Last week, I saw the following on fmylife.com: “Today, I realized that our generation will be remembered as the kids who liked sparkly vampires. FML” I checked out the comments and found that almost everyone agreed. The few pro-Twilight comments got hidden because of “too many negative comments.”

Obviously, many people dislike the sparkly vampire phenomenon, but there’s no denying the box office records it set two weeks ago. I’m a fan, I admit it — so you won’t get a review making fun of the prancing Bella or moaning Edward — but I’ll be fair and I won’t gush.

People struggle to understand all the hype, but for fans of the book, it’s exciting to see Stephenie Meyer’s magical story on screen. The first two films haven’t lived up to the books but they stay true to them. Overall, the improved acting, dialogue, humor and special effects make New Moon a lot more mature than Twilight.

Though Twilight set up the characters and plot, it was a little dull and mostly focused on Bella and Edward’s relationship. New Moon is far more exciting. Jacob, a small character in the first movie, steps into the spotlight when Edward says goodbye and breaks Bella’s heart. As Bella says, Jacob is “sort of beautiful.” The ripped boy-next-door brought tons of drooling girls to the theaters and added a spark that Twilight lacked. Jacob is endearingly convincing in his love for Bella. Through helping rebuild a pair of motorcycles, he helps rebuild her. Unfortunately for Jacob, though, Bella only has eyes for Edward.

Unfortunately for the viewer, Kristen Stewart’s acting is sort of awful. She rarely shows emotion and can’t seem to speak without moving her head. Luckily, she is depressed during most of New Moon, which works for her. With that in mind, Bella’s pain is most convincing when Edward leaves. The new director, Chris Weitz, effectively portrays Bella’s heartbreak through nightmares. Her terrifying screams evoke sympathy in the viewer and constantly cause her dad, Charlie, to wake her.

Bella may not be the most likeable protagonist, but Jacob and the other supporting characters make up for it; they’re all quirky in their own ways. There’s the Cullen family, Charlie, werewolves, Bella’s friends and even Dakota Fanning’s five minutes as Jane. The werewolf action is exciting and the Cullens are gorgeously compelling as (harmless) vampires. Jane and the rest of the Volturi successfully portray the creepy, not-so-harmless vampire coven in Italy.

Charlie and Bella’s friends, Mike, Eric and Jessica, provide most of the film’s humor as they try to deal with Bella’s misery, which soon turns to craziness. At one point, Bella hops on a motorcycle with a stranger and Jessica freaks out, yelling: “Um, what the hell’s wrong with you, just curious?”

Books-turned-movies are rarely better than the original. New Moon is no exception but it’s still fun to watch. Pattinson and Stewart have chemistry in both films, but New Moon’s supporting characters and tangled plot simply make it more interesting than Twilight. One guy on FML complained that his wife put glitter on his face while he was sleeping. Needless to say, I’m not the only one looking forward to Eclipse next summer.

Editor’s Pick-of-the-Year!

Albums:
1) Merriweather Post Pavilion — Animal Collective
2) The xx — The xx
3) My Maudlin Career — Camera Obscura

Honorable Mentions:
-The Pains of Being Pure at Heart —The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
-Veckatimest — Grizzly Bear
-The Life of the World to Come — The Mountain Goats

Dubious Honor:
-Not an album, but the mash-up of Biggie Small’s “Party and Bullshit” and Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.” is amazing, inspired and a must-have for any iTunes library.

Films:
1) Inglorious Basterds — Quentin Tarantino
2) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince — David Yates
3) The Hangover —  Todd Philips

Most Anticipated for the rest of 09:
-The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
-Sherlock Holmes
-The Lovely Bones

TV shows:
1) Mad Men
2) Entourage
3) 30 Rock

Honorable Mentions:
-Say Yes to the Dress
-Jon and Kate Plus Eight (come on!)

