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(11/06/08 7:27am)
Starting next Tuesday, leftover and disposed food will not be wasted at Observatory Hill Dining Hall.Panorama Pay-Dirt compost company, University Dining Services, University Facilities Management recycling office and Green Dining have teamed up to implement a compost program for the high volumes of food waste generated at the busiest dining hall on Grounds.O-Hill serves about half of all dining hall meals on Grounds and was chosen to pioneer this project because the loading equipment needed to transport waste to be composted is in place there, University Dining Director Brent Beringer said.“It was an idea that we’ve been working on for a couple years,” Beringer said. “We hit roadblocks early on, but it all came together last spring.”The main roadblock involved government restrictions on composting. “What’s hindering food composting today are government regulations [because] food waste can cause pathogens,” said Steve Murray, founder of Panorama Pay-Dirt. “If it’s not composted properly, it could get into ground water.” Murray noted, however, this risk can be avoided with proper composting methods that involve killing harmful pathogens in food compost by exposing the waste to an environment heated to more than 130 degrees for a period of three weeks.Beringer said the University was granted permission for the project by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality mostly because the University will “involve students in the process” of measuring temperatures and pathogen levels.Daniel Michaelson, a third-year Engineering student and environmental science major, said he has been working to get the project off the ground for the last two years.Setbacks aside, “we managed to work it out with relative ease because the Department of Environmental Safety was so supportive,” Michaelson said, also noting that the project will play a part in Student Council’s planned Community Garden Project. "There’s been talk of a large-scale community garden in which the compost would be needed,” Michaelson noted.Murray said he hopes composting expands across Grounds.“It’s taking food full circle, all the way back to the ground,” he said. “It’s also the right thing to do. In today’s green world, it’s very beneficial.”The program may expand to other dining halls, Beringer said, depending on how successful it is at Observatory Hill Dining Hall.
(10/23/08 5:18am)
As midterms pass and final exams and projects loom nearer, it is important for students to maintain a healthy lifestyle in order to keep up their grade point averages, a recent study suggests.The 2007 College Student Health Survey Report, released earlier this year by the University of Minnesota’s Boynton Health Service, sought to quantify the effect that physical and emotional health have on students’ academic performances. The results, the study states, formulate a clear “link between the health of Minnesota undergraduate students and their academic achievement.”Nearly 10,000 students from 14 colleges and universities in Minnesota participated in the survey, which took into account each student’s cumulative grade point average and response to this question: “During the past 12 months, how have the following [21 issues] affected your academic performance?”The study, headed by Ed Ehlinger, director and chief health officer of Boynton Health Service, found that participants identified general stress, sleep difficulty, concern for troubled family members/friends, relationship issues and excessive computer/Internet use, as the issues, from an array of options, that most affected academic performance.The study found that of the 13 percent of students who reported an issue with excessive, non-academic computer or television use, 42.9 percent reported this use of their time affected their academic performance. Students who reported that such an issue affects their academic performance had an average GPA of 3.04, while students who did not report an issue with excessive television or computer use had an average GPA of 3.27.The study was dominated more by health issues than by poor time management, “a new area we have to do more work on,” Ehlinger said.The average GPA of those who said they had zero physical activity in the last seven days was 3.18, while students who said they had any physical activity — reported as low, medium or high — had average GPAs of 3.24 for low and high activity and 3.25 for medium levels of physical activity.Ehlinger noted that student health is not only an individual, but also a collective, effort. “We at the university level need to make sure there are enough health services available,” Ehlinger said. “The administration needs to have enough resources to really attend to [student] health needs.”Here at the University, several students reported that their health is a priority.“The culture of the University is to promote health,” fourth-year Commerce student Andre Grier said, referring to the Counseling and Psychological Services program and the Stall Seat Journal as health promotion efforts on Grounds.First-year College student Charlotte Bowden said she believes health is not only a part of the culture, but a founding principle of the University, noting “the quote from [Thomas Jefferson] when you walk into the [Aquatic and Fitness Center] that says you should devote at least two hours a day to exercise.”Now that his study’s results have been publicized, Ehlinger said he hopes all universities can push toward improved student health.“It really raises the issue that health is important,” Ehlinger said. “We really want universities to know so they can build their resources.”
(10/09/08 7:56am)
The Princeton Review ranked Darden professors No. 1 in the nation in the 2009 edition of “Best 296 Business Schools.”This is the second year in a row that the faculty, which includes more than 100 professors, has been awarded the top slot in the review.Darden Dean Robert Bruner said he believes “it is the passion for the learning experience for their students” that makes the professors at Darden stand out.“Academics are all busy with their many demands, and my colleagues show a great commitment to help[ing] students learn,” he said. “The community is honored to be recognized in so many different dimensions and in a very competitive field.”Instead of ranking schools in “best to worst” order, the ranking focuses on specific strengths of business schools across the country, according to a Princeton Review press release. Officials from the Princeton Review could not be reached for comment.The Princeton Review compiled the rankings by surveying, on average, 65 students at each of the 296 business schools featured in the book, the press release stated. Those 65 students were asked 80 questions pertaining to 11 categories.Along with top ratings in the “Best Professors” category, the Darden School ranked in the top 10 in five other areas, including “Best Career Prospects” and “Best Campus Environment.” Second-year Darden student Reid Thompson said his professors are deserving of the high status because of their availability and the depth of the relationships they develop with their students.“A big thing is accessibility,” Thompson said. “Outside of class, I’ve been to some of their houses for dinner. They’re very interested in our lives and our success.” The Darden community, while honored, aims for continued success, Bruner said.“We will sustain this investment in the future to ensure Darden’s continued prominence,” he said.
