011 and served as president of the university’s Alumni Association from 1998-2000.

Mobley, first appointed to the Board of Visitors in 2009, chaired the university’s Compensation Task Force in 2012 and was a member of the most recent presidential search committee. He worked previously for America Online.

Hansen, first appointed in July 2012 to fill out an unexpired term, launched IWT in 1997 as a spinoff from GE/Ericsson. He previously held engineering positions with Ericsson and Motorola.

Four students from Longwood’s College of Business and Economics were selected to participate in an all-expenses-paid research internship at Carnegie Mellon University this past summer.

Nick Baragar ’14 of Virginia Beach, Hannah Flaherty ’14 of Springfield, Ben Peters ’14 of Amherst and George Werbacher ’14 of Fredericksburg traveled to Pittsburgh in June as fellows in Carnegie Mellon’s highly competitive ITLAB Internship program, which is open to rising seniors pursuing STEM-related undergraduate degrees at ITLAB’s 12 partner institutions. All four students are completing BSBA degrees with a concentration in information systems and security.

The fellowships provided by Carnegie Mellon included a stipend of $3,500, plus a meal allowance, round-trip airfare to Pittsburgh, university housing, tuition for two courses, all required books and related course materials, and access to all of Carnegie Mellon’s facilities.

“The Information Systems program at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College ranks among the most prestigious in the world,” said Peters.

The internship program, which concluded in August, provided Peters and the other participants the opportunity to conduct cuttingedge research projects directed by Carnegie Mellon faculty, who are world-renowned experts in their fields, and to take two courses.

The Longwood students competed for the opportunity with students from other universities, including BrighamYoung and Emory.

Randall Boyle, associate professor of information systems and security at Longwood, said the outstanding training his students receive made Longwood’s applicants for the program stand out.

“Longwood students discover that the extensive applied focus of their technical training sets them apart from their counterparts at other schools,” he said. “Our students have a technical skill set that is much more extensive than other top IS programs.” —Kent Booty

Fun and The G.A.M.E. Students cheer for the Lancers at the field hockey and men’s soccer games held as part ofThe G.A.M.E. 4.0 on Aug. 25.

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Andrea Dailey

All Natural

The art gallery in Bedford Hall looks out onto Brock Commons.

Bedford Hall interiors win national recognition The project that renovated and nearly tripled the size of Longwood’s art building has received national recognition.

The work on Bedford Hall was chosen for a Silver Citation in American School & University’s 23rd Annual Educational Interiors Showcase, which recognizes the architectural merits of interior projects in educational settings.

The award is shared by Longwood and Moseley Architects of Virginia Beach, the architect for the project.

“The project accomplished what it set out to do: It showcases student art in spaces very nicely enhanced with natural light. Public circulation areas are formed creatively in a minimal manner,” says the award citation from the jury.

The Bedford project was one of 14 overall award winners, selected from about 95 entries, and one of four chosen for a Silver Citation. Entries are accepted for instructional, administrative and service facilities for public and private schools of all levels.

The competition is sponsored by American School & University magazine, a trade publication that describes itself as the leading educational facilities/business publication for school and university administrators.

Bedford Hall, home of Longwood’s art program since it opened in 1970, underwent a nearly $28.2 million project that added a new section in the front of the building, completed in August 2011, and renovated the existing space, finished in August 2012. Bedford now has nearly twice as much studio space, a glass-walled art gallery fronting Brock Commons, two outdoor water features and an open feel with lots of light. —Kent Booty

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SCHEV approves degree in environmental sciences Longwood’s integrated environmental sciences degree has been approved by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), the commonwealth’s coordinating body for higher education.

The undergraduate program, which is open to students beginning this fall, is a response to a call from the state government for new opportunities for students to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers. About 20 students each year are expected to enroll in the program.

“This is an innovative program that is much needed for Virginia,” said Mark Fink, chair of the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences. “This field is going to see significant job growth over the next 10 years, and Longwood is going to be a leader in creating the environmental scientists of the future.”

The program’s uniqueness comes from its interdisciplinary approach, which will include needed skill sets as well as practical hands-on experiences throughout the entire curriculum.

Students have the options of exploring environmental science through the lens of economics, sociology, health and recreation, chemistry and physics—providing not only a broader knowledge base but also opening the door to more career paths. Student knowledge will be deepened through specialized upper-level capstone courses focusing on environmental planning, management and decision making.

Representatives of several key state environmental agencies and nonprofit groups, including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation Department of Environmental Quality, Department of Conservation and Recreation

and Clean Virginia Waterways support the program.

Environmental sciences degree program provides plenty of hands-on learning opportunities.

“This program will expand the STEM course work at Longwood and prepare our students for careers in an important and growing field,” said Charles Ross, dean of the Cook-Cole College of Arts and Sciences.

“It’s a perfect fit for Longwood and has already received considerable interest. I foresee topnotch work coming out of this program.”

“This degree program is not only interdisciplinary, it’s truly integrated,” said Fink.

“The intentional integration and application of content, context and skills will enable our students to help solve complex real-world issues and be real leaders in this growing field.”

In its report “Preparing the Top Jobs of the 21st Century,” a state commission on higher education said, “Virginia will need to prepare 100,000 additional workers with STEM degrees over the next decade.”

—Matthew McWilliams

National study praises Longwood’s teacher programs Longwood was one of only 92 colleges and universities in the nation recognized for excellence in teacher preparation in a study of more than 1,000 schools conducted by the National Council on Teacher Quality and released in June 2013.

The 2013 NCTQ Teacher Prep Review “evaluates what a program itself adds in the way of solid training—nothing more, nothing less,” the report states. “Programs that earn three- or four-star ratings require coursework and clinical practice that make their teacher graduates better prepared to handle classroom responsibilities than

they would have been without such preparation.”

The study looked at one or more programs at each school, evaluating a total of 1,200 undergraduate and graduate programs in elementary and secondary education at 1,130 institutions across the country.

Only 105 of the programs—or 9 percent of those evaluated— earned three or more stars. Longwood was one of only 13 institutions that earned high ratings for two or more programs. Longwood’s undergraduate programs in elementary and secondary education each earned three stars. —Sabrina Brown

“S m al l Talk”

overheard on the Longwood campus

“

I would get rid of grades and let the law schools decide who they want to admit, which is why grades exist, so that we can focus on thinking.”

José Antonio Bowen dean of Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts, at the LongwoodTeaching and Learning Institute in May Andrea Dailey

Professor Chris McGee’s Hardy Boys collection includes 10 of the rare original books.

testing needs to be revamped.

“SOL A multiple-choice test at the end of the year is not the way to prepare for 21st-century jobs.”

Terr y McAuliffe gubernatorial candidate and former national Democratic chairman, at Virginia Girls State in June

It’s No Mystery English professor still in love with Hardy Boys books It doesn’t take a detective to figure out that Longwood English professor Chris McGee loves the Hardy Boys.

In his office, he has an entire 58-volume set of the revised editions—the series that he and most fans grew up reading— as well as about 10 of the rare original books, 15 reprints of the original series and 75 paperbacks.

What’s a little more surprising is that McGee’s passion for the fictional teen-age sleuths Frank and Joe Hardy has found its way into his scholarly endeavors. The long-running mystery series for young readers has been the subject of papers McGee has given at conferences, is a “significant” part of an academic book he’s writing on mystery fiction for children and is being taught in one of his courses this fall.

McGee, an associate professor of English whose academic specialty is mystery fiction for children, fell in love with the Hardy Boys books as a 10-year-old, checking them out, one by one, from his local library in Hoopeston, Ill. He has read many of the books from the original series, which debuted in 1927, and all of the revised books, published beginning in 1959. Both sets were written by ghostwriters under the collective pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon and published by Grosset & Dunlap.

“The original books are much better,” said McGee. “The revised books rely on cliff-

hanger endings to the chapters and are faster, but there is no characterization. The originals were more natural, more sophisticated stories and were better plotted.”

The series was created by Edward Stratemeyer, who founded a book-publishing syndicate and also created, in 1930, the equally popular Nancy Drew series, as well as the Tom Swift and Bobbsey Twins series.

“In the Hardy Boys series, Stratemeyer would create titles and character names and send those off to ghostwriters who were typically paid little money— a hundred dollars perhaps— to write within a tight deadline and story expectations,” said McGee. “We know that a Canadian journalist named Leslie McFarlane wrote many of the original stories.

He infused them with a degree of humor, adventure and surprising disrespect for authority that made them stand out. He wanted Frank and Joe to be rebellious, while Stratemeyer wanted them to be better-behaved.”

McGee has even tried his hand at bringing the characters to life and giving them a mystery to solve.

“In graduate school, I wanted to see if I could write a Hardy Boys book so I wrote kind of a fan-fiction Hardy Boys book. It was called the Mystery of the Secret Clue—a joke because the title of nearly every Hardy Boys book involves the words Mystery, Secret or Clue.”—Kent Booty

“

If I believed what my high-school guidance counselor told me, I wouldn’t be here today.

Xavier Richardson executive vice president of corporate development and community affairs for Mary Washington Healthcare, at Longwood’s Call Me MISTER Summer Institute in July

get to decide what the law is ...

“II don’t have issued legal opinions defending laws I don’t like.”

Ken Cuccinelli Virginia attorney general and gubernatorial candidate, at Virginia Girls State in June

“

What we deliver to our children is what enables us to go from what we were to what we will become.”

Kristin Fontichiaro University of Michigan School of Information, at the Longwood Summer Literacy Institute in July

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Graduate student creates website that focuses on American Romanticism Jeff Everhart ’11 M.A. ’13 didn’t do the traditional research paper for his master’s thesis in English. Instead, he combined his two passions—technology and the American Romanticism period in literature—to create a website, American Romanticism Online, that is a resource for students and teachers.

“My dream is to develop pedagogical tools for teachers using this intersection between text and technology,” said Everhart, who graduated in May with a master’s degree and earned the Full-Time Student Award.

The website (www.americanromanticism online.com) features free edited editions of texts by four authors that can be downloaded as pdf or Word documents, integrated lesson plans for the Virginia Standards of Learning and interactive quizzes.

“The site averages 10 to 15 hits a day from Google Edgar Allan Poe is one of the authors featured on the American Romanticism website.

searches,” said Everhart, who has not done any advertising. “I assume that most of these people are teachers since the most common key words are ‘lesson plans’ and ‘quiz.’

Also, students are visiting for the summaries of texts.”

The website, primarily for high-school students and teachers, is related to two recent movements—open educational resources and digital humanities.The former are freely accessible, usually openly licensed documents and media used for teaching and learning, the latter a research area that incorporates digitized and born-digital materials.

“Some similar websites have parts of what I’m trying to do, and I’m putting a spin on that,” said Everhart. “I’ve taken ideas from things that exist independently and put them together on one site. It was an idea I’d had for a while. I mentioned it to my thesis director [John Miller], and he said ‘Sounds cool.

You should do this for your thesis.’”

—Kent Booty

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Speech, Hearing and Learning Services Director Lissa Power-deFur: ‘ The university has built us a Cadillac of buildings.’

The Better to Hear You New home, name for unit that provides services in speech, hearing, learning The Longwood Center for Communication, Literacy and Learning has a new home— and a new name.

Speech, Hearing and Learning Services— the unit’s new name—will be housed in a state-of-the-art building on Third Street. “ The university has built us a Cadillac of buildings,” said Lissa Power-deFur, program director and professor of communication sciences and disorders.

The new name better reflects the services the program offers the community and graduate students. The new building is spacious, bright and completely integrated with the latest in speech, hearing and learning technology.

The classroom in the new space is designed with induction loops in the floor—an amplification system for persons with hearing aids, which can be turned to a certain setting to better hear instructors’ voices. The facility also boasts eight single-student and two group therapy rooms with observation windows for faculty and family, an infant-toddler connection room, a preschool room and office suite for the Infant-Toddler Connection of the Heartland, which provides early intervention services to infants and toddlers with disabilities.

“This is a vast increase in the capacity we will have to serve the surrounding community,” said Power-deFur. “The university has shown a willingness to invest in the graduate communica-

tion sciences and disorders program and these services we offer to the community, and we are up to the challenge of meeting the expectations that come with that investment. As our clinic population grows, we will have the space and technology to grow the graduate program.”

The new building also provides the space for expansion of new services for the community: audiology and voice and swallowing services.

“There aren’t audiology services within an hour drive of Farmville,” said Power-deFur. “ We are going to be able to offer more services and expand the offerings that we already have with technology like this.”

The voice and swallowing station is a comprehensive, state-of-the-art evaluation center that will be used to treat disorders affecting swallowing and the voice. People with these disorders, which can be caused by stroke or other illness, can be assessed and receive therapies on site.

Since 2005, the undergraduate communication sciences and disorders program has grown from five students to more than a hundred.

The graduate program has grown significantly since it opened in 2006 and currently has more than 50 students. With more than 150 applicants, admissions standards for the program are increasing—the average GPA of entering students is 3.4. —Matthew McWilliams

Mind Trip Yellowstone experience is much more than magnificent scenery and souvenirs Since 2006, groups of Longwood students and faculty have been setting out in May on an annual academic pilgrimage toYellowstone National Park. Like the many students before them, those who traveled toYellowstone in 2013 were seeking more than just magnificent scenery and some souvenirs.

The Longwood @Yellowstone program has been developed as a way for young people to gain a new perspective on what it takes to apply a university education to real-world problems. “Longwood at Yellowstone is focused on engaging students in meaningful issues in their communities by first engaging them in theYellowstone ecosystem,” said Carl Riden, associate professor of sociology.

This year’s participants—majoring in a variety of disciplines, from art to science, geography to mathematics— looked into topics such as land and water conservation, wildlife management and business.

“When many students leave forYellowstone, they think they have the answers,” said Alix Fink, associate professor of biology and dean of the Cormier Honors College. “Then they start talking to ranchers and the people who actually live the experience and realize they really have more questions than answers.”

