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(04/15/09 5:30am)
Although the Medical Center saw a 4.5 percent drop in patient admissions since January for the 2009 fiscal year, its revenue stream is still on pace to surpass the previous fiscal year’s.Larry Fitzgerald, the Health System’s chief financial and business development officer, said because of the economic situation, most hospitals across the nation are generating lesser revenue compared to previous years.“It is my impression that virtually all academic health centers and virtually all hospitals are experiencing activity in their hospitals that is less than it was in previous years as the result of the economic recession, high unemployment, individuals losing their heath insurance benefits, and individuals being resistant to paying co-insurance deductible amounts,” he said. “It is a nation-wide issue, not something unique to U.Va.”He said for the 2008 fiscal year, the Medical Center had about 30,000 admissions. For 2009, the Medical Center anticipates only 28,500 and 29,000 admissions, putting the hospital slightly below budget.Fitzgerald said because of the drop in admissions, revenue is $18 million, or 3 percent below what was projected for the hospital’s operating budget. Despite the shortfall, the hospital’s revenue is still 5 percent, or $24 million, greater than the 2008 fiscal year’s revenue. “Our activity is below our budget, but our revenue is well above the prior year,” Fitzgerald said.In addition to the increase in revenue, Fitzgerald also said the Medical Center’s operating margin — a measurement of how much is left of a firm’s revenue after paying some costs but before paying taxes — is at about four percent, meaning the hospital makes $0.04 for every dollar before taxes, which he said is “very high” in comparison to peer hospitals. Nearby Martha Jefferson hospital has not seen the same decrease in admissions. Abigail Rich, communications coordinator at Martha Jefferson Hospital, noted that Martha Jefferson is “on track for admissions for our budget for this year.”To adjust for what some local hospitals may not be experiencing, Fitzgerald said the Medical Center has sought to control its expenses. The augmented revenue is the result of both rate and outpatient activity increases, he added.Despite the drop in admissions, Fitzgerald expressed hope for the future and said the hospital will embark on several projects. These projects include adding a 72-bed tower and a long-term acute care hospital located at Northridge that will hold 50 beds. Fitzgerald said that these two construction projects will be completed in the next two to three years.“I think that there will be a large growth in patient activity as the economy turns around,” he said. “That’s why we’re continuing with our construction projects.”
(04/10/09 5:53am)
La Alianza and the Latino Student Union, the two major Latino community organizations at the University, are in the process of merging into a single student group, the Latino Student Alliance.The new organization will keep the structure of La Alianza, which serves as a coalition of the presidents and representatives of various Latino student organizations on Grounds. LSU will become one of the organizations represented by LSA under its new name, Cultura at UVA.La Alianza Chair Carolina Ferrerosa said LSU served as an umbrella organization for several specialized Latino student organizations, such as the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers. Ferrerosa said these groups, however, dispersed themselves throughout the University community and did not effectively communicate with each other. “That’s why Alianza was formed, to create a community around those organizations,” she said. “It currently acts as the voice of the Latino community. The Latino Student Union suddenly had an identity crisis in terms of what it was meant to do.”She added that students had a hard time differentiating between the two groups, adding that she believes the new organization will help get rid of any confusion. “We wanted to address that problem and find a better way to address that concern and find a way to tackle the problems,” she said.Ferrerosa said as of late, La Alianza was becoming less and less effective.“Suddenly it seemed now its only role was social programming, not political work. It wasn’t the voice of the community anymore and it wasn’t representative,” she said.Latino Student Union President Chris Blank worked together with Ferrerosa to create the new organization.“Basically, it was something that I recognized as a weakness in both organizations,” he said, noting that La Alianza focused too much on event planning and not on advocacy, while LSU had difficulties maintaining membership because of the nature of the Latino community at the University.“There was no unifying factor because the Latino community at U.Va. differs so much in skin color, class, socioeconomic background [and] what country they come from,” he said.Peter Rios, president of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, said while he believes the merger of the organizations will help unify goals and plan events, it does not address all concerns of the University’s Latino community.“I think that our biggest challenge is not necessarily our structure,” Rios said. “I think our biggest challenge is engaging our Hispanic underclassmen and incoming first year Hispanic students and encouraging them to take leadership roles. If this structure is conducive to helping with that then I support it.”Blank said the LSU executive board would become the executive board of the new Cultura group. He also noted that the new organization is not yet official; it is, rather, an experiment.“It’s very possible that in the next few years that the structure could change again, although not in such a historic way,” he said.Ferrerosa also noted the historic nature of the merger.“Without a new name, we weren’t sure the message would get across that this is such a historical shift,” she said. “We wanted to bring the meaning of Alianza into a name identifiable by the broader community.”Alianza means “alliance” in Spanish, she said.
