College Dean Meredith Woo spoke to the General Faculty Council yesterday, addressing concerns about budget cuts and also discussing the changes she intends to make in the undergraduate experience.
Woo assured faculty members that the University does not intend to lay off any current faculty as a result of the ailing economy.
“I don’t know what the future is going to bring us,” she said. “But whatever it brings, I hope we will be working closely together to get through these rough times.”
Woo noted that the University faces major economic concerns. She said she anticipates this year’s commonwealth budget cuts will be reflected in the University’s 2009 budget, which both she and members of the General Faculty felt could impact future research funding.
In addition to discussing economic concerns, Woo also talked about her experiences so far with the University in comparison to her work at other institutions. She noted that she has been particularly impressed by the University’s use of faculty advisors, which she called “unusual and unexpected.” Woo said she feels using faculty advisors within the College allows for a more intimate academic community.
“Everyone pitches in to make undergraduate education something truly meaningful,” she said, adding that in other schools, highly paid professors do not take on such “menial tasks” as advising and concentrate instead on their research and lectures.
Woo also expressed her goal of improving the academic culture of the University by making the College a more internationalized institution. She mentioned that she would like to offer more academic travel opportunities, including some programs that would not last a full year or semester, but rather a few weeks, in hopes that more students would be willing to leave Grounds if only for a short time.
During Woo’s report, Asst. Science, Technology and Society Prof. Peter Norton, a Council representative from the Engineering School, voiced his concerns about the results of the 2007 Faculty Recruitment, Retention and Welfare Survey. The survey revealed faculty dissatisfaction with transparency within the University concerning the differences in duties between tenure-track professors and full-time assistant professors.
Norton said he feels the lack of a concrete description of the two positions causes a confusing disparity among the academic departments and suggested that the College look into clarifying those positions.
The meeting concluded with a discussion of the human resources restructuring initiative and the way it will change the composition of the University faculty.
“We need to begin having that important conversation,” said Council Chair Dawn Anderson, adding that the General Faculty Council will keep a close watch on this issue in the coming months.

Several universities have started implementing technology that allows students to take exams on computers while disabling other applications to prevent students from cheating. Some University of Virginia researchers are currently working to create a secure system that would allow students to take computerized tests in a similar manner.
Software Secure President Doug Winneg, whose company makes one such program, Securexam, said the software creates a secure word-processing environment that permits students to perform functions pertinent to their exams, such as spreadsheet analysis, on a computer. At the same time, the software restricts the environment to prevent students from chatting with their friends or consulting their notes.
Winneg also said the software has another component for distance learning that enables students to take exams in their dorm rooms and have a webcam monitor their exam environments. This, Winneg said, would “eliminate the need to go to a proctored exam environment” and would ensure that “exams administered online have the same academic integrity.”
University Asst. Mathematics Prof. Christian Gromoll said he, along with colleague Michael Hill, are currently using a University grant to experiment with a system where students can take exams online with the possibility of improving their work by reattempting problems answered incorrectly.
For this, Gromoll said, students go to a computer laboratory to take their exams and the computers go into kiosk mode — only allowing students to interact with the exam system.
With this system, though, students are able to self-schedule exams, and Gromoll said he believes this makes exams more convenient for them.
“Students can pick whenever they want to take the exams,” Gromoll said. “Many find exam situations stressful; something may come up in their personal lives or extracurricular lives which causes them to have less than ideal performance on exams … The goal of this system is to try to more accurately measure students’ abilities.”
First-year College student Vikram Pole said he likes the idea of being able to self-schedule exams but expressed concern about an unrestricted system.
“I think it could be a good idea if you can’t cheat,” Pole said.
Third-year College student Diane Quick also had concerns about the potential for cheating but was open to the idea of a monitored computer lab where students could take exams. Quick also said she would want a proctor in the room to ensure fairness in the event of a computer malfunction.