Photo by Mike Kropf ’14

A Higher Calling Leading an institution of higher education was a career all but preordained for Longwood’s 26th president

BY RICHARD FOSTER PHOTOS BY ANDREA DAILEY

12 I LONGWOOD MAGAZINE

FALL 2013 I 13

Pictured here at Longwood House this summer, President Reveley and his wife, Marlo, are happy that 1-year-old twins May and Quint will be growing up as part of the Longwood family.

ne could say that higher education is in Longwood President W. Taylor Reveley IV’s blood.

His father, W. Taylor Reveley III, is the incumbent president of the College of William & Mary, and his grandfather, the late Walter Taylor Reveley II, was president of Hampden-Sydney College.

One of his great-grandfathers was a professor at Longwood, and several of his family members attended Longwood, including his grandmother and great-grandmother, who graduated in 1940 and 1910 respectively.

“Growing up, people around the dinner table were talking about what the curriculum was going to look like, talking about faculty issues and board meetings and plans for the next year,” Reveley recalled during an interview at Richmond’s Jefferson Hotel. “The rhythms of academic life were a natural focus of conversation.”

Reveley, who turned 39 in August, assumed the presidency of Longwood in June, becoming one of the nation’s youngest public university presidents. His inauguration will be held Nov. 15.

“He is young, but our sense of him was that he truly is wise beyond his years,” said Longwood Board of Visitors Rector Marianne Radcliff ’92, speaking of the Board’s selection of Reveley. A serious, contemplative man with an athletic bearing befitting his former college football days, Reveley impressed the Board with his work experience, his big-picture views on education and his deep family connections to Longwood.

“He is a diligent, thoughtful person, with a deep sense of Longwood and the direction it should go,” Radcliff said. “The way he listens is something to be really prized in a leader.”

O

14 I LONGWOOD MAGAZINE

In addition to his new position, Reveley is a new father. He and his wife, Marlo, a vice president with Allianz Global Assistance, are the proud parents of 1-year-old twins, May and Quint. “It’s really wonderful that they’re going to grow up on the Longwood campus,” he said. “There definitely won’t be a shortage of babysitters.”

Reveley himself grew up on Richmond’s stately Monument Avenue as the eldest of four children, all of whom attended Princeton. An Eagle Scout, he also played basketball and was a stand-out football player for St. Christopher’s, a noted prep school whose alumni include acclaimed author Tom Wolfe. Reveley continued playing football at Princeton until a chronic knee injury sidelined him in his sophomore year.

At St. Christopher’s, Reveley first traveled to Europe, and, at Princeton, he served on an archaeological dig in Cyprus, kicking off a lifelong love for international travel. He and his wife have visited “every continent except for Antarctica,” especially enjoying trips to South Africa, New Zealand and China, where the couple climbed a remote portion of the Great Wall. “You could give me a Eurorail pass and tell me not to emerge for six months, and I’d be happy just going around,” he said.

Reveley’s early education fostered in him a love for classical languages and classic literature. A self-described “promiscuous reader” who once taught Latin at St. Catherine’s School in Richmond, Reveley is currently reading Robert Harris’ fictional trilogy based on the life of the great Roman statesman Cicero. For comfort reading, however, he retreats to well-loved classics such as Shakespeare, the Bible and the poetry of Tennyson, Keats and Frost.

Following Princeton, Reveley earned a master’s degree from Union

(clockwise from top left) President Reveley and Greenwood Library Dean Suzy Szasz Palmer share a smile over the difference in their heights. At the President’s Welcome in August, President Reveley takes questions from Staff Advisory Committee Co-chair Hannah McElheny Ledger ’04 (second from left), Faculty Senate Chair David Lehr and Staff Advisory Committee Co-chair Allison Dobson ’11. Former faculty member Nancy Andrews ’59 signs paperwork related to the scholarship she created at Longwood.

President Reveley chats with parents of new students at orientation. Peer mentors snag President Reveley for a photo op.

’He is young, but our sense of him was that he truly is wise beyond his years.’

MARIANNE MOFFAT RADCLIFF ’92 RECTOR, LONGWOOD UNIVERSITY BOARD OF VISITORS

Presbyterian Seminary and then earned his law degree from the University of Virginia. As a lawyer, Reveley practiced at one of the larger firms in the country, Hunton & Williams, where his father had previously served as managing partner before becoming dean of William & Mary’s law school.

Reveley started at Hunton & Williams in 2002 as a business attorney, assisting public and private entities with mergers, acquisitions and financings ultimately totaling more than $1.5 billion. There he also embarked on a nearly decadelong working collaboration with former Virginia Gov. Gerald Baliles, a close friend and mentor to Reveley, whom Reveley affectionately calls “the Guv.” “Taylor is a leader with vision and drive,” Baliles said, reflecting on the beginning of Reveley’s tenure at Longwood. “It is a great day for higher education—in Virginia and beyond—to have him in the ranks of college and university presidents, and it is a truly great day for Longwood.”

In 2006, Baliles moved from Hunton & Williams to become director and CEO of the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, a nonpartisan research institute that explores bipartisan solutions to national governance challenges, with special attention to the history and role of the U.S. presi-

dency. The center is responsible for annotating and transcribing the secret White House tape recordings made by the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations. The Miller Center is also responsible for the official oral history debriefing of each presidential administration after it leaves office.

Reveley served as Hunton & Williams’ public policy fellow at the Miller Center from 2006 to 2008, before he joined U.Va.’s faculty that year as the center’s managing director. While there, he worked with leading scholars and with top officials from the administrations of former Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, as well as current government officials.

“The Miller Center is a genuinely remarkable place. Its true nonpartisanship is fundamental to the cachet it’s had in the eyes of policy makers, and it really is a unique resource for modern presidential history,” Reveley said.

Of the many projects Reveley worked on at the Miller Center, perhaps his favorite was serving as coordinating attorney for the National War Powers Commission, which the Miller Center convened to create policy and legislative recommendations concerning the roles that Congress and the president play in overseeing armed conflict.

FALL 2013 I 15

’Taylor is a leader with vision and drive.

It is a great day for higher education— in Virginia and beyond— to have him in the ranks of college and university presidents, and it is a truly great day for Longwood.’

GERALD L. BALILES DIRECTOR AND CEO, MILLER CENTER, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 65TH GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA

16 I LONGWOOD MAGAZINE

Courtesy W.Taylor Reveley IV

“It’s a problem that the country’s had since the founding,” said Reveley.

“This may be the most significant slow-motion crisis that the country is “ The Constitution is deliberately vague on the issue. Article 1 gives the facing,” he said. “We can do a lot of things as a country if we’ve got the Congress the power to declare war, whatever that may mean, and Article 2 creativity and intellectual wherewithal to do it. But if you play this phegives the president the power to as commander-in-chief, whatever that nomenon forward 20 or 30 years—if we continue to allow more than a may mean.” third of the people who enter college to be burdened with debt but not Usually in instances of constitutional ambiguity, he said, the judicial get a degree—the consequences will be grave.” branch over time offers clarity. However, because the Supreme Court has At Longwood, the six-year graduation rate has stood at about 65 peralways been reluctant to take up war powers matters, the commission was cent. That needs to change, Reveley said. “The mission of this place is empanelled with the intent to to help transform people’s lives clarify issues such as which memby getting them a strong college bers of Congress should be coneducation. It’s a moral issue, sulted when the president is core to our purpose.” considering going to war.

Going forward, he also plans The commission was co-chaired to institute a curriculum review by former U.S. Secretaries of State aimed at forging Longwood into James Baker and Warren Christoa model for teaching what’s most pher. Commission members inbeneficial to 21st century stucluded former U.S. Attorney dents, with a central place for the General Edwin Meese, former liberal arts.

National Security Adviser Brent Reveley likewise wants to reScowcroft, Brookings Institution view how technology can enPresident and former Deputy Sechance the university’s mission. retary of State Strobe Talbott and Over the next 15 to 20 years, he Pulitzer Prize-winning historian envisions that students may be Doris Kearns Goodwin, among viewing lectures by talented proothers. Reveley’s father also served fessors from across the nation on as adviser to the commission. The their computers or mobile deObama administration has given vices, and that the classroom can meaningful attention to the combecome more of a small-group, mission’s policy recommendaseminar experience than a lecture tions, and Congress continues to environment.

Three generations of the Reveley family in 1976 at Hampden-Sydney College: consider the proposed legislation.

Additionally, he wants Long(from left) the president’s parents: W.Taylor Reveley III, president of the College Since leaving U.Va. to take up wood to serve as a catalyst and of William & Mary since 2008, and Helen Reveley; President Reveley as a child; and the president’s late grandparents: Marie Eason Reveley ’40 and W.Taylor his new post at Longwood, Reveleader for economic development Reveley II, president of Hampden-Sydney College from 1963 to 1977. ley has worked quickly to engage efforts in the Southside Virginia the university community, alumni, region, which has been hard hit state officials and the local comover the past generation by globmunity. To that end, in a time alization in manufacturing and when inaugurations of university declines in the tobacco industry. presidents are sometimes held as Finally, Reveley said, in a time long as 24 months after a president of tightening state budgets, “philassumes office, Reveley is holding anthropy is going to be essential his in November, in hopes of using to Longwood’s deeper prosperity the inauguration to focus attention in the years to come.” Longwood on Longwood’s 175th Anniversary typically raises several million this academic year. dollars a year, and Reveley hopes “Longwood’s not only old; it’s to increase that annual amount one of the 100 oldest colleges and substantially in the years ahead, universities in the country,” said noting that the university curW. TAYLOR REVELEY IV Reveley, adding that he wants the rently receives roughly $25 milPRESIDENT, LONGWOOD UNIVERSITY anniversary to help raise the publion in annual operating funds lic profile of “this splendid and from the Commonwealth. storied place.”

Asked how long he plans to stay at Longwood, Reveley gives a broad Discussing his priorities for Longwood, the topic foremost on his mind smile. “A long time,” he said. “Longwood’s most iconic president, Joseph is student retention and graduation. Nationally only about 60 percent of Jarman, began at about my age and stayed from 1902 to 1946. While I students who enter college earn a degree within six years, a surprising figdon’t necessarily expect to stay for 44 years, this absolutely is what I’m exure for those unfamiliar with the trend that has developed over the last cited to do, and I certainly hope and am planning for this to be a long several decades. run. Longwood has important and great work ahead.”

’Growing up, people around the

dinner table were talking about what the curriculum was going to look like, talking about faculty issues and board meetings and plans for the next year.’

FALL 2013 I 17

Ready for Action First class of nurses has impact in emergency rooms, operating rooms and birthing centers throughout the Commonwealth

BY KENT BOOTY

Helping to deliver babies, taking care of gunshot victims and assisting in life-saving surgeries are just a few of the experiences on tap for Longwood’s first nursing graduates, who are beginning their careers after completing their Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees in May. “They’ll all have jobs,” Melody Eaton, chair of the nursing department, said in early June.

“Nursing remains one of the top growth professions. There is a world of opportunity for the BSNprepared nurse.”

Among the 25 members of the inaugural class are those working in hospital emergency rooms, operating rooms, birthing centers, medical-surgical units and other departments. Fourteen of them graduated with jobs, and most of the others quickly landed positions in health care settings throughout Virginia and at least one hospital in Maryland.

Stacy Bolt ’13 was urged to become a nurse by a high-school teacher who told her she “had

that spark.” She followed his advice and now is part of Longwood history.

“I was all set to go to High Point University—I had paid my deposit—but then I heard a radio ad about Longwood’s nursing

’Nursing remains one of

In Virginia alone, the nursing shortage is projected to reach 36 percent by 2020, according to the Virginia Department of Health, exacerbated by an aging population and new patients expected to enter the medical system through the Affordable Care Act. That legislation also will prompt the need for more nurses to “coordinate care and assist with patient/client navigation through a very complicated health care system,” said Eaton. Southside Virginia is being hit with a double whammy: The nursing shortage is even greater than in other parts of the state while the need for health care providers is even greater due to the higher incidence of chronic diseases in the Southside population such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease.

Meanwhile, there is a nationwide push for more nurses to have BSN degrees. In its landmark report “The Future of Nursing,” issued in October 2010, the Institute of Medicine recommended increasing the number of

the top growth professions.

There is a world of opportunity for the BSN-prepared nurse.’

18 I LONGWOOD MAGAZINE

MELODY EATON CHAIR, LONGWOOD NURSING DEPARTMENT

program,” said Bolt, who works in the emergency room of Centra Southside Community Hospital (CSCH) in Farmville, her hometown.

“I was very fortunate that things turned out as they did. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

Bolt and the other Longwood nurses are helping to fill a serious need.

Andrea Dailey

Marc Bein ’13 works as a scrub nurse in the operating rooms of three Richmond hospitals affiliated with HCA Virginia.

FALL 2013 I 19

Longwood’s 10,000-square-foot simulation center includes two clinical skill labs, three patient simulator labs, a health assessment lab, a mother-infant simulation lab, conference/debriefing rooms, patient examination rooms and a home-care learning center.

20 I LONGWOOD MAGAZINE

Amber Hare ’13 is working in cardiac telemetry at Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital in Newport News.

baccalaureate-prepared nurses in the workforce to 80 percent by 2020. The number currently is less than 30 percent.

“Most hospitals are now requiring that RNs have a BSN,” said Eaton.

The 2013 graduates were among 37 freshmen who began their studies when the nursing program was launched in fall 2009. Enrollment grew to 140 in 2012-13, including 42 freshmen, which is capacity. The program has nine full-time faculty, three permanent part-time faculty, and other part-time and adjunct faculty.

“In considering growth, we always have to consider three things—the capacity of the school, the faculty-student radio and the clinical sites,” said Eaton. “We have to meet the community’s needs without overwhelming the clinical sites. A lot of nursing programs jockey for clinical sites.”

