The University received a record number of applications from a diverse pool of high school students for the undergraduate Class of 2013, making this applicant pool a testament to the work of Admissions Dean John Blackburn, who passed away last week.

Associate Dean of Admissions Greg Roberts said the Office of Undergraduate Admission received more than 21,000 applications, representing an increase of 16 percent compared to last year’s pool of applications.

Roberts said the applicants include 56 percent more Hispanic students, 22 percent more black students, 50 percent more international students and 100 percent more American Indian students.

The increase in the number of applicants, Roberts said, can be traced to a significant change made in the University’s application process last July: the acceptance of the Common Application. The Common Application, launched in 1975, “provides a common standardized first-year application form for use at any member institution,” according to its Web site. There are currently 346 college and universities that accept the Common Application.

“A lot of it can be attributed to the move to the Common Application,” Roberts said. “We expected an increase because of that movement.” Roberts noted, however, that the decision to accept the Common Application may also result in an increased number of incomplete applications.

“Since it’s easier to apply, some might be throwing in their applications at the end, and their interest in the University may not be as strong,” he said.

Aside from the Common Application, Roberts said the economy may also have played a role because, as a public institute of higher education, the University’s tuition is less expensive than the cost of attending many private universities.

The University is “a bargain in and even out of state,” he said.

These factors drawing students to the University attracted a diverse group of students this year, which pleased Roberts and his co-workers.

“We’re excited because … it is ethnically very diverse,” he said.

Though Blackburn passed away last week, Roberts said Blackburn was aware of the demographics of the applicant pool and was very happy about them.

“The deadline was Jan. 2 and you could tell early on how things were going,” Roberts said. “I had a conversation with [Blackburn] probably about two weeks ago telling him about the class, and he was thrilled.”

William Harvey, vice president and chief officer for diversity and equity, said it is too early to tell how much of a step forward this is for diversity efforts at the University.

“That really depends on the final numbers and the actual number of students we enroll,” he said.

Harvey did say, however, that he felt this year’s applicant pool is a tribute to Blackburn’s years at the University.

“It’s quite appropriate and fitting that we’re seeing this increase at [this] unfortunate time,” Harvey said. “He was a champion of diversity at the University, and this is a testimony to his work.”

A team of University Engineering students led by Jeff O’Dell, a second-year biomedical and mechanical engineering student, is working to complete bulletproof armor that the U.S. Army could use.

The students — Dan Abebayehu, Ann Bailey, Jeff O’Dell, David Holland and Adam Rogers — took an introductory biomedical engineering class, BIOM 200, “Biomedical Design and Discovery,” taught by Biomedical Engineering Prof. William Walker during fall 2008.

“In my class, BIOM 200, students identify their own problems to address,” Walker said. “My job is to ask them a lot of questions and to force them to collect information from a lot of different sources and a lot of different people.”

Walker said in O’Dell’s case, his project was driven by his personal experience in combat.

“In Prof. Walker’s Design and Discovery class, we were assigned to discover 20 problem areas to design a project around,” O’Dell said. “The majority were military ones because of my service.”

O’Dell served as a fire-support specialist in Iraq from August 2005 until December 2006.

“Our top concern was body armor because it’s so heavy, cumbersome and inflexible for many soldiers,” O’Dell said. “We looked into whether the armor would be flexible enough for soldiers to move comfortably around in when they’re in combat.”

Another problem with conventional body armor is that it can only stop one round of armor-piercing bullets.

“We wanted to design body armor with the ability to stop multiple rounds,” Bailey said.

In order to accomplish the group’s goals, the project demanded different fields of expertise in the sciences.

“We had to draw on mechanical engineering, and the project involved a lot of material science,” O’Dell said. “We put it all together, and it gelled nicely.”

The students also drew on the expertise of Hadyn Wadley, professor of materials science and engineering.

“Wadley is an armor specialist and he helped put us on the right track of finding the right concept of armor to focus on,” O’Dell said.
The project is drawing significant interest from the U.S. Army as well as the private sector.

“Right now, we’re doing testing with a company that specializes in armor,” O’Dell said. “The Army is going to put it through testing next month.”

