With the passing game at times stalling for the Cavaliers, the run game must be an essential part of the offense in order for Virginia to pull off the upset Saturday against Virginia Tech.

Lately, however, the running game has not been nearly as productive as it needs to be. Since the Cavaliers upset Georgia Tech back on Oct. 25 – thanks  in part to 126 yards rushing – the running game has not come close to cracking the century mark in its last three losses. The Cavaliers ran for 78 yards in a loss to Miami – during which junior running back Mikell Simpson was lost for the season with a shoulder injury – 28 yards on the ground against Wake Forest and then 30 against Clemson. Senior running back Cedric Peerman believes that the team’s success on the ground when it went 4-0 in October had something to do with the rushing yards decreasing in November.

“When we were on the winning streak, we ran the ball very well I thought,” Peerman said. “When you start improving, when you start doing better, a lot of teams get a little bit more amped up, the defenses are a little bit more amped up, because they know that there’s a challenge. We just have to rise to that challenge.”

Virginia is going to have to rise to the challenge Saturday when it faces the Hokies, because Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster is one of the best in the business. Virginia coach Al Groh believes the system Virginia Tech employs might have something to do with it.

“The system’s been a long time in development,” Groh said. “Most of the players who are playing it, even if they haven’t played in games before, have been a long time in development.”

Peerman agreed with Groh in his assessment of the Virginia Tech defense.

“I think they look just as strong as they have in the past few years,” Peerman said. “They always have great schemes and a great system. Of course, they have one of the best defensive coordinators in the country, so they’re always well-prepared, they always play with a lot of intensity, a lot of heart.”

There are some chinks, however, in the Virginia Tech rushing armor. In the last two games, the Hokies have allowed over 100 yards on the ground. The catch for Virginia, however, is that over 50 percent of the rushing yardage the Hokies have given up the last two games has been to quarterbacks, and sophomore quarterback Marc Verica has not proven to be a dual threat in the backfield very often this year for the Cavaliers. Therefore, a lot of pressure on the Virginia running attack falls on Peerman, and he knows what he has to do to be more productive against Virginia Tech.

Much of the difficulty for Peerman and Simpson before he got hurt was getting tackled in the backfield.

“I’ve tried to bounce it outside a lot this year – instead of doing that, you have to, for what it’s worth, live to play another day,” Peerman said. “Just get back to the line of scrimmage, and that’s something that I recognize that I need to do.”

With a passing game that has been sporadic this month, a lot of the onus falls on the rushing game. As far as motivation, though, Peerman does not need it simply because of who he is playing Saturday.

“[Playing against Virginia Tech] makes me focus a little bit more in preparation,” Peerman said. “I think we’ve played against great defenses all year. Just more so of a focused attitude and being prepared, and just knowing the situations in the game, and just knowing what can come up – trying to know what’s going to happen before it actually happens.”

For a former scout-team quarterback who inherited the starting role in the third week of the season, sophomore Marc Verica has not had such a bad year.

Verica has “won a lot of games and helped us win a lot of games this year early on that we might not have won without him,” senior tight end John Phillips said.

On the other hand, Verica certainly has not had a stellar season either. After getting off to a predictably tremulous start in his first two games – in  which he led Virginia to just 6 total points and committed six turnovers in road blowouts at Connecticut and at Duke – Verica appeared to be rejuvenated by the return of senior running back Cedric Peerman from injury as Virginia went on a four-game win streak. The Cavaliers put up 26.5 points per game during the streak, and Verica averaged 232 yards in the air while throwing five touchdowns and four interceptions.

Just as Virginia’s winning ways came screeching to a halt, however, so Verica returned to becoming turnover-prone in the games that followed. The sophomore has thrown three interceptions in each of the last two games as the Cavaliers threw out any opportunity they may have had at a trip to Tampa Bay for the ACC Championship game.

“He's just kind of going through some growing pains right now,” Phillips said. “He's had some unfortunate incidents with interceptions and whatnot, but you're going to have that – that's expected.”

