2024 was exceptional by any measure. Here are some of the notable achievements of our students, faculty and staff over the past 12 months, all of which were possible thanks to the generosity of our alumni, parents, and friends.
Susan Wood, executive director of university development at Washington and Lee, has been named the university’s next vice president for university advancement, effective July 1, 2024. She will succeed Tom Jennings, who is stepping down at the end of the academic year after serving four years in that role.
Tom Jennings, vice president for university advancement at Washington and Lee University, has announced his resignation effective June 30, 2024.
Miller, whose appointment is effective July 1, joined Denison as vice president of student life in 2020 and has over 20 years of experience in higher education as a student affairs professional.
The board elected Bacdayan as the university’s 32nd rector during its October 2023 meeting.
Washington and Lee is a remarkable place, and 2023 gave us many reasons to celebrate. We continue to attract exceptionally talented students, our faculty provide them with an outstanding education, and they enjoy excellent post-graduate opportunities. Here are just a few highlights:
Wangdali C. "Wali" Bacdayan '92, a current trustee of Washington and Lee University, will be the next rector of W&L’s Board of Trustees. The board unanimously elected Bacdayan as the university's 32nd rector during its meeting in Lexington on Oct. 21, 2023. He will assume his duties at the conclusion of the February 2024 meeting, succeeding Michael R. McAlevey '86, who has been rector since 2020.
The AALS House of Representatives voted to accept Wilson’s nomination as the 2023 President-elect. Wilson has served the AALS in numerous capacities, including membership on its Executive Committee since 2020.
2022 was a remarkable one for Washington and Lee by any measure. In addition to the full program of academic and extracurricular activities and campus events that we enjoyed this year, we have many reasons to celebrate this remarkable institution and give thanks for the tremendous community that makes our success possible:
Melanie D. Wilson has been named the next dean of Washington and Lee University’s School of Law. She will also hold the Roy L. Steinheimer Jr. Professorship in Law.
The three-night miniseries airs on the History Channel beginning Feb. 20 at 8 p.m.
Cassie Ritter Hunt, executive director of advancement operations at Washington and Lee University, has been named executive director of strategic analysis, effective October 18. She succeeds Tim Diette, who will join the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty as its executive director this month.
Demleitner, the Roy L. Steinheimer Jr. Professor of Law, will lead the college's Annapolis campus.
Chawne Kimber, Thomas Roy and Lura Forrest Jones Professor of Mathematics, head of the Mathematics Department, and co-director of the Hanson Center for Inclusive STEM Education at Lafayette College, has been named dean of the College at Washington and Lee University.
Washington and Lee University is among the 51 inaugural member institutions* of the Liberal Arts Colleges Racial Equity Leadership Alliance, a new initiative from the University of Southern California's Race and Equity Center.
Lena Hill, dean of the College and professor of English and Africana studies at Washington and Lee, has been appointed to be the university’s next provost, beginning July 1, 2021.
Michelle Lyon Drumbl, Robert O. Bentley Professor of Law and director of the Tax Clinic at the Washington and Lee University School of Law, has been appointed to a one-year term as interim dean of the law school effective July 1, 2021.
Kelly Evans '07 interviewed Dudley about his hopes and plans for students' return to campus in the fall.
Washington and Lee University has already exceeded carbon-reduction goals for 2013 and 2020. The latest updates keep the university on track to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Lynn Rainville, community initiatives fellow at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities and former dean of Sweet Briar College, will be the inaugural Director of Institutional History at Washington and Lee University.
The Board has decided to rename two buildings and endorse two changes in Lee Chapel.
Today, President Dudley shared his response to the Commission on Institutional History and Community's report.
The annual Town Hall Breakfast for faculty and staff will take place on Wednesday, Aug. 29, from 8:00 - 10:00 a.m. in Evans Hall, with remarks from President Dudley on key initiatives and highlights for the coming year.
Lena Hill, senior associate to the president, interim chief diversity officer, and associate vice president at the University of Iowa, has been named dean of the College at Washington and Lee University.
Timothy Diette, associate dean of the Williams School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics and the Harry E. and Mary Jayne W. Redenbaugh Term Associate Professor of Economics at Washington and Lee University, has been named senior advisor to the president for strategic analysis, effective July 1.
Washington and Lee University has selected the Advanced Research Cohort (ARC) program as its next Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). President Will Dudley and Provost Marc Conner announced the selection at the undergraduate faculty meeting on Feb. 5.
Community Grants Committee has made 19 grants totaling $30,760 to non-profit organizations in Lexington and Rockbridge County.