(09/25/08 4:17am)
Charlottesville General Registrar Sheri Iachetta will appear before a U.S. congressional committee today to discuss college students’ voting rights in the towns in which they study and reside.In appearing before Rep. Robert Brady (D-Pa.), who chairs the Committee on House Administration, and his peers, Iachetta intends to clarify these rights as they apply to Charlottesville and the commonwealth of Virginia.Although students are allowed to vote in the city where they attend school, Iachetta said she feels that few students are aware of that right and that some cities may be discouraging students from voting.“I have heard concerns from [other registrars] across the state that students are registering in dormitories,” Iachetta said. The problem other registrars may have with this, Iachetta said, is that students may not plan on staying in the communities in which they attend school after they graduate and should, therefore, not vote in those districts as short-term residents.Iachetta added, though, that she believes “determining a voter’s intent [to stay in the state] is not our job to decide.” According to Iachetta, Virginia has had a history with voter disenfranchisement among minorities and should be careful of discriminating against students as a minority voting group.“You don’t want to create a special class of citizen, especially in a voting rights state ... Students are being categorized and segregated,” she said. “They are young adults, it is their decision.”Iachetta noted that students contribute significantly to the communities where they attend college through volunteer work and by stimulating the economy in their adopted towns. She said Charlottesville in particular is a “bustling metropolis nine months of the year.”“Have you seen the corner in the summertime? It’s dead,” she noted.Eugene Resnick, an out-of-state third-year College student from New York who is registered in Charlottesville, said believes he has every right to vote in Virginia. As a member of the University Democrats, Resnick said he recalls an e-mail the organization’s members received from Iachetta.“I got an e-mail from her letting U.Va. students know that [they] can vote here,” he said. “She was actively saying ‘Vote. Please vote. You will be allowed to vote.’”Resnick said he chose to vote in Charlottesville rather than via absentee ballot because of how significant he believes Virginia will be this election.“We have an important congressional race [and a] very close presidential race,” he said.As an in-state resident of Stafford, Va., second-year College student Joanne Lucas said she has chosen to vote in Charlottesville as well. Along with the convenience of voting in Charlottesville, Lucas said she does not trust the absentee voting system. “There’s a lot of controversy around [it],” she said.Fourth-year Engineering student David Horres, on the other hand, said he has decided to vote by absentee ballot because he knows he won’t be in Charlottesville after he graduates.Jordan Fix, a second-year Engineering student and a Florida resident, said he is also voting by absentee ballot because he registered prior to coming to Charlottesville.“I feel like they’re both pretty close states,” he said. “Either way I might actually make a difference in terms of my vote.”Iachetta said overall she hopes to make sure students know they have a choice about where to make their vote count this election, whether through the mail or at a community polling place.Iachetta added that after her meeting with Congress today, she will continue to work closely with the General Assembly on clarifying the rights of student voters.
(09/11/08 4:51am)
The University Medical Center’s Surgical Intensive Care Unit has implemented a new antibiotic rotation method to try to ensure patients remain healthy during their hospital stays.The research team, headed by Dr. Robert Sawyer, co-director of the surgical trauma intensive care unit, looked to prevent bacterial staph infections common in hospitals — officially known as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus infections — from occurring in ICU patients.MRSA “is, in many hospitals, the most common cause of pneumonia developed in hospitals,” Sawyer said.Sawyer’s team used “cycling,” or switching the type of antibiotic medicine given to patients, to prevent them from contracting other illnesses caused by MRSA while they recovered.A different antibiotic would be used on patients every three months, Sawyer explained.“Other hospitals have done this with other bacteria, but we’re the first that we know of that has used it for MRSA,” Sawyer said, noting this method has proven very effective.“We have 25 to 35 new infections a year in our intensive care units,” Sawyer said. “And we were able to reduce that down to five to 10. MRSA decreased significantly.”Sawyer noted that MRSA has gained national attention because of the public health threat it has recently posed in communities; however, the infection has been a problem in hospitals for the past 30 to 40 years.After years of being unable to properly treat the infection in hospitals, “cycling has shown a lot of promise,” said Brian Swenson, University Hospital general surgery resident. He said he anticipates more medical centers will adopt the method, but also noted they will use it with caution.According to Sawyer, medical centers will need to be careful with the method because “anytime you expose any bacteria to an antibiotic, there is the risk of resistance.”During the study, the team worked with the microbiology lab to track what percentage of staph infections resisted the antibiotic used.“The bacteria could be resistant to a number of different antibiotics,” Sawyer said. “And that’s why we have to be very careful.”