“I was devastated [when I heard],” said Michael Ghio, Wolff’s freshman-year roommate. Wolff lived in a single his sophomore and junior years. “Ryan was a great friend and amazing representative of the university. He will be deeply missed by all those who knew him.”

Wolff was a business major, concentrating in finance, according to an email sent out by university officials Wednesday morning.

Ghio said he had been informed the night before the notice had been sent out.

“Ryan was one of the first friends I made here at the university,” he said. “I remember how every Friday night, we would play video games all night and, despite the fact [that] he would beat me every time, we enjoyed just chilling.

“Ryan and I also decided to form the intramural team our hall had, and he really enjoyed playing all the different IM sports, especially soccer, where he stepped up and played goalie for us several games.”

Ghio said their interests had carried them in different directions after freshman year, but that he had still considered Wolff a good friend.

A memorial service was held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 12 at Starks & Menchinger Chapel in St. Joseph, Mich., according to Wolff’s obituary.

“I hope people remember Ryan for who he was: a brilliant, athletic and hardworking student here at the university,” Ghio said. “He was quiet, but for those who got to know him, he truly had a great impact on them.

“Forever will I remember him as one of my first friends here. I know others also found him to be extremely giving and welcoming as well. I hope other students continue to keep him in their thoughts because it’s a devastating loss for the UR community and for his friends and family.”

More information will be provided as it becomes available.

Contact staff writer David Weissman at david.weissman@richmond.edu

Commencement speaker Gov. Bob McDonnell urged the graduates to “Go make a difference,” in an address containing anecdotes about service, faith and the university’s growing global influence. He repeatedly praised and plugged the United States and Virginia, including the commonwealth’s ranking as the best place for business by CNBC.

Alex Wiles, who graduated yesterday from the Jepson School of Leadership Studies, won a contest by the Office of Student Activities to give the student commencement speech. Touching on this year’s theme of “Celebrating the Past: Creating the Future,” Wiles described a drawing of Westhampton Lake Bridge she received from her high school drama teacher, a 1992 UR graduate. “The journey it represents is limitless,” she said. “Take your time crossing the bridge.”

As the graduates proceeded across the flower-adorned stage, cheers from the crowd sometimes drowned out the reader. According to Commencement Coordinator Anita Yearwood, between 3,500 and 4,000 people were expected to attend. Families expressed their joy with air horns and bells.

Graduates’ reactions were mixed with regards to McDonnell’s presence and speech at the commencement.

A graduate of the E. Claiborne Robins School of Business, who identified himself only as Daniel, said that, as an international student, he was offended by the speech. “He was very nationalist,” he said. “It was definitely not the speech I would have expected at a graduation.”

Laura Zemcik, a graduate from the School of Arts and Sciences, said the politics did not matter to her. “I think it’s a high honor to have a governor speak at your graduation,” she said, “no matter what his political affiliation.”

Contact staff writer Ben Panko at ben.panko@richmond.edu

With about three minutes left in the game, senior Mary Flowers had the ball on a restart a few yards away from UMass goalie Katie Florence, but Flowers moved too early and the ball went back to the Minutewomen. The play took momentum away from Richmond, which had rallied from an 11-4 deficit early in the second half.

The Minutewomen, like they had done many times during the second half, took their time setting up their offense before scoring the final goal of the game. That sent the small section of UMass fans into an even wilder frenzy as it secured their fourth straight A10 title.

Thought the game was played at Robins Stadium, UMass was designated as the home team because of its No. 1 ranking. Massachusetts came into the game with a perfect conference record and its only loss coming against the No. 1 team in the nation, Northwestern.

Richmond hosted UMass on March 30 and lost by one in overtime. UMass made sure there would be no overtime this time around, scoring five of the game’s first six goals.

It put an exclamation mark on a strong first half with a goal to make it 8-3 with 34 seconds left in the first half.

The loss ends the careers of four Richmond seniors, including standouts Caitlin Fifield and Flowers. Both had strong individual ends to their careers, with Fifield adding four goals and Flowers scoring twice and assisting three times.

Richmond, the three-seed in the A10 tournament, advanced to Sunday’s finale after defeating Duquesne Friday afternoon. UMass will now host a play-in game with the winner of the Metro-Atlantic Conference tournament with the winner going to the NCAA tournament.

