University of Richmond Magazine

An illustration depicting abstracted rivers, landscapes, and map textures from the Amazon, as well as Virginia. They surround an image of Boatwright tower, and cropped portraits of the university's partners in the Amazon and elsewhere.

Community Engagement

An exchange of ideas

Long-standing community connections built by faculty are often at the heart of amazing opportunities for students.

A photo of the African landscape as the sun sets with photos of Mark and Dave as college students and more recently as adults.

SPIDER FAMILY

A long walk together

A longtime friendship formed at Richmond led to a remarkable reunion far from Virginia.

Tyler Rigot, GC’25, celebrating with teammates at the end of a Banana Ball game in Richmond

Baseball

How to think like a Banana Ball player

After Tyler Rigot, GC’25, finished his final athletic season, he jumped to playing in the Banana Ball league, a fast-paced and antic-filled twist on baseball.

Spiders Near and Far

Career Preparation

Richmond grad helps young people dream big

Teacher Brittany Andrews, GC’18, guides local high school students as they prepare for college and future careers, helping them make their dreams a reality.

Business

Spider alum is driving change at Lyft

At Lyft, there are two customers: the riders and the drivers. The goal of chief policy officer Jerry Golden, ’99, is to connect them.

A photo of Kait Walsh, ’13, with headphones and a microphone.

Design

UR alum develops her own game

Kait Walsh, ’13, is a production director by day. By night, she’s invigorating her personal creativity by designing a narrative exploration game.

World Music

UR’s radio station kicked off this alum’s world music career

Gene De Souza, ’97, began a career in world music as a student DJ for UR's radio station, WDCE. Now, he's general manager at WDNA.

“For me, being civically engaged is about treating whatever community you’re in like home and the people who inhabit it like family.”

—Devin Morgan, ’26, UR’s newest Newman Civic Fellow

Eye

Campus News

An illustration depicting the various translation scenarios from the article.

Postscript

Traduttore traditore

“The translator is a traitor,” goes the Italian saying. Five faculty who regularly work on translations describe a word or phrase that challenged their ability to convey meaning from one language to another.

A photo of Cesar Madarang, B’87, and Elizabeth “Beth” Hallman Madarang, B’88

Philanthropy

Support for mental health on campus

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the importance of mental health to the forefront of one family's thoughts, resulting in a new scholarship for deserving students.

View of the remains of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece

Travelogue

Ancient pathways: Richmond students go to Greece

The “wow” moments kept coming when a dozen students went to Greece with faculty to study ancient history, archaeology, and language — and experience modern Greek culture.

Martha Merritt in front of the Center for Global Engagement

International Education

A look at UR’s Center for Global Engagement

UR’s home for study abroad, international students, and related initiatives has a new name: the Center for Global Engagement. We checked in with Dean Martha Merritt.

“We must continue to ask, ‘What role could [AI] technologies play at Richmond?’ and ‘What else might our students need to learn to succeed and flourish?’”

—Kevin F. Hallock, UR president

Sports

The women's lacrosse team during their summer trip to the Netherlands

Team Building

Spider Lacrosse teams travel, team-building and making memories together

Both the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams spent time in Europe during the summer, creating “an unforgettable experience” for these student-athletes.

Athletics director John Hardt, with members of the football team, holding their CAA championship and Capital Cup trophies

Q&A

Spider athletics navigates a shifting college sports landscape

“It’s changed how our programs build their rosters,” says John Hardt of Spider athletics, “but it hasn’t impacted our ability to field winning teams.”

Lives of purpose

A photo of Molly Rossi, '16, sitting outside on the mall in Washington D.C. She is surrounded by trees and the U.S. Capitol Dome is visible in the background.

Lives Of Purpose

The unstoppable Molly Rossi

Molly Rossi, ’16, always trusted that there was a bigger story about the world around her — and she’s never stopped searching for it.

A photograph of Rick Hudson facing a Giant Aldabra Tortoise, and scratching under its chin.

Lives Of Purpose

Revival instinct

Rick Hudson, R’77, has spent a lifetime working to save freshwater turtles and tortoises from extinction and restore their numbers in the wild.