Third-year College student Nancy Chae, on the other hand, said she would not be in favor of computerized exams, no matter the form.
“I don’t like anything electronic,” Chae said. “It’s easier to just write it down and take it all at once.”
The University also provides an option for online testing through Collab, the new course management system, Portal Webmaster Trisha Gordon said, explaining that Collab’s testing function would not restrict other applications.
Gordon said the University is not actively looking to use such a program but would consider doing so if there were a request to investigate a more secure system.
“I’m sure that we would be more than willing to take a look at any product if there was an expressed need for it here at U.Va.,” Gordon said, adding that professors concerned with cheating might “prefer a system like Securexam to more open systems.”

Students and faculty of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds met yesterday to discuss attitudes toward race at the University. The meeting, titled “Conversations Amongst Communities,” was sponsored by La Alianza Coalition of Hispanic/Latino Leaders, the Minority Rights Advocacy Coalition and Multicultural Student Services in the Office of the Dean of Students.
The events’ leaders said the meeting was designed to allow University students, faculty members and administrators to come together and learn from others’ beliefs and ideas.
Phoebe Haupt, Multicultural Student Services program coordinator, stressed the importance of open dialogue.
“Dialogue has a lot of power, talking is what will break stereotypes down, you have to get to know people,” Haupt said.
Participants separated into small groups to address issues such as affirmative action and how minorities are treated at universities. Dean of Students Allen Groves sat in one of the groups, and he commented that he thought that the University had undergone many changes since he attended the Law School here, including an incredible growth in diversity in both the student and faculty populations.
Third-year College student Whitney Hinnant said the University is becoming incredibly diverse, but she noted it is not necessarily completely integrated yet. She said community members should question their willingness — or lack thereof — to interact with people in different cultural groups.
Iberedem Ekure, a third-year Engineering student from Nigeria, said he experienced this lack of complete integration first-hand.
“When I first got to U.Va. [and America] I made mostly white friends, but now most of the people I know well are black,” Ekure said. “Sometimes I wish I had a more balanced set of friends.”    
The conversation turned quickly to affirmative action, revealing students’ differing opinions about the race box on college application forms.
Third-year College student Ryan Hill expressed support for the idea of affirmative action but said she did not like the thought that it could be applied to her as a black student.
“I battle with the idea of it [affirmative action]; I don’t really want it to affect me,” Hill said. “If I’m not qualified for something, then I’m not qualified for something.”
But Hinnant, Hill’s friend and roommate, disagreed.
“I always check that box, even if I’m overqualified,” Hinnant said. “Affirmative action gives underprivileged [students] the opportunity to succeed.”
At the end of the meeting, La Alianza President Amanda Perez said she was happy that so many people had decided to come. In observance of Hispanic Heritage Month, La Alianza is sponsoring events throughout October.

The Princeton Review ranked Darden professors No. 1 in the nation in the 2009 edition of “Best 296 Business Schools.”
This is the second year in a row that the faculty, which includes more than 100 professors, has been awarded the top slot in the review.
Darden Dean Robert Bruner said he believes “it is the passion for the learning experience for their students” that makes the professors at Darden stand out.
“Academics are all busy with their many demands, and my colleagues show a great commitment to help[ing] students learn,” he said. “The community is honored to be recognized in so many different dimensions and in a very competitive field.”
Instead of ranking schools in “best to worst” order, the ranking focuses on specific strengths of business schools across the country, according to a Princeton Review press release. Officials from the Princeton Review could not be reached for comment.
The Princeton Review compiled the rankings by surveying, on average, 65 students at each of the 296 business schools featured in the book, the press release stated. Those 65 students were asked 80 questions pertaining to 11 categories.
Along with top ratings in the “Best Professors” category, the Darden School ranked in the top 10 in five other areas, including “Best Career Prospects” and “Best Campus Environment.”