(04/06/09 5:12am)
Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris unveiled a plan for building and maintaining a more diverse Charlottesville workforce Thursday. As part of the plan, the City could partner with the University to increase outreach efforts to potential minority employees.Many local employers have said increasing diversity is a top priority, Norris said, noting that the City as a whole should work to improve its efforts to attract professionals of different races and ethnic backgrounds.Norris said he hopes the University will partner with the City to promote the initiative, which he called a “targeted outreach program.” “U.Va. is already a little bit ahead of us in terms of trying to recruit a more diverse faculty and staff, but they have acknowledged that it would really help if we did it jointly,” Norris said. “We are ... encouraging professionals of color to think of [Charlottesville] as what we call a ‘Community of Choice.’ We hope they will relocate and put down roots here.” Despite the University’s high black graduation rate, most black students leave the Charlottesville area after graduating, Norris said.“What I want to see us do as a city and a community is try to reach out to third- and fourth-years at the University to whom it may never have occurred to stay in Charlottesville,” he said. “We could create internships and opportunities so that they will consider staying and adding to the local workforce.” Norris said the City’s diversity efforts, however, will not only focus on minority graduates.“We are also looking at people who are mid-career — asking how we present Charlottesville as a more attractive place for professionals of color to put down roots,” Norris said.In addition to recruiting diverse professionals from outside the area, Norris said he hopes to grow a more diverse workforce from within the community. He cited the City’s growing summer youth employment program — which he said has seen a high level of participation from black students — as an example of these efforts. Another initiative meant to expand the City’s workforce diversity is the African-American Teaching Fellows program, which Norris said aims to recruit local black citizens as teachers, as well as provide mentoring and support services.Other fields in which the City wishes to generate minority job interest include nursing and law enforcement, Norris said.The Charlottesville initiative, through which the City could partner with the University, is still in its conceptual stages right now, though, said Bill Harvey, the University’s chief officer for diversity and equity. Harvey was invited by the City to work on the initiative. “It’s a little bit too early to tell until we begin to go through the process and see what the program will look like,” Harvey said. “We will layout the framework of the University’s involvement and what the program will look like overall. I suspect once we have a couple of meetings in the summer, in the fall we will probably have a blueprint of action.”
(04/06/09 5:06am)
Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris unveiled a plan for building and maintaining a more diverse Charlottesville workforce Thursday. As part of the plan, the City could partner with the University to increase outreach efforts to potential minority employees.Many local employers have said increasing diversity is a top priority, Norris said, noting that the City as a whole should work to improve its efforts to attract professionals of different races and ethnic backgrounds.Norris said he hopes the University will partner with the City to promote the initiative, which he called a “targeted outreach program.” “U.Va. is already a little bit ahead of us in terms of trying to recruit a more diverse faculty and staff, but they have acknowledged that it would really help if we did it jointly,” Norris said. “We are ... encouraging professionals of color to think of [Charlottesville] as what we call a ‘Community of Choice.’ We hope they will relocate and put down roots here.” Despite the University’s high black graduation rate, most black students leave the Charlottesville area after graduating, Norris said.“What I want to see us do as a city and a community is try to reach out to third- and fourth-years at the University to whom it may never have occurred to stay in Charlottesville,” he said. “We could create internships and opportunities so that they will consider staying and adding to the local workforce.” Norris said the City’s diversity efforts, however, will not only focus on minority graduates.“We are also looking at people who are mid-career — asking how we present Charlottesville as a more attractive place for professionals of color to put down roots,” Norris said.In addition to recruiting diverse professionals from outside the area, Norris said he hopes to grow a more diverse workforce from within the community. He cited the City’s growing summer youth employment program — which he said has seen a high level of participation from black students — as an example of these efforts. Another initiative meant to expand the City’s workforce diversity is the African-American Teaching Fellows program, which Norris said aims to recruit local black citizens as teachers, as well as provide mentoring and support services.Other fields in which the City wishes to generate minority job interest include nursing and law enforcement, Norris said.The Charlottesville initiative, through which the City could partner with the University, is still in its conceptual stages right now, though, said Bill Harvey, the University’s chief officer for diversity and equity. Harvey was invited by the City to work on the initiative. “It’s a little bit too early to tell until we begin to go through the process and see what the program will look like,” Harvey said. “We will layout the framework of the University’s involvement and what the program will look like overall. I suspect once we have a couple of meetings in the summer, in the fall we will probably have a blueprint of action.”
(04/03/09 5:04am)
The unemployment rate in Charlottesville has doubled since last year, but it remains the second lowest in the state, the Virginia Employment Commission announced Wednesday in a press release. The release shows that Northern Virginia, at 5.2 percent, is the only area in the state with a lower unemployment rate. The City’s seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate is slightly higher at 5.6 percent, up from 2.8 percent at this time last year.“The basic reason is that universities have very stable employment,” said University Economics Dept. Chair William Johnson. “Contrast it with a construction company that’s going to lay people off when their number of contracts falls. Universities have pretty stable demand and they are not fluctuating their employment very much.” Bill Mezger, the Commission’s chief economist, agreed with Johnson’s assessment, noting the University’s role in keeping Charlottesville’s unemployment rate lower than most cities’. “Charlottesville is usually the second lowest metropolitan area on unemployment,” he said. “U.Va. and the Medical Center are about a fifth of employment in the Charlottesville area and then you’ve got the trade and service industries that serve those large institutions.” Mezger added that more federal workers also recently moved to Charlottesville, as some government agencies move out of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.Mezger noted that the commonwealth’s lack of manufacturing employment is a major reason for the low unemployment rate in Virginia, and, even more so, Charlottesville. The statewide unemployment rate is at 6.4 percent.“Recessions used to be largely caused by manufacturing inventory problems,” he said. “This is less than 7 percent of employment [in Virginia], so we don’t have the big block of manufacturing employment like Michigan and Ohio to cause a lot of layoffs in recessions.”The fact remains, however, that there are unemployed workers in the area. This mostly can be attributed to out-of-area construction workers living in Charlottesville during the off-season, Mezger said.“Not many of those [workers] are working,” he said.Mezger said he anticipates that Charlottesville’s unemployment rate will stay between 5 and 6 percent — below the state average — for the remainder of the year.