Beginning with the 2018 Spring Term, Washington and Lee will provide institutional grants to meet the full cost of Spring Term domestic and international travel programs for students with financial need.
Washington and Lee University inaugurated William C. Dudley as the university’s 27th president.
W&L's Community Grants Committee has made 12 grants totaling $25,850 to non-profit organizations in Lexington and Rockbridge County.
Washington and Lee University’s Community Grants Committee has made 10 grants totaling $24,736.22 to non-profit organizations in Lexington and Rockbridge County.
Washington and Lee University has named Marc C. Conner as provost. Conner, the Jo M. and James M. Ballengee Professor of English, has been serving as W&L’s interim provost since January 2016.
Diane Nash, peace activist and pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement, will be the featured keynote speaker during Washington and Lee University’s annual multi-day observance of King’s birthday, "Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."
Jonathan Holloway, historian of post-emancipation American history and black intellectualism and dean of Yale College, will be the featured speaker at Washington and Lee University’s Founders Day/Omicron Delta Kappa Convocation.
W&L's Chanoyu Tea Society will host a Martin Luther King Jr. tea ceremony on Jan. 16, 2017 in the Senshin'an Tea Room, Watson Pavilion.
Washington and Lee University’s Community Grants Committee has made 10 grants totaling $24,736.22 to non-profit organizations in Lexington and Rockbridge County. They are the first part of its two rounds of grants for 2016-17.
The Board of Trustees has honored departing president Kenneth P. Ruscio by naming one of the university’s major new facilities the Kenneth P. Ruscio Center for Global Learning.
Charles R. Johnson, award-winning philosopher, novelist, essayist, short story writer, and scholar of black American literature and Buddhism, will address Washington and Lee University’s 2016 Fall Convocation at 5:30pm on Wednesday, September 7.
Washington and Lee University’s Community Grants Committee has made 10 grants totaling $24,757 to non-profit organizations in Lexington and Rockbridge County. They are the second part of its two rounds of grants for 2015-16.
Graduating seniors at Washington and Lee University today were asked to remember and live by the high ideals and standards that have guided them over the past four years, as they are leaving “a community that cares a great deal about these matters and entering a world that increasingly does not.”
Washington and Lee University celebrates its 229th undergraduate commencement Thursday, May 26, when it will award bachelor’s degrees to more than 440 students.
The Washington and Lee University Board of Trustees welcomed three new members on May 13, during its spring meeting on campus in Lexington: John P. Case III, William M. Toles and Andrea K. Wahlquist.
Dr. Kenneth P. Ruscio, president of Washington and Lee, gave the keynote talk at the University’s annual Alumni Reunion Weekend Opening Assembly on April 28, in Lee Chapel. He spoke on “A Timeless Trust.”
Joseph S. Keelty, an emeritus trustee and member of Washington and Lee’s Class of 1944 who established a scholarship at W&L and donated generously to myriad other priorities at the university, died April 10, 2016, at the age of 93.
Washington and Lee University this week introduced a permanent historical marker on campus that recognizes the African Americans who were owned by the school for about three decades prior to the Civil War.
Michael Harrison Monier, a trustee emeritus and 1962 graduate of Washington and Lee University, died on March 9, 2016, at age 75.
Washington and Lee University President Kenneth P. Ruscio is the author of an article in the March/April 2016 edition of Public Administration Review, the preeminent professional journal in the field of public administration research, theory and practice.
The Phi Beta Kappa chapter at Washington and Lee University will induct new members into the prestigious academic honor society at the Phi Beta Kappa/Society of the Cincinnati Convocation on Sunday, March 13, at 3 p.m. in Lee Chapel.
The Board of Trustees of the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges (VFIC) announced today that Kenneth P. Ruscio, the president of Washington and Lee University, will become the next president of VFIC on April 1, 2017.
Jim Baldwin, executive vice president and general counsel for Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc., Dallas, was elected to Washington and Lee University’s Board of Trustees on Feb. 12, at the board’s winter meeting.
William C. (Will) Dudley, provost and professor of philosophy at Williams College, will be the next president of Washington and Lee University.
American historian and author Joseph Ellis will be the featured speaker at Washington and Lee’s Founders Day-Omicron Delta Kappa Convocation on Jan. 19 at 5 p.m. in Lee Chapel.
Robert Edward Royall Huntley, president of Washington and Lee University from 1968 to 1983, died on Dec. 10, 2015, in Lexington. He was 86.
Robert Edward Royall Huntley, president of Washington and Lee University from 1968 to 1983, died on Dec. 10, 2015, in Lexington. He was 86.
