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�鶹��Ƶ alum Leonard "Len" Bennett’s generous gift of $1 million will create the “Warren D. Decker Professorship Endowment” to support �鶹��Ƶ's Debate Team.

On April 8, �鶹��Ƶ Debate Team alums and university colleagues honored Professor Warren Decker for his 48 years of coaching and mentoring.

In 2006, Robert DeNiro and Matt Damon came to �鶹��Ƶ’s Center for the Arts to promote their film “The Good Shepherd” in a special taping of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews.

�鶹��Ƶ researcher Jenefir Isbister was awarded the university's first patent on August 27, 1996, for her invention of a test for microbial contamination.

�鶹��Ƶ’s Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), known as “The Patriot Battalion,” began in 1982 and frequently conducts training with other universities throughout the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia.

�鶹��Ƶ alumni John Whalan, Elaine "Chipper" Petersen, and Bob Veenstra built the university's first telescope and observatory with $200 in start-up funds from the Physics Department.

The largest graduating class of any Virginia public university this year, �鶹��Ƶ's Class of 2022 had the distinction of graduating as part of the university’s 50th anniversary celebration.

Did you know that up until the 2004 Commencement �鶹��Ƶ graduation gowns were black? The university moved to green gowns in 2004, thanks to the work of a Traditions Committee.

On April 7, 2022, �鶹��Ƶ celebrated its 50th anniversary as an independent public university. That day and the week of events surrounding it illuminated �鶹��Ƶ as a university that is altogether different.

On May 21, 1983, �鶹��Ƶ awarded its first doctoral degree, a doctor of arts in education, to Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda, a teacher at nearby West Springfield High School.