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(02/12/09 6:53am)
When students last led a Living Wage Campaign at the University, a standoff between campaign supporters and administrators ensued, culminating when 17 student protesters were removed from a Madison Hall sit-in in handcuffs. Three years later, the economy is markedly worse and students are taking a less pointed, more long-term approach to petitioning the University to increase the minimum wage for its employees.The Living Wage Campaign recently resumed efforts to increase the University’s minimum wage of $10.14 to $11.42, said campaign organizer Melissa McCrumb, a fourth-year College student. She said a group of mutual friends started discussing the effort last semester and brought their ideas to fruition at a meeting of 15 students and faculty members Tuesday night.“Our goal is to involve as many people as possible,” McCrumb said. “We do not want this to be a student-based movement; we want to involve the community [and] especially workers here at the University.”McCrumb said students are pursuing the issue despite economic strains on the University, which include a state-implemented salary freeze.“I would say there is never a good time to not talk about issue,” McCrumb said. “This is an issue that will always be with us. Standing up for the dignity of our workers is important, regardless of the economy.”Fellow organizer Rachyl Smith echoed this sentiment, adding that students are meeting to raise awareness about the issue.“We’re not blind to [salaries being frozen], we’re not trying to lead anyone — we’re just trying to talk about the issue of a living wage,” Smith said.University spokesperson Carol Wood explained that the $10.14 base hourly wage translates to $16.05 an hour when benefits, such as healthcare and social security, are included. Not including benefits, an employee’s annual salary at the base $10.14 hourly rate is $21,092, Wood said.“We think that is a good minimum hiring rate, because [when] we look at the market — for these positions that these people are in — we believe that that is a fair and equitable minimum wage given the job and requirements needed to fulfill those jobs,” Wood said, adding that the University has conducted a market analysis of every job at the University within the last year.Yet Smith said a fair wage and a living wage are two different things, and that the cost of living in a certain locality should be factored into wages.“As a student, I expect the school that I go to to exhibit the same dignity towards students that I would want if I were ... an administrator,” she said.Wood said employees earning the $10.14 entry-level wage can augment their yearly salaries by participating in the Essential Work Skills Program, which raises the hourly rate of program graduates to $10.43 and results in a $600 increase at the end of the program, or through a supplemental benefit credit of $300, which is available to employees making less than $40,000 a year. This funding can provide for employees’ benefit reductions and increase take-home pay, Wood explained.When Living Wage protesters were arrested for trespassing after a standoff with administrators in Madison Hall in April 2006, friction between the University and campaign supporters continued through the students’ trial in Charlottesville General District Court in June, in which those arrested were acquitted.Though Smith said she and other students are not trying to distinguish themselves from the most recent campaign, she did point out that “we’re not connected to it at all, we’re completely different people and we’re not under the leadership of anyone [who participated] in it.” Smith attributed the attention students have received for their recent meeting to the legal battle that ensued years before and said students are currently focusing on education and outreach.“There’s all this anxiety about it because of the last time, but that’s the only reason there’s anxiety about it, not anything we as a group might potentially do,” she said, adding that describing the effort as a “battle” or even a “campaign” misconstrues the students’ mission and approach.McCrumb said students have a long-term plan in mind, which is different from previous campaign efforts.The impetus for meeting this semester came from student concern and interest in the issue, rather than any complaints from University employees dissatisfied with their wages, McCrumb said.“I know that in the previous campaigns there was a lot of outreach to the workers and listening to their concerns, and that is something that we are definitely going to be focusing on in the future,” she said.Wood emphasized that the University’s primary concern is keeping all workers on the payroll, despite unfavorable economic conditions.“Our focus is on keeping our employees here at the University employed at the University,” Wood said. “When you look at the unemployment rate, it’s a difficult time for everybody.”McCrumb also said student organizers have not yet contacted administrators about the issue.