Washington and Lee University’s Community Grants Committee has made 15 grants totaling $25,243 to non-profit organizations in Lexington and Rockbridge County.
The Lexington Sunrise Rotary Club has named W&L President Kenneth P. Ruscio a Paul Harris Fellow, Rotary’s highest honor and a tribute to a person whose life demonstrates a shared purpose with the objectives of The Rotary Foundation — world understanding and peace.
Washington and Lee University’s Community Grants Committee would like to remind the community of its Fall 2015 proposal evaluation schedule. The deadline for submitting a proposal for the Fall 2015 evaluation is 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6, 2015.
William Alexander Jenks, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of History Emeritus at Washington and Lee University, died this past Monday, Oct. 12. He was 97. A 1939 graduate of W&L, he taught at his alma mater for 37 years, from 1946 until his retirement in 1983.
American author and public speaker Taylor Branch will give a talk at Washington and Lee University on Nov. 3, at 5 p.m. in Lee Chapel. Branch will speak about “Scalawags and Big Government: How Racial History Warps Politics.” It is free and open to the public.
In “The Liberal Arts in Practice,” his address to the Sept. 9 opening convocation of the 2015–2016 academic year at Washington and Lee University, Brian C. Murchison told the audience of first-year students, undergraduate seniors and third-year law students that the liberal arts at W&L are about “the enlargement of mind and soul, the process of questioning and discovering the meaning and worth of things, and ultimately about defining what it is to be human and what it is to take up civic and moral responsibility.”
David Brooks, an author and a bi-weekly op-ed columnist for The New York Times, will give a talk at Washington and Lee University on Oct. 1 at 5 p.m. in Lee Chapel on W&L’s campus. It is free and open to the public.
The Roger Mudd Center for Ethics at Washington and Lee University will examine “The Ethics of Citizenship” during its 2015–2016 lecture and conference series.
Brian C. Murchison, the Charles S. Rowe Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University, will address the 2015 Fall Convocation on Sept. 9 at 5:30 p.m. on the Front Lawn. Murchison will speak on “The Liberal Arts in Practice.”
Earlier this summer, Elizabeth Knapp, senior assistant to the president at Washington and Lee University; Ted DeLaney, W&L associate professor of history; and Tom Camden, head of Special Collections and Archives at W&L, attended the inaugural meeting of a new consortium, Virginia’s Colleges and Universities Studying Slavery.
Washington and Lee University is one of the best colleges in the nation to work for, according to a new survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, concluded its seven-year campaign on June 30, raising $542.5 million, 8 percent more than the $500 million goal.
J. Donald Childress, rector of Washington and Lee University’s Board of Trustees, has named a 14-member committee composed of members of the Board of Trustees, faculty and administration to conduct a national search for the university’s next president.
W&L President Kenneth P. Ruscio published an op-ed in the Sunday, June 21 issue of The Roanoke Times on "Continuity and Change." The piece is based on remarks that Ruscio made during the university’s recent commencement exercises.
Washington and Lee University’s Community Grants Committee has made 13 grants totaling $25,700 to non-profit organizations in Lexington and Rockbridge County. They are the second part of its two rounds of grants for 2014-15.
A university is not a museum where change should be seen as a rejection of the past. Instead, advancing and improving are the ways universities like Washington and Lee honor their commitment to, and reverence for, the past.
Virginia Secretary of Education Anne Holton advised Washington and Lee University seniors at their May 27 baccalaureate service to “live life optimistically, be on the lookout for opportunities, jump in vigorously, and don’t worry about who gets the credit.”
Kenneth P. Ruscio will step down as Washington and Lee University's president on June 30, 2016. Ruscio, who announced his decision to the campus community today, will have completed a decade as president of his alma mater when he leaves the position.
J. Lawrence Connolly, of Atlanta, the former CEO of Connolly Inc., a recovery audit accounting and consulting firm, joined the Washington and Lee Board of Trustees on May 15, at its spring meeting, in Lexington. He is a member of the W&L Class of 1979.
A. Stevens Miles Jr., a rector emeritus and trustee emeritus of Washington and Lee University, died on April 29 in Louisville, Kentucky. He was 85. Miles served on the W&L Board of Trustees from 1988 to 1997, and as the rector of the board from 1990 to 1997.
Sally Stone Richmond, dean of admission at Occidental College in Los Angeles, has been named the next vice president for admissions and financial aid at Washington and Lee University.