In addition to beginning their professional careers, the Longwood nurses have been taking their board licensure examinations, passage of which enables them to work as licensed RNs. Even before graduating in May, they had gotten

a taste of their profession. Their preparation included two major clinical experiences—a 280hour internship during their last semester and a 56-hour externship in the summer after their junior year. Several are working in jobs that aren’t for the faint of heart.

Kenly Walston ’13, who plans to specialize in emergency medicine, is working at the Prince George’s (Md.) Hospital Center, a shock trauma facility. “I’m sure I’ll see a ton of shootings, stabbings and car accidents,” she said shortly before starting. In her internship in the emergency department at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital in Richmond, her patients included heart attack and stroke victims.

Bolt, who wants to become a certified trauma nurse, has been working in CSCH’s emergency room for more than a year, first on a paid, part-time basis since finishing her externship in the hospital’s intensive care unit in July 2012. She became an official, full-time ER nurse in mid-July. “I’ve seen crush injuries, motor vehicle accidents, strokes and heart attacks,” she said.

Brittany Hess ’13 works in trauma and or-

thopedics at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville. “The trauma part of my job includes car accident patients, traumatic brain injuries and people with work-related injuries, many of them in construction,” said Hess, who plans to work in pediatrics and trauma.

Marc Bein is working in the operating rooms of the three Richmond hospitals—Henrico Doctors, Chippenham and Johnston-Willis— affiliated with HCA Virginia. “I’m a scrub nurse. I’m with patients in surgery, passing the instruments and assisting the surgeons,” said Bein, who after six months will be assigned to whichever hospital has the greatest need.

He wants to become a registered nurse first assistant, who, he said, “doesn’t just hand the instruments to the surgeon but assists with the surgery.”

Allison Mitchell ’13 is another graduate who decided to stay in Farmville, working in Centra Southside’s birthing center, where she takes care of women in labor and newborn babies. “I provide care during the labor process, assisting in deliveries, providing newborn care and caring

SPRING 2013 I 21

for the mother after the delivery until she is discourse. Some nursing programs have a simulation,” said Mitchell. “The professors and staff charged from the hospital. The nurses in the tion center but don’t use it.” were more than just teachers to the students— birthing center do it all,” she said.

The simulations, which take 30 minutes to they were our mentors and, more importantly, Several graduates are working in the hospitals an hour and are done for two to four students, our friends. They wanted all of us to succeed.” where they interned. In addition to Mitchell are videotaped so the students can view and criHess was also accepted into Virginia Comand Bolt, Molly Dibble ’13 and Melissa Nagle tique their performance. “In one of our last senmonwealth University’s nursing school. “I chose ior simulations during the spring semester, we Longwood’s program because I thought it was ’13 converted internships to full-time jobs.

Dibble is in the nurse residency program at had volunteers from the theatre program stand neat to be in the first class. Also, I figured I’d Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg. in as patients and family members. They had a get smaller class sizes and more one-on-one edShe turned down three other job offers before acball,” said Crews. ucation. My experience turned out to be everycepting one from Mary Washington, in criticalMitchell, one of the graduates who stayed in thing I hoped for, and more.” care nursing (her internship was in surgical ICU).

Farmville, called the simulation center “essential Amber Hare ’13, who is working in cardiac Nagle signed on for a position in telemetry at Bon Secours Mary the medical-surgical unit at St. Immaculate Hospital in NewFrancis Medical Center in Midport News, was a double major. lothian. She wants to specialize in She started in fall 2008 as a biolwound-care nursing. ogy major, then added nursing Eaton compared the internship when the program started the to a capstone course. “The stunext year. “I thought nursing was dents are paired with a practicing perfect for me. I had always registered nurse, and they work thought about going into the in unison to complete 280 pracmedical field, but doctors often tice hours, usually in a hospital. walk into a patient’s room and They also have classes their last spend only two seconds with semester.” them. I’m a people person, so Internships are just one of the nursing is a perfect mixture of ALLISON MITCHELL ’13 strong points that qualified the medicine and spending time NURSE, CENTRA SOUTHSIDE COMMUNITY HOSPITAL BIRTHING CENTER nursing program for the academic with your patients.” world’s most important endorseAs the first president of Longment: accreditation. The program was to our education. It allowed us to provide realwood’s chapter of the Virginia Nursing Stufully accredited by the Commission on Collelife nursing care in a safe setting while learning dents’ Association, a post she held for all but giate Nursing Education in May, retroactive to the importance of communicating and collaboher last semester, Dibble helped write the chapthe site visit in November 2012. rating with other health care members. This ter’s constitution and bylaws. “The program “We had only positive feedback and were prepared us for our clinicals in the hospital and was great in providing opportunities for leaderrated ‘exceptional’ with our simulation center the community.” ship and in encouraging students to become and our learning environments,” said Eaton.

Longwood’s BSN program, the only BSN citizen leaders,” she said. “The program also “ The accrediting body found no problems, offered by a state school within a 60-mile rawas good in providing clinical sites in various which is something I’ve never seen before. dius of Farmville, uses a community-based community settings, including health departWith every internship, we’ve had exceptionally curriculum. “We’re trying, through outreach, ments and local schools.” positive feedback on our students. The curricuto integrate our students into the Farmville Three of the recent nursing graduates— lum has been fully developed—we have gone community, which is the way health care is Kelli Baker, Bein and Nagle—took advantage through all of the courses at least once and moving— away from hospitals and out into of international citizen leadership opportunities some several times. We have an excellent base the community,” said Eaton. “We want stuat Longwood. In a weeklong medical study trip with our program.” dents to care about the community and to to the Dominican Republic in January, Bein The 10,000-square-foot simulation center, consider staying here after graduating.” did triage at a health clinic and later, working supported by a major donation from Farmville In another difference, students are admitted alongside Longwood Student Health and Wellphysician Dr. Edward I. Gordon and comdirectly into the program as freshmen, which ness Center Director Margo Potts, helped assess pleted in May 2012, is widely praised. Located enables them to begin their clinical practice patients and make recommendations. Baker on the third floor of Stevens Hall, the former and gain valuable experience before their peers and Nagle participated in a medical mission science building, the center includes two at other schools. Students in most nursing trip to Honduras in June 2012 in which they clinical skill labs, three patient simulator labs, programs take a year of general education provided basic care at five remote mountain vila health assessment lab, a mother-infant courses as freshmen, apply and are accepted to lages over five days. The trip was initiated by simulation lab, conference/debriefing rooms, nursing as sophomores, and begin their nursHadley Sporbert, instructor in the nursing propatient examination rooms and a home-care ing studies as juniors. gram, who was accompanied by one of her collearning center.

The members of the inaugural nursing class leagues on the nursing faculty, April Shular.

“It’s one of the largest clinical simulation cenhave nothing but good things to say about their “Student outcomes are what matter, and ters in Virginia,” said Cindy Crews, its director. preparation. our graduates are well-prepared as new nurses,” “ We utilize it and integrate it into every clinical “I could not have asked for a better educasaid Eaton.

’I could not have asked for a better

education. The professors and staff were more than just teachers to the students—they were our mentors and, more importantly, our friends.

They wanted all of us to succeed.’

22 I LONGWOOD MAGAZINE

Andrea Dailey

Allison Mitchell ’13 decided to stay in Farmville, working in Centra Southside Community Hospital’s birthing center, where she takes care of women in labor and newborn babies.

FALL 2013 I 23

Longwood at 175

The university pauses at this historic moment to honor its past and consider what the future holds

by Matthew McWilliams

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ANDREA DAILEY

175 1839 2014

Transformation. Through seven different names and significant growth in enrollment and programs, from a small private seminary for females to a leading coed public university in Southside Virginia, Longwood University in some ways bears little resemblance today to the institution that was founded 175 years ago. In at least one important aspect, however, Longwood has remained constant. It continues to provide students the opportunity and education to achieve their full potential—a transformation itself of life-changing proportions.

1839

A private school for women is established on High Street March 5, 1839 The Farmville Female Seminary Association is incorporated by the General Assembly.

26

A public school for future teachers grows 1860 The school is renamed Farmville Female College.

1884 The school is renamed the State Female Normal School.

Longwood's picturesque campus is a place of inspiration for students and can serve as a welcome respite from the four walls of a classroom.

This 1902 English class met outside, a tradition that Professor Mary Carroll-Hackett continues today.

This year, Longwood celebrates its 175th Anniversary with the theme honoring our past, inspiring our future. With the largest freshman class in history—about 1,115 students— entering this fall and an expanding emphasis on preparing graduates for the jobs of tomorrow, Longwood continues to move forward while preserving the qualities that have allowed it to survive and thrive for nearly two centuries.

It is a time of change at Longwood University. A new president, expanding academic focus, campus construction and enhancement, and lofty goals set for both current and future students—Longwood is poised to meet its next 175 years with vigor and sure footing.

The university’s bedrock academic program— education—has remained strong while academic offerings have expanded. Most recently, taking the lead from the governor’s office, Longwood has placed special emphasis on recruiting more math, computer science, biol-

ogy, chemistry, physics and business majors.

“We are focused on building the brand to include more than teaching,” said Sallie McMullin, dean of admissions. “The governor has issued a challenge not only to confer more degrees but also to increase STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] opportunities at state universities.”

With a plan in place to enhance opportunities for student research, Longwood’s academic colleges are pushing forward on a plan to increase hands-on learning and boost Longwood’s academic profile through a number of initiatives.

For example, Longwood has created a Center for Cyber Security within the College of Business and Economics.

“We are the only university in Virginia currently being considered as a Center of Excellence by the Department of Defense in this field. Our cyber security students have oppor-

tunities for multiyear internships with the defense department, which could potentially lead to jobs with secret clearance levels,” said Paul Barrett, dean of the college. “We also have several partnerships with Fortune 500 companies right here in Virginia to help facilitate students getting high-paying jobs. Handson learning is really the cornerstone of what we do, and that emphasis will only get stronger as we continue to grow.”

Undergraduate research is rapidly becoming the standard at Longwood. “We are centering our efforts on research and academic achievement,” said Chuck Ross, dean of the CookCole College of Arts and Sciences. “From the new PRISM summer research program to our continued focus on a robust Incite journal, we are enhancing our efforts to promote student development.”

Even teacher preparation—the historic roots of the university—is expanding efforts to pre-

The bonds of sisterhood flourish 1897-1901 Four alpha chapters of national sororities are founded.

Honor and integrity abound Sigma Sigma Sigma 1898

Kappa Delta 1897

Alpha Sigma Alpha 1901

ZetaTau Alpha 1898

1900 Chi is founded.

27

pare more effective educators. “The collaboration that we have with area school systems in the form of lab schools is going to grow and expand as we continue to play an active role in the community,” said Paul Chapman, dean of the College of Education and Human Services. “Furthermore, with the new Speech, Hearing and Learning Services facility, we are taking the charge to promote citizen leadership.”

“These programs all fit perfectly with our mission and help us stay true to the citizen leader concept—the touchstone for who we are as a university,” said Ken Perkins, provost and vice president for academic affairs. “I foresee a full-court press on enrollment and retention rates, which will benefit both the students and the university.”

The focus on research, internships and community impact has a major champion in the university’s new president. “Residential liberal arts education is one of the great revolutionary forces in history, and, as Longwood begins to look ahead to its third century, we can all take pride in knowing that what has made the university great since 1839 is what will propel it going forward—liberal arts combined with professional preparation,” said President W. Taylor Reveley IV. Improved retention and enrollment rates, coupled with Soar in Four, a major push to increase the percentage of students who graduate in four years, is a win-win for Longwood and graduates, said Jennifer Green, associate vice president for enrollment management and student success. On-time graduates reap financial gains by minimizing the cost of attendance and don’t exhaust their eligibility for state and federal financial aid before completing their studies, she said.

“We are undertaking several new initiatives that will spur us toward improved rates,” said Green. “These include better degree planning for students, a resource guide for parents and students to help chart a four-year path, academic content-area study strategy sessions, re-enrollment plans and many oth-

dent body does more than bring in more tuition dollars and grow the alumni base: The benefits are passed on to students themselves.

“Enrolling 6,000 students will allow us to offer additional majors as well as create more leadership and social opportunities, which will make us more attractive to potential students,” said McMullin.

“But rest assured, students will continue to receive personal attention and we will stay true to the community spirit that makes Longwood Longwood.”

Working to enhance that environment and provide new amenities for students, faculty and alumni, construction will bring exciting changes to the Longwood campus.

The Maugans Alumni Center, Upchurch University Center, construction at French Hall and several renovations are part of an overall plan to update the campus and provide more opportunities for students.

“We are at an exciting time right now. There is a lot to be proud of, and it is just the beginning,” said Colleen McCrink Margiloff ’97, former Alumni Association president and a recent appointment to Longwood’s Board of Visitors. “I am especially excited about Longwood’s two newest buildings — the alumni center and the university center.”

Major campus projects are funded in large part through alumni giving, and boosting alumni participation in annual giving is a high priority for the Office of University Advancement.

“Private philanthropy is essential to Longwood’s prosperity over the coming decades,” said Reveley. “Like many public universities, Longwood only began to focus

’Residential liberal arts education

is one of the great revolutionary forces in history, and, as Longwood begins to look ahead to its third century, we can all take pride in knowing that what has made the university great since 1839 is what will propel it going forward—liberal arts combined with professional preparation.’

28

W. TAYLOR REVELEY IV PRESIDENT, LONGWOOD UNIVERSITY

ers. These are all laying the groundwork for the university to reach key goals that will ensure our growth and success in the coming decades.”

Academic opportunities are not the only area of the school that is growing.

Several years ago, the Board of Visitors set a goal of increasing total enrollment, dubbed the Path to 6,000. Well on our way, Longwood welcomed the largest freshman class in history this fall and expects sustained growth over the next decade — a trend that has been in place for the past 50 years.