Second-year Darden student Reid Thompson said his professors are deserving of the high status because of their availability and the depth of the relationships they develop with their students.
“A big thing is accessibility,” Thompson said. “Outside of class, I’ve been to some of their houses for dinner. They’re very interested in our lives and our success.”  
The Darden community, while honored, aims for continued success, Bruner said.
“We will sustain this investment in the future to ensure Darden’s continued prominence,” he said.

University Physics Prof. John Bushweller  recently took a significant step in his research seeking to make antibiotics more effective. Through his work, funded by the National Institutes of Health, Bushweller has been able to obtain a magnified view of protein structures that could be used to produce more successful antibiotics.
Better antibiotics are needed because bacteria have grown increasingly resistant to available medications, Vanderbilt University Biochemistry Prof. Charles Sanders said.
“The problem is that most of the traditional antibiotics don’t work anymore because bacteria has become immune to them,” Sanders said. “In the old days if you had an ear infection, you could just take an antibiotic, but now, the drugs don’t work anymore.”
Bushweller said antibiotics are designed to affect a specific target, but over time bacteria have become immune to them, leaving people vulnerable to illnesses.
To address this problem, Sanders said, Bushweller has been able to use complicated technology to take a very detailed picture of a particular protein structure found in bacteria that, if terminated, could kill the bacteria.
This is significant because “it allows you then to see what the protein looks like, and it turns out that this particular protein would be a good target for new antibiotic drugs,” Sanders said, comparing the process before this breakthrough to trying to fix a car without looking under the hood.
The next step in the experiment will be to develop a small molecule that will stop the protein from functioning.
“If you can kill the protein, you may be able to kill the entire cell, which is what you want the antibiotic to do,” Sanders said.  
Bushweller said it is important for the biomedical community to get ahead of this growing problem.
“There’s an emerging sense in the biomedical community that we could reach a crisis point where there are going to be types of bacteria that will resist all the antibiotics that are currently available,” Bushweller said. “So if we don’t get ahead of this, we will face serious problems.”
Sanders said if a patient were to fall ill as a result of this type of adapting bacteria, he or she would face serious medical trouble because of these ineffective antibiotics.
“What we would like to achieve is to develop compounds that could make it to clinics to be used as treatments for bacterial infections,” Bushweller said. “It is a very long road, but that is ultimately our goal.”

“It’s our biggest game of the season. I think it’s a tremendous rivalry.”
When Virginia coach Steve Swanson speaks of a “tremendous rivalry,” one school unequivocally stands out from the rest: Virginia Tech.
The No. 8 Virginia women’s soccer team (10-1-1, 4-0 ACC) will continue this in-state rivalry when it plays the Hokies (6-4-2, 1-1-2 ACC) in Blacksburg tonight. The Cavaliers hope to remain undefeated in conference play in their fifth ACC matchup of the season.
“When we play Virginia Tech it’s always a big game,” Swanson said. “The fact that it’s down there will be even more of a challenge for us.”
Thus far, the Cavaliers have out-scored their ACC opponents 16-1 in just four games, three of which have been away from their home turf. Their 4-0 in-conference start ties Virginia’s 2005 squad for the best ACC start in school history. It seems no opponent has exposed any major weakness in the orange and blue. Being on such a roll has put team focus at the forefront of Swanson’s approach to the next game.
“We always say that each game is our biggest game of the season because it’s the next game,” senior goalie Celeste Miles said. “We’re sure that we’ll get their best shot, not just because of the Virginia-Virginia Tech rivalry, but because it’s an ACC game.”
Against Clemson Sunday, the Cavaliers managed their best scoring output of the season in the 7-1 blowout. They overcame what has been a challenge all season: shot conversion. In every game before the Clemson matchup, Virginia struggled to turn its overwhelming number of shots into goals. Even in the 6-0 rout of N.C. State, it took 26 shots to find the net six times. In their most recent game against Clemson, however, Virginia tallied seven goals on just 13 shots.