When the Cavaliers take on Virginia Tech at Lane Stadium Saturday, Verica will quickly have to put his turnover woes behind him. The Hokies are second in the ACC and 16th in the country in turnover margin this season, forcing 25 turnovers while committing just 15.

Of course, forgetting that you have thrown six interceptions in two games is easier said than done.

“You can’t let that stuff get into your long-term memory frame,” said Peerman, who fumbled to the opposition for the first two times in his career in back-to-back games against Miami and Wake Forest earlier this season. “You just have to realize that you can master the present, and you can be successful.”

In Verica’s defense, however, he has often been hindered in losses by a stagnant running game and has been forced to play catch-up as Virginia gave up early leads. Of their 11 games this season, the Cavaliers’ opponents have gotten on the board first on eight occasions.

“You can’t help [Verica] out, say, the same way we helped out [former Virginia starting quarterback] Marcus Hagans,” Virginia coach Al Groh said. “The year that Marcus was a first-year starter, we had the No. 1 rushing offense in the conference, and steamrolled some teams with it, so there were quite a few games where we were able to let Marcus go 8-14 and score plenty of points. We haven’t been able to do that, so it’s forced some circumstances where Marc, under his situation – first time and so forth – has had to be, in some games, kind of be the man, make the plays that win the game.”

Verica also has shown that he is not afraid of attempting to thread the ball in between defenders. While this is perhaps an admirable mentality, Groh noted it is one that can get him in trouble.

“You mean like, ‘Peyton Manning can’t make this throw, but I can?’” Groh said when asked about Verica’s gun-slinging mentality, adding, “I know all those Westerns that we watch are fictional, but usually, eventually, the gunslinger gets his, because there’s a faster gunslinger. It’s usually the guy who waits for his shot who survives for a long time.”

As Virginia gets ready to head to Blacksburg, Verica has plenty of incentive to take better care of the ball. With a win, the Cavaliers would become bowl eligible, afford the seniors their only win against the Hokies in their careers, and rob Virginia Tech of the chance to play in the ACC Championship game.

Looking even further down the road, however, Verica has even more riding on this contest, although he may not be thinking about it right now. With junior quarterback Jameel Sewell – who  was suspended this season for academic reasons – eagerly awaiting his chance to return to the team in the spring, a productive trip to Blacksburg would certainly bode well for Verica as he attempts to earn back the starting job for next season.

“It oughta be fairly competitive,” Groh said of the spring quarterback competition. “We’ll be looking at a spring in which we’ll have two guys who have started an appreciable amount of games, as opposed to last spring when we had no players who had started [an appreciable number] of games.”

33-21. 17-0. 52-14. These are the double-digit losses the seniors of the Virginia football team have endured during their careers as Cavaliers.

Going back one more year, for the team’s fifth-year seniors, Virginia was defeated 24-10 by the Hokies back in 2004 as well. It has not been since a 35-21 Virginia win in Charlottesville in 2003 that this rivalry has seen a Cavalier victory.

Only about 10 years ago, the two teams were neck-and-neck in the number of wins in the series, but the Hokies have won eight of the last nine games between the rivals, stretching their series lead to 47-37-5. If Virginia loses Saturday, the Cavalier seniors of the Class of 2009 would be the second consecutive senior class to not win one game against Virginia Tech.

This is something that does not go unnoticed by seniors on this year’s team.

“I think there would be some sort of void [if we never beat them],” senior running back Cedric Peerman said. “That’s your rival. You always want to beat your rivals, and I haven’t beaten them since I’ve been here. It’s something I definitely think about, something I think the team definitely thinks about.”

Though this year’s game does not have as much riding on it as last year’s, when the winner went to the ACC Championship, the Cavaliers still have an extra incentive to beat the Hokies. In addition to Virginia becoming bowl-eligible, defeating Virginia Tech would ruin the Hokies’ chances for a second straight conference title.

“I know they’re looking forward to trying to get to the ACC Championship, so being able to spoil that for them, that’d just be an added bonus [to winning the game as a senior],” senior safety Byron Glaspy said.