—stephanie garcia

When the first Assassin’s Creed game was released two years ago it received mixed reviews. Proponents applauded the game’s solid story and presentation, as well as the superbly crafted free running mechanic that allowed the player to go almost anywhere and climb almost anything. Critics, however, cited the repetitive fighting and mission types as being too significant to overlook. With Assassin’s Creed II, the developers at Ubisoft Montreal are looking to right the wrongs that held back the first game and advance the plot of what might be one of the most intriguing stories of this console generation.

You likely wouldn’t know it if you just watched someone play for a while, but Assassin’s Creed II, like its predecessor, falls into the sci-fi genre. You play as both Desmond Miles in the year 2012 and his ancestor Ezio during the Italian Renaissance. Desmond uses a device called an “animus” to relive important events in the life of Ezio via something called genetic memory. If you can suspend disbelief long enough to get past the shaky science, there is actually a great story that chronicles a millenia-old war between Assassins and Templar Knights.

You will spend the vast majority of your 15 or so hours of playing Assassin’s Creed II in the past. Florence, Tuscany, Venice and several other Italian locations have been masterfully recreated for your exploratory pleasure, and you can visit dozens of famous historical landmarks and even some people. I’m sort of a history buff and I just about geeked out when I realized that I was going to be hanging with Leonardo da Vinci for the better part of the game.

During your stay in those Renaissance cities, you will frequently use the climbing and running skills that make up the core gameplay of Assassin’s Creed II. It’s a real joy to effortlessly scale the side of a massive cathedral or lose a pursuing guard by perfectly executing a series of leaps and grabs in a back alley.

Though the climbing mechanics are fantastic, the other major component of the game, combat, doesn’t fare quite as well. Everything works fine when using stealth to sneak around and assassinate targets with your throwing knives or hidden blades, but when an enemy is locked in direct battle with you, engagements often degenerate into a button-mashing bonanza in which you either pound “counter” until you perform a finishing move or “attack” until you chip away at your enemy’s health. I defeated several powerful opponents by going in unarmed and using the speed of Ezio’s punches to kill them slowly during the course of several minutes when they weren’t able to execute a single move. Although it would have been nice to see more improvement in the area of combat, most of your time will be spent running and climbing or assassinating people, so it never becomes too much of a problem.

Assassin’s Creed II is a great looking game for the most part. The locations are beautifully crafted and really draw the player into the story. Character models are good but don’t live up to the standard set by the environments. There is also occasional screen-tearing that is especially noticeable when looking around from a height. The music and voice acting are top-notch, and the latter really helps keep the plot engaging.

The takeaway: Despite occasionally repetitive combat and graphical hiccups, Assassin’s Creed II is a very solid game and a must-buy for fans of the original. If you liked the first game but were disappointed by the lack of mission variety, you can rest assured that the sequel is much improved in that regard and should at least be worth a rental for the compelling story and setting.

Once in a while, a story comes along that is almost too uplifting to believe. Enter Michael Oher and his meteoric rise to success under the guardianship of Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy. The Blind Side, based on the book of the same name by Michael Lewis, is a touching tale that does not merely tug at our heartstrings, but yanks with full force.

Bouncing from couch to couch, Oher (Quinton Aaron) is a homeless, gigantic high school student with a dramatic past. After some convincing from a football coach at the wealthy, predominately white Christian school Wingate, the board agrees to admit Oher into the school, where the Tuohys first take notice of him. Upon seeing him walking home in the rain in only a T-shirt and shorts, Leigh Anne (Sandra Bullock) makes an impromptu decision to invite Oher to stay at the Tuohys home for the night — a decision that turns out to be permanent. With love and support from the Tuohys and patience and encouragement from his tutor Miss Sue (Kathy Bates), Oher graduates from Wingate with a much-improved GPA and a football scholarship at Ole Miss.

