The Cavalier Daily
Serving the University Community Since 1890

Committee selects new Range residents

36 new graduate students join 16 returners

The Range Selections Committee announced Thursday evening the 52 graduate students who were selected as the 2013-2014 residents for the Range rooms in the University’s Academical Village.

The East and West Range rooms, adjacent to the Lawn, are awarded each year to some of the University’s “most accomplished graduate students,” in an effort to honor Thomas Jefferson’s vision for the Academical Village, according to the Range website.

“This year we had 16 people elect to come back next year,” Cutchins said. “It’s somewhat of an informal process where people submit a letter if they plan to return so that left 36 [available] rooms for next year.”

Of those 36 new Range residents — 17 of whom are men and 19 of whom are women — 10 hail from the Education School — the highest representation of any of the graduate schools.

The McIntire School of Commerce and the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy each had five students selected. Four were selected from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, while the Darden School and the School of Graduate Engineering each had three, and the Law School and the School of Medicine each had two. The Graduate Nursing and Architecture schools each had one student selected.

“We believe that this is the second time in Range history that each of the 10 graduate schools will be represented [among the residents],” said current Range Council Chair Cliff Cutchins. Four or five international students were also selected, he said.

The selections followed seven hours of committee deliberation Thursday evening, during which members evaluated 100 applications. The committee bases selection of new residents on application essays, experience outside the University, academic honors and desire to live in and contribute to the Range community, Cutchins said.

“We had seen over the past six or seven years a steady increase in the number of applicants,” Cutchins said. “I would say this was one of the most competitive years we’ve had. Both in numbers and quality of people applying, we had to make some very difficult choices.”

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