Players say it doesn’t matter how much is riding on the game or how well the two teams are playing — it can all be thrown out the window when these two rivals clash.

"When these teams play, it usually doesn't matter what the record is,” senior linebacker Clint Sintim said. “Each team [comes] out and plays hard, and it's always a big game. It's going to be exciting."

The rivalry is especially significant for native Virginians. Several players from both teams knew each other even before they played against each other in college.

“The coaches recruit the same players, so you know a lot of players from recruiting,” Sintim said. “It's an in-state rivalry, and most of the kids in the state either go to Virginia or Virginia Tech for the majority.”

Virginia-Virginia Tech is a rivalry that seems to get lots of attention in the commonwealth but gets lost among rivalries such as Florida-Florida State, Alabama-Auburn and Ohio State-Michigan in terms of national attention. However, the experiences of Glaspy, who was born in Virginia but moved away when he was 4, speak to the intensity of the rivalry once involved in it.

“When you come here, you fall into the same tradition,” Glaspy said. “You hear so many stories about Virginia-Virginia Tech games, just the history of the rivalry, and you just become a part of that, you get sucked up into that culture, and you just identify with that.”

While Virginia Tech has aspirations of heading to Tampa Bay, Virginia still has aspirations to play one more game after Saturday. Some of the seniors just aren’t ready to move on.

"I just hope it's not our last game,” Sintim said. “I'm not ready to leave college football and join the real world, whatever that may be. We have an opportunity to play two more games – that’s the way I'm taking it, that's the way I'm trying to approach it … I'm trying to do everything in my power to execute and to get the guys to feel the same way I feel so we can go down to Blacksburg and get a big win.”

The team is feeling a sense of urgency as continuing its season boils down to winning just one more game this year against Virginia Tech.

“To go down there and just get bowl-eligible in the last game, it's kind of a win or go home feeling for our team right now,” senior tight end John Phillips said. “We understand the importance of the game and the rivalry circling around it, so it's going to be an interesting contest.”

Last year’s Cavaliers were playing for a chance to advance to the ACC title game and possibly the Orange Bowl. This year’s team is just scratching and clawing for any bowl. Ending a run of Hokie wins in the rivalry is motivating the seniors as well. And what about spoiling a nemesis’ chances to win the Coastal Division?

Most of the seniors didn’t bite at this question, but Glaspy made an offering.

“That’d be a nice thing to do – send them home unhappy,” Glaspy said.

Many Virginia Tech fans are not too fond of Sean Glennon.

Virginia coach Al Groh, on the other hand, has nothing but good things to say about the senior quarterback. As the Cavaliers prepare to take on the Hokies Saturday at Lane Stadium, they will also prepare for two quarterbacks: the dual-threat junior Tyrod Taylor – who will start, Frank Beamer announced on his radio show Monday – and the pocket-passing Glennon.

There has been much controversy surrounding the quarterback situation in Blacksburg all season. The stickiness began in training camp when Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer announced his intention to redshirt Taylor, thereby giving Glennon the opportunity to take all the snaps in his final season, to the objection of many Hokie fans. When Glennon threw for just 139 yards with two interceptions in the team’s first game as it was upset 27-22 by East Carolina, however, Beamer had second thoughts. Against Furman, he went back to using Glennon in tandem with Taylor. Taylor completed just four passes but rushed for a team-leading 132 yards, while Glennon was 3-8 passing for 42 yards.

Though Glennon – the MVP of last season’s ACC Championship game, a 30-16 win against Boston College – threw just four passes over the next five games, he worked his way back into the lineup after Taylor was injured on the first play against Florida State Oct. 25. Glennon himself suffered an ankle injury in the same contest – freshman Cory Holt finished the game at quarterback – but he returned to start the next game against Maryland with Taylor still ailing. He completed 14 of 20 passes for 127 yards in a 23-13 win.

Glennon again took the first snap against Miami, though Taylor returned to the lineup and took the majority of the snaps in that game and the following Saturday against Duke. Glennon, however, has clearly earned back Beamer’s trust after the rough start to the season.