(03/23/09 6:17am)
The National Endowment for the Humanities recently awarded a $74,990 development grant for the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities radio show, “BackStory with the American History Guys.” History Prof. Peter Onuf, Assoc. History Prof. Brian Balogh and former College Dean Ed Ayers host the program, which uses history to interpret and explain current events.“We try to discuss topics that are in the headlines today but that have historical resonance,” Balogh said. “For instance, we talked about environment crises, and of course talked about climate change, but quickly found ourselves talking about land depletion because of cotton and tobacco in the 19th century in the south.”Executive Producer Andrew Wyndham said he and Ayers began discussing the show in 2005 and originally received funding through the Harrison Fund for the President’s Initiatives at the University. The NEH grant, provided to “BackStory” through the endowment’s “Grants for America’s Media Makers” program, will help the show continue taking its innovative approach to discussions about American history, according to a University press release.According to the press release, “BackStory” is now considered a “We the People” project. A project like the professor-hosted radio program “encourages and strengthens the teaching, study and understanding of American history and culture through the support of projects that explore significant events and themes in our nation’s history and culture and that advance knowledge of the principles that define America,” acting NEH Chairman Carole M. Watson stated in the release.Having received the new award, both Wyndham and Balough said they were confident in the program’s potential to grow and continue educating listeners. Since the first broadcast, 25 stations in 16 states have aired the show, Wyndham said.“We think this program is ideal for college students who didn’t like their high school history courses but want to take another crack at learning history,” Balough said.
(03/13/09 5:57am)
University administrators and students are currently working to create a new initiative to promote common courtesy and manners among today’s youth.The Papers of George Washington, a University grant-funded project, is leading the initiative, called “The Civility Project: Where George Washington Meets the Twenty-First Century.”Theodore Crackel, editor-in-chief of the Papers of George Washington, said the initiative will be based on 110 rules of civility, hand-copied and adhered to by Washington as a young man. He said University students and administrators will head efforts promoting these manners for the 21st century.“It’s an effort to try and develop some ideas about civility for today,” Crackel said. “We decided it would be a great idea to let people not a whole lot older than [Washington] was at that time to write a new set of rules that would apply to today.”Crackel said he felt the need to create the project after observing a general lack of courtesy on Grounds.“It galled me,” Crackel said. “People seem to be, ‘It’s all about me.’ We need to get back to civility.”Crackel noted that creating a modern set of etiquette rules offers the potential to define what is and is not appropriate for newer communication mediums like Facebook, Twitter and text messaging.“Everyone has at some point been offended by someone’s language on a bus, or in a public place, or been forced off a sidewalk, or whatever,” said University faculty member Thomas Dulan, who serves as a research assistant for the Papers of George Washington. “These are things that everybody has dealt with and everyone stands to gain by a little more attention to how we comport ourselves.”Crackel said the initiative will kickoff on Grounds March 20 at 10:30 a.m. during a public event in the Rotunda. Dean of Students Allen Groves will preside and other speakers will include Crackel, the project’s Student Chair Erica Mitchell, and “Miss Manners” etiquette columnist Judith Martin. Martin will not only attend the project kickoff but will help advise the student committee, Crackel said.The kickoff will give students and the public the opportunity to contribute their ideas and various etiquette rules to the new set of civility manners, Crackel said. The projects’ leaders will continue to solicit suggestions throughout the spring semester and the summer, primarily through a Web forum. In the fall, the committee will take the ideas and work them into a final set of rules, he said.“We hope this could develop into a book,” Crackel said. “It would probably contain an introductory essay by Judith, possibly an essay I would do about Washington and his rules, and some other pieces.”Mitchell has created a core leadership group of six students, who will each form subcommittees of three to five students, according to a press release. Each subcommittee will be assigned a specific category of civility rules.Carol Ebel, assistant editor of the Presidential Series of the Papers of George Washington, also is a faculty adviser involved with the project. She said once completed, the civility rules will positively influence University students.“This goes beyond just good manners,” Ebel said. “Washington took these rules very, very seriously. It helped him develop relationships with individuals, to become a leader.”Crackel said he thinks the new rules also will remain advantageous to students after they graduate.“We think this will be helpful to students who are getting ready to go out and do job interviews,” Crackel said. “There is utility in this in lots and lots of ways.”Groves was equally enthusiastic about the proposed project’s benefits, noting that he eagerly joined the initiative after Crackel presented the idea.“I thought it was a terrific idea,” Groves said. “Civility is the thing most often lacking in present day discourse, especially on heated issues. I believe that a meaningful discussion about the importance of civility could make our students’ daily exchanges more gratifying and productive.”Crackel also expressed the project’s commitment to national outreach, adding that he hopes the effort will have a national impact.“We don’t want this to be just ‘Rules for Virginians,’” Crackel said. He said he has shared his vision with deans and presidents from other colleges and universities, and that they also have expressed interest in modern day civility rules.Some students, however, had mixed feelings about the project when informed about it.“It might be a nice reminder, but I don’t see it being a huge deal,” third-year College student Sanya Taylor said.Third-year College student Nana Agyemang also said she was skeptical.“I’m just wondering how many resources are being used and why this was thought of as a huge issue to tackle,” Agyemang said.Second-year College student Tori Benton, meanwhile, said she thinks the initiative has definite potential.“I think it will make people more aware of how they treat others,” she said, noting that having a general code of conduct could be especially valuable in a diverse community like the University’s.The project plans to reach students by using Facebook as an outreach tool, Dulan said, noting that, “I think this [Facebook] is an ideal way to carry the word beyond U.Va.”The Papers of George Washington was founded at the University in 1969 to compile and publish an edition of Washington’s correspondences.