Though Oher’s story is certainly a worthwhile investment of time, the real reason to see The Blind Side is Bullock’s performance. As the affluent housewife with a heart of gold, Bullock’s Leigh Anne is a winning combination of sassy and sweet. The film as a whole is probably not up to Oscar standards, but Bullock definitely has more than a fighting shot at snagging a nomination. Country superstar Tim McGraw as Sean Tuohy delivers a surprisingly satisfying performance as Leigh Anne’s trusting and dutiful husband. Quinton Aaron’s role as Oher, however, is regrettably underdeveloped — the script lends him very few lines, and as a result, we rarely ever know what is going on in his head.

Despite his mistake of glossing over Oher’s character, writer-director John Lee Hancock obviously knows how to sell a picture. There’s no flashy camera angles here — just honest, by-the-book filmmaking that puts forward a story that audiences want to see. Add an adorable kid with perfectly timed one-liners in SJ Tuohy (Jae Head), alongside tear-jerking scenes, and you basically have a recipe for blockbuster success.

At the same time, The Blind Side is more than just a formulaic big-studio picture. Although most “based on a true story” films seem to focus on the gritty, dark or pessimistic, The Blind Side reminds us of the good side of life, and of the good side of other people. Perhaps the seemingly unending stream of tender moments can be a bit exhausting or even implausible, but at the end of the day, the audience is left feeling hopeful and sentimental. The Blind Side does not have enough of the heavy, message-charged conflicts to satiate the Oscar crowd, but the film has more than enough heart and just the right amount of spunk to win over all but the most cynical moviegoers.

David Benioff’s second novel City of Thieves is inspired by the author’s grandfather’s stories about World War II and the Leningrad siege. Benioff begins with a frame narrative in which he introduces us to his grandfather, “the knife fighter, who killed two Germans before he was eighteen.” We assume that the story that follows details the grandfather’s experiences during the war.

Benioff’s grandfather, Lev Beniov, narrates a story that occurred when he was younger, forcing him to grow up when he was only 17 years old. Lev is arrested for looting and thrown into the same cell as a Russian army deserter named Kolya. Lev and Kolya are offered the chance to save themselves from execution: Find a dozen eggs for a powerful Soviet official to use in a wedding cake. In a city under the duress of siege, in which people are forced to practice cannibalism to survive, finding 12 eggs is a near impossible task.

The duo of Lev and Kolya approach the assignment with an enthusiasm that can only accompany the “your life depends upon it” kind of mission. Lev, an awkward wannabe poet, is both awed and irritated by the handsome Kolya: his crude and nonchalant nature is sometimes a little too much, especially in the face of overwhelming despair. But the duo has wonderful chemistry — a fact that becomes especially important when the pair attracts the attention of two cannibals.

Benioff weaves a deft narrative that combines a coming-of-age story with a historical thriller. It’s obvious that the author has done his research: For example, a tragic-comic gallows scene, and nip-and-tuck dialogue concerning a house of prostitutes offer small details without overwhelming the reader with historical back story.

David Benioff is most famous as a screenplay writer. His credits include movies such as Troy, The Kite Runner and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. He’s married to beautiful film actress Amanda Peet and isn’t too bad on the eyes himself. His first novel, The 25th Hour, was turned into a movie of the same title, starring Edward Norton and directed by Spike Lee. Benioff’s cinematic experience leaves its mark on City of Thieves, as it is evident that he has a gift for creating fast-paced chase scenes and sweeping, climatic battles. His dialogue, often dry and witty, is spot on, and travels at breakneck speed. After this novel gets on track, which happens somewhere within the first 20 pages, it is impossible to put down.

Benioff offers no pretensions at high literature. His varied supporting cast is often caricatured; his resolution ties everything up a little too neatly; there are a few moments that come off as corny. But Benioff’s obvious attention to research, his knack for dialogue and his breakneck action sequences makes the novel incredibly entertaining — perfect for a quick Winter Break read.

2009 has given us quite a bit to talk about: T.I. got locked up, Lady Gaga blew up and Taylor Swift got shut up.
In all, I think we’ve learned a lot from 2009. Now, I’m going to peer into my crystal ball and make some predictions for 2010.