The Virginia defense, meanwhile, has been strong throughout the conference schedule. Posting three shutouts in its last four games, Virginia’s only goal allowed in conference play came from a score in the 89th minute by an already ravaged Clemson team.
On the offensive side of the pitch, forwards Lauren Alwine and Meghan Lenczyk have provided the spark. Alwine, a freshman, leads the ACC in assists, while Lencyzk, a sophomore, is tied for second in the ACC in goals, having scored at least one goal in each of the Cavaliers’ four ACC games.
To continue the team’s recent dominance, Swanson said he believes team leadership will be necessary to stay on track.
“I’ve been very happy with our leaders — our seniors on the team — that have really helped us get pointed in the right direction and helped keep our minds focused on the right game, the current game,” Swanson said.
One such senior leader is Miles, who had a constructive outlook after Sunday’s 7-1 dismissal of Clemson.
“If anything positive comes out of it, we’re definitely happy to win by that margin,” Miles said. “But [the one goal] leaves a bitter taste in our mouth that will help motivate us through practice next week. I think that could be a good thing to help us not get big heads because we know that we still have things to work on.”
The four ACC teams Virginia Tech has played thus far are the same four teams Virginia has played. Given their lone ACC win against N.C. State, the Hokies have performed less successfully than Virginia in conference. Notable to compare is Virginia Tech’s 2-2 tie against Clemson versus the Cavaliers 7-1 destruction of the Tigers. Come Thursday, however, these comparisons will become irrelevant.
“It’s very early in the ACC season as far as I’m concerned,” Swanson said, emphasizing that a team “is only as good as its last game.”
Right now Virginia is at peak form after a strong performance against Clemson, but all that could change if the Cavaliers do not come out ready to play Thursday. The athletes and coaches plan to prepare for the here and now.
“Steve [Swanson] told us that right now we have a one-game season,” Miles said. “That game is Virginia Tech.”

Meet John and Eric Thornton: two brothers, two varsity football players at Virginia.
The similarities between them are apparent. Both put on orange and blue every Saturday. Both follow the instruction of Virginia coach Al Groh. Both call the same two people at home for a little extra spending money every now and again.
And, as if there weren’t enough parallels already, both walked on to the football team. Though the Thornton brothers both fall under the umbrella of “walk-ons,” their paths onto the Virginia roster couldn’t be much more different.
John Thornton, a senior punter, came to Virginia with football at the back of his mind. At his Richmond high school, John participated in six sports but only played one year of football.
As a freshman at Virginia, John didn’t go to tryouts. He didn’t make any contacts with coaches to try and get on the roster. He, like thousands of other students each week, watched the Cavaliers from the stands.
Then, in the early part of the 2006 football season, John Garrett, the assistant coach for offense and wide receivers at the time, traveled to Richmond to recruit Thornton’s younger brother Eric, then a senior receiver at Henrico High School. After it came to Garrett’s attention that the elder Thornton was already a student at Virginia and that he had been a standout punter and kicker in high school, Garrett e-mailed him an invitation to try out for the team.
The rest was history.
The following week, John Thornton went to a private tryout where he was asked by Garrett and special teams coordinator Bob Diaco to kick 15 field goals, punt 15 balls and show them 10 kick-offs. After the brief kicking and punting try-out, Thornton had his uniform embroidered and his name etched into a locker. No shuttle runs and no suicides.
Eric Thornton’s path onto the football team was of a different variety. Though he was recruited to play both football and baseball at U.Va., he was never officially offered a spot on either team. Unlike his older brother, the younger Thornton had his eyes set on a spot on the Virginia football roster before he even arrived in Charlottesville.
Throughout the summer preceding his first year, Thornton maintained a training regimen in preparation for his walk-on attempt.
Instead of a private look, however, Eric Thornton was surrounded by 10 other hopefuls participating in an open tryout.