(03/11/09 5:19am)
Charlottesville City Council member Julian Taliaferro announced Monday that he will run for re-election against fellow incumbent Mayor Dave Norris and local newcomer Kristin Szakos.The three Democratic candidates will be narrowed down to two at an unassembled caucus held between May 8 and June 9. The general election for the two open council seats will be held Nov. 3. No Republican candidate has yet announced his candidacy.Both Taliaferro, who was elected to Council in 2006, and Norris, who was elected mayor in 2008, said they would like to continue the progress Council has made regarding issues like the water supply, the economy and public housing.“Three years ago, I was elected, and I want to continue that mission of service to the city,” Taliaferro said. “I think we have a lot of unfinished issues. Primary among my concerns is the community water supply. We’re trying to decide the best way to increase our water supply.” Taliaferro suggested building pipelines and dredging from alternate locations as possible solutions to the problem.“We don’t have a problem with water supply, we just don’t have the storage capacity,” Taliaferro said.In support of his candidacy, Taliaferro also highlighted Council’s successful ability to weather the recent economic downturn.“We’re presenting a good budget this year that contains no tax increases, no reduction in services to residents and no layoffs,” he said. “We have put aside a $2.8 million economic downturn fund in anticipation of next year.”Norris unofficially announced his candidacy through e-mail and on his online blog Thursday. He will host his official public campaign kickoff tomorrow at South Street Brewery. Like Taliaferro, Norris said Council has several unfinished projects, including those related to public housing, that he would like to see through to the end.“City Council has made a lot of progress in the last few years on environment issues, promoting opportunities for youth, affordable housing, upgrading our city’s infrastructure — just a wide range of issues,” he said. “There’s still a lot of work left to do on all of those fronts. We’re about to enter into a master planning process to revitalize our public housing neighborhoods in Charlottesville. That’s a process that’s going to have huge consequences for both the families that live in public housing and for the city as a whole, so I want to make sure that process goes well.”Szakos, who has lived in Charlottesville for 15 years, most recently served as the local volunteer coordinator for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Szakos announced her candidacy Feb. 14 and said she was motivated to run for Council when she saw the public enthusiasm that surrounded Obama’s campaign.“People were excited by the opportunity to participate in the democratic process and I decided it was time to bring that energy home to Charlottesville,” she said.Szakos noted that while she has no shortage of opinions, she is not approaching the election from an issues-oriented perspective. Rather, she said she hopes to engage the city’s various and diverse communities if elected.“We have a divided city of communities who don’t communicate very well with each other,” she said. “We tend to listen to those who show up to Council meetings, whose neighborhoods are very well organized. We need to make an effort to hear everyone.”All three candidates expressed a commitment to the spirit of competition and praised the democratic process.“The fact that this is a contested race is a positive for bringing people into the process,” Szakos said. “It forces people to get involved and vote, which can only be a good thing.” Though the race currently is contested on the Democratic ticket, no Republican candidates have yet announced their candidacy. Should none declare, the Nov. 3 election would become a formality following the Democratic party’s unassembled caucus. “I think it’s sad in a way,” Taliaferro said about the lack of Republican challengers.Norris echoed Taliaferro’s senitments.“It’s a healthy thing to have electoral competition,” he said.