(11/21/08 6:18am)
President John T. Casteen, III was the third highest-paid public University president in the country last year, according to a recent report by the Chronicle of Higher Education.Despite the struggling economy, Casteen’s almost $800,000 salary will be the same next year, University spokesperson Carol Wood said, explaining that despite decreases in commonwealth funding imposed by Gov. Tim Kaine, no faculty salaries have been cut at the University.Casteen earned $797,048 for the 2007-08 academic year, an almost $45,000 increase from his salary the year before. Virginia Tech President Charles Steger ranks close behind Casteen, with a salary of $719,892.The three highest-paid Virginia public university presidents — Casteen, Steger, and Virginia Commonwealth University President Eugene P. Trani — each receive $176,113 of their respective salaries from public funds. Private funding, costs of housing, deferred compensation, retirement pay and bonuses round out the executives’ salaries.Casteen’s total compensation includes $310,887 from private sources, $15,000 from private sources for his car, a house provided by the commonwealth and a $23,400 performance bonus.The more than $300,000 in private funding comes from an established chair endowment provided by a donor and a designated endowment by the Board of Visitors to fund faculty salaries, Wood said.The Board of Visitors sets President Casteen’s salary in the fall, when all other faculty salaries are set, Wood said. The Board also conducts “rigorous” annual performance reviews of the University’s president, through which it determines whether to grant Casteen a raise, according to an e-mail from Wood.University presidents have come under fire from some groups for enjoying high salaries during difficult economic times, as some students struggle to finance their tuition and some institutions are forced to implement hiring freezes. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a ranking Senate finance committee member, released a statement last Friday urging institutions to clarify why executives are paid the amounts they are.“The Chronicle’s study shows that the executive suite seems insulated from budget crunches,” Grassley, a representative for whom was unavailable as of press time, said, according to the release. “While endowment values and pay-outs for financial aid may be decreasing, there’s still money for the president’s salary increase.” In the release, Grassley said it was “surprising” that many public universities raised presidents’ salaries last year and asked those universities to make the reasons for the increases more transparent.“In these hard economic times, apparently belt-tightening is for families and students, not university presidents,” Grassley said, according to the release. “Maybe the salary increases can be justified, but students, parents, and university boards should have full information so they can decide for themselves.”Wood, however, said Casteen’s salary is justified.“First of all, let me just say President Casteen earns every penny he makes,” Wood said, noting Casteen’s 19-year tenure as president of the University and many responsibilities. “I think sometimes people don’t understand what the job of a university president is today.”Wood said that many factors should come into play when assessing a college president’s salary and that attention should be paid to the different operations under a given university’s umbrella.“We are a new model of public education because we are increasingly reliant on private giving,” Wood said. “Not only is [Casteen] running an academic institution but a hospital and a city. Do all these other [schools] have hospitals as part of their universities? If you look at Virginia Tech, they don’t have a hospital. The [Chronicle Report] doesn’t mention that.”Bill Shiebler, national field director of the United States Student Association, said salaries of public university presidents should be treated differently than those of private university presidents.“I think top-level administrators need to be held to a higher standard at public universities because it’s public funds, which are taxpayer dollars which are going towards those salaries,” he said.Shiebler emphasized, though, that lowering university presidents’ salaries does nothing to help students finance their educations.“I don’t think students or the public should be confused for one second that lowering the salary for a president or chancellor at a university is going to make it more affordable for students to go to college,” Shiebler said. “No matter what a top administrator is paid, the bottom line is that students won’t be able to go to college ... until the state government finds ways ... to make it more affordable.”W. Heywood Fralin, rector of the University’s Board of Visitors, said “good” college presidents might be underpaid.“This is particularly true when one looks at their earning potential in the private corporate world,” Fralin noted in a statement provided by Wood. “In John Casteen’s specific case he successfully led the largest capital campaign in U.Va.’s history several years ago and is now leading a campaign which at the time of its announcement was the largest ever undertaken by any university in the country.”Fralin stated that Casteen has created strong academic and operation teams in addition to leading the Capital Campaign, all of which helps the University achieve high national rankings.“When viewed from all perspectives, his salary appears to be quite justified,” Fralin said.
