To be honest, by the time the calender rolls around to April, there's usually so much going on that I can barely keep up.  This year is more of an exemplar than an exception of that rule.

Today, Flying H Aerial Pictures will be taking images of Mary Washington.  This brand new imagery will capture Mary Washington in full color at a resolution of 3 inches.  Better yet, from our point of view, the imagery will be 'raw.'  Neither georeferenced nor orthorectified, so our remote sensing students will have to both!  

On Friday we celebrate President Judy Hample's formal inaugural.  I hope this ushers in at least a few years of administrative stability for Mary Washington.

More interesting to me and to you (I hope!), there's lots of preparation going on for events in the Department.  On Wednesday, April 1, Rebecca Kinn from the US Census stops by to talk to our majors about jobs at the Census.  And we're only two weeks away from our Annual Geography Symposium and our 50th Anniversary Banquet!

Over 50 alumni have said they are coming to the Banquet!  I'm very much looking forward to meeting our 70s, 80s, and 90s graduates and seeing our most recent graduates again!  There's more time to sign up if you haven't already.  Just send Dawn Bowen (dbowen@umw.edu) an e-mail.

At symposium, some of our best current students will present work from senior seminars and independent studies.  In addition, Carole Gallagher (MWC 1991) will give the second of our 50th Alumni Lectures with a talk about loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland.  When I get a list of student papers, I'll post them here.  All talks are open to the public.

Of course there is much, much more, but so little time to say it.  We're all just back from our annuall  Association of American Geographers conference.  Jackie Gallagher, Joseph Nicholas, Farhang Rouhani, Brian Rizzo, Dawn Bowen, and myself all presented our ongoing research projects while there. And, Matthew Holden helped the Southeast Region's Geography Bowl team to a second place finish.  Individually, he came in fourth among all participants!  Congratulations Matthew!

Enjoy the Spring!  (we've waiting long enough for it)

Stephen