After about 45 minutes of basic drills, a 40-yard dash and a shuttle run, the coaching staff picked four players, including Thornton, to join the squad; Groh said this year’s tryout “produced one of the better groups.”
“They’re not really expecting anyone to play right away,” John Thornton said. “They’re really looking at raw talent.”
And so, the Thornton brothers made their way onto the team through slightly different processes. John was recognized by Virginia coaches after they recruited other players at high school games in which he played; Eric was more actively sought out, receiving invitations to both baseball and football recruiting events.
Therefore, when both players arrived at their football tryouts, the coaches already had a vague idea of who they were looking at.
And so they should have. Some of Virginia’s most productive players have been walk-ons. Byron Glaspy and Jon Copper are recent examples. Al Groh is an older one.
Yes, even Groh himself worked his way onto the team after an open tryout. Likely as a result of his own experience, the player-turned-coach now gives all walk-ons a fair shake. One of the most tangible ways he does that is with financial help: If a walk-on begins to make an impact on the field, Groh will award him scholarship money.
Perhaps even more importantly, Groh recognizes that walk-ons have the ability to make a difference. And in many situations he provides them with an opportunity to do so.
In his third year on the team, John has found his biggest impact as one of the leaders of “team kick” — the punters, kickers and long snappers.
“I don’t have a cannon leg, but I can give advice,” he said. “I can help some of our other talented players with form and technique. That’s how I can make the biggest difference.”
And, when John isn’t helping other punters or kickers improve their form in practice, he’s keeping an eye on Eric — just as an older brother should.
“I make sure that he’s going full-force all the time,” John Thornton said. “I’ve told him that there are times when you might get far down the depth chart and you want to take plays off. But you can always stand out if you work harder than everyone else does. Coaches notice that.

If you ask any head coach what part of a game is most important, chances are his answer will be defense. Fortunately for the No. 21 Virginia men’s soccer team, the Cavalier defense has become a strength halfway through the season.
The Virginia defense has come together as a group, and the results speak for themselves. In the team’s last five games, the Cavalier back line has allowed one goal, which came during a 2-1 road victory at Virginia Tech Sept. 26. This span includes shutouts against quality opponents, including N.C. State, Liberty and former No. 12 North Carolina. Furthermore, the only goal that has been allowed in the last five games was an own goal, freshman defender Hunter Jumper said, although the goal was officially credited to Virginia Tech midfielder Scott Dillie.
To say the least, the Virginia back line is beginning to hit its stride of late.
“I don’t want to jinx ourselves, but the last five games we’ve been scored on once,” Virginia coach George Gelnovatch said. “And we’re still scoring goals.”
The Cavaliers’ recent defensive success was not entirely expected considering the contributions required from many underclassmen. three freshmen defenders have each started in at least seven games: Howard Turk has started all 10 games, Hunter Jumper has earned nine starts and Shawn Barry has started seven games. These players, although inexperienced, have brought a wealth of talent to the back line. That talent has sustained their buoyancy all season, and now that they have some experience under their belts, their talent has begun to pay dividends.
The lone veteran on the defensive back line is senior defender Matt Poole. Poole has recorded 68 starts over the course of his career — including nine starts this season — and led a 2007 Virginia defense that posted seven shutouts. His experience has helped to guide and balance the inexperience of Virginia’s younger defenders, making his role even more crucial this season.
“He’s making some big saves,” Turk said of Poole. “He’s helping us out a lot, and he’s bailed us out a few times.”
Although three of the four starting defenders are freshmen, a rapport exists among the defenders that allows the group to excel as a collective whole. Without that cohesion and cooperation, Virginia’s defense would not have achieved this much this quickly.
“We started off kind of roughly, but things have been coming together in the last few games,” Turk said. “We feel a lot better about the way we’re playing now.”