Lil Wayne
As much as I hate to say it, I predict that Lil Wayne’s new album, Rebirth, will suck. I heard some singles, and I’m not impressed. While I wish him no harm and all the best, look for the album to flop. He’s also got jail time coming up, so 2010 is not looking good for Weezy F. Baby.

Drake
On the other hand, 2010 is Drake’s for the taking. He’s already been on many hot collaborations and it doesn’t seem like he’s slowing down at all. His debut, Thank Me Later, is set to be released in February and looks to be the prime candidate for hottest 2010 album.

The Rolling Stones
After much speculation, guitarist Ron Wood’s girlfriend has stated that The Rolling Stones are in the process of planning a 2010 world tour. The nearly 50-year-old band is going out on tour to promote, well … apparently nothing. Expect the seminal rock band to re-break box-office records with this tour.

Big Boi of Outkast
After a long break, Big Boi is expected to return to the hip-hop limelight this year. He will drop his first solo album, Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty sometime mid-2010. For those of you who have been missing the wild, funky beats of Outkast, your thirsts shall be quenched.

Robin Hood
Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe will team up again this summer in Robin Hood. Crowe will play war-vet-turned-hero Robin Hood while Matthew Macfadyen (Mr. Darcy to you Jane Austen fanatics) will play the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Shutter Island
Martin Scorcese’s newest film, Shutter Island, will be released this February. The film will star Leonardo DiCaprio as a U.S. Marshal who has come to investigate the disappearance of a patient from a criminal mental hospital.

Iron Man 2
The sequel to the wildly popular first film will have Robert Downey Jr. back as playboy billionaire Tony Stark. The cast will also feature Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Mickey Rourke as Whiplash. Expect this movie to be HUGE.

Bioshock 2
One of the most critically-acclaimed games of all time is getting a sequel this winter. BioShock 2 will center around the first Big Daddy, a prototype for the main character seen in the first BioShock. BioShock 2 will also feature a multiplayer mode, a first in the series.

Halo: Reach
The next installment of one of the most popular game series of our generation, Halo: Reach is set to drop September 2010. Though it has been reported that the vast majority of the game is done and playable, not much is known about the next chapter in the Halo saga. For those rabid Halo fans out there, look out for a special preview of the game on the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards Dec. 12.

That’s all the crystal ballin’ you’ll get from me. Have yourself a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, a Happy Kwanzaa and/or a reflective Festivus.

Taking Woodstock is an unbelievable film purely because it has achieved the impossible: It has managed to portray the most infamously exciting cultural event of the century as profoundly and extraordinarily boring.

The movie poster, with its multicolored, kaleidoscopic design, promises us a psychedelic tour of the musical phantasmagoria that was Woodstock. In reality, we get an almost documentary-style portrayal of the tedious details of accommodating half a million hippies on a farm.

The movie centers around Elliot Tiber, a young man who moves back in with his parents to help them with their struggling, dilapidated motel business and save them from financial ruin. In an attempt to do so, he ends up inviting Woodstock to his sleepy small town.

The beginning drags on as Elliot and company work on the logistics of housing a festival — think small town politics and land permit problems. But it’s not until half the movie has passed in this way, and Woodstock still hasn’t arrived, that we begin to realize what we have gotten ourselves into. I’m all for defying literary conventions, but generally, a movie that is just one long exposition without a climax is doomed to disappoint. This rambling, meandering exposition sets us up for a big finish — not because of any particular foreshadowing, but because we assume that something has to happen eventually — but quite literally goes nowhere.

I don’t think I’ll be spoiling anything — in fact, I might be sparing you from dashed anticipations — when I tell you that Elliot infuriatingly never goes to the concert. He sets out to do so each of the three days but always gets detained by other things, like mud-sliding and hippies that get generous with their drugs, resulting in an awkward tripped-out scene that consisted of actors lolling their heads and staring at the ceiling for 10 minutes.

