Southern Virginia: A Year In Review
From sports to service, Southern Virginia University ‘launched’ this year.
By Tristram Kenworthy
Southern Virginia University has had an electric year with several new additions and changes.
Please enjoy this compilation piece of student and school accomplishments and highlights.
General Highlights
Knights are now crimson! Thanks to the creative marketing team, Southern Virginia has a whole new brand, with new logos and a new school color.
The LaunchPad Initiative: In an incredible agreement with Apple Inc., iPads and Apple Pencils were distributed to each full-time student and faculty member.
The Knight App was released. Here, students can see their course schedules, contact faculty and peers, as well as communicate with clubs, buy and sell with the campus community, find campus events, and even check the weather.
The University updated its Dress and Grooming Standards.
With renown singer Alex Boye, students and faculty at Southern Virginia performed in a music video rendition of Imagine Dragon’s “Believer.” Accolade, sports teams, choirs, and the orchestra were specially included in this campus-wide effort.
Student Government was able to help in a vast number of ways, including a Christmas parade, labor day parade, organizing honor week, homecoming week, and a host of other activities.
In fall of this year, The Herald was introduced as the new campus newspaper, and is published digitally. The Herald is supervised under the excellent and experienced guidance of professors Jon Wallin and Bruce Olsen. The Herald replaces the Paladin, Southern Virginia’s previous printed student newspaper.
A classroom was named in honor of Ardeth Greene Kapp, a prominent LDS general authority.
Academic
New Classical Studies Major: Assistant Professor of Classics, Marcel Widzisz, and students Aurora Pack and Serenna Fly contributed to the installment of the new major at Southern Virginia.
Southern Virginia became the site of a Reformation Conference, bringing in a host of guest professors and researchers to speak on the subject.
Southern Virginia had several new hires, including Shantia Rahimian (PHI), Sarah Maitland (ENG), John Chapman (BUS), Jeff Batis (PSY), Doug Cheney (MAT), and Kyle Nielsen (MUS).
Four faculty have been upgraded to full-time positions. These include Joe Bouchelle (EDU ), Dave Hunt (FRE ), Mark Milburger (MUS ), and Heather Dobbins (MUS).
Three faculty are leaving Southern Virginia, including Colonel William Lowe who is retiring after teaching mathematics for more than 20 years at Southern Virginia. Lowe came to Southern Virginia after proudly serving in the United States Air Force for 28 years.
Fran MacDonnell (HIS) is also leaving Southern Virginia, and taking a position at Hamilton College in upstate New York.
Todd Brotherson (BUS, Vice President, Chief Advancement Officer) has been called to serve as a Mission President with his wife Carrie Brotherson (Travel Study Program Director, Director of First Year Experience) in Santiago, Chile.
Growth
This semester saw Southern Virginia grow to have its largest student population, with an expected approximate 1000 students next fall.
The LDS church in the area has grown significantly, with a new temple being built in Richmond, VA. A weekly temple shuttle is expected to accompany this new opportunity.
New Infrastructure: campus has seen a significant number of improvements, including; a new Knight Arena screen, The Lofts is now co-ed housing, Craton is an all girls dorm, a new football stadium was built and dedicated, a new knight statue adorns the new stadium, and the tennis team has a new clubhouse.
Service
The Office of Service Coordination and Reporting (OSCAR) in conference with the Provost’s Office initiated a service-learning pilot project in which 18 faculty members participated. Over 60 class sections and over 500 different students participated in service to the community as part of these classes.
The new “service learning” classes include curricular opportunities to serve the community.
Charley Bowen, Vice President of Service and Community Engagement, felt that the pilot program was largely successful.
“The response this year to our service-learning pilot project has been outstanding. I can’t think of a better way to accomplish our mission of preparing leader servants than to integrate meaningful community service with classroom instruction and reflection. It provides a relevant learning experience, teaches civic responsibility, and strengthens our university and community.”
The areas of service have been categorized below.
- Service-learning classes…12,000+
- Remote Area Medical clinic…4,500+
- Athletic teams…2,500
- Leader-Servant Distinction projects…1,500
- Southern Virginia Student Association…1,000
- Other projects (Habitat, blood drives, Day of Service, Giving Tuesday, after school programs, Knight Run on 4/28)…1,000
Total…22,5000 hours of service
** Figures do not include any church service hours.
The Arts
Three plays were performed this year, all of which were highly successful.
- September — Murdered To Death
- October, November — Tuck Everlasting
- February — An Ideal Husband
It was announced that a marching band will be included to Southern Virginia’s list of bands next year.
The women’s choir, Bella Voce, sang at the Washington National Cathedral on April 16.
Visiting artist and Southern Virginia graduate Mitch Mantle had an exhibit of his work and conducted a two-day printmaking workshop.
Art + Design grew faster than any other university program as of fall 2017.
Adjunct Brinn Willis began teaching digital photography classes.
Sports Highlights
The men’s volleyball team was not only the Men’s Team of The Year, but was ranked nationally, peaking at an eighth place spot and ending the season in 11th.
Women’s Volleyball was named the women’s team of the year, with Penny Gynn and Hannah Allred co-winning female athlete of the year. Overall they had a record of ….. and placed third in the CAC overall.
Nico Ramirez, ’21, also made history at Southern Virginia by becoming the first wrestling NCAA national qualifier in school history.
Edwin Mulitalo, was named head coach of the football team. The team will also compete in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC).
The baseball team will compete in the CAC playoffs for the first time ever, playing Penn St.-Harrisburg University May 4th. Tayer Peterson, who led the CAC with the lowest ERA at 0.58, was named the male athlete of the year.
The women’s tennis team finished fifth in their conference, with an impressive 14 wins.
The men’s tennis team held 17 wins and has clinched a seat in the CAC conference semifinals. The team also defeated multiple Division II opponents and holds the longest winning streak in the team’s history with 11 straight wins.
Tony Caputo retired from coaching basketball. His legacy will be built on by the new men’s basketball head coach, Greg Winslow. Winslow is the 7th head coach in the University’s history.
The men’s lacrosse program held the most wins in program history this season, being ranked 24th nationally in goals per game.
The track and field team had nationally ranked athletes, all-conference honors, and the women scored at the CAC indoor championships for the first time school history, while the men scored more points and had more athletes in the indoor CAC championships than in our previous season.
Cross country saw both their men and women’s teams finishing 5th in their conference, with the women having the individual conference champion, Morgan Bingham, who is currently serving an LDS Mission in Florida.
Women’s softball had their highest win percentage in 8 years, and saw each of their players batting above .250.
A lot has yet to be said of the little university in Buena Vista, Virginia. Technological and infrastructural advances will not only propel the school into the future years, but will buoy it as new changes occur. This school will continue to grow… GO KNIGHTS!