Enrollment reached the 2,000-student mark in 1970, 3,000 by the late 1980s and topped 4,000 in 2001. Growth in the stu-

New names reflect an ever-evolving college

Room to move

1914 The school is renamed the State Normal School for Women.

1928 The Longwood Estate is purchased by the college.

1924 The school is renamed the StateTeacher’s College at Farmville.

STC

Onward ever Longwood 1949 The school is renamed Longwood College.

Longwood continues to move forward while preserving the qualities that have allowed it to survive and thrive for nearly two centuries. on fundraising from private sources within the past generation. Broad macroeconomic forces will tightly constrain state support for higher education in the years ahead,

making private support more important.�

In myriad ways, Longwood is positioned for success, stability and future growth in the coming decades, as we approach

Curriculum and programs continue to expand 1949 Fire burns auditorium and the dorms above.

our bicentennial. The university, through the transformative education thousands of students receive each year, is truly inspiring the future.

Men are welcomed as students 1954 Graduate programs authorized.

1976 Longwood becomes fully coeducational.

29

A History of Change

by Matthew McWilliams

the nation. Willett was beloved almost from focused on the entire student, not just training Sprung from the ambition of local the beginning and led the school through sevfor a career. Critical of the curriculum from businessmen in 1839, Farmville eral major changes: The first African American the beginning—claiming that the training Female Academy was one of a graduate, Nancy “Cookie” Scott, was admitted teacher candidates received was on a highnumber of small seminaries that flourished in 1968; in 1976, Longwood became fully school level—Jarman took it upon himself to in Central Virginia. A flagging economy in coeducational. Enrollment was on its way to facilitate not only campuswide construction the region after the Civil War spelled the 2,000, but admissions standards had been cut but also an improvement of the curriculum. end for the small, religious schools. With its to push the numbers higher. In 1981, Willet Within 15 years, the commonwealth granted Methodist roots, the Farmville Female Seminary resigned, and the board named had a firm foundation in a strict the first female president of the Christian education — but the public institution, Janet D. model was unsustainable. Not Greenwood, to the helm. content to see the end of the The financial standing of the school they had spent decades college improved under Greensupporting, the Farmville comwood’s leadership and its acamunity, resilient through the restdemic profile was consolidated lessness of Reconstruction, propand streamlined into the ped up the college and helped structure that is still in place. remold its purpose so it could The resurgence of the school once again flourish. continued under the next two When William Henry Ruffner, The humanities have always been part of a Longwood education, though subject matter presidents, as the country’s econrecommended by Robert E. Lee, has evolved a bit over time.This early 20th century biology class bears little resemblance omy grew rapidly. Under was appointed to the post of state to the research undertaken today in Chichester Science Center.

William F. Dorrill, admissions superintendent of instruction in standards began to rise while undergraduate the institution the ability to grant degrees, in1869, he brought with him the ambition to enrollment rose by 12 percent. Academic cluding a four-year Bachelor of Science in Edureshape the public school system in Virginia. growth continued its rapid rise under Patricia cation. More degree programs followed as the By the early 1880s, he was ready to introP. Cormier, who led the college for 14 years school’s reputation grew. The college transduce the concept of a normal school — and through the Great Fire of 2001. Not only formed from a career-oriented training academy the European model for teacher preparathe academic standards saw improvement: to a full-fledged institution of higher learning. tion — to the state and found a willing canThe campus underwent a major beautification Of course, the most noteworthy of all the didate in Farmville Female College. effort with the installation of Brock Commons changes came in 1949, when the school was reIn 1884, now a public institution with a in place of Pine Street, which had formerly run named Longwood College. No longer simply new name, new mission and under the guidthrough the center of campus. an institution for future teachers, the college ance of Ruffner himself, the State Female NorIn 2002, Longwood College became Longboasted a number of degree programs—in mal School began to thrive, and its focus on wood University, signifying a new set of aspiramusic, business education, science and drama. teacher education remained unchanged for the tions. At the ceremony, then-Gov. Mark Longwood continued to grow as an all-female next 80 years.

Warner praised the institution as “a thriving, institution until the turmoil of the civil rights From an ever-changing institution with vibrant institution that has prevailed over movement in the mid-1950s—especially the ever-changing leadership—15 presidents adversity.”

Prince Edward County school closings in 1959. served over the first 63 years of Longwood’s Enrollment continued to grow throughout Though the association with the closings was history—the first half of the 20th century the first decade of the new century, and today merely geographic, the college had a hard time brought stability and sustained growth. The stands at just under 5,000. A mid-sized uniattracting high-quality faculty members. Coustability was reflected in the 44-year tenure of versity with a wide array of undergraduate and pled with its resistance to “going coed,” LongJoseph L. Jarman, perhaps the institution’s graduate programs, including an emphasis on wood faced myriad challenges. best-loved president. preparing students to fill the needs of emergFortunately, the college found its champion Jarman took the helm of the State Female ing and underserved job markets, Longwood in Henry I. Willett, who was inaugurated in Normal School in 1902 and transformed it is poised to make its next step forward.

1968 amid turmoil on college campuses across into an efficient, growing teachers college that

A university emerges and flourishes 1993 Longwood Center for the Visual Arts moves to Main Street.

30

April 24, 2001 Fire breaks out at Ruffner Hall, destroying the historic building.

Divion I: a new era for Lancer athletics April 24, 2002 The college is renamed Longwood University.

2004 Brock Commons transforms campus.

2014 2012 Lancers welcomed into the Big South Conference

UNCOMMONBONDS The connections between faculty members and their students often endure well beyond commencement exercises, and the spirit that inspires them has cemented Longwood’s reputation not only as a place of higher education but also of genuine collaboration between professor and student.

PHOTOS BY ANDREA DAILEY

FALL 2013 I 31

MELANIE MARKS, professor of economics and study abroad cooordinator (left) & MANDY THOMPSON SWANSON ’08, MS ’12 When faculty member Melanie Marks’ two sons were young, they thought Mandalyn “Mandy” Thompson Swanson ’08, M.S. ’12, was their sister. They even designed a quadruple bunkbed so that Thompson and her sister, Tedra Thompson ’12, could share their room.

“Mandy has been a fixture in my life for as long as I can remember. She’s just always been there,” said Marks, professor of economics. “My kids picked up immediately that Mandy is not just some random student but part of my family. There was an instant connection between us. Even now, five years after she graduated, I’m still one of her goto people.”

32 I LONGWOOD MAGAZINE

As a Longwood student, Swanson went on vacations to the beach with Marks’ family, babysat her sons and went shopping with her on weekends. After Swanson graduated, Marks helped her land jobs as assistant director of annual giving at Hampden-Sydney College and later in Longwood’s Office of Assessment and Institutional Research. Marks also helped her through her Ph.D. application process.

Swanson enrolled in August 2012 as a Ph.D. student in assessment and measurement at James Madison University.

“She’s definitely my mentor,” said Swanson, a summa cum laude Longwood graduate who was a member of Phi Kappa Phi national honor society, won the Dan Daniel Senior Award for Scholarship and Citizenship, and earned a master’s in counseling from Longwood last year. “Without her encouragement and support, I wouldn’t have pursued education as far as I have. Dr. Marks showed a personal interest in me.”

Marks, her adviser, said they “gravitated toward each other, and it spilled over from the classroom. She was open to a mentor relationship, which was probably helped by my being the only female econ professor.”—Kent Booty

It’s definitely what you would call a win-win situation: Assistant biology professor gets assistance in conducting research important to gaining tenure; undergraduate student gets hands-on experience that prepares her for graduate school.

Dale Beach describes his work as “my creativity,” but he recognizes its practical importance for himself and for his students. “It’s an important part of education in the sciences.

For those interested in research-based professions, it’s extremely important.”

Beach has two student research assistants every semester. In 2012-13, one of those assistants was biology major Heaven Cerritos ’14.

She first met Beach when she interned for him in her sophomore year. She so enjoyed the research—tracing back evolutionary roots of a

fungus called Pilobolus— that she continued with the ongoing project after her internship ended. In addition, Beach and Cerritos were accepted into a competitive research program this past summer where they had the opportunity to sequence the complete genome of the Pilobolus fungus.

“There’s a lot more to research than what you learn in class,” said Cerritos. “You really have to apply what you’re learning. Dr. Beach cares whether you understand the material.

He’s patient and willing to take time with stu-

dents. You can run things by him more than once. He seems to remember what it’s like to be in college.”

From Beach’s perspective, not all student research assistants are created equal. “What’s great about Heaven is she is willing to try,” he said. “Some students are trepidatious.

Not Heaven. She’s never shut down by fear that something might not work. And that’s an essential quality for a scientist. She also has a real natural talent for genomic sequencing.”

Cerritos plans to study biology in graduate school. After working on Beach’s project, she has narrowed her area of interest to either molecular or microbiology, but still isn’t quite sure which. “But that’s really good for me,” she said. “I came to Longwood loving every aspect of biology and couldn’t even think of narrowing my interest. Dr. Beach has helped me to focus.”— Patrick Folliard

DALE BEACH, assistant professor of biology (left) & HEAVEN CERRITOS ’14 FALL 2013 I 33

NANCY POWERS, assistant professor and coordinator of elementary education (left) & PAM VENABLE ’98, graduate student Nancy Powers, a member of the College of Education and Human Services faculty, often says “family comes first.”

For Pam Venable, that message hit home.

A member of the first cohort in the new oneyear master’s program in elementary education, Venable faced some personal problems in the first months of the program.

“My husband became very ill, and I had to worry about him in the hospital. When I let Dr. Powers know, she said, ‘You take care of your family. We’ll worry about getting you caught up on the program after your husband recovers.’ That meant a lot, because I don’t think many professors would be that flexible.”

“There is a good support system here,” said Powers. “I think that’s something that Longwood is really known for.”

34 I LONGWOOD MAGAZINE

Their relationship began as Venable, a 1998 Longwood graduate and fifth-grade teacher at Prince Edward County Middle School, thought about applying to the master’s program. She emailed Powers, who encouraged her to apply. “She wrote, ‘I really look forward to meeting you.’ That kind of personal reply really hits home with potential students,” said Venable.

“She’s obviously very intelligent and an extremely hard worker,” Powers said in describing Venable. “She has some great ideas about what to do in the classroom, and it’s a great joy to be able to work with her on putting

them into practice. Students like her are inspirational to professors.”

For Venable, the relationship that she has developed with Powers underscores Longwood’s reputation as a place where professors care about students. As an undergraduate, she developed the same type of relationship with faculty members Betty Jo Simmons and Maria Timmerman. For Pam Venable, Longwood is its own family.— Matthew McWilliams

For more examples of “Uncommon Bonds” at Longwood, go to annualreport.longwood.edu.

InPrint books by alumni, faculty, staff and friends

Coyote

by Alex Odom (BFA ’08, MFA ’10), Longwood alumnus This poetry chapbook has been called “beautifully abrasive, with language that has been polished like marble ... until it is both smooth and sharp-edged.” The prose poems are about “growth, masculinity, time, space and the natural world,” said Odom, a freelance writer with more than 50 fiction, poetry, play and nonfiction publications. He is currently writing comic books and editing a section called “Graphically Speaking” for Spaces Lit Mag. The cover artwork was done by his friend and Longwood roommate Curt Pilgrim ’08. Odom lives with his wife, Courtney Gomez Odom ’09, in Santa Fe, N.M., where both work for the Santa Fe Opera—he in the scene shop, she in the props department. Published by Flutter Press, softcover, 20 pages.

A Mirror inTime and Behind Closed Doors

by Doris Horne Gwaltney ’54, Longwood alumna Gwaltney’s latest novels, like her previous three books, are historical fiction, but unlike her previous work, both books are “meant for performance,” said Gwaltney. “The publisher calls them ‘performance materials’ or ‘monologues.’ Both books have been performed, especially A Mirror in Time, which consists of one character, while Behind Closed Doors has two characters.”

The Smithfield resident has for 30 years taught a writing course at Christopher Newport University for lifelong learners who want to write family history, and she has twice taught in Longwood’s Summer Literacy Institute. Published by HaveScripts.com, softcover, 212 pages and 136 pages.

The Common Core GrammarToolkit: Using Mentor Texts toTeach the Language Standards in Grades 3-5

by Sean Ruday, assistant professor of English at Longwood This textbook describes research-based practices and recommendations for teachers interested in teaching grammar in creative ways. The book emerged from Ruday’s Grammar Theory and Practice (English 382) course and also is related to observations and consulting work he did at an elementary school in fall 2012. “I want teachers to read the book and say, ‘That’s what I can do in the classroom,’” said Ruday, a writing instruction specialist who joined the Longwood faculty in 2011. He has spoken with the publisher about writing a sequel for middle-school teachers.

Published by Eye on Education, softcover, 208 pages.

Investment Analysis for Real Estate Decisions 8th edition

by Bennie Waller ’90, professor of finance and real estate and chair of the Department of Accounting, Economics, Finance and Real Estate at Longwood This college textbook, aimed at senior-level undergraduates and graduate students, is “one of the most thorough analyses of contemporary real estate available on the market,” says the publisher.

Because real estate and finance are often taught together, the book is sometimes sold as a package with the previously published Real Estate Finance (3rd edition), also co-authored by Waller, Phillip Kolbe and Gaylon Greer. Waller, who was invited to be a co-author on both books, has done extensive research on real estate brokerage and appraisal. One of his studies was featured in an article in the Wall Street Journal in June 2013. Published by Dearborn Publishing, softcover, 544 pages.

FALL 2013 I 35

LONGWOOD CALENDAR SEPT E M B E R

20

Rock the Block: 5:30-9 p.m., Longwood Landings at Midtown Square. Information: 434-395-2414.

23 23

Authors Series: Kelle Groom, poet.

8 p.m., Wygal Hall. Information: 434-395-2155.