Contact reporter Andrew Prezioso at andrew.prezioso@richmond.edu

Within the article, he makes a point to make fun of people who care about Africa, since “there is not practical connection between you making some other college kid aware and an African baby surviving,” and since we are only compassionate because our “father brings in six digits a year.” He goes on to laugh at the Diversity Round Table, OMA and essentially any student who attempts to be informed or culturally sensitive.

Of course, I understand that it is just Rhatican – but if it was just him I’d get over it. What bothers me is how many people read the article and simply thought it was funny, or “sooo true!” What he’s advocating is outright anti-intellectualism and rational self-interest. Our school already has a strong culture of conformity, and those who are openly active in progressive moments are left feeling alienated and marginalized. He says, “I think we all ought to feel compassion for the issues plaguing the continent” – but how are we supposed to do this if we’re not allowed to travel there, be educated on the issue, or raise awareness?

But again, it’s what his article implies that bothers me. As Jon Henry points out in a recent article, UR is slowly but surely moving toward a more academic and progressive future. People are finally discussing relevant political issues (and I’ll admit, props to Rhatican for this) instead of last night’s lodge or the sale at REI (guilty). People are staying up all night discussing Foucault, education reform, mountain top removal and –god forbid – poverty!

Explain to me why this is something to be ashamed of. Why is this worse than going to Cookout drunk or, heck, staying up doing a Bible study? It seems to me that Rhatican may actually be advocating complacency in the face of world problems. And whether he means it or not, he is attacking critical and independent thinking. He is calling for a return to homogony so absolute that he won’t have to deal with annoying hipsters who recycle, are foreign or try and make our campus (and world) a more safe and just place.

Well wake up, Rhatican! It would be nice if the whole world was filled with heterosexual, catholic, white, male Republicans – then at least we’d all be in agreeance and not have to tolerate different languages, and those darn Africans starving, and even worse, those white kids from the suburbs using their privilege to attempt to equalize the endless injustices that permeate our society.

But unfortunately diversity does exist; in fact it’s growing within our very school. And I know it scares you, but I’m afraid it’s not going anywhere. But please, UR student, don’t say I’m taking myself too seriously – because it’s the exact anti-intellectualism that Rhatican is perpetuating (that is already frighteningly prevalent) – the veil he is raising over our eyes, the ignorance he is actually advocating – that leads the masses to tolerate genocides; that allows us to tolerate the 27 billion animals slaughtered a year in brutal conditions, that are filled with chemicals that poison our children and that produce 18 percent of our planet’s greenhouse gases (1); that allow us to consume products that come from sweat shops (MacBooks included) and rain forest destruction; to live our entire lives without ever entering a truly impoverished neighborhood, despite the fact that 15 percent or 46.2 million Americans live in poverty (2); it is the attitude that Rhatican is not only advocating, but ensuring that pushes our society further into ignorance, into egoism, into inauthentic lives.

I disagreed with his previous articles, but I appreciated them. But his recent article doesn’t encourage discussion – it suppresses it. It attacks an already sensitive group in our community without an alternative, and then passes it off as a joke. And people found it funny – found the hours of work that their classmates have invested to try and make a better world future for all of us as ironic or pretentious or maybe just weird. And maybe I am pretentious or weird – but to be quite honest, I don’t see the irony, and I’m most certainly not laughing.

(1) “Vegetarian 101.” PETA. PETA, n.d. Web. 23 Apr 2012. http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/vegetarian-101.asp&xgt

(2) Yen, Hope. “Revised govt formula shows new poverty high: 49.1M.” Associated Press 7 Nov 2011, n. pag. Web. 23 Apr. 2012. http://news.yahoo.com/revised-govt-formula-shows-poverty-high-49-1m-135427317.html.

McDonnell became the 71st governor of Virginia in January 2010, with 59 percent of the vote. He received the most votes for a candidate in state history, according to the governor’s website.

The commencement ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. in the Robins Center. The facility seats 9,000 people, according to the university release.

McDonnell received his bachelor’s of business administration degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1976, on a full Army ROTC scholarship, according to his website.

After graduation he went through basic training in Texas and was stationed in Grafenwohr, Germany as a platoon leader with the second Armored Division. While in Germany, McDonnell took night classes from Boston University to complete his masters of science in business administration, according to his website.

He also received his master’s in public policy and judicial doctorate from Regent University while working as a sales manager for The Virginian-Pilot newspaper and serving in the active reserves of the Army in the 18th Field Hospital in Norfolk, according to the website.

In 1991, McDonnell began his career in politics as a representative of the 84th district in Virginia Beach in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he served as the assistant majority leader. He then was elected as Attorney General for three years before he became governor, according to his website.

