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(09/01/09 8:28am)
The Health Resources and Services Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, recently awarded the Nursing School three grants for graduate students, totaling about $200,000.\nThe HRSA evaluates how the money has been used in the past for the reapplication and consideration of future monies. The University has received these grants for the past five or six years, demonstrating the strength of the nursing program at the University, said Clay Hysell, assistant dean for graduate student services at the Nursing School.\nOne of the grants, the Advanced Education Nurse Traineeship, gives $22,751 to assist students who are primarily from areas lacking in resources and addresses nursing shortages and issues of health care disparity, Hysell said.\nThe Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students, meanwhile, award $98,897 to students who are from economically underprivileged backgrounds.\nThe third grant, called the Nurse Faculty Loan Program, provides $90,000 in loans, 85 percent of which are canceled if recipients decide to assume faculty positions after graduation.\n"It helps make the faculty role look much more attractive, if you know that your loans will be canceled," Hysell said, noting that the program is intended to address the nation's current nursing shortage.\nThe grants "may not enroll more students but it will certainly allow those who are currently graduate students to go on with their aspirations and dreams with less debt," he noted.\n-compiled by Sara Guaglione and Katherine Raichlen
(08/28/09 1:29am)
An aggressive animal believed to be a fox attacked multiple students during the past two days near the Lambeth Field, Rugby Road and University Circle areas, Charlottesville and University police officers reported.\nCity police responded to an incident on Grounds around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, First Chief Timothy Longo said. A small mammal attacked a woman, taking her sweater, he said. It is unclear whether the alleged fox bit her.\nAt around 6 a.m. yesterday, city police officers responded to the next reported incident, involving a young woman bitten on one of her legs while jogging in the area around University Circle and Rugby Road, Longo said.\nLater that day around noon, a University student was attacked and bitten by a similar animal at the south end of the Colonnades, University Police Lieut. Melissa Fielding said. The alleged fox then ran toward the pump house railroad track area.\nSecond-year Engineering student Jarel Cohen witnessed the attack and helped the female student fend off the creature. Cohen was walking along University Circle when he heard the student screaming behind him.\n"There was this girl on the staircase, and this small animal - either a fox or a coyote - was jumping up and down," he said. "It was following her [and] kind of scratching at her."\nThe animal tore up the student's shoe and scratched her legs, feet and upper chest, Cohen said. He told the student to run away and then helped fight off the fox, Cohen said.\n"I got a pretty good blow from my backpack," he said. "It kind of crumpled up on the ground. I knocked it off of its feet and [it] kind of got up and ran back into the woods."\nSecond-year College student Taylor Carmines also was confronted by an aggressive fox-like animal, though he did not report the incident. At about 1:00 or 1:30 p.m., Carmines was riding his bike through the Lambeth complex when he passed the animal.\n"He kind of started walking toward me and then jumped at me and bit and climbed on to my shorts," he said. Carmines swung his leg and flung off the animal, which then got up and continued following him, he said. Carmines was not injured and said his assailant went back into the woods afterward.\nCarmines did not immediately identify the animal as a fox.\n"I thought it was a cat or something at first," he said, "and then I realized it was definitely not a cat." Cohen described the animal as "small and gray," measuring about a foot tall and weighing about 15 pounds.\nLongo said police forces are assuming the animal is a fox. "Based on the descriptors we've been given by the individuals involved, it appears that may be the case," he said, "but we don't know for sure."\nLongo said it is believed that the incidents involve the same animal.\n"Suffice is to say there's a relationship between these incidents," Longo said. "This is a moving target," he added, noting that incidents have occurred both on and off Grounds.\nThe University has hired a contractor to set out humane traps to catch the creature, Fielding said. For their safety, people in the area should try to avoid the prowling animal, she added.\n"If they see it, they should call 911 immediately and report the exact location of the fox," Fielding said. "We don't want them to confront it in any way or try to catch it"
(08/25/09 11:41pm)
The University again ranked second among public universities for 2010 in U.S. News & World Report's annual survey of the nation's colleges.\nThe University has been ranked as either the first or second public university since 1992 and has been among the top 25 universities overall since 1988. In the 2010 rankings, the University dropped from 23rd to 24th in the overall rankings, tying with the University of California at Los Angeles.\nThe rankings give a snapshot of where schools stand in relation to each other, based on available data, said Robert Morse, director of data research at U.S. News & World Report.\n"[They] don't measure all the complexities of a place like [the] University of Virginia or Georgetown or Harvard but they're accurate in the sense of using the data that we have in the rankings," Morse said.\nThe change in ranking was small, Leonard Sandridge, executive vice president and chief operating officer, stated in an e-mail, adding that "the change was so minor that it is hard to attribute it to any one thing."\nMorse agreed that the change in ranking was not very significant. "The rankings are fairly stable," he said. "They're usually small changes, but the changes themselves aren't that important."\nThe rankings are based on a number of weighted factors, Morse said. Academic reputation is the most important factor, followed by graduation retention and faculty resources. Admission data, financial resources and alumni giving data also are important, though given less weight.\nThe University was ranked 11th in graduation and retention, 35th in faculty resources, 29th in selectivity and 35th in alumni giving, Morse said. In academic reputation, calculated through peer assessment, the University had one of the highest scores, with 4.3 out of 5.\nIn financial resources, however, the University came in 64th, Morse said.\n"Historically, we have achieved higher rankings than our financial resources would suggest to be possible," Sandridge noted. "The budget cuts of recent years have not helped that situation."\nUniversity President John T. Casteen, III added that the commonwealth has consistently prioritized other items instead of education for the past twenty years.\n"Again this year, these [subscores] emphasize how very far behind Virginia is in its support for its public colleges and universities - support that is now very probably the lowest in the country," he stated in a press release.\nHe also noted that the University's ranking has helped to attract students, adding that it "underscores the quality of work done by faculty and staff members here."\nSandridge similarly credited the University's high ranking to the hard work of the faculty and staff.\n"Our intent is to do the best we can to provide an educational experience that is second to none and let the rankings take care of themselves," he stated.