Humans Being: Celebrating the Humanities at Longwood. “Why Music Matters”

by Pam McDermott and Kim Stern. 7 p.m., location TBA. Information: 434-395-2155.

24

Math and Science Colloquium: 4 p.m., Ruffner Hall 356. Information: 434-395-2193.

25

Women’s Soccer: vs. Coastal Carolina.

7 p.m., Athletics Complex. Information: www.longwoodlancers.com or 434-395-2097.

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS FAMILY WORKSHOP OCT. 19

26

O C TO BER

– 29, Oct. 3-6 Longwood Theatre: Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen. 7 p.m. Sept. 26-28 and Oct. 3-5; 3 p.m. Sept. 29 and Oct. 6; Center for Communication Studies and Theatre. Tickets: $6 students, $8 seniors/faculty and staff, $12 general public. Seating is limited. Information and tickets: E-Tix or 434-395-2474.

26

Field Hockey: vs. Richmond. 5:30 p.m., Athletics Complex. Information: www.longwood lancers.com or 434-395-2097.

28

Junior Voice Recital: Kathleen Lilly.

7:30 p.m., Molnar Recital Hall, Wygal Hall. Information: clarkbb@longwood.edu or 434-395-2504.

7

2

Executive in Residence Presentation: Julie Washington, chief brand officer, Jamba Juice of California. 7 p.m., Wygal Auditorium. Information: 434-395-2045.

2

Field Hockey: vs. Liberty. 4:30 p.m., Athletics Complex. Information: www.longwoodlancers.com or 434-395-2097.

Alumni Event: Young Alumni Happy Hour.

5:30-7:30 p.m., Calypso Bar & Grill, 1101 Atlantic Ave., Virginia Beach. Appetizers with cash bar.

Information: 434-395-2044 or longwoodlink.com.

Lecture: Friends of the Janet D. Greenwood Library presents Sofia Starnes, current poet laureate for the Commonwealth of Virginia. 5 p.m., Greenwood Library Atrium. Information: 434-395-2431.

4 5

– 5 Oktoberfest. Longwood campus.

Information: 434-395-2044.

Men’s Soccer: vs. UNC Asheville. 2:30 p.m., Athletics Complex. Information: www.longwood lancers.com or 434-395-2097.

DOS PASSOS PRIZE FOR LITERATURE LECTURE: SHERMAN ALEXIE OCT. 22

9 9

Alumni Event: Young Alumni Happy Hour.

5:30-7:30 p.m., Arlington Rooftop, 2424 Wilson Blvd., Arlington. Appetizers with cash bar.

Information: 434-395-2044 or longwoodlink.com.

13

– Jan. 3, 2014 Art Exhibition: Artwork from Camp Unity. Opening reception, 2 p.m. Oct. 13, Longwood Center for the Visual Arts. Information: 434-395-2206.

16

Men’s Soccer: vs. VMI. 7 p.m., Athletics Complex. Information: www.longwoodlancers.com or 434-395-2097.

17

Lecture: Friends of the Janet D. Greenwood Library presents Kimberly P. Johnson, author of children’s books. 3:30 p.m., Greenwood Library Atrium.

Information: 434-395-2431.

18

– 19 Alumni Reunion: Classes of 1968 and 1973. Longwood campus. Information: 434-395-2044.

18

– 19 Black Alumni Weekend. Longwood campus. Sponsored by Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Information: 434-395-2394.

36

Sherman Alexie 2012 © Chase Jarvis

19

28

Faculty Recital: Roland Karnatz, Quux Collective. 7:30 p.m., Molnar Recital Hall, Wygal Hall. Information: 434-395-2504 or clarkbb@longwood.edu.

Chamber Music Concert: VOICE Vocal Trio. 7:30 p.m., Molnar Recital Hall, Wygal Hall.

Information: clarkbb@longwood.edu or 434-395-2504.

19

Women’s Soccer: vs. Liberty. 7 p.m., Athletics Complex. Information: www.longwood lancers.com or 434-395-2097.

22 22

N OVEMBER

Art Workshop: Dia de los Muertos Free Family Workshop. 10 a.m., Longwood Center for the Visual Arts. Information: 434-395-2206.

Math and Science Colloquium: 4 p.m., Ruffner 356. Information: 434-395-2193.

Lecture: Sherman Alexie, winner of the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature. 8 p.m., Wygal Hall. Information: 434-395-2155.

25

– Jan. 3, 2014 Art Exhibition: Create.

Opening reception, 3 p.m. Oct. 25, Longwood Center for the Visual Arts. Information: 434-395-2206.

26

Men’s Soccer: vs. Winthrop. 6 p.m., Athletics Complex. Information: www.longwood lancers.com or 434-395-2097.

27

29

1 7

– 10, 14 – 17 Longwood Theatre: The Love for Three Oranges by Carlo Gozzi. 7 p.m. Nov. 7-9 and 14-16, 3 p.m. Nov. 10 and 17; Center for Communication Studies and Theatre. Tickets: $6 students, $8 seniors/faculty and staff, $10 general public.

Seating is limited. Tickets and information: E-Tix or 434-395-2474.

11

Women’s Basketball: vs. William & Mary. 7 p.m., Willett Hall. Information: www.longwoodlancers.com or 434-395-2097.

27

Math and Science Colloquium: 4 p.m., Ruffner 356. Information: 434-395-2193.

28

Inauguration of W. Taylor Reveley IV as Longwood’s 26th President. Information: 434-395-2044.

Humans Being: Celebrating the Humanities at Longwood. “Why History Matters”

by Lara Fergeson and David Magill. 7 p.m., location TBA. Information: 434-395-2155.

6

– 8 Longwood Theatre: Love Letters by A.R. Gurney. 7 p.m. Dec. 6-7; 3 p.m. Dec. 8; Center for Communication Studies and Theatre. Tickets: $6 students, $8 seniors/faculty and staff, $10 general public. Seating is limited. Tickets and information: E-Tix or 434-395-2474.

Senior Flute/Clarinet Recital: Ashley Stanley and Alyssa Jones. 7:30 p.m., Molnar Recital Hall, Wygal Hall. Information: clarkbb@longwood.edu or 434-395-2504.

Senior Voice Recital: Chelsea Lamm and Emily Mathis. 4 p.m., Molnar Recital Hall, Wygal Hall. Information: clarkbb@longwood.edu or 434-395-2504.

– Aug. 31, 2014 Art Exhibition: Youth Art Month Highlights. Opening reception, 2 p.m. Oct. 27, Hull Education Center. Information: 434-395-2206.

DE CE MBE R

14 15

MEN’S BASKETBALL VS. BROWN NOV. 22

18

Humans Being: Celebrating the Humanities at Longwood. “Why Literature Matters” by John Miller and Ken Perkins. 7 p.m., location TBA. Information: 434-395-2155.

22

Men’s Basketball: vs. Brown. 7 p.m., Willett Hall. Information: www.longwoodlancers.com or 434-395-2097.

24 30

‘ THE LOVE FOR THREE ORANGES’ NOV. 7–10, 14–17 ‘ LOVE LETTERS’ DEC. 6–8

7

Art Workshop: Winter Wonderland Free Family Workshop. 10 a.m., Longwood Center for the Visual Arts. Information: 434-395-2206.

7

Men’s Basketball: vs. Eastern Kentucky.

Time TBA, Willett Hall. Information: www.longwoodlancers.com or 434-395-2097.

JANUARY

21

Men’s Basketball: vs. Liberty. 7 p.m., Willett Hall. Information: www.longwoodlancers.com or 434-395-2097.

25

Women’s Basketball: vs. High Point.

Time TBA, Willett Hall. Information: www.longwoodlancers.com or 434-395-2097.

Alumni Event: Reception for August and December graduates. Information: 434-395-2044.

© Red Rocket Photography

Women’s Basketball: vs. Richmond.

2 p.m., Willett Hall. Information: www.longwood lancers.com or 434-395-2097.

All events are subject to cancellation and change.

Please visit www.longwood.edu for updated information.

Persons with disabilities who wish to arrange accommodations or material in an alternative format may call 434-395-2391 (voice) or 711 (TT).

FALL 2013 I 37

LANCER UPDATE Picking Up the PACE New men’s basketball head coach brings energy, new strategy to a youthful Lancers team est in coaching. On a college break, he stopped by his high-school alma mater to catch up with his former coach, Wayne Wiseman, who was at basketball practice. Wiseman asked Gee if he’d like to put the players through a drill, which led to Gee sitting on the bench for the next game.

“That high that I felt was euphoria,” said Gee, adding that the experience drastically

‘ We are going to be a

defensive-minded and pressure team.We are going to be in your face and aggressive.’

Courtesy of Cleveland State University

New head men’s basketball coach Jayson Gee is bringing a new energy to the Lancers—and he’s expecting the team to follow his lead.

Gee wants Lancer Nation to be prepared for PACE: pressure, attack, compete and energize. “ We want to get out in transition and score early,” he said. “The most difficult way to score is against a set defense. We want to take the first available good shot.”

— Men’s head basketball coach Jayson Gee

38 I LONGWOOD MAGAZINE

altered his career path. “I thought I was going to be a lawyer, but I returned to school and changed my major to education”—with coaching as his ultimate goal.

The relationship with Wiseman has continued as Gee has developed into a Division I coach—Gee has called him every Father’s Day since he left high school.

“He decided what he wanted to do and what his goal was, and did everything in his power to reach that goal,” said Wiseman.

“He’s just a tremendous kid. After 32 years of coaching, he is probably the closest kid I had who was like an assistant coach on the floor.”

Ritchie McKay, associate head coach at the University of Virginia and a good friend of Gee’s, said Longwood fans will see a team that plays with energy. “What I remember about Jayson is he always had a smile and was a relentless worker,” said McKay, who met Gee on the recruiting trail.

“It seemed like no matter where I showed up, he was there. I can’t tell you how excited I was when he said he had interest in the Longwood job.” — David Driver

Greg Prouty

Don’t expect the new-look Lancers to focus only on putting points on the board: In his seven years as an assistant coach at Cleveland State, Gee helped lead a squad that was known for its stingy defense. He’ll bring that same focus to Longwood. “My focus right now is defense,” he said. “I want to get [opposing] teams to shoot 44 percent or below. That is a goal we have to get to the first year.” Last season, Longwood’s opponents shot about 48 percent from the field.

He has a firm foundation in shooting guard Tristan Carey—who averaged a team-high 15.6 points per game— and point guard Lucas Woodhouse, who led the team with 180 assists.

Gee, who played basketball at the University of Charleston, began his coaching career at Cleveland State as an assistant to coach Gary Waters.

He taught me the value of defense,” said Gee. “ Get guys who will compete and play hard. “ We are going to be a defensive-minded and pressure team. We are going to be in your face and aggressive.”

The X’s and O’s of coaching were hard-fought lessons, but serendipity spurred Gee’s initial inter-

(top) New head men’s basketball coach Jayson Gee will focus on defense. (bottom) NBA point guard Norris Cole (left), who has spent two seasons with the back-to-back NBA champion Miami Heat, and development league player D’Aundray Brown (right) stopped by the Longwood campus in July to visit first-year men’s basketball head coach Jayson Gee, who coached both players at Cleveland State. ‘I think our players see it can be done,’ said Gee, in reference to the visit. ‘They don’t have to be that guy like LeBron James, who’s highly publicized.Through hard work, togetherness, submission and all those things that are our core values, you can make a successful transition to the next level.’

L ANCER UPDATE

Softball player named Big South Conference’s female athlete of the year © Red Rocket Photography

Longwood recognized talent in softball star Megan Baltzell ’14 that other Division I schools overlooked.

Making the Rounds Longwood‘s Baltzell hits more home runs than anyone in the nation

© Red Rocket Photography

Megan Baltzell was overlooked Baltzell, a kinesiology major, has come coming out of high school. After a long way in just two years as a Lancer: her sophomore year in college, as a freshman, she hit nine home runs and however, she’s gotten everyone’s attention. was a reserve on the women’s basketball The catcher was named a 2013 Division I team. “I thought I would have another year All-American after a record-breaking year in like that,” she said. “I worked extra hard this which she posted a nation-leading 30 home [ past] summer, and it paid off.” runs, a school-record 78 RBI and a .406 batShe didn’t play basketball her sophomore ting average. year in order to focus more on softball.

“Megan had the kind of year that deserved “I got to work out the kinks in my swing,” recognition,” said head coach Kathy Riley. she said. “Those little details made the differ“We’ve never had anyone come close to hitence. Softball is my life. That is all I want to ting 30 home runs in a season, and having do all of the time.” She hopes to play pro fast 78 RBI was also a big accomplishment for pitch softball after college and has her sights her. She’s one of the main reasons why we set on coaching one day. had that magical run this year.”

Next season, Baltzell realizes she may not That magical run ended in the university’s see as many pitches to hit. “They are going first NCAA tournament berth as a member to try and walk me more. If they put me on, of the Big South Conference and a pair of I am going to steal bases,” she said.

All-American honors for Baltzell and fellow This summer Baltzell coached a youth softteammate Brooke Short. “I found out the ball team, the Baseliners, based in Stafford, day the All-American honors came out,” and also took part in two summer camps, Baltzell said. “I had some friends who were one at Longwood, and the other in Richkeeping up with it. Coach Riley called me mond with Jennie Finch, a longtime standand congratulated me. She was more excited out as a pitcher for the U.S. national team. than I was.”

— Courtesy of the Stafford County Sun

Brooke Short ’13 was named the 2012-13 Big South Conference Female Student-Athlete of theYear. Short, the Big South’s third-leading hitter and second in home runs, total bases and walks, is only the second softball player to win the conference’s top honor and the first student-athlete to do so in Longwood’s first year as a Big South member.