(11/10/08 5:00am)
A month after Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D) announced budget cuts for state universities, University deans are still finalizing how budget cuts will affect professors, departments and students on Grounds. Already feeling the weight of economic downturn and statewide cuts made last year, department heads have only a few more weeks to revise their budgets and plan for an uncertain economic future.By the numbersIn his executive spending reduction plan, announced Oct. 9, Kaine reduced commonwealth spending by $348 million, which includes a reduction of 7 percent, or about $10.6 million, in money allocated to the University. The report said the total cuts would result in 570 commonwealth job layoffs, the elimination of 800 vacant positions and a freeze on new hiring.While the University has not implemented a hiring freeze, said Colette Sheehy, vice president of management and budget, cuts are being made. Though the University does not rely on commonwealth funding as heavily as other public institutions, significant budget cuts will be made, and each school will submit a revised budget plan to account for the reduction in funding.The University depends on many coffers, namely state tax funds, tuition, endowment income, gifts, research grants and contracts, student fees and outside revenues, Sheehy said. The academic division operates on an annual budget of $1.2 billion, and the Medical Center and University at Wise rely on a $2.2 billion budget, she added.Faculty salaries have not been cut, and promotions and progressions along the tenure track continue despite budget revisions, Sheehy said, noting that although administrators had anticipated cuts in commonwealth funding, they did not know how large they would be.“Units are holding positions vacant,” Sheehy said. “Some schools have cancelled faculty searches for the next year. We are deferring discretionary expenditures like travel, professional development, equipment and building maintenance.”Up to the deansThe decision of how and where cuts will be made belongs to the deans of individual schools, Sheehy said.“The University has not centrally mandated a hiring freeze that Governor Kaine put in place for other state agencies, preferring instead to allow our deans and department heads to manage their budgets according to their needs,” Sheehy said. “We have, however, encouraged our managers to maintain flexibility in their budgets until the entire budget situation becomes clear. This includes holding positions vacant so that when the current year cuts are made, and we are likely faced with additional cuts next year, we do not have to lay people off but rather can eliminate personnel costs through attrition.”For the Architecture School, these cuts are already prompting attrition of positions, Architecture Dean Karen Van Lengen said. “We already have cut so much of our budget in the last five years, there’s nothing left to cut anymore except taking positions away,” Van Lengen said. “We expect to lose at least three faculty positions that are now unfilled.” The impact of budget changes on individual schools hinges on how heavily each school depends on state funding. The University receives about 7 percent of its funding from the state. Yet the Architecture School, for example, receives 68 percent of its funding from the state, Van Lengen said.With the cuts, the school will lose about 6 percent of its funding due to state budget cuts, which amounts to $422,000, she said.Van Lengen explained that the three positions to be terminated are all within the architecture discipline and were vacated when three faculty members left the University at the start of the year. Searches to fill the positions are now off.Positions dependent on commonwealth funding have been targeted in the Education School as well, Education Dean Robert Pianta said.“In terms of hiring, we have had to stop searches for positions that would be supported by state funds; but at the same time we are going forward with searches that are funded through sources such as philanthropy,” Pianta stated in an e-mail.The Education School has not cut programs or staff, Pianta noted.His office has “made it a priority to preserve funds for supporting the scholarly and instructional work of faculty, such as seed funds for research, international work, and teaching, as well as modest support for travel,” he stated. “We have been extraordinarily precise and careful. The faculty have been working hard to plan courses, look for redundancies and overlap and streamline and consolidate.”College Dean Meredith Woo said she submitted her reduction plan but would not elaborate on budget revisions in various departments. Woo said her office gave target numbers to various departments for this academic year and the next year as they decide where to limit costs.“I prefer to think of it as delays, rather than cuts,” Woo said. “There will be delays ... in some searches for faculty members, and where they are delayed is very carefully laid out.”Woo explained that department chairs think strategically and look ahead to determine where to make cuts and where they can afford to delay job searches.She added that close examination of budgets affords department chairs the opportunity to learn more about how their units function financially.