(04/23/09 5:43am)
Beginning next year, New York University will no longer require applicants to submit SAT Reasoning Test scores, according to NYU’s Web site for Undergraduate Admissions. Students applying to NYU will have the option to submit the SAT Reasoning Test and two Subject Tests, the ACT with Writing Section, the SAT Reasoning Test and two Advanced Placement scores, three SAT Subject Tests in non-language areas or three AP scores in non-language areas. For the Subject Tests and AP scores, the applicants should submit scores in the humanities or literature, math or science and an area of choice.The University, meanwhile, will not change its requirements for standardized tests, Dean of Admissions Greg Roberts said, noting that he believes the current University policy remains adequate.According to NYU’s Web site, the school’s administration believes that a wider variety of test scores will benefit applicants. The change in policy was partially a result of NYU’s concern that talented students with lower test scores were discouraged from applying because of the increasing average SAT score of accepted students. Additionally, tests other than the SAT Reasoning Test are linked to subject mastery, and NYU’s research has shown that SAT Subject Tests and high school transcripts are better indicators of how a student will perform academically than the SAT Reasoning Test alone, the Web site stated.“At heart, [the change] is about giving students more choice in how they present themselves and about acknowledging the importance of subject mastery,” NYU spokesperson John Beckman stated in an e-mail.NYU’s change in policy is part of an overall trend in admissions, said David Hawkins, director of public policy and research for the National Association for College Admission Counseling. Colleges are showing increasing interest in reassessing the role of standardized testing in admissions, he said.Robert Schaeffer, the public education director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, said he sees any movement away from required standardized tests as positive. “In many cases, admission officers use [the SAT Reasoning Test] as a cheap — since they don’t pay for it, test takers do — and easy way to eliminate applicants,” Schaeffer said. “Of course, it’s a biased screen and one that ends up eliminating many applicants who could otherwise succeed in college.”He characterized NYU’s policy change as a step toward a test-optional admissions policy. “Some people want to take a giant step and some people want to take a smaller step, and we applaud them both,” Schaeffer said.The policy also can benefit students by allowing them to take one less test, Hawkins said. “I think that this would relieve some of the testing burden on students as they go through the application process,” he said. Another advantage of the change is reflected in a report commissioned by the National Association for College Admission Counseling, which “found that tests that are more linked to the curriculum, like AP exams or subject tests, are generally speaking more predictive of the freshman grade point average for students,” he said. The College Board’s 2008 SAT Validity Studies of 150,000 students nationwide, though, found that the SAT continues to be an excellent predictor of how students will perform during their first year of college, and that the SAT is a better predictor than high school grades for all minority groups, among other findings.Hawkins also identified a potential disadvantage because of the change, in that students could become confused with a wider range of different tests and requirements. “[This downside] doesn’t necessarily pertain to NYU because what they’ve done is they’ve given students options,” Hawkins said. “When it’s approached that way, it really does minimize the confusion because it’s not a requirement, it’s just an option.”Although NYU made the changes to its admissions policies, the University is not considering similar changes to its requirements for standardized tests, Roberts said. “Our process is holistic,” he said. “We look at everything the students submit and there is no formula.”Roberts noted that the SAT is evaluated in the context of the rest of the prospective student’s application.“We’re happy with the results we get currently,” Roberts said, adding that he supports NYU’s efforts to provide flexibility for students and to encourage lower-scoring students to apply. Apart from requiring the SAT Reasoning Test, Roberts said that most of the University’s admissions policies are very similar to NYU’s. “I found that in admissions, most schools are constantly evaluating their admission process and trying to determine which policies and programs are the fairest and most equitable for the students who are applying, and we do that as well,” Roberts said, “but to make a dramatic change like this would not be something that we would do overnight.”
(04/21/09 5:39am)
In light of recent alleged incidents targeting minority University students, the University administration’s responses to such bias-related occurrences continues to be a topic of discussion among students and officials on Grounds.Three additional incidents were reported to the University this weekend. Someone drove past Cohn’s on the Corner Thursday around 11 p.m. in a red Nissan Pathfinder and shouted a racial slur at a black student, said Lauren McGlory, a fourth-year College student and president of the Black Student Alliance. McGlory, who is a Lawn resident, also said someone wrote sexual vulgarities on her Lawn whiteboard both this weekend and several weeks ago. A statement from Dean of Students Allen Groves also noted an argument recently overheard on the Corner, during which one participant used a homophobic slur.McGlory said she believes these incidents constitute a violation of the community of trust. The University community needs to needs to ensure that people feel comfortable in their own rooms or on the Corner, she added. “Since we do rely on student self-governance, it’s left up to the students to try addressing different concerns,” McGlory said. “It’s great that we had the vigil on Thursday evening,” she added, referring to the response to the April 4 bias-motivated assault involving a male University student and his guest, “but we need the administration to remind students, certain actions that you do take ... do have repercussions or consequences.”When the Office of the Dean of Students receives reports of bias-motivated incidents, the dean on call is responsible for contacting the student who filed the report within 24 hours and asking to meet with the student to get more information, Groves said. After the meeting, the dean documents the details in an incident reporting system, and information is given to the police.If identified, perpetrators of these acts can be brought up on charges before the University Judiciary Council if their act violates the Standards of Conduct defined in the Undergraduate Record, Groves said. If the action is potentially criminal, the Office of the Dean of Students refers the matter to the police and offers support to the victim, he said.The Office of the Dean of Students then follows up with the student who filed the report to keep him or her aware of what actions are being taken and to offer support through Counseling and Psychological Services or assistance in contacting his or her professors, Groves said.Every year, the University also analyzes all of the past year’s bias reports to look for trends, Groves said. If any areas on Grounds appear to be especially dangerous, the Office of the Dean of Students might recommend increased police patrols around that area. If a particular community seems to be targeted, the Office of the Dean of Students contacts the Office of Diversity and Equity, as well as possibly an office or professor involved with the group, Groves said.Other actions that the Office of the Dean of Students may take could include issuing a statement from Groves about the incidents for informational and educational purposes, he said.Unfortunately, the University can only do so much about these incidents.“We have to be realistic about what we can and cannot control,” Groves said, adding that the administration is limited in its ability to control a stranger driving down the street and shouting something out his window.The administration also can ask the community to be alert about these incidents and support and inform the student body, Groves said. “Just because we can’t stop everything that happens, no different than any other place in society, doesn’t mean that we’re not able to show concern, compassion and support, which can be very important in a case involving bias,” he said.First-year Engineering student Seth Kaye, president of Queer and Allied Activism, said he had difficulty assessing the University’s effectiveness in responding to bias incidents.“I don’t want to diminish the University’s responsibility for these things,” he said, “[but] you can’t change people’s minds overnight just because they come to the University of Virginia.”— Prateek Vasireddy contributed to this article.
(04/16/09 5:52am)
A recent Kaplan survey found that the economic recession has influenced the number of students applying to law school, said Jeff Thomas, Kaplan director of Pre-Law Programs.Kaplan surveyed 1,400 students after they took the February LSAT, Thomas said. 40 percent of the students said the economy influenced their decision to apply either “a great deal” or “somewhat,” Thomas said.Increases in law school applications during economic downturns have occurred in the past, Thomas said.“During market downturns, nearly all of graduate programs, including law schools, often see a rise in the number of applications submitted,” he said, “because many students and young professionals will often see law school and graduate schools as a safe haven to ride out the challenging job market and make themselves more marketable and employable on the back end.” Most recently, law schools saw a 17 percent spike in applications in 2001, Thomas said. This year, the Law School saw an increase in applications of more than 20 percent, compared to a nationwide increase of 5.5 percent, Law School Dean of Admissions Jason Trujillo said.“I think the economy certainly has an effect,” he added, noting, though, that the rise in applications cannot be entirely attributed to the economy. An increase in national exposure, particularly through an increase in the number of Law School graduates clerking for Supreme Court justices, also likely affected the rise, Trujillo said. It is tough to determine the exact cause of the increase because the University does not ask for a reason on the application, he added.University Pre-Law Adviser Eileen Oswald agreed, saying it is unclear whether the recession has influenced University students interested in the legal profession.Oswald said the number of University students applying to law school has remained steady during the past few years. She has discussed the economy with students she advises, she said, but none of them have cited the economy as a reason for applying to law school.Instead, the recession is causing some students to reconsider whether they want to apply to law school, as they take the cost of graduate school and future job opportunities into account, Oswald said.“I don’t think it’s preventing them from applying,” she said, “but they have thought about it.”Students whose applications are currently being reviewed made their decisions last fall, before the economic downturn, Oswald said, so she may see the impact of the recession more in the future. For right now, though, the overall survey results are not reflected at the University, she said.“I get very few students that say that they want to [go into law] because there’s going to be a lot of money to be had,” Oswald said. “Most of them are doing it because they want to be a public servant.”Second-year College student Tony Reyes said he is not certain he wants to go to law school but is considering it because of the economy. “The job market’s going to be really competitive, so I guess the higher education, the higher degree you get, the better it makes you look when you’re trying to get that job,” he said. “Whether it’s business or law, that looks better when you’re trying to get a job.”