(02/23/09 7:01am)
Students from the American Indian Student Union currently are working with faculty members from different academic departments to form an American Indian Studies program at the University. “At this point I think what’s happening is that there is interest and energy and some initial steps towards seeing what we could do to expand native studies in the College of Arts and Sciences,” said Assoc. Anthropology Prof. Jeff Hantman, one of the faculty members involved.The initiative is part of the increasingly visible American Indian presence on Grounds. American Indian AdmissionsAdmissions Dean Greg Roberts said last year the University accepted seven students who indicated they were of American Indian descent on their applications. This year, however, the number jumped to 71, he said. Roberts noted that the federal government’s recent decision to require schools to allow prospective students to indicate more than one ethnicity on their applications may have been the leading factor of the increase. He added that the University has seen a rise in the number of applicants from every ethnicity.“We are finding that all our numbers in terms of race and ethnicity are dramatically increased,” Roberts said. “It’s likely that most of it is due to the change in format. We are still investigating to see how it compares to previous years. On paper it looks as if there are a lot more students that have applied this year, but I’m not sure that’s entirely accurate.”The University is on the low side of the spectrum when it comes to American Indian admissions. Just 0.2 percent of all University students identify themselves as being of American Indian descent, said George Stovall, director of institutional assessment and studies. Numbers range from 0.1 percent at Pennsylvania State University and Brandeis University to 2.5 percent at the University of Arizona, Stovall said.The University is working to increase those numbers, Asst. Dean of Admissions Valerie Gregory said.“We work very closely with the Native American student group on campus [to attract more American Indian students],” Gregory said. “We’ve had dinner a couple of times with the Virginia American Indian chiefs to talk about admissions.” The University also hopes to attract prospective students with special mailings and an e-mail campaign in which current American Indian students contact prospective students to answer questions they may have, Gregory said.Roberts cited both financial and logistical difficulties in increasing the number of American Indian students.“Most students don’t self identify during the inquiry process,” Roberts said. He noted that the Admissions Office has tried to increase the University’s visibility for prospective American Indian students. Nonetheless, a lack of funds prevents the office from visiting reservations, where a larger American Indian population might be contacted.“It’s not for lack of interest, it’s for lack of funding and the ability to identify students, but we are anxious to do that,” Roberts said.Creating an Indian Studies DepartmentStudents and faculty members have been researching possibilities for an American Indian Studies department and have been conducting talks with the provost’s office. Second-year College student Jessica McCauley and third-year College student Laura Farnsworth are American Indian Affairs interns with the Dean’s Office and mentorship co-chairs in the American Indian Student Union. Both have been working with Hantman to determine the future of any American Indian studies program at the University. Hantman and other students and faculty are debating whether the program should have its own department or should be an interdisciplinary program comprised of courses from other departments.“There are pros and cons to having it as a separate entity as a life of its own,” Hantam said. “Departments have more funding and more autonomy, but given the nature of our faculty and the economic times we’re in, it would be more realistic to think about developing the strengths we have already and having a program that cross-cuts departments.”McCauley also raised the possibility of creating the American Indian Studies program as an umbrella program under American studies. They also have been discussing whether the program should focus on Virginia, or if it should attempt to cover the entire breadth of the Americas.“It’s such a new field,” McCauley said. “We don’t really know what we’re doing, but we’re trying.”Hantam noted that, while the exact form the department might take is still a long way from being determined, the administration has encouraged the group to put together an introductory course to Native Studies that will be offered beginning fall 2010.McCauley said the Indian Studies program could benefit the University in more than one way. “We think that we will be able to attract more students if we can say, ‘You can major in this,’” McCauley said. “It’s not just our tiny little group ... You can’t attract diverse students if you don’t have the program.”Farnsworth, meanwhile, added that another goal was to build a positive long-term relationship between the University and the tribes. “Academia has always been considered an enemy,” Farnsworth said, noting that several past University officials were once leading proponents of eugenics in the commonwealth. While the University has been supportive, AISU is frustrated by the lack of American Indian faculty, McCauley said. Hantman, however, noted that the hiring of American Indian faculty is another goal of the potential American Indian Studies program.Community reactionsThe nascent program has been met with positive reactions from the American Indian community. “I think that we need to have curriculum offerings in disciplines that expand people’s knowledge of different cultures and way of looking at the world,” said Karenne Wood, a member of the Monacan Nation and director of the University’s Virginia Indian Heritage Program.Wood also supported the idea of hiring American Indian faculty.“I understand funding constraints, but we’ve been talking about this for five years and it would be nice to see some movement in that direction,” Wood said, adding she will be acting as an unofficial liaison between AISU and the Monacan Nation.Kenneth Branham, chief of the Monacan Nation, also said there is a need for this program.“The native people of this country have been long overlooked and there’s a lot to be learned from the past and contributions the native people have made to this country,” he said.Branham added that some people do not realize there are eight American Indian tribes remaining in the state of Virginia today.“It is something that needs to be taught in our schools,” Branham said. “The native people of this country are not fossils.”Branham also noted the importance of the University’s ability to use outreach and education efforts to increase the number of American Indian youth that will view a college education as a real possibility for themselves.McCauley said she is excited about the program’s potential to bring speakers to the University. She said she hopes that the publicity the program could bring will help AISU reach out to other ethnic student unions and embrace diversity within the community and country. “So many people have a mixed identity,” McCauley said. “We stress that you don’t have to look Indian, to have a card that says you are from this nation or that nation. American Indians are the only identity where people focus on what percentage you are. Nobody asks you ‘How black are you?’”Hartman noted that he was pleased with the administration’s encouragement.“What’s exciting is it’s the first time since I’ve been here that people across departments who teach in areas related to native studies are talking to one another about coordinating their efforts, possibly expanding our course offerings, [and] looking actively for native scholars to join the faculty if possible,” Hartman said.