Short highlighted her lone season in the Big South withThird-Team All-America accolades from the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.The southpaw was also an All-Southeast Region first team member, the Big South Player of theYear, an All-Conference FirstTeam honoree and an All-TournamentTeam honoree after helping the Lancers win the Big South softball championship.

As a pitcher, Short closed the year with an 18-8 record and a 3.07 ERA. Short concluded her Longwood career as the school’s all-time leader in at-bats, hits, RBI, runs scored, home runs, walks and games played.

Brooke Short ’13 was a leader at the plate, on the rubber and in the clubhouse for the Big South Champion Lancers softball team.

FALL 2013 I 39

Andrea Dailey

L ANCER U PDAT E

Highlight Reel Longwood boasts conference champions, several All-Academic Team members Baseball

Men’s Golf

The Lancer baseball season was marked by the retirement of longtime head coach Buddy Bolding, who led the team for 35 years and compiled an impressive 953-544-4 record.

In his remarkable stretch at the helm, Bolding posted 31 winning seasons, and 25 seasons with at least 25 wins. 2013 was no different, as the team went 26-28, and 12-12 in its first season in the Big South—good enough to earn one of eight spots in the championship tournament. Surprising many, the team went 2-2 and advanced to the conference tournament semifinal.

Sophomores Aaron Myers (4-2, 3.30 ERA, 10 saves) and Brandon Vick (65, 3.95 ERA) led the Lancers’ pitching staff, while junior captains Matt Dickason (.331, 13 2B, 18 RBI) and Scott Burkett (.304, 4 HR, 30 RBI) led the team offensively. Vick was named to the Big South All-Academic Team, while junior captain Alex Owens (.281, 4 HR, 32 RBI) was named to the All-Big South First Team.

Junior Dylan Jensen paced the Lancers golf team all year with a 75.87 scoring average and earning individual medalist honors at The Manor Intercollegiate for the second straight year. He was also the event’s first twotime winner. As a whole, the team—led by 16-year head coach Kevin Fillman—finished 10th at the Big South Championship. Longwood could return as many as seven lettermen.

The team also received the Cormier Award for Academic Excellence for the highest team GPA over the past two semesters. Junior Kyle Bodin was selected to the Big South AllAcademic Team.

Women’s Golf Longwood, coached by eighth-year head coach Ali Wright, finished third at the Big South Championship. The Lancers posted four top-five efforts among their seven top-10 finishes overall. Junior Amanda Steinhagen, who led the team with her 75.81 scoring average, led Longwood in scoring throughout the year and was named to the All-Big South Team. Junior Hannah Pierce was selected to the Big South All-Academic Team.

Women’s Lacrosse

Three lacrosse players were named to the AllBig South First Team from a Lancers squad Record-setting performances were the hallthat finished 10-8 overall, including a 5-2 mark of the championship-winning 2013 mark in Big South games. Under the direction Lancers softball team. With a program-best 41 of first-year head coach Elaine Jones, the team wins, which marked the ninth 30-win season placed third in the conference standings at the in head coach Kathy Riley’s 16 seasons at the end of the regular season to advance to the helm, the Lancers secured Longwood’s firstsemifinals of the Big South Championship. ever Big South Championship and advanced Junior Lauren Prasnicki, with 26 goals and 51 to the NCAA Division I Regionals. Sophoassists, led the team in total points and assists, more Megan Baltzell (.406, 30 HR, 78 RBI) a category in which she set a school season and senior Brooke Short (.420, 18 HR, 69 record. Prasnicki, senior Jamie Brentlinger and RBI) both earned NFCA All-American honors junior Kathleen Battle were named to the Allfollowing the season (see additional stories on Big South First Team, while junior Mary Page 39). Sophomore Kori Nishitomi (.440, Barondess (33g, 7a, 40p) received All-Big 3 HR, 27 RBI), who set five school records South Second Team accolades. Brentlinger was also selected to the Big South All-Acadein 2013, paced the team at the plate all mic Team. In addition, Brentlinger, who led season. After earning three Big South weekly awards, Short was named the league’s Player the team in goals, and Battle both earned of the Year. spots on the Big South All-Tournament Team.

Softball

40 I LONGWOOD MAGAZINE

Georgi Khmiadashvili ’13 played out of the No. 1 singles position on the men’s tennis team.

Men’s Tennis Longwood, under the direction of second-year head coach Jakob Gustafsson, finished its 2012-13 campaign with a 5-15 overall record and a 0-8 mark in Big South matches. Senior Giorgi Khmiadashvili (11-11) led the Lancers all season, playing out of the No. 1 singles position. Freshman James Fudge and sophomore Steed Johnson made up the Lancers’ most successful doubles team (10-10). Junior Edward Becker, who has a 3.68 cumulative GPA, received Longwood’s Jimmy Yarbrough Inspiration Award and the Male Academic PRIDE Award. Becker also earned Big South All-Academic Team recognition. Freshman Bharani Sankar received the Male Lancer Outstanding Service Award.

Women’s Tennis Longwood, coached by second-year head coach Jakob Gustafsson, finished with an overall record of 7-14, 1-8 in the Big South.

The Lancers won their first-round game in the Big South Championship, defeating GardnerWebb, 4-3, to advance to the quarterfinal where they fell to eventual champion Winthrop, 4-0. Sophomore Malin Allgurin led the team with her 19-11 overall record in singles, including 8-8 at No. 2, and she was 17-12 overall in doubles, including 11-8 at No. 2. Senior Marta Pinyol was selected to the Big South All-Academic Team. Junior Bethany Law received Longwood’s Female Academic PRIDE Award. The team also received the Cormier Award for Academic Excellence for the highest team GPA over the past two semesters. — Greg Prouty

L A NCER UPDATE

Women’s basketball building on last season’s success It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish.

The 2012-13 Longwood women’s basketball team carried this mantra with them every day as the squad worked its way toward the VisitMyrtleBeach.com Big South Conference Championship game.

After being selected 11th in the league’s preseason polls, the young squad proved to everyone that they could compete in the Big South.

Head coach Bill Reinson guided his team, made up of just four seniors and nine underclassmen, to an incredible 6-1 start in conference action. After late-season injuries plagued the already short roster, the Lancers faced an uphill battle heading into the postseason as the No. 7 seed for their first appearance at the Big South Championship in Conway, S.C. “I wasn’t surprised that we were picked to finish last,” said Reinson. “We were the only team in the league that had never won a conference game. I believed we were better than that, and I think we proved it.”

Longwood, a team that never stopped pushing or believing, made history at the tournament with three straight postseason wins, knocking off the No. 10 seed Charleston Southern University, the No. 2 seed Winthrop Uni-

versity and the No. 6 seed Radford University to advance to the league’s title game against in-state foe Liberty University on ESPN3. It marked just the third time in Big South history that a No. 7 seed played in the championship game.

“The Big South Tournament was very exciting,” said Reinson. “After years of being an independent, we finally had something to play for at the end of the season. The ladies were very confident going down to Myrtle Beach and played some of their best basketball.”

The Lancers closed the season with a 14-19 overall record, matching the program’s win total from the previous two seasons combined.

After laying solid groundwork in its first year with the league, Longwood is looking to continue to make great strides in 2013-14.

“We want to become a more diverse offensive team, while continuing to utilize pressure defense. Our goal will still be to outwork our opponents,” said Reinson.

Longwood returns nine letterwinners and has added four newcomers for its upcoming campaign. The Lancers will open the new season on the road at Seton Hall University of the new Big East Conference on Friday, Nov. 8, at 7 p.m. — Ashley Robbins

© Red Rocket Photography

Winners Circle Students recognized at the 2012-13 Student-Athlete Awards Banquet included Stephen Shockley (left), men’s basketball: Henry I. Willett Male Scholar-Athlete Award; Kelsey Pardue, women’s soccer: Female Athlete of theYear Award; Amelia McConnell, women’s soccer: Lancer Outstanding Service Award; Edward Becker, men’s tennis: JimmyYarbrough Inspiration Award and Male Academic PRIDE Award; Michael Kessens, men’s basketball: Male Freshman of theYear Award; Director of AthleticsTroy Austin; Lindsey Ottavio, women’s soccer: Henry I. Willett Female Scholar-Athlete Award; Daeisha Brown, women’s basketball: Female Freshman of theYear Award;Tristan Carey, men’s basketball: Male Athlete of theYear Award; Bharani Sankar, men’s tennis: Lancer Outstanding Service Award.

© Red Rocket Photography

A Strong Finish

Casey Wharton is the new head coach of the women’s tennis team.

New women’s tennis coach stepping up from assistant spot Casey Wharton, assistant coach for the 201213 season, has been named the new women’s tennis head coach. “Casey has exhibited a passion for Longwood tennis, and I am excited to see the progress the team makes in the upcoming year,” saidTroy Austin, director of athletics.

Wharton helped lead the 2012-13 women’s team to a 7-14 record, including 1-8 in the inaugural season in the Big South.The team posted a first-round win in the conference tournament, and earned the Cormier Award for Academic Excellence for the highest team GPA over the past two semesters.

“I feel that the future of the women’s program is very bright. We will work hard and strive to be great, both on and off the court,” Wharton said. “I believe that success will follow as a result. In addition, we will commit ourselves to the development of studentathletes who will work together to set and reach the goals that will ultimately make us competitive in the Big South Conference.”

FALL 2013 I 41

ALUMNI NEWS Alumni Advisory Board elects new officers Congratulations to Colleen McCrink Margiloff ’97 on her appointment to the Longwood Board of Visitors. Because of her new leadership role, Margiloff has resigned her position as president of the Alumni Association/Alumni Board.

Kathleen Early ’92, who had been serving as vice president, has been elected president.

Kendall Lee ’01, formerly member-at-large, has been elected vice president.

“I am very pleased that the governor has appointed Colleen to the Board of Visitors and look forward to working with her in her new leadership role,” said Nancy Shelton, associate vice president for alumni relations. “I appreciate Kathleen’s and Kendall’s dedication to the university and their willingness to assume their new positions on the Alumni Board.”

The 2013 members-at-large of the Alumni Board are Dale Baake ’07, Cate Light Bach ’03, Bonnie Conner-Gray ’82, Nancy Piland Creekmore ’67, W. Hunter Edwards ’05, Roger Hanna ’92, Liz Rammell Harris ’81, Jeris Bianchi Johnson ’88,Tammy Bird Jones ’81, Amanda Renwick Lloyd ’04, Melody Crawley Margrave ’81, Mandi Robinson Mulholland ’97, Ruth Bourne Radzisauskas ’77, Cynthia Eggleston Robertson ’81, Edona White Stanley ’95, Ellen Knapp Wood ’74 and Jennie Linh Giang Wools ’95.

Officers serve a two-year term, and members-at-large serve a three-year term. One-third of the members-at-large rotate off the board each year.

One of the Family Popular professor receives award, alumni status One of Longwood’s most popular faculty members is now also an alumnus.

Jim Jordan, professor of anthropology and sociology, recently received the Horace Mann Honorary Alumni Award from the Alumni Association for his “extraordinary service, his positive impact on the lives of thousands of alumni and his example as a true citizen leader.”

Jordan is the third recipient of the award— the others are former president Patricia Cormier and her husband, Raymond Cormier—and he is the 13th person to be named an honorary alumnus/alumna.

The award was presented June 8 during the 13th Annual Field School Alumni Weekend and Crew Luau held at the Willie C. Pettus Archaeology Field Station in Clover, site of the field school. The location was fitting—Jordan established the field school in 1980 and it was named in his honor by the Board of Visitors in September 2012. The award was presented

by Kathleen Early ’92, president of the Alumni Association, who was a field school participant in 1991 at the same time as Brian Bates ’92, then a Longwood student and now field school director and associate

W.Taylor Reveley IV (left), Jim Jordan and Kathleen Early ’92

professor of anthropology. The ceremony was also attended by 47 field school alumni, 45 current field school students and their families, and President W. Taylor Reveley IV. “A wise Sioux medicine man, Black Elk, famously said, ‘Let my people live once more,’ and that is exactly what the field school and Dr. Jordan have allowed the past to do,” said Early just before presenting the award.

“There is likely no other Longwood professor who has influenced his students as much as Dr. Jordan.” —Kent Booty

175th Anniversary publications planned Longwood history to be updated

Look who’s enjoying Longwood Loot Kim Jones ’12 (left), Charity Reish ’10, Dana Scarantino ’10, Katie Wilson ’10/’11, Toni Fisher ’12, Claire Paul ’10 and Amy Auger ’11/’12 enjoyed receiving Longwood Loot when they gathered recently at the beach to celebrate Wilson’s wedding.

42 I LONGWOOD MAGAZINE

Longwood’s 175th Anniversary is being celebrated with an updated history of the normal school-turned-university.

The largely pictorial history will be available

by March 2014 in an electronic version and a limited number of print copies. The project is being coordinated by Barbara Shepard ’95, lecturer in history, with assistance from an intern, William Hamlett ’13, and the university’s archivist, Lydia Williams ’97.

“This history will be peppered with photos,” said Shepard. “We’ll have stories from alumni—their experiences with things like dorm life, sorority life and May Day and how that turned into Spring Weekend.”

The book Longwood College: A History, by the late Rosemary Sprague, a longtime English professor, was published in 1989 for Longwood’s 150th anniversary.

Please participate in 2014 Alumni Directory

Don’t forget to respond to Harris Connect when they contact you about the information you would like to be included in the 2014 Longwood Alumni Directory. This is a wonderful project that will help us celebrate our 175th Anniversary year.

ALU MN I NEWS

Cassie Shiflett ’13 and Brendan Burke ’03 with the 18th-century musket she brought to the surface during her internship with Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program, where Burke is logistics coordinator.

Under the Sea Underwater archaeology is 2013 graduate’s passion You could say that Cassie Shiflett’s career plans are adventurous.

