Staff Ed: Renaming the B&G
3 min readThe Blue & Gray Press Editorial Board
Bell towers throughout history have served as means of unification, information-sharing, protest and celebration. Ringing at noon and 6 p.m. on our campus, the Bell Tower is a frequent meeting place, a reminder of the time, a recognizable landmark and a part of UMW’s identity.
With that in mind, the editorial staff of UMW’s student newspaper voted on Nov. 7 to change our name from The Blue & Gray Press to The Weekly Ringer, effective Jan. 1, 2022. This decision was not taken lightly, as we always aim to best represent and uplift the voices of the student body.
With this new name will come a redesigned print layout and website. These changes will be implemented in time for our newspaper’s centennial edition on Jan. 20, 2022. Although our name will change, our commitment to journalistic integrity will not waver.
From now until Dec. 1, 2021, we will be holding a graphic design contest where UMW students, faculty, staff and alumni are encouraged to submit digital artwork or a logo of the Bell Tower. We are in search of a graphic of the Tower, preferably in color, with a length between 1.5 and 2 inches and a height of 2 inches. This artwork will be featured in the masthead of our print edition for years to come, as well as our new t-shirts. We would love to highlight the hard work and talent of our community members in doing so. The artist whose work is selected will receive a free t-shirt featuring their design, and they will be credited in the print edition of The Weekly Ringer. Those interested may email their submissions to blueandgray.eic@gmail.com.
According to UMW’s website, the Bell Tower, officially named the Carmen Culpeper Chappell Centennial Campanile, was completed in 2007 in memory of Mary Washington College graduate Carmen Culpeper Chappell. The Bell Tower also commemorated 100 years of the university’s existence, as Mary Washington College was founded in 1908. Just as the Centennial Campanile represented the university’s 100-year history, the landmark will allow us to celebrate 100 years of student journalism at UMW.
The Blue & Gray Press was formerly named The Bullet since the newspaper’s inception in 1922. In 2014, the editorial board decided to rename and revamp the newspaper, selecting The Blue & Gray Press as the new name for three reasons: “as an homage to the UMW school colors (blue and gray), the proximity to the Blue and Gray Parkway and to honor the rich Civil War heritage of Fredericksburg,” according to our style book.
While we acknowledge that the Civil War is ingrained in Fredericksburg’s history, we do not feel the need to embody that history in the name of our newspaper. We chose to connect our new name to the Bell Tower because it is a unifying structure that all students, faculty and staff can relate to.
Our new name, The Weekly Ringer, honors UMW’s campus and identity, as well as our own identity as a weekly, student-run newspaper. As we ring in this new era of student journalism at the University of Mary Washington, we aim to embody the role of bell towers through our writing: to unify, protest, celebrate and, most importantly, inform.
This staff editorial was led by Jess Kirby.