Whether he has earned the respect of the fans, however, is another issue, which had Groh scratching his head.

“I would certainly say that he was the MVP of the [Virginia-Virginia Tech] game last year,” Groh said of Glennon, who completed 13 of 19 passes for 260 yards with 1 touchdown and no interceptions against Virginia at Scott Stadium last year. “I’m sure [that game and the ACC Championship game] are two games that are very important to fans that he was the MVP of, so from our perspective it’s pretty easy to give him his props.”

Though Beamer has made every attempt to keep his quarterbacks as distant from the media as possible, there have been snippets of discontent from Glennon, particularly of late.

“When they told me before the game they were going with Tyrod, it was definitely a blow,” Glennon told reporters following Saturday’s game against Duke. “Shoot, I’m only here for a couple more games. I got my opportunity tonight and all I can do is hope I will be out there again next week.”

Groh marveled at Glennon’s ability to take quality snaps in the unusual position for a quarterback of coming off the bench.

“I guess it’s kind of like, not every pitcher works well out of the bullpen – some of them have gotta know when they arrive at the stadium that they’re gonna be on the mound that day,” Groh said. “Some quarterbacks are that way, but he’s handled his circumstances extremely well, and come in and really done a good job on quick notice in a number of games.”

The one-two punch that the Hokies bring with Taylor and Glennon is obviously nothing new to Virginia. The pair worked in tandem last year, though it was Taylor who appeared off the bench with Glennon in the starter’s role.

Like Virginia, however, the offense has struggled of late, putting up just 14 points in each of its last two games, including last Saturday against Duke.

“We respect their offense even though people might say that they've been struggling over the past few weeks,” Virginia senior defensive end Alex Field said.  “They're still a very good team, and we're going to have to be on our game to compete with them.

Though Groh does not hesitate to laud Glennon, there will be plenty of preparation for the scrambling Taylor. Groh noted that his team will spend as much time preparing for the dual-threat Taylor “as if he was going to be the only quarterback.”

Virginia senior safety Byron Glaspy also indicated that from his perspective, he would rather see Glennon under center.

“I would always say that I like playing against quarterbacks who have to stay in the pocket more,” he said. “When a quarterback stays in the pocket, you pretty much know he has a certain amount of seconds to throw it, and that’s how long you have to throw your coverage.”
On the other hand, Glaspy noted that Glennon certainly posed problems to Virginia in last year’s game.

“Once the ball was snapped, he was able to get a good read on what defense we were in, and knowing the weak spots of that defense, whether it was a one-safety high coverage or a two-safety high coverage,” Glaspy said. “Just all those things that come with experience, he was able to use that to his advantage last year.”

So, while both Virginia Tech fans and Virginia players may both breathe a bit easier when Glennon is in the game, the Cavaliers have no intention of relaxing when it is Glennon taking the snaps.

“He’s pretty responsible for the fact that there’s an ACC Championship trophy down there in one of those trophy cases,” Groh said.

Democrat Tom Perriello was declared the winner in Virginia’s fifth congressional district race yesterday, following the completion of an extensive vote count and canvass by the Virginia State Board of Elections. Incumbent Virgil Goode, R-Charlottesville, has since asked for a recount.

Though Goode led by 446 votes the morning of Nov. 5, Goode said since Election Day 3,200 votes changed in Perriello’s favor.
As of the final certified tally, Goode trails by 745 votes.

“We decided to ask for a recount,” Goode said, adding that many of his supporters, including the National Republican Congressional Committee, encouraged him to do so.

“It may all be just human error,” Goode said. “Hopefully, the recount might shed some light on that situation.”

Goode said, though, that he is not overly optimistic about the recount.  

“Any recount is an uphill battle,” he said. “I wouldn’t say precise odds, but the one that’s ahead is generally favored.”

Perriello’s communications director Jessica Barba said she is confident in Perriello’s victory.

“What we know historically is that there is little to no chance of changing the outcome of this election,” she said.

The recount will be paid for using funds from taxpayers, Barba said, because the margin of victory — approximately 0.23 percent — was less than 0.5 percent.