(04/09/09 5:27am)
With aid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act federal stimulus package, the Virginia General Assembly’s revised budget will provide the University with $10.7 million, helping offset Governor Tim Kaine’s recommended $23.1 million general fund cut, University spokesperson Carol Wood said. The stimulus dollars could reduce projected tuition increases.Legislators voted yesterday on the governor’s vetoes to various bills, none of which will affect higher education funding, at the General Assembly’s reconvened session. The net effect of the expected ARRA contribution will be a $12.4 million reduction of the University’s 2009-10 budget, she said. The stimulus funding will be provided during two years as temporary relief, Wood said.Because the stimulus funds are only for two years, however, the funding cannot be built into the University’s base budget, University Executive Vice President Leonard Sandridge said, noting that University schools and departments already have planned for the 2009–10 budget reductions.The funds likely will result in less significant tuition increases, which Sandridge said probably will be lower than the projected increases expected in the University’s six-year plan.“Although the governor placed no restrictions on tuition and fee increases, the ARRA [stimulus] funds are to be used to mitigate increases in tuition and fees,” Sandridge stated in an e-mail, adding that tuition will be set April 14 and voted on at the June Board of Visitors meeting.Tuition is normally approved at the April Board meeting, which occurred last week, but Wood said the decision was delayed to give the General Assembly time to approve the state budget.Sandridge said the federal funds help to alleviate fiscal problems but do not rid the University of all its financial concerns.“While the stimulus money helps, the University faces numerous unavoidable costs, such as AccessUVa, the operations and maintenance costs of new facilities coming online, and utilities,” Sandridge stated. “It is estimated that approximately one-third of the undergraduate in-state tuition increase will fund in-state need-based financial aid.”The $10.7 million the University will receive is part of $4.8 billion in federal funding allocated to the commonwealth, Wood said. Kaine designated $983 million for education efforts from kindergarten through higher education; $126.7 million of the commonwealth’s total allocation was specifically set aside for higher education, Wood said.The $4.8 billion also included a separate category for public safety and other government services like education. The state received about 9,000 proposals to fund various projects, Wood said. The University submitted about 20 proposals, she added. Kaine has decided to put a hold on the open bidding process, however. “At this point [the funding] will not be rewarded,” Wood said, “and he’s going to hold that money until he’s sure where the economy is going.”
(04/07/09 4:52am)
Construction is set to begin April 17 on the new Information Technology Engineering Building and the College’s physical and life sciences building, Board of Visitors member Daniel Abramson said.Rice Hall, the ITE building, will be made available for research and instructional programs. “It will have the most cutting edge equipment for teaching engineering students about information systems and computer science,” Abramson said.The plans for the building include a state-of-the-art auditorium, a cyber-lounge and various research labs, Engineering School Communication Director Josie Loyd stated in an e-mail. Other facilities will include workrooms, study areas and a courtyard.“This building is a huge step forward for the Engineering School in the area of information technology engineering,” Engineering School Dean James Aylor stated in an e-mail. “Constructed using sustainable design principles, with labs and study areas designed for collaborative research, and facilities to enhance our distance education programs, this building will benefit the School, the University and citizens of the Commonwealth for years to come.”Abramson agreed, noting that the building, paid for with general state funds and private gifts, represents an excellent example of 21st-century design at the University.“[Paul and Gina] Rice have given an extraordinary gift to the Engineering School for this project,” he said. “They are good friends and this is just an expression of their love for the University.”The six-story, 100,000 square feet building is scheduled for occupancy in fall 2011, Loyd stated.The physical and life sciences building, meanwhile, is also scheduled for occupancy in fall 2011, Media Relations Director Marian Anderfuren stated in an e-mail.The five-story, 100,000 square feet physical and life sciences building will offer new laboratory space for faculty members and their research groups. It will also hold scientific equipment and facilities that are shared by teams in the college and other areas of the University, Anderfuren stated.“This new laboratory building is an essential investment in the future of our research program in the sciences,” College Dean Meredith Jung-En Woo stated in an e-mail. “Its flexible lab space and advanced instruments will support the work of Arts & Sciences faculty and other scholars from across Grounds as they push the frontiers of science and seek solutions to many of the most pressing issues of our age.”The groundbreaking ceremonies for both buildings will begin at 3 p.m.