“As we adjust ourselves to the financial realities ... we ask ourselves what our priorities are,” Woo said. “The entire exercise for the College is difficult but educational and important.”The road aheadFinal budgets are still being compiled, and deans and department chairs have a few more weeks to make changes to their plans, Sheehy said.“All of the detailed budget reduction plans have not yet been submitted, so it will take several more weeks before we know exactly how the units and schools have accomplished the reductions,” Sheehy said.Although cost-cutting measures will be determined on many fronts, some schools can foresee how their revisions will affect departments and students. Van Lengen said that for the Architecture School, the cuts represent the most recent constraint on a budget already lacking wiggle room.“We lost one position last year, in urban planning ... now we’re going to lose three more in architecture,” Van Lengen said. “We’re eroding one of our great schools with these budget cuts.”Though Van Lengen never wants to eliminate faculty positions, she said, there were simply no corners left to cut.“Since I’ve been dean, this is the third major budget cut,” Van Lengen said. “Each time we had a budget cut, we took away as much as we could from our operating expenses, the way in which we delivered our services to the whole school. There’s nothing left to give back. We’re now at a point where ... there’s no choice, there’s nothing left.”Students will feel the budget cuts through fewer course offerings and more students per class, Van Lengen added.“We’re in the process of trying to work with everybody to try to see what would be the best way to deal with the budget cuts,” Woo said. “Do the course offerings need to be restructured, do the programs need to be restructured?”Even the Law School and Darden School, which do not receive commonwealth funds, are impacted by the economic downturn.Law School Dean Paul Mahoney stated in an e-mail that economic conditions could affect private fundraising and the amount of financial aid students need.“That in turn will affect hiring and compensation because personnel costs are the largest single item in our budget,” Mahoney said. “In addition, the state determines the salary increases for all classified staff at the University, and we are bound by the state’s decision to freeze classified staff salaries.”
(11/04/08 8:42am)
For many students at Radford University in Southwest Virginia, the burning question isn’t who will win today’s election — it’s whether students formerly denied registration will have a say at the polls.The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law have charged in a letter to Tracy Howard, general registrar of voters for the City of Radford, that he implemented “unlawful and potentially discriminatory policies” in administering students’ registration in the City of Radford and are asking Howard to make every effort to ensure all eligible student voters are able to cast ballots today.Howard has come under fire for his decision to follow up with students who registered in Radford with their college addresses and ask that they clarify in writing what they considered to be their permanent address. Howard said students had been misinformed by voter groups and he wanted to ensure that students who had filled out voter registration forms to vote in Radford indeed considered their school addresses to be their permanent legal domiciles, as required by Virginia law to register to vote in the state.“We simply asked them the question, where they considered their permanent home,” Howard said. “For the most part, the ones that got back to us told us that their permanent home is elsewhere. We helped them get registered in the most appropriate location for them.”Howard, who confirmed receipt of the letter from the ACLU and the Brennan Center, said his office contacted as many students as possible by phone and sent out fewer than 200 postcards to students asking them to defend their domicile in an effort to combat the misinformation he said students received from third-party groups on campus. Only two students sent postcards back to his office indicating a decision to change their legal domicile to their school addresses, Howard said.“We realized that those third-party groups were lying to these people, telling them that absentee ballots do not count, telling them they could register in Virginia even if they were residents in another state ... telling them that they could cast ballots in [this] state [and at home],” Howard said. Howard was specifically concerned that students did not understand that by changing their legal domicile to their school addresses, they were abandoning their former addresses.