Goode said he does not know how much the recount will cost, but noted that he feels this is an important security measure for voters.

“It ensures that each ballot that was lawfully cast in the election is counted, and that the votes are accurately tallied,” Goode said. “It also gives us a chance to ensure that each candidate’s tally is comprised only of votes that were properly and lawfully cast.”

Goode said he would not comment on any possible plans for after the recount, adding that it is “way too early” to think about running for political office again.

Barba, meanwhile, said Representative-elect Perriello will continue his transition to the House of Representatives, a process that includes forming his congressional staff.

The Jefferson Scholars Foundation recently created the Hartfield-Jefferson Teaching Prize to acknowledge exceptional teaching in the University’s Engineering School.

In determining the recipient of prize, which is limited to undergraduate professors, the foundation looks for commitment to curriculum issues as well as excellence in teaching, Jefferson Scholars Foundation President James Wright said.  

“The interest is in recognizing professors who teach Engineering School students, who have demonstrated a great commitment to the field [and] an interest in students and teaching,” Wright said. “There’s also a desire to recognize people who have established innovative methodologies.”

Wright said he expects to award the first prizes in the 2009-10 academic year. Though the foundation anticipates honoring five professors, the number of recipients may vary from year to year, Wright said. Engineering School Dean James Aylor said because of the Engineering School’s distinguished faculty, it may be difficult to determine which professors deserve the accolade. He stressed the difficulty in narrowing the candidates from the school’s broad talent pool.

“Usually in cases like this, it’s pretty hard to find those one or two people who stand out above the others,” Aylor said.

An anonymous donor has pledged to fund the new award, Wright said, and the foundation expects that all payments will be in order by this spring. At that point, the individual award totals will be determined. Wright also said he foresees that the selection process will begin during the summer.

“We’ll invite nominations, and then there’s a committee that will do an assessment of nominations that are received,” Wright said. “My expectation is, like all of the selections that the Jefferson Scholars makes, the criteria and standards will be high,”

Though Aylor said he has not met with the donor, he said he believes the donor chose the Engineering School as the recipient of his or her gift for personal reasons.

“Usually what happens when you get an award like this is that the donor had some faculty member when he or she was here who really inspired him or her to be successful,” Aylor said. “They want to give back and they look at what faculty made a difference.”  

In light of the recent economic downturn, Wright also said the foundation believes the Hartfield-Jefferson Teaching Prize will reward professors who might not otherwise have been recognized for their work.

“Anything that can encourage and reward exceptional teaching is a good thing for the University community,” Wright said. “With the funding problems the state is having, the ability of the University to give raises is constrained, so anything we can do to promote and reward our best teachers is a noble cause.”

Aylor noted that the award draws attention to the Engineering School’s mission.

“Sometimes the core activity of the school is ignored, and people don’t get acknowledged for the excellent job they do in teaching,” Aylor said. “I think this is a really outstanding way for a donor to reward us for what I think is what we’re really here to do.”

The Jefferson Scholars Foundation, founded in 1980, seeks to promote intellectualism and achievement within the University by providing scholarships and academic opportunities to exceptional students, according to the Foundation’s Web site.

Civic literacy does necessarily go hand in hand with a college degree, according to a study released by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute last Thursday.

“We thought it might be good to look at how Americans of all educational attainments did, so we could compare and contrast and isolate the impact of college,” said Richard Brake, ISI director of university stewardship.

On average, college graduates scored 57 percent on the study’s civic literacy test, while high school graduates scored 44 percent, Brake said. Nearly three-fourths of the 2,500 surveyed failed the test, which included questions from immigration tests and the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam, Brake said.

“It does raise questions about the way our educational systems have worked,” University History Dept. Chair Duane Osheim said.
On average, today’s college students only take about three to four history, economic and political philosophy courses, Brake said, adding that the wide range of courses students can choose from may not lead them to focus on gaining a strong civic education.

“You have a broader kind of knowledge but a less depth of knowledge,” Brake said. “Maybe a little bit more focus is in order.”