(04/02/09 6:30am)
The timing of the summer Democratic gubernatorial primary election may result in decreased voter turnout among college students, said Bruce Vlk, deputy director of programs for the University Center for Politics. Vlk said voter turnout will be down across all age groups because “primaries typically appeal to the diehard partisans anyway,” but it may be more difficult to mobilize student voters when they are not on campus.“We saw in the November presidential election the fact that students are gathered in one place, with the use of viral marketing, social networking, the get-out-the-votes efforts are much easier during the semester schedule,” Vlk said. “But it will present a challenge in June when the vast majority of students are out of school on vacation.”As a result, the three Democratic candidates — Sen. Creigh Deeds of Bath County, Del. Brian Moran of Alexandria and Terry McAuliffe — are not taking the youth vote for granted, Vlk said. He noted that they are reaching out to constituents with social networking tools. “The newer Web 2.0 social networking tools can certainly help to create a community when students are not physically together, but still there are gatherings and events and rallies and so forth that are still important,” Vlk said. “This gubernatorial primary will be a test to see if these new social networking tools can really get out the vote for the college age youth.” All three Democratic campaigns are looking to capitalize on these networking tools and technologies to reach students while they are not physically at school. The Deeds campaign is working to mobilize youth with Facebook, Twitter and text messaging, Deeds Campaign Manager Joe Abbey said. The campaign also is relying on grassroots organizations throughout the Commonwealth, including Students for Deeds, Abbey said.“We will be utilizing them to help us find the voters when they go back home and they’re off of the campus,” he said. “It’ll be easier to find somebody’s fans if one of our activists knows where they live.”Similarly, the Moran and McAufflife campaigns also are emphasizing grassroots organizations.McAuliffe spokesperson Lis Smith said there are currently 12 chapters of Students for Terry across the state and two staffs dedicated to building a state-wide group. “We are using our college chapters to reach out to young voters and to encourage them to use absentee ballots if they will not be in state at the time,” Smith said.The Moran campaign will stress absentee ballots as well, Moran spokesperson Jesse Ferguson said.The campaign for Bob McDonnell, the only Republican gubernatorial candidate, sees the contested Democratic race as an advantage, McDonnell spokesperson Tucker Martin said. “Frankly, it allows us to run a general election campaign,” he said. “We’re talking to every voter in Virginia, while they’re talking to a very narrow, left-leaning base of the party.”Vlk noted, though, that such targeted campaigning also have the potential to prove beneficial. Focusing a great deal on the youth vote in the upcoming election may be advantageous to the Democratic campaigns, he said, even if the timing of the party’s primary election is not conducive to significant student turnout. “These campaigns are really relying on college age youths for their energy [and] for their time as far as volunteering in the campaign.”The Democratic primary is scheduled for June 9. The winner of the Democratic nomination will face McDonnell Nov. 3.—Daniel Boyle contributed to this article
(03/31/09 5:19am)
Thomson Reuters recently ranked the University Medical Center as one of the 100 Top Hospitals in the United States and one of the top 15 major teaching hospitals.This is the eighth time the hospital has been named one of the 100 Top Hospitals, University Health System spokesperson Sally Jones said.“The hospital’s very proud to have received this honor yet again,” she said. “The 100 Top Hospitals are chosen because they have higher survival rates, keep more patients complication-free and have lower expenses — all while maintaining financial stability. It’s a testament for us that we’re able to maintain the highest level of excellence.”The rankings are based on a measurement of the reliability and strength of the hospital in serving the community, said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president for performance improvement and 100 Top Hospitals at Thomson Reuters. The specific rankings are not released because the goal of the survey is to come up with a common benchmark.“The balanced score card requires that you look at a series of major performance areas that are important for the hospital to function well as an organization,” she said, “and all of our measures are equally weighted.”Thomson Reuters uses only publicly available data like Medicare billing files and Medicare cost reports that reflect the costs and expenses of the entire hospital, Chenoweth said. The rankings are also based on patient satisfaction, adherence to evidence-based medicine and clinical quality.“Core measures are reflective of treating the patient the way they should be treated according to standard practices of care,” she said. Thomson Reuters allows for the fact that different hospitals should be measured by different standards, though. It adjusts the rankings in terms of risk, so that hospitals with very sick patients are not unfairly compared to hospitals without them, Chenoweth said. Hospitals are also divided based on their type and size. The University Medical Center, therefore, is compared with other major teaching hospitals, whereas a hospital like Martha Jefferson Hospital is compared to other medium-size community hospitals.Chenoweth noted that the entire Charlottesville community has a strong health system because both hospitals have been on the list of top hospitals.Hospitals on the list have strong cultures of performance improvement and care quality, Chenoweth said. “It’s an organization where change and improvement is a constant, rather than a major event,” she said. A hospital on the 100 Top Hospitals list is cognizant of patient satisfaction, able to react quickly to change and active in seeking to improve efficiently, Chenoweth said.“U.Va. has consistently been a very high performer over the years, and not just across the clinical measures,” she said, explaining that the University Medical Center has high scores on patient perception of care and is financially secure.“That’s the meaning of being a benchmark hospital,” she said. “It’s setting the bar very high which for other hospitals to follow, and the beneficiary is your community.”
(03/27/09 6:02am)
In response to a 3.2 percent budget reduction, the University Library announced a series of proposed changes for the 2009-10 fiscal year Tuesday. The proposals aim to save money while still maintaining current operations, said Charlotte Morford, director of communications for the University Library.To deal with a loss of $720,000, the proposed changes include reducing operating costs, staff travel and maintenance costs, Morford said. The University Library also will work to renegotiate the annual percentage price increase for online databases and journals from 7 to 5 percent, she added.Furthermore, the Library will adjust the way it builds collections. The University Library will lessen its use of approval plans — agreements where publishers ship books automatically, to purchase books — and instead purchase books based on individual requests, Morford said. The University Library will also purchase books based on the recommendations of selectors, staff members who work with faculty and students in their area of expertise. Including the cost of processing and postage and other fees, this change alone could save $400,000 out of a $6.6 million budget for collections, Associate University Librarian Carol Hunter said.Other cost-cutting measures include not renewing leases for stand-alone public computers or replacing broken machines, Morford said. This is an incremental change that will occur with time, she said, noting that there always will be public machines available to access library resources. The University Library is not closing any of its computer labs, including the Scholars’ Lab, the Digital Media Lab and the Research Computing Lab, Hunter said.“Those will still be running full steam ahead,” she said.Student jobs also will remain in the budget, Morford noted. Hiring is cyclical and will continue to be conducted on a semester-by-semester basis, taking into account student availability, she said.Hunter said she does not expect these changes to impact students.“We’re maintaining the access to the intellectual content that the students and the faculty need to do their work,” she said.According to the University Library Web site, visitors and community members are invited to share their ideas about cost-cutting measures, Morford said.“We’re open to all ideas,” she said. “We look at this as sort of a collaborative challenge.”
(03/24/09 5:53am)
In developing SpermPaint, a substance that causes sperm to glow when examined under a florescent microscope, University researchers have found a new method to analyze rape kits. Researchers previously identified two proteins, ESP in the heads of sperm and CABYR in the tails, which are only found in sperm cells, said Daniel Rausa, a third-year College student and undergraduate researcher. Rausa worked with Cell Biology Prof. John Herr, director of the Center for Research in Contraceptive and Reproductive Health, then used SpermPaint to find these proteins and attach to them, causing the parts of the sperm cells to glow under a fluorescent microscope, he said.“Where it could take someone five hours to find one sperm cell [under the current methodology,” Rausa said, “it could take me close to a minute to find a sperm cell, because it’s just going to glow right in front of me.”SpermPaint, which consists of monoclonal antibodies and a fluorescent dye, could revolutionize forensic analysis of rape kits, enabling scientists to quickly identify sperm cells and analyze samples collected years ago, Rausa said. The substance will also allow scientists to more effectively analyze samples taken up to three days after an assault, which is difficult using current techniques.In many states, a sample for a rape kit must be collected within 72 hours because the heads and tails of sperm cells start to separate, Rausa said. Forensic scientists currently use a “Christmas tree” stain — a type of tri-color stain — to analyze the swabs in rape kits and can only identify intact sperm cells, Herr said.The samples taken from sexual assault swabs often include bacteria and yeast, among other obstructions, Herr said. It therefore becomes very difficult and time-consuming to identify sperm cells in a forensic setting, Rausa said.SpermPaint, however, can help identify broken sperm cells. Because SpermPaint also works much faster than the current methodology, it may help to reduce the backlog of evidence found in almost every court, Rausa said. “Confirmation of a sperm continues to be one of the central pieces of testimony of sexual assault cases,” Herr said. Women who may not have been able to find success in court yet may do so with SpermPaint, Rausa added.“Justice can be achieved, because you don’t need an intact sperm cell,” Rausa said. “You can just have a head or a tail.” This also may encourage rape victims to come forward with their cases, Rausa said. Women whose rape kits were collected 72 hours after their assault could be more likely to take their cases to court.Rausa is currently working on clinical trials, using the protocol for SpermPaint to analyze mock rape kits to test the reagent’s effectiveness and stability. A standard operating procedure must also be developed, he added.About 360 forensic laboratories across the country will begin to use SpermPaint after a paper is published about the findings, Herr said. Rausa said he expects to finish collecting and analyzing data this fall.