“We felt the need to contact folks to counteract that misinformation out there,” he said.While Howard said he contacted students in an effort to fulfill his duties as registrar to aid the registration process and educate voters about proper registration, Jennifer Rosenberg, who co-signed the letter on behalf of the Brennan Center, argued that Howard had no right to target college students.Rosenberg said she learned about Howard’s procedure when student groups contacted the center and told them about the confirmation cards students received in the mail.Rosenberg said that by contacting Radford students when he saw a dormitory address on a registration form, Howard violated the Equal Protection Clause because he treated students as a separate class of voters and applied a presumption of ineligibility.“You must hold students to the same neutral standard,” Rosenberg said. “The fact that he was following up with every single student [registered to vote in Radford] with one-on-one interviews, with questions misleading or confusing [students] creates an extra hurdle for them that not everyone has to jump through.”Furthermore, the letter states that neither Howard’s concern that students did not understand the legal implications of changing their legal domicile nor his belief that students were misinformed and coerced by third-party groups to register constituted grounds for his efforts to contact students and ask that they clarify their addresses.Howard should have accepted school addresses on voter registration forms without question, Rosenberg said.In fact, in the letter, Rosenberg cites the Supreme Court’s decision in Symm v. United States as evidence that students can vote in their college communities regardless of their plans to live there permanently after graduation.Howard said complying with the ACLU of Virginia’s and Brennan Center’s demands would allow students to vote twice, because many of them have already turned in absentee ballots.Howard, though, “cannot presume that students are registering under false pretenses,” Rosenberg said. “He’s been able to offer no evidence of that, [and] even if he were able to offer evidence of that, that’s not a justification for not processing their registrations.”Yet Howard maintained that he was simply following Title 24.2, Section 101 of Virginia law, which states that residency status for the purpose of voting “means and requires both domicile and a place of abode.”Furthermore, the law states that when determining domicile, consideration may be given to other factors such as financial independence, residence for income tax purposes and residence of parents. “It’s not that we’re trying to suppress anybody’s vote — we want them to vote — but it has to be correct under Virginia law,” Howard said. “That’s the problem I have — Virginia law is silent when it comes to telling me where an individual may vote other than the place of abode and domicile statute.” Indeed, Virginia law is interpreted differently depending on the registrar. Charlottesville General Registrar Sheri Iachetta approached student registration differently, taking students at their word when they declared residency in Charlottesville in hopes of voting locally.“Virginia is a voting-rights state — I can’t in good conscious separate someone in a special class,” Iachetta said, explaining that if a student living on 14th Street comes in to register to vote and another student comes to register who happens to live in Gwathmey dormitory, she would not challenge one voter and not the other.Iachetta also said it is not her place as registrar to define domicile.“Domicile is not my determination,” Iachetta said. “I am not qualified to determine domicile, so I have to take [students] at [their] word, at face value.”Asked to clarify whether there is a firm standard by which registrars should confirm domicile, the Virginia State Board of Elections responded with a statement rebuffing rumors that individuals can register and vote in two different localities.“An out-of-state student who attends school in Virginia may register to vote in Virginia, but cannot be registered elsewhere,” the statement notes.Iachetta said standard procedure blocks voters from casting ballots twice, one of Howard’s concerns about counting ballots of students formerly denied registration in Radford.“As soon as I get [registration information], I send this to states and say, ‘Get these people off their rolls,’” Iachetta explained. “There is a check and balance.”Rosenberg agreed that Virginia law “invests a certain amount of discretion in registrars to look at a variety of factors” when registering voters who claim to meet the state’s residency requirements and said the Brennan Center has observed more incidents of unlawful registration practices in Virginia than in other states.Rosenberg added that there will be a post-election advocacy push for the legislature to clarify this section of Virginia law.In the face of challenges by the ACLU of Virginia and the Brennan Center, Howard said students whose registration applications in Radford were denied on the basis of address had the opportunity to appeal his decision. Provisional ballots will be available at the polls tomorrow, Howard said, for people who believe they should have been registered. Yet there is no guarantee that those votes will be counted, Howard pointed out.