Shiflett ’13 plans to be an underwater archaeologist. During summer 2013, before graduating in August, she participated in the

Person of Interest field school of the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP) in St. Augustine, Fla., where she did an internship during the summer of 2012. These days she is working as a research diver for a company that specializes in oil spill cleanups. She plans to apply in 2014 for the graduate maritime archaeology

program at Flinders University in Australia.

“I’m an adventure nut who likes to be active—sitting at a desk all day is not for me— so underwater archaeology is a perfect fit,” said Shiflett, who majored in anthropology.

Her passion has survived despite dives in which visibility was so bad she could “barely see my hands while moving them back and forth in front of my face.” She wasn’t even deterred by a dive at the LAMP field school during which she was stung on the face by a jellyfish and her hip slipped out of its socket due to heavy swells and a strong ocean current. “After all that, I figured it was time to go back up to the surface,” she said with a laugh.

She currently is diving on an as-needed

basis with a research dive team for a company called Opflex Solutions. In early summer, she went on two diving trips around Singer Island, Fla., near West Palm Beach, which has contamination problems from E. coli caused by the lack of a filtration system to handle storm water runoff. The trips were part of an effort to test a sponge, called “Synthetic Eelgrass,” which Opflex manufactures and says not only cleans up but prevents damage from oil spills and storm water runoff. She’s also going to Bermuda, where Opflex is working with the government to redo the storm-drainage system due to a problem with metal in the water, and might go to Nigeria, where there’s been an oil spill.

Shiflett learned what she called “the basics of underwater archaeology” at the LAMP field school, during which she dove at two sites and had classroom instruction. The main site, also the focus of her six-week internship in 2012, is where a ship carrying Loyalists fleeing Charleston, S.C., sank in 1782. The site was discovered by LAMP archaeologists in 2009, and excavation has been conducted every summer since 2010.

“Most underwater archaeological field sites don’t recover artifacts, but this one does,” said Shiflett, who, although she didn’t find it, brought to the surface one of three muskets that were found during her internship, which was supervised by Brendan Burke ’03, an archaeologist who is LAMP’s logistics coordinator and the son of former Board of Visitors member Helen Warriner-Burke ’56.

“I enjoy being part of the discovery of history— I was a history minor—so touching that 200-yearold musket was exciting. It made me want to get up in the morning.”—Kent Booty

ClassNotes

1960s 1940s Betty Harper Wyatt ’43 received the Judah P. Benjamin Certificate of Award on March 9, 2013, from the United Daughters of the Confederacy “for her determination and visionary public service to protect one of our national treasures, Fort Monroe, Virginia.”

Wyatt was a founding member of Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park in 2006 and continued to be an active board member and true ambassador for Fort Monroe. Editor’s Note: Betty Wyatt died on July 2, 2013.

Betty Smithdeal Miller ’44 was the resident in the spotlight in the March ’13 edition of “The Village Crier,” the monthly newsletter of The Village At Westerville Retirement Center in Westerville, Ohio.

Katheryne Lockridge Goodman ’63 was a delegate representing the Presbyterian Church (USA) to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, in 1995 and, since then, has spoken to more than 70 groups about her experience and how men and women can become involved in action for equality, development and peace.

1970s Susan Delong Smith ’79 was selected to participate in the Iditarod Teacher on the Trail in Alaska.

1980s Patricia Hall Franklin ’84, supervisor of fine arts for

Newport News Public Schools, was elected 2013-15 president-elect of the National Art Education Association. She will assume office beginning March 2015 and will serve through March 2017. Franklin has been a member of NAEA since 1981 and has served in a number of national volunteer leadership positions including the NAEA Governing Board as Southeastern Region vice president.

Daniel Ford ’87 of Virginia Beach is the author of The Marlin and the Mermaid “Help Save the Chesapeake Bay,” a rhyming children’s picture book about the source of pollution in the ocean. This is the first in a series of books on this topic that Ford has planned. Ford, who said he “grew up loving the ocean,” works in the Virginia Beach schools’ department of safety and loss control.

Continued on Page 45

FALL 2013 I 43

Andrea Dailey

crunchy peanuts. Working from her kitchen, she began blanching and deep-frying peanuts, using essentially the same recipe she had learned growing up on her father’s Virginia peanut farm.

Soon a line of customers could be found queued up at the kitchen door. Then local drug stores, gift shops and restaurants began placing orders. Colonial Williamsburg was a large customer early on.

“Mornings after watching ‘Captain Kangaroo,’ we kids would load into the station wagon and help mom make deliveries,” said Rabil, who graduated with a degree in history. “As young children and teenagers we also helped with packaging.

It was truly a family business from the beginning.”

As demand for Hubs grew, Hubbard farmed out the task of shelling peanuts to Lynne Hubbard Rabil ’75 runs a company headquartered in her childhood home. local women. And though the family-owned company’s achievement is in many ways a story about women (Hubs is certified by Virginia’s Small, Women and Minority-owned Business program) men also are integrally inHubbard Peanut Company, maker of Hubs brand volved in Hubs’ ongoing success. Rabil’s late father, H.J. Hubbard (nicknamed Hub), for Virginia peanuts, is a perfect example of a successful whom the brand was named, worked with family business local machinists to create equipment that allowed the company to produce large volume at one time.

They say home is where the heart is. employees plus more than 20 additional staff Now Rabil’s son, Marshall, who’s currently For Lynne Hubbard Rabil ’75, it’s members during its busy holiday season. working for Whole Foods, has expressed an also where you find peanuts.

“There’s definitely an element of nostalgia interest in getting involved. Rabil, who has As president of Hubbard Peanut Company attached to our product,” said Rabil.“But witnessed big changes on the business side since 1993, Rabil continues a family business what keeps our customers coming back is quality. Our focus of Hubs during her lifetime, said it will be interesting to see what ideas he brings home is on taking care with him. of the customers Person of Interest “When the business started, credit cards we have and ensuring that quality didn’t exist,” she said, adding that most customers mailed in checks. “Later we set up a remains true.

We’ve grown and call center to take orders, and today it’s mostly an Internet operation. managed larger “Because I turn 60 this year, I’m thinking volumes while maintaining con- transition. I felt very fortunate that my parents were by my side to hand me the reins. sistency, and we never lost quality Not all family businesses transition well.

Lucky for us we have very good long-term — Lynne Rabil’75 along the way.”

Rabil’s mother employees and a next generation that seems interested.” started the busiOver the years, the Hubbards’ five-room tradition begun by her late mother Dot Hub- ness in 1954. A teacher turned stay-at-home white clapboard house has been expanded to bard ’47. Headquartered in Sedley in what mother of four, Hubbard was looking for a was once the Hubbard family home (Rabil’s way to earn some extra money. She’d remem- include a commercial kitchen and warehouse, but the feeling of home has remained strong— office is in the childhood bedroom she shared bered how back in college her Longwood with her younger twin sisters), “Hubs” now (then Farmville State Teachers College) friends and forever associated with the aroma of peanuts.—Patrick Folliard reports global sales and boasts 32 year-round had always loved her specially prepared,

From Generation to Generation

‘ There’s definitely an element of nostalgia attached to our product.

But what keeps our customers coming back is quality. Our focus is on ensuring that quality remains true.’

44 I LONGWOOD MAGAZINE

ClassNotes Continued from Page 43

Haidee Shiflet Napier ’88 was named the assistant superintendent of instructional services in the Colonial Heights School District. She is a lifelong resident of Colonial Heights. In addition to her undergraduate degree in special education from Longwood, she holds a master’s degree in school counseling from Virginia State University and has an endorsement from VSU in administration and supervision.

Michelle Hummer Dickinson ’89

started her own law firm, the Law office of Michelle J. Dickinson, LLC, in Columbia, Md., in March 2013. The firm specializes in civil litigation matters for businesses and individuals in state and federal courts. She previously was a partner in the international law firm of DLA Piper LLP (US) in Baltimore, Md.

1990s Curtis Campbell ’90 is the new

director of athletics for Tuskegee University in Alabama. He previously was the athletic director at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Ala., for six years, and at Division III Blackburn College in Carlinville, Ill., for two years.

Robin Burroughs Davis ’90, associate dean of students and director of citizenship education at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, N.H., received the Gown Award at the college’s May 11, 2013, commencement ceremony.

The annual award goes to someone from the college whose work and contributions in the New London area are extraordinary.

Bart Mitchell ’90 was recognized

as the State Agent of the Year by Virginia Farm Bureau Insurance for the third time and was also named Master Agent of the Year for 2012.

The awards are based on sales and profitability. Mitchell is based in Glen Allen and has been with Virginia Farm Bureau Insurance since 1991. He graduated from Longwood with a B.S. degree in business administration and holds the ChFC, CLU and LUTCF designations. He is a member of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA).

Shawn L. Smith ’92, chief of op-

erations for the Eastern Cheer & Dance Association, was elected to the National Advisory Board

ALUMNI NEWS (NAB) of Competitive All Star Cheerleading. The NAB counsels the United States All Star Federation (USASF) on issues regarding cheerleading safety, competition standards and policies surrounding the Cheerleading World Championship and all of its preliminary events. The USASF, along with the International All Star Federation, works closely with the International Olympic Committee in efforts to make cheerleading an Olympic sport. Smith cheered for Longwood from 1988-92 and coached cheerleading at Longwood from 1992-94.

Charlie Brown ’93 is the new var-

sity girls’ basketball coach at Bruton High School in Williamsburg, where he was a standout player on the boys’ basketball team.

Michelle Hundley Schenker ’97

of Winston-Salem, N.C., and her husband, Alex, co-founded Cover Story Media, Inc. (www.coverstory media.com), an online publishing company, in September 2012.

Michael Lawston ’99, branch manager at First Investors Corporation, is the new president of the Virginia Association of Colleges and Employers (VACE). VACE facilitates career development and growth among career services and employer members, and promotes the accomplishment of professional goals by providing opportunities for relationship building and professional development activities.

2000s Janell Stinnett ’03 was ap-

pointed assistant principal at Nelson County High School in Lovingston.

Christopher Leech ’05 and Erin Fogle Leech ’04 are the parents

of Hunter Robert Leech, born Oct. 12, 2012.

Christina Leigh Kernodle ’07

and Douglas Farley were married April 13, 2013.

Liz Long ’07 of Roanoke is the author of two fiction books: the fantasy novel Gifted, A Donovan Circus Novel and the paranormal thriller Witch Hearts. The former, the first in a series, is about a murder at supernatural circus, and the latter asks the question, “How does a witch stay safe if a killer can get through her protection spells?”

Long (http://lizclong.com) is social media editor at Leisure Publishing.

Ashley Sines Atkins ’08 was appointed branch officer at Essex Bank’s King William Office.

A resident of King William County, Atkins joined Essex Bank in 2008. Prior to her work there, she served as the marketing and communications coordinator for a firm in Fairfax.

Ryan Burnette ’09 and Kelly Irvin Burnette ’08 are the parents

of Savannah Marie Burnette, born Feb. 18, 2013.

Lindsay Sheppard Hilton ’08

and her husband, Archie, are the parents of Kane Archie Hilton, their first child, born June 11, 2013. Lindsay is a second-grade teacher with Portsmouth Public Schools, and Archie is active-duty Navy. Lindsay and Archie were married Aug. 13, 2012.

2010s Jacob Witt Harper ’10 and

Rebecca Britt Stephenson were married June 22, 2013, at High Street United Methodist Church in Franklin. Harper received his J.D. from the Charlotte (N.C.) School of Law. The couple lives in Wake Forest, N.C. Danielle Jagoda ’10 married Stephen Cauley on March 16, 2013. She works as a therapist in Williamsburg, Va., and Stephen works in finance at Newport News Shipbuilding.

Nathan Epstein ’11 is the newest member of the WAVY-TV/FOX 43 Sportswrap team in Portsmouth.

Epstein previously was sports director at WDAM-TV, the NBC affiliate in Hattiesburg, Miss., where he covered the University of Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles and the New Orleans Saints. Epstein grew up in Richmond and interned with WAVY-TV 10/Fox 43 sports department while attending Longwood.

Amy Jackson ’11, a bookbinder at Cat Tail Run Hand Bookbinding near Winchester, was featured in a photo in the Washington Post travel section accompanying a blog post about a book restoration workshop session she was leading. Jackson specializes in new binding at her job and maintains an active schedule as a printmaker and book artist.

Katelyn L. Black ’12 is a student in the neuroscience Ph.D. program at Tulane University in New Orleans.

Send Flat Elwood off on his journey The Flat Stanley Project is a nationwide effort to promote literacy and community among young learners by sending out “flat” visitors through the mail, then having students track, discuss and write about their flat character’s journey and adventures.

The Alumni Board has its own Flat Stanley character—Flat Elwood.

There are two ways you can start Flat Elwood on his journey.You can create your own Flat Elwood project with family and friends. Or, if the Flat Stanley Project is introduced to your child, grandchild or other young learner during this school year, use the Flat Elwood character.

You will find a four-color version and a black-and-white version on the alumni website (www.longwoodlink.com/flat_elwood).

Print Flat Elwood for your young learner to decorate. Send him off on his journey or have your own adventure with him and your family.

You can even send him to college friends— see how many signatures you can get on the back of Flat Elwood. Be creative!

Please post photos of your Flat Elwood project on the Longwood Alumni Facebook page (www.facebook.com/longwoodalumni) and send them electronically to the Office of Alumni Relations (alumni@longwood.edu).

We want to keep an electronic record of where Flat Elwood goes and the people he meets. Prizes will be awarded for the most unique adventure and the most famous person Flat Elwood meets. For more information on the Flat Stanley project, visit www.flatstanley.com.

Continued on Page 47

FALL 2013 I 45

Andrea Dailey

ALUM NI N EW S

Frank Macrina ’97 launched Virginia Credit Union’s mobile scanning service in 2012 —before many larger institutions did the same.