(03/23/09 6:27am)
Amid the current economic crisis, a common perception across the country is that many college and university humanities departments are feeling pressured as people worry about how a degree in the humanities will connect to a future career. Though the University is among the many schools facing state budget cuts, its humanities departments are staying strong, attracting students and effectively preparing them for careers, University officials and professors said.A Historical ContextThe debate about the practicality and usefulness of studies in the humanities is not new, said Richard Handler, associate dean of undergraduate academic programs. “This goes back a hundred years, at least in the history of American higher education,” he said, “this tension between ... the notion of practical education versus the notion of a liberal arts education, or a humanities education.”During his 30 years of teaching, Handler said, he has continually observed students struggling to decide between a major in subjects like economics or subjects like philosophy.“I think it’s important to look at these sorts of issues historically,” said Bruce Holsinger, assistant dean of the arts and humanities. The humanities have gone through periods of growth and periods of contraction, he explained. After spiking in the late 1980s, they have remained stable for the past 20 years, he said. It is too early to discern the effects of the current recession, he added.“There may be more intense anxiety at the present moment because the collapse of global capitalism’s quite stunning and people are quite frightened,” Handler said, “but it’s not a new issue.” Tension between the idea of making money for money’s sake and learning for learning’s sake has existed in the United States for considerable time, he added.“You might want to say money’s more powerful,” Handler said, “but it’s not powerful enough to balance love or culture or education.” There will always be advocates for education and knowledge, he said.Many students at the colleges and universities across the nation have started pushing in recent months more for pre-professional and practical courses, but Holsinger described this trend as mere “noise at the surface level." “[The American university is] the institution in the society that’s entrusted with ... the pursuit of knowledge for the sake of knowledge,” Handler added, “and even though there’s always pressure on that ideal ... nonetheless the society continues to believe in that.”The Humanities at the UniversityThe current recession is impacting University humanities departments, but budget cuts are occurring across the board, without targeting specific fields of study, Handler said.“It was more a question of looking at every program and seeing where you could save money, every department, every program,” Handler said.The University faced cuts this year, but more money will be cut next year, he noted.Budget cuts result in less travel funding for faculty to attend meetings or access sources, Vice Provost Milton Adams said. In addition, “not being able to hire faculty affects everyone, including the humanities departments,” he said. Although the University is not conducting layoffs, it also is not necessarily filling vacant positions, he said. “It may ultimately mean fewer classes offered and classes that have more students in them,” Adams said.Meanwhile, cuts aimed specifically at the humanities departments are very unlikely, Handler said. “I don’t see a university simply deciding, ‘humanities are useless; we’re going to cut humanities,’” he said. “Universities don’t believe that. I suppose it could happen but I don’t see it.”Within the University, there has been very little pressure on humanities departments to justify themselves, partially because of the strength of these departments, Handler said. “The University of Virginia has traditional strength in humanities across the board,” said Jeffrey Plank, associate vice president for research. “The humanities are some of the jewels in the academic part of the University.”Despite the current economic and budget situations, professors and officials have not noticed a decrease in the popularity of study in the humanities. The number of English degrees has been about the same for the past several years, English Department Chair Jahan Ramazani said. History Department Chair Duane Osheim also said he has not seen any immediate changes, adding that he would not expect to.Even if students are not majoring in the humanities, they take courses in the area, Handler said.“We have so many good students here who want to take so many good courses, that we don’t have departments who are literally ... teaching empty classrooms,” he said. During his time as a dean, a lack of student interest in humanities has never been a problem, Handler said.Collaborating across disciplinesThe humanities also interact and collaborate with other areas of study at the University, Holsinger said. For example, the recent Poe exhibition at the Harrison Institute was a collaboration between the College and the University libraries. In addition, there are projects that specifically work with both the humanities and scientific research, Plank said.“What we hope we can do is to preserve and enhance that traditional value [of the University humanities departments] by looking for projects that combine the strengths of the humanities and the strengths of the sciences and engineering,” he said.One example of this is a multi-disciplinary faculty group looking at sustainability, particularly about conservation of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, he said.“We believe that we have a lot of scientific information about watershed ecosystems and about solutions to pollution problems,” he said, “so why don’t we behave more sustainably? What kind of information would change our behavior? In our group, answers to questions like these come from scholars in the humanities, and the social sciences, especially psychology.”Historians and anthropologists could both assist from unexpected vantage points, he said. Historians could offer methods for explaining and effecting change, while anthropologists could explain the cultural underpinnings of behavior, Plank said.Collaborative research on a wider, global scale also relies on the humanities, he said.“Our experience is that, despite the ease of communication, you can’t compress the time that it takes to form trusted relationships,” Plank said, “and trusted relationships across cultural boundaries require a kind of sophistication about those aspects of human behavior that we assign to the humanities in our modern institutions.”Beyond the UniversityThe humanities are also connecting with institutions outside the University by building a strong relationship with the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, Holsinger said. They are operating in new ways, collaborating through the Fellows Program and the Sesquicentennial Faculty, a sabbatical leave program, he said. The VFH also sponsors the Virginia Festival of the Book, part of the public outreach aspect of the humanities, Holsinger said.The public function of the humanities is one of its most practical aspects, he said. Each time a student group goes to a museum and learns about art, history or other topics, “what they’re learning comes from advanced research in the humanities at universities,” he said. This research is also behind student textbooks about history, literature, world cultures and geography, Holsinger added.“That’s one of the strongest arguments for sustaining and enriching the role of the humanities in the 21st century,” Holsinger said, “that practical, public interface that the humanities has always provided between the University and our culture at large.”Careers through the humanitiesTypically, students with a specific skill set — those who studied outside of the humanities — land jobs more easily than humanities majors, Osheim said, but the effects of the recession should be taken into account.“It’s a lousy market, but I don’t know that it’s a better market for some relatively speaking than for others,” he said. “I think even for those people [with specific skills], things are tougher now than they were a year ago.”In light of the recession, Ramazani said a broad, flexible background may have more advantages than a specific, skills-focused background. “I think, in fact, you limit yourself by not getting a degree in the humanities,” he said. Investment banking, for example, is a field that requires narrowly targeted training but that has now disappeared, Ramazani said. “What happens if, as happened recently, the jobs in some particular sector ... evaporate, and that’s what you’ve been training for?” he asked. “I think this is the moment to get the broadest, most flexible foundation possible, now more than ever.”Holsinger also sees advantages to studies in the humanities.“In fact, students who do a double major in a humanities and a science discipline will write a much better application for medical school or law school,” he said. “They’ll be better critical thinkers in a business environment because they’ll have learned to ask a richer set of questions than they would have through pre-professional training alone.”Osheim noted that humanities graduates may have more difficulty obtaining a job, but said their liberal arts background can be useful for future career advancement.“I think if you were to talk to liberal arts graduates from 15 or 20 years ago who are now in business, they probably would tell you that it took them a little bit longer to get into the door,” Osheim said, explaining that recruiters come to Grounds looking for those students with specific skill sets. But those who study humanities can advance in companies because their broad backgrounds lend themselves to more basic and transferable skills, he said.Compared to the SciencesJobs may be available in fields outside the humanities, but that does not mean that everyone will succeed in those fields, Osheim said.“The [majors] that might guarantee you a job quite often are ones that a student might feel they have no interest or ability in,” he said. A student may become a third-rate computer programmer, but it’s difficult for a third-rate computer programmer to find work, he noted. “So, just saying that there are jobs in field X doesn’t really do you any good if you don’t have a skill set that matches that kind of job.”But students majoring in the physical sciences are more likely to have better chances of finding a job, Physics Department Chair Dinko Po?ani? said, though that is not the only issue when it comes to choosing a major.Po?ani? spoke of potential barriers to studying the sciences at the University level, including the need to have an affinity for the sciences and solid high school preparation. A student can enter the University with a strong background in math and physics and choose to study poetry, but doing the opposite is much more difficult, Po?ani? said.