Unlike current college students, baby boomers scored higher on the study’s test, Brake said. He explained that school curricula changed in the 1960s, adding that it is possible that baby boomers worked with more limited curricula and subsequently scored higher.

As a result of the study, Brake said ISI wants to challenge institutes of higher education to do a better job imparting civic knowledge upon students.

“We do think the future of the republic is at stake when college [graduates] can’t identify the major institutions of our government,” Brake said. He added though, that as this is only the third year this survey has been conducted, the current results are opportunities for further research.

University Politics Prof. James Ceaser said civic education is “something that should be taken very seriously by institutions of higher education.” He added that the University strives to make civic education an integral part of its curriculum because it was one purpose of the University set forth by Thomas Jefferson upon its founding. The University, he said, has made specific efforts to ensure its students receive an adequate civic education and has used funds from state, federal and private sources to establish courses in this vein.

“Everyone can see the general importance of the fact that we are all citizens in this country, and in order to be an adequate citizen of this nation, there are certain things you should know,” Ceaser noted. 

Variations in the gene for serotonin transport may affect drinking habits in alcoholics, according to Neurobiology Prof. Ming D. Li’s recent study. Li said he hopes information collected during the study will contribute to the development of better alcoholism treatments in the future.

Working with 275 alcoholics, Li and his colleagues studied six single nucleotide polymorphisms, variations in the sequence of DNA, and found that a region on one SNP variant showed a significant association with the volume of drinks that alcoholics consume. The variant may influence serotonin levels in the brain, Li said, noting that scientists believe human bodies use serotonin for emotion and mood regulation, REM sleep and other various brain mechanisms.

Researchers have found that alcohol increases serotonin levels in the brain. One hypothesis, Li said, is that if a variant in the gene for serotonin transport deprives alcoholics of serotonin, alcoholics may start drinking to alleviate the deficiency. Li said scientists for years have drawn a correlation between this particular gene, which controls serotonin transport, and alcoholism. Until now, however, no one had discovered a direct connection between variations in the gene and alcoholic behavior. Li said when an SNP changes the expression level of a gene and results in a change in function, it is defined as a “functional variant.” His research demonstrated that a functional variant can affect behavior, he said.

“The whole human genetic feud is about trying to find what genetic variant is important,” Li said.

The study focused on how the gene for serotonin transport affected the volume of alcohol consumed.

“If you take alcoholics, they’re a very heterogeneous group,” research associate Chamindi Seneviratne said. “There are differences in their drinking, so what we wanted to do was to see if we could subgroup them into a higher drinking alcoholic group and a group that’s not drinking so heavily.”

Seneviratne said she defined a heavy drinker as a male who consumes more than five alcoholic drinks per day or a female who consumes more than four. All of the test subjects were classified as heavy drinkers, she added.

The study found that if an alcoholic has the variant in his or her serotonin-transport gene, he or she has a higher risk of consuming more alcohol than a person without it, Li said, noting that knowing more about these genetic variations will allow researchers to determine how to better treat individuals. Li said anti-depressants could assist in treatment because these drugs make more serotonin for the brain.
The study also examined potential differences between men and women. Though previous studies have suggested that estrogen levels in females play a role in the expression of the serotonin-transport gene, Li and his colleagues found no difference in the variant between men and women. The research group does not, however, know whether the functional variant spans ethnic groups. Seneviratne said all of the individuals studied were of European descent.  

“According to research published in different areas, we have seen that there are different frequencies of different genotypes among different ethnic groups,” Seneviratne said.

Li also stressed the importance of further research in the ethnic aspect of the study.

“We don’t know if there would be differences,” Li said. “Right now, it is important to see if this variant is functional in other ethnic groups."

Seneviratne said research indicates that the inheritability of alcoholism accounts for 40 to 60 percent of the factors influencing the expression of alcoholism in a person. Environmental factors determine the remaining influence. Although this gene appears to be important in determining the intensity of alcoholism, Seneviratne said it is not the deciding factor.