Person of Interest

Alumni reunions planned October 2013: Classes of 1968 and 1973 Members of the Classes of 1968 and 1973 will gather on the Longwood campus Oct. 18-19, 2013, to relive memories and celebrate the university’s 175th Anniversary.

A “Birthday Dinner” is planned for Friday night, and President W.Taylor Reveley IV will make a “Getting to Know Longwood Again” presentation on Saturday.

April 2014: Milestone Reunion for 6 classes The Milestone Reunion for the Classes of 1939, 1944, 1949, 1954, 1959 and 1964 will be held Saturday, April 5, 2014. On Friday, April 4, the Class of 1964 will have a special 50th Reunion Dinner as they reminisce about their days as students and reconnect with each other.

October 2014: Decade of 2000s Reunion The Decade of the 2000s Reunion for the Classes of 2000-2009 is tentatively set for October 2014.

Currently, a family-friendly casual reunion is under consideration. If you would like to be on the planning committee, please let us know.

If you are in one of these classes and do not receive emails from the Office of Alumni Relations, please email alumni@longwood.edu to give us your email address.

For more details about these reunions, go to LongwoodLink.com.

46 I LONGWOOD MAGAZINE

Tech Savvy Alumnus helps Virginia Credit Union compete with larger institutions Frank Macrina ’97 helped the Virginia Credit Union beat much bigger national banks to a key piece of mobile banking.

“We watch technology innovations closely,” said Macrina, vice president for eServices at Virginia Credit Union. “We spotted what the technology was going to make available, determined that our credit union members would be interested in using it, then pursued it.”

Macrina, who is always looking for ways to innovate, helped the credit union launch mobile banking in 2011. He had noticed that several larger financial institutions were introducing scanned deposits—users scanned checks from their home computers and uploaded them to their bank—and saw the potential for the same concept to work on mobile phones.

With 57,000 members using their phones to bank, Macrina jumped at the opportunity and launched Virginia Credit Union’s mobile scanning service in 2012—before many of the larger institutions. They now see more than 2 million deposits per month through the mobile scanning technology, an impressive number for a financial institution the size of Virginia Credit Union.

“Virginia Credit Union is already very competitive with loan rates and other services,” he said. “As members who take advantage of eServices continue to grow, we have the responsibility to keep our service at a high level.

Mobile deposits are a piece of the evolution of financial services, and we will keep evolving with technology.”

A business major at Longwood, Macrina got his start at the credit union as a student.

He worked as a teller for two summers and winters before joining the staff full-time after graduation. The transition from teller to vice president was seamless.

“My first full-time job at the credit union was as a member service representative, working with all 16 branches. I really got a feel for the service side of the business, which translated very well to eServices,” said Macrina.

“I like to think of eServices as an online branch of the credit union.”

Macrina, who leads an eServices staff of four, said he’s passionate about competing with larger institutions. “It really hones your skills, because you have to assess your resources and make smart investments in technology that will not only appeal to new customers but also be useful to current ones,” he said. “We may be a much smaller financial institution, but we can be smart about providing the same level of eService that customers have come to expect.”

Longwood wasn’t only the place Macrina found his footing in business; he also found his wife, Neeley, also a business major.

The couple have two children and live in Richmond. —Matthew McWilliams

ClassNotes

ALU MN I NEWS Sally Chappelle Zimmerman ’35

died March 16, 2013.

Continued from Page 44

Neyra Hines Kreiger ’37 Dustin Shuman ’13 performed as

a vocal soloist at a May 17, 2013, concert at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Richmond. Shuman was part of the chorus that performed parts two and three of Handel’s “Messiah” with the Richmond Symphony in a benefit concert for preservation of the cathedral.

He was a soloist on one of the recitatives and airs.

died June 29, 2013.

Marie Newton Turner ’39

died April 9, 2013.

Sudie Dunton Brothers ’40

died March 18, 2013.

Lois Powell Harris ’40

died May 5, 2013.

Ruby Trice Williams ’41

died April 21, 2103.

Emma Elliotte Cox ’42

died April 20, 2013.

Alumni named Teachers of the Year

Mary Martha Gillespie ’42

died June 1, 2013.

Allene Overbey Hunt ’42

died April 8, 2013.

Pam Amos Dunnavant ’90 was

named a 2012-13 Teacher of the Year for Charlotte County Public Schools. She currently teaches advanced biology and ecology at Randolph-Henry High School. In addition to teaching, Dunnavant has been involved with several extracurricular activities, including Team 21 and the ecology club.

Jeanne Haymes Garland ’43

died April 15, 2013.

Elizabeth Baldwin Taylor ’43

died June 26, 2013.

Betty Harper Wyatt ’43

died July 2, 2013.

Lucille Lewis Armstrong ’44

died June 30, 2013.

Sandy Overbee Flynn ’78 was

Anne Marie Gerken ’44

named a 2012-13 Teacher of the Year and the 2012-13 District Teacher of the Year for Charlotte County Public Schools. Flynn, a National Board Certified Teacher in Early to Middle Childhood Literacy, teaches first grade at Eureka Elementary School.

died June 1, 2013.

Lori Given Hoffman ’88 was

named Fluvanna County Public Schools Teacher of the Year and Fluvanna County High School Teacher of the Year. She teaches geometry and serves as math team leader. She has 18 years of teaching experience and has been with the Fluvanna County Public Schools since 2005.

She received her Master of Education degree in secondary education from George Washington University.

Paul John Nelson ’08 was named

Cumberland County Schools Teacher of the Year.

Please let us know if you have been named a Teacher of the Year. Email the details to alumni@longwood.edu.

Sue Harper Schumann ’44

died June 26, 2013.

Faye Nimmo Webb ’44

died March 1, 2013.

Rebecca Lacy Old ’45

died March 5, 2013.

Margaret N. Stewart ’45

died March 15, 2013.

Marilyn Bell Roper ’45

died April 11, 2013.

Betty Brothers Newman ’46

died March 5, 2013.

Emily Carper Robinson ’46

died April 25, 2013.

Irma Lassiter Bland ’47

died May 3, 2013.

died July 4, 2013.

Sara Lucille Chenery ’52

died April 4, 2013.

Frances Northern Ashburn ’55

died May 29, 2013.

Elizabeth Jenkins Ware ’57

died May 3, 2013.

Cecil Madolyn Kidd ’61

died April 2, 2013.

Charles Jay DeWitt ’63

died April 6, 2013.

Betty Downing Sweeney ’65

died April 8, 2013.

Carol Elizabeth Broughton ’65

died April 12, 2013.

Dana Jean Gerhardt ’66

died June 27, 2013.

Eleanor Carlock Reid ’67

died May 7, 2013.

Rebecca Christy Sievert ’73

died May 31, 2013.

Debra Elizabeth Whitehead ’75

died June 23, 2013.

Linda Clements Farrar ’81

died May 15, 2013.

William Earl Witcher Jr. ’81

died May 18, 2013.

Donnie Wayne Gresby ’85

died June 27, 2013.

ElizabethWickham Stephens ’86

died May 21, 2013.

Susan Beckwith Nachtrieb ’92

died March 11, 2013.

Russell Burnie Jones ’13

died July 16, 2013.

Daniel Joseph Pennesi ’13

died June 23, 2013.

Eric Chase Wood ’15

died March 16, 2013.

Leslie Marshall Hall Jr.,

died April 19, 2013.

Constance Wray Horden ’49

Anna Ruth Lane,

died April 8, 2013.

retired circulation assistant in the Janet D. Greenwood Library and widow of Dr. Charles F. Lane, professor emeritus of geography, died May 15, 2013.

Virginia Cox Cobb ’49

died March 16, 2013.

Margaret Robertson Milroy ’51 June Ritchie Oberlander ’51

died April 17, 2013.

Marian Moran Butler ’33

Helen Agnew Koonce ’51

died Feb. 28, 2013.

died May 24, 2013.

Where in the World Is the Longwood Scarf?

In Spain and Hawaii Pat Pinkston Woollum ’64 (top), shows off her Longwood scarf during her May 2013 trip to Montserrat, Spain. On a recent vacation to the Big Island of Hawaii, Bennie Waller ’90 (below), a Longwood business faculty member, and his daughter, Wellsley, display their Lancer spirit.

Faculty, Staff and Friends

associate professor emeritus of history, died March 26, 2013.

Shirley Mankin Nelson ’47

died April 9, 2013.

In Memoriam

Ann McGuire Burnette Younger ’51

Massie C. Stinson Jr.,

associate professor emeritus of English, died June 11, 2013.

Send us your news and class notes We appreciate everyone who sent us submissions for the Class Notes section in this issue of Longwood magazine. Please keep them coming. If there is anything new in your life, personally or professionally, email the details to alumni@longwood.edu. Don’t forget to give us your full name, the year you graduated and the degree you received. Please also send us a contact phone number or email address in case we have questions.

FALL 2013 I 47

EndPaper true: The humanities keep us rooted even as they allow us to be free. Because they support the foundations of an educated mind, they are utterly and ineluctably practical.

The accountant who serves diverse populaBecause they support the foundations tions, the special education teacher who writes a grant proposal, the pharmacist who underof an educated mind, the humanities stands the health-related impacts of the historare utterly and ineluctably practical ical tensions in her neighborhood —all profit from their undergraduate training in the huby Wade Edwards manities in a useful, realistic way. What’s more, when the accountant changes careers, as art, drama, literature and foreign languages. when the teacher is promoted to principal, n times of transition, I tend to turn to the Grouped together, these disciplines make up stars. So the year I came to Longwood, when the pharmacist buys her own drug store, I visited an astrologist. “Learn to be rooted the humanities—academic areas of inquiry these graduates will lean on the practical skills but strive to be free,” she advised. “Be prudent, that scrutinize human culture, develop analyti- they developed in their humanities courses at cal thinking and encourage creative thought. be practical—but soar.”

Longwood— skills in writing, analysis, interFor 175 years, these programs of study have pretation, communication and innovation.

This fall, with the same mix of caution and fashioned the commonwealth’s students into idealism once counseled by Madame Fraya, If the Longwood experience can be summaour university celebrates the confluence of two resourceful citizen leaders: deep thinkers and rized as a mix of both caution and idealism, active members of the community who auspicious transitions: the arrival of its enerthe sensible, cautious, ambitious student will getic new president and the 175th Anniversary confront the challenges of the world with choose the humanities every time. confidence and ingenuity.

In this year of transition, the university To rejoice in the history of will return to its roots by commemorating— the university is to rejoice in through a yearlong series of speakers, recitals, the value of the humanities. exhibitions and student/faculty panels— In an increasingly commer- the foundational role the humanities have cialized environment that played in the remarkable history of the univeroften understands higher edu- sity. Beginning in early September and culmication primarily in vocational nating in March, when Longwood hosts the terms, courses in philosophy, Virginia Humanities Conference for the first art or world literature are time, “Humans Being” will explore the vitality sometimes seen, at best, as of the humanities and their importance to the marginally beneficial advenachievements of our students and alumni. tures to be paired with more Practically speaking, there may be no better practical, career-oriented way to celebrate the enduring legacy of the courses. At worst, they are Longwood experience. deemed extravagant and ultiThe 16th-century French humanist Michel mately irrelevant detours that de Montaigne, an ancestor of sorts to Madame squander public funds. ColFraya, once wrote that “there is no knowledge lege students nationwide who so hard to acquire as the knowledge of how to specialize in the humanities, live this life well.” As I reflect on all that our inEugene B. Monfalcone’s paintings in the dome of the Rotunda of Ruffner Hall depict the foundations of learning. moreover, are occasionally stitution has become in 175 years, I think stereotyped as hopelessly imMontaigne would have been delighted to see practical, almost as if they plan to spend four of its founding. To celebrate such good forwhat’s been accomplished at Longwood Unitune, the Longwood community will naturally years learning to hang glide. In learning to versity, where generations of students have soar, the argument goes, students in the huspend some time honoring our intellectual learned to live well by embracing an education manities neglect to be grounded. Or gainfully that is at once practical, inspired and intrepid. roots, reveling in our many successes and employed. dreaming of what lies ahead. With a promisSuch arguments fail to recognize how vital ing new leader and a long, fruitful history, Wade Edwards is an there’s a lot of reveling to do and a lot of lucky the humanities truly are to achieving everyassociate professor of thing a university education should make posstars to thank.

French in the Cook-Cole sible for our students, both as professionals College of Arts and Any sober assessment of Longwood’s past, Sciences and chair of the and as human beings. A foundation in ethics, present and future necessarily begins with an Department of English appreciation for the value of the education of- history, languages and the arts is what makes and Modern Languages. fered here—an education steeped in the rich- success in more specialized areas possible. ness of history, philosophy and music, as well Both parts of Madame Fraya’s advice hold

Practically Human

I

48 I LONGWOOD MAGAZINE

175 honoring our past

1839 2014 inspiring our future

ANNIVER SARY ONLIN E 175.longwood.edu is your home for information and interactive features on Longwood’s 175th Anniversary. Find an events list, timeline with rare photographs and documents, re-created photos, videos from students on how Longwood is inspiring their futures, shared memories from fellow alumni and a quiz to test your LU IQ. We are counting on Longwood alumi to help make the anniversary a success—so visit the site often and share your Longwood memories with fellow Lancers.

175th ANNIVERSARY EVENTS September – March Virginia Humanities Conference September 17 American Shakespeare Company performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor September 20 Rock the Block, Family Weekend

November 15 February–March May 9–10

Inauguration of President W. Taylor Reveley IV Regional Founders Day Events Commencement

Nonprofit Organization U.S. POSTAGE PAID Lynchburg, VA 24506 Permit No. 215

Longwood University Foundation Inc. 201 High Street Farmville, VA 23909 RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED

No state funds were used to print this publication.

IN THE THICK OF THINGS Kicking off his first semester as president, W. Taylor Reveley IV is already deeply immersed in the life of the university.

Find out more about Longwood’s 26th chief executive inside this issue.

Story on Page 12.