This article will be updated.

Contact staff writer Erin Moyer at erin.moyer@richmond.edu

Contact The Collegian’s editor-in-chief at editor@thecollegianur.com

The University Promise, Principle II, states that “[t]he University of Richmond will be a diverse and inclusive community, strengthened intellectually and socially by the range of knowledge, opinion, belief, and political perspective and background of its members, whether of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, ability status, age, religious, economic, or geographic origin.” McDonnell stands against everything UR claims it stands for in Principle II.

I’ll head detractors off at the pass: some of you are going to argue that, by disagreeing with the choice of McDonnell as commencement speaker, a politically liberal person (like me) is looking to shut out others’ political perspectives. This is not the case. One can be conservative and still respect others; I know many conservatives who do just that. That is not who McDonnell is. He has actively stripped minorities such as LGBT people, women and African-Americans of their rights. This is not respectful conservatism. This is disregard for others as human beings.

Just this February, UR was given a four-star LGBT-friendly rating by the Campus Climate Index, run by Campus Pride, an organization that works to create more LGBT-friendly campus environments. We provide benefits to same-sex partners and are actively creating a safer and more welcoming campus for queer people.

In contrast, McDonnell has made clear his stance on queer issues. He was an author of the constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman that passed in 2006. When he first took office, he rescinded Gov. Tim Kaine’s executive order that protected people against discrimination based on sexual orientation. (He only reissued that protection after Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli made the mistake of telling public colleges and universities that they had no legal basis on which to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. Basically, Cuccinelli made the homophobic move too public, so McDonnell had to back pedal.) McDonnell just recently stated that he believed that a child needed to have a mother and father.

The University of Richmond has actively supported women’s growth with its continuation of the coordinate college system within the structure of a co-educational university. Westhampton College offers UR women something that Virginia Woolf might deem “a room of their own,” a place for support tailored to women and increased leadership opportunities, among other things. McDonnell, on the other hand, has actively worked to turn back the clock on women. One need only look at the recent scandal that has led Rachel Maddow to dub him “Governor Vaginal Probe” to see what McDonnell believes when it comes to trusting women to make a choice for themselves. He has believed these things for a long time; in his grad school thesis, written in 1989, he talked about how “detrimental” working women are to the “traditional” family (aka what HE believes a family should look like).

For years now, UR has run pre-orientation for people of color; we have historically black Greek societies and the Black Student Association. McDonnell does not value the contributions of people of color to our country. In 2010, he declared April “Confederate History Month” and omitted any mention of slavery in the original Proclamation. He amended the Proclamation after the omission was noticed by the media. McDonnell also supports voter identification laws. These laws, originating in the time of Jim Crow, have been proven to create barriers for poor African-Americans when they go to vote.

I have bragged about UR to many in the past; I even recently applied to be a member of the Alumni Recruitment Committee. While I still plan to participate as an alumna in the University of Richmond culture, I can’t help but have my enthusiasm dampened by the choice of McDonnell as speaker for the class of 2012. The committee should have considered UR’s values more deeply before inviting the governor to speak.

“Colorism” is the idea that one’s value is based on the shade of his or her skin, Lee said. It surrounds the idea that people have faced discrimination because their skin was too dark or too light.

Lee has always been interested in colorism, she said. She has done extensive research on the issue, written a children’s book, directed a short documentary and written an award-winning speech about it. But Lee wanted to take it to another level, she said.

She reached out to Dorothy Holland, chair of the department of theatre and dance, and told her about her idea to collaborate with her on an independent study project and direct a theatre production about colorism.

“[Holland] responded within an hour,” Lee said. “She said, ‘Sure, great, come to my office.’ She really took me on.”

The cast of “Under the Rug,”—students Kadeem Fyffe, Stephanie Granderson, Tiffani Lewis-Lockhart, Keon Monroe, India Richardson and Amber Roudette—will read a series of monologues, which Lee described as “provocative and shocking.”

“The readings have to acknowledge the seriousness of the issue and call attention to colorism,” Lee said. The monologues will give perspective from members of the black community from all ages, genders and relationship statuses.

Holland, Lee’s faculty mentor on the project, said working with Lee had been an exciting process.

“Kiara is truly perfect for spearheading this kind of project,” Holland said. “First, because of her profound passion about this subject and second because she is a wonderful writer with a very effective flare for theatre.”

Lee hopes that viewers will take away a sense of awareness about colorism from the performance.