A photograph of alumna Kathy Aphaivongs-Harrod in her restaurant, standin in front of a window, and a red wall with a print of Thailand.

Lives Of Purpose

Sustenance

How a Spider chasing success found it through feeding others and nurturing her professional community.

A collage featuring a house, trees, road, and people on bicycles.

Lives Of Purpose

Tailwind of Love

As Eli Beech-Brown cycled hundreds of miles in memory of his late father, his best friend and 2024 classmate Miles Goldman documented the journey.

Faculty spotlight

A photo of professor Joe Hoyle. He is smiling at the camera and standing in his office, which is plastered with posters, postcards, art, and other mementos.

Curriculum Vitae

The professor who merges Socrates and spreadsheets

Accounting professor Joe Hoyle has spent decades refining a teaching style that’s both demanding and deeply supportive.

Voices

Hot seat: A Q&A with the Richmond professor whose statue melted in the D.C. heat

Art professor Sandy Williams IV talks about the incredible melting Lincoln statue, the memes and discussions it sparked, and the role of art.

Research

I taught rats to drive, but they taught me to enjoy the ride

A neuroscientist on lessons learned from teaching rodents to drive a mini-car.

President Kevin F. Hallock, teaching a class on the Economics of the University

Academic Excellence

Expert lessons

Kevin F. Hallock, the university’s president, is giving students a deep dive into the economics of the university in a course he is co-teaching.

Editor’s picks

An illustration of a group of men playing golf. A seeing eye dog sits amongst the group.

Spider Community

Fore sight

Blind since the age of 23, avid golfer Dave Szumowski, R’67, has developed a winning approach to the game he loves.

Illustrations depicting alumni experiences such as remarrying at 70, working in emergency medicine, and performing on broadway.

Lives Of Purpose

Yes, I've done that. Really.

Hit a World Series home run. Make a Broadway debut. Argue a case at the Supreme Court. Spiders who know talk about experiences many of us have imagined.

Madonna performs during halftime show of New York Giants vs New England Patriots game at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Music

Meet the professor studying Super Bowl halftime shows

Music professor Joanna Love has built a career studying how pop music, mass culture, and branding overlap, harmonize, and sometimes collide.

#SpiderLove

Love, eventually

A kiss in the gazebo between Scott Hurd, B’89, and Diane Kraynak, W’89, was 25 years in the making.

Spider expertise

Maggie Morganfield Parker, ’05, in a playroom for children

Expert

How to help children heal and grow through playtime

Professor and certified play therapist Maggie Morganfield Parker, ’05, offers tips for designing and participating in good play with children.

Expert

How to have productive dialogue across differences, both small and profound

Professor Monti Datta — an expert in the gentle art of conversation across differences — offers tips for succeeding in these conversations yourself.

Student reading in a hammock at Westhampton Lake

Wellbeing

How to be supportive

UR’s director of CAPS offers his tips for how to support the mental health needs of the college student in your life.

Expert

How to design the best room in your home

Gwynne McCue, ’97, is a Manhattan-based interior designer and “a practical magician.” She shares her tips for creating your perfect interior.

Spider nostalgia

Back Then

The Robins gong show

UR’s varsity cheerleading squad in the late ’70s hosted its very own version of The Gong Show at every football and basketball game.

Mikhail Gorbachev during his 1993 visit to the University of Richmond and the spring 1993 cover of University of Richmond Magazine

Back Then

Mr. Gorbachev, put down that ball

When Gorbachev visited UR in 1993, he made history — and mischief — by autographing an unexpected item before taking the stage.

An illustration of a large banana split on a basketball court

Back Then

Bananas for Spider spirit

In the 1970s, Spiders tried to break world records for largest indoor banana split and largest submarine sandwich. Inside the Robins Center. Really.

Back Then

When the Spiders went marching in

Facilities staff discovered a colorful relic from UR’s bygone marching band era.

More to Explore

Class of 2029

“We’re all in this together. We can learn best and do our best by being present for one another and working together,” President Kevin F. Hallock told the incoming class during fall move-in. Watch as the Spider community welcomed the Class of 2029 to campus.