Ben, ‘11

April 13, 2008

This past weekend had some of the best and worst times since I’ve arrived here. Our President, President Ayers, had his inauguration and that made Friday amazing. The students had classes end by noon and we all went to his inauguration ceremony to celebrate his induction as the University of Richmond’s 9th President. We had delegates from a ton of schools come to pay respect and participate in the ceremony. We had representatives from Oxford, founded in the 1100’s as well as a local community college founded in the 1970’s. The ceremony was well done and we had Virginia’s Secretary of Education speak as well as Richmond’s mayor (who was the first black governor in the U.S.) Douglas Wilder. We even had Harvard’s President, whom is a good friend of President Ayers, come and speak as well as participate in a symposium on the Civil War with President Ayers.

Everyone here at the University of Richmond loves President Ayers. He is always around and is a constant presence. He’ll be leading the cheers at basketball and football games, listening to student concerns, and giving lectures on a variety of subjects to students here. He even stopped by the table where I was selling Homecoming T-shirts and bought one. President Ayers is also a teacher, which was a big surprise to several freshmen students who signed up for a history class with him. They had their classroom listed as the President’s House. Anyways, everyone loves him and it was great to spend a day celebrating what he’s done and what we’re looking forward to doing alongside him in the coming years.

The inauguration ceremony in the Robins Center

Student groups performed all throughout the afternoon

A bluegrass band comprised of University faculty performed during a picnic lunch

The events were held all over campus under big, white tents. Lunch was great with fruit, turkey wraps, croissants, tuna salad, and much more. Everything looked amazing. For dinner, they hosted another picnic lunch with fried chicken, biscuits, fruit, cookies, pork sandwiches, and lots of other great food. The weather was absolutely incredible all day. It was in the high seventies with clear skies and sun. It was the perfect evening with warm weather, kids playing Frisbee on the green, listening to a live band perform, and relaxing with friends. School was the last thing on anyone’s mind.

They brought in quaint trolleys to shuttle all of the attendees around

An elegant picnic dinner under the big tent

Amazing food at the picnic dinner

As the night progressed, they brought in a live band to cover all of the hits from the past fifty years. President Ayers even deejayed his own after-party with a playlist of his favorite songs. It was a lot of fun to hear him act as a deejay. He’s so down to earth and just a great guy in general. They provided plenty of snacks of trail mixes, chicken wings, and lots of other appetizers as the party went on into the night for alumni, students, and faculty. I left at 9:00 to go watch the movie at the Pier, National Treasure 2, and then tried to prepare for a long day on Saturday by going to bed early, which ended up being at 2:00 AM.

Saturday brought Relay for Life. I was the captain for Team InterVarsity. We were short on people for a while, but ended up with ten members. We were all set for the big day. I had bought food and rented a tent from the Weinstein Center. We had raised almost $600 and were ready to go. We arrived at 10:00 AM, set up our tent, and registered. However, the perfect weather could not continue and it starting pouring. It was a torrential downpour for a while as we all huddled in a cement building to ride it out. It lightened up and we held an opening lap. However, the downpour had toppled tents, soaked all of our sleeping bags and blankets and pillows, and dealt us a tough hand. The rain was expected to continue all day, so the coordinating committee was forced to cancel it. We did get in one lap, but no one questioned the decision to cancel it. However, once we got back to campus, the rain let up and the rest of the day and night was clear and pleasant, which was a huge downer. I was ready to be there all twenty-four hours and walk as much as was needed to represent our team. The luminaria ceremony will still occur next week, but we’ll just have to look forwards to next year. The University of Richmond’s students managed to raise over $25,000 and get 350 students involved.

I made this awesome baton/ bubble wand for our team to use during Relay for Life
Josh, David, myself, Dianne, Emily, and Katie were all set to go

I tried to shelter myself from the downpour

We were waiting to get into the building to take shelter from the rain

We rode out the storm by playing Applies to Apples

David proudly used our team’s baton

Since Relay for Life was canceled, I had a free day for the rest of Saturday. I had done my homework on Friday so that I wouldn’t have to do it after Relay for Life. Now, I had plenty of time and a soaking tent on my hands. I read ahead in CORE while drying the tent outside and then starting packing up my room. I know that the semester still has three weeks left, but I like to be organized and have a plan for where things are going. I packaged up a ton of things that I wouldn’t use again and sent them back home. Then, I sorted through what I needed for the summer and what I wouldn’t need until the fall. It takes much longer than you might think to pack up your life, but I’m all organized and now I won’t have to be frantic the last week of the semester.

Sunday brought church, a bit of studying and working ahead, but also relaxing time by watching movies and gearing up for next week. It looks to be fairly slow, but that could change. Next weekend is Accepted Students Day, so campus will be flooded and I’ll be kept very busy. That’ s been my weekend. It’s flown by like weekends always do, so I’d better sign off. Have a great week and I’ll catch back up with you at the end of the week.

At Sunday brunch, my friend craved a Rice Krispie bar, so she
made her own, which took her ten minutes to do

King Duck (the one with the bump on the head) and his minion race towards the
bread which the local community members are feeding them on Sunday morning

Quote of the Weekend: “Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make its colors appear” - Author Unknown  (In honor of both the literal sun and rain this weekend)
Thought to Ponder: Why would a Washington state law ban lollipops?
Shout Outs: My Relay for Life team
YouTube Video of the Weekend:

A video done for promoting Penny Wars through InterVarsity, which is being used again this year.  A lot of my friends are in it, which makes it quite funny. Penny Wars uses spare change to raise money for projects throughout the year and scholarships for the Rockbridge retreat. Thanks for the video, Tom