(02/13/09 7:11am)
The Single Sanction ad-hoc committee held an open forum last night to address the upcoming referendum calling for a multiple-sanction system — proposed by Hoos Against the Single Sanction — on the spring elections ballot. The forum, which lasted an hour, was moderated by the ad-hoc committee Chair Adam Trusner. The forum allowed Honor Committee members and students to debate the advantages and disadvantages of the referendum, which would change the current single-sanction system into a multiple-sanction system and still include expulsion as a possible punishment for an honor offense. An official representative from Hoos Against Single Sanction was not present, but group president Sam Leven provided a letter explaining some of the potential benefits of the multiple-sanction system outlined in the referendum and addressing some students’ concerns about the proposal. Many students also discussed their fear that they would not be informed enough about the proposal by the time elections start, and consequently may end up voting yes or no based solely on the issue of the single sanction and not on the referendum specifically. Discussion then turned to the procedural implications of the referendum. Fourth-year College student Courtney Costello said she attended the forum to hear other students’ opinions about the referendum.“I think the referendum has very good ideals behind it,” Costellos said. “I am against single sanction. I think having multiple sanctions would be fairer, ideally.” Other students at the meeting, however, expressed less favorable views about the referendum. “My new understanding is that it is an honor offense if act and intent occur and triviality determines punishment,” said honor counsel JJ Litchford, a third-year College student, of the referendum. “Currently, triviality is part of determining an honor offense.” Litchford said an act could be considered trivial if “open toleration of the act in question would not be inconsistent with the community of trust.” He also said he is more concerned with the difficulty involved in actually implementing the referendum, should it pass — and not the idea of single sanction itself. “My position on this amendment has nothing to do with the debate on single sanction,” Litchford said. “It is specifically to do with how difficult it would be to implement this referendum in any sort of workable manner into the honor constitution and bylaws.” Third-year Law student Carey Mignerey, who served as Committee chair from 2003 to 2004, also said he opposes the referendum because of logistical issues associated with the referendum.“With a student who has a petty offense brought up against them, do we really want to drag them through weeks and weeks of trial?” he said. “And suppose they thought it was unfair. They have no constitutional right to appeal. Those are drafting issues.” The proposed referendum calls for changes to Articles II and V of the Honor Committee’s constitution, such that students found guilty of act and intent, but not found guilty of non-triviality, shall be considered to have committed a trivial honor violation. This would effectively issue punishments for cases currently dismissed as being trivial, but would also no longer require dismissal from the University for students found guilty of an honor offense.If passed, the referendum suggests that the Honor Committee should develop a range of sanctions and enforcement procedures to punish such “trivial” honor offenses. Additionally, “three Honor Committee members who have observed the entire trial shall, in accordance with the Honor by-laws made under the above provisions, determine the lesser sanction to be applied,” and “the Trial Panel hearing a case shall be informed by the Trial Chair prior to verdict deliberations that a verdict of guilty on act and intent but not guilty on triviality shall result in a sanction less than expulsion being applied to the accused student.”Students will have the opportunity to vote for or against the referendum when polls open Monday. A three-fifths majority vote is required for passage, provided that at least 10 percent of the student body has voted in favor of the referendum.
(02/06/09 7:54am)
As a result of financial difficulties stemming from a lack of advertising revenue, JuicyCampus.com Founder and CEO Matt Ivester officially shutdown the highly controversial college gossip Web site yesterday.“In these historically difficult economic times, online ad revenue has plummeted and venture capital funding has dissolved,” Ivester explained in an online interview posted on the Web site. “Juicy Campus’ exponential growth outpaced our ability to muster the resources needed to survive this economic downturn.” Assoc. Media Studies Prof. Siva Vaidhyanathan explained the economics behind the site’s closing. “With any web-based business, there’s ratio of expenses to income,” he said. “One of the big expenses of any site that wants to generate traffic is bandwidth. The more people that use your site, the more expensive it is to run it, and the only thing to offset that is persistent flow from advertisers.” Vaidhyanathan cited Facebook and YouTube as other Web sites that share the same funding model as Juicy Campus. He explained that despite the hundreds of advertisers that fund sites such as these, because of the number of users, their bandwidth costs are too expensive for them to retain a profit.“People don’t take into account that if you do generate attention, it’s going to cost you a lot of money before you make dollar one,” Vaidhyanathan said, adding that Juicy Campus “had a great deal of coverage because of the invitation to scandal that if offered, but basically it was uninteresting and embarrassing to the degree that advertisers clearly had very little incentive to pay for space on the site.” “It was such a repulsive product. There was no reason to believe that it would grow into a sustainable business.”University students who had been the subject of some of the gossip site’s posts shared a more personal opinion about Juicy Campus’ closure. A first-year student affiliated with Delta Delta Delta sorority said she believed the Web site should have been shut down for moral reasons, not financial ones.“I was not in favor of [Juicy Campus] at all because people could post whatever they liked, no consequences,” she said, speaking on a condition of anonymity because of her name’s former appearance on the site. “It’s not an important Web site that’s promoting anything good or benefiting anyone.” Regarding the posts about her, she said, “I was kind of upset. I felt like my privacy was invaded. I tried to delete it, but I couldn’t.”Another third-year student, who also wished to remain anonymous, said she reacted differently when she first read what other people had posted about her. “I thought it was hilarious,” she said. “My friends and I all made ‘Juicy Campus Celebrity’ T-shirts. I felt so bad for those people that all they could do was trash talk [on the Web site]. I think it’s another ploy for people who are insecure to lash out and make themselves feel better.” When the Web site debuted, it was subject to much negative media attention and also targeted by several student groups across the nation, including the University’s Student Council. Though the site has now closed, Ivester still defends what he set out to accomplish by starting it in the first place.“I’d like to thank everyone who has engaged in meaningful discussion about online privacy and internet censorship,” he stated. “Juicy Campus has raised issues that have passionate advocates on both sides, and I hope that dialogue will continue. While there are parts of Juicy Campus that none of us will miss — the mean-spirited posts and personal attacks — it has also been a place for the fun, lighthearted gossip of college life.”