“This affects everyone,” Lee said. “Its a pervasive thing that needs to be talked about.”

The performance of “Under the Rug” will be at 7:30 p.m. on April 19 in Cousins Studio Theatre.

Contact reporter Molly Gentzel at molly.gentzel@richmond.edu

The hotel, located in the town of Cherry Grove in North Myrtle Beach, S.C., is quickly becoming the favorite housing destination for Richmond students who flock there during the first week of May.

Stephanie Foxwood, a representative from the reservations department of the Prince Resort, acknowledged that student bookings had increased from previous years.

“We have a lot more Richmond kids staying with us during beach week this season,” Foxwood said. “We don’t mind it though — we’ve never had a problem with that group in the past, as most damages were minimal, and the students were pretty respectful.”

Though many may have switched to the Prince for convenience and affordability, several students have attributed their decisions to fear of eviction and being held liable for damages.

Last year, more than five groups of 10 students or more were evicted from their respective beach week residences and were left with the choice to find alternative housing or go home.

Emma Phillips, a junior staying at the Prince Resort this year, said she had made the switch because of past negative stays at Myrtle Beach.

“I have had to put my credit card down on houses in the past,” Phillips said. “Due to the increase of evictions in the last two years, I just wasn’t willing to take the risk a third time in a row.”

Ryan Soos, a senior planning to attend his fourth and final beach week, said he had made the switch to the Prince because of an altercation with one of the local realty firms.

“The rental company we used last year sent a landlord to check on our house all throughout the week, and there weren’t any problems,” Soos said. “When I got back to Richmond, I received a phone call saying that the house I stayed in had more than $1,600 worth of alleged damages.”

Soos said that since his name had been on the lease, he had been held accountable for the money and was ordered to pay the fines by 6 p.m. the day of the phone call — or face criminal charges.

“Luckily an alum in my fraternity was able to lend us the money,” Soos said. “No legal action was taken, but I switched to the Prince just to be safer. It will be great to come back to a bed that’s made every day, and hopefully I won’t be facing any sudden charges.”

Leslie Cox, Cherry Grove Beach Houses employee, said the company rented all 22 of its properties to Richmond students every year. When asked about the protocol of evictions and tallying damages, Cox had no comment.

Not all students have had trouble keeping their beach houses for the full week, though. Taylor Durland, a junior who stayed at the Prince freshman year, has opted to rent a house from the same company he used last year.

“I’m not worried about running into any problems,” Durland said. “I’ve dealt with the same landlady for the past year or so, and she understands the overall concept of beach week. As long as we’re respectful, she doesn’t have a problem with us.”

Phillips said that the problem may not be the relationships with local rental companies, but rather that Richmond students overpopulate the Cherry Grove area to a point of disruption.

“The weird thing about Richmond is that we’re the only school that goes to North Myrtle and only stays in Cherry Grove,” Phillips said. “Other schools spread to South Myrtle or a less concentrated area. The landlords know exactly where we stay, so it’s easy for them to evict us when we’re all in the same area.”

Contact staff writer Laura Allen at laura.allen@richmond.edu

So far, there are 500 members in the official “Richmond Class of 2016” Facebook group created by the Office of Admissions. Posts from next year’s freshman class range from sports club inquiries to general excitement about becoming a Spider.

“I never thought I would actually be excited about going to school, but I couldn’t be more excited about going to UR,” one group member posted. “My senioritis has now officially set in completely.”

On Saturday, April 14, the university hosted Experience Richmond, an admitted student event. The day’s activities included academic exploration panels, an activity fair and a bus tour of the city of Richmond.

A banner displayed in the middle room of the Heilman Dining Center read, “Welcome Class of 2016.” All three rooms in the dining hall were filled with groups of parents and next year’s freshman class.

Freshman Louise Andersson, a tour guide, said the event was special because it gave admitted students a chance to bond.

“After the information sessions, there were current U of R students in different color groups that broke off with admitted students to do ice breakers,” Andersson said.

Andersson said common questions from admitted students included how important Greek life was, what subjects were fun, whether students went off campus often and how the parties were.

Andersson, a native Swede, is fluent in three languages, and fluency in foreign languages is becoming increasingly common at Richmond. Of the students admitted to the class of 2016, one in eight speaks a native language other than English.

According to the Richmond website, of the students admitted to Richmond this year, there were 87 valedictorians, 604 straight-A students and 255 students who scored at least one perfect 800 on an SAT section.

Contact reporter Jenna Robinson at jenna.robinson@richmond.edu