There is also a strong possibility that the armor testing could branch out into other applications.

“We were focused on developing body armor and we stumbled on something for vehicle armor,” O’Dell said.

Walker said O’Dell’s project is one of many in his class concentrating on designing project-oriented solutions for real-world problems rather than solely research-oriented initiatives.

“I had a team working on a new design for microscopic surgery tools, another working on a design of a new method of wound closure and another working on a low-cost water filtration system for developing countries,” Walker said. “The class is about developing real solutions to real problems.”

Following the discovery of a crucial biomarker of pancreatic cancer, a University researcher has received a $1.2-million grant from the National Cancer Institute to develop a screening technique for early detection of pancreatic cancer.

Kimberly Kelly, Medical School assistant professor of biomedical engineering, said she is currently conducting pre-clinical trials to develop imaging agents, or probes, to detect early cancer cells.

This work was made possible by her prior research in collaboration with Nabeel Bardeesy, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Kelly said. Their research identified the biomarker — a protein on the surface of cells in early pancreatic cancers — and the peptide — or protein — sequence that recognizes the biomarker, Bardeesy said.

Having discovered the cell surface protein unique to the cancer cell, Kelly said they developed imaging agents that target the biomarker. The imaging agents were produced by hooking the peptide sequence to different molecules to be used for molecular imaging screening, Bardeesy said.

The current pre-clinical trials involve testing the isolated cells used to identify the biomarker in mass models of pancreatic cancer. These models — which, similar to the human disease, pass through multiple stages before metastasizing — have been implanted in mice.

“It [shows] promise that it will be effective in people,” Bardeesy said.

Despite the potential, Kelly cautioned that it almost certainly will be at least five years until the screening method can be used because it must pass through the pre-clinical trials, a small pilot clinical study followed by numerous clinical studies that would necessitate company funding, before finally being approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Bardeesy specified that to be approved, trials must demonstrate the imaging agent is still sensitive to detecting tumors in the human body, which might involve optimizing and tweaking the agent.  

“[You have to] prove that you can actually improve patient outcome,” Bardeesy said.

Even once developed, Bardeesy said, the screening most likely would be used only on those predisposed to pancreatic cancer through various factors such as genetic mutations and chronic pancreatitis.

Because only 3 percent of the population develops pancreatic cancer, it would not be cost-effective to use this screening for the general population, Asst. Surgery Prof. Todd Bauer said.

“If this got approved tomorrow, that’s the population of patients we would be screening,” she said. “It’s not feasible to screen everybody. We’re not there yet.”  

Bardeesy added that more widespread screening would require a cheap blood test with less technical equipment, an ideal that may also be advanced by their discovery of the biomarker.

At the moment, there is no method for the widespread early detection of pancreatic cancer, and instead, Kelly said, doctors only conduct the necessary tests once patients present symptoms. This is one of the main reasons pancreatic cancer is the fourth deadliest form of cancer, Kelly said; it is not typically detected until it has reached stage 4, at which point the chance of curative surgery is virtually non-existent. She said only 15 to 20 percent of pancreatic cancer patients are even eligible for surgery, and less than 5 percent of patients will survive five years, because chemotherapy is not effective if surgery is merely palliative.

“It’s a devastating disease,” she said. “The earlier it’s detected, the better the prognosis.”

In addition to aiding in the early detection of pancreatic cancer, Bauer said the molecular imaging could also detect metastatic spread where traditional scans may not, thus enabling doctors to customize treatment for each patient. He added that if the screening method proves accurate, the molecular imaging technique has promising implications for promoting research regarding early detection of other cancers.

“The more of these techniques we develop, the more that adds to the knowledge in the field and will help technology for other types of cancers,” Bauer said. “[It will] help advance the field.”

While attempting to comply with budget cuts, colleges and universities across the country are becoming more creative with their spending decisions. This year, budget cuts affected an unexpected demographic in the California State University system — applicants for next year’s freshman class.

Fresno State, which is part of the system, recently changed its application submission deadline from the Feb. 1 to Jan. 9, because of lack of funds, Admissions Director Vivian Franco said, which prompted complaints from a number of high school guidance counselors in California, many of whom were not made aware of the change until after Winter Break.