Washington and Lee University has been named to President Barack Obama's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction, one of 120 schools in the nation to receive this designation. This is the third year in a row that the University has attained this status.
Washington and Lee University's Community Grants Committee has made 16 grants totaling $28,160 to non-profit organizations in Lexington and Rockbridge County. They are the first part of its two rounds of grants for 2014-15.
Ken Ruscio, president of Washington and Lee University and chair of the board of the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U), will participate in the White House College Opportunity Day of Action Dec. 4 in Washington, D.C.
Daniel A. Wubah, provost of Washington and Lee University, has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Washington and Lee University's Community Grants Committee would like to remind the community of its Fall 2014 proposal evaluation schedule. The deadline for submitting a proposal for the Fall 2014 evaluation is 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 7, 2014.
At its fall meeting, Oct. 24-25, Washington and Lee University's Board of Trustees gave final approval for the construction of a new on-campus housing neighborhood for upper-division students.
On July 8, W&L President Kenneth P. Ruscio sent a letter to members of the University community, responding to concerns that a group of W&L law students raised this past spring. Since that letter was made public, reports appearing in the news and social media have resulted in many misapprehensions and misconceptions.This FAQ addresses the key issues.
Washington and Lee University's Community Grants Committee has made 8 grants totaling $25,500 to non-profit organizations in Lexington and Rockbridge County. They are the second part of its two rounds of grants for 2013-14. The committee chose the grants from 19 proposals requesting more than $96,000.
Washington and Lee President Kenneth P. Ruscio cites the benefit of seeing the world from a wider perspective in a Richmond Times-Dispatch op-ed.
Graduating seniors at Washington and Lee University today were asked to remember and practice the ability college life gave them to step back and see the world from a different perspective.
Washington and Lee University's Community Grants Committee would like to remind the community of its Spring 2014 proposal evaluation schedule. Community Grants Proposals may be submitted at any time but are reviewed semiannually: at the end of the calendar year and at the end of the fiscal year. The deadline for submitting a proposal for the Spring 2014 evaluation is 4:30 p.m. on Friday, May 30, 2014.
Washington and Lee University has announced the final round of students who will receive 2014 Johnson Opportunity Grants. The grants cover living, travel and other costs associated with the students' proposed activities, which are designed to help them with their future careers and fields of study.
W&L's Board of Trustees has adopted a new housing policy under which students will live in University housing during their first three years. In addition, the trustees approved a 2.5 percent increase in tuition for undergraduates and a 2 percent increase in tuition for the School of Law, while also approving construction of the Center for Global Learning.
Washington and Lee University added two members to its Board of Trustees on Friday, Feb. 7, during the winter meeting of the board: Dana J. Bolden, of Atlanta, the group communications director, finance, for the Coca-Cola Co.; and Todd L. Sutherland, of Lawrence, Kan., the president and CEO of University National Bank.
Kenneth P. Ruscio, president of Washington and Lee University, has been elected chair of the board of directors of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), a leading voice of higher education at the national level.
Marc Conner, associate provost and James and Jo Ballengee Professor of English, writes about the limitations of online learning in an op-ed in The Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Washington and Lee University President Kenneth P. Ruscio is an article in the Summer 2013 edition of Peer Review, a publication of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The article is titled "What Does it Mean to Be a Teacher-Scholar?" To read the article, see President Ruscio's speeches on his website.
Alston Parker Watt, a 1989 graduate of the University, addresses the Fall Convocation.
A $2.5 million gift from Leigh and Larry Connolly of Atlanta will support the University's growing entrepreneurship program.
The 480 new students officially checked in on Saturday (Aug. 31) to begin four days of orientation prior to the start of classes on Sept. 4.
Washington and Lee University recognized five retiring members of the University's faculty during commencement exercises. Six retiring members of W&L's staff were recognized during the Employee Recognition Banquet in April.
The Board of Trustees approved the promotions and tenures of 14 faculty members during its meeting in Lexington in May.
Washington and Lee University has announced new appointments in the University administration. Elizabeth Knapp, associate provost and associate professor of geology, will become senior assistant to the president and director of the Johnson Program in Leadership and Integrity. Marc Conner, the Jo M. and James M. Ballengee Professor of English, head of the English Department and director of Spring Term, will become associate provost.
Washington and Lee University senior Max Chapnick of White Plains, N.Y., has received a Creative Writing/Arts Fulbright grant to New Zealand and to the International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, following his graduation in May.
Washington and Lee University President Kenneth P. Ruscio will be part of a panel discussing the liberal arts and job preparation on WMRA's "Virginia Insight" program on Monday at 3 p.m.