“It’s not impossible, but they may have to do a lot of catching up,” Po?ani? said.That is not to say the physical sciences are more difficult or important than the humanities, Plank said.“There may be a demand for scientists and engineering folks for positions in companies that can convert their intellectual property into a kind of [tangible] economic value,” Plank said. “We would argue in the vice president for research’s office that the intellectual property produced by the people in the humanities is every bit as valuable, perhaps more so, but our modern economy doesn’t place an economic value on that intellectual property the same way it does for the sciences and engineering.”Parental PressureChanging one's area of study and the general movement away from the humanities might be the result of external pressure. Some parents tell their students to focus on pre-professional studies or other areas outside the humanities, Handler said.“Some [students] do want to go to the Commerce School, and some do want to be [economics] majors,” he said. “I’m just saying that the pressure for those departments is often external. If you left the students alone, they would want to take the variety of courses they can find in the College.”Osheim agreed that there may now be more parental pressure on students to justify their majors.“It’s not necessarily related to a better understanding of the market, but just fear,” he explained. “Parents worry about where their children are [going to] have jobs and they don’t necessarily understand the market or how you get into these things ... [They] would just like to be assured that [their] kids are going to be OK.”First-year College student AJ Delauder said she is hoping to major in neuroscience and is considering medical school. Nevertheless, these goals are not influenced by her parents, Delauder said.“The only thing my parents ever insisted is that I like what I do,” she said, noting that the economic turmoil has not had an effect on her future plans, either. Those plans will only change if her interests do, Delauder said.On the other hand, Second-year College student Colleen Beichert — who said she is considering double-majoring in economics and Spanish — noted that she always tries to gauge what she will be able to do with her potential majors.Beichert said her mother is also concerned about her future career. “It’s that she wants to make sure I’ll be able to market myself, especially in the current job market,” Beichert said.The parental pressure some humanities students face has always been a fact of life, Holsinger said. The success of graduates from humanities departments will hold up well against graduates from the professional schools during the next decade, he said.“I think the response to [parental pressure], and the response that I encourage students to give to their parents, is that ... the College is not a vocational school; it’s a liberal arts college within a great research university.”
(03/12/09 5:23am)
Research conducted by University and University of Michigan professors may help future efforts to treat addictions of all types, said Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences Prof. Ming Li. The research, which focused on the genetic components of addictions, showed that some genes affect multiple addictions, said Li, who co-authored a paper about the research with Margit Burmeister, research professor for the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute at the University of Michigan. Nature Genetics Reviews will publish the paper in April, Li said.The paper is an overview of all relevant recent data and literature, but also gives a list of genes and genomic regions that are common for multiple addictions, Li said.Members of the scientific field agree that genetic, environmental and other factors cause addictions, but “it has been very hard to nail down the genetic vulnerability or protective factors,” Burmeister said. Researchers found chromosomal regions that affect multiple addictions, including nicotine, cocaine, opiate, heroine and alcohol, Burmeister said, though they have not yet located the specific genes. Knowing what general regions the genes are in, though, should make finding the specific genes easier “because we can go to this area instead of searching the whole genome,” Li said.In addition to discussing research about chromosomal regions, the paper also focuses on candidate gene association analysis and the broader approach of genome-wide analysis, Li said, explaining that these areas of research deal with comparing specific genes with what addictions those genes may be associated with. The paper examines the five genes that are most likely associated with multiple addictions and includes a long list of all candidate genes likely associated with addictions, he said.The findings discussed in the paper will not immediately affect the treatment of addiction, but “it makes a difference in how we go about research,” Burmeister said. Researchers will now be able to perform meta-analyses, which are combined analyses of multiple addictions, she said.Further research could help direct the future of medicine development for addiction, Li said, explaining that scientists have three general goals: to search for genes from the linkage regions, work to replicate important genes in independent samples and try to determine the function of genes. Researchers will then be able to use those genes for potential drug development, Li said.“[The paper] may not change the way addictions is treated right away,” he said, “but it sets up [a] new target for ... new medicine development for the future treatment of addiction.”
(03/10/09 5:31am)
BusinessWeek recently named the University’s Commerce School as the No. 1 undergraduate business school in the country in the magazine’s fourth annual rankings.The rankings are based on five measurements, BusinessWeek staff writer Geoff Gloeckler said. The first is a survey of senior business students at 137 universities, which asks about their overall experiences with admissions, teaching, classes and career services. The second measurement is a survey of company recruiters.“They’re asked to give us the top school in their mind in terms of who’s producing the best graduates and the best hires for them,” Gloeckler said. The third factor is “academic quality,” which includes factors such as SAT scores, student-teacher ratios and class sizes. The rankings also consider the starting salaries for students who enter the workforce after graduation and the “MBA feeder rank,” which looks at how many graduates are entering top MBA programs, Gloeckler said.The BusinessWeek rankings are the result of research and calculations, not the opinion of BusinessWeek, he said. Commerce School Dean Carl Zeithaml said the primary factor in the Commerce School’s ranking was a high level of student satisfaction.“That result comes from decades of great students, dedicated faculty and staff who work to create a great curriculum and great experience for our students and alumni and recruiters who are loyal to the school and consistently come back to engage with the program [and] hire our students,” Zeithaml said. “The entire cycle essentially feeds on itself.”Zeithaml said he believes this cycle, as well as years of hard work, have resulted in recognition for the University like BusinessWeek’s ranking. “Our students have a great experience and they’re still getting jobs in a tough economy,” he said, explaining why the Commerce School stands out from other undergraduate business schools.Zeithaml also noted that the culture of the school contributes to its high rankings.“It starts with the community,” Zeithaml said. “The McIntire community that we really try to develop and the sense that our students are important and are the center of that community is something we really try to emphasize.”Until this year, the Commerce School had been ranked the No. 2 undergraduate business school for three years in a row, in the company of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and Notre Dame’s undergraduate business school.“I think that everybody takes great pride in being No. 1,” Zeithaml said. “I believe that in some ways it’s kind of a final validation of the way everybody feels about the school.”The academics and degrees at each of these schools are valued, Gloeckler said, but each school also benefits from an influx of recruiting.“The bigger companies, the more well known and respected companies are visiting campuses more and are looking more to the students on the top,” Gloeckler said. “These students are going to have an easier time getting the most desirable positions.”Fourth-year Commerce student Alan Wayne said though rankings were a factor in his decision to enroll at the University, the reason why he chose McIntire was because of the firms that recruit students. Wayne added that his experience with the Commerce School has been profitable in more ways than one.“They’ve been helpful in every way that I hoped they could be,” Wayne said. “They’ve helped me get a great job and learn anything I wanted to learn.”Wayne said he also has benefited from the Integrated Corporate Experience program, which may have helped set the Commerce School apart from elite schools like Wharton and New York University. The Commerce School’s emphasis on hands-on case projects and group work helps students transition more easily to working in the real world, Wayne added.The No. 1 ranking also could help Commerce students if the school gains name recognition as a result, which Gloeckler said is the greatest benefit of BusinessWeek’s rankings.“In the case of Wharton, people just assume that Wharton’s at the top,” he said, which may not be true “for a school like McIntire that might not be as recognizable as a name.” If the Commerce School gains more name recognition, it also may maintain its top-ranked position for a longer time, he added.It is not only the Commerce School, though, that may benefit from the positive review.“I think it’s great for the whole University,” Zeithaml said. “We all need good news these days, and I think that for everybody involved in the School and ... for the University, it’s nice to have this recognition during a tough time.”