These are “rough times” because of the state budget deficit, and nine universities of the 23 in the California State system cut off the influx of applications by the end of November, Franco said, adding that Fresno State kept its doors open to students longer than some of the rest did.

Additionally, Franco said the application submission deadline on the Web site appeared with the warning that it was “subject to change.” Franco said high school students and counselors in the Central Valley area were made aware of this change in advance through conferences. Only two students called Fresno State sounding disgruntled, Franco said.

“The system will make sure all kids get a place,” Franco added, noting that if students had their hearts set on Fresno State, there are always openings in May.

As a public university, the University of Virginia, too, has been facing unprecedented budget cuts, prompting President John T. Casteen, III to send an e-mail in October to the community regarding the impact of commonwealth budget cuts. Associate Dean of Admissions Greg Roberts, however, said a drastic change to the admission deadline because of budget cuts was “not a concern for a selective institution like U.Va.”

Cuts in the budget would never directly affect the application process at the University, he added, which does not vary as the budget does.

The first half of Saturday’s Florida State-Virginia men’s basketball game was a nightmare for the Cavaliers en route to their 73-62 loss. Virginia shot a dismal 3-22 from the field — including starting out the game shooting 1 for 19 — and shot 0 for 8 from 3-point range. The Cavaliers’ 16 points in the first half were the lowest they had scored since only scoring 15 points against Connecticut in a 77-36 loss Nov. 29, 1993 at University Hall.

“The way Florida State plays basketball — systematically and methodically — wore us out,” Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. “They wore us down mentally, starting with the beginning of the game.”

Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said his team took the Cavaliers seriously while preparing for this game because he noticed how Virginia’s overall record could have been different if some breaks had gone the Cavaliers’ way.

“You watched them play Syracuse, Virginia Tech and Maryland, and we knew that they very well could have pulled those games out,” Hamilton said. “I think, as a result of the respect we had for them … we elevated our focus and intensity and created some easy opportunities for us in the first half with some deflections, getting good stops and getting some easy baskets.”

The difference in preparation between the two teams was evident on both ends of the floor, not just when the Cavaliers had the ball. The Cavaliers (7-9, 1-4 ACC) allowed the Seminoles (16-4, 3-2 ACC) to shoot 11 for 23 in the first half and 50 percent from the field for the whole game.

“We just didn’t play defense like we should have and are capable of doing,” sophomore forward Mike Scott said.

As badly as Virginia played in the first half, there was a brief glimmer of hope when junior forward Jamil Tucker stole a Florida State pass and put up a jam to make it 41-33 with 13:09 remaining. During the next possession, however, sophomore guard Sammy Zeglinski fouled Florida State senior guard Toney Douglas on a 3-point shot. Not only did the shot go in; Douglas converted the free throw to complete a 4-point play and break any momentum Virginia had.

“That was a point in time where I thought the crowd got back in the game and the door was slightly opened up again, and it closed real quick,” Leitao said. “Anytime you put yourself in a hole like that and if you’re trying to come back, you’ve got to play damn near perfect basketball and especially when you do something positive or two things positive, you can’t follow it up with a negative, and obviously it becomes a momentum swinger when that happens.”

The home crowd met the home team’s performance with a scattering of boos during the first half. Tucker, however, said he was not impacted by the booing.

“Fans are fans,” Tucker said. “They’re with you, and there are some times when they feel like you aren’t doing something right so they will be against you. We don’t play for the fans, we play for each other.”

With No. 9 Clemson sandwiched between upcoming games against giant-killers Boston College and Virginia Tech at home, not to mention back-to-back road games against North Carolina and Florida State, the Cavaliers will need fans to at least cheer against the visiting team to help disrupt their opponents’ communication on the floor. Sunday, the Cavaliers will travel to Cameron Indoor Stadium to face Duke, which likely will be the new No. 1 team in the nation. Junior guard Calvin Baker knows the importance of what will occur between now and the Duke game.

“I know these [days off] are going to be really critical to our success,” Baker said.

