The Weekly UMW Humanist Society pushes for university motto change

PRIYA PATEL Senior Writer

On Jan. 23, members of the UMW Humanist Society met with the Student Government Association to propose changing the school’s motto. The current motto is “Pro Deo Domo Patria,” which translates from Latin to “For God, Home and Country.”

“As a group that advocates for human dignity and wellbeing, we have been disturbed by the political events of the last few years,” said class of 2022 alumna Kelly Pedigo, one of the club’s founding members. “Current movements that encourage the mixing of religion and politics and call for returning to traditional values are movements we think the student body and university administration may be interested in distancing themselves from. Changing the school’s motto to something that better reflects UMW’s current priorities would be a step in the right direction. It’s our motto. It should be something we’d be proud to wear on a t-shirt or shout at graduation.”

According to the Humanist Society’s proposal, “the fact that this motto has not been reassessed since the school’s founding in 1908 shows that it is not a representation of the current diverse student body our school encapsulates.”

The Humanist Society believes that the current motto is out of date and invokes different ideas than it likely did when it was first selected.

“Largely it was an opening meeting to answer any first questions about our proposal and make our goals known to them,” said Humanist Society President Ava Spencer, a senior Earth and environmental science major. “We talked with them about how we could help each other accomplish this goal.”

The Humanist Society’s plan to change the school’s motto begins with