(02/26/09 6:57am)
The University Hospital will soon begin a series of long-planned renovations and construction projects, including the continued construction of the Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center and the addition of 72 private rooms to the hospital, Chief of Environmental Care Tom Harkins said.The hospital also is planning for a new pediatric outpatient facility, as well as a bridge over Lee Street connecting the hospital to the new cancer center, which will serve as an outpatient clinical cancer facility, Harkins said.He noted that a significant number of renovations will take place inside the main University Hospital building, including the refurbishment of all patient rooms, a major renovation to the radiology suite and the construction of new operating rooms and nine new procedure rooms for interventional cardiology. The expansions are in response to the growing demands for healthcare, Harkins said.“The need for beds is a critical need,” said Luis Carrazana, University architect for research and clinical programs. He said the hospital now has many days when it is at capacity.“Literally all the beds in the hospital are full and that happens more often then we would like,” Carrazana said.The expansion includes the addition of a nursing unit and single-patient beds per floor, Carrazana said. The beds will be multiple acuity, meaning they can shift from a standard bed to an acute care bed.New technology is another driving force behind the expansions.The University Hospital is more than 20 years old, which is about the lifespan of a hospital system, Carrazana said.As new equipment becomes available, the hospital needs to ensure it has the latest technology available for its patients, Harkins said. The hospital will need differently sized rooms and different mechanical systems to support the equipment, he said.A budget of $500 million was allocated for all the projects, Harkins said. He added that the Emily Couric Cancer Center will be completed next year and that the hospital bed expansion will be complete by the end of 2011. The pediatric outpatient facility will be completed in 2013.Construction of the cancer center is currently underway. “It’s a state of the art cancer center,” Carrazana said. “People come from all over the state to get treatment here.” The benefits of the expansion therefore are not limited to the local area, Carranza said.“It will give us the opportunity to see more patients who are members of community and provide absolute state-of-the-art care in the hospital,” Harkins said.—Kate Colwell contributed to this article.
(02/24/09 6:17am)
After a week of University-wide elections, the results for the annual class council elections were revealed last night in Maury Hall.Third-year College students Sarah Elaine Hart and Emily Draper were elected the Fourth Year Trustees president and vice president, respectively. In uncontested elections, second-year College student Yassee Pirooz and second-year Engineering student John Buttram won the offices of Third Year Council president and vice president. First-year College student Dan Morrison was chosen to serve as Second Year Council president, while current First Year Council Vice President Nancy Park will serve as vice president for Second Year Council.“We’re really ecstatic and excited for next year,” Hart said, speaking on behalf of both Draper and herself. “We’re just really excited to bring the Class of 2010 together over the next six years.”Morrison said he wants to approach student government more openly because many students are not familiar with how the various class councils work.“I definitely want to increase the outreach, increase the visibility,” he said, adding that he wants to focus on working with fellow students and doing what they want, rather than working based on assumptions about the class. Increasing the transparency of the class councils will help in this regard, he said.Morrison also said he hopes for a smooth transition into the role of Second Year Council President.“I’ve had a lot of experience working with a lot of First Year Council,” he said. “And I hope to see a lot of familiar faces on Second Year Council working as the same team.”
(02/19/09 7:42am)
The Information Technology and Communication office currently is considering the elimination of about two-thirds of its student jobs as part of a change in the technical help desk model, said Michael McPherson, University associate vice president and deputy chief information officer.ITC currently employs about 90 students in various roles, including answering phones at the help desk, working at walk-in locations and serving as consultants in dormitories, he said. The new model would call for about 30 dormitory consultant jobs, while removing other positions, McPherson said.For now, though, ITC student employees are guaranteed their positions through the end of this semester, McPherson said.These job losses would result from a University-wide shift in help desk sourcing, said Terry Lockard, director of computing support services. Instead, help desk functions would be outsourced to a professional call center available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, she said. People seeking help would call the same number for assistance with ITC problems, the new Student Information System and administrative system, Lockard said.Currently, ITC technical help is available by phone from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, excluding holidays, as well as at various walk-in consultation areas in libraries and computer labs. Other technical help, such as if an employee is having difficulties with his or her payroll, is available through separate phone numbers.McPherson said there would be two main advantages to the new system. Right now, with different phone numbers for different types of assistance, “you have to do some of the problem solving yourself and decide who to call as the first step,” he said. Calling the same number regardless of the nature of a concern is a “real advantage,” he said, as is having coverage all day, everyday.University groups are still determining the scope of this project, working out the fine details of what it would entail for both an outside company and the University, Lockard said. The proposal will be submitted to University administrators for approval during the next few months, she said. If approved, the University would enter into negotiations with a company and eventually reach a final contract.“It looks like a very attractive option,” he said. “I think it would provide a better service, more hours of service, so I would like to see it work. [But] that doesn’t mean we’re going to make it happen no matter what.”Most people using the service would probably not notice a change, aside from those who benefit from the extended hours, but it represents a major change from a structural and business system standpoint, McPherson said. Though the change looks like a good deal, “we need to make sure that we do understand the cost structure,” he said. “We don’t want to get surprised one or two years from now.” McPherson said it is important to understand how the volume and complexity of calls to the help desk might change the final cost of the proposal.Lockard described the new model as “cost-neutral” for ITC because the funds allocated for students’ salaries would simply shift to an outside company.“We’re not going to have a help desk here if we have one there,” she said. “We don’t need the people here answering the phone if we’ve outsourced it.”Second-year College student Morgan Gibson, who works for ITC both at a self-help desk and in dormitories, said the University has not given student employees much information about the possible change, however. She was told that “it’s a possibility that it’ll be outsourced to the company, and that’s about it,” she said, and “just that probably towards the end of the semester, we probably won’t have jobs anymore.”Gibson works an average of 15 to 20 hours a week, she said, spending between 10 to 12 hours at the help desk. Losing her job will limit her spending money, but she is less impacted than other students may be because she said she is not paying for school herself.“I think if I have to, I can try to find another job,” she said. “But really, that’s it.”Current ITC student employees without cars will be more affected because they may have difficulty finding jobs off-Grounds, Gibson said.Even though fewer student employees may be available for in-person consultation, Gibson does not necessarily see this as a disadvantage in terms of service quality. “We get a pretty large number of calls at the help desk everyday,” she said. “I would say 85 to 90 percent of those are solved over the phone.”Fourth-year College student Monique Alofoje also said the on-call nature of the new model appeals to her. “If you have a problem over the weekend, you shouldn’t have to wait until Monday to get it fixed,” she said.She expressed some concern, however, about the lack of in-person assistance. It might always be “more helpful to have someone in person,” she said, adding that she worries that “[help over the phone] would take longer than if someone could actually looked at the computer.”McPherson said ITC may bring back some of the walk-in consulting services if telephone service does not work as well as anticipated.“Our initial thinking is that it could be handled over the telephone and that could provide a level of service that is quite satisfactory, but we’d have to calibrate that as we go along,” McPherson said.Fourth-year College student Cory Caldwell said the effectiveness of the new help desk system would depend on individual circumstances. “For some students, the change could become very useful,” Caldwell said. “I could imagine it being good for some people but worse for others.”