(10/30/08 9:02am)
College loans: $10,000. LSAT Prep Class: $1,000. Gas guzzled on long drives to job interviews: $500. A program that offers two years of job security and an enriching experience: priceless.According to some college students, that is. After a long summer of poor economic conditions and sky-high gas prices, students returned to school just in time for more bad news. The U.S. economy is on the rocks, the job market is looking bleaker and job offers made at the end of great summer internships are in question after the crash on Wall Street. Yet many students have found an appealing option that requires neither a stellar standardized test score nor a long-term relationship with monster.com — the national service program Teach for America.TFA recruits college graduates and trains them to teach students for two years in school districts struggling under the weight of tough socioeconomic conditions.Applications to the program are up 30 percent nationally this year, TFA Recruitment Director Nichole Curtis said. The increase in applications is directly related to an economic situation that makes TFA a more viable option for many college seniors, Curtis explained.Applications have increased at the same rate among students at the University, George Mason and the University of Richmond, Curtis said. During the first of four application periods, 65 University students applied, 15 candidates more than in 2007-08, Curtis said. Even last year interest increased — the total number of applicants hit 191, approximately a 60-percent increase from applicants in 2006-07, Curtis said.Kendra Nelsen, director of student services at University Career Services, said students have mentioned concern about the tough job market and have consequently looked more closely at work in the public sector, including the education field, government work and nonprofit work.Finding qualified candidates to round out a competitive applicant pool means year-round recruitment efforts. Curtis said TFA works to target student leaders by asking current corps members and university faculty members for recommendations.“We want to find the future leaders of our country and have them do Teach for America first,” Curtis said. “That being said, we need to find the best.”And competition for TFA teaching positions is fierce. Nationally, the acceptance rate hovers around 20 percent, Curtis said, and is only slightly higher at the University, where 24 percent of applicants are extended job offers. TFA teachers accepted in 2008 boast an average GPA of 3.6, and 95 percent held a leadership position while in college, the TFA Web site reports.Students may submit applications online in September, November, January or February and, if successful, complete a phone interview and a final interview, during which candidates teach a lesson plan for their target grade level and subject area and have one-on-one interviews with TFA recruiters. Corps members are notified of their acceptance soon after, told where they would be teaching and in which subject area they would specialize, and are given three weeks to mull over offers before committing to the program.For fourth-year College student Christian West, the application process is just beginning. West, a political and social thought major, said he hopes to teach high school English or history in Washington D.C., and he is submitting his application for the Nov. 7 deadline. Though West initially thought of going to graduate school next year, he decided TFA offered an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.“The experience I would get working in an inner-city school with underprivileged students is a hands-on experience I couldn’t see myself getting in an academic environment,” West said.A Certain Future?While students accepted to the program know they will be teaching for the next two years, the TFA experience is somewhat defined by a degree of uncertainty, and teachers must be flexible, Curtis said.Though potential teachers are told where they will be teaching and in what subject or grade level they will specialize before they sign on to the program, these conditions can change.“Once you are hired by the school district, you are out of Teach for America’s hands,” Curtis said, explaining that the human element of working with different principals in different districts can shape teachers’ experiences. Because the role of teachers is at the discretion of school districts, TFA participants may be reassigned to different grade levels or subject areas — TFA offers no guarantee that the conditions teachers sign on to upon acceptance to the program will be the circumstances they face come fall.“If it [these conditions] change so drastically that the teacher isn’t happy, TFA will step in and work with the school district,” Curtis said, noting that she has not personally seen a case in which a teacher was reassigned to a grade level or subject area wildly different from an initial assignment.While only one or two students withdraw from the application process, some students decline offers, even at the end of the month-long interview period and waiting game. In fact, a lower yield on TFA job offers is characteristic of highly ranked colleges and universities, Curtis said. Forty-five University students were accepted to TFA last year, and 27 matriculated through the program, Curtis said.