For a movie about Woodstock, the music festival seems to be merely a subplot. The real story is supposed to be Elliot’s coming-of-age as he becomes liberated from his parents. Imeda Staunton does a good job as his domineering, trollish mother, with all the spitefulness (and frumpiness) of her role as Professor Dolores Umbridge in the fifth Harry Potter movie. She is particularly good, if a little frightening, in perhaps the movie’s only funny scene, in which both of Elliot’s ancient, dreary parents dance in the rain after unknowingly eating pot-laced brownies. Many potentially fascinating secondary characters are introduced, such as Elliot’s flash-backing Vietnam veteran friend, a transvestite bodyguard and a nudist theater troupe, but they are promptly pushed out of the limelight so that the story can focus solely on Elliot. This choice is a lot like centering a true-crime thriller about the guy who does the police paperwork. It’s not a good idea.

Demetri Martin, the actor who plays Elliot — and a well-known comedian, ironically — does little more than stand there in his awkward, stoop-shouldered way with a lobotomized look on his face. In a way, he represents all of us sitting in the audience, bored out of our minds, with the very same look on our faces.

So, in the end, Taking Woodstock begs the question: How could a screenwriter produce such a disoriented, rambling movie that so readily squanders all of its potential? I think we can rule out drugs as the cause because, if that was the case, I think the story would have turned out to be a lot more interesting.

Can great literature truly change peoples’ lives?

Next semester, students enrolled in a new course at the University, “Books Behind Bars: Life, Literature, and Community Leadership,” will attempt to answer this question in the affirmative. Led by Russian Prof. Andrew Kaufman, the course will use academics and community service to study literature’s power to promote positive social change in the youth of a local juvenile treatment center.

University students will read the works of popular Russian authors including Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Stanislav Petrov. They will discuss literary themes like isolation, abandonment, the loss of one’s freedom and the search for one’s identity and meaning.

Literature and Education majors and students interested in community service are particularly encouraged to take this course. Ultimately, Kaufman is looking for “self-starters” — motivated students who are excited about a new experiment and are willing to take on an academic and personal challenge.

Ultimately, though, “this is a class not only about Russian literature,” he said. “But also real life and human beings in all their beautiful and mysterious complexity. Russian literature will be the vehicles through which students begin to appreciate that complexity.”

Indeed, the requirements for this course do not stop at the classroom. During weekends, students will travel off Grounds to the Jefferson Trail Treatment Center for Children in Charlottesville to further discuss the issues presented in the novels with 13- to 17-year-old juvenile residents, all of whom have some history of psychological illness, anti-sociality and/or criminal behavior.

Assuming the role of the professor, University students will facilitate small-group discussions about the selected works and how they relate to their own lives.

Fourth-year College student Leo Kuyumciyan said he finds it impressive that Kaufman found Russian texts to resonate with today’s troubled youth. Kuyumciyan plans to take the course this spring.

The group discussions, Kaufman said, “should prove to be an enormous learning opportunity. Empathy for others — one of the course’s learning objectives — will be essential to students’ success in establishing a rapport with their audience.”

Initially, University students may find it uncomfortable when the youth begin switching the conversation from literature to their personal issues, many of which may include drug addiction or gang activity. Thus, the first five weeks of the course are spent in preparation for the first meeting. Books such as Randall Sheldon’s “Delinquency and Juvenile Justice in America”, films about juvenile delinquency, guest speakers and an orientation at JTTCC will facilitate this preparation.

Continual reflection on their experiences will be a predominant aspect of the course for students. Students will keep personal journals that must be updated on a weekly basis before and after their visits to JTTCC. Before the encounters every week, students will record their predictions and concerns. After their visit, they will write about what they have learned in playing the role of teacher and of the student. By the end of the semester, the students will have compiled a “Learning Portfolio and Reflective Essay.”

