This summer, Mary Washington joined the ranks of fine Virginia state universities.
By an act of the General Assembly, on July 1, the College became the University
of Mary Washington. That day, President William M. Anderson Jr. and the Board
of Visitors celebrated the change with the unfurling of a royal blue flag
bearing the new Mary Washington insignia. In a ceremony in Jefferson Square,
Anderson and Rector Mona Albertine ’71 addressed the crowd that gathered
for the event.
“This is a new day for a very old institution,” Albertine said.
“When I was here as a student in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Mary
Washington College was seen as one of the foremost institutions of higher
learning in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, the University of Mary Washington
is seen as one of the finest institutions not only in the state of Virginia,
but in the entire country.”
Mary Washington has changed names before. In 1908, the “State Normal
and Industrial School For Women at Fredericksburg” was established on
the heights above Fredericksburg. In 1924, the school became “State
Teacher’s College at Fredericksburg,” and in 1938, the name “Mary
Washington College” was adopted.
The official title changed to “Mary Washington College of the University
of Virginia” in 1944 and stayed that way until a 1972 ruling by Gov.
Linwood Holton made the college autonomous and separate from U.Va. At that
time, the name reverted to Mary Washington College.
Mary Washington College remains the name of the undergraduate college of arts
and sciences in Fredericksburg. “University of Mary Washington”
is the corporate name of the institution, which is made up of two colleges:
Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg and the College of Graduate and
Professional Studies in Stafford.
The UMW logo features four stylized columns reminiscent of the columns of
the Jepson Science Center. It was crafted by the Baltimore design firm Barton,
Matheson, Willse & Worthington (BMWW), which has worked with many major
universities including Yale, Harvard and the University of Virginia.
BMWW also developed a new seal for the University, which the Board approved
in September. The diplomas awarded next spring for the Class of 2005 will
carry the new seal.
All graduates will receive diplomas of the same format. The top of the document
will proclaim “University of Mary Washington.” Depending on the
campus from which the degree is earned, the bottom portion of the diploma
will state “College of Arts and Sciences, Mary Washington College”
or “College of Graduate and Professional Studies.”
The new seal replaces the previous spinning wheel with a book of knowledge.
It retains the year Mary Washington was founded, 1908, the torch and the University’s
motto, “Pro Deo Domo Patria,” which translates into “For
God, Home and Country.”
– Neva S. Trenis