“If you look at the Ivies and U.Va. and U.C. Berkeley, the matriculation rate isn’t nearly as high, because there are so many other options on the table [for students],” Curtis said. Nelsen echoed this sentiment, explaining that she has spoken with students who were extended job offers through TFA but simply decided to pursue other job options.And some students who matriculate do not fulfill the two-year commitment, resulting in TFA’s 8-percent dropout rate, Curtis said.University alumna Neela Pal, who graduated with a degree in English literature and foreign affairs in 2006, is one such student. Pal had followed TFA since her first year at the University, even working during her third year as a campus campaign manager. Yet once accepted to the program and assigned to teach middle-school English in Philadelphia, Pal shifted gears and decided against matriculating through the program.“Despite my original excitement about the program, I had become increasingly skeptical of its methodology,” Pal stated in an e-mail. “I began to question how effectively TFA actually screened for not just qualified but competent teachers — i.e. individuals who actually had the dynamism and cultural sensitivity required for the job, and not the requisite high GPA and student leadership titles.”Pal cited concerns about teacher preparedness and support from TFA with her decision to drop out of the program just before TFA’s summer training institute commenced.“I remember receiving the prep materials in the mail, and realizing for the first time that I actually knew very little about the art and science of teaching,” Pal stated. “I wasn’t convinced that TFA’s training would make me sufficiently qualified to take on some of the nation’s toughest classrooms.”Furthermore, Pal wondered how much support she would get from TFA once placed in a school district.TFA’s “sink-or-swim approach works well for the highly-ambitious, go-getter types generally attracted to TFA, but I wasn’t willing to threaten my peace of mind and personal well-being,” Pal explained.Varied ExperiencesLike any program, TFA has its critics. Posts on collegeconfidential.com detail some TFA teachers’ experiences with unruly students and concerns about personal safety in classroom environments, while parents of TFA workers sometimes bemoan their high-achieving kids’ decision to work in school systems that they say failed to provide support.One testimony published on multiple Web sites describes an applicant’s nightmare situation. In his article “How I Joined Teach for America — and Got Sued for $20 Million,” former D.C. corps member Joshua Kaplowitz, a graduate of the University’s Law School, describes a workplace where he was reassigned from fifth grade to second grade, faced a physical threat by a parent in the classroom and received no support from his principal.Ultimately, Kaplowitz writes, a misunderstanding with a student resulted in charges, the loss of a job opportunity and a six-day trial. A parent allegedly saw Kaplowitz “shove” her child to another room — Kaplowitz writes that he merely “guided” the student — and sued the D.C. school district for $20 million, he wrote. Kaplowitz, who was ultimately acquitted in a civil suit, did not return multiple requests for comment.Curtis said such criticisms of the program, specifically concerning personal safety and reports that TFA teachers did not receive support from veteran teachers or administrators, are the exception, not the rule.“I never felt unsafe in the school district that I taught in or in the surrounding area, nor did I teach with anyone ... who felt that way,” Curtis said of her own experience as a TFA kindergarten teacher in Phoenix, Ariz. “Overall, most people who are doing TFA aren’t having these problems. I think we hear about the situations that are one of a lot of different teachers, and only one is having a bad experience.”While Pal cited concerns about teacher preparedness with her decision to drop out of the program, graduate Education student Michael Ripski said TFA offered consistent support and adequate training for his stint teaching science to seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade students in New Orleans for three years before Hurricane Katrina hit.“A lot of complaints about TFA [are] that teachers didn’t feel prepared, but I felt more than adequately prepared,” Ripski said. “I was helping other first-year teachers who didn’t go through TFA. I was helping them and teaching things I had learned during [summer training] because the training was so strong through TFA.”In fact, Ripski said, TFA offered more support than the principal at his school, which experienced 30 percent teacher turnover each year.“TFA talked to me three times during the year, came to check on my classroom,” Ripski said. “Three more times than my principal came into the classroom.”While Ripski experienced the lack of support that gave Pal pause, he said his personal safety was never a worry.“I never had any concerns about my safety,” Ripski said. “I more feared for my students’ safety, given the community in which they lived ... I don’t know of any other teacher personally who suffered any sort of injuries of any kind at school.”While Kaplowitz’s work in Washington, D.C. prompted him to leave the field of education, Ripski’s experience has led him to pursue a career in higher education.“I really enjoyed the day-to-day life of getting to know my kids, helping them academically and their curiosity about science,” Ripski said, noting that since Katrina hit, his students have continued to stay in touch with him, often crediting their decision to pursue college with his motivation and support.Though TFA is a rewarding experience for many teachers, it is simply not a great fit for every employee, Curtis said.“Some people slip through [the application process] that TFA wasn’t a fit for,” she said.Curtis anticipates that application numbers will increase throughout the year.
