UMW renames campus hub in honor of long-time Dean

The University of Mary Washington’s University Center – the four-story hub of student activity on bustling Ball Circle – will become the Cedric Rucker University Center.

UMW’s Board of Visitors voted today to name the building after longtime Associate Vice President and Dean of Student Life Cedric Rucker, who is retiring after this academic year.

Rector Heather Mullins Crislip ’95 said of the decision: “Cedric Rucker has had an indelible impact on thousands of Mary Washington students and alumni. He made us better people and inspired us to live lives that are authentic, pursue justice and seek to deeply understand each other. I can think of no other person who perfectly defines the Mary Washington ideal than Cedric.”

The renaming will go into effect upon Rucker’s official retirement on June 24, more than four decades after he arrived on Marye’s Heights in 1977 as an undergraduate who’d go on to study sociology and weave himself into the fabric of Mary Washington.

Read more here. And congratulations to Dean Rucker on this well-deserved honor.