Another factor in Virginia’s current outstanding defensive play is junior goalkeeper Michael Giallombardo, who did not start right off the bat. Giallombardo was unable to participate for personal reasons in Virginia’s season-opening tournament, the Virginia Soccer Classic. When the opportunity presented itself to sophomore Dan Louisignau, he made the most of it, allowing just a single goal in a losing effort to St. John’s to open the season, giving him the edge in the goalkeeper competition as he went on to start the first five games. After Louisignau gave up three goals on nine shots in a disappointing 3-1 loss to VCU, however, Giallombardo stepped in as the starter, an opportunity not lost on the junior. Giallombardo has started Virginia’s last five games — all of them wins — and has posted a .923 save percentage.

A trip to Lake Anna is not just a day of fun in the sun for the Sailing Association at the University. It is also filled with a passion to sail across Anna’s waters in record time.
The Sailing Association competes in the Mid-Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association. Virginia is the southernmost state in this conference, and teams hail from as far north as New York. The club also travels south, though, to compete in a number of regattas. Its schedule goes into November, concluding with the SAISA/MAISA event in Charleston.
“We try to get to the Charleston regatta every year,” junior club treasurer Katie Coleman said. “Many varsity teams are down there, and it is good because it helps our team to be more competitive putting us in a great position for the spring.”
Even though the Sailing Association is a club sport at Virginia, the team regularly competes against a wide field of varsity teams.
“Most of the teams we compete against are varsity programs,” said commodore Whit Overstreet, one of two fourth-year club members on the racing roster. “They are fortunate because they have coaches, access to water within a 15-minute drive and professional facilities.”
Virginia’s sailing program began in the early 1970s as a recreational club. It flourished throughout the years until the early 1990s when it was, as Overstreet put it, “notoriously kicked off Lake Monticello.” From then on it has been in a rebuilding stage and has moved its facilities to Lake Anna. Now the club has members ranging from competitive racers to first-time sailors. Many have been attracted to the speed of the winds as this club sport continues to increase in membership and competitiveness; it is a thrilling ride right from the beginning.
“I had never sailed before,” Overstreet said. “The first time I sailed was when I went out to the lake in mid-January with my friend, and he taught me how to sail. I was just blown away on how fast you can go just by the wind power.”
After finishing next to last or last in four of five regattas in the spring season, the team fared better in its most recent competition, placing 12th in a field of 18 at the Tom Curtis Memorial Regatta hosted by Georgetown.
This improvement from years past can largely be attributed to the fact that the club has acquired two new boats. Equipment for sailing is expensive, and a generous grant by the Parents’ Committee enabled this upgrade.  
“That money was the catalyst to update our fleet as it helped inspire us to build our new facilities,” Coleman said. “This really jump-started our transition to be a better organization.”
The team has also gained some self sufficiency by building its own floating docks, making it much easier to launch boats.
“We were losing a lot of experienced people because it took so much effort to put the boats in the water,” Overstreet said. “If we wanted to sail, six people had to struggle with this [launch].”
With these improvements, the club has expanded to the point where it makes two trips per week to Lake Anna in order to get everybody on the water. The competitive racers practice one day, while another day is designated for recreational trips for the entire club.
Virginia is known as a place where clubs thrive on student leadership, and the Sailing Association is no exception. The team motto is “Sail like it’s sinking!” and it appears that the club will remain afloat for quite some time.
“I think our system we have here at U.Va. for clubs is amazing,” Overstreet said. “It’s not like most schools where clubs have intense oversight from administration — you’re free to make it or break it yourself.”

At a meeting of the University’s Board of Visitors last week, Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage proposed plans for a new indoor athletics facility for the use of outdoor University varsity teams.
“We have a need for indoor space for those teams which are ‘field teams,’” Littlepage said at the meeting, adding that “in the current climate that we are dealing with, in the case of inclement weather,” practices often must be cancelled.
Littlepage noted that the facility would be climate-controlled and would include a turf field.
—compiled by Paul Montana