(11/07/08 5:52am)
The annual Virginia Film Festival, which ended its four-day run Sunday, saw a decline in attendance this year but still managed to exceed the expectations of the event’s artistic director, Richard Herskowitz.Herskowitz explained that the festival, which is hosted by the University and was based this year on the theme of “Aliens,” put its focus on featuring filmmakers from all around the world.“My main goals were really to satisfy the broadest audience with the programming, and based on the responses I received from a wide range of people, I’m very satisfied with the results,” Herskowitz said. “I think one of the biggest things was that we wanted to have a truly international festival this year and to bring filmmakers from all over the world.”Herskowitz cited the enthusiasm of the audience members as another highlight of the festival, noting they “were so appreciative of the vitality and brilliance of these directors in their commentaries after the films.”Still, the number of audience members was down from previous years, Herskowitz said. The festival faced initial attendance challenges that Herskowitz said he felt resolved themselves better than expected. Virginia Film Festival publicist John Kelly noted both the uncertain U.S. economy and the 37 percent attendance decline in movie theaters across the country over the last year in explaining the decrease in attendance this year. “That [attendance declines] was something we were terrified about this year,” Herskowitz said. “Ours were down 20 percent from last year, but we expected even worse.” The festival sold about 7,800 tickets this year, and Herskowitz said walk-up sales during the weekend of the festival accelerated, noting that the theaters “never felt empty.” Despite concerns about ticket sales, the festival still sought to provide innovative experiences for attendees.“Another thing that was a big innovation this year that I was very nervous about was our introduction of Skype video chats with directors in Paris and LA,” Herskowitz said. “We had really considered experimenting with this for several years but the technology wasn’t adequate.” The festival put on one Skype video chat in Newcomb Hall and a second at Regal Downtown 6 theater at the Downtown Mall. Both sessions “ran flawlessly,” Herskowitz said. “The audience really seemed to love it,” he noted.Third-year College student Ryan Gruntz, one of five undergraduate publicity interns for the Virginia Film Festival, also said he felt the event was a success, especially, “considering that it was the weekend before the election, and all the alumni were in town for the football game, and it was also Halloween ... we had a lot of competing forces for time and attention, and I think the festival overall was a success.”Some changes to the Virginia Film Festival, however, could still be on the horizon. Patrons of the festival next year will experience the event under new management, Herskowitz said, as 2009 will be the first year in 15 years that Herskowitz will not serve as artistic director. Having accepted a position at the University of Oregon and at a new film festival in Houston, Herskowitz said the search for a new director is “just beginning.”
(11/03/08 8:32am)
Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers announced the settlement of a three-year lawsuit last week that may affect Google Book Search partnerships with a number of academic institutions, including the University.In the class-action lawsuit, filed by the Authors Guild in 2005, authors and publishers expressed concerns that Google’s scanning of books for Google Book Search violated copyright law. Under the terms of the settlement, which has yet to receive court approval, Google will pay $125 million to establish a Book Rights Registry, which will serve to pay authors and publishers of books that have been scanned already and to cover for the costs of the lawsuit. Academic institutions will also be able to purchase subscriptions to access the books Google Book Search scans. Google CEO Eric Schmidt said Google has been scanning books for years to give students easier access to information.“The purpose of the lawsuit and settlement — and we’re very happy about the settlement — is to create a market for books that are still in print but not very accessible,” Schmidt said. “Basically, [the books are] around, but they’re not easy to reach.”The University’s opinion on the settlement remains uncertain. When asked to comment on forthcoming changes University users of the Google Book system can expect as a result of the settlement, Charlotte Morford, director of communications for the University Library, said it is too early to say.The University “has been involved with the Google Book project since November 2006,” Morford said. “The benefit is primarily that it enables us to make digital collections available to students and faculty far more quickly than if we tried to do it ourselves.”The University was one of the first 10 partners to join the project when it was originally launched, Morford said, and the University continues to have a unique relationship with the project. “We do have very strong collections in American literature and history, and there may be some resources in there that other libraries do not have or don’t have copies,” she said.The Harvard University Library, on the other hand, has announced it will no longer partner with Google Book Search. “The settlement contains too many potential limitations on access to and use of the books by members of the higher education community and by patrons of public libraries,” Harvard University Library Director Robert C. Darnton stated in a letter to his staff, according to the Harvard Crimson. “The settlement provides no assurance that the prices charged for access will be reasonable ... especially since the subscription services will have no real competitors [and] the scope of access to the digitized books is in various ways both limited and uncertain.”Stanford University, the University of California and the University of Michigan recently supported the settlement in a press release issued by the Authors Guild. “The settlement agreement provides an unprecedented and extraordinarily valuable service to the American public,” the press release states. “This is a service that libraries, because of copyright restrictions, could not offer on their own and goes well beyond what would have been possible.”Morford noted the University of Virginia still needs to examine the settlement in detail.“We will be reviewing the language of the settlement over the next few weeks, which was just received, and is quite lengthy,” she said. “Once we have done that review we’ll be able to report back to the broader University community on our recommendations.”