“One of the main problems in treating alcoholism is the heterogeneity of alcoholics, because they are different in their drinking behavior and social backgrounds,” Seneviratne said. “If we can use the marker to categorize [alcoholics], we can come up with a better way to treat them. We can personalize it.”

The study’s findings will appear in the February 2009 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, and were posted online Nov. 20.

The Darden School proved successful at the sixth annual Innovation Challenge, where two student teams swept all three possible awards, including one worth $20,000.

The Innovation Challenge is the world’s largest innovation competition available to M.B.A. students, said Philippe Sommer, Darden director of entrepreneurship programs. He noted that the competition is an opportunity for students to use their creative powers.
“Whatever you do in life, it’s that ability to think outside the box” that leads to success, Sommer said.

The competition gathers corporations from across the world, which pose specific questions to student teams.

“There are corporate sponsors who get involved who pose essential business problems that they’re dealing with in real life in their company,” Sommer said. “These are not theoretical problems. Through this challenge you ask student business teams across the world to come up with innovative solutions.”

This year, 260 teams from 55 schools across the world participated in the competition. Each team was designated a corporate sponsor, said first-year Darden student Andrew Beasley, a member of the University’s Team Wildhoos.

“You got randomly assigned one of those sponsor groups and then you were assigned your original challenge,” Beasley said.

Beasley said his team was asked to examine a problem facing RBC Bank and then write a three-page proposal outlining a solution

The corporate sponsors then ranked the proposals to determine which teams would advance into the semifinals, Beasley said, noting that this round involved a phone conference call.

“You had some representatives from RBC Bank who were listening to the presentation and firing questions at us,” he said.

The final round was held this past the weekend at the University, where the finalists gave presentations to a panel of judges that chose the three winners. After presenting, the groups were given two new problems to solve from Hilton and American Express OPEN, Sommer said.

“The best 10 solutions to those problems were the 10 finalists who came to Darden and competed with one another to answer two new questions,” Sommer said.

Each of the finalists then had the opportunity to present solutions for the two proposed questions to a panel, Beasley said.

“We had 15 minutes to present and then 10 minutes for [question-and-answer],” Beasley said. “It was exciting and challenging at same time … there was a panel of judges and then [another] nine teams watching you in audience. It was a very intense and fun experience.” After the finals presentations the two Darden teams, Team Wildhoos and Team Alchemy, were announced as the winners of all three prizes.

Team Wildhoos won the American Express OPEN award and the $20,000 best overall prize. Team Alchemy won the Hilton prize, Sommer said.  

“When they announced the awards we were really excited and jumping around,” said first-year Darden student Andrew Hutchinson, a member of Team Wildhoos.

Utility installation and construction for two new science buildings, which were put on hold during the October Board of Visitors meeting, will begin Nov. 26. The construction will disrupt traffic and parking on Stadium Road and Whitehead Road at various times until Feb. 17, according to a University press release.

The soon-to-be constructed buildings, the Information Technology Engineering Building and the College of Arts & Sciences Research Building, were put on hold during the Board meeting because of architectural concerns. University spokesperson Carol Wood noted, though, that “the projects themselves weren’t put on hold.” Wood added that the University is fully committed to building the structures, which have a combined cost of $165.2 million. She said because only the exterior architecture work must be reviewed at the next Board meeting, the University will start “extensive groundwork” in expectation of the project’s final approval. University Architect David Neuman is currently revising the plans for the exterior architecture work, Wood said. He was unavailable for comment.

As a result of the project’s groundwork, Stadium Road, from south of Montebello Circle to north of Dunova Court, will be closed from tomorrow until Dec. 10, according to the release. The road will be reduced to one lane between Dec. 11 and Dec. 23, as well as from Feb. 4 to Feb. 17.

The portion of Whitehead Road that meets Stadium Road will be closed from Dec. 11 until Dec. 23 and will be limited to one-lane traffic from Jan. 7 until Jan. 26.

According to the release, the utility installation will also disrupt access to several University parking lots nearby and will force buses to re-route around the construction sites.

—compiled by Thomas Madrecki