(02/17/09 6:35am)
The University’s Information Technology and Communication office will phase out computing labs to enable a more flexible computing experience, beginning with the removal of 125 computers this summer, said Michael McPherson, University associate vice president and deputy chief information officer.ITC currently provides about 400 computers in public labs, but plans call for the removal of almost all University public computers by summer 2011, he said. “Especially when the budgets are tight, we’re always looking for the most efficient way to do what needs to be done,” McPherson added.In light of constantly changing technologies and new ideas, “we always have to look for ways to economize on existing services or eliminate services that we feel are lower priority than the new things that people want,” McPherson said. “We certainly hope this will be, [in terms of the budget], a net win, freeing up money for us to put toward new projects and new services.”Students typically use University public computers for programs they may already have, such as Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer and Firefox, he said. Under the new plan, rather than students physically going somewhere to compete for a computer to use those applications, programs instead will be available on the University’s network, anywhere, anytime, he said.“There’s a whole world of possibility that’s opened up in delivering applications remotely,” McPherson said, referring to the emerging field of desktop virtualization.Students most likely will use applications through desktop virtualization, connecting to a server that runs the software or downloading and running the software on their own computers, McPherson said, noting that these decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis, ultimately resulting in a mix of approaches. Though students will have to install software on their own computers, the change will not impact students financially.With this new model, ITC is working “to break the dependency between the physical locations and delivering application software,” McPherson said. “If we could do that, that opens up the possibility of doing something with those physical spaces that is very different from having rows of tables with computers sitting on them.”He cited the recently renovated fourth floor of Clemons Library as an example. “It’s a technology-rich space, but it’s not about providing computer seats,” McPherson said, highlighting the library’s wireless network, numerous outlets to plug in laptops and large screens that help enable group work. “It’s about supporting collaboration with technology and allowing students to really use the technology that they own.”Based on an ITC survey of incoming first-year computer ownership each year, McPherson said almost all students own computers. He said this trend has been almost universal for the last four or five years. As part of its contract with Dell, McPherson also said the University is able to issue computers to students as part of financial aid. “It’s my understanding that every student who wants a computer has one,” he said.The average student’s laptop, however, probably is unable to run some high-end application packages, such as those used in the Engineering and Architecture Schools.“For that, we would probably always maintain a small number of computers in public facilities reserved for running those types of high-end software,” McPherson said.Though McPherson expressed confidence that the plan would both address emerging concerns and not result in a loss of student services, some students said they are wary of the change, citing concerns about the plan’s potential impact on less technologically-privileged students. “If everyone had a laptop, then I do think it’d be a good idea,” second-year College student Thomas Malinowsky said. First-year College student Kristen Gardner also was concerned for students who do not own computers.“I understand minimizing [physical computing labs] if they’re not used as much,” she said. “But just getting rid of computer labs in general is not a good idea.”One student who expressed some dismay about the proposal is second-year College student Shamika Ranasinghe, who said she is currently relying on University computers because her laptop recently crashed.Even when her laptop is in working order, “having access to computers in between classes is helpful,” Ranasinghe said.Fourth-year Rohan Pai also said being able to use University computers improves the efficiency of time and energy of students, noting that many students living off-Grounds do not take their laptops on Grounds.The University is not the first school to move away from physical computing labs, though, McPherson said, noting that North Carolina State recently partnered with IBM to provide its students with access to the company’s “Virtual Computing Lab.” The University will not follow that institution’s example exactly, McPherson said, but the method will be similar.
(02/13/09 7:03am)
The University Transit System is currently considering teaming with Google Transit to display bus routes, Parking and Transportation Director Rebecca White said. Recently, the Charlottesville Transit Service also joined Google to offer the same service. Google Transit is a trip planning function fully-integrated with Google Maps, CTS Marketing Program Coordinator Kristen Gleason said. Users can input their origin and intended destination to receive a complete itinerary, with step by step directions, public transit schedules, fares and cost savings comparison to driving, Gleason said. “It interprets the schedule for you,” White said. “You just put in your beginning and ending locations, and it tells you how to go there.”Under a statewide initiative launched by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transit, CTS partnered with Google “to gather and place a vast majority of transit provider information [throughout the commonwealth] on Google,” Gleason said. She added that Google does not charge for this service.“This is part of a lot of green initiatives that Google has started,” she said. “It’s an open platform, so they’ve offered this basically as a service to help promote green ideas and green thinking and in this case green transportation.”In addition to customizing trips, Google Transit may raise awareness about public transit use. CTS’ presence on Google Maps will drive web traffic to the transit service’s Web site, White said. “It can get people to think about using public transit that might not normally have traveled that way,” she said.With all these potential benefits in mind, White said the University also has considered partnering with Google Transit. Several concerns, however, could delay such a partnership, she added. Among the most pressing of these concerns is that uploading data to Google Transit actually could be difficult for UTS because of structural differences between the University’s service and the city’s.“We have lots of different kinds of service, so the upload to Google transit is a little more complex because we have all different service levels,” White said. “CTS has pretty much one service level,” whereas UTS service changes depending on student breaks, hospital hours and other factors.UTS officials are also worried about Google Map’s functionality with building names, White said. UTS routes are generally tracked using building names, but Google Maps relies on addresses. For example, a user would have to search 1215 Lee Street instead of the University Hospital to get results, White said, adding that she also has some reservations about Google Transit because of the program’s lack of GPS capabilities.“When we do join Google Transit, we want it integrated with the GPS,” White said. “That functionality isn’t there yet.”While Gleason acknowledged that the lack of GPS integration is a possible drawback to Google’s system, she said Google Transit complements the other information services CTS already offers. Additionally, Google is looking at incorporating a real-time GPS tracking feature in the future, Gleason said.