Jim Harris, CEO of JTTCC, said he believes the course will be “the beginning of a strong, mutually-beneficial relationship between U.Va. and Jefferson Trail.” He added that “the children here are eager to learn about the world around them and this program will afford them an opportunity that they would not typically have.”

Similarly, Kaufman believes the course will prove the “transformative power of a liberal arts education for all.”

He developed the idea for Books Behind Bars during his work for the The Big Read Program, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. The program leads a similar experiment at a correctional center in Virginia Beach. There, Kaufman worked with others to observe changes in the attitudes and behaviors of the dozen adult inmates. Some were even illiterate, yet still understood the power of the literature and found that they could relate to some of the books’ characters.

Academic Community Engagement Director Megan Raymond expressed her enthusiasm for the course.

“We simply cannot underestimate the pressures that the current economic climate is putting on our local social service agencies and community organizations,” she said. “We hope students will become inspired to be involved with civic engagement throughout their time at U.Va. and beyond.”

An information session for Books Behind Bars will be held today from 4 to 5 p.m. in Cabell 215. Enrollment in the course is open to students of all schools, majors and years. The enrollment number, however, is limited and students need to obtain instructor permission and complete a short application.

Just as I’ve done during every Thanksgiving break since the dawn of time, I spent the week ignoring the seven books I brought home, never letting more than 20 minutes pass without eating something and watching Charlie Brown.

Watching the trials and tribulations of this Peanuts character has proven a particularly depressing tradition. Poor kid. Every year I watch hoping that Chuck will get to kick that football or that he will finally find some new friends. I keep wishing that he will talk to that little red-headed girl that he’s been stalking for 46 years or that maybe his teacher will finally get help for her severe speech impediment. But every year I am disappointed. Someone once told me that I am going to continue to be disappointed because it’s a tape and the ending never changes. Ha, ridiculous! Some people just won’t accept the truth.

After emerging from my deep Schultz-related depression, I mustered up the strength to go shopping. It was tough, believe me. But I took one for the team. And by ‘team’ I mean ‘mall,’ and by ‘one’ I meant ‘a credit card.’ Don’t be mistaken. I did not go out during Black Friday. I know, I can hardly be considered human, but I figured I could still find sales without the chance of being trampled. I was wrong. It seems that you must risk death for bargains. A lesson for the kids: discounted merch is worth more than your life.

Having been betrayed by the mall and disgusted by rainy Maryland, I decide to make my way back to Charlottesville, where it’s sunny every day. The drive was as it always is: lots of hooligans confused about the rules, misplaced stoplights, tricky cops. But there was a subtle difference, something I had not detected while driving away. A smell in the air, hard to identify at first, but growing stronger as I neared central grounds. Ah yes, fear. It is finals season. That time of year when you realize that you haven’t done any work all semester and now need to ace your tests to pull of a low B. The time when you decide sweatpants are acceptable everyday of the week in every situation, when you have to sit in the library all night reading five weeks of material just to make an outline, when you realize that your social life is over until the conclusion of the semester. It is indeed the most wonderful time of the year.

I thought there were at least two weeks separating the feast of endless turkey leftovers and the horrible agony of studying for finals. But I was very wrong, and accepting the fact that I cannot read a calendar, I have moved on to planning my next three weeks at the library.

While spending the night in Clemons, I devised a foolproof plan. If I just stay up from Dec. 8 until 17, sleeping a maximum of only 10 hours during that nine-day period, I’ve got this whole finals thing in the bag. I will have ample time to study absolutely everything that I need to.

The longest an individual has ever gone without sleep is 11 days. All I’m asking for is nine days, complete with 10 whole hours of sleep. I have currently been awake for 40 hours, so what’s 166 more? I could do it right now even. I won’t, because that would really mess up my plans, but I could!

Maybe you’re all, “Why don’t you just sleep, and then study all day?” Well, I don’t get much studying done in the daytime — too many distractions. “Couldn’t you just study at night and then sleep during the day?” Oh my goodness, no. That question is absurd. Sleeping in the daytime would completely mess up my sleep pattern.

Feel free to use this plan for a successful finals season. But if you take advantage of the above and halfway through, you start hallucinating, just remember that sleep is not as important as “science” would have you believe and that I’ve met some medical students, so I definitely know what I’m talking about.

Belle’s column runs biweekly Thursdays. She can be reached at b.gamble@cavalierdaily.com.

The Batten School will soon have a home in Garrett Hall after renovations are complete. For now, however, it uses Varsity Hall. Photo by Iram Shaikh.

Three years after opening and a semester after the arrival of Dean Harry Harding, the Batten School has its sights set on the future, which will include a two-year master’s program, school-specific faculty and new ways to promote research.

“It’s been an incredibly exciting year,” Assoc. Dean Eric Patashnik said. “Dean Harding arrived July 1 and his presence has raised the energy and activity level in the Batten school immeasurably.”

Patashnik said highlights from the past year include finalizing plans for the remodeling of Garrett Hall, beginning to form a faculty, working to find ways to promote faculty research and designing the curriculum for a two-year masters of public policy program that will be open to students from outside the University.

The Batten School hopes to begin the two-year degree program in fall 2011, he said. The program would be similar to the current accelerated degree program but open to students from all colleges and universities, who typically have two to five years of work experience, he added. The program will include courses in “key analytical skills,” such as economics, statistics, policy analysis and political analysis, as well as courses in history, law, ethics, social psychology and other areas.

“Our goal is to establish an MPP program that has an analytic base that is as strong as our top peer competitors but will have a much broader angle of vision and that will include attention to the historical, legal, ethical and psychological context of public policy and leadership,” Harding said. “We think we have an incredible opportunity to do something unique that will make Batten a distinctive institution for the 21st century.”

Miller Center Prof. Guian McKee, who will teach a course on policy history for the Batten School next semester, agreed that having courses such as his included in the core curriculum is relatively unique among higher education institutions.

“It really offers something that is not being provided by other policy programs,” he said.

Establishing a freestanding master’s program, though, requires more faculty, said Edgar Olsen, an economics professor who teaches in the Batten School. Up until this point, all the teaching has been done by faculty members from other schools and adjunct professors, he said.

The Batten School will soon make as many as six full-time faculty appointments, which will allow the school to offer more courses, Patashnik said. These include possible hires in areas of leadership and public policy, development economics, the political and institutional context of public policy in the United States and abroad, the economics of public policy and research, as well as a professor of practice who will offer courses on leadership skills.

The search process for these hires began in August, Patashnik said. Though each process is at a different stage, the hires are meant to begin their positions next fall, he said.

Throughout the process, the Batten School has worked closely with several departments in the College, including politics, economics and psychology, and hopes that many of the appointments will be joint appointments, Patashnik said. Many of the faculty will offer courses for students from other schools, as well as for Batten students, he said.

The Batten School also is looking for ways to collaborate and develop partnerships with colleagues in other areas, Patashnik said. Officials are contemplating the role of the Batten School in undergraduate and mid-career education, as well as the possibility of joint degrees and doctoral programs with other schools, though there are currently no definite plans, he said.

“It’s been great how many people around grounds are eager to work with and contribute to the Batten School,” Patashnik said, “and we in turn are eager to find way of making sure that we fulfill Mr. Batten’s vision for this institution.”

One of the Batten School’s missions is to contribute to public deliberation and enlightenment about domestic and international issues, and Patashnik and others are hoping to accomplish that goal in part through empirically based policy-oriented research. He said Batten School leaders are working to initiate and to expand research programs for the school, which would help the University’s newest school develop a larger research profile.

“It’s an exciting time; it’s an exhilarating time,” he said. “Varsity Hall — our temporary home — is a bevy of activity, and we have an amazing opportunity to create something really special at U.Va.”