(07/14/08 4:00am)
Current undergraduate admissions numbers indicate that the University is achieving its goal of attracting more low-income students. University Dean of Admissions John Blackburn said in June that he hopes to see about a 10-percent increase in low-income students in the Class of 2012. Current numbers indicate a 5-percent increase in low-income students, or those students whose families generally make less than $40,000 annually.
(07/14/08 4:00am)
After nearly 25 years as the University of Virginia's head gatekeeper, John Blackburn, dean of undergraduate admissions, will retire at the end of the 2008-09 academic year.
(04/14/08 4:00am)
As many high school seniors contemplate their options for higher education at the end of an arduous college application process, for some, the real work has just begun. Amid a tightening credit market, many student lenders have stopped issuing federally backed loans, creating uncertainty for students seeking loans.
(03/17/08 4:00am)
The recent expulsion of a creative writing student at the University's College at Wise underscores the efforts of students and professors to pursue their creative work while negotiating the fine line between freedom of expression and protection of community members' safety.
(01/25/07 5:00am)
As students finalize living arrangements for the 2007-2008 academic year, those staying on Grounds can anticipate a significant increase in the cost of housing -- on average, University housing tenants will see a 9.6 percent hike in price.
(01/18/07 5:00am)
Recent passage of a bill by the House of Delegates' education subcommittee may grant the University's Board of Visitors the autonomy to control millions of dollars currently in restricted reserve funds.
(11/17/06 5:00am)
The Association of American Medical Colleges recently kicked off its campaign to combat the declining number of minority applicants to medical schools.
(11/09/06 5:00am)
Last night, the Associated Press reported Democrat Jim Webb appeared to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. George Allen in Tuesday's midterm elections, giving Democrats both chambers of Congress. Webb has begun to assemble a Senate transition committee while Allen has yet to announce whether he will concede or request a recount.
(11/07/06 5:00am)
Members of the University Democrats and College Republicans sparred over myriad issues including the Marshall-Newman Amendment, the war in Iraq and education policies last night in a pre-election debate sponsored by ArgHOOers and Student Council.
(11/01/06 5:00am)
A first-year University Law student was involved in an altercation with attendees at a campaign rally held yesterday for Sen. George Allen, R-Va., after asking the Senator if he spat on his first wife.
(11/01/06 5:00am)
As the Virginia Senate race remains in a dead heat and the House race gains increasing local attention, voters are left to reconcile character attacks and the candidates' stances on important issues as they decide who to support Nov. 7.
(10/24/06 4:00am)
Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., Democrat Al Weed and Independent Green Party candidate Joseph Oddo discussed issues ranging from Iraq to campaign finance to Medicare last night during their first televised debate. This is the second of four debates to be held as the candidates vie to represent Charlottesville and other municipalities within Virginia's Fifth District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
(10/18/06 4:00am)
Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., and Democratic challenger Al Weed will engage in their first televised debate Monday as the two candidates strive to represent Virginia's fifth district in the U.S. House of Representatives.
(10/17/06 4:00am)
As polls indicate a near dead heat in the final weeks of Virginia's U.S. Senate race, incumbent Republican Sen. George Allen and Democrat Jim Webb welcome support from President Bush and former President Clinton, respectively, both of whom will trek to Virginia Thursday to campaign for the candidates.
(10/12/06 4:00am)
Sharon Davie, director of the University's Women's Center, was recently named a Fulbright Senior Specialist by the Fulbright Program. This designation affords Davie the opportunity to share her expertise of issues pertinent to women around the world.