Though Florida State came out victorious in its 73-62 win against the Virginia men’s basketball team, the ‘Noles weren’t the only ones in Charlottesville with reason to celebrate. The biggest winner of the afternoon was — you guessed it — AutoZone.

With the score 30-16 at halftime and Virginia having shot a putrid 3 of 22 from the field — including a 1-of-19 start — the oft-seen, generally inspiring halftime promotional message from AutoZone appeared on the JumboTron. Should Virginia score 80 points that afternoon, it said, fans in attendance could redeem their ticket stubs for a free bottle of windshield washer fluid at their local AutoZone.

I can just see the manager at AutoZone following the score on Gametracker and leaping for joy. “Cancel that shipment!” he’d say for the first time in the history of the promotion, when he realized that the Cavs would have to put up an absurd 64 second-half points — that’s four times their first-half production, for you anthropology majors — to hit the 80-point mark.

That, for me, was the low point of the game, but there were others to choose from. Perhaps it was looking up at the scoreboard and realizing Virginia was shooting 5.5 percent from the field with two minutes left in the first half. Maybe it was the opening 1:33 of the game, which featured a turnover and the following Virginia “field goal attempts” — Mike Scott’s contested, turnaround fade-away air-balled a foot short, a Calvin Baker baseline floater off the side of the backboard and a wide-open Sammy Zeglinski 3-pointer also missing the basket short, in that order.

With the score 18-5 midway through the half, the worst moment might have been Mustapha Farrakhan’s failed attempt to draw a shooting foul on the baseline, only to heave a shot so lame that it barely even reached the key. Perhaps it didn’t even come until the second half, when Virginia’s one opportunity to get back in the game lasted all of 19 seconds; a Jamil Tucker steal and dunk brought the Cavs to within 13 but was followed by Florida State senior guard Toney Douglas’ three, plus a foul courtesy of Zeglinski.

Then again, maybe the worst moment of the game wasn’t located on the floor. Perhaps it was the fans booing Virginia into the huddle of a 30-second timeout Dave Leitao called at the 6:40 mark of the first half, with the score 24-5. Or it was when a friend of mine — an avid Virginia fan — texted me saying he was rooting for the Cavs to not make field goals. Perhaps it was the “Virginia first half highlights” shown on the JumboTron — a misnomer, because the only scoring highlight that was shown was Sylven Landesberg’s buzzer-beating layup at the end of the half to cut the deficit to — gasp! — 14. Maybe it was when one fan, walking by the media as he left the arena a few minutes early, turned to reporters and said, “They should be payin’ us to come to these games.” Perhaps it was yet another fan and friend of mine informing me that he started the Seminole Tomahawk Chop as time wound down.

The bottom line? I have seen my share of basketball and, relative to the level of competition, the first half yesterday was the worst single half from a team I have ever seen. I have always been an avid supporter of following your team through thick and thin, but for any Cavalier fans who walked out at halftime, for once I don’t blame you.

I would hope the team was just as humiliated — not just by the score or the statistics, but by the fact that they were associated with the school name on their jerseys. In an attempt to shed some light on what the Cavs were thinking, I asked Landesberg what the locker-room conversation was like at the half.

Leitao “just came in there and told us, this was a gut check — we were either gonna man up now or never,” Landesberg said. “They were blowing us out — embarrassing us — at home, in our gym.”

Talk about a gut-check — with no games in the middle of the upcoming week, the Cavs’ next game is, of all places, at Cameron Indoor Stadium Sunday. Virginia plays a Duke team that was the only ranked team in the nation yesterday to allow fewer points in the first half than Florida State did — 15, in a 40-point blowout against Maryland.

This team is young — Leitao has been saying that all year, and in times of trouble, it has comforted me into thinking there are better days ahead.

But if Virginia wants to win another conference game, it better figure out how to play a first half. Growing up fast doesn’t even begin to describe it.

“We’re young, but that excuse is getting old,” Landesberg said. “The season is more than halfway done, so that excuse of youth, I don’t think we should be able to use that anymore.”

While I appreciate Sylven’s remarks as a competitor, I can only hope youth is indeed the source of Virginia’s problems. This year, Virginia is a bad team — that was a consensus opinion going into the season. But if it’s not inexperience, there’s only one possible conclusion remaining. Instead of the Leitao era being the time Virginia turned its basketball program around, it will be remembered as the time the athletic program hired an accomplished coach and built a $129-million arena only to have the program get worse.

For those of you who had to miss the Florida State game because of fraternity or sorority rush, be thankful you did. I knew Virginia would struggle at times this season, but Saturday was something comically bad. The final score shows that Virginia only lost by 11, but the first half was something “The Twilight Zone” could only inspire. Sixteen points in the first half? Starting the game shooting 1-for-19 from the field? Yes, that really did happen.

Sophomore guard Jeff Jones tried to take an optimistic approach following the performance this past Saturday.

“Everyone is just trying to stay positive,” Jones said after the game. “Coach always says that it’s a tough league in the ACC, and that is what everyone came here for.”

I don’t think you came for a performance like this, though. The offense looked totally out of sync. The three field goals Virginia made in the first half were the fewest the Cavaliers could put together in one half since Feb. 19, 1997 against N.C. State­ — the main difference being Virginia actually won that game 55-46. When you start the game down 24-5, any team is going to struggle. When you are a very young team that likely has a very fragile psyche right now, it’s even more difficult to deal with such a slow start.

“It’s tough; everything is tough,” Jones said. “When things are going bad, it’s hard to get through.”

So what’s wrong with Virginia right now? Junior forward Jamil Tucker made two very good points following the game. The first one has to do with how the guys are thinking.

“I think it’s our mindset,” Tucker said. “We have guys with a lot of talent to be able to do things and make points, so I feel like it’s definitely in the mindset.”

When freshman guard Sammy Zeglinski — a normally solid free-throw shooter — has two instances in the game where he gets fouled shooting a 3-pointer, goes to the line and only makes one of three free throws, something has to be going on mentally. The offense — especially in the first half — did not look together, and this team does not have a Sean Singletary- or J.R. Reynolds-type player who can bail out a team time after time if the offensive cohesion goes AWOL.

Tucker’s other good point is a simple one but it is becoming a very alarming one for the Cavaliers.

“It seems like we have a knack for coming out lackadaisical [to start games],” Tucker said.

That knack is not a good thing for any team to have. Virginia was down 14 points against Florida State at the half, and it would have been a lot worse if the Cavaliers hadn’t made 10 of their 13 free throws. Virginia also found itself at halftime down 15 against Maryland, 14 against North Carolina and 7 against Virginia Tech. Even though Virginia has shown the ability to play much better in the second half of games, falling into such a deep hole is often too much to overcome, and Virginia is really going to have to come out of the gate stronger in future contests.

Prior experience suggests there could be some good that follows Virginia’s loss. Last year, Clemson took the Cavaliers to the woodshed at home in a 82-51 loss — and the game was broadcast on ESPN2, no less. Virginia played another game nearly 48 hours later and lost to Wake Forest on the road; but three days after that the Cavaliers played their hearts out against North Carolina and lost by 1. The Cavaliers then went on to win four of their next six games to end the season on a positive note. Give Jeff Jones a lot of credit: He has the right attitude in terms of how to get through this.

“We realize that it’s not going to be easy,” Jones said. “We just have to keep playing.”

Virginia doesn’t play until Sunday against Duke. It needs to figure out an excellent offensive plan and a way to start out games in a much better fashion — or this season’s going to do down the drain.

The Cavaliers were unable to overcome a second-half scoring drought against the Seminoles down the stretch — falling to Florida State 80-75 in John Paul Jones Arena Friday night.

With 18 seconds left in the game, Virginia came out of a timeout down by 3 points to Florida State and prepared to inbound the ball at half court.

“There [are] only two things you can do there,” Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said. “Try to get the 3 [points] the old fashioned way … and then we had a weak side player ready to shoot the three.”

Senior forward Lyndra Littles was that player on the far side of the court ready to shoot from behind the arc, already three for four from 3-point territory on the night. The play, however, went the other direction, as the ball was inbounded and passed inside to senior center Aisha Mohammed. After Mohammed missed her shot, junior guard Monica Wright wrestled down the offensive rebound and followed it back in with a 2-point jumper inside the paint.

Though there was a lot of contact on the shot, no foul was called, and the Cavaliers would have to settle for a two that cut the lead to 1 with 12 seconds left.

“To go for a three at 17 seconds — you don’t need to,” Ryan said. “There is plenty of time, you can foul people all day between 17 seconds and 8 seconds, and you are still in a good position. So we could have played foul, two, foul, two, foul, two.”

Unfortunately for Virginia, when Florida State went six for six in its last six attempts from the stripe, it could not make up any ground on the lead the Seminoles had built up during the course of the second half.

“I’m proud of the way our team came out in the second half,” Florida State coach Sue Semrau said. “I felt like Virginia really had their way in the first half — they really played the way they wanted to play. It wasn’t until the second half that we started to play our style of basketball.”

Though the first half might have been “Virginia-style basketball” from the Seminole point of view, the scoreboard indicated an even game at 38-38, although it took a last-second, banked 3-point shot from Florida State to level the game before the first period ended.

And despite Semrau’s comments regarding the style of play in the second half, the Seminoles’ scoring attack was aided by the unlikely 3-point shooting they managed against Virginia.

“We did take advantage of [the 3-point shooting], but it’s not our game plan,” Semrau said.

It seemed Virginia, too, was not expecting this long-range shooting from Florida State, allowing it to shoot 10 for 21 from behind the arc.
“I think it was definitely lack of execution on our part,” Wright said. “We were definitely prepared for them. We knew exactly who their shooters were. They hit their shots when they needed them.”

With the win, Florida State moves to an impressive 5-0 start in the ACC, while Virginia falls to 2-2 in the ACC and 2-3 against ranked opponents.

“We shouldn’t have losses like this at home,” Wright said, “but it happens, and we are just going to have to get better.”

The 41st-ranked Virginia women’s tennis team pulled off a dramatic upset Saturday, knocking off No. 25 Texas Christian University in a 4-3 victory.

Virginia (2-0) swept the three doubles matches to earn the point, then received contributions from the middle of its roster at the No. 3, 4 and 5 slots to secure the victory in singles.

Freshman 3-slot Lindsey Hardenbergh had the most impressive win, topping TCU’s Anna Sydorska by a 6-1, 6-0 score. Senior 4-slot Amanda Rales also earned a two-set victory, taking down Katarina Tuohimaa 6-4, 7-5. Sophomore 5-slot Neela Vaez prevailed in her singles match.

No. 12 Nina Munch-Soegaard, No. 49 Macall Harkins and Idunn Hertzberg won singles matches for TCU.

Virginia will next face Tennessee Jan. 31 in the ITA National Indoors Qualifier.

—compiled by JP Stroman

The Virginia wrestling team wasted no time recovering from a tough loss against North Carolina in a decisive 32-9 victory against Campbell.

The afternoon belonged the Cavaliers (8-8), as the wrestlers dominated almost every weight class. The senior trio of Peter Ferrara (149 pounds), Mike Sewell (165) and Rocco Caponi (184) showed their leadership as the three all recorded victories that helped the Cavaliers get back toward a winning team record. Sophomore Chris Henrich (174) and junior Brent Jones (197) joined Ferrara and Sewell in notching major decisions.

The Cavaliers did not stop there. The efforts of freshman Matt Bonson (133) and junior Calvin Cardillo (285) helped Virginia maintain control over the match. Bonson posted a technical fall, and Cardillo shut out his opponent 4-0. Freshman Jedd Moore (157) also contributed to the victory by defeating his opponent 8-2.

Campbell’s only wins came in the 125- and 141-pound weight classes. Junior C.J. Gittens won 8-3, and senior Kelin Bidelsbach won by forfeit as the usual 141-pound Cavalier wrestler was injured.

The Cavaliers must now turn their sights to next weekend, when they will face two more quality opponents in the Richmond area. Virginia travels to Hopewell High School to face George Mason Friday, then will compete against Virginia Tech in the Rumble on the River at Deep Run High School Saturday afternoon.

—compiled by Matt Diton