(09/29/08 4:58am)
Though first-year students have been living in Kellogg, the new dormitory in the Alderman Road housing area, for more than a month, the dedication of the dorm is scheduled to take place this afternoon.The building was named after the late Robert Kellogg, who died in 2004. Kellogg was the chair of the English Department from 1974 to 1978 and, during his second term, was appointed dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. Kellogg served as dean until 1985 and retired from working for the University in 1999.Kellogg “was a renowned scholar and teacher,” University spokesperson Carol Wood said, adding that Kellogg was also an early mentor to University President John T. Casteen, III.The dedication will be open to the public, Wood said, and the University has invited a number of guests, including Kellogg’s widow, family members and close friends.Casteen will speak at the ceremony, and guests will be offered tours of the new building, Wood said.Constructed at a cost of $18.8 million, Kellogg is the first of seven new dorms planned to replace 11 current residences in the Alderman Road area.The new dorm boasts a more luxurious living style than previously available to first-year students, including four floors of rooms, elevators, individual heating and cooling controls and lounges with flat screen TVs. Kellogg is a hall-style dorm rather than suite-style, with key cards instead of traditional keys to get into each individual room. The building, like other dormitories, is also equipped with wireless and wired Internet connections.First-year Engineering student Gus Nielsen does not live in Kellogg but said that does not stop him from spending most of his free time there.“They have A/C,” Nielson said, explaining why he preferred spending his time in Kellogg rather than in his own dorm, Dabney.When asked about the perks and drawbacks of Kellogg, residents’ answers reflected an overall satisfaction with the dorm blemished only by frustrations with the distance of Kellogg from Central Grounds. Reaching Kellogg requires hiking up part of Observatory Hill, a disadvantage about which first-year College student Zenubia Madhani remarked, “We’ll keep the freshman 15 [pounds] off, I guess.” Madhani noted, though, that the dormitory does have advantages such as its proximity to the AFC, Scott Stadium and Observatory Hill Dining Hall.Wood explained that the Kellogg dormitory is a part of a three-phase plan to improve upon outdated and inefficient facilities. Phase one, Kellogg, was approved as a capital project in February 2007, Wood said, and at the upcoming Board of Visitors’ Building and Grounds Committee meeting Thursday, the architect and engineer selection for another new dormitory, constituting phase two, will face approval. According to the board’s agenda, plans for this second residence hall will be presented in February 2009. Students ultimately can expect the demolition of five residence halls — Balz, Dobie, Maupin, Watson and Webb — Wood said, and the construction of four new dorms offering more than 800 beds for first-year students.
(09/22/08 4:03am)
Rethinking Student Aid, a group of higher education policy experts, published its findings Thursday regarding two years of meetings about simplifying and improving the federal financial aid system.The report focuses on improving both financial aid and the student loan system, said Rethinking Student Aid member Kathleen Little, senior executive director of College Board Financial Aid Programs. The proposals stand on seven core principles that emphasize clarity and predictable availability.“The most important thing is that the proposals are comprehensive and integrated, and all are designed to meet a particular national goal and all support the seven principles that we came up with,” Little said.Although the report has only been available for a few days, Little said the proposals have been met with both enthusiasm and concern. The most important thing, however, is that the proposals are sparking a dialogue that will hopefully lead to change, Little said.University Financial Aid Director Yvonne Hubbard expressed a similar sentiment, noting the findings offer a starting point for debate.“What I love about this [process] is that it is the beginning of a discussion,” Hubbard said. “People are going to have problems with it ... but it begins the conversation.”The proposals suggest basing eligibility for Pell grants on readily available IRS data on families’ income tax returns, rather than the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.This proposal has sparked concerns about the IRS’s willingness to take on the responsibility of providing information on families’ tax returns, Little said.“I think they [the IRS] are not excited about the idea, but they will do it if Congress tells them to do it,” she said.There is also the possibility of an oversimplification of the process, making it unable to account for the more subjective differences between family situations, Little said, adding, “we really worried about that a lot.”The proposals also suggest the establishment of a loan-repayment system that abolishes government payment of subsidized loans for students still in college. Loan payments would increase as graduates’ incomes increase, with a backup plan available for those unable to make payments. The proposals also suggest a new government system — likened to Social Security — that would create savings accounts for children from low-income families that would ultimately be used to pay for their college education. Little explained that this would allow families to plan further in advance for their children’s education. Some higher education experts, however, worry this may put pressure on an already strained federal budget.In examining how these proposals could affect the University, Hubbard noted “it’s years away until we see any action off this.” She added, though, that the reports add to the dialogue that marks the beginning of the next congressional reauthorization of financial aid. “We’ll study this and be part of the conversation as it goes on,” Hubbard said.Hubbard also stressed President John T. Casteen, III’s commitment to improving financial aid and noted that the University has been promoting the simplification of the loan process for some time. “This report follows us, rather than us following it when it comes to loans ... that conversation is one we’ve been leading for a while,” Hubbard said. The proposals may open the doorway for discussion that would facilitate changes, making financial aid options simpler and more available, Hubbard said.“People don’t think college will be affordable,” Hubbard said, “so they are not encouraging their students to prepare for college.”
(08/31/06 4:00am)
In the world of country gone mainstream, Texas native Pat Green is the kind of artist who can stray from his roots and still produce worthwhile country music. In his latest album, Cannonball, Green seems to be battling against himself, vacillating between his traditional good ol' Texas rock and the drooly, Backstreet Boys-esque garbage that is high on the country music